But yet for me I am a younger brother too to this man who dyed now and to every man whom I see or hear to die before me and all they are ushers to me in this School of death I take therefore that which thy servant Davids Wife said to him to be said to me If thou save not thy life to night to morrow thou shalt be slain 1 Sam. 16. 11. If the death of this man work not upon me now I shall die worse than if thou hadst not afforded me this help For thou hast sent him in this Bell to me as thou didst send to the Angel of Sardis with Commission to strengthen the things that remain and that are ready to die Apoc. 3. 2. That in this weakness of body I might receive spiritual strength by these occasions If I mistake thy Voice herein if I over-run thy pace and prevent thy Hand and imagin Death more instant upon me than thou hast bid him be yet the Voice belongs to me I am dead I was born dead and from the first laying of these mud-walls in my conception they have moldred away and the whole Course of Life is but an active death Whether this voice instruct me that I am a dead Man now or remember me that I have been a dead Man all this while I humbly thank thee O Lord for speaking in this Voice to my Soul When Invited to the House of Weeping Reflect and say DUty obliging me to perform the last Office of Love to my Friend I will surely follow his Corps to the Grave that in such a Spectacle as in a Glass I may behold my own Mortality for tho I always carry about me the Symptoms of Mortality and the marks of Death yet have I hitherto lived as if I should never die In small Villages where Instances of Mortality are very rare there the inward thoughts of their Hearts seem to be that they and their Houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all Generations In Populous Towns and Cities there the commonness takes away the sense of Mortality And oh how sad is it to behold the unsuitable Carriage of the generality of Christians at Funerals those opportunities are usually spent in unprofitable Chat in Mirth in Eating and Drinking and that sometimes to Excess and thus the House of Mourning is turned into the House of Mirth and Feasting But Lord grant that this may not be my practice when I come to the House of Mourning where my Friend now lyes dead Let my Eyes affect my Heart that I may seriously mind the present instance of Mortality and be affected with such Meditations as these Lord this Tragedy that is now acting on my deceased friend must ere long God knows how soon be acted on me my Breath is ready to perish the Earth is gaping for me yet a little while and I shall be carried down into the Chambers of Death Lord teach me so to number my days that I may apply my Heart unto true Wisdom As thou art walking along to the House oâ—… Weeping seriously meditate on Ruth 1. Ver. 17. WHere thou dyest will I dye and there I will be buried the Lord do so to me and more also if ought but Death part thee and me Where thou dyest will I dye Here Ruth supposeth two things 1. That she and her Mother in Law should both dye It is appointed once to dye 2dly That Naomi as the eldest should die first For according to the Ordinary custom of Nature it is the most probable and likely that those that are most stricken in years should first depart this life Yet I know not whether the Rule or Exceptions be more general and therefore let both Young and Old prepare for Death the first may die soon but the second cannot live long And there will I be buried Where she supposed two things more first That those that survived her would do her that favour to bury her which is a common courtesie not to be denyed to any It was an Epitaph written upon the Grave of a Begger Nudus eram vivus mortuus ecce tegor 2dly She supposeth they would bury her according to her instructions near to her Mother Naomi Observation As it is good to enjoy the company of the Godly while they are living so it is not amiss if it will stand with convenience to be buried with them after death The old prophets bones escaped a burning by being buried with the other Prophets and the Man who was tumbled into the grave of Elisha was revived by the virtue of his Bones And we read in the Acts and Monuments That the body of Peter Martyr's wife was was buried in a dunghil but afterwards being taken up in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth it was honourably buried in Oxford in the grave of one Frideswick a Popish-she-Saint to this end that if Popery which God forbid should over-spread our Kingdom again and if the Papists should go about to untomb Peter Martyrs Wifes Bones they should be puzzled to distinguish betwixt the Womans body and the Reliques of that their Saint so good it is sometimes to be buried with those whom some do account pious though perchance in very deed they be not so The Lord do so to me and more also To ascertain Naomi of the seriousness of her intentions herein Ruth backs what formerly she had said with an Oath lined with an execration If ought but Death See here the large extent of a Saints love it lasts till Death and no wonder for it is not founded upon Honour Beauty wealth or any other finister respect in the party beloved which is subject to Age or Mutability but only on the Grace and Piety in him which Foundation because it always lasteth the love which is built upon it is also perpetual Part thee and me Death is that which parteth one Friend from another Then the dear Father must part with his dutiful Child then the dutiful Child must forget his Dear Father then the kind Husband must leave his constant Wife then the constant Wife most lose her kind Husband then the careful Master must be sundred from his industrious Servant then the industrious Servant must be sundred from his careful Master Yet this may be some comfort to those whose Friends death hath taken away that as our Disciples Yet a little while and you shall not see me and yet a little while and you shall see me again So yet a little while and we shall not see our Friends and yet a little while and we shall see them again in the Kingdom of Heaven for not mittuntur sed 〈◊〉 we do not forego them but they go before us When thou art enter'd into the House of Weeping fall down on thy knees and say OH Lord our God in thee and by thee we live move and have our Being As thou didst at the first breath into Man the Breath of Life and he became a living Soul so when thou
his Dead as Abraham did here to love the Memory of the Dead to speak well of the Dead when occasion serveth to commend them for their Vertues to use the Friends of the Dead as far as is in their power with all Courtesie to be good to the Children of the Dead to be good to all that come of that Issue for their sakes Let me bury my Dead Lastly it followeth why he would bury his Dead Out of my sight A strange thing Out of my sight The best Friend in the World cannot endure the sight of a dead Body it is a gastly sight especially when it cometh to that dissolution that the parts begin to have an evil savour and smell as all have when they are Dead then to keep themselves in Life and Health it is necessary to avoid them to bury their Dead out of their sight And what so sweet a sight once to blessed Abraham as Sarah What so sweet a spectacle to the World as Sarah The great Kings of the World set her as a Parragon and she came no where but her Beauty enamoured them she was a sweet prospect in all Eyes every Man gaz'd on her with great content to see the Beauty of God as in so many lines marked out in the face of Sarah Yet now she is odious every Eye that looked upon her before now winks and cannot endure to look upon her she must be taken out of sight Oh bethink your selves of this you that take pride in this frail Flesh that prank up your selves to make you Graceful in every Eye you that study to please the Beholders you that are the great Minions of the World you that when Age beginneth to purle your Faces begin to redeem your selves with Paintings think of this Mother Sarah the beautifullest Woman in the World is loathsome to her Husband her sweetest Friend when once she is dead The Funeral Procession SERMON VI. ECCLES 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the streets ALthough I might in the Kings King Solomon's name command yet I will rather in the Preachers his other style humbly entreat your religious Attention to the last Scene and Catastrophe of Man's Life consisting of two Acts and those very short 1. The Dead's Pass he goeth c. 2. The Mourners March they go abâ—…ut c. Little Children newly born take in their first Breath with a sigh and come crying into the World assoon as they open their Eyes they shed Tears to help fill up the Vale of Tears into which they were then brought and shall be after a short time carried out with a stream of them running from the Eyes of all their Friends And if the Prologue and Epilogue be no better what shall we judge of the Scenes and Acts of the Life of Man they yield so deep springs of Tears and such store of Arguments against our abode in this World that many reading them in the Books of Hegesiâ—…s the Platonick presently brake the Prison of their Body and leaped out of the World into the Grave others concluded with Silenus Optimum non nasci proximum quam primum mori that it was simply best never to be born the next to it to die out of hand and give the World our salve and take our vale at once The dead go directly to their long home the living fetch a compass and round about the â—…ermini of which their motions shall be the bounds of my Discourse at this present Old Men are a kind of Antipodes to young Men it is evening with them when it is morning with these it is Autumn in their Bodies when it is Spring in these The Spring of the year to decrepit old men is as the Fall Summer is Winter to them and Winter death it is no pleasure to them to see the Almond-tree flourish which is the Prognosticatour of the Spring or the Grashopper leap and sing the Preludium of Summer for they now mind not the Almond-tree but the Cipress nor think of the Grashopper but of the Worm because they are far on in their way to their long home and the mourners are already in the streets marshalling as it were their Troops and setting all in equipage for their Funeral no dilectable objects affect their dull and dying Senses but are rather grievous unto them desire faileth because Man goeth to his long home that is it doth in the best and should in all for what a preposterous thing were it for a Man that hath one foot already in the Grave and is drawing the other after to desire to cut a cross Câ—…per and dance the Morâ—…ice or for him that is near his eternal Mansion-house to hanker by the way and feast and revel it in an Inne By long home according to the Chaldee Paraphrase is here meant the Grave or the place where our Bodies or to speak more properly our Remains are bestowed and abide till the time of the Resstitution of all things the place where all meet who lived together the rendevouze of all our deceased Friends Allies and Kindred even as far as Adam this home may be called a long home in comparison of our short homes from which we remove daily these Houses we change at pleasure that we cannot there our Flessi or our Bones or at least our Ashes or Dust shall be kept in some place of the Earth or Sea till the Heavens shall be no more Job 14. 12. I answer By Mourners are here meant all that attend the Corps to the Funeral whether they mourn in truth or for fashion and they are said here to go about the Streets either for the reason alledged by Bonaventure quia predolore quiescere nequiunt because they cannot rest for Hearts Grief and Sorrow or they go about the Streets to call company to the Funeral or because they fetch their compass that they might make a more solemn Procession to the Church or Sepulchre Among the Romans the Friends of the deceased hired certain Women whom they called 〈◊〉 to lament over their dead for the most part among the Jews this sad task was put upon Widows for they took it upon themselves as the words of the Prophet imply and there were no VVidows to make lamentation and of the Evangelist also Acts 9. 39. and the Widows stood by weeping for Dorcas and indeed Widows are very proper for this imployment When a Pot of water is full to the Brim a little motion makes it run over Widows that are Widows indeed and have lost in their Husbands all the Joy and Comfort of their Life have their Eyes brim full of Tears and therefore most easily they overflow There are but Three things appertaining to Man here 1. Life 2. Death 3. Burial And see they are all Three in the Text. 1. Man goeth there is his Life 2. To his loâ—…g home there is his Death 3. And the Mourners go about the Streets there is his Burial described by
promise to thy self length of days yet thou must know also that a man even at the highest pitch of health when he hath that same Fencer-like kind of strength is nearest danger in the Judgment of the best Physicians remember with all that observation of Seneca Young Men saith he have Death behind them Old Men have Death before them and all men have Death not far from them we may in a manner complain already that the great God of Battle threatens an utter ruin to all the World the Earth hath trembled the Lights of Heaven have been often darkned Rebellions have been raised Treasons have not long since been practised Plagues of late have been dispersed Winds have blustered Waters have raged and what wants there now but those two Arrows of God even Sword and Fire from Heaven for us to be consumed Is it now think you a time to buy to sell to eat to drink and to live securely in sin as they did in the days of Noah and think of nothing else is it now a time to say unto Almighty God as the Nigard doth unto his Neighbour come again to me to morrow as that drousie Sluggard doth Prov. 6. 10. Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little foulding of the hands to sleep The foolish Virgins supposed that the Bridegroom would not have come like an Owl or a Batt in the night there is time enough said they what needs all this haste but poor Fools they were excluded Oh! I cannot forbear my very Heart even bleeds within me to think of it yea all the faculties of my Soul and Body are strucken with horrour and amazement while I declare unto you how that many Thousands now are doubtless in Hell who purposed in time to have set their Houses in order but being prevented by Death are for ever condemned O here I could heartily wish with Jeremy that I had in the Wilderness a Cottage Yea I could wish with Job that I were a Brother to the Dragons and a Companion to the Ostriches whilst I think of that wish I am now uttering nay I could willingly desire with the Princely Prophet David that my Heart were full of Water and that mine Eyes were a Fountain of tears that I might weep Day and Night for the too too common Sins of this our Age in every kind Now you are in your preparations for Eternity and therefore had need to be very watchful over your selves to see that you set your Houses in order for you shall die and not live And this brings me now unto the very last thing observable in my Text and that is of the reason Negative and shalt not live set thy House c Chrysostom prying into the base Nature of Man and finding him ever out of order teacheth him a seven-fold consideration of himself First What he is by nature what he is in himself Dust and Ashes Gen. 18. 2. Secondly What is within him much sin Thirdly What is before him a burning Lake which is spoken of Isai. 30. 33. Fourthly What is above him an offended Justice Deut. 32. 16. Fifthly What is against him Satan and Sin two notorious and deadly Enemies Sixthly What is before him transitory trifle and worldly vanities And then seventhly and lastly He desires man seriously to consider what is behind him infallible Death for semel aut bis morimur omnes Some once some twice we must all die and not live You cannot like Enoch Heb. 11. 5. be translated but must suffer Death as well as other Men being common to all Whatsoever thou dost affect whatsoever thou dost project so do and so project all at once who for any thing thou knowest may at this very present depart out of this Life Hypocrates although he could not cure till Death came upon him Heraclitus who writ many natural Tracts concerning the last and general consolation of the World could not find out a Remedy or a Medicine for his Distemper but died out of hand Thus you may see how that God spares none but sends one thing or other to bring us to our long home And thus far concerning the Death of the Body shall suffice which was the Death good King Hezekiah was forewarned of Wherefore now I shall but only speak a word or two of the Soul and likewise of the Death of the Soul and Body and so conclude First as there is a Natural Death viz. the Death of the Body so likewise there is a Spiritual Death viz. of the Soul when it is deprived of those Graces which formerly God did bestow upon it for as the Soul is the light and life of the Body even so Almighty God is the light and life of the Soul When he takes his holy Spirit from us then we walk in the shadow of Death this Death is an ill Fruit of Sin therefore let us set our Houses in order But secondly As there is a natural Death and a spiritual Death so likewise there is an eternal Death called in the Ornament of Grace the second Death This Death as well as the Death of the poor Soul is lamented by God Esay 59. 2. As I live saith the Lord I desire not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he may turn from his Wickedness and live I might now likewise add a fourth Death and that is a civil Death an undoing of our Credit and honest Reputation which many Men die but this I shall leave to your consideration and so conclude O my dearly beloved Friends consider what you are all by nature What is within you What is above you What is below you What is against you What is before you What is behind you and that is infallible Death For here is not one here amongst you be he never so strong never so healthly but that within the Revolution of a few years shall be brought in spight of his teeth unto the Grave Wherefore let your Houses be dâ—…ly perfumed by a Morning and Evening Sacrifice of Prayer Praise unto Almighty God both which were appointed under the Law Exod. 29. 38. 39. And this shadowed what was to be performed under the Gospel God renews his Mercies to you every Morning and protects you from manifold dangers every Night whereunto you are subject and you be so ungrateful as to banish all his benefits out of your Memories who is every Moment so mindful of you As therefore beloved you tender the Salvation of your poor Souls look home and mourn for your Original sin steep your Eyes in Tears write Letters of â—…scomfort upon the Ground as you go let the streams of your fighs and the sweet Incense of your Prayers rise up like Mountains before the Lord of Hosts and bedewing your Cheeks with tears make your humble Confession unto God Almighty not of sin alone but of all your sins of what nature degree or height soever they be and by your unfeigned Confession so accuse your selves that you may not hereafter be accused of
Affliction that he is upon his Journey Thus are we all carried to the Gibbet of Death we are all upon the way only parted by some little Intervals They do not leave us at our Death but go before us But thou wilt say I am in Health I perceive no likelyhood of Death Whatever thou sayst thou art upon thy Journey and we are upon the Road as thou art But I sayst thou have not attained my Thirtieth year Thou wert in the way at Twenty yea at Ten ev'n at one year nay at the first Hour only go on shortly thou wilt be at thy Journeys end But I sleep well relish my Meat and Drink well Fool that thou art Death minds none of these things We are in the way see where the Gibbet threatens thee But a little while and thou shalt expire and with thee all thy Pomp and Luxury dies All our Life is the way to Death Sect. 41. A most Compendious and the best Permeditation upon Death Happy to be in Death first learn to live That thou mayst happy live to dye first strive THis is the Sum of all this is the Art of Arts. To live well we must learn as long as we live and which some perhaps may more admire all our life long we must learn to dye So many great Men leaving all their lumber behind when they had renounced their Riches their Pleasures and their Offices have employed themselves in this one thing to the last that they might know how to live But many of these confessing they had not learnt their Lesson have departed this Life But how shall they know this that never endeavouted to learn Most Mortals care not for living well but for living long Some then begin to live when they are ready to leave the World Hence it is that we are empty of all those Comforts which we desire at the end of our Lives fearful of death and ignorant of living VVhoever then desires to learn the Art of living let him first learn the Art of dying Perhaps some may think that needless to be learnt which is but once to be made use of Therefore it is that we are with all diligence to apply our selves to this Study For that is always to be learnt of which whither we know it or no we can never make the Experiment The great matter is not to live the great matter is to dye Sect. 42. To day for me to morrow for thee FRancis the First King of France being tak'n by Charles the Fifth when he had read at Madrid Charles's Impress upon the Wall Plus ultra Farther yet added thereto To day for me to morrow for thee The Victor took it not ill but to shew that he understood it wrote underneath I am a Man there is no humane accident but may befal me Elegantly Gregory Nazianzene The Head quoth he grows gray the Summer of Life is at Hand The Sickle is sharpn'd against us and I fear least while we are asleep and lull'd in hopes the terrible Reaper come But thou wilt say old Men fear I am young Be not deceived Death is not perfixed to any Age. The same Bier to day carries an old Man to morrow beautiful Youth to day a strong lusty Man to morrow a Virgin or an old Woman Seneca speaks to the purpose Death saith he ought to be set before the Eyes of young as well as old Men For we are not summoned by the Censers Books wherein the Ages of every one are set down Such a Partial Citation might serve for War but not for Death The last Farewel and Admonishment of all dying Men is this To day I to morrow Thou But the Dead alter the Sentence and they crie I yesterday Thou to day Be mindful of Death be mindful of Eternity which I yesterday thou to day or to morrow shalt begin never to end with either Sect. 43. Therefore Live while thou hast NOT for thy Wit not for thy Body not for thy Pleasure not for thy Vertues sake but for Heaven and for Gods sake Live and Act as well suffering for God as acting and labouring For thou knowest not how long thou shalt subsist nor how soon thy maker will take thee away Most wisely admonishes the wisest of Preachers Whatever thou takest in Hand to do that do with all thy power for in the Grave that thou goest unto there is neither Work Counsel Knowledg nor Wisdom Therefore as the Apostles exhorts us Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not While we have therefore time let us do good unto all Men. Thou hast begun to Labour prosecute thy labour begun with a coâ—…tinual Industry Never cease nor intermit that Labour which may bring to Heaven For there is no moment of thy Life wherein thou mayst not gain and increase thy Heavenly Treasure In this manner therefore labour without ceasing The time of rest shall come which no labour shall ever interrupt The Life of Man is a Warfare upon Earth and like the days of a Bond-Servant are his Days A Hireling saith St. Gregory allwages the Pains of his Labour with the thoughts of his wages A Hireling is sollicitous least any day should pass him without work for he knows that the Night is for rest and that the Day is appointed for Labour Do thou therefore Labour while it is day while thou hast an opportunity to Work The Night cometh says the voice of Truth when no Man can work Therefore work while the Sun favours thee There is one that will pay thee for thy Labour Thou hast a perpetual and most accurate Overseer of thy work who is God who keeps the number of the Haires of thy Head so doth he keep an account of thy least Faâ—…lings and of the smallest of thy Actions done in Honour of Him Never question it he numbers all thy steps With one leap yea with one step thou hast finished thy whole Journey to Eternity but take heed that thou fiâ—…est thy â—…et right For such shalt thou be to Eternity as thou weâ—…t at thy Death Sect. 43. If to Morrow why not to Day THere is â—…ut one and that a most ponderous Chain that holds us fast the Love of Life which as it is not always to be contemned so there is an allay to be allowed it so that nothing may hinder us but that we may be always prepared to do that presently which is at some time to be done Life is not imperfect so it be upright VVhere-ever thy end happen if thy Life be good thy end is safe St. Austin Bishop of Hippo went to visit another Bishop of his Familiar Acquaintance lying in Extremity to whom as he was lifting up his Hands to Heaven to signifie his Departure St. Austin replyed That he was a great support of the Church and worthy of a longer Life to whom the sick Person made this answer If never 't were another thing but if at
