and take me amongst thy Câ—osen howbeit not my VVill but thy VVill be done Lord I commit my Soul to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy Chosen sake send me Life and Health that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God bless thy People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy Chosen People of England O my Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake Then turning his Face and seeing some by he said Are you so nigh I thought you had been further off Many servent Prayers he made but his last Words were these I am faint Lord have Mercy upon me and take my Spirit and so committed his Pious Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father He died July 6. 1553. in the Seventeenth Year of his Age. He Reigned Six Years Five Months and Eight Days he was the one and Fortieth Sole Monarch of England and was Buried at VVestminster The Death of Queen Mary HER Husbands absence and the disappointment of proving with Child brought her into a Sickness whereof she died November 17. 1558. having Reigneâ—â— 5 Years and 4 Months Cardinal Pool dying the day before but sometime before she declared to him That if when she were dead they would look into her Heart rhey would find Callis her great Distemper In her Reign there suffered 5 Bishops 21 Divines and in all 277 Persons The Death of Queen Elizabeth Lopez a Jew Physitian to the Queen was Executed for attempting to Poyson her In 1600. the Earl of Essex having incurr'd the Queens Displeasure in Ireland and more by scandalous Speeches and a kind of open Rebellion at his House in London being condemned by his Peers is Beheaded On the 24th of March 1602. died Queen Elizabeth having Reigned above 44 Years in as Troublesome times as any yet full of Honour and most happy in the Love of her People She was Interred in Henry the Seventh's Chappel at VVestminister The Death of King James the First THis King was Interred at VVestminster with great Solemnity his Queen was Ann Daughter of Frederick the Second King of Denmark by whom he had two Sons Henry and Charles and three Daughters Elizabeth Mary and Sophia the two last dyed young The Death of King Charles the First HE was led through the Park to the Scaffold before VVhite-Hall where having declared that he died a Martyr for the Laws and Liberties of his People he made a Confession of his Faith asserting that he died a true Son of the Church of England then he betook himself to his private Devotions and so patiently submitted his Royal Head to Martyrdom from the hand of a disguised Executioner His Body was put into a Black Velvet Coffin and afterwards wrapt in Lead was on the 7th of Feb. following Interred at St. George's Chappel at VVindsor in the same Vault with King Henry the 8th in presence of the Duke of Richmond Dr. Juxon and others but the manner appointed in the Liturgy could not be obtained to be used nor had he any Epitaph affixed but only on the Sheet of Lead on a thin Plate fastned on the Breast this plain Inscription King Chaâ—les 1648. The Death of King Charles the Second ON Monday Feb. 2. 1684. the King was seiz'd with a violent Fit of an Apoplexy which deprived him of his Senses but upon speedy Application of Remedies he returned to such a Condition as gave some Symptoms of his Recovery till VVednesday Night and then the Disease was so violent that he lay in a languishing Condition until Friday Feb. 6. and then expired He had Reigned Thirty six Years and Seven Days and was in the 55th Year of his Age. He was Interred in Henry the Seventh's Chappel being the Forty-sixth Sole Monarch of England The Death of Old Mr. Eliot of New-England WHILE he was making his Retreat ouâ— of this evil World his Discourses from time to time ran upon The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ It was the Theme which he still had Recourse unto and we were sure to have something of this whatever other Subject he were upon On this he talk'd of this he pray'd for this he long'd and especially when any bad News arriv'd his usual Reflection thereupon would be Behold some of the Clouds in which we must look for the coming of the Son of Man At last his Lord sor whom he had been long wishing Lord come I have been a great while ready for thy coming At last I say his Lord came and fetched him away into the Joy of his Lord. He fell into some Languishments attended with a Fever which in a few days brought him into the Pangs may I say or Joys of Death And while he lay in these Mr. Walter coming to him he said unto him Brother Thou art welcome to my very Soul Pray retire to my Study for me and give me leave to be gone meaning thar he should not by Petitions to Heaven for his Life detain him here It was in these Languishments that speaking about the work of the Gospel among the Indians he did after this Heavenly manner express himself There is a Cloud said he a dark Cloud upon the Work of the