weather now he is calme and temperate anon he is clouded with cares one while he is gladsome and cheerfull then the Sun shines another time chafed and angry then it thunders another while he weeps then it rains but this change of the Text follows all our appointed dayes which is onely death Death is a great change indeed First we change from health to sicknesse then our cheerfull looks are changed into ghastly palenesse our strength into pain and weaknesse the whole man into another man happy if into a new man The next change is from sicknesse to death a great change indeed our handsome habits are changd into a shroud our habitation into a Coffin our Lands into a Grave nay we into our Lands our lively heat into an everlasting cold our mirth into sable mourning Man goes unto his long home and the mour ners walke about the streets the Bells ring of these changes by this the Family changeth too the Wife is become a Widow the sonne fatherlesse the master without a servant the servant masterlesse these changes once in fifty yeers renew the face of the world Death doth change a marriage into a divorce life is the union of the soul and body death the separation the soul is sent back to her heavenly Father the body to her Mother the Earth this is a great change indeed that two that lived so long and so lovingly should be separated so long and into places so remote Death is a change of a compounded body into his native principles the Aire receives our breath the Sun our heat the Sea our moisture the Earth that which we had of her our dust these Elements which were ere while knit in one common building are now distructed into all the world where will you look for the parcels of your dead friend his breath perhaps helps to drive a ship in some remote Sea his moisture perhaps went up into the grasse which grew on the grave and the Horse hath eate it you must look quickly for the rest of his carcase ere the worms have eate it perhaps the fisher hath baited his weels with the worms that fed on your friend here is a change indeed Death is a change from variety of forme and condition into all alike among the living there is much difference one is noble another base in death Diogenes as great as Mansolus Menippus as good a man as great Alexander In this life some are rich the rest poore In death there is not respect of riches the carcase of Irus may boldly stink by Craesus without any offence Among the living some are faire some ill-favoured among the dead there is not a pin to choose between Sappho and Hellen Thersites and Aeneas all are bald pate hollow-eyed flat nosed chap fallen and grim alike Amongst us there is difference of wits one is sharp and subtle another blunt and simple let them lye a little in the grave together and you will not discern the wise man from the foole the grave Politician from the canting beggar If that this change were much in our mind who then would be proud of wealth that anon must be stript of all of wit whose fine head must be filled with musty mould of birth that must descend into the bowels of the earth of beauty which will wither into deformitie of his person which lice and wormes must eate of any thing since anon all will be alike the worst in the world as good as he 5. But yet Beloved this change is no robbery although we suffer a little we shall not loose by it we are not lesse men with God he numbers and reckons the dead he is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. We cannot loose by this dissolution it is impossible that any thing should perish into nothing else there would be vacuity and God must create a new to repair the losse no the earth will give back our dust the Sun our heat the aire our breath the water our moisture each part of the world each part of every man and the dead shall live againe Observe Jobs blessed confidence I shall see God in my flesh not with other but with these same eyes how possible is it to presume a resurrection when God Almighty that so made us at first out of nothing hath now all the former materials and the soule entire ready and disposed for the work Nay we are so far from loosing by this change that we get much by it to change labour for ease and rest is a good bargain life is torne and distracted with many cares in the grave is no noise or disturbance Blessed are the dead they rest from their labours to change corruption for incorruption is a great bargaine the lying in the Grave doth draine away our poyson and corruption and returns it pure and perfect to change a lease of few yeers into a free and perpetuall tenure is great gaine by dying we turn our Copy-hold for life into life immortall to change the world for Christ is a glorious advantage all things compared to Christ are losse and dung by being dissolved we come to Christ In a word if glorious and crowned liberty be better than continuall bondage if a state triumphant be better than a militant if fulnesse be better than famine and substance than shadow heaven than the dunghill earth and eternitie than doubtfull time then are we much better and more happy by this change of death Hence it is that holy Job looks and longs for this change as he saith in