ELIAH'S WISH A PRAYER FOR DEATH A Sermon preached at the Funerall of the Right Honourable Viscount Sudbury Lord BAYNING By Ro WILLAN D. D. Chaplaine to his Maiesty Vita vitae mortalis spes vitae immortalis Aug. Printed at London for I. S. Hypo Bibliothecary of Syon Colledge and are to be sold by Richâ—rd Royston at his shoppe in Iuie-Lane 1630. To the Right Honourable ANNE Viscountesse of Sudbury c. Right Honourable THis exiguous Tract belongs vnto you by a manifold Right First it is a Sermon of Elias and whither should Elias goe for succour but vnto the widdow of Sareptah such an one are you a Noble Patronesse of the Prophets besides you haue a sad interest in it as being preached for him who when hee obtained the Lawrell left you the Cypres not to lament him for it is a kind of enuy to bewayle those in happinesse but your owne hard condition vnder the miserable title of a widdow Last of all as the Egiptian law made women Recluses forbidding them to goe abroad so custome barring noble widdowes from ceremoniall and solemne sorrow confining them to closset mourning secret greefe is most sharpe and teares shed in priuate as they fall lesse visible so lesse forced it had beene inhumanity in mee to deny you reading of what you could not heare Accept then these lines wherein you may behold so true a Portrayture of your deceased Lord that those which enuyed him cannot obiect flattery nor such as lou'd and honour'd him detraction to the Pencill Thus hauing full filled your desired wish I fall to my owne wishes which are that whether you remaine in the disconsolate estate you are as Anna did or God hath designed you to bee a Ruth the fundatresse of another Noble family the God of Heauen who hath already giuen you the blessings at his left hand Honour Riches and all endowments adorning your sexe may adde length of dayes in the practice of Religious duties and charitable deedes vntill hee bring you to the blissefull vision of himselfe so hee prayes who is Your deuoted Beads-man Ro WILLAN To the Reader HAuing by much importune labour receiued from Noble hands a Coppy of this Sermon out of a confidence that one passage therein celebrating our first Benefactor Viscount Sudbury may doe good to the Library of Syon Colledge whereof I am a Keeper I haue aduentured without consent of the Author to put it vpon thy censure not doubting if I can procure his pardon to promerit thy thankes and so Farewell From Syon Colledge Aprill 12. 1630. Thine Iohn Spencer ELIAH'S WISH 1 KINGS 19. 4 It is now enough O Lord take my soule for I am no better then my Fathers THere are no thoughts more wholsome then those of death not any lesse frequently possessing the mindes of men wee thinke of death as the Athenians did treate of peace neuer but when we are in blacks As they which aduenture to the Indies take not so much into their considerations how many shippes haue beene swallowed in the waues as what some few haue gotten by the voyage So it is with vs we seldome meditate of the Millions dead before vs but of the small Remainder suruiuing with vs. They report that the birds of Norway flye faster then the fowles of any other Countrey not because nature hath giuen more nimblenesse or agility to their wings but by an instinct they know the dayes in that Climate to bee very short not aboue three houres long and therefore they make more haste vnto their nests Strange that birds should make such vse of their obseruation and wee practically knowing the shortnesse of our liues yet make no haste to our home the house appointed for all liuing This God complaineth of The Storke knoweth her appointed time but my people know not the Judgement of the Lord And by another he wisheth their vnderstandings were not so deordinate as to forget their last end Our eyes behold all things yet see they not themselues but by reflection in a looking glasse Here are two looking glasses one vpon the Hearse informing vs that neither Wisedome nor Honour nor Wealth nor Strength nor Friends nor Physicke nor Prayers are sufficient Parapets to shelter vs from the stroke of death Here is another looking glasse in the Text expressing the miserable condition of our liues If all the inuentions of Hierogliphicall learning which St. Origen compared to the Jewes Manna falling downe in round and little Cakes yet affoording good nourishment so they in small shadowes conueyed excel-cellent wisedomes If all of them had strained their wits for an Embleme to decipher the wretched estate of a liuing man they could not come neere the patterne in the Text. Doe but paint Elias sitting vnder the Iuniper tree in a forlorne posture with his face betweene his knees The Motto the words of the Text It is now enough O Lord take away my soule for I am no better then my Fathers and you haue life portrayed to life Elias was the first man vnto whom God resigned his key of life and gaue him power to raise the dead Elias was the sole man whom God honoured with a Charriot for his conueiance into the other world Elias was the second man