liue so long as he can The answer or reason is fourefold The first reason thereof is to declare that he is the principall maister of times and according to his diuine presciēce he is an exact performer of promises through all ages of the world He obserues the time when a man comes into the world and when he goeth out of the world The Maiestie of this eternall God considerately and renownedly beginneth samous actions and ends them memorably by periods places full of weighty consideration accounting vpō the yeares of holy men Gen. 5. Gen. 1. to Gen. 7. Gen. 8 to Gen. 12. Gen. 12. to Exod. 19. Exo. 12. to Ios 1. Ios 1. to Iudg. 1. Iudg. 1. to 1 Sam. 1. 1 Sam. 1. to Nehe. 1. Nehe. Esra Hester Daniel As by the liues and deathes of the first ten holy Fathers how many yeares there was from the creatiō to the floud viz. 1656 yeares From the floud to the promise made to Abraham 427. yeares From the promise to the giuing of the law 430 yeares From their going out of Egypt to their entrance into Canaan 40. yeares From their entrance into Canaan to their quiet possession 7. yeares From thence to Saul the first King 450. yeares Thence to their captiuity in Babylon 490 yeares From their captiuity to their restoring againe to build the Temple at Ierusalē 70. yeares From thence to their generall libertie by Christ Iesus 490 yeares Almighty God is so seuere and so soueraigne an obseruer of time for the beginning ending of all famous actions and specially the coming of mā into the world and his going out that he standeth vpon the performance of his word and promise euen to a day Moses speaking of the Egyptian captiuity said Exo. 12.41 that whē the 430. yeares were expired euen the selfesame day departed all the hoast of the Lord out of Egypt Yea and farther his Maiestie obserues the verie name of the day in which he doth performe his word and promise as he speaketh plainely by his Prophet Eze. 14.1.2 Sonne of man saith he write the name of the day euen of this same day for the King of Babell set himselfe against Ierusalem the selfesame day So God ordereth all things in measure Wisd 11.17 in mumber and weight The second tenne holy Fathers in whom it pleased God to multiplie a new Church after the floud Gen. 11.10 to the end are exactly accounted by euerie full yeare in which they liued according to the determinate will of God and that for diuers causes but specially to declare that the life of man is not at randome nor at rouers And here also obserue that at the floud the ages of men were halfed as may appeare by the ages of those holy men who liued not aboue halfe so long as they liued before the floud Againe the fame age was halfed at the building of Babel againe it was halfed vpon the going of Israel out of Egypt And at euery of these ages his holy Maiesty had a speciall hand that neither the one nor the other good nor bad should haue either more or lesse then was in his will As of these holy men before and immediatly after the flood so withall God computates the ages verie directly of all and euerie of the twelue Patriarchs Gen. 49.50 also how long euery Iudge of Israel hued and how long euerie oppressor was to liue He also kept a register and did diumely chronolize the age of euerie king and how long he did reigne in Israel and in Iuda as may be sound in euerie of their stories Dan. 1.2.3.4.5 The seuentie yeares captiuitie was ended exactly vpon the particular death of three kings to wit Nebucadnezzar who liued 45. yeares Euilmerodech who liued 22. yeares and Baltashar who liued three yeares neither one day more nor one day lesse The second answer or reason concerning the timelinesse of death to wit why God hath so exactly determined it It is to set foorth the incomprehensiblenesse of Gods wisedome and prouidence in that he doth gouerne all the generation of mankind throughout the world as one common weale or as one priuate family or as if it were one particular person registring and chronolizing euerie man by his name by the place of his habitation by the manner of his conuersation and by the time specially of his departure out of this life as a wise maister of a familie taking in some letting others forth So did Ahashuerus the king of Persia put forth Vasthi Hest 1.19 and tooke in Hester so doth the Maiestie of God in due time take in some into the world and lets others depart 1. King 10. 1. to 11. The Queene of Sheba hearing of the maruellous wisedome of Salomon for the ordering and gouerning of his house and kingdome came from farre to see and to heare more therof after the which she said Happy are these thy seruants which stand before thee to heare thy wisedome Behold here faith the holy Ghost a greater then Salomon to wit a God more admirable then Salomon for his gouernment in Church and cōmon weale The holy Prophet Dauid entring into some consideration of his maruellous Maiestie concludes most admirably of it saying O Lord our gouernour how wonderfull art thou in all thy workes thy knowledg is too wonderful for me Psal 139.1 I cannot attaine vnto it Ezra said that God numbred all the vessels that were to be returned from Babylon to Ierusalem euen vnto the meanest sort Ezra 1.7.8 And he doth account the people euen by their names and by the names of their fathers intimating thereby Ezech. 9.7 that none went to Babylon but such and so many as had receiued his expresse name nor any that were to returne but such as he had reserued to build the Temple and to reedifie the wals of the citie and to plant the religion of their fathers Gods wisedome and prouidence is innarrable and infinite euen to a sparrow Luk. 12.6 Barnabas and Paul said Act. 15.18 From the beginning of the world God knew his workes Moses to the end he might fasten the sure knowledge and the euerlasting remēbrance therof in the harts of the people of Israel said Remember the dayes of old Deu. 32.7.8 aske thy father and he will shew thee thine elders and they will tel thee When the most high God deuided the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he appointed the borders of the people according to their number The third answer or reason concerning the timelinesse of death why God hath so exactly determined vpon the same It is to manifest the prerogatiue the priuiledge and supremacy that his holy Maresty hath and holdeth ouer all principahties and powers captiuating and subduing them and all the generation of man to the obedience of his will that neither the one nor the other can possibly lengthen or shorten his own life much lesse the
gladsomnesse 1 Sam. 25.33 Blessed art thou which hast kept me this day from shedding innocent blond The fourth manner sort or kind of death to wit politicall In the discourse wherof there will arise many dolefull questions with crosse and contrarie obiections made by thē which are perplexed some for their sonnes some for their daughters some for their deare familiar friends some for their wiues and some for their husbāds who before their faces were cruelly executed vnto death which parēts friēds of theirs do attribute the same vnto the rigour of law or vnto the vniust proceedings of law or at least vnto the cruell executioners of law For the remouing of all which vniust imputations as also for the comforting of all such sorowfull soules I will deliuer so particularly so plainely and so directly my mind my knowledge therein as I hope through Gods mercy shall stand them in good stead for perswasion and satisfaction in this manner and method First what the lawes ought to be in generall in a well gouerned kingdome Secondly what the lawes now are in generall inthis our glorious and so selected a kingdome Thirdly what the law politick in particular is in this kingdome for the complainants instanced First concerning the lawes in generall how they ought to be The lawes of all well gouerned kingdomes ought to be grounded vpon diuine intentions and peaceable ends consisting of iurisdiction regall without partiality and of a ciuill policy without corruptiō for the nourishing and vpholding of spiritual iurisdiction tending to the religious worship of God and the mutuall society amongst brethren which is indeede rightly reckoned to be the summe of the morall law of Moses and the chiefest respect of our common lawes The principles of all which lawes also are to haue their fit their conuenient their warrantable application and denommation first to the glorie of the blessed Trinitie secondly to the honor of the immediate Maiestie of the King thirdly to the reuerent regard of his or their substitutes and fourthly to the good of the people in publicke according as times places persons shall vrge their importunities still inferring and extending rules of iustice and equitie thereby making an euident difference betwixt the plaintiffe the defendant and betwixt the iust and vniust because cōtrarieties being layd together makes iustice to appeare the more iust and the same law to be the more commendable and vnrepealable Secondly concerning the common lawes as they are now in England This little Isle of England and Northerne side of the world of which the great Prophet Ezechiel speakes in some particular Chap. 38.2.3.4.5.6.15 hath bene more anciently endued with Gods particular fauors then any other part else of the whole world for matter of his Maiesties religious seruice and for matter of ciuill gouernement in this land now most graciously established All which law is full of profound maturitie full of needfull iustice and full of druine well ordered policies And wheras other nations round about this realme through their owne homebread mutinies and forren deuastations cānot prescribe by any record custome or memorie of man by what law iustice or equitie other then by the law of nature which is common amongst heathens that they do execute any malefactor or inflict any pecuniarie punishment almightie God out of his infinite prouidence and mercie although that many times religion through the corrupt iudgement of Kings and Queenes of this land the manifold sinnes of the people therein were sometimes altered and sometimes quite ouerthrowne yet our common lawes were still maintained and extolled euen vnto this day All which lawes had they not excelled the lawes of other nations they could neuer haue continued without extinguishment without impeachment or at least without some anullity publike indignity by the Kings of the Brittans or by the Kings of the Saxons or by the Kings of the Danes or by the Kings of the Normans euery of which men were verie wise verie politicke verie religious and most admirably valorous which Kings immediatly succeeded one another euer since this Iland was first found habitable In all whose times these our said lawes slorished and by many necessarie additions were publickly enlarged Againe had not these our common lawes bene euerie way besitting the maintenance of Gods sacred and true religion and for the preseruation of peace as also by all former ages since the confusion of tongues left vnto our dayes and times vncontrollable vnrepealable then without all question some one or other of our godly Kings or Queenes would haue established other lawes or else would haue in some sort reformed them But by reason of the great multiplication of this nation and through some disorders likely to accrue amongst so many who would in time crosse and contrarie the true meaning of those lawes our renowned Princes haue onely repealed some few statutes and in stead thereof haue enacted others to better purpose as necessarily was required alway with this prudent prouiso that no law nor statute should be in sence and intendement but according to the rules and former patterns which they had receiued from former ages tending to the true worship of God and the peace of the people So did Alfred a famous King of the Saxons in the yeare of our Lord 880. adde vnto these lawes holy precepts and statutes namely against sacriledge against the violating of the Sabboth against treason against the immodest and vnchast touching of another mans wife or daughter all which facts were euen then held to be most vile most odious and most detestable and yet for all that euen then were they most likely to haue bin committed by many irreligious persons So in like manner Caesar the Emperor before the incarnation of Christ by an established law brought that wife within the compasse of petty treason which was found guilty for betraying the life of her husband and to be burned for the same So likewise the sonne that did betray his father and the seruant that betrayed his master should be hanged for the same as petty traytors all which well contriued lawes are in force vnto this day blessed be the Maiestie of God for it Thirdly concerning the politicall law which is a chiefe part of the common law whence indeede ariseth the matter instanced The politicall law is that by vertue whereof malefactors are iudicially executed vnto death vpon publicke trials and arraignment by witnesses produced and then by the verdict of 12. substantiall honest sworne men The common law whereof I haue spoken doth consist of a law Regall and a law politicall both which were in request many yeares before Christ was borne This law Regall is said to be grounded vpō diuers anciēt customes rules and orders drawne out of the naturall law or as it may be said out of the will of the King be it good or euil which is effected by his auctoritie vpon the subiects The political law is indeed a
