left Gen. 48. So many a one which in this life seemeth to bee at the right hand of God by his many externall blessings shall after death bee turned to the left hand of the vengeance of God and contrarily many that seeme now by their many calamities to be at the left hand of the curse of God shall there be brought vnto the right hand of his vnspeakable glory There are the prisoners at rest and heare not the voyce of the oppressor There are the small and the great and the seruant is free from his maister Iob. 3.18.19 Some few shall be so happy as both heere and there to bee at the right hand of God Thinke now what thou art thinke what change will follow and let this meditation helpe thee to prepare thy selfe for death to put thy house thy closet-house in order And thus much for those things which help forward the closset-house to be well ordered by meditation Now to those things which helpe it forward and consist in action And those I will reduce to foure heads of which I will very briefly speake The first is that whosoeuer will haue the house of his soule prepared against death suffer in his soule no such traitors or weapons as may helpe death against him those traytors those weapons are our sinnes The sting of death is sin 1. Cor. 15.56 as it appeareth in many a dying man and woman dying with great impatience not so much because they must die as that they are netled with the remembrance of such and such horrible sins for which as yet their peace is not made then they curse the time not that they die in but wherein they euer knew such a man or such a woman that hereby it easily appeareth where the sting of death lyeth and is felt either before death or after death this maketh the diuell so busie now and then euery day to crowde one sinne or other into our soules consciences as if he were now setting in a staffe now a dagger now a sword now a gunne now one weapon now another which hee might haue ready in our owne soules to wound our selues withall If therefore wee will order our selues aright let vs looke into the house of our soules and see what weapons stand which may helpe the diuell and not vs as all vnrepented sinnes doe and let vs cast them out take out blasphemy cursing oppression impatience hypocrisie fling them from you that so you may put your house your closet house in order and thrice miserable are they who giue the diuell leaue euery day to crowd what weapons of sin he list into their soules Secondly in the house of the soule and conscience there must be gotten a true and liuing faith whereby not onely the weapons of the diuell must bee cast out but that Christ may enter and dwell and keepe possession in the soule vntill it shall bee brought to glory Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Reuel 14.13 All these dyed in the faith Heb. 11 13. Dying Iacob out of faith could say Lord I waite for thy saluation Gen. 49. As hee that was stung by the fiery serpents was to looke vnto the brasen serpent and so recouer so he that is stung by sinne and death must haue a liuing faith to beholde Iesus Christ withall and hee shall bee cured Iohn 3. Miserable wordlings when wealth and Physitians faile their hope faileth A Christian alwayes getteth faith that thereby Christ may dwell with him here that by Christ his sinnes may bee couered that by the touch not of the hemme of Christ his garment but of Christ himselfe all the bloody issues of his sinnes may bee dryed vp that when the eyes of his body grow dim by approaching death hee may yet by the eyes of faith see Christ Iefus at the right hand of the Father making intercession for him labour therefore that thou mayest bee faithfull that so by faith thy house thy closet-house may be put in order Thirdly the third action of the soule to put it in order against death is that it bee alwayes willing to open the doore to God to yeelde it selfe into the hands of God when God calleth I know there was a time when Dauid prayed against death saying What profit is there in my blood when I goe downe to the pit Psalm 30.9 I know Ionah prayed earnestly against it Io. 3. and so did this good King Hezekiah of whom wee speake There may be some secret cause for the quieting of the conscience after some great sin or recouering the glory of God by the sinne of his seruant impeached or some such like NolleÌ„ me hae in veste vt videat Thais loth I am to die before my conscience be fully setled or I haue againe satisfied the Church of God after such a sin or at such a time as the Church hath most need of me so as it cannot be well without me Yet for all this the Saints of God haue alwaies opened to God most willingly when the time hath come that God would haue them so olde Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy seruant departe in peace according to thy word Luk. 2.29 On the contrary a wicked mans soule must be fetcht twitcht from him This night shall they fetch away thy soule from thee Lu. 12. Malus est miles qui imperatore gemens sequitur He is a bad souldier who followeth his Generall with sighes sobs When one coÌ„meth knocketh at your doores to speake with you if you perceiue him as hee is comming and know