Execution the fire being kindled he lift up his Hands crying Lord I believe so yielded up his Spirit unto God Anno 1531. The Death of William Tyndal THE English Merchants at Antwerp hearing of his Imprisonment became suitors for his Deliverance but Philips with his Money prevailed beyond their Entreaties Being at last brought to his Answer although his Enemies could lay nothing to his Charge yet the Attorney proceeded to condemn him and delivered him to the Magistrates to execute him When brought to the Stake he cried with an audible voice Lord open the Eyes of the King of England then being strangled fire was set to the Wood and he consumed to Ashes Anno Christi 1536. Within a short time after the Judgment of God overtook Phillips who betrayed him insomuch that he was eaten up with Lice The Death of Bertholdus Halerus HE was born in Helvetia 1502. and from his Child-hood much addicted to Learning Several Disputations he held with the Helvetians especially with Eccius the Pope's Champion In his time Popery was extinguished in many places and shortly after he died with an immature Death Anno 1536. aged 44. The Death of Urbanus Regis ON Sunday in the Evening he complained of a pain his Head yet was chearful and went to Bed early in the morning rising out of his Bed he fell upon the Floor and seeing his Wife and Friends mourning he comforted them and commended himself to his Maker and within three hours he died May 23. Anno 1541. He often desired God he might die an easie and sudden Death wherein God answered his Desires He wrote several Treatises which his Son Ernest digested together and Printed at Norenburg The Death of Caralostadius HE underwent great Afflictions by Printing some of his Books concerning the Lord's Supper the Senate of Zurick forbidding their People to read them but Zuinglius exhorted them first to read and then to pass judgment on them saying Caralostadius knew the Truth but had not well expressed it He went to Basil where he taught ten years and there died of the Plague Anno 1541. The Death of Capito HE went to several places as Strâ—…burg where he met with Bucer whose Fame spread so far that the Queen of Navarre sent for 'em so that France oweth the beginning of her Reformation to Capitâ—… and Bacer He was prudent eloquent and studious of Peace the better part of his time he employed in Preaching and giving wholsome Advice to the Churches 〈◊〉 length returning home in a general Infection he dyed of the Plague Anno 1541. aged 63. The Death of Leo Judae HE Translated part of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew but the work being so Laborious and being Aged he dyed before he had finished it Anno. 1542. aged 60. Four days before his Death sending for the Pastors of Zurick he made a Confession of his Faith concerning God the Scriptures the Person and Offices of Christ concluding To this my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ my hope and my salvation I wholly offer up my Soul and Body I cast my self wholly upon his mercy and grace c. And so recommended to God the Senate and People of Zeriâ—…k The Death of George Spaladius HE was born at Noricum and brought up in Learning especially in the knowledge of Humane Aâ—…rs wherein he profited so much that the Elector of Saxony made him one of his Privy Council He continued in his Office till the time of his Death which fell-out Anne 1545. aged 63. He wrote many Treatises but especially a Chronicle from the beginning of the World to his time The Death of Myconius IN several Countries he preached the Gospel sincerely and purely though to the hazard of his Life at last he fell into a Consumption and wrote to Luther That he was sick not to Death but to Life He dyed Anno 1546. aged 55. The Death of John Diazius FInding he could not pervert his Brother Diazius from the Truth he acted the Hypocrite and told him he was in love with his Doctrine then he would have persuaded him to go into Italy Spain Rome and Naples and there privately spread his Doctrine but John Diazius refusing his Brother then took leave of him in order to his Journey but privately he and the Cut-Throat stayed at a Village and purchased a Hatchet of a Carpenter then going disguised the Villain pretended to bring Letters from his Brother which whilst John was reading the Executioner struck the Hatchet into his Temples upon which he died immediately The Murtherers were afterwards apprehended but by the practice of Papists who highly applauded the Fact and to hinder the current of Justice they pretended the Emperor would have the hearing of the Cause himself Six years after Alphonsus hanged himself about the Neck of his own Mule a fair reward for so foul a Fratricide The Death of Gasper Cruciger HE was a Man of great Learning very Religious and delighted much in Luther's Books and Doctrine He often contemplated the Foot-steps of God in Nature saying with St. â—…ul That God was so near unto us that he might almost 〈◊〉 felt with our Hands Considering the Vicissitude or Earthly Things he often repeated this Verse Besides God's love nothing is sure And that forever doth endure In his sickness he caused his young Daughters to repeat their Prayers before him and then himself prayed fervently for the Church and those his Orphans concluding I call upon thee with a weak yet with a true Faith I believe thy Promises which thou hast sealed to me with thy Blood and Resurrection c. He spent the few days which remained in prayer and Repentance and so quietly ended his days November the 16th Anno 1548. aged 45. The Death of Matthias Zellius HE was not only famous for Learning but for other Christian Vertues especially Modesty Temperance and Charity having a special care of the Poor for being invited to Supper by one of his Colleagues and seeing much Plate was offended and went his way without eating but afterwards so far prevailed with him that he sold his Plate and was more open-handed to the poor he dyed 1548. aged 71. The Death of Vitus Theodorus HE often disputed with his Papistical Adversaries and overthrew all their Arguments at length he was called to be a Pastor at Norimberg his own Country where he preached the Gospel with great Zeal and Eloquence to the great Advantage of his Auditors he dyed Anno. 1549. The Death of Paul Fagius FAgius died of a burning Feaver or as some say was poysoned by the Papists so that Anno 1550. he was intombed at Cambridge from whence in the Reign of Q. Mary the Papists having condemned him for a Heretick took his Bones and burnt them The Death of Martin Bucer IN his Sickness Learned Men came to visit him especially Doctor Bradford who one day taking leave of him to go preach told him he would remember him in his Prayers whereupon Bucer with tears in his
discourse was in hand he was but dull Company he had little to say but if the Conference were Heavenly he was as upon the Wing as a fish in the Water and a Bird in the Air c. He would often say with pious Dod come enough of the World now let us talk of Heaven If it be here objected that he was in his younger years of a vain and slight conversation I answer First Divine Love rideth in greatest triumph when it hath the greatest sinners following it as it's Captives Secondly Some in the Church of Corinth that did heartily close with Christ were before their Conversion very Vile and Wicked see 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed c. But Thirdly This blessed Saint would to his dying day acknowledge his former vanity to his own shame and the lifting up of the Riches of free grace and mind what the Apostle saith 1 John 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness I shall now close up all with a word or two by way of Caution and that First Though this stroke of God be just matter of weeping and sorrow yet you must take heed of a murmuring Spirit You have cause to be displeased with your selves and your sins but not with God because God takes away nothing but what he first gave The Person and gifts of this Saint were given unto you by the Lord he hath taken nothing but his own Learn therefore to say with Job Chap. 1. 21. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Secondly Though you are to weep under this stroke yet take heed of mourning as those without hope without hope I say 1. With respect to him his happiness is unquestionable Your loss is his gain He is taken up into glory and hath there communion with God He is now where God is served adored and glorified with one heart and with one consent Secondly Weep not without Hope with respect to your selves as if God were not able to make up this loss I remember a Relation of a Lady from whom it pleased God to take an only Son that sometime after a Friend coming to visit her and bemoaning this her sad loss she breaks forth into these expressions I profess saith she God can never make me amends for the taking away of that Son A dreadful speech it was take heed my friends of this Spirit It 's true your loss is great but God is able to supply it and that either First By causing the Spirit of Elijah to fall upon Elisha by anointing and raising up of some other to head and feed you in the room of this his Servant Or 2dly He can feed you himself without a Minister God can fill up the room of Ministry and Ordinances Indeed let God be absent and there 's nothing can fill up his Room It 's not Husband Wife Children Estate Liberty Pastors Ordinances c. can supply the want of God But now let God be present and that is above and more than all Lastly Such strokes should teach us all to provide for death God takes away our Leaders and we must follow them Those that would not follow the Counsel and advice of this pious Divine while living must follow him to the Grave now dead to the Grave we must all go and the Lord knows how soon Of what import therefore is it that we all manage matters so while we live as that when we come to die we may die in peace and in full assurance of Eternal Life Our present Time is but a dressing Room for Eternity let us therefore perform every thing with this Proviso That I may die well I am so to buy sell and converse with Creatures that I may die well I am so to hear pray read receive the Sacrament have Communion with the Saints as that I may die well die in peace all is to be done in order to dying well Such Death may wound but never can destroy Their House of weeping proves an House of joy Death parts the dearest Friends WHen a man goes to his Long Home all the pleasure in his Society is dead with him nothing remains of it but the remembrance which serves only to aggravate and heighten the Grief of the Surviver 'T was a true saying of one Aura secunda bonus socius A good companion is as a prosperous Gale carrying a Man pleasantly and with comfort through the Tempestuous Sea of this World And again Bonum sodalitium optimum solatium Good Company is the best solace Indeed suitable Society is the comfort of Life the improvement of Parts the joy of the Intellect the only distinguishing Priviledge that gives the Preference to Men above Beasts Take away this and what happiness is it to be a Man or what is humane Life any thing to be accounted of But when Man is dead there can be no more delight in him or comfort received by Society with him There is no converse in the shades below no interlocution in those gloomy Regions The Grave is a silent Hoâ—…se where the Eyes of all the Inhabitants are closed in the Dust and their Mouths filled with cold Clay And therefore this should cause Mourning in the Streets when we see a man going to his Long Home especially if he was a Friend or Relation because we shall never have the opportunity of enjoying any pleasant hours with him more We must then bid farewel to all discoursing upon any Subject to all advising about any difficulties to all profiting by any Polemick Notions started and improved in an amicable way In a word we must bid an eternal Adieu to any pleasure or satisfaction we received in communing with him for we shall enjoy no more of it for ever Oh! surely this cannot but cut deep in a generous Soul this cannot but greatly wound a spirit whose thoughts are drained from the dross of Plebeian Conversation that has any esteem at all for the advantages of a rational Life Upon this account it was that the old Prophet in Bethel lamented over the man of God which came from Judab who was slain by a Lion as he rode upon an Ass in the High-way He bitterly bewailed and mourned for his Death crying out Alas my Brother As if he had said I have been extreamly refreshed by thy company in hearing the Word of the Lord from thy mouth concerning the destruction of the Priests that burn Incense upon the Altar and the pulling down the House of Jeroboam Oh! How have I been strengthned in my Courage confirmed in my Faith and the more resolved in the Ways of God by this thy Prophecy But now thou art gone I shall never have any more of this profitable and spiritual Discourse with thee This made him weep over his torn Carcass and bitterly lament his untimely Fall and to give a solemn
lived 967 years and he died O the longest day hath its night and in the end man must die The Princes of the Nations pass sentence of death upon others Well it is not long but their turn will come Semel mori once to die Many of us live where our parents lived and live of the same lands which they lived of It is not long and our Children shall do as much for us For we must go hence and be seen no more Some ride Post some Hackney pace at serius citius sooner later all arrive at the Common Inn the grave and die Some have the Palsie some the Apoplexy some a Feaver some an Ague some a Consumption some none of them yet the sick the sound they all meet in the end at the same Rendezvouz at the House of Death The Scholar thinks to delude Death with hiâ—…s Fallacies The Lawyer puts in his Demur the Prince his plea is State affairs at â—…quo pulsat pede Death knocks at all doors alike and when he comes they all go hence from their houses to their graves Joseph the Jew in his best health made his Stone Coffin be cut out in his Garden to put him in mind of his Ego abeo I go hence The Persians they buried their dead in their houses to put the whole houshold in mind of the same lot Semel mori once to die Simonides when commanded to give the most wholsom rule to live well willed the Lacedemonian Prince ever to bear in mind Se tempore brevi moriturum ere long and he must die I have read of a sort of people that used dead mens bones for money and the more they have they are counted the more rich Herein consists my richest treasure to bear that about me will make me all my life remember my end Great Sultan Saladan Lord of many Nations and Languages commanded upon his death-bed that one shall carry upon a Spears point through all his Camp the Flag of Death and to proclaim for all his wealth Saladan hath nought left but this winding-sheet An ensured Ensign of Death triumphing over all the Sons of Adam I uncloath my self every night I put off all but what may put me in mind of my winding-sheet Anaxagoras having word brought him his onely son was dead his answer was Scio me genuisse mortalem I know he was born to die Philip of Macedon gave a Boy a pension every morning to say to him Philippe memento te hominem esse Philip remember thou art a man and therefore must die We read of Philostrates how he lived seven years in his Tomb that he might be acquainted with it against the time he came to be put into it Oh an Apprentiship of years is time little enough to make us perfect in the Mystery of Mortality Divine Meditations arising from the Contemplation of these sad and serious Sentences 1. Med. IS it not high time to make fit to die considering thy Winding Sheet lies ready for thee and the Bell tolls thee away Say with thy self My want is great my time is almost run If I make not market to day I am not sure to do it to morrow O the uncertainty of Life shall be the Alarum-Bell to give me now notice to work out my Salvation with fear and trembling O I am never so nigh my God as when I think of my end FRIEND let Death be in thy thoughts and God will be in thy heart 2. Med. Meditate since man must die Lord what danger in dying unprepared this is Maxima miseria A misery of miseries and St. Augustine gives the reason For that look how a man goeth to that prison the Grave so he goeth to the Judgment-hall to be tryed But oh Death thou Common Butcherer of human Nature after thy great stroak be struck I am not dead but asleep Blessed be thou my God who hast made my grave my bed in which after I have taken some silent rest the noise of the Archangel with his Trumpet shall awake and raise me from a Death for sin to a life of glory Death is the way we must all walk to Life Some ancient Fathers and some late Writers says the Lord Manchester have fixed upon the Love of God Some upon the Passion of Christ Some upon the Joys of Heaven Some upon Contempt of the World several others upon divers other subjects All opening that some one is to be chosen For whoso will live to himself must be at leisure for God And a wise man saith Wisdom is to be written in time of leisure Whoever is lessen'd by work he cannot tend it I being in my accustomed retiredness disengaged from publick affairs which was but seldom found it useful fruitful and delightful To bestow my thoughts upon my latter end There be four last things say the Fathers Heaven Hell Death and Judgment All subjects large enough But considering I had passed so much Employment so many Offices so long Practice in several professions I now thought it time to seize on Death before it seiz'd on me Lord teach me to number my days that I may apply my Heart to Wisdom After long meditation this I found that when Meditation had begotten Devotion then it applyed it self to Contemplation which required a settlement upon some Divine Object And what more heavenly than the thought of Immortality What so necessary as the thought of Death Herein therefore I complyed with my own desires and did so as it were weave my own windingsheet by making choice of Death for the Subject of my Contemplation We should not diffuse our thoughts into variety of Considerations but recollect them into one by Contemplation Herewith a man's soul being once affected hardly shall be obtain leave of his thoughts to return again to employments And lest I busied about many things should remain unknown unto my self for the old word is a true one Neither things read or understood profit him at all who does not both read and know himself I there applyed my self Ad meum novissimum to my last thing what man liveth and shall not see death And if after death The Righteous shall scarcely be saved we may well be fearful and had need be careful that we be not taken unprepared When I was a young Man saith Seneca my care was to live well I then practised the art of well living When age came upon me I then studied the art of dying well how to die well It is true The journey of Life appears not to busie men until the end Yet when I was most busie of all I delighted my self with this comfort that a time would come wherein I might live to my self hoping to have sweet leisure to enjoy my self at last And this I am now come to by disposing not by changing my self Lord let me be found in this posture when I come to die In the courses of my Life I have had interchanges The World it self stands upon