elected to represent heauenly glory vpon earth at the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus and this man whilst hee was in this life was weary of his life and puts vp a Supplication to almighty God to take it from him The words containe a Prayer Good is the proper obiect of prayer we may deprecate euill but pray onely for that which is good This prayer is for death which in it selfe is neither good nor euill That we may the better conceiue the true scope it is fit that wee should take into our considerations these three particulars 1 The motiues preceding and producing the Prayer 2 The Arguments enforcing the Prayer 3 The third and last The Prayer it selfe A question will be asked in the Porch entrance is Elias in earnest would he liue or dye If he would liue why doth he beg death If dye why did he shun death by flying into the wilder nesse One Executioner from Jesabell would haue giuen him his longing The satisfaction is easy It is some comfort when a man is ouercome that hee bee conquered by a noble enemy Aeneae magni dextra cadis Dauid was vnwilling to dye by the fury and malice of Saul contented to receiue it by the hands of his friend Jonathan If there bee iniquity found in mee kill mee thy selfe but bring mee not to tby father As Moses rod lying vpon the Ground had the shape and poyson of a serpent but in his owne hand it lost that affrighting figure and venemous quality so death from Jezabell was an vgly serpent in Elias apprehension but from the hand of God a Caduceus a wand to waft him into a better life The hands of the spouse are fall of Rings beset with Iemmes the
them to bee slayne as degenerate wretches that would ouerliue their Temple and their Religion hee is not worthy of life who will not aduenture it for the author of life To conclude this second motiue lett vs alwayes haue that preparation of mind in the phrase of Tertullian to retaliate bloud with bloud our Sauiour in great plenty shed his most precious bloud for vs bee wee ready to spend our liues for him and with Paul and Barnabas to ieopard them for his Gospell although our liues in respect of his are but stubble to Pearle yet being the greatest oblation wee can offer it will bee most acceptable most rewardable The losse of life for his cause is the sauing of it Elias sute for death was neuer granted he neuer died at all but was conueyed not into Earthly Paradise the Deluge made that pleasure desolation nor stayed he in the Aeriall Heauens too vnquiet and disconsolate a place amongst Stormes and Thunders Lightnings and Tempests St. Chrysostome saies it affrighted the Prince of the Ayre to see him ride so gloriously through his quartér Nor did he rest among the Spheres to be rapt and whirled about by their diurnall motion not to the highest heauens that Prerogatiue was reserued for the Worlds Sauiour no Souldier triumphs before his Generall but God translated his enflamed Zelot and earthly Seraphin into a happy and blessed estate in the bosome of Abraham with this Priuiledge others were there before in soule hee both in soule and body Now proceede wee from the Motiues forerunning the Prayer to the Reasons attending vpon it You haue heard of some as of St. Paul eloquently pleading without any Aduocate to saue his life before Felix Fesius and Agrippa and by an Appeale taking truce with death But here is one in the Text pleading for death and finding Reasons why he should liue no longer His Arguments are in number two The first is drawne from the satiety of life It is now enough as if hee should say thus in effect I haue liued long enough to my selfe long enough to my Countrey First to my selfe it pleased thy diuine goodnesse by making mee an instrument of thy glory to aduance my owne so as I shall leaue an high reputation and a venerable name to all posterity and for my Countrey such thy mercy by my meanes they enioyed much good spirituall good I reclaimed them although they bee now relapsed from Idolatry to the Seruice of thee their true and onely God I was the Reformer of their corrupted manners my rugged Robes and hairy Habit condemned their proud attyre my austere and strict life taught them to amend their loose and licentious conuersations As a retyred Heremite I sequestred my selfe from humane society to let them see 't was lesse dangerous to dwell among brutes then beastiall men And for good temporall I turned their drought into Raine and their famine into Plenty hauing in my whole course equalled nay transcended the period of Mortality It is now enough O Lord. His second Argument is drawne from the common law of nature I am no better then my Fathers my Ancesters in time my Predecessors in profession are all arriued at their wished Port why shouldst thou prolong my dayes by miracle sometimes appointing the Rauens those vncleane birds by thy law and vnnaturall in their kinde to be my Caters as at the brooke Carith Sometimes by multiplication of the old store or by creation of new prouision turne meale barrels into Granaries and cruets of oyle