the mountaines and make our nests with the Eagles and touch the stars with our heads when there is fouea a pit before our feet which we neuer thinke of Proud earth and ashes terra calcans terram earth so treading and ietting vpon the earth as if the earth should neuer tread vpon vs when notwithstanding this base and contemptible element the sediment and dregs of the world shall set her foot vpon our faces Do we remember the pit the land of forgetfulnesse the regions of darknesse the place of silence wherein our proud and pampered and stall-fed flesh must lodge we that eat the fattest and finest of the earth and deuoure whole Countries as the Oxe licketh vp the grasse yea beasts will not serue our turnes we eate vp Man deuoure a man and his heritage Mich. 2. pascua diuitum sunt pauperes the poore are the pasture of the rich do we beare in our minds foueam exedentem consumptionis the pit that shall eat and consume our selues we that lie and rot in the dung of our sinnes our flesh indeed is so rotten vpon our backs with foule loathsome diseases that peece will scarce hang vnto peece so as our very bodies are alreadie become the graues of the liuing do we remember foueam putredinis the pit of corruption and rottennesse whereinto wee are going when albeit from the body of a dead Lion there came bees and hony and so from the bodie of a dead horse droanes they say and from the body of a dead asse hornets yet from the bodie of a dead man nothing but wormes and filthinesse Haereditabit serpentes bestias vermes Ecclus. 10. he shall inherit serpents beasts and wormes nay haereditabunt they shall inherit him the Serpent gapeth for his soule Beasts for his substance that shall reuell in his goods Wormes for his flesh Quia proiecisti I am now at the last Tabernacle wherein you haue Christ with his benefits and the Tables of the Gospell and therein as I told you at the first are likewise two things First the cause of his bitternes sinnes Secondly the discharge of that cause For thou hast cast c. I haue bene lately vpon both these points in the hearing of many of this auditorie I shall say the lesse now But Sinne the sicknesse of the soule is the reall and radicall cause of all bodily sicknesse I alledge but one storie from the 1. Reg. 17. The widow of Zareptha cometh to Elias her sonne being then dead and saith vnto him What haue I to do with thee thou man of God art thou come vnto me to call my sinnes to remembrance She was an excellent woman and her praise is in the Gospell when she had but a little meale a little oyle in a cruise and was gathering two stickes to make a widowes fire and to dresse for her sonne and her that they might eate and die yet vpon the bidding of the Prophet bring vnto me and first vnto me such was her faith that she did it yet she imputeth the sicknesse and death of her child to her sins Vespasian was of another minde being sicke and out of hope to liue he threw the curtaines aside and spread his hands vnto heauen and complained of his gods immerenti sibi vitam eripi that he deserued not to die had neuer committed any thing in his whole life whereof he repented but one he had so much the more cause to repent him I hope when Hezekiah prayeth at the third verse O Lord I beseech thee remember how I haue walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. He speaketh but secundum quid not simply and comparatè compared with others importing affectum and profectum rather desire and endeuour so to do then any perfection and that he had no meaning to thinke that he had no sinne for it plainly appeareth in his owne speech by the reason he giueth that he thought sinne to be the cause of his sicknesse Eruisti quia proiecisti first he remitteth his sinnes which was the course of our Sauiour in the Gospell and then releeueth him of his sicknesse But when I looke vpon the cure the remoue of the cause I cannot but remember what God spake vnto Abraham Gen. 15. Ego merces tua magna nimis I am thine exceeding great reward what vnto Dauid 2. Sam. 12. I haue done this and that for thee si parua sunt ista and if these things were too small I would haue added much more Iust as the Apostle writeth Ephes. 3. abundantly much more thē we either aske or thinke For did Hezekiah craue the remission of his sinnes In his whole song there is not a word a syllable of it You haue heard of his truth and righteousnesse and perfect heart no mention of sinne and all his petition and moane and teares that he spent was for his life alone God granteth him that aliquid ampliùs and somewhat more aliquid melius something better for admit he had died yet had his case bene good enough Mori non timeo quia ad bonum Dominum vado I feare not to die because I go to a good Lord. But if I die in my sinne if that circumstans peccatum Hebr. 12. cleaue to my soule at my going hence it will be as mill-stones vnto it to plunge it into the bottomlesse pit of eternall destruction therefore besides and before the cure of his sicknesse he pardoneth his sinnes Wherein he dealeth with Hezekiah as he did with Moses Num. 17. when he bad him bring twelue rods