MOSES His sight of Canaan With SIMEON his Dying-Song Directing How to liue holily and dye happily BY Steuen Jerome late Preacher at St. BRIDES Seene and allowed Nascentes morimur finisque aborigine pendet LONDON Printed for Roger Iackson and are to be solde at his Shop neare to the Conduit in Fleetstreete 1614. The chiefe Contents of the two subsequent TREATISES In Moses his sight of Sion these things are obseruable 1 THE Case of the Inheritance of Daughters propounded page 1 2 How Cases are wisely to be carryed before the Magistrate pag. 3 3 The true Rule of iudging Cases Consultation with God pag. 4 4 The Case adiudged and spiritually applyed pag. 6 5 Moses is forewarned to dye and how God forewarnes vs. pag. 9 6 All must dye 13 7 God prepares his Children to dye as hee did Moses by shewing them Canaan 14 8 Moses his obedience to Gods summons a patterne to vs. 15 9 Fifteene Resemblances of Death to Sleepe 16 10 Fiue Considerations to imbrace Death as willingly as we sleepe naturally 23 11 Sixteene Comforts against the feare of Death in these ensuing particulars 35 1 GOD who infused the Soule cals for it againe 36 2 Sinne the sting of Death is taken away by Christs death 37 3 God as a Father is present at the death of his Children 39 4 Death is no death but a dissolution to the godly 41 5 The Saints shall know and enioy their friends in glory 43 6 Death frees the soule from her spirituall enemies 44 7 It deliuers from euils present and to come 47 8 It ends Sinnes Conflicts with Heauens Tryumphs 48 9 It frees vs from conuersing with the wicked 51 10 It secures vs from corrupting by the wicked 55 11 It secures from the malice of the mighty 56 12 Our good name is cleared in Death which calumny ecclypsed in life 57 13 Death tryes and declares the sinceritie and measure of grace 63 14 It is the inheritance of the Saints as it is the terrour of the wicked 64 15 The Christian should in death desire Christ who by death desired him 71 16 Death is the common Inne of all flesh where the Saints are refreshed 75 In Simeons dying Song these are the chiefe Notes both from the Doctrines and the Vses THE force of Examples eyther for imitation of Vertue or detestation of Vice 77 The vaine Songs and Sonnets of our age iustly reproued 79 Our singing as corrected so directed 80 The ground of all our reioycing must be in and for Christ 81 The sensuall and sinnefull ioyes of worldlings iustly taxed 83. 84. c. Wee must be truely thankefull for Christ 86 Tenne Reasons to incite vs to the duty of gratulation with the vses 88. 89 The great mistery and greater mercy of Christ incarnate 92. 93. c. Wee must be borne againe to CHRIST and and hee borne in vs as hee was borne for vs 95 The glorious Name of the Lord must not be vsed vpon euery triuiall occasion 97 How bootlesse it is for the wicked in death to cry Lord Lord. 99 The godly haue diuers raptures and secret ioyes in life and death 101 These Ioyes demonstrated in sixe particulars 103 Three Reasons of these extraordinarie Rauishments 105 Worldlings farre wide that thinke Christians Melancholicques and comfortlesse 106 Foure Comforts of the Christian which the world neyther knowes nor feeles 107 All the Patriarkes and Prophets since the promise haue expected the Messias 110 Wee see Christ more clearely then the primitiue Saints 111 How Christ came to them how to vs. 112 How wee should entertaine Christ with Redargution and Commination of the Iewes and our ingratitude 113 Our desire of long life must be simply to glorifie God 116 Reproofe of the worlds practise in Ministers Magistrates Masters and all sorts ayming at themselues not God 120 The better Christian the more willing to dye 126 Twelue Reasons which cause this willingnesse 127 The point applyed by examination 133 Christ most willing to dye of all the Sonnes of men 135 Seauen Reasons why Death is vnwelcome to the wicked 136 Wicked men may die willingly for sinister respects as Heretiques haue done 143 Fiue meanes to be vsed to make vs willing to our dissolution 144 God manifests his presence at the death of his three wayes 148 How God workes in sinne permissiuely disposingly c. but neuer workes sinne 151 Euery death for Time Place Matter Manner is determined by God 153 Iust inuectiues against Heathenish Fortune 157 The rash censures of men concerning diuers deaths condemned 160 Comforts in that God sees the cause and effect of euery mans maladie 161 Patience perswaded in that it is Gods rod which strikes 162 No meanes can protract or detract from our dayes besides their limits 164 Foure maine Obiections answered 165 Meanes must be vsed both for life temporall and spirituall notwithstanding Gods decree 168 Vnlawfull for any priuate man to take away life from himselfe or others 170 Twelue disswasiue arguments against Selfe-murther 171 The sinne reproued and the frequencie of a deplored 174 Twelue things from experience and Heathenish examples occasioning selfe-killing 179 How to preuent this sinne 188 Euery obstinate sinner from causes naturall and supernaturall accused of selfe-murther 189 The chiefe delight and desire of euery man must be to be Gods Seruant with foure reasons why 196 Multitudes that liue vnder the meanes are ignorant how God should be serued 201 Multitudes reproued that haue as little will as skill to serue God 202 How few ayme at Gods seruice in all their wayes expostulated in particulars 210 Ciuill honest men most enemies to Gods true Seruants and sincere seruice 216 Many in the rancke of Christians serue the Diuell and their owne lusts 218 All the members that haue serued sinne directed to serue God 221 Sixe Motiues perswading to serue God 1 From the end of our Creation 227 2 From our Preseruation 231 3 From our Vocation 233 4 From our Redemption 235 5 From our Profession 237 6 From the Reward ibid. First Reward of Gods seruice Wealth and Riches 238 Second Honour and Dignitie 239 Sinne brings shame and all other iudgements 240 Gods hand vpon his enemies in many iudgements 243 Holinesse is the way to Honour 245 God is most liberall of all Masters 246 Gods seruants best rewarded and regarded in eight particulars 248 God grants the suites of his seruants 252 The godly haue a taste of Heauen here enioyed hereafter 253 God blesseth the wicked oft for his seruants sakes 255 God deliuers his seruants from generall iudgements sixe wayes 257 God and Sathan cannot be serued together 258 The case of Sathans captiues opened 259 Seauen Reasons why the godly must dye as well as the wicked 263 Tenne sins that haue prouoked the Lord to sweepe away the wicked 268 That all must dye exemplified and amplified by many instances 269 The deaths of the worlds Worthies of all sorts epitomized 274 Fiue naturall causes of death 282 Death is as
inexorable as vnresistible with his Trophies ouer all 283 We must not too much loue this life which we must shortly leaue 287 Those that loue life must hate Sinne the cause of death 289 Death onely makes the Prince and the poore man equall 291 Deaths effect in equalizing all illustrated by fit similies 296 Sixe Reasons further shewing the necessitie of dying 299 How euen in liuing wee dye and are dead in part 301 By how many meanes we dye 304 Diuers examples of seuerall sorts of deaths violent and naturall 305 Some cut off in the midst of their lawlesse lusts 309 Our dayes abbreuiated in respect of the long liues of the Patriarkes 316 Foure causes of the long continuation of things 318 Because our life is short we must spend it well 319 Our many sinnes to be mourned for and why 320 The practise of Epicures and profane men reproued and threatned 321 How wee must sow in teares in this short seed-time 323 Further vse to be made of our short time 325 Our life is laborious and miserable euery calling hauing his crosse 328 No place priuiledged from foure things 1. Sathan tempting 2. The hearts wandring 3. Ill tongues biting 4. The world crossing 330 Examples of humane calamities 331 Twelue meanes to get that peace with God which the world wants 334 The vanitie of life with all the things in life truely discouered 336 The world truly described by eleauen similies 340 How Christ in his practise crossed all the worlds proceedings 342 The benefits of death to a Christian vnder the Crosse 343 God oft cals away the best soonest 345 How death is fearefull and not fearefull 347 Death is onely a departure out of life not a finall destroyer 348 Eight Arguments prouing the Resurrection of our bodies 351 Illustrations from Nature that our bodies shall rise 352 Foure Reasons besides from the Word 354 The Christians comfort in the consideration of our Resurrection 355. 356 That wee may rise ioyfully we must liue holily in tenne particulars 359 Tenne Arguments to proue the soules immortality 362 Seauen moe from the Word 364 Death vnmasked what it is to the godly 365 Reproofe of those that respect the body more then the soule 367 The seruants of God alwayes dye in peace 369 The godly oft haue their desires at before and in their deaths 372 The very last words recorded which the Saints vttered in their death beds 374 How great men haue liued and dyed good men 377 Reasons why the godly depart in peace 379 Nine Obiections answered that seeme to contradict the peaceable departure of the Saints 380 Nine Reasons that his death may be good that dyes of the Plague 384 How selfe-murther doth not alwayes imply a wretched death 387 Hee that would dye well must liue well 389 The fearefull ends of wicked persecutors in euery age 391 An ill life the vsuall Prologue to a Tragicall death 395 None can repent when he will 397 The Word layes downe a way to a blessed death 402 Death is certaine yet vncertaine 403 The paines of Hell without remission or redemption 405 Repentance is not to be deferred till death 406 The danger of deferring discouered 408 The Theefes Repentance vpon the Crosse examined 412 Sixe effects of Deaths meditation 417 The life of Faith brings dying Peace 429 Repentance the meanes of peace with God 430 How to dye daily three wayes 433 How to leaue the damnable custome of Swearing 434 Eighteene things to be prayed for that death may be prosperous 437 A good conscience in life brings peace in death 442 Sixe causes of sickenesse besides sinne 445 With fiue duties to be done in sickenesse 446 The sicke man must send for a Minister before the Physitian and carnall friends 451 The necessitie and lawfull vse of Physicke proued and vrged 455 Rules obseruable in the vse of Physicke 457 Against seeking to Witches and Charmers in sickenesse 459 Reconciliation and Restitution vrged 461 Fiue Reasons why a sicke man must make his Will 465 Foure Rules in making all Wills 466 A Christian carriage prescribed in the houre of death 468 Twenty seuerall Comforts in the death of friends 1 Because God takes them away 470 2 The Saints haue beene patient spectators of the deaths of their deare friends 471 3 If he dyed in the faith of Christ he is translated from this life to a better 472 4 He is blessed being dead in the Lord. ibid. 5 Hee is returned home to his Fathers house ibid. 6 He is inseperably vnited vnto God the chiefest good 473 7 He is marryed vnto his Bridegroome Christ ibid. 8 His warfare is now at an end ibid. 9 Being here a pilgrime hee is returned into his owne Country 474 10 Thou hast not lost but left him ibid. 11 He shall be restored vnto thee againe at the Resurrection ibid. 12 Ere long thou shalt goe vnto him 475 13 His better part is yet liuing ibid. 14 His estate is bettered by death ibid. 15 Thou sorrowest for that could not be preuented 476 16 Thou hast many companions in thy sorrow ibid. 17 Thy impatient sorrow hurts thy selfe 477 18 Thy extreame sorrow is as fruitles at faithlesse ibid. 19 The Lord thy best friend is still liuing ibid. 20 They are insensible of thy sorrow 479 Twenty Cordials against the crosse of sicknes 482 And Meditations how to beare the intollerable burthen thereof 499 Eight seuerall Consolations against the vnkindnes of mercilesse Friends 500 1 Thy case is not singular but ordinary ibid. 2 The Saints haue had the same measure 501 3 Christ himselfe was maliced of his owne brethren ibid. 4 There hath beene hatred amongst the nearest friends by nature ibid. 5 Though thy friends forsake thee yet God careth for thee 502 6 As thy friends are vnkinde to thee so thou hast beene vnthankefull to God ibid. 7 God hath elected thee though man reiect thee 503 8 Though thou canst not see thy friends here with comfort yet ere long thou shalt see God as hee is ibid. Thirteene Preparatiues against Pouertie 504 1 It is the prouidence of God that thou shouldest be poore 504 2 Thy crosse is not singular 505 3 Pouertie is no token of Gods displeasure ibid. 4 A little with the feare of God is better then great riches of the vngodly 507 5 As well Pouertie as Riches fals out to the best to them that feare God ibid. 6 The Lord knoweth what is best for thee ibid. 7 Pouertie hinders not the acceptance of thy Prayers 508 8 If thou be poore in spirit thou art rich in Christ 509 9 Pouerty is no hinderance to thy saluation 510 10 The lesse thou receiuest the lesse shall thine accounts be 511 11 The Lord hath a care of thee euen for the things of this life 512 12 And can blesse a small portion vnto thee 514 13 Christ himselfe and the most excellent Saints haue beene poore on earth 516 MOSES His sight of Sion applyed to encourage and direct euery Christian to
and God the holy Ghost with Angels Arch-angels Patriarkes Prophets Apostles and all the holy company of Heauen our fathers our mothers our sisters and brothers our friends and deare ones that are gone before vs O glorious sight O inestimable comfort worthy to make vs cry with the Apostle Phil. 1.21 Iohn 11.11 I desire to be loosed and to be there Come Lord Iesus come quickely Death is an end of all misery and the beginning of all blisse an eternall dwelling with God againe and an aduantage as the Apostle nameth it a sweet sleepe a comfortable rest Vitae via the way of life saith Ambrose Nomentantum fidelibus death is onely a bare name and no death indeed to the faithfull saith Chrisostome Nemo timet mortem nisi qui non sperat viuere post mortem No man feareth death but hee that hopeth not to liue after death the Lord gaue and the Lord taketh away life as well as goods and shall not wee say with Iob Iob 1.21 Blessed be the Name of the Lord. If wee hold for tearmes of yeeres or at the will of the Lord must not we be content to relinquish it when our tearme is expired Wee our selues doe looke for it at the hands of our Tenants and would be much offended if they should be disobedient shall wee not performe to God what wee looke for at men Grudge not at the losse but be thankfull for the loane wee are Gods Tenants and we ought to giue him his owne when it is due to him Would you keepe a pledge from the true owner that committed it to you for a time Our life is Gods pledge hee hath left it with vs now so long he euer entended to call for it againe and will you not restore it gladly and willingly without murmuring and repining thinke how you would like that at mans hands to keepe your pledge Heathens haue beene strong and shall Christians be weake The Swan is said to sing most sweetly when shee must die and shall Gods Children weepe Blessed blessed are the dead that die in the Lord saith the holy Ghost Reu. 14.13 and will we not beleeue him O ignaros malorum suorū c. O ignorant men of the miseries of this life that doe not esteeme and prayse death as the best inuention of nature yea let vs say rather it is the great mercy and goodnesse of God towards man for first it expelleth calamitie secondly it includeth felicttie thirdly it preuenteth the perils of youth fourthly it finisheth the toyles of age Omnibus fints multis remedium nonnullis votum to all an end to many a remedie to some a wish deseruing better of none then of them to whom hee commeth before hee be called for As children feare their friends when they are disguised but when their vizards are plucked off are glad of them so of death Ignorance makes feare and Knowledge ioy Cleambrotus saith Cicero after hee had read Platoes Booke of the happy estate of the dead cast himselfe head-long off from a wall into the Sea that hee might come to that happinesse the same Author speaketh of another Philosopher that so disputed of the contempt of death that many willingly killed themselues whereupon Ptolomy the King for bad him any more to speake of that matter in his Schoole Now alacke what comparisons be betwixt Philosophicall Comforts and Diuine out of the Treasure of Gods owne Wisdome taken from his written Word Shall wee then with our light feare that which they in their darknesse so little regarded God forbid The day of our birth wee neuer feare and The day of death saith God that is euer true is better then the day that one is borne Eccles 7.3 That resemblance of death to sleepe in Scriptures 1 Cor. 15.51 is most fit if you marke it and full of pleasure for 1 As no man can euer wake but of necessitie must sometimes sleepe so no man can euer liue but must needes haue a time to die 2 Be a man neuer so strong sleepe will tame him and so will death as it did Goliah Sampson Milo and others 3 As sleepe maketh vs put off our cloaths and Iewels and that willingly that we may take our rest so dealeth death with vs it taketh away all our pompe and port and layeth vs downe in our beds till the waking time to arise 4 As sleepe commeth of eating so came death also to our first Parents by intemperancie in eating the forbidden fruit Gen. 2.17 5 As our dayes doings be our nights troubles by the working of the phantasie so are our lifes sinnes our deaths griefes by the gnawing of the Conscience as appeareth in Iudas Antiochus and Francis Spira 6 Sleepers haue no stormes nor dead men know the worlds woes for Abraham is ignorant of and Israel knowes not the Iewes woes the first things being past c. Reu. 21.4 7 Some fall sodainely or quickely into sleepe and some are long according to the moistnesse or drynesse of their braines euen so some dye sooner as young Iosias and some later as olde Methusalem according to the temper of their radicall moysture as it pleaseth God 8 Some sleepe in their owne houses and some in other mens as did Sisera in Iaels some in the fields some at Sea some here some there in sundry places so doe wee dye some at home and some abroad some by land and some by Sea as God appointeth 9 No man can tell the very time that hee falleth asleepe but onely feeleth it comming and his body disposed to it so no man can tell the very moment of his death but onely feeleth his body faint and his spirits drawing to an end 10 Suauius dormiunt qui relinquunt c. They sleepe much better saith one that leaue all their cares in their shooes which they put off and goe to rest with a quiet minde euen so doe they dye better that haue disposed of all their worldly matters by Will or otherwise whereby they are not troubled or distracted by them 11 They sleepe well againe that haue laboured and taken paines all the day time and so they die well that in their vocation haue not beene idle but imployed both body and minde to doe good Ester 6.1 12 As Assuerus when he could not sleepe called for the Chronicles of his kingdome to be read vnto him so assuredly whilst wee wake in this world and the sleepe of death commeth not vpon vs it shall be a most profitable thing to reade or cause to be read vnto vs the Chronicle of GOD the sacred and holy Scriptures the treasures of all Comfort and good instructions 13 When the body sleepeth the soule sleepeth not no more dyeth the soule when the body dyeth 14 No man goeth to bed to sleepe but with a certaine hope and purpose to wake and rise againe so must wee dye in assurance of that great and generall Resurrection 15 And as our voyce and calling vpon men awake them so shall that
refreshing can come from our earthly beds and naturall sleepe here Wherefore with ioy let vs welcome the houre of death and blesse God for it tenne thousand times following the foot-steps of worthy Fathers and Saints in the Church whose feeling of this point God hath directed them to leaue behinde them in their writings O tu vita quam praeparauit Deus ijs qui diligunt eum vita vitalis vita beata vita secura vita tranquilla c. O thou life saith Augustine prepared of God for them that loue him thou liuing life thou blessed life thou secure life thou quiet life thou beautifull life thou life that knowest no death thou life that knowest no sadnesse thou life without blot without sorrow without care without corruption without perturbation without any varietie or change Would God that laying aside this burthen of my flesh I might enter into thy ioyes O quam fortunatus ero si audiuero c. O how happy shall I be if I might heare those sweet Songs of thy Citizens and those honey sweet verses but O more happy if I my selfe may finde grace and fauour to sing a song vnto the Lord Iesus Christ of the sweet Songs of Sion O verè foelices qui de Pilago c. O truely happy they that come out of the Sea of the World to the Hauen of Heauen out of Banishment to their owne Country and out of a soule Prison to a glorious Palace O Coelestis domus luminosa ad te suspirat c. O Heauenly House full of glorious light to thee tendeth my pilgrimage that he may possesse mee in thee that made both mee and thee Inter Brachia Seruatoris mei viuere volo mori cupio In the Armes of my Sauiour I wish to liue and desire to dye Many such feeling speeches I could repeate from the auncient militant warriours in this mortalitie whom we call Fathers when they went to the Father of Spirits shewing how farre they were from any vnwillingnesse to die which if wee make vse of as wee ought assuredly they will vvorke in vs through the blessing of God the same effect To shut vp this the godly cry come Lord Iesus come quickely Now they are in the world then they shall come to their owne now they are in the skirmish then shall they be in their victory now in the tempestuous Sea then in the quiet Hauen now in the heate of the day then in rest and coole euening now in place absent from Christ then with him following wheresoeuer hee goeth Now their life is hid with Christ but then shall they appeare with him in glory and that glory for euer and euer without change or end 1 Iohn 4.2 Comforts against the feare of Death by which the Christian Soule may be made willing to her Dissolution CHAP. V. THE feare of death is not one of the least temptations to a weake Christian for Death is not onely fearefull to a naturall man whose hope is in this world being in it owne nature the most terrible of all terribles as Heathen men haue tearmed it for which cause wicked men are agast at the apprehension of it as appeares in the example of Baltazar of Hamon and others being as vnwilling to dye as the Beare vnto the Stake and the Swine vnto the Shambles but euen the godly themselues haue some combats and conflicts in this kinde as had our Sauiour Christ himselfe Ezekias and Dauid c. by reason that Nature abhorres her owne abolishion and feares the dissolution of the soule and body which are naturally as vnwilling to be seuered and sundered as two friends that haue beene borne and bred and brought vp together are loath to depart and to take their long leaue eyther of other therefore to make that easie and facile vnto thee which of it selfe is harsh and difficult that thou maist submit thy selfe willingly to that which all flesh haue vndergone and must vndergoe of necessitie Arme Grace against Nature and the Spirit against the Flesh with these comfortable considerations 1 God cals for they soule 1 Consider that by corporall death God onely cals againe for that soule which at the first hee created and infused into the body to informe and animate it and that this Soule of thine flits not out of her terrestriall tabernacle by chance or hap-hazard or casualtie or fortune or by the Climactericall yeere the reuolution of seauens and nines or by the position of the Heauens or course of the Starres or by thy disease or sicknesse occasioned by bad dyet superfluities of meates or drinkes ouer-great heates or taking of cold or the like accidents which are but meere instruments of thy mortalitie but looke at the superiour Agent GOD himselfe who hath now determined and disposed thy death Hab. 9.27 who hath numbred thy dayes and appointed thy limits who turnes thy dust into his dust Gen. 3.19 thou being a Sonne of Adam and cals for thy Spirit to returne to him that gaue it Psal 90.3 Eccles 12.7 And therefore seeing it is the Lord that cals be thou as willing to sleepe with thy Fathers as Samuel was to awake out of his naturall sleepe at Gods call 1 Sam. 3.10 Thinke that thy Soule is giuen vnto thee as a precious pledge to be safely kept and therefore grudge not to returne thy holy pawne to God the chiefe owner when hee requires it but commit it to him as into the hands of a faithfull Creator and louing Redeemer Why should the Tenant at will stand out with his Land-lord for an old rotten Cottage when he would remoue him to a better Mansion why should the Souldier be refractorie to leaue his station and place to be otherwaies disposed of by his Generall and Commander Now thou art here but a Tenant at will thou hast no fee-simple of thy life thou art a war-faring Souldier professed in Baptisme therefore like the Centurions Souldiers be willing to goe when thy Captaine bids thee goe Mat. 8.9 2 Let this comfort thee that thy sinnes 2 The sting of death is taken away the cause of thy death is taken away by the Messias Christ in whom thou beleeuest by whom thy sinnes being pardoned thou art blessed Psal 32.1 his death being the death of Sin and the conquest of Hell Hos 13. 1 Cor. 15. And therefore comfort thy selfe with Dauids holy Meditations encouraging thy soule to returne vnto her rest because the Lord hath beene bountifull vnto thee since he hath deliuered thy Soule from death euen the second death thine eyes from teares and thy feete from falling and since thou shalt walke before the Lord euen with the foure and twentie Elders in long white roabes in the Land of the liuing Psal 116.7.8.9 For all thy bitter griefe in corporall death which yet is sweetened to the Elect the Lord will deliuer thy soule from the pit of corruption for hee hath cast all thy sinnes behinde his backe as hee did Ezekiahs Esay 38.17 And
in their Christian courses fourthly thy sinceritie in thy profession approued fiftly Gods graces in thee magnified sixtly and aboue all his name glorified 15 It is the good inheritance of the godly and the horrour of the vvicked 15 In thy death thou shalt be distinguished from a carnall and a prophane man for commonly the sicke bed shewes the sicknesse or the health of the soule the death shewes the life diuiding and iudging the estate of the visited as Gideon diuided his company by lapping of water Iudg. 7.1 and as the Ephramites were distinguished from the Israelites by pronouncing Shiboleth For looke at the godly from time to time and the last acts they did and the last words they spake were the most sacred seasoned and sanctified of their whole life but it hath beene contrary in the wicked and God is the same God to thee that hee was to them if thou beest a beleeuer Looke into particulars the last speeches of dying Saints as they haue beene full of grace so they are worthy relating and remembring and applying Acts 7.60 The last period of S. Steuens life was prayer for his enimies and for his owne soule 1 Kings 2. v. 1. to 11. the last words of Dauid holy exhortations to his Sonne Salomon to obserue the Statutes and Ordinances of the Lord and the disposing of some particulars of which hee gaue him cautions the last acts of old Iacob Gen. 48. Gen. 49. Prayer and prophecying concerning his sonnes and posteritie the like comfortable end made Abraham Iob old Simeon Moses Gen. 25.8 Iob 42.17 Luke 2. and other of the Saints in the old and new Testament The like wee read of Ambrose whose conclusion in his death-bed was that hee was neyther ashamed to liue nor fearefull to dye because he had a good Lord. Vide cent Magd. sic Grin in Apotheg morientium Bernards death was grounded vpon the sure hope and Anchor of Gods mercy though hee liued in corrupt times Oecolampadius told his visitors newes in the last speech hee vttered namely that hee should shortly be with the LORD IESVS Mr. Caluin with Dauids heart repeating Dauids Psalmes mourning in the Spirit for his sinnes his soule was sent out of his body like Noahs Doue out of the Arke Melancthon in his last farewell to life professed he was exceeding willing to dye because it was the Lords will praying for a happy and ioyfull departure hee had his desire presently sealed Peter Martyr gaue a comfortable farewell to his brethren and deare friends acknowledging saluation onely in Christ the Redeemer in which faith as he liued so he dyed That halfe miraculous man Luther in his death abounded as with prayer so with praises and thankesgiuings that the Lord had reuealed Christ vnto him and made him an instrument to discouer Antichrist and to oppose him Annas Burgius cryed in her last cryes Lord forsake not mee least I forsake thee Mauritius the Emperour in his last fainting gaue glory vnto GOD that was righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his workes Saint Augustine wept vpon his sicke couch for many dayes together and so was his soule ferryed to Christ in a floud of teares as Peter walked to Christ on the Sea of waters I might giue your meditations matter enough to worke vpon in reflexing vpon infinite examples related by Authors to which euery faithfull Minister that vseth to performe this dutie of visiting the sicke like a spirituall Physitian discerning the estate of the soule addes his Probatum est in ioyfull experience of many whose dying hath beene suted and sorted to their liuing both gracious both glorious Why then shouldest thou feare for to the righteous there shall be peace at the last Esay 57.2 therefore liue by Faith beleeue the Promises and apply them and be comforted in Gods mercy to others but as for the wicked it is not so with them they shall bee like the chaffe scattered in the winde for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Esa 57.21 the prolong of their wicked life ends in a fearfull Tragedie in death for though in respect of the body and the outward man Eccles 2.16 there is the same condition to the vvise and the foolish to Nabal and Salomon godly Ionathan perishing in the field as well as wicked Saul 1 Sam. 31.2.3 Ezekias strucke with the plagues boyle Esay 38.21 Asa goutie in his feete nay 2 Chron. 35 23 euen good Iosias wounded in the Battell and the rest of the godly being afflicted in sickenesse as pittiously and dying oft times as painefully whether in a naturall or a violent death euen as the wicked as appeares in the exquisite torments of the Martyres in the Primitiue Church in the crucifying of Peter and Paul with their heads downewards Ar. in probl de cruce c. yea euen in the very Passion of Christ himselfe yet in respect of the inward man and dispositions of their soules in death there is as great difference betwixt them as there was in their carriage and conuersation in life And therefore as you haue heard the godly praying or praysing and blessing GOD speaking graciously sending out their spirits ioyfully and dying comfortably so prophane men dye eyther carelesly and blockishly for the most part their hearts being frozen and their consciences benummed and seared without any touch in soule or remorse for sinne which kinde of dying though our sottish silly common people commend as the most happy and blessed death when they goe away quietly like Lambes as their stupiditie and blindnesse thinke yet indeede they dye like Beasts and Dogs without any life of grace or feeling of the Spirit in the power or comfort of it nay senslesly like stockes and stones as is said of Nabal whose heart was like a stone within him 1 Sam. 25.37.38 or else desperately and ragingly impatiently as impenitently belching out blasphemies against both the Maiestie and the Mercy of God Thus Iudas cryes hee hath sinned in betraying the innocent bloud Mat. 27.3 but hath no Faith to apply that bloud to the washing away of his bloody treason 2 Mach. 9.13 Thus Antiochus Epiphanes dying is tormented inwardly with the gripes and conuulsions of conscience as with the rage of his sickenesse so Iulian the Apostate in his last act of life from his infected lungs sent out venome against Christ calling him in dirision victorious Galilean Thus Eccius dyes execrating his Popish on-setters in frustrating his golden hopes when they had clapt their hands to animate him to barke at Luther and the Protestanâ—s The like end made Latemus Hoff-maister Spira and other Antichristian Champions being not vnlike in their sinne Thus Gardiner dyes confessing that hee had sinned with Peter but could not repent vvith Peter Cornelius Agrippa cursing his attending Spirit that stood by him in the forme of a blacke dog Others paralel in the like sinnes making like proportioned ends vnlesse it be in
some particulers as once in the Scripture Luk. 23.43 in the Theefe vpon the crosse that a theeuish and licentious life should haue the promise of Paradise in Death which as it was first the conclusion of Christs life secondly the present magnifying of the power of his Passion so it is not to be vrged nor peremptorily pleaded 1. in defence of ill liuers 2. nor imitated in deferring repentance 3. nor presumed vpon no more then a man ought to presume to be a Traytor a Witch a murtherer in hope for a pardon when he is to be turned off the Ladder because some one man in an age hath by Gods prouidence this priuiledge to be repriued and released from these facts committed For in place of one example that hath had his inueterate old sores cured his crying treasons pardoned at the last houre like Gregories good theefe that begd heauen wee haue millions that haue perished rot and consumed in body and soule in the last exigent of life as they haue not spared GOD liuing God hath not giuen them any tokens of his fauour but rather of his wrath and indignation dying forgetting them dying as in their life they forgat him turning away his eare from hearing of their prayers Psal 66 2â— though they houle vpon their sicke-beds like Wolues Ose 7.14 because in their health and prosperitie they haue like deafe Adders stopped their eares in not hearing his Law and Word and in not considering the cryes of the poore Prou. 28.9 Prou. 21.13 Prou. 15.8 Therefore for thy present instruction and future consolation worke thou out betimes thy saluation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Giue all diligence to make thy Election sure Breake off all thy sinnes by repentance Dan. 4.24 Turne to the Lord with all thine heart in fasting weeping and mourning Ioel 2.12 Turne from the wickednesse thou hast committed with the Niniuites Ionah 3.7.8 Wash thee and make thee cleane Esay 1.16 Cleanse thy heart from euill thoughts Ier. 4.14 Leaue thy formalitie in Religion and worship the Lord in truth and spirit Iohn 4 24. Get faith and learne to liue by faith Hab. 2.4 and to dye by faith Iohn 1.47 Be a Nathaniel in thy dealings with men let thy heart be vpright as thy hand Ioh. 1.47 Remember the poore and needy then the Lord will remember thee in the day of thy sicknesse Psal 41.1 Christ will visite thee as hee did Iairus Daughter Luk. 16.22 and Peters wiues Mother he shall be thy Physitian when the simples of Nature and the arme of Flesh faile his Angels shall pitch their tents about thee and carry thy flitting soule as they did Lazarus his into the seates of the blessed Make vse of this and the LORD giue thee vnderstanding in all things 16 As the examples of the Saints of God 16 In death desire Christ as hee by death desired thee that hauing liued conscionahly and dyed comfortably must comfort thee in this houre so their willingnesse to dye must encourage thee willingly to drinke of that cup which the Lord offers thee without resisting or relucting Looke vpon old Simeon singing that Swan-like song prophecying his death Lord now lettâ—st thou thy Seruant depart in peace Luke 2.29 But especially of Saint Paul vveary of this mortalitie desirous to be disburdened of the burthen of his corruptions to be deliuered from the body of sinne Rom. 7. to be present with the Lord to be dissolued and to be with CHRIST 2 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. But the best president that wee haue in life and death as the best comfort is the practise of Christ who although hee feared death as man desiring conditionally the passing of that bitter cup yet neuerthelesse wee shall see in him a great alacritie chearefulnesse propensitie and willingnesse to dye for Mat. 10.38 and 16.21.17.22.23 Luk 18.31 besides his often conference with his Disciples about his death the frequent nomination of it vpon all occasions which shewes how vehemently hee was affected towards it the tongue speaking from the hearts abundance all his words and acts declare it for to shew his desire to dye Iohn 4.32 hee counts it but a Baptisme or as it were a sprinkling of cooling water Mat. 20.22 nay it is meate and drinke to him to doe his Fathers will which was that hee should dye hee counts it a Iourney to goe which hee was willing to vnder-goe nay hee was euen payned vntill it was past when it came to the push that his houre was come hee seekes death as it seekes him Ioh. 18.4.7 hee goes forth to meete and welcome it as his friend Gen. 18.2 Ioh. 19.30 Gen. 8.8 as Abraham and Lot to meete and entertaine the Angels hee offers himselfe to the instruments of his death his backe to the smiters and finally his soule is not taken from him compulsorie but as hee commended it so hee resigned and gaue it vp to his Father willingly hee gaue vp the ghost hauing power to lay downe his life sending out his spirit as Noah did the Doue out of the Arke which after three dayes returned againe to quicken the body from heauen from whence also Lazarus his soule returned after foure dayes Now apply this to thine owne particular art not thou a Christian so denominated of CHRIST then euery one of Christs actions ought to be thy instruction chiefely in his death all whose dying gestures are worthy to be writ in thy heart in letters of Gold Did hee then vnder-goe such an extraordinary vnnaturall painefull shamefull cursed death the worst that euer was for therefore Christ dyed the worst death that euer was both for the ignominie of it and the exquisite tortures in it that a Christian should not feare any death since euery death is sanctified vnto him in the death of Christ Did Christ not onely indure his pangs and paines in death so patiently Esay 53. as a Lambe before the shearer but was euen desirous of this bitter pill for the ioy that was set before him and the loue hee bore to redeeme thy enthralled soule and art thou scrupulous and timerous of a naturall and an ordinary passage from life to life through this dead Sea Wilt thou mutter and murmure and shew thy selfe refractory to come to the Kings Court when thou art so gently summoned by such a sweet messenger as a lingring sickenesse Hast thou so little longing to goe to him by the rupture of a weake thread of life who was so desirous to come to thee from heauen to earth from the earth to the Crosse from the Crosse to the Graue euen through a red Sea of blood thorow Pikes and Speares and nayles and thornes being dieted in this his bloody march with the bread of affliction and the water of teares with gall vinegar oh hast thou so little delight in him so little desire towards him so small liking of him so little loue to him that thou list not step ouer the
sinnes which cleaue so fast on which they cannot shake off Sinne with which they are at opposition and deadly feud dogs them at the heeles like a Serieant waytes on them like a Catchpole insinuates into them like a claw-backe creepes into their bosomes as a Serpent stings them at the heart like an Adder followes them as their shadow stickes close to them like their shirt vpon their skinne their skinne vpon their flesh and their flesh vpon their bones insomuch that it burnes and frets them as Diaâ—â—raes poysoned shirt did Hercules and as the Ticke vexeth the Oxe which makes them crye out in the anguish of their soules In me duo armati Amor Odium Iacob Esau Caro Spiritus c. Hier. vvith Paul and the faithfull Rom. 7. Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliuer mee from this body of sinne They complaine of the strife of the Flesh and the Spirit as Rebeccah of the strugling betwixt Iacob and Esau Now death comes and rescues and makes thy baile and playes the Mid-wife and ends the broyle therefore welcome to the well disposed Fiftly they are here Pilgrimes and strangers 1 Pet. 2.11 as was Dauid and the rest in their ages they are here exuls and banished men as Children put forth to nurse from their Mothers as Schollers and Pupils sent to forraine Schooles and to farre Vniuersities and therefore their returning home to their owne Country their restitution to their prouided Kingdome their fetching home to their Father and friends their retyring to their Fathers house though it be through the shadow of death must needes be acceptable Sixtly they know that the day of their death is better then the day of life Eccles 7.3 because they dye prepared their soules purged their hearts by Faith purified As they haue entered into the first degree of eternall life in this life when they beleeued and receiued the gifts of the Spirit the earnest of their Saluation so they enter into the second degree in death August in Iob. Qui cupit dissolui essecum Christo non patienter moritur sed patienter viuit delectabiliter moritur when their soules are carryed into heauen and they dye in assurance of the third degree when body and soule shall be re-vnited to participate of happinesse as they haue liued together in holinesse Seauenthly they dye as with a desire so in an expectation to see and behold the face of Christ of which with Steuen they haue some glimmering in their deaths and therefore death to the godly so farre as regeneration rules is no more burthensome then the stripping off the cloathes vnto a louing Spouse to goe into the Marriage-bed of her contracted Bridegrome Hos 2.19 Eightly they haue kept a good Conscience with God and man like Paul Acts 24. And therefore they feare not iudgement no more then a true man feares to looke the Iudge in the face Ninthly wherein they haue offended God they haue their sinnes remitted and therefore feare not to hold vp their hand at the barre since they are quit before by Proclamation of all the promises in the Gospell and haue the Kings Pardon sealed them in the Sacraments Iacula praeuisa minus ferunâ— Tenthly they haue oft in life invred themselues to thinke speake record and meditate of death euen as did Christ their head and his Seruants Iacob Moses and Paul as appeares in the Word and therefore Deaths dart foreseene Praemoniti Praemuniti wounds them lesse being fore-warned of it they are fore-armed for it Euen as the Souldier that hath beene long trayned and in many skirmishes is more couragious in the maine Battell and as hee that hath long exercised himselfe in foyles is more hardy to fight with sharpe so the petty conflicts that the godly haue had in their owne breasts vvith Deaths feare make them more hardy to encounter Deaths force Eleuenthly they entertaine it as a reward for their worke as a rest from their labour as willingly as the hired labourer receiues his hire and reposeth his wearied limbes Dan 12. Esay 57.2 Twelfthly they are perswaded and haue their Faith grounded in an happy and blessed change they expect a Metamorphosis and an alteration a comfortable transmutation of Earth for Heauen of the Sea for the Hauen of Griefe for Glory of the outward Court for the Sanctum Sanctorum of a Mortall for an Immortall body of Enon for Salem Sodome for Segor Aegypt for Canaan the Wildernesse of Sin for the Land of Promise of a House of clay terrestriall for a House celestiall aboue the Clouds 2 Cor. 5.1 And therefore they are as willing to make this exchange as a poore begger would be to exchange his poore rags for some Princes robes or some poore man to leaue his smoaky rainy Cottage for a pompous Pauilion and decked Chamber in the Court. To reape the Vintage of this discourse Vse the vse to vs is first of examination in that it is an argument of a good man to be willing to dye as here was Simeon Lay thou thy hand on thine heart and search in thy soule what propensitie and disposition thou findest in thy selfe to dye Many arguments there are in the Word and tryals both of a holy and a happy man both affirmatiue in shewing what hee doth and negatiue in shewing what he auoids Dauid points at him in the first Psalme as also in the 32. Psalme verse 1.2 as also in the 15. Psalme So doth our Sauiour Christ in the first eight Verses of the fift of Mathew So the Apostle Paul in the 2. of Cor. ch 7. ver 11. with other such places as namely delighting in the Word meeknesse mourning for sinne hunger after righteousnesse c. care to please God Feare Zeale Indignation against sinne not letting Mony to Vsury and the like yet sure there is no greater euidence of an honest and holy heart then so to walke vprightly with God in life as alwayes to be willing to imbrace the strictest Summons of death to be as ready to depart out of this world as the Israelites were to depart out of Aegypt Againe it is most vsually a note of a soule eyther altogether soyled in corruption or indued with a smaller measure of Sanctification to be violently possessed with a continuated feare of death and therefore in this particular finde out thy selfe and trye in what case thou standest for the more vnwilling thou art to dye commonly the more Nature rules in thee the more earthly fleshly and carnall thou art the more willing commonly the more Grace raignes the more thou art holy heauenly and spirituall in which case you shall obserue that the desire to liue or not to liue to dye and not to dye hath oftentimes ebbed and flowed according to the measure of grace or corruption of sinne or of sanctification Euery man may finde this in his owne heart vsually vpon the search Hence it was Luke 8.33 that our Sauiour Christ