Gospel among the poor Indians The Lord revive and prosper that Work and grant it may live when I am dead It is a work which I have been Doing much and long about But what was the word I spoke last I recal that word My Doings Alas they have been poor and small and lean Doings and I 'll be the Man that shall throw the first Stone at them all It has been observed that they who have spoke many considerable things in their Lives usually speak few at their Deaths But it was otherwise with our Eliot who after much Speech of and for God in his Life-time uttered some things little short of Oracles on his Death-bed which 't is a thousand pities they were not more exactly regarded and recorded Those Authors that have taken the pains to Collect Apophthegmata Morentium have not therein been unserviceable to the Living but the Apophthegms of a Dying Eliot must have had in them a Grace and a Strain truly extraordinary and indeed the vulgar Error of the signal sweetness in the Song of a Dying Swan was a very Truth in our expiring Eliot his last Breath smelt strong of Heaven and was Articled into none but very gracious Notes one of the last whereof was Welcome Joy And at last it went away calling upon the standers by to Pray pray pray which was the thing in which so vast a portion of it had been before Employ'd This was the peace in the end of this Perfect and Vpright Man thus was there anoâ—her Star ferched away to be placed among the rest that the third Heaven is now enriched with He had once I think a pleasant Fear that
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 Artem bene vivendi art of dying well how to Artem bene moriendi 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 BVt 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 nihilo 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 Te non deseremus sed tecum ibimus 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 your 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 Patriarâ—â—s 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 Borgiâ—s 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 that we think none but old men approach to death neither experience nor age can work upon us so death that it may more easily surprise us shrowds it self under the very name of life He that sees 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 but 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
of hearing any more and that is Death It will be but a little while before Death will cause both the Speaker to be Dumb and the Hearer to be Deaf Oh that I might therefore this day speak with that seriousness sensibleness and suitableness unto you as considering the time draws on apace when I shall be Silenced by Death and never more have an opportunity to speak one word unto you And Oh! that you might Hear this day with that diligence and reverence as considering that after you are once Nailed down in your Coffins and covered with the Dust you will never hear one Sermon more or one Exhortation or one word more till you hear these words pronounced by the great Judge of the Quick and Dead Surgite Morâ—ui vâ—nite â—d Judicium Arise ye Dead and come ye unto Judgment What is said in my Text as it is likely you have often heard it with your Ears so now you may see it accomplished It is appointed unto all men once to dye Death hath long since come into our Nation and hath summoned many to make their appearance in another World yea you know that Death hath already entred into our Streets and hath not been afraid to step over our Threshold and to seize upon those that have been standing round about us yea it hath come into our very Bed-Chambers and hath suddenly snatched away those that have been lying in our very Bosoms so that we have had warning enough of the near approaches of Death unto our selves and without doubt some of us have had the Sentence of Death within our selves as the Apostle speaketh and therefore it is high time for you and I seriously to consider what is said in my Text It is appointed c. Something we shall briefly speak now in order to the explanation of the words that so you may once more hear before you feel the meaning of them It is appointed or enacted by the Court of Heaven Statutum est it is a Statute or Law more firm and certain than the Laws of the Medes and Persians which is never to be repealed or abrogated We are not therefore telling you of what may but of what must inevitably come to pass It is appointed unto Men that is as much as to say unto all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is an indefinite Expression and so is to be understood of all the same kind without some special exception from this general Rule And indeed such an exception there is to be found in the Scripture for saith the Apostle We shall not all Dye but some shall be Changed in a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye So that this general