crimes and offences doe banish for euer the malefactors from humane society Who shall dare to say that it is iniquity in God the Lord of the permanent and durable City if he eternally banish out of his kingdome of glory his sworne enemies the wicked who continually offend him And the polluted prophane vniust reprobates who plot and conspire against God and their neighbours remaine for euer vnder the wrath and curse of the Lord For iustification of all consider onely the corruption of humane nature and what the sonnes of Adam are in themselues For howsoeuer the beleefe touching the immortality of mans soule be orthodox and most true yet may it fitly bee sayd that the soule is subiect to a certaine kind of death Wee call it immortall because it ceaseth not to liue and in some sort to haue sence and feeling The body is mortall because it may bee depriued of life which consistes in the residence of the soule in it from whence floweth that which doth maintaine it not liuing of it selfe but by the soule which doth gouerne and mooue it But the death of the soule is when God doth abandon it and depriue it of his grace And wee say that man is vtterly dead when the soule is quite gone out of the body and that God doth abandon the soule finally adiudged to euerlasting torments S. Augustine will that the name of death bee deriued from the venomous morsure or sting of the infernall serpent the diuel then by him brought into the world when hee first bit and stung out first mother Eue leauing fast sticking in vs the sting of sinne which the Apostle calleth the sting of death This sting being blunted and taken away death ceaseth mortally to sting vs. When S. Ambrose writeth in his Treatise of the benefit of death Chap. 1. 2. that death hurteth not the soule consequently is not euill seeing that nothing but sinne hurteth the soule it is to bee vnderstood of the bodily death in respect of Gods children Therefore hee maketh a â—hree-fold distinction of death the one good the other euill the third good or euill The good is the mysticall death when a man dyeth to sinne and liueth to God whereof the Apostle speaketh That we are buried with Christ Iesus into his death by Baptisme The euill is the death of sinne whereof it is written Then soule that sinneth shall dye And the third is the end of our race and calling in this world that is the separation of the soule from the body of good men accounted good of wicked men euill Although death doth vnshackle and set all persons at liberty very few yet are to bee found which take pleasure therein But this proceedeth not from any offence that is in death that is in the separatiof the soule from the body but from the infirmity of mortall men who suffering themselues to goe on in their carnall pleasures and delights of this life doe tremble and feare to see themselues at the end of their race in the earth louing long life there to liue euilly that is there to dye hourely O how sweet is the good death to wise old men to men and women who are the seruants of God who watch who pray who cry to their Lord in repentance in faith and charity who manfully fight against all temptations And how bitter is the euill death to those euill soules vnbeleeuers stiffe necked ones hypocrites who wrap themselues in their sinnes who haue no pleasure hope nor comfort but in this world These things being so it is easie to shew how death is to be feared or not Certainely the death of sinners is euill who not content to be borne in sinne liue still in all manner of iniquities But the death of the Saints is precious being the end of their labours and toyles the conseruation and custos of their victory the doore of life and the entrance into an assured perfect glorious rest Those are to bee bewayled in their death who haue hell for their prison But it beseemes vs to reioyce and bee glad at their departure whom God doth bid welcome into his heauenly Palace where they magnifie him for euer If any one aske vs sayth Lactantius in the third Booke of his Christian Institutions whether death be good or euill wee will answere that the qualitie thereof doth consist in the consideration of life in it selfe Death in it selfe cannot bee sayd to bee good pleasing and to be desired on the contrary it is the destruction of nature and the reward of sinne But wee must esteeme it a thing worthy great prayse pleasing and full of grace and delight when wee dye ioyfully in the true knowledge of Christ Iesus to goe out of the prison of this mortall body out of this valley of miseries out of this desart where we are exiled persons to returne to our Father our countrey and heauenly city He dyeth well who with the Apostle sayth in sincerity of conscience all my desire is to depart hence and to bee with Christ Iesus Particularly as touching my selfe I haue fought the good fight I haue finished my course I haue kept the faith also the crowne of righteousnesse is layd vp and reserued for mee which the Lord the iust Iudge shall in that day giue vnto me not to me onely but to those who loue his appearing Againe death and the remembrance and apprehension of it is wonderfull irkesome and bitter to a man which trusteth in his riches liuing in all ease in full strength of body and prosperity Here we demand what we are to judge of the death of those who are cruelly quartered and dismembred by hangmen or by fierce and wilde beastes are swallowed vp in the belly of fishes are stifled with a suddaine apoplexie are bereaued of wit sense and reason by some hot burning feaver or who die franticke and madd As for those who are put to cruell death for the name of Christ Iesus the answere is that their death cannot bee tearmed and accompted but deare and precious in the sight of the Lord and of all his Church For if the heathen Philosophers haue had some reason to say that a vertuous man leaues not to be happie though he bee put to a violent death why should we not say the same of the true vertuous to wit the holy Martyrs seeing we haue so certaine testimonies and so many famous examples of their faith charitie patience and constancie in death The Epistle to the Hebrewes is herein expresse for it conteyneth the heroicall trophies of faith also the opprobries disgracefull reuilings and cruell torments of the invincicible Champions of Christ Iesus But I pray you what torments can dismay and terrifie him which glorieth in the crosse of Christ Iesus among all others a shamefull and terrible torment and death Turtullian obserueth in his Apologetico that in his tyme Christians were called Sarmentitij Semissij bavinistes and poore snakes because they were bound to a stake which
a heauy and vnsupportable burthen whose weight doth suppresse them and cause them to tumble into euerlasting perdition 5. Fifthly let vs now adde some assured consolations against death and first we will draw from certaine places of the holy Scripture the faire termes and names which it giueth to death to sweeten vnto vs the apprehension of it By whose testimony to dye is to bee gathered to his people as it is said of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. It is to goe the way of all the earth 1. Kings 2. 2. It is to be bound vp in the bundle of life 1. Sam. 25. 29. It is to be taken away from euill to enter into peace and rest in our beds Esaiah 57. 1 2. It is to be in the shadow and at rest as the hireling which hath ended his dayes worke Iob 7. 1. 2. It is to sleepe Iohn 11. 11. 1. Thess 4. 13. To rest from his labours Apocalips 14. 13. It is to goe out of the world to goe to God our Father Iohn 13. 1. It is to goe to our Fathers house where there are many dwelling places Iohn 14. 1. It is to returne to our home and countrey after a long painefull and perillous voyage 2. Cor. 5. 6. It is to be vnshackled and deliuered out of a galley or prison to bee with Christ Iesus Philip. 1. 23. It is to goe hence out of a poore beggarly tabernacle 2 Peter 1. 14. It is to be clothed in heauen with glory and immortality 2. Cor. 5. 1. 2. It is to finish our course and our fight to receiue a crowne 2. Timoth. 4. 7. 8. It is to goe to the Nuptialls of the Lambe and his Bride in the Celestiall Ierusalem in the City of God all garnished with gold and precious stones that is adorned with incomprehensible glory and eternall happinesse Apocalips 21. 1. c. It is to liue with Iesus Christ a thousand yeares to wit for euer Apocalips 20. 4. This life and glorious immortality is manifested vnto vs in the Gospel by Christ Iesus who by his appearing hath abolished death 2. Timothie 1. 10. Wherefore then should a wise man feare to goe to his Fathers and would haue a way by himselfe Is it well done not to will and desire to be gathered with the true liuing from so many euills without within aboue belowe behinde before and round about vs After so many battailes so many conflicts skirmishes and wounds especially in the soule to refuse peace to rest out of the short and danger of the weapons teares alarmes vacarmes gurboyles and stirres of the world of our owne heart of the corruption of the wicked and of the powers of Sathan our capitall aduersary O strange case Wee runne after peace and rest and flye from it when it offers it selfe Trauailes and labours weigh vs downe and oppresse vs and we are agaste and abashed to bee ridde of them There is no bed in the world so soft as that where the bodies doe rest when the soules are separated from them notwithstanding not to lie in it we would be contented to bee condemned to goe wooll ward in sackcloth and haire cloth in totters and ragges and to lye on the hard ground or vpon thornes Had we rather dwell with Vipers then with our Father in his heauenly Mansion Those euerlasting Mansions so much to be desired are in lesse account and esteeme with vs then the vncleane and nastie stables of Beastes The earth doth more infinitely please vs then heauen This galley of our life where we tugg both day and night at the oare of ambition auarice cruell lustes debauched pleasures These darke dennes of innumerable sinnes are the resting places that we make much on and wherein we bristle vp our selues and outragiously curse whatsoeuer sacred Philosophie doth propose and set forth vnto vs of the blessed estate of the triumphant Church with her head in heauen What old men are we who grow young in our vices who had rather renounce our sweete Countrie and trott vp and downe in the hideous desertes of the world full of scorpions and Basilisques of horrid ghostes and hob goblins and so many kindes of Deuills then to set one steppe in the right way of repentant faith of charitable hope and patient humilitie Men of wit where is our wit when our bodies are of more price vnto vs then our soules and we are willing to forgoe and loose our armes to saue our sleeues Who preferre a garment before eternall glory a handfull of