my Text All the dayes of my appointed time c. Of this one word 6. If Job waits for the salvation of God then hath he faith towards him for we doe not wait for that which we thinke will not come If wee will make this change of death happy and beneficiall unto us we must like Job expect the mercy of God beleeve that he is and that he is a faithfull rewarder of them that seeke him that this God hath salvation in his hand for them that will stretch forth the hand of faith to receive it from him If Job wait then hath he hope to receive all expectation is mixed with hope if heaven be not hoped for it cannot happen to us if we want this anchor we may oft try to land and be as often driven back in the troubles of the labouring deep This expectation cannot be without contented patience He that is impatient will not wait You have heard of the patience of Job you know the passion and patience of the Lambe Christ Jesus If we will follow him we must take up our crosse if we will raigne we must suffer it is fit we should suffer somewhat for glory in heaven were cheap and contemptible if we might attain it easily This waiting and expectation supposeth preparation every one that hath this hope faith the Apostle purgeth himselfe as he is pure How doe we wash and combe and trimme our selves when call'd to
and each day the Epitome of our whole life but me thinkes a day is too much to attribute to man that is his which he enjoyes what is that the time past no that is dead and gone the time to come no that may never come the present yea but what 's that an instant point an individuum an ens rationis a conceit of our braine indeed almost nothing but stay I should goe beyond my Text if I doe I doe not goe beyond Scripture David saith Mine age is nothing unto thee Indeed that is halfe a nothing which hath an end man hath two our whole space is even just nothing in respect of the dayes of Eternitie for between finite and infinite is no proportion looke back on all the time past all the dayes yeares and houres are measured with one sudden thought which is next to nothing The generations of men saith the Poet are like the succession of leaves which no sooner are greene but already turning yellow and readie to fall Harke to the Prophets cry what will he cry that All flesh is grasse and the glory thereof as the flower of the field rising withering flourishing fading growing declining living dying as it were all in an instant David calls mans life a spanne a dreame a vapour a bubble Salomon saith lesse all things sublunary are vanitie that is the appearance of nothing Till thou canst enjoy life 't is not a life but a being or at most but as the life of trees which is without sence of it selfe We have perhaps seventie yeares before us but little of this doe we enjoy minimum est quod vivitur Infancy and Childhood is but the portall through which we enter into life all that while we are not come to our selves in youth we are so sublimed with pride or so vehemently forc'd with headlong passion that all that while we live like madmen beside our selves we cannot well be said to live till we arrive at gray haires and no sooner do we arrive at that Meridian but we are mellow and ripe for the grave and indeed senectus ipsa morbus age is nothing but a long disease a lingring death Again of that space we live how little do we live to our selves halfe of all is consumed in sleep the sister of death thanks to nature so long we are innocent of the rest much is worne out in businesse for others much lost and lavisht on our pleasures some slips idlely through our fingers little bestowed on God or goodnesse almost all expended on businesse that least concerns us diù fuit non diù vixit so much we have lived as we have lived well and alas how ridiculously short are our lives if measured by our goodnesse O how much are they too blame that haunt company and hunt after pastime that 's the world beguiling themselves of those pretious houres which God hath given them to studie and procure Eternity alas are the wings of time so leaden and lazie that we should adde and impe more feathers to it time lacquies with the motions of the heavens and they are as swift as thought the Sun one of the lower and slower Planets moves not lesse then foure thousand miles every minute if you are sure of heaven spur on delude time as you list but if not O why should you hasten your misery O how much to blame is the covetous man he not considering how short his time is rakes and toiles to heap up a miskin of wealth as if he meant to live for ever what doth he think to continue still why there is a statute of mortalitie against him Statutum est semel mori Doth he think to bribe death it will not be Mors aquo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres The rich man died also doth he think to carry it with him no we must not allow transportation of our money to hell nudus venit naked he came naked he must return What will he lay it up for his children I thinke he that truly loves money little thinks of that if he did marry he would doe them a great pleasure to leave them cursed wealth to undoe them he will lay it up for his old age and then enjoy