Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A02166
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The repentance of Robert Greene Maister of Artes. Wherein by himselfe is laid open his loose life, with the manner of his death
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Greene, Robert, 1558?-1592.
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1592
(1592)
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STC 12306; ESTC S119749
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13,805
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32
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so harde but the drops of raine will hollowe so there is no heart so voide of grace or giuen ouer to wilfull follie but the mercifull fauour of God can mollifie An instance of the like chaunced to my selfe being a man wholy addicted to all gracelesse indeuors giuen from my youth to wantonnes brought vp in riot who as I grew in yeares so I waxed more ripe in vngodlines that I was the mirrour of mischiefe and the very patterne of all preiudiciall actions for I neither had care to take any good course of life nor yet to listen to the friendly perswasions of my parents I seemed as one of no religion but rather as a meere Atheist contemning the holy precepts vttered by any learned preather I would smile at such as would frequent the Church or such place of godly exercise would scoffe at any that would checke mee with any wholesome or good admonition so that herein I seemed a meere reprobate the child of Sathan one wipt out of the booke of life and as an outcast from the face and fauor of God I was giuen ouer to drunkennes so that I lightly accounted of that company that would not intertaine my inordinate quaffing And to this beastly sinne of gluttotonie I added that detestable vice of swearing taking a felicitie in blaspeming prophaning the name of God confirming nothing idlely but with such solemne oths that it amazed euen my companions to heare mee And that I might seeme to heape one sinne vpon another I was so rooted therein that whatsoeuer I got I stil consumed the same in drunkennes Liuing thus a long time God who suffereth sinners to heape coles of fire vpon their owne heads and to bee fed fat with sinne against the day of vengeance suffered me to go forward in my loose life many warninges I had to draw me from my detestable kind of life and diuers crosses to contrary my actions but all in vaine for though I were sundry times afflicted with many foule and greeuous diseases and thereby scourged with the rod of Gods wrath yet when by the great labor frendship of sundry honest persons they had though to their great charges sought procured my recouery I did with the Dog Redire in vomitum I went again with the Sow to wallow in the mire and fell to my former follies as frankly as if I had not tasted any iot of want or neuer been scourged for them Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati my daily custome in sinne had cleane taken away the feeling of my sinne for I was so giuen to these vices aforesaide that I counted them rather veniall scapes faults of nature than any great and greeuous offences neither did I care for death but held it onely as the end of life For comming one day into Aldersgate street to a welwillers house of mine hee with other of his friendes perswaded mee to leaue my bad course of life which at length would bring mee to vtter destruction whereupon I scoffingly made them this answer Tush what better is he that dies in his bed than he that endes his life at Tyburne all owe God a death if I may haue my desire while I liue I am satisfied let me shift after death as I may My friends hearing these words greatly greeued at my gracelesse resolution made this reply If you feare not death in this world nor the paines of the body in this life yet doubt the second death the losse of your soule which without hearty repentance must rest in hell fire for euer and euer Hell quoth I what talke you of hell to me I know if I once come there I shal haue the company of better men than my selfe I shal also meete with some madde knaues in that place so long as I shall not sit there alone my care is the lesse But you are mad folks quoth I for if I feared the Iudges of the bench no more than I dread the iudgements of God I would before I slept diue into one Carles bagges or other and make merrie with the shelles I found in them so long as they would last And though some in this company were Fryers of mine owne fraternitie to whom I spake the wordes yet were they so amazed at my prophane speeches that they wisht themselues foorth of my company Whereby appeareth that my continuall delight was in sinne and that I made my selfe drunke with the dregges of mischiefe But beeing departed thence vnto my lodging and now grown to the full I was checked by the mightie hand of God for Sicknes the messenger of death attached me and tolde me my time was but short and that I had not long to liue whereupon I was vexed in mind and grew very heauy As thus I sate solempuly thinking of my end and feeling my selfe waxe sicker and sicker I fell into a great passion and was wonderfully perplexed yet no way discouered my agony but sate still calling to mind the lewdnes of my former life at what time sodainly taking the booke of Resolution in my hand I light vpon a chapter therein which discouered vnto mee the miserable state of the reprobate what Hell was what the worme of Conscience was what tormentes there was appointed for the damned soules what vnspeakable miseries what vnquenchable flames what intollerable agonies what incomprehensible griefs that there was nothing but feare horrour veration of mind depriuation from the sight and fauour of God weeping and gnashing of teeth and that al those tortures were not termined or dated within any compasse of yeares but euerlasting world without end concluding all in this of the Psalmes Ab inferis nulla est redemptio After that I had with deepe consideration pondered vpon these points such a terrour stroke into my conscience that for very anguish of minde my teeth did beate in my head my lookes waxed pale and wan and fetching a great sigh I cried vnto God and said If all this be true oh what shall become of me If the rewarde of sinne be death and hell how many deaths and hels do I deserue that haue beene a most miserable sinner If damnation be the meed for wickednes then am I damned for in all the world there neuer liued a man of worser life Oh what shall I doe I cannot call to God for mercie for my faultes are beyond the compasse of his fauour the punishment of the body hath an ende by death but the paines of the soule by death are made euerlasting Then what a miserable case am I in if I die yet if my death might redeeme my offences wash away my sinnes oh might I suffer euery day twentie deathes while seuen yeares lasteth it were nothing but when I shall end a contempt to the world I shal enioy the disdaine of men the displeasure of God my soule that immortall creature shall euerlastingly bee damned Oh woe is mee why doe I liue nay rather why was I borne Cursed