for the twelue Tribes and lay them in the Tabernacle before the testimonie and the rod for that Tribe which the Lord would chuse should bud When Moses came to reuiew the rods the rod of Aaron had not onely budded that is chipt or broken the rinde but the buds were swolne and fully brought forth and after buds blossomes and flowers and after these ripe Almonds So befell it Hezekiah so shall it all the elect of God who know no more what to aske then Hezekiah did he thought of no more but the bud of his bodily health but he giueth him withall the ripest and sweetest fruit of all others forgiuenesse of his sinnes and me thinketh he fulfilleth all the degrees of that former storie for let the pardon of sinne be germen the bud and the pardon of all his sinnes be gemma the knot or swelling bud and the leauing them behind his backe flos the blossome but the casting them behinde his backe as if he were angry that they prest before his face is amygdala the fruit more then all the rest He that will purge the body leaueth no dregs of the sicknesse for feare of relapse so is the pardon of God a plenary pardon of all his sins and whereas before they were vnder those pure eyes that cannot behold wickednesse now they are set behinde his backe that he may not behold them and
exspiras now thou art breathing anon thy breath is gone It dealeth with the arke of thy body as the doue with the Arke of Noah which goeth forth and commeth in and goeth forth and neuer cometh backe againe So doth thy breath But he that is sicke of a sicknesse indeed a sicknesse that is mali moris as the Physitians speake such as this sicknesse of Hezekiah was bitternesse bitternesse hath but a short reckoning to make to the houre of his dying For it fareth with the bodie of man as with a vessell of wine in a frugall house being kept for our selues and our friends which drinke moderately it is long in drawing but if sponges and tunnels and barrels come to it such as are mightie to drinke and strong to poure in they will spend that in a day which would haue serued a long time So may the thread of my life be long in spinning to the fortieth or fiftieth yeare thereof it may be ad terminum constitutum Iob 14. vnto mine old age for that is the bounder of nature and maledictus qui transfert terminos Deut. 27. that thinketh being old to liue long Huic vni aetati non interceditur there is no dispensation for this age but if such quaffers shall come as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a burning feuer or the like malignant diseases that drinke vp humidu naturale all the moisture in my bodie at once and drie it vp like an harth or like a bottle hung vp in the smoke that is done in an houre a moment which had not else bene done in many yeares to come Now but in a word consider the person that is sicke it is Hezekiah the King If any person in the earth be capable of that style Viue in aeternum liue for euer it is a King What wanteth a King of all the beasts of the field or fowles of the aire or fishes of the sea what either nature can affoord or Art condite to the diet of his bodie comfort of his heart refreshing of his spirits It seemeth by a phrase vsed by the holy Ghost that a King wanteth nothing Nabal feasteth like a King 1. Sam. 25. Araunah offereth to Dauid like a King 2. Sam. 24. the Corinthians reigne like Kings 1. Cor. 4. and yet is Hezekiah the King sick vsque ad mortem vers 1. euen vnto death that is bitterly bitterly death had stretched forth her hand against him as Ieroboam against the Prophet to haue smitten him 1. Reg. 13. but that the Lord withered it What is the reason Sum quidem ego mortalis homo 7. Sap. for I my selfe saith the King am also a mortall man There is no difference in nature betwixt a King and a meaner person Interuallis distinguimur exitu aequamur we differ in condition agree in dissolution When Diogenes was poring amongst dead mens bones Alexander asked him what he did there he answered I seeke the bones of Philip thy father King of Macedon but cannot find them I may well apply the words of the Psalme to them Constitue Domine legislatorem super eos sciant se esse homines Set thou ô Lord a Law-giuer or Ruler ouer them that they may know they are but men They giue lawes to the earth and death to them and her law is an euen equall law to King and people all alike It is a probleme worthy the inquiring sith other creatures are subiect to death no lesse then man why Mortale is placed in the definition of man alone It is a parallell to this and one answer may serue to both which the Prophet hath Psalme 82. I haue said you are gods but ye shall die like men Why like men rather then other creatures I will not giue that eminent and conspicuous reason that when beasts die by reason that their soules arise from the matter of their flesh they die and die thorowly so is it not with man but first he dieth and endeth not there but after death Iudgement Hebrewes 9. I should rather say that beasts for the more part liue out their time determinate by nature til nature be annihilated vnlesse violēce and casuality come betweene the