the small To this tended that surcasme of Diogenes when he told Alexander that he had been seeking his Father Philips bones but could not distinguish between them and others And for this reason Alphonsus putting the Question what it was that did make high and low equall answered Death Pliny writeth of a River in Spaine wherein all the fish that are pnt are of a golden colour but being taken out of it they are of the same colour with other fishes They who whilest they live in this world glitter with gold and silver when taken out of it return to the same earth with the rest of mankind Whilest the Counters are upon the Table one stands for five another for ten while the Chasemen are upon the Board one is a King another a Queen a third a Bishop a fourth a Knight and those have their several walks but when put into the bag they are all alike Thus is it with men who though upon the earth they are of different orders and degrees are alike when they are cast into it And as the several kinds of herbs which are thrown into the Limbeck being distilled make one water so they but one earth Epictetus when asked What was common to the King with the Begger answered to be born and to die they come into and go out of the world one as well as the other Nor is there any difference between them in the womb and the tomb Let not those that are above insult over others since this grand Leveller Death will one day put them in the same condition with others 2. This Meditation of the going forth of the soul and return of the body is a no lesse powerfull disswasive from a voluptuous life then an haughty mind Oh that you who have vivendi voluptatem the pleasure of life would contemplate moriendi necessitatem the necessity of death That you who have the world at will would remember you have not death at command I die said Esau and what good will my Birth-right do me Oh that the voluptuous Epicure would say I die and what good will my vain and sensual pleasures do me Agathocles when a King having been a Potters Sonne drank in earthen Vessels It were not possible men should surfeit at their Tables carouse it in their Cups would they eat and drink as it were in earthen vessels in the midst of their delicacyes remember that they are earth Consider this you who spend your doyer in eating and drinking in playing and sleeping whose whole design is to pamper and feed to deck and adorn your bedies to gratifie your senses and glut your selves with the delights of the flesh Dic mihi ubi sunt amatores mundi Nihil ex eis remanet nisi cineres vermes Tell me what is become of those lovers of pleasures of whom nothing remaineth but wormes and ashes What will become of that body of thine which is so full fed and richly clod when it shall be laid in the grave They say of Bees that when they are buzzing and humming about our ears making a great and angry noise if you throw a little dust upon them they are quiet and hive again presently Surely it would still the roaring Gallant in the midst of his joviall revellings were the thoughts of dust frequently suggested to and seriously pondered on by him And yet were this all that the body returneth to the earth the Epicures plea might be good enough Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die But if we die to morrow as our body returneth to earth so our soul goeth forth to God to give an account to rereceive a sentence either of absolution or condemnation And oh think what fear will possesse thy spirit when it apprehends it self going forth to be arraigned at the Barre of Divine Justice yea how dismall the account will be of that time and strength and health and wealth which hath been expended upon carnal and sensual pleasures 2. Let those who are in the lower ranke of men learn to look upon great ones as subject to death and the grave and that for a double end so as not to fear them distrustfully nor trust in them presumptuously 1. Their breath goeth forth they return to their earth fear them not Indeed there is a fear which is due from Inferiours to Superiours God and the King are set down by the Wiseman as the joynt Objects of our fear and they will at last be found fooles who divide them When God saith If I be a Master where is my fear he intimateth that fear is due from the Servant to the Master whilst they live they are above and over us and therefore ought to be feared by us but with a fear of reverence not diffidence and that because their power and Honour is soon laid in the dust Have we not sometimes observed a Ball tossed up and down in the aire eyed and observed by every one which way it moveth least it should hit them yea and when it passeth by they ofttimes stoope to it and yet it is nothing but the skin of a dead beast filled with wind which is easily let out A fit embleme of Tyrants who are so observed and of whom we stand in so much awe when yet they are but mortal men whose breath quickly goeth forth Put them in fear oh Lord is the Prayer of the Psalmist that they may know themselves to be but men Indeed this consideration That the greatest enemies of the Church are but men may put them in fear and us out of fear no wonder if God bespake his Church in that vehement Interrogation Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man which shall be made as Grasse and therefore as David resolves I will not feare what flesh