him to be a friend you must vse you open the doores before hee can well knock but if it bee one you desire not to speak with then though you are within yet will you answer not besides your dores shall be fast barred or locked So when God commeth to some man and knocketh at his doore by sicknesse calleth Thou soule of man come forth and I must talke with you away skuds the soul barres the door with violent desires to prolong life with impatience at God his knocking by no meanes will open till God breaketh in vpon it but when he coÌ„meth to another man full of grace and knocketh at his body by sicknes calling such a soule come forth the Lord will speake with thee presently answer is cheerfully made Lord Iesus receiue my spirit Act. 7.59 Hilarion that holy Saint as Saint Ierome writeth when hee was about to die and felt in his soule an vnwillingnesse to die hee thus spake to his soule Egredere anima quid times nonaginta tribus annis seruiuisti Christo mori times Goe forth my soule why fearest thou â—ninty three yeares hast thou serued Christ and art thou affraid to die Thus must the soule be prepared willingly to die that so the closset-house may bee put iâ— order against death Fourthly as the bird flyeth to heauen-ward not without wings and the mariner passeth not the Sea without sailes so that the house of our soules may be put in order against death must wee alwaies pray that if it may be when God shall close our mouthes hee may close them not cursing or altogether busied about the worlde but euen praying and calling vpon the name of the Lord. Thus the good conuerted theese dyeth praying Lord remember mee when thou cammest into thy kingdome Luke 23.42 Thus out blessed Sauiour Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Luk. 23.46 Thus they stoned Steuen who called vpon God and sayd Lord Iesus receiue my spirit Act. 7.59 Thus as Eliah was taken into heauen with a fiery chariot so much we so must our soules ascend in the middest of denout prayers Thus most thou order thy closset-house Conclusion Thus then haue wee seene the sentence of death to haue beene irreuocable against vs all and that we ought therefore to put our house in order and how now in a worde to conclude When any of vs was in our mothers wombe that she began to look bigge with her burthen there was made preparation for vâ— before wee were borne there were cloues prouided a midwife and other wiues bespoken other things prepared against our birth into this world The day of our death in this world is but the day of our birth into another worlde Wee come out of the narrowe compasse of our mothers wombe into this more spacious roome fuller of brightnesse wee goe into another which yeeldeth vs as many more pleasing obiects theÌ„ the womb of this world yeeldeth as this worlds womb yeeldeth more then our mothers womb In the mothers wombe we somewhat although but a little God wot helpe our selues by drawing nourishment to our selues with our vegetatiue faculty before we come into this world to the midwife and other wiues Beholde the spirit of God will be as the midwife the blessed Angels will bee as the helping wiues the bundle of life eternal is insteed of other clouts prouided to wrape vp our soules in in in the time of our comming vnto the other world onely now whiles we are in the wombe of the world or rather of the Church of God let vs by faith and charitie our beleeuing and charitable powers suck such moisture of grace as that afterwardes wee may ioyfully be receiued as a childe borne into heauen when wee shall haue put our houses in order for wee shall die ane not liue Laus Deo FINIS
against thee thine heire and that with a lowder note then thy sicke heart or voyce is able to reach vnto Oh remember Samuel how hee would cleare himselfe with all care Whose oxe haue I taken or whose asse haue I taken 1. Sam. 12 13. remember what Abraham saide to the King of Sodome that hee would not take of his so much as a shooe latchet least thou shouldest say I haue made Abraham rich Gen. 14.23 Secondly to order this store-house whosoeuer will bee helped by God in sicknesse and in time of neede must bee open handed to the poore to such is God a helpe in sicknes mark the Psalmist Blessed is hee that considereth the poore and needr Psalm 41.1 How is hee blessed The Lord shall visite him when hee lyeth sicke vpon his bed in the third verse of the same Psal When one lyeth sicke vpon his bed it is a comfort to bee visited by his friends yet of some may it be sayd as Iob sayd to his friends Miserable comforters are yee and Phisitians of no value Iob. 16.2 one commeth and talketh of your olde madde prancks with a madde minde another commeth and hee is full of contention with you a third commeth and hee is all for the world with you a fourth commeth and he is all in the passion of those to whom Saint Paul saith What doe ye weeping and breaking my heart Act. 21.13 all miserable comforters but when God commeth to visite thee in thy sicknesse Oh the grace and peace that hee shall speake vnto thy soule neuer man spake as hee will speake Put thy store-house then in order so as they that are in need may by thee be