it least of all quo minus via eo plus viatici covetousnesse is fiercest in the close he will rather choke himself with cares or starve himself not daring to diminish his mouldy god his treasure Since our time is so short a Kalendar of a day O how much too blame is the intemperate glutton and drunkard that drink away their health and fill their body with diseases every intemperate draught is but a sweet poyson the glutton eates his knife and God may justly challenge them of self murder that thus will eate and drinke in spight of health and nature and so shorten that precious time which God indulged for better purpose Is life so short at utmost extension O cursed condition of men that delight in bloud that like Atropos make a trade of killing butchers of their brethren traytors to nature why should we cut that thread which another will shortly cut why should we envy our Brethren a little light why shouldest thou envie light to thy self thy thread murderer is twist with his whom thou slayest just vengeance hath decreed the bloudy minded man shall not live out half his dayes Is life so short why then being mortall doe we nourish immortall hatred against our Brother hath he done thee wrong forbear the fault the sentence of death is upon him anon the worms will pull him all to peeces what greater revenge canst thou desire dum luctamur aderit immortalitas spight of all thy spight death will disarm the make thee lye quietly in the grave with thy contemned Brother If life be so short why doe we post off repentance and make so little care to prepare for the presence of the Judge and hazard our salvation to the extreamest minutes how many that long since might have been raked up in the grave are but beginning to live nay 't is not so well they doe but say they will begin but let him that means to goe to heaven set out betimes lest like the foolish boy we game out the candle which should light us to bed time past will not be recalled and we have a spatious distance to dispatch in a few minutes how short and uncertain soever our dayes are to us with God they are determined and appointed so saith my Text All the dayes of my appointed time 3. God Almighty hath set up bounds which wee cannot passe and untill that houre which he hath determined doe approach we cannot dye this paper body of ours is proofe against all violence to this agrees that of Job above thou hast made my dayes as the dayes of an hireling the hireling is but for a certain time That of Salomon There is a time to be borne and a time to dye this appears by this that
many amongst us are Prophets and have with certain prediction pointed out the time of their departure if their departure were not definite and certain how could they foresee when they should expire This more especially appears by our many hairebredths escapes of death and danger who is alive to day that hath not been often at the gates of death Joseph was thrown into the pit the pit did not shut her mouth upon him Daniel to the Lions the Lions did not open their mouth to hurt him Moses tottered in an Arke of sedge that simple boat brought him a shore and landed him in the armes of a Princesse the three children were thrown into the furnace the fire could not singe them Jonah in the tempestuous sea all the waters would not drown him Paul was in perils oft in death oft yet still reserved a sacrifice for Rome how oft stood Caesar in the face of death amongst his enemies to be at last slain in the Capitoll by his friends how many deaths did that Romane avoid to be at last choakt with a haire how many come safe from battle over the dead bodies of those that stood round about them behold how the pestilence that walks in darknesse picks and chooseth out of some frequent families but one out of others all but one Who would not admire how those floate upon the deepe three or foure years within three or foure inches of death where every wind and wave threatens death yet return with safety to the shore yea in a common shipwrack how many have the broken peeces of the vessel saved when the whole one could not what was all this chance let Atheists and Heathens say so we Christians must explode it certainly it appears to me by this that God Almighty hath allotted each man his fate which no danger how great or near can alter That to every man is an appointed time appears also in part by this that the shadow of death flies him that pursues it and follows him that would fly it death hovers over him that delights in life and declines him that despiseth it It seems death dare not strike but like the Clock till the just numbers of minutes be accomplished Why else should he not come when called and importuned I have heard some disdaine and call death partiall that they cannot die I have seen him hit others in the height and vigour of strength and beauty with unexpected and most unwelcome stroke the yong and frolike bullock falls for the shambles the old oxe reserved to groan in the accustomed yoke Nor seems it any wonder to me that man should be appointed his time he was not born at his owne appointment much lesse is it fit that he should dye at his own discretion The keyes of life and death