as though that they which die naturally in their beds or they themselues which liue in the good appearance of the world were not as guiltie of condemnation for euery small sinne which they commit without faith in Iesus Christ as they who are hanged burned beheadded or pressed or as those vpon whom the tower of Siloam fell Here I conclude asking pardon of the learned wherein soeuer I haue erred or haue wanted in the disconise of the common lawes of this land Knewing the profunditie thereof to be passing the reach of all men and withall acknowledging it to be a meere subiect out of my element and therefore as a man hauing spoken nothing in effect of that which it deferueth I am cōtent to be condēned without replication vpō a nihil dicit if reason require it The third instruction concerning the timelinesse of death Not withstanding there are such variable and sundry sorts or manners of death as hath bene formerly enlarged and howsoeuer almightie God hath bene occasioned in his iustice to punish sinne yet none of the generation of mankinde departs this life before his appointed day so that no man by diligence can lengthen his life nor any man by negligence shorten his life The holy Prophet Dauid hauing Saul his enemie in his hand would not be perswaded to lay his hands on him but said His day shall come to die 1 Sam. 26.8.9 I will not smite him As if he had spoken more plainely It is not for me to kill him for God hath appointed him his time in which he shall die To this purpose said the iust man Iob by way of two interrogations Iob. 7.1 Is there not an appointed time for man vpon the earth And are not his dayes determined Iob. 14.5 The number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed him his bounds ouer which he shall not passe As if it were to say Certainely there is an appointed time for mans departure out of this world euen by the diuine ordinance sacred decree of the Almightie which cannot be shortened nor lengthned no not so much time more as to go ouer a meere or baulke nor so much time lesse as to come vnto it Againe he saith verie emphatically and affirmatiuely beleeuing in the promise of God therin after this manner I will waite my appointed time as though he had said Iob. 14.14 My God hath determined and set downe the day and houre of my dissolution it is hid from me I will therefore attend I will be looking for it from day to day Salomon after his conuersion amongst many excellent most diuine instructions he particulateth this secret decree of God most plainly after this manner Eccl. 3.12 To all things there is an appointed time And from this generall he descendeth into a more particular thus There is a time to be borne and a time to die to wit as there is a most certaine time inclosed in euery womans wombe in which she shall bring forth into the world euen so there is a certaine and an appointed time in which he that is borne of a woman shall go out of the world Saint Paul said to the Athenians Act. 17.26 God hath assigned the times that were ordained before and the bounds of their habitation By that saying the time of mans departure is decreed and vnreapeable why because there is no alteration nor change in Gods diuine Maiestie that which he is he was the same he will be for euer Iehoida said 2 King 11.15 He that comes within the ranges let him die the death euen so it may be said Whosoeuer comes within the compasse of the time which God hath decreed let him die without delay there is no hope nor helpe for him there will be no partiality or fauourable respects The liues of the 10. Gen. 5.3 to the end Fathers were twise exactly reckoned and their death once for diuers causes but specially that thereby euerie man thenceforth might be able to know the age of the old world before the floud The ages of these holy men being computated and layd together do amount iustly to 1656. yeares In which obseruance or sure rule for numeration and multiplication the holy Ghost deliuereth plainely that God doth strictly seuerely recken the liues of all men yea from their verie beginning to the verie day of their death Saint Iohn and other the Euāgelists affirme out of their owne knowledge that the Iewes vsed all cunning meanes practised diuers wayes to apprehend our Lord and Sauiour but all was in vaine something or other went betweene and why his houre was not yet come Ioh. 8.30 the time which his holy Father had decreed was not when they would To this effect Moses by a large measure of inspiration spake of an holy woman the wife of the Patriarch Abraham who had a particular and gracious respect before God specially for the time of her life the time of her death Gen. 23.1.2 When Sarah saith he was 127. yeares old so long liued shee then Sarah died That is as much to say Shee liued iust so long indeede and no whit longer when her appointed time was come then she died and not before Likewise Moses doth computate the age of Abraham her husband and saith Gen. 25.7 This is the age of Abrahams life which he liued 175. yeares Then Abraham yeelded the spirit died in a good age As if he had said This 175. yeares was the full time in which God had appointed him to liue When as Moses himselfe was to depart this life almightie God called him saying Thy dayes are come Deu. 31.14 thou must die to wit my decree is certaine towards thee my louing and my faithfull seruant as towards all the generation of mankinde As in an hoast of men furiously in fight so in the world some shall die now because God hath so appointed and some shall not die then because God hath not so appointed To which effect he spake by the mouth of his Prophet Eze. 9.4.5.6 Set a marke vpon the foreheads of thē that mourne And cōcerning others he said vnto him Go and smite destroy vtterly the old and the young Gen. 4.15 So likewise God was said to set a marke vpō Caine but touch no man vpon whom the marke is set shewing therein that euen amongst furious and outragious men in martiall affaires and in the determinations of malicious men life and death is euen then particularly in Gods hands and also the verie time thereof Here arise two necessary questions One why hath God so exactly determined the time of death the other why God doth conceale the time The first whereof is Why hath God so exactly determined the verie time of euery mans departure out of this world so that no man can go beyond it nor come short of it Why did he not rather resolue vpon this Let euery man shift for himselfe and
life of another As a king that is to gouern a kingdom must be powerful and seuere in the execution of instice against the mightie and readie to minister mercie to the needie and distressed euen so the Maiestie of this eternall King hauing the whole world to guide and to gouerne must be powerful and seuere To which effect he faith by his Prophet Ier emie Feare ye not him faith he Ier. 5.22 who hath placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe Againe he said Cannot I do with you ò Israel as this Potter Ier. 18.6 The holy Prophet Ezekiel speaking of his predomināt power ouer the wicked faith after this manner Ezech. 6.7 I will take the bloud out of his mouth his abhomination frō amongst his teeth The same prerogatiue our Sauiour Christ manifesteth himselfe to haue in his speech to his Disciples If any man saith he Mar. 11.3 do say vnto you Why loose ye the Colt say ye vnto them The Lord hath need and they will straight way let it go As if he had said Do but tell them of me vse but my name and they shall haue no power to withstand you The second question why God doth conceale the time of mans departure out of this life Why doth he keepe it secret to himselfe This seemes to be hard iustice that a matter of so great importance should be hid Eccl. 9.12 No man knoweth his time saith Salomon but is suddenly taken as a fish or as a bird Dan. 12.4 It is shut vp and sealed vnto theend of the time appointed said Daniel Gen. 27.2 I know not the day of my death said the holy Patriarch Isaac And as Saint Luke said to the disciples concerning the restoring of Christs kingdome It is not for you to know the times seasons which God hath rescrued in his owne power Act. 17. euen so is it not for any man to know the time and season of his departure out of this life I conclude this question with the forewarning of Saint Paul to Timothie in these words Put away foolish and vnlearned questions knowing that they ingender strife There are three speciall and diuine reasons why the time of death is concealed The first reason is That euerie man should stand vpon his guard lest the enemie come suddenly Watch and pray therefore said our Sauiour Christ Iesus Saint Luke knowing the manner of death exhorts to watchfulnesse in these words Luk. 12.35.36.37.38 Let your loynes be girded about and your lights burning and ye your selues like vnto men that wait for their maisters God told Moses where he should die but he told him not the time and why because he as all other men should stand vpon his watch or guard Deu. 28.66 Thy life saith the Lord shall hang before thee and thou shalt feare both day and night and shalt haue none assurance of thy life The second reason why the time of death is concealed It is for the continuall good of all succeeding ages that the one ought to prouide for the other Therefore specially it is said by Salomon Eccl. 1.4 One generation passeth and another cometh as of heauenly so in some proportion of earthly which made Christ to say One soweth and another reapeth Ioh. 4.37 Were it that some might know the time of their departure they would not renue any thing that might be for them that should come after partly through malice and enuie and partly through extreme idlenesse or superfluous expences The third reason why the time of death is concealed That all men should carefully conueniently vse the meanes for life which God hath appointed in his Church Whereas if they knew the exact time of their departure they wold hold it friuolous to vse any of those good means which his holy Maiesty hath inserted annexed to the decree for the time of mans departure So should the ordinance of God concerning the vse of his creatures be made frustrate and those his exceeding good creatures stand of none effect The fourth reason why the time of death is concealed If the time of death were knowne to some they would liue very desperately and damnably for many yeares and the more neare to the time of their death they would grow the more sad sorowfull and heauy and into such intollerable passions as would driue them into desperation or at least into an vnwilling and a most gracelesse striuing with death in a sort against God himselfe Therefore Moses said Deu. 29.29 Secret things belong to the Lord our God but the thing reuealed belong vnto vs and to our children for euer Besides these two questions which formerly you haue heard there arise out of this doctrine concerning the timelinesse of death three obiections First if God haue so resolutely decreed vpon the verie day and houre of euery mans departure To what end shall a man vse indeuor or any of the best meanes for the preseruation of life The first answer for the vse of meanes to preserue life As almightie God hath decreed the time of death so withall he hath annexed and commanded religious and pertinent meanes for the preseruation of life vntill the time come As for example The people vnder Moses and Aarō might haue perished in a naturall contagion of the leprosie therefore God commāded that the whole might be singled and seuered from the sicke and infected Leuit. 