remembred and God will remember thee and visite thee in time of neede The spaniell that commeth to some deepe or large ditch or riuer ouer which hee cannot get vnlesse hee swimme will vse the benefit of the water to swim ouer but assoone as he hath passed to the dry shoare hee will shake off the superfluous water and so moysten the dry ground You haue a great Sea of this worlde to passe ouer when you come from your mothers wombe ere you come to your graue you vse your wealth as the water by helpe whereof you may swimme ouer when you are vpon the shoare Oh shake off from your aboundance that which may refresh the weary and needy soule Make you friends with the riches of iniquity that when yee shall want they may receiue you into euerlasting habitations Luk. 16.9 Thirdly in disposing of the other part of the store-house to giue all to strangers and not to wife and children or the nearest in blood of the same familie seemeth to be contrarie to the lawe of nature and the rule of Saint Paul If there bee any that prouideth not for his owne and namely for them of his housholde hee denyeth the faith and is worse then an infidell 1. Tim. 5.8 Abraham gaue all his goods that hee had to Isaack to the sonnes of his concubines hee gaue gifts Gen. 25.5.6 In the family then there is respect to bee had who is to haue more who lesse And by the speech of old Iacob to his eldest son Ruben it seemeth to be grounded vpon the law of nature that the eldest sonne should bee most regarded Ruben mine eldest sonne thou art my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of my dignity and the excellency of my power Gen. 49.3 although for some especiall causes it hath otherwaies come to passe as that Ephraim is preferred before Manasses Gen. 48. and the elder shall serue the younger Rom. 9. and as for that lex salica whereby women are debarred from inheriting it seemeth contrarie to the course which God took for the daughters of Zelophehad Num. 27.7 I will not say more but this that it seemeth vnreasonable to leaue one amongst many children a coach to ride in and the other scarcely a paire of shooes to walke with one all and the other none and vngodly it is to leaue all well without an earnest praier of the blessing of God vpon all Thus must the store-house be set in order 3. And now I come to the closset-house to shew how that must bee put in order and by this closset-house I meane the close house of a mans soule and conscience close as yet from the world but to God onely open and to a mans selfe And indeed although a man put all the rest in order if he doe not put this house in order how much better is hee then Achitophel of whom the Scripture saith that hee put his housholde in order and hanged himselfe 2. Sam. 17.23 for such a man ordereth his wealth and vtterly ouerthroweth himselfe How this more priuate closset-house must bee set in order if wee well consider wee finde that as the soules internall operations are either in knowledge or in the more particular working of the affections and of the will so the meanes to put the house of the soule in order against death are either in meditation or in action And first in meditation there must bee diuerse things ordered by keeping the soule in often meditating vpon these three things first to meditate of death secondly of this life and thirdly of the great change which will happen to diuerse men presently after death First by meditation of death and often thinking thereof before it commeth I know that to many worldly-minded men whiles they are in health and wealth it is euen as death but to thinke of death Oh death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liueth at rest in his possessions Ecclesiast 41.1 better thoughts for him hee iudgeth to be the remembrance of his neighbours misery his owne worldly felicity his full bagges his great store-house of costly buildings Is not this great Babell which I haue built Daniel 4.27 and thus they spend their dayes in wealth and suddenly they goe downe to the graue Iob. 21.13 I know that the Emperour Otho did iudge it to bee the part of a cowardly and weake minde often to speake and thinke of death But our blessed Sauiour who is farre greater then the greatest of the sons of men did very many times both thinke and speake of his death to his disciples to leaue vs an example that whosoeuer will prepare himselfe for death must thinke of it many times in his life But what should a man thinke of death That a man may well meditate of death so as he may thereby put the house of his soule in order for death there are three things to be meditated on First let a man remember what death is to all men by nature and there hee shall finde that death neuer came into the world but by sinne By sinne came death 1. Cor. 15.21 The wages of sinne is death Rom. 6.23 and by that meanes entring with an enemy it selfe also is an enemy to the nature of man so is it called by the Apostle The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1. Cor. 15.26 Life of it selfe is a great blessing of God to euery liuing thing and no liuing creature but will striue to preserue the life of it selfe and to shunne death