vicissitudes God hath interwoven my life with adversity and prosperity When I first took me to a Gown I put on this thought I desire a Fortune like my Gown not long but fit fit for my condition finding by others that a contented kind of obscurity keeps a Man free from Envy Although any kind of Superiority be a mark of envy yet Not to be so high as to provoke an ill eye nor so low as to be trodden on was the height of my Ambition But I must confess I have since had a greater portion of the World's favour than I looked for Nevertheless I never gave trust to fortune although she seemed to be at peace with me To check repining at those above me I always looked at those below me nor did any preferments so delight me or abuse me as to make me neglect preparing for my dying day And now I thank God I can say O Lord my heart is ready This I have considered that Life flows away by Hours and days as it were by drops Careful Martha was full busie about many things but was well advised by Christ There was only one thing necessary One thing have I desired of the Lord that I may dwell in his House for ever This was David's unum his one thing and God willing shall be mine Amidst these thoughts I had these things in contemplation 1. What Death was and the kinds of Death 2. Secondly What fears or joys death brings 3. Thirdly When Death is to be prepared for and How 4. Fourthly Death approaching what our last thoughts should be Of these things I thus believed That Death was but a fall which came by a Fall Our first-framed Father Adam falling in him we all fell It was not the Man but mankind Body and Soul parting BUt Oh how bitter at that time will be the parting of Soul and Body We see old acquaintance cannot part without tears What shall such intimate familiar friends do as the Soul and Body are which have lived together from the Womb with so much delight In that hour every man will make Balaam's suit O that I might die the death of the Righteous We all desire to shut up our last scene of Life with In manus tuas Domine Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit At this Hour What would a man give to secure his Soul Quid dabis pro animâ tuâ tunc qui nunc pro nihiâ—…o das illam What wilt thou give then for thy Soul to save it who dost so prodigally throw it away now for nothing This thou canst not leave behind thee that will tell thee whether thou goest and what thou shalt look for Tunc quasi loquentia tua Opera dicent Tu nos egisti Tua opera sumus Tâ—… non deseremus sed tecum iâ—…imus ad Judicium Then shall thy doings even speaking aloud say unto thee Thou hast done us we are thy works we will not leave thee but will go with thee to judgment In that day shall come into mens minds by the Divine Power in the twinkling of an Eye all their past good or evil Works Memory the Magazine of the Soul will then recount all that thou hast done said or thought all thy life long For there needs no other Art of memory for sin but misery Man is a great flatterer of himself but Conscience is always just and will never chide thee wrongfully it always takes part with God against a man's self It is a domestick Magistrate that will tell what you do at home It is well termed the pulse of the Soul therefore if you would know the true state of vour Body or Soul feel how this beats that will tell you Yet take heed you make not an Idol of your Conscience neither think as some do that it is a crime to make a Conscience of our Actions At point of death if a man will take his aim by the best men that ever lived or died that of David Ezekias yea and of Christ himself as he was man is able to amaze any man when as our Saviour Christ not many hours before he suffered said My soul is troubled and what shall I say and at the very point of Death said Father if it be thy will let this Cup pass from me When David said Save Lord for thy mercies sake For in Death there is no remembrance of thee And Ezekias wept sore when he was bid Put thy house in order for thou must die If the Patriarchs if the Prophets if the Apostles if the Martyrs if Christ himself was thus troubled at the hour of Death Wretched man that I am what shall I do We were all to seek but that Christ bids us Be of good chear for I have overcome Death Caesar Borgias being sick to death said When I lived I provided for every thing but death now I must die and am unprovided to die Previous preparation becomes a wise man But we are all deceived with this Error 〈◊〉 we think none but old men approaâ—…h to death neither experience nor age can work upon us so death that it may more easily sâ—…rprise us shrowds it self under the very name of life He that sâ—…es the Basilisk before he be seen of it avoids the poyson See Death before it comes you shall not feel it when it comes We pray daily Lord Give us this day our daily Bread whilst it is called to day We should remember Life is but a day 't is bâ—…t a day not an age Wherefore saith Solomon Talk not of to morrow for thou knowest not what to morrow will bring forth A man saith Luther lives forty years before he knows himself to be a fool and by that time he sees his folly his Life is finished So men die before they begin to live To die well is too busie a work to be done well on a sudden Deferring as well as presuming makes many men implicite Atheists It was a sweet Speech and might well have become an Elder Body which a young innocent Child of my own used in extremity of sickness Mother what shall I do I shall die before I know what death is I beseech you tell me what is Death and how I should die Now of the way to die well HE that would end his days well must spend them well 'T is no great matter to live all do as much but few die well But Death faâ—…s sad and heavy upon such Are little known at home abroad too much Man is ready to die before he lives but therefore he liveth a time in the world that he may die betime to the world His Years come to an end as a Tale that is â—…old His days deceive him for they pass as a shadow by moon-shine then appearing longest when they draw nearest to an end Job saith My days are swister than a Post they flee away and see no good The art of dying well is better learnt by Practice than by Precept Unto
dying well three Things are most requisite First To be often meditating upon Death Secondly To be dying daily Thirdly To die by little and little The first step of dying well OFten meditation of Death brings a man to die in ease for it alleviates pains expels fear eases cares cures sins corrects death it self The very Thought of Eternity will make easie and pleasant all things we suffer in a miserable Life How can we be said not to die when we live among the dead We live with so many deaths about us as we cannot but often think of dying Every Humour in us engenders Diseases enough to kill us so that our Bodies are but living Graves and we die not because we are sick but because we live And when we recover from sickness we escape not sickness but the disease All this life is but a death of an hour Familiarity with Death a soveraign Cordial against Death THerefore be acquainted with Death betimes for through acquaintance death will lose his horror like unto an ill Face though it be as formidable as a monster yet often viewing will make it familiar and free it from distaste walk every day with Joseph a turn or two in thy Garden with death and thou shalt be well acquainted with the face of death but shalt never feel the sting of death Death is black but comely Philostrates lived seven years in his Tomb that he might be acquainted with it against his bones came to lye in it Some Philosophers have been so wrapt in this contemplation of Death and Immortality that they discourse so familiarly and pleasingly of it as if a fair death were to be preferred before a pleasant life This is well for Nature's part and Moralists think this enough for their part to conceive so But Christians must go farther and search deeper They must try where the power of death lyes They shall find that the power of every man's death lyes in his own sin That death never hurts a man but with his own weapons It always turns upon us some sin it finds in us The sting of Death is sin Pluck out the sting death cannot hurt us The way to die well is to die often Let a man often and seriously think of dying then let him sin if he can said Picus Mirandula In Sardis there grew an Herb called Appium Sardis that would make a Man lie laughing when he was deadly sick Such is the operation of sin Beware therefore of this Risus Sardonicus laughter of Sardis We count it a fearful thing for a man to be author of his own death but a sinful life slays the soul. and so while we live we kill or lose our better life The Commandment that says Thou shalt not kill especially forbids the murthering of our own Souls And herein is our happiness though we live in sin yet we die without sin Therefore to me Death is welcome not as an end of troubles but of sin Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth The Second Step To be dying daily THE second step to dying-well is to die daily Methinks O my Soul it is but yesterday since we met and now we are upon parting neither shall we I hope be unwilling to take our leaves for what advantage can it be to us to hold out longer together Are we not assured that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Why therefore O my Soul shouldst thou be loth to part upon fair terms Thou O my Soul to the possession of that happy Mansion which thy dear Saviour hath from all Eternity prepared for thee in his Father's house and thou O my body to that quiet repository of the grave till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the Just. I die that I may not die I die daily saith Saint Paul So many days as thou livest reckon so many lives for he that disposeth all his days as one life can neither wish nor fear to morrow The old saying is a good saying Do that every day which thou wouldst do the same day that thou diest 'T is an excellent thing to make all we can of life before Death To die by little and little the third step THE third step to dying well is to die by little and little Naturally we are every day dying by degrees the faculties of our minds the strength of our bodies our common senses are every day decaying by little and little every sin is more than a disease and a wicked life makes a continual death Impie vivere est diu mori To live wickedly is to be long a dying Therefore saith the good Man We are killed all the day long He that useth this course every day To die by little and little to him let Death come when it will it can neither be terrible nor sudden If we keep a Courser to run a Race we lead him daily over the place to acquaint him by degrees with all things in the way that when he comes upon his speed he do not start or turn aside for any thing he sees So let us inure our souls and then we shall run with boldness the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our salvation To die by little and little is first to mortifie our lesser sins and not to say with Lot Is it not a little one There be also a sort of little deaths sickness of body loss of Friends and the like Use these in their kind and you may make them kindly helps to dying well Every change is a certain imitation of Death Let a man go out as he came into the World which was first by a life of Vegetation then of Senâ—…e afterwards of Reason To die daily is this daily to attend upon and exercise that great duty of Mortification according to our solemn Vow and Covenant made to God at our Baptisâ—… which Vow and Covenant we renew at our first coming to the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Alas how few do consider or understand this great duty of Mortification and fewer practise it And yet this above all others is the Grace which fitteth and prepareth us for Death this Grace putteth us into the possession of Life Spiritâ—…al and by perseverance in it into life Eternal Rom. 8. 13. But if ye live after the flesh that is after the appetites lusts affections of the flesh ye shall die But I bless God I have nothing to do with the World nor the World with me Riches Pleasures honours transport me not affect me not nor am I dejected and afflicted with poverty common pains sicknesses disgrace or scorn Christ liveth in me and I in him therefore I humbly thank the power of his grace I can die as willingly as I can go out of one Room into another For
behind us our Servants on our right hand our Wives and Children on our left hand our Friends and in the midst our selves so that as St. Paul says Heb. 9. 27. No one can escape him So that you may see as Job saith man's time is appointed his months determined and his days which are but few upon Earth numbered yea and as our Saviour Christ says his very last hour is limited He was made of the mould of the Earth and therefore thither shall he return and as all have one entrance into Life the like going out shall they have to death Naked came we into this most miserable World and naked shall we return again If Adam had not eaten of the forbidden Fruit we had never known what Sin had been and so by consequence Death which is a thing that now cannot by any means be avoided before that we knew what sin was we had strong Houses But ever since God let 's us dwell in thatch'd Cottages and clay Walls every Disease like a storm is ready to totter us down In old time men us'd to live long but now many are thrust out of house and harbour at less than an hours warning yea and even in their infancy at their first coming into the world as this poor innocent Child was and not only for their own faults for their own transgressions but for their Parents In the Third of Gen. you may find mans Exodus and that is thou shalt die Ever since Old Adam our great great great Grandfather neglected his Duty towards God Death the lodge of all mens lives comes with insensible degrees upon the sons of men it 's impartial hand is always destroying no Wisdom can appease no Policy can prevent nor any earthly Riches redeem us from the Grave semel aut bis morimur omnes some once some twice we must all die we have an old Statute for it that this earthly Tabernacle must suffer corruption and therefore the Poet sings sweetly Post hominem vermis post vermen foetor horror Sic in non hominem vertitur omnis homo As man came from the Earth so thither shall he return and become a habitation and food for Worms If any had been exempted from the fatal and general sentence of Death then without all question our most blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ had been who for our Sins and for our insufferable Iniquities suffer'd the sharpest death imaginable even to die upon the Cross who was equal to the Father touching his God-head Now seeing that this ever blessed Virgins Son Lion of the Tribe of Judah and harmless Lamb of God did suffer an ignominious Death to redeem us from Eternal Death let not us be unwilling for our own good to lay down our lives and to part without sorrow and grief with our dearest Friend or Relation but rather let us take up a full resolution when any of our Friends although never so near and dear unto us be departed and say with David now he is dead now he ceaseth to breath and now he hath taken a farewell of the Elements wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again Good Christians can with patience embrace this Life yet in their best meditations they do commonly wish for Death they honour all that contemns it but cannot endure or heartily love any that is afraid of it this makes many naturally love a Souldier and honour those tattered and contemptible Regiments that will die at the command of a Sergeant For a Pagan there may be some motives to be in love with Life for a Christian to be amazed at Death I see not how he can escape this dilemma that is too sensible of this Life or careless of the Life to come If a Wife put forth her Child to Nurse and the Nurse having kept it long enough she taketh it home again can the Nurse or any other have any cause to complain so the cause stands between God and our Souls If God having inspired into these mortal Bodies of ours that which is immortal come and take it to himself lest it should come to harm can any one have any reason to Complain As seed unless sown in the Ground cannot bring forth so we until that Death come and we be laid in the Ground cannot expect our consummation and bliss with Gods Saints in his Kingdom of Glory Death freeth the godly from the Tyranny of Satan from Sin from the World from the Flesh and from eternal Damnation placing them with Christ for evermore in Heaven the Center of all good wishes where instead of Earthly Bodies they shall be cloathed with unspeakable Glory and all this holy David was not Ignorant of which made him as soon as his dearly beloved Son had taken his Farewell of this inferior Orb say Wherefore should I fast seeing my Child yea my precious Jewel has changed his Life out of a miserable world into a Kingdom where pleasures ineffable are to be had for evermore but now c. And this brings me now unto the Third thing considered in my Text which is the manner of his mourning and that was how he spun away his time in weeping fasting and praying for his dear child so long as he was alive he did not as Priamus did for his Son Hector Fast Weep and Pray after his Death or as many do now adays only in outward shew altering their Garments No his was far otherwise it was real true and hearty sorrow not countenanced in the least with a heavy look or with a solemn sigh blown from deceitful lungs No his was a Weeping Watching Mourning and Fasting Grief he was sequestered from all Worldly contentment imprisoning his Body from all the pleasures of this mortal Life ever making his bed to swim and watering his couch with tears He mourned as one for his only Son eating ashes like Bread and mingling his Drink with weeping still weeping wailing and crying as one that had parted with his dear Mother Psalm 35. 14. or as a virgin girded with sack-cloath for the husband of her youth Joel 11. 8. Nature being we are Members of one Body thinking the mishap of other men to be our own through the mutual compassion of Christ's Body makes us desirous to live together so long as is possible therefore was it possible for David to refrain from tears when he took his farewel of one Child part of his own Body No he could not forbear crying until he began to consider with himself that he was dead and that the Death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord and the day thereof better to them than the day of their birth being then and not before as Saint John Says Revel 14. 13. they rest from their labour then yea then and not before he could rise change his cloaths wash his hands and break his fast Now such I say if they will mourn ought to be your manner that is so long as your friends
The good Propheâ—… 〈◊〉 id represent these unto us in those Tâ—… five young Men which were Besotted and Ravished in beholding the labouring Sun that glorious Creature and vast Eye of all the World whose gentle Heat broodeth upon the Waters and hatched in Six Days all the World which by way of Exposition signifieth the adoring of the Glory of their Birth But leaving these to themselves as silly Fools who glory in the Gold that glisters God Almighty comes here unto old Adam with a Memorandum of Death and teacheth him another Lesson saying Dust thou art aâ—…d unto dust thou shalt return The end ever holâ—…s a correspondence with its beginning Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and naked shall I return The Rivers come from the Sea and thither again they return and so doth the labouring Sun from the East and thither it retires again That Image of Gold Silver Brass and Iron that had its Feet of Earth must in the end turn to dust Barak having asked Where are the Princes of the Nations makes answer himself and saith The earth hath swallowed them up all Now to comment upon this same place we may make the like question and give the very self-same Answer Nonne omnia Pulvis nonne Fabula nonne in paucis ossibus memoria eorum conservatur The very greatest and famousest of us all have been are and shall be but dust and there is no Memorial to be left of us but a few rotten and stinking Bones But to proceed because in Preaching Plainness is ever counted the best Eloquence In these words as they offer up themselves unto our consideration you may with me as they naturally arise from the express words in mâ—… Text observe these two regardable Circumâ—…tances First How these Morral Bodies of ouâ—…s are said to be Dust. And then secondly How they shall return to Mother-Earth from wheâ—…ce they came Now of these two in their due order severally And first of the First and that is How we are said to be Dust. Now as for the Walls of Flesh wherein the Soul doth seem to be immur'd before the Restauration it is nothing but an Elemental Comâ—…osition and a Fabrick thâ—…t may fall to Ashes All Flesh is Grass is not only Metaphorically but Literally true for all those Creatures we behold are but the Herbs of the Field digested into Flesh in them or more remotely Carnified in our selves Nay further we are what we all abhor Anthropophagi Cannibales Devourers not only of Men but of our selves and that not in Allegory but a positive Truth for all this huge Mass of Flesh which we behold came in at our Mouths yea this Frame which we look upon hath been upon our Trenchers In brief we have devoured our selves Man is such a frail sorry and base Creature that the good Prophet Jeremy calls him to his own Face thrice Earth at one Breath saying O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord Jer 22. 29. Man is Earth by Procreation Sustentation and by Corruption First He is Earth by Procreation for the first Man is called Adam that is red Earth Of the dust of the Earth made he Man Gen. 2. 7. The Patriarch Abraham acknowledging the baseness of his beginning said unto the Lord I am but dust and ashes Gen. 18. 27. Now Almighty God the Câ—…eator of all things made this Earth of which he made Man of nothing according to the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth He made not this Heaven and Earth of another Heaven and Earth but he Created both as having nothing but nothing whereby and wherewith to build this goodly Frame and so consequently proud Man in respect of his Maâ—…rials is brought unto nothing And therefore our Princely Pâ—…ophet David says Psalm 144. 4. That Man is like a thing of nought Yea and to confirm this the better St. Paul that ever blessed Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians says If any Man seem to himself that he is something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself in his imagination Gal. 6. 3. Adam begat Cain and Abel Gen. 4. Cain signifieth Possession Abel Mourning or Vanity to teach us that Possessions are but Vanity and vexation of Spirit yea Vanity of Vanities all vanity Eccles. 1. 2. And as Adam begat Sons like to himself so his Sons also Sons like to themselves of a loathsom Excrement carried in those Members of the Body which are least honourable brought forth into the World with intollerable Pain so vile and so soul that I shall spare to speak wanting Epithites whereby to express my self only give me leave to Cry out with our Princely Prophet David saying What is Man O God that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him or with St. Paul O Man what art thou who pleadest against God As if he should have said as Cyprian said once to Demetrius Consider how base thou art in respect of God even as Clay in the hand of the Potter and then I think thou wilt not enter into dispute with thy Creator That any Man is miserable let it suffice him that he is a Man that is Infelicitatis tabula nec non Calamitatis fabula a Map of Miseries and as it were the Table of Troy whomsoever thou seest to be miserable thou maiest without all doubt conclude he is a Man and therefore the first Voice uttered by the new-born Babe is Crying hereby Prophecying that he is come into a World full of Care and Grief Crying and taking it grievously to heart because he is a Man Blushing because he is Naked Weeping and wailing because he is born into a most wicked and miserable World and murmuring because indued but with a dull Genius and made up of so base matter which every Disease like a Storm is ready to totter down God Almighty Created Adam of the basest matter even of very Dirt but this Dirt being Moulded by God's own Hand and Inspiring it with so much Wisdom Counsel and Prudence it may be called Cura Divini Ingenii the Curiousness of God's Wit But Man growing proud hereupon and hoping to be a God himself God doomed him to Death and wrapped him again in hâ—…s dirty Swadling Clouts with this Inscription Puâ—…vis es in pulverem reverteris Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return Adam did not without some Mystery cloath himself with green Leaves for he gave therein as it were a sign and token of his vain and foolish hopes But as the Mother when the Bee hath stung her Childs Finger runs with all haste to get a little Dirt and claps it to her little One which doth asswage the Swelling and give it ease So those busie Bees of Hell daily stinging us and striking into our Breasts the Poyson of their Pride and Arrogancy Almighty God with a Memorandum of Death with a Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return abates this Pride and tells us of that swelling Arrogancy