13.1.2.3.4 The same people might haue bene destroyed in the iudgment which God had prepared for others therefore God commanded some saying Separate your selues from the tents of Corah Numb 16.1.2 2 King 10.23 Dathan and Abiram Iehu the King said Search see whether there be any of the Lords seruants amongst the seruants of Baall lest they be also destroyed with them Good men may perish in the outrage of the wicked Mat. 2.12.13 therefore God forewarned the wise men to depart home another way And Saul said to the Kenites 1 Sam. 15.6 Depart from amongst the Amalekits lest I destroy you with them That vertuous woman so highly in the fauor of God might haue bene famished in that seuen yeares of dearth 2 Kings 10.23 had not God forewarned her by his Prophet that she should shift for her selfe and her houshold in due time All men by the iustice of God for their sinne might lawfully be destroyed together in this or that plague or vengeance yet he hath in his mercie forewarned some and so doth to saue thēselues with the vse of meanes which he hath commended and commanded in his Church And withall in the vse of the same meanes or the like to preserue very reprobates frō the plagues which falle vpon their fellowes to the end they may liue vnto the time which he hath decreed for their death in which their sinnes will be full ripe As may appeare in the foure recited examples The second
true and sincere seruants of God were touched with this naturall feare and therewith drawne to vse all meanes possible for helpe and safegard of their liues Ieremie the Prophet did importune the king after this manner for his life being drawne into an extraordinarie feare Ier 37.20 Now I pray thee ô my Lord the king let my prayer be accepted before thee that thou cause me not to returne vnto the prison lest I die there Likewise Iesus Christ himself knowing that the houre of his death was at hand did exceedingly desire his Father that if it were possible he might escape it Mat. 26.39 Secondly we are to obserue that there is in mans corrupt nature an vnsatiable kind of deuouring or eating and drinking which made the Maiestie of God to restrain man his generatiō by way of exceptions Leuit. 11. to the end Gen. 3.3.4 from diuers sorts of creatures whereof they should not cate Adam was to eate of euery tree in the garden of God which was a sufficient allowance but out of his vnsatiablenesse he tooke also of that which was excepted of which corrupted nature it cometh that men generally haue a continuall renued desire of eating and drinking Which God in his mercy doth tollerate and allow their prouision so farre as they are not excepted nor forbidden Thirdly from the nakednesse of Adam which was Gods particular iustice for his wilfulnesse it cometh to passe that his posteritie do vse all sorts of clothing some to auoyde heat some to auoyd cold the which also God doth like and allow so farre still as is not excepted Neuerthelesse he that is moued to vse meanes for the preseruation of his life by the instinct of nature onely and not for imitation and example sake according to faith in the promises of God obedience to his commandements he is still a most miserable naturall man farre from the way of his saluation To conclude this doctrine for the vse of meanes as notwithstanding the diligent vse thereof men must die when the time of Gods decree is come in things pertaining to God euen so notwithstanding the negligent vse of the meanes men must liue vntill their time doth come in things pertaining to men Both which are to be found in the consideration of the difference that is betweene the preseruing of life the lengthning of life Men may by means preserue life vntill the time of Gods decree come but men by no means can lengthen life when the time of Gods decree for death is come As for example two mē are striken with the plague both at one time the one a begger the other a king both of equal yeares both of one complexion both of one disposition both of one climate both of one house both in one bed both vnder one Physition and both applied with one selfe same salue or medicine yet the begger liueth and the king dieth And why the one was striken his time being come by an Angel either good or bad that supernaturally as some in euery house from Dan to Bersheba 2. Sa. 24.15 and therfore incurably the other naturally deriued from some corrupt and poysonfull matter in himselfe and therfore curable And because the Angels stroke is not essentially to be knowne from that stroke which cometh by naturall corruption because elements resolue into putrifaction it were ouer desperate vnchristian presumption to neglect the vse of medicine and no folly but faithlike whē God giues the matter faithed Gen. 17.1 to wait carefully vpon that seruice and to stand with Christian magnanimitie to performe holy religious duties one towards another in such a case as in a time of the greatest weight in all the world and in the iudgment of many is an holy kind of martyrdome As it was said by the spies to Rahab Whosoeuer shall go out of his doore Iosua 2.19 his bloud shal be vpon his owne head and we will be guiltlesse but whosoeuer shall be within the house his bloud shall be on our heads euen so he that neglecteth the meanes of life shall be guilty of eternal death but he that vseth the means shal be innocent The second obiection If meanes are to be vsed as formerly you seemed to proue and that of necessitie then it followeth by a necessarie consequent that he who doth contemn them or neglect them doth shorten his life and therein is gultie of his owne destruction The same is answered 6. maner of waies The first answer concerning him that doth contemne or neglect the meanes is From the generalitie and timelinesse of death where alreadie it was proued that the time of euery mans departure is according to Almighty Gods former decree vnchangeable counsel which maketh also that neither the diligent vse of the meanes can lengthen life nor the neglect thereof can shorten the time of life The 2. answer concerning him that doth contemne or neglect the meanes Where you heard that it was formerly commanded that meanes should be vsed for the preseruation of life neither those nor other places do say that the vse of the meanes doth lengthē life nor the neglect thereof shorten life that were to crosse and contrary other holy Scripture But those places do absolutely command the vse of all good meanes as men will auoyd Gods high displeasure and not be found guiltie of their own euerlasting death The third answer concerning him that doth contemne or neglect the meanes There is no sentence nor example of Scripture that doth conclude the neglect of the meanes to be the shortning of life nor the diligent vse thereof the lengthning of life The fourth answer concerning him that doth contemne or neglect the meanes If the neglect or contempt of the meanes were the shortning of life then that were to proue iniustice in God by punishing one mans sinne for another As if the father neglect or cōtemne the meanes of helping the preseruation of his child shall that be the childs death No God forbid So likewise in Baptisme if the parent do neglect delay the baptising of his child and the child in the meane time dieth shall that neglect be to the condemnation of the child No no. Againe if the neglect of the meanes be a shortning of life and the diligent vse thereof be a lengthning of life then it must needs follow and necessarily be granted that it is in man by his diligent or negligent vse of the meanes to crosse or to alter the decree of God concerning the time of mans deceasse which by no way can be granted and be it far from any man so to thinke much lesse to say least of all so to teach The fifth answer concerning him that doth contemne or neglect the meanes By an vsual phrase of speech it is said that man shortneth his life when he refuseth the meanes or doth runne headlong into eminent dangers yet by the proprietie of the Scripture that phrase cannot be so generally maintained no
more then it may be truly said that a man performing the will of God in some speciall matter is a meane thereby to lengthen his life but onely by a phrase of speech So it was said to Ebedmelech the Blackmore Thy life shal be a prey vnto thee Iere. 39.16.17 because of the fauor thou didst shew to Ieremy The sixth answer concerning him that doth neglect or contemne meanes If the diligent vse of the meanes be a prolonging of life and the neglect thereof be a shortning of life then of necessity it must be granted that there is an inseparable vertue and an inherent qualitie of sauing life in the means and that were no lesse sinne then sacrilidg arrogating to the creature by derogating from the creator or as absurdly to say 2 King 6.6 Gen. 7.7 that Elisha his bough caused iton to swim or that Noahs arke caused some of all sorts of creatures to come into it Thus did that proud and prophane Philistine 1 Sam. 17.45 presumptuously challenging all Israel crusting in his greatnesse in his speare in his shield but Dauid manfully met him with his sling and his shepheards crooke trusting in the vertue and power of God whom he did serue The Lord speakes vnto wicked mē trusting to the means by the mouth of his Prophet Dauid I said Psal 89.43 I will turne backe the edge of the sword as if he had said When the wicked thinke with their instrumēts of death to destroy my people I will take away their force they shall not cut nor hurt Iere. 6.22 So he saith to the same purpose I wil turne backe the weapons of warre that are in their hāds The Lord makes question by his Prophet Ieremie thus Is there no balme in Gilead Iere. 9. is there no physicke there why then is not the health of my people recouered As if he had said That pretious medicinable balme and those people skilfull in Gilead of all others in the world shall do no good on them to whom I deny the vertue therof these licors oyntmēts such like the most exquisite physitions shall not preuaile Againe he saith by his Prophet Ezechiel Eze. 5.16 I will breake the staffe of bread to wit I will take away the vertue and efficacy euen of their daintiest foode To which purpose Hosea the Prophet said They shall eate and not haue enough to wit Hose 4.10 those which do relie wholly vpon the meanes shall faile of their expectation Likewise said Micha the Prophet All hands shall be weake Mich. 6.14 and all knees shal be weake as water to wit those valiant and mightie men that do depend vpon their strength when they come to the push shall faile of their purpose for they shall not be able to stand of themselues vpō their feete because the Lord hath disabled them Againe the Lord saith vnto all such by the mouth of his Prophet Ezechiel Ezech. 