crownes before most durable treasures a fond idle wicked damnable pleasure before euerlasting ioyes Who still desire to runne on in the way of perdition who fight and striue against nothing but pietie righteousnesse holinesse to conclude who purchase a buryall place for vertue to cause vice to raigne and triumph When will it be that the invitation to the solemne feast of the Sonne of God with his Church will please and be well-come vnto vs When will we prouide our costly rich robes to appeare in this holy assembly Will we still deferre to cleanse our selues from the filth of sinne which makes vs holds downe the head to blush to looke pale and wan to be halfe dead or in a traunce not to dare once to lift vp the eyes of our minde but in hypocrisie and a very strange stupiditie to him which calleth vs to him to the gates of the Pallace whereunto we are so neere Wise old men awaken and rouze vp your selues and more deepely yet consider and meditate vpon the consolations insinuated and inserted in the termes and names which diuine wisedome giueth and ascribeth to death It is demanded seeing Christ Iesus hath abolished death and that by him we are reconciled to God to obtaine eternall life how comes it to passe that we are still subiect to death S. Augustine answereth that heretofore death came and was by sin haled into the world but now death takes away our temporall life to the end we should cease from sinne and that the remembrance of death doe keepe and conteme vs in our dutie So by the vnspeakeable mercie of God the punishment of our sinnes was changed into an armour or shield against sinnes And although that the death of the flesh proceedeth originally from sinne so is it that the good aspect and face of death hath made many excellent Martyrs And although death and all the euils trauailes and turmoyles vexations and sorrowes of this present life proceed from the desert of our sinnes and that after hauing obtained pardon these euills remaine still it is to the end we should haue aduersaries to wrastle against and to exercise vs to make knowne and sensible to vs how strong the power of the Lord is in our weakenes And that so the new man may grow vp and bee fitted and prepared in this world for the world to come looking for the perfect and compleat happinesse of all Gods children Therefore repentant Christians whose sins are pardoned and who accept
is mortall in vs may bee swallowed vp of life In heauen which indeed is the land of the liuing we shall be stripped of all that is vile contemptible mortall fraile and corruptible in vs and shall bee clothed with a robe of glory and blessed immortality In which countrey as Saint Augustine in some place saith we shall finde true and faithfull dealing and from whence all impostures errour and falshood is banished as there our ioy shal be a true ioy so there our life also shall bee a true life Now although the damned doerise againe yet to speake properly they shall not liue for their life shall bee in perpetuall torments and therefore are they stil kept aliue that their tortures should neuer haue end that their gnawing worme die not and that their fire of torment goe not out That life onely is to bee accounted a life which is both euerlasting and happy God hauing no purpose therefore that his elect children should mewe vp or confine their felicitie within the little narrow compasse of a brittle and perishing life but should seeke out and looke for another countrey where they may liue at more libertie and for euer hath beene contented to giue them a most assured testimony thereof before the law and before the flood in the person of the Patriarch Henoch then vnder the law in the middle age of the world in the person of his Prophet Eliah and in the last age of the world in the person of Iesus Christ Which three persons are now gone into heauen The first two as young schollers and disciples purposely trained vp and chosen to bee heires of eternall life that they might bee to all others worthy witnesses of euerlasting happinesse and that the men of their times might euidently see and bee assured by that which fell out in the liues of these two great persons whom Tertullian in his Booke of the resurrection of the flesh surnameth The white robed Saints of eternitie that there is another land of the liuing where wee shall one day meete together as well in body as in soule And as for Christ Iesus our Sauiour he as head of the Church and as a tryumphing conquerour of death and hell is ascended into heauen to prepare a place in his kingdome for those that be his to draw vnto him at the appointed time all the members of his mysticall body Then shall be fulfilled all the words of the Prophet mentioned in the end of the hundred and second Psalme Thou hast afore all times laid the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they shall waxe old as a garment thou shalt alter and change them as a garment and they shall be altered and changed But thou art alwayes the same thy yeares shall bee at a stay and neuer faile the children of thy seruants shal dwell in thy presence and their seed shall remaine and be established in thy sight CHAP. III. Of the tree of Life and of the tree of Knowledge of good and euill MOst happy was the state and condition of our father Adam before his fall in that excellent Garden where his Creator had placed him Where so long as he would doe that which God commanded him hee liued at pleasure and hearts ease was in fauour with God who created him good he wanted neither meat nor drinke conuenient nor any good thing The tree of Life was a strong guard to his person to defend him against the assaults of old age that it durst not come neere to approch or seize on him he needed not to feare sicknesse or any outward thing to hurt or annoy him hee had there perfect health of body and tranquilitie of minde This Saint Augustine affirmes of him in his 14. Booke De Ciuitate Des chap. 16. Let vs adde that which Damascene writes of him in the eleuenth Chapter of Orthodoxall faith in these words That Gods will and purpose being to create man after his owne image and to make him the prime Monarch ouer all the world hee prepared and built him a most stately and sumptuous Palace where hee might lead his life in all happinesse And this was the Garden of Eden a store house of all sorts of spices and of all things else which might giue him content and delight a place very temperate radiant and shining with a most cleere wholesome pure and fresh ayre strewed all ouer with greene hearbes and with most fragrant and sweet smelling flowers In the middest was planted the tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill to no other end but to prooue and exercise his obedience and that hee might see that Gods will was not that hee should be distracted with diuers and wandring imaginations and that his chiefest businesse should bee to prayse and blesse his Creator and to make it his solace and delight to sixe his thoughts and affections on him These testimonies of Saint Augustine and Damascene doe explaine the wordes of Moyses who saide that the earthly Paradise for so is the Garden of Eden commonly called was not an allegoricall and imaginary Garden or some Orchard hanging in the ayre and not really in nature but it was the sight of a goodly countrey surueyed by measure had his bounds and abuttments vpon a certaine angle of the world towards the East where Eue was framed and carued out of the side of Adam and where trees and fruits did naturally growe and was the foode by which they did liue And this Garden of Eden was not the whole continent of the earth for Adam and Eue after their fall were banished and driuen out of it to goe to seeke there dwelling elsewhere All Diuines doe affirme that in the History of Adams creation as things are penned and set downe by Moyses in the three first Chapters of Genesis there were many mysteries contained But it followes not as Saint Augustine in his eight Booke vpon Genesis according to the litterall text learnedly cleares the point that in the said History of Adams first estate there was nothing conteined but Allegories Idenes and things mysticall As it must not bee inferred vnder the collour and pretext that the pillar which followed the people in the Desert was Christ that there was not a materiall and naturall rocke out of which gushed out waters which did naturally quench the peoples thirst in the Desert If then a mysticall and typicall sense bee the matter in question Saint Ambrose in his fourth Volume and Tractat Saint Augustine in his second Booke vpon Genesis vrging the words of the text litterally against the Manichees and Damascene in the place before alledged doe also say that the Garden of Eden was a figure of the Paradise and felicity of the Church in the middest whereof was planted Christ the true tree and bread of life out of which followeth riuers of heauenly and euerlasting life As also that it signified and
made a representation of the Kingdome of heauen and to this latter signification our Lord seemes to referre when to the Theefe vpon the Crosse who repented acknowledged his Sauiour and made so excellent a confession of his faith as no Christian can make a better he said This day shalt thou bee with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. Concerning the tree of Life Saint Augustine in his 26. Chapter of the fourth Booke De ciuitate Dei and other antient an moderne Diuines doe thinke that the tree of Life was so called not because the fruite of it sustained man in life as other fruits doe but that by a speciall blessing the fruit of it did maintaine Adam and Eue in life and strength of body that they were not troubled with any disease They gather their exposition on from this that Adam after his fall was by the commandement of God banished with his wife out of the garden of Eden to this end that he should not stretch forth his hand to gather and eat of the fruit of this tree whereby hee might liue for euer And from the Cherubins which with a wauing and flourishing sharpe edged sword were placed towards the East part of the garden to keepe him from comming that way to the tree of life Gen. 3. 22. 24. Some Diuines said that after Adams reuolt the passage way to the tree of life was barrocadoed and shut vp not that God feared that Adam after he had receiued his doome and iudgement to returne to the dust of the earth from whence hee was taken could by eating of the fruit of the tree of life recouer immortalitie but that he hauing made himselfe a mortall creature and lost his dignity should haue his scutchion of honour taken from him and trampled vnder feet and all the ornaments badges and markes of the fauour of God and immortality For otherwise to speake properly God alone is the head spring of life Psal 36. 10. Nay he is our life and the length of dayes Deut. 30. 