permitting Domino vel adiuuante c. yea euen those things which are done contra voluntatem against the will of GOD yet are not done praeter eius voluntatem besides his will by which will with Hugo Euchir cap. 101. I meane his good pleasure his operation and permission yea euen in Sinne it selfe the cause of death God hee hath a worke God workes in euery euill but he workes not euill nor euilly Lib. de sac c. 7. part 4. as the Papists slander Caluin to teach Agit in malo c. hee workes in the euill first by permitting secondly by disposing by permitting I say not by prouoking For though God offer the sinner obiects to vse Augustine and Bellarmines Similitudes and leaues a man to himselfe yet hee inclines not his will to euill and therefore is not the cause of euill no more then the Shepheard by setting hay or grasse before the Sheepe is the cause of the Sheepes feeding or the Huntsman by shewing the Grey-hound the Hare or Deere is the cause of his running but onely the dispositions and inclinations of both to runne and to feede Secondly by ordering and disposing sin for this is the propertie of the diuine vvisedome saith Clemens Vti vtiliter Strom. l. 1. c. to vse those things profitably which are done peruersely Aug. Euch. c. 101. De malo opere c. God out of euery worke that is euill workes that which is good euen as in the first Creation he brought light out of darkenesse and as a wise Physitian out of poysoned Serpents and venemous beasts extracts a preseruatiue against poyson Thus hee disposed of the Treachery of Iosephs Brethren and the Treason of Iudas against Christ to his owne glory and the good of his Church in the preseruation of old Iacob and his Seede and the saluation of his owne Elect Israel Therefore as in one act of the death of Christ 1. God 2. Christ 3. the Diuell 4. the Iewes and 5. Iudas wrought but not from one cause Aug. ep ad Vincent 38. the Diuell suggestingly the Iewes maliciously Iudas couetously Christ executiuely in deliuering himselfe God decretorily in decreeing and dispositiuely in disposing the death of his Sonne to the sauing of the Elect and condemning of the Reprobate being the rising and falling of many in Israell The like is seene in other sinnes wherein there are diuers agents Aug. de Gen. ad lit imp c. 5. De ciuitate Dei lib. 11. c. 17. Mors non naturae conditio sed poena peccati de praed gratia c. 11. some sinfull but GOD alwayes sinlesse for Peccâ—teres in quantum peccatores c. God makes not sinners so farre forth as they be sinners but onely ordereth and disposeth them being as the best Creator of those wils that are good so a most righteous disposer and orderer of those wils which are euill But as for Death which is the punishment of sinne not the condition of Nature God is not onely the permitter and prouident disposer but the iust inflicter of it yea vitae necisque arbitrer the author and ordayner as of life so of death for it is he that formes the light and creates darkenesse hee makes peace and creates euill Esay 45.7 What euill Not the euill of sinne Non malâ— culpae sed poenae but the euill of sorrow of sicknesse of troubles banishment famine yea Death it selfe Leuit. 26. This poynt is worthy our further inlargement namely that all death for the Time of it the Place of it the Matter the Manner the Cause the Occasion of it is immediately from God operatiuely penarily or permissiuely For the Time Euery death is determined by God if death come in the morning or mid-day in the euening or Cocke-crow of life in the Infancie or childe-hood or nonage or youth or adolescencie or perfect age or decaying declining or decrepit old age of our yeeres if it crop vs in the sprout or the Spring or the Summer or the Autumne or the Winter of our time God that is Palmâ—ni a secret numberer hath numbered our dayes and measured our time for the LORD makes our dayes as it were an hand-breadth Psal 39.5 eclipsing our lifes light as it pleaseth him in the Sunne-rising or in the meridian of our dayes as hee did vvith good Iosias the vertuous Prince Edward the 6. that worthy spirit Picus mirandula our English Iosias Prince Henry with diuers others Againe sometimes hee addes vnto our dayes as hee did fifteene yeeres to the raigne of Ezekias Esay 38. extending and drawing out the thread of our life to a large extent as hee did the yeeres of Abraham Gen. 25.8 Iob 22.17 2 Chron. 29.28 Iob and Dauid who dyed all in a good age full of dayes going to their graues as a Ricke of Corne commeth in due season into the Barne Iob 5.26 For the Place whether we dye in the fields with Saul and Ionathan or in our beds vvith old Iacob Gen. 49.33 or on our beds vvith Sisera and Ishbosheth 2 Sam. 4.5 or in the wars with the Amorites and Amalekites or in time of peace as did Salomon or by land or by sea as did the Aegyptians God hath appoynted that place for vs to lay downe our bodyes in and no other euen as hee appointed a dying place for Moses in the land of Moab Deut. 34 1.5 So for the Manner of death whether it be naturall when wee fall from the Tree of life like ripe Apples or if it be violent when we are by force shaken downe like greene Apples God gathers vs to our Fathers God shewes himselfe in this act not onely when immediately hee strikes by himselfe with his owne hands Numb 16.30.31.32 as hee did Dathan and Abiram whom the earth receiued Nadab and Abihu whom the fire consumed Leuit. 10.2 with others for which cause the Lord is said to raine from the Lord fire and Brimstone vpon Sodome Gen. 19. As also to haue smit Naball for his churlishnesse towards Dauid 1 Sam. 25. â—8 but euen those that are cut off by an externall agent whether by Sathan himselfe as vvere Iobs Children Iob 1.18.19 or by others voluntarily or involuntarily they are executed by the decree of the supreame essence Thus whether wee consider Children murthered by their Parents as was the Sonne of Constantine the great of Antoninus Caracalla of Brutus of Darius of Cambyses and Medea if wee beleeue Histories Or Parents slaine by their Children as was Senacherib by his Sonnes Esay 37.38 Fredericke by his Sonne Manfrede Agrippina by Nero Semiramis by Ninus Vlisses by Thelegon Phocas by his Sonne Heraclus c. Or the bloud of Brothers effused by Brethren as Abels by Caine Ammons by Absolon Teocles by Polymies Remus by Romulus Argeus by his Brother Ptolomie Philadelphus c. Or if vvee consider Husbands slaine by their Wiues as the Husbands of the fiftie Daughters of Danaus so the Husbands of those thirtie Sisters
of Albina slaine by their wiues Agamemnon by Clitemnestra King Sarematar by Circes Antoninus the Emperour by his Wife Luulla Or if wee ponder Wiues butchered by their Husbands as Poppea was by Nero Queene Glosinda by Chilpericus Fausta the Empresse by Constantine as also the Wife of Mithridates the King of Pontus of Egnatius Calphurinus Periander and diuers others who haue perished by the mischiefe of their Mates Or if wee reflexe vpon Seruants that haue murthered their Masters as Zimri slew Elah his Lord 1 Kings 16.9.10 Or apostate Subiects vile Traytors that haue effused the bloud of the Lords Annoynted as Iaques Clements and Rauallack in their assarsinations and massacrings of the two renowned French Henries c. Or lastly one man killing another eyther sodainely as Ehud slew Eglon with his Dagger Iudg. 3.21 or treacherously as Ioab did Abner and Amasa as Rehab and Baanah did Ishbosheth 2 Sam. 4.5.6 or combatingly in a Duellie in the field or any other vvayes in all these with all the rest of this nature wee must say as the Apostles said of Pilate Herod and the Iewes concerning the death of Christ that these murtherers haue done whatsoeuer the Lords hand and councell had determined before to be done Acts 4.28 For who is he that saith it commeth to passe and the Lord commanded it not Lamen 3.37 For euen all things that are and that happen Deus disponendo praesciuit praesciendo disposuit saith Tertullian God hath fore-knowne them fore-seene them and disposed of them If of all things then of the liues and deaths of men yea euen of murthered men for though God prohibite and forbid murther Exod. 20. yet hee decrees that act which in man is murther but in God is but an act of Iustice Againe the very materiall part or subiect is of God I say the naked act of murther as it is an act as it is from the liuing soule as it is from the motion of the hand is from God without whom neyther the hand nor any part could moue in any naturall motion but the formall part and deformitie of the act vvhich makes it properly murther that is from the Diuell and from corruption yet not without Gods permission by the substraction of his grace which Hugo cals the cause of all sinne from the Agent and for some righteous ends in respect of the Patient The life of this point Of Redargution like the bloud in the Vse 1 veynes lyes in the vse if meetes with the corruption of these that referre not death vnto his true cause and ground erring not knowing the Scriptures for is any man strangely afflicted with wondrous and wofull diseases Death comes not by fortune as the Gout Stone Stranguillio Sciatica c. Is any infected with the plague smit with Leprosie wounded or slaine by his enemie bruized by falling from his Horse or the like but chiefely is he taken away sodainely in his full strength in his ease and prosperitie when his breasts are full of milke and his bones full of marrow Iob 22.24.25 Presently we breake out into these tearmes Sure he had ill lucke hee had bad chance hee had ill Fortune or else wee shoote our fooles bolts as the Listrians against Paul when the Viper stucke to his hand Acts 14. Sure this man was a great sinner c. or as the Iewes of those vpon whom the Tower of Silo fell and vvhos bloud Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices Luke 13.2 Sure he was a greater sinner then the rest or as others of the blinde man Iohn 9. wee must needes know whether he or his Parents haue sinned For the first it is a pittifull thing that Christians liuing so long in the heate and light and Sunne-shine of the Gospell should be so darkened in their vnderstandings and so vaine in their imaginations like the once vnconuerted Gentiles as to turne the glory of the immortall God into a vile and abhominable Idoll to attribute that which is proper and peculiar vnto God vnto Heathenish Fortune a word which as Augustine and Lactantius in their dayes banished to the Pagans from whence it came so I wonder that the light of Preaching hath no more discouered the blindnesse of it and no more reformed the errour of it that it is no more rooted out of our hearts and vnsetled out of our heads but that wee must needes make it as the Ephesians their Diana some great Goddesse as the Sorcerer Simon made himselfe some great man I wonder that with the Romanes wee must build Temples and sacrifice vnto it in disgrace and despight of God and disparagement of his prouidence taking the Crowne from the Creators head and placing it on an Idoll vvhich is a meere Idaea a fiction and Chimera in nature not knowing or at least not acknowledging with the Scripture with Antiquitie with Ierome Augustine Ierom. in Ier. c. 12. Aug. de gent. cont Manich. c. 2. and others called now Fathers as Iames and Iohn were called Pillers that there is no euill in the Citie that is euill of punishment in which predicament Death is which the Lord hath not wrought that nothing comes to passe fortuito casu sed iudicio Dei by chance but by choyse nothing happens by hap-hazzard but by the peculiar preuidence and prouidence of God that the will of God is the supreame cause of all things that are Not a hayre falling from our heads Mat. 10.29 30 not a Sparrow falling to the ground much lesse a sickenesse or a disease growing vpon our bodies much lesse a day or an houre or a minute falling from our life without the determination and permission of him that hath numbred our dayes and set downe the period of our age Therefore let vs banish all thought and opinion of Fortune vnto the very Getes and Sauromatanes Exhortat Let vs also suspend our thoughts and our opinions of our Brethren when God doth sore afflict them in life or sodainely inflict vpon them some strange death let vs not iudge least wee be iudged let vs not enter into rash and precipitate censures of others wee may be further deceiued in Gods mercies towards them or his proceedings with them then was Eliphaz Iob 2.3.4 Bildad and Zâ—phar in the case of Iob then the Disciples were in the case of the blinde man Iohn 9.12 For it may be that this man whom thou seest lying sicke a Lazar by the high-way begging with those blinde men in the Gospell him whom thou seest groaning in an Hospitall rauing in Bedlam c. nay whom thou seest drowned in the waters stabbed in his bowels led to execution to be topt off like a fruitlesse Tree at Tyburne is not a greater sinner then thou neyther hee nor his Parents haue sinned more then thou and thine but that the glory of God might be made manifest that he might be an example vnto thee that thou maist take warning by his harming least thou also perish for Gods
haue on a good Gantlet the hand is safe which Gantlet being pluckt off or broken the hand is exposed to danger So Man being naturally mortall yet being armed with originall righteousnesse against the stroke of death being tyed and chained with the golden chaine of speciall grace should not haue moued in the naturall course of death but as soone as euer man by the instinct of Sathan tyed himselfe with the cords of sinne God tooke away that other chaine of Grace disarmed him of munition and armour and exposed him to be carryed through the swift torrent of this present life by the violence of the contrary qualities of the Elements euen into the dead Sea or Sea of Death Mare mortuum Secondly because of the reliques and remainders of their originall sinnes and corruption which are still resident and fixed in them howsoeuer pardoned by Christ the godly must dye that so these remnants may be quite taken away and abolished and the root of old Adam absolutely stocked vp Thirdly flesh and bloud of which they partly consist cannot inherit the Kingdome of God but must first be changed 1 Cor. 15 vers 50. Fourthly that as by other crosses and afflictions so by dying they may in some sort be made conformable to their head Christ in his death and sufferings Rom. 8.29 Sixtly that the godly might haue experience of Gods power in the resuscitation and raising vp of their dead bodies Seauenthly that the godly may haue sweet and comfortable experience of the difference betwixt this mortall life and that immortall glory in the life to come which will be so much more ioyous as they shall taste their prepared ioyes through the iawes of death as Sampson did his Honie in the Lyons belly for as it is a misery to haue beene happy Miserum est fuisse fâ—elicem so it sets a better edge and relish on any mercy when it comes by an exemption from a former experienced misery euen as deliuerance was more gratefull to the Israelites after their Aegyptian yoke and as hony is more sweet to him that hath beene dyeted with Aloes so ioy in glory shall be more ioyous extracted out of the paines of life and pangs of death vnto the godly Vse of Consolalation Hence let the Saints sing clap their hands and reioyce let the ioyfull shout of a King be amongst them in the sweet contemplation of the vnlimitted mercies of God towards them that whereas in Adam as they were branches of his stocke and so fruitfull in vnrighteousnesse in his sinne so indammaged and indangered by their originall corruptions besides their actuall transgressions that God might in iustice haue punished them both with the first and second death according to that menace in Paradise to our Protaplasts In that day which you eate of the forbidden fruit you shall dye the death Aug. lib. 3. de ciu Dei Qua die me deserueritis per inobedientiam ego vos deseram per iustitiam c. as Augustine interprets it in that day which you forsake me by rebellion I will forsake you by my iust iudgements execution yet it hath pleased God so farre to mitigate both the guilt and the punishment of both that in and by Christ they being redeemed from that second that eternall sempiternall death of the soule the temporall death which is onely a change of a worse life for one infinitely better is so farre inflicted or rather imposed as makes for Gods glory and their owne greater good Secondly 2. Vse of Commination let this withall terrifie the wicked which are out of CHRIST and as yet haue no more part in him then the Diuell and Iudas by reason of their witting and willing sins by which voluntarily and frequently they crucifie him againe to themselues that if the godly must haue their teeth set on edge in dying the first death of the body Phil. 3.17 for these sweet fruits which proued sower Grapes that Adam and Eue tasted in the Garden by reason of these remainders and reliques of corruption that are in them how much more shall they as they are threatned as God hath decreed and denounced drinke the dregs of Gods wrath euen to the bottome not onely in tasting the first death but the second not onely that which is the separation of the soule from the body but which separates both body and soule eternally from God as they are corrupt and fruitlesse trees twise dead so if the godly which are trees of righteousnesse planted by the riuers of Grace Cum concutitur Cedrus Paradisi quid faciet Virga Desarâ—i be pluckt vp that they may be transplanted in glory much more shall they by stockt vp by the Axe of death cut downe in wrath like the barren Fig-tree and throwne into Hell fire yea as they are called dead coales Psal 17. and God a consuming fire Deut. 9. Hebrewes the last c. so they are as sure to burne vnlesse quenched by repentance as they are fit to burne Neyther doth the Lord take such avvay ordinarily by a naturall and peaceable death as hee did Simeon here but oft-times in the whirlewinde of his wrath by some vnnaturall and violent and sodaine death as the fruit of their prouoking sinnes 1. Sometimes for their abuse of his worship as hee did Nadab and Abihu so Iudas that came from the Communion and hanged himselfe as also the Corinthians who dyed for their vnworthy receiuing the Sacrament 2. Sometimes for rebellion against Magistrates as Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 3. Sometimes for abusing the Seruants Prophets and Ministers of God as the two and fortie Children whom the two shee Beeres slew the two Captaines with their fifties that came to lay hands on Elias 4. So for murthering the Saints as Achab and Iezabel So the tenne persecutors infamously famous for the abundance of Christian bloud which they shed came all to fearefull ends according to the curse threatned Psal 56. Psal 139. Math. 26. that Bloudy men shall not liue out halfe their dayes and They that smite with the Sword shall perish by the Sword 5. For gurmundizing gluttonie and drunkennesse as Iobs Children Iob 2. Baltazar Dan. 5. and the Israelites slaine whilst the Quailes were in their mouthes Numb 11. 6. For couetousnesse as Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. 7. For Lust and Luxury as Cosbee and Zimri and the vncleane Israelites Numb 25. 8. For Tyrannie and oppression as Pharaoh and his Hoast Exod. 14. 9. For Pride against God as Herod Acts 12. 10. For the effect of pride and malice Blasphemie against heauen as Senacharib and his pestilent Parasite Rabsekah 2 Kings 19. as also for other sinnes But now wee are to hoist vp sailes into a Sea of matter Doctrine All must dye which flowes eyther necessarily from the Text or by consequence of this last proued point and by argument from the greater to the lesser from the better to the worse that if Simeon and the
could not shunne his darts neyther can any for it is like that Ramme which Daniel saw in his Vision that shakes his hornes against the East and the West the North and the South and the beasts are not able to resist him It is like a Haruester that with his Sickle cuts downe all Corne and Tares good and bad Mors resecat mors omne necat nullumque veretur What ere it meetes with vp it sheares For none it fauours none it feares Mors à mordendo Vel à morsu vetiti pomi It is a mad Dog that bites all as it hath his name like the Vsurer of biting so Mors mordet omnes c. It bites all yea euen the biting Vsurers and grindes those that grinde the faces of the poore It is a fire vnsatiable burning the greene Iuie and the cragged Oake young and old It is a Tyrant ouer Tyrants Iuuenal Sat. 10. bringing them to their graues cum eaede vulnere as it did Nero and Domitian with bloudy heads It is like the Sea terrible not to be dramd not to be turned out of his channell carrying all away with it by as many wayes as there be wayes to the Sea all waters runne to the Sea and all men tend to their earth Me vestigia terrent omnia te aduersum spectantia nulla retrorsum Prou. 7. It is like the Lyon in the Fable to whose denne many Beasts went but none returned It accepts as many as comes like the Harlot in the Prouerbs but none returnes since like those Oxe-like beastly fooles that goe in to a whore they goe into the chamber of death like a couetous Niggard it receiues all but parts with none Spaires none neque moribus nec aetati Nay saith a Papist nec Matri vitae nec vitae neyther the Virgin Mary which they say is the Mother of life nor CHRIST the life it selfe then much lesse will it spare vs for Pallidamors aquo pulsat pede c. With aequall foote it knockes the gate Both of the rich and poore estate And that so indifferently that as one saith if hee should make choyse of a Iudge in the whole world he would chuse Death it is not corrupted like a corrupt Officer but is as vnpartiall as imperiall Thus much for the necessitie of dying Now it is time by Vse and Application to bring home vvhat hath beene said Vse vnto the heart of euery Reader First therefore from the necessitie of death let it teach vs not too much to be in loue with life or with any thing in this life What a folly is it for a man to set his heart vpon a strange woman in a strange Country whose face it is likely hee shall neuer see more If Sampson had knowne how soone he should haue beene taken from his Dalilah hee would neuer haue so doated on her if Sichem had knowne how speedily his lusting loue to Dinah would haue occasioned his destruction hee would rather haue loathed her before his folly with her as Ammon did Thamar after then haue loued her If wee did but ponder how soone vvee are to leaue these perishing pleasures and profits which will be our ruine and irreuocable destruction wee would cast them from vs as a menstruous cloath wee would hate them as wee doe a Toade detest them as wee doe the Diuell and flye from them as Moses from his rod when it turned into a Serpent Oh the thought of death may moderate euen lawfull affections and curbe them in their idolatrous exorbitancie from being immeasurable least by a violencie of desires they be carryed away after any outward thing that wee doe inioy and may cause vs as it did the holy Patriarks Prophets Apostles primitiue Christians ancient and moderne Martyres to leaue father and mother wife and childe house and land portion and pence for Christs cause voluntarily as Moses did the pleasures of Pharaohs Court since as Horace hath it Linquenda tellus c. Wee must leaue them will we nill wee Necessarily and sure if vvee ought to leaue in affection the good things that vvee liue by much more vvee ought to leaue both in Affection and Action the sinnes that vvee perish by ere vvee leaue the vvorld least wee dye as vvicked men haue dyed before vs as wretchedly as vvickedly Secondly since wee must all dye 2. Vse of Instruction and that as wee haue heard because vvee haue sinned then if wee loue life as all doe naturally let vs hate sinne that depriues vs of life Those that loue life must hate sinne the cause of death A man that loues his Wife dearely cannot loue him that would make a breach betwixt them or deuorce him from her hee that loues his life me thinkes should not loue the intentiue murtherer that plots and contriues his death This disturber this destroyer is Sinne It is a right Faux a plotter of thy perdition a right Cateline a conspirator of thy calamitie it watcheth opportunities as the Foxe doth the Hare as the Lyon doth the Dogge as Iael did Sesera as Iudith did Holofernes and as Delilah did Sampson when to deceiue thee when to destroy thee yea euen when it fawnes vpon thee and flatters thee and playes with thee then like the Cats play with the Mouse it purposeth to prey vpon thee Thus it fawned and flattered vpon Adam and Eue and offered them as Witches and poysoners offer Children an Apple to play withall but by this Apple it killed them so hath it done all mankinde besides and wilt thou fauour it Zealous was his spirit that once expostulated with one as I now with thee Peccatum omnes maiores tuos occidit tu fouis Sin saith one hath slaine all thy Predecessors and Ancestors and wilt thou make much of it Wouldest thou desire to looke vpon and gloriously to sheathe that Sword or Knife that killed thy good Father thy kinde Mother thy speciall Friend thine onely Childe This Sinne hath done or will doe Couldst thou finde in thy heart to bid those Varlets welcome that did kill the Kings of France Now canst thou finde in thy heart to entertaine and retaine that sin in thy soule which hath killed all the Kings in Christendome then perish thou by it with the rest if thou wilt not be warmed be harmed But sure to loue that sinne that not onely hath killed thy Progenitors but that labours to imbrew his hands in thy bloud to that sweetens his temptations to poyson thee that spreads his ginnes daily to trap thee that bends his bow still ready to strike thee that lyes in ambush still to surprize thee and yet to trust it and follow the lusts and commands of it to obey it is great folly but to make it thy bosome-friend to lodge it in thine owne bed to set it at Table with thee as Dauid did his treacherous Companion to carry it about with thee to suffer it to haue free accesse euery day to the Castle
of their paines the consolations vvhich they felt from the Spirit their vnion vvith Christ their happy passage into Paradise their transmigration vnto their Sauiour exulting at the ioyes of Heauen which then they haue seene as Moses saw Canaan and in part tasted nay some as it were by a Propheticall Spirit illuminating them as it did Iacob and Ioseph fore-seeing and fore-telling what should happen after their deaths as Iohn Husse and Ierome of Praige did concerning the Papacie haue all of them here with Simeon departed in peace And though some amongst the Heathens as Cyrus Caesar Augustus Titus Traiâ—â— Senerus Adrian Pompey as also some of their Philosophers and Poets as Aratus Socrates Aristotle Anacharsis Antisthenes Theophrastus with others haue spoke to admiration concerning the necessitie of dying the miseries of life the exprobration of Tyranny the soules immortalitie the true God which they called The thing of things to whom they haue called and committed their Children as their Apothegmes and speeches are recorded by Plutarch Zenâ—phâ—â— Laertius and others yet they haue come so farre short of Christians eyther in their ciuill acts and morrall workes liuing or their words dying that it is as easie to discerne betwixt them the strength of Nature and the fruits of the Spirit as betwixt conduit water and Aqua vitae by the taste Now the Reasons why the godly depart in peace are these Reasons why the godly depart in peace First the Promise of God which must needes be acccomplished that Peace shall come that they shall rest in their beds euery one that walketh before the Lord Esay 57.2 which promise as it was verified in Enoch and Elias that vvalked vvith GOD so it shall be in all the faithfull Secondly they haue peace with God with whom they are reconciled by Christ which is their peace and therefore they must needes haue peace in God going out of the world to God who haue had peace with God in the world from whom they haue beene absent in the body Thirdly they haue that peace of God in their owne conscience which passeth all vnderstanding Phil. 4. which setteth them in an assured perswasion of the loue of God to them in his Christ the Lord shining in their hearts with the beames of his Spirit and the memory of all their well done deedes then reflexing vpon their vpright consciences fill them euen full of hidden ioy and inward peace These Reasons might be amplified Cauils remoued that blemish the deaths of the Saints and many moe added but I hasten to the Vses being onely intercepted with some Obiections of carnall reason vvhich must be remoued Obiect 1. The first is this Death is the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 the curse of the Law Gal. 3.10 the enemie of Christ and his chidren 1 Cor. 15. How then can it be good Ans I answere the nature and propertie of death is altered by the death of CHRIST to the godly to whom it is a short cut to heauen it is onely a curse to the reprobates whom it sends to hell euen like the red Sea that drowned onely the Aegyptians but gaue a passage vnto Gods people into the Land of Promise Obiect 2. Christ Ezekias and Dauid prayed against death therefore it brings no peace Answ Wee haue shewed the reasons of Ezekias and Dauids prayer before the first wanting Issue to succeede him the second being afflicted with an issue of sinne which was not healed Mat. 26.39 which caused for the time both their doubts and feares for our Sauiour Christ he prayed not against death simply for he dyed willingly else his death could not haue merited hee prayed for the remouall of the cup of his Fathers wrath being the curse of death Obiect 3. The godly oft dye sodainely therefore not peaceably for sodaine death is a Iudgement against which we pray Answ Death is not euill because it is sodaine for the last Iudgement shall come sodainely and yet not euill but it is euill to the vnprepared as to the wicked Mammonist Luk. 12.20.21 Secondly it is neuer sodaine to the Christian in respect of preparation eyther more or lesse generall or speciall which preparation if it be the shorter God accepts in their intention Heb. 11.17 as he did Abrahams sacrificing of Isaack as hee did Dauids in building him a Temple if they haue no more time then with the Theefe on the Crosse to implore Christ to remember them with the Publican to giue one knocke on their penitent brests with Peter to giue one shrike vnto Christ crying Helpe Master who dare say but with that out-cry they awaken Christ If Moses and the beleeuing Israelites had beene cut off sodainely by Pharaohs Sword or the surging waues if Peter had sunke when hee walked on the waters if the Disciples had beene lost when they were tossed in the tempest if Paul had beene drowned when hee suffered shipwracke wee should haue thought their deaths sodaine in the execution but who durst haue censured them in respect of preparation no more then we censure Mephibosheth that was slaine in his bed or Bethlems Children or those that perished in the French Parisian Massacre by the diuels meanes the Duke of Guize or Ionathan that was slaine in Battell or Abner that vvas killed by Ioab Nay I know none of iudgement that dare censure the soules of Iobs Children and of Lots Wife that were taken away in the act of seeming sinnes Quest ad Dulc. c. 24. I thinke with Augustine that God respects not quo modo after what manner as quales morimur what manner of ones wee dye in Christ or out of Christ We came not together hither but like the Labourers in the Vineyard some at one houre some at another so must wee goe forth some sooner some later Obiect 4. But some of the godly raue rage blaspheme behaue themselues like frantique men nay seeme to despayre Answ First these are the effects of their Melancholy or are to be imputed to burning Feauers the Collique or other violent diseases the fruits onely of their infirmities or at the most the temptations of Sathan which the diuell must answere for not they being rather passiue in these sins then actiue and therefore they not arguing any want of loue towards God any deliberate purpose of sinning but weakenesse of Nature tendernesse of conscience for sinnes committed they hinder not their peace Secondly wee see ordinarily and I can speake it by certaine experience in the visiting of many that these by Gods mercy recouering againe the vse of Reason they seriously repent of these infirmities their faith appearing like the Sun from vnder the darkening cloud Thirdly these and all other vnknowne sinnes are pardoned and buryed in Christs death to those that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 Fourthly in the matter of saluation God oft workes by contraries and by the gates of Hell brings his Seruants to Heauen Therefore let vs not play the arrogant Crittiques in condemning those
Of Redargution Is it so that onely the Seruants of God the Lords Simeons dye in peace and none else then the madnesse of those men is to be mourned as Samuel mourned for Saul and their ignorance or obstinacie is to be pittied that flatter their owne soules and secure themselues they shall dye happily when they haue no care nor conscience to liue holily Faine would they with Balaam Numb 22. dye the death of the righteous but they will not liue the life of the righteous they would act Simeons part in death but they will not labour for Simeons Spirit they would dye like Iude but liue like Iudas dye like the Sonnes of God liue like the sonnes of Belial dye like Saints liue like sinners dye like Dauid but liue like Diues in chambering and wantonnesse in surfetting and drunkennesse in delights and dalliance in pleasures and pompe they would be vvith Christ on Mount Sion but they will not follow him to Mount Caluarie they will not be crucified with him nay they will not crucifie one lust nor sacrifice one sinne nor mortifie one member for the loue of Christ for the loue of their owne soules they will not plucke out their right eies cut off their right hands throw away those sinnes that are as deare to them as eyther eyes or hands for gaining of God for purchase of Paradise for conquest of a crowne nay they will rather carrie both their eyes and both their feete all their deare and darling sinnes whither Iudas carryed his Hypocrisie and Herod his Lust euen to death with them euen to the graue with them euen to Iudgement with them then cast them off as the wilde Beast hunted casts away his stones for which hee is pursued to saue their life by dying nay to saue their soules by dying to sinne Doe these men beleeue the Scripture that tels them Gal. 6.6 as they sow so they shall reape Nay doe they beleeue Experience that in euery Garden Field and Seede-plat shewes it Doe they credit the holy Oracles that if they liue after the flesh they shall dye but if they mortifie the deedes of the flesh by the Spirit they shall liue Rom. 8.13 And doe they nay dare they then goe on in sinne and thinke notwithstanding to reape saluation Are they but dead men all their life euen dead in sinne and trespasses without the quickning Spirit Ephes 2.1 ver 5. and doe they thinke to be liuing men in death Doe men vse to gather grapes of Thornes and figs of Thistleâ— they know to the contrary and thinke they that a good death will grow of a bad life An ill life is the vsuall Prologue to a Tragicall death let them neuer hope it I aske such men as Iezabel asked Iehu 2 Kings 9.31 Iehu Iehu did Zimri prosper that slew his Master I trow no. So I aske euery licentious loose sinner Did euer any sinner dye well without repenting that offended God his heauenly Master by treasonable sinning Apply all these precedent examples to thine owne soule and make them thy presidents read them ouer againe and remember them and paralell thy selfe with them Art thou a Theefe looke how Achan dyed that was a Theefe Iosh 7. Art thou a Whore-master looke how the Sodomites dyed how Er and Onan dyed Hophni and Phinees that were vncleane A Whore looke how whorish Iezabel dyed A Swearer looke how blasphemous Rabsakeh and Senacharib dyed 2 Kings 19. An Idolatrous Papist looke how the Idolatrous Israelites dyed A Drunkard looke how drunken Nabal dyed 1 Sam. 25. Art thou addicted to any other sinne looke whether those that haue runne in the same race in the same sinne haue prospered or perished haue dyed ill or well if they haue prospered follow them good lucke haue thou in thy iourney if perished as they haue then in Gods feare retyre Faciant aliena pericula cautum let their harmings be thy warnings Praemonitus praemunitus Be not more insensible then Birds and Beasts the Bird will not flye into the Net or light on the Lime-bush or runne into the Snare where shee sees another Bird flackering before her Thy Horse as thou art trauelling will not follow the tract of another horse that stickes fast before him Oh he not thou like the Horse and Mule without vnderstanding thou wouldest not follow another into a gulph a Turne-poole a pit a Quag-mire oh follow not Sinners as the Beast the Droue to the slaughter thorow the iawes of a desperate death into the pit of damnation after death that haue gone the very same vvay in the very path of that sinne vvherein thou liuest The vaine hopes of wicked men But thou thinkest perhaps to escape scot-free or that GOD will be more mercifull to thee then to them Nay that cannot be hee is the same GOD that hee was to iudge if thou beest the same soule to sinne What desert is there in thee to pleade sparing more then in them nay rather lesse Si in Ierusalem scrutinium quid faciet Babilon If hee spared not Ierusalems sinne he will not spare thee a Sodomite a Babilonian if he spared not the sinnes of the Iewes his owne people nay of Iudas his owne Disciple he will not spare thee a sinner of the Gentiles a slaue to Sathan if hee spared not Cedars great Kings hee vvill cut downe Shrubs such as thou nay thy case shall be worse then these fore-recited because thou hast had more mannuring and watering then they more Grace offered more Gospell preached now in the day of thy gracious visitation But thou hopest to recoyle and retyre out of the way of sinners Indeed backe againe by repentance is the better way to vnweaue againe as once Penelope did the webbe of thy sinnes But when will this retyring be Thou purposest in thine olde age Oh foole vvho hath giuen thee a Lease of thy life till thou beest old The rich Churle saith Soule take thine ease thou hast laid vp enough for many yeeres when hee had not one night to liue here was a short Epitomie perhaps the cases stand so with thee Pelles tot Vitulorum quot Boum To the Market comes to be solde As well the young sheepe as the olde Goe into a Golgotha a Church-yard thou shalt see as many young sculs as old little as great obserue Funerals and thou shalt see the Fathers oftner mourning for their dead Children then Children for their deceased Parents Apply to thy selfe what hath beene spoke of this point It is hard to leaue the custome of sinne But thy carnall heart saith that thou canst leaue thy sinne when thou wilst and repent and that GOD will accept thee Art thou so perswaded dost thou thinke the custome of sinne is so soone left is not Custome another Nature Can men that haue been accustomed leaue to sweare by their Faith and their Troth the Iewels that they pawne to Sathan and the World vpon euery triuiall occasion and canst thou leaue
greater and grosser more pleasing and more profitable sins when thou wilst Canst thou not leaue such sinnes which thou maist as well spare as the dirt from thy nayles namely thy vaine words thy oathes and blasphemies and canst thou leaue these that haue nearer allyance with thee and stand thee in more stead Is an inueterate sore a long raigning Disease so soone cured Is that Diuell that hath taken long possession so soone cast out Can the Aethyopian leaue his blacknesse and the Leopard his skinne then will it be easie for thee to doe well that still accustomest thy selfe to doe euill Besides thou thinkest thou canst repent when thou wilst Thou maist as well imagine that if thou wert dead thou couldst reuiue and liue againe when thou wilt for a wicked man is a dead man liuing in the life naturall dead in the life spirituall thou maist as well thinke to worke a Miracle when thou wilt for it is no greater Miracle to raise a dead body as Christ did Lazarus then to raise a dead soule None can repent when hee will to turne stones into flesh then a stony heart into a fleshie that can repent Indeed if Repentance were in thine owne power there were policie in it to deferre this fight with sinne as Fabritius lingred to fight with his enemies and still to taste the sweet of sinne but it is not in thy power to repent it is the gift of God Acts 5. ver 31. from whom this grace and all other come Iames 1.17 I but thou hast Scripture for thy purpose so hath the Diuell his Scriptum est is it not written saith the ignorant Lay-man or the carnall Cauiller that remembers no other Text but this which hee wisely vrgeth to his owne destruction that At what time soeuer a sinner repents from the bottome of his heart the Lord will be mercifull c. It is true that at what time the sinner repents hee shall be pardoned as Mary Magdalene the Publican and others were but the Lord saith not that at what time soeuer a sinner sinnes hee will giue him Repentance Aug. Qui dat poenitenti veniam nescis an dabit peccanti poenitentiam Repentance is the gift of Grace it comes not from Nature a stone hath as much power to mount vp to the Church Steeple of it selfe as a wicked man to repent of himselfe Therefore dally not with sin be not deceiued God is not mocked If thou couldst leaue the traffique and commerce with sinne when thou wouldest and repent from thy heart sinne might vvith greater shew be retained and with lesse danger but since the longer thou continuest in it the more thy heart is hardened since as the Prophet speakes of Wine and Women so euery other sinne takes away the heart Ose 11. and makes it incapable of any Christian dutie let it be thy wisedome as Daniel councels Nabuchadnezzar to breake off thy sinnes betimes leaue sinne ere it leaue thee beginne at length to liue ere thou dye for as Similis once said of himselfe though thou seest many yeeres thou liuest but those that are piously and penitently spent Now redeeme the time which thou hast misspent now is thy Haruest lead home now prouide against the rainy day of thy last day now in the calme of life arme thy selfe against the tempest of death Oh it will be too late to thinke of leading a good life when life is ended too late to buy after the Market is done too late to traffique after the Mart too late to saile when the Tyde is past and the Sea is rough therefore prepare a medicine before the wound Sero Medicina paratur Heare not the voyce of the Serpent Eritis sicut Dij you shall be like Gods to puffe you vp with pride but feare and beleeue the voice of God Moriemini yee shall dye like men for this death prepare betimes now is the acceptable time now is thy time thy day thy houre thy visitation now the voyce cals Christ knockes the Angell moues the waters Moses and the Prophets perswade the shortnesse of thy life multitude of thy sinne difficultie of repenting thy Houre-glasse running time spending thy former fruitlesse liuing danger of deferring death approaching all vrge moue pleade for a conuerted soule a holy heart a renued life that thou maist dye a blessed death finde a ioyfull resurrection and inioy a happy glorification Lastly to conclude this Text for this time Doctrine and so this Worke hauing exceeded my purposed and proposed breuitie let mee onely offer vnto your considerations this meditation that there is a direct and a certaine method and rule as of liuing so of dying well There is a way laid downe in the word to a blessed death so plaine so perspicuous that some haue vvrit vvhole Tractaites of this subiect from whose Haruest I will not be ashamed to gleane something as Ruth out of the field of Booz and insert their eares into this Garland borrowing some few grounds of him whom I heard as a Master out of Moses Chaire liuing * Mr. Perkins Mr. Sutton in his Booke Learne to Dye and reuerence dying If any therefore demaund in this great and maine poynt of all poynts what course hee is to take that with old Simeon he may die in peace for Resolution of this case of Conscience I say that to dye well there are two things requisite A preparation before death and A right disposition in death This Preparation is two-folde generall and speciall generall is that whereby a man prepares himselfe to dye throughout the whole course of his life to this the Scripture continually exhorts when it inioynes vs straitly to watch and pray to awake from sleepe to prepare to meete the Bridegroome to be in a readinesse euery day like Souldiers that expect their Generall against the second comming of CHRIST to Iudgement not to haue our hearts oppressed with surfetting and drunkennesse and the cares of the world least that day come vpon vs vnprouided as the theefe vpon the carelesse housholder as the snare vpon the Bird as the Floud vpon the old world as fire vpon Sodome as desolation vpon Ierusalem A thing that stands vs all much vpon as a dutie not to be omitted First Death is certaine yet vncertaine because of that vncertaine certaintie that is in death certaine for the matter as before we haue proued vncertaine both in respect of the Time when which none knowes whither morning euening midnight or Cocke crow in Winter Summer Spring or Autumne Secondly in respect of Place for none knowes where whether at home or abroad by Sea or by Land in his bed or in the field Dauid dyed in his bed Ionathan in the field the deceiued Prophet and Amasa in the high-way Abner at the Court Icarus Helle Aegaeus by Sea from whom the Aegean and Icarian Sea and Hellespont were named three Popes Iohn the first Iohn the foureteenth and Caelestine the fift dyed in prison nay some
vs vvise to saluation Besides this Meditation which wee make a part of preparation to the attaining of this peaceable departure other duties are to be adioyned some whereof are to be performed in health some in sicknesse some in the immediate summons of Death it selfe of all which briefely in these subsequent directions First let him that will die in peace The life of Faith brings peace in Death liue by Faith Hab. 2.2 let him not content himselfe with an Historicall Faith such as the Diuels haue Iames 2.14 noâ— with a Ciuill Faith such as morrall men haue and as the Heathens haue nor with an Implicite Generall Faith See D. Mosse his Sermon of the Faith of Diuels which the Papists haue euen the Coblers Faith to beleeue as the Romish Church beleeues for alas all these kindes of Faith bring no more peace and comfort to the soule in any extremitie then cold water to a man that is in a sowne And therefore many men are deceiued which thinke they shew themselues exquisite Christians and haue enough to saluation if to their Pastor or others in their sicknesse they can repeate and render their Faith according to Gods Word and the Articles of the Creede with a renunciation of all points of Poperie of Heresies and Superstitions for alas this generall illumination this knowing Faith which onely swimmes in the braine without a particular applying Iustifying Faith which workes by Loue and brings forth the fruits of Prayer Repentance godly Sorrow for sinne Zeale Sanctification new Obedience c. neuer heates the heart nor comforts the conscience nor hath the answere of any sound peace from God Oh therefore labour for a Iustifying sauing Faith for a speciall and an applying Faith such as Paul preacht to the conuert Iaylor Acts 16.31 Phillip to the baptized Eunuch Acts 8.37 such a Faith as is commended in the auncient Patriarkes and Primitiue Worthies Hebrewes the eleauenth Chapter such as CHRIST commended in the Centurion Mat. 8.10 and the Canaanitish woman Mat. 15.28 such as Thomas had after his incredulitie calling Christ his Lord and his God Iohn 20.28 such as Paul had when hee profest that he liued euen by Faith in Iesus Christ Gal. 2.20 such as Simeon here had Oh get Christ into thy heart by Faith as this good old man had him in his Armes and in his heart and thy death shall be peaceable like his Repentance the meanes of peace with God Secondly if thou wilst die in peace repent speedily of thy fore-past and present sinnes for sinne hinders all true peace There is no peace to the wicked saith my God twise for surenesse in expresse words Esay 48. verse 22. so Chap. 57.21 Iniquitie makes a diuision and seperation from God Esay 59.2 euen in life much more in death for then the soules of the wicked goe to Hell Psal 9.16 much more in Iudgement Mat. 7.23 Where there is plaine and palpable whoredome discouered there can be no peace betwixt man and wife all sinne is whoredome and sinners are called Adulterers and Adultresses Iames 4. verse 4. they are spiritually and corporally polluted by the Flesh the World the Diuell for which cause rebellious Israel and Iudah are compared to Whores and Harlots Ier. 3. v. 8.9 c. Now if any wicked soule should aske with a desire of resolution as the two Messengers of Ieboram and as Iehoram himselfe asked Iehu Is it peace Is it peace 2 King 9.18.19 Is there peace or shall there be peace betwixt God and my soule I resolue him roughly from God as Iehu did Iehoram verse 22. What peace What hast thou to doe with peace since thou wantest Grace the inseparable companion of Peace 2 Tim. 1.2 What hast thou to doe with peace whilst the whoredomes of thy Mother Iezabel and her witchcrafts are great in number whilst the pollutions of that whorish Iezabel thy vncleane soule are daily increased whilst thy Treasons and Rebellions against thy God which as Samuel tels Saul are like the sinne of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 are with an obdurate and obstinate heart continued Was there any peace to Absolon though a Sonne when hee was a Traytor against his Father Can there be any to thee not a Sonne of God but a slaue of Sathan rebelling against the Father of Spirits Had Zimri peace saith Iezabel to Iehu that slew his Master 2 Kings 9.31 Zimri was a Traytor and slew Elab as hee was drinking till hee was drunke in the house of Arza his Steward an vsuall end for drunkards 1 Kings 16.9.10 Iezabel argues well Can Traitors haue peace looke to it Iehu thou art a Traytor against Ahab sure Traytors seldome or neuer dye in peace Witnesse Absolon Sheba Adoniah our English Traytors Romanized Semenaries treacherous Conspirators Lopus Squire Tâ—â—chburne Babington Parry c. our late Powder-plotting Pioners the French Rauillack millions moe which being like Ioab men of bloud haue come to their ends as is said of Tyrants cum caede sanguine with bloud and slaughter Oh then how canst thou a worme of the earth a wretched man because a vvicked man liuing in treasonable sinnes with a heart as hard as the neather-Milstone rebelling against so great so glorious so potent so powerfull a God once hope that euer thy gray haires shall come to the graue in peace or that thy soule after her flitting shall rest in Abrahams bosome the place of peace Can a man haue peace in Rome and be opposed against the Pope the vsurping Herod that supposed earthly God as his flattering Parasites call him oh then canst thou dust and ashes be opposed on earth against the mightie Iehouah the God of heauen Christ that opened the eyes of the blinde open thine eyes to see and thy heart to beleeue as hee did Lydia's Acts 16.14 and giue thee at last a resolution to breake off thy sinnes by repentance Dan. 4.84 the enemies of thy peace least God breake thee like a Potters vessell and teare thee in pieces whilst there is none to deliuer thee Psal 50.22 Oh sue for pardon for thy sinnes seeke for peace to him which is the Prince of peace Esay 9.6 seeke for peace by him and his merits which was ordained to be thy peace and to worke thy reconciliation Col. 1.20 so thou shalt shut vp the last period of thy life vvith inward peace and goe to keepe an eternall Sabbath with him that is the God of peace Thirdly that thou maist die peaceably invre thy selfe to dye daily and that after this manner First euery day mortifie some sinne nip some Serpent in the head crucifie euery day some corruption set vpon thy lesser sinnes and so get ground of thy greater sinnes Three wayes how to dye daily as in particular leaue thy dangerous and damnable custome of swearing and blaspheming by these degrees first breake off thy Ciuill Oathes First dye to sinne as in swearing by thy Faith Troth Christendome c. Secondly then set vpon thy