7.17.39.3 I will strike thy bow out of thy left hand and thine arrowes out of thy right hand as if he had said How ready soeuer the wicked be prepared against the faces of the godly yet they shall not do the least harme The same in effect he saith by the mouth of Haggai the Prophet Hagg. 1.6 Ye haue sowne much and bring in little ye eate but ye haue not enough ye drinke but ye are not filled ye cloath you but you be not warme and he that earneth wages puts it in a bottomlesse bagge To conclude as a man may vse all lawfull meanes for an honest and a vertuous wife and yet may haue a graceles and an irreligious wretch euen so a man may vse all meanes and all endeuors for the preseruation of life and shall not be able to preuent death Because the vertue the efficacy and power of the meanes is in the hands of God and the vse onely in the hands of men As in Noah his oliue leafe which the doue brought into the arke Gen. 8.12 there were actions of two sundrie natures to wit peace and plenty and as in the ministerie of Gods word there is an action of life and an action of death euen so in this matter or meanes concerning life and death there are actions of two sundry natures one concerning God the other concerning man That which pertaines to man is the diligent vse of the meanes that which pertaines to God is to giue vertue and efficacy vnto the meanes As for example God said vnto the people of Israel Iere. 38.2 He that remaineth in the citie shall die without the sword by the famine and by the pestilence but he that goeth forth shall liue he shal haue his life for a prey Here life and death was in present question to flie out of the citie was the meanes of life which was for the people to do and to giue vertue vnto their flight was in God to do On the contrary side the neglect of that duty made thē guilty of their owne death and accessary by a phrase of speech to their own destruction yet in that very rebellious actiō of theirs was the decree of God fulfilled concerning the time of their death Mat. 2. Likewise in that Herodian persecution the wise men tooke the forewarning of of God for the meanes of their preseruation and his Maiestie gaue good successe and effect thereunto I conclude againe that he which vseth meanes how lawfull soeuer with an vnderstanding and with a beleeuing that the same of it selfe is effectuall for the lengthning of life that man is an Infidell But to vse meanes which are not inhibited for the preseruatiō of health wealth and libertie and such like is very religious The third obiection concerning addition or conditionall life If the time of death be so exactly set downe and so resolutely concluded in the counsell of God Why then doth his holy Maiestie promise to lengthen the life of the godly as is in the first commandemēt of the second table Exo. 20.12 I will prolong thy dayes if thou wilt walke in my wayes The performāce of his promise concerning long life Gen. 5.5.8 to 32. may be euidenced from the ten holy Fathers before the floud who for keeping of his commandements did liue many hundred yeares more then any other liued after them And the same we haue in a sort truly said of Ezechias whose sinceritie was such as God vouchsafed to adde fifteene yeares vnto his life And againe 2 King 20.5.6 Why is it said by the Prophet Psal 55.23 The bloud-thirsty man shall not liue halfe his dayes Or he shall liue long cōditionally as God said to Abimelech Deliuer Abraham his wife that thou maist liue Gen. 20.7 but if not be sure thou shalt die the death thou and all that thou hast The answer to this obiection is threefold First as by a decree from the beginning is set downe how long the godly and the wicked shall
A DIVINE DISCOVERIE OF DEATH Directing all people to a triumphant resurrection and euerlasting saluation It is ordained that all men shall die HEB. 9.17 Vnum hoc gestit verit as ne ignorata damnetur LONDON Imprinted for WILLIAM IONES and RICHARD BOYLE dwelling in the Blackefriers 1612. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD HENRY THE EARLE OF HVNTINGTON AS amongst all ordinary accidents incidēt to the prosperity aduersity of mankind there is nothing more momentarie then mariage euen so right honorable there is nothing more answerable to the saluation condemnation of mankind then death For as by the one all men come into the world by the other all men go out of the world euen so by both all men without the merits of Iesus Christ shall go into hell fire Yet for all that there is nothing more out of the minds of men then death nor any thing lesse feared then Gods irefull iudgments which follow after As may appeare in euerie profession which is stained and polluted with heathenish impietie the like was not in the time of blindnesse and ignorance whereby it may be truly said that the last of the three reuolutions signified by seales Reu. 5.1 8.2 17.1 by trumpets by viols related to be the dishonour of God and the disturbance of the Church militant is now more fresh and more ragingly reuiued then in any of the two former reuolutions consisting of 600. yeares Your Lordship perhaps will say What is that to me how can I redresse it I know my Lord I know and in truth I must acknowledge that you are an example vnto others for the diligent hearing of Gods holy word preached and for the sincere receiuing of the Sacrament well may your Honor go on and be strengthned with the zeale of Gods glory and be recommended before the throne of Gods grace by the prayers of such as you did releeue when they were oppressed But the principall cause of this my clamor is to put you in mind of that you know to wit seeing sinne is so generall the same so horribly hainous that there is nothing else to be looked for but death and not that death onely which is the common visitation of all men but also the second death which is the perpetuall reward of the diuell and the damned And also my Lord the speciall end of my writing vnto your Honour is so much as in me lieth and as dutie binds me to make you partaker of the fruit of my poore labor with other my honourable and worshipfull friends Nothing doubting but vnder that truth and plainenesse wherein I haue so faithfully endeuoured and so heartily desired the good also of so many thousands as to whom it may come your Lordship shall sauour so much of some thing as that you will say hereafter for your labor in reading of all you are right glad and haue therby lost nothing Thus briefly and most humbly I end desiring the Maiestie of our eternall God through the mediation of Iesus Christ to beautifie and to adorne you and your honourable Lady with all spirituall graces and that you both may see like your selues according to your hearts desire your childrens children vnto the third and fourth generation From Stretton Lefield the 3. of Iuly 1612. Your Honours most humble in the Lord Edw. Vaughan TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LADY THE COVNTESSE of Leicester Douger RIght Honorable I know none amongst all the women in the world vpon my forty yeares reading neither yet truly reported by any to whō this book doth so properly appertaine to be carefully read as to your self In respect specially of Gods mercy wherin he hath made your honor admirably memorable for your exceeding wisedome and abounding graces which was plainly seene in your patient abiding of one such double deadly dayes newes cōcerning your noble son your worthy honorable husband as made al England France and Ireland more astonished thē that great inuincible Armado of Spaine valorously floting vnder saile vpon our narrow seas And there is also another famous respect of Gods mercie and the kings Maiesties fauor vpon you for that there is yet aliue a noble Earle of Essex euen out of your owne loynes who is like to repaire the ruines of his father to raise his and your honourable house farre more renowmed and lineally to leaue it so to be vpholden for euer Madame when the foundation of the Temple at Ierusalem was newly laide the sound of the people for ioy could not be discerned from the noise of the Priests Ezra 4. Leuites and Ancients for weeping euen so right Honourable your and their most louing friends in that dolefull day could not discerne whether the ioy for the Queenes maiesties safetie or the sorrow for their deceasse was the greatest Although indeed some of both sides most vnconsiderately were partiall in their ioying and other some exceeding in their sorrowing yet the maiestie of God did most diuinely and most duly traduce the one to temper the other in you who had the greatest cause of both Labor you therefore good honorable Lady so to abound in ioy for them whose soules are in heauen so to abound in sorrow for your owne sinnes that whilest you are aliue it may not be discerned in which of both you exceed And labour to abate your sorrow for the father which is dead because his heroicall honour and Christian magnanimitie is yet aliue in his sonne As for the maner of their death it maketh nothing at all to the matter of their saluation nor for the time of their dissolution as you may reade in this booke by many infallible sentences and warrantable examples of Scripture particularly after this maner First that death hath his prerogatiue and priuiledge in generall Secondly that death makes this world no world and men to trade and trauell to buy and sell vpon all vncertainties Thirdly that the decree concerning the time of death is inuiolable and vnrepealable And fourthly how variable and how sundrie wayes death seizeth vpon some with the stroke of an Angel vpon some with the stroke of iustice vpon some with the stroke of a friend and that vnwittingly and vnwillingly vpon some with the stroke of an enemie wittingly and willingly Some godly men do kill and destroy themselues but vnwittingly and vnwillingly and some vngodly men do kill and destroy themselues wittingly and willingly euen by their owne act and deed And now to conclude you know that honourable honor resteth not in the dignitie that men women haue but in the good works whereby they deserue and you know as stigmaticall brands are tokens of former felonies euen so procrastinatiō breadeth dangers Apply your selfe therefore good honourable Lady vnto the conueniency of the time for you know not when death will light on you by many yeares nor the manner of it by many hundred wayes that whensoeuer and howsoeuer it fals you may haue recourse to the
death of Iesus Christ to whose holy protection I leaue you c. Newly from the Printers Presse the 3. Iuly 1612. Your Honours most humble in the Lord Edw. Vaughan TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVL SIR IOHN HARPER AND SIR PHILIP STANHOP in the countie of Darby Knights And to the worshipfull Maister Richard Hall of London Maister Humphrey Bonner of Nottingham and Maister George Abney in the said countie of Darby Esquiers MY singular selected friēds hauing published many and sundry bookes of diuinity and resolutely cōcluded with my self there to surceasse knowing this to be the enuious and maligning age in which few men shal be condignely rewarded neither yet from vniust imputations and impious calumniations freed yet for all that I was occasioned or rather as I may say violently importuned for my owne better instruction and satisfaction being more surprised with sorrow then with the losse of all the kingdomes of the world carefully to collect answers to diuers questions and obiections which did assaile my soule for and as concerning the deceasse of some such as did most nearely concerne me and exceeding dearely appertaine vnto me And hauing therewithall receiued through Gods mercie that which of all other things I most specially desired I was drawne dutifully and respectiuely to consider that my case was or might be yours and the cōmon case of all men Wherefore I tooke in hand methodically to dispose of all those dispersed collections into this booke as your Worships may see Wherin I alledge nothing but true sentences examples of holy Scriptures and that so warrantably so briefely and so plainely as that I might not seeme tedious to the wise and learned nor yet obscure to the simple and sorrowfull hearted Humbly and heartily desiring you in liew of my labor and in recompence of my loue that you wil be pleased sometimes to sequester your selues from your publike affaires yea and sometimes from your most priuate occasions for the orderly and through reading thereof Assuring you vpon my poore experience and vpon the