and whatsoeuer liues t is sure to dye Nothing vnder the Sunne is immortall Death may claime his right vpon birth God permits it All haue their times dated in his booke of all disposing prouidence when the houre comes let none aske whence or why All should prepare for it The goodliest Cities haue beene equalled with the ground stateliest buildings leuelled with the earth greatest Empires brought to nothing Kings haue beene bound in chaines Nobles in fetters of iron Wee waxe olde as a garment dwell in houses of clay our breath goeth away and we all perish Mathuselah with his yeares Samson with his strength Absolon with his beauty Salomon with his wisdome they had a time of birth and a time of buriall Young men haue death at their backes and olde men before their eyes yet fewe desire to looke vpon it nay they cannot endure to heare that as they haue had a time to be borne so a time to dye VSE 1 Which may seeke to reproue many who neuer seriously thinke vpon their mortality and therefore are dead and buried in pleasures while they liue holding Repentance but an houres worke Faith fancie Religion a lip-labour of whom wee may say as Martha of Lazarus Iohn 11.39 He stinketh Would we thinke vpon our end we would not so offend but the forgetfulnesse of this causeth wisdome to be tainted with craft Iustice with corruption Faith with dissimulation Godlinesse with hypocrisie Friendship with hope of gaine Lending with vsurie Wee liue in a quarrelling age the most making ill vse of Gods mercies not enduring any correction Wee haue enioyed a long time of peace plenty aboue all the free passage of the Gospell yet our owne consciences doe accuse vs that we haue neither worthily esteemed nor sufficiently expressed the sweet comfort of the Gospell reuealed vnto vs but workes be changed into words walking in goodnesse into talking of God hands into tongues hearts into cares to cure superstition wee neglect true deuotion Some haue Israelitish stomacks and loath Manna the bread of heauen others Athenian cares itching after new Teachers and new Doctrines Men rather seeke for profound knowledge then for faith that worketh by loue Preach we death and iudgement men say blessing themselues in their hearts we shall haue peace though we walke in the imaginations of our hearts Deu. 29.19 to adde drunkennesse to thirst Hence Heu viuunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Et velut infernus fabula vana foret Many liue as if they should neuer dye and as if hell were but a gulle and fable But the Lord will not spare such his anger and iealousie shall smoake against them they shall haue sickenesses and wounds and the Lord will be vnto them as a moth as rottennesse Hos 5.12 Better a liuing Dogge then a dead Lyon so long as we liue wee may repent but after death Iudgement Heb. 9. ordinary arguments and the vse of them hath taken away the force of them but none so necessary Is a man perswaded that these are nigh It will easily dispatch that which no Law Prince prison Parents or punishment could doe they that before could take no counsaile now giue good counsaile Nothing so teacheth as the remembrance of death as not onely appeares in Ezekias his deuout meditations put vpon a perpetuall record by the holy Ghost when he had but a tallie of dayes left him but in Baltashazar who seeing the number of his dayes and that he was found too light began to quake learne wisdome Deaths remembrance brings horror O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liueth at rest in his possessions Ecc. 41.1 It comes with trouppes of sorrowes Dr. Haywatd in his Sanct of a troubled Soule the head shooting the backe aking the heart panting the throat ratling the tongue faltring the breath shortening the flesh trembling the veines beating the heart strings cracking the eyes waxing dimme the nose sharpe the browes hard the cheekes cold and wanne the lippes pale the hands numme the ioynts stiffe the whole body being in a cold-sweat the strength fainting the life vanishing the standers by like flesh flyes crying or crauing offering to molest the dying body Death separates the soule deuideth friends spoiles a man of worldly goods though he heapes vpsiluer as the dust and prepare raymēt as clay Iob. 27.16 Be not puffed vp with prosperity you knowe not what a day may bring forth the rankest corne is soonest layde I see