the poore worme or bird tam viuit vitâ quám Angelos said Saint Austin and is desirous to preserue its life as the Angels would preserue theirs And that they may doe so God hath giuen to euery liuing creature some pleasure or lustre whiles they liue and ordered things so that few or no liuing creatures dye without pangs yea euen very hearbes trees when they die lose their lustre and beauty euery liuing creature therefore euen from the highest Angell to the meanest plant either by reason sence or naturall instinct shunneth death as an enemy Yet this enemy which when it commeth bringeth pangs when it is come spoyleth the naturall lustre in all things must wee meditate to yeeld our selues Put the house of thy soule in order with this meditation Secondly meditate what death is to euill men beasts die and after the few pangs of death they feele no more a wicked man dyeth and when hee is heere dead yet hee is not all dead but with an endlesse lingring death is alwaies dying in endlesse torments so that he cannot bee altogether dead the soule perisheth Non it a vt non sit sed vt male sit essentialiter viuere non amittit sed beate viuere perdit said Gregory in the fourth of his morrals The soule perisheth not so that it dyeth but so that it liueth most miserably if it felt no more after this death there would bee an ende of paines but after this bodily death by reason of their paines men shall seeke death and shall not finde it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them Reuel 9.6 Here in some sore sicknesse great losses heauy crosses men wish for death what are all the troubles of this life to those after bodily death wee may well here take vppe the wordes of the heathen man who saide that death was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all fearfull things the most fearefull How may a guilty man who hath spent his dayes in iollitie at the houre of his death crye to his trembling soule as the Emperour Adrian did Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quo nunc abibis in loco Pallida rigida nudula Nec vt soles dabis iocos Oh my wandring flattering little soule the guest and cōpanion of my body into what places art thou now to goe pale affrighted naked neither as thou wert wont shalt thou henceforth make me merry By this meditation of death Put thy house thy closet-house in order that thou mayest shun this euill in death Thirdly meditate what death is to good men In the greatest pangs of death they feele ioy after death they lose not their lustre but get a farre greater then euer they had true it is that euen of the Saints Saint Paul saith to thē death is an enemie 1. Cor. 15.26 But such a one as being now conquered serueth but for the glory of the conquerers The naturall man shunneth death the sanctified man although hee stay till death come yet he desireth to be dissolued Philip. 1.23 death is to mee aduantage Phil. 1.21 Vsurparis ad laetitiam mater maeroris vsurparis ad gloriam gloriae inimica vsurparis ad introitum regni porta inferni Bern. in cant ser 26. Thou art now vsed to mirth O mother of sorrowes thou serueth vs to glory O enemy of glory thou helpest our passage to the kingdome which wert the gate of hell it bringeth vs to the ioyfull presence of the Trinitie where all the Angels and blessed Saincts will ioyfully embrace vs after all our labours ended Oh let this meditation of this happy estate after death serue for vs to helpe to put thy house thy closset-house in order I will be and haue beene very briefe in these things the time compelleth mee Secondly let a man meditate what this life is men are fond of it That skinne for skinne and all that euer a man hath will he giue for his life Iob. 2.4 therfore it should seem to be a most matchlesse thing God forbid that I should by wordes or thought debase so glorious a work of the liuing God as life is Yet what our life in sinne hath made life to bee let mee speake a little First when wee consider some in their wealth beauty honour and strength it appeareth I must needes say a beautifull life but yet euen as it is then it is but as that mare vitreum the Sea of Gods Glasse Reuel 4.6 a Sea full of surges troubles waues of discontent and enmity and besides brittle as glasse whiles riches take them the winges of an Eagle and speedily forsake their owners so to honour beauty strength the most glorious life therefore is but brittle and troublesome Secondly consider a man plagued for his offences with many crosses not one amongst many but taketh vp the complaint of Iob crying out Wherefore is the light giuen to him that is in miserie and life vnto them that haue heauie hearts which long for death and if it come not they would euen search it more then treasure Iob. 3.20.21 But thirdly consider a good Christian who in his estate outwardly is content satisfied he no doubt desireth earnestly to serue God sincerely yet the best are diuerse times ouertaken by sinne that they sinne and then repent and by and by sinne againe and then repent againe then sinne againe and repent againe so that they are forced by sinne creeping on so fast to cry out O miserable men that wee are who shall