Rule in my Text is to be understood with an Exceptis excipiendis There shall be some at the end of the World who shall not pass under Death but yet they must pass under a Change which is thought will be equivalent unto Death But for the present time and according to the common Method and course of Providence no Man or Woman hath any ground to expect that they shall escape the Stroke of Death for it is appointed unto Men that is unto all Men once to Dye Death is a sure Striker it never misseth and is certain to have its blow and it will strike home it will hit the Nail on the Head and it will smite down every one that stands in its way whether Poor or Rich young or old it will no more spare him that wears a Crown upon his Head than him that carries a Spade in his Hand as the Poet elegantly expresses it Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pâ—de Pauperum tabernas Regumque Turres c. And the Scripture speaking of Kings useth this Expression I have said you are Gods but ye shall dye like Men So some have thought Kings to be no less than Gods when they have seen them sitting upon their Thrones yet it will appear that they are no more than men when they shall be seen lying in their Tombs But what is the meaning of the Phrase to Dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can assure you if you know not yet it will not be long e're you will know the meaning of it The Philosopher describes Death thus Est privatio Vitae ob Animae separationem à Corpore As Spiritual Death is the Separation of God from the Soul so Temporal Death is the Separation of the Soul from the Body When those two the Soul and Body which have like Twins dwelt lovingly together under the same Roof must be parted asunder and enjoy no more sweet and intimate Communion one with another till the time of re-unition at the General Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is that which must once be done every one must here take their turn and that is indeed to be turned off from the Stage of this present Life into the bottom of the Grave And though this happeneth to some at one time and to others at another time yet first or last it will happen unto all once The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Death is taken from a word which signifies extendere and indeed Death stretcheth out it self so far that no Man can live out of the reach of it As surely as thou wast once Born so surely shalt thou once Dye and though this is but once to be done yet seeing it will be done to the purpose it should be more than once thought on beforehand yet one serious thought of once Dying and of what will come after will certainly deaden the Soul as to the Actings of Sin and quicken it unto the Actings of Grace Let me but ask you this one plain Question and your own Conscience shall be the Judge in the Case Couldest thou still remain a Drunkard or a Swearer if thou didst but once seriously consider that thou must once Dye or couldst thou so eagerly set thy Heart upon the empty lying and dying Vanities of this World didst thou but once seriously consider that thou must once and it may be before to morrow be taken out of this World or couldest thou neglect the means of Grace or delight in Profaness and slight Seriousness and Heavenly-mindedness didst thou but seriously consider that thou must once Dye and it may be before ever thou enjoyest another Praying or Preaching opportunity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To dye is much and as this must be once done so there is more to be done than this for after this cometh Judgment Whether the particular or general Day of Judgment is here to be understood needs no debate seeing both will certainly follow after Death I think there are none but are afraid to look grim Death in the Face and therefore Death is called Rex Terrorum the King of Fears But once to dye and after that is past that Judgment should pass upon every one this is indeed a terrible expression and may well be a dreadfull consideration unto every one who
their Soâ—â— that had been victors at the Olympick Games at the same time and in the same place presently expir'd Lastly Death has infinite accesses through which he breaks into our Houses Sometimes through the Windows sometimes through the Vaults sometimes through the Copings of the Wall sometimes through the Tyles and if he cannot meet with any Traytors either in the City or in the House I mean the humours of the Body Diseases Catarrhs Pleurisies and the like which the makes use of as Ministers in his Councils He â—tears up the Gates with Gunpowder Fire Water Pestilence Venom nay wild Monsters and Men themselves as bad he leaves no Engines untryed to snatch and force away our Lives Mephiboseth the Son of Saul was slain by Domestick Thieves as he was sleeping at Noon upon his Bed Fulco King of Jerusalem as he was Hunting a Hare fell from his Horle and was trampled