20. And not any tree nor the fruit of a tree And wittily doth Aristotle scoffe at Hesiodus and his other fellow Poets who tooke vpon them to make a materiall bread and drinke for the liuing gods which they called Nectar and Ambrosia S. Augustine in his eight booke vpon Genesis seemeth out of the wordes of the text very fitly to resolue this point of doctrine when hee saith that all the fruits of other trees were giuen to man for the nourishment and food of his body but the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill were giuen him in the nature and quality of a Sacrament Other Diuines whose opion I reiect not doe hold that the tree of life was a figure of the Gospel and the tree of knowledge of good and euill was a figure of the Law that Adam and Eue by eating of the fruit of this latter tree might now come to know good and bad vertue and vice right and wrong iustice or iniustice or by their disobedience to God in doing that which he had forbidden them might learne to their owne confusion from what an excellent state they were fallen and into what an abisse and bottomlesse gulfe of confusion they had plunged themselues Many ancient learned men doe write that the tree of life did signifie wisedome planted in the middest of the garden that is ingraffed or infused into the heart of man which is in the middest of his body And for proofe hereof they alledge the place in the third chapter of the Prouerbes where it is said That wisedome is a tree of life to those that lay hold of it We thinke no lesse but that Salomon in that sentence doth allude to the tree of life in the garden of Eden which was to our first Parents a Sacrament of the life which they had receiued of God and which had beene perpetuated to them if they had not rebelled against him And that he doth also admonish vs that the meanes to recouer that happy life to enioy Gods fauour againe is to apply our selues to that study of wisdome which is taught vs chiefly in the Gospel of which S. Paul saith We speake not the wisdome of the world but the wisedome of God in a mystery which is a hid wisedome 1. Cor. 2. 6 7. And the same Iesus Christ which by God was made wisedome for vs is our resurrection and life Concerning the tree of knowledge of good euill many doe wonder that it was planted in the terrestriall and earthly Paradise seeing it was the occasion and materiall cause of the death of Adam and Eue. But Diuines and namely S. Basil and S. Augustine doe wisely make answere That God planted no tree that was euill neither made he death neither did he set or plant any such tree in the garden to be the occasion of mans ruine and destruction but to prooue his obedience and to beget in him an habite of abstinence and to weane him to sobrietie so that although this tree was pleasant to beholde yet was it not meete that Adam and Eue should climbe it to satisfie their greedy appetites but should abstaine and forbeare so to doe because God had for bidden them to gather and eate of the fruit thereof To conclude with S. Augustine The Lords will was that the reasonable creature should see that he was not to be at his owne caruing and appointment but as a creature to yeeld all obedience to his Creatour and in yeelding obedience should finde it to be best for his health and welfare Thus then Adams estate was excellent and aboue all things to be desired wherein hee abounded in all ioy integrity iustice and holinesse if hee had continued in this happy estate wherein God created him But after hee had eaten of the forbidden fruit of a man iust happy and immortall he became a sinner miserable and mortall These things being so wee the miserable posterity of Adam who haue tasted of the forbidden fruit transgressed in the thing forbidden and by our disobedience brought vpon vs the first and second death seperated and estranged our selues from God the author of our life and of our good being and welfare are exhorted and put in minde to haue our recourse in true faith vnto that Mediatour who by his death and resurrection hath opened vnto vs the celestiall Paradise who giueth vs to eate of the tree of life planted in the Paradise of God Apocal. 2. 7. not of a figuratiue and typicall tree but that we might haue a right and interest in Iesus Christ the true tree of life and in the heauenly Ierusalem which is euerlasting life Apocal. 22. 14. For in our Sauiour is the truth and the accomplishment of all types and figures and whosoeuer beleeueth in him shall not come to condemnation but shall goe from death to life Vpon this sentence S. Paul in the first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romanes 17. Verse doth ground this
principle The iust shall liue by faith CHAP. IIII. What old age is and how many species and kindes of old age there be THE disloyaltie and fearefulnesse of Adam and Eue was the violent downefall of themselues and their posteritie vnto death and vnto all the forerunners of death as consumption diseases and wanne and pale old age which is the respectacle center and sinke of all mans miseries To speake properly God onely is incorruptible immortall immutable alwayes the same and whose yeares alter not And although it be said that the soule of man is immortall as Saint Augustine affirmeth in his first booke De Trinitate yet the true immortality is a perfect immutability and vnchangeablenes which no creature hath In God onely there is no variablenesse nor shadow of change as saith Saint Iames Chap. 1. 17. Verse Contrariwise our liues are variable and subiect to suddaine reuolutions changes and chances and our faire outside and feature of body turnes to bee as a moth eaten garment Our dayes as the Patriarch Iacob said to the king of AEgypt are few and euill or wearisome vpon earth Galen knowing well that old age a naturall infirmity which could not be auoyded did iustly reproue a certaine Philosopher who braggingly gaue it out that hee had a receipt would preserue a man from growing old Although saith hee old age be naturall and ineuitable and withall further addeth that this Philosopher being growen to the age of fourescore yeares dyed of a hectique feauer At that time when Saint Cyprian liued the whole world was iudged to be very much weather-beaten to be growen old and that all her former good dayes were gone and past Behold what this couragious Martyr of Iesus Christ saith of the world in his tractate of death If the old walles of your house should stand totteringly if the battlement and roofe should shake if the maine building should leane awry and the rafters postes groundsells and principall timbers should bee weake and rotten all of them giuing you warning of the perill yee are in if yee tarry in it would yee stand to delay and pawse on the matter and not get yee gone in all hast The whole frame of the world doth totter and reele and being old and neere her end shee cryes out that shee stands vpon her last legges and is quite downe and you deferre to serue God to seeke your owne safety and good by preuenting those euils which with her crimes are ready to fall vpon you and may bee escaped if you timely giue ouer the world Many learned Astronomers haue prooued by firme and sure demonstrations that the celestiall Planets haue altered their course and motions and that the Sun is come neerer to the earth that by his warme neighbour-hood such is the speciall prouidence and will of God the Elements which are become weake in their influences might be the better relieued Most certaine it is that the world is growen old that Kingdomes Common-weales and Cities haue their flourishing times and times of decaie kindreds also and whole families are rooted out and not a man of them to bee seene aboue ground and all the creatures which serue to our vse and are subiect to vanitie doe after their manner groaningly desire and looke for an end as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 20. But to returne to our Vieillard or old man who is the subiect of this discourse what other thing is old age then the road way to death For seeing that death is a suffocating and quenching of the naturall heate of the body old age makes way to him to enter and seize vpon the body the sooner The older men are the more weake and feeble they are in euery thing they doe and take in hand and this weakenesse of old age can in no sort be holpen and redressed though wee striue to doe it by keeping the heare from faintings and failings and in continuall motion For life and action end both at once it being impossible that the liuing creature should die so long as the heart receiues motion by the bodies action Moreouer old men who are of a dry and cold constitution are lesse fit to vndertake many actions exploites or imploiments They are not quicke enough of apprehension their senses fayling them by little and little the synewes lineaments and all the members of their body doe shrinke languish and decay their sight and hearing failes them they are chap-fallen and their teeth deny to champ and grinde the bread they must eat And as God hath appointed euery mans race of life how long it shall be and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it whereof old age is the last stage of all it is not euery mans desteny to goe so farre some waxe old sooner then others some beare their age very well some looke old and are not So that old age must not be iudged by the wrinkles in the fore-head by the white haires by the vnweldinesse or witherednesse of the body there being on the contrary some very old that haue a ruddy face and well coloured a sleeked and smooth skin and their haire of a cole-blacke or nutt-browne colour But it is fit rather to referre our selues to the wordes of the Psalmist in the nineteenth Psalme where mention is made of the yeares of mans life and of those things which often happen therein and of the many and manifold troubles and discommodities wherewith old men are besieged and compassed about Moreouer the Naturalists and Philosophers haue vsed to diuide old age as it were into certaine spaces paces or progresses The first pace and progresse is from fifty to threescore yeares at which age a man is yet lusty strong and youthfull especially those men who haue beene wise to liue abstinently and continently flying gluttony drunkennesse whooredome effeminacies excessiue paines taking and labours more hurtfull then necessary for the welfare and strength of the body ouermuch carking and caring and ouer violent passions of the minde which ouerwhelme the soule not suffering it to rest in quiet or making it to goe gadding and madding heere and there to and fro as it happeneth to the licentious ambitious couetous reuengefull irefull froward fearefull and such like persons who being tempested with disordered thoughts and vnruly passions are carried with the rage and fury of them so farre out of the way of reason and besides themselues that they can hardly hit the right way againe to the house and citie of God And though that after fifty yeares the strength of nature doth wane and by little and little doth abate and grow weake yet wee see that men at that age and after vntilll they bee threescore and fiue yeeres old and vpwardes are fit persons to bee imployed in publike places of charge and command as well for their counsell and wisedome to direct as for their ability and valour to execute and performe wherof we haue infinit examples in our owne Chronicles and moderne Histories
