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
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
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
rather put him into present possession of Co-heyreship with thy Sonne then reserve him on earth to the expectation of the inheritance of his Father though he were none of those sons who are sicke of the Father thy gracious dealing with him and his glory with thee should make us rather rejoyce for his gaine then mourne for our losse at least meekly to submit to thy divine disposall even unto death especially when it is the conclusion of a godly life and the introduction of a glorious state which I doubt not to be the condition of his departure from the society of men By what manner of death God was pleased to translate him to a better life is not for the thing it selfe much materiall to enquire no more then in what vessell a man hath bin wafted over the waves of the Sea when he is safely received into the Haven or by what key whether of gold or iron he was let into a place of most pleasant repose Yet since it may be the desire of divers to be informed in it and all may and some I assure my selfe will be the better for it I take it to be a part of my present service to give you thereof and of some other remarkable matters such an account as though it be of sicknesse death and distemper of body and mind may be tempered into a saving receipt for the upholding of your spirituall health and consequently for the obtainment of eternall life which may be this He was by his complection as I take it naturally sanguine accidentally melancholy In this Temperament he was taken with a disease that hath a name of diminution The Small-Pox which Spider-like hath a venome more intensive in degree then extensive in measure and which as experience makes the observation is commonly a fore-runner of a great plague Being in conflict with this disease and nature partly suspended by the sadnesse and slownesse of Melancholy it was not strong and quick enough to expell the poyson to the outward parts upon which in the most hopefull working of the disease it should have been discharged The same usurping humour for the right of predominance in his constitution was in that which was naturall which slackned the pace and operation of nature was too active of it's selfe in troubling the fancy Hence and from some malicious and fubtle concurrence of Satan taking the advantage which the malady of his body and brain then ministred unto him his tongue was wrought to beare false witnes against Gods favour and his own welfare so farre as to utter some words favouring of distrust if not of despaire of his own salvation Now that we may not mistake those words as he did his State and thence infer some suspition of his safety it concerns us to take into serious consideration these particulars which may serve not only to right his reputation among the communion of Saints but to secure our own spirituall peace against the like perturbations It hath been usually a part of the Devils spight and pollicy to assault those most in their sicknesse whom he could least prevaile with in their health and to presse upon them with most importunity when he thinkes he hath but a little time to do a great deale of mischief Therfore his malevolence being the motive to his diligence he hath great wrath because he knoweth he hath but a short time Rev. 12.12 And there is not only proofe of it in divinity but reason for it in Philosophy from this maxime Naturall motion is more swift and violent towards the end of it now temptation is a transient motion and since his change from an Angell to a Devill as naturall to him as for heavy things to fall downwards therfore when it draweth nearer the end either his owne end or the parties whom he desires for a prey he will not creepe like a Serpent to deceive but rush in like a Lion to devoure and thence it is that the wicked many times die quietly like lambes whereas the godly are put to many sharpe violent conflicts with him both in life and death for it is with the one fort according to the saying of our blessed Saviour Luk. 11.21 The strong man armed keepeth the honse and so all is at peace But for the other he stormeth out-ragiously to disturbe his peace because he is kept out of possession and the more haply because he hath little hope to possesse so glorious a prize so that his fiercenesse is many times the effect of his foyle as in the 12. of the Revelation when he was disappointed of his prey of the woman that brought forth a man child she being carried by the wings of an Eagle out of his reach Rev. 12.14 he cast out of his mouth a flood of water after her ver 15. And when the Earth swallowed up the flood wherby he meant to have swallowed up both her and her child he was wrath with the woman ver 16 17. because he could not satisfie his rage with their ruine Secondly for further attestation of the godly's troubles doubts and feares of the favour of God somtimes with-holding his gracious countenance from them as if he did not meane to be mercifull to them we may produce as witnesses unto it the examples of two most renowned whether for Religion towards God or acceptation with God Job and David First for Job how deplorable and desperate did his condition appeare to be when he said The Arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson thereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God set themselves in array against me Job 6.4 and at the 16. Chapter I was at ease saith he but he broke me asunder he hath also taken me by the necke and shaken me in peeces and set me up for his marke his Archers compasse me round about he cleaveth my reines asunder and doth not spare he powreth out my gall upon the ground he breaketh me with breach upon breach and runneth upon me like a Gyant Cha. 16. ver 12 13 14. What a tempest of temptation to distrust and despaire doe these patheticall speeches import and his deeds evidenced a desperate distraction as well as his words when as in a fit of spirituall frenzy He tooke his flesh into his teeth Chap. 13.14 Secondly for David how fearfull was his distraction how full of distrust was he when he thus complained My heart is sore pained within me fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon me and horrour hath overwhelmed me Psal 55.4 5. in the 77th Psalme whether it were a Psalme of Asaph as the composer of the Ditty for he was a Seer or Prophet and an inditer of Psalmes 2 Chron. 29.30 or a Psalme for Asaph as a Musition to set it into Tune or to sing it as the Title may be varied The Psamist there sheweth that himselfe had been under a black-cloud which ecclipsed the sight of Gods mercy from him when he passionately put forth such expostulations as these