Elephant liueth longer then the Hart the Hart then the Lion the Lion then the Horse the Horse then the Dog all to their full age vnlesse they be forced out of life but man dieth in his infancie and oftener in this then any other age no sooner saluteth the light of heauen but he biddeth farewell to it and that which is more death entreth the very secrets of nature the vault of the wombe and with her Lynces eyes findeth out the wayes which the Eagle and Kite neuer found out and killeth the babe in the wombe before it commeth forth You haue heard of the sicknesse Adde thereunto the time that his sicknesse watched In my peace Victor timere quid potest said he in the Tragedie and it is answered with a breath Quod non timet Hezekiah had newly escaped from the iawes of a fearefull King one that vaunted himselfe that with the soles of his feet he had dried vp the riuers of the earth thought like Leuiathan to haue drunke vp him and his kingdome who asked in the pride of his heart where the Kings of Arphad and Hemah and Zepharuaim were and Hezekiah Let not thy God deceiue thee in whom thou trustest and he would make the people to eate their dung and drinke their water Now he is fallen afresh into the hands of the King of feares as Iob calleth him Iob 18. and feare of Kings who is Rex super omnes filios superbiae Iob 41. who may say with much more confidence then euer Zenacherib did Where euer my foote treadeth I drie vp the riuers riuers of bloud in the veines and of milke in the breasts and of marrow in the bones and aske for the Kings of Arphad and Hemah and Zepharuaim and Zenacherib himselfe and admonish the Kings of the earth Let not your gods your Idols of greatnesse and glorie and maiestie deceiue you wherein you trust and cause them to eate the dust of the ground and that the slime of the pit shall be sweet to them Ecce cùm dixerint pax pax Behold when men shall cry peace peace sudden destruction shall come vpon them I will vse the words of the Prophet 1. Reg. 14. I will do it in hac die in tempore hoc at that day and at that time Quid etiam nunc what yea at this very instant Ecce in pace at this very instant of time when Hezekiah thought he had clipt the wings of peace that it should neuer flie away againe when strangers from abroad saluted him Estne pax frater is all well when he did not much lesse then say to his soule Anima quiesce Soule take thine ease flagellum transijt non veniet the scourge is past and shall neuer
First you haue Peace that leadeth to all the rest but Peace had an ill neighbour that troubled it Sinne in the hindmost part of my Text. Sinne bringeth forth bitternesse and not onely so but bitternesse added to bitternesse Bitternesse thus accumulated must needs haue brought to the pit and the pit in the end would haue turned to corruption or consumption Thus farre goeth the blacke line of my text the shadow of sorrow and death But then cometh the other Hemisphaere of comfort and light wherein you haue first the loue and good pleasure of God secondly Redemption from the pit of corruption as touching the body thirdly Remission of sins as concerning the soule So it is not here as in the 68. Psalme where the singers go before and the minstrels follow after c. here the mourners go first like the captiues in their ancient Triumphs sinne and sicknesse and the pit and corruption then come the minstrels and singers I meane the mercies of God as in a triumphant chariot curing both the body from sicknesse and the soule from sins The three parts and roomes of my text wherein this whole matter is lodged and disposed are as clearely distinguished as the three tabernacles of Peter Matth. 17. The first is In my peace I had great bitternesse The second But thou in loue to my soule hast deliuered it from the pit of corruption The third For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy backe Let these parts be as those three tabernacles Me thinketh I see Moses in the first of a fearefull visage that hath need to be veiled Bitternesse Bitternesse Elias in the second when he is raising the widowes sonne at Zareptha 1. Reg. 17. Thou hast deliuered my soule from the pit CHRIST in the third full of grace and truth casting my sinnes behind his backe Or if you please let my text be as the Arke of testimonie wherein there were kept for store the tables of the Law the pot of Manna Aarons rod Heb. 9. They conceipt it well that the Arke is the Church the Tables the word the Manna the Sacraments and the Rod the discipline I am sure in the Arke of my text there is first a rod of bitternesse bitternesse and secondly the manna of deliuerance from the consuming pit and thirdly the tables not of the Law but of the Gospell not of the Old but the New couenant of the Law not of facts but of faith the tender mercies of God in absoluing from sinne In three words Hezekiah is sicke in the first tabernacle sound in the second sanus or sanabilis onward to his health as touching his body safe and secure in the third as concerning his soule And in euery of these three are two remarkable things In the first 1. sicknesse with the qualitie