if done amisse a wise-mans life hath been defined by a principall * Plato apud Cel. Rhodigin lib. 19. cap. 8. Philosopher to be a meditation of death if so it will be no prejudice I am sure to your prudence to attend with patience while I deliver you not in any very long speech some necessary notions of that which after a short appearance passeth away The shortnesse of life Vapour-like hath various expressions in the Scripture It is compared by David to a fading flower Psal 103.15 to a fleeting shadow Psal 144.4 and by Job to the passage of a Weavers shuttle Job 7.6 and here you see to a vanishing vapour which we must for reasons referre First to the prime and most predominant cause of all things Secondly to inferiour and secundary causes subservient to his purpose and providence For the first as God is the Authour and giver of life Gen. 2.7 1 Sam 2.6 so gives he the measure of it in what proportion best pleaseth himselfe unto Methuselah he made a very large measure as taken out of the whole peece of secular duration and to some he allowes but a snip of time as to Davids Child who lived not to receive the Seale of Circumcision set upon him as under the Gospell many by the Ministry of the Midwife are borne once but tarry not to be borne againe by our administration of the Sacrament of Baptisme though it require no adjournement to the 8th day as Circumcision did and of himselfe saith the Psalmist thou hast shortned my dayes Psal 89.45 even to the narrow measure of an hand-bredth Psal 39. v 15. and this he doth by his Power as a Creator and by his Office as a Judge rewarding sinne with death Rom. 6.23 2. For secundary causes besides sinne deserving death and provoking Gods Justice to hasten it upon sinners though to some death be sent in hast as an invitant to a feast not as a Serjeant to arrest they are within us or without us Within us Diseases and distempers in the humours and Passions Without us Poisonous Malignities wrathfull hostilities and casuall mishaps The gate of life is but one the posternes or trap-dores of death are many I may call them so for a man is taken by death as by a trap and that such a one as catcheth sodainly killeth certainely and holdeth fast what it taketh hold of 1. First for the causes within us to begin with diseases It is above 2000. yeares agoe that as * Ante bis mille firmè annos 300. morborum c. Erasm Chiliad Proverb dulce Bellum inexpert p. 298. Erasmus said in his Chiliads there have been reckoned up 300. Names of them and there be many under one Name many Namelesse which pose the Physitians not only how to cure them but how to call them and then they give it their passe under the name of the New disease and passe it will for they cannot stop it Of these though many feed upon nature by degrees and sometimes also without noyse as a moth eateth into a garment some sodainely destroy it as a fire doth a faggot of dried Thornes for divers dye with very short sicknesse and some without any sicknesse at all we have daily experience of various descants made by death upon this narrow ground of an hand-bredth as David measures the life of man Psalm 39.5 We see some grownd with the Stone some smitten downe with the Epilepsy or an Aposteme or as the Vulgar miscall it Impostume which secretly and insensibly gathered to an head may breake in a moment and stop the breath of mans bosome or stifle the spirits of his braine some blowne up with the Collick or Iliaca passio some eaten up by a Consumption some by a multiplication of * Pherecides of the Island of Syros dyed of a great quantity of Lice Aelian var. Hist li. 5. c. 28. Creeping vermine and some drowned with the Dropsie some burnt with a Fever And some of them are such Epidemicall malignities against the health and life of man that the Chambers of death are enlarged and great and wide caves to be digged for more roome where the dead are piled up as Sampson said of the slaughtered Philistines by heapes upon heapes Judg. 15.16 while faire and spacious roomes above ground are empty for want of living guests to lodge in them yea such desolations have been made among men by devouring Postilence as Thucidides and many other Authours have left upon Record that the living have beene scarce left enough to bury the dead 2. And for the affections and passions of the mind the distempers of them are no lesse deadly to some then the diseases of the body we will instance in Love and the contraries to it Envy and Wrath in Hope and Feare in Sorrow and Joy 1. For Love we finde the Church sick of Love to Christ Cant. 2.4 and we are sure that Christ dyed for Love of his Church Eph. 5.25 and that Love which is moerely humane hath by experience proved mortall to many what David wished to have suffered for Absolom saying in the pangs of his excessive Love unto him would God I had dyed for thee 2 Sam. 18.23 to the same have divers actually exposed themselves sometimes by deadly adventures for their friends sometimes with their friends to which danger nothing induced them but meere Love unto them but it is more ordinary for men and women both to dye of the excesse of this passion upon defect of enjoyment so might Ammon have done when he fell sick of longing for Thamar if Jonadab his carnall friend but spirituall enemy had not for the recovery of his body advised the ruine of his soule 2 Sam. 3. v. 2 3 4. And what was but fabled in the ¶ Ovid in his Fable of Iphis hanging hunselfe for love to Anaxarets Cumforibus laquei religaret vincula summis Inscruitque caput Metamorp lib. 14. Poet of Iphis laying violent hands on himselfe to the taking away of his life through impatience of his Love hath been often tragically acted by divers whose love to others for want of reciprocation of affection from them and of grace and reason to rule it hath turned to a deadly hate against themselves And where that affection is answered it hath proved as deadly in excesse as in defect of fruition especially when degenerated from Love to lust which is too familiar in the familiarity of different sexes as is obserued by Philosophers in Birds Beasts and Men for Birds they note in Sparrowes that they are very short lived by their frequent coition especially the male kind which * Plin. Hist nat lib. 10. cap. 36. they say commonly liveth not above a yeare and for the same reason doe Mules which are barren and ingender not much outlive Asses and Horses for they sometimes lived to the ¶ Idem lib. 8. cap. 44. 80 h. yeare but these seldome attained to halfe that age the ordinary measure of their