Ridiculous and Childish Oathes as by Fay How to leaue the damnable custome of Swearing Fakins Trokins Bodikins Slid Sounds Cocke and Pye with the like whereby thou seekest to mocke and deceiue God who will not be mocked Gal. 6. Thirdly then invre thy selfe to leaue thy Superstitious Oathes as by the Masse Rood Crosse by our Lady and by Popish Saints c. Fourthly so proceede against thy Heathenish and Idolatrous Oathes in swearing by the Creatures as Laban and Iezabel by their Idols Gen. 31 53. 1 Kings 19. verse 2. as by men by S. Peter and by S. Iohn c. by the Heauens the Earth by Fire Sunne the Light Meate Drinke Money c. or by the parts of thy body as Hands or the like or by thy Soule all condemned Mat. 5. ver 34. Iames 5.12 And so with a courage set vpon thy impious horrible fearefull damnable blasphemous Oathes as by the Lord by God the eternall God by Christ by Iesus and such like or by the parts and adiuncts of Christ by tearing his Humanitie as the Iewes did his body by diuiding him as the Souldiers did his garments Mat. 27.35 in blasphemie by his Death Passion Life Soule Bloud Flesh Heart Wounds Bones Sides Guts Armes Foote Nayles c. of all which I tremble and quake to thinke write and speak◠though thou makest no more scruple of such Hell-bred Oathes then of thy ordinary words so deale with all other sinnes of which thy soule is as full as a Serpent is full of venome and a Toade of poyson Crucifie them by degrees and dye to them daily else thou dyest for euer if thou dye 〈◊〉 in them By this course thou shalt take away the sting of Death which is Sinne for the strength of Death is Sinne 1 Cor. 15. euen as the strength of Sampson laid in his hayre Iudg. 16.17 which sinne when it is subdued Death it selfe is as easily conquered as weakened Sampson was by the Philistines verse 21. yea it can doe thee no more harme then a Dragon Viper or angry Waspe which haue lost their stings Secondly dye daily to the world Secondly dye to the world loue it not nor the things of it that so thou maist more happily dye out of the world and more hopefully entertaine thoughts of a better world And in this case doe as Runners vse who oft runne ouer the Race before they runne for the Wager that so they may be better invred and acquainted when they come to try their abilitie or as is said of Belney the Martyr that being to suffer by fire many dayes before he would hold his hand a pretty while in the flame so to prepare himselfe to sustaine the paines of Martyrdome which he was to vnder-goe Thirdly Beare crosses patiently Thirdly dye daily by invting thy selfe to take Crosses and Afflictions patiently as sickenesses in body troubles in minde losse of goods of friends and of good name c. which indeede are little deaths euen pettie deaths not onely Prologues of death but Preparatiues to death for which cause GOD sends them to his children more then to the wicked euen to weane them from the world and prepare them for death as the Nurse weanes the Childe from the Teate by doing bitter Aloes vpon it and sure he that beares Crosses most patiently is well prepared to dye peaceably as appeares by S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.31 who by making good vse of afflictions dyed daily it holding commonly that Mors post crucem minor est Death is lesse dolorous after the crosse Fourthly Prayer oft preuailes for a peaceable departure Fourthly pray seriously for a peaceable departure it is confirmed by examples of all ages and experience of all Gods Seruants that hee that prayes well speedes well Iacob and Abrahams Seruant had Gods blessings vpon their Iourneyes as an effect of their Prayers Gen. 24. Gen. 27. Thou shalt finde Gods presence euen in that houre of the last iourneying of thy soule from her earthly Mansion to her heauenly Country if thou pray for this grace particularly and effectually therefore as thou oughtest to pray continually for other a Lu. 18.1 Eph. 6.18 things 18 Things to be prayed for that death may be prosperous so euen in health and prosperitie pray frequently and feruently 1. That God would make this backeward repugnant and nilling nature of thine willing to her dissolution 2. Prepare thy vnprepared soule 3. Subdue thy corruptions 4. Purge out the drosse of thy sinnes 5. Giue the patience to kisse his correcting Rod when hee whips by sicknesse or diseases 6. Succour thee in thy last and greatest conflict 7. Support thy weaknes 8. Aide thee against Sathans force and fraud 9. Strengthen thy Faith 10. Renew thy decayed graces 11. Giue thee the power and comfort of his owne Spirit 12. Not to visit thy sinnes in Iustice but in Mercy 13. To preserue thy soule from the Hunter and thy darling from the Lyon 14. To giue his Angels charge ouer thee in thy extremitie 15. To keepe thee from 1. Impatiencie 2. Frenzie 3. Distraction 4. Idle fancies 5. Rauing 6. Raging 7. Blaspheming c. least thy death be scandalous 16. To touch thy tongue with a coale from the Altar that thou maist speake 1. to Gods glory 2. and to Edification 17. To dye the death of the righteous 18. Lastly to receiue thy soule into that new Ierusalem which is aboue Such Prayers we haue vpon record in holy Writ as of Dauid Psal 39. and Moses Psal 90. true patternes of our Prayers in this kinde And sure who euer approacheth oft to the throne of Grace and supplicates to a pittifull God from faith and feeling in these and the like petitions he shall be sure to finde an answere from God euen when hee lyes vpon his sicke-bed as the fruit of his former desires Besides that his former acquaintance with God in speaking to him and talking as it were with him oft-times in life by Prayer will increase in the sicke Patient euen a holy boldnesse in a filiall feare to come to that God as one friend to another in extremitie with whom he hath so oft conuersed and conferred with by the Word and Prayer in health and prosperitie Fiftly that thou maist depart in peace make sure to thy soule the inheritance of life eternall euen here in this thy life naturall for as worldlings are something at quiet vvhen they haue made sure such houses lands leases and purchases as they haue long gaped after so assurance of life eternall is the onely pacification to the spirituall man this is the lot the portion and inheritance that his soule longs after the estate that hee preferres before all the flesh-pots of Aegypt or the Iewels of Aegypt Now for the purchase of a fixed place in the heauenly Canaan thou must prouide these treasures 1. sauing Knowledge 2. Faith 3. Sanctification of more price vvith God then Gold Pearle and precious Stones with men For the first
12.6 Secondly since it is the Lord say with Eli Let him doe what seemes good 1 Sam. 3.18 His will be done on mee in mee and by mee on me in suffering in me by his grace working by me in obeying Thirdly Christ thy high Priest and Intercessor is euen touched with a fellow-feeling of all thine infirmities Heb. 4.15 Fourthly against deaths feare Short furnitures against the feeling of sickenesse and feare of death 1. consider the estate of thy life which life is but a vanishing Vapour Iames 4.14 a Weather-cocke which turnes at euery blast a Waue which surgeth at euery storme a Reede blowne vvith euery winde a Warfare as doubtfull as dangerous feare not the vanishing of a Vapour the turning of a Weather-cocke 2. Consider thy body as a body of sinne Rom. 7.24 the soules prison the mindes iayle the spirits cage no Bocardo dungeon sincke puddle pit is so noysome to the body as it selfe is to the heauenly inspired soule Now since death is the leauing of this body of sinne as Augustine cals it b Super Iohan. it is not to be eschewed but imbraced saith Chrisostome c Super Mat. 11. Other incouragements I leaue to their due places 4. Reasons why the sicke man should set his soule in order The second dutie which concernes the soule is this thou must set in order thy soule reconciling and recommending vnto God this desolate darling of thine after the manner afore-said for as the sickenesse of the body oft comes from the sinne of the soule so the curing of the one oft procures the health of the other but if thy sicknesse be to death by this course 1. thou shalt dye more quietly 2. more comfortably 3. giue good example to thy visitors 4. leaue a comfort to thy suruiuing Friends Now for the performance of these things the better others ought to assist thee as others brought the sicke of the Palsie to CHRIST Marke 2. Iames tels thee that the Elders of the Church must be sent for Iam. 5.14 which Elders were not onely Apostles but auncient men endued with the spirit of Prayer and gift of Miracles a gift which not onely many Parents had but euen Christian Souldiers saith Tertullian de corona militis c. 11. In these times S. Iames his rule still holds though then those gifts cease yet make thou choyse of such Christians as haue the spirit of Admonition Exhortation Prayer c. for to their prayers for thee a blessing is promised Iames 5.15 their prayers if they be feruent may preuaile for the restoring of thy spirituall life or corporall health as the prayers of d 1 King 17 17 Elias e 2 Kin. 4.31 Elizeus f Act. 20.10 Paul and our g Ioh. 11.14 Sauiour Christ preuailed for whom they prayed but chiefely send for thy Minister or some faithfull Preacher for hee will play the part of a spirituall Physitian 1. hee can vnrip thy vlcers 10. Reasons why the sicke must send for his Minister search thy sores better then thou thy selfe 2. set before thee thy sinnes 3. cast thee downe by the Law 4. raise thee vp by the Gospell 5. comfort 6. direct 7. instruct thee 8. speake a word to thee in due season from God 9. be thy mouth to speake from thee and for thee to God 10. pronounce thy pardon on earth vvhich shall be ratified in heauen vpon tryall of thy Repentance Iohn 20.23 The practise of the world and worldlings is condemnable in this case for alas instead of sending for knowing and zealous men which could comfort them with such consolations wherewith they themselues haue beene comforted 2 Cor. 1.4 and in some measure restore them Gal. 6.1 they send for their carnall friends entertaine and welcome profane men that come to visit them from whom they receiue as much comfort as Iudas did of the Scribes and Pharisies when hee was in despayre Mat. 27.3.4 First eyther they say nothing to them like Iobs friends that were silent seauen dayes Iob 2.13 and in silence looke vpon them like a Deere at gaze The small comfort that a sicke man gets from carnall visitors Secondly or else they speake to little or no purpose saying to the sicke partie they are sorry to see him in such a case they would haue him take that which themselues want a good heart and be of good courage and comfort but wherein and by what meanes they cannot tell Others more vainely and profanely that they doubt not but hee shall doe well enough and recouer and that they shall be merry and drinke and carouse together as they haue done before c. and they will pray for them if they will when alas all their prayers are nothing else but the Apostles Creede or the tenne Commandements and the Lords Prayer vttered without Faith Feeling and Vnderstanding and this is the common comfort that sicke men get of their neighbours and friends when they come to visite them alas we may say as Iob of his friends miserable comforters be they all Secondly herein many men are also culpable 1. that they eyther send not for a Minister at all 2. or else for such a one as is as good as none a cloud without raine a dry pit without water such a one as wants the tongue of the learned to speake to him or the heart of the humble to pray for him vnlesse in saying as they say some set prayers which good Sir Iohn is as farre from truely praying as the sicke Patient is from profiting by them Or thirdly if they send for a Minister it is preposterously when it is too late in some maine exigent when they see no vvay but one The Minister is to be sent for before the Physitian Oh then send for a Preacher send for a Minister as Pharaoh in his deepe distresses knowing no meanes of euasion sends for Moses and sends for Aaron Exod. 9.27 whom in his welfare hee both despised and despited If Iannes and Iambres Astronomers and Astrologers could haue helpt Pharaoh Moses and Aaron should neuer haue beene sought to nor God by their meanes If Physitians and Galens Art Natures Simples nay with some if Sorcerers and white Witches and Sathans power or the vertues of the waters or ought else could comfort their soules or cure their bodies the Preacher should be vnsought to or vnsent for of many that in their health haue hated him and his doctrine as much as Ahab hated Michay and his Ministery 1 Kings 22.8 Vbi definit Theologus ibi incipit Medicâ—â— Oh what an vnequall course is this that although till help be had for the soule and sinne which is the roote of sickenesse be cured Phisicke to the body seldome auailes for which cause the Physitian should beginne where the Diuine ends yet vsually the Diuine beginnes when the Physitian makes an end nay oft when life is making an end the Physitians are sent for in the beginning of sicknesse wee in
did the soule of Lazarus Luke 16.22 of Stephen Acts 7.69 of the penitent Theefe Luke 23.43 yea of CHRIST himselfe verse 46. where it remaines in ioy Mat. 25. v. 21. 23. so the body shall be re-vnited to it againe participating with it in glory h 1 Cor. 2.9 vnspeakeable and i Mat. 25.46 Iohn 3.16.36 1 Thes 4.17 2 Tim. 2.10 2 Cor. 4.17 euerlasting Therefore mourne not excessiuely for him like the Gentiles the Epicures and Sadduces that haue no hope of the Resurrection 12 Though hee cannot come to thee as the dead Diues desired Luk 16.24 yet ere long thou shalt goe to him as Dauid said of his deceased k 2 Sam. 12 23 Childe yea thou shalt in all probabilitie know him againe in thy Glorification as Adam knew Eue in the Creation l Gen. 2.23 and as Peter knew Moses and Elias m Mat. 17.4 in Christs Transfiguration Therefore haue patience for his absence till you meete againe to your more mutuall comfort as n Gen. 46.29.30 Mors non interitus sed introitus non obitus sed abitus Iacob met with Ioseph in a better place 13 His better part is yet liuing his soule is immortall Iohn 11.25.26 onely the Cage of the body is broken and the soule like a Bird hath taken vvings and is at rest 14 His estate is now bettered and farre more blessed then it was of a Bond-man being made a Free-man Freed by Death First from Sinne Rom. 6.7 to which here hee was solde o Rom. 7.14 as Ioseph p Gen. 37.28 was solde to the Ishmaelites Secondly hee is freed from the miseries of this life the punishments of Sinne q Rom. 6 23 as from a prison by this Goale-deliuery Death his paines r Gen. 3.16.17.18.19 in this life s Lu. 16.25 concluding in the pleasures of the next Thirdly hee is free from the Gunne-shot of the world and from those euils which are fore-told in the last times Mat. 24. Luke 21.25.26 1 Tim. 4.1.2 2 Tim. 3.1 ad 9. Chap. 4. ver 3.4 2 Pet. 2.1.2.3 Fourthly from the vanitie vnder which all the Creatures groane Rom. 8.20.21.22 Fiftly besides hee is with Tryumph and honour recalled from exile and banishment as was once Themistocles amongst the Athenians Iudg. 1.7.8.9 and Iphtah amongst the Israelites to receiue dignities in his owne Country from whence his soule came Now are any Parents sorie when their Children of Bond-men are infranchized of Prentises are made Free-men Is any man grieued that his distressed and disgraced friend is recalled home from Banishment and that by the King himselfe Now this is thy case if thou take paines to apply it 15 In thy exceeding sorrow thou laments what could not be preuented for hee vvas one of the Sonnes of Adam t Gen. 3.19 Heb. 9. vlt. therefore borne to dye u Pro. 26.6 Quod generatur corrumpitur Quod oritur moritur Serius aut citius metam properamus ad vnam hee could not escape the stroke as the Swallow by flying For the God of Nature now confirmes the Principles of Nature that whatsoeuer hath motion by generation must haue a cessation from motion by corruption 16 Thy case is not alone but thou hast millions and thousands both in the Christian and Heathenish world sayling at this instant all along with thee in the Sea of sorrow driuen with the windes of their owne sighes and sobs for the like or greater crosses then thine bewayling publike and priuate calamities Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris Therefore if companions in griefe as the phrase is mitigate griefe then let societie asswage thy Sorrow 17 Thy impatient sorrow 1. hurts thy selfe 2. preiudiceth thy health 3. consumes thy moysture 4. occasionedly shortens thy life 5. Discontents thy friends 6. 1 Cor. 7.16 displeaseth thy God therefore eyther moderate it or leaue it off or which is best of all turne the streame of it from a naturall to a spirituall from a carnall to a Christian sorrow for thy speciall sinnes which is that godly sorrow x Ioel 2.12 13. v. 17. commanded of God y 1 Sam 7.6 Esay 38.3 Mark 9 24 Mat. 26.75 Luke 7. practised by the Saints z 2 Cor. 7.10.11 causing repentance vnto saluation neuer to be repented of Thy extreame sorrow for the dead is as fruitlesse as faithlesse as vnprofitable to the dead or to the liuing to others and thy selfe as vnpleasant therefore let Dauids considerations when his Childe was dead be thy directions 2 Sam. 12.22.23 The Lord is still liuing who is thy Head thy Husband thy Father thy Mother thy brother thy sister all in all vnto thee if thou hearest him belieuest in him and obeyest a Luke 8.21 him therefore as Dauid in another extreamitie comfort thy selfe in the Lord b 1 Sam. 30 6. thy God happy is hee that is ready to leaue all for Christs sake c Mat. 10 37.38.39 that can say with one of the Auncients d Deus meus omnia My God and all things my God my Guide my Rocke my Defence my Saluation e Psal 18.1 therefore that loue which thou diddest beare to them that are gone sequestrate it from the dead and reflexe it vpon God there is danger in our earthly loue whether naturall to our Childe coniugall to our marriage Mate or morrall to our Friend in which vvee may soone offend in the defect of too little or in excesse of too much For which cause God being a f Exod. 20. Iealous God and not enduring that our hearts g Pro. 4.23 should be set on any thing in louing it too much ouer or aboue or besides or equall with himselfe oft depriues vs of our loued Idols Therefore hee hath crost the loues of his dearest Saints in this kinde of two Wiues Iacobs Rachell dyes which hee loued aboue Leah h Gen. 29.30 Ch. 35. v. 18 of twelue Sonnes Iacobs Ioseph is solde his dearling more then the rest i Gen. 37.4 v. 23.24 Ch. 39. of many Children Dauids Absolon and Adoniah k 1 Kin. 1.6 whom hee most pampered soonest perish of all Dauids Friends hee soonest sorrowes for his best Friend his halfe-soule Ionathan Thus perhaps it is with thee thine owne l 2 Sam. 12.3 Sheepe from thine owne bosome thy Turtle-doue thy louing Hinde thy Wife the fayrest male-Lambe in thy Folds thy Heyre and eldest Sonne thy strength thy Reuben or thy Friend thy second selfe is taken from thee perhaps thy heart was more vpon them then vpon God therefore God hath taken away the occasion of thy Idolatry Then there is danger in earthly loue but there is no danger in louing ouer-louing our louing God The speech was as seasoned as the heart was sanctified which I once heard of a young Gentlewoman Lord thou hast depriued mee quoth shee of my deare Husband of mine onely Sonne whom I loued too dearely I see now thou
assured and infallible that out of his Heauenly Canaan hee neuer reiecteth any that are desirous to haue a place in it for Hee that commeth to me saith hee I cast not away God would not the death of a sinner Ezech. 18.23.32 Esa 55.6.7 1 Tit. 2.1.1 but rather that hee would turne from his sinne and be saued God would haue all men to be saued and to come to the knowledge of his truth And in this God is no excepter of persons Act. 10.34.35 but in euery Nation hee that feareth him and worketh righteously is accepted of him There is neither Iew nor Grecian bond nor free male nor female in this but wee are all one in Christ Iesus Exclude not then your selues out of Canaan and the Lord of mercy and goodnesse will not exclude you Againe wee may note how harsh this disinheriting Note 6 of Daughters is because wee desire to continue the name If God be pleased to continue the Land or Inheritance in our name blessed be his will if hee be against it and to that end giue no Sonne but Daughters wee fight against one that is too strong for vs in seeking by-wayes contrary to his rule and how can it please him God raiseth vp houses and putteth downe at his pleasure for the Earth is his and all that is in it with his owne to doe his will who will controule and checke him Now if he doe this by a woman why may hee not May hee raise a name by women inheritors and may hee not change the name againe when hee seeth good by giuing a daughter and no Sonne Let vs often thinke of the Psalme in a religious seeling and humbly desire to receiue instruction from the Lord They thinke their houses and their habitations shall continue for euer euen from generation to generation and call their lands by their names but man shall not continue in honour hee is like the beasts that dye This their way vttereth their foolishnesse yet their posteritie delight in their talke c. Here wee may note how grossely and grieuously they erre that condemne the gouernment of Women when Crowne and Kingdomes by lawfull descent in the all-guiding prouidence of God fall vnto them for be they not within this Law of God that he saith should be a Law of Iudgement that is a Law to iudge by of this matter for euer If a man haue no Sonne his Inheritance shall descend vnto his Daughter CHAP. II. Moses is fore-warned to die and how God fore-warnes vs. Sect. 1. THE second part of this Chapter now followeth in the 12. Verse to wit the shewing of the Land of Promise to Moses and the telling him of his death in these words Againe the Lord said vnto Moses goe vp into this Mount of Abarim and behold the Land which I haue giuen to the Children of Israel And when thou hast seene it thou shalt be gathered vnto thy people as Aaron thy Brother was gathered c. These points that are naturall from this place will come againe to be spoken of in the last Chapter of Deutronomie to which I referre you Let vs therefore I pray you euen seriously and zealously pitch our mindes vpon these points First 1 Note that Moses is not here taken away sodainely but is premonished before that he must away and a time giuen him to prepare himselfe for it a great and sweet mercy of God to his Children Wherefore Dauid prayeth heartily Lord Psal 90.12 let mee know my end and the measure of my dayes Let me know how long I haue to liue And againe in another Psalme Teach mee to number my dayes that I may apply my heart vnto Wisedome The Lord doth not this by expresse words as here to Moses but first by increasing weaknesse and infirmities vpon vs secondly by many yeeres thirdly by Examples of others daily before our eyes and fourthly many times by a secret instinct in our hearts with arguments and circumstances fitting to confirme vnto vs that wee must dye so that if wee be vnprepared it is our fault that wee carry no better an eye to the Lords dealings with vs no better a watch ouer our selues for state of body and minde nor make better vse and application of things as that often repeated counsell in Scriptures willeth vs Mat. 26.41 1 Pet. 4.7 saying Watch watch for you know not at what houre the Bridegroome will come c. Sweet is the Lord and most gracious is his course Let vs not be wanting in ours and all shall be well the time neuer sodaine the thing neuer fearefull but as welcome as quiet sleepe to a wearied and ouer-wearied body A sodaine death to any one prepared is no hurt for the word of God is firme and immutable Iohn 3.15.1 18.36 Iohn 10.29 Rom. 8.1 hee that beleeueth shall be saued No man taketh my Sheepe out of my hands There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus which walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit Ver. 35. Againe Who shall separate vs from the loue of Christ shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perils or sword No no Ver. 38. for I am perswaded that neyther death nor life no not sodaine death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Now if none of these certainly not sodaine death as I said before and therefore well saith the Booke of Wisedome concerning the godly that though he be preuented by death yet shall hee be in rest hee was taken away least wickednesse should alter his vnderstanding or deceit beguile his minde though he was soone dead yet fulfilled hee much time Esa 57.1.2 2 Chron. 34.28 for his soule pleased God therefore hasted hee to take him away from wickednesse c. It is said that S. Iohn dyed of an Apoplexie and Policarpus wished hee might doe the like yet a Why we are to pray against sodain death wee vsually pray against sodaine death first in regard of the rash iudgement of the world secondly many mens negligence in preparing themselues for all houres the want of which hath made the godly sometimes timerous as wee see in Dauid Psal 39.15 thirdly as their soules are not alwayes set in order so neyther their houses as in Ezekias 2 Kings 20.1 But I say againe to one that hath laid his ground-worke well it is no hurt blessed be God and for the iudgement of men in taking Gods office vpon them in iudging weakly or wickedly of their Brethren Mat. 7.1.2 it is too rash vsually both in this and other things The life before and the profession and confession of a true Faith ought to giue all men satisfaction if not let them remember that saying well Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that iudgest another mans
Seruant hee standeth or falleth to his owne Master and Lord. To the b The fearfull estate of the wicked by sodain death wicked indeede that haue wallowed in sinne without feeling sodaine death is fearefull eyther in warre when the bullet taketh him or at Sea when hee is drowned or any other way whatsoeuer when Ammon is nailed to the wall by his Brother Absolon 2 Sam. 13.28.29 when Pharaoh and his Companie be sodainly drowned in the Seas Ezod 14.27.28 Corah Dathan and Abiram sodainely swallowed vp of the earth Numb 16.32 When Zimry and Cosbee the Israelitish and Moabitish wantons be sodainely destroyed by Phineas Speare or Gods plagues in their filth or after Numb 25.4.8 The old c Gen 7.21 Worldlings and d Gen. 19.24 Sodomites sodainely consumed by fire or water e Dan. 4.30 Baltazar f 2 Mach. 9 5.6.7 Antiochus g Act. 12.23 Herod the rich h Luke 12. Churle with others sodainely swept away like dung from the face of the earth with the besome of Gods wrath and strucke with Gods reuenging hand in the midst of their drunkennesse crueltie pride couetousnesse and such sins their case is fearefull Sect. 2. That all must die BVt though Moses be not sodainely taken away yet away hee goeth it is very true and so must all flesh therefore let vs reckon of it The reward of sinne is death Rom. 6.21 And since all flesh is sinfull to all is appointed once to die Heb. 9.27 hodie an cras c. whether it be to day or to morrow it must be it will be a debt it is and must be paid saith S. Augustine Hodie mihi cras tibi I to day you to morrow till wee be all gone nothing more vncertaine then the time nothing more certaine then the thing They that liued so many hundred yeeres as Adam Methusalem Noah Sem and the other Patriarkes of euery one it is said Et mortuus est and hee dyed the longest time had an end and at the last death knocked for him hee must away And as no time so no vertue can auoid death but euen Moses himselfe as worthy a man as the earth hath carried as the Word testifies of him Iosh 1.2.13 Heb. 3.2.5 yet this Moses must die But if a man maruell at this why such men should dye Rom. 5.12 since sinne which is the cause of death is pardoned forgiuen them through faith in Christ let him know that this is done for two causes First for those reliques of sinne and corruption which hang vpon and by death must be purged and taken cleane away God then perfecting that sanctification which was begun before Secondly that wee might be made conformable to our Head Christ Iesus who as hee by death ouer-came death and rose from death to life so must wee by him both which ends yeeld vs great comfort because they shew that death is not laid vpon the elect as a punishment but as a mercy vouchsafed by a sweet father for the ends named Sect. 3. God prepares his children to dye as hee did Moses by shewing them Canaan BVt before hee dye and passe this way of all flesh God will haue him goe into the Mountaine and see the Land of Promise this was done in sweet goodnesse that with more ready will hee might make an end And assuredly thus dealeth God with his louing children at their latter ends Obser euen giue them a glympse a sight and taste of the true Land of Promise that heauenly Canaan which hee hath prepared for them after death But as Moses to see this pleasant sight must ascend vp into the Mountaine so must wee raise vp and lift vp our hearts our soules our thoughts and the eyes of our mindes as it were aloft to an high Mountaine that so wee may see what will make vs most willing to depart that our ioy may be full and endlesse as in Peter Mat. 17.14 That Moses entered not into Canaan but onely saw it it had two ends first the punishment of his Incredulitie when hee strucke the Rocke spoken of here in the 14. Verse of this Chapter and secondly for mysterie Numb 20.12 Vt significet nos per Legem cuius Minister c. that it might signifie that by the Law whereof Moses was Minister wee may see as it were afarre off eternall life and saluation but neuer enter into it that way because through corruption of our natures wee are not able to performe it which being not performed Gal. 3.10 Iames 2.10 Mat. 5.19 shutteth vs out and subiecteth vs to a curse Sect. 4. Moses obedience to Gods summons a patterne to vs. THat Moses went vp into the Mountaine to dye Deut. 34.1 is an example before our eyes of most singular obedience for hee grudged not hee grieued not he shrunke not backe but yeelded to Gods blessed pleasure and was most willing and ready to dye O that wee may finde grace and mercy with God so to doe when time commeth saying with tongue and saying with heart behold here am I thy seruant be it vnto mee as thou my blessed God wi lt Is my time come and must I away Lord then I come and desire to be loosed and to be with thee Againe that Moses endured so patiently the deniall of him to enter into the Land which no doubt hee much desired let it euer teach vs and strengthen vs to doe the like when God denieth vs our desires for assuredly God will doe better for vs as here he did for Moses if vvee rest on his good pleasure It is a true saying it is a good saying let it neuer goe out of our mindes Semper Deus suos eâ—audit c. God alwayes heareth his Children if not vnto their will yet vnto their saluation and good CHAP. III. The nature of death sweetned to the Saints with fifteene resemblances of death to sleepe OBserue it againe carefully that death is not mentioned vnto Moses in any terrible words but in sweet wordes Ver. 13. Ibis ad Patres Thou shalt goe to thy Fathers and so still is the death of Beleeuers spoken of in the Scriptures that we might draw sweet comfort from it against any feare that fraile flesh may conceiue of death For there is a death which most men feare and that is the seperation of body and soule our naturall death and there is a death which too few feare and that is the seperation of the soule from God Vita corporis anima vita animae Deus the life of the body is the soule and the life of the soule is God Against this naturall feare oppose this and the like phrases in Scriptures You goe to your father Gen. 15.15 therefore feare not Socrates a Heathen was much comforted at his death that hee should goe and meete with those learned Poets Orpheus Homer Hesiod and such like how much more may wee ioy to meete with God the Father and God the Sonne
strength of sinne is the Law But thankes be vnto God which hath given vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ Mors Christs mors mortis meae The death of Christ is the death of my death Osee 13.14 saith Bernard O Death I will be thy Death saith hee by the Prophet And Hierome vpon it Illius morte tu mortuaes c. By his death thou art dead by his death wee liue thou hast deuoured and art deuoured thy selfe oh Death Death maketh dust returne to the earth as it was and the Spirit to returne to God that gaue it saith the word of God and shall not wee be glad of this Shall it grieue vs to returne to God to haue the Spirit goe from whence it came to walke with God to enter into life to goe to the Marriage of the Lambe Is the brute Oxe grieued to be vnyoaked Were Abraham Isacc and Iacob holy men or holy women euer vnwilling Wherefore if men desire naturall sleepe in regard of the good that commeth by it so doe you death and cherefully from your heart say with olde Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy Seruant depart in peace according to thy Word c. Luke 2.29 Sect. 4. The fourth Consideration A Fourth cause making men willing without Note 4 feare to sleepe naturally is that assured hope which they haue to awake and arise againe and shall not you arise from the sleepe of death why then should we shrinke more at the one then at the other wee shall rise againe for Christ our Head is risen and the Members must follow If the dead be not raised then is Christ not risen c. as you read in that singular Chapter 1 Cor. 15.20 The Sunne riseth and setteth againe the Moone waineth groweth againe Of the ashes of the olde Phoenix commeth another the leafe falleth and the sappe descendeth yet both sappe and leafe returne againe Sarahs wombe though dead yet beareth a Sonne when the Lord will so shall the resurrection be of dead bodies The hand of the Lord was vpon mee Ezech. 37.1 saith the Prophet and carried mee out in the Spirit of the Lord and set mee downe in the midst of the field which was full of bones And hee led me round about by them and behold there were very many in the open field and loe they were very dry And hee said vnto mee Sonne of man can these bones liue And I answered O Lord God thou knowest Againe hee said vnto mee Prophesie vpon these bones and say vnto them O yee dry bones heare the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God vnto these bones behold I will cause breath to enter into you and yee shall liue And I will lay sinewes vpon you and make flesh grown vpon you and couer you with skinne and put breath into you that yee may liue and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noyse and behold there was a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone And when I beheld loe the sinewes and the flehsh grew vpon them and aboue the skinne couered them but there was no breath in them Then said hee vnto mee Prophesie vnto the wind prophesie sonne of man and say to the winde Thus saith the Lord God Come from the foure windes O breath and breathe vpon these slaine that they may liue So I prophesied as hee had commanded mee and the breath came into them and they liued and stood vp vpon their feet and exceeding great armie Such another excellent place is that in the Apocalypse Reue. 20.11 And I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away both the earth and the heauen and their place was no more found And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the Bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the Booke of life and the dead were iudged of those 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 in them and they were iudged euery man according to their workes Thus you see that as from our naturall sleepe so from death wee shall awake againe and therefore no cause to feare the one more then the other Resurrectio mortuorum spes Christianorum The Resurrection of the dead is the hope of the Christians Faith So Tertullian meaning their ioyfull hope that wipeth away all teares and vnwillingnesse to dye Credo Resurrectionem carnis I beleeue the resurrection of the body and life euerlasting Therefore care away Though I dye yet I dye not but onely sleepe in my Graue as in my Chamber till my GOD send his Angels to awake me with his Trumpet that I may enter into ioy that neuer shall haue an end till which time I rest free from all sorrow and paine not troubled with any of the worlds woes but as a man in his bed fast asleepe most free from all offences and vexations Yea euen the selfe same body shall arise to our vnspeakable comforts teach the Scriptures Iob 19.25 Iohn 5.29 1 Cor. 15.42.43 and many other places euen as Christs body arose the same that it was before the same eyes mouth feet hands Luk. 34.32 c. Dixerunt tactis corpreibus c. They said saith Tertullian of aucient Christians touching or laying their hands vpon the bodies wee beleeue the resurrection of this body this body that I touch and lay my hands vpon for the goodnesse of God will giue glory to that body that hath giuen glory to him the selfe-same eye the selfe-same mouth the selfe-same care feet hands c. What an encouragement is this to doe well if you marke it and what an argument to make vs willing to dye being assured of this as we are Sect. 5. The last Consideration The bodyes freedome and the soules Glorification Note 5 THE fift and last cause that maketh vs willing to goe to our naturall rest without feare muttering or any discontent is the chearefulnesse and liuelinesse of body and minde that vseth to follow after sleepe both to body and minde being refreshed thereby so greatly let the same cause make vs willing to dye for there is no comparison betweene the comfort and refreshing that naturall sleepe worketh and that which followeth after death when Christ shall change our vile bodie that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious body according to the working whereby hee is able and subdue all things vnto himselfe when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortalitie If that small glimpse which the Disciples saw made them wish for three Tabernacles and an eternall being there Mat. 17.4 O how shall the whole glory of heauen and heauens blisse rauish vs and make vs glad that wee haue attained to it O no such
therefore as there is no danger in handling an Adder or Viper or any other Serpent when her sting is taken away so there is no perill in Death since Sinne which is the sting of Death is to thee not imputed but in the mercies of God pardoned and in the merits of Christ couered 1 Cor. 15. Rom. 8.1 3 Ionas 4.2 Exod. 34. God is present at thy death 3 Remember that God is the same God vnto thee in thy death that hee was in life good gracious propitious mercifull and mindefull of thee in thy last and greatest exigent Enoch found it so who walking vvith God in his life vvas taken away by the same God in his death that he was no more seene Gen. 5.24 Therefore it was Iobs dying comfort that his Redeemer liued whom as hee desired so hee hoped to see with the eyes of his body as he had beheld him with the rest of the Patriarkes with the eyes of Faith Iob 19.25 This consideration made him confident in the midst of his combats that though the Lord should kill him yet hee would trust in him Iob 13. This made prophecying Iacob ioyfull in his last farewell out of the few and euill expired dayes of his Pilgrimage in the inioying that Shilo the blessed Messias and his saluation which so long hee had waited for Gen. 49.18.33 This made old Simeon so comfortably caroll out his Swan-like song a little before his death euery particular of vvhich dittie expresseth his delight to dye and his desire to depart when hee had the worlds Sauiour in his armes and his Spirit in his heart Luke 2.25.26.27 28.29 And sure if thou haue the same grace and feele God in so many particulars now gracious vnto thee in thy life as did Enoch Iob Iacob and Simeon thou oughtest vpon the same grounds to settle thy heart in the sweet assurance of Gods speciall presence in thy last dissolution that hee will make thy bed in thy sickenesse and send thee that very Comforter his owne Spirit which according to his promise he sent his Disciples euen when all externall comforts faile if thou now worship him in spirit and in truth Iohn 4.24 For Salomon the wisest of men from the wisdome of God taught what Dauid his Father blessedly felt 1 Kings ch 1. v. 48. ch 2. v. 1.2.3 v. 10.11 that the righteous hath hope in death Pro. 14.32 euen then when the wicked is cast off by reason of his malice as was Antiochus Epiphanes Herod and others And therefore you of the Israel of God you the Seede of Abraham the friends of God feare not for the Lord is vvith his Seruants with those whom hee hath chosen and he will be with you and not cast you away but vvill strengthen help and sustaine you yea againe I say Feare not thou worme Iacob and yee men of Israel I will helpe thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel Esay 41. v. 8.9.10 v. 14. If the Lord be thy friend as hee vvas a friend to Abraham to Lazarus Iames 2.23 and to his Disciples and is still to all that seeke him and his grace the sure hee will play a sure friends part hee will sticke fast to thee in thy last conflict in this thy vvarrefare remembring thee euen in death as hee did his friend Lazarus Iohn 11.11 Therefore apply Dauids meditation as balme to thine owne sore in thy feares and say to thy soule Why art thou sad oh my Soule and why art thou so disquieted within mee still trust in God and giue him thankes for the comfortable helpe of his presence Though I walke through the shadow of death yet will I feare none euill for thou art with mee thy Rod and thy Staffe shall comfort mee Psal 23.4 God is my God euen the God if whom commeth my saluation God is the Lord by whom I escape death by whom indeede death is no death Psal 68.20 4 Remember what death is properly to the godly not a dying but a departing 4 Death is no death to the godly Luke 2.29 not an abolishion but a dissolution Phil. 1. a loosing out of Prison a Goale-deliuery to the soule not a curse but a blessing a freedome and a libertie out of captiuitie not pernitious but precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints Psal 116. A walking with God Gen. 5. A going to our Fathers in peace A gathering to our people and A yeeldding of the spirit Gen. 25.8 Gen. 49.33 A sweet sleepe Deut. 31. A rest of our flesh in hope Psal 116. 116. A resting from our labours Reu. 14. with diuers such Epithites that the Scripture giues speaking of the death of Abraham Iacob Moses Dauid Iosias c. and the rest of the Saints of God Oh then why shouldest thou feare thy freedome Doth any Iewish Turkish Romish or Athenian Bond-man take it ill to be infranchized Doth any Apprentise distaste to be made a Free-man Is any Prisoner daunted vvith the newes of his deliuery out of colde Irons Is any Captiue discomforted when hee perceiues the meanes of his ransome oh then why shouldest thou be daunted with that messenger that is sent from the King of heauen to deliuer thee from all the maladies and miseries of this life from all the distresses crosses and cares that are incident to this mortalitie in bonds sickenesse diseases paines of body burthen of minde incurable sores with an hundred such like afflictions which make life to be loathedly vnpleasant and vnprofitable besides Vita vix vitalis Is any man afraid of his bed is not rest comfortable to a iournying foot-man to a trauelling pilgrime or a drudging labourer Oh how glad is hee to repose his wearyed limbes in his wished couch Oh how acceptable is sleepe to refocillaite and recouer the ouer spent spirits and to reuiue the decayed powers Now thy death is but a sleepe as the Word testifies there being such a proportion betwixt death and sleepe that the Heathen could tearme sleepe the Image of Death Semnus Imago mortis Frater mortis Homer and the elder Brother of Death and our graues are our beds in which our bodies resting and sleeping the holy Ghost vvhose liuing Temples they were vvatching ouer them vvhen they are dead shall rouze them vp at the last day in beautie glory and splendor like the Sunne refreshed like a Gyant ready to runne his Race 5 Further to inlarge and diffuse this meditation a little further doth any man dislike to accept of these opportunities 5 Wee shall know and inioy our friends in glory where hee shall not onely see and visite but inioy the company and conference of his friends his longed for his louing and beloued absent friends their sight is gracious the communion and conuersation with them is more gracious now by death we come to enioy a Gen. 11.15 and to ioy in the presence of our friends vvho haue broke the Ice
before vs Numb 27. and haue led the way to this common Inne of death Deut. 32. we shall see the face of CHRIST wee shall looke vpon him whom our sinnes haue pierced behold his wounds in his glorified body as the Angels now behold them wee shall inseperably be vnited vnto him and so ioy in him that our ioy shall be full in those blessed mansions which hee hath gone before to prepare wee shall liue and conuerse with Abraham Isaack and Iacob and the ancient Patriarkes with Dauid Iosias Ezekias c. and all religious Kings with Samuel Esay Ieremie Iohn Baptist and all the holy Prophets with Peter Andrew Phillip and all the blessed Apostles with Matthew Marke Luke and Iohn the sincere Euangelists with Paul Steuen Peter and Iames and all the constant Martyres zealous Confessors and Professers of the Truth yea and all the rest of the faithfull whom we shall know to the increase of our ioy especially those whom wee haue here knowne and seene euen as Adam knew Eue in the Creation Gen. 2.23 Mat. 17.4 and Peter knew Moses and Elias in Christs Transfiguration a type of our Glorification whom before they had neuer seene To conclude therefore now is the time when in the Church triumphant all that haue beene within the Couenant of Grace and vnder the Gospell in the Church militant shall come to the Mount Sion and to the Citie of the liuing God the celestiall Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the Assembly and congregation of the first borne which are written in heauen and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of iust and perfect men and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament Heb. 12.22.23.24 Now what great harme is there in going to our friends especially such friends as these be who in knowledge and wisedome in glory and excellencie in loue and amitie doe farre surpasse all friends vpon earth 6 Death frees from sinne and from thy soules enemies 6 Consider the fruit and happy effect of Death in freeing thee from sinne and all miseries the punishments of sinne that stroke that kils thee will kill also a monstrous Mother and a wretched Daughter Sinne and Sorrow for as Death is the death of the body so it is the disseuering of sinne from the body Sinne that brought forth Death is destroyed by Death euen as the Viper kils the damme that bred him and as Nero murthered Agrippina that bore him that which puls downe the house of the body destroyes Sinne the troublesome and vnruly Tenant that dwelt in this house Now is it not a ioy to thee to be rid by any meanes of such an vnworthy and vnwelcome guest as Sinne which is alwayes quarrelling with thy best friends as the Spirit and the Grace of GOD within thee Art thou not glad to be freed from such a Make-baite as this body of sinne this old Adam which is alwayes stirring vp ciuill broyles and combats within this little world of thy selfe alwayes plotting and contriuing the ruine and destruction of thy better part thy Soule Art thou not glad to haue such a fire quenched as thy burning lusts and rebelling concupiscences the worst burning Feuer that euer came to man Art thou not glad to be rid of a sloathfull luxurious riotous vaine wanton vicious rebellious Seruant which is alwayes grieuing and offending thee prouoking thee to euill hindering thee from good sluggish to doe well forward to all euill such a guest such a quarreller such a fire such a rebell such a seruant is thy Flesh dull and dead and lumpish slow and sluggish to euery good dutie priuate and publique prone and propense to euery sinne alwayes solliciting importuning trying and tempting thee with as great importunitie as Potiphars Wife did Ioseph to abase and abuse thy soule and body in euery filthy pollution to commit spirituall whoredome with the world and the flesh still grieuing thy God and offending his maiestie abusing his mercy crucifying Christ turning his grace into wantonnesse vexing his Spirit quenching the motions and hindering the operations of his Grace taking part with Sathan thy forraine enemie like an inmate traytor and domesticall conspirator Now Death dislodgeth this guest quels this quarreller hangs vp this Achitophel quencheth this lustfull fire executes this rebell cashiers this seruant for euen as the Iuie dyes that twines about the Oake when the Oake is cut downe so the cutting downe of the body is the curbing and curing the sinne in the body which sinne liues and dyes hath his birth and death with the subiect wherein it is resident for he that is dead is freed from sinne Rom. 6.7 Therefore Mors metuenda non est quia est finis peccatorum Ambrose Now as it frees thee from sinne so the cause ceasing the effect ceaseth also it frees thee from all the miseries that grow as fruits from this cursed Tree euen all the paynes and labours of body and vexations of spirit that are incident to this mortall condition This made the Wise-man praise those that were dead before those that are liuing Eccle. 4. and to preferre the day of death before the day of life Eccles 7. And made some of the Philosophers in their Heathenish Paradoxes affirme that it was best for a man neuer to be borne the next best to dye soone because in respect of the many miseries of this life which they saw into with their naturall eyes they thought Nature was a Mother vnto all other Creatures and a Step-dame vnto man Theophrastus therefore Iob that drunke as deepe in this cup of common afflictions incident to humane nature as euer any meere man in this respect desired death Euen as the Seruant desired the shadow and as the Hireling looked for the end of his worke Iob 7.2 7 Consider that God doth not onely deliuer thee from the euill of sinne and the euill of punishment present 7 It deliuers from the euils present and to come but by taking thee now away hee hath a purpose to free thee from future temporall euils which perhaps hee purposeth to bring vpon that place and people amongst whom thou art for indeede this is the Lords ordinary proceeding to deliuer his Seruants from the euils to come whilest the wicked are chained in earth and reserued for further plagues Thus hee tooke away good Augustine ere the Gothes and Vandals ouer-ranne Hippo where hee vvas Bishop this the Lord promised as a speciall mercy to good Iosias that before hee vvould accomplish his threat against Iudah he should be put into his graue in peace and that his eyes should not behold the euill 2 Kin. 22.20 And thus hee saith of the mercifull men and righteous that they are taken away from the euils to come that Peace shall be vpon them and they shall rest in their beds when the Witches Children the seede of Adulterers and Whores a rebellious people shall perish and consume Esay 57.1.2.3 Apply this