iudgement of the best learned writers that there is nothing so effectuall in Gods word except the graces of his holy Spirit to make a regenerate man to mourn in mirth to solace in sorrow and to apprehend the right vse of all the meanes which God hath ordayned for the preseruation of life vntill the time of death doth come as the meditation of mortality with Scripture answers cōtemplatiuely to euery such question and obiection as may be raised concerning death together with deuout prayers going before and thanksgiuing following after Or otherwise a thousand to one death brings with it feare feare brings an increase of naturall torments an increase of torments brings distraction of memorie Afterwards followeth all idle dissolute and damnable speech and so from one defect vnto another an obliuiō of Christ and his kingdome as the diuell would haue it Thus I end hauing timely inough I hope forewarnd you with my hearty desires vnto his holy Maiestie to comfot you in your affliction and tribulation that you may be able and readie to comfort others to the glory of his holy name and the euerlasting comfort of your owne soules From Stretton Lefield in the countie of Darbie this 3. of Iuly 1612. Yours in the Lord Edw. Vaughan The contents In the displaying of this diuine discouerie of death is necessarily to be obserued these foure generall heads of instruction approued by many sentences and holy examples of Scriptures viz. First the Generalitie of death to wit how inuincibly death reigneth ouer all the generation of mankind no place exempted no time priuiledged nor any person vpon any occasion fauoured Secondly the sundrie sorts maners and kinds of death that is to say how diuersly and how many wayes death seizeth vpon all people with the seuerall reasons thereof Thirdly the timelinesse of death relating by particulars the day the houre the moment and point of time in which almightie God hath decreed that euerie the generation of mankinde shall die so that no man by the diligent vse of the meanes can lengthen his life nor any man by the negligent vse of the meanes shall shorten his life Fourthly the memorabilitie of death that is to say the commemoration and religious solemnization which the liuing ought to haue for their dead with foure principall and Christian respects THE GENERALITIE OF DEATH DEath hath dominion ouer all mankind not all together as they are innumerable but one after another in their appointed time To which purpose the iust man Iob by the holy influence of Gods diuine Spirit said not onely of himselfe but also of all others Iob. 30.23.24 Surely I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the liuing Salomon the wisest man then in all the world hauing duly considered of mans abode in this life said Eccles 6 6. Man shall be couered with darkenesse if he liue an hundred yeares twise told and shall not all go into one place Saint Luke speaking by the same spirit sets downe the diuine speech of Saint Paul to the Athenians among which he doth plainely relate the maner of mans creation in this wise Act. 17.26 God hath made of one bloud all mankind to dwell on the face of the earth As if he had said by a vulgar phrase of speech Where there is a contagion or an infection it goes through that familie because they are of one nature and of one bloud euen so he meant that all the generatiō of mankinde being of one bloud and of one flesh shall all taste of one death Saint Paul in his exhortation to the Corinthians for their enduring affliction and to liue well 2. Cor. 5.10 said We must all appeare before the iudgement seate of Christ as if he had said There is no helpe nor hope we must all die Iosua a man exceeding victorious and full of magnanimitie and Christian courage yet being prepared to die in his exhortation to his people points vnto himselfe saying Iosua 23.14 Behold I enter into the way of all the world as if he had said Maruell not my brethren at me who must needs depart this life the like must be your lots your posterity The wise womā of Tekoha amongst many other emphatiticall speeches which she vsed to Dauid the king in the behalfe of Absolon his sonne said vnto him We must all die 2. Sam. 14.14 and we are as water spilt on the earth which cannot be gathered neither doth God spare any person As Dauid said 2. Sam. 11.25 The sword deuoures as wel one as another euen so it may be said of all people that death seizeth one manner or other vpon euerie man without exception Furthermore Gen. 5.28 the ten holy Fathers who liued euery man almost his thousand yet died Deut. 2.3 Iosua 8.9.10.11.12 We may speake of diuers by examples as of Moses Iosua the most valiant most victorious warriours
full height maturitie which the licour iuice thereof could possibly extend then presently it returnes and in very little time is withered and cleane gone Salomon likens man for his growing and decreasing vnto Lillies and roses Cant. 2.1 As an Alchymist hauing violētly exhausted the spirits and by little and little distilled the quintessences of minerals and mettals they are thenceforth good for litle or nothing but as salt hauing left the saltnesse euē so man hauing his natural vigour by little and little taken or worne away is but a dead carcasse good for nothing but for to be hid in the earth The eight reason why all men must die It is drawne from the decree of almightie God for the dissolution of the world and a finall end of all things a throwing together and as it were a folding vp of many things into one thing Esai said concerning this dissolution thus Esai 13.9 The day of the Lord commeth cruell with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land waste Mat. 24.29 the starres shall fall from heauen and the planets shall not giue their light the Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the Moone shall not giue her light Likewise Ezechiel saith O how fearefull and how terrible that day shall be to them which pierced him through yet then whosoeuer shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saued The ninth reason why all men must die It is that there may be a generall victorie ouer death and hell For so saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemie that shall be destroyd is death God speakes to that effect by the mouth of his Prophet vnto death in the behalfe of the godly O death Hose 13.14 I will be thy death As though he had said triumphantly thou that hast bene the death of all mankind ô cruell enemie ô thou vnsatiable deuourer now I will be thy death now shalt thou be destroyed for euer now thy sting and thy strength shall vtterly be taken away 5.8.6 Againe the same Prophet saith he will destroy death for euer and God will wipe all teares and heauinesse from all faces Luk. 20.36 and S. Luke saith they can die no more The tenth reason why all men must die Hath foure speciall respects or diuine attributes The first whereof is drawne from the celestiall kingdome whence our soules came and the terrestriall tabernacles and houses of clay wherein our soules do a while liue or dwell as strangers and soiourners Men are said to be strangers either in respect of their trauell from one place vnto another or in respect of some kingdome where they dwell being borne elsewhere not yet free denized nor naturalized In both which respects Dauid saith Psa 39.12 1 Chro. 19.15 1 Cor. 5.1.2 that as our fathers were in this world strangers soiourners so Saint Paul to the like purpose saith We know that we haue a building giuen vs of God that is an house not made with hands but eternall in heauen as if he had said our certaine and most resting place is not here on earth but is in heauen As he that is in a voyage or iourney neuer cōtenteth himselfe vntill he be at home and therefore toiles and trauels with great carnestnesse to end his businesse that he may returne euen so are we in this tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.2 as Saint Paul said sighing and desiring to be clothed with our house which is from heauen The faithfull did manifestly confesse that they were strangers and pilgrimes on earth Heb. 11.13 and that they desired an heauenly countrie The second respect or attribute giuen to the children of God is Drawne from the meere merits of Christ by whom also our bodies and soules haue interest and title to the kingdome of heauen that in a more particular and proper manner then in this world as thus appeareth Christ is called our bridegroome and we his bride Mat. 25.6 Cant. 4.12 Ephe. 1.22 Coll. 1.18 inferring by a necessary consequence that where the husband is there must be the wife Againe where Christ is called the head of the Church it is to be inferred necessarily that where the head is gone before the mēbers must and shall follow after much like to that which Christ said Whersoeuer the body is Luk. 17.37 thither will the Eagles resort As an honest wife hath alwaies an vnsatiable desire and longing to be with her husbād no way cōtented with his absēce no not with loue letters nor with messēgers nor with tokēs of great price but with his corporall presence euen so the true mēber of Christ being zelously affected faithfully disposed towards her holy heauenly husband Christ Iesus Cant. 1.1 saith Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth As if the Church or bride of Christ had said vnto God his and her heauenly father O let me haue the fruition of his glorious presence let me be alway with him The third respect or attribute giuen vnto the children of God is Drawne from the mortall hatred malice which the deuill hath against vs exceedingly enuying our spirituall and glorious arriuall into heauen therefore layes many snares and infinite allurements to let hinder vs from our passage with whome therefore according to the will of God we must encounter vnder the conduct of our Lord Generall Christ Iesus In respect of which striuings Eph. 6.10 to 18. 2. Timo. 2.3 Phile. 1.2 conflicts and battelles we are called souldiers and warriors inferring thereby that when we haue valiantly fought the Lords battels and faithfully triumphed ouer the diuell then it followes that we shall returne to our owne home with rewards and crownes of euerlasting glotie The fourth respect or attribute giuen vnto the children of God is Drawne from the affaires wherin God our eternall king hath imployed vs for the performance of certaine religious duties whereof some are pertayning to God some to our brethren and some to our selues the which being done and duely accomplished then must we be gone In regard whereof we are called Legates Ambassadors and such like sometimes labourers sometimes pilgrimes And in our commission we haue euery man his set and limited time of dispatch Iob. 7.1 1 Pet. 2.1 which being ended the ancient of dayes the Angell of the couenant will send his Angell Gabriel or some other Dan 9.20.21.22 saying vnto vs for our returne vnto heauen as vnto the people of Israel in Babylon for their returne vnto Ierusalem Now me thinkes I heare two obiections made against me by two sorts of people The one saying This doctrine concerning the generality of death needed not it might haue bene spared and the speech spent vpō matter that we know not For by the vse of reason by common experience and by manifold examples men are induced to beleeue all this that you haue said to be true and long since generally allowed This is now a