it is day the night cometh when no man works Joh. 9.4 By day is meant the time of life while the vapour appeareth like a bright cloud Mat. 17.5 and by night the time of it's vanishing away by death wherin all things that had life and have it not are be-nighted and wrapped-up in darknesse yet there is betwixt the literall and figurative day and night this difference to be observed that the daies and nights have usually their turne in a proportionable measure of * In some places there is six months day together and six moneths night together Plin Nat. Hist l 2 c. 75. length and shortnes which mutually and interchangeably succeed one another so in our ordinary Clymats and in the extraordinary too where the day ‖ So in places of 50 degrees of latitude lasteth from the 10. of March till the 13. of September that is the space of 187. dayes of our account the night is as long and no longer but our day of life may be but the length of a few hours or which is much lesse minutes our night of death when we cannot work may be an age of many hundred years and to some it hath bin some thousands already besides there is no night naturall but is succeeded by another day so that if any thing be left undone there may be oportunity to redeeme the time and to make amends for precedent neglects but when the night of death is come there is not another day to follow it and to make supply for former failings It behoveth us then while it is day with us to be so much more intentively bent upon the businesse that belongeth unto us which is to worke out our Salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 wherein we worke the worke of him that sent us as our Saviour did as we have the lesse time for it such was his diligence and therein his example should be our rule and upon the same ground he that is most opposite to our Saviour even the great destroyer useth double diligence and makes all the hast he can to out-work the children of light in a quick dispatch of deeds of darknesse His wrath is great because his time is but short Revel 12.12 he is enraged so much the more as by the shortnesse of time he is the more restrained for that he cannot do so much mischief as he would do and if he had more time he might do We should out of love desire to be like our good Lord and Master Christ and out of duty doe as he for our imitation hath done before us and we should not for shame sit down in sloth while Satan goeth about with all the haste and speed he can possibly make to devoure whom he may yea our diligence should be much more then his since our businesse is a great deale better I meane not that which most doe but that which all should do and our time much shorter both for that which is past and that which is to come For the time past he hath bin busie at his worke for some thousands of yeares already and yet may be for some hundreds more to come he may have time to bestirre himself in his trade of temptation But for our time for what is past it hath bin but short and that which is to come may be nothing at all to us the next houre for ought we know may be none of ours Secondly as this consideration of our transient life may serve for a spurre to make diligent so it may be in stead of a rod for the negligent who endeavour not to make any good use of their time while they have it to whom may well be applyed the saying of * Non exiguum tempus babemus sed multum perdimus non accepimus vitam brevem sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi jumus Senec. de brevit vitae c. 1. pag. 165. Seneca which is That they have not received so short a portion of life though it be very short even like a vapour as themselves doe make it by their prodigall and carelesse expence of it Wherof one great part is cast away in doing nothing as in our sleep and infancy another we trifle out in meere childish vanities a third is partly mis-spent in youthfull luxury and a good part of the fourth is called a Reformation if the humor be changed from dissolute excesse to covetous desires and worldly cares for riches and honours and when either sicknesse or age maketh men unserviceable for themselves to such ends that little which remaines is poorely imployed on that for which the whole measure if it had gone all one way had bin little enough For what time or pains can be too much to save our soules from hell to estate them in Heaven when we die and to unite them and our bodies both in fruition of perfect grace and glory for ever which must be procured while this vapour appeareth or not at all who that thinkes of the excellency of that jewell which our Saviour advanceth in value above the price of the whole world of the ineffable felicity which God hath prepared for those that sincerely love and diligently seeke him can conceive that the whole life of Methuselah would make too long an apprentiseship though under many such hard masters as Laban was to obtain an eternall freedom in the City of Jerusalem which is above For my part I cannot sufficiently admire the beneficence of Almighty God who sets so great happinesse at so low a rate that in that little time while a vapour appeareth a man may purchase the obtainment of a most solid and ever during felicity Nor the folly of most men who of this short and uncertain measure imploy the least part of it to so excellent an end If a man having his lands divided into foure parts answerable to the foure fingers of Davids hand-breadth of life Psa 39.5 should leave one part of it wholy untilled to bring forth nettles or other wild weeds as the field of the sluggard doth Prov. 24.31 and should sow in one of the other three parts Darnell in another wild Oates and allot but a fourth for pasture and tillage when the whole if well husbanded would be little enough for necessary provision to support himselfe and his Family what would his neighbours thinke or say of him Would they not note him for such an one as either yet had not proceeded to the age of discretion or were gone beyond it to yeares of dotage or relapsed back to a second childhood Or if a man who hath a charge of wife and children and servants and but a competent portion for them all did carelesly cast away one part of his meanes at dice puffe away another in smoake swallow downe another in superfluous draughts and leave but a fourth part of all for all other charges that concern himself and those that are committed to his keeping would wise-men judge any
Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy cleane gone for ever and doth his promise faile for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath hee in anger shut up his tender mercies vers 7 8 9. Of latter times there are divers instances of very religious Christians among whom have been some worthy Divines who for a time have had their Faith so fearfully shaken as if it were ready to be pluckt up by the rootes as Luther that invincible Antagonist against the great Antichrist who after his conversion lay three dayes in desperation as M. * M. Perkins of spirituall desertion vol. 1. pag. 417. Perkins remembreth in his Booke of Spirituall Desertion Where also he makes mention of one M. Chambers who died in despaire saying he was damned Yet saith that judicious Divine it is not for any to note him with the black marke of a Reprobate for one thing saith he hee spake in extremity which must move all men to conceive well of him which was O that I had but one drop of Faith for by this it seemes be had a heart to repent and believe and therefore a penitent and believing heart indeed so far he and which may be an instance of much more moment to fence our hearts against finall despaire and to suspend our censures of others salvation when they seem as lost and forsaken by their heavenly Father We have it upon Evangelicall record that our Saviour on the Crosse cryed O God my God why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27.46 Such words he uttered as man when as God as agood * Habes in conquerente reliclum se esse quia homo est habes eundem profitentem Latroni in Paradiso regnaturum quia Deus est Hilar. Can. 33. in Math. Father observeth hee promised Paradise to the converted Thiefe Luk. 23.43 Thirdly Had this young Gentleman died before he had been delivered from his fearfull distrust I should have imputed those passionate words which he uttered not to the disposition of his heart but to the distemper of his head And in his head rather to the lightnesse of his fancy which is most easily both moved and misled and which with memory and common sense is familiar and common to mankind with the beasts of the field then to his understanding wherein man partaketh with the excellency of the Angells and should have made my conjecture of his death by the antecedents of his life in the state of health which were such as if he had taken S. Paul's practice for his patterne which was so to exercise himselfe as to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and man Act. 24.16 And such a life as †Non potest male mori quibene vixerit audeo dicere non potest malè mori qui bone vixerit Aug. inoperib Tom. 9. de disciplin cap. 2. Augustine or some other antient Writer under his Name sheweth can never end in a wretched death He that lived well cannot dye ill I dare say saith he againe he that hath lived well cannot dye ill Fourthly But that we should make no more doubt of his happy death then of his holy life God gave him a glorious victory over his violent enemy as to ¶ Luther in the place forementioned M. Iohn Glover Act. and Monum vol 3. pag. 423. col 2. Mistris Kath Bretergh See the Book of her life and death pag. 12 13 c. printed 1617. M Peacock Fellow of Brazen-nose Colledge Oxford pag. 25 c. Printed 1641. divers others of his deare children for he gave him not only a just apprehension of those wild words which recalled to his remembrance when his passion was becalmed had escaped his lipps but withall such a detestation of them as to account them a rebellion against the promised mercies of Christ and such a resolution against them that in most emphaticall manner he professed I will never rebell against thee my God any more Never Never Never and being conscious to himself that this retractation of his was cordially sincere he said of it with like affectionate expressions Was there ever such contrition and so having recovered his comfort and resolved for death with assured hope of everlasting life within a little while after he gave up the ghost What now remaineth but that his soule received by God his heavenly Father his body be committed to his earthly Mother and the example of his life laid up as a Legacy for those that survive him especially for young Gentlemen and great Heyres as he was that whether they live to possesse the Inheritance of their Fathers below or not they may when they dye inherit the Kingdome prepared from the foundation of the world for which Kingdome good Lord we pray thee daily to prepare us and in thy good time bring us unto it for thy deare Sonne Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS
A MONITOR OF MORTALITIE In two SERMONS By a consideration of the manifold and uncertaine surprizalls of Death guiding the pace and passages of a Temporall life towards the obtainement of life eternall OCCASIONED By the death of that hopefull young Gentleman JOHN ARCHER Esquire Sonne and Heire to Sir Simon Archer Knight of Warwick-shiere AND By the death of Mistris Harpur a Grave and Godly Matron Wife to Mr. Henry Harpur of the City of Chester and of the death of their religious Daughter Phaebe Harpur a Child of about 12. Yeares of age By Iohn Ley Minister of Great Budworth in Cheshiere DEUT. 32.29 O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Ita fit ut immortalitas excâ—â—sa in perpetuum ad tempus recepta Mortalitas hominem constituat in ea condâ—â—ione ut sit in qualibet aetate Mortalis Lact. de opificio Dei cap 4. LONDON Printed by G.M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.XLIII TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL And worthy Knight Sr. Simon Archer and to the vertuous Lady the Lady Anne Archer his wife I. L. wisheth the most desirable welfare of both worlds Right Worshipfull BY