sure so to behaue my selfe towards him that he shoulde euer after professe to bee my vtter enemie or else vowe neuer after to come in my company Thus my misdemeanors too many to bee recited caused the most part of those so much to despise me that in the end I became friendles except it were in a fewe Alehouses who commonly for my inordinate expences would make much of me vntil I were on the score far more than euer I meant to pay by twenty nobles thick After I had wholy betaken me to the penning of plaies which was my continuall exercise I was so far from calling vpon God that I sildome thought on God but tooke such delight in swearing and blaspheming the name of God that none could thinke otherwise of mee than that I was the child of perdition These vanities and other trifling Pamphlets I penned of Loue and vaine fantasies was my chiefest stay of liuing and for those my vaine discourses I was beloued of the more vainer sort of people who beeing my continuall companions came still to my lodging and there would continue quaffing carowsing and surfeting with me all the day long But I thanke God that hee put it in my head to lay open the most horrible coosenages of the common Conny-catchers Cooseners and Crosse-biters which I haue indifferently handled in those my seuerall discourses already imprinted And my trust is that those discourses will doe great good and bee very beneficiall to the Common-wealth of England But oh my deare Wife whose company and sight I haue refrained these sixe yeares I aske God and thee forgiuenesse for so greatly wronging thee of whome I seldome or neuer thought vntill now Pardon mee I pray thee where soeuer thou art and God forgiue mee all my offences And now to you all that liue and reuell in such wickednesse as I haue done to you I write and in Gods name wish you to looke to your selues and to reforme your selues for the safegard of your owne soules dissemble not with God but seeke grace at his handes hee hath promist it and he will performe it God doth sundry times deferre his puishment vnto those that runne a wicked race but Quod defertur non aufertur that which is deferde is not quittanst a day of reckoning will come when the Lord will say Come giue account of thy Stewardship What God determineth man cannot preuent he that binds two sinnes together cannot go vnpunisht in the one so long the Pot goeth to the Pit that at last it comes broken home Therefore all my good friends hope not in money nor in friends in fauors in kindred they are all vncertaine and they are furthest off when men thinke them most nigh Oh were I now to begin the flower of my youth were I now in the prime of my yeares how far would I bee from my former follyes what a reformed course of life would I take but it is too late onely now the comfortable mercies of the Lord is left me to hope in It is bootlesse for me to make any long discourse to such as are gracelesse as I haue beene all wholesome warninges are odious vnto them for they with the spider sucke poison out of the most pretious flowers to such as God hath in his secrete councell elected fewe words will suffize But howsoeuer my life hath beene let my repentant ende be a generall example to all the youth in England to obey their parentes to flie whoredome drunkennes swearing blaspheming contempt of the word and such greéuous and grosse sinnes least they bring their parents heads with sorrow to their graues and least with mee they be a blemish to their kindred and to their posteritie for euer Thus may you see how God hath secrete to himselfe the times of calling and when hee will haue them into his vineyard some hee calles in the morning some at noone and some in the euening and yet hath the last his wages aswell as the first For as his iudgementes are inscrutable so are his mercies incomprehensible And therefore let all men learne these two lessons not to despaire because God may worke in them through his spirit at the last houre nor to presume least God giue them ouer for their presumption and deny them repentance and so they die impenitent which finalis impenitentia is a manifest sinne against the holy Ghost To this doth that golden sentence of S. Augustine allude which hee speaketh of the theefe hanging on the Crosse. There was saith hee one theefe saued and no more therefore presume not and there was one saued and therefore despaire not And to conclude take these caueats hereafter following Certaine Cauiats sent by Robert Greene to a frend of his as a farewell written with his owne hande 1 THe feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome therfore serue God least he suffer thee to be lead into temptation 2 Despise neither his worde nor his Minister for her that heareth not can haue no faith without faith no man can be saued 3 Obey thy Prince for he that lifteth his hande against the Lords anointed shall be like vnto a withered plant 4 Despise not the counsaile of thy Father nor the wholesome admonition of thy mother for he that listeneth not to their lessons shall be cut off in his youth 5 Spend the prime of thy yeares in vertue so dost thou lay an earnest pennie of honorable age 6 Flie the sweetnes of the grape for a man that is giuen to much wine shall neuer be rich 7 Take not the name of God in vaine for then thou shalt not bee guiltlesse nor shall the curse of God come neare thy house 8 A man that delights in harlots shall heape sinne vpon his soule he shall be an open shame in the streets and his place shall not be knowne 9 He that robbeth from his neighbour purchaseth discredit to himselfe and his kindred and he shall not go to his graue with honor 10 Who medleth with pitch shall be defiled and he that eateth the bread of Robbers fatneth himselfe against the day of vengeance 11 Giue not thy youth ouer to the Deuill neyther vow the dregs of thy olde age vnto God for a repentant mind commeth from God 12 Remember thy end and thou shalt neuer doe amisse and let the law of the Lord be a lanthorne to thy feete so shall thy pathes bee aright and thou die with honour Robert Greene. The manner of the death and last end of Robert Greene Maister of Artes. AFter that he had pend the former discourse then lying sore sicke of a surfet which hee had taken with drinking hee continued most patient and penitent yea he did with teares forsake the world renounced swearing and desired forgiuenes of God and the worlde for all his offences so that during all the time of his sicknesse which was about a moneths space hee was neuer heard to sweare raue or blaspheme the name of God as he was accustomed