not in some sort humour and applaud you Here I end this matter desiring God to enlarge your affections more more vnto the obedience of his word An answer to the 2. obiection concerning the generalitie of death Herein I will be briefe because indeed this sort of people are lesse worthy of further instruction who hold that this so goodly a frame of the world should not or cannot be destroyed Of whom Saint Peter speaketh thus 1. Pet. 3.3 There shall come in the last dayes mockers who will walke after their owne lusts and shall say Where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers died all things continue alike vnto this day There needeth no other answer for them then that which S. Peter maketh them in the verses following let them looke to it vpon their perill This doctrine concerning the generalitie of death serueth to reproue three sorts of people The first are those who wholly or for the most part do set their loue and liking vpon the things of this world as if they were to tarrie in it for euer or as if they were to chuse they would not change this world no not for the kingdome of heauen ioying and reioycing as Amos the Prophet said Amos. 6.13 in a thing of nought like vnto the tribes of Ruben and Gad and halfe the tribe of Manasses Num. 32.1.2 who chose the towns and lands on this side Iordan because there were goodly habitations and fertile soyle rather then the townes and lands in Canaan which for the fertilitie therof was said to flow with milke and honey and for the innumerable pleasures thereof like vnto the kingdome of heauen Saint Paul blaming such and seeking to draw them vnto better choise exhorteth saying Seeke ye the things which are aboue Col. 3.1 where Christ sits at the right hand of God and set your affections on heauenly things and not on earthly The second sort who are to be reproued by the generall doctrine of death Are they who murmure much or rather do mourne too much for the deceasse of their neare friends as though God had not done well to take one and not another to take this and not that or as if death had surprised them before their time and for euer or else that death had casually lighted on thē more then others Saint Paule comforting himselfe and others concerning this complaint 2. Cor. 5.1 sayd We haue a building giuen of God that is an house whose builder and maker is God The children of God die but one Luk. 20.36 they taste not of that second death in hell as the reprobates do This once to die is but a short interiection betweene two eternities to wit election and glorification with a kingly and a kindly passage as it were by calling and iustification vnto eternall saluation Rom. 6.9 Christ died once but in that he liueth he liueth for euer So ye likewise saith the holy Apostle are dead to sinne Rom. 6.9 but aliue to God through Iesus Christ The third sort who are to be reproued by this generall doctrine of death Are those who not minding their mortalitie nor accompts which they must make do treasure vp sinne vpon sinne being driuen as it were with the swinge of their nature set on fire of hell defile their bodies and the whole course of nature resolued with themselues to vndergo any sinne so as it may bring them either pleasure or profite Alwayes saying in their hearts and many times with their tongues If we must die for sinne as Preachers say and that as well for one sinne as for a thousand why then let vs eate and drinke and be merrie while we may Salomon out of his owne experience and specially from the holy Spirit of inspiration faith of such one a after this maner Eccles 10.9 Reioyce ô thou yong man in thy youth let thine heart cheare thee walke in the wayes of thine owne heart and in the sight of thine eyes But what followeth God will bring thee to iudgement Although his Maiestie be inclined to mercie yet when he is moued to iustice it is ineuitable it is innarrable it is intollerable To that effect said Dauid as if it were in the proper person of almightie God vnto all such desperate and gracelesse wretches that do abuse his holy patience Psal 50.17 I will set thy sinnes in order to wit thy sins in the night thy sinnes in the day thy sins in thy youth and thy sins in thine age thy sins against me and thy sinnes against thy brethren I will so muster and so ranke them together so place them by rowes and in euerie ranke and row such and so many as shall seeme to be more odious shamefull and detestable euen vnto thine owne selfe And what shall follow I will teare thee in peeces that is thy torments shall be more terrible and farre more horrible to nature then as if thou wert racked tormented peece-meale These are they who although in deed sinne is too too generall yet they rifle and runne ragingly after it in a more particular manner not minding their mortalitie or at least not regarding the accompts that they must make do maligne enuie vtterly hate yea and seeke the whole ouerthrow of vs the Preachers of his holy word and others the deare children of God who runne not into the same excesse of riot and damnable behauiour but with zeale do frequent the ministerie of his word with reuerence do keepe his Sabbaths with all care do keepe themselues vnsported of the world Therefore they esteeme them not worth their societie nor worthie to liue vpon the earth Ioh. 15.19 We are not of the world therfore the world hatethvs saith S. Iohn The manifold plagues to the Egyptians the fierie Serpēts to the Israelites and the Emerods to the Philistims were not so troublesome and tedious as these heathenish Atheists prophane Iewes are to vs. We liue not as enemies in an hostile manner among them but modestly and mildly and benignly as Christian cōforters bringing peace offering reconciliation The words of our commission are of 3. emphaticall and publicke narrations The first is Benedicite blesse ye the second is Benefacite do ye good and the third is Orate pray ye Thus are we enioyned to behaue our selues amongst many other religious duties towards God and good mē yea towards our enemies Where in so euer we do faile through frailtie it is not indifferent nor iustice for them being our enemies to iudge what we should do but rather out of charity to iudge what we would do Neither is it for them to reuenge themselues vpon vs it is his holy Maicstie to whom we must answer vpon our accompt We are whatsoeuer they say bringers of peace and we are peaceable 2. King 10.17 Come see said Iehu to Iehonadab so it were to be wished that these men would zealously and religiously
hands to do with him as they would euen as Pontius Pilate deliuered Iesus into the hands of the Pharises to do with him as they would 2. Sam. 26.8.9.10 Let me smite him but once said Abishai to Dauid I will smite him no more intending by those words with one blow to kill Saule Shall I lay mine hands vpon the Lords annointed said Dauid No I will not God shall smite him There he plainly related the penall death Or his day shall come to die There he plainly related the naturall death Or he shall descend into battell There he plainly related the vnnaturall death First the Penall death is that which almightie God did vsually inflict vpon those with whom he was wrathfully displeased as appeared by the ineuitablenesse thereof It was most commonly miraculous and publikely powerful that it might be for an euerlasting remembrance among all nations Such was the punishment of Adam for the transgression of Gods commandement Gen. 3.17.18.19 as did appeare by many particular denuntiations and afterwards concluded with his death and with the death of all his posterity irrecouerable in thēselues for euer Iob to this purpose said Iob. 34.14.15 If God set his heart vpon man and gather vnto himselfe his spirit and his breath all flesh shall perish together and man shall returne to dust As if he had said If God be once wrathfully displeased with any man how shall he liue how can he or they endure the hand of him who so penally powerfully punisheth vnpenitent sinners Druine motiues or reasons why God doth so penally so miraculously and so powerfully punish some and not others with a sixefold answer thereunto The first Motiue why God punished penally First God punished penally with water when men were publikely and generally growne to be tirannous cruell and sauagely disposed one towards another as the people of the old world Thē did the windows of heauen open Gen. 6.11.12.13 Gen. 7.4.10 11 to the end and the foundations of the great deepe breake vp so that the waters preuailed exceedingly vpon the earth and couered all the hie mountains of the world Likewise the Egyptians Exod. 1.11 to 16.5 to 14.7.8.9.10.11.14 who dealt tirannously cruelly with Gods people this Maiestie taking speciall knowledge thereof did penally and powerfully punish thē with manifold plagues in their own land and afterwards with the inundations of waters wherein their king and many thousands more were miraculously drowned The second Motiue why God punished penally Secondly God punished penally with fire Gen. 19.5.15.16 to 17 when he saw that men were grown so generally and so publikely carnall sensuall fleshly vnnaturally defiling their owne bodies taking the louing admonitions and godly perswasions of his Saints but as iests and mockes as he did the Sodomites The third Motiue why God punished penally Thirdly by changing the nature and qualitie of the earth when as particular persons being in place of preheminence did offer indignity disloyaltie to such as were in authoritie as did Corah Dathan Num. 16.29.36 and Abiram with their companions whom God did penally powerfully and miraculously destroy by opening the earth to swallow them vp aliue The fourth Motiue why God punished penally Fourthly with sauage beasts whē as his holy and welbeloued people are disdained mocked and scorned 2. King 2.23.24 as two and fortie that mocked Elisha the Prophet of the Lord and were penally destroyed with Beares The fifth Motiue why God punished penally Fifthly with Angels when as men in authoritie do publikely and incorrigibly offend his holy Maiestie as did Dauid in numbring his men of warre 2. Sam. 24.1.15 and trusting in them whom God did penally and publikely punish with the death of seuenty thousand of his chosen men by the stroke of an Angell Act. 12.23 Likewise Herod the king was striken vnto death publikely by an Angel because he took that glory to himselfe which was due to God 1. King 13.1.2.3.2 King 23.17 So was Iehoram most penally and miraculously destroyed for his idolatrie according to the saying of the man of God The sixth Motiue why God punished penally Sixthly where it may be demanded why God doth punish some so penally and so miraculously and not others it is drawne from his established rule and generall order of gouerning kingdoms and nations holding it sufficient in his godly wisedome to punish publikely some in stead of many that one example so publike and so penally powerful should serue for many hundred yeares in a whole nation or kingdome When the Church began to spread through Gods mercies there were many miracles signes and wonders as that in Egypt as that in their iourney through the wildernesse and as that their conquering of Canaan and so vntill the temple of Ierusalem was built and religion established But afterwards as it drew nearer and nearer vnto Christ they grew to be fewer and fewer The first vse of this doctrine concerning the penall death Serueth to forewarne Landlords and Patrons who most tyrannously liue vpon the spoile of the poore the one fleecing the Church the other fleecing the commonweale and both robbing God of his honour so much as they may or as it doth bring them either pleasure or profite As in the old world wherein crueltie did ouerrun the whole earth so it is now in the glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell If the examples of those whom God so powerfully so penally punished will not serue it may well fall out euen in the iustice of God that for the same crueltie their oppression and grinding of the poore and selling them for old shooes that they shall be made examples for such as do come after The second vse of this doctrine concerning penall death It may well serue to forewarne dissolute and loose liuers yea all such as liue according to their own lust giuing themselues ouer according to the swing of their own nature lest they also neglecting the vse of Gods holy word and the vse of these fearefull examples do in a time when they thinke not fall into some ineuitable and damnable iudgements of God in a miraculous manner The third vse of this doctrine concerning penall death Forewarneth all such as are subiects to submit themselues vnto such as are in authoritie ouer them as vnto the diuine ordinance of God The fourth vse of this doctrine concerning penall death It may serue to admonish all sorts of people to demeane themselues reuerently and conscionably towards all the zealous professors of the Gospell The fifth vse of this doctrine concerning the penall death It admonisheth all those that are in auctoritie to submit themselues dutifully and euery way religiously towards God as they wold their subiects should do vnto them The second manner sort and kind of death to wit The naturall death is more moderate more milde and more alluding to the fauour of God then the penall death because indeede it hath reference to the promises