these Papers which now I send you your suspensive thoughts of my silence wherein I conceive your charity would not bee forward to condemne me of neglect may receive satisfaction and assurance that I have neither forgotten how much your goodnesse hath engaged me to you and yours nor am willing to pretermit any fit opportunity which may represent me as gratefull to my friends as they are gracious to me They had sooner appeared in your sight if dutie to the publike had not anticipated my time and endeavours for another service And yet they are now so much more seasonable as time hath the more reduced you to that dispassionate temper wherein you were before your hopefull Sonne had made his happy change from Earth to Heaven And surely a departure hence to such a blessed place must needes be then most happy when remaining here as now if ever is most perilous I shall not need then I hope for support of your patience to presse upon you in particular the consideration either of his high advancement above the state of Mortalitie and misery or of GODS peculiar right to doe with his owne as hee will Matthew 20.15 Or mans common lot which is alwayes to be so subject unto death that the a Hebreum nomen Methim per sceva significat mortales per tzere mortuos Marian. Annot. in Deut. 2 34. Lorinus in eundem locum Tom. 1. Com. in Deu. p. 106. col 1. word in the Hebrew which in English is rendred men Deutr. 2.34 with the various situation of two little prickes signifieth as some observe both mortall or lyable to death and dead indeed And when it is the generall condition of all man-kinde it is held by the wise an Argument of b Quis tam superbae impotentisque arrogantiae est ut in hac naturae necessitate omnia in eundem finem revocantis se unum ac suos se poni velit Sen. de consolat ad Polyb c. 24. impotence or arrogance for any to expect a particular exception of themselves or theirs Nor because his death was in respect of the ordinary course of mans life unexpected or sodaine will it be requisite to commend to your serious meditation the saying of c Stultissimâ— sunt qui de morte immaturâ quaeruntur Lactant. de Opificio hominis ca. 4. Lactantius censuring the folly of those who complaine of deaths immaturity or the opinion of d Plin. Nat. Hist l. 7. cap. 53. Pliny That sodaine death is the greatest happinesse that can befall man It will bee enough if with the piety and prudence wherewith you were wont to read such serious and sad discourses you please to entertain this which I here present to your attentive perusall And although it be thus now proposed to common view it is yours by peculiar interest and that two fold The one Naturall in his name and by his occasion who in part by Nature once was yours but now by grace and glory is wholly Gods The other Morall as from my selfe who have a power and hold my selfe obliged in Iustice to doe you right herein and in Gratitude to give some publike Testimony in this kind how much I am and desire to remaine upon record From my lodging at the Bishops head in Pauls-Church-yard May 10. 1643. In most faithfull and affectionate endeavours your devoted Servant Iohn Ley. IT is ordered this nine and twentieth day of Aprill 1643. by the Committe of the House of Commons in Parliament concerning Printing that this Funerall Sermon upon Iam. 4.14 be printed by Christopher Meredith Iohn White On the Death of the Worthy Gent. Iohn Archer Esq IF to attend upon this sable Herse Griefe could break forth the language of a Verse Or that ought might be spoke save sighes and teares Which this hath taught us more then publike feares Sorrow should learne to number words and try The measur'd smoothnesse of an Elegie But I m'e a naturall mourner and can keepe In Griefe no method without forme I weepe My Quill is drencht in Teares Yet shall it truth By Parts relate and shew his full blowne youth Whose Life was pluckt like the more forward Rose Cause in it Rarenesse and Perfection growes His Autumne Vertues flourisht in the Spring Of Dayes And Harvest did his greene Yeares bring So pure and upright was his hallowed brest As sinne was not an inmate Ill no Guest His Passions wore his Livery and All Themselves his Servants not his Masters call As Nature gave them to him so did he By Reason keepe them under Lock and Key His mind was a Republique fraught with store Of Graces not comprisedith ' Indian Shore He chang'd no Vertue by the change of Aire Nor was he lesse himselfe because lesse Faire Rome might scorch off some beauty from his skinne But not imprint deformity within His Soule in Penitence was cins't betimes Not in Arrerage of some former Crimes And we may guesse by this uncalmed State Death came not for to punish but Translate So doth the tender Father stretch his Armes To ridde his Babe from neere approaching Harmes Confines it to it's home and makes it know Safetyes with him not in the street below Man 's but a wandring Child a Plant whose root Is rais'd to Heaven and still must upwards shoot His Head unlike to Earthly Grasses not found Or cherisht in the bosome of the Ground If then our Friend or Father snatch the Clay Wherein like Babes we insecurely Play And pull us from the storme which Clouds portend Shall we not kisse that hand and thanke that Friend 'T is true if by Arithmetick we count Thy Glasse of time Deare Sir many surmount Thy Yeares sinne longer but wee 'l to thy Praise Recount thy Acts whilest others