into Fountaines as at the Widdowes of Sareptah I desire not the producing of my misery the preseruation of my life by extraordinary wayes let me passe O Lord the common way of all my Fathers For J am no better then my Fathers Obserue in Elias Arguments his method and modesty how orderly hee rankes his Reasons There goes a sufficit before tolle animam Hee doth not aske death of God vntill hee hath performed great seruice vnto the Lord in his life for it is a preposterous course to demand wages before the worke bee done Rest comes after labour no Souldier lookes for a donatiue vntill the warre bee ouerpast no Marriner cals for a faire winde vntill his vessell bee full fraught It is no matter how long or how short our liues be but how good The Morall man saw this Life is long enough if full of good St. Austins similitude expresseth this well As a Musitian tarrying long vpon one string little vpon another his lightest touch makes not perhappes so loude a sound but as sweet an harmony So in God his Consort who as the Prophet speakes keepes true time they make as good musicke that is glorifie God in their calling vnto whom he vouchsafeth a short life it being both ornatus ordinatus cursus as they who enioy the longest The Sunne and Moone those Fountaines of light and guides of time fulfill their courses in a short season The dimmer Plannets are a longer while wheeling about The Scripture compares our life to Hearbes and Flowers A Flower is Res Spectaculi Spiraculi Delighting our eyes with various colours pleasing our sense with sweete sauours but withall of a fading substance Say they escape the browsing mouth of the beast the pruning knife the plucking hand the nipping ayre the violent winde they will wither of themselues Of such mettall are wee made Imagine wee could be free from Asaes Gowt Naamans Leprosie Jorams Iliaca passio Jobs vnsauory breath Hezekiabs botch Lazarus biles the woman of Syrophenissa's dysentery Publius Feuer and all diseases whereof the body of man is a Lazaretto and Receptacle Galen found in one little part of the eye an hundred seuerall infirmities could all these be auoyded yet our bodies of their owne accord would moulder into earth from whence they came Since they are Flowers vse wee them like Flowers which last long if they bee distilled into sweete waters distill wee our liues into holy and vertuous Actions distill them into the works of Piety distill them into the workes of Charity this is the way to make a short life last long no Babylonian Tower no Aegyptian Pyramis no Rhodian Colossus no Mausolian Tombe no Triumphall Arche no life-counterfeiting Statua can giue such life of memory as a life it selfe transacted in worthy designes for Glorious sayes the Wiseman is the fruite of good labours perpetuall is the memory of the Righteous one generation proclaiming their vertues vnto another So then haue wee in our allotted stations serued God in vprightnesse and sincerity of heart haue wee endeauoured in the vtmost extent of our ability to doe good to our Religion our King our Countrey our Brethren is there a sufficit in our liues Wee must hold our life in patience but wee may put death in our prayers when Paul may say hee hath fought a good fight kept the faith finished his course then he may come to his Cupio dissolui When Hilarion can alleadge his 70. yeeres
by a supernaturall dowry of the soule God endewed the first soule with such a powerfull vertue as enabled it to preserue the body whereto it was vnited from corruption as a Candle enlightens the lanthorne wherein it is contained So the blessednesse of the soule reflecting vpon the body should haue kept it in perpetuall vigour and health That was a free noble innocent liuely life But man being in Honour forgot his God and lost this life What is the life we now enioy take a short view of the seuerall ages of the seuerall estates of the inseparable adiuncts of our life and you will finde meerely to liue is no great happinesse First an Infant that 's a life of pitty tenne months close prisoner in the dungeon of the wombe not beholding the light which when hee comes into how sadly he salutes it presaging his hard welcome shaming that hee is naked lamenting that hee is borne repining that he is borne to misery then if his cradle proues not his coffin hee liues a child that 's a life of folly in his speech thoughts and actions youth succeedes that 's a life of sinne reason is weake passion strong concupiscence itcheth lust rageth sinne reigneth Manhood the flower of all is a life of vanity Man in his best estate is altogether vanity Lastly an old man that 's a life of death The Apostles word is of Abraham Sarah when they were old they were as dead the head is gray the face withered the skinne wrinkled the limmes stiffe the stomacke weake the memory frayle the body crooked the vitall powers decayed the spirits spent this is the life in ages what is it in callings Man liues eyther single and that is a free life but vncomfortable or he takes a wife wedlock is the schoole