with all alacrity and chearfulness of Heart you may endure all things for Christs sake Fourthly you must get your selves furnished with Humility Virtue which when the Lord of Heaven beholds it in you which caused him to sink into your Hearts Fifthly you must get your selves furnished with Hope of Everlasting Faith and Salvation And then sixthly and lastly with Faith which is an evidence of things not seen thus you must get your selves set in order c. And thus far of the matter of this Admonition and earnest Exhortation Now I should come to the Reason which is twofold affirmative and negative Affirmative thou shalt die and Negative and not live Set thy House in order for thou shalt die and not live Now of these severally and first of the reason affirmative thou shalt die Now there are three kinds of Death First the Death of the Body which is a natural Death Secondly the Death of the Soul which is a Spiritual Death And then thirdly and lastly the Death both of Body and Soul which is Eternal Death But that which good King Hezekiah was warned of was but only the Death of the Body which according to the Statute Law Decreed in that High Court of Parliament of Heaven all Men shall once taste of no Man can escape it for so saith St. Paul it is appointed unto all Men that they shall once die to all once to many twsce for there is a second Death and that is truly a Death because it is Mors Vitae the Death of Life the other rather a Life because it is Mors Mortis the Death of the Death after which there shall be no more Death Now as Job saith Mans time is appointed his Month determined and his day numbered yea and as Christ Jesus the Worlds Saviour saith his very last hour is limited he was made of the Mould of the Earth he shall return again to the Earth And as all have one Entrance into Life the like going out shall they have to Death Nothing we brought in nothing we shall carry out Naked come I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return A Change then shall come which of the wicked is to be feared of the godly to be desired and of all people to be daily and hourly expected Remember them that have been before you and that shall come after you that this is the Judgment of the Lord over all Flesh to taste of Death All Men shall once die for as much as all have sinned and been disobedient unto the Laws of God This Death of the Body is not a dying but a departing a transmigration and Exodus of our Earthly Pilgrimage unto our Heavenly Home yea a passage from the Valley of Death unto the Land of the Living Although our Souls and Bodies are separated for a while yet shall they meet again in the receptacle of Blessed Saints and Angels with much joy and receive an incorruptible Crown The Body is a Prison to the Soul and Death a Goal-delivery that frees the poor harmless Soul of those Grievances which formerly it did endure Length of days is nothing unto us but much grief and Age the duance of long Imprisonment wherefore if that you would but seriously consider this you might find Death to be rather a Friend than an Enemy and by consequence rather to be desited than shun'd as Simeon did as it is evident Luke 2. 29. saying Now Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy Word which by some is used thus Now Lord I hope that thou wilt suffer me to depart in peace and keep my poor Immortal Soul no longer within the small circumference of this Mortal Body The Thief upon the Cross laid down his Life most joyfully because he saw Christ and did stedfastly believe that he should pass from a place of pain and misery unto a Paradise of Pleasure and so did St. Stephen Acts 7. 56. The Royal Preacher King Solomon lest that his Son should be deprived of such Happiness doth by an Emphatical Irony disswade his Son from those youthful Lusts and sensual Pleasures whereunto he feared that he should naturally be addicted and that by the consideration of that dreadful account he was to give unto God at the great and terrible day of the Lord desiring him most earnestly not to let his House stand out of order but ever to remember his Creator in the days of his youth for old Age will come saith he and then thou shalt not be so fit by reason of much weakness and infirmities Or else Death may seize upon thee For Dust shall return unto the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it Eccles. 12. 7. In a moment yea at the twinkling of an Eye when once this Tyrant Death comes it will sweep us all away It is the Custom among us here to let Leases one two or three Lives but God lets none for more than one and this once expired there is no hopes of getting the Lease renewed he suffers Man sometimes to dwell in his Tenement threescore Years and ten Psal. 90. 10. Sometimes to fourscore but secures none far from home and that for several Reasons First to bridle our curiosity left that we should search after things too high for quae supranos nihil ad nos those things that are above us are nothing to us Secondly to try out patience whether that we will put our whole trust and confidence in him although we know not the time of our departure and dissolution and then thirdly to keep us in continual watchfulness for if that we should know when Death would come with a Habeas Corpus to remove us it would make many more careless than they are though indeed the best of us are careless enough Here Men do know the date of their Leases and the expiration of the Years but Man is meerly a Tenant at will is put out of Possession at less than an Hours warning Wherefore now while it is said to day set your Houses in order seeing that you must die and not live It is not sufficient at the last Hour of Death to say Lord have mercy on me or Lord into thy hands I commend my Soul But even in all our Life-time yea and especially in our youth we must strive ever to set our Houses in order for we shall die and not live Samson was very strong Solomon very wise and Methusalem lived many years yet at last they with many more were brought to Mother Earth If it seem pleasant unto you at the present to let your rotten and ruinous Houses stand out of order yet with all remember what the Prophet saith The day of Destruction is at hand and the times of perdition make haste to come on Art thou a young Man in the April of thine Age and hast thou thy Breasts full of Milk and doth thy Bones run full of Marrow as Job speaks and thereupon dost
glory All motions tend to rest Return then to thy rest O my Soul for God hath dealt bountifully with thee But Lord spare me a little before I go hence and be seen no more that my DEATH-BED THOUGHTS may be all imployed in the Contemplating of that Eternity into which I am now a launching Sect. 1. The Daily Remembrance of Death HAppy is he who always and in every place so lives as to spend his every last moment of Light as if day were never to return Epictetus most wisely teaching this Death saith he and Banishment and all that we look upon as Evils let them be daily set before thy Eyes but of all most chiefly Death So shalt thou think upon nothing that is too low nor too ardently covet anything Miserable diminitive Mortals wherefore d' ye teach long Hopes Wherefore d' ye undertake such a vast heap of Business That shall be perhaps to Morrow a meer Spark and Ashes Walk curiously O Man That dismal Goddess continually hovers over our Heads and waits for the last Sands of our Lives Hour-glass with an unwearied and never-sleeping Eye and wilt not thou watch after her What e're beginning has an end doth fear We all must go Old EAcus within those shades below Whips on the Moments that protract us here Nor can any Age struggle with Death As soon as we are Born we are subject to that Tribute and are the Stipendiaries of Death When first our trembling sight Beholds the dazling Beams of unknown light Then we begin to die The same Death meraces the Queen that threatens the Handmaid Therefore believe every day that shines to be thy last Say every Evening this day I stand at the Gate of Eternity Sect. 2. The remembrance of Death is a powerful Remedy against all Sins THE serious remembrance of Death shakes off all sense of pleasure and turns Honey into Wormwood The Expectation of Death saith Chrysostom suffers us not to be sensible of the Delights and Pleasures we injoy And indeed what is it not able to do when consider'd not only in the Extremities of the Fingers and as it were in the Hair but over the whole Body Death spares no Age nor no Degree of Dignity Here dies a young Man there an Infant there an old Man Another by Poyson or a Fall another by a slow Rhume another by a quick descent of Humour here lyes another oppress'd with a mighty Shower or the Waves there lyes another struck with Thunder Among so many doubtful so many various so many sudden Accidents what security or what mind to sin among so many Incertainties Therefore since we daily die think upon the Hour-glass whether the old fashion'd one running Water or the new one running Sand. Do ye not find that by dropping of the Water and the passage of the Sand the upper Glass empties and the lower Glass fills Consider that it is so with Life every moment something slides away the present Life empties and flows into another Nothing is here safe not the Hour of the Hour nor the Moment of the Moment Happy he to whom every day is the last more happy he to whom every Hour most happy he to whom every Moment is the utmost period of his Thoughts He will abstain from the wickedness of his hands who believes every Hour decreed every Moment his last O vain Hope How many dost thou deceive How many to whom thou promisest old Age dost thou cut off in the midst of their Course Believe therefore that may happen to thee which happ'ns to many How many has Death prevented in the midst of their wickedness and cut off half the Crime How many fall with a revengeful Mind though with an Innocent Hand How many snatch'd away in the attempt have receiv'd the reward of their Impiety Many in the very Moment of a wicked Action begun have been forc'd to leave their ill designs unfinish'd What if thou shouldst be in the number of those What Hour or Moment is more certain to thee than to another Now who can expect a Crime from such a Thought as with the Crime expects Death and with Death Punishment No prudent Man plays or sports in the midst of a Storm No Man at the brink of a Precipice meditates mischief No Man is merry unarmed in the midst of his Armed Enemies More stupid is he whom the perpetual fear of Death when every Hour is doubtful every Moment uncertain dares those things that procure an unhappy Death to Eternity O Fools Whither do we run to be punish'd for ever Wherefore do we not follow the Council of the Son of Syras In all thy work saith he remember thy last and thou shalt not sin Sect. 3. The end of a good Life is all Out of Seneca TELL me my Dear Seneca whom Pliny with an Elogy to be envy'd calls the Prince of Learning tell me what thou thinkst of Death especially immature Heark'n Youth give ear complaining Age like a Comedy so is Life which it matters not how long but how well it is acted It imports not where thou mak'st an end leave off where thou pleasest only put a good period No other is the Opinion of Epicteâ—…us Remember faith he that thou art the Actor of the Fable as the Poet directs If short of a short if long of a long Fable No otherwise said Varro They live not best who live longest but they who live most uprightly Most plainly so it is it matters not where when or how we end When God pleases we must die but let us put a good period to our Lives Sect. 4. All Men no Men. Out of Arbiter Heu heu nos miseros quam totus Homuncio nil est Alas What miserable things are we The frame of Man is only Vanity VErily so it is But alas by much the more miserable by how much the less we acknowledge our selves to be so The whole little Man is nothing as the ancient Satyrist well observes but if I may dare to say so then he begins to be something when he knows himself to be nothing O Man know thy self and be wise For Death equals Lillies with Thorns O miserable and vain Men What are we Learning and Fame are Smoak We Dâ—…st that meer Opinion the other Wind And we that are alive vigorous and flourishing shall shortly be reduced to say We have liv'd This single Exit all Men make Our Life decreases by increasing and the very day we breathe in we divide with Death For every day some part of our Life is diminish'd As the last drop does not empty the Glass but what flow'd out before so the last moment does not alone bring Death but only consummates our Being Sect. 5. Mortals are of one little Day THE day Lilly is a Flower whose Beauty perishes in a day There is also a Bird haunts the River Hypanis called Haemerobios or the Bird of one day ending its Life the same day that it begins dying with the dying Sun and
under Yew or Cyprus All the Preparations of Libitina you perfectly hate desiring nothing more than utterly to abolish the remembrance of Death But here behold the Delirium that possesses ye when the Sacred Letters clearly admonish us that it is better to go into the House of Mourning than of Feasting But you had rather do any thing else than piously mourn and remember Death But beware that while ye dread a short mourning you are not forced to wait Eternally Sect. 12. Our Life is but a Life of Tears EVery one of us saith Cyprian when he is Born and receiv'd into the Inn of this World begins his Journey in Tears Every one may say of himself As I began in Tears I end my Life For all me Life is but a Mourning strife Thus all begin thus all Men end their years When Born they weep and Die expending Tears Thus in those Tears as in a Ship â—…rack found In his own Waves each single Man lyes drown'd He 's only blest that so doth paâ—… the Frith To have no cause of weeping after Death Wouldst thou have an Abstract an Epitome of all Humane Life Daniel the Archbishop and Elector of Mentz in Germany in a little Book of Prayers wrote with his own hand these Precepts of Living 1. Life short 2. Beauty deceitful 3. Money flies away 4. Empire envy'd 5. War pernicious 6. Victory doubtful 7. Friendship fallacious 8. Old Age miserable 9. Death happiness 10. Wisdom Fame Eternal That Heavenly Wisdom that brings us to Kingdoms never destitute never to be invaded eternal Sect. 13. God the Comfort of our Tears ACknowledge the voice as well of the Comforter as of the Promiser With him I am in Tribulation he shall deliver me and I will glorifie him And this truely for God is at hand to those that are afflicted in Mind and will save the humble in Heart Concerning these Promises St. Austin has been perspicuous Fear not saith he when thou art in Affliction lest God should not be with thee God is present with those that are afflicted in Mind He assists in the Conflict consider who proclaim'd the Conflict God does not so behold thee striving for the Race as the people look upon the Chariot Driver They can shout and bawl but know not how to help They can prepare the Crown but cannot afford strength For Man is but Man and no God And perhaps while he looks on he labours more as he sits than the other in the Contest God when he beholds his Wrastlers assists his Invokers For the voice of the Wrastler is in the Psalm If I said my foot was mov'd thy Mercy shall assist me Therefore when thou beginst to be afflicted summon up thy Faith and thou shalt know the Vertue of it for he will not forsake thee But thou therefore thinkst thy self forsaken because he does not deliver thee just when thou wouldst have him He deliver'd the Children out of the Fire He that deliver'd the three Children did he desert the Maccabees Ear be any such thought He deliver'd both these and them Those Corporally that unbelievers might be confounded these Spiritually that the Faithful might imitate For the Lord is at hand to those that are afflicted in mind and shall deliver the humble in Spirit God is above the Christian beneath If he would that the high God should be near him let him be humble Great Mysteries my Brethren God is above all things Dost thou exalt thy self Thou dost not move him Dost thou humble thy self He will descend to thee Therefore invoke to thy Aid this most faithful Assistant he will be present at one sigh so it be serious And God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are pass'd away Most truely said the same St. Austin with how much sweetness does he be wail himself that prays More delightful are the Tears of those that pray than the pleasures of Theaters Sect. 14. Our Nativity our Death NOT the end of my Life says the dying Theban but a more ample and better beginning For now Fellow Soldiers your Epaminondas is Born because he so dies For why should we indulge to human Grief or envy the Gods since they divide their Immortality between us A Nation Bordering upon the Thracians and in Customs agreeing with them has this one peculiar to themselves That when an Infant is Born the Relations sitting about it weeping and wailing enumerate the Miseries which the 〈◊〉 is to endure On the other side when a Man â—…s they bury him with Joy and Exaltation 〈◊〉 â—…unting from how many miseries he is deliver'd Deservedly this Notion claims to it self the Applause of Wisdom who celebrate the Birth of Man with Tears and his Funeral with Pomp and Gladness Therefore disclaim the Natural Sweetness of Life that causes Men to act and suffer many shameful things and then the end of thy Life will be far more happy than the beginning Wholesom was the Doctrine of the second Pliny Therefore saith he many were of Opinion that thought it best never to be Born or immediately to die Thus Sitenus being tak'n by Midas and ask'd what was the best thing could happen to Man For a while stood silent At length being urg'd to speak he answer'd That the best thing was never to be Born the next to die the soonest that might be This I must not omit very wonderful unheard of and pleasant in the Relation Lodowic Cortusius a Lawyer of Padua forbid to his Relations all Tears and Lamentations by his will And desir'd that he might have Harpers Pipers and all sorts of Musick at his Funeral who should partly go before partly follow the Corps and leaving to every one a small Sum of Money His Bier he ordered to be carry'd by twelve Virgins that being clad in Green were to sing all the way such Songs as Mirth brought to their Remembrance leaving to each a certain Sum of Money instead of a Dowry Thus was he Buried in the Church of St Sophia in Padua accompanied with a hundred Attendants together with all the Clergy of the City excepting those that were black For such by his Will he forbid his Funeral as it were turning his Funeral Rites into a Marriage Ceremony He died the 17th of July 1418. Admirable was the saying of St. Bernard Let them bewail their Dead who deny the Resurrection They are to be deplor'd who after Death are Buried in Hell by the Devils not they who are plac'd in Heaven by the Angels Precious is the Death of the Saints as being a Rest from their Labours the Consummation of Victory the Gate of Life and the entrance into perfect security Apparently said the wise Hebrew Better is the hour of Death than the day of our Nativity Sect. 15. Death every where SEveral miserable People who deem it more convenient to die than live torment themselves