to death by his Hoofs gave up the Ghost Josias of all the Kings of Judah David excepted for Piety Sanctimony and Liberality the chief was unexpectedly wounded with an Arrow and died in his Camp The Holy Ludovicus in the 57th year of his Age upon the African Shore in the midst of his Army the Pestilence there raging died of the Distemper Egillus King of the Goths a most excellent Prince was killed by a Mad Bull which the madder people not enduring the seveâ—ity of his Laws had let forth Malcolm the first King of Scotland after many examples of Justice while he was taking cognizance of the Actions of his Subjects by Night was on a sudden suffocated have not many gone well to Bed that have been â—ound dead in the Morning Of necessity the Soul â—â—ght to stand upon its guard Vzza a person of no small Note in Davids Lifeguard when he attempted to stay the shogging Ark as it was carry'd in Triumph to Jerusalem was presently struck from Heaven so that he died by the Ark. The hand of God arm'd a Lion out of a Wood against the Prophet that had eaten contrary to his command The sudden voice of Peter compelled Ananias and Saphira to expiate their Crime by as sudden a death whose Souls the greatest part of Divines believe to be freed from Eternal Punishment thereby But enough of Ancient Examples In the year 1559. Henry the Second King of France was slain in the midst of his Pastimes and Triumphs and in publick Joy of the people For while he Celebrated the Nuptials of his Daughter at Paris in a Tilting the Splinter of a broken Lance flew with that violence and pierced his Eye that he died immediately In the year 1491. Alphonsus the Son of John the Second King of Portugal being about Sixteen years of Age a Prince of great Hopes and Wit 〈◊〉 to Wife Isabella the Daughter of Ferdinand King of Spain whose Down was the Ample Inheritance of her Fathers Kingdoms The Nuptials were Celebrated with the preparations of six hundred Triumphs Every Plays Running Racing Tiâ—ting Banquets So much Plenty so much Luxury that the Horse-boy and Slaves glistered in Tissue But Oh immensâ— Grief hardly the seventh Month had passed wheâ—… the young Prince sporting a Horseback upon thâ—… Banks of Tagus was thrown from his Horse to thâ— ground so that his Scull was broken and 〈…〉 wounded to death He was carried to a Fisheâ—… House scarce big enough to contain him and 〈…〉 of his Followers There he lay down upon a Bed Straw and expired The King flies thither with tâ—… Queen his Mother There they behold the miseâ—â—ble Spectacle their Pomp turn'd into Lamentation the growing Youth of their Son his Vertues Wealth like Flowers on a sudden disrobed by the Northwinds blast and all to be Buried in a miserable Grave O the sudden Whirlwinds of Human Affairs O most precipitate Falls of the most constant things What shall I remember any more Basilius the Emperor was gored to death by a Hart while he was entar gled in a troublesom Bough The ancient Monument in the Camp of Ambrosius near Aeniponâ—us witnesses That a Noble Youth though under Age set Spurs to his Horse to make him leap a Ditch twenty foot broad The Horse took it but the Rider and the Horse fell by a sudden and almost the same kind of death That the Spoils of the Horse and the Garments of the Youth speak to this day But this sudden Fate is common as well to the good as to the bad neither does it argue an unhappy condition of the Soul unless any person in the Act of burning Impiety feel himself struck with the Dart of Divine Vengeance Such was the Exit of Dathan and Abiram whom the gaping Earth miserably swallowed up obstinate in their Rebellion against Moses Such was the End of those Souldiers whom for their irreverence to Elijah Heaven consumed with Balls of Fire Such was the End of the Hebrew whom the Revengers Sword pass'd thorough finding him in the Embraces of the Midianitess turning his Genial into his Funeral Bed So many Pores of the Body so many little doors for Death Death does not shew himself always near yet is he always at hand What is more stupid than to wonder that that should fall out at any time which may happen every day Our Limits are determined where the inexorable necessity of Fate has fix'd them But none of us knows how near they are prefixed So therefore let us form our Minds as if we were at the utmost extremity Let us make no delay Notes upon the first Paragraph DEath has infinite accesses So it is indeed and to what I have said I add It is reported that a certain person dreamt that he was torn by the Jaws of a Lion He rises careless of his Dream goes to Church with his Friends in the way he sees a Lion of Stone gaping that upheld a Pillar then declaring his Dream to his Companions not without Laughter Behold said he this is the Lion that tore me in the Night So saying he thrust his hand into the Lions Jaws crying to the Statue Thou hast thy Enemy now shut thy Jaws and if thou canst