no tormentes nor tortures canne quell or dismay their stoute minde nor no Bug-beare or terror is gastly or horrid enough to fray and affright them The Lord hauing made a couenant with his Church which here on earth is compounded of all sorts of people hath giuen vnto it two strong propps of hope to wit his spirit and his true word This spirit is called the spirit of wisedome vnderstanding counsell power knowledge of sanctification veritie consolation life faith grace The word is called the word of life of saluation of the grace of God of our reconciliation with the father of Heauen A word testifying that all thinges were giuen vs necessary to life and pietie by the knowledge of him who hath called vs by his owne power and glorie by which are giuen vnto vs great and pretious promises that by them wee which are regenerated by the holy Ghost and the word should be made partakers of the diuine nature being deliuered and freed from the concupiscences and corruptions of the world Whosoeuer hath not this spirit of Iesus Christ and trusteth not in the promises of God a midd all his babble and prattle of the contempt of death and the benefit of old age is still in doubt hath feeble hands trembling and staggering knees haltes feedes himselfe with the winde and not with any assured consolation But the iust doe liue by faith are strengthened and vpheld by it which makes them reioyce all wayes in the Lord who sanctifies them preserues whole and entire their mind soule and bodie vnblameable vntill the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ CHAP. XV. An aduise to wise old men conteining the summarie and substance of their dutie vntill their last gaspe IT should remaine now to treat of death and the certaine remedies against it But before we enter therein we will propound to our wise Vieillard an aduise drawne and taken out of the volumes of sacred Philosophie to leade him more easily on to that whereunto he aspires But it behooueth those who are almost at their wayes end more heedfully to consider both the way they haue gone and are to goe for their further encouragement to their dutie Behold then what I pretend to remember to whomsoeuer being in old age will vouchsafe to hearken to him who is drawing neere vnto it It is reason that the grace of God witnessed in so many sortes so many yeares and sealed in our Baptisme at our first entrance into the world and into the Church when we haue rightly apprehended in whom we are dead and in whom quickned doe cause vs to wish a continuall sense and feeling of our adoption by his spirit speaking to vs by his word and witnessing with our spirit that we are the sonnes of God This sense and feeling doth engender or beget an excellent desire an earnest devotion a firme resolution to yeeld him obedience all our life long but more at the dissolution and end of our life then at the beginning which is devoide of knowledge conscience experience wisedome plunged and drowned the greater part of tyme in ignorance selfe opinion insolencie and ribauld and lasciuious impudencie Now then it behooues so soone as we feele the motions of this grace that our hearts be replenished with a sincere and liuely affection to obey God not according to our worldly sense but following the rule which he himselfe doth propose and set downe vnto vs. Touching this affection it is commended vnto vs by generall and speciall reasons The generall reasons are that our God is holy and that we his people cannot cleaue vnto him except we bee holy likewise then as members belonging to Iesus Christ our head and redeemer we ought to be made conformable to him imitating his life which is called the obedience to God his Father euen to the death of the crosse The speciall reasons are First that God is our Father Secondly that Christ hath washed vs by his precious bloud and incorporated vs into him Thirdly that this our head is ascended vp into heauen Fourthly that we are the temples of the holy Ghost Fiftly that our bodies be predestinated to the last resurrection and our soules to immortalitie both of them to euerlasting glorie Whereupon it followes that it is horrible ingratitude not to be willing to obey the will of our heauenly Father that it is madnesse to returne to the filthinesse from which we haue beene so dearely and preciously cleansed and purged that it is detestable iniquitie to wish and to will the members of Iesus Christ to bee ioyned to Sathan and to the world that is but reason for euer to burie all earthly affection to aspire to a better life to be by a liuely faith set in the heauenly places and to feele and taste of life and euerlasting glory that we must not grieue him which dwelleth in vs our counsellor guide and comforter That it is good reason to preserue our selues immaculate and pure euen vntill the day of our Lord. Hauing treated of our affection let vs speake of the rule thereof declared in such wise and so expressely in the law of God to make vs yet to see as the soule and mayne of all that his good pleasure hath beene to forme and fashion our manners by a most exact manner and order and which serues as a commentarie of all that is contayned in the sayd Law That is that wee should renounce our selues to the end to be fit to apply and frame our selues sincerely and wholly to serue God because we are not our owne but Gods Whereupon it followes that a Christian be he young or old and the old is more bound to this dutie then the yong because God hath vpheld and supported him long hath bestowed many blessings and benefites on him and a blessed life whereinto hee is nowe entring ought to search and learne out what God willeth and approueth briefely whatsoeuer serueth to the advancement of his glorie Those which are of an other minde are styled and tearmed by the voyce of truth vngracious hypocrites vngratefull reprobates All these licentious and inordinate humours S. Paul in his Epistle to Titus comprehendeth vnder the word Impietie To which hee opposeth the duties of Christians marshalled and ranged vnder the three excellent giftes of the holy Ghost in the regenerate to wit sobrietie iustice and pietie And in this sacred triangle is included the renouncing of our selues And the Apostle not without cause hath begun with temperance which especially concernes vs which moderates our lustes and desires banishing and driuing away sensuall carnall worldly and vncleane and filthie affections much more their detestable effortes and effectes It is shee which doth fashion and frame vs to a true square rulle and order as well in the moderation of our wishes and dreames of worldly houour and greatnesse as of our inordinate beastly concupiscences suggested by the vncleane spirit In the violent pursuite seeking and hunting after proud vsurping sacrilegious detayning and miserable possessing
So likewise is it requisite that thou being emptied and stripped of the world and the concupiscences and lustes thereof shouldest be wholly changed and deuoted to further and aduance the glory of God Whereupon the Apostle said That our old man is crucified that the body of sinne may be destroyed Our Lord hauing beene nayled to his crosse is there-dead and wee his members ought to die to the world and to our selues in such sort that as those which are dead we should make no more reckoning of the things of the world should be without sense or feeling of them and should haue neither synewe nor veyne stretching or tending that way To this purpose S. Paul said to the Colossians you are dead and your life is hidd in Christ Furthermore we must also be buried with the same Sauiour He that is dead hath no more care of the world yet before he be buryed the world hath care to winde him vp in a sheete to Coffyn him then to carry him to his graue where being interred all societie and dealing one with another is at an end In this sort many who thinke themselues to be dead to the world pretending and making semblance to haue renounced it are not yet buryed because the world makes great account of them doth reuerence and worship them But it behooueth vs to be dead and buryed to the world in such sorte as we haue as small accompt and esteeme of it as of a stinking carrion and that it esteeme so of vs. For it is an ill signe when the children of this world speake well of vs. It is then a thing requisite and necessary that we be buryed with Iesus Christ by Baptisme into his death And it is fit also that we descend as our head into hell that is that we haue a right knowledge and a liuely feeling of our sinnes which is done when wee feele in our hearts the loue of God our Father in Iesus Christ crucified For being convicted to haue offended him we must descend to confesse and earnestly to decest and abhorre our pride ignorance infidelitie malice obstinacie and other vices Seeing then that these pollutions and defilements haue so much and so greatly displeased God that to purge them out of the world he hath deliuered his owne sonne to death we are brought to this point in some sorte to know our misery and how much we our selues doe displease God Moreouer as the Sauiour is risen againe so his members ought to rise againe in newnesse of life in such sort that afterwardes they haue no motion or inclination whatsoeuer but to glorifie God walking as persons whose conuersation is alreadie in heauen Christ is risen againe therefore his members ought to rise againe not onely at the last day but hourely and continually in newnesse of life so that thence forward they haue no motion or disposition whatsoeuer but to glorifie God Christ is risen immortall for that hauing triumphed ouer death death hath no more dominion ouer him Thereupon S. Peter sayth to Christians seeing our Sauiour hath suffred for vs in the flesh it is reason that we be armed and resolued in mind that he which hath suffred in the flesh hath ceased from sinne willing and ready to say that Christ the head pledge and suretie for all Gods children comming to die consequently to satisfie fully and wholly the Iustice of God for them hath clearely discharged the debt for all his members who are obliged to him vnlesse they would crucifie him againe and hold the precious bloud of the euerlasting couenant for a prophane thing to cease and giue ouer to sinne For being dead to sinne buryed to the world risen againe to God they ought to sinne no more nor to die in sinne much lesse to remaine dead therein Sinne ought no more to raigne nor haue dominion in them they ought no longer to obey their euill lustes but to curbe and restraine them by the spirit which doth quicken guide and gouerne them Our Lord is ascended vp into heauen In like sort if we be liuing members of his mysticall body we ought zealously and with all our affections to be elevated and raised vp vnto God truely to say with S. Paul that our conuersation is in heauen The same S. Paul sayd to the Colossians Chapter 3. 