that all things come to an end This we must teach as Dauid did Ps 119.96 and that surely men of lowe degree are vanitye Pl. 62.9 and men of high degree are a lye to belayd in the balances they are altogether lighter then vanity Tot quotidie occidimus quot ad mortem ire tacētes videmus Gr. lib. 33. epi. ad Venantium Ac. 20.26 In this point wee must not be silent so many we kill as we suffer to runne on to death without warning St. Paul would keepe nothing backe from the Ephesians and shunned not to declare vnto them all the counsaile of God because he would be pure from the blood of all men I haue heard that Newes came to a certaine Towne that AN ENEMIE was approaching yet he came not herevpon a Lawe was made that none should bring such rumours of warres and newes of an Enemie Not long after the enemie came besieged assaulted ruinated the Towne and thence grew a Prouerbe THAT PLACE WAS DESTROIED BY SILENCE Let vs lift vp our voyces as Trumpetes herein and though men be as gods vpon earth Let vs preach Mans mortality and presse for fruites worthy amendment of life that there may be comfort in death Hath God made thee a little world and aboue all earthly creatures giuen to thee an immortall soule foreseing things to come remembring things past iudging of things present bearing the image of God made thee erect to behold the Heauens promised a resurrection of thy body and life euerlasting and wilt thou abuse the goodnesse of God which leadeth to repentance If he be prouoked he is a consuming fire He which in health hath beene diligent to feare God and to doe good shall feele in sickenesse an vnspeakable comfort which he will not misse for all the whole world and a mighty boldenesse to speake vnto God But he which whiles the world prospered with him neuer thought vppon God nor regarded his word when the visitation of the Lord is vpon him when his soule is ready to bee taken from him his heart being hardned in sin he hauing made no preparatiō for DEAEH terrour shal take hold on him as waters a tempest shall steale him away in the night a storme shall hurle him out of his place men shall clappe their hands at him shall hisse him out of his place Iob. 27.22.23 VSE 2 An Instruction for vs to haue our accounts in a readinesse that whensoeuer the
draweth nigh vnto the graue A sleepe A comming as a theef in the night A time of departure the way of all the earth Of Abell whose sacrifice God accepted as of Cain whose sacrifice God despised of Abraham the Father of the faithfull as well as of the children of vnbeliefe of Izhac the sonne of the free woman as of Ismael the sonne of the bond woman of Iacob whom God loued as of Esau whom he hated of chast Ioseph as of incestuous Ammon of meeke Moyses as rayling Rabshekah of zealous Phinees as the luke-warme Minister of the Church of Laodicea of Dauid a man according to Gods owne heart as Saul from whom God tooke his spirit of Salomon the wise as Nabal the foole of tender hearted Iosiah as hard hearted Pharaoh the humble Publican as the proud Pharisee poore Lazarus to be carryed into Abrahams bosome as the rich glutton to be carryed into hell Iohn the beloued Disciple as Iudas the traitor Simon Peter the Apostle as Simon Magus the Sorcerer The death of Christ hath freed from the second death but not the first He hath altered the vse of the first death but not taken it away it was ordained as a punishment but he hath made it a passage into Heauen and as by life man commeth to bondage so by death his freedome is wrought yet dye he must first be he Natures Paragon he is but a lump of flesh and straight after Birth is due the fatall Beere Death is the Emperour of graues common Inne the punishment tribute Conquerour receptacle of all and as the Sunne where it shineth melteth the hardest ice so where this Centurion commands there must be obedience This place enemie striketh with a bloody dart the wretched Caitiffe and the King alike It sends out a Commission as that voyce to Abraham Exi de terra tua Goe out of thy Country wherein thou wert bred and borne come forth ye soules from those bodyes and though there be but one manner of comming into the world yet are there many thousand wayes of going out of the world Wee are full of holes and breaches One dyeth young another in a good age some when their breasts are full of milke Eriyere vitā nemo non homini