young and strong Remember thy death in the daies of thy youth in the daies of thy strength before sicknesse and weaknesse seize upon thee Lay not the greatest burthen on the weakest beast Adjourne not the longest journey to the shortest day A whole life is but short enough to provide for Death We are a week providing for a Feast a moneth preparing for a Wedding three moneths deliberation about a Bargaine And will we make no provision no preparation for this aforehand We take time to make provision for the buriall of the dead And shall we take no care to provide for Death it self Many men never think of Death untill Death come and take away their thinking Think upon it I beseech you in season whoever thou art that hearest me this day whether freind or foe stranger or familiar be not deceived the great God of Heaven and Earth the great Determiner of time and daies hath allotted thee such a portion of time which thou shalt not passe Death * Rev. 6.8 mounted on his pale horse is posting towards thee Here is not thy abode nor rest thou dwellest a House of clay in a Tent pitch'd up to day and removed to morrow Thou art a Didapper peening up and down in a moment depart thou must and be gone God knows how soon First then this may reach us watchfulnesse we know not the hour goe let us watch every houre We know not the hour wherein Death the Lords Handmaide with the broom of sickness or sorrow will sweep us away as the maide doth the spiders house 2. It may teach us to provide for things Eternall what ever becomes of Temporals for Death will strip us of all 3. Labour to bid Death welcome How shall I doe this First follow the precious Counsell of Christ * Mat. 6.20 Lay up Treasure for your selves in Heaven Which are Workes of Pietie and Deeds of Charity they will comfort you in Death and accompany you to Heaven 2. Looke carnestly to things that are above To GOD to IESUS CHRIST who sits at Gods right hand carrying on the great worke of Mans Redemption So did * Acts 7.55 Stephen in that extraordinary vision he saw the admirable Glory of Christ in Heaven 3. Live after the Laws of the new Ierusalem become a new creature be borne againe he that is borne but once shall die twice and he that is borne twice shall die but once 4. Labour to get an assurance of the forgivenesse of thy Sinnes Labour to finde God reconciled unto thee Labour to feele the power of CHRISTS Death and the vertue of His Resurrection 5. Live in all good Conscience they that live in all good Conscience till their dying day shall depart in abundance of Comfort at their dying day Get a good Conscience and keep a good Conscience that when thou shalt come to die though thou want the benefit of a comforting Minister thy Conscience may supply the place of a comforting Minister and may be the same to thee as the Angell was to CHRIST in His Agony and minister such comfort unto thee as may make thee ready for joy to leap into the grave Lastly be willing to die feare it not IESUS CHRIST was once among the dead thou must follow him through the horrours of the grave Art thou a child of God Hast thou given up thy Name to IESUS CHRIST Though Death invade the naturall powers of thy body and suppresse them though Death breake in upon this lodging of clay and demolish it to the ground yet be in no wise daunted thy death is but like the renting of * Gen. 39. Iosephs garment from him the man of God fled and left his garment in the hand of his Mistrisse So a child of God escapes out of the hands of Death without danger Vivendo decrescit transeundo nos terit he leaves his garment in the hands of Deaâ—h i. e. his body which like a garment the longer we weare it will be the worse for wearing The dissolving of the body to the man of God is but the unfolding of the Net and breaking open the Prison that the Soule which was prisoner may escape Here is notable comfort for the man of God He hath a life in him which no death can extinguish though the body descend into the grave the Lord will take it out againe He will not leave it in the grave neither cast off the care thereof but shall watch over the dust therof though it taste of corruption it shall not perish in corruption The Holy Ghost who dwelt in the body shal be unto it as a Balm to preserve it to Immortality This same flesh and no other for it though it should be dissolved into innumerable pickles of dust shall be raised againe and quickned by the omnipotent power of the eternall Spirit of GOD. Occasion I now come to the Occasion Something I shall say of this deceased Gentleman here arrested before our eyes for a debt of Nature I shall not praise his Birth nor his Education nor his Profession but as * Hierom Epitaph Mar. Hierom said of Marcella that godly Woman Nihil in illa laudabo nisi quod