young Men but stricken in years Barlaam the Hermit an old Man of Seventy years when Jehosaphat the King asked him how old he was answered Forty five at which when the King admired he reply'd that he had been absent from his Studies Twenty five years as if those years which he had spent upon the Vanity of the World had been quite lost So Similius being Buried in the Cares of the Court and living rather for his Emperors sake than for his own caused this Inscription to be put upon his Tomb. Here lyes Similius an old Man of Seven years of Age The Book of Samuel relates of Saul that he was the Son of one year when he began to Reign but that he Raigned Two years over Israel Saul at the beginning of his Reign was as free and Innocent from all wickedness as a Child of one year old but he continued in this purity but one year though he Reigned Twenty years in all Many attain to old Age betimes and before they are old But the most of Men never who when they are old yet retain the Vices of Children still so that they die Children of a hundred years of Age. The Happiness of Life consists not in the length or extent thereof but in the use of it And it may often happen that he that has lived long has not lived at all Wherefore there is nothing more infamous than a childish old Man who has no other Argument to prove his long Life but his Age. Elegantly St. Ambrose concerning St. Agnes Infancy was reckoned in her year but a vast Age of mind The Oracle of Divine Venerable old Age is not lasting nor to be computed by number of years But the Senses of men are grey and old Age is an immaculate Life And therefore the Manners rather than the Hairs of men are to be esteemed Venerable Only he is worthy of more reverence who is old betimes An honest Life is the best old Age. Yet you will say a man so early dead might have proved a great Man and serviceable to his Countrey Rather which is more to be feared he might have become like others Behold young men whom Luxury drives into all Vice over whose Head there passes not a day without some signal Crime Therefore he is taken away left Evil should change his Intellect or lest a Fiction should deceive his Soul Whoever comes to the Extremity of his Fate he dies an old Man Oft-times in a long Life the least thing to be considered is that he has lived 'T is much more glorious to be old in Vertue than in time He has lived long enough who has said well He has sought well that overcomes Sect. 23. A PARADOX Whoever will has liv'd long enough A Short time of Age is long enough to live well saith Tully No man dies so soon who intends not to live better than he has done A Beardless Youth has numbered years enough who has lived to Vertue and Eternity for which he was Born Has he not spoke enough that can perswade with one word or a nod Has he not said enough who arrives happily at his Port. But best of all he that soonest attains it So that death prevent not our Meditation the swifter the more happy it will be But I saith the Macedonian King in Curtius who number not my years but my Victories if I number the Gifts of Fortune have lived long enough How much more truely he who Consecrates all his Life to God and only studies to serve and please his Master faithfully may say I who count not these years wherein I serve God but my desires if I rightly compute the Benefits of my God have lived long enough So it is most certainly he lives a Hundred yea a Thousand years yea Ages themselves and serves God whoever sincerely and cordially desires to serve his God so long were it permitted him so long to live For God accepts the will for the deed With whom to intend a pious Action is oft-times as much as to have performed it So he may be a Martyr and expend his Blood with a Christian Valour though he die in his Bed So a Man may live long and act and suffer couragiously for Christ whoever earnestly desires to live to that end There is no man that dies not at his day whoever dies by the Decree of the Divine Will Sect. 24. You are to Die to Die AUgustus the Emperor Peragia being taken punished abundance of the Citizens and to those that 〈◊〉 his pardon or desired to excuse themselves he only made this short answer Moâ—…iendum est You are to die Thus he caused three Hundred to be slain like Victims upon an Altar Built to Julius Caesar. Justin and Irenaeus most noble Writers among the Ancients smartly observe that after the Sentence of Death pronounced against Adam that never any Mortal according to Gods Kalender live a whole day For as the Prophets and Apostles testifie one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day But no man lived a thousand years therefore no Man ever lived a whole day Thou art to die Though thou hast attained nine hundred years and upward thou art to die This is most certain from Divine Oracle from Human Reason and Experience Divine Oracles six hundred times proclaim Moriendum est You are to die Reason it self by evident demonstrations convinces that whatever is composed of contraries is liable to Corruption and therefore Thou art to die Experience the Mistress both of Fools and Wise Men pointing to the vast heaps of the Dead perswades our Eyes that never yet any one of all the number of Mortals could escape the power of death Thou art to die is clearer than the Sun Thou art to die Does any Thunder from Heaven more loudly pierce our Ears like this Sentence Thou art to die Here no Man must be deaf will they nill they they are forced to admit these dreadful sounds This thunder pierces their unwilling Ears Thou art to die whether in the favour or in the wrath of God Aeschylus of old Death said he is the only Goddess among all the rest that regards not Bribes nor admits the least particle of sweet hope Wherefore wisely Seneca Let us afflict our selves saith he with this thought Let us repeat this often to our selves Thou art to die When It is better thou shouldst not know that Death is the Law of Nature Death is the Duty and Tribute of Mortals then to be paid when it is exacted Wherefore laying all other things aside meditate upon this alone that thou maist not fear the name of Death Make that by frequent Contemplation familiar to thee That if it should so happen thou maist be willing to meet it Sect. 25. The Remembrance of Death is variously to be renewed 1. THey say that the Skull dryed in a Furnace and beaten to powder and mixed with Oil cures a Gangrene or a Cancer To grinde
as it were the Scalps and Bones of dead men by serious Contemplation and apply them instead of an Ointment heals all manner of Contagion of the Mind 2. Plato was of Opinion that any Man became so much the wiser by how much the more lively he considered Death Therefore he gave this Law to his Disciples studious in Philosophy that when they went a Journey they should never cover their Feet Whereby that Wise Man insinuated that the end of Life was always to be thought on 3. Nicholas Christophorus Radziâ—…ile Prince of Poland affirms that in Egypt they who excelled others in Prudence and Age were wont to carry the long Bones of dead Men Carved out of Wood or Eâ—…ny shew them one to another and thereby exhort â—…ne another to Contemplation They also introduce the remembrance of Death at their Tables and conclude their Banquâ—…s with this sad Sentence Memento Mâ—…i Remember to Die 4. Caliph King of the Taâ—…rs in the City of Bagdat upon a Festival Day which they call Ramadan being resolved to shew himself to the people rode forth upon a Mule clad in Vestments that glistered with Gold Silver and precious Stones but over his Tulipan he wore a black Vail signifying that all his Pomp was one day to be Clouded by the shades of Death 5. Justinian the Emperor being dead a Coverlet was thrown over him wherein were wrought in Phrygian Work the Effigies and Figures of the Vanquished Cities and Barbarous Kings whom he had overcome Behold the Image of Death among Pageants Scaffolds Triumphs and Victories Death plays with Empires and knocks as well at the Towers of Kings as at the Cottages of the Poor Pope Martin the Fifth had this Symbol of a speaking Picture or of silent Poesie Upon a Funeral Pile kindled and ready to burn lay the Popes Triple Crown the Cardinals Hat the Archbishops Cap the Emperors Diadem the Kings Crown the Ducal Cap and Sword with this Motto Sic omnis gloria Mundi Thus all the Glory of the World 6. I cannot but approve the Answer of a certain Marinâ—…r who being ask'd where his Father dy'd in the Sea said he And when the other ask'd him the same question concerning his Grandfather his great Grandiather and his great great Grandfather the Mariner still returned him the same Answer Then inferred the other And dost not thou fear to go to Sea To which the Seaman waving a reply And where did your Father die In his Bed said the other where your Father your Grandfather and the rest of your Ancestors They all said the other died in their Beds Then said the Mariner and do not you fear to go to Bed so Fatal to all â—…our Predecessors Very Elegantly and somewhat above a Sailors Genius Let our daily Contemplation be like that of Justus Lipsius who falling Sick as he was taking his Bed cryed out ad Lectum ad Lethum To the Bed to the Grave Oft-times they that sleep sleep to death which is but the Sister of sleep 7. John Patriarch of Alexandria who took his Name from given Alms while he was living and in health caused his Monument to be Built but not to be finished for this reason that upon Solemn days when he performed Divine Service he might be put in mind by some of the Clergy in tbese terms Sir your Monument is yet unfinished command it to be finished for you know not when the Hour may come 8. When the Emperor of the East was newly chosen no person had liberty to speak to him before the Stone-cutter had shewed him several sorts of Marble and asked him of which his Majesty would be pleased to have his Monument made What was the meaning of this but only to intimate these words O Emperor exalt not thy self Thou art bat a Man thou shalt die like the meanest of Beggars therefore so govern thy Kingdom which thou art to lose that thou maist gain an Eternal Kingdom 9. Domitian the Emperor gave a Banquet to the Chief of the Senate and the Order of Knighthood after this manner He hung his House all with Mourning The Roofs Walls Pavements Seats were all covered with black be speaking nothing but sorrow Into this Funeral Dining-room were all the Guests introduced by Night without any Attendants By each was placed a Bier with every one his Name inseribed upon it with such Candles as they were wont to burn in their Monuments They that waited were clad in black and encompassed the Guests with Funeral Salutations They Supped in the mean time with a deep silence Domitian in the mean time began a Discourse relating to nothing but Death and Funerals While the Guests in the extremity of Terror were ready to die for fear What then Domitian thought he had given wholesome admonition to himself and the Senators But the Mountains brought forth and a ridiculous Mouse was the Birth More rightly the Egyptians who chastise the Mirth of their Banquets with a mournful Epilogue Sect. 26. A new Shirt black Letters THE Turkish Moschee at Caire in Egypt was Built by this means Assan Basha a person as well Cunning as Covetous resolving to raise himself a Name in the World by some great Structure yet not willing to be at the Cost himself found out this Trick He caused Proclamation to be made in all places that he intended to erect a vast and sumptuous Temple to God Now that the work might go on the more prosperously he promised large Wages to all that should come to help forward the Work And a certain day was appointed to divide the Money This Proclamation assembled together a vast multitude not only from all parts of Egypt but from several other Regions and Kingdoms against their coming Assan had caused a great number of new Shirts and Vests to be prepar'd Which done those that came to receive Wages were order'd to pass singly out of the great Court where they met into another Court equally as big through several little by Doors Where they were stript of their old Garments and new Shirts and Vests imposed upon them All this was done to that intent that whatever â—…o many thousands had brought to bear their Expences should be left in that place For in those Countreys the people are wont to sow their Money in their Shirts or their Vests Thereupon a hidious Out-cry and Lamentation arose among the people But the Basha contemning the Clamours and Cries of the people threw all their Cloaths into a vast Fire and burnt them Which huge Bonfire produced such vast heaps of Silver as easily sufficed for the Edifice Thus Death deals by us it takes from us against our Wills our old Garments and cloaths us with a new Sepulcher For we as St. Paul saith that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon But in vain we resist Death derides our Clamours our Tears whether we will or no the old Garment must go off Uncase and be
our Meals our Recreation our Play our Discourse our Sleep our Idleness takes up How much do litigious Suits and Diseases snatch from us How many Thieves do steal away our Lives while we perceive not what we lose The following Verses though not so terse and neat very lively express our Madness A man lives fourscore years not often more Of which in meat and drink some half a score In play as many twenty years in sleep Till seventeen in our childish years we heap And nothing do for years diseases claim Therefore the time that we experd to frame Our selves to vertue and learning is in brief But the fourth part of all that tedious life What a little is left us of that which is our own many there are whom their Misfortunes will not give leave to take breath many whom their prosperity For we lay not hold upon time to stop the fleetest thing in Nature but let it slip as a superfluous thing and easie to be recovered What keeper of time so sparing that may not find something worthy to exchange with his time We trifile with the most precious of all things and there is no reckoning made of that which cannot be sufficiently valued Like them that sleep in Ships who are driven along by the Winds though they perceive not the motion and when they wake wonder to see themselves ready to be landed Thus the course of our life hastens away while we sleep and neglect the inestimable price of Time When we should wake for a better life we admire to see our selves at our Journeys end Death is to many as the Harbour to the Sailer he sails well that does not Shipwrack in the Port. Sect. 37. Delay is the greatest blemish of Life WE delay and put off every thing unless it be Vice which for the most part takes up our whole time In other things we are always more full of Promises and say to oue selves to Morrow this shall be done the next Week I will not fail to repent next Year I intend to lead a new life Thus Days Months and Years slide away while we procrastinate while we promise and never stand to our Promises Excellently Seneca Thou shalt hear saith he most people saying At Fifty I intend to retire at Sixty I intend to give over Business And whom dost thou take for Surety of thy longer life Who will warrant things to pass as thou disposest them Art thou not ashamed to reserve the Remains and Dregs of Life to God and to appoint that time for Devotion which thou canst no otherwise employ How late is it then to begin to live when thou art iust at the end of it VVhat a foolish Oblivion of Mortality is that to deser wholsom Admonition till the fiftieth or sixtieth Year and to seek to begin thy Life at an Age to which few attnin Sigismund the Second King of Poland because of his perpetual delay and heaviness in weighty Affairs was called the King of to-morrow Such are we certainly Men of to-morrow we delay all things most willing also if we could to put off Death it self but the business of dying admits of no delay suffers no put offs Therefore to use the old Proverb If thou wouldst be long old be old betimes which thou mayst be by suffering no delay VVe by losing the best of things lose all Truly said Chrysologus Then a man desires to do well when death has deprived him of the Opportunity of acting VVe stalk to death most commonly with the same steps as they that walk in their sleep first we begin to delay and procrastinate wholesome things then to act a little more closely then to neglect and omit altogether what things are to be done and so we sweetly sleep and perish O Mortals Over-late is to Morrow's life live to day pay your Salary to day mourn for your Sins to day for who has assured ye of to morrow VVhat may be done to day why defer ye to another day perhaps never to come To defer good Actions was ever noxious and over-late The greatest loss of life delay is still For who delays seems not to have a will Let us make haste therefore and consider how much we should add to Swiftness if the Enemy were at our back if we should perceive the Horseman just at the heels of the Fugitive This is the case Necessity drives let us make haste and escape let us shelter our selves in Security and often consider how amiable a thing it is to finish our lives before death The greatest comfort in death is to have delayd nothing Sect. 38. The Hunting of Death WIlliam the II. D. of Bâ—…varia Father of the Poor the Defender of all Religious men whom after his decease had the Tongues of all men been silent the Tears and Lamentations of so many Mourners at his Funeral had sufficiently â—…old This most Praise-worthy Prince I say when he returned home from the Council of Basil where he preceded in Caesar's place dream'd That he saw a Hart of an extraordinary bigness that upon the one side of his Horns he carried Bells on the other lighted Tapers This flying Animal was pursued by a Huntsman and his Pack all other ways being stopt the affrighted Beast fledâ—… into the Church-yard belonging to St. Marie's Church there the poor Hart falling into a Grave that was open'd for a person that was to be buried was there taken and killed Upon this the Prince awoke and examined with himself what the meaning of the Dream should be The next day also he declared to his Nobles what he had dream'd Several Interpretations were made upon it which when Duke William had heard I said he am that Hart who am shortly to end this mortal life I will be buried in the Temple of the Blessed Virgin The Event verified both the Dream and the Presages For in a short time Sickness and Death layd the Body of Prince William in the Grave while his Soul took her Flight to those Azure Mansions above A good Death is the beginning of a most blessed Eternity Sect. 39. VVherefore upon the daily sight of Funerals we do not consider Death THE Devil a most skilful Painter paints so well according to the Rules of Opticks that which is before us and nearest to us we may think most remote Thus as if we were to live a Thousand years we promise to our selves a long Security from Death Hence we behold Funerals and laugh as if it were never to be our Turn VVe daily die and yet we think our selves eternal Sir Thomas Moore that no Age might delude any Person with the hopes of a longer Life gives this Admonition As he that is carried out of Prison to the Gallows though the way be longer yet fears not the Gallows the less because he comes to it a little the later and though his Limbs are firm his Eyes quick his Lungs sound and that he relish his Meat and Drink yet this is still his
of Death in Sickness and not to be afraid of his coming Sect. 2. The sick Person to his Friends To Sickness To the beginning of a Mortal Disease To Death To Christ our Lord. To his Friends Hence with your unseasonable mourning This is not a place for Wailing but for Prayer But I depart early from you Early take heed ye mistake not I was ripe for death as soon as I was born yea before I was born What I was when born I know a weak frail body liable to all Reproach the Food of Sickness the Victim of Death Behold who e're thou art take Hope or Substance to Morrow not to be or else to be elsewhere To Sickness Must I then now be sick The time is come for me to try my self The couragious Man does not shew himself either in Battel or at Sea There is a Courage also in the Bed of Sickness Shall I leave a Feaver or that me We cannot always continue together Hitherto I enjoyed Health now my business is with Sickness Sickness I know is the first Messenger of Death I believe St. Gregory for that who truly and piously The Lord knocks saith he when by the anguish of Sickness he declares the approach of Death to whom we presently open if we receive him with Affection The very Fables teach me to receive this first Messenger of Death with a contented Mind They relate how that an old Man lay sick and when Death was ready to snatch him away the sick-man desired that he would defer the fatal blow awhile till he made his Will and prepared such other things as were necessary for so long a Journey To whom Death Fond Banquet for the Grave said he couldst thou not prepare in so many Years that hast had so many warnings from me already To whom the old Man I take thy Truth to witness I never had any warning from thee To whom Death reply'd Now I find old men will lye A hundred nay a thousand times I have admonished thee when I took away not only thy equal in years but also young Men Children Infants while thou lookst and wepst But I appeal to this Truth forgetful old man did I not forewarn thee when thy Eyes grew dim thy Hair waxed grey thy Ears grew deaf all thy proud Senses defective and thy whole Body wasted These were my Messengers these knockt at thy Doors but thou wouldst not be spoken with thou wert often and daily warn'd I can stay no longer come and go along with me He ill prepares himself for Death who prepares so late To the beginning of a mortal Distemper When I consider my Life the multitude of my Sins the small number of my Deeds good God I am pinn'd up and in streights on every side But it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are manifold than to live and multiply my years and my sins What I should be thou Lord knowest full well Perhaps I should fall from thy Graee should I live longer ' Death thou art at hand take me away so that I may preserve the Favour of my God or rather so that the Favour of God may preserve me which is the only thing O Christ Yesu which I beg of thee and through thee To Death Why with a slow Consumption cruel Death Dost thou deprive me slowly of my Breath Such preparation needs not for my end Strike quickly then for I will ne're contend Why shouldst thou spend thy Quiver on my head When one poor single blast will blow me dead For what is man A batter'd and leaking Ship that will split with one dash without the force of a Tempest the Body of man consisting of infirm and fluid parts comely in the outward Lineaments not able to endure Cold Heat or Labour that consumes and wastes of it self fearing its own nourishment the plenty or want whereof is frequently the ruine of it to himself only a profitable and vitious nourishment nicely to be looked after and preserved A life enjoyed at pleasure liable to a thousand Diseases and without Diseases devour'd by it self Do we admire at this once dying wherein thou mayst find private and concealed Deaths His smell his taste his weariness his watching the humours of his Body his meat and drink to man are deadly To Christ. I would not die but live he seeks to live That in thy love O Christ to die doth strive I do not stand in fear of those things which thou O God dost appoint for me I follow thee O merciful Father I follow thee And wherefore should I refuse when thou callest me nearer to thee 'T is much better for me to be dissolved and be with Christ. This is that which I desire For Christ is life to me and Death is gain Sect. 3. An Antidote against Grief WHerefore art thou troubled wherefore art thou perplexed Thou art in the hand of God and he takes care of thee But thou art afflicted and sick What evil can that be which proceeds from the Fountain of Goodness God would have thee to be his own and therefore shuts thee up and retains thee within the Lattices of Sickness least thou shouldst go astray from Heaven A little Bird weary of the Cage desires liberty but while it is in the Cage is both lov'd and sed by its Master While she is at liberty who can believe her free from the Fowler or from the Snare Thus believe me it is a great thing to be the Captive of the Lord thy God it is to be lookt upon as a great Favour to be bound a little while to be cut and wounded by him that will spare thee to Eternity Sect. 4. Not always Draughts of Sweetness GOD sometimes O sick Man gives the Cups of bitterness thou drankst the sweet Liquor while thou wert in health VVhy dost thou make Faces why dost thou refuse the Cup Think upon that of Job Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Ingrateful Mortals we know not the Benefits we receive but by losing them Thou wilt be a good Valuer of lost Health for the future Thou mayst remember also that when thou wert in health thou didst often recreate thy self beyond the bounds of Sobriety Now therefore let me perswade thee chearfully to take this bitter Cup and bear this punishment imposed upon thee for thy former Ryots Formerly at at the Latin Festivals when the Chariot-Drivers strove for Victory they that overcame drank Wormwood Do thou now drink that thou mayst overcome He undeservedly Metheglin sips That to the bitter will not lay his lips Sect. 5. The contempt of Death is a Christian Generosity NO Man ever govern'd his Life well but he that contemned it VVe are not so silly but that we understand we must one day die yet when Death approaches we hang back we tremble we lament But would not he appear to thee a very Fool that should weep because he had not lived