16.3 yet how was hee vpbrayded scandalized and slandered his Commission from God contradicted hee vvas thought to take too much vpon him accused as a destroyer and 41.42 or at least a deluder of the Lords people concerning the promised Canaan yet the same Moses had beene worshipped as a God of these ancient Idolaters after his death if the Diuell could haue had his purpose in exposing his dead body vnto them being resisted by the Angell Iude 1. v. 9. So was Dauid not a little disgraced by the mockings of his wife Michol 2 Sam. 6.20 the raylings of Shemei 2 Sam. 16.5 the calumnies of his tyrannous enemies by whom hee was esteemed as a foole reuiled as a murtherer verse 6. accounted as an Hypocrite and vile man ver 7. yea euen the drunkards made songs of him in his life time now Dauid is esteemed as the sweet Singer of Israel as the man after Gods owne heart after his death So in onr times what broyles and turmoyles had that worthy Caluin zealous Luther reuerent Beza iudicious Zanchy moderate Melancthon learned Peter Martyr Oecolampadius and others in forraine Countries Cranmer Latimer Ridley c. amongst our selues at home what filthy blots and aspersions were cast vpon their good names how were their doctrine and doings misconceiued their liues and learnings questioned and censured their workes and writings wrested and misse-interpreted all that they said or did preuerted or corrupted by the malicious enemies of the truth both within and amongst themselues and abroad amongst the Papists insomuch that it was one of Melancthons dying Comforts that by death hee should be freed as his words are from the barkings and bitings of some dogs in the forme of Diuines which was the measure that the rest found as indeede in the whole course of Scriptures the greatest enemies that euer the Church and zealous Teachers in the Church had were of their owne rancke and profession false Priests false Prophets Scribes and Pharisies and false Apostles in which respect as the same Melancthon once hoped and in a manner prophesied that the after-Ages would iudge more candidly and sincerely of him and his Workes after his death euen so hee and others now finde it for notwithstanding the Blasphemies which Romish Rabshakeh's Feuerdentius Cochleus Bolserus and others belch out against these Germaine and Belgicke Lights and the rest of the Host of God whose tongues are no slanders how hath the Lord honoured famoused those worthy labourers in his Vine-yard euen in their good names since their dissolution all of them being accounted pillers notwithstanding the detraction of these Romish Caterpillers in the house God all of them in their zealous and learned Labours like Oecolampadius as his name imports shining as precious Lights in the Church which neuer shall be wholy obscured til he that is the light of the world come againe to Iudgement This wee daily see verified that to the comfort of the suruiuing though zealous Pastors men of exquisite parts and paines haue beene in the day of their Ministrie torne and reuiled amongst these Swine and Dogs to whom they haue giuen holy things counted as fooles and deceiuers as the Iewes and Christs Country-men accounted Christ mad men Acts 26.28 as Festus thought Paul and rauers and ragers in the Pulpit as the Iewes held Ieremie yet after the setting of their Sunne they haue beene longed for Ier. 18.18 Ier. 20.7.8.10 their losse lamented chiefely of the houshold of Faith and their names honoured in the harts and mindes and mouthes of multitudes when the wicked in all their power and pompe being magnified of their fawning Parasites for a time in the sodaine dampe of death haue had the glimmering of their glory put out their honour laid in the dust and their names like their rotten carkasses rotting and smelling and stincking in the nostrils of God and good men as may be seene in the life and death of Herod Antiochus Nero and others For I pray you Acts 12.23 who is now more famous after death Nero or the persecuted Christians Iulian or the poore Saints which he butchered Herod or Iohn whom he beheaded Pashur or Ieremie whom hee imprisoned Gardiner Bonner and such bloody Butchers or our English Martyrs whom they burned Surely the candle of the wickeds glory is put out and there remaines the impure filthy stincking snuffe of an euill name their glory is their shame Prou. 10. Phil. 2.19 but the memoriall of the righteous is precious smelling like Balme and Spikenard diffused Psal 112.9 yea their name shines like the Starres in the shady night of death or rather like the Sunne the cloud being remoued flourishing in the storme of death like the Laurell which is greene when the Winter is foule Though CHRIST himselfe be counted a Samaritan an imposter one that vvas Belzebubs friend a poore Carpenters poore Sonne in his life yet in and at his death hee is iustified approued and famoused as a righteous man as an innocent as a iust man as the Sonne of GOD by the testimonie that was giuen of him first by a Mat. 27.24 Pilate secondly b ver 19. Pilates Wife thirdly the c Luke 23.48 Passengers that smote their breasts fourthly the d Mat. 27.54 teares of the Daughters of Ierusalem fiftly the e Mat. 25.4 Centurion sixtly and f ver 51.53 Iudas himselfe seauenthly yea 1. the vaile of the Temple 2. the stones 3. the Sunne 4. the Elements 5. the raised bodies of the dead Saints giue a reall and an honourable testimonie of him 6. thus shall it be with thee if thou beest a member of Christ though thou beest misse-reported and sinisterly censured as g Iob. 15. ch 22.33.34 Iob was of his friends 7. yet in thy dissolution principally thy name shall be raised like the fire from vnder the ashes of ignominie It was the Heathens Comfort that hee should leaue a good name behinde him so let it be thine it being one of the greatest earthly blessings aboue Gold and Siluer Prou. 22.1 yea as a precious Oyntment Eccl. 7.3 this Oyntment smels the sweetest when the boxe of thy body is broken thou carryest this Oyntment as dead bodies are annoynted euen to the graue with thee and it liues when all other earthly things dye to thee and thou to them Therefore be thou cheared vvith the thought which comforted the Pagan Nemo me c. Let none be-moist my Hearse with helplesse teares From Learnings mouth Fame flyes to vulgar eares 14 In death thou shalt haue an excellent and notable both tryall and demonstration 14 It tries and declares thy graces as also exercise of thy graces as first of thy Faith secondly thy Patience thirdly thy Constancie fourthly thy Christian Courage fiftly Fortitude sixtly and the Spirit of Prayer by which first others shall be strengthened secondly the weake shall be confirmed thirdly and all that are present with thee and amongst whom thou liuest incouraged
narrow bridge of this life to meete him to greete him and to inioy him Expostulate with thy soule how it comes to be so dull so dead so lumpish so leaden how it is that thou professest thy selfe to be a Spouse of Christ a Eph 5.21 Ose 2.19 a member of Christ b Ephe. 5.30 a branch of Christ c Ioh. 15.5 which thou must beleeue and professe if thou hast any part in him d Ioh. 1â— 6 and yet hast no desire to put off the outward mantle of this bodies couering to be inseparably imbraced in the armes of this Bridegroome not to leane with Iohn but for euer to rest in his bosome to be ioyned to thy Head to be fixed in this vnion But if Christs loue and desire to dye and to dye for thee be too high a pitch for thee to soare to which yet ought to be aymed at yet imitate the desires and the patience of the Saints in this kinde so farre as the Apostle speakes of himselfe as they imitate Christ for as the examples of the wicked are recorded for our detestation 1 Cor. 6.10 so the examples of the godly are written for our comfort and consolation Iam. 5.11 Rom. 15.4 You haue heard saith Iames of the patience of Iob and what end God made with him You haue heard of the desires of Paul and Simeon of the graces that appeared in Dauid Iacob Steuen c. Ambrose Augustine c. Caluin Luther c. and vvhat ends they made vvith God Then thou vsing the same meanes that they did euen Faith and Repentance why shouldest thou demurre or be vnwilling to goe that Iourney vvhich they haue gone 17 Yet if examples and presidents of others 17 Death is the common Inne of all flesh where thou shalt be refreshed Esay 38.2 Numb 27.13 as of Christ and Christians set not an edge on thy desires to dye yet let the mutabilitie breuitie and vncertaintie of life with the certaintie of death cause thee to make a vertue of necessitie as Esay said from God to Ezekias thou must dye and as God to Moses thou shalt dye so hee saith to thee Set thine house set thine heart in order for thou canst not liue thou must dye nay thou canst not long liue and thou must soone dye certainely dye therefore it is wisedome for thee as in outward things so in this to doe that voluntarily which thou must doe necessarily and compulsorie thy life thou knowest is but a short life frayle and brittle as glasse As it is a flower for the mortalitie of it Esay 40.7 A smoake for the vanitie of it Psal 102.3 so it is a house of clay soone crusht downe Iob. 4.17 A tent or tabernacle soone pluckt vp 2 Cor. 5.1 A Shepheards Tent soone pulled downe Esay 38.12 A Shippe in the Sea Wisd 5.10 soone sliding soone ouer-throwne by the Rockes ouer-blowne by the windes nay as a Weauers Shittle Iob 7.6 for the volubilitie of it as a dreame Iob 20.8 as a shadow Iob 8.9 for the vanitie of it nay vanitie it selfe which is nothing it being in very deede nothing in respect of eternitie Learne therefore by this mirrour of dying Moses so to spend these thy dayes of vanitie that for shortnesse of dayes in this world thou maist with Moses and all the glorious Saints of God inioy eternitie of dayes in the world to come SIMEON'S dying-Song HANDLED IN sixe Sermons LVKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy Seruant depart in peace according to thy Word IT is the Position of some Plus exempla quam praecepta that Examples moue more then Rules that Practise perswades or disswades aboue Precepts eyther in Imitation or Aemulation of Vertue or Detestation of Vice and aboue others wee are pronest to write after the Copies of great men and to tread in the steps of old men Therefore the Scripture propound vnto vs the patternes of the greatest of men euen Kings who were as good as great Regis ad exemplar totus componitur orbis a 2 Sam. 15.31 Ch. 23. 1 Kin. 2.10 Dauid b 2 Chro. 31.1.2 Ezekias c Chro. 34.3.4 Iosias d Chr. 15.8 Asa e 1 King 22.41 Iehosaphat c. that wee should follow their footings so farre as they followed Christ and walked with God Of the most aged amongst men as of f Gen. 25.8 Abraham g Gen. 9.28.29 Noah h Gen. 5.27 Methushalem i Iob 42.17 Iob c. and here of old Simeon whose liues and deaths are so many pleading Orators and preaching Sermons to excite vs to Christian courses that like them wee may liue holily and dye happily and arriue at the common Hauen of all flesh peaceably and safely Now amongst the rest I haue called out and selected Simeon as a Candle set on a hill as a Beacon on fire to giue light to the world if shee will open her blinded and beetle eyes how to walke to Sion through this vaile of life euen in the darke and k Psal 22.4 shadowie night of death Simeon a fit obiect for vs to reflect the eyes of our intellectuall powers vpon in the prosecution of this sad and sable subiect of death in which consider first the Title of the Text secondly the Text it selfe For the Title Antiquitie and our Church denominates it The Song of Simeon meerely Swan-like and Cygnean Cantiâ— Cygnea pious and propheticall I might easily runne Descant and Diuision vpon it sorting it out into his seuerall parts shewing 1. the Ditty 2. the Matter 3. the Manner 4 the Harmony 5. the Time 6. the Tune with all such obseruances in vocall Musicke substantiall and circumstantiall euen from the ground of this Scripture But my part now is rather to sigh then to sing vnlesse Dirges and Madrigals fitter for Heraclitus his part then Democritus yet I cannot but so farre condescend to this Cantion as to commend this diuine Canticle for the excellencie and to consider in it the ground of it nature and proprietie For the excellencie it is of that puritie and perfection that I wish it might be a rule and a square to our irrigular and vnlimited licentiousnesse in singing that our hearts were rightly tuned by the Spirit of God as was Simeons Redargution verse 25. that our tongues were the Pennes of this ready Writer in our Ditties Psal 45.1.2 that so wee might sing the prayses of the King but alas our Songs are commonly rather from Sodome then from Sion rather sensuall then spirituall carnall then Christian Satanicall then sacred rather to the honour of Bacchus Priapus and Venus pleasing the Flesh the World and the Diuell the vvorlds worshipped Trinitie then to the glory of the immortall and indiuisible Trinitie witnesse the vaine vile wanton vicious loose licentious venerious Songs and Sonnets of Poets and Poetasters of our times 1. Which may not onely be seene extant 2. but euen are chaunted and carolled out by
Fooles and Fidlers vnprofitable Moathes of the earth which liue eyther in no calling or in a sinfull calling 3. heard receiued applauded approued laughed at by all the licentious Prodigals loose gull-Gallants Epicures and Carnalists ordinarily in euery Ordinary Inne Tauerne Ale-houses and the like Oh therefore whose heart smites him in this kinde let him reforme this sinne whether actiue or passiue in delighting or desiring to say sing or heare these Organs of Sathan and those Bellowes of sinne and vncleannesse Turne now the streame another way let Iordan runne backe-ward If thou beest afflicted pray take out this rule so did Moses Manasses Dauid the Israelites and all Gods Saints Art thou merrily affected Iames 5.13 sing but what Psalmes Psal 119. Hymnes and Songs and spirituall Psalmes making melody to the Lord in your hearts therefore as I would propound Dauid and Ezekias as true patternes for all mourners so Simeon and Zachary as spectacles to all singers As in Instrumentall Musicke the strings that are out of tune must be set vp to those that are in tune so when thou singest vanitie thy heart and tongue which are distracted distempered and out of tune must be set in the right Key as was Simeons then thou shalt sing at thy departure out of this worlds Prison as a Acts. 16.21 Paul and Silas did in Prison Thou shalt sing Hosanna's in Heauen when thy Friends sing thy Funerall Neniae on earth The ground of this Song is Christ the Messias Sauiour and saluation of Israel the Redeemer of his people as the Word cals him b Luke 2.69 as the Angell christens him from c Mat. 1 2â— God which Sauiour as he was promised to d Gen 3.15 Adam the promise renued to e Gen. 15.5.17.6 Gen 12.3 Gal. 3.8 Abraham prefigured in the Leuiticall Law and those Malachie Types and Ceremonies Aarons Rod the Pot of Manna the watry Rocke the scape-Goat the brazen Serpent the blood of sacrificed Beasts and Bullockes and the like prophesied of by all Prophets f Act. 3.24 great and lesser from Moses g Deut. 1.15 and 7.37 to Malachie so being now reuealed and exhibited is the ground of Simeons Song and the matter of his inward mirth breaking forth like a fire long kept in into these outward Modulations His practise is our precept Vse all our ioy must be in Christ and for Christ In Christ reioyced the Patriarkes when they did but see Christs day a farre off thorow the cloud and the vayle as did h Iohn 6 56 Heb 11.13 Abraham In Christ reioyced the Prophets i Esay 53. ch 54. ch 55. Esay k Ier. 24.5 Ierem Ezekiel c. in the heate of their persecutions being refreshed with the vision of that incarnate Babe l Esay 9.6 Prince of peace branch of Iesse eternall Counsellor which they did preach and of whom they did prophesie In Christ reioyced the Apostles Peter Iames and Iohn yea Paul a 1 Cor. 15. himselfe in the midst of stripes whips and imprisonment Ch. 5.41 In Christ reioyced the ancient Martyres Policarpus Ignatius Cyprian euen like the three Children in the middest of the fire c Dan. 3.23 In Christ reioyced the ancient Fathers Augustine Ierome Bernard c. witnesse their words works and writings amongst the rest of him that could say Deus meus omnia my Christ and all things Wife Childe Friend Father ioy sufficient efficient in life and death Nay lastly as with Christ so in Christ and for Christ reioyced the d Luke 2.14 Angels in earth and in heauen e Reu. 5.11.12 be glad then oh yee righteous and reioyce ye that feare the Lord as the Angels f Luke 2.10 to the Shepheards as Esay to the Church g Esay 9.6 For vnto vs a childe is borne and a Sonne is giuen For to vs is borne a Sauiour in the Citie of Dauid which shall deliuer all his Israel from their sinnes Matth. 1.21 Luke 19.10 Redargution Many and manifold are the ioyes of the sonnes of men as dangerous as diuers few with those sonnes of God by Creation and Adoption Angels and Saints reioyce in or for Christ but sinners according to the diuersities of their darling sinnes solace their soules in such contents as I may call meerely Anti-christian and against Christ and the Lords annoynted in which they please themselues and displease him content their flesh but crucifie CHRIST and grieue his Spirit Nabal h 1 Sam. 15 and Baltazar i Daniel 5. the Epicure and Drunkard hath ioy enough in his feasts and festiuals the colour of the wine delights his sight the relish his deuouring sense like a base Bagge-pipe hee makes such Musicke as the Diuell daunceth at when hee is full The Vsurer Sibilat me populus c Horace the worldling and the miserable able miser hath his heart rauished when his eye reflexeth vpon his glittering Idoll and golden God the Calfe that this beast bowes too The impure Onan k Gen. 38. filthy Fornicator and inexcusable Adulterer which like to Salomons foole l Pro. 7.7 goes into the harlots house and like Ieremies neighing horse m Ier. 5.8 without vnderstanding n Pro. 6.32 runnes after his neighbours wife like the Oxe to the slaughter o Pro. 7.22 to his owne destruction p Pro. 6.32 delights himselfe as the Swine in the mire as the Toade in the puddle as the Panther with excrements q Gesner Plinie as the Scarabean Flye with ordure and filth as the Diuell his Father r Ioh. 8.44 amongst filthy Hogs s Lu. 15.16 with his vncleane courses and discourses feeding his appetite with strange flesh t Pro. 23.27 as the lusting Israelites with loued and loathed Quayles v as the Italian Pselli and Mersi feede on poyson his chiefe ioy is to touch and taste Sodomes Apples and the forbidden fruit his onely Paradise the ioying in and inioying here which hee dreames of hereafter a Turkish Heauen a Mahumetaine portion of Wine and Women as for Christ hee hauing no heart at all Hosea 4.11 can haue no heart to him neyther in delighting in him or desiring him no more then the very Diuels themselues who quaked and trembled and made out cryes and exclamations at the very sight of him Luke 8.28.29 so all other Libertines amongst vs haue some v Mar. 6.17 Herodias or other some one beloued sinne which they more loue and like and ioy in then in the worlds Sauiour As some in their carnall companions and vvicked associates vvith whose dispositions and conuersations as they receiue as much infection in their soule as their bodyes from a Pest-house so they haue their refections as u Dan. 5.1.2 Baltazzar and Sardanapalus had with their Queenes and Concubines and so in the rest Well these carnall and common Christians which haue as much zeale to Christ and loue for Christ as common women plainely
his heart it vvas dead like a stone h 1 Sam. 25 37 Now thou Nabal thou foole thou stony heart what profit wilt thou haue in crying Lord Lord thou maist cry so till thy tongue cleaue to the roofe of thy mouth thou maist howle vpon thy bed like a Wolfe i Ose 7.14 and yet the Lord stoppe his eares from hearing and folde vp his hands from helping The foolish Virgins knocked and cryed Lord open vnto vs yet were shut out so shalt thou Mat. 25. For not euery one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen Math. 7.21 But hee that doth the will of God as Simeon did now the will of the Lord is that thou shouldest repent betimes call vpon him pray vnto him and prayse him but all from a touched heart His desires Limitation In this word Now. THE second thing obseruable here is his Desires Limitation in this word Now which denotates the Time present Which word like all the rest in the Scripture hath his weight for as S. Ierome once obserued Nulla Littera nulla Syllaba c No Letter no Syllable nay no Tittle no Pricke wants his energie and force or is vnsignificant in the originall Here Simeons minde may be thus expressed Lord it hath pleased thee of thy mercy not my merit to giue mee a reuelation that I shall not see death vntill I see the Annoynted of the Lord verse 26. now by the motion of thy Spirit comming into the Temple verse 27. I perceiue that this Babe that is brought in hither to be done vnto according to the custome of the Law by his Parents is annoynted and appoynted to be the Prince and Priest and Prophet of his Church therefore Lord now I am willing nay desirous to depart in peace since I haue in mine armes the Prince of peace in my heart the spirit of peace in my conscience inward peace thou hast kept touch and performed what thou hast promised I haue my expectation satisfied my desires accomplished therefore I desire not to liue any longer I am an aged man and ready to be gathered to my Fathers A ripe apple fit to fall from the tree I cannot liue long by the course of nature I desire not to liue long by the instinct of grace it is better for mee to remoue out of this Tabernacle then to runne further in the Pilgrimage of my few and euill dayes better to depart in peace then continue in this worlds Prison I know I must dye neuer so well neuer so willingly as now euen now when I haue in mine armes the conquerour of death the Lord of life Wee see in Simeon Obserue that the godly haue oftentimes diuers raptures and sweet ioyes as in life so chiefely in their dissolutions So had Steuen when about to be stoned hee saw the Heauens open and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.56 Such feelings diuers of the Martyres haue had at the Stake nay euen in the heate of flames and fires so experimentally that Mr. Glouer knew as well when Gods Spirit came to him as a cold body feeles externall heate or warmth so comfortably Mr. Foxe his Martirologie that good Cranmer indured the burning of his once guilty hand with lesse motion then some abide the Goute or Tooth-ach Many such rauishmentS and inward comforts diuers of the Saints haue felt how euer at other times with perplexed Iob and penitent Dauid so deiected as though they were reiected of God that they haue desired the Lord a while to with-draw his presence the weake vessels of their fraile nature not being able to containe that fulnesse of the Spirit which they haue felt Such an extasie was Paul in when rapt vp into the third heauens hee heard Verba ineffabilia words not to be vttered himselfe transposed from himselfe whether in the body or without the body hee wist not hee was more then in an ordinary rauishment in his sure Sanctuary that he had against Principalities and Powers life and death c. built vpon the sure anchor and Corner-stone of Gods loue to him in Christ so in his annihilating and vilifying all things as Pharisaicall learning birth knowledge riches and the like as drosse and dongue in respect of the excellent knowledge of Christ IESVS and him crucified so when hee was ready not onely to goe to Ierusalem to bee bound but to dye for Christ so in his expectation and assurance of that Crowne vvhich Christ that righteous Iudge would bestow vpon him hauing fought a good fight and finished the Faith his affections were inflamed his Spirit wondrously reioyced his heart ouer-ioyed and his desires transcendent The like Iubilies haue many of Gods Children kept with their God in such extasies of ioy as haue shewed themselues like the Sunne-beames through a cloud through the vaile of the flesh euen in outward alterations and Symptomies Some in their Meditations hauing their thoughts so sequestrated and their spirit so abstracted from all earthly things that their corporall senses haue not perceiued outward obiects no not so much as the sound of Bels neare ringing Others haue forgot their repast and feeding the loue of Christ being better then wine and the taste of the Spirit sweeter then honey and the honey-combe such things the Papists write of their Aquinas Bonauenture Katheran of Sienna c. and other their Monkes Friars Virgins vestall Votaries but Surius is vnsure in his reports Lippomanus his lips are not freed from lies and Marrulus makes and marres many Fables It is more likely vvhat is writ of Augustine and Bernard in their Soliloquies in this kinde Others haue expressed their inward raptures in their very countenances as Moses and Steuen whose faces so shined when the one had beene on the Mount with God the other disputing for God that they seemed like the faces of Angels Acts 6.15 Others haue beene so carryed away in such glimpses of glory as the Lord hath shewed them they haue beene so inebriated and spiritually drunke with the wine of the Spirit that they haue not knowne what they haue said as Peter in Christs Transfiguration Mat. 12. Others haue neuer beene satisfied vvith commerse with God in speaking with God and speaking to God by reading the Word and Prayer some reading ouer the Bible foureteene times in a yeere as Alphoxsus others as constantly as Cyprian read Tertullian or Alexander Homer others trauelling in their iourneyes as Phillips Eunuch Acts 8. Others at their Tables as duely as their meate others praying three times a day with Daniel thrice with Paul frequently yea at midnight with Dauid and Silas so long so oft till their knees were growne as hard as the earth they kneeled on as Ierome in the Desart others seauen houres together yet obseruing none canonically as Father Latimer so haue they chawed their chud on that hidden Manna which God gaue them hauing still a godly dropsie like the Worldlings golden dropsie vnstanched
Others haue fallen into bodily dead sownes by their heauenly visions and rauishments of the inward man as Iohn surnamed the Diuine Reuel 1.10.17 such Daniel Dan. 8.16.17 when groueling on the ground hee lay as dead so Ezekiel by the Riuer Kebar with many moe Now Reasons why the godly haue oft extraordinary rauishments the Reasons why God doth thus delight and oft as it were ouer-ioy his Children are First to giue them some taste and feeling of his loue and fauour to them euen as a Master will oft shew to his Seruant some argument of his loue and a Father declare to his childe some testimonie of his fatherly affection so deales God with his Secondly to incourage them against crosses the Marriners heart would breake if he should alwayes be tossed in such stormes as Ionas and Paul tryed without euer any merry gales The Traueller would be too much perplexed with continuall showrings and tempests without any intermission or interposition of refreshing Sunnie beames so were the world and worldly woes insufferable and intolerable to a weake and wearied Christian if the holy Ghost the Comforter should not wonderfully blow and breathe and reflexe vpon vs. Thirdly that they may haue some good relish and feeling of those better and more lasting and euerlasting ioyes of which they shall haue ere long the fruition of which these are certaine Images and Ideaes sparkes and reflexions for euen as the wicked and the reprobate in the rage and hell of their conscience feele oft-times certaine flashings of hell-fire which are as it were summoners to iudgement Heraulds of their damnation and Prologues of their Tragicall execution so God distils into the hearts of the righteous hidden and holy heates as it were drops of that fountaine of life with which they shall be refreshed and glimpses from the Sunne of Righteousnesse with whose beames they shall be rauished Vse 1 Of Redargution This then first reformes their mindes or refutes their madnesse that thinke the estate of Grace to be most comfortlesse Many millions in the world thinke the Professors of the Word to be depriued of all inward and outward ioyes men as retchlesse as richlesse as forlorne in their soules as forworne in their bodies they appeare to them as budlesse and beautilesse Trees and withered branches and why because they cannot discerne any thing in them but sighing and sobbing and wayling and weeping and Melancholy and solitarinesse they will not be sociable vvith their neighbours in gossipping and company-keeping in walking abroad and talking in pratling and prating at home in meetings and merriments in Tauernes and Tipling-houses in feasts and frolickes in sports and pastimes in dallyances and drinkings in gurmundizing and gluttony they neyther care for worldly play as Carding or Dicing c. nor to see Playes the Baudes of loose lust therefore they maruell how they liue since they are neuer merry Hence the Lords owne Simions gracious and godly men such as haue set their faces to Sion framed aright their life and fitted for death are censured and derided as dastards and dotards as silly and simple as Monkish Monasticall Stoicall and vnciuill men nay as fantastiques and fooles hence comes the hellish Prouerb Gods followers Gods fooles that Gods Sheepe Gods Geese Gods Ganders and such like Blasphemies but alas poore deluded Soules they must know that as our Sauiour Christ had meate to eate vvhich the Iewes knew not of and as he was to goe whither his Disciples wist not of so the true Christian and beleeuer hath comforts here that the world knowes not of and is to goe to endlesse and prizelesse comforts hereafter such as worldlings wot not of here they haue the testimony of a good conscience as had * Acts 24. The description of a good conscience Paul which is a continuall feast a continuated Christmas alwayes Iubile yeere the golden bed of Salomon the beautifull Porch of the Temple Fidus achates a holy and a happy companion Secondly they haue the loue of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit of God Thirdly they haue those extraordinary ioyes and sodaine extasies chiefely in their Soliloquies and deuotions with God the Sunne of his goodnesse shining vpon them in the heate and light in the comfort and power of the Spirit euen after they haue rayned powred and showred downe their teares into the Lords bosome which they would not exchange for Crownes and Empires Fourthly like Steuen and Paul and Simeon here they are euen filled with the holy Ghost tasting of such ioyes which are but the first fruits of the Spirit and the earnest of their inheritance in heauen as none know but those vvhich experimentally feele For as none knowes the loue of a Parent to his Childe but those that are Parents nor of a good Shepheard to his Sheepe a good Pastour to his people but hee that is a good Shepheard indeed so none knowes the comfortable condition of a good Christian liuing and dying but hee that is a Christian indeede a common Christian a naturall man a wicked man a ciuill honest man knowes it no more then a young childe doth Greeke and Hebrew discernes it no more then a blinde man doth colours feeles it no more then a stocke or a stone or a dead man esteemes it no more then Esau doth his Birth-right or the Prodigo his patrimonie then Aesops Cocke 1 Cor. 1.23 a Pearle accounts of it as the Iewes and Gentiles and all profane men account of the Gospell euen meere foolishnesse and therefore they so blatter and blaspheme and like bruite beasts speake euill of those things Iude v. 10. and those persons which they know not but I will assure thee how ere thou thinke the poore and penitent Christian the sincere and zealous to raue as the Iewes thought of Ieremy to be distract or mad or besides himselfe as Festus thought Paul Act. 26.24 as Christs Country-men thought of our Sauiour to bee simple men and fooles c. yet neuerthelesse they know with Dauid that it is better to be a doore-keeper in Gods house nay to suffer affliction with Moses and Gods people then to inioy the pleasures of sinne then to inioy all the priuiledges in Pharaohs Court then to reioyce here for a while with Diues Luke 16. Eccles 12. and Salomons young man and then to quake in Iudgement and be damned in hell yea they euen in this vaile of teares haue more ioy in their fasting then thou in feasting more in praying then thou in playing more in sighing then thou in singing for euen in the midst of mirth the heart of the vvicked is heauy vvhen GOD strikes and Conscience gnawes but the godly are merry in prison are comforted in persecution Act. 16.25 reioyce after stripes Acts 5.41 Ionas 2.1.2 prayse God in the deepe and in the Whales belly blesse GOD after hee hath smit them and exult in Spirit in their old yeeres as did Simeon Besides thy
invtile pondus as they are vnprofitable burthens to the earth they shall be swept away from the earth like Iabin and Sisera and the Sodomites euen into hell Psal 9.17 As they glorifie not God which was the end of their Creation and Redemption which they forget so God will neuer glorifie them Therefore let vs all both men with Simeon and women with Lidia Dorcas and Deborah c. doe good here in life that wee may receiue good in and after death liue and desire to liue onely to God and for God here that vvee may liue vvith God for euer hereafter Fourthly and lastly here wee are to take notice of that which wee haue obserued in Moses before namely that Simeon is willing to dye for the whole Text imports and carries it that there was in him no vnwillingnes to dye not so much as in show but a great willingnesse propensitie and disposition to his dissolution whether wee take his vvords here as Optatiue Oh that thou wouldest let thy Seruant depart as some doe or Indicatiue Now thou dost let c. or Precatory Lord now let c. or plainely as they are here all import perspicuously that hee dyed voluntarily From whence note that a good Christian is willing to dye wee may see this as in Simeon so in Paul Phil. 1.23 who desired to be dissolued and to be with CHRIST The like might be instanced in the death of Moses Deut. 34. who at Gods command went as voluntarily vp to the Mount to dye and to be sacrificed himselfe as Abraham went to sacrifice his Sonne So if wee consider the death of the Patriarkes of Abraham himselfe of Iacob of Dauid c. that dyed naturally as also of Saint Steuen Mat. 27. Acts 7. â— of our Sauiour Christ himselfe in the Scripture as also of blessed Martyres that were put to death violently we shall finde that they went vnto their deaths and into the Graue as voluntarily as Noah into the Arke taking Gods stroke vpon themselues as patiently as Aaron did Leuit. 10. when God smote his two Sonnes Nahab and Abihu and as Eli did Samuels report of his houses ruine 1 Sam. 3 The Saints very last words being of the same straine and Dialect with Simeons import so much as wee may see Moses Deut. 32. with this good old man here concluding his life with a Swan-like Song So also Dauid 2 Sam. 23. So Babilas the Martyr feared not that his soule should returne vnto her rest neyther did Ignatius care when hee dyed Euseb lib. 3 c. 30. Vide Grin Apotheg morientium or of what kinde of death hee should dye nay though hee were grinded by the teeth of Lyons because hee was the Lords Manchet and must be made cleane bread for Christ So Melancthon almost in the same words with Simeon If it be the will of God I am willing to dye and I beseech him to grant mee a ioyfull departure With many moe Now the Reasons which make the childe of God so willing to die are many the principall are these First Si qua dies bona est velocibus praeterit horis Innimica tenacius haerent because hee findes no good in this life no ioy no content more then a Prisoner in his bonds a bird in the snare or a beast in the ginne his ioyes being imperfect and mixed with a thousand sorrowes hauing for one Sunny day a hundred tempestuous stormes his best dayes being like Iacobs few and euill his worst many and miserable Secondly Nil boni in vita nil mali in morte because there is nothing in this life which giues true and sollid satisfaction to his soule finding with Salomon all Sublunarie things to be vanitie and vexation of spirit as Honours riches wisedome vvealth knowledge Babels building Moses and Daniels Aegyptian and Caldean learning Cressus and Crassus his wealth Midas his gold Policrates good successe Ezekias his Treasure Nero's Musicke all other things which should doe good to the nature of man or delight the minde of man giuing him no more content then ayre and winde to an empty stomacke for as a Quadrangle cannot fill a Triangle but some corner will be capable of more so the whole circuit of this round Orbe this Quadrangular world cannot content the heart of man which Anatomists say is Triangular in the forme God onely Christ and his Spirit the blessed Trinitie that made the soule can fill it with true delights and fulfill the true desires In which respect the Christian to whom all things else are bitter but Christ is not quieted till hee inioy Christ no more then the animate or inanimate creatures are at peace till they haue their rest in that centre whitherto they moue his heart still trembling till it be with God like the Needle touched with an Adamant still quiuering and shaking till it looke directly to the North Pole and therefore as Noahs Doue sent out of the Arke found no rest to the sole of her foote till shee returned into the Arke againe so the true Christians the Lords mournefull Doues finde no resting place here till their soules returne to the Arke of their strength that God that sent them out into their bodies euen as the Iewish Tabernacle had no rest but was carryed from place to place till it entred into Canaan Exod. 26.1 33.7 Thirdly because of the crosses and afflictions which are incident vnto him in this life for as the whole humane nature is subiected to the Crosse so chiefely the Christian The world which is a Paradise to the carnall is a Purgatory to the Christian Psal 34 1â— Act. 15.21 Many are the troubles of the righteous all that will liue godly in Christ must suffer affliction euery Disciple must take vp one crosse or other if hee vvill follow Christ which crosse-way is the way to heauen euery childe of God is corrected ere hee be receiued the purest Gold must be in the furnace the Lords owne Wheate is thrashed winnowed and grinded and Gods trees must be pruned Vt vnda vndam as waue succeedes waue so crosse succeedes crosse as Dauids Lyon succeedes his Beare 1 Sam. 17.37 and Goliah the Lyon 1 Sam. 18.27 and the Philistines Goliah and Saul the Philistines 1 Sam. 21. Now the Christians death is most welcome that changeth his Mara to Naomi his bitternesse into beauty which deliuers him from dangers and dolours Gen. 19. as the Angell did Lot from the fire Dan. 3. and the three Children from the flames and Daniel from the Lions Dan. 6. death like Zerobabel deliuers the Lords Israel out of Babilon Zach. 4.6 therefore death must needs be welcomed like a day of deliuerance a yeere of Iubilie which brings Ioseph out of Prison Gen. 41. Gen. 31. Iob 41.12 Iacob out of seruitude and Iob from the dung-hill Mors enim malorum remedium portus humanis tempestatibus Plutarch de consol ad Apol. Fourthly in respect of their
hauing the greatest measure of grace was most willing to dye amongst all the sonnes of mortall men as appeares in the Gospell by his often speaking of his death as desiring it Mat. 10.38 So 16.21.17.22.23 by his hastning Iudas the actor in it Iohn 13. in calling Peter Sathan that disswaded him from it Mat. 13.23 yea in accounting it his Baptisme Luke 20.50 yea his meate that he was to eate Iohn 4 32. yea his exaltation ver 28. yea a thing that hee desired Luke 22. And when hee came to act the bitter part in this dying Tragedy how voluntarily did he send out his soule Hee gaue vp the Ghost saith the Euangelist the spirit was not taken from him for no power could doe that but hee gaue vp his Spirit into the hands of GOD his Father Emisit non amisit Spiritum hee sent out his Spirit as Noah sent the Doue out of the Arke willingly it was not taken from him compulsorily Now that which holds in the Head Christ in some proportion holds in the Saints his Members who are conformed into the similitude both of his life and death the nearer they come vnto Christ by the vnion of Faith the more they participate of the Spirit of Christ in life the more willing they are to goe to Christ and to haue a further communion with him in and after death Note 2. It is not so with the wicked for the further they runne from God in life the lesse ioy they haue to be fetcht before him by death the lesse grace the more griefe to dye the more vile sensuall and sinfull their dayes the more they desire to prolong them being as vnwilling to dye as the Beare to the stake or the Bull to the ring The reasons are these Reasons why wicked men are vnwilling to die First because they haue their pleasures in this world to which they are wedded and with which they are intoxicated and bewitched as Vlisses and Diomedes companions with Circes charmes and Calipsoes Cups till they be turned into beasts Now what delight hath the beast but in fayre feeding and carnall companying according to his kinde neyther they being as loath to leaue these pleasures as the childe his bable or the foole his folly Secondly Death depriues them of their worldly promotions Acts 12. it throwes Herod from his seate and Baltazar from his Throne Dan. 4. it expulseth Monarchs from their Countryes and with as great a sway as that Antichristian man of Rome kickes off their Crownes deposing Kings disposing Kingdomes laying their honours in the dust And therefore no maruell that the proud Impes of Lucifer feare it as hautie Hammon did the Gallowes Thirdly it pluckes them from their profits it takes Nabal from his Sheepe Ahab from his vsurped Vineyard and Midas from his Gold which worldlings are as vvilling to leaue as the dogge the Flesh-pot as the hungry Kite the sauory carrion to liue in the earth alwayes it is their desire as much as the water is desired of the fish and the Ayre of the Bird and the earth of the Moale they are as content to build tabernacles here as Peter was vpon the Mount Mat. 17. but to goe into the earth that is darus sermo a harsh vvord they are as willing to leaue the world as the Bird the Beast and the Fish are to forsake their nourishing Elements as the starued childe is to part with the desired dugge Oh Death how bitter art thou to a man whose portion is in the world saith the Wise-man Oh mors mordens bitter indeede as gall and worme-wood Fourthly Death depriues the wicked not onely of their goods but of their Gods what euer they make their Idols and giue their hearts vnto which Idols they as vnwillingly leaue Iudg. 17. Gen. 31.19 as Michay did his and as the Papists their Idolatrous Masse as Rachel did her Fathers Idols vvhich shee concealed and couered Fiftly Death takes them away from their pleasing companions which they are as loath to part fro as Elisha was to leaue Elias as Ruth to leaue Naomi but most vnwilling to exchange them for the company of Diuels and Hell-hounds Sixtly they are vnfitted and vnprepared for Death they haue not made their accounts straight they haue not Oyle in their Lampes they haue abused their Talents of gifts externall and internall and therefore they quake to be brought by Death to render an account of their Stewardship with the wicked Steward to meete the Bridegrome with the foolish Virgins to be called in coram before their great Master with the wicked Seruant that smote his fellow-seruants and with the other vnprofitable Seruant Seauenthly they haue no hope in death except a vaine and wanne hope such as perisheth like the vntimely fruit of a woman Death like Michay to Ahab neuer prophesieth any good to a wicked man and therefore he is as vnwilling to dye as a Theefe and Malefactor to be brought before the Iudge as a bad debtor before his creditor as a Swine to the slaughter for as the Swine by a naturall instinct knowes that hee is good for nothing but the Shambles so the wicked by the rage of his owne conscience which is like the flash before hell fire and by an Historicall Faith whereby hee beleeues there is a hell and euerlasting fire for such as hee is Fornicators Esay 30.33 Mat. 25.41 Reuel 21. â— 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Iude 4.13 Mat. 7.23 whoremongers drunkards wantons theeues couetous impenitent vnbeleeuers and all other workers of iniquitie hee knowes that hee is good for nothing but to be burned and to be stubble and fuell for that flame And therefore as the Swine shewes his dislike of the Shambles and his slaughterer by whining and crying and repining so the hoggish Epicuri de grege porcus Epicurish carnall man shewes his discontent and disobedience vnto God and to his summons by death by muttering murmuring barking against heauen and blaspheming If wee apply this poynt by vse vnto our times Vse wee shall finde infinite millions and multitudes of carnall and wicked men swarming like the Aegyptian Locusts and Grashoppers amongst vs for alas how many are there which beare vp their heads high and set vp their crests exalt their hornes and prancke vp their Peacockes plumes lifting vp themselues aboue others in the pride of their harts boasting like Braggadochies of their birth valour learning wit wealth parts and prowesse shewing much drunken and swaggering and irefull and reuengefull valour in their base and bruitish passions and yet the same at the imagination and apprehension of death shew themselues as arrand cowards as the Arcadians Clineas or Dametas altogether daunted and dismayed like Gorgon at the sight of Medusaes head they quiuer and quake like an Aspen-leafe shake and tremble like the Aguish sicke man at the thought of it their heart trembles their bloud is coniealed and like Baltazar in the like case their countenance is changed and their knees