can do unto me so let us not fear what earth can do against us 2. Their breath goeth forth they return to their earth trust them not This is the principall intendment of the Psalmist as appeareth by the former Dehortation Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help to presse which this is annexed as a reason namely their mortall condition Excellently doth St. Chrysostome here enlarge He that cannot defend himself how shall he deliver another Do not say he is a Prince for in this he hath no greater priviledge then the meanest but is subject to the same uncertainty of life nay that I may at once speak what is true and yet strange {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for this reason especially he is not to be trusted because he is a Prince for these earthly powers are slippery great men are subject to more casualities and dangers then private and when they fall they that trust to them are ruined with them as the body of the Church is beaten down with the fall of the Steeple How often
Instance of the rich fool in the Gospel whose thoughts were to pull down his barns and build greater and thereto bestow all his fruits and his Goods and to say to his soul Soul thou hast much good laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but that night was his soul required from him and those thoughts perished St. James speaketh of those whose thoughts were that to day or to morrow they would go into such a City and continue there and buy and sell and get gain forgetting that their life was but a vapour which appeareth a little while and vanisheth away and together with it all such thoughts St. Gregory upon those words The eyes of the wicked shall fail giveth this as the reason Quia intentiâ—nes eorum desideria occupantur circa transitoria because their thoughts and desires are imployed about perishing objects Oh let it be our wisdome to six our thoughts and designes upon higher and better objects how we may obtain an Inheritance among them that are sanctified and enjoy the beatifical vision These are those thoughts which being pursued in life shall not be frustrated but fulfilled at our death He whose life hath been a continued Meditation on Heaven and whose endeavoures have been to make sure an Interest there in that very day when his body returneth to the earth his soul goeth forth to the fruition of it and so his thoughts receive a full a joyfull accomplishment Once more Not only our worldly but our charitable our penitential our Religious thoughts perish in that day of death How many have thoughts with themselves When I come to such and such years I will leave my sins and lead a new life When I have got this and that estate I will give Almes to the poor But in the mean time death hath unhappily prevented them Oh therefore let it be our prudence to lay hold on the present time and when good thoughts are in our minds if we have ability and opportunity to put them speedily in execution lest we too late condemn our own folly and be forced to say non putaram I did not think death would so soon have seized upon me I shut up this with that excellent Exhortation of the Wise man Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it withall thy might for there is no work nor device nor wisdome nor knowledge in the grave whether thou goest THe text is now finished but my discourse must not yet end What hath been from the text sounded in your eares is by this sad occasion fulfilled in your eyes We have before us a dolefull Instance of great mens mortality in this Noble Earl whose breath some daies past went forth from him and whose body is now returning to this earth Indeed it is that sad Providence which I cannot but mention as being fit to be laid to heart how Almighty God hath not only once but again and again within a little circuit of time exemplified the truth of this Doctrine in this Noble Family No lesse then three Persons of Honour the Father the Son the Grandson have in lesse then two years been taken away by death and that in the three several ages of life the Father in the evening of old age the Son in the noon of manhood and the Grandson in the morn of youth It seemed good to the wise God who doth not look in the Church-Book to see who is eldest and take men out in the same order that they come into this world to begin with the youngest of the three by death lopping off from this goodly tree a blossoming branch which might in probability have flourished long and brought forth much fruit But when his surviving relations consider what hath lately fallen out and is too likely to befall this Land they may look upon it as a mercy in that he was taken away from the evil to come Not long after it pleased divine providence to strike at the very root the aged Father of the Family who having lived many years was cut off in a few houres and is gone to his grave in a full age like a shock of corn in its season And now one main arme of this tree which first sprung from that root and from which that branch sprouted is hewen down the Father of that hopefull Son and the Son of that aged Father is brought to be Interred together with them both in the Sepulchre of his Ancestours It was not my happiness to have either long or much knowledg of this Honourable Person and therefore a large Panegyrick cannot be expected from me nor shall