'T is too late to layter here we strive in vain against the Stream Nature is a Mother not a Step-dame Dost thou accuse Nature O Tâ—…eophrastus as if less favourable to Man than Beasts certainly â—…e intended more to him than to them For which is best to suffer quickly what thou art no more to fear or to fear long what thou art slowly to endure Nature gives a long torment to Man when she grants him a short Life For always all Men must expect Their Day perfix'd What art thou then afraid of Is thy Life tak'n from thee Not only so but also the fear of Death and most Evils of Life This is the general choice of most Men rather to suffer quickly what we ought than to continue long in fear and pain There is little difference saith the second Pliny between suffering and expecting Misfortunes Only that there is a Measure of Fear and not of Grief For thou mayst bewail and grieve for what thou knowest has happened thou fearest what may happen Therefore come Death I am thy Debtor I will pay what I owe when ever God requires me Therefore freely willingly Will I the number of my days compleat And straight surrender up my soul to sate Hoping to ascend from the dark Grave to everlasting Light Death is not an Evil but Punishment after Death is an Evil. Sect. 8. They fear Death who foresee it not MOST certain it is that nothing terrifies so much as an unexpected necessity of dying Behold how they who are subject to the power of another being commanded a long Journey pack up their things in haste sollicitous and sad how they murmur because they had no longer warning As they are upon their departure they often look back pretending this and t'other Obstacle Now there is no longer Journey than to Die no way more crabbed more dark more hard to find none more suspitious and infested with Robbers Besides there is no return again Therefore we must tâ—…e more heedfully take care that we leave nothing behind There is a necessity of going thither fellow Souldiers said the Roman Captain from whence there is no necessity of returning There is only one remedy to answer being called and to obey being commanded Alas How improvident are they who never take care to provide for thy Journey They take care to fare well the rest they commit to Fortune Smyndirides that debauched young Man was wont to brag that in Twenty Years he had not seen the Sun rising or setting being continually either a Bed or at his Riot I fear one of you may find many like him among the Christians who make Gluttony Playing and Drinking their greatest Business To these will happen that which Cicero in his Epistles foretold to Brutus Believe me saith he you will be ruined unless you provide well Thus it will happen to all unwary People that want fore-sight Foresight is necessary in all things especially in those things that are never to be done but once where one mistake draws a thousand along with it This is the Condition of Death one Error causes a thousand Mistakes To err once there is to perish eternally O blind Mortals it will happen to you as it happens to them that shut their Eyes against their Enemies Swords in a Battle as if they were not to feel the danger which they see not Ye shall be smitten ye shall die ye shall be sensible and feel the stroke but whether blind or seeing that is at your choice You refuse to think upon Death which you must shortly think upon and feel The sufferance would soon follow when the Consideration precedes Sect. 9. They fear Death who are negligent of Life NEither is there any Question to be made of this They chiefly fear to die who know not how to live who believe no other Happiness but that of the Body Who only know how to eat well drink well and sleep well and place all their Heaven in pleasure persons certainly most obedient but to their Bellies not to the Divine Will Of whom St. Gregory truly said They know not what the Celestial Souls desire who set their Hearts upon Earthly Delights A prudent Christian that takes no more care of the Body than of a mean and abject Slave looks upon Death no otherwise than a Morning departure out of a dark unpleasant and incommodious Inn. Whoever thou art thou canst not fear thy Exit as of this Life if thou hopest to enter into the other Thy fear arises from hence For though there are many causes vulgarly given of this fear yet they all vanish upon the hopes of a more blessed Life He who seriously aspires to Heaven fears not these Baubles To such a Man Labour Sadness Grief Contempt Ignominy Loss Servitude Poverty Old Age are nothing else but the School of Experience the Time of Patience and the Honour of Victory Sect. 10. Three Things hardly supportable in Sickness IN almost all Sickness three things are hardly supportable Fear of Death Pain of the Body Discontinuance from Pleasure But as hot Diseases are Cur'd by cold cold by hot Medicines so are they Cur'd by their own Antidotes Therefore the fear of Death is to be Cur'd by Love but by Divine Love a little Dose of Divine Love will dispel the fumes of vain fear He that loves Christ will the less love Life and shall perceive the love of Christ to him By words alone this is not prov'd Love Marcus love if thou wouldst be belov'd Pain of the Body is to be asswag'd by tranquility of Conscience A guiltless Mind is a wonderful Consolation to the Sick And indeed a pure Conscience is a potent remedy against all Torments That also asswages pain as St. Gregory intimates in these words More easily will the Sick Person endure pain if he bear but this in his mind The most Just God will have me suffer this But Discontinuance from Pleasure will nothing at all afflict him who thinks upon Eternal Joys Those which leave are vain short and filthy and before they are forsaken frequently leave their admirers those which we promise our selves Immense Stable and Eternal He easily contemns Fading Delights who sincerely hopes for Eternal Sect. 11. Sickness the Sport of Vertue THou art well smitten if they Conscience be smitten Sickness is the School of Vertue it is also called a kind of Slaughter-house of Vice whoever is sick is a Scholar in this School On the other side Sickness is the Slaughter-house of Vertue to some and the School of Vice while they are well they are mad While they are well they have a hundred Businesses the Business of God is their last care How many are Chaste while they are Sick when they recover they return to their former filthy Lusts. Such people would do better Sick to whom health is so dangerous These therefore God tyes them to the Bed of Sickness that they may be at leisure to themselves and may mind their Salvation Forsake Vanity and
not only interrupt the voice but even oppresses the very Soul it self But then Patience and Suffering are to be offered up for Prayers to God to whom Pain is a grateful Sacrifice so that Patience be joined with it He prays well who suffers well Neither may he be said to pray but to obtain by Prayer of God who sends such Eloquent Messengers to him as Pain and Patience But let him be such a sick person whose Speech may be interrupted whose Mind may be broken and whose Patience may be at a loss Yet there is a way for him to pray Let him look about he shall see some sitting some standing by him ready to help and assist him How easie is it then to cast in a word by the by how easie is it for him to point or cry to his Friend say this Prayer read this Psalm or that Paragraph Who so hard-hearted as to deny so small a Duty to the Sick So that when a sick person cannot pray with his own he may with anothers Lips And therefore I repeat this again Pray always in Sickness We can never unseasonably have recourse to God Sect. 17. In Pain and at other times what is to be meditated upon what to be done every day A Man that trusts in God though oppressed with Miseries and full of Pain may rightly say this while I breathe I hope and so much always the better the nearer to my end I find my self Seneca has most excellently Philosophized concerning pain No Man saith he can feel excessive pain and long for thus has Nature most favâ—… able to us ordered it that pain should be either tolerable or short For the intense excess of grief finds a end Therefore this is the Comfort of vast paâ—… that thou must of necessity cease to feel it if thoâ—… feelest it over-much But this is that which troubles the unskilful in the pains of the Body They are not content with their Souls alone they have still so much Business with the Body And therefore O Sick Person accustom thy self by degrees to wean thy Soul from thy Body and to converse with thy better and more Divine part but with thy Body the frail and weak part no more that needs must And though pain is seldom so constant but that it has some intermission therefore do not think that all Exercise of the Soul is to be omitted when thou lyest sick when thou feeles pain Above all things take care that thy Morning Prayers and thy Evening Examination of thy Conscience as much as in thee lyes may make 〈◊〉 due progress If thy Tongue fail thee let thâ—… Mind pray Never begin the Night nor compose thy self to sleep till thou hast examined thy Conscience In the day-time when thy pain ceases or relaxes take a good Book and there read and weigh every Period every Day set aside a small Hour for Prayer pious Groans and humble Ejaculations so thou wilt believe thy self to have pray'd an Hour in Heaven At the beginning and end of all thy Prayers refer thy self wholly to the will of God with a prepared Obedience All which things are so far from difficulty that a dying man may perform them as well as he whose Pain is not so severe If thou canst not or rather will not perform these Duties yet for that one little Hour patiently endure thy Pains Make not thy Misery more intollerable than it is nor burthen thy self with Complaints Pain is the Lighter of Opinion and Conceit and not to the Weight On the other side if thou beginst to exhort thy self and say 'T is nothing or else it is very little let us endure it will be over by and by thou wilt make it easie while thou believ'st it so Every Man is miserable as far as he believes himself to be so Sect. 18. We are of one Opinion in Health of another in Sickness LAcides the Philosopher when he had lost the most of his Houshold-Goods We dispute saith he otherwise in the Schools than we live at home Thus the Healthy well suggest a thousand Consolations to the Sick But where is that sick person who is able to comfort himself How like Glass is our Srength crackt with the least crush We think our selves made of Brass when we are in health and in a manner challenge pain but when they come we fly them we fall we lie down before any Conflict with the Enemy We are Men thou sayst and dying Bodies are not able to endure the force of Pain I deny not but that Humane Bodies are frail yet not so infirm but that they have strength enough to endure any Affliction unless the Mind be weaker than the Body 'T is our softness that causes so many Deserters of Courage while they refuse all Extremities as intollerable But Courage dies if you take away the Subject of it which is Difficulty Sect. 19. Pious Ejaculations to God in all Sickness and Infirmity O Lord my Strength my Power and Refuge in time of Trouble Jer. 16. v. 19. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. v. â—…8 O Father Let Job be well tried because he hath answered for wicked men Job 34. v. 36. Before I was troubled I went wrong but now have I kept thy Word Psalm 119. Therefore have I delectation in Infirmities in Rebukes in Necessity in Persecutions in Anguishes for Christ's sake for when I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12. 10. And now O Lord deal with me according to thy will and command my Spirit to be received in peace Tobias c. 3. v. 6. Sect. 20. Certain Vices of Sick-people FIrst To listen after Curiosities News and Trifles 2. Not to give Ear to the Admonitions of Death 3. To complain of those that look after them 4. To refuse their Dyet as ill drest 5. To find fault with the Bed as ill made 6. To believe they are not well lookt after and therefore to murmur and be angry 7. Seldom to discourse of God and divine things 8. Not to be resign'd in all things and submissive to the will of God 9. To believe some things intollerable and not digest all things with a Christian Patience Now I would sain know of thee O sick Man what concerns it thee what is transacted in Germany France Italy or Spain Do thou rather enquire what is done in Heaven among the Saints Or what is done in Hell among the Cursed Let the dead bury the dead Do thou only mind thy Salvation that 's the onely one thing necessary VVhat hast thou to do with News and false Reports Thou dost not profit thy self thereby but offend others Why art thou angry with those that mind thee of the approaching danger Know 'em they are the Heralds of Death I beseech thee do not imitate those old Men many of which perhaps thou hast known to whom it was death to hear any one disccursing of Death Hast thou not hitherto profited more then so childishly to fear
thus Buried by himself he gave up the Ghost These things may be admired but not imitated unless the Holy St. Paul intimates You are dead saith he and your Life is hidden with Christ in God Most Excellent is that Admonition of the Philosophers Live as it were lying hid For he lives well that absconds himself well Such a one is honestly buried by himself and to his great Advantage Who too much known to all men dyes unknown to himself He dies most quietly who ever buries himself alive in that manner Sect. 14. Considerations upon the Sepulchre The next third Season within Plithia's Walls Will bring me to my longed for Funerals THus Socrates foretold his own Death and truly here the City Plithia signifies no other than the Coffin and the Sepulcher whither whatever Treaties makes a hasty speed The Old Poet sang of Alexander the Great But having enter'd once that mighty Town Whose Sun bak'd Walls were of such high Renown Contented in a Coffin then he lay Thus Death alone makes the most true display What little things Mens Bodies are There is no House or Habitation so certainly ouâ—… own as the Grave This the blessed Jacoponus a Person as Religious as Facetious most aptly taught A Citizen of Tudertum had bought a pair of Cock Chickens and spying Jacoponus in the Market desired him to do him the Favour to carry them home for him desiring him withal that he would not fail To whom Jacoponus be certain said he that I will not fail to carry them home and so went directly to the Church of St. Fortunatus where that Citizens Monument was and hid the Chickens as well as he could The Citizen returning home in the first place enquired for his Chickens All the Servants denied they saw any such thing thereupon the Citizen returning back and finding Jacoponus I thought said he thou wouldst deceive me as thou usest to do But where are the Chickens said he To whom Jacoponus I carried them home as you ordered me Thereupon the Citizen denying any such thing to be done come along with me said Jacoponus and believe thy own Eyes and so saying carried the Citizen to his Monument and listing up the Stone Friend said he Is not this thy House Which the Citizen acknowledged to be true and there received his Chickens again Therefore most truly saith Job I know because thou wilt deliver me to Death where the House is appointed for all living Creatures Sect. 15. Nine Wills VEry truly said Pliny the younger the common Opinion is false that the Wills of Men are the mirrour of Manners 1. Zilka bequeathed his Skin to make a Drum and his Flesh to the Fowls of the Air and Wild Beasts and commanded his Souldiers to spare neither Churches nor Monuments He died of the Sickness in the year 1424. 2. There was a Woman that left her Cat by Will five Hundred Crowns for her Cats Food as long as she lived O the ridiculous Fosteries of Humane Thoughts Augustus said of Herod I had rather be his Hog than his Son A Man might as well have said I had rather have been this Womans Cat than her Servant 3. A Famous Usurer being at the point of Death sending for the Publick Notary and Respesses caused his Will to be written in these VVords Let my Body be returned to the Earth from whence it was taken but my Soul be given to the Devils His Friends astonished at his words advised rebuked him but he again and again persisted saying Let my Soul be given to the Devils for I have unjustly scraped together the most of my Estate To them belongs the Soul of my Wife and the Souls of my Children who that they might have wherewithal to spend upon Cloaths Feasting and Luxury put me upon the wicked Trade of Usury To them also belongs the Soul of my Confessor who encouraged my wickedness by his silence And so saying he breathed his last 4. St. Jerome rebukes the Covetousness of Heirs with this Fable A little Pig bewailed the Death of its Dam. with a most bitter gruntling but hearing the Will read and that there were a heap of Acorns and some Bushels of Pease left him he held his Peace and being asked wherefore he ceased his Lamentation so suddainly Oh saith he the Acorns and the Pease have stopped my Mouth This is the Humour of most Heirs now adays They gape after the Legacies make Inventories of the Goods and tell the Money let what will become of the Soul of the Testator let him rest as he has deserved But let us view another sort of Wills 5. The Holy Martyr Hierom the fourth day before he was carried to Execution left his Estate to his Mother and Sister but to Rusticius who was chief in Authority in the Commonwealth of Aneyra his Hand already cut off 6. The Holy Hilarion at Fourscore years of Age made Hesychius his Heir in these Words All my Wealth that is to say the Gospel and one Hair Vest my Coat and little Cloak I leave to my most loving Friend Hesychius And this was all the Inventory of his Goods 7. Antonius the Great made his Will in these Words As for the Place of my Burial let no man know but your own Love My Felt and old Cloak give it to Athanasius the Bishop which he gave me when it was new Let Serapion the Bishop take the other which is somewhat better Do you take my Hair Garment And so farewel My Bowels for Antony is going He had no sooner ended these Words but extending his Legs he gave admittance to Death 8. The Patriarch of Alexandria John of Almes wrote his Will thus I give thee thanks O God that at my Death of all my Revenues it hath pleased thee to let me have remaining but one third part of a pound When Alexandria first made me their Patriarch I found Fourscore Hundred pieces of Gold to this the Friends of Christ added an unspeakable quantity of Money all which that I might give to God that which was Gods I expended upon the Poor wherefore what remains I also give to them 9. To this may be added the Will of a certain Christian changing only the Name the Year and the Day I Achathius Victor have been running to Eternity from the year 1581. upon the 15th of August and have Eternity in my mind Now I commend my Spirit to God and because I cannot deny the Earth what belongs to it I bequeath my Body to the Earth and to the Worms Of my Goods there is nothing now mine but good will which I carry with me to the Tribunal of God the rest I thus dispose 1. I forgive all my Enemies from the bottom of my Heart 2. I am sincerely sorry for all my Sins 3. I believe in Christ Jesus my most loving Redeemer And in this Faith I desire the Sacrament of the Church 4. I hope for Eternal Life through the goodness of God 5. I love my God with all my Heart