deliuer vs from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 Oh how blessed a thing is it to liue but such a life in such a place as not onely all teares shall be wiped from our eyes but all sinne from our soules where wee shall bee fure wee shall neuer sinne more In this life wee cannot but sin Thus meditating what this life is to all sorts thou wile bee helped to prepare thy selfe the more willingly to embrace death and to put thy house thy closet-house in order Thirdly that wee may haue our soules the better prepared for death let vs consider the great change which shall happen to diuers men after death many which haue seemed happy in this life in the next life shall be most miserable many which in this life haue seemed contemptible in the next worlde should truely be most glorious As appeareth by Lazarus in this life most miserable in the next life most happy as the Rich man after his costly raiment and delicious fare in this life beggeth miserably and is denyed vtterly a cuppe of water to coole his tongue Ioseph did place Manasseth to the right hand of Iacob and Ephraim to his left hand but Iacob blessed Ephraim with his right hand and Manasseth with his
Domus ordinata A FVNERALL SERMON Preached in the Citie of Bristoll the fiue and twentith day of Iune 1618. at the buriall of his kinswoman Mistresse Needes wife to Mr. Arthur Needes and sister to Mr. Robert Rogers of Bristoll By Iohn Warren Minister of Gods word at Much-Clacton in Essex IN DOMINO CONFIDO LONDON Printed by Nicholas Okes and are to be solde by Iohn Harison dwelling in Pater-noster-row at the signe of the Vnicorne 1618. To the Right Honourable my very good Lord Richard Lord Dacres of the South grace and peace RIght Honourable That which vnwilling I was to offer vnto the view of the world vntill it was wrested from mee by the earnest desires of my good friends am I now willing to send forth as a remembrance of my dutifull affection to you Thus I satisfie their desires in publishing this Sermon and mine owne in dedicating the same vnto your Lordship For howsoeuer distance of place is large betweene vs yet neither is my affection to your Lordship so long since begun now diminished neither haue I found your Lordship vnmindefull of mee whom you haue prosecuted with good fauours It may be I shall bee condemned for sending to one in the prime of his age a discourse of death But this well perused will make you die not the sooner but the happier Olde age is already come to death this Sermon teacheth how to meete with death before it commeth The same spirit of God which saide Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the daies of thy youth doth knowe that it is fit in young yeares also to remember our end Oh that they were wise Deut. 32.29 then they would vnderstand this they would consider their latter end was the wish of God for the Israelites It is the way to bee wise to number our dayes Psalm 90.12 Amongst the Nobles of Egypt whiles they banquited was carried the picture of death and these wordes spoken Looke vpon this Herodot in Enterpe and so eate and reioyce as that you remember your selfe shall once be such The traine of birdes guideth their flight and the remembrance of our ends may direct our life Euen in yong yeares then let this booke be as Philip of Macedon his boy saying Memento Philippe quod homo es Remēber you are mortall And my earnest prayer is that as it may be accepted as a token of my dutifull respect to your Lordship and to your honourable Lady so it may bee some little furtherance that you both may still and still liue honourably and in a good age die Christianly All which your good beginnings doe largely promise Much-Clacton Iuly the 26. 1618. Your Lordships in all duty to be commanded Iohn Warren To the Christian Reader IT is not for any exellencie which I esteeeme to be in this my worke that I thus publishit Such hath beene the respect which I haue alwayes borne vnto my louing and kinde Vncle Mr. Mathew Warren at this time one of the Sheriffes of Bristoll and such haue the curtesies beene which I found at his hands at the hands of my cosen Mr. Robert Rogers brother to this disceased Gentlewoman at the hands of both their wiues and also of many citizens in that famous Citie that I cannot to satisfie them in divulging this which by no small number of them with more then ordinary importunity hath beene requested They earnestly protested to haue receiued much fruit at the hearing That it may now bring forth fruit in thee Reader let it bee in thy hands as a Deaths head to remember thy end take it as the clock striketh as thou thinkest vpon thy worldly store and as thou remembrest thy conscience apply it line by line and then as Dauid stood triumphing with the head of dead Goliah in his hand so when the time of thy dissolution commeth although others at the like time are either senselesse or else yell houle thou shalt dye as ioyfully as if death had no venome crying out triumphantly in the midst of the pangs of death 1. Cor. 15 O death where is thy sting When the seruants in the citie of Tyre had slaine their Lords and Masters they agreed to chuse him amongst them to bee king who should first espy the Sunne rising the next morning Iustin lib. 18. when they were all assembled to this purpose whiles all the rest stood with their faces looking into the East onely Strato looked vpon the high moūtaines westward for doing whereof although hee were at the first derided yet when by this means he first destroied the reflection of the Sun-beames then was this face of his iudged not to be Seruilis ingenij ratio from a speculation of a seruile braine but of some more noble spirit Malac. 