at deathes doore the wicked parteth with all ioyes and there the godly receiues it The third vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue all such parents who hauing a sonne or a daughter taken from them by death in his minority they do not take to heart nor thinke the extraordinary care the greedy griping the intollerable shiftes and the manifold deuices which they vsed to get worldly wealth and preferments for him So that they euer kept from their heart or for the most part all conscionable care of trayning him vp in the feare and nurtour of the Lord so as he might be a necessary member in Church or comon wealth They consider not neither can they be made to thinke much lesse to beleeue that God tooke him away for their punishment And for this cause also God takes away another and so another of their best and dearest children leauing such parents either none at all or else such as are gracelesse and without hope to be any comfort vnto them If parents out of their naturall affection or out of Gods word would but imagine what a dolefull day what a sorrowfull sight and a galling griefe it would be vnto them to see one child after another suffer the bitter paines and pangs of death then being dead to be doubtfull of their saluation such parents might the better and the sooner see take knowledg of their sinnes towards their poore children and so by true repentance be turned vnto the Lord. The fourth vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue those who out of their ouer abounding naturall affection towards their children are neuer prepared to part with their children no not though they be to change their company for the company of God himselfe and the company of others their brothers and sisters for the company of the holy Saints and Angels in heauen And their worldly riches for the true treasures purchast by the precious bloud of Iesus Christ And this because that either they want knowledge or faith The fift vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue those who liue so securely and so carelesly as if they had made a couenant with death vntill an appointed day or as if they could keepe death away so long as they would or at least giue themselues lawfull warning Vpon these comes the day of the Lord suddenly not in respect of God but in respect of themselues being vnprouided By how much they want of that they should haue against his coming or by how little they feare death by so much the more terrible and fearefull death is vnto them The sixth vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue those who arrogate to much vnto the worthinesse of the meanes attributing that vertue vnto them which indeede is due vnto God as in the time of sicknesse to physicke surgery and such like No maruell though they languish in their diseases and no man able to helpe thē What was the ouerthrow of so many thousands of the Israelits the taking away of the Arke of God by the Philistines 1. Sam. 4.5 was it not because they relied to much vpon the arke as appeared by their shooting and loud reioycing as though heauen and earth rang together Ieremie speaketh of them at another time how they vanted and boasted of their temple saying Ier. 7.4 The temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord therefore the Lord gaue their Temple to be ransacked and ruinated by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon Dan. 1.1.2 Ieremie likewise speaking of the pride and presumptusnesse of the Egyptians who in their strength and multitude of their men concluded most infallibly the vtter ouerthrow of the people of Israel Ier. 46 7. They come saith he like floods and riuers with raging horses swift chariots Blackemores and Libians to shoote and to beare shields yet all in vaine The seuenth vse concerning the naturall kind of death It serueth to reproue those who do derogate from the worthinesse of the meanes which God in his mercie hath ordained in his Church and common-wealth to be in him and for him or as in his stead helpers comforters vnto his people as in the time of sicknesse not to seek to the Physitiā they rather scoffe and scorne them and they deride their profession These indeed as the former are accessarie to their owne cōtinuall diseases languishing maladies and in the end to their owne death not because that they thereby do directly shorten their liues but because that they do frustrate so much as in thē lieth the holy ordināces of God which are ioyned with his decree The eight vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue those who run into eminent dangers places of contagion they auoid not when they may conuemently outragious elements as fire water and such like or enterprise to performe actions which stand not either with their wits or with their abilities The 3. generall sort manner or kind of death to wit the vnnaturall death The vnnatur all death is that which is more violent more abhorring nature more crosse and contrarie to the lawes ordinances of God A kind of death which proceedeth from mans selfe or rather a death instigated by the diuell meerely derogatiue to the Maiestie of Gods gouernment dishonourable to his name by the reuealed word impeachfull to the saluation of the soules of such An vntimely and an vnseasonable death Vnder this kind of death there are 4. other inferior sorts First when a man killeth himselfe vnawares or against his will as Ahaziah king of Israel did with a fall 2. King 1.6 Secondly when a man kils himselfe wittingly and willingly 1 Sam. 31.4 2. Sam. 17.23 1. King 16.18 as Saul did with his owne sword as Achitophel hanged himselfe and as Zimry did that burnt himselfe Thirdly when a mā is killed by another vnwittingly and vnwillingly not hauing hated him before Nu. 35.22 Ios 20.1.2.3 for whose saftetie God appointed cities of refuge Fourthly when a man is wittingly and willingly killed by another 2. Sam. 3.27 2. Sam. 20.10 as Abner was by Ioab and as Amasa was The first question concerning the maner of the vnnaturall death Why it is or how it comes to passe that some vnwittingly and vnwillingly do kil and destroy themselues yea with their act and deed some hang themselues some burne themselues some drowne themselues and such like manner of vnnaturall death This kind of vnnaturall executions happeneth many times on the iust as well as on the vniust vpon the wise as vpon the foolish vpon the rich as vpon the poore The answer therefore is twofold one concerning the vngodly the other concerning the godly That which concernes the vngodly is when any such man or woman vnwittingly puts or brings himselfe into perillous places puts himselfe to death by his owne act and deed It proceedeth from the vpright iustice of God ruling and ouer-ruling man how
liue so withall euen in the same decree was set downe before the giuing of the law that long life should be a reward for him that kept the law and shortnesse of life for him that did breake the law when as yet he had done neither good nor euill Almightie God foretelleth the sinnes of Israel many hundred yeares before they were and their iudgements that should be accordingly in these words Deut. 31.16.17 This people will go a whoring after other gods they will forsake me and my couenant wherefore my wrath will wax hot against them that day and I will forsake them then shall they be confounded Almightie God to the like purpose by the mouth of his Prophet Esay speaks thus concerning the same people Esa 48.8 I knew that thou wouldest transgresse therefore haue I called thee a transgressor from the wombe Saint Peter speaking of Christs death therin of the death of his Saints saith thus to the Iewes Act. 2.23 Him haue ye takē by the hāds of the wicked being deliuered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God As if he had said This could not haue bene had it not bene so decreed before hand this is not happened by chance nor by aduenture but as it was foreseene good of God The second answer concerning conditionall lengthning and threats of shortning life The answer concerning the Prophets praying for and in the behalfe of Gods people for long life and sometimes praying for the cutting off of the wicked They being so graciously and so plētifully inspired by the spirit of God could not erre so grosly as to crosse contrarie other holy men who had written by the same Spirit They knew well that God had exactly concluded the time of all men for their life and time of death and therefore they did but pray as other religious mē drawne thereunto vpon the performance of other religious duties in that behalfe towards their brethren After this maner Daniel doth pray for the people of Israel being in Babylon Dan. 9.2.3 hauing found by bookes when the number of yeares was ended wherof the Lord had spokē by Ieremie that he would accomplish 70 yeares in the desolation of Ierusalem Therefore although he knew that God would deliuer his people out of bondage according as he had promised yet out of his loue to them and from his dutie to God he betook himselfe most importunately to pray for them and so continued vntill the Angell Gabriel brought him a direct an immediate answer from the throne of the Almightie Gen. 18.23 to 33. Abraham prayed for the Zodomites and that verie importunately though he knew very well that God had most iustly determined their ouerthrow The third answer concerning conditionall lengthning of life Thirdly concerning that addition of fifteene yeares to Hezekiahs life it is not so to be vnderstood when he was so mortally sick that his day was come to die But in such a case alwayes where such a Scripture seemeth litterally to disallow or crosse another as this doth men must looke for another sence yea such a sence as may agree with the analogie of faith It seemed indeed vnto Hezekiah as he was a mortall man and as the case stood between him God at that time that indeed fifteen yeares were added to his life Iob. 42.16 The like place is in Iobe Hauing exactly by many sentences proued the timelinesse of death and withall hauing answered some obiections that might be made in the discourse thereof Let vs now obserue sixe sorts of people who are to be reproued by this obiection of lengthning and shortning of life First it serueth warrantably to reproue those that do put off the time of their death vsing the world as if they were to dwell therein for euer Like the people before the floud Gen. 7.11 of whom Saint Luke speaketh who notwithstanding 120. yeares repentance giuen vnto thē in the which the arke was a preparing yet neuerthelesse they were carelesse and vnconscionable Luk. 17.26.27 They did eate and drinke maried wiues and gaue in mariage euen vnto the day that Noe entred into the arke and the floud came Likewise as it was in the dayes of Lot and when as they tooke his holy exhortation for mockage they eate Gen 19.24 Luk. 17.28 they dranke planted vineyards and builded but in the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone and destroyed them all So the people in these dayes notwithstanding the manifold and variable warnings of the Amightie sometimes out of the element sometimes out of the earth sometimes out of the sea and specially out of his holy Scripture these I say are not yet moued in heart to prouide for their departure or at least they haue no willingnesse or resolutiō therunto They stand as it were vpon terms with his Maiesty vntill they be ouercome surprised sodainly as a bird in