bite my hand He had no sooner said the word but he received a deadly wound in that place where he thought he could have no harm For at the bottom of the Lions Mouth lay a Scorpion which no sooner felt his hand but he put sorth his sting and stung the young Man to Death Are Stones thus endued with anger Where then is not Death if Lions of Stone can kill In the same manner died the young Hylas who was kill'd by a Viper that lay hid in the Mouth of a Bears resemblance in Stone What shall I mention the Child kill'd by an â—sicle dropping upon his Head from the Penthouse Of whom Martial laments in the following Verses Where next the Vipsan Pillars stands the Gate From whence the fâ—lling Rain wets Cloak and Hat A Child was passing by when strange to tell Vpon his Throat a frozen drop
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 lest 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 A Vgustus the Emperor Peragia being taken punished abundance of the Citizens and to those that besought his pardon or desired to excuse themselves he only made this short answer Moriendum est You are to Y 〈…〉 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 God dess among all the rest that regards not Bribes nor admits the least particle of sweet hope Wherefore wisely Seneca Let us afflict our selves â—aith 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 Radzivile Prince of Poland affirms that in Egypt they who excelled others in Prudence and Age were
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 Fâ—nd 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 Jesu which I beg of thee and through thee To Death Why with a slow Consumption cruel Death Dost thou dâ—prive 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 Deaâ—hs 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 Goodnsss God would have thee to be his own and therefore shuts thee up and retains thee within the Lattices of Sicknesâ— 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 fed 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 â—â—m 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 a thousand years before These things are well coupled thou neither wert nor will be thou art ordain'd for that point of time wherein thou liv'st with that thou mayst extend how far wouldst thou prolong Why weepest thou what is it thou wouldst have thou losest thy labour Thou shalt go thither whither all things created go What is there that thou canst call a Novelty Thou wert born under this Law This hapned to thy Father to thy Ancestors to all before thee and will happen to all that come after thee It is established and decreed Death seizes upon all we are born to die Consider in thy
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 our 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 earried the Citizen to his Monument and lifting 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 und 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 where withal 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. Jereme 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 Hierem 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 uew 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 above all things and resign my self up fully to his holy will Most absolute prepared to be well to be sick to live or die when it shall please the Lord. The will of God be done Unless every Christian so order his Life and his last Actions he is to be thought to have lived ill and to have died worse The last Hour consumates Death but is not the cause of it which was preceded by a good Death For nothing makes Death ill but what follows Death Good Seed brings a good Harvest The Highway to a good Death is a good Life I may not unfitly compare Life and Death to a Syllogisme The end of a
the Lord Guilford Dudley was conveyed to a Scaffold on Tower-Hill where he penitently ended his Life his Head and Body being laid in a Cart all bloody was brought to the Chappel and exposed to the Sight of this sorrowful Lady a Spectacle more dismal than the kneenest Axe of her Death And now her own part is to be acted upon a Scaffold erected upon the Green within the Tower where being mounted with a chearful Countenance she looked upon the People and with great Constancy directed her self after this manner That she was come thither to die for an Offence which was committed by a Device not of her own seeking then wringing her Hands and protesting her Innocency she desired them to take notice that she died a good Christian and requested their Prayers Then kneeling down she repeated in English the 51 Psalm after which her Gentle woman helped her off with her Gown and the Hangman on his Knees asked her forgiveness which she forgave him freely and prayed him to dispatch her quickly Looking upon the Block and knecling she said Will you take it off before I lay it down No Madam replied the Executioner