I say any thing concerning him more then truth as not daring for fear of the great God to speak false and flattering words of the greatest man To tell you how illustrious the Family is whereof he is descended were superfluous you can better tell me who have for many years beheld its splendor nor indeed doth that adde much to any mans commendation I shall not stay long to mind you how happy he was in his conjugall Relations having been the Husband of two excellent Ladyes whose memory is and will be precious though their bodies are rotted in the Grave by the former of whom he was the Father of that only Son who went before him and by the latter of three Daughters ingenuous and promising Ladyes which are left behinde him It will be needless to enlarge upon what all who knew him will readily testifie that he was a Person of excellent natural endowments of a sweet and loving temper affable and courteous behaviour and of a meek and lowly spirit not only before but after he was possessed of that dignity to which he was born He was in honore fine tumore lifted up with honour but not puffed up with pride That which I cannot forbear to mention since thereby he became an honour to his Family is as his untained loyalty to his Sovereign so his faithfull constancy in adhering to the Church of England in her Faith and Worship It pleased God in his latter dayes to visit him with many Diseases which as they were in mercy intended by God so I hope in charity they were looked upon by him as summons to the Grave and Monitors of his frailty In his last sickness I had the Honour to wait upon and administer to him in holy things wherein my conscience beareth me witnesse I dealt with him freely and faithfully and I trust not without good success Having set before him the sinfulness of sin and the necessity of repentance he did with tears and sighs as well as words acknowledge and bemoane the follyes of his youth and former life implore forgivenesse of them from God resolve if God should spare him that he would through Divine Grace be more carefull of his wayes And though it hath not seemed good to divine wisdome to give him opportunity of performing his Pious and Penitent resolves yet I hope they were sincere and being so I am sure they are mercifully accepted by his gracious God He was indeed willing to have lived longer but for good end namely to amend his own waies and see Jerusalem in prosperity and withall he desired to submit to Gods will and did wholly cast himself on Christs mertts for his salvation If there be any who like fleas which bite most when we are asleep shall speak evil of this dead Lord I wish they would consider that it was one of Solons Prohibitions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to stain the Honour of the dead God I trust upon his Repentance hath covered his sinnes let us do so too They were his earthly dusty ashy parts let them be buried with him This Honourable Person is dead and going to his long home But blessed be God the Earl of Warwick still liveth in his succeeding Brother who will I hope not only continue but encrease the Honour of his Family by endeavouring not only to equalize but excell his Predecessours in being a Friend to the Orthodox Religion of this despised Church a pattern to his Tennants Servants yea the whole Countrey of Piety Charity Humility and all Vertues And may there long long be found one of this line fit to enjoy the Revenue and weare the Title of this Earldome Amen FINIS Ps. 23. 4 5. John 18. 6. 2 Sam. 3. 38. Gen. 1. Calv. in loc. Isai. 2. 22. Job 21. 23. James 4. 14. Theod. in loc. Jerom. in loc. Eccl. 12. 7. Gen. 2. 7. John 4. 24. Heb. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Aâ—gâ—e civit deâ— Eccl. 3. 21. 12. 7. Sen. Epist. Greg. Mâ—â— Matth. 10. 28. Luke 20 38. Cajet in â—oc Eccl. 12. 7. Gen. 2. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 41. Ovid Job 4. 19. Phocyl Phil. 3. 20. Gen. 2. 17. 3. 19. Lucrâ—â— Horat. Gen. 26. Psal. 76. 12. Aug. in loc. Nehem. 5. 5. Prov. 22. 2. Gen. 3. 14. 1 Sam. 10. 2. Job 3. 19. Gen. 25. 32. Prov. 24. 21. Mal. 1. 6. Psal. 9. 20. Isai. 51. 12. Psal. 56. 4. Verse 5. Chryso in loc. Isai. 2. 〈◊〉 Jer. 17. 5. Trem. in loc. Lor. in loc. Isa 26. 4. Psal. 〈…〉 1 Maccab. 2. 62 63. Luk. 1â— 18 19. Jam. 4. 13 14. Job 11. 2â— Eccles. 9. 10.
death knocks at Palaces as well as Cottages and cuts down the Lillies of the garden as well as the grass of the Field It is not unfitly taken notice of That the sacred Historian mentioning the Kings and Dukes of Esau's race only nameth the Dukes but concerning every one of the Kings it is said he died indeed it was needless to affirme it of the Dukes who may well be conceived mortall when Kings are so Even they who are Rulers over men must be subject to death and though they have power to inflict it upon others they are no way able to preserve themselves from it It is reported of Cardinall Woolesy that he expostulated with himself what might prevent death â—f money could do it he had enough to buy a Crown if weapons he had as many as would defend a Kingdome if power he had sufficient to conquer a Nation but alas there is no weapon against death it cannot be bribed by the richest nor conquered by the greatest dye they must and when they dye their breath their soul goeth forth and their bodies returne to the earth The souls