smite together the sound of death to them is the most harsh of all sounds and puts them sometimes in a deadly sowne the noise of the roaring Canon is not so fearefull to the fainting Souldier nor the Lightning and Thunder was so terrible to Nero as the summons of death to such naturall men whether by the Harbenger thereof Sickenesse or from the condemning voice of a Iudge or by such meanes for these reasons before mentioned What doth this argue but a guiltie conscience a secure soule a hardned heart a carnall minde and a maine measure of infidelitie incredulitie and want of faith in the remission of sinnes the resurrection of the body the immortalitie of the soule and hope of a better life which considerations as they haue moued the ancient and moderne Martyres Ignatius Policarpus Laurence Cyprian and others in our precedent age French Germaine and English to subiect themselues to the mouthes of Lions flames of fire and all other tortures and torments which Madnesse and Malice could inuent c. So the diffidence of these the want of the perswasion of Gods loue and expectation of wrath and vengeance after this mortalitie makes wicked men entertaine Death as Ahab did Elias euen as their greatest enemie as their Iaylor their Serieant their Butcherer their Executioner as the curber of their delights and procurer of their curse Yet that I be not mistaken I doe not here condemne all feare of death and make it such an essentiall note of Gods childe as though euery one that feared God did not at any time or in any respects feare to dye or that wicked men might not sometimes and vpon some seruile respects with some shew of alacritie vndergoe death for First I know that there is in all men a naturall desire to liue which caused Ezekias to mourne when hee was to dye Esay 38.10 And Dauid to pray that his soule might liue Psal 6.4 and Psal 119. As also our Sauiour Christ to desire the Passage of the cuppe from him Luke 22. There being a naturall desire in the best of Gods Saints to liue Nature fearing her dissolution and the body and soule being as loath to part as two friends that a long time haue liued and loued together Secondly besides I know Gods Children may be desirous to liue as to glorifie God more so for some other good ends propounded as for the better setting their estates to their successiue seed for the establishing their houses for to dispose of their Children in some religious courses which was the cause that Ezekias desired to liue say Interpreters because when the Prophet brought this message of death to him hee was without issue and left none to suceede him in his Kingdome as Gods promise was to his Father Dauid 1 King 8 15â—3 Thirdly a godly man is sometimes in distresse and perplexitie of minde as Dauid was vvhen hee made the sixt Psalme at which time hee is vnwilling to depart till GOD shine vpon him againe with his fauour Fourthly a godly man may pray sometimes against some kinde of death as our Sauiour Christ did praying not simply against death but against that cursed death of the Crosse fearing not death but the curse of the Law that went with death Fiftly I know that euen naturall men haue made light account of death such as the Decians and the Fabritians Curtius and Codrus with others amongst the Romanes and Athenians that exposed and spent their liues for the good of their Country I know euen of obstinate Heretiques such as the Gnostiques and the Circumcellions more lately Michael Sernetus many moderne Papists yea the late Arrian burnt in Smithfield haue some of them vndergone death more willingly and chearefully then those that haue had in them farre more grace and sanctification Wicked men may dye willingly for sinister respects but some of these haue imbraced death so welcomly out of a morall desire of doing good to their Country or out of vaineglory to be spoken of like those Heathen or out of obstinacie or desperate madnesse or peruersenesse against the truth or Diabolicall delusions or erronious conceits or Atheisme or opinion of merit or chiefely pride of heart to be magnified and famoused of their fauourites or some other sinister ends not for Gods glory or hope of any better condition after this life as these Heretiques So that my conclusion still holds notwithstanding these doubts and scruples that Grace kisseth Gods rod though in the hand of Death Nature barkes and bites at the hand that holds the rod Gods Sheepe going quietly to their graues like Lambes to be sacrificed carnall men gruntling and complaining like Swine to be butchered Thirdly since that Grace is willing Nature Vse 3 vnwilling to her dissolution all are to be exhorted to vse the meanes to helpe forward their spirituall part to be more willing to curbe their carnall part Meanes to make vs dye willingly in it nilling The meanes are two first priuatiue for the remouall of the impediments which lye in the way secondly positiue in incouraging vs to enter the way of all flesh What the causes are that cause the carnall man to sing Loath to depart you haue heard as namely the losse of his pleasures profits preferments promotions here with the like in all which things wee must looke to our hearts and be watchfull Centurions ouer our affections least they be carryed with too violent a course and torrent in the prosecution and pursuite of these terrestriall and earthly things wee must not be mad vpon the world as worldlings are let vs not place our affections on things below but on things aboue where CHRIST sits at the right hand of GOD let vs vse this World as though wee vsed it not as wee vse Physicke and wines modice medice with moderation and mortification as a Student vseth recreations for necessitie not vanitie let vs not fall downe and worship the Diuell though hee would giue vs it all let vs not bowe the knee to Baal nor adore the golden Calfe nor sell our soules for the trash and the dongue the * Siluer and Gold white and red dust of it as Iudas did let vs touch riches tenderly with our hands not with our hearts as wee doe Thornes because they are Thornes let vs not loue vaine pleasures least after their Beeish honie wee feele their Waspish sting when these charmers charme to delude vs let vs be as wise as Serpents stopping both our eares as shee doth with the taile and the earth remembrance of our ends of which the taile is an embleame and of our earth whither wee shortly must Thus must wee first learne to practise this hardest point of Christianitie in dying to the world ere euer wee can be willing out of faith and feeling to dye out of the world for alas what causeth men that they haue as little heart to goe into their Mother-earth as the Moale hath to come out of the earth but onely
that they loue the earth too well being desirous euer to liue vpon the earth but neuer to lye in the earth Why list not worldlings returne to their dust but onely that as true children of the old Serpent the curse of the Serpent is vpon them to licke the dust minding earthly things here their end being damnation hereafter Phil. 3.17 Secondly when this is performed in breaking off thy desires from the world which is Terminus à quo the place which thou leauest then fixe thy eye vpon another world Terminus ad quam the place whither thou goest Looke not too much at the grisly face of Death which will agast thee but at the end of it where thou shalt see as many comforts as Elishaes Seruant saw to encourage thee Euen as hee that is to passe ouer some great and deepe Riuer must not looke downe-ward to the water but must cast his eye to the bancke on the further side so looke ouer the waues of death and fixe the eye of thy faith vpon eternall life Looke not at Death in the glasse of the Law in which it is set out as a curse and the downe-fall to the gulph of destruction but in the Christall Glasse of the Gospell as it is changed and altered so by the death of CHRIST that it is a sweet sleepe and resting coole harbour First therefore consider how there is a blessing accompanies and attends thy death pronounced by the Spirit it selfe Reu. 14 13. which is alone sufficient to stay the rage of thy affections in the ordinary feare of death for who feares blessings since euen profane Esau sues for a blessing and euen the very Heathens so much desired that blessednesse which their Philosophers of all sorts so much disputed but neuer so soundly determined as God doth here Secondly the same Spirit cals it A resting from thy labour Now euen the Oxe Horse and Asse desire resting from labour to be vntyed from their taskes vnloden from their Burthens all the creatures and the Elements which groane vnder vanitie desire cessation from motion euery thing aymes at his quies and rest and dost not thou Now death I pray thee what is it but a buster of bonds a destruction of toyle an arriuing at the Hauen a Iourney finished thy consummatum est thy quietus est thy laying away of an heauy burthen euen sin it selfe which as Erasmus wittily is heauier then Gold Siluer Lead and Iron in that the weight of it weighed and pressed downe the Angels of light into the pit of hell and payned Christ our Sauiour our substitute on the Crosse What I say is this death but the shaking off of gyues and an end of banishment a period of griefe an escape of dangers a destroyer of all euils Natures due Countryes ioy Heauens blisse Woes Hauen the Key to ope the dore to Christians as it did to CHRIST Luke 24 26 of blessednes rest and immortalitie dignifying nay almost Deifying whom God hath elected Nil boni in vita nil mali in morte and called in grace and called to the graue this is the right partition of it into his parts and passages as Antiquitie hath christned it and our age hath called it and the godly haue found it Oh then why shouldest thou boggle at it since there is as little hurt in death to the good as there is little good in life to the bad as we shall further proue in some particulars hereafter Thirdly let this cogitation animate thee to sing Simeons Song in being at least willing if not desirous to depart because God takes thy part in thy departing if thou beest his thou hast as the Promise so the Performance of his comfortable presence It hath beene the Lords constant and continuated custome to be with his Children like a friend at neede in their distresse whose exigents and extremities haue beene his opportunities Thus hee was present with Noah in the Floud Gen. 7. with Lot in Sodomes flames Gen. 19. with Iacob in his flight from Esau Gen. 33. with Ioseph in Dodons pit and Putiphars prison vvith Moses when hee went to Pharaoh when he was with Pharaoh and fled from Pharaoh with Israel in the Red Sea Exod. 14. vvith Dauid in Sauls pursuite 1 Sam. 19. with Eliah in the Desart 1 Kings 19. with Elisha vvhen the Syrians came against him 2 Kings 6. with Hezekiah in his sicke-bed Esay 38. with the three Children in the fire Dan. 3. with Daniel in the denne of Lyons Dan. 6. with Ioseph and Mary and the wise Magi flying from Herod Mat. 2. with Christ in his combat with Sathan Mat. 4. and hee will be vvith thee in thy last conflict and tryall for this is his Promise which he keepes more inuiolably then the Decrees of the Medes and Persians to be with thee when thou passest through the waters and through the riuers through the fire that thou shalt neyther be ouerflowne nor ouerblowne in any temptation Esay 43.2.3.4 5.6 c. Now God will manifest his presence with thee these three wayes eyther in moderating or mitigating thy paines as the words of that Propheticall promise doe import making death no more dolorous to thee then many ordinary crosses and afflictions which haue befallen thee in life as some of the Saints haue tryed it Or by the inward and ineffable comfort of the Spirit which occasioned Paul to reioyce in tribulation since euen then the loue of God was shed abroad in his heart by the holy Ghost Rom. 5.35 yea euen in his grieuous sickenesse it seemes when hee had receiued the sentence of death as the suffrings of Christ did abound in him so his consolations did abound through Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 God is the chiefe Physitian and chiefe visitor when any of his Patients are afflicted in his owne person ministring vnto them staying them with flagons comforting them with apples vvith his right hand holding vp their heads and vvith his left imbracing them Cant. 2.9 Thirdly he sends a victorious Host a guard of Angels to be keepers and Nurses vnto his Seruants to hold them vp and beare them in their armes as Nurses doe young Children and to be their champions and guards against the Diuell and his Angels Psal 30. All these comforts with many moe going along vvith thee like the Cloud and the fiery Pillar with the Israelites should cause thee to march valiantly euen through the Pikes of death to thy appointed Possession And so wee passe in this passage of Simeâ—n to the third Point His acknowledgement of the Diuine Permission In these words Lettest thou IN which phrase obserue that what euer comes to passe is by the letting and permission of God whether in life or death for there is nothing done in the world but that which the Almightie will haue done eyther by permitting it to be done or by doing it himselfe Or as the same Augustine All things are eyther done by Gods helpe or suffered to be done by his
workes as his Word are for thy instruction whether they be workes of Mercy or of Iustice Vse 2 Secondly is it so that death is by the permission of God Nay is it so that thy death and so the death of euery childe of GOD is not onely fore-seene but fore-appointed of God then the consideration of this speciall prouidence of God must be a motiue amongst others which wee haue vsed and are to vse to incheare vs against death Oh how ought this to adde life and spirit vnto thy faintings that God considers euery circumstance of thy death as the time when and the place where and the manner how the beginning of sickenesse cause originall continuation and end that euery fit in thy sickenesse nay the very pangs of death are particulerly set downe in the counsell of God Did God so as hee did Dauid when thou wast an Embrio without forme in thy mothers wombe when thou wast made in a secret place and fashioned beneath in the earth Psal 139.15.16 and doth he not now thinkest thou behold thy trouble Will he not strengthen thee in the bed of languishing and make all thy bed in thy sickenesse Psal 41.2.3 In the 56. Psalme v. 8. Dauid prayes that the Lord would put his teares into his bottle Now consider with thy selfe hath God a bottle for the teares of his Seruants much more hath hee bottles for their bloud and much more doth he respect their paines and miseries with all the circumstances of sickenesse and death How did this comfort the Church of Ierusalem in the death of Christ in that nothing came to passe in it but that which the fore-knowledge and eternall counsell of GOD had appoynted Acts 4.28 Thirdly the Meditation of this point must teach thee to possesse thy soule in patience to kisse Gods Rod to subiect thy selfe like an obedient childe to his correcting hand to couch downe like Issacar vnder thy burthen what miserie soeuer in life what manner of mortalitie in death doth befall thee because it is the Lords doings it is a message from thy King an errand from thy Father a summons from thy Iudge a Loue-token from thy Bridegrome a warning from thy Generall therefore to be receiued with all loue and loyaltie submission and subiection without muttering and murmuring belching and barking against God as the manner of some is Oh consider the practise of Dauid Psal 39.10 I held my tongue saith hee and said nothing Why so because thou Lord didst it The same consideration sealed vp the lips of Aaron when two of his owne Sonnes were consumed with fire Leuit. 10.3 So Eli when hee considered it was the Lord that threatned him and his house was content that he should doe what seemed him good 1 Sam. 3.18 Ioseph thus reuiues his brethren when their harts failed them in a great perplexitie Gen. 43. Feare not saith hee for it was the Lord that sent mee before you Oh obserue how the very meditation of Gods permissiue prouidence armes him and his against griefe impatience and discontent open thou the boxe and apply thou these Cordials and Mithridate to thy owne particular I warrant you who euer had a window into Simeons Soule had seene no small Iubilie of ioy in his inward man arising euen from these very thoughts that it was the Lord that let him depart in peace after hee had imbraced the Prince of peace to whom that thou maist conforme thy selfe let this one motiue moue thee besides many moe Namely the greatnesse of this sinne of impatience a sinne not onely condemned in the Word Prou. 14 29. 19. vers 19. if it be but against man much more if against God as that of Iobs was Iob 3.1.2.3 c. but also punished most seuerely in the Lords owne people as yee may see at leasure in euery Chapter almost of Exodus and Numbers Exo. 14.11 15.24 16.2.2.7 17.2.21 Numb 11. 14.2.1.26 21.5 it neuer scaping scot-free but bringing a greater iudgement with it then that which did occasion it As doe the people murmure for Quailes for Water c. against God against Moses and against Aaron they shall be plagued vvith Pestilence and Serpents and Death and Murraine and mortalitie Oh then if thou wilt be angry be angry with thine owne sins the occasion of all crosses and of all curses the causer of Terrours and Consumptions and Burning Agues and Biles and Botches and Plague-sores yea of Death it selfe Leuit. 26.16.22 Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull Man suffereth for his sinnes Lament 3. Sinne was the cause of Ezekias botch of Gehesies and Miriams Leprosie of the Philistines Emerods of the Aegyptian plagues and therefore Christ bids the blinde man sinne no more least a worse thing befall him Iohn 5.14 For Death by Sinne entered into the world Rom. 5.12 which Sinne still continueth Deaths sting wee carrying that sting in our bosomes that vvill kill vs oh then plucke this sting out drowne Sin in the salt Sea of repentant sorrow as the Marriners cast Ionas into the Sea and the cause being remoued the effect will cease The tempest shall turne to calme when thou turnest to Christ though thou hast outward paine thou shalt haue inward peace and shalt depart in peace Doctrine Secondly in that God limits and lets and permits our departure it teacheth vs that the dayes of man are so determined as that no man no meanes can protract them or detract from them beyond and besides their limits for God which hath appoynted the seasons and times for euery thing Acts 1.7 ch 17. hath determined also the dayes of euery mans life as hee did Iobs Iob 14.5 which life as it is like a weauers Lombe Esay 38.10 so it must last till the last thread thereof be wouen like an Houre-glasse running till the last minute of time be expired before which time this thread cannot be cut by the power of men and Angels this Glasse cannot be broken all externall created power cannot cause the Lord to alter what hee hath written in the numbring of our dayes no more then Pilate would change what hee had vvritten vpon Christs Crosse Obiect 1. Obiect But here a scruple may arise concerning Ezekias who was told from God that hee should presently dye Esay 38.1 yet after there were fifteene yeeres added to his dayes 2 Kin. 20.1 Answ First Gods will is alwayes one in it selfe like God himselfe how euer in respect of vs it may seeme contrary or contradictory as it is secret and reuealed Secondly there was no change of will or decree in God Mutatio non in Deo sed in homine but in Ezekias himselfe who receiued the sentence of death like the Niniuites conditionally as the Theefe may receiue the sentence of death from the Iudge vnlesse hee carry himselfe after more carefully or get the Kings Pardon presently For all Legall Threats as also Euangelicall Promises haue their relation and reference vnto the condition of Faith or
Infidelitie of Repentance or Impenitencie by the performance or not performance vvhereof wee auoid or incurre the curses denounced or are capable of or not capable of the promises propounded therefore when God staid the execution and as it were repriued this good King hee did nothing but what hee determined for hee decreed by this threatning to bring him to the sight of his sinnes and so to repentance that hee might liue Obiect 2 Obiect 2. Iob complaines that his breath is corrupt that his dayes are extinct and that the graue is ready for him Iob 17.1 So Dauid complained that the Lord had weakened his strength in the way that he had shortened his dayes yea hee feared that God would take him away in the midst of his dayes Psal 102. vers 23.24 So Salomon tels vs that the feare of the Lord prolongeth dayes but the yeeres of the wicked shall be shortened Prou. 10.27 then it seemes a man may dye before his limited time Answ There are two ages or times of man the one a ripe age suppose seauenty or eighty yeeres the other vnripe and greene Now all men naturally aspire and desire the first which if they attaine not to in some measure and proportion they are thought to dye before their time but yet neuerthelesse they accomplish their decreed date And therefore though Iob and Dauid complayned of the shortning of their dayes yet they deceiued themselues for the one liued after that an hundred and forty yeeres and saw his sonnes sonnes euen foure generations Iob 42.16 the other dyed old and well stricken in yeeres 1 Kings 1.1 but both of them not seeing the Sunne of Gods fauour through the cloud of the Crosse remembred not that Gods power is seene in infirmitie 2 Cor. 12.9 Obiect 3. Yet it is said that bloud thirsty men shall not liue out halfe their dayes Psal 55.23 Answ First that is which they desire to liue Secondly or which in nature they might liue to so Basil Thirdly In Psal 55 God hastens iudgements vpon crying sinnes such as that of Murther and Sodomie and vncleannesse as hee did on Sodome Onan and Ioab For when sinne once cryes like Cains sinne or is ripe like the sinnes of the Amorites God is prouoked and cuts off the workers of it Secreta esse possunt iudicia Dei nunquam iniusta sometimes sodainely sometimes secretly neuer vniustly Fourthly good men as they participate of Gods blessing long life Exod. 20. ver 12. or else of life eternall if they be taken away with Iosias in youth which is better so wicked men fearing death as a iudgement which they feare it shall fall vpon them for whatsoeuer a wicked man feares in a slauish and seruile feare that shall come vpon him saith Salomon Prou. 10.24 A proud man feares disgrace he shall be disgraced yea proud Herod shall be eaten with Wormes and that Ester and Mordocheus and those Iewes which Ammon feared shall bring him to the Gallowes If Achitophel feare that his counsell shall be reiected it shall be reiected If the Theefe and the Seminarie feares Tyburne they shall be topâ— there The couetous man feares pouertie it shall betide him or his hee shall vomit vp his sweet morsels his substance which he hath deuoured Iob 20.15 some part of his ill gotten goods like the coale in the Eagles nest shall set all the rest on fire If Ieroboam feare death as Abijah threatneth him the Lord will strike him that hee die 2 Chron. 12. ver 12. ver 20. and so all other vvicked men Obiect 4. But if our death be determined may carnall reason obiect then we neede vse no meanes to prolong our life as Physicke recreation c. Answ If God haue ordained thee to liue long hee ordayned the meanes also to prolong thy life as hee sent Ioseph before to prouide the Land of Aegypt for old Iacob and his Sonnes to liue and to trade in when the Famine was in Aegypt for their preseruation Gen. 34.10 and as hee prouided a Whale to receiue Ionas that hee drowne not so he hath ordayned meanes as meates drinkes cloathes dyet Physicke Musicke exercise carefull circumspection in the vse of thy body and the like that thou perish not to which meanes if thou beest not subordinate thou art guilty of thine owne death because thou with-drawes thy selfe from without those limits and bounds that God hath appointed thee to vvalke in and so art found eyther a fighter against or at least a tempter of God Deut. 6.16 It is worthy considering that though God had told Paul Acts 27.24 that all that were in the ship with him in that Cretian tempest should be safe yet neuerthelesse when some would haue leapt out of the ship hee tels the Centurion v. 31. that except they abide in the Ship they could not be saued they must stay still and bestirre themselues validis incumbendo renijs if they will be safe yea they must eate meate to for their healths sake vers 34. so what God hath decreed eyther concerning thy body or soule thy temporall or spirituall estate in life or death thou must vse meanes for the well being and preseruation of both Wee may out of this boxe thus opened Vse draw out this Triacle namely to goe on constantly and couragiously in our callings and Christian courses in the performance of good duties belonging to the first and second Table to God or man commanded in the word commended in the practise of the Saints notwithstanding all not onely oppositions and calumniations by the scoffing tongues of Ismaels but euen piercing persecutions of the worlds Nimrods and the bloody Buls of Basan what though they menace thy massacring determine thy death as those cursed crew of Ruffians did Pauls Acts 23.14 yet they cannot hurt a hayre of thy head without Gods permission no more then the Iewes could doe ought against Christ but what God had before determined Thirdly in that Simeon here appeales vnto Gods permission in respect of his departure it is plaine that hee tooke not leaue of himselfe to depart hee askes leaue you see as a Souldier of his Generall to depart out of the Campe as a Scholler of his Master to goe home as an Attendant to be dismissed of the Court. From whose particular we may extract this generall obseruance that it is vnlawfull for any man to let out his owne life or the life of another man vnlesse the Sword of Magistracie be put in his hand no man must lay violent hands vpon himselfe or vpon another Deus vitae necisque arbiter God is onely the disposer of life and death And therefore for the first how euer the world pretend reasons and excuses for to make this bastard-brat of selfe-murther which comes from Sathan and our corruption legitimate as proceeding from magnanimitie greatnesse of courage or the like or at least would extenuate it or make it tollerable if not approueble and laudable when it is a curer of all other crosses
as Cato Vticensis held it or a preuenter of sinne as in Rasis in the Apocripha and Lucrece in Histories c. yet neuerthelesse the practise is detestable the sinne damnable and therefore both in Reason and Religion auoidable First because it is against a double commandement Legall and Euangelicall it breaketh the sixt Commandement for if a man must not murther others hee must not murther himselfe euen as if a man must not steale from another hee must not steale from him selfe his wife his children which I would haue all Carders Dicers Drunkards c. and selfe consumers of their substance to consider if hee must not doe the lesser sinne he must not doe the greater Secondly the Apostle saith A man must not destroy his owne body but nourish and cherish it Ephes 5. Thirdly it is against not onely the light of Grace but euen of Nature nay of corrupted Nature euery creature from the Lyon to the Worme from the Eagle to the Wrenne as Tully notes seekes it owne preseruation fugitque nociua flies the contrary Now the more vnnaturall that any sinne is the greater the grosser it is Incest is a greater sinne then Adulterie Adultery then Fornication Beastialitie then all wantonnesse with a mans owne body worse then actuall pollution with a woman because more vnnaturall so in murther Fratricide the murther of thine owne brother is worse then Homicide Man-slaughter Parricide or Patricide King killing or the murther of Parents worse then eyther but Semicide or selfe-murther worst of all because most abhorring and swaruing from the very sparke and instinct of nature Fourthly a man sinnes not onely thus 1. against God 2. against Grace 3. against Nature 4. against his owne Body but also hee sinnes 1. against the State 2. against the king 3. his Country 4. the Church 5. the Common-wealth 6. his Friends 7. his Familie for euery man is parâ— Reipublicâ— communitatis a part of the State both Politicall and Ecclesiasticall hee is a member of both bodies and therefore hath not interest in himselfe to be actiue in his owne death he must be meerly passiue Partem Patria partem Parentes c. Besides saith the Orator his Parents and his Friends as his Country for whose good hee was borne as well as for his owne challenge a great interest and prerogatiue in him all whom hee frustrates and so directly sinnes against all by cutting off himselfe euen as he sinnes against the head that cuts off the hand or foote in the body naturall Fiftly this course is as curelesse as cursed as fruitlesse as godlesse for it preuents not misery but procures it it redresseth it not but a man runnes further into it like the fish that leapes out of the Frying-panne into the fire like him that goes from the English pillory to the Spanish Strippado that they goe from the hell of Conscience into a reall Hell is to be feared in selfe-murtherers though God onely can determine it Sixtly it argues Madnesse Distraction or Frenzie and so the world censures Seauenthly Impatiencie that a man cannot attend and waite the leasure of God to release his crosse Eightly Muttering murmuring and Israelitish fretting against God and so rebellion against the Almighty Ninthly Cowardlinesse and faint-hartednesse that a man will not endure that which might be inflicted on him Tenthly Vnthankefulnesse not to preserue this Iewell of life which is bestowed vpon him Eleuenthly Selfe-killing is noted as a marke of Desperation and brand of Reprobation as in Saul Iudas c. Twelfthly the practise of it causeth not onely the actors but their actions profession posteritie Country nay Christianitie it selfe to be euill spoken of their names rot and stincke as doe oft-times their bodyes Besides they are denied Christian Buryall being like excommunicate persons cast out of the Church as vnsauory Salt Vse Of Redargution All which Reasons with many moe being so plaine and pregnant against this sinne argue and demonstrate vnto mee that many men are not onely irreligious but vnreasonable that dare perpetrate and commit this horrible ryot and outrage vpon their owne bodyes in selfe-murther Neyther can I but deplore as I doe wonder to see how the Diuell doth daily get ground and aduantage on humane nature in this inhumane vnnaturall and belluine sinne which euen the bruit Beasts detest and abhorre How many haue wee read of how many haue wee heard of how many haue wee seene culpable in this kinde What weekes doe passe but our soules are made sad and compassionately send out sighes at the Tragicall fals and fearefull ends of Semicidian selfe-slayers the knowledge whereof wee receiue by the intelligence of our eyes or eares How oft are our hearts made cold and wee occasioned to smite vpon our breasts at the vndoubted relation or our owne visible sight of many not onely amongst the ignorant profane irreligious and impatient common people that know not what belongs to God or themselues to their duties in life or their estates after death but euen of Schollers learned men great men that make away themselues some by hanging more by drowning most of all by stabbing themselues or by cutting their owne throates The frequencie of which euents Crowners who by Iuries finde out the principall indited causes of these murthers well know whose office Sathan and mans corruption hath made as more painefull so much more gainefull then in former ages wherein Christians liued and dyed more like Christians at least more like men or lesse like Pagans and naturall men but chiefely lesse like vnnaturall and bruitish men then wee doe in this and other sinnes in these our curelesse corrupted times degenerate and declining dayes c. For let a man peruse all Histories and looke at the carriage of Christians in their lowest exigents when they were most exposed to most miseries such as are particularized Heb. 11. When the sword had the keenest edge against them in the hands of the tenne first Romane Persecutors when some one weeke saw the slaughter of more thousands then there be dayes therein yet neuerthelesse we reade of few or none that were their owne slaughterers but in rest and patience they ranne through fires and waters and burnings and boylings and bitings of beasts euen into the mouth of tyranny it selfe in passiue suffering rather then they would rid themselues of these exquisite torments by more easie though more vnlawfull selfe-killings but alas such are the impieties such the impatience nay such the Atheisme of these our desperate dayes that euery crosse yea though triuiall though but in imagination must be remoued with some by a reall curse of Selfe-murther If wee cannot be our selfe-caruers wee thinke thus to be our selfe-curers if not selfe-brokers to haue what wee will wee are selfe-butcherers against Gods will like toyish children wee will take pet and dye The losse of an office the rising of an â—mulated Corriuall in the Courts the forfeiture of a Bond the feeling or the feare of pouertie
the turning out of seruice the frowne of a great man the brawling of a Wife the miscarrying of some or the charge of many children the ouer-throw in a suite at Law the reiection of a suite in Loue to omit weightier matters distresse of minde distraction of hart rage of conscience despaire of mercy c. euen these are arguments sufficient and efficient to in the Diuels Diuinitie whereby he pleades and preuailes with such whom the Lord hath left to him and to themselues to make their owne hands their owne executioners which particular sinne if there were no moe in man though it be accompanyed with Legions as it strengtheneth my faith in those first poynts in all Christian Catechismes See Vrsiâ—s and Bastingius Catechismes in principio of mans misery whose nature being viciated and adulterate in the fall of Adam is now growne monstrous and outragious both in the quantitie and qualitie of sinne so it confirmes my hope in Christs second comming concerning the propniqiutie and nearenesse of the last expected day of the worlds dissolution seeing not onely Iniquitie doth abound and Sinne Sathans daughter is more fruitfull then euer euen in monstrous births but the Diuell the Father rageth Lion-like and like Iehu marcheth against man more vehemently with redoubled force and fury knowing that his time to rauen in is but short These premisses pondered Vse 2 because Sathan is as wilie as euer hee was as powerfull as potent as politique more malicious as thou art more weake then those which hee hath assaulted and vanquished in this kinde for Saul and Iudas in all outward respects were in all probabilitie stronger then thou as thy nature as wicked as theirs for all branches that come from Adams stocke are naturally corrupted and as it is most likely that thou shalt be tempted by this Serpent euen to this very sinne of letting out thine owne bloud which like other sinnes is in thine owne power for what man amongst many can say that he hath not had many thoughts and motions iniected and darted into his heart by Sathan for to perpetrate this sinne So in Gods feare let euery Christian arme himselfe against it euen with a constant resolution like good Iob by whom Saint Iames patternes vs to trust in GOD though hee kill him to fall rather into the hands of God with Dauid 2 Sam. 24.14 then to fall vpon his owne sword vvith Saul 1 Sam. 31.4 1 Sam. 26.9.10 Discusse Dauids prohibiting argument when he was prouoked to kill Saul Shall I lay mine hand saith hee vpon the Lords Annointed Surely no The Lords hand shall be vpon him not mine hee shall stay his day Thou as a Christian art the Lords Annointed what euer Sathan importune the worlds crosses occasionedly vrge yet lay not thine hand vpon the Lords Annoynted it is more vnlawfull for thee to slay thy selfe then for Dauid to kill apostate Saul stay thy day wayte the Lords leasure in rest and confidence shall be thy strength GOD will relieue thee in the crosse Zach. 12.10 or release thee from the crosse Labour for the Spirit of Grace against the impatiencie of Nature and the Spirit of Prayer against Sathans Temptations and the Spirit of Patience against the worlds crosses learne out of Epictetus his Schoole sustinendo abstinendo by abstaining from the euill of sinne by sustaining any crosse the scourge of sinne not to mutter against thy Creator not to marre his Image in thee his chiefe creature Lastly that thou maist preuent this sinne it selfe as a point of instruction neyther vnpleasing nor vnprofitable I thinke good to acquaint thee with the causes at least the occasions of this sinne of Selfe-murther so farre as I can gather them Historically as matter of fact euen from the very Heathens from whose Candles wee must borrow a little light to see into this poynt that so as is the Maxime both of Philosophie and Physicke sublata causa tollitur effectus the cause being remoued the effect may cease The first and chiefe cause of this crimson sinne of Selfe-murther Vse 3. Of Instruction besides the Diuell tempting and triumphing ouer his conquered vassals is rage of conscience for some haue beene so stung with Hellish furies as vvas Nero after hee had murthered his Mother Agrippina Matricidâ— Nero proprij vim pertulit ensis Auson slaine his Brother his Friends his Masters as Suetonius reports that they haue constrainedly attempted the quenching of this fire with the effusion of their owne bloud chiefely when there is ioyned with it despayre of mercy as in Pilate whom Gregory Turonensis relates to haue killed himselfe after hee had condemned Christ The like whereof Iosephus records of Herod after hee had butchered his three Sonnes In nutricia Alexander Aristobulus and Antipater The Scriptures instance in Saul after his Apostacie from God and in Iudas after he had betrayed CHRIST c. 2 Others some haue beene ouercome by madnesse or Frenzies as Lucretius that Philosophicall Poet about the forty yeere of his age Statius lib. 12. Thebaidos saith Politian Hercules that burnt himselfe being madded with his inchanted shirt that was dipt in the bloud of the Centaure Aiax Ouid. lib. 13. Met. that died inraged when Achilles armor was adiudged from him to Vlisses to which are to be added such as being surprised vvith passions of loue or hatred oppressed vvith Melancholy ouer-heated in their spirits by studie or the like haue beene madded and so murthered 3 Others haue killed themselues in the violencie of their diseases Polit. ibid. Martial lib. 1. as Silius the Poet Festus the friend of Domitian Iâ—dignas premeret pestis quum rabida fauces c. Messula Coruinus the Orator that by reason of an vlcer in his mouth pined himselfe to death as Celius testifies 4 Others in pride of heart and discontent as Homer because hee could not resolue the riddle of the Fishermen Aristotle because hee could not finde out the reason of the frequent ebbing and flowing of Euripus So Brotheus that burnt himselfe because he was deformed 5 Others to preuent the luxurious desires and designes of Lechers Ouid. in Ibin and to preserue their owne chastitie as Sophronia that Christian Lucrece as Eusebius cals her that by killing her selfe freed her chastitie from the continuall assaults of Decius Damocles the beautifull Boy that escaped the Sodomie of Demetrius by Selfe-drowning 6 Others being ashamed to liue haue not beene ashamed by selfe inflicted death to depriue themselues of life as chaste Lucrece after she was defiled by proud Tarquin whose death not onely Claudian Stroza Sabellicus Lib. 1. in Eutrop. Lib. 1. Erâ—tic and many of the Heathen bewayle but euen some Christians speake and write of it vvith remorse So Cornelius Gallus that excellent Poet Virgils friend that for shame killed himselfe being accused and it seemes guiltie of misdemeanours in his gouernment being President of Aegypt saith Ammianus Lib. 17. rerum gestarum or
as Argobastes after he had caused Valentinian the younger to be strangled at Vienna So Ecelinus the Tyrant after innumerable slaughter of others made hauocke of himselfe Lesser Crosses haue occasioned others selfe destruction as the losse of friends scandall of name miscarrying of some things which they ouer-weeningly loued in life as Terence that drowned himselfe because some hundred and seauen Comedies which he had turned out of Greeke into Latine perished by Sea Hor. in Epodâ— so Hipponax the Poet made Bubilas the Painter hang himselfe by his ierking Iambickes In all which particulars these desperate salues that they vsed were worse then their sores These were Heathens that knew not God nor the soueraigne good nor the true being or beatitude of man the most of them they wanted illumination from the Sunne of Righteousnesse and Sanctification from the Spirit of Grace they were in the shadow of death both in life and death and were vnder the power and Prince of darknesse Acts 26.18 who ruled so powerfully in them and ouer them that oft times they haue made away themselues for little or no cause as haue also some in the rancke of Christians as Celius and Crinitus write of one Laurence a learned Florentine who threw himselfe into a pit in the health and strength of body as also of one Peter Leonius an excellent Philosopher and a singular wise man that did the like no probable cause being knowne or suspected in eyther Let vs feare the Fates and the vntimely fals of such Cedars whom God hath cut downe with the Axe of death put into their owne hands let vs by faith in CHRIST and repentance from dead workes be reconciled to that God who by our prouoking sinnes may iustly deale with vs as he hath done with them in giuing vs ouer to Sathan and our selues But aboue all things let vs feare to commit sinnes or liue in sinnes against conscience for the rage of conscience the effect of witting willing vnconscionable and customarie sinnes is the blatrant beast that kils so many in selfe-murthers The spirit of a man may beare his infirmitie but a wounded conscience who can indure saith hee that was once Salomon no doubt touched in conscience for the sinnes with which his soule was soiled Lastly let vs take heede of Cains sinne despayre of mercy least it worke that effect in vs that it did in him and Iudas both who offended GOD more in this sinne chiefely the last in effusing his owne bloud then in shedding the bloud of Abel or of Christ himselfe Apply the promises to thy soule by faith fons vincit fitienteus Augustine there is a fountaine of Grace and a Well of the water of life Mat. 5.6 Mat. 11.28 alwayes open to the thirsty sinner which Fountaine is greater then the puddle of sinne and hath a stronger mundifying vertue and abstersiue power to cleanse the soule then Iordan to purge and purifie Naamans Leprous body I might prosecute another vse against those who by a continuated custome of sinne are indirectly and effectiuely though not intentionally for euery man in sinne commits it Omnia appetunt bonum Immo malum sub specie boni sub specie boni vnder the shew of some deluding good as our first Parents did a truth which euen Philosophers saw but I say in respect of the effect selfe-murtherers for there is no sinne wherein a man practically and actually liues but as it is damnable to the soule so it is preiudiciall and dangerous to the body the death of both and that if wee consider it in his causes and effects whether naturall or supernaturall Naturall instance in some doth not fond lust cause dry bones doth it not consume the moysture dry vp that radicall humour which is the nurse and fountaine of life doth it not inflame the bloud cause burning Feauers c. To speake no worse in bringing such diseases that euen modestie suffers me not to name as that French or Neopolitan disease that Anthonies fire vvhich burnes to the consumption of the body and confusion of the soule Doth not Drunkennesse cause Dropsies doth not strong drinkes ouer-heate the bloud For to whom is woe to whom is sorrow to whom is strife to whom is murmuring to whom are wounds and to whom is the rednesse of eyes Euen to them that tarry long at the Wine to them that seeke mixt Wine which Wine though it be pleasant both in the colour and the taste yet at last it bites like a Serpent and hurts like a Cockatrice Pro. 23. v. 29.30.31.32 The like may be said of all other intemperancies in meates by the immoderate excessiue abuse whereof many haue laid their stall-fed pampered carkasses vntimely in the dust Insomuch that Physitians considering the innumerable diseases that flow from that vncleane sincke of Epicurisme and gluttonizing haue set it downe as an Axiome Plures gula quam gladio that the insatiable belly hath slaine moe then the Blade What should I speake of Auarice and Couetousnesse which wastes and consumes the spirits by a mad and eager pursuit after the world euery crosse and losse whereof goes to the hart of the wretched worldling like a dart or a dagger Of Enuy which frets the heart as the Moath the Garment and eates into it as the rust into the Iron with the destroying and deadly effects of other such sinnes I might be large in the causes supernaturall in confirming that Diuinitie which not onely Protestants commenting Aret. in locum Bernardin de sena art 3. cap. 4 but Papists alledging that place in the Apocalypse chap. 3. vers 3. If thou watch not I will come on thee as a theefe c. haue taught and affirmed that GOD accustometh for the punishment of carelesse and negligent sinners to cut off time from them and to shorten their liues for their misimploying and mispending the same in omitting all good duties and committing outragious sinnes God taking from them that which they haue or at least seeme to haue * Mat. 25.29 Tom. vlt. ser 13. art 3. 4. Tom. vlt. ser 18. which is Time a Iewell so precious that as zealous Bernardine de sena oft acknowledgeth if the traffique and marchandize of it might be carryed to hell to be sold for one onely halfe houre there would be giuen a thousand worlds if the damned had them Hence it is that wee see many murtherers riotous persons malefactors swearers swash-bucklers cut off by the Sword of the Magistrate or of the enemie in warre or priuate quarrels or by Gods sword the deuouring Plague or such meanes euen in their youth and strength when by the course of Nature they might haue liued longer according to the threat of the Psalmist that bloudy and deceitfull men shall not liue out halfe their dayes Psal 55.23 And that Propheticall threat of Iob Iob 15.32 that the sinfull man shall die ere hee accomplish his dayes and that his hand shall be