spectatour of the funerall solemnities of Queene Anne Mother to his Majestie that now is If he travell a stumble whether on horse-back or on foot may so lay him along on the earth as if he were to take measure of his grave whither after one remove followeth a commitment to close prison there to remain untill the great Judge of quick and dead release him If a man stay within doores as conceiving according to the ancient saying his house is his Castle his life may there many wayes be betrayed to death for a violent winde may blow downe the house upon his head and overwhelme him as it did Jobs children Job 1. and as in the raign of ¶ Stows Chro. continued by How p. 130. K. William 2d. 606. houses were blowne downe by a Tempest in London At his Table death may be in his diet for a Reyson stone stoned * Plin. Nat hist cap. 53. Anacreon to death a milstone could have done no more and an haire in a messe of milke sodainly strangled ‖ Idem Ibid. Fabius could death have made more haste or done him more hurt with an halter There may be death in the Cup for there may be a Fly in it and a Fly hath been the death of †Fox Martyr vol. 1. pag. 265. him who takes upon him much more then belongeth to man the Caiphas of Rome Pope Adrian the 4th Is there not then good cause to give but a passant advertisement by the way that we should not fall to our meat as an horse to the manger or a Swine to the trough before we have begged the blessing of God upon what we are to eat and that we take mannerly leave of God when we have done giving thanks to his goodnesse not only for his allowance of the good creatures for out nourishment but for a comfortable use of them that they have not become unto us as the Quailes to the Israelites accompanied with deadly wrath when the meat was in their mouths Psal 78.30 31. To draw towards a summary Conclusion of this great Arithmetician who brings in the finall account and number of all our dayes and makes such an exact reckoning of them as no man can controule we cannot but by experience of all times persons and places acknowledge that as a great * Plin. Nat. hist l. 7. c. 57. Phylosopher losopher and Historian observes though there be an infinite number of signes that presage death there is not one knowne that can assure a man of certainty of life and health Nor is there any Prescription of time to be pleaded against this King of terrours as death is called Job 18.14 no time unseasonable for his surprizall no night so darke but he can hit the marke no day so bright that we can discover his comming towards us if he will steale in upon us at unawares we shall neither heare his feet of wooll nor see his arms of steele but shall feele him haply when we doe not feare him and receive a wound from him for which no cure can be had of any No businesse so serious that can cause him to adjourne his arrest untill another day nor is there any more hope of escape from him by art or flight then there is of conquest of him by contending by fight This is the only King against whom there is no rising up as Agur phraseth the most absolute predominance Prov. 30.31 to make resistance against whose absolute Monarchy by no humane power or prevalence may be pretended If any it must be either the Prerogative of Kings or the vigorous and cordiall Antidotes of Physitians but not the former for the mortal sy the is master of the royal Scepter it mowes downe the Lillies of the Crowne as well as the grasse of the field Nor can the Physitians though called in as Advocates or Champions in the cause of nature to aid and protect it against this great warriour prevaile any thing at all to preserve it from death their strongest Cordialls are against him but as stubble to the great Leviathan Job 41.28 Nor can they so much as save themselves though by their art they professe the saving of others Nay as it were in scorne and contempt of medicines death sodainly snatcheth them away when they are applying their preservatives or restoratives to others as is storied of * Plin Nat. Hist l. 7. c. 53. Cajus Julius a Chirurgeon who dressing a sore eye as he drew the instrument over it was strucke with an instrument of death in the act and place where he did it I have hitherto shewed you the causes of mans mortall mutability and exemplified the shortnesse and uncertainty of his life in so many instances not meaning here to take up and set up my rest for though mans life be a vapour that soone vanisheth away I would have the observations of this vanity to be like the distilled Rose-water which comes downe from a vapour and drops into the bottle and is there preserved for especiall use and my desire and prayer now is that as it is in the 32. of Deutronomy My doctrine may dropps as the raine and my speech distill into your hearts as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grasse Deut. 32.2 in a present application And I shall apply it many wayes for it may serve 1. As a spurre to our dsligence 2. As a whip or scourge for our negligence 3. As a check to vain confidence 4. As a curbe to concupiscence 5. As a prop unto our patience so farre my devotion to this service would proceed if my discretion told me I might expect your patience so long it growing now so late For the first Applic. 1. if our time and state in this life be as short and uncertaine as a vapour and that vapour be but an appearance of a thing rather then a thing indeed and that appearance after a while soone vanisheth away how diligent and watchfull should we be while it is present which is all the time of action allowed unto us to imploy it and improve it to our best advantage for the future Humane prudence will prompt us while we do enjoy it to make as good use of it as possibly we can and religious policy will stirre us up to present expedition and not to put off untill to morrow the performance of any good thing which we may do to day for at the next puffe of breath we may blow away our life but to use all diligence in doing of good while we have time as the Apostle admonisheth Gal 6.10 We have some examples of moment though most contrary in themselves yet tending to this very end viz. to shew where the time is but short the endeavour must be great to make it serviceable to most defirable ends Our Saviour of himselfe for our instruction and imitation hath said I must worke the worke of him that sent me while