petect At nemo mortem mille ad hanc patent aditus Sē trag 3. Ac. 1. Waite we must for our change and patiently expect the execution of that Decree which is so various and manifold that no one mans tongue can possibly describe it Abell was slaine by his brother Abimelechs brains beaten out by a woman throwing a peece of a milstone from a wall Agag washewed in peeces Isay cut a sunder with a woodden sawe Epipha de vitis Prophetarum Amos slaine with a doore barre the Infants of Bethlehem were slaine in their Cradles Eglon in his Parlour Saul in the field Isbosheth in his bed Sennacherib in the Temple Ioab at the very Altar Beares slew the boyes that mocked Elizeus wormes Herod Lyons Daniels accusers Dogges Euripides Extremity of ioy hath killed some as Zeuxes Diagoras Rhodius Sophocles Sorrowe others as old Eli Homer Vrbain the third Fier destroyeth some as the Sodomits Nadab and Abihu Zimri Perillus. Water others as M. Marcellus Laurentius Laurentinianus that great Phisitian Earthquakes Chore Dathan Abiron M. Curtius Hunger destroyed Cleanthes the Philosopher Thirst Thales Milesius Watching M. Attilius Regulus The fall of an house Athenaeus Philippe a young French King called Grossus fell from his horse dead Iezabell being cast out of a windowe dyed Fulgo li. 9 c. 1◠Anacreon the Poet was choaked with the kernel of a raisin Valentinian the Emperour came to his end by strayning himselfe with crying too loud Pli. nat li. 7.7 Hier. op 9 to 9 Fulgo vbi supra Guido Ful. ib. Pli. vt supra Florus lib. 3. c. a 3. Suides Polyd. Virgil. hist Ang. the yolke of an egge stifled Saufeius a fish bone Tarquinius Priscus a peare Drusus Pompeius an haire in his milke Fabius the Senatour a smoake Caetullus the Orator the hot Sunne Chrisostome a crumme of bread Goodwin Earle of Kent A Plurisie killed Charles the Great a Dissenterye Anastasius the second the Cholicke Antiochus Iulius Cesar disputing the night before of the good of suddaine death was the next day by Brutus and Cassius slaine suddainely in the Senate Iohannes Mathesius hauing preached of the raising of the Widdowe of Naimes sonne within 3. houres dyed Luther hauing sate at supper and discoursed diuinely of the ioyes of Heauen about midnight after he slept in the Lord Iouian an Emperour was found dead in his bed Pope Adrian the fourth was choaked with a flye Soz. hist Eccl. 6.6 crimonesis can we forget that dolefull DOLEFVLL EVENSONG of that Popish assembly in the Blacke-Fryers miserably misled to heare a Iesuite Oct. 25.1623 90. or 100. whereof perished while they heard Antichrist exalted I dare not be so vncharitable as from their temporall destruction to collect their eternall confusion But by these we may see no place is priuiledged from the arrest of death Some we see come to their graues by Apoplexies Lethargies dead Palsies some by suddaine blowes some as a wasted candle goe out naturally How many doth that violent FEVER nowe sweep away in our Cittie and in the most parts of the Kingdome an argument of Gods anger against vs as he threatned the disobedient children of Israel Dc. 28.15.22 that if they would not hearken to his voyce to obserue to doe all his Commandements and Statutes the SINNE of ENGLAND he would smite them with a FEVER and with an inflammation and with an extreame BVRNING Our Neighbours visitation sheweth vs Belshazzars embleme vpon our doors and walles that our dayes are counted Vita cito auolat nec potest retineri mors quotidie ingruit nec potest resisti that our life flyeth away daily and cannot be retained and death is continually ready to rush vpon vs and cannot be resisted but as wee haue had a time to be borne so a time to DIE. Let the Egiptians call man a reuerend and admirable creature Mercury a great myracle Pythagoras the measure of all things Plato the wonder of wonders Aristotle a politique creature framed for society Synesius the Horizon of corporeall and incorporeall things Tully a diuine creature full of reason and iudgement Plinie the worlds Epitome and Natures darling yet he is mortall and must yeeld to this heauy colde enemie which sneapeth the brauest blossomes and maketh them fade anon which ere while flourished the longest liuer dyes and DEAD the lowliest creature as the lothsome carion lyes This is it that daunteth all earthly things They were borne to dye If they had a beginning they must haue an end Death is impartiall cutting off good and bad It selfe knowne to all the houre of it vnknowne to any Nothing can resist it No Peeres Princes mortall wight No Townes Realmes Cities Towers All must runne this course