4. So whiles some looke for Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse in the wildernesse some in the markets some in other places if you looke religiously to the Sun-setting of your life towardes your death it may be a meanes for you with great ioy first to discerne the Sunne of righteousnesse fauourably shining vpon you These things if thou hast any furtherance to obtaine by this samll work thou wilt first thanke God for his gifts next those citizens of Bristoll who were the meanes that it came to thy view and lastly thou wilt pray for mee that the dew of heauen may descend vpon my labours to thy further good and in this hope I commend thee to God and this small worke to thy good vsage Thine in Christ Iohn Warren The Preface before the reading of the Text. THat the name of the iust might be had in remembrance it is the laudable custome of our Church at funerall meetings to recite the vertues of the deceased as the widdowes shewed the coats and garments which Dorcas made whiles she was with them Act. 9.89 yet are there two things which will make mee very sparing at this time in the performance of this duty first least our consanguinity and nearenesse in blood and kinred should make any thinke I speake more out of partiality then out of iudgement Secondly because how neere soeuer I was vnto her in blood yet in respect of conuersation I was a stranger Yet thus much may I truely say that she is generally reported to haue beene towards her neighbours full of curtesie towards her husband full of such loue as himselfe witnessed to me that although they liued together many years shee neuer sought for any thing towards him but loue and peace towardes God religious insomuch that I visiting her but the day before her death when she could scarsely speak to man she was very desirous to speake vnto God by prayer and comforted herselfe saying I know that he who was the God of Daniel is my God not doubting but the same God will deliuer her from all paines and sorrowes which we all with ioy remembring leaue her in the hands of God and that we may thither also come at the last
let vs heare what the spirit saith for vs. A FVNERALL SERMON ESA. 38.1 Put thy house in order for thou shalt die and not liue SIcknes a Sergeant belonging to the Mayrolty of death had seazed vpon the body of King Hezechiah to vrge him to pay Nature her debt And whiles hee was vnder this arrest the Prophet Esay was sent vnto him from God to preach that in his eares that sicknes preached in euery part of his bodie to wit that hee should now presently die and withall to giue him this admonition to prepare himselfe for death Put thy house in order for thou shalt die and not liue In which wordes there are these two parts to be obserued first an exhortation Put thy house in order secondly a commination or menacing for thou shalt die and not liue But because the force of the exhortation dependeth vpon the commination and as the manners of men are now a dayes few prepare themselues for death vntill they beginne to haue some feeling of it therefore in the handling of these parts the first shall be last and the last shall be first and I will first speake of the commination and secondly of the exhortation 1. Thou shalt die and not liue Breui moriturus es non viues saith Tremelius Thou shalt speedily die and not liue long not denying but hee should liue in the next worlde but doubling the sence in variety of words to expresse the certainty of his message Thou shalt speedily die and not liue heere any longer time In this commination I obserue three things for our admonition first something common to Hezekiah with vs secondly there are here somethings peculiar to Hezekiah not common to vs thirdly wee must consider the euent of this prediction First here is one thing in this commination or prediction which is common to Hezekiah and to all flesh and is therefore called the way of all flesh or of all the world Ioshu 23.14 that is death For what man liueth and shall not see death Psal 89.48 statutum est hominibus c. It is appointed to men that they shall once die Heb. 9.27 there is a statute lawe enacted in heauen for it which cannot be disanulled We reade in the fift of Genesis of many men that liued many hundreds of yeares yet none of them but dyed at the last At the command of Ioshua the Sunne stood still for a while in Gibea and the Moone in the valley of Aialon yet not for euer but they found their going downe so may some mans life stand for a while longer then others but yet at the last death catcheth them To Princes and Magistrates God speaketh I sayde yee are Gods but yee shall die