otherwise of him then as a man of an empty skull or ill-tempered braines and unfit to have an estate committed to his trust though but for himself much more unfit that others should be put to depend upon his care or fore-cast Doubtlesse beloved it is much more foolish to mis-spend as most do the greatest part of this short and uncertain scantling of time then so to mis-imploy either lands or goods and yet their folly is more faulty then these examples doe imply for the fourth part of the ground is a permanent thing and the fourth part of the estate may be put into a sure hand and so be better imployed by others then by the owner it would be but he that hath wilfully and wickedly wasted three fingers of his hand-breadth of time as we have noted the measure of it out of the Psalmist cannot be sure that either himselfe or any one for him shall be trusted with the fourth for better use Of such foolish men as these there are so many that if the outside on their backs were suted to the lyning of their heads they would make as great a shew in publike Assemblies as yellow weeds doe in Corne-fields but they goe in habits like other men and some of them so farre beguile the world and themselves both as to be thought much wiser then they that bestow the most of their waking houres to better purpose Thus I have bestowed the Rod according to the sentence of the Wise-man upon the backe of fooles Prov. 26.3 and Chap. 19.29 3. The third Use of this short uncertainty of our State of mortality is to give a checke to the vaine confidence of many men who as if they were sure of time enough to pursue their pleasures and purposes with as full scope and compasse as they desire project many things which they mind to doe and promise and sometimes threaten what they will do when they know not whether their measure of time will reach home to such resolutions It is too great boldnesse to presume upon one day for as Salomon saith A man knowes not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 The drunkard takes upon him when he invites his vicious associats to excesse to promise at their next meeting their cheere will mend upon them and they shall have more store of that they most desire Come saith he I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow shall be as to day and much more abundant Esa 56. ult What er'e be to morrow it may be to morrow thou shalt not be or not as to day not powring in superfluous draughts but vainely begging perhaps for necessory dropps with the rich-man in flames Luk. 16.24 for of all lives none more uncertaine then a drunkards since he stores up a stocke of corrupt humours which are matter and mother and nurse to many deadly diseases within and from without he meets many times with an untimely death either by his own or anothers wrath for strong drink is raging as wee observed before out of the Proverbs of Salomon and that rage may be bloody to him haply from that hand which led him to excesse as many examples shew or by the unsteadinesse of head on horse-backe or staggering of his feet on ground he may be dashed upon some deadly danger and who hath not heard of many who have some of these wayes unexpectly perished and come to a fearefull end before they thought they had proceeded to the mid-way of their walke But there is a confidence so much more vaine then this though this I confesse be more vile then it as it reacheth further in extent as of those whom S. Iames noteth in the next words before my Text reproving them saying To day and to morrow we will goe to such a City and will tarry there a yeare and buy and sell and get gaine whereas you know not saith he what shall be to morrow Jam. 4.13 14. To day or to morrow say they we will goe if God say no neither to day nor to morrow shall they be able to make good their word for so short a time a darke night of death may if God will put an end to their dayes before Noone or the next night their soules may be taken from them as was said to the foole in the Gospell who flattered himselfe with the hope of enjoyment of much goods laid up for many yeares Luk. 12.19 And when they project a journey if they dye not so soone they may be disabled for travaile and either by sicknesse or lamenesse be under so imperious and peremptory arrest that they may not be able to move either a foote or finger towards it they say they will continue there a yeare But The farther they reach out their resolution of themselves without reckoning with God the worse and it may be in a moment they may be removed they know not yet whether to Heaven or Hell they will buy and sell the while say they but say God give them leave to live it may be he will not enable them to traffique they may be cast into such condition as they may have either no minde or no meanes to exercise commerce but they promise that and more too they will not only buy and sell but they will get gaine how know they that they may buy and sell and as the Proverbe hath it may live by the losse finding nothing but damage where they looked for advantage and it may be a damage unvaluable unrecoverable the losse of their soules and of Heaven which the gaine of a million of such worlds as this cannot countervaile nor once lost can ever recover Beyond both these vaine and vile boastings for the time to come was that bold and bloody speech of Esau wherein threatning his brother Jacob he promised himselfe a pleasing revenge The dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then I will slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 an insolent as well as a violent resolution for Isaacks and Iacobs life and his owne likewise were all at Gods disposall as a vapour to vanish or hold out as long as he pleased and it was at his choice which should dye first and though he were so hard-hearted as to purpose his brother should waite upon his Fathers funerall in blood which he would not follow with a teare it was in Gods power to keepe his hands from being as blood-guilty as his heart and to cut him short of his hand-breadth and to lengthen their measure as long as he listed There is a Proverbe which oftentimes proves a truth That threatned men live long for even Isaack who dyed soonest lived about 50. yeares beyond this and it is as true without a Proverbe that threatning men may dye soone that others may live not onely the more safely without hurt but the more securely without feare of such the Prophet David hath fore-faid that they shall not live out halfe their dayes Psalm