proprium I will praise nothing in him but what was proper and peculiar to him Consider him as a Man Husband Christian And we shall find him a patterne worthy imitation 1. Consider him as a man As a man he had his Infirmities For Lord what is man 8 Ps An infirme fraile creature many and great infirmities we labour under as we are men We have strong Corruptions in us as we are men we can doe no thing but Sinne Yet this I may safely deliver of him that he kept himselfe or rather GOD by His Grace kept him from those Sinnes against which Holy David prayed * Ps 19.13 Lord keep thy servant from presumpteous sinnes Wee are are naturally prone to great sinnes he was not a strong Sinner O the strength of sin in our daies Notwithstanding Admonitions Iudgements Mercies men goe on still in sinnes No reformation no amendment we were sinners before the Wars and we are sinners still He was none of these 2. Consider him as a Husband And there he observed the rule of the Apostle * Col. 3.19 Husbands love your Wives and be not bitter against them He lived lovingly with his Wife in the sacred Conjunction of their GOD six and thirtie yeares together Children he had none that lived but a chearfull respecter of them whom Law and Love had made his own No Lyon in his house no Tyrant among his servants freindly affable courteous towards his Neighbours observing another precept of the Apostle * Rom. 12.16 equalling himself to them of low degree whereby he gained love and lost nothing of his reputation 3. Consider him as a Christian And so hee was 1. Peaceable 2. Humble 3. Charitable 4. Devout Foure most infallible evidences as I take them of a true Christian and
A SERMON OF MORTALITIE Preached at the Funerals of Mr. THOMAS MAN AT KINGSTON in SVRREY FEB xxi 1649. ISAIAH 40. VER 6 7 8. A voice said Cry And he said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field The grasse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it Surely the people is grasse The grasse withereth the flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand for ever LONDON Printed by RICHARD CONSTABLE for the Author 1650. To his honoured Freind Mr. ABRAHAM COLFE Minister and Pastor of the Church of CHRIST at Lewisham in Kent Honoured Sir IN reverence to your Person and in regard to your venerable Age J have made choice of you to be the Patron of this Funerall Sermon I present to your Eyes what lately you heard with your Eares It was Penned and Preached upon the occasion of your much esteemed Brothers death and at the solemnizing of his Funerals Your Christian VVisdome according to the pregnancy of your VVit and Apprehension hath approved hereof and recommended it to the Presse I intended it should have ended in the delivery of it but yeelding to your just importunity and the benefit of some private Freinds I have made it publique Besides these are dying Times and mine is but a Sermon of Death to the Living All that I desire is to mind us of our Mortalitie to mind us of our Condition that we are here as Strangers and Pilgrims that we have here no abiding nor continuing City that we dwell in houses of clay whose foundations are in the dust which shortly must be broken in peeces The Lord fit us for the day of dissolution and the houre of our departure The Lord grant that our last houre may be our best hour that our work may be done before our day be done That when we shall come to die we may have nothing else to doe but to die For the hour of death will be the busie hour then Satan will be busie and Conscience will be busie These things the Lord of Heaven and Earth root in our hearts Sir I desire the Almighty God to bless and prosper you the Lord accomplish unto you your honourable and charitable intentions And so I rest Yours in all Christian observancie truly devoted R. G. IN OBITVM Viri Amplissimi Integerrimi THOMAE MAN Civis LONDINIENSIS AD Dn. ABRAHAMVM COLFIVM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fratrem Ecclesiae Lewishamensis in Cantijs Ministrum Pastorem Vigilantissimum V. B. REIP. N. PRINCIPIBUS nasci claroque à sanguine Regum In fortuitis praedicant veteres Sophi At non Principibus diversus contigit ortus Quà m qui tenenti sarculū obdurâ manu Sed repetunt etiam prima incunabula illi Et sortiuntur funera cum plebe paria Nam neque fas Hominis prognatum semine quenquam Est quicquid Humanum à se alienum credere Huic quoque natus HOMO cùm sit tam Nomine quà m Re Obire certum est omnia vitae munia Extremo moriens igitur neque deficit actu Sed sup rema jura naturae subit Hoc voluit rerum series supremus ordo Et Universi lex stabiles servans vices AT met as inter longinquas mortis ortus Quid deceat Hominem publico natum bono Id verò obnixâ est sapientis quaerere curâ Et quo perennet maximè nomen modo Hoc