belong to God If it be in my power to grant the lease it is also of my right to limit the time 'T is not man alone that hath his time appointed but even every creature the sparrow falls not to the ground but by Gods decree yea the whole creature there is a day and hour set downe when the whole world shall determine when the Elements shall melt the Moon be turned to bloud the Sunne eclipsed for ever and the great Machin of the world shaken and dissolved From the consideration of this point wee may make to our selves these wholesome uses First not to love life too much not to be too anxious and sollicitous to produce and extend it nor to trust in diet herbs aire or art as if length of dayes were to be had from hence Let us not like Asa seek to a second first the physitian rather then the Lord Let us look up to Jehovah submit our selves to his pleasure and appointment Let us not presume of that which is not in our power but refer our selves to God and accept of every day as a new life and mercy Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora. A second use is of patience to wait the Lords leisure and salvation not like the fresh bullock to shake the yoke of affliction make it worse by our anger bear thine affliction patiently t is by his appointment Wilt thou not suffer a little for the Lords sake the Lord Jesus suffered all afflictions for thee nay but it is appointed for thy sake out of this furnace thou wilt come like gold refined this fire was but to purge thy drosse and burnish thee for heaven Shall we receive of God good and not evill Shall we not welcome the evil that comes for our good be patient a while anon thy pain will cease 't is our a finite evill our dayes have their date our life anon determines this heavy night may have a cheerfull morn Dabit Deus his quoque finem A third use is against too much mourning for the dead this is our great fault we mortals love mortall things as if the fruition and use were immortall Me thoughts it was a brave voice of that Romane that at report of his sonnes death said Scio me mortalem genuisse I knew I did not beget a God that could not dye Thy friend is dead what hath he lost his lease is expired he had his time appointed thou deservedst to loose that wouldst build on lease-hold as tenure free for ever Cadant lacrymae non fluant let tears fall not flow Can the hot waters of thy tears recover him the voice of thy grones awake him Thy friend is dead couldst help canst recall him that griefe is to no purpose which will doe no good I will allow you to shed a few tears over the herse as a ceremony of your friends funerall and a monument of your love that you are not flint or iron but men sensible of others evils endued with naturall affection no farther But why should we mourn our friend is not lost but gone before anon thou must goe the same way if he did thee wrong to dye before thee forgive him he will never doe so any more thou wilt anon shew others the same trick kick up the heeles and lead others mourning after thy hearse Thy friend is not dead but sleepes disturbe not his rest with thy noise Thy friend is not dead but divided and like a foule watch taken asunder his materials remain Thy friend is not dead but changed so my Text cals death All the dayes of mine appointed time will I wait till my change come 4. Mutability and mortalitie like ice and water beget each other man was at first perfect but mutable his mutabilitie made him mortall and his mortalitie makes him again mutable by this change Job must needs understand death 'T is true man as if he had been the sonne of the Moone is full of change no one man is two dayes alike the weather varies oft the face of Heaven is sometimes lowring sometime serene sometime maskt with clouds sometimes bathed in mists man varies with the weather yea and more then the
some honourable Feast and thinke wee that the King of Heaven will accept into his glorious Palace and immortall Dainties them which have not washt their hands in innocencie and made them fit for such a Feast the Feast is worth the waiting for 't is Immortalitie the Author of the Feast hath long waited for us we had need to waite with oile in our Lampe we know not when the Bridegroome will knocke we cannot doe better then to wait this glorious Expectation will swallow up or sweeten all our present calamitie we have nothing else to doe but to wait indeed we should doe nothing else and Blessed are they whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde so doing The summe of all amounts to this God with his glorious Angels is comming to us he sends his Embassadours before him to tell and warne us of his comming He tarries a while to try our Faith and Patience He tarries a while to give us time to prepare for his comming that comming and finding us prepared he may crowne us with immortall glory Thus beloved have I hastned through a spatious Text and 't was fit I should Brevitie was the main subject thereof and he that is comming might for ought we know have come ere I had dispatcht it Please you now to wait while I speak a word or two to this sad occasion of our meeting and so I will dismisse you We are met here to doe the