Lord shall call vs by his Bayliefe Death he may find vs prepared that we may keepe a Kalender and Ephemerides of our time how it passeth away that as our bodies stoop downwards by yeares and infirmities so our soules soare vpward that we may haue our Loyns girt our Lamps burning While we are in the world we are in a Sea of troubles we saile as Pilgrimes tossed by the tempests of aduersity oppressed by three Pyrates the Flesh World Deuill Yet by the Barke of a liuely Faith this Marriner Death may transport vs from Aegipt to Canaan For howsoeuer death to the Reprobate be the Curse of God Suburbes of Hell Pyrate of life the Diuels Serieant to arrest and carry them without bayle to a Prison of vtter darknesse his Cart to bring them to execution from which there can be no repriuement Yet to the Godly it is not exitus but transitus a departure but a passage Cyp. sc de mortal Fratres mortui non sunt amissi sed praemissi Our dead Friends are not lost they are but sent before Profectio est quam putas mortem that thou thinkest death Au. ep 6. is but a iourney to them Tert. de Patientia to the Land of the liuing The key to vnlocke from misery and send abroade to liberty A Bridge to passe from a vale of teares to a paradise of joyes Like the Brazen Serpent so farre from hurting true Israelites that it healeth them The beginning of joy first fruites of pleasure Prince of delight and a Massenger of glad tydings A passage from labour to rest Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord Reu. 14.13 that they may rest from their laboures From vilenesse to glory Lazarus was carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosome From feare to security The wicked is driuen away in their wickednesse Luk. 14.22 but the righteous hath ioy in his death Pr. 14.32 From trouble to peace as olde Tobit prayed cōmaund my spirit to be taken from me Tob. 3.6 that I may be dissolued that I may be deliuered out of this distresse and goe into the euerlasting place From an vncertain commorancie to a setled habitariō an eternall house in the Heauens 2. Co. 5.1 From captiuity to liberty therefore St. Paul wished O wretched man that I am Ro. 7.24 who shall deliuer mee from the body of death From vanitie to glory which made the same Apostle so confident To me to liue is Christ and to dye is gaine Ph. 1.21 To the Godly it is a coast for them banished out of this world a landing at the Hauen a laying downe of a heauy burthen of the body the consumption of all diseases the escaping of all perills breaking of all Bonds returne to our owne home Est vitae virtus maxima posse mori Mat. 24.42 THIS we should often thinke vpon because the greatest worke we haue to doe is to dye well And because Christ commaundeth watch for yee know not what houre your Lord will come what I say vnto you I say vnto you all watch Mar. 13.37 Like vnto men that waite for their Lord when he will returne from the wedding Luk. 12.36 that when he commeth and knocketh yee may open to him immediatly It is too late to recall the Bargaine the Bond being sealed to defend the Walles when the Citty is ouercome to sound a retraite when the Battaile is fought to send for a Physitian when the sicke party is dead When time is past it cannot be recalled Therefore saith the wise man whatsoeuer thy hand findeth to doe doe it with thy might for there is no worke nor deuise nor knowledge Ecl. 9.10 nor wisedome in the Graue whether thou goest Guil. paris p 5. de vitijs tr de accidia Gr. Ho. 13. in Eua. Bonau Sanchez in Ecles Hereafter is no time of working but rewarding Hereafter Aristotles arguments will not serue to excuse or defend but rather to accuse If we feare death before it come we shall conquer it There is no deliberating hereafter There shall be no profit of the knowledge of Diuine or Humane things hereafter vnles wee vse it well in this life God hath giuen a Talent to exercise euery man some worke for euery one against his comming into the world Skill and knowledge is long and difficult life is short and sickly we should as oportunity serueth performe our duty towards our God Ars longa vita breuis Hipocr towards our