55.23 nay it may be not halfe a day for how soone is this vapour of life vanished away or if they be suffered to runne their race to the utmost length it is but as the Amorites were suffered to make up the measure of their offences to the full If then such wicked thoughts for sinfull plots in time to come arise in our hearts let us give them the check in some such words as these What doe I meane to project and forecast for sinne afarre off and to fore-speake an evill purpose and as it were to threaten God before hand for every sinne is an actuall affront of his Majesty and every fore-purposed commission against him is in effect a commination of him when my life is but a vapour and so much in Gods disposall so little in mine owne that I should promise to doe nothing but with the Lords premised leave as the Apostle taught in the Verse next beyond my Text You ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and doe this or that Jam. 5.15 The like limitation to this precept you may observe in S. Pauls practice Act. 18. 1 Cor. 4. 1 Cor. 6.16 Heb 6. and Socrates the wisest of the Heathens taught Alcibiades to be so mannerly in his language towards God as to use the like * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates to Alcibiades reservation of his will and prelation of it before his owne if this phrase were familiar in our mouthes it would not only give present repulse to any evill purpose for the time to come but would be a powerfull charme against the returne of it and indeed a man dares not say of any future sinne I will commit it if the Lord will for if he so far respect the only unerring rule the will of God as to make respective mention of it he cannot admit of any notion against it The 4th Application of this transient uncertainty of mans temporall life may be a curbe to immoderate concupiscence and doting delight in worldly things whether Riches Honours or Pleasures which are the three great I dolls of carnall-minded men for why should any one much set his heart upon them either in longing for them or taking too much joy in them when so small a matter as the want of an empty complement congey or gesture of reverence may so imbitter many temporall contentments of the choisest kind and of a very high degree as to make them vanish into nothing even before the vapour of a mans breath and life be vanished away as the history of Haman sheweth whose temporall delights were but as a vapour by his owne confession of shorter continuance then his life Esth 5t. from the 10th vers to the 13. though that were shortened by a penall execution c. 7. v. 10. And if they should hold out as long as a man liveth they were not worthy of that estimation that many worldly men have set upon them but when a mans life vanisheth as a vapour and they vanish before how foolish a fondnesse is it to let loose our affections towards them and to fix them upon them when evill dayes and yeares may come wherein we shall take no pleasure in them as Solomon saith Eccles 12.1 but so much paine perhaps as may make a man so weary of life that the passionate expostulation of Job may be applyed to his case Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in soule which long for death but it cometh not and digge for it as for hid treasure which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave Job 3. v. 20 21 22. But to the particulars first for Riches If a man were so rich as he would say he hath enough as few rich men will doe for most mens covetousnesse is like a Dropsie which makes a man though he drinke never so much to be ever thirsty yet to say nothing of the uncertainty of riches noted by the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.17 which as Solomon saith make themselves wings and flye away Prov. 23.5 without taking leave of the owner and leaving nothing but the print of talons in his heart to torment him they cannot availe to prolong the continuance of this transient vapour nor can they adjourne a mans removall to his long-home whether to Heaven or Hell for one day no not for an houre for Death is such a rigid Sergeant as will not be bribed by the richest Mammonist to put off his Arrest witnesse that rich and wretched Cardinall and Bishop of Winchester and Chancellour of England Henry Buford in the Reigne of King Henry the sixt * Fox Martyr vol 1. pag 925. Col. 1◠who perceiving he must dye and that there was no remedy murmured at death that his Riches could not reprieve him till a further time for he asked Wherefore should I dye being so rich if the whole Realme would save my life I am able either by pollicy to get it or by Riches to buy it fye quoth he will not death be hired will money doe nothing No nothing at all on this side the grave for a rescue or reprieve from death and beyond it below it as far as Hell the money that would buy the whole Vintage of wine throughout the whole world will not purchase a drop of water to coole an hell-scorch'd tongue Secondly for Honour as the morall Philosopher saith it is not in the honoured but in the honourer and not in words of praise and gestures of reverence which may be presented in hypocrisie or with derision but in the opinion of the head and affection of the heart and who can certainely tell what men thinke of him how their hearts are disposed towards him and if he know them for the present to be such towards him as he desired how fickle are mens fancies and favours how soone changed from reverence to contempt He hath read but little who hath not met with many instances of this kind in sacred histories and profane and observed little if not very young if he have not noted some in the experience of his owne time besides who knowes not that many men have been honoured with eminent Titles and Offices for that for which such as are truely worthy in whose acceptation is the truest and surest honour have abhorred them and if they have beene conferred as the reward of vertuous persons and so they should be or they are misplaced how much envy watcheth over them to find some meanes to bring them under and how potent that quick-sighted and sharp fanged Malignity is we may guesse by the question of Solomon Who is able to stand before Envy Prov. 27.4 If any man say this may be the condition of subordinate Honour as of the Favourites of Kings but that which is supreme is so excellent that as some have said with as much cruelty as vanity that for a Kingdome they would wade up to the chin in blood I answer First That