like men Psal 82. The life of man being preserued by a calidum humidum neuer yet could the searchers of nature finde meanes to preserue it alwayes When any malefactor is condemned to death and speedy execution the Magistrate may pardon him and giue him his life to warrant him against the executioner but not against death yea when death commeth to the Magistrate himselfe hee cannot repriue himselfe dye hee must Glasse is brittle and cannot last long it is subiect to so many knockes yet if it be set in some safe place from knockes it may endure many ages It is not so with man who though hee escape all outward violence yet is borne with sinne and consequently with corruption to breed his death one Henoch one Helias might bee translated that they should not see death so to confirme our hope of the resurrection by the mighty power of God but neuer any more Death is gone ouer all men Rom. 5. I neede not longer to amplifie this point yee are not now as Adam and Abel once were whiles they neuer sawe a man to die euery Church-yard euery age euery sicknesse preacheth this mortallity and yee will also say this thing wee all acknowledge But yet I wish wee did so acknowledge it as that wee would lay it to our hearts We scarcely liue as if we should die no not when we follow others to the graue In a good pasture where many fat oxen are the Butcher entreth and fetcheth away one and killeth it next day he fetcheth another and still those which hee leaueth behinde feede and fat themselues vntill they are fetched to the slaughter not considering either what is become of their fellowes or shall bee of themselues So when death commeth amongst a multitude of vs heere taking one and there another being presently ready to fetch vs wee pamper vp our selues without ceasing till death take vs. Did wee consider our owne endes wee would alter this course the hand writing vpon the wall made Baltasar trēble in euery ioynt Daniel the fift Oh let the hand-writing of God whereby the number of our daies is determined make vs so to liue as that wee remember wee shall not alwaies liue here for this sentence is passed on vs yee shall die and not liue Secondly obserue in these wordes to Hezekiah that there are three things peculier to Hezekiah whereof wee are destitute 1. That herein he was foretold of the time of his death for so the words import thou shalt presently die But to you I can say you shall die but when I cannot say no not when Physitions haue giuen you ouer vnto death Man knoweth not his time Eccles 9. wee know the Sunne shall set in the euening and we perceiue how when wee can say now the Sunne is foure houres high or two houres or one houre high wee cannot say so of our life but when wee thinke it is many houres it may presently cease when wee thinke the Sunne of our life is ready to set it may haue farre to runne To him that dreamed of many yeares it was saide Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule Luk. 12. It is not for you to knowe the times and seasons which the Father hath kept in his owne power said our Sauiour to his Disciples in the first of the Acts. It is not for you and for our good If hee that hath now liued threescore yeares should from his infancy bee assured that hee should haue liued so long Oh how secure would hee haue beene in his sinnes whom yet this vncertainty of the time of his death could not awake Vtiliter voluit Deus latere illum diem vt semper paratum sit cer ad expectandum quod esse venturū sit et quando venturū sit nescit said S. Austen of the day of iudgement So I of the day of death It was for our profit that God would not haue vs to know that day to the intēt that euery day we should prepare for that which may come vpon vs any day and we are sure shall come vpon vs one day which wee know not Oh be carefull this day which may be thy last thrice happy is that seruant whom his Master when hee commeth shall finde well doing Let
your loynes be girded about and your selues like vnto men that waite for their Master when hee shall returne from the wedding Luk. 12.35 All wee can say vnto you is your Master will come but when we know not When ye shall die whether to day or to morrow whether this moneth or next whether this yeare or next we cannot tell but this wee are sure of die ye shall and not liue 2. In these wordes it was foretolde to Hezekiah in what place he should die for so much they intend thou shalt presently in this place without time to change often thy place in this place thou shalt die As for vs we know where wee were borne but in what place we shall die vntill wee die wee knowe not whether in the shop or in the chamber or in the field or in the Church or in a iourney no place so good as death will not enter none so vile a place as will disdaine Moses had appointed some citties of refuge and we haue had sanctuaries and priuiledged places for men oppressed were there any place in this world a sanctuary where death might not enter I doubt not but it wold bee thronged vnto but there is no place freed here frō death pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperū tabernas regumque turres countrie cottages and Kings courts