Neighboures towards our selues The time of Working ceaseth in the graue None can be benifited by our workes wisedome skill counsell when we are dead We cannot praise God nor glorifie him in the graue Now is the time of vsing and bestowing those gifts that God hath giuen for his glory in this life And this time saith Iob is swifter then a Poste passeth away as the swift Ship and as the Eagle hasteth to her pray Nothing so swift in the Land Sea Ayre Iob. 9.26 as a shadow so passeth our time or as when an Arrowe is shot at a Mark it parteth the ayre which immediatly commeth together againe Wis 5.9.12.13 so that a man cannot knowe where it went through Euen so we in like manner as soon as we are born begin to draw to our end Our Bodyes too and froe we shall not bee that to morrow which we are to day Nostra quoque ipsorum semperequieque sine vlla Corpora vertuntur Ou. Metam l. 1. nec quod fuimusque sumusque Cras erimus Let vs not till the day of death delay our conuersion when sicknesse summoneth and bindeth vpon the Alter for the sacrificing of the Soule wicked actions words thoughts will appeare armed with Gods anger and with the Curses of of the Law heaped together agrauated to the vttermost giuing the Conscience many a colde pull and lying vpon the heart as heauie as Lead The Conscience will accuse the Memory giue bitter euidence Reason will sit as Iudge Feare shall stand as executioner Let vs now therefore get a good life that it may be an vsher to a good death Let vs drawe good out of euill and prouide for immortallity in the time of mortallity Let vs dye willingly seeing we must dye necessarily we shall liue eternally Let not the worlds pleasures detaine vs but rather draw our affectiōs to those things which are aboue knowing that if there be such delight in any thing of this mortall life Giselbertus in li. Altere c. 3. Hic vel accipienus vel amittimus vitam eternam Cyp. which consists in the presence of the Soule in a corruptible body what immortall pleasure shall there be when the presence of the Godhead shall fill the reasonable Soule Now is the time to get this assurance here we may win or lose it Gal. 6.7 Let vs not be weary in well doing As we sowe so we shall reape Quod sibiquisque serit praesentis tempore
a time of trouble such as neuer was since there was a Nation Ezek. 7.7 euen to that same time Da. 12.1 Man knoweth not his time As the fishes that are taken in an euill net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sonnes of men snared in an euill time when it falleth suddainly vpon them Ecles 9.12 The fish is cheerefull deuouring the bayt not seeing the hooke but the fisher-man drawing him vp torments the bowels and dragges it to destruction August de agone Christi cap. 7. So many runne away with presumptuous sinnes but the time shall come that they shall feele the plagues of it when time shal be no longer One woe shall be past and another woe come quickly from death to iudgement from iudgement to hell Reu. 10.11.14 They may come vp as flouds their waters may moue as the riuers they may saye we will couer the earth they may rage with their Charets but when the day of vengeance commeth in vaine shall they vse many medicines for they shall not be cured their crye shall fill the land they shall be swept away when the Lord driueth them they shall appeare to haue beene but a noyse when they haue passed the time appointed Jer. 46.17 Vse 2 Our Instruction must be not to walke as fooles but circumspectly as wise redeeming the time because the dayes are euill wee are borne of women Ep. 5.16 of few dayes full of trouble Ioh. 14.1 Let vs remember how short our time is what man is hee that liueth and shall not see death Ps 89.47.48 Be not ouermuch wicked neither bee thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time Eccles 7.17 Stat sua cuique dies Euery mans dayes are determined Virgil. 