about her Neck but fourteen days before she died the Marjoram-Tree dried up the Birds the next Night were all found dead and after that the Chain broke in two in the middle Then Barbara calling for the Abbess told her that all those Warnings were for her and in a few days after died in the Seventeenth Year of her Age After her death above twenty other Virgins died out of the same Nunnery Several other Presages there are that foretold the death of Princes and great Men As the unwonted Howlings of Dogs the unseasonable noise of Bells the Roaring of Lions c. Therefore said Pliny The Signs of Death are innumerable and that there are none or very few Signs of Safety or Security What do all these things Admonish us but only this Remember O man that thou art a man think upon Eternity to which thou art hastening Go to prepare thy self thou art called to that Tribunal of God as thou didst live shalt thou be judged Sect. 20. What Answer is to be given to the Messenger of Death SAint Ambrose having received the News of his Death when his Friends bewailed him and begg'd of God to grant him a longer space of Life I have not lived as to be ashamed to lieve among you neither do I fear to die because we have a gracious God Saint Austin nothing troubled at the News of his Death He never shall be great saith he who thinks it strange that Stones and Wood fall and that Mortals die Saint Chrysostom a little before his Death in Exile wrote to Innocentius We have been these three Years in Banishment exposed to Pestilence Famine continual Incursions unspeakable Solitude and continual Death But when he was ready to give up the ghost He cryed out aloud Glory be to thee O God for all things Let a dying Christian imitate these most holy Persons and repeat these Sayings often to himself Thanks be to God Glory be to thee O God for all things I have watcht long enough among thorns labour'd long enough in Storms Now because I see the end of my Watching and my Labour Thanks be to God Glory be to God for all things For Life is tedious Death a certain gain Sect. 21. Death is better than a sorrowful Life IT is better once to Die than to be always Dying We daily Die we have lost our Childhood our Youth is gone All our Time even to Yesterday is slid away These things Gregory Nazianzene comprehending in a few words There is no good among men with which there is not something of evil mixt Riches are a Snare Poverty a Fetter Honour a meer Dream Empire dangerous Subjection troublesom Youth is the Summer of Life Grey-hairs the Sun-set of Life Matrimony a Bond Children the growing Crop of Care Fulness breeds Petulance Want begets Impatience Whatever we behold in this World is like the World in a perpetual motion Whatever seemed stable is now doubtful contending with the perpetual volubility of Day-night Labours Diseases Sorrows Pleasures and Calamities Death is most certain Elegantly St. Austin Death saith he is only certain all things else uncertain A Child once Conceived perhaps is born perhaps not but perishes in Abortion If he be born perhaps he grows up perhaps not perhaps he grows old perhaps not Peradventure he shall be Rich peradventure Poor perhaps he shall attain to Honour peradventure live Contemned perhaps he shall have Children it may be not perhaps he shall die in his Bed it may be slain in the Field But who can say perhaps he shall die perhaps not The first Book of Maccabees thus describes the Death of Alexander Then he fell sick and when he perceived that he should die Alexander had wished for several Worlds in hopes of Victory and thought with himself that he had performed Atchievements that deserved Eternal Annals Nevertheless after so many and such great Victories overcome at length he fell not only into his Bed but into his Tomb contented with a small Coffin Peter Alfonsus reports That several Philosophers flockt together and variously descanted upon the King's Death One there was that said Behold now four Yards of Ground is enough for him whom the spacious Earth could not comprehend before Another added Yesterday could Alexander save whom he pleas'd from Death to Day he cannot free himself Another viewing the Golden Coffin of the Deceased Yesterday said he Alexander heaped up a Treasure of Gold now Gold makes a Treasure of Alexander This was their Learned Contention yet all ended in this Then he fell sick and died Thus forgetful of our selves what Mountains do we raise to our selves in Thought We revolve in our Minds Immortal I wish they were Heavenly Things whilst Death surprizes us in the midst of our vast Undertakings and that which we call Old Age is but the Circuit of a few Years Wherefore do we trust to Death Behold through what slight Occasions we lose our Lives Our Food our Moisture our Watchings our Sleep are unwholesome to us without their due measure A small hurt of a Toe a light pain of the Ear a Worm in the Tooth make way for Death The little Body of Man is weak frail subject to Diseases this Air these Winds those Waters offend him Therefore let us believe the Son of Syras Death is better than a bitter Life and Eternal Rest better than continual Sickness So that it is much better to be an Inhabitant on Earth than a Pilgrim in Heaven Sect. 22. The Happiness of Death BLessed are the dead that die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them To die in the Lord is the same thing as to die a Servant of the Lord as the Scripture speaks concerning Moses Moses my Servant is dead As if God had said saith Cajetan Though he were once a Sinner and was not then my Servant nevertheless he died my Servant He so died that whatever he was or whatever he did was mine for a Servant wholly belongs to the Master And let such a Servant of the Lord sing that Song of Simeon at his death Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word Altogether in peace and that Eternal in the beginning whereof all the Warfare of good men is at an end never more to be rekindl'd For such Servants of God die in the Lord who dying rest in the Bosom of God and so resting sweetly sleep in death Thus Stephen among so many Showers of Stones in such in the midst of the Tumult and Dinn of the Enraged Multitude slept in the Lord. Thus Moses the Servant of the Lord died by the command of God Thrice happy and blessed are such that never more shall be miserable The death of the Just saith St. Bernard is good because of its Rest better because of its Novelty best of all by reason of its Security Blessed and again thrice blessed are such for their Works follow them They
grows a Worm which afterwards comes to be a Bird of the same Nature Aâ—… plain Symbolum of the Resurrection Mirmeius the Roman Orator a great Antagonist of the Christians see saith he how for our comfort all nature points out our Resurrection The Sun sets and rises the Stars fall and return Flowers decay and reflourish the withered Trees recover their Vendure Seeds return their several species Thus the Body deceased like Trees in Winter cover their Vigour with a feigned dryness We are also to expect the Spring of the Body I know that my Redeemer Lives and that I shall rise again at the last day Sect. 29. The hope of Heaven WHat wouldst thou What desirest thou Wouldst thou live And wouldst thou not die So live then that thou mayst once live happy For to live and not to live happily is a kind of death or the way to death In Heaven thou shalt live never to die Therefore thou shalt live happily for thou neither shalt nor canst suffer pain because there is none there There thou shalt enjoy thy Wishes nor canst thou 〈◊〉 be put out of possession Eat O ye Cant. 5. 1. Friends drink and be merry O ye beloved This Banquet has no end St. Austin cries out O sempiternal Life and tempiternally blessed where joy without sorrow rest without labour dignity without fear health without sickness life without death happiness without calamity where all good things perfect in charity The Gates of Jerusalem shall be built of Saphyrs and Smarayds and of precious Stones the whole Circuit of her Walls The Streets of the City shall be pure Gold transparent as Glass and through her Villages shall Allelujahs be sung Therefore blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be alwaies praising thee I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Sect. 30. Sighs to Heaven Exod. 35. SHew me thy Glory Shew me all thy vers 18. Good Isa. 61. 3. When wilt thou give unto them that mourn beauty in stead of ashes joyful Ointment for sighing pleasant rayment for a heavy mind Job 6. 8 9. 10. O that I might have my desire and that God would grant me the thing that I long for O that God would begin to smite me That he would let his hand go and take me clean away Then should I have some comfort yea I would defie him in my pain that he would not spare for I will not deny the words of the Holy One. Job 7. 2. For as a bond-servant desireth the shadow and as the hireling would fain have the reward of his work Psalm 15. 1. Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle who shall rest in thy holy place Psalm 27. 45. One thing have I desired of the â—…ord which I will perform even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to visit his Temple Psalm 42. 1 2. Like as the Hart desireth the Water-brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God My Soul is a thirst for God yea even for the living God When shall I come to appear before the presence of God Now when I think thereupon I pour out my heart by my self I went by with the multitude and brought them forth to the house of God Psalm 55. 6. O that I had wings like a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest Psalm 60. 9. Who will lead me into the strong City Ps. 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee he shall dwell in thy Court. Ps. 73. 1. Truly God is loving unto Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Vers. 24. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee Vers. 25. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psalm 84. 1. O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of Hosts Vers. 2. My Soul hath a desire and longing to erter into the Courts of the Lord V. 10. For one day in thy Courts is better than a thousand years Psalm 116. 9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living Psalm 120. 5. My Soul hath long dwelt among them that be Enemies to peace Psalm 122. 1. I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 138. 1. By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion Ver. 4. How shall we sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand finger forget her cunning Ps. 142. 9. Bring my Soul out of prison that I may give thanks unto thy Name Which thing if thou wilt grant me then shall the righteous resort unto my company I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ. Sect. 31. An Abstract of the Comforts against Death FIrst Death kills our familiar Enemy the Body There is no mischief more pestilential than a Bosom-Enemy The Flesh lusteth contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit contrary to the Flesh Gal. 5. 17. These are contrary one to another 2ly Death breaks the Door of the Prison wherein we are lockt up But as old Prisoners many times long acquaintance with the place detains us not unwilling in the midst of our Fetters and Sufffferings But the best of Kings desired to be delivered out of Custody 3ly Death eases us of a vast Burthen for why a corruptible Body is heavy to the Soul and the Earthy Mansion keepeth down that Understanding that museth upon many things No man can swim with this Burthen 4ly Death puts an end to our Pilgrimage What is Mortal Life saith St. Gregory but a way Consider my Friends what it is to be aweary upon the way Our present Life is full of pain a perpetual strugling and yet we cannot forsake it without Tears 5ly Death brings us out of all Danger The most Fortunate Man that lives is subject to many Dangers and Danger is hardly avoided without danger He has only escaped all Dangers who is out of this Life 6ly The necessity of Death Nobly said the wise Roman There is no greater comfort in Death than Death it self He would not live that would not die Death carries with it an impartial and unvanquishable Necessity For the first part of Impartiality is Equality 7ly The Death of Christ. To the Contemplation of this St. Paul exhorts us Let us saith he run with patience unto the Battel that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Captain and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross. To the Members of this Head this is the greatest Consolation For that the Members should not fear Death the Head endured the utmost violence of Death The Author of Life by dying set open the Gates of Heaven Why do we fear to die
Patron of their Country bearing his Cross in their Standard The Death of St. JAMES A Short time after his Imprisonment Sentence of Death was passed upon him and as he was led to the Place of Execution according to Clemens Alexandrinus the Souldier or Officer who Guarded him to the place of his Martyrdom or as Suidas will have it his Accuser being Convinced by the Courage and Bravery of the Apostle in his chearfully going to his Death came and fell down before him asking Pardon for what he had done upon which the blessed man raised him from the Ground embraced and kissed him saying Peace my Son peace be to thee and a pardon of thy faults Whereupon before all the Assembly he openly confessed his Conversion declaring the Christian Faith to be the only means of Salvation declaring that he was ready to die for the same which accordingly he did they being both Beheaded at the same time As for the Body of our Apostle it being Interred near Jerusalem was from thence brought into Spain and there said to do many Miracles but what Credit is to be given to that I leave to the Reader 's Judgment The Death of St. JOHN HE died said the Arabian as Kirsten has it in the Lives of the Four Evangelists in the expectation of his blessedness from which he infers that he died peaceably and not a violent Death although Theophylact and others do conceive that he died a Martyr Many there are likewise who have cherished a fond Opinion that he never died but rather that sleeps in his Grave alluding to the words of our Saviour upon Peter's enquiry If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee John 21. 23. Others say that having commanded his Grave to be dug he went into it and ordered such as went with him to fasten down a great Stone upon the same and come the next Morning and look into it which they did and found nothing there but the Grave-cloaths from which as Nicephorus relates they concluded he was Ascended he having intimated some such thing before his lying down The Death of St. PHILIP THis Apostle was seized and carried to Prison and being Sentenced he was cruelly Scourged and hanged by the Neck against a Pillar though some would have it that he was Crucified but however during the Execution such a terrible Earthquake happened that the Earth began to open so that the affrighted people cried to Heaven for Mercy upon which it instâ—…ly staied The Apostle being dead his Body was taken down by St. Barnabas his Companion in the Ministery of the Gospel at that time and 〈◊〉 St. Philip's Sister who bore him Company in all his Travels After they had taken him down they decently Interred him and when they had confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ they departed thâ—…rce The Death of St. BARTHOLOMEW HIS Sentence was to be Crucified and when the Day of Execution came he went chearfully to embrace his Death Comforting and Exhorting his Proselytes to keep stedfast in the Faith and Doctrine that they had received which was able to make them wise unto Salvation and so continued to instruct them to the last moment of his Life Several there are that affirm he was Crucified with his Head downwards and that he was fleied alive which cruel usage as Plutarch relateth was common in that Country After his Death his Body was removed to Darus a City in the Borders of Persia from thence to Beuevent in Italy and from thence to Rome The Death of St. MATTHEW the Evangelist WE find in an ancient Author that he suffered Martyrdom at Naddabar a City of Aethiopia but what kind of Death he died is not mentioned and as Dorotheus reports he was Buried at Hierapolis During his Lifetime he was a great Assertor of the true Religion a Contemner of Worldly Treasure which is evident by his leaving so gainful a Calling to follow our Saviour As for his Humility he exceeded many of his Fellows which may well be observed in his Writings where he gives them the Pre-eminency His Age at the time of his Death is not certainly known though some are of Opinion he died in the Seventy Year c. The Death of St. THOMAS THE Brachamans or Heathen Priests were so enraged against St. Thomas that they sought always to destroy the Apostle as hoping by that means to extirpate his Doctrine which by being embraced on all hands had near spoiled their Trade So that one Day when he was praying alone in a solitary place they came upon him with Stones Darts and Spears and having grievously wounded him one of them run him through the Body with a Spear His Body being taken up by his Well-willers was Buried with great Solemnity in the Church that he had built which was afterwards greatly enlarged The Death of St. JAMES HE was took up by force and thrown down from the Battlements notwithstanding which Fall He reared himself upon his Knees and prayed for them the which whilst he was doing such Villains as they had appointed for that purpose fell upon him with Clubs and Stones till one among the rest notwithstanding the entreaty of many to save his Life with a Fuller's Club bear out his Brains and by that means gave his Soul a passage to the Eternal habitations of Bliss and Joy that fade not away He died in the Ninty fourth year of his Age and Twenty four after Christ's Ascension to the grief of all good men Gregory Bishop of Tows informs us that he was buried upon Mount Olivet in a Tomb which he had caused to be erected during his Life In which he had buried old Simeon and Zacharias though Hegesippus will have it that he was buried near the Temple in the place where he was Martyr'd and that there being a Monument erected for him it continued there for many years after The Death of SIMEON the Zelot THE Devil that great Enemy of our Salvation stirred up the Multitude to persecute him whose barbarous rage in a short time after Crowned him with Martyrdom as not only Dorotheus and Nicephorus affirm but also expressed in the Menologies where we are informed that St. Simeon went at last into Britain and having enlightned the Minds of many with the Doctrine of the Gospel he at length was Crucified by the Infidels and buried there but as to any particular place of his Burial no mention is made Some there are who tell us that after he had Preached the Gospel in Aegypt he went to Mesopotamia where meeting with St. Jude they journeyed together into Persia where having planted the Gospel they were both Crowned with Martyrdome The Death of St. JUDE NIcephorus tells us that after all he came to Edessa where Abgarus was Governour and where the other Tnaddaeus who was one of the Seventy had been before him and there perfected what was begun and having by his Preaching and Miracles established the Gospel he died a peaceable and
Son and Holy Spirit O Sacred Trinity which art without beginning and in whom there is no division receive the Soul of thy Servant in peace who is put to death for thy Cause and Gospel After which he submitted his Head to the stroaks of the Executioner Suffering Anno Christi 96 and of his Age 110. The Death of JUSTIN Martyr AFter his having painfully preached the Gospel in many Countreys he came to Rome where he had many Contests with the Philosophers and Sages and was at last by the procurement of one Crescens Condemned and accordingly Beheaded Anno Christi 139. and as Epiphanius has it under the Reign of Adrian some time before he Prognosticated his death So fell this Faithful Labourer in Christ's Vineyard He used to say Thaet which the Soul is in the Body that are Christians in the World For as the Soul is in and not of the Body so Christians are in but no part of the World And also It is best of all not to sin and next to that to amend upon the Punishment Furthermore Tâ—…t it is the greatest slavery in the VVorld to be subject to ones Passions The Death of IRENAEUS THis Holy Man being taken with several of his chief Friends they were led to the top of a Hill on which were placed Crosses on one Hand and Idols on the other and they put to their Choice either to embrace the Idols and Live or be Crucified Upon which they joyfully chose the latter suffering Martyrdom Anno Christi 182. and of Irenaeus his Age 60 or as some will have it 90. He compared the Hereticks and Schismaticks to Aesop's Dog that lost the Substance of Religion whilst they gaped too earnestly after the Shadow Concerning the Vanity of Earthly things he said VVhat profit is there in that Honour which is so short-lived as that perchance it was not Yesterday neither will be to Morrow And such Men as labour so much for it are but like Froth which though it be uppermost yet it is unprofitablest The death of TERTULLIAN HE died Anno Christi 202. and of his Age 63. He used to say of Repentance If thou beest backward in thoughts of Repentance be forwards in thoughts of Hell the burning flames whereof only the tears of a penitent Eye can extinguish Of Satans Power If the Devils without Christs leave had no power over the Gadarens Swine much less have they power over Gods own Sheep Of Faith We should not try Mens Faith by their Persons but their Persons by their Faith Of forgiving Offences It 's in vain to come to the God of peace without peace or to pray for the remission of our Sins without forgiving others We must not come to make an Atonement with God at his Altar before we have made an Atonement with our Brother in our Hearts The Last Sayings of CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS AFter the death of Pontenus Clemens succeeded him in that Office from whence he received the Name of Alexandrinus He was Famous for all manner of Learning and was ordained Presbyter in Alexandria where he propagated the Christian Faith His Sayings were these Such as adorn themselves with Gold and think themselves bettered thereby are worse than Gold and not Lords of it as all that have it ought to be Out of the depth and bowels of the Earth hath God discovered and shewed Gold unto Men and they have made it the occasion of all Mischief and Wickedness Gold to many Men is much dearer than their Faith and Honesty And the love of it makes Man so Covetous as if they were to live here for ever The Death of ORIGEN HE died in the Reigns of Galluâ—… and Volusianus Anno Christi 220. â—…nd of his Age 69. Concerning Gods Providence he used to say That Gods Providence hath ordained all things for some end and purpose He made not Malice and though he can restrain it yet he will not for if Malice were not Vertue would not have a Contrary and so could not shine so clear For the Malice of Joseph's Brethren was the Means whereby God brought about many admirable works of his Providence The death of St. CYPRIAN CYprian said to his Exocutioner Do whatever 〈◊〉 shall be in thy power and thereupon he putting 〈◊〉 his Cloaths delivering them to his Deacons â—…idding them give his Executioner five Twentyâ—…ces of Gold for the kindness he was to do him â—…express he freely forgave him Then pulling a â—…il over his Eyes he kneeled down and had his â—…d sâ—…itten off with a Sword suffering Martyrâ—…m for the Testimony of his Lord and Master â—…o 259. and in the 70 year of his Age as some â—…e it He used to say of Charity Let not that sleep â—…n thy Treasury that may be profitable to the Poor â—…of the Heart and Tongue Two things never wax old in Man The Heart ever imagining new Cogitations the Tongue ever uttering the vain Conceptions of the Heart Of Resignation That which a Man must necessarily part with it 's Wisdom for a Man to distribute it so that God may Everlastingly reward him Of Pride Women that Pride themselves in putting on Silk and Purple cannot lightly put on the Lord Jesus Christ. â—…gain They which Colour their Locks with Yellow and Red begin betimes to Prognosticate of what Colour their Hair shall be in Hell Again They which love to paint themselves in this World otherwise than God Created them may justly fear that at the Resurrection their Creator will know them Of Alms-deeds He that gives an Alms to the Poor offers a sweet-smelling Sacrifice unto God Of Injuries All Injury of Evils present is to be neglected for the hope of good things to come Twelve Attributes he said was in the Life of Man viz. A Wise Man without good works an Old Man without Religion a Young Man without Obedience a Rich Man without Alms a Woman without shamefac'dness a Guide without Vertue a Contentious Christian a Poor Man that is Proud a King that is Unjust a Bishop that is Negligent People without Discipline Subjects without Law The Last Sayings of ARNOBIUS HE was a Famous Professor of Rhetorick in Sicca a City in Africa after his Conversion he applied himself to some Bishops with great earnestness to be Baptized and admitted into the Church When he was Master to Lactantius he used this Expression That Persecution brings Death in one hand and Life in the other for while it Kills the Body it Crowns the Soul He lived under Dioclesian between 300 and 330. The Death of EUSEBIUS HE lived to a good old Age. for the most part in Peace and Tranquility Dying Anno Christi 340. He used to say That Moses wrote the Old Law in dead Tables of Stone But Christ writ the perfect Documents of the New Testament in Living Souls The Death of LACTANTIUS HE was a Man of great Parts both Morally and Divinely Wise he was always Liberal for â—…hatsoever he received he again distributed it to â—…ch as were in want