1. If you be risen againe with Christ seeke the thinges which are aboue that is heauenly and diuine not earthly and sensuall Now as this good Sauiour soone after his ascension into heauen for a testimony of his infinite glory in that he is set at the right hand of God the Father Almightie sent his holy spirit in a visible forme vpon his twelue disciples So we likewise after we are raised vp to God shall feele our selues filled with this spirit and with feruent charitie which will then appeare when wee shall illuminate kindle and inflame our neighbours in the loue of God not onely with our wordes but especially with our doings and deedes by the good examples of a blamelesse life Iesus Christ ought to come to judge the quicke and the dead And if we be his members a liuely fayth will make vs to feele the sweetnesse of these wordes of our Sauiour Come yee blessed of my Father possesse the inheritance prepared for you before the foundation of the world Let vs adde that as the judge of all shall be judged of none so shall it be with all his true members in the great and last day And who should judge them seeing the Father iustifieth them in his son and by the mouth of his sonne pronounceth them just blessed and heires of the kingdome of heauen Wherefore Christ Iesus denounceth that he which heareth his word and beleeueth in him hath eternall life and shall not come to condemnation that is shall not be judged but is passed from death to life Ioh. 5. 24. This needes no further exposition And it were to blaspheme whosoeuer would call into question the certaintie of our saluation by Iesus Christ alone who is dead for our sinnes risen againe for our iustification that we might be the righteousnesse of God in him Let vs say further with S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 2. 3. Know yee not that the Saints shall judge the world Know yee not that wee shall judge the Angells But as after the last judgement Christ Iesus shall remaine in heauen in incomprehensible glorie so true Christians already risen againe by faith and sitting together in the heauenly habitations with their head hauing their conuersation in heauen shall there appeare and be found all perfect entire in their bodies and soules with their Sauiour who in raising them vp againe shall change their vile and contemptible bodies so as they shall bee made conformable to his glorious bodie according to the power and efficacie whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe If wise old men doe in a quiet and sober moode meditate and consider these thinges euery one of them hanging
downe the head will cry within himselfe O wretch that I am God hath made me by the gift of knowledge capable of infinite wonderfull secrets and mysteries and I seeke contentment in vanitie He hath created me Lord and commander of all things and I am the slaue of the Creatures I ought to serue God alone and I am in subiection to mine owne inordinate passions He hath created me vpright the more easily to behold and looke vp to the place of my felicitie but I am more brutish then a beast which lookes still downe to the ground Christ hath made mee a King and a Priest to God his Father and sensualitie doth tyrannize and domineer over me and I sacrifice to mine owne insolencies and lewdnesse O what misery Ought I not to be fruitfull and abound in all good workes being a tree of righteousnesse and a heauenly plant What doe I I draw no breath of life but from the world I bring forth nothing but iniquitie nothing but poyson for my selfe and others Am I created after the Image of God to be changed into a Beast What resteth more for me but to be like the image of God! Should I I then be a lyar a villaine a slanderer an enemy of godlinesse righteousnesse holinesse I am a little world a world of wounders shall I then become a bottomlesse gulfe of wickednesse I am the end and measure of things but I am like the mad man which killeth himselfe with his owne knife like the wicked rich man that damneth himselfe and by the winding stayres of his riches goes downe to hell I ought to be the benefit and well-fare of my house and familie of my neighbour-hood of a whole country to procure true peace and quietnesse to rule there and I trouble mine owne peace and rest and other mens too I that am the measure and rule of all things am my selfe out of all measure and order as much as can bee spoken and more The vessell appoynted to honour which will fill it selfe with stinking myre and filth The temple of the holy Ghost a most holy place wherein Christ onely ought to enter and lodge but so prophaned that I am ashamed to thinke on it Thou sayest thou art a Christian and thou makest no conscience to wallow in impurities and hypocrisies ioyning thy selfe with Sathan Antichrist and the world so little thou regardest God Iesus Christ and his Church Thou that art light art nothing but darkenesse Thou that art a sheepherd art become a wolfe Thou that art the salt of the earth art vnsauory and tastelesse Thou that art the glory and peace of the world thou sowest disgrace reproch and trouble therein Thou that art the brother friend and Table-guest of Christ doest thou betray him with a kisse Thou that art a member of Christ where are the motions that thou hast of the spirit Thou that art Christes Lieutenant in earth or in thy house or familie or over many houses or families wilt thou daily warre against thy Lord Christ is thy garment and thou puttest it off to cloath thee with shame ryot dissolutenesse disorder Thou art within three stepps within three fingers breadth of death and thou thinkest not on the true life and thinkest onely on the transitorie and perishing life But thinke on the blessinges and honours which God hath bestowed on thee on the dangers which he hath guarded and protected thee from of the true pleasures which he offers vnto thee and thou wilt bee ashamed of the false pleasures which vndoe thee thou wilt blush be apalled to liue and die as thou doest by a poore sorry fire Thou wilt repent and fly to the throne of grace to the end that hauing obtained it thou render him thankes for the same who in speciall regard of his patience sheweth himselfe wonderfull towardes vs and submitting thy selfe to obey his truth thou wilt goe on in silence to glorifie him to the end Loe here a little coppie and patterne of some sighinges and groanings for euery wise old man remembring himselfe and calling to minde Iesus Christ CHAP. XVII Consolations against death and how it ought to be feared or not feared WE present now some consolations to the wise Vieillard to strengthen him against death and doe shew him how he ought to feare or contemne it For in this point it is that wise men at last shew what they are He that hath not learned to die betimes can hardly die well and for one that doth it thousands lagg behinde where they perish Many according to the saying of Cicero thinke old age is miserable because it is so neere approching to death which among the most terrible things being terrible to the children of this world for that it destroyes the structure frame of this mortall bodie and endeth the life which wee keepe and maintaine with so much carking and caring We are not able to relate how great and many the terrors be which the apprehension of death causeth in most persons which liue in the world yea euen in those men and women which vnder the weight and burthen of extreame anguishes and griefes desire nothing more then to be gone hence This terror floweth from the sense and feeling of the wrath of God and a bad conscience with which when wicked ones come to feele themselues tormented they haue no rest nor can conceiue nothing else but euill for them in death Therefore we cannot too much allaude and commend the saying of Sineca in the Epistle 62. where he sayth before I grew old I endeuoured and studied to liue well In my old age I frame and dispose my selfe to die well It is well spoken For according to the counsell of Saint Augustine in his second booke of Christian doctrine he cannot die ill who hath liued well and hardly shall any man whosoeuer make a good end which hath lead a wicked life But they are grossely deceiued who thinke that old men and none else are lodged in deaths quarter and that they onely are prest and obliged resolutely to awaite and looke for him Seeing that in all places and at all tymes he lyeth in waite for persons of all ages and sexes and sayth vnto them Stand I take thee prisoner by the great Kinges commandement packe hence away come before thy Iudge Death respectes neither babe young nor old man nor woman rich nor poore high nor low strong nor weake The poore mans cottage built very low Death doth demolish and quite ouerthrow The rich mans Pallace high towring and strong He shiuers in peeces and layes it along Who knoweth not that warre and the pestilence doth sweepe away out of the world many more little children or strong able men then aged persons verely all the life of man is nothing else but a road way to death Wee came into the world vpon this condition to goe out of it In this wee greatly erre and beguile our selues as many most learned Philosophers and Diuines haue long