bitternes extremity and degree bitternesse bitternesse 2. the time and aduantage that the sicknesse tooke In my peace In the second 1. deliuerance Eruisti animam meam 2. the motiue that induced God thou in thy loue c. In the third 1. the cause of the sicknesse Sinnes 2. the remoue of that cause Thou hast cast c. I began at the first tabernacle and therein first with the rod his sicknesse In my peace I had great bitternesse The kind of this sicknesse is not mentioned till the 21 verse there it is called vlcus a botch it is thought to haue bene a plague-sore I dispute it not I am sure it was somewhat neere I will but drinke of the brooke in my way and giue you a short note Wee haue knowne by bitter bitter experience what a plague is but God tooke a plaister of figges of his sweete mercies in Christ well-nigh fifteene yeares sithence and applied to the botch and healed the sores of this land in the vertue and strength whereof we haue walked to this present day and we for the figges of his mercies haue returned him the thistles of our sinnes the clusters of Sodome and the wine of Dragons and yet Ecce in pace we heale our hurts with sweet words crying peace peace all is well and so shall be To morrow shall be as this day and much better and this yeare as the last and freer Deceiue not your selues you haue a great and populous Citie sowne with the seede of man as the Prophet speaketh I may say with the seed rather the weed of building I say not that your Citie may go out at your gates surely it may go out at your Suburbes the hemme of your garment is more then the garment it selfe the lop and burthen of the tree more then the stemme can beare and threatneth the ruine of the whole body To speake plainely the regions are white and drie to the haruest there is matter enough within in respect of your sinne without in respect of your building for a pestilence to worke vpon vnlesse as the antidote of the blessed goodnesse of God then cured so the preseruatiue of his sauing grace now keepe you from it I go on Whatsoeuer were the species manifest it is what the qualitie of the sicknesse was bitternesse what the quantitie bitternesse bitternesse some sharpe and wringing disease as when the Prophet cried out My bellie My bellie the very doubling of the word expressed what his paine was We are alwayes ill when we are in our best health Longum languorem trahimus we liue in a long and languishing sicknesse our wearinesse after labour and trauell is a sicknesse and sitting or lying is physicke to cure it sitting and lying is a sicknesse wee cannot continue therein rising and walking is the cure of it hunger and thirst is sicknesse eating and drinking is the helpe to that Eating and drinking sicknesse fasting and abstinencie physicke to it Quotidianus defectus quid aliud est quà m prolixitas mortis Our daily decay in nature what is it else but a lengthning of death I will say briefly triplici morbo laboramus principio medio fine We are sicke of a threefold sicknesse our beginning midst and ending As Saint Augustine told the Manichees of their idle and impious writings principium truncum medium putridum finis ruinosus their beginning was naught their proceeding naught their ending naught So is it with vs Ingressus flebilis progressus debilis egressus horribilis a mournfull natiuity wofull life dreadfull death Morbi citatio ad mortem sicknesse is a summons to death he that is least sicke may and in the end must die Death hath euer her arrow in her bow though in the prime ages of the world she was sometimes nine hundred yeares before she sped yet now she hitteth quickly and when God saith shoote she shooteth and so long as God saith spare she spareth For what is thy life Breue suspirium a short panting Canst thou measure the blast of winde said the Angell to Esdras canst thou measure say I the blast of thine owne winde the breath within thy nostrels spiras
come againe Did he then thinke of a Iebusite in the Land that should be a thorne in his eyes and a pricke in his side of a bosome enemie a warre within his bones an armie of trouble and temptation in his owne bowels When a forreine enemie is discouered the Beacons are fired and an Ecce is giuen to the Country round about Here is a domesticke intestine enemie without Beacon or any admonition at all but whilest he sitteth in the armes of peace as Sampson in the lap of Delilah a sudden alarme is heard Vp Sampson the Philistines are vpon thee Vp Hezekiah bitternesse bitternes is vpon thee This deserueth the Ecce for bitternesse in the time of war is no newes Knowest thou not that it will be bitternesse in the later end Abner to Ioab 2. Sam. 2. but bitternesse and doubled bitternesse in the midst of peace this is strange An image a glasse a sea of glasse that all the people of the earth may stand vpō the shore of my text and see the face of their fraile vnconstant condition A man and the best of men a King the best of Kings I speake not of Balthazar but as he in the midst of his cups so this in the midst of his comforts seized and surprised at vnawares with a grieuous disease that added