round about Esay 57. Iob 15.20 c. For their good names these shall rot and perish Prou. 10.7 euen like their wealth and substance vpon which Gods curse shall seaze Deut. 28.16.17.18 They shall be made a wonder a Prouerbe and a reproach amongst all people an astonishment an hissing and continuall desolation Deut. 18.37 Ier. 25.9 And for their seede it shall not prosper the sword shall destroy them Iob 27.14 for the Lord will root out the memoriall of the wicked from the earth Psal 34.16 Therefore as Dauid concludes to the comfort of Gods Seruants after the enumeration of many blessings Thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord so I may say in these particulars and many moe plagues denounced from the mouth of GOD as in Leuit. 26.16 Psal 49.12 Psal 107.10 Prou. 3.33 vpon the wicked in this life besides those which they shall feele and finde in their death Iob 13.26 Psal 49.14 And in Iudgement Dan. 12.2 Esay 2.11 Reu. 1.7 Reu. 6.15 Mat. 25. and 41. and in hell Marke 9.43.44 Luke 13.28 Reuel 9.6 Loe thus shall the man be plagued that serueth not God If any beleeue not these testimonies let him looke his owne face in the glasse of the examples of Pharaoh Herod Nebuchadnezzar Holofernes of Iulian the Apostate Valerian Antiochus Nero Domitian Decius Dioclesian Theod. lib. 3 c. 11. Euseb lib. 7. c. 30. Lib. 7.14 Baâ—azeâ— with infinite others from the Word and Histories as they are recorded by the Machabees Tacitus Suetonius Dion Orosius c. and they will speake that from the beginning of the world till now sinne alwayes brought shame and that Gods dishonour brought Gods disfauour death to the body damnation to the soule which considerations may be whips and goads to driue vs to the dutie vrged It is contrary with the godly their seruice is the path way to honour the people that hearken vnto Gods voyce are a precious people vnto him high aboue all Nations in praise in name and honor Deut. 26.17.18.19 Aske the verdict and censure of all the Prophets and Apostles and the Seruants of God Esay Micah S. Paul S. Iames S. Peter yea of Christ himselfe Holinesse is the way to Honor. and according as they were inspired by the Spirit of Truth and knew in their owne experience they will say that the way to be great is to be good to rise is to fall to be exalted is to be humbled vnder the mighty hand of God 1 Pet. 5.6 The way to seeke glory and honour and immortalitie is to continue in well doing Rom. 2.7 to be fixed established and to indure for euer is to beleeue and to fulfill the will of God Esay 7.9 1 Iohn 2.17 and that the onely thing that it good for man is to walke with God Mic. 6.8 Yea Tully and Aristotle that made Honour the subsequent and effect of Vertue and Goodnes the Aegyptians that painted it betwixt Humilitie and Labour the Romanes that so composed their Temples that a man must first passe by the Temple of Humilitie and Vertue ere hee could touch the Shrine of Honour saw with the eyes of Nature that the way to be great is to be good Yea to serue that goodnesse which the Heathens onely coniectured but Christianitie defined to be the soueraigne good and that is God himselfe who is both more willing to preferre his Seruants to earthly dignities here if it be good for them to be exalted yea and infinitely more able then Assuerus was to honour Mordocheus Hest 6.6 Nabuchadnezzar Daniel Dan. 5.7 Pharaoh Ioseph yea or Saul any of his Captaines or followers for all his baosts of his Fields and Vineyards 1 Sam. 22.7 since his alone is Greatnesse and Power and Glory and Victory since all that is in heauen and Earth is his Riches and Honour Power and Strength c. as Dauid acknowledgeth Hannah singeth and Cirus confesseth 1 Chro. 29.11.12 1 Sam. 2.7.8 Ezra 1.2 God is most liberall of all Masters For I pray you what was the most that any of those great Monarchs could doe for any of their Fauourites and Followers in their chiefest graces when they set their wits a-worke what to doe for such a man whom the King will honour Cloathing in Purple and royall apparrell setting on their heads a Princely Diadem putting a Chaine of gold about their neckes Rings vpon their fingers mounting them on their Steedes or setting them in a gorgeous Chariot with Proclamations before them of the Kings fauours towards them was the chiefe luster and eminencie that earthly Kesars could dignifie their chiefest Seruants withall Gen. 41.42.43.44 Hest 6.9.11 c. But what are all these Honours that the King of Aegypt the King of the Medes or of the Babilonians could profer in respect of that Honour which God bestowes vpon the meanest of his Saints and Seruants Surely toyes and trifles for in stead of these fine Linnens and royall Roabes that are exposed to the corrupting Moath and consuming Time God will clothe his with the externall and internall Roabes of Grace the righteousnesse of Christ Esay 49.16 Rom. 13.14 they shall not haue a fading but a flourishing not a mortall but an immortall Crowne not of Gold but of Glory that is they shall not haue a Chaine of Gold onely Psal 45.13 but of golden Graces knit together by Saint Peter 1 Pet. 1.4.5.6 c. In stead of a Ring they shall be placed as Signets on the Lords right hand Ier. 22.24 I cannot say they shall ascend vp in a chariot though Elias were so taken vp but they shall be aduanced to choise mansions in such a Kingdome as surpasseth all the Kingdomes of the earth as much as the Sun the Clouds or Salomons Throne Iobs Dunghill Ephes 2.6 Iohn 14.2 Reu. 3.12 where they shall be Kings and Priests for euer Reu. 1.6 Such honour haue all his Saints Psal 149.9 If any man obiect that he sees no such honour that Gods Saints haue that they are rather made here a gazing stocke to men and Angels despised reuiled and euill spoken of yea reputed as the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.9.12.13 and the off-scouring of all things Answ It is true indeede But of whom Of such whose neyther prayse nor disprayse is to be respected of profane men children of Beliall of fooles and naturalists for so are all vngodly men tearmed Psal 14.1 Psal 53.1 Luke 12.20 Ier. 4. c. Of such wee are reputed fooles for Christs sake yet are wee wise in Christ though weak yet strong though despised yet honourable 1 Cor. 4.10 Honourable though not with wicked men yet wee shall be hereafter when wee must sit in ioynt Commission with Christ in Iudgement vpon them In the meane space wee are honoured of God and if he be with vs who can be against vs Rom. 8.31 Gods Seruants best regarded and rewarded Besides if this Motiue will not fixe vpon thee yet let the greatnesse of reward the excellencie of the wages
his seruant thou art to whom thou obeyest yea if it be of sinne vnto death Rom. 6.16 and so by an immediate dependance and relation thou art the slaue of him that is the basest slaue in the world that is the Diuell for hee that commits sinne is his 1 Iohn 3. vvho was the first and still continues the author of sinne of lyes murthers blasphemies and the like Now then see thy danger The case of Sathans captiues opened as hee causeth thee to lye as hee did Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. and to sweare as hee did Senacharib and to commit Adultery as hee did Herod with other sinnes as he did Dauid and Peter when hee sifted tempted and rose vp against them So so long as thou liuest in sinne hee is entered into thee as into Iudas Iohn 13.27 and doth possesse thee thou art in his power Acts 28.18 He rules thee as the Horse-man doth the Horse hee hath thee as a Beare by the snout as a Dogge in a chaine thou moâ—est after his motion oh thy fearefull subieiection Thou art vnder the most deceitfull Master the most deluding Laban in the world who for delight that hee pretends thee will pay thee damnation that hee intends thee as hee hath done to Laban himselfe Caine Esau Iudas and all that haue serued him Besides thou art vnder the most massecrating mercilesse tyrant in the world Phalaris Busiris Nero Dionisius Pharaoh with all their buls and their burnings and their burthens of his inuention as our Papists Powder-plot was were mercifull men in respect of him for he layes the heauiest burthen in the world vpon thee euen that which prest himselfe out of Heauen into Hell pusht Adam out of Paradise and prest Christ himselfe vpon the Crosse and that is Sinne. And after thou hast laid downe this bruitish body of thine in the dust hee hath prepared intollerable and eternall burnings for thee in his owne Territories whose fires the burthen of thy sinnes must kindle and maintaine and the Riuer of Gods wrath increase and make more violent Oh therefore betimes cast off this more then Aegyptian yoke forsake the seruice of thy old sophisticating Master Sathan and serue thy new and liuing Master Christ Iesus so shalt thou not onely auoid those plagues temporall and externall which are threatned to those that disobey God Exod. 23.33 Deut. 7.4 Deut. 28. Deut. 29.45.46.47 c. Esay 1. Psal 7. c. which I pray thee ponder at leasure as also those eternall hereafter But thou shall be partaker of all those blessings and bounties which God hath reuealed and prepared for those that serue him I thought to haue added another vse namely as the matter so to haue prescribed the manner and forme of Gods seruice with the parts of it vvith those seuerall carriages that those must vse for their actions their affections their speech and words at home and abroad what vse to make of all their time with their seuerall stints and taskes in the performance of seuerall and successiue sacrifices and seruices But I will not dull the Reader by this prolixe point I referre thee vnto some of my Brethren that haue writ well and worthily of it as Mr. Rogers his Christian Directorie Mr. D. Hill in his Tract how to liue well by way of Questions and Answeres Mr. Cooper his Christian Sacrifice which I wish not onely in the hands but vvrit in the hearts of all that intend Gods seruice and their owne saluation His desired Dismission In this word Depart THE fift part according to our Texts first diuision now comes into our examination and that is Simeons Departure or Dismission the Latine compriseth this and that which wee called the Diuine Permission in one word Nunc dimittis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nunc est tempus vt dimittas c. è vinculis corporis as Piscator renders it Lord now it is time that thou vnloose mee from the bonds of the body from which reading which I thinke warrantable and naturall these Poynts arise First that euen the Lords Simeons godly men and so consequently all men must dye for the matter of death Secondly that death is onely to man a dissolution for the nature and manner of death Thirdly that this life is but a short life out of which wee are euery day ready to depart like him that is about to take his leaue of his visited friends Fourthly that this life is but a miserable life in vvhich wee are bound and fettered death being our vnloosing Fiftly that our naturall death is but one and once which is our dismission from the earth Sixtly that the soule is immortall not dying vvith the body onely departing out of the body For the first point it is plaine that godly men dye sanctified Simeon that spoke this is dead it needes no confirmation but experience as hee that will not beleeue that the fire is hot let him put his finger to it if any beleeue not that the godly dye as well as the wicked let him looke at their Sepulchres amongst vs as Peter tels the Iewes that the Patriarke Dauid was dead and his Sepulchre was amongst them The Reasons why the godly dye are these Why the godly dye first because they are inuolued and vvrapped in the common sincke of originall sinne with the rest of Adams posteritie and therefore they must participate of death the common punishment from which no persons orders or degrees are excepted or exempted no not infants themselues Eccles 3.1 Psal 49.10 Heb. 9.27 To explaine this It is confessed by all Diuines that GOD which is called the God of the liuing onely created life and not death which being a priuation of life was neuer in the number of those Ideaes and formes which were from all eternitie in the minde of the Creator but was brought in by sinne for which it is now imposed penarilie vpon all flesh Rom. 5.12 so Ch. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.21 From whence it is consequent that if man had not sinned man had not dyed I say not man could not haue dyed for his body being compounded of the foure Elements and so of foure contrary qualities heate cold moysture and drynesse in themselues repugnant was naturally mortall yet hee should not haue dyed if hee had not sinned but should haue beene preserued and vpheld by a speciall singular and supernaturall grace Which grace of originall Iustice being lost by originall sinne man also lost the priuiledge of immortalitie and became mortall Simile Euen as to vse the Schoole-mens Similies a Ship vpon the Sea her saile hoist the winde blowing the waues working must needs naturally follow the motion and working of the Sea but if this Ship be tyed to an Anchor by some strong Cable shee is held fast and fixt without any far fluctuation but if this Cable be cut shee goes whither the windes and the waues driue her Or as a mans hand is subiect to be wounded by sword dagger or dart but if he
Saints must dye then vnsanctified sinners and so from the specials and by inductions from all particulars the generall may be concluded that all must dye So much the Text giues vs leaue to touch for if we be here as Tully intimates Tanquam in diuerserio as guests lodged in an Inne or as those that come to a Mart a Market or a Faire or as those that come to visite their friends not to inhabite long here but to depart as Simeon here imports Then hoc commune malum this departure is the designed lot to all the worlds passengers Wee here giue no reasons of the point omitting or pretermitting them till we come to distill some comforts against death onely for explanation or further satisfaction Ponder the premises that since the godly which haue no sinne Psal 32.1.2 I meane with Dauid and the Augustane Confession out of Augustine Non vt non fit sed vt non imputetur no imputed sinne must die since children that haue no actuall sinne doe dye because the staine of the roote is propagated to the branches as Augustine Anselme and Ambrose haue in moe phrases explained De praed c. 2. lib. cont Fortunatum cap. 2. In Lucam if Adam himselfe did dye not so much as hee was a created man but as hee was a corrupted sinner Then sure as life was the fruit of his obedience if he had stood à Deo donante from Gods free giuing so death is inflicted vpon his fall à Deo vindicante from God punishing Moriendum est omnibus Tullie Tus 9. lib. 1. And as now it is Gods Statute-Law enacted that all Adams Sonnes partaking of Adams sinnes must die so it must be executed nay wee see it is executed Philosophers and Poets and the learned Heathens who themselues since their workes and writings haue felt the smart of deaths stroke haue acknowledged it Christians haue confessed it Experience hath ratified it in the consumption and consummation of all ages all sects all sorts persons and professions that all must dye omnia peribunt c. I thou hee they and euery man besides that are were shall be this way slides Wee haue Gods statutum est for it that as in Heauen all liue and none must or can dye in Hell all dye an eternall death and none must or can liue so in earth all must dye and none can for euer liue This is an ineuitable yoke imposed on all flesh Nam rigidum ius est c. the Law is strict vnalterable to striue against the streame vnauaileable Lanificas nulli tres exorare Puellas Contigit c. The vnpartiall Fates to whom we all are vnder With rule imperiall cut lifes thread asunder Many meanes haue Galenists and Physitians vsed for the preseruation of life many Workes and elaborate Bookes are extant of the conseruation of health but neuer none writ or disputed of the exemption from death because it were in vaine If any Physitian could administer such a simple that vvould perpetually prolong life if any Lawyer could plead the case with Death not to enter violently vpon their bodie which is his tennant-right and preuaile If any Diuine did preach that sinners should not dye and performe it the first should haue moe Patients the second more Clyents the third moe Auditors then euer had any of their fellowes in their functions But to teach or plead or practise this point which the Diuell guld our first Parents with in Paradise You shall not die were to be a Lyar like him it were to build Castles in the Ayre Hom. lib. 2 ed. 3. sic od 12. od 28. c. to sow the winde and reape the whirlewinde for Omnes vna maneâ— nox c. Deaths tract wee all must tread our life 's faire light Must be obscur'd and set in Deaths darke night How many glorious Lights in the vvorld Kings Kesars Emperours Popes Potentates Dukes Earles Lords Barons c. Learned wise prudent potent c. haue already perished and vanished like Comets and blazing Starres leauing no more tract behinde them then a Serpent that goes ouer a stone of whom wee retaine nothing but the Images corporeall of their bodies or mentall of their mindes by the help of some Painters or their owne or others pens that haue onely shewed to posteritie that such men there once were but now are not What haue wee sauing the Images of moe then an hundred famous Emperours of the East and West Christian and Heathen Amongst the rest vvhere are the seauen Henries the sixe Constantines the fiue Ottoes the fiue Charleses the fiue Lodonicques the foure Leo's the three Theodosij the three Fredericques the three Tiburiusses the two Claudij the two Alberts the two Anastaâ—ij the two Martians the two Rodulphs the two famous Caesars for warre and peace Iulius and Augustus with the rest Is not the lampe of their life extinct Those whose voyces commanded the Nations are they now able to speake as it was said of Alexander those that vvere able once to deliuer others from death could they free themselues Besides where are now more then two hundred of Romaine Bishops and triple Mitred Popes some of whose roaring Buls made once all Christendome quake and shake Where are now the twelue Gregories the nine Bonifaces eight nocently Innocents the seauen Clements the sixe Alexanders sixe Vrbans sixe Adrians twelue Benidicts the fiue Celestines the fiue Nicholasses the foure Sixtusses the foure Sergij the foure Anastaâ—ij the foure Foelixes the foure Eugenij the three Siluesters the three Victors the three Lucij the three Iulij's with the rest Doe they not all know now that which * As Alexander 6. Iohn 11. Iob. 22. c. some of them Atheistically in words in writings and in life haue denyed that their bodies were mortall their soules immortall that there is a Heauen for the godly a Hell for the vvicked but no Purgatory passage to eyther the one place or other for eyther sort The deaths of the worlds Worthies of al kinds epitomized Besides where shall wee seeke but amongst the dead for all the Romane Caesars the Aegyptian Ptolomies the Latine Murrhanes the Albane Siluies the Syrian Antiochusses the Arabian Arabarcques the Argiue Abantiades the Persian Achaminedes the Theban Labdacides the Lybian Lybiarcques and all the rest of those renowned Kings which had such diuers denominations from their worthy Predecessors and from those Countries ouer which they ruled Nay to come nearer home where are all our English Kings that haue awfully swayed the Brittaine Scepter since the Conquest Where are the two Conquering couragious Williams our three Richards our sixe Edwards our eight Henries Hath not Death made a Conquest of them Haue we any remnants of them sauing their Westminster Monuments their Ensignes their Vertues Could their Scepters Crownes Coulours Honours Miters Power or pompe of these Potentates resist Deaths all-subduing all-subiecting rod which brings vnder moe then Mercuries charming wand in the
most certaine we shall dye all other things are exposed as much vnto vncertaintie as to vanitie A man knowes not how prosperous his iourney shall be by Sea or by Land if hee make a bargaine it is casuall and vncertaine whether it will be thriuing and sauing or no. If a man marry a wife it is vncertaine whether hee catch a Fish or a Frog a Shrew or a Sheepe a Rebeccha or a Zanâ—â—ppe If a man beget a childe it is vncertaine whether hee proue a wise man or a foole rich or poore and so in all other humane things in this life there is casualitie and incertainetie onely that we shall end this life and dye we are most certaine Euery thing in the world preacheth and proclaimeth this vnto vs. The Sunne that riseth and setteth daily ouer our heads tels vs our lifes Sunne shall set the cloaths vpon our backes that weare and waste are memorials to vs of the wearing and wasting of our bodies the graues vnder our feete tell vs that others must tread vpon vs as wee tread vpon others the dust that blowes in our eyes tels vs that we are but dust yea the bodies of Beasts Birds and Fishes that we eate for meates in our dishes tels vs that our bodies shall be meate for Wormes Intentant omnia mortem All tell vs death is as certaine as the houre is vncertaine The naturall causes of death besides these causes that Diuinitie giues proue our death Naturall causes of death First the Elements striuing and wrastling within our bodies in their discord setting out of tune the Harpe of our Health tels vs that some malignant humour predominating will ere long breake a sunder the strings of life Secondly this Messalina this vnchaste and vnsatiable woman called Materia prima the first matter alwayes burning with lustfull appetites and desires of new formes still plots the corruption of her old subiect Thirdly the radicall humour consumes after it be come to his height of augmentation like the Sea that recoyles and ebbes when shee is at full which moysture though it be restored againe by dyet or Physicke for the quantitie yet it is not so pure as the spent for qualitie saith Fernellius Fourthly the bloud as it growes old beginnes by little and little to condensate and waxe thicke and so corrupts Fiftly the Spirits waste by vse and labour which vveares euen Iron and hardest mettals the body and the minde by corporeall and mentall exercises like two vnthriftie Heyres spending them faster then the father and fosterer of them the Heart can digest and gather them all these say dye wee must nay that dye all must Rich Diues as well as poore Lazarus Salomon as well as Naball the vvise as well as the foole fayre Absolon as well as foule Thirsites Musicall Nero as well as harsh Menius tall Saul as well as little Zacheus godly Ionathan as well as his vngodly Father high and low rich and poore one with another participate of the common condition of humane nature once to dye Yea the Princes of the earth cannot with-draw their neckes from this yoke Psal 82.6 euen those that are Gods on earth shall dye like men though mighty Potentates like Nabuchadnezzars Image be high and tall in birth and bloud though their heads be of Gold in wearing golden Crownes though their breasts and armes of siluer though they were as rich as Cressus or Crassus and had siluer with Salomon like the Seas sand though their bellies were of brasse made as it were a caldron wherein the stomackes heat boyles so many meates which the mouth as Caterer prouides and the pallate as Sewer tastes though their thighes be of Iron in respect of potencie and power yet their feete that props all this are of clay their end is earth the stone from the mountaine the corner stone crusheth them sends some meanes or others of their mortalitie which crushing cannot be preuented there is no writ of priuiledge to exempt any from it no persons no place no perswasions can procure an immunitie from not dying Death is as inflexible as vnresistable inflexible for eloquence which charmed Argus will not charme Death Tullies tongue could not saue Tullies life vvhen Antonie sends for head and tongue and all no more then Iohns zeale could stop Heredias malice to saue his head Achitophels policie Aesops wit Mithridates his being a good Linguist Aristotles Philosophie Philo Iudaeus his learning Demosthenes Oratorie Arions Harpe could not moue inexorable Death for an houres sparing when their glasse was run Nay beautie vvhich is the best perswader though a dumbe and silent Orator can finde no more fauour with Death then Lais did with cold Anaxagoras For sure Rebeccha Bathsheba Ester Helena Irene Absolon Ioseph with others moe men and women were goodly Creatures yet if a man could now see their Sepulchers hee should see that like that faire Ladie which was found lying besides Prince Arthur in Glastenburie vvhom Mr. Speede mentions all beautie is but dust and as inexorable so vnresistable Noblenesse and Royaltie are vnable to encounter it Alexander Iulius Caesar and most victorious Princes haue vailed their Bonnets and done homage to it yea it hath preyed vpon Agamemnon and Nabuchadnezzar as a Theefe and Pirate vpon rich prizes Old age is venerable youth is lusty but death reuerenceth not the gray hayres of the one for though Adam Enoch Seâ— Methusalem Malaleel Iaired Noah Heber and others in the primitiue times as also Arganton Nestor Valerius Coruinus Silius lib. 3 de Argant Ouid. lib. 14 de Syb. Propertius lib. 2. de Nestore Sic Iuuen. Sat. 10. Epiminedes Metellus Terentia Clodia Hipocrates Sybill and infinite others amongst Christians and Heathens liued so long that the Historians write and Poets sing that Tercentum Messes c. That they liued their one two and three hundreds yet though their lifes day were very long at last came Euening Song Neyther respecteth it the greene lockes of the young but like an Eagle and Vultur seazeth on the flesh of Infants as in the murther of Bethlems Infants and in the death of many Children younger then Dauids Childe that dyed Experience saith that Prima quae c. Seneca in Her sur Hor. carm lib. 1. od 28 Hor. carm lib. 3. od 11 The houre that gaue them breath did end that houre in death as Seneca saith of others Yea Mista c. Both young and old Deaths cruell armes infold Et fugacem c. The man can neyther flie him nor the youth passe by him Hazael was as swift as a Roe and Atlanta was too swift for a woman yet Death ouertooke them Goliah was a great fellow but Death was greater Sampson was strong Iudg. 15. but Death was stronger it killed him that killed a thousand with the iaw-bone of an Asse Enceladus Iaculator audax Hor. lib. 3. od 4. Dan. 8. it cut downe him that pluckt vp trees by the rootes That Enceladus that great darter
poysoned or the theefe condemned is said to be but a dead man though the one be yet wrastling for life and the other vnexecuted because the one is potentially the other ciuilly dead in Law euen so wee are dead in Law as Adam and Eue were because wee haue sinned like them but vve are for the greatest part euen actually dead For let vs take the life of man as it is diuided into seauen parts Infancie Childe-hood Adolescencie Youth Man-hood Old age and the Decrepit olde age Now in these successiue ages what is the latter alwayes saue the death of the former De 4. Nouissimis pag. 90. as both Inchinus and Seneca haue wittily noted What is Childe-hood but the abolition and death of Infancie what Adolescencie but the death of Childe-hood How in liuing wee dye Nay are dead in part Youth of Adolescencie Man-hood of Youth Old age of Man-hood and Decrepit age of Old age and of Decrepit age Death it selfe is the Death Which truth though our eyes be blinde to see and our hearts dead to ponder yet our tongues like Caiaphas his prophecying against our wils confesse it For I pray you when an old man or a man of middle yeeres findes an vnaptnesse and vnablenesse in himselfe to performe that which in his youth he did and delighted to doe what is his phrase Oh saith he that whorld is past with me intimating that he is dead and departed from the world in respect of that age Oh then how had euen the very Childe neede to prepare for his finall departure since one part of his life is dead already his Infancie how the youthfull Ephebus that hath two parts dead and but fiue at furthest to liue how the youth that hath three parts dead in him and but foure to liue how the lusty man that hath foure parts of time spent certainely and hath but three parts to liue and those vncertaine how the old man chiefely that hath acted fiue parts of his life already and hath but two to act vncertaine by reason of his faultring tongue and dryed braine whether hee can act these or no before Death strike him non plus But chiefely the Decrepit gray-headed man who is dead sixe times and now hath but one age vpon his weake and wearyed backe about to rest him in his graue How should these premeditations excite our preparations that as we are compared to fruit in the Scripture being called the fruit of the â—ombe the fruit of the loynes c. so betimes to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance ere we fall like mellow fruit from the tree of life If wee haue past some ages wee are dead to those euen as in fruit the flower is the death of the bud and the fruit is the death of the flower Therefore let vs be fruitfull in doing good ere vvee be pluckt away and be no more Oh how soone fruit perisheth How soone doth it ripen how soone rot How doe the Wormes that breede of it and in it consume it The North and East winde blasts it the Mill-dew infects it Caterpillers spoyle it now by violence it is pluckt from the tree now rotten-ripe it fals and so festers So it is with all the seede of man the fruit of woman wee haue all one manner of grafting and of growing but a thousand different wayes of decreasing and decaying Omnibus est eadem laethi via non tamen vnus Est vitae cunctis exitijque modus All haue one way to life one way to death Yet many wayes doth stint our vitall breath Moe wayes lead to the Sepulcher then to any Princely Palace Mille patent aditus c. Meanders Labyrinth had not so many windings as Death hath wayes Hos Bella hos aequora pescunt c. Warres waters fancies frenzies loue mad lust Besides diseases doe dissolue our dust By how many meanes we dye As Seneca and Silius once sung as pithily as Poetically Histories of all times places and persons Sacred and Humane consort and confirme this experienced truth The old World wee know was drowned so was Pharaoh with his Aegyptians Sodome and Gomorrah Ziglah the two Captaines and Companies of fifties that came against Elias Nadab and Abihu Achan and his familie burned Herod eaten with wormes Daniels accusers deuoured with Lyons the mocking children vvith shee Beares the Philistines smit with Emerods the Israelites cut off many thousands in the dayes of Moses and Dauid by Plague and Pestilence Bethlems Children and the Sichemites butchered by the Sword Ierusalem and Samaria by the sword and Famine Er and Onan killed by the Diuine power Ananias and Saphira throwne downe dead by an Apostolicall Spirit Simon Magus his necke broke by Peters Prayers Iulian killed with a Dart by the Prayers of the Church If wee would wade into Heathenish Stories vvee might adde to the Catalogue vvithout number such as haue perished by vvater as Hylas in his Colchos voyage Orontes Lucaspis Palinurus Icarus Laeander Sappho Menander c. whom Virgil and Ouid so oft mention by fire as Sardanapalus Empedocles in Aetna Phaeton Dido in the Poet. Some destroyed by wilde beasts as many Martyres in the Primitiue persecution as Saturdinus by a Bull Ignatius Policarpus by a Lyon Felicitas by Leopards Milo the wrastler by a Wolfe Basilius slaine by a Hart Hatto the Bishop of Mentz eaten with Mice louely Adonis cunning Dedalus prophecying Idmon torne in pieces by Bores Some by Dogs as Euripides the Poet dogged Diogenes weeping Heraclitus Philosophers apostate Lucian c. How many haue beene strangled vpon the Crosse not onely Martyres as Andrew Peter Diuers examples of seuerall sorts of deaths Gorgonius Simeon the Son of Cleophas Peter Aulanus c. following their head Christ but euen many Kings as Policrates the Spartan Leonides Sindualdus Arnulphus Hanno of Carthage c. Besides Malefactors such as Helen the Graecian Whore Daphitas the Grammarian c. and such as haue hanged themselues as Iudas Achitophell Phillis Erigane Biblis Some haue beene stoned to death by others or shot with arrowes as Achillis by Paris Procris by Cephalus Acron by Romulus Hyrent by Sisinnius yea a stone from a wall as vpon Abemelech out of a sling as Dauids against Goliah or throwne with the hand as that which Patroclus threw vpon Cobrion in the Troyan warre besides the fall of wals such as that of the Tower of Shilo hath beene the death of many I cannot reckon all the meanes of our mortalitie Hoc opus hic labor So many Creatures as I contemplate nay so many things inanimate as I see me thinkes I see so many Actors in the Tragicke fall of man The Thunder in the heauens hath slaine many in earth if that which Virgil writes in the first third and sixt of his Aeneidos of Enceladus and other Gyants slaine by Iupiter Aiax by Pallas Ouid of Typheus Propertius of Semele be a fiction yet the report receiued of the death of Anastatius the Emperour
Zoroastres the Magitian Plinie Tullius Hostilius by Thunder and that which wee haue heard and seene in this kinde is Authenticke What heapes and hauocke the Sword hath made in warre let these millions speake that haue perished not onely in the vvarres betwixt the Kings of Israell and Iudah in which in one battell there fell fiftie thousand betwixt Ahas and Ieroboam Iosephus lib. 8. ant saith Iosephus as also betwixt the Iudges and Kings of Israell vvith their enemies when Achab slew an hundred thousand Syrians Gideon an hundred and twentie thousand Midianites But euen in these amongst Christians when Charles Martill in one battell slew three hundred and fiftie thousand Gothes In those amongst Pagans Caesar bragging of an eleauen hundred and nintie thousand that had fallen vnder his conduct besides those in ciuill warres betwixt him and Pompey Scylla and Marius c. besides those that fell in Tamberlaines Trophies ouer the Medes Albanes Mesapotamians Persians Parthians Armenians Turkes c. In Sicinius Conquests in fortie fiue set battels of Hannibals ouer Cornelius Scipio Sempronius Flamminius Aemillius and Terentius where there were slaine at once fortie Senators of Alexander ouer Darius slaughtering an eleauen hundred of Crassus killing twelue hundred of Spartacus Armie Lucullus two thousand of Mithridates Troupes Ptolomie fiftie thousand of Demetrius hoast Others moe in many maine battels recorded by Sabellicus Liuie Plutarch Volateran testifie how much humane bloud the sword hath effused how many Tragedies poyson hath acted not onely the sodaine and frequent fals of so many Mitred Popes out of Peters supposed vsurped Seate doth declare but the dismall deaths of famous Emperours and Kings as of Constantine the Sonne of Heraclius Zimisces after one yeeres raigne of Carolus Caluus of Henry of Lucelburge Lothar of France Lodouicus Balbus Dioclesian of Dalmatia Lucullus of whom Pliny nay of Alexander himselfe Lib. 23. c. 3 with infinite others who were as certainly poysoned as Socrates and Pope Victor Nay so easily is the thread of our life cut so soone our web vntwisted like Penelope's or rather swept away with the Spiders that euen in our meates and drinkes wee may suspect that Mors in olla Death is in the pot haue we not the testimonie of Sextus Aurelius that ingurgitation of meate and too much repletion not being concocted in the stomacke occasioned the deaths of Septimius Seuerus and Valentinian Emperours Doth not Ignatius ascribe the fall of Iouinian to the same cause as also Gregory Turonensis imputes the sodaine death of Childericus the Saxon being found dead in his bed to the same crudities and suffocations by intemperancie The like censure giues Eusebius of Domitius Apher that ouercome of his meate dyed at Supper Neyther doth Hermippus indite any thing for the death of Archisilaus but his excessiue ingurgitating of Wine As I my selfe once in Cambridge saw a drunken dogge in forme of a man vent out his soule with disgorging his exonerated stomacke Neyther are wee onely subiected to our dissolution by too much repletion occasion of so many diseases yea of death it selfe that plures gula quam gladio the panch destroyes moe then the sword but the defect of meate and drinke hath contracted the liues of many in all parts and those no lesse mighty Millions haue tryed wofully the massacres of famine in the siege of Ierusalem and Samaria Narriners by Sea Cities in siege Souldiers in the Campe and the poore in dearth yea this hath beene the cruellest death that Tyranny and Ielousie could inuent Thus was Richard the second dispatcht of his Countrimen thus was Boniface the eight plagued by Phillip Boniface the sixt by one Cincius a Romane Citizen Aristo the Poet by the Athenians Earle Vgoline by his vngratefull Countrimen thus were Orator Fortunatus Foelix and Silinus Martyres pinched at Alexandria and perished Nay so soone wee are and are not that God doth not onely sometimes with his owne stroke immediately from himselfe cut vs short sometimes mediately by man for and in the midst of our lawlesse lusts as Cosbie and Zimbri were slaine of Phinees Arcibiades of Lysander saith Plutarch Iohn the twelfth by the Husband of a Whore in the midst of their filth as it is reported by Tertullian that Spensippus the Platonist by Pontanus that Belirand Herrerius by Paulus Diaconus that Rodoald King of the Longobards by Cornelius Tacitus that Tigillinus the Ruler of the Watch by Celius that fayre Phaon by Pliny lib. 7. that Cornelius Gallus and Heterius Romane Gentlemen and by other Authors that others haue perished in their pollutions in the very venerious act but we perish sometimes euen in and by our lawful affections euen the ouermuch opening and dilating of the heart in ouer-ioying and the too much contracting of the same againe by ouer-sorrowing hath brought thousands to their graues without gray hayres How many Authors haue we to testifie that which seems more incredible that an ouer-ioying may presently depriue vs for euer after inioying any of the ioyes of life What vvas the reason that Sophocles and Dionisius both of them being victorious in the censure of the Critticques for their exquisite Tragedies dyed sodainely saith Plinie lib. 7. c. 37. euen of an ouer-ioy as Valerius and Volateran also think how euer Lucian and Sotades alledged by Crinitus thinke contrary The like is reported of Chilo imbracing his Sonne crowned at the Olympicke games of a Romane woman at the safe returne of her son which she thought was slaine in the wars at Canna of Philippides when his Laureat Poems were preferd of Diagoras of Rhodes when his three sonnes saith Gellius lib. 3. nott at or his two sons saith Tullie lib. 1. Tusc were victorious in the publicke Wrastlings of Philemon when hee saw an Asse eate Figges prepared for the table all who tell vs that euen this affection of Ioy with a sweet tickling like that stinging of the Serpent Dipsas may kill much more may sorrow as Iacob confesseth and Iudah intimateth in Genesis hasten our heads to the graue ere our haires be very gray Griefe being to the heart vnlesse it be godly griefe for sinne which neuer hurts but heales 2 Cor. 7.10 that the Moath is to the garment the Catterpiller to the fruit eating the heart like Promethius his Vultur bringing death as the Apostle also saith 2 Cor. 7.10 But if these things be able to ouercome this Microcosme this little world of Man if Fire and Water and Famine and Fulnes and Thunder and Stones be able to sunder vs from halfe our selues our bodies as the furnace can the Mettals if all the Creatures the Lyons paw Bores tuske Buls horne nay the least of the Lords hoast the Gnat the Flye the Louse the Mouse be armed against vs as against Pharaoh and Hatto be able to giue vs our parting-blow to set vs packing hence nay if our owne affections be sufficient to infect vs how much more are wee indammaged and indangered by diseases and sicknesses to which as
man is more subiected then any other Creature as Galen and Hipocrates haue obserued because hee hath sinned more then they which sinne of his is the cause of all maladies in the outward man Leuit. 26. Deut. 28. Iohn 5.14 So there is not the least sicknesse or disease but it hath conquered where it hath assailed How many hath the Feuer extinguished men of fame Emperours and Kings as Antonius Antipater Vespasian Leo Goâ—fred Tacitus c. Antonie and Columbanus Monkes were forced by it the one sort to leaue their Crownes the other their Cels. As others by other diseases some by the Fluxe as innumerable common Souldiers in seuerall Campes yea Traian the Emperour saith Platina some by the Gout as Septimius Seuerus and Iustin the yonger c. Some by vnknowne diseases running betwixt the flesh and the skin as Heraclius Michael Paphlago c. Some by Apoplexies as Paul the second Pope Valentinian the Emperour saith Diaconus Lucius Amiâ—us verus saith Aurelius as also Francis Petrarke Some by aches in their bones and sides as Crassus the Orator Boniface the ninth as Gregorie the eleauenth by a paine in the belly nay vvhat member is there in man wherein Death rules not by the helpe of diseases in the head by Apoplexies in the eares by Wormes in the eyes by Inflamations in the nose by Fluxe of bloud in the mouth by Cankers and Putrifaction in the tongue by Vlcers and Tumours in the braine by Frenzies in the temples by Contusions in the brest by Stoppings and Impostumes in the hands and feete by the Gout in the legs by Swellings in the belly by Collickes in the reynes by stony and grauelly matter in the armes by dolour of the Arteries nay in the heart it selfe by Feares Palpitations Convulsions Dilatations and Contractions by varietie of Passions What shall I say more Mille modis lethimiseros mors vna fatigat This Tyrant Death by many a fatall dart Doth wound and wreake each liuing mortall part A Flye is able to choake vs as it did Pope Adrian a Pinne or a Needle or a pricke with a Knife to destroy vs the fall from an horse to crush vs as it did Selenchus the Syrian Lego the French-man Earle Fulke Nipheus Leucagus Remulus Thymetes Amicus in Virgil Aeneid 10. Agenor in Ouid. The sting of a Serpent is sufficient to kill vs as it did Laocoon the Troyan mad Orestes desperate Cleopatra Demetrius Ptolomies Librarie keeper vvith others Yea as our life is but a breath and a vapour so the very smoake and vapour is sufficient to choake vs as it did Minos of Creet Luctatius the Orator Zoe the wife of Nicostratus yea Thurinus that sold smoake saith Erasmus in his Adage perished by smoake If I should recite all the casualties incident vnto this dying life of ours and amplifie out of Histories how one hath beene killed vvith the fall of a stone vpon his pate out of the clawes of an Eagle as Eschilus the Poet some by the fall of the house others by the fall of their beds as Eupolis the Poet some by dust blowne into their throates as Iohanna vvife to Andrew Brother to the Sicilian King and the like accidents If I should but recite the multitudes that Gods hath swept away by the deuouring Plague and destroying Pestilence which I thinke since the beginning of the world hath killed moe then there be now in the world or relate the late devastations that it hath made in Belgia Italie France England and other places Or if I should set downe how many haue dyed sodainely euen in their seeming health as Fabius Maximus Volcacius the Senator Alaricus the Emperour some in their iourney as Alphonsus of Spaine some doing the worke of nature as Arrius the Heretique and Carbo the Romane some in their superstitious Orizons and Deuotions as A. Pompey and M. Iuuencius vvhen they were sacrificing some in sacking the Temples as Gaudericus the Vandall some in writing Letters as Cardinall Orescence from the Councell of Trent and Terentius Corax some in the first day of their inuesting to Honour as Caninius the Consull some in their mirths some in their meates as Manlius Torquatus and Osilius the Actor others in their Bathes as Sauseius the Scribe besides these that daily experience addes in this kinde it would make the securest Soule meditate of his ineuitable dying and prepare his soule for her speedy departing especially considering that Quid cuiquam contigit id cuiuis that which happens to any one may happen to euery one All these recited examples of abbreuiated life and approching death being glasses for vs now suruiuing wherein to see the face of our mortalitie euery mans graue shewing vs this Motto Hodie mihi cras tibi To day to mee tomorrow to thee Death being pictured on euery Tombe to be seene with an vnderstanding eye in forme of an Archer now shooting ouer vs at our enemies now short of vs at our acquaintance now on the right hand at our friends and bloud now on the left hand on our Seruants and attendants with his bow bent and his arrowes drawne and his ayme taken at our owne hearts onely staying till GOD bid him shoote which how soone it will be GOD knowes Quis scit an adijciant c. Who of vs all the sonnes of sorrow Knowes that his life shall last to morrow Nonne fragiliores sumus quam si vitrei essemus Are wee not more brittle then glasse saith Seneca nay Vitrum etsi fragile tamen seruatum diu durat Epist 23. Glasse if it be safely kept continues long but all the dyet and keeping in the world though wee should eate Pearles with Cleopatra bathe daily in new milke with Poppea fare daily deliciously with the rich Churle consult with a Physitian in euery act wee did yet wee could not long continue All the meanes wee can vse will hardly draw out our life to that length that Birds and beasts liue for Ousels Eagles Harts c. that fulfill their hundreds occasioned Theophrastus to complaine of Nature as a step-dam to man whose limits as Dauid notes Ipse senectus morbus The long liues of the Patriackes are threescore yeeres and tenne for the rest of his life is eyther a death or disease in his decrepit dayes The Patriarkes liued their nine hundreds and aboue as Adam and so Eue their nine hundred and thirtie Seth nine hundred twelue Enos nine hundred and fiue Caynan his sonne nine hundred and tenne Malalehel nine hundred sixtie and two Iayred nine hundred sixtie and fiue Methusalem nine hundred sixtie and nine Noah nine hundred and fiue c. but wee hardly attaine to our nintie but if a man liue past nintie to nintie and seauen or nintie and eight with Liuia and Perpenna or to nintie and nine with Statilia if hee passe his Climactericall of sixtie and three wee count him an old man but if hee attaine to his hundred as did Valerius Coruinus and Metellus Abbot Paconius and
Ant sees it will not alway be Summer the Crane and Storke thinke it will be another season the Birds take the Spring prime to build their nests store thou vp faith with her fruits chiefely Repentance from dead workes Now beginne Ars longa vita breuis Life is short but the Art of well liuing and well dying which is the Art of Arts euen that vvhich the best Master taught in the best Chaire Christ vpon the Crosse that is long therefore Nulla dies sine linea Euery day learne some line take out some lesson in this Art sing not out thy time here with the foolish Grashopper loyter not with the idle men of Bâ—lial least thou incurre Christs checke play not the fat bellyed Monke and Epicurish Abbey-lubber least thou smart for it as the * When the Abbies were visited in king Henrie the 8. time Cloysterers once did in this Land in the day of the Lords visitation Learne to liue the life of grace that thy death may be gracious and precious in the sight of GOD as one of his Saints that so thou maist dye not onely naturally like a man as thou must but Christianly like a Christian man as thou oughtest which that thou maist the better doe as in other things thou contriuest how to doe well that which thou purposest to doe as thou forecasts thy building ere thou build thy iourney ere thou trauell So oft remember how thou maist dye well since thou must die and that is by liuing well whilest thou here runnest the short race of thy life A good man like a good Tree brings forth fruit tempore suo in his due time and season this Life time is tempus tuum thy time Death is tempus suum Gods time therefore begin to mend the ship of thy soule in the hauen in thy health not in the tempest of sickenesse not in the Sea of death I end my counsell as I begun this life is as short as sinfull therefore spend it well 2 Point Secondly in that Simeon here desires his departing Life is laborious Miserable the nature of the word signifying a loosing or an vnyoaking being a Metaphor taken from Oxen loosed out of the yoke after labour or from Prisoners set at libertie may well and warrantably administer vnto vs the consideration of the nature of that life which wee leade to be as miserable as mortall as laborious to the body as dolorous to the minde as also it may open our eyes to see something more clearely into the nature of death vvith his bounties and benefits in that it is not onely a curber of Sinne but a curer of Crosses an vnlooser from labours For the first that whether you call it a curse or a command which was imposed on the first man that in the sweate of his browes hee should eate his bread till hee returned to his earth from whence hee came Gen. 3.19 all mans seede since in their seuerall generations haue beene exposed to Doe wee not feele yet the smart of the forbidden fruit Are not our teeth set on edge by it Are not all things vnder the Sunne full of labour Are not the workes of Grace the workes of Nature painefull the actions of the body the actions of the minde the operations of the soule and spirit laborious Is it not a paine to pray a paine to repent a paine to study to contemplate to discusse to discourse to number to diuide Is it not painefull to write to indite to preach to counsell to exhort to perswade disswade vrge moue Let euery knowing man and experienced spirit speake Are not workes manuall and mechanicall painefull euen as the Arts liberall are Is it not paine to plow delue digge sow mow to work in Coale works Mettall-mines in brick and clay is an Aegyptian bondage Nay is there not onus as well as honos a labour as well as an honour in euery Calling Are not Princes and superiour Magistrates Gouernours in houses Colledges and Corporations like the heauenly Bodies as much in motion and labour as in veneration Vertues vices pleasures profits riches pouertie vvanton youth couetous old age all haue their burthens What callings without their crosses from the Scepter to the Sheepe-hooke what sexe without his sorrow No place is priuiledged from foure things Whither shall a man flye 1. from Sathan tempting 2. from the vanitie of his owne heart 3. from the bitings of venemous tongues 4. and from the crosses of the world I haue oft thought if there were any place in the foure parts of the world to auoid these foure thither to flye but there is no Asilum or Sanctuarie from them or any of tnem vnder the Cope of Heauen These alwayes follow as the shadow the body and like proud Tarquin in Rome challenge a perpetuall Dictatorship in the whole life of man What day sets ouer our head without his euill eyther of Sinne or Punishment Adam must eate his bread in his browes sweate Cunctis diebus all his dayes in hear and sweat toyling and moyling man must wearie his body and weaken his spirits till hee keepe his eternall Sabbath in Heauen Bring me the man that hath not yet drunke of the common cup of humane calamities incident to life and I shall more admire him then the Graecians did Achilles that could not be wounded I neuer read of any but Policrates who was thought to be without the Gun-shotte of Fortune by the deluded Heathens yet his death was as dolorous as his life prosperous I am sure mitred Popes crowned Kings inuested Emperours tryumphant Conquerours haue seene the turning of Sesostris wheele and haue experienced so many miseries that they haue cryed out some of them Miserum est fuisse foelicem it is a miserie to haue beene happy others solus viues Vacia that the priuate life of Vacia the Romane was farre safer then their publique guilded guilefull pompe others with Cyrus and Augustus haue thought the Regall Crowne not vvorth stooping for others haue left voluntarily their Courts and Palaces for secure and penitent Cels. If wee had no moe examples of the miseries of greatnesse eyther by birth bloud command Examples of humane calamities or desart then in Nabuchadnezzers deiection amongst Beasts being one of the greatest of men in Manasses his imprisonment in Sampsons grinding in the Mill in Agag hewed in peices in Adonizebecks eating crummes like a Dogge vnder his enemies Table in Alexander poysoned and left vnburied in Caesar stabbed by his pretended friends in Bellizarius a blinde Beggar after his Conquests in Baiazets Iron Cage in Socrates and Seneca's poysoning in Cleopatra's Iezabel's Agrippina's and other infamously famous Queenes and Queanes perishing to omit all the rest in this kinde it might verifie the Paradoxe that Humana vita non est vitae sed calamitas Mans life is no life Vita vix vitalis an imaginarie life and a reall calamitie in which anni pauci aerumna multae the yeeres are