of the greatest Landlords are but Tenants at will to their bodies and that not their own but Gods who many times against their wils turneth them out according to that of the Psalmist He cutteth off the spirit of Princes In which respect St. Austin thus glosseth upon the Text Numquid quando vult exibit spiritus expirat quando non vult Shall his spirit go forth when he will I and when he will not The bodies of the highest when the breath and soul is gone out of them are but rotten Carcasses and must be laid in the earth If you look upon their extraction it is from no better an originall then the meanest though their immediate descent be noble yet the first progenitor of them as well as others was the earthly Adam The Prince and the Peazant are of the same earth only the one a little better mould of the same wooll only the one of a little finer thred out of the same Quarry only the one a little smoother stone so justly may great men take up those words in Nehemiah Our flesh is as the flesh of our Brethren There is common dust and Saw dust Pin dust Golden dust and the pouder of Diamons and all is but dust The Beggar the Labourer the Tradesman the Noble man the King are all but earth If you look upon their end it is the grave the house of all living like Nebuchadnezzars Image notwithstanding their gold and silver their feet are clay The rich and the poore saith Solomon meet together sometimes at one board in one bed certainly in one Grave The Noblest are but as flowers which peepe out of the earth and flourish for a time and when the Winter of death cometh they return thither they are but as dust which is raised up in the aire for a while but a few drops of rain lay it presently It is the language of the French King in his Epitaph Terra fui quondam rursus sum terra nihil sum I am again what once I was earth And among the spices of which the ointment for annointing the Kings as well as Priests was compounded one was Cinamon and that is cinericii coloris of the colour of ashes perhaps to tell them what they must one day be The Meditation of this doctrine may be of excellent use to Superiours and Inferiours and to all sorts 1. Oh that great men would in the midst of all their enjoyments entertain these thoughts That custome of presenting the Emperour on the day of his Inauguration with severall Marble stones desiring him to choose one of them for his Monument was designed no doubt for this end and for the same reason Johannes Eleemosynarius and King Philip had their Monitors to tell the one that his Monument was not yet finished and bid the other Remember he was a Man I have read that in Biscay there are old ruinous places which they to whom they belong often visit though they have else where stately Palaces Oh that they who dwell in sumptuous buildings would frequently visit the ruinous Graves It was a curse upon the Serpent that he should creep on his belly and eat dust all the daies of his life but surely it were a blessing to the highest in this world if they would learne to do it in a spirituall sense by the consideration of that dust to which they must return Happy is that Prince Qui non minus se hominem esse quam hominibus praeesse meminerit who no less mindeth that he himself is a man then that he ruleth over men More particularly it is that which would be pondered by them for a double end that it may both quell their pride and curb their voluptuousnesse 1. There is no sinne to which men are more prone then that of Pride It is like our shirt that sin we put on first and put off lost Nor have any greater temptations to this sinne then great ones In alto situm non altum sapere difficile Usually men of high estates are high-minded Nor is any thing more common then for the bunch of Pride to grow upon the back of Honour Among the many Antidotes against this sinne none more effectuall then this to consider that whilest they live they are but enlivened clay breathing dust moving ashes and that when their breath goeth forth they must return to the earth They say that the tympany is cured by stroaking the part with a dead mans hand Sure I am the serious thought of death is an excellent means to allay the swelling of Pride If you put fire to Gun-powder which is made of earth it will blow up Towers The fire of Meditation put to our earthy Original and end will blow up the turret of Pride It is well observed that one of the signes which Samuel gave Saul after he had anointed him King was that he should find two men by Rachels Sepulchre For this end perhaps that whereas the being anointed King might puff him up the sight of Rachels Sepulchre might humble him Oh that you who enjoy the Honours and Dignities of this world would often think with your selves I must die and when death comes I must exchange my Palace for a Grave my Robes for Dust I that am now atteded on by men must have wormes for my Companions I that am now so high must ere long be laid low that so you may be meek and lowly in heart That which may so much the more advance the efficacy of this thought in subduing the pride of great men is that when once they are returned to the earth and this dunghill element hath set its foot upon their face there is no difference between them and others There saith Job of the Grave are the great and small Nor can we tell which is the dust of the great which of