the snare of the fowler These are they whose affections being alienated do iudge better of earthly things then of heauenly of whom Saint Iohn saith They loue darkenesse better then light Io. 3.19.31 And he that is of the earth is of the earth and speaketh of the earth And as God said vnto the Israelites Iudg. 10.14 11.7 Deu. 32.29 Go and cry vnto the gods which you haue chosen let them saue you in the time of your tribulation so will the Lord say vnto all such as defer the time of their repentance and amendment Seeke you help elsewhere find it if you can for I will do nothing for you Why come ye vnto me now in the time of your tribulatiō did ye not thrust me out O that men were wise then would they consider their latter end Secondly it serueth to reproue those who wilfully riotously waste spoile and spend that which should necessarily appertaine to their posteritie Euen in nature and qualitie like the wilde Boare Psal 80.13 of which the Prophet Dauid speaketh who not onely eates and deuoures all that is aboue ground but afterwards roots vp all that should serue another yeare And in the same place also likened vnto wild sauage beasts who hauing eaten their fill do tread trample all the rest vnder foote and into the dirt that no other beast may or can eate thereof If they sinne that do neglect the vse of lawfull meanes how much more then they that vse lawfull meanes vnlawfully by surfetting by drunkennesse such like which God in his mercie hath ordained for the chearing and comforting of the godly Pro. 31.7.8 Euen as the people of Laish after the manner of the Sidonians Iudg. 18.7 dwelt carelesly and so were conquered Thirdly it serueth to reproue those who not knowing the Scriptures and therein not knowing specially the absolute decree of almightie God concerning the verie certaine day houre of euerie mans departure they fret they furne they weepe they waile excessiuely for the deceasse of
in Egypt When Moses was intreated to pray for thē those plagues also ceassed Moreouer after the death of King Iosias the citie of Ierusalem was wonne and the people caried captiue vnto Babylon God spared them and did withhold his wrath from thē in all his dayes according to his promise As the person is in his place of preheminence in Church or cōmonweale in his paines performing the worke of the Lord so is the losse of him to the people whēsoeuer he departs And as the greatnesse of the losse is so ought the greatnesse of the considerations to be had amongst those where he is missed continually mourning weeping and calling vpon God for his mercy and that he will be pleased to withhold those plagues which he hath so begun hauing alwaies before them the remembrance of their sinnes and the iudgements of God for the same which they haue many wayes and at sundrie times deserued humbly prostrating thēselues before the throne of his mercies in the name and mediation of Iesus Christ The children of Israel wept much and mourned sore for Moses thirty dayes together Deut. 34.8 The Maiestie of God taking particular knowledge of his death said vnto Iosua Moses my seruant is dead Iosua 1.2.3 As if he had said more plainely I see his want already amongst the people it is so great and so dangerous that there must be a present supply If the person publike being dead were vngodly an oppressor and such like ill disposed being in profession either spirituall or temporall who will not thinke it an happy day a blessed time in which it pleased God to cut him off for euery man where such an one had to do for his owne particular priuate good hath cause to commemorate the mercies of God in that behalfe And by how much the more it may be said that he was generally disposed to euill by so much the more ought all that people amongst whom he liued be generally disposed to commemorate the mercies of God with all alacrity and cheerefulnesse for his depriuation weeping and mourning for their former sins which was the cause why God did raise such a gracelesse man to haue rule ouer them so long and continually praying to haue a more vertuous and a more religious man in his roome This teacheth all true professors of christianity as formerly was said religiously to commemorate the deceasse of publike persons who had their places in Church and commonwealth specially if they were profitable to the people and religious towards God We haue the example of Dauid the King and all his honourable subiects who mourned much after the deceasse of Abner 2 Sam. 3.27 to 39. because he was a necessary man in the common wealth So likewise it is said Act. 8.2 that there was great lamentation amongst all the people which feared God for Saint Steuen who was a necessary man in the Church This religious duty is not so much required because of their deceasses directly as for our selues who were the cause thereof according to the foreknowledge of God sometimes arrogating too much worthinesse vnto them and therby derogating from God or sometimes derogating from them that worthinesse and desert which was their due and thereby do become spirituall spoilers and vnfaithfull vnto God that gaue them And I may presse farther and iustifie out of mine owne lamentable experience that the commemoration of death past vpon others our deare friends will worke in vs a hartie calling vpon God for mercy and a kinde of preparation in our selues to die well besides the good example which we shall giue thereby vnto our posterity to do the like for vs. FINIS
the people of Israel frō Egypt to Canaan was through the most vaste deep and dangerous places of all the world and sometimes through goodly valleyes by pleasant riuers and such like places of contentment sometimes in great penurie scarcenesse of all good things and sometimes in great plentie of euerie thing thus with vncertainties mutabilities liking disliking 40. Num. 33.1 yeares together before they came into the promised land not resting in any one good place one whole yeare intermingling one with another Euē so is it with gods people specially such of thē as his Maiesty knoweth will not trauel rightly the right way Moses said God led them 40 yeares in the wildernes Deut. 8.2.3 to trie thē to humble them to know what was in their hearts God said by the mouth of his Prophet thus Ier. 30.11 Although I haue striken thee with the wound of an enemie and with a sharpe chastisement because thy sins were increased I will correct thee but not vtterly cut thee off So God said to Dauid concerning Salomon his sonne 2 Sam. 7.13 If he sin I will chastise him with the roddes of the children of men but my mercy will I not vtterly take from him Whom the Lord loueth Heb. 12.6 saith the holy Author to the Hebrues he chastiseth he scourgeth euery sonne that he receiueth We haue a famous example in Dauid whō if God had not humbled with continuall persecution it is certaine he would haue driuen Saul violently out of his kingdome The third reason why some do die languishingly As the former proceeded from the mercie of God towards those whom he would reforme so in this we shall finde the ineuitable iustice of God vpon the wicked euery way disabling and putting them downe from their intents and enterprises keeping them at a low rate and as it were at a scantling He deales with them as with the house of Ioab the murtherer 2 Sam. 3.23 neuer without running issues neuer without the leprosie or one that leaneth on a staffe or doth fall on the sword or lacketh bread So God said he would deale with the people Israel if they would not keepe his commandemēts in these words The Lord wil make thy plagues wonderfull and of long continuance Deut. 28.59 sore diseases and of long durance Such a writing was brought to Iehoram King of Iudah from the Lord because of his Idolatrie contayning this effect Thou shalt be in great diseases 2 Chro 21.12 to 16. 2 King 15.5 in thy boweles day by day Ahaziah King of Iudah was disabled with a leprosie for euer The fourth reason why some do die suddenly or instantly hath these two respects The first respect is the matter wherewith they die Some die with old age as did Dauid some with long endured sicknesse some with the eminency of the place which ministreth present danger and death as a ship against the rocks a wildernesse of wilde beasts a storehouse of gunpouder Sometimes in respect of Gods sudden decree because the Lords breath is in his nostrels Sometimes being occasioned from a naturall cause which learned Physitiōs say doth arise ab apoplexia a stoppage in the head or à vomida pulmonū a suffocation in the lungs or else à sincope vel cardiaogmo from the stomacke or heart All which is common both to good and bad men to the iust and vniust and that which neuer giues warning nor knowledge any manner of way formerly to be preuented by physicke and therefore rightly called Mors repentina a sudden and an vnprouided death The second respect is the manner or difference betwixt both The bad and vniust man dieth suddenly how long soeuer he liueth and what warning soeuer he hath Mat. 25.3 because of his vnpreparednesse like the foolish virgins or like the vniust and carelesse steward The good and vpright man who feares the Lord and rules himselfe according to his lawes is alwaies vpon his guard like the good householder who knowes on a night suddenly his house shall be broken vp and like those wise virgins alwaies in a readinesse euer looking for death This resēblance of both was in the old world Noah was well prepared the rest were nothing at all The eight vses that we are to make of this doctrine concerning the naturall death which is the common death and the generall visitation of all men The first vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue old men who either idlely or riotously spēd their patrimonies and their parents portions The holy Prophet Hosea saith Hose 7.9 Gray haires are here and there vpon him and he knowes it not to wit the aged man considers not the old man whose life is almost ended remembers not he thinkes vpon time enough to be getting and sparing which is yet left behinde he deuiseth vpon many more yeares so goeth on vntill his strēgth faileth him and he purposeth to bring many matters vnto good effect euen by his wits when as indeede with his strength his senses will faile him Therfore Ieremy the Prophet said Lam. 3.27 It is good for a man to beare the yoke in his youth It is expedient that he do take paines in his profession while he may lest when he should giue he be enforced to take Salomon not onely for matters of saluation but also for matters of this life doth exhort very earnestly particularly plainly Eccle. 12.1.2 to 8. thus Remēber thy maker in thy youth whiles the euil dayes come not nor the yeares approch wherein thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them To conclude with that patheticall saying of Saint Paul 1 Timo. 5.8 If there be any man that prouideth not for his owne namely for them of his household he denieth the faith and is worse then an infidell the honorable age is not that which is measured by time neither that which is measured by the number of yeares but wisdome is the gray haire Wisd 4.7.8 an vndefiled life is the old age As if he had said It is not the age of any man how old soeuer that deserues reuerence and speciall account amongst men but it is the knowledg of God and an vnreproueable life The second vse concerning the naturall death It serueth to reproue those who by their ouer much care and excessiue labors haue gotten much wealth alway getting euer sparing neuer spending accounting from ten to the hundred and from the hundred to the thousands for euery of their children yea and many times hauing neither sonne nor daughter they know not for whom and yet in all this time and amongst all this wealth hauing nothing at all for themselues against the day of the Lord hauing indeede neither oyle nor lampes Much like the gluttō that fared deliciously euery day Luk. 16.19 gorgeously apparelled but inwardly for his soule he was more miserable then any and as the poore begger at his doore outwardly So commonly