chusing his fishing Disciples in dying vpon the Crosse hee crossed the couetousnesse of it by possessing nothing not so much as Foxes and Birds in commending the godly poore Mat. 5. in dying naked vpon the Crosse hee crossed the lusts of it in his innocent and spotlesse chastitie in being borne also of a chaste Virgin so thou if thou be a right Christian after him if one of his Church despise these terrestriall things seeke for celestiall Col. 4.1.2.3 c. trample the Moone these momentanie things vnder thy feete vse the world as though thou vsed it not looke at it and the things of it as at a Lyon in a grate subiect not thy selfe to it be not the slaue of it come not within the reach of it it will teare thee and as the Panther and Hiena deale with Beasts by fawning deuoure thee looke at it therefore and like it as a Pilgrime a strange Country as a Traueller his Inne onely to lodge in it for a few dayes or nights alwayes be in readidesse with old Simeon to depart as the Israelites were ready in a trice to depart out of Aegypt loue this life so that thou wilt willingly lay it downe as thou puttest off thy garments when thou goest to bed when GOD cals thee to sleepe in thy graue Thirdly both from these premisses 3 Vse vvee may gather an vse of Instruction as also from the Text wee may ground a doctrinall obseruation concerning the nature of death comfortable to the godly to whom all things yea death it selfe happens for the best chiefely if they grone vnder the Crosse for Rom. 8. if life be so burthensome death must needes be beneficiall that vnlooseth our yoake and takes the burthen from our vveakened natures vvearyed shoulders The benefits of death to a Christian vnder the crosse Therfore death comes to the good man to the crossed Christian as Moses to the Israelites in Aegypt to deliuer him it comes to the godly as Pharaohs Daughter to Mosos fluctuate on the waters as the Arke to Noah as Obediah to the persecuted Prophets to preserue them as the Angell to Lot in Sodome as Abraham to Lot in captiuitie as Dauid to his captiue Wiues to rescue them as the Angell to Peter in Prison to set them free as the Angell to CHRIST in his Agonie as Ionathan to Dauid to comfort them in extremitie as Iosephs Chariots to old Iacob to reioyce them nay as Gods Chariot to Elias to carry them into the place of ioy as the Angels to Lazarus to carry them into Abrahams bosome What shall I say more as Ionas his Gourd to coole Ionas in his excessiue heat like Saul to those of Mount Gilead to help them in time of distresse like the yeere of Iubilie to the Bond-man like the long lookt for husband to a louing wife like newes from a farre Country like meate to the hungry and drinke to the thirstie like a messenger from GOD with this message Afflâ—xite non affliâ—am amplius I haue afflicted thee I will afflict thee no more Aug. as God said in effect to Abraham saith Augustine thou hast had tentationem fidei the tryall of thy Faith now receiue benedictionem pro fide a blessing for thy Faith blessing vs as the Angell did Iacob after we haue wrastled with the worlds woes Therefore the godly dead as the Latine beares it as is well obserued are not so much said to be dead as deliuered as remoued as redeemed from the worlds warfare Mortui id est emeriti quia rude donati absoluti à militia Therefore Plutarch cals death Malorum remedium portus humanis calamitatibus euils relieuer and calamities calmer vitae ianua saith Bernard perpetua securitatis ingressus the gate of life and ingresse to a sempiternall securitie the onely Physitian that askes no fees not so much as thankes and yet cures all cares inward all diseases outward better then Homers Moli then the Balme of Gilead or that marueilous Linguists Mithridate yea it cures all Dat cunctis legem recipit cum paupere Regem De conso ad Apol. It spareth none and yet befriends euen Kings And cures the cares of poore meane vnderlings And therefore God oft-times as our Prouerbe is takes them away soonest whom hee loues best as many Parents know that oft-times lose their Iosephs euen that child whom by the appearance of graces in them God and they loue the best the rest being left them whom they doe not so deseruedly loue Hence it is that when there were but foure in the world Adam Eue Caine Abel God tooke away Abel the best of them for hee permitted his death though Caine gaue the stroke and hee suffered the worst of them to liue still saith Ambrose as the greatest blessing to the one Lib. de Cain Abel and for a continuated plague and punishment to the other Yea Christ himselfe the spirituall Abel whose bloud speakes better things for vs then Abels was cut downe like a flower in the prime of his yeeres at the age of three and thirtie in the midst of his age which hee might haue liued by nature though hee was beloued of his Father aboue all creatures Angels and Men. Lazarus was not a little loued of Christ as the Iewes noted Iohn 11. in his resuscitation yet hee dyed young and though hee wept when hee raised him vp againe to shew his power hee wept saith Grauatensis because hee was reduced and brought backe againe to the miseries of life Hence it is not altogether a Fiction in Herodotus if his Workes as they are * By Mr. Stephens in his World of wonders defended are no Fables that when the Father of Leobis and Biton intreated the Gods for the greatest blessing vpon these his two Sonnes in the morning they were found both dead in their beds The like Boone was graunted to Trophomius and Agamedes that built the Delphicke Temple to Apollo the Morrall at least of all which and such like is this that to many a speedy death is better then a prolonged miserable life nay that wee neuer beginne truely to liue till wee dye Aug. de ciu Dei lib. 14. c. 25 Iustus non viuit c. The iust man neuer liues as hee would till he come to that place where he cannot dye Therefore let the Meditation of these things comfort vs in death and encourage vs against the terrors and feare of death I confesse as wee haue already inlarged another poynt that death is fearefull to all flesh both man and beast Exhortat much more to a wicked man stout stomacks haue beene agast and turned crauens at his griefly face euen as all the Troopes of Israell were affrighted when they saw Pharaoh behinde them and the red Sea before them the two lawes of death ready to swallow them And surely euen a resolued Christian cannot free his soule from reluctation when hee lookes onely at the corruption of the
flesh the palenesse of the face the dissolution of the members the obscurenesse of the graue the lodge with wormes the solitarinesse of the sepulcher and lastly the dissipation and annihilation of euery part but when hee considers againe Natures course Gods Injunction his disposing Prouidence Christs Passion the bodyes Resurrection the freedome and exemption of the soule from her inclosing prison the Iubilie of the body from all bondage and seruitude Faith preuails and Feare flyes Euen as those that come from a Citie to a Country Village Tradesmen or the like Hom. de Diuite Lazaro when their businesse is well dispatcht saith Chrisostome returne into the Citie with ioy againe so the Christian soule that comes from the new Ierusalem the heauenly Citie to traffique here in the low Countryes of this earth by the Organs of the body if it haue well executed the duties of Pietie Charitie and Christianitie to GOD and man may with ioy returne like a Ship Royall loaden with precious Marchandize from whence it came for such a man dyes not but departs Death onely a departure out of life not a finall destroyer From whence we slide into the third point briefely concerning the Epithite which Simeon here giues to death hee cals it a Departure From whence we may see partly into the nature of that which wee call Death it is onely a Departure a going or transmigration from one place to another Therefore vvhen Abraham speakes of his barrennesse he vseth this phrase Ego vadā absque liberis I depart this life Hom. 36. in Genes or goe away without Children Chrysostome notes his phrase and thereupon implies Ecce iustus ille vt philosophatur c. That Abraham doth truely in that word going away philosophize and dispute of death which Basil Hom. de Martyrio applying to the auncient Martyres cals Migratio quaedam ad meliora c. A migration to a better habitation Philosophy cals it The priuation of all heate Compar aquae ignis so Plutarch or Priuatio vitae the priuation of life so Scaliger Exercit. 307. Sect. 23. All which titles and tearmes may still hearten the Christian to confront it in the very face couragiously according to Bernards counsell Volo mortem Epist 105. si non effugere c. That since they cannot flye it they should not feare it Iustus mortem etsi non cauet c. since the iust man is not cautelous to preuent it let him not be too timerous to encounter it nay rather let him enter the lists as the Persians went to battell ioyfully and with a shout since it is but a Bugbeare or a shadow without substance a Serpent without a sting a superficies no positiue thing of it selfe but the corruption of the subiect that God and Nature subiects vnto it at the worst to the worst an Executioner of a Rebell Mors bona bonis mala malis good to the godly a rewarder of a faithfull Seruant Iosephs Chariot to bring good Iacob from the Land of penurie to the Land of plentie Et quis non ad meliora festinet saith Cyprian in his Sermon vpon death Who will not hasten to exchange for the better Lastly me thinkes here is notably implyed the immortalitie of the Soule for what is it which departs but the soule out of the body which flyes out when Death opens the doore that held it in like a Bird out of the Cage liuing else-where in pleasure or in paine in actu seperato in a seperated act as also the Resurrection of the body may not vnfitly be concluded for in a departure betwixt man and wife friend and friend there is a constant hope of meeting againe so these two friends which liue and loue together like Ionathan and Dauid the soule and body shall meete together at the Resurrection both which poynts of Christianitie as Simeon beleeued and taught his Schollers being a great Rabbi and a Master in Israel so hee seemes to mee to allude here vnto both and to professe his faith in both The body departing shall returne againe at the Resurrection To beginne with the baser part the body that it shall rise againe howeuer it be a Mysterie scoffed at because vnknowne of the Iewish Saduces scoffing Athenians Braine-sicke Philosophers stupid Stoickes hoggish Epicures disputing Peripaticians howeuer denyed by all the rabblement of these Hereticall Valentinians Simonians Carpocratians Cerdonians Seuerians Basilidians Hierarchites and all the Libertines yet it was the faith of all the Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles from the first houre that by reuelation of the Spirit or by the Word it was manifested to the Church of God it was the faith of a Psal 17.16 Psal 49.15 Dauid of b Dan. 12.2 Daniel of c Ezek. 37.10 Ezekiel of d Esa 26.19 Esay e Iob 19.25.26 Iob f Act. 24.15 Acts 17 32 Paul g Iohn 11. Arguments to proue the Resurrection of the body Martha Iohn the Diuine of all the Saints and so of Simeon Let these Arguments confirme thine first Christ thy head is risen hee is the first fruits of them that sleepe and the pawne that thou shalt rise being a member of his 1 Cor. 15.20 where my flesh and bloud is there shall I be saith Cassiodorus our Ioseph is in Aegypt before vs. Secondly the redemption by Christ extends to thy body as to thy soule vvhich body must rise againe else Christs Passion were fruitlesse and forcelesse Thirdly the body which like Simeon and Leui was brother here in sinning vvith the soule must in Gods equall remunerating Iustice be raised to suffer in an equall measure and proportion as it hath sinned Fourthly Gods promises which hee hath signed with the finger of his Spirit sealed with the bloud of the Lambe to the Elect of peace and Immortalitie cannot be of vigour and vertue vnlesse their bodies rise Fiftly the inseperable vnion twixt Christ and his Church should be disioyned if the body rise not Sixtly many absurdities vvould follow which Paul addes 1 Cor. 15.14.15.16.17 whither I referre you as that all preaching professing and practise of Christianitie vvere else in vaine Seauenthly if in other cases witnesses be to be beleeued then those fiue hundred Brethren mentioned 1 Cor. 15.5.6.7 8. Cephas and the twelue Iames and the Apostles Mary Magdalene Paul that testifie Christs resurrection by necessary consequence confirme ours Rom. 8.13 which depends vpon Christs Eightly these that haue beene brought to life againe after their departure eyther by the Prophets as the widdow of Sarepta's Son by Elias 1 Kings 17.22 or the Shunamites Childe by Elizeus 2 Kings 4.35 And the dead Souldier by touching Elisha's bones 2 Kings 13.21 or by the Apostles as Dorcas by Peter Acts 3.40 Eutichus by Paul Acts 20.10 or by Christ himselfe as the widdow of Naims Son Luke 7.15 Iairus Daughter Mat. 9.29 Lazarus the brother of Marthae and Mary Iohn 11.44 and those which appeared
in the holy Citie when Christ rose and ascended vp to heauen with him Serm. de Passione as Augustine thinkes are all Praeludia Resurrectionis types and figures of our resurrection Illustrations from nature that our bodies shall rise Ninthly we haue many resemblances both in the great Booke of Nature and the little Booke of Grace in the word and in the world Isaacks suruiuing in sacrificing whom Abraham receiued in a figure Heb. 11.19 Aarons dry Rod that budded and blossomed Numb 17.8 Ezekiels dry bones that came together bone to bone flesh to flesh Ezek. 37.8.9.10 Ionas deliuery out of the Whales belly are instances in the Word In Nature the Summer liuing of Trees 1 Cor. 15 36 37.38 Hearbs Plants c. yea of Corne it selfe in their seeming Winters death when their sap is in the roote these beasts as some Beares and Mice c. which sleepe all Winter and seeme to reuiue in the Spring Swallowes Bats Flyes Gnats c. which by the Sunnes heate seeme to reuiue out of their cold sowne the Arabian Phoenix Pompon Mela de situ orbis lib. 3. c. 9. which by her selfe-burning preserues the indiuiduum of her kinde the Sea-Vrchin that rejoynes after her rending in pieces after she tastes the salt water Serpents that are renued by casting their old skinnes the Sea-Lobsters by casting their old shels the Eagle by casting her old bill Mechanicall men that renue many things that are old Image-makers that make againe their brassie pictures by marring them Bell founders that mend their mettall-worke by melting the Silke-worme See the Book writ of the Silke worme that liues in the preseruation of her kinde by inclosing her selfe in her Clue and dying nay man himselfe that in his generation receiues life into his flesh bones sinewes and vitall powers from a little liquid seede that in his preseruation oft liues againe out of sownes and trances seemingly depriued of breath and life that in his augmentation eating and by naturall heate concocting and digesting the dead flesh of Goates Sheepe and Bullockes makes them his owne liuing flesh All these speake vnto my vnderstanding and confirme my Faith that though Death swallow vs that are now liuing as the Whale did Ionas binde vs as the Philistines did Sampson lay vs in our sepulchers and roule a great stone vpon vs as the Iewes did vpon Christ yet we shall come to shore againe breake these bonds as the bird the snare and we shall be deliuered vve shall flourish like Noahs Oliue tree after wee haue beene vnder the water yea these bodyes of ours subiect to diseases crushed crazed bruized distempered payned the head with Megrim the lungs with suffocations the ioynts with Gouts the stronger parts themselues with shrinking in of the sinewes Origen periarct lib. 3. these bodyes which haue borne the burthen of the day shall once with the Angels sing Haleluiah these bodies of ours I say shall rise besides these mentioned wee haue many grounds of it as first the will of God that will haue it so Iohn 6.39.40 Secondly the oath of God that it must needes be so Heb. 6.13 Thirdly we haue double Hostage for it 1 the soules of the Saints lodgers vnder the Altar Reu. 6.9.10.11 2. Their bodies lodgers in the graues as our pledges till all things be restored when they and wee shall be perfected together Heb. 11.40 Fourthly the pawne of the Spirit within vs Rom. 8.11 All vvhich are so many nayles in the Sanctuary to fasten our hope Neyther shall wee onely rise but rise the same bodies for substance though altered for qualitie to our further perfection Wee shall come againe I say the same bodies in which wee haue departed hence the same bones bloud arteries skinne flesh veynes sinewes parts members Iob 19.25 Howeuer I cannot say in the same age for there shall be neyther childe nor old man saith the Prophet that is Esa 65.20 neyther weakenesse of youth nor infirmitie of age but all shall be flourishing and perfect like Adam and Eue in their Creation some say from Ephes 4.13 The consideration of our returne after our departure Vse Of Consolation and of our resuscitation at the generall Resurrection for before that time none are or shall be glorified in their bodyes neyther the Virgin Mary whose Assumption is but a fiction nor Enoch nor Elias nor the body of Lazarus nor of those that rose vvith CHRIST Mat. 27.52 In this Sermon called The Christians Watch. as Mr. Leigh proues pithily against all Papists It is a matter of singular comfort it is the Anchor of our hope the life of our Religion vvherein it differs from Paganisme and Turcisme the hand that holds vp our drooping soules in the Agonies of death Fiducia Christianorum The Christians comfort in the Resurrection resurrectio mortuorum saith Tertullian This made the auncient Martyres goe to the stake and burning place as wee goe to our beds this is that redemption of our bodies vvhich Paul mentions Rom. 8.23 the time of our refreshing which Peter magnifies Acts 3.19 the time of our Iubilie and reioycing vyhich Esay fore-sees in the Spirit and exulteth Esay 26.19 vvhen the hungry shall be satisfied Mat. 5.6 when mourners shall be comforted Mat. 5.4 when there shall be no more griefe nor sorrow nor paine when there shall be a yeere of Iubilie an end of our iourney an accomplishing of our warrefare a cessation from labour a wiping away of teares Reu. 17. verse 17. Chap. 21.4 a putting off this mortall and a putting on of this immortall 1 Cor. 15.42 A change of our vile bodies that they may be like his glorious body Phil. 3.22 Oh be glad of this yee Saints reioyce and sing euen as the little Birds are glad when Winter casts off her rugged mantle and Summer brings his flowrie Spring as Beggars vvould be glad to put off their ragges and be clad with Regall Robes Let these comfort themselues in hope of this change and renouation whose bodies are subiected to infirmities weaknesses and maladies De ciu dei lib. 22. c. 20 for then it shall cast away neuer to resume all infirmities impurities deformities tardities saith Augustine Asa shall not be gouty nor Moses stammer nor Mephibosheth lame c. let Cripples Lazars Beggars Bedlams lame Souldiers Hospitall men Spitlers and all other impotent distressed diseased persons apprehend this comfort being conuerted Christians and beleeuers Let all weake and wearyed wights vse this Meditation of the Resurrection as Iacobs staffe to rest and relye on in their passage ouer this worlds Iordan as the clifts of the rockes to the Doues and the stonie rockes to the Conies to shelter them from the feare of death the hunting Nimrod of the world for here is Medicamentum vulneris c. a precious Cordiall in all thy crosses whether publique or priuate of body or minde nay Aqua vitae to reuiue thee when thou art dead sicke or sicke
dottage that in other things are politique Gallio's and plotting Iezabel's yet in this are witty fooles in preferring the Purse before the Gold the Caske before the Wine the Hiue before the Hony the Body before the Soule How many spend yeeres and moneths nay all their precious time in hawking hunting whoring carding dicing c. in scraping and gathering yealow dust together in doing workes morrall or sinfull their owne workes or the Diuels how many in doing nothing or doing euill or as good as nothing How many women spend many dayes and houres in tricking and trimming the painted sepulchers of their soules I meane their bodies in a Glasse who neuer considering how the glasse of their time runnes spend not a moneth in a yeere a weeke in a moneth a day in a weeke an houre in a day in the publique or priuate worship of GOD in looking into the Glasse of Gods word prayer meditation c. How many Citizens and Countrimen of all sorts spend the vvhole sixe dayes in catering and purueying for the body who grudge God his Sabbaths for the prouision of their soules such men eyther they thinke they haue no soules or that their soules shal die with their bodies like the beasts liuing like Libertines and Epicures as their faith is like the Saduces which denied any Spirit or Resurrection or soules immortalitie as Iosephus testifies of them Iosephus antiq lib. 8. c. 2. de bello Iud. lib. 2. c. 7. Oh we had need cry to such deluded franticke men and tell them that they haue soules and soules immortall to raigne with GOD or to be plagued with the Diuels after their departing out of the body His hoped Pacification In these words In peace NOW followes the last part of this holy Hymne Simeons Quietus est or his Pacification God suffering him to depart in peace Caluin and Bucer renders Simeons minde thus Nunc libenter sedato quieto animi moriar Lord now I depart willingly with an appeased heart and a setled soule since I haue seene thy Christ From whence I gather Doctrine that a good man that liues piously alwayes dyes peaceably It appeares here in Simeon so in the rest of the Saints as in Abraham to whom it was promised Gen. 15.15 that hee should goe vnto his Fathers in peace Godly men alwayes die in peace and should be buryed in a good age which promise was plentiously performed to Abraham for he yeelded the spirit dyed in a good age an old man and of great yeeres Gen. 25.8 So Isaack the Sonne of Promise gaue vp the ghost and dyed peaceably being old and full of daies Gen. 35.29 Neither was the death of good Iacob that preuailing Israel discrepant to his holy life for he dyed quietly making an end of his charge vnto his Sonnes hee pluckt vp his feete into his bed and gaue vp the ghost Gen. 49.33 After the like manner was the death of chaste and mercifull Ioseph Gen. 50.26 of penitent and patient Iob after hee had seene his sonnes and his sonnes sonnes euen foure generations Iob 42.16 Of zealous and sincere Dauid 1 Kings 2. after hee had counselled and charged his Sonne Salomon to walke in the wayes and Statutes of the Almightie Deut. 34. Of Moses the faithfull Seruant of the Lord who dyed when his eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated though he were an hundred and twentie yeeres old God himselfe being present at his death and buriall So Iosuah that couragious Leader of Israel Iosh 24.29 Aaron the Lords Priest who dyed before the Lord in the Mount Hor Numb 20.28 Eleazar Aarons Sonne Iosh 24.33 Samuel the Lords Prophet 1 Sam. 25.1 with all the rest of Gods Children Patriarkes Prophets Iudges Kings Martyres Confessors the learned Lights of the Church such as Ambrose Augustine c. as they haue liued holily they haue dyed happily of which in their seuerall Histories they haue giuen demonstrations most of them if not all in these three particulars First Three things demonstrate that the godly dye in peace that they were gathered to their Fathers in a mature and full age full of yeeres reaped like a Ricke of ripe Corne into the Lords Barne taken like mellow Apples from the Tree of life in which full age Abraham Isaack Iacob Ioshuah Iob with the rest before mentioned as also the Patriarkes before the Floud which out-liued them with others of the faithfull did blessedly yeeld their spirits and quietly slept in the Lord which blessing of long life being the promise annexed to that fift Commandement of Obedience is peculiarly incident to the godly rather then the wicked whose sinnes as the Iuie kils the Oake ordinarily abbreuiate their dayes or if any of the faithfull dye young or in their middle age before they haue attained to the yeeres of their Fathers eyther by a naturall dissolution as Iosias or by a violent death as the auncient and moderne Martyres eyther they are taken away from the euill to come as Augustine was immediately before the siege of Hippo by the Gothes and Vandals or else because they are ripened already in grace and come to that maturitie which GOD in his fore-seeing wisedome knowes they would or could attaine to and so are fitted for glory or else they testifie the truth here to others confirmation Gods glory and their owne consolation Secondly the Elect vsually haue their wishes The godly oft haue their desires before at and in their deaths and the fruition of their desires ere their departure to the great satisfaction of their soules the contentation of their hearts the corroberation of their faith and the scaling pledge of Gods speciall loue vnto them thus Simeon ere his death had CHRIST in his armes which was the desire and longing of his heart So Abraham saw Christs day before his death in the spirit and reioyced what did old Israel so long after in the whole world except the sight of Shiloh the Messias in the flesh as to see his darling Ioseph which longing of his the Lord satisfied at the full ere his death for his dying eyes did not onely see Iosephs face but his seede Ephraim and Manasses Gen. 48.11 What did Moses desire more then the fruition of Canaan the promised Land Now euen before the Lord shut his dying eyes the Lord tooke him vp into a mount and as a rellish and a taste of his fauour gaue him a sight of Canaan Deut. 34 ver 1.4 In what could Dauids heart be more setled then to see his Throne setled in Salomon his Sonne which his desire was accordingly accomplished for his eyes did see what his heart desired for which hee blessed God 1 Kings 1.48 And the like ordinarily fals out as many aged Christians at this very day can bring in their experienced probatum est as many that are fallen a-sleepe before them could haue testified how the Lord hath heard their requests and granted the desires of their soules in
these and these particulars before their deaths Thirdly the godly expresse the hidden ioy The last words of holy men are holy and inward peace which they finde within their soules by their seasoned and sanctified words of grace which they breathe out as a sweet Perfume from holy hearts to the refreshing of others vpon their sicke beds with which they vsually winde vp the thread of their life words so good so gracious that they are worthy to be writ in Letters of Gold and for euer to be remembred as they are recorded in the sacred Cannon and collected by holy men from the Saints of latter times For example vvhat a sweet gratulatory speech is this of Simeons in his farewell to the world Lord now lettest thou thy Seruant depart in peace c. Euery word hauing his waight and Emphasis Ponder the last Sermons that Moses and Ioshuah and Samuâ—l these faithfull Seruants of the Lord made immediately before their deaths vnto the Israelites Gods chosen people how zealously they perswade to the seruice of the true God disswade from Idolatrie and false Gods enumerate Gods speciall mercies exhort to obedience dehort from rebellion against God and their Superiours proclaime the promises to the obedient pronounce mercies to allure denounce iudgements to terrifie the disobedient blessing GOD by gratulatory Songs for his benefits and blessing the people in their Tribes Deut. 32. ch 33. Iosh 12. 1 Sam. 12. and a man shall see the peace they had in their hearts by the grace of their lips The last words of Iacob were blessings and prophecies Of Ioseph were admonitions and cautions the one to his Sonnes the other to his Brethren See 1 Sam. 22. 23.1 Gen. 49. Gen. 50. The last words of Dauid were his charge to Salomon his Son concerning Gods worship and the gouernement of his Kingdome 1 Kings 2. vers 3.4.5.6 c. The last words of Steuen the first Martyr after CHRIST were prayers for his Persecutors Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Acts 7.60 Last words reuealed of the Theefe on the Crosse Gregorie that bonus Latro good Theefe that so happily stole Paradise were Lord remember mee when thou commest into thy Kingdome Luke 23. The seauen last words that Christ spoke vpon the Crosse to the Daughters of Ierusalem to his virgin Mother to his beloued Disciple Iohn to God his Father De Passione to the penitent Theefe as recorded by the Euangelists explained by Ferus Nabumius and Gueuarra these and all these of holy men in the sacred Cannon Mons Caluariae and of Christ himselfe as one speakes of Cyprians Epistles referunt pectus ardore plenum shew their deaths were full of peace as their liues were full of grace If I should instance in all the rest of this kinde and set downe at large What speeches the Saints haue vttered in their deaths the gracious words like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Siluer that haue proceeded out of the mouthes of Saints euen when they lay vpon their sicke couches drawing their last breath testifying their faith in Christ their hope of Heauen their zeale for Gods glory their sorrow for sinne their sealed pardon Or when they were to be martyred and sacrificed by fire as they are collected and recorded by Ecclesiasticall Authors Eusebius Nicephorus Apotheg morientium the tripartite History the Centuries Mr. Foxe his Martyrologie Grineus Mr. Perkins and others to whom I referre you It would easily appeare that where the Premisses are Grace in Life the Conclusion will be Peace in Death Let vs chew the cudde in the Meditation of some particulars How to dye well Euseb lib. 3. cap. 30. Idem lib 4 c. 15. The last words of Peter in his crucifying death were thus to his wife O Coniux memento Domini Oh Wife remember the Lord Iesus Of Polycarpus were prayses and prayers Of Cyprian Salus mea virtus mea Christus Dominus Christ the Lord is my strength and my saluation Of Ambrose Nec pudet viuere nec piget mori c. I neyther am ashamed to liue nor grudge to dye because I haue a good Iesus both in life and death Of Augustine Paulin. in eius vita It is no great matter that wood and stones fall and ruine or that mortall men dye vsing that sentence of Dauids Psalmes which also Mauritius the Emperour vsed Possidon in eius vita Oswaldus Miconius de Zwinglio anno 1536. when hee was slaine by Phocas his Centurion Iust is the Lord and righteous is his iudgement Zwinglius thus when hee was wounded in the wars mortally Well goe to they may kill my body my soule they cannot Erasmus dying in the house of Ierome Strobenius breathed out his soule crying thus Chare Deus c. Deare God oh God my mercy deliuer me make an end oh Christ and saue mee Peter Martyr saith Simler and Bullinger that were present at his departure confessed his faith acknowledged Christ his Sauiour expounded and applyed Scriptures exhorted his Brethren and in his death was wholy diuine Obijt anâ— Christi 1564. So was Oecolampadâ—â— that burning Lampe in Gods house who supplyed with the oyle of grace gaue a wondrous light euen in his death as appeares by Grineus his Epistles to Fabritius Capito and others Luthers death resounds ioyfull prayses for Gods reuelation of the truth vnto him and victory ouer the Romish Antichrist Caluin as Beza reports that heard him with Dauids heart dyes not speaking but sighing out Dauids Psalmes * See a little Book from the Martirologie gathered called The deaths of holy Martyres Ridley Latimer Hooper Saunders with many moe constant Professors dyed desirous of the fire saluting the Stake professing their Faith confirming their Brethren and calling vpon God If I should ascend a little higher How great men haue liued and dyed good men and looke into the sicke Couches of Emperours Kings Queenes Dukes Earles Nobles which like those Boreans Acts 17. were truely noble indeed I should occasion you to magnifie Gods mercies in calling some great ones vvho by their workes and words as liuing so dying testified that their Graces did equalize their Greatnesse I might instance in Charles the fift in Theodosius the great in Maximilian the second in Stephen King of Poland in Fredericks the third Prince Elector in Ferdinand in Queene Anne Bullen in Ioahn Gray the Duke of Suffolks Daughter with diuers of others To omit the last words of Chrysostome dying in his exile of deuout Bernard of Ignatius the Martyr of these Belgicke Lights Phillip Melancthon Tremellius Musculus c. with maâ—y moe some whereof thankefully recording the benefits they had receiued from God in life spirituall and temporall some pouring out their soules for the good of the Church which they haue bequeathed vnto Christ some discoursing of the vanities of this life of the fruits of sinne of the miseries of man some reioycing in the Spirit for the mitigation
that haue liued well eyther of Impietie or Hypocrisie by their deaths Let vs looke into their former courses of life and conuersation let vs iudge charitably and Christianly as wee would be iudged in the like case Obiect 5. But Gods Saints are at their deaths most of all molested assaulted and tempted by Sathan some in one nature some in another as was the good Mr. Knoxe and M riâ— Katherin Stubbs and others How then can they dye in peace Answ Many of the godly God tying and chaining vp Sathan dye as here old Simeon and others before recited as a Torch or Fire-brand without sense of paine or tryals Esa 57. vers 1.2 Secondly Exercentur in praelio vt maiori remunerantur praemio they are exercised in the last combat that they may receiue the more ioyfull Crowne of conquest Thirdly by Faith Prayer and Gods Word they resist Sathan as Christ did Mat. 4.4.7 and hee like a Crocodile pursued flyes away Iames 4.7 1 Pet. 5.9 for the godly in that houre laying holde vpon the promises flying vnto Christ hee mannaging their cause the holy Spirit assisting vvhen Sathan lookes for the greatest victory hee receiues the greatest foyle Obiect 6. But some that goe in the rancke of the godly haue dyed of the Plague and Pestilence Numb 25. 2 Sam. 24. which hath beene vsually sent as a iudgement for the sinnes of disobedience vncleannesse diffidence c. vpon the Israelites and others from which the godly are promised to be preserued Psal 9.10 How then die such in peace that die of the plague Answ First that promise of preseruation from the Plague in the Psalmist is to be vnderstood of those Iewes that in Dauids time were vntouched with it Secondly then the Plague came by Gods immediate hand now by meanes Thirdly the godly are preserued from it as it is a curse but not as it is a fatherly correction for doe wee not thinke that many Christians in Corinth died of the Plague 1 Cor. 11.30.31 Vide pag. 30. 38. 45. 54. 92. 36. Hinningi Grosij In these great Plagues which Grosius hath mentioned in his Tragicall Histories which haue swept away whole Countries with these that haue raged in particular Cities as in Venice in Florence the yeere of our Lord. 400. in which thirtie thousand or in Constantinople when Leo Isaurus ruled wherein there dyed three hundred thousand Citizens as both Volateran and Aegnatius testifie shall wee say that none of these dyed the Seruants of God Shall wee censure Alphonsus the â—leauenth King of Spaine that good Lodouicke with his Sonne Iohn many zealous Diuines as Beza and others for bad men because they haue dyed of the Plague Suppose it be an accursed death did not Christ the penitent Theefe Peter and Paul which were crucified by Nero with their heads downewards dye an accursed death euen the death of the Grosse Fourthly besides is it not Gods visitation like other diseases Fiftly is it not oft-times sent Lib. de Mortalitate as Cyprian well notes as well for the sinnes of those that liue as of those that dye as appeares in the Plague sent vpon Dauids Sheepe when he the Shepheard sinned in numbring of them Sixtly is it not a disease though sharpe yet short and more tollerable then the Stone Dropsie Gout Palsie or the French disease Seauenthly did not Dauid desire this kinde of death rather then eyther Famine or Warre Eightly nay haue not Gods Saints as namely Iob for many moneths together beene troubled with a more grieuous maladie Ninthly is not God very mercifull to many that dye of the Plague that haue their senses and memories till the last houre are not those blew spots which appeare Gods tokens as they are called fore-warning them that haue them as God did Ezâ—kias to prepare themselues for they must dye Lastly is their any death much lesse this can hinder the soule after her departing from Gods present and immediate fellowship or the body from a glorious Resurrection and what if none visit the afflicted in this sort the fewer that gaze on them the fitter they are to looke vp to God And what if they dye and vvant solemne buriall what preiudice is that to the bodies resurrection or soules saluation Obiect 7. But some of the godly dye of Famine as did Lazarus from which God promiseth to preserue them Psal 34. Answ First it is vncertaine whether Lazarus dyed for want of food or the violence of his disease Secondly this death is rare and seldome fals out God prouiding for his as hee did for Iacob and Elias euen in Famine but if this happen God armes his with patience and strengthens them with the assured hope of life eternall as hee did the persecuted Hebrewes who were exposed to nakednesse and hunger Heb. 11.38 Thirdly the Promise is conditionall as all others are that concerne these outward things which fall alike to all Eccles 9. Fourthly some vnderstand the place in the Psalmist concerning the soules of Gods Saints which are fed with the hidden and precious Manna of the Word to life eternall Iohn 6. Apoc. 2.17 Obiect 8. But some are slaine by their enemies these dye not in peace Ans Yes for no death can seperate Gods Children from his loue Rom 8.38 Secondly though they kill the body as Cain did Abels the Philistines Ionathans yâ—t as Zwinglius said in the like case as you haue heard they cannot kill the soule Thirdly it is a priuiledge if they dye in Gods cause and procures them a greater increase of glory Apoc. 14.13 Mat. 5.8 Obiect 9. Lastly it is obiected that some of the godly as Sampson and Rasis haue killed themselues others haue done the like in our dayes How haue these dyed in peace Ans For Rasis it was a weakenesse in him Vide Polani Synâ— de inter Scrip. Lelius de expresso dei verbo if hee were a good man or a wickednesse if he were not For Sampson what hee did was typicall as he prefigured Christs death that ouercame dying Secondly it was by a speciall instinct and motion of Gods Spirit inimitable no more then Abrahams sacrificing his Sonne for those which our experience instanceth in I confesse it is a ticklish point and the knot is hard to be loosed I know that Saul Achitophel and Iudas that killed themselues are noted in the Scripture for reprobates And it seemes that those which doe this inhumane deede doe not for the instant thinke of hell torments yet vvhat then God neuer forsakes his chosen Secondly his mercy is bottomlesse from the Ocean of which mercy hee may distill some drop of grace at the last point of time Thirdly this act is done commonly in some Frenzie or predominant Melancholy when they are not themselues Fourthly Sathan is a wilie Serpent that obserues his aduantages and the Lord knowing his malice and wickednesse and mans frailtie and weakenesse punisheth this sinne as he did the first sinne Adams sin in Paradise wherein
this Serpent vvas chiefe actor more in Sathan the agent then in man the patient Fiftly many Selfe-murtherers liue after the selfe inflicted fatall stroke and repent ere they dye Let vs iudge the best of them and pray to GOD to giue vs grace neuer to yeeld to the like temptations Amen And now these Doubts discussed these Obiections remoued we come to the Vses The first is this Vse 1. Of Instruction is it so that the Seruants of the Lord doe dye in peace wee must then if wee meane to dye well as the Lord shall inable vs learne to liue well Hee that would die well must liue well If wee will dye in peace wee must liue the life of grace for it is not tam vetus quam verum so prouerbiall as true Qualis vita finis ita as is the life so is the death Instance in all particulars in the Scripture from the first line in Genesis to the last Letter of the Reuelation and wee shall neuer see otherwayes excepting one example of the Theefe vpon the Crosse which is particular miraculous vpon a speciall occasion to magnifie the effect of Christs bloud and the power of his Passion to eternize his mercy that gaue life euen at his death and to shew and demonstrate his Deitie that at the lowest ebbe of his crucified Humanitie was able to saue a soule to strengthen the Disciples and allure the vnbeleeuing Gentiles I say excepting him which is an extraordinary example and not to be propounded as a president by any presumptuous soule wee shall not finde any one that liued ill and dyed well but that had the Prologue of their euill life shut vp with the Tragedie of a damned death Gen. 4. Looke vpon Cain the murtherer that desperate Runne-a-gate Gen. 7. Gen. 4.24 Gen. 38.8 on the licentious Worldlings on Lamech the seauentie times auenged Polygamist on polluted Onan and wicked Err on vncleane Sodome Those that haue liued wickedly died wretchedly with her Sister Gomorrha Gen. 19 2â— on rebelling Israel hard-hearted Pharaoh obdurate superstitious and irreligious Aegypt Exod. 6.7.8 ch 14. on disobedient Saul 1 Sam. 15. on lving Iesuitically aequiuocating Gehezi Examples 2 Kings 5. on theeuish Achan treacherous Achitophel traiterous Iudas adulterous and murtherous Herod bloudy Ioab couetous Ahab persecuting Iezabel deluding Ananias deceiuing Saphira cruell Antiochus proud Hâ—mman vsurping Athalia rebelling Absolon with millions moe looke at their liues obserue their deaths peruse their Stories paralell their doings with their sufferings and tell mee if they haue not sealed vp and concluded sensuall and sinfull liues with cursed deaths Amos 6.2 nay as the Prophet saith Goe yee to Calneh and see and from thence goe you to Hamath the great then goe to Gath of the Philistines looke vpon Iâ—ppa behold Tharsus wonder at Niniuie the pride of Assur Esay 13.19 gaze vpon Babilon the beautie of all the Chaldees honour And as you passe by cast your eye vpon Ierusalem that virgin Daughter Sion And if you please reflexe vpon proud Troy renowned Carthage famous Constantinople learned Athens rich Thebes warrelike Numantia populous Samaria ancient Rome old Antwerpe and when you haue viewed them all in the Map of your retyred Meditations tell these renowned places these wonders of the vvorld that sinne hath sackt them that pride hath beene their period that their faults haue caused their fals that they haue beene miserable because vnmindfull of God and of themselues that they with their inhabitants because they haue wanted grace haue wanted peace But if these be to generall for thy application descend into particulars The fearefull ends of Heretiques and Persecuters in euery age runne ouer Histories read the Tragicke parts that wicked men haue acted vpon the Stage of this world and marke their ends when Death hath struck them Non-plus Leaue all other sinnes and sinners looke on these that eyther haue broached errours Heretically or resisted or persecuted the truth obstinately and cruelly and you shall see them dying horribly you shall see blasphemous Cerinthus killed with the ruines of an house Euseb lib. 7. cap. 20. Theod. lib. 1. c. 14. as he was sitting in a Bath at Ephesus Manes the Father of the Manichees exposed to the teeth of Dogs with his skinne flaine off by the command of a Persian King Arius Sabellicus lib. 5. c. 4. that hellish patrone of the Arians Euagrius lib. 1. c. 7. voyding out his bowels with his excrements Olimpius strucke with Thunder by a three-fold Dart from Heauen for his blasphemies against the Trinitie Anno 1553. Nestorius perished in Aegypt by the rotting of that tongue of his which denyed Christs humanitie Tandemus Euseb lib. 10. c. 8. that Gygantean and profane contemner of the Word and Sacraments clouen to the braine by a sailing Priest Eus lib. 3. c. 13. Oros lib. 7 c. 11. Michael Seruetus burned at Geneua Maximinian the Tyrant smit with a sodaine plague from GOD his eyes swelling his whole body burning so dyed Cruell Domitian the next persecuter after Nero. slaine by his Wife and Seruants and buryed like a Dogge Eus lib. 9. Lucius Verus cut off by an Apoplexie the eleauenth yeere of his cruell raigne Maximinus the Thracian murthered by his Souldiers Decius drowned in a puddle Valerian King Sapors slaue after his persecutions had his skinne pluckt off his rotten carkasse Dioclesian with his Collenge butchering seauenteene thousand Christians in thirty dayes consumed miserably in his Frenzie by a lingring disease and his fellow hanged himselfe Vide Zonaram annalium lib 2. Eus lib. 8. Valeus the Arrian Emperour burned in his Inne by his pursuing enemies What neede I giue Coale-worts twice sod and set before you againe those dishes that haue beene cooked by all authenticke Ecclesiasticall Authors that are of credit concerning the miserable death of Iulian the apostate whose bloud his owne hands threw into the ayre Cent. 1. c. 12. Hist Eccles of Aurelian smit with a Thunderbolt Commodus strangled of Paulinus possessed with a Diuell after hee had martyred Martinian and Processus with diuers others in which the Antichristian Popes as they haue acted the chiefe parts in filthinesse blood-guiltinesse and superstition so if wee obserue their ends as they are recorded by Platina Onuphrius c. and their owne Writers wee shall see they haue dyed fearefully and desperately as they haue liued damnably as may be instanced in Siluester the second Alexander the sixt Heldibrand c. and others all which instances with all other examples that Iewes or Gentiles the Christian or Pagan world afford vnto vs are nothing else but comments vpon that Maxime which S. Augustine drawes from his owne experience when hee saith Nunquam memini male mortuum c. I neuer remembred any to haue dyed ill that haue liued well and hardly doth hee dye well that hath liued ill Therefore to extract another Vse from these premisses Vse 2.