docuit longo concessae tempore vitae Et mortuus quoque Noster hic adhuc docet Inprimis celebrare Deum Christique benignis Meritis reponere unicam fiduciam Dein Hominem natum sese meminisse nec ultrà Humana quâm quod vis queat contendere Et casus contra firmato incedere vultu Humanitúsque ferre quaecunque accidant Seque parem magnis praestare doloribus illos Frangendo mentis strenuae patientiâ Spargere per populos varia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 latè Quà mplurimis benefacere mortalibus Posse voluptates luxum spernere mollem Virtutis uti rigidum decet satellitem Pectora cui tandem sunt has exculta per artes Laticésque veri luminis vidit sacros Ille lubens gratánsque potest occurrere fato Haud esse fortuita Noster haec docet Ita censuit GVLIEL BVRTONVS Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scripsit Regiovici ad Thamesim in Regnis A SERMON OF Mortalitie IOB 14. VER 14. If a man die shall he live againe All the daies of my appointed time will I waite till my Change come IN this Chap. tanquam in Speculo as in a Glasse you may behold Statum humanum Mans State and Condition His lamentable Ingression into the VVorld his sad Progression in the VVorld and his miserable Egression out of the VVorld The originall of this disquiet and trouble is GODS Curse on the Woman Man that is borne of a Woman is of short daies and full of trouble ver 1. In the following Verses he is likened to a Flower for his fading to a Shadow for his declining and his daies to the daies of a Hireling Nay hee sheweth mans bodily condition to be worse then a Tree for a Tree cut downe may grow againe in the same place but a man cannot Ver. 7. for there is hope of a Tree if it be cut downe that it will sprout againe and that the tender branch thereof will not cease Ver. 8. though the Root wax old in the Earth and the Stock thereof dye in the Ground Ver. 9. yet through the sent of water it will bud and bring forth Boughs like a Plant Ver. 10. But Man dyeth and wasteth away is weakned or cut off yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he In regard of bodily life he is not he lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their Sleep This Verse that I have chosen for the present Occasion acquaints us with these three things 1. The Frailtie of this life present 2. The Certaintie of the life to come 3. Our Care and Watchfulnesse to be performed in the one that we may enter into the other First we have our fraile Condition in these words If a man die Implying by force of Logick this peremptory Proposition Man must die Secondly the Certaintie of our Resurrection in these words by way of Question Shall he live againe Where by a Question of Admiration he puts it out of all doubt and question That man dying shall surely rise and live againe Thirdly the Duty of waiting for this Dissolution and Restitution of the Body in these words All the daies of my appointed time will I waite till my Change come The words afford us three Doctrines First the End and Terme of life is appointed and die we must by ordinary Prescription and this is Mors in olla Death is our Lot Secondly a Change shall come by Death and there
to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living St. Paul was ravished with the assurance of life after death his note ever after was to be dissolved * Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to be dissolved or resolved into my first Principles or to be discharged or released out of the prison of my body that I may presently be with CHRIST my Saviour in Heaven in rest and in blisse View Annot in Philip. Now a word or two of my third Doctrin and I shall make Application A Change will come and we must daily expect it We are all desirous of Change Adam would be changed 3 Gen. He had enough Wisdome he would be as wise as his Maker And * 2 Sam. 15. Absolom would be changed hee would sit in his Fathers Throne and of a Subject become a Soveraign Solomon would have change of Wives 1 K. 11.3 700 whom he solemnly married The Israelites would change Samuel for Saul 1 Sam. 5.8 And the food of Angels for the flesh-pots of Aegypt 11 Numb 4,5,6 Men affect alterations choppings and changes but we seldome or never remember the great Change of which the Apostle speakes 3 Phil. 21. Who shall change our vile bodies or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza Annot the body of our vilenesse that it may like unto His glorious body or the body of his glory We never think of this Change O the glorious estate that a child of God shall be transchanged into this corruptibilitie and mortalitie shall be changed into incorruptibilitie and immortalitie But I will fall Application upon the Application of these Points Application being the Life of Doctrines The