my Saviour Christ in his Glory And so gave up the Ghost Anno Christi 735 and of his Age 64. Some affirm that whilst he was Preaching to his Congregation a loud Voice was heard but from whence it came none could tell Well done Venerable Bede Upon his Tomb was found this Epitaph Here lyes Entombed in these Stones Of Venerable BEDE the Bones The Death of JOHN DAMASCENE DAmascene having finished his Course he yielded to Death in certain hope of a Glorious Crown of Life and Immortality dying about the Year 750. He wrote many Books but especially his Three Books of Parallels of the Holy Scriptures and his Four Books of the Orthodox Faith The Death of THEOPHILACT HIS Chief Work was to reform the Churches into which many Errors had crept especially in Bulgaria so that continuing a Faithful Pastor for about three years he then yielded up the Ghost and exchanged for a better Life He was a Man of great Patience Mild and Meek in all his Actions exceeding most of his time in Learning He used to say That comes forward in the World goes back in Grace his Estate is miserable that goes Laughing to Destruction as a Fool to the Stocks of Correction The Death of ANSELM HE used to say That if he should see the shame of Sin on the one hand and the pains of Hell on the other and must of necessity chuse one he would rather be thrust into Hell without Sin than go into Heaven with Sin A while after his return to England he dyed in the Ninth Year of King Henry the I. Anno 1109. Aged 76. The Last Sayings of NICEPHORUS HE was one of great Learning and Judgment He wrote an Ecclesiastical History in Greek and Dedicated it to Andronicus He used to say Christ asked Peter three times if he loved him not for his own Information but that by his threefold Profession he might help and heal his threefold denial of him He lived under Andronicus Senior 1110. The Death of BERNARD HE lived with great applause till the 63 year of his Age when retiring to his Monastery he fell sick and calling all his Disciples about him when he perceived them weep he comforted them saying My Fatherly love moves me to pity you my Children so as to desire to remain here but on the other side my desire to be with Christ draws me to long to depart hence therefore be of good comfort for I submit to the will of our Heavenly Father to whose protection I leave you And thereupon he resigned his Spirit into the Hands of his Redeemer dying Anno Christi 1153 and in the Sixty third year of his Age. Upon entring the Church at the Door he usually said Stay here all my Worldly Thoughts and all Vanity that I may entertain Heavenly Meditations The Death of PETER LOMBARD HIS usual Sayings were these There is in us evil concupiscence and vain desires which are the Devils Weapons bent against our Souls whereby when God forsakes us he overthrows us with deadly Wounds Let none glory in the Gifts of Preachers in that they edifie more by them For they are not Authors of Grace but Ministers The Instruction of words is not so powerful as the Exhortation of works for if they that teach well neglect to do well they shall hardly profit their Audience He dyed on the 13th of August 1164. and lyes Buried at Paris and has this Inscription upon his Tomb Here lyeth Peter Lombard B. D. of Paris who composed the Book of Sentences and the Glosses of the Psalms and Epistles The Death of Alexander Hales HE was Born at Hales in Gloucestershire carefully Educated of an Excellent Wit and very Industrious His Sayings were of Patience A Soul patient when wrongs are offered is like a Man with a Sword in one hand and a Salve in the other who could wound but will heal Of Faith What the Eye is to the Body Faith is to the Soul it 's good for Direction if it be kept well And as Flies hurt the Eye so little Sins and ill Thoughts torment the Soul Of Humility An humble Man is like a good Tree the more full of Fruits the Branches are the lower they bend themselves He dyed Anno 1245. The Life of Bonaventure TO keep himself imployed he wrote the Bible over with his own Hand and so well used it that he could readily Cite all the material Texts by heart After this he was made Doctor of Divinity in which he continued for a considerable time doing all the deeds of Charity that lay in his power to perform likewise perswaded others to do the like So that at last spent with tedious Studies Nature decayed in him and he falling sick gave up the Ghost dying Anno Christi 1274 Aged 53 and was Buried in a Stately Sepulchre in the Cathedral The Death of Thomas Aquinas VVHen any one offered him promotion he was wont to say I had rather have Chrysostom 's Commentary upon the Gospel of St. Matthew In all his Sermons he framed his Speech to the Peoples Capacities and hated Vice in any though he loved their Persons never so well He dyed as he was going to the Council Summoned at Lyons Anno Christi 1274. His usual Sayings were these of Spending our Time Make much of time especially in that weighty matter of Salvation O how much would he that now lyes frying in Hell rejoice if he might have but the least moment of time wherein he might get God's favour Of Death The young Man hath Death at his Back the old Man before his Eyes and that 's the most dangerous Enemy that pursues thee than that which marches up towards thy Face Of Repentance Remember that though God promises forgiveness to repentant Sinners yet he doth not promise that they shall have to morrow to repent in The Death of John Wicklif HE was an English Man by Birth descended of godly Parents who sent him to Morton College in Oxford where he profited in Learning and in a short time was Divinity Reader in the University which he so well performed that he obtained a general Applause from all his Auditors he was a Man of great Piety often bewailing the vicious Lives of the Clergy After all the Persecution and Malice of his Enemies he dyed in peace Anno Christi 1384. But after his Death many of his Famous Writings were burned by the Popish Clergy The Death of John Huss IN Degrading him they were so cruel as to cut the Skin from off the Crown of his Head with Shears and to disannul the Emperors Letters of safe Conduct they made a Decree That no Faith should be kept with Hereticks After which they prepared for his Execution and put a Cap upon his Head painted with Devils the which he joyfully put on saying That since his Lord and Master wore for his sake a Crown of Thorns he would not disdain for his sake to wear that Cap when he had put it upon his Head a
Death who Conquers all Conquered him for having made his Will he received the Sacrament and earnestly prayed for the Churches He on the Seventh of May Anno Christi 1562. yielded up his Spirit into the hands of his Maker dying in the 55 Year of his Age. His Funeral Solemnities were performed at the Charge of the Senate almost all the City being present He being Buried as himself desired in the Church-Yard where a stately Tomb was erected to his Memory The Death of William Farellus WHere ever he came Romish Malice attended him being so powerful in Prayer and Preaching that he gained thereby no small Congregations When he heard of Calvin's Sickness he could not satisfie himself though he was seventy years old but he must go to Geneva to visit him He surviv'd Calvin one year and odd months and died aged 76 years Anno 1553. The Death of Vergerius THE Devil stirred up many Adversaries against him especially the Friers who accused him to the Inquisitors but to avoid their Rage he went to Padua where he was a Spectator of rhe miserable Estate of Francis Spira which so wrought upon him that he resolved to go into Exile and accordingly he went into Rhetia where he preached the Gospel of Christ sincerely till he was called from thence to Tubing where he ended his days Anno 1565. his Brother being dead before him not without the suspition of Poyson The Death of Strigelius AFter his going through many Troubles he fell sick and said He hoped his Life was at an end whereby he should be delivered from the Frauds and Miseries of this evil World and enjoy the blessed Presence of God and his Saints to all Eternity He died Anno 1569 aged 44. The Death of John Brentius FAlling sick of a Fever he was endued with Patience saying That he longed for a better even an eternal Life He died Anno 1570. aged 71. was buried with much honour and had this Epitaph With Voice Stile Piety Faith and Candor grac'd In outward Shape John Brentius was thus fac'd The Death of Peter Viretus HE went to several places and carried on the Work of Reformation with Vigour and Success but Popish Malice lurked in Corners insomuch that they attempted to poyson him and laid wait for his Life He was very learned eloquent and of a sweet Disposition He died Anno 1571. aged 60. The Death of John Jewel IN his Sickness going to Preach he was desired by a Gentleman to return home the Gentleman alledging that one Sermon was better lost than by Impairng his Health to lose so good a Pastor But his reply was That it best became a Bishop to die preaching in a Pulpit That his great Master the Lord Jesus's Words might be fulfilled who says Happy art thou my Servant if when I come I find thee so doing And thus continued this good Man till his Sickness encreasing and Nature visibly decaying in him he was obliged to take his Bed and so far was he from fearing Death that he rather desired as longing to enter his Masters Joy often repearing the Words of old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation One standing by prayed for his Recovery which he hearing said I have not so lived that I am ashamed to live longer neither do I fear to die because we have a merciful Lord a Crown of Righteousnes is laid up for me Christ is my Righteousness Father let thy Will be done thy VVill I say and not mine which is depraved and imperfect this day let me quickly see the Lord Jesus And so in a certain and assured hope of everlasting Happiness he resigned his Spirit into the Hands of his Redeemer dying Anno Christi 1571. and of his Age Fifty The Death of Zegedine HE was driven by Popish Cruelty from several Places but where ever he went he took so much delight in breeding up Youth in Religion and Learning that he called it his Recreation Many hardships he endured in his Travel for being taken Prisoner by the Turks he was made an Object of their Fury for refusing to abjure the Christian Religion yet God delivered him out of all his Trouble and he died in Peace Anno 1572. aged 67. The Death of John Knox. FAlling Sick he gave order for his Coffin and being asked whether his pains were great he answered That he did not esteem that a pain which would be to him the end of all Troubles and the beginning of Eternal Joys Often after some deep Meditation he used to say Oh serve the Lord in fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Death of Jesus One praying by his Bed-side asked him if he heard the Prayer Yea said he and would to God that all present had heard it with such an Ear and Heart as I have done adding Lord Jesus receive my Spirit He ended this Life 1572. Aged 62. The Death of Peter Ramus HIS Fame grew so great that he was chose Dean of the University and Studied the Mathematicks wherein he grew exquisite The Civil Wars now breaking out he left Paris and fled to Fountain-bleau but not being safe there he went to the Camp of the Prince of Conde and from thence into Germany When the Civil Wars was ended he returned to Paris and remained the King's Professor in Logick till that horrible Massacre happened on St. Bartholomew's day wherein Thousands were slain by the bloody Papists He was then Lock'd in his own House till those furious Villains brake open his Doors and in his Study ran him thorow and being half dead threw him out of the Window so that his Bowels issued out on the Stones then they cut off his Head and dragged his Body about the Streets in the Channels at last they threw it into the River Sein Anno 1572. Aged 57. The Death of Henry Bullinger MR. Bullinger fell Sick and his Disease encreasing many Godly Ministers came to Visit him but some Months after he recovered and preached as formerly but soon Relapsed when finding his Vital Spirits wasted and Nature much decayed in him he concluded his Death was at hand and thereupon said as followeth If the Lord will make any farther use of me and my Ministry in his Church I will willingly obey him but if he pleases as I much desire to take me out of this miserable Life I shall exceedingly rejoice that he will be so pleased to take me out of this miserable and corrupt Age to go to my Saviour Christ. Socrates said he was glad when his Death approached because he thought he should go to Hesiod Homer and other Learned Menâ—…de ceased and whom he expected to meet in the other World then how much more do I joy who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ the Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and all Holy Men which have lived from the beginning of the World These I say I
am sure to see and to partake with them in Joy why then should not I be willing to dye to enjoy their perpetual Society in Glory And then with Tears told them That he was not unwilling to leave them for his own sake but for the sake of the Church Then having written his Farewel to the Senate and therein admonished them to take Care of the Churches and Schools and by their Permission chose one Ralph Gualter his Successor he patiently resigned up his Spirit into the Hands of his Redeemer dying Anno Christi 1575 and of his Age 71. The Death of Edward Deering DRawing near his end his Friends requested something from him for their Comfort and Edification The Sun shining in his Face he replyed There is but one Sun in the World nor but one Righteousness and one Communion of Saints if I were the most excellent of all Creatures in the World if I were equal in Righteousness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet had I reason to confess my self to be a Sinner and that I could expect no Salvation but in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ for we all stand in need of the Grace of God and as for my Death I bless God I feel and find so much inward Joy and Comfort in my Soul that if I were put to my Choice whether to die or live I would a thousand times rather chuse Death than Life if it may stand with the Holy Will of God He dyed Anno 1576. The Death of Peter Boquinus THE Popish Party being incensed against him sought all means to destroy him so that he was forced to fly to Heidelberg where upon a Lord's Day visiting of a Sick Friend he found his Spirits fail and said Lord receive my Soul and so quietly departed Anno 1582. The Death of Abraham Bucholtzer HE was full of Self denial Humble and an Enemy to Contentions He used often to meditate upon Death and used this Expression it hath always formerly been my Care in what Corner soever I have been to be ready when God called to say with Abraham Behold my Lord here I am but now above all other things I should be most willing so to answer if he would please to call me out of this miserable Life into his Glorious Kingdom for truely I desire nothing so much as the happy and blessed Hour of Death He dyed Anno 1584. Aged Fifty Five The Death of Gasper Olevian A Mortal Sickness seized upon him and preparing himself for Death he expressed to a Friend That by that Sickness he had learned to know the greatness of Sin and the greatness of God's Majesty more than ever he did before The next Day he told John Piscator That the day before for four Hours together he was filled with ineffable Joy so that he wondered why his Wife should ask him whether he were not something better whereas indeed he could never be better For said he I thought I was in a most pleasant Meadow in which as I walked up and down methought that I was besprinkled with a Heavenly Dew and that not sparingly but plentifully poured down whereby both my Body and Soul were filled with ineffable Joy To whom Piscator said That good Shepherd Jesus Christ led thee into fresh Pastures Yea said Olevian to the Springs of Living Waters Then repeating some Sentences out of Psalm 42. Isa. 9. Matth. 11. c. he said I would not have my Journey to God long deferred I desire to be dissolved and to be with my Christ. In his Agony of Death Alstedius asked him Whether he was sure of his Salvation in Christ c. He answered Most sure and so gave up the Ghost Anno 1587. Aged 51. The Death of John Wigandus HIS strength decaying he fell sick and preparing for Death he made his own Epitaph In Christ I liv'd and dy'd through him I live again What 's bad to Death I give my Soul with Christ shall reign So praying he resigned up his Spirit to God who gave it Anno 1587. Aged 64. The Death of John Fox MR. Fox together with his Wife and some others went to Antwerp and so to Basil which was then a place of free reception of poor distressed Fugitives who were forced to leave their Countreys for the sake of the Lord Jesus and his Everlasting Gospel And here he undertook to correct the Press and at such leisure times as he could spare he wrote part of the Acts and Monuments of the Church a Work Famous to all Posterity And in this station he continued till the death of Queen MARY whose death he had a little before foretold Upon certain notice of which he with several Pious and Learned Men returned into England and were kindly received by Queen Elizabeth where Mr. Fox prosecuted his Work begun at Basil and so laboured therein that he soon brought it to a period He finishing this great Work in Eleven years space searching all the Records himself He now growing in years and by reason of his former Hardships his great Study Travel and Labour he was reduced to a very weak Condition he laid down the troublesome Cares of the World to prepare himself for Death He resigned up his Spirit into the Hands of the Father of all Spirits dying Anno Christi 1587. in the 70th year of his Age. The Death of George Sohnius HE was full of Humility Piety and Patience falling sick he bore it with much Patience and with servent Prayer often repeated O Christ thou art my Redeemer and I know that thou hast redeemed me I wholly depend upon thy Providence and Mercy from the very bottom of my Heart I commend my Spirit into thy hands and so dyed Anno 1589. Aged 38. The Death of James Andreas THE year before his death he would say He should not live long That he was weary of this Life and much desired to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ which was best of all Falling sick he sent for James Heerbrand saying I expect that after my death many Adversaries will rise up to asperse me and therefore I sent for thee to hear the Confession of my Faith that so thou mayest testifie for me when I am dead and gone that I dyed in the true Faith The night before he dyed he slept partly in his Bed and pâ—…rtly in his Chair The Clock striking Six in the Morning he said My Hour draws near When he was ready to depart he said Lord 〈◊〉 thy hands I commend my Spirit He dyed Anno 1590. Aged 61. The Death of Hierom Zanchius ZAnchy being grown old had a liberal Stipend setled upon him by Prince Câ—…ssimir and going to Heidleberg to visit his Friends he fell sick and quietly departed in the Lord Anno 159â—… aged 75. The Death of Anthony Sadeel HE sell sick of a Pâ—…urisie which he Prophetically said would be Mortal and withdrawing himself from the World he wholly conversed with God He dyed Anno 1591. Aged 57. The Death of William