of Patience demure Sarah chid with Abrabam bleare-eyed Leah wrangled with Jacob scornefull Micol scoffed at Dauid stubborne Vashtai will not come at Ahasshuerus call and t is no better in the men Discreet Abigail lights vpon a churlish Nabal Pilat was as vnkind a husband as an vnrighteous Iudge denying his wife the life of our blessed Sauiour This life is eyther priuate or publike the priuate is simply the best Joseph saw it when hee aduised his brethren rather to continew Shepheards then to stay with him in Pharoahs Court Old Barzillay found it refusing Dauid his courteous offer and would not exchange his priuate Roguel for tumultuary Jerusalem The Oracle accounted him the most hapy man of his time who liuing vntill hee was purely old neuer did see any house but his owne Whether we eate the bread of carefull industry or the sweete vnswet-for bread of an vnacquired patrimony in the most retired quiet plentifull condition something still falles out verifying that of our Sauiour Sufficient to the day is the sorrow of it The publike life is eyther in Church or Common wealth The Churchman whether in Chayre or cure leades a laborious an enuious a dangerous life his labour neuer at an end Dauid tunes his Harp to driue away Sauls Melancholy and hee darts his Iauelin at him a liuely Emblem of the Pastor most people When Elias prayers haue procured a blessing from heauen his best reward is a Caue in the wildernesse St Augustine wept when hee tooke holy Orders they were Prognosticating teares forerunning his infinite paynes in washing Blackmores whose sowles were more tawny then their hides His perpetual bickerings and encounters with Hereticks for such was God his especiall prouidence that hee and Pelagius should come into the world much about one yeare that the Antidote might be contemporall to the poyson His wearisome employment in determining secular causes for then very good Christians beleeued their suites could not be happily ended vnlesse they came through the cleare and sinceare hands of vpright Church-men T was a graue witty conceyt of one of the Pope Vrbans who putting his Rochet on wondred that being made of so light stuffe it was so ponderous weighty Aboue all affrighting is that speech of Chrysostome Of all men sayes hee I could wish there were no day of iudgement why so Others shall answer for themselues alone but I for my people as Judah was pledge for Beniamin so many Talents as God giues so many torments if they be not well employed There is but one comfort in that calling they doe cooperate with God in reducing soules vnto himselfe In the Commonwealth great places are like Pictures fairest furthest off looke vpon them at a neere distance and there lyes vnder the thinne skinne of Honour and dignity a vaste corps of trouble and vexation Let all Histories be searched diuine humane Moses the first Gouernor of Gods people so tyred with the cumber of his place as he desires to be rid of his life Kill mee Lord and I will accompt it for a fauour Augustus had relinquished his Soueraignty as soone as he obtained it but for the pride of his wife Liuia Dioclesian did surrender it and turning Gardiner found his Plants more pliable then his people and Charles the fifth enioyed more sweete repose in a Monastery then in a Monarchy As in Supreme so in subordinate Gouernors Hee that with care and conscience doth execute the duties of his place although hee liue vpon drowsie Poppies and stupifying Mandragora's shall hardly get time for secure rest but bee like the Roman who in all his life had neuer leasure to keepe Holiday You Pethahiahs who are at the Kings hand in matters concerning the People did it become modesty to rifle your secret thoughts you haue your share in Elias his prayer when iust commands are more questioned then obeyed and sincere Actions meete with sinister interpretations when common and easie burthens are not borne with dutifull chearefulnesse nor publike cares sweetened with benigne acceptance nay when all possible endeauour that people may lead godly quiet and peaceable liues is performed and requited with murmuring instead of blessing is not this enough to produce Elias Wish Euen the poore beasts when they are weary make haste home Thus passeth Man's life in the callings The Adiuncts of life are two Sinne Misery In my priuate meditations vpon this Point I purposed to describe vnto you the Actions wherewith the sinfull life of man is distained but when I surueyed the liues of wicked men so many sinnes presented themselues that I knew not where to ranke them so vgly in shape as I durst not looke vpon them and when I considered the liues of the best and the woe denounced vnto the most laudable life of men that the whole life of a deuoutbSaint was but sinne and barrennesse I stood amazed vntill I remembred there was a veyle to couer them the Integument of Christ his Righteousnesse and a Sponge to blot them out God his meere Mercy and mans true Repentance What a Torment is it to a good Soule to be perpetually strugling with