10. Aeneid the number of his moneths is with God he hath appointed him his bounds that he cannot passe Ioh. 14.5 this is a measure of his dayes in respect of Gods prescience and prouidence Psal 39.4 but in respect of the course of nature the threed of life which might haue beene lengthned is cut off by Gods command for sinne and men liue not out halfe their dayes Psal 55.23 as that Bishop applyed this texte in his time Bernardinus to 2. in Qua. dragesimali de Euang. oetern Do. 2. quadra serm 17. a. 3. cap. 1. when in Catalonia a citty neare Valentia a strippling of 18. hauing beene disobedient to his parents and so fell to robbing and being executed on the tree and thus remaining for a spectacle to disobedient children on the next morrow a Beard and gray haires appeared on him which the people hearing of and wondring how suddainely these should come to a young dead body and vrging how young he was at his death the Bishop said he should haue liued to be so old as hee appeared then had he not beene disobedient Thus the Lord threatneth the family of Eli all the increase of thine house shall dye in the flower of their age 1. Sam. 3.33 He dyeth before his time who dyeth vnwillingly not prepared not rype in yeares though rype in sinne which hasteneth death and destruction as God threatned to the Amorrhites when their iniquity should be full Gen. 15.16 Happy is he who can triumphe with that flagge of defiance against all enemies as St. Paul Herein doe I excercise my selfe to haue alwayes a conscience voyd of offence toward God and toward men Act. 24.16 Happy is he who euery night thinketh with himselfe a day is gone a part of my time is cut off so much lesse haue I left of a short and miserable life God hath appointed the time of life short in respect of prosperity and aduersity in this world that our appetite may be stirred to future things whereof here we haue but a taste as were the trees in Paradise and Manna If these pleasures belowe delight vs how much more shall those aboue Punishments here are but essayes of those hereafter ordained for the wicked as those vppon the Sodomits Chorah and his complices and if the short plagues of this life are feared how much more those of another A little time we haue that by little consolations we may be inuited to glory and by small troubles feare greater A little time is giuen vs least our troubles being ouer long we should despaire onour ioyes we should neglect God Aduersity sometimes must exercise vs else prosperity will pull vs down There are but foure times a time of deuiation as from Adam to Moses when death reigned Rom. 5.14 a time of Reuocation from Moses to Christ the Lawe being added because of transgressions a time of Reconciliation from the birth of Christ to the sending of the holy Ghost Gal. 3.19 the spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that wee are the children of God a time of Peregrination from the sending of the holy Ghost till the day of Iudgement Rom. 8.16 while wee are at home in the body 2 Cor. 5.7 vve being absent from the Lord. 2. Cor. 5.7 In this Pilgrimage we must walk by faith The times are dangerous in regard of troubles which must fail out such as neuer were since the begining of the world Mat. 24.21 Of Sathans libertie Reu. 20.8 who being loosed deceaued the Nations of the foure quarters of the earth of the multitude of many false Prophets rising and deceauing many Math. 24.11 of the rarenesse of good men Math. 24.12 iniquity abounding the loue of many waxing cold Let not the time runne away without obseruation Thinke vppon time past and be thankefull for benefits receaued Creation Redemption Iustification repent for sinne committed imitate the godly Think vppon the time present the opportunity vrging vs to worke while we haue time the breuity compelling vs to be instant the irreuocability stirring vs vp to constancie Thinke vpon the time to come and prouide to giue a faire account Barn de trip custodia 1. Cor. 4.7 Nothing ought to be of so pretious esteeme as time it is Gods gift we haue nothing but what we haue receaued wee are answerable for it and must deliuer backe all things in number and weight we must gaine according to the talentes deliuered vnto vs Ecc. 42.7 wee must growe in grace Math. 25.20 And to this end as in bodily growth there are 4. helpes so in a spirituall There is nourishment in the wombe here is a proficiencie of knoweledge there we are brought into the light of the world here we shewe forth some fruits of the illumination of Baptisme there is milke giuen vnto vs here the word of God deliuered out of both Testaments there wee are carryed to our Parents table here we come to the Supper of the Lord our heart and our flesh reioycing that Nowe is the accepted time 2. Cor. 6.2 now is the day of saluation wherein God the Father begetteth vs the