agoe spoken that we looke vpon death afarre off and still thinke him to bee a poore feeble impotent which marcheth with a slow pace and is yet fiue or sixe thousand dayes iourney behinde the weakest of our troupe not considering that death is on the threshold of our dores yea is our chamber-fellow a guest at our tables and our bed-fellow too Death hath alreadie trussed vp the fairest and best part of our life like a Sergeant which taking vs by the throate carries away vnder his arme our money-bagges our precious iewels and vpon his yeomens shoulders our curious houshold moueables Not to wonder hereat consider sayd S. Basile the changes and revolutions of ages Doe wee not obserue how in three weeks of yeares three are dead Childhood is passed away and all his fond and vaine wishes haue left vs As much may be said of other parts of our life The case being so then that the meditation of death belongeth to all persons and that nothing is so miserable as not to know to die and that to feare death is an euill more dreadfull then death it selfe seeing also that the proper force of faith consisteth in this not to be afraid of death It is meete now somewhat the more at large to treate of this poynt and to shew what other holy and prophane Authors doe say therein to our purpose to wit to remoue out of the heart especially of euery wise old man the too violent and raging apprehension of death and to strengthen and fortifie so well the minde that it bee neuer dismounted or throwne out of the seate of assurance wherein it is setled by the knowledge of the truth First We will shew that euery one especially our Vieillard ought continually to meditate vpon death and betimes to prouide and furnish himselfe with remedies against the affrightments and terros thereof Secondly what death is how many sortes there are what death it is ought to be feared Thirdly for what reasons the Heathens haue so manfully contemned death Fourthly of the extreamities which must be avoyded and of the meane that it is meete to keepe in all Fiftly the defences and comfortes against death the commodities of it and the great benefits which they reape by it who in young and old age make their recourse to Iesus Christ the food and drinke of eternall life The two first poynts shall be handled in this seauenteenth Chapter the other three in the Chapter following First It is reason that we should betimes thinke vpon death and meditating thereon we should castour eye vpon the freedome life immortalitie and other benefites which ensue it For he giueth death a ioyfull wellcome who before hand is prepared for it and who seeing him to come as at the beginning is no more moued and troubled thereat then the passenger which with a fauourable winde should in shorter time make an end of his sayling A certaine Auncient compared our life to him which is set in a sayling Ship be he sitting or standing he forwardes his way So wee euery moment make towardes death in our waking sleeping standing still or going But it is meete to settle and invre our mindes not to be too much affected and to doate vpon this present life not therein to lazie and house them as if it were their Countrie but rather to thinke that we are way faring persons from the Mansion and royall Pallace of our heauenly Father Let our minds then sigh and groane in this Tabernacle let them meditate vpon and wish for that happie life wherein all corruption shall bee swallowed vp least it happen to them as to those inconsiderate persons who being a long tyme growne lazie and idle in some incommodious rude and base Inne cannot bee haled out thence whatsoeuer remonstrance and counsell is giuen them But on the contrary let vs call to minde our originall and that wee are the sonnes of the euerlasting King that heauen is our countrey that for a while wee trot vp and downe in the earth as little children which are carryed out of cities into countrey villages there to bee nurssed vp till there fathers and mothers send to fetch them home Let vs remember that wee are poore passengers and that after much running vp and downe wee must returne home to our dwelling and settle our selues in some certaine place least our hearts make a stay and demurre at the things wee behold with our eyes and which haue some appearance to deceiue and detaine them Let vs take great heed of being desirous to dwell and to rott and stincke in the close and darke denne of our body and this present life which is nothing else but a horrid pryson of infinite temptations cares carckings and dangers where pleasure is vnpleasing where our ioy is vnsure where wee are tortured with feare scroched with lust and concupiscence wasted with sorrow and griefe Let our soule be daily couersant in heauen let our heart be where our treasure is By this meanes wee shall easily contemne all things that bee earthly transitory and perishing Whosoeuer doth daily thinke that hee is mortall and the Vieillard ought to thinke on it more then any other dispiseth that which hee sees present and makes hast to those happinesses which are future and to come I know no better meanes for our serious conuersion to God and to inioy perfect comfort then the remembrance of the end of our race in the world and the meditation of death This is a powerfull doctrine to draw vs out of the swallowes and gulfes of intemperance impatience and all riots and excesse Let vs remember our Creator in the dayes of our youth before old age and death intrappe and seize on vs Let the end of our actions and affayres bee before our eyes to containe vs in our obedience to God When death is betweene our teeth it is too late to prouide remedies against the terrours thereof He is vnaduised who thinkes to cast out his lading when his ship is all leakie takes in water on all sides It is no time to make prouision for a voyage when men are put forth and forward at Sea Hee deceiues himselfe who seekes preseruatiues when the pestilence is spread all ouer the body and hath seized the heart The foolish Virgines bethought themselues vnseasonably to seeke oyle for their Lampes when the spouse was entred and the gate shut But our Lord hath willed that the day of our death should be vnknowne vnto vs so much the more to dispose vs to waite for it following the example of those faithfull seruants who not knowing the houre of their masters returne stand vpon their guard carefully watching Such seruants are wise But the slothfull dissolute riotous who make spoyle and hauocke of all in the house without care of their master are mischeeuous and vnluckie Plato writeth in his first booke of his Common-weale That when any one is come to this point to thinke that he ought to die out of hand and
cost but six Liards three halfe pence or thereabouts and there were burned with faggotts of reedes or brush wood which were set round about them Behold sayth he our equipage our munition and armour of victorie this is out triumphall Chariot Eusebius writeth in the fiftie booke of his Historie of a holy martyr burned aliue with certaine plates of iron made red hot and set to his naked bodie notwithstanding which tormentes hee made a constant profession of the Christian faith even to the last gaspe Eusebius addeth that this sheweth that nothing is terrible to him which feeles that God loueth him and that whosoeuer seekes the glory of Christ Iesus is guarded and saued harmelesse from euery painefull and terrible accident and casuall event As for the vncouth and strange diseases and kindes of hideous death whereunto to mans life is exposed as they are to be seene in the horrible convulsions of Epilepsies falling sicknesses in the violent fittes of Apoplexies in cruell and hot burning feavers these are pittifull cases to behold and incident to our fraile and sinnefull nature But they are also certaine monitors of a better life seeing that our health and happinesse consisteth not in a sound temperature of humours but in this that our names are written in heauen and that wee haue bin dedicated to Iesus Christ For the Lord God who knoweth our heartes who in his secret judgement exerciseth some more then others regardes and considers what he hath done for vs and what the holy Ghost who comforteth vs in such accidents and cases doth for vs by vnspeakeable groanings not the intemperature of our bodies nor the effectes of it For this is an assured thing that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus and that nothing is able to seperate vs from the loue which the father of heauen beares vs for his sonnes sake yea that all things doe helpe together for the good of those whom according to his determinate counsell he hath called to the participation of his grace Therefore all Christians ought to remaine vndoubted and resolued in this poynt that there is no kinde of maladie torment or death which doth hurt Gods elect that there is no death happie ioyful peaceable to the wicked vnbeleeuers and miscreants whom God often times for a while doth vphold in this world to the end more heauily to punish them after hee hath dragged and haled them out of the earth Hereupon it will be demanded wherefore then so many great personages members of the Church of God and Christ Iesus himselfe the head thereof did feare death and prayed to be guarded and secured from it I answere that there was something of singular note in our Lord and which must be differenced and distinguished from others In that he not onely bore and felt a common death or seperation of the soule from the bodie but also vnder-went and sustayned the wrath of God and all the torments and agonies that may be imagined without sinne notwithstanding because hee was an hostage and pledge for vs Neuerthelesse in such sort that he did not yeeld nor shrinke vnder the burthen nor murmured a whit against God but voluntarily offred himselfe in sacrifice stood not demurring and shifting of death with natures delayes wholly submitted himselfe to the will of God his Father as it was foretold and figured by Dauid in the fortieth Psalme Here am I O God that I may doe thy will Behold as touching the head of the Church who had had no subiect of combat and victorie if he had not felt the tormentes and terrors of death without sinne or any offence and fault on his part In respect then we are his members let vs keepe and obserue this rule That wee cannot commend euery refusal or euery desire of death nor discommend all contempt of death Some wish death not so much for any desire they haue of a better life as for the despite and dislike they conceiue against their abode and stay in the world where they see miseries which their weake mindes cannot brooke and endure and which giue terrible shockes and assaults to the most resolued and stoutest hearts The Israelites wanting bread in the wildernesse wished death as also when newes was brought them that the Cananites were men of a very tall stature Iob in the depth of his panges and griefes desired to die as also the Prophet Eliah did during his escape in the Desert On the contrary Dauid Ezechias and other great personages very much feared death and instantly besought the Lord to guard and saue them from it But this was for a speciall consideration to wit in as much as they being afraide of the threatninges and judgements of God the approach of death appeared more terrible vnto them or because they wished to continue longer to aduance Gods glory and to yeeld their helpe and seruice to the edification of the Church Againe the same personages banished all feare from them looking vpon death according as now it is made vnto vs by the grace of God the rest from our labours the passage to a better life In this sense the Patriarch Iob spake in the 19. Chapter I know that my redeemer liueth and that I shall rise againe at the last day that I shall be againe cloathed with my skin and shall see the Lord in my flesh So Dauid did sing in the 16. Psalme For this cause my heart is glad my tongue reioyceth Moreouer my flesh resteth in assurance for thou wilt not leaue my soule in the graue And in the 23. Psalme Though I should walke in the shadow of death I will feare no euill because thou art with me CHAP. XVIII The sequele of the poynts propounded in the former Section concerning the resolutions and consolations against Death IF there be any men bound to meditate ordinarily vpon death to be armed with remedies against the alarumes of it to procure that their children friends and families doe liue as prest and readie to die wise old men are especially they whose true Philosophie is called the Meditation of death To draw them so much the more easily vnto it we will remember to euery one of them some sayings of wise Pagans and Heathens which will cause vs to say to all persons who vaunt themselues of the name of Christians At least doe not afflict and torment your selues more with the death of the your selues and yours then the silly Heathens who had no hope who so manfully contemned the approches of death who with so great constancie haue embraced it and striuen against it I speake thus considering the cowardize of some Christians who haue nothing so much in their mouthes and take so little to heart as death S. Ierome in the Epistle to Heliodorus shewing how we ought to be more resolute against the assaults of death and all accidents and casualties of humaine life then Infidells were maketh mention of Xerxes that mightie Monarch who ouerthrew mountaines and paved