with such vehemency of affection as to take it for a penance to them to bestow one day in sad and sober consideration of the weightiest matters that concerne their eternall welfare how could they let loose the reynes of their lusts and drive them on in the furious pace of Jehu and powre them out as they doe upon all objects of sensuall satisfaction if they did think that they were as uncertaine as their lives and their lives but like the vapour which from the pipe they puffe out of their mouthes and noses Alas how little roome and spare time is here for so many meetings for feasting for drinking dauncing for gaming and other prodigall expences of pretious time which if they knew what it were worth they would rather rob their eyes of sleepe that they might watch and pray in the night then ryot and revell out their dayes and sometimes their nights too in sensuall pastimes wherein their life may vanish like a vapour and they taken away in the very act of some sensualty * Aâ— Gallâ—s and Aeâ—berius forementioned may passe from transient pleasure to permanent paine which will be so much more grievous to them as they have beene more addicted to carnall delights shewing themselves lovers of pleasures more then of God 2 Tim. 3.4 wheras if they had loved God more then their pleasures they might have enjoyed God and pleasures too not while a vapour appeareth which will quickly vanish away but for ever for in his presence is the fulnesse of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. v. 12. The fifth Use of this vaine and vapour-like life of ours is to be a prop to our patience and so a cure of those unpleasing passions of Anger Envy and sorrow which as I have shewed before doe by their excesses much shorten mans life To the two first we may apply that of David Fret not thy selfe because of evill doers nor be thou envious against the workers of iniquity and the reason is because their time is but short they shall be soone out downe like grasse and wither like the greene herbe Psal 37. v. 72. And that though it be greene to day may be dried up to morrow as our Saviour Christ maketh the comparison Luk. 12.38 and if their prosperity last somewhat longer as some vapours vanish not so soone as others what cause to be angry or envious for that when they cannot have assurance to hold out untill the next houre If they thinke of the brevity and uncertainty of their time they will not be overjoyed in their owne estate if it were much better and longer then it is since their holding on from day to day is but a daily reprieve from that which every day may come upon them And if they thinke their death farre off it will make neverthelesse hast but much the worse speed for none dieth more unhappily then he that thinkes himselfe happy while he is here and thinks not how soon by death he may be snatcht away hence And for the third it may much conduce to compose us to patience against excessive sorrow under our crosses whether they be such as affect us with pain of sense or of losse For the former sort when they are sharpe we may the better beare them upon this consideration that what is usually violent is seldome permanent and that while life it selfe is so short as a vanishing vapour aggrievances cannot be long for death is an end of them as well as of us of us as well as of our deceased friends the losse of whom though the greatest temporall losse that can be for a true friend is as ones own soul Deut. 3.6 and a mans soule is more worth then a whole world Mar. 8.36 may the better be born upon the consideration of our uncertain and vanishing condition It may make much for the moderation of our griefe to thinke how little distance there may be betweene our friends funerall and our owne if God have taken them away it may be we have lost but a little of our enjoyment of their good company for if they be dead to day we may follow them and over-take them to morrow and our vapour of life cannot sooner vanish away then our soules may finish their voyage to the habitation of everlasting happinesse though as some make the measure the distance from earth to the heaven be 500. yeares journy were it to be measured after the manner of ordinary travile which is a great way on this side the rest of the righteous We should not then thinke the losse so great as if we had a long lease of our owne lives after theirs are expired and a certaine one too as it was to Hezekiah for 15. yeares reprieve from death after the sentence of death had passed upon him and if we take off the conceipt of our owne continuance whereof the greatest part is haply passed already we shall be disposed to more patience at parting with those who are most deare unto us who when they are dead can receive no good by our sorrowfull excesses for as humane Moralists can tell us it is pitty by the way that Christians should need to learne moderation of Heathens * Parcamus lathrymis nihil proficientibus faciliùs enim illinos dolor iste adjiciet quam illum nobis reducet Sen. consolat ad Polyb c. 23. p. 18. Immoderate griefe will send the living to the dead and not restore the dead to the living Now to draw to a Conclusion of that which will conclude us all in a narrow roome and it may doe it in a very short time if our life as S. James saith and we have shewed at large be but as a Vapour which may evaporate and vanish in a moment let us have the meditation of death so much in our minds that we may in our serious thoughts anticipate the pace of it though it be speedy and be prepared to meet with it at every step whether within doores or without in all we doe whether we eat or drinke or worke or rest let us still make account we are upon our last minute our lives being as uncertaine as a candle carried in the wind without a lanterne which may be put out with every blast This consideration with the love of God and feare of hell will keepe us upright in our walke towards heaven whither I would now by prayer commend you and dismisse you but that I suppose you expect some Comment upon that darke and dumbe Text before you and if custome did not call for it as a matter of conveniency conscience and friendship would claime it as a part of duty from me towards this worthy Gentleman deceased I yoke them both together Conscience and Friendship for friendship shall not engage me if I know it to goe one step beyond the limits to which conscience doth confine me though my words were of so much weight with all that heare me as