use in gerall that we are to make of all this precedent Discourse is to prepare for Death and Dissolution We read in Solomons distribution of times that * Eccl. 3.2 there is a time to be borne and a time to die but of no time to live as if our Birth bordered upon our Death and our Cradles stood in our Graves That Death therefore may not surprize you as it did that wicked * Adversus omnia pericula me munivi praeterquà m adversus mortem amp c. 1. Seriously Caesar Borgia think upon it 1. Seriously 2. Rightly 3. Seasonably 1. Seriously 1. Doe it Seriously this doe by laying it to heart * 7 Eccl. 2. This is the end of all men and the living will lay it unto heart to the very heart of our heart We must not lay it to our Eyes to gaze upon it nor to our eares to heare of it nor to our tongues onely to discourse and talke of it O such a one is dead such a one is gone to his long home but we must apply it to our hearts ruminate it in our minds rivet it in our memories ponder it in our meditations suffer it to make a deep impression in us And that for these reasons * Qui considerat qualis erit in morte semper fit timidus in operatione Lud. Gra. Tit. Morb. He that thinks seriously of his death will be very circumspect in his deeds Men will not be such traders in Sin such drinkers in of Inqiuity Religion and the Waies of GOD will not be so slighted set before thine eyes the picture of Death A serious thought of thy Death will help to drive evill thoughts out of thy heart Mortem cogitare est vitiis omnibus renunciare ' Twiâ—l divorce thee from the Vvorld 't will alienate thy affections from things earthly this pricketh in the right veine 2. The thought of Death will make you lessc worldly you will not be such drudges to the world Now thou art like a Mole over head and eares in earth anon comes Death like a Mole-catcher and takes thee up The * Luke 12,19,20 Rich man had Goods for many years but not many years for his Goods Death will turne thee empty into thy Grave as Carriers turne their horses into a dirty Stable with a gaulled back and thee perhaps with a gaulled Conscience Now thou mayst state it and stout it out but shortly death will make thee stoop Now you may feed your unsanctified desires but you shall have at length your full deserts 3. Thinke of thy death and it will take thee off from all thy unjust dealings VVe should not have so many Oppressours there would be lesse wrongs in the world A heavy Judgement hangs over mens heads because of oppression and violence Nay thy Conscience will one day rebuke thee at thy death it will trouble thee * In Barons Wars I have read of a Great man in this Land by whom a poore VViddow was exceedingly wronged and put from her house and home and constrained to make an old Oake her best harbour But when he came to die he was so affrighted that in horrour of mind he often exclamed O the Widdow under the Oake O the Widdow under the Oake In the midst of your Ruling remember your Reckoning He that thinks upon his death seriously will be afraid to get his goods wrongfully 4. To think of Death will greatly humble thee nothing so powerfully treads down Pride as this Consider that thou art but a dead man and thy body be it never so strong or beautifull is but a lodging of Death thou art but a rotten creature yea vermis crastino moriturus a worme that must dye to morrow So oft therefore as corrupt Nature stirreth up thy heart to Pride because of the flowers of beauty and strength that grow out of it let this humble thee thy flowers O man cannot but wither for the root from which they spring namely the body is dead already 2. Rightly Secondly thinke of thy death Rightly Send out the scouts of thy heart aforehand And that for these reasons 1. To discover the Power of Death 2. The Perill of Death 1. The Power of Death Great is the Power of Death 't is unresistible thou art not able to encounter it Art thou able to withstand the Messenger of the Almighty No Death is an Iron-hammer that breakes us all to peices as so many Potters vessels Death comes upon the Wicked as Iehu came upon Iehoram 2 K. 9. v. 23 24. He made with all speed to his Chariot thinking to fly away but in vaine for the Arrow of Iehu overtooke him So when men with all speed run to their Chariots i. e. to their refuges of vanities the dart of Death surely overtakes them 2. To discover the Peril of Death O there is a great dealt of peril and danger in Death Death will be very terrible to an unregenerate man Art thou a Sweater or a Drunkard 't is the Devils Serjeant to arrest thee and carry thee without baile to the prison of utter darknesse It is Satans Cart to carry thee presently to execution in Hell 3. Sesonably 3. We must think upon it seasonably timely and in due season Think on it while we are