bitternesse vnto bitternesse and cut not off the lap of his coate that is pinched him in a finger or ioynt but assaulted the life in the inmost and strongest fort it had and had it in her clutches to bring it to the very pit One maruelled that men were so hardy to aduenture to Seas why Cùm multi pereant in aquis sith many miscarried in the waters He that answered him maruelled as much how he durst goe to bed sith many die in their beds Had he nothing to wonder at but the Sea I maruell he feared not his owne flesh and that he durst trust himselfe with his owne body I am sure it is as fluide as the Sea Liquescimus we melt we thaw daily our life goeth away per stillicidia as it were by droppings Omnes nos velut aquae dilabimur we all glide away like water that is spilt and cannot be gathered vp againe Here he shall find tempests and gusts and surges and waues and rockes and quick-sands and gulfes and sea-monsters no lesse then at Sea I wonder that men dare liue in such flesh tam putri ruinosa domo so rotten and ruinous an house where not onely the gates posternes and windowes but euery little creuis and chinke letteth in death Looke how many members and parcels of the body so many vessels of sicknesses receptacles and harbours of death Euery Apoplexie in the head Swelling in the eare Bleeding at the nose Canker in the mouth Squinancy in the throat Pleurisie in the side Stone in the kidney Cholicke in the belly may be a meanes to death I maruell againe why he commeth to his table to eate and drinke there why Cum multi pereant in mensa sith many die at their Tables Did Tarquinius Priscus thinke that the bone of a fish going crosse his throte should haue choked him or Sophocles and Anacreon that they should haue died of a raysin stone or Fabius a Senatour that an haire in a draught of milke should haue bene his end or Ruffinus the Consull that in kembing his head the tooth of his Combe entring the flesh should haue bene his deaths wound or Lucia the daughter of Aurelius that her Childe which she bare in her armes thrusting a needle into her breast should haue shortned her dayes I could be infinite So long as there shall be a man in the world mortalitie casualtie corruption to accompanie that man there shall be occasion for this ecce behold in my peace when I was most secure to the stupor and terror of all those that trust too much to their peace It is a singular part of the gracious prouidence of God vpon vs to hide the houre of our deaths as Isaack spake to his sonne Gen. 27. Vides quòd senuerim ignorem diem mortis meae Thou seest I am old and yet notwithstanding I know not the day of my death Semper incognitus vt sit semper suspectus that being alwayes vnknowne we might alwayes haue it in suspition and make that vse of our ignorance that Cassian aduiseth Omnis dies velut vltimus ordinandus est to dispose of euery day as if it were our last day Certaine it is Supremus vitae dies supremus mundi dies the last day of my life is the last day of the world to me for qualis hinc quisque egreditur talis in iudicio repraesentabitur such as I am at my death such shall I be at my iudgment And as certaine againe that it is the greatest worke in the world to die to exchange life with death and the best to die well as Anacharsis being asked which was the best ship That said he which is safely arriued Adde vnto these the rule of Saint Angustine Non potest malè mori qui benè vixerit and on the otherside vix benè moritur qui malè vixit He cannot die ill that hath liued well and scarcely dieth well that hath liued ill These things conferred be ye readie prepared for that day Estote parati in diem tertium that it may find you in pace in the peace of God and of a good conscience which passeth all vnderstanding I told you before you had three sicknesses I tell you now you haue but three dayes of your liues the one of your coming into the world the other of your stay the last of your going out Be ready against the third day the day of your going forth which you cannot well be except you begin to prouide on the first and the second lest that should betide you which is bemoned in my text Ecce in pace amaritudo amaritudo Behold when we dreampt of peace we awaked to extremitie of bitternesse and being taken in an euill time you complaine as in that mimesis of Saint Chrysostome Valete amici farewell friends I must go an vnknowne iourney by wayes vnknowne into Countries farre remote Vbi quale diuersorium habiturus sum angelorum an daemonum ignoro where what lodging I shall find amongst Angels or Diuels I know not Et tu complexus amore eruisti c. I am now come to the second Tabernacle of my text wherein you haue Elias the manna I spake of It containeth two things first the redemption Eruisti secondly the reason or motiue Complexus amore The recouery so much the sweeter by how much the danger the greater Transisse de morte ad vitam vitae gratiam duplicat to passe from death to life is double life So is the light more gratefull to him that was in the power of darknesse and assurance to him that despaired of assurance There was danger enough in