this pardon by the gift and hand of a liuely faith doe wrastle against the image of death against a bruised Serpent a wourried torne Lyon against a stinglesse Waspe against a vanquished enemie Chrysostome censureth in good manner those wretches who feare death and feare not sinne wherein they are insnared and wrapped nor the vnquenchable fire of hell which gapes for them Thus sayth he as children are wayward and wrangle if their mothers come neere them with maskes on their faces but when a lighted Candle is brought neere vnto them they readily thrust their handes in it and are burned So those men feare death who know not what it is to liue Death snatcheth away a miserable and short life to make vs to enter into an eternall and perpetuall blessed life Death doth seperate vs from the heapes of Iewells the robes moueables coffers crammed with gold and siluer the sundrie immoueables which we must leaue But in heaven we haue vnseperable riches with the Angels death extrudes and thrustes vs out of the earth but to bring vs into paradize death kills the bodie but it shall rise againe to die no more but be conformable to the glorified bodie of Christ Iesus If any man fight with his owne shadow he hurtes no bodie so death doth but beate the ayre in bickering and jousting against the just It hath beene Gods will and pleasure so sayth Chrysostome that this present life should be painefull and miserable to the end that being buffetted on all sides with so many and manifold miseries we should eagerly aspire to the happinesses to come But seeing we are thus farre ill aduised to wallow and idle it so willingly in this present life where so many disasters and miseries doe surround and encompasse vs how would it be with vs if there were nothing but ioy peace and rest here Our most mercifull heauenly Father doth so mitigate and temper the afflictions of this life that as a Lute-player doth not winde vp too high his Lute strings for feare to breake them nor slacken them too much that so their sweete harmonie tunablenesse may be more distinctly perceiued So doth the wise maister of our life not leauing vs in continuall prosperitie nor too much oppressed He is faithfull who will not suffer vs to be tempted beyond and aboue our strength but will giue a good issue to our temptations and tryalls to the end we should be able to beare them We see men of warre desirous of honour and to attaine to some rancke and degree manfully to expose themselues to a thousand dangers The couetous Marchant to runne vpon all hazards and risques for a handfull of yellow earth The voluptuous person to disdaine and set light by infinite reprochfull and woefull dangers to satisfie his passions and humours And you wise old men will you slumber and sleepe in a corner will you still sit with your armes and legges a crosse not rouzing lifting vp your selues to the contemplation and diligent seeking after so many happinesses prepared for them which loue God Doe you feare death you which in the middest of the shadowe of death haue standing at your ell-bow the Prince and Author of life If you beare in your hearts that quickning spirit which raised vp Iesus Christ from the dead whence is it that you feare death Haue you blotted out of your remembrance him who hath the wordes of eternall life who is the way the truth the resurrection the life who dyed for our sinne and is risen againe for our iustification But soyle not this gracious remembrance with the myre and mudd of sordid and obscene pleasures Let not the perswasions of the vncleane and filthie flesh stoppe and hinder the motions of the spirit illuminated by sacred Philosophie Let the repetitions of his most sweete most certaine and most holy promises bee potent and powerfull in your hearts who was willing to participate of our flesh and bloud that in the same nature foyled by Sathan our Sauiour hath abolished it by his death as by a most sufficient ransome he which conquered death to wit the Deuill Giue me leaue to reforme and rectifie you by recitall of the excellent promises following of the Lord. Verely I say vnto you that whosoeuer heareth my word and beleeueth in him which sent mee hath eternall life and shall not come to condemnation but is passed from death to life Iohn 5. 24. This is the will of him which sent me that whosoeuer beholdeth the sonne and beleeueth in him hath eternall life and for this cause I will raise him vp againe at the last day Such perspection and contemplation of faith is not as prophane persons chatter and mutter a vaine imagination but is coupled and covnited with his effect and with the true apprehension and laying hold of Iesus Christ and his benefites This great Sauiour hath so often times and againe and againe recommended it and for confirmation of it hath prepared his holy Table to which we draw neere there to receiue the bread of life ordayned to the nourishment of our soules to eternall life not for our bellies to receiue which bread we hold vp the hands of faith to heauen and beleeuing in him doe eate it That bread I say which is giuen to the children of the house not to reprobates who sometimes eate the bread of the Lord but not the bread of life which is the Lord. He which is not reconciled to Christ Iesus eateth not his flesh and drinketh not his bloud although euery day hee receiue but to his condemnation the Sacrament or the holy signes of so excellent a thing But he which confirmes and establisheth vs in Christ and who hath annoynted vs is God who also hath sealed and giuen vnto vs the earnest of his spirit in our hearts It is this holy spirit of promise wherewith we haue beene sealed yea for the day of redemption without which spirit the visible signes in the Sacramentes are receiued to condemnation by which spirit faith taught by the word confirmed by the signes or seales of the righteousnesse of the same faith takes daily new growthes and growinges and is manifested by holy workes of which the summe and totall is that we liue and die to the Lord who is dead and risen againe to haue dominion as well over the liuing as the dead to gouerne and guide vs as the sheepe of his pasture and finally to draw vs out of the hideous deserts of this worldly life no life in deed to gather vs to himselfe his heauenly sheep folde If God be on our side who shall be against vs Who shall bee able to make vs afraide and dismay vs Iesus Christ who is dead is risen againe it is he who now being set at the right hand of God maketh request for vs. Let vs adde some worthie sayinges of S. Cyprian in his excellent Treatise of death Simeon the iust reioycing to hold in his armes the little babe Iesus whom he had so
things in the world and not to be paralleld whereof the reason is hid from vs though we see the things themselues But there is a great difference betweene the destruction or annihilation and the change of nature As we beleeue the resurrection of this our flesh so is it certaine that the nature of the same flesh shall subsist and remaine in the life eternall But the condition shall be changed in as much as this flesh vile and miserable shall be made glorious and happy These are some proofes brought by Tertullian Lactantius Firmianus in his Booke of the Heauenly Reward Chap. 23. obserueth That the Pagan Philosophers who desired to discourse of the last resurrection haue confounded and soyled this Article of our faith as al the Poets haue done Pythagoras maintained that the soule did transmigrate and passe out of one mans body into anothers and that he himselfe in the Troian warre was Euphorbus Chrysippus the Stoicke hath made a better answere who in his Booke De Prouidentia discoursing of the restauration of the world addeth This being so wee see that it is not impossible that after our death at the end of the reuolutions of some ages wee may bee restored againe into the state and condition wherein we are now But as Lactantius addeth the faith of Christians is much otherwise and their hope much more certaine For they vndoubtedly beleeue the resurrection of the flesh confirmed by most sacred and inuincible proofes of the holy Scripture by the promises of God and by the motions of the Spirit which raysed vp Christ Iesus from the dead as the Apostle declares it in the eight Chapter to the Romanes saying If the Spirit of him that raysed vp Iesus from the dead dwell in you hee that raysed vp Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortall bodies because of the Spirit dwelling in you True it is that the wicked shall rise againe in their bodies but this shall not bee for any communion they haue with the body of Christ Iesus nor with his Spirit but simply by the absolute power of God who shall giue them againe their being life and motion to suffer the second death being for euer damned in their bodies and soules So then such a resurrection cannot be counted grace nor called regeneration nor a resurrection to life but a repairing to condemnation whereof S. Iohn writes these wordes in the twentith Chapter of the Apocalips Verse eleuenth c. I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away the earth and the heauen and their place was no more found I saw the dead great and small standing before God and the