so out of envy as in the Apology for Herodotus the Authour telleth of a little Child who killed his Brother because the Mother of them both proferred him as Joseph did Benjamin before the rest of his Bretheren giving him a better or greater refection of mâ—ate then to himselfe which we may the rather believe by that we reade in * Quintil. Instit Orat. lib. 5. cap. 9. Quintilian of a Boy who was naturally so cruell as to make it a pastime with a sharpe instrument to pluck out the eyes of Quailes for which he was condemned by the Aecopagite Judges And by the observation of ″ Aug. confess l. 1. c. 7. Augustine of a little sucking Infant growing pale with envy to see another such an one as himselfe to be his partner in the milke of his Nurses breast Jealousie of the Wife of the bosome hath the like operation for kinde but for degree of indignation it goeth farre beyond it and for danger it as much exceedeth it as a man in wit and strength overmatcheth a child so much is signified by Solomon Jealousie saith he is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance he will not regard any ransome neither will he rest content though thou givest him many gifts Prov. 6.34 35. and the Devill who was a murtherer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 and as antiently a deceiver as a murtherer for his first murther had as much of the subtilty of the Serpent in it as of the sting so blindes the mindes of men sometimes as to make not only the passions of men the motives to these bloody mischiefes but to engage their consciences unto it so farre as to make them conceive it a service acceptable to God and so as bound in conscience to performe it to kill his best servants so much our Saviour himselfe hath foretold Joh. 16.2 and his saving by the powerfull imposture of the destroyer hath been often fulfilled * Cent. 16. Ofiand Epit. cent lâ— 2 ca. 2. part 1. pag. 115. from that time to this In the last precedent Centurie we have a prodigious example of his fanguinarie seducement in an Anabaptisticall Enthusiast killing his own Brother in the presence of his Parents as an imitation of Abrahams offering to sacrifice his Son Isaack Gen. 22.10 God was pleased with the offer only and forbad the act v 11 12. but the Devill that red Dragon as he is called Rev. 12.3 delighting in the effusion of mans blood drove on the delusion of his fancy through his conscience affections and will to the execution of his hand All this while I have said nothing of the mortality of the Sword in the prodigall effusion of blood by warre which to that of single slaughters is like the flowing of the Sea to the running of the channels whereof heretofore we have taken notice only by heare-say or reading and I wish I were put to it to make you apprehensive of it only by memorandums out of antient and forraine warres as of the Carthaginians and Romans or the Turks and Scythians or of the Frenchmen and Spaniards the Spaniards and Hollanders the Swedes and Imperialists or if we must have our part in that more then brutish malignity For the rage of beasts never bestrewed either Land or Sea with so many dead carcases as humane hostility hath done nor was it ever so permanent in time as either to muse much upon mischiefe before they doe it or to retaine a long remembrance of it after it is done that it were betwixt English and Irish Protestant and Papist but we have lived to be so unhappy as to see death riding furiously upon his red Horse with his great Sword in his hand as hee is described in the Rovel 6.4 and under his Colours who is the most Catholike Generall swaying in all Armies in the World English against English Protestant against Protestant killing one another first in a set Battle ″ Kinton where the Battle was is in the vaile of the Red-horse of the shape of a red-Horse cut out of a red Hill by the Countrey people Cambd of Warwick-shire in his Britan p. 561. in the vale of the Red-horse and since in severall places of the Kingdome and yet like unconverted Sauls we breath out threatnings and slaughter against one another at home as if we had no enemies abroad and that with such deadly bate and spight and in such sort that if the God of peace be not pleased to take up the quarrell the issue of English and Protestant blood may swell up to the Horses bridles for 1600. furlongs as the measure is observed Revel 14.20 come to passe which cannot be without many instances pertinent to my Text for how soone doe many men's lives in a Battle vanish like a vapour their last breath mingling with the vapour and smoake and their dying groanes stifled in the hideous noyse of roaring Artillery And if we hold on in the practice of these mutuall massacres of one another we may become so hardened against both Christian charity and common humanity as to make but a sport or play of thrusting Swords into out fellowes sides as we reade of Abners and Joabs Souldiers 2 Sam. 2. v. 14 15 16. The third generall cause of contraction of mans life is casuall mishaps which are so many as we may well say of them as * Plin. nat hist lib 7. cap. 57. some doe of diseases that they are innumerable I will give a touch of some few particulars to which your owne consideration and it may be experience also may adde many more if a man doe but offer to stirre out of doores where sinne lyeth as was said to Cain Gen. 4. there death will be as if there were such an inseperable society betwixt them as Ruth professed unto Naomi Ruth 1.16 and indeed the league betwixt sinne and death is much more firme then that ¶ Idem lib 7. cap 53. Emilius Lepidus did but hit his toe upon the doore-sill and though the hurt were so farre from his heart he died upon it If a man get safely out of dores it may be he shall not live to come in againe a beast chased and chafed by the driver may gore him to death and there are divers instances of this kind or a drunkard worse then a beast mocked by wine and enraged by strong drinke as Solomon saith Prov. 20.1 for it deludeth the fancy and raiseth the passions to fury may fall upon him as if he meant to sacrifice him to Bacchus or in the streets a tile from an house as a peece of a Milstone throwne from a Tower which broke the skull of Abimelech Judg. 9.53 may smite him sodainly dead The like deadly blow light upon the head of a Schollar by the * Purchas Microcosm p. 190.191 192. falling of a letter of stone from the battlements of the house of the Earle of Northampton neare Charing-crosse while he was a
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
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