last honour to our departed Sister and in her name I thanke this worthy Assembly that come to wait on her deserved Obsequies would she had a better Orator this presence especially this subject deserved it my happinesse is the goodnesse of the subject will help out my imperfect Oratory I know by her no infirmities that I should need to hide or colour I need not racke or torture my invention to force her a praise I neede not straine or dissemble a syllable she hath filld my mouth with true and reall honour This Text is true in her we have our time she had hers God be thanked a time of peace and plenty our time is short 't is true hers was neere fourescore almost two lusters beyond the age of man if we reckon the number of dayes and innumerable grievances of life she lived long I must confesse but if we measure her life by the affection of her friends and neighbours they will I know confesse with me that hers was too too short she died much too soone Our time is appointed so was hers she was not cut off by untimely chance she shortned not her dayes by intemperate diet she long enjoyed a quiet and entire old age and like an undisturbed taper burnt out to the last weeke yea a good while since with prophetique prediction she points out the time of her departure We shall have our change she hath wained some few weekes and now hath hers from corruptible to incorruption from mortall life to life immortall from the light of this world by which we see a world of miserie to the light of Heaven and Righteousnesse which shall never be changed obscured nor eclipsed This for her we may well presume for my owne part I desire from my soule my last end may be like unto hers with firme faith cheerefull hope settled patience and perpetuall preparation she waited expected called and invited Christ So farre with my Text but I should wrong her much to say no more she was an excellent neighbour I speake it before them that know it and have most ingeniously confest it she was gratefull to the best gratious to the poore peaceable officious and affable to all She was an excellent wife witnesse the many tears her husband shed truer teares I dare say never fell at funerall witnesse his charge and charitie to bring her home with honour She like that Embleme of a good Houswife was seldome farre from home at home most neatly industrious but especially so loving to her husband that where to patterne such sweet conjugall Societie I professe I know not Let us learne it beloved beleeve it it is a great advantage for heaven to be well skill'd in the dutie of marriage this marriage is but for a time death will divorce it the second time we should be married to Christ and will he wed them to himselfe whom he knew froward and unchaste to a former Spouse This true good tree hath borne good fruit to the honour and good of this Church they that have tasted it truly have praised it for a fragrant and gracious savour not many Orchards afford the like she was happy in it to the last But which is above all she was a very good Christian witnesse her meeknesse one of the truest markes of a Christian meek she was as appeared by her Matron-like plainnesse so meeke that she scorn'd not to hold discourse with a Child that could scarce speake againe to her an argument of that childish innocency by which we attaine heaven A good Christian she was witnesse that great Example of her devotion she lived like Anna as it were continually in the Temple twice a day for many decads of yeares she attended the worship of God Almightie in this Church nor would she leave that holy use for age and weaknesse but spight of sickness as if she meant to sacrifice her life to God she came still till the heavie weight of death detained her in her bed For her Charity a main part of the essence of a Christian I must say for that part of Charity that pertains to the tongue in judging and censuring she did excell she loved not to hear she abhorred to speak evill of any she would give fair and candid constructions to all actions loving and reverend counsell to all that came neer her As for the Charitie of her purse I know not what it was nor indeed was it her desire that any should know but this know she bred up Orphanes sent often meat and money to her sick neighbours her servant hath been seen to distribute good pieces of money to many poor families from yeer to yeer from house to house I am sure if it were known who sent it it was the servants fault for she charged her the contrary she loved happy woman to hide her treasure and keep the left hand ignorant of what the right had done I am fain to glean and guesse at her Charity surely if all were knowne it would amount to a great summe and her great glory she rather desired that God might have the glory to whom of due it belongs Goe to the earth blessed Earth and sleep there sweetly till the Resurrection thy other part is ere this safe arrived to the bosome of Abraham Blessed Lord give us grace so to follow her holy example that we may at last come to those unspeakable joyes which thou hast prepared for all them that unfainedly love thee and expect thy comming Even so come Lord Jesus Amen Soli Deo gloria FINIS