Bookes were opened and another Booke was opened which is the Booke of Life and the dead were iudged by the things which were written in the bookes according to their workes and the Sea gaue vp her dead which were in her and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which were ion them and they were iudged euery man according to their workes And the wicked were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoeuer was not found written in the Booke of Life was cast into the lake of fire Blessed then bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who by his great mercy hath regenerated vs into a liuely hope by the resurrection of Christ Iesus from the dead to obtain an incorruptible inheritance which cannot bee defiled nor fade away reserued in the heauens for vs who are kept by the power of God thorough faith to haue the saluation prepared to be reuealed at the last day wherein we reioyce being now made heauy by diuers temptations as it is meete to the end that the triall of our faith much more precious then gold which perisheth and yet is tried in the fire may turne to our prayse honour and glory when Iesus Christ shall be reuealed who speaketh thus vnto vs in the person of his Disciples in the beginning of the 14. Chapter of S. Iohn Let not your hearts bee troubled You beleeue in God beleeue also in me There are many dwelling places in my Fathers house I goe to prepare a place for you and when I shall be gone hence and shall haue prepared a place for you I will come againe and will receiue you to my selfe that where I am there may you be also Then shall be the true regeneration and restauration of Gods children when the soule emptied of all errour ignorance and malice shall be filled with new illumination perfect righteousnesse and holinesse when the body clothed with glory and immortalitie shall see death swallowed vp in victory In him there shall be no fainting decâ—ying drooping nor old age The bodies of the Saints sayth S. Augustine in the 19. chap. of his Manuel shal rise againe without blemish without deformity without corruption heauines or impediment This shall as easily be done as their felicity shall be consummated for which cause wee call them spirituall although their bodies ought still to remaine not to be changed into Ghosts and Spirits As for the corruption which now presseth downe the soule and the vices by whose meanes the flesh lusteth against the spirit such flesh shall cease to be because it could not be able to possesse the Kingdome of God In regard of the substance of the same flesh it shall not be abolished but still remaine but euerlastingly glorified For this cause S. Paul said That the body being sowen a fleshly body shall rise againe a spirituall body because there shall be so strong an vnion betweene the soule and the body that the soule making the body to liue without any supply of nourishment and hauing no more combate and striuing within vs betweene the spirit and the flesh all being then spirit we shall not feele any enemies assaults nor dangers whatsoeuer without nor within but shall be repleat compassed about saciated crowned with permanent glory Behold as touching this point of the resurrection of the flesh The beleefe of this Article encourageth all Christians but particularly wise old men patiently to beare their infirmities and maladies remembring the counsell of the Apostle S. Peter in the third Chapter of his second Epistle Seeing that so it is sayth he that the heauens and the earth must be dissolued what manner of persons ought wee to bee in holy couersation and holy workes looking for and hasting vnto the comming of the day of the Lord by whom the heauen being set on fire shall bee dissolued and the Elements shal melt with heate But according to his promise wee looke for new heauens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Wherefore beloued seeing ye looke for such things be diligent that ye may bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse Let vs strengthen this Article of the resurrection by the notable sayings of S. Paul to the Corinthians Chap. 5. of the 2. Epistle We must all appeare before the iudgement
the Beastes doe suour the earth and desire nothing but that which is earthie and of the earth Man on the contrary as the wisest of the Heathens especially Plato and Cicero in diuers passages of their writings doe obserue hath a diuine and heauenly soule which being enfranchised and deliuered out of the prison of the bodie returneth to the place of his originall And the more generous the mind of man is the more he lusteth after and desireth heauenly thinges meditating and looking for a better state and condition then he enioyeth in this present life From thence it commeth to passe that he despiseth losses and troubles calamities wounds and death it selfe holding it a great honour to yeeld vp his soule in some valiant and vertuous exployt and enterprise for the seruice and safetie of his Countrie to the end to goe to the other life where good men haue their reward Salust sayth that the vertuous effectes and suffringes of the minde are no lesse immortall then the soule it selfe which to vs is common with God but the body assimilateth and a greeth with the beastes Another reason hath strongly perswaded the auncient Philosophers to beleeue the immortality of mans soule That God should seeme otherwise vniust if he should suffer the vau-neantes treacherous dissolute to prosper in the world after to escape his vengeance and good men who are industrious and imploy themselues to preserue humane societie should vtterly perish in death without hope of rest at the end of their trauailes and of ioy after so many disquiets and griefes of minde and of a crowne at the end of so many thousand fought battailes and combatts Vndoubtedly prophane persons who are bold to thinke and affirme the soule of man to bee mortall doe abolish as much as in them lyes all pietie and religion they ouerthrow all vertuous and laudable actions and enterprises and as S. Ambrose very well sayth in his exposition of the worke of the six dayes they are madd-men Furthermore what is more avers preposterous and ill beseeming then to haue a straight body and a crooked soule alwayes groveling and stooping to the earth never lifting or rouzing vp it selfe toward heauen her true dwelling place But as God our creator hath plainly instructed vs in his word touching the originall end and soueraigne good of man It is also from the same word that wee must gather the infallible doctrines which we doe handle Mans soule was not composed of the elements nor fabricated or formed of the dust of the earth but the Lord God inspired it and endowed it with diuers gifts Little children doe obtaine even a soule of God their creator to wit a reasonable soule not of the seed of their fathers and mothers but by the singular fauour and benefit of him whom the Apostle Hebr. 12. calleth the Father of spirits and not without cause For although that he be the father of our bodies yet notwithstanding he created not our soules by corporall helpes but hath placed them in our bodies as excellent lampes and lights as Salomon speakes of them Prov. 20. 7. We call them immortall for two reasons first by reason of their essence which is spirituall and originarie or primarie from God the giuer of it Secondly in regard of the grace peculier to the children of God for so much as we haue communion with Iesus Christ the eternall Word of the Father the Prince and author of life This immortall and eternall life is the true happie life and so much to be desired so much recommended in the Scripture whereof Saint Paul sayth The just shall liue by faith Rom. 1. 17. Also who beleeueth in me hath eternall life Iohn 6. 47. And the Apostle sayth Iesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortalie vnto light thorough the Gospell 2 Timoth. 1. 10. For although the soules of the wicked in regard of their essence sense and motion be immortall neuerthelesse they suffer death in as much as they are depriued of the iustice light beatitude and glorious life of God vpon which cause the wicked who triumph and braue it for a while in the world are called dead and after this present life it is sayd that they goe into condemnation and into eternall death because the state wherein they are then to be and remaine in perpetuall torments deserueth rather the name of death then life Prophane people talke they know not what in obiecting vnto vs that neuer any came from the other world as they babble and prattle to tell newes of them O the greatest fooles and idiots among people O silly sotts will they be still madde miserable and more brutish them beasts who beleeue nothing but what they see with their eyes and touch with their hands According to their babble they ought to giue ouer to beleeue that they doe participate of reason seeing they doe not see their soule Let them giue ouer to beleeue that our friends dwelling remote and farre from vs doe liue and are at their ease and content desiring to see vs againe and that because wee see them no more But to proceed it is not simply true that neuer any returned from the other life on the contrary the Histories of the Old and New Testament doe furnish vs with examples of men and women of young striplings and damsells raised againe from death The Prince of our faith the head of all Christians our Lord Iesus descending from heauen to assume our humaine nature in earth hath tould vs ample and gladsome newes of the state of heauen and of life eternall His ascension to heauen in bodie and soule is an assured pledge that we also shall ascend into heauen in our bodies and soules S. Paul caught vp into the third heauen where he was informed of the high and deepe mysteries and secrets of God from thence came to tell vs afterward many particularities of the Church Christ Iesus is in heauen and we shall liue there For although that death dissolue the bodie into dust from whence it was taken death cannot let the soule to returne to him that gaue it And when we die young and old let vs after the example of Christ Iesus and of Dauid recommend our soules to God rendring them into his hands as into the handes of a most faithfull keeper and gardian of them And let vs say with S. Stephen Lord Iesus receiue my soule being well assured that at the same houre when it shall be fit for vs to goe out of this present life we haue part in that gracious promise of the sonne of God made to the sinner conuerted Verely I say vnto thee that this day thou shalt be with me in Paradize This is the sweete voyce which still ought to be sounding in the heart of the wise Vieillard to the end that being at the poynt to leaue this world as his age plainely shewes him his conscience doe not smite and checke him to be a prophane person and a contemner