feel death alike The Sun is introduced in the Poets speaking thus of it selfe Omnia qui video per quem videt omnia mundus I see all places and things and by me are all things and places seene the Wiseman saith The sun that shineth looketh vpon all things Eccleasticus 42.16 yet are there some places from whence the light of the sun may bee kept so is there not any place from whence death may bee kept looke for it in euery place In omni loco te mors expectat tu illam omni loco expecta it may be it runneth by thy horse side as thou ridest to take thee downe it may bee it walketh into the fields to make thee for euer seeing thy home againe In any case take heed of going into any places of sin and wickednes it may bee death standeth there euen there to take thee to thy eternall shame For as for the place of thy death we cannot tell thee all I can say is onely this thou shalt die and not liue 3. Herein is another thing wherein we differ from Hezekiah he is foretolde the disease he shall die of for so the wordes importe thou shalt not recouer of this sicknesse as for vs we know not the disease shall worke our death vntill our end no not when wee are subiect to some grieuous disease for some other meanes may preuent it Vnus nascendi modus moriendi mille there is but one way for vs all to be born into the world but a thousand seuerall waies to die as a broken shippe receiueth in water at a thousand places so wee leake and take in death in euery part of our body Mary Magdalen had seauen diuels one man had one and another had a legion one man hath one disease another hath seauen another hath a whole legion of diseases to bring him to his ende Him that escapeth from the sword of Hazael shall Iehuslay and him that escapeth from the sword of Iehu shal Elishah slay 1. King 19. so him that escapeth one meanes of death another will slay Pharaoh escapeth the fire and perisheth in the Sea Sodome is free from the Sea and is consumed with fire Corah auoideth the fire and the earth deuoureth him Herod is free from all these and the wormes eate him Ioh his children eschew all these and die by the fall of a house the houses of the Samaritans stand and they perish with famine the Shunamites childe is free from these and hee cryeth out Oh my head my head Antiochus his head is well and hee complayneth Oh my bowels my bowels Asa his bowels are well and he exclaimeth Oh my feet my feet and what euery one of vs shall complaine of at our last and sorest sicknesse it is to vs vacertaine Onely thrice happy is that person who though he be vncertaine with what disease his body shall bee distempered at the time of his death shal so look to himself as that he may be assured that his soule shall not wauer nor bee distuned from God Thus are we vnlike to Hezekiah in this prediction Thou shalt die and not liue It may bee some man here may obiect that many of the heathen men haue beeneforewarned of the time of their death as also of the place as was Alexander of Macedonia tolde that Babylon should be fatall to him Quintus Cart. It may be some will obiect what Saint Paul said I knowe yee shall see my face no more Act. 20.25 It may be they will likewise obiect what was tolde vnto Saul at the house of the witch at Endor 1. Sam. 28.19 And from these things some will thinke that either by the starres or some other naturall courses a man may knowe both the time and place of his death long before But first as for heathen men who can denie but God by extrtordinary meanes reuealed further things to them as to Pharoah and Nabuchadonosor in their dreames and might by some extraordinary meanes let some of them knowe these thigns we speake of Secondly to thinke that such particular things may bee knowne by the starres is a meere vanity for though I deny not but that they may haue some power ouer the sensuall inclination yet neither so much as that man is subiect thereto vpon necessity according to the old saying in the Schooles Astra inclinant Dr. Andre epist Cic estrēs ad M. W. librum respons pa. 108. non necessitant neither yet in casuall actions so farre as to direct particular iournies whereon these things depend as Saint Austin sheweth by his instance Aug. de ciuit Dei li. 5 ca. 2 Tacit. Annal. li. 6. ca. 5. which for breuities sake I doe but name and as for the famous prediction of Trasullus vnto Tiberius which is so much admired by Tacitus as also by Xiphiline Xiphilin li. 54. in Aug. Caesar Lips monit exempl polit li. 1. ca. 5 Basil in hexem homil 1. Lipsius hath well obserued that it might well be done not by Astronomy but by chance So might it be to Alexander and others that the place of their death by chance is thus foretolde for if any man shall thinke to vse the starres to such end I must for this time briefly bonclude with Basil Astrologia iudiciaria negotiosissima vanitas This iudicious Astrologie is a most busie vanity As for that of Saint Paul it was extraordinary as was his other reuelations But for Saul his doings by the witch at Endor I say no more at this time but that if it were not an imposture and spoken by chance yet surely it was then extraordinary So that still by any naturall meanes