Angell stayes Sodomes flames Gen. 19. yet the weather is fayre to build an Arke in Gen. 7.5 yet the Prophet cryes Oh Iudah how shall I intreate thee Hos 6.4 yet the Bridegroome tarries and stayes the Virgins leasures Mat. 25.7 yet the Apostle beseecheth for Christs sake that thou wouldest be reconciled 2 Cor. 5.20 Oh therefore prepare oyle betimes vvith the wise Virgins enter whilest the gate is open seeke the Lord whilest hee may be found call vpon him whilest hee is nigh waite for thy Masters comming with the good Seruant build the Arke ere the Floud come prepare thy soule ere Death come this is thy time thy day tempus tuum Death is Gods day tempus suum and his time Now is the time to repaire the Ship of thy soule in the Hauen but the tempestuous Sea of Death is no fit time the breach is to be made vp in the time of peace not in time of warre Now make peace in the day of peace with the God of peace that with old Simeon thou maist dye and rest in peace and remaine in glory Thus much for preparation Now the manner of this Preparation consists in some particulars which wee meane to prosecute Meditation of death is a principall part of preparation to die in peace The first whereof is Meditation Memento mori must be euery mans Motto a point that as the Scripture inioynes so the Saints haue practised and the Heathens haue approued this principle that Tota hominis vita mortis meditatio the whole life of a man ought to be the meditation of death the best Schollers that euer were in the Schoole of Christianitie haue beene taken vp in this thought Adam was no sooner created but God his Schoole-master catechizeth him in this point of death hee cals him Adam rubra terra red earth hee casts him into a sleepe the Image nay as the Cynicke cals it the Brother of death hee tels him if hee sinne hee shall dye the death When hee had sinned he fore-warnes him that hee shall returne to his dust from which hee came hee makes him garments of Beasts skinnes that had dyed for sacrifice to shew him that hee was mortall like those Beasts whose skinnes hee wore hee sets him to dig and tyll the Earth to put him in minde both of the dustie matter whereof hee vvas made and into which hee and all his posteritie must be dissolued Adam it seemes tooke out these Lessons and taught them his Children for though hee called his eldest Sonne Possession yet hee called his Brother Abel Vanitie when hee had more experience of the vanities of life and life it selfe In this Meditation the Patriarkes were wonderously taken vp the very forme and fabricke of their Mansions not dwelling in seiled houses as wee doe though they were both greater men and of greater meanes but in Tents and Tabernacles such as they vse in the warres ready vpon all occasions to be remoued euen like the Boothes in Sturbbish Faire shew that they did constantly ponder of their owne remouals nay their tongues expressed the abundant thoughts of their hearts in this kinde Abraham confest himselfe but dust and ashes Gen. 18.17 Iacob acknowledgeth his life a Pilgrimage Ioseph giues order for the buriall of his bones Gen. 50. The greatest purchases which wee reade the Patriarkes made or that euer they spoke of was onely a place to bury their dead in Moses so thought of his mortalitie that hee makes a Psalme wherein he both acknowledgeth mans frailtie and inferres this Petition pathetically that the Lord would teach him Psal 90.12 and the Israelites to number their dayes which Psalme the auncient Fathers vsed in forme of a Prayer Iob waites till his changing come Iob 10.14 Dauid makes no other reckoning of himselfe then of a Pilgrime Psal 120.3 and Peter accounts his continuance here but his abode in a tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.3 Oh that such thoughts did possesse vs they would make vs more familiar with Death and it more welcome vnto vs for Iaculapraeuisa minus faeriunt Darts fore-seene doe the lesse harme Oh how many sinnes would they cut off as Hercules did the heads of Hydra which are the onely weakeners of our Faith wounders of our soules workers of our vvoes and disturbers of our dying peace Therefore saith the Wise-man Remember thy end and thou shalt neuer doe amisse For as the Bird directs her selfe by her taile flying and the ship is directed by her stearne sayling to auoid the Rockes so is a Christian conformed and confirmed in an happy course preserued from the Soule-splitting Rockes of sinne by the thought of death First it mortifies from the world Effects of deaths meditation hee easily contemnes all that thinkes hee must dye saith an olde Hermite for what cares a condemned malefactor that fits himselfe for his euery houres expected execution for thousands of Gold and Siluer Secondly it curbes the pompe and glory of the world for what cares old Berzillas for all the pleasures of Dauids Court when the keepers of his house his hands tremble Eccl. 12.3.4 his legs these strong men bowe themselues when his eyes the windowes of his body waxe darke when his eares the daughters of Musicke are abated when the Grashoppers or bended shoulders are a burthen and his teeth the Grinders cease hee thinkes rather of returning to Gilead and dying in his owne Country then of Ierusalems Court 2 Sam. 19. Thirdly it curbes pride Quid superbis puluis cinis saith Bernard Oh how can dust and ashes be proud meditatio mortis c. Augustine the meditation of death is the nayle of the flesh which fixeth all the proud lusts thereof to the wood of the Crosse What Peacocke can be proud when hee lookes at his blacke feete the earth from whence he is and whither hee tends Therefore euen amongst the Heathens saith Caelius Rodiginus when their Emperours were crowned as a counter-poyson against pride they were carryed vnto the Sepulchers of dead men and there it was demanded of them what one should be made for them So Climachus reports of that good Basil that the very day wherein with great ioy and applause he was propounded Doctor and Pastor to the people as an Antidote against pride hee made one to tell him thus Pater sepulchrum tuum nondum est perfectum Father thy sepulcher is not yet finished The like thoughts amongst others Augustine vsed when hee found himselfe tickled with secret pride with the applauses of the people for his exquisite Sermons Fourthly it is a meanes of temperancie and a restrainer of intemperancie and a curber of Carnalitie and Epicurisme Hence it was that the auncient Aegyptians Lib. 3. as Heroditus reports in their Gemalia and Feasts of great and Noble-men there was the portraiture of a dead man in wood which was round like a Globe had to euery guest to behold with this Motto writ on it In hanc intuens pota oblictate talis post
mortem futurus Beholding this vse merry glee For as this is so thou shalt bee Hence it is that Augustine as hee would haue a man alwayes to thinke vpon these quatuor nouissima foure last things Death Iudgement Heauen Hell so chiefely in their Festiuals and meetings wherein Sathan chiefely beguiles men as hee did Adam and Eue by eating And sure amongst other things this made that Ciâ—icke Philosopher so abstinent because hee was continually amongst tombes and Sepulchers but sure the meditation of their Tombes and Sepulchers De orig Monich caused Paulus Symplex Macariuâ— Pambo and other Hermites in Hospinian to be so abstenuous euen to a maruell if not to a miracle I wish the Tricongij Biberij and Heliogabuli I meane the Epicures and Belly-gods that eate and drinke till there be as little Grace in their Soules and Wit in their Pates as their be Wines in their Pots that they would drinke out of an earthen vessell with Agathocles or looking vpon a Deaths-head as is the fashion in some Countryes or that a dead mans skull were presented vnto them the first dish at their Table as it is in the Court of Prester-Iohn or at least that if the picture of Death which I haue seene in the bottome of some cups will not yet that the sight of the dead creatures before them might call vnto them as Phillips Boy to Phillip Memento te esse mortalem Oh Epicurish Glutton remember thou art mortall or that they would ponder the voyce which S. Ierome alwayes imagined euen when hee was eating and drinking Arise you dead and come to Iudgement Perhaps these thoughts vvould make them put their kniues to their throates as Salomon speakes and damme vp the gulph of their inordinate appetites Fiftly this thought would worke in vs contentation in euery estate as it did in Iob who in the midst of his afflictions comforts himselfe with this consideration Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne The thought of this that wee shall carrie nought away with vs but a Coffin or a winding sheete should keepe vs within compasse of too eager pursuite in purchasing or impatiencie in parting with this vnrighteous Mammon Sixtly this thought of death is a notable meanes and spurre to further our Repentance it will cause vs if any thing not onely with Ezekias and Achitophel to set our houses in order but our hearts to for what so hastned the repentance of Niniuie as the beliefe and thought of Ionas his Sermon it was time for them to bestirre themselues when they had but forty dayes to liue So when Elias tels Ahab that the Dogges shall eate him and Iezabel hee makes some superficiall shew of repentance So the third Companie of fiftie with their Captaine that came by violence to fetch Elias when they saw the two other Captaines with their fifties consumed with fire they seeme to relent and deale with the Prophet by intreatie If then meditation of death haue such force both in the godly and wicked both in Christians and Pagans to incite to vertue restraine vice curbe couetousnesse cure pride bridle lust moderate murmuring keepe in intemperancie procure repentance cause mortification and doe euery way so correct a vicious life and so direct a happy death since of all other Meditations this strengthens the minde as of all other meates bread strengthens the body since it is as needfull to a good life as wings for Birds sailes for Marriners tailes for Fishes to swimme wheeles for Coaches to runne as Climachus makes the comparisons since you see the holy Patriarkes Abraham Iacob Ioseph Iob Moses Dauid nay I may adde our Sauiour CHRIST who was most frequent in discourse with his Disciples of his death his Passion his houre his crucifying nay euen then when hee was transfigured in glory hauing two dead men with him Mat. 17. Moses and Elias and talking of his death when hee came from the Mount as appeares in the Euangelists did so oft thinke of death since the Saints after Christs death Augustine Ierome Basil Bernard the deuout Hermites nay euen Ethnicke Kings and Philosophers made such good vse of this Meditation as we haue proued then let the thought possesse vs that are now liuing of our ineuitable dying that it may worke in vs the same effects that it did in them Exhortat Oh let vs thinke of it in our prosperitie in our pleasures let vs meditate of it in our Orchards in our Gardens as did Ioseph of Aramathia who Iohn 19.41 had his Sepulcher in his Garden euen the place of his recreations let vs thinke of it in our beds those Embleames of our graues in our Closets in our Cloisters in our Walkes and Galleries that so remembring it in euery place expecting it at euery houre it may not come vpon vs vnprouided as the storme vpon the Marriner as the enemie vpon the drowsie Centinel as Dauids Companie vpon the drunken Amalekites Inuadunt vrbem sâ—mno vinoque sepultum as the politique Graecians vpon the secure Troyans Death is like the Basiliske it hurts not if it be spyed betimes if Death spye vs first it kils vs as the Basiliske doth the Traueller if wee spye it first wee kill it as the Traueller doth the Basiliske as Ambrose makes the Application and therefore as Aristotle writes of two Fountaines the one whereof if a man drinke it makes him laugh so much till he dye if of the other it both hinders laughter and preuents death Et risum impedit mortem these two fountaines are the Remembrance and the Obliuion of death the last is like poysoned water to kill vs the first like strong distillatorie waters to reuiue vs. Yet alas for all this who thinkes of death Expostulation there is such a generall crust of Securitie growne ouer this Land that it is to be feared wee are exposed to the same dangers that Ierusalem was the cause of all whose plagues was shee knew not her visitation she remembred not her end Lament 1.9 Oh how few number their dayes that they may apply their hearts vnto wisedome How few thinke of their ends till sicknesse end them till Death say to them as GOD to Ezekias Thou must dye and as the Prophet to Ahaziah Thou shalt not come downe from thy bed to which thou art gone vp 2 Kings 1.4 How few looke into hell ere they leape into it How many Arithmeticians are in the world that number all things but their dayes their corne cattle sheepe stocke money wares and the likeâ— that are as wise Serpents in euery thing excepting in fore-seeing their death How many like carelesse debters still runne into the debts and arrerages of former sinnes with GOD their patient Creditor neuer thinking of the day of account the strictnesse of the Iudge the closenesse of the Prison the Serieant at their backes Death ready to arrest them How many sleepe out their time like Salomons sluggard How many cry
Soule take thine ease eate drinke and be merry singing to the Tabret and the Hharpe stretching themselues vpon their Iuory Couches saying like these Epicures which Tertullian blames in his Bookes of the Soule Oh Death what haue we to doe with thee trouble not thou vs and wee shall not trouble thee yea though wee haue so many Monitors euery day in all the things of Nature the Sunne setting ouer vs the graues vnder vs Mâ—numentum quasi â—â—â—ens mentem though wee see many Tombes euen in our Churches and Monuments as the word signifies to admonish vs Crosses and Sicknesses Deaths summons that tell vs Death is approching vellicat haec aures atque ait en venio yet neuerthelesse as the sight of one obiect or colour takes away the eye from beholding another the thought of the world and the lusts thereof takes away the thought of death And as Absolon carryed on his Mule whilest hee hung by the haire of the head was thrust through three times by Ioab so our soules being carryed here vpon our flesh vvhich Augustine Hugo and Luther call the Asse of the soule whilst our thoughts are climing and fixt vpon the high Tree of Honour Pleasure Preferment Death like Ioab comes and kils vs with a triple Dart that wee see not Time past present and to come neuer thinking of these darts till wee feele them no more then the fish of the hooke till it hold her yea though wee see daily wiser wealthier holier healthfuller and younger then our selues goe to their graues yet this thought still raignes vs that wee shall not dye till wee be old as Seneca notes Non patemus ad mortem c. yea Ad Mart. euen such as thinke they shall be happy after death thinke little of the day of death Lib. de gratia noâ—â— Test Tantum vim habet carnis animae dulce consortium saith Augustine such force hath that sweet consort betwixt the soule and the flesh But it is more which Tully notes that there is no man so old but hee thinkes hee may liue one yeere longer though hee vse his third foote when one of his other feete is in the graue already and this makes euen old so encline in their thoughts and desires vnto the Marriage-bed who in the course of Nature haue but a few steps into their graues yea to associate themselues with such young yoake-fellowes that if Sophocles were liuing hee would blush once againe for shame to see them and Cato should haue more matter to laugh at then to see an Asse eate Thistles in which we verifie Christs prophesie that as in the dayes of Noah wee marry and are marryed neuer thinking of death till the Floud come This makes such an invndation of sinne as delights Sathan who takes as great delight to steale away our hearts from the thought of Death as Absolon did to steale away the hearts of the people from his Father Dauid for he knowes full well that if wee should thinke of Death wee should not practise sinne hee knowes that as the Serpent when shee stops the one eare with her taile the other with the earth shee will not harken to the voice of the Charmer so the Lords Doues that are as wise as Serpents laying their eares to the earth remembring their mortalitie will not be deluded with the charmes of his temptations he knowes that his hooke bayted with riches will not be bit vpon if a man remember himselfe breuis incertique huius iteniris of this his short and vncertaine iourney hee knowes hee will not sinne that knowes after death hee shall inherit Serpents and Wormes For which cause when hee would haue vs to sinne hee hides the griesly head of Death casting the scumme and mist of some deceiuing pleasure before our eyes as they say Iuglers doe in their trickes shewing vs onely sinnes pleasure as the Panther shewes his pleasing spots to the Beasts to deceiue hiding his head that hee may deuoure vs. Therefore to conclude this Part as our Sauiour Christ said De paup amand Remember Lots Wife as Nazianzen saith to oppressors Remember Naboths Vineyard so I bid those that are terrigenae Brutigini the sonnes of the earth Remember their earth nay God wisheth thee to remember thy earth Oh that they were wise saith God of Israell and would remember the latter things Deut. 32.29 Oh that wee were wise euen in this particular oh how should vvee auoid many snares of Sathan that preuailes ouer vs euen by our securitie in this kinde And therefore Quos viuentes blanditijs decipit c. whom hee deceiues by fraud liuing Greg. in Mor. hee deuoures by force dying Oh how should wee be prepared for the second comming of CHRIST if wee had but an eye to the pale Horse and him that sits thereon Apoc. 6.8 Oh that wee had but the wisedome of the Cocke that eating his meate hath euer an eye vpwards to looke at the Eagle or the Hawke Oh that wee as wee looke downewards with the eye of Reason to the things of this life would with the eye of Faith looke vp for the comming of Christ who as hee rose like a Lion is ascended like an Eagle and will descend againe to iudge vs then should wee be fitted with the good Seruant come when he will come to entertaine our Master with ioy Mat. 24.23 But alas woe be to the secure world vvee neither thinke of Iudgement generall nor speciall after death or in death sometimes indeede wee can say wee are all mortall but ex vsu â—agis quam sensu as some pray it is a word rather of custome then feeling wee seeme to be a little more moued when wee follow a Funerall then wee weepe and waile and cry out This is the end of all flesh but as soone as wee are at home the most we doe is a carnall fruitlesse mourning for the dead wee make no spirituall vse of it to dye to any sinne in which as some compares vs wee are like to Swine who when some one in the Heard is bit with a Dogge all flocke about and gruntle but presently it is forgot they fall againe to wallowing and rooting or like little Turkies and Chickens who if the Kite or Buzzard swap and catch one all the rest with their dammes are in an vprore but instantly they fall againe to feeding so when Death that deuouring Dog that rauening Kite that preyes vpon all flesh snatcheth away any of our Friends and Neighbours wee complaine and exclaime of lifes breuitie the worlds vanitie wee mourne and pretend mortification vvee lament and seeme to repent but within few dayes all is drowned in the Leth of Obliuion wee forget Death as Nabuchadnezzar forgot his Dreame wee fall againe to our former sinfull securitie and so wee continue till vvee dye exeâ—cati insoporati impraeparati excecated insoporated vnprepared God reforme this and teach vs as Dauid prayes Psal 38. the number of our dayes and make
there is no traffique with God or purchase from heauen vvithout it Iohn 17.3 This is life eternall to know God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ For Faith the Truth affirmes it with asseueration Verily verily hee that heareth my word and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath eternall life Iohn 5.24 Iohn 3.16 For Sanctification whosoeuer submits their hearts and liues to the regiment of the Spirit of Christ they are the children of God Rom. 8.14 Now God hath an heauenly inheritance for all his Children get therefore these graces and saluation instantly comes to thy heart as it did to Zacheus house Luke 19. Sixtly it will make much for thy dying peace to doe all the good thou canst in life to all men in generall to the Church the Saints and houshold of Faith in special by thy 1. Wit 2. Wealth 3. Power 4. Place 5. Authoritie 6. Credit with great men as Nehemias and Mardocheus did to the Iewes or by any other meanes whatsoeuer Therefore hath God put it into thy heart to build an Hospitall for the distressed to giue some annuall contribution to the poore to mend some common wayes for a publike ease to erect or repayre some Grammer-Schoole for the trayning vp of youth to found some Fellowships or Schollerships in some Colledge as a furtherance to learning to plant some Library for a help to good Letters like that famoused BODLEY the Phoenix in this kinde of our time or to erect and maintaine in some barren place a preaching Ministerie the best worke of all because conuersant about the best obiect the sauing of soules or any the like Oh then strike whilst the Iron is hot goe about this worke speedily euen as speedily as Dauid went about the building of Gods house vvho would not haue giuen any rest to the temples of his head till hee had finished what hee intended had not God staid his resolution And here I cannot but take notice of the preposterous charitie of some that doe little or no good liuing vnlesse to themselues and those to whom Nature tyes them yet after their death they doe some good by their Deputies and Assignes and Executors which oft-times ayming at their owne ends by some quirques and euasions proue executioners of the desires of the deceased rather then Executors yet suppose the Will be Legally performed what may be censured of thine intent that hast beene close-handed in life and now art seemingly open-hearted at thy death First that thou giuest what thou canst no longer retaine Secondly or thou giuest to good vses what thou hast got by ill meanes or thirdly that conscience accusing thee thou wouldest stop the mouth of it by this sop cast to that barking Cerberus within thee as Iudas did by casting away his thirtie pieces of siluer the price of bloud Mat. 27. Fourthly or else from some opinion of satisfaction for by-past sinnes or present merit with our blinded Papists but chiefely the censorious Criticall world will iudge that if thou hadst not parted with the world thou hadst not departed with thy bewitching wealth therefore All that thine hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power Eccles 9.10 For there is neyther worke nor inuention nor knowledge in the place whither thou goest to Saelomons counsell I ioyne Pauls Doe good to all whilst thou hast time Gal. 6.10 Doe what seruice thou canst to Gods Church to the Common-wealth to euery particular man chiefely to the poore members of CHRIST Oh what a comfort will it be to thee if thou hast beene bountifull and beneficiall to the distressed when thou canst say on thy sicke Couch with Nehemias in another case Lord remember mee concerning this good worke and concerning that good worke Nehem. 13.22 Oh blessed is hee that iudgeth wisely of the poore the Lord shall deliuer him in the time of trouble the Lord will strengthen him â—pon his bed of sorrow thou hast turned all his bed in his sicknesse saith the Psalmist Psal 41. ver 1.3 A good conscience in life brings peace in death Seauenthly keepe a good conscience with God and man that it may be a continuated comforter vnto thee as in life so in the agonies of death as it was to Paul in all his pressures Acts 24.16 and as it is to the Saints in all their sorrowes a continuall feast Prou. 15.15 a perpetuall Christ-tide a Iubilee in the iawes of death a peace passing all vnderstanding Phil. 2. For as the want of this is the Racke and Gybbet vnto the wicked the greatest heauinesse and plague Sirach 25.15 as the Wiseman tearmes it a plague of plagues an euill which goes beyond all euill that tongue can speake as euen a Seruus in Mustell Plautus and b Lib de moribus Seneca haue thought it the greatest wound and griefe that can be sustained as Salomon determines it Prou. 18.14 nay the very flashes and Prologue to hell as Iudas Latomus and Hoffmeister haue tryed it in their despayring deaths so the inioying of a good conscience is the greatest ioy c Hugo lib. 2 de anima cap. 9. Hugo cals it the Temple of Salomon the Field of Benediction the Garden of delight the treasurie of the King the house of God the habitation of the holy Ghost the Booke sealed and shut to be opened in the day of Iudgement the very thing saith Ambrose d Lib. 2. de officijs that makes a blessed life yea and I may adde withall a blessed death for to vse the words of e Bern. in Serm. Bernard as hee prepares a good dwelling for God whose Will hath not beene peruerted nor Reason deceiued nor Memory defiled so God prepares a dwelling for him that is pure in heart and soule Psal 15.12 and in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32.2 Of which blessed mansion they haue some taste euen in death that keepe a good conscience in life Hence is it that the godly take there deaths patiently like sheepe sing ioyfully like the Swanne as Martyres haue done at the stake and as did our good Simeon when the wicked dye like Swine repiningly like the Hiaena ragingly Naturalists f Cicero lib. 1. Tuscul quaest write that the warme sweet bloud recoyling to the heart of the Swanne tickleth her with such a secret delight that it makes her sing euen in her death Contrariwise when the Hiaena is in dying the blacke and distempered bloud gathers to her heart which makes her sad and mournefull This is worth applying the conscience of holy actions so warmes the hearts of Gods Seruants with that inward ioy that they dye singing their Hosanna's tryumphing and reioycing in spirit but the consciousnesse of wicked wayes and workes of darknesse oathes vncleannesse profanenes c. like streames of blacke bloud recoyles backe vpon and clogs the hearts of the Sonnes of Belial which makes them dye as wofully and cursedly as they haue liued retchlesly and wickedly oh therefore good Readers who
euer you are Ministers or Lay-men keepe a good conscience I intreate you with God and with man in all your wayes and walkings in your courses callings functions and tradings that in your deaths you may shew your selues the Lords Sheepe the Lords Swannes like Simeon not the Diuels Swine and Hels Hiaena's Now thou art to be directed in some dueties in thy sicknesse the probable summoner of thy death for though God onely know when death is nearest he hauing as the keyes of the heauens and the keyes of the heart so the keyes of the earth and of the graue of life and of death 1 Sam. 2.6 yet it is probable that life is nearest expiring when sickenes is approaching as the wals are nearest ruine when the Cannon is laid to batter them Now these Directions I referre to these three heads First respect God secondly thy selfe thirdly others In respect of God first renue thy former repentance seeke earnestly to be reconciled to God in CHIRST get more assurance of the Mercy Fauour and Loue of God towards thee gather together all thy spirituall forces striue and wrastle couragiously against Diffidence Distrust Infidelitie and Despayre like an actiue runner shew some brunts as it were of inward strength euen when thou seest the Goale and art nearest the end of thy race Now for strengthening thy Faith and renuing thy Repentance the better take this course First when Sickenesse or Infirmitie ceazeth on thee consider that it ariseth not from 1. Chance 2. Fortune 3. Rawnesse of Weather 4. Ill Ayre 5. Bad Dyet 6. Catching of cold or the like which are eyther no causes at all or else onely secondarie but by an immediate prouidence Secondly search out the cause for which God afflicts thee and thou shalt by the light of the word and of thine owne conscience find that the cause is thy sin other causes there may be as CHRIST shewes in the case of the blinde man who neyther sinned nor his Parents Iohn 9.2 As 1. tryall of Faith 2. of Patience as in Iobs case 3. exciting to Prayer and Repentance as in Ezekias case Esay 38.1 4. to preuent sinne to which Nature and corruption inclines 5. the Humiliation of pride 6. manifestation of the workes of God oft cause the Lord to visit euen his owne sonnes with sicknesses and diuers diseases but in Gods reuealed will sinne is the ordinary cause as appeares Deut. 28.21 Leut 26. c. Sixe causes of sickenes besides our sinnes Sinne caused the Aegyptians Botches Exod. 9.10 the Philistines Emerods 1 Sam. 5.6 the Widdow of Sarepta's Sonnes sickenesse 1 King 17.18 and therefore when CHRIST cured the bodies of his Patients hee first remits the sinnes of their soules so remoues the cause Mat. 9.2 Iohn 5.14 as in the blinde man and the sicke of the Palsie Fiue duties to be done in sicknes Thirdly when thou hast felt thine owne pulse and laid the finger on the right cause which is sinne then by examination of thine owne hart find out what speciall sin causeth thy present scourge oh search thy selfe thorowly Zeph. 2.1 examine thy soule narrowly Psal 4.4 Play the selfe Constable make priuie search in euery roome within the house of thy heart for thy secret sinnes as for priuie Traytors Fourthly when thou hast found them out confesse them bring them to the strict barre of Gods Iustice arraigne them nay be thy selfe a Witnesse against them yea a Iudge to condemne them as Paul prescribes the Corinthians in the like case 1 Cor. 11.30.31 and as Dauid practised in his owne particular Psal 32.5 Fiftly supplicate and intreate the supreame Iudge of Heauen that may condemne thee or repriue thee to pittie thee and pardon thee Ieremy and Hosee will direct thee how to put vp thy supplications in forma pauperis as a poore penitent and what words to vse that will plead and preuaile for pardon Lam. 3.40.41 Hosee 6.1 Dauid sets thee an holy President most beseeming thy imitation who when hee was sicke at least vpon the occasion of his sickenes penned speciall Psalmes of repentance as namely Psal 6. the 22. the 38. the 29. which I prescribe to be reaâ— of thee repeated and applyed with Dauids heart also as spirituall Physicke 1 to purge the ill humours of thine heart 2. to quicken thy dulnesse 3. to excite thy deadnesse 4. to inflame thy desires 5. to comfort thy conscience 6. to strengthen thy faith 7. to prepare thee to Prayer What Scriptures are fittest to be read of a sicke man reade seriously the History of Christs Passion recorded Luke 22.23 Chap. the 29. Psalme the 42. Psalme the 51. Psalme the 1 43. Psalme the 14. Chapter of Iob the 11. the 14. the 17. Chapter of Saint Iohn Ecclesiastes Chap. 1. Dan Chap. 9. Romanes Chap 8. the 7. Chap. of the Apocalypse 1 Cor. 15. Chap. these will giue thee some holy heate Thus thou hast the true preparatiues in thy sickenesse in respect of God they are the more worthy remembrance because so few follow them for alas how many that haue liued long in the bosome of the Church are so farre from renuing theirâ— Faith and Repentance that when they lye sicke and are drawing to their deaths they must be catechized as Christ did Nicodemus and Philip the Eunuch euen in the maine doctrines of Faith and Repentance like as some new conuerted Pagans were in the Primitiue Church There be few Ministers acquainted vvith visiting the sicke but they shall finde that men that haue beene vnder the meanes twentie thirtie or fortie yeeres doe at the end of all beginne to inquire as the Iewes of Peter Acts 2. and the Iaylor of Paul Acts 16. what they should doe to be saued not yet knowing the meanes and the way to saluation which argues the great securitie of our age and contempt of God oh take thou heede betimes vse all good meanes before-hand that thou maist be able in sickenesse to put in practise these spirituall exercises of Repentance and Inuocation The second branch of the sicke mans preparation concernes himselfe and that eyther his soule or his body for the soule D. Maxeys Sermon on the Agonie of Christ Laboraui in gemitu meoâ— First the sicke partie must arme himselfe against the feare of death and feeling of sicknesse Death is very fearefull to all men euen to the godly as one obserues well in Dauid for all who though hee were neyther daunted with Sauls malice nor the Philistines hatred nor Absolons Treason nor Achitophels treachery nor in grapling with a Lyon nor in fighting with a Beare nor incountring Goliah yet when Death beganne to close vvith him and lay holde on him then hee cryes out Oh I am troubled aboue measure Oh spare mee a little Psal 6.3 39.13 Therefore thus incourage thy present feeling and greater feare First that sicknesse and so death is the rod of a Father not the whip of a Iudge the correction not destruction of a Sonne Heb.
pined with hunger wanting crummes payned with vlcers wanting comforts reiected of men his best Physicke the Dogs tongues ere hee were carryed by the Angels into Heauen Luke 16. I might instance in the Creeple that was lame from his mothers wombe that sate at the gate of Salomons Temple called Beautifull Acts 3.2 v. 6. and in that other impotent Creeple at Lystra which were both of them healed and helped the one by Peter and Iohn Acts 14. v. 8. the other by Paul and Barnabas Acts 14.8.9.10 In Aeneas that kept his couch eight yeeres sicke of the Palsie yet in the name of Christ made whole Iohn 9. v. 6.7 Acts 9.33.34 In him that was blinde from his birth Iohn 9.2 In those two blinde men that cryed after Christ Mat. 9.27 All which by faith receiued their sight from him that is the light of the world So in those whose Sonnes and Daughters were dispossessed of those tormenting Spirits Mat. 9. v. 29. wherewith from their Cradles they were possessed Marke 9.21 verse 25. Luke 9.42 Mat. 15.22 with all the rest of the halt blinde dumbe maymed c. that were cast downe at IESVS his feete and healed Mat. 15.30.31 If I should set before you in order Dauids suffrings in this kinde you would wonder who though hee were a King a Priest and a Prophet a man after Gods owne heart yet indured dira dura hard and harsh pressures GOD so tempered his cup that hee occasionedly cryes out that by reason of his outward and inward sorrowes there was no health in his flesh no rest in his bones his wounds stincking through corruptnesse his loynes filled vvith sore diseases no sound part in his body his flesh trembling within him and the terrours of death comming about him his heart panting his eyes dimmed his strength failing euery way so perplexed that his extremities cause him not onely to cry and call and complaine and groane but euen to roare and bellow out like an Oxe pricked in the bitternesse of his soule Psal 55.4.5 Psal 38.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 c. yet for all that so freed so comforted after that his heart was filled with ioy and his mouth with laughter that hee broke forth into prayses vnto his God vvith ioyfull songs for his deliuerance Apply this Mithridate of these examples to thine owne ruptures Did not the LORD loue those whom he so visited as well as hee loueth thee Did hee release those and can hee not release and relieue thee Is the Lords hand shortened that hee cannot helpe or his eare heauy that hee will not heare Esay 59.1 c. 8 Thy dolours are nothing if they be compared with the sufferings and Passion of Christ the Messias Psal 22. Esay 53. neyther in their vehemencie or continuation all his whole life from his Cradle in Bethlem to his Crosse in Golgotha being a dying life or a liuing death exposed to the malice madnesse opprobries and calumnies of his enemies Herod and Herodians Scribes Pharisies Sadduces Iewes Iudas to 1. Pouertie Hunger 2. Thirst Wearinesse c. which miserable life was concluded with such a death so ignominious for the shame of it Phil. 2.8 so dolorous 1. both in respect of paines of body by the Nayles and Thornes in the sinewie parts of the body 2. and of griefes of minde for the ingratitude of the Iewes the treason of Iudas the faintnesse of his Disciples 3. and of the tortures of soule in the apprehension of the wrath of his Father that in his entrance into it hee sweat water and bloud in the Garden in the vndergoing of it hee cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee All concurring together make such a confluence of sorrowes that thy greatest paines are but pleasures and refreshings nay the sufferings of all the Martyres 1. Steuen Iohn Baptist 2. Iames 3. Peter Paul Lawrence c. and the rest doe not poize and paralell it in the least particulars Now canst thou grudge against thy God for afflicting thee deseruedly that art nocent being his Sonne by Adoption when hee imposed so much vpon his owne Sonne by Nature being innocent onely made sinne for thee Rom. 4. vers 25. 9 By these sufferings thou art made conformable to the Image of Christ Rom. 8.29 who by many tribulations entred into glory Luke 24.26 Non debent sub spinoso capite membra esse mollia It is vnseemely for the members to goe one way when the head goes another if thou beest a part of Christs body then a head of thornes must haue pricked members 10 There is no greife so great but the Lord can and will in his due time ease and relieue thee as hee hath promised Psal 50. vers 15. yea from thy most grieuous diseases Exod. 15.20 Psal 34.18 For when did any of the Lords Children cry vnto him but hee heard and holpe them Psal 107.13.14 God is able to helpe he will helpe he knowes how to deliuer his out of euery tentation and will deliuer them Esay 5.2 Esay 59.1 2 Pet. 2.9 11 Christ thy high Priest is touched with a fellow-feeling of thine infirmities hauing had experience of them in thy owne nature Heb. 4.15.16 12 This sickenesse of thine is the Herauld and Summoner of thy death the warning-peece of thy departing it it needfull that this earthly house of thine thy terrestriall Tabernacle be pulled downe piece-meale by sickenesse that thou maist be cloathed with a better house from heauen 2 Cor. 5.1 13 This thy sicknesse is an excellent Tutor to catechize and instruct thee in the Schoole of Christianitie it reades as it were a Diuinitie Lecture vnto thee in Christs owne Colledge 1. of the * Gen 3.18.19 fall of Adam 2. the miseries of man in life 3. his mortalitie in death 4. the desert of sinne 5. thine owne vvretchednesse and vnworthinesse 6. thy corruptions originall 7. thy transgressions actuall 8. the vilenesse of man 9. the Equitie Iustice Maiestie Mercy Goodnesse and Greatnesse of Almightie GOD besides it fits and prepares thee for a better life 14 Remember how many grosse and raigning sinnes this thy sickenesse hath cured or at least curbed in thee besides those which it hath restrained Quod medicina corpori hoc morbus animae how hath it quenched in thee the fire of Lust how hath it pulled downe the head of Pride how hath it brideled thy Anger how restrayned thy Malice how dammed vp the streame of inordinate passions of head-strong lustfull luxurious couetous and carnall affections For to whom sickenesse is sanctified it is Physicall to the soule as medicines are to the body thy soule is sicke of the Lethargie of sinne scorcht with Lust inflamed with the burning Feauer of Concupiscence distempered vvith the cold palsie of Couetousnesse coldnesse of Zeale tympanie of Pride swelling of Aemulation with a number of such like infirmities Now as Physicke is vngratefull to the Patient yet wholesome so is sickenesse to thy body but take it patiently
because God thy Physitian prescribes it for goods ends 15 As this thy sickenesse cures many sins so causarily and occasionedly it preuents many to which thy nature is inclined How many doe liue and lye and snort in sinne soyling their soules with all manner of pollutions that it were better for them to be sicke in their beds How many profane a Heb. 12. Esaw's b Luke 15. prodigall young men loose Libertines like c Ier. 5.8 Horses are neighing after their neighbours Wiues like d Prou. 7.7 Salomons Foole are watching the twilight to sleepe in the house of the strange woman following e Verse 22. her like an Oxe to the slaughter to the very Chamber of Death How f Verse 27. many are drinking daily in Ale-houses Hell-houses or Tauernes in their Germaine healths following the sinnes of g Ezek. 16. Sodome Idlenesse and fulnesse of bread and fulnesse of drinke to like Epicures and Belly-gods till they breake out into all excesse of Riot Blasphemies Oathes Beastialities Swaggerings Swearings Raylings Reuilings h Pro. 23.29 Fightings and Bloud-sheds whose states were better to haue sober soules in sicke bodies then to haue defiled and damned soules in such pampered bodies i Esay 5.11 that are strong to drinke Wine and to poure in new Wine till they be inflamed How many are scraping and scrawling and scratching for this earth in which they wroote and digge like Moales and Swine till they open a pit from which they leape into Hell selling their soules for the Mammon of iniquitie like k Mat. 26.15 Iudas and Demas whose bodies if they were more sickely perhaps their soules would be more healthy and holy and their estate more happy How many Country-men ride and runne like mad men vp and downe to the Citie and in the Citie for the tearme of life from the Innes of Court to Westminster not sparing the very Sabbath to effect their couetous or malicious plots against their neighbours who were safer at home sicke in their beds then here to imploy their strong bodyes and politique pates in the Diuels Office to be accusers and tormenters of their Brethren The Whore that hunts for the precious soule of a man the Theefe that waytes like a Lyon in his Denne to catch his prey the Vsurer that bites to the bones and deuoures the flesh the l Pro. 21.17 Gamester that holds a false Plough the Player and the Pander and all the rest of Sathans Factors that exchange his sinnes for soules liuing in vnlawfull callings vpon the sinnes of the people how much better had it beene for them that their Mothers vvombes had beene their perpetuall beds and graues or that they were all their life time imprisoned in their priuate Chambers tyed to their couches with the cords of sickenesse then to runne head-long in such courses to hell strong and liuely where they shall be chained and pained eternally in the bottomlesse pit Besides how many abuse their outward members and senses in the seruice of sinne and Sathan whose case would be easier in iudgement if they had neuer had them or by diseases were depriued of them The vnchaste Eye that lusts after a woman the window that lets lusts into the soule were it not better pluckt out Oh that Sampson Sichem Potiphars wife and Dauid had beene blinde then when they beheld those beauties that vvere there banes Those whose feete are ready to shed bloud swift to euill as Hazael speedy to runne to sinne how good were it for them to be lame those that haue hands to perpetrate mischiefe were better their hands vvere withered like Ieroboams Oh what a blessing were it to be dumbe to those whose tongues being set on fire on hell are a world of vvickednesse polluting eyther the Name the Word and Workes of GOD by oathes and blasphemies so obliging their guilty soules to condemnation and swift vengeance 2. or the good name of their neighbours by slanders and calumnies 3. or their chastities by filthy and rotten speeches How much better were it for our riotous Libertines and licentious Gentlemen that liue here like the Athenians to doe nothing but heare or see or tell new things to be deafe without eares then to drinke in daily such deadly infection through that sense as the Spunge suckes water from soule-poysoning Playes Now how mercifull is God to thee not onely by this crosse to mortifie sinne in the inward affection but to restraine and refraine thee from the very outward action 16 This thy sickenesse it glorifies God it tends to the glory of God thou art not punished because God hates thee aboue others for those vpon whom the Tower of Siloh fell were no greater sinners then the rest Lu. 13.1.2.3 Neyther did thou or thy Parents perhaps sinne aboue others as Christ said of the blinde man Iohn 9.3 but that the glory of God might appeare both the glory of his power free-will in creating thee so Esay 45. v. 6. v. 9. Esd 4. as also the glory of his might and his mercy in curing thee for so all the miraculous cures that the Lord wrought in the old or new Testament did tend to his owne glory both in the thankefull gratulations of his Saints for them as in their ioyfull promulgations and declarations of them Thus Dauid and m Esay 38.9.10 c. Ezekias in their Eucharisticall Hymnes and Songs of deliuerance after their sicknesse n 2 Kings 5.15 Iohn 9.17 Mat. 8. Luk. 17.16 Naaman his acknowledgement and confession of the true God of Israell the sicke of the Palsie healed the blinde man cured the Centurions seruant recouered the Samaritan cleansed confessing their sinnes proclayming Christs mercies and divulging the Miracles were instruments of Gods glory 17 These thy Maladies are no arguments that God hates thee for in this nature or some other God chasteneth euery Sonne whom he receiueth None euer eyther Patriarkes Prophets or Apostles went to heauen out of the crosse way Mat. 22. by which CHRIST himselfe went to glory Therefore as Christ to shew his loue pittie and compassion to the diseased and distressed inuited the halt blinde and lame to his great Supper and wils others to inuite them to their feasts so hee himselfe will accept them in his Kingdome as he did Lazarus These Cordials may be applyed to euery ordinary visitation but if thy paines be permanent and thy dolours extreame and durable yet thus reuiue thy fainting spirits and strengthen thy selfe by these Meditations 18 THat at furthest they can but continue this short and transitory course of this life they shall expire with death thy dayes flye as fast as the Bird in the ayre the Ship in the Sea the Arrow out of a Bow or the swiftest things in Nature Now thy Diseases are designed vvithin the limits of this briefe and brittle life they haue their date in thy death at which time they bid thee adiew neuer to returne but ioyes to succeede 19