then she tied a Handkerchief before her Eyes and feeling for the Block said What shall I do Where is it Where is it Being guided she laid her Head upon the Block and giving the Sign she said Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Then receiving the Fatal Blow she ended this Life Anno 1554. Aged 16. Her Death was much lamented but did not gâ— unpunished for the Judge which passed her Sentence shortly after fell distracted crying out continually Take away the Lady Jane from me The Lady Jane Grey had a curious Vein in Pâ—etry In her Troubles she composed these Lines Think nothing strange which Man cannot decline My Lot's to Day to Morrow it may be thine If God protect me Malice cannot end me If not all I can do will not defend me After dark Night I hope for Light This Epitaph was also made on her My Race was Royal sad was my short Raign Now in a better Kingdom I remain The Death of Sir Philip Sidney SIR Philip lay for the space of 25 Days enduring his Pains with admirable Patience and at length resign'd up his Spirit into the hands of his Redeemer October 16. Anno 1586. Upon him was made this Epitaph Apollo made him wise Mars made him stout Death made him leave the World Before his Youth was out The Death of Galeacius Carracciolus SIckness the Harbinger of Death seizing upon him which proceeded from abundance of â—…heum this was produced by his long and weariâ—ome Journeys which he had formerly taken by â—and and Sea for his Conscience sake His Phyâ—â—cians despairing of his Cure he wholly sequestred â—imself from all Worldly Cogitarions and taking â—is Farewell of his Wife and Friends saying He â—ould lead them the way to Heaven Then he desiâ—…ed God to receive him and acknowledge him â—or his own and so quieâ—ly departed 1592. Aâ—ed 74. The Death of Katherine Bretterg ONce she took the Bible in her hand and joyfully kissing it said O Lord 't is good for me to be afflicted that I may learn thy Statutes The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver Then she desired her Husband to beware of Popery and to let her little Girl be brought up in the Fear of God saying So shall I meet her in Heaven whâ—m I must now leave behind me on Earth Once she was very dull in Prayer and when she came to Lead us not into Temptation she said I may not pray I may not pray for Satan interrupts me yet her Friends left her not till she had gained the Conquest She repeated often We have not received the Spirit of Bondage to fear again but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Verse of Psalm 13. ult she often repeated chearfully Many Pious Meditations she used but the last was this My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the Strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever He that preserveth Jacob and defendeth his Israel he is my God and will guide me unto Death Then she departed this life without any motion of Body May ult Anno 1601. Aged 22. The Death of John Lord Harrington Baron of Exton FRom the First Day of his last Sickness he apprehended the approach of Death and so readily prepared himself for it he made Confession of his Sins and oft confessed his Faith and undoubted hope of Salvation in Christ and when Death approached he breathed out O my God when shall I be with thee And in the midst of these longing Desires he departed Anno 1613. Aged 22. The Death of Phillip de Mornay Lord of Plessis Marley BEing displaced from his Government of Samur he betook himself to a Private Life and made his Will for the peace and good of his Family being seiz'd upon by a continual Fever and no hopes of Recovery he would often say I fly I fly to Heaven and the Angels are carrying me into the bosome of my Saviour then would he repeat the words of Job I know that my Redeemer liveth I shall see him with mine eyes and I feel I fell what I now speak He dyed in the 74th Year of his Age. The Death of John Bruen of Bruen Stapleford in the County of Chester Esquire FAlling Sick the morning before his Death divers Friends took their leaves of him and hearing some make motion of Blacks he said I will have no Blacks I love no Proud nor Pompous Funeral neither is there any cause of Mourning but of rejoicing rather in my particular Immediately before his Death lifting up his hands he said The Lord is `my portion my help and my trust his blessed Son Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Redeemer Amen Even so saith the Spirit unto my Spirit therefore come Lord Jesus and kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth and embrace me with the Arms of thy Love into thy hands do I commend my Spirit O come now and take me to thy own self O come Lord Jesus come quickly O come O come O come So his Spirit fainting he yielded up the Ghost in January Anno 1625. Aged 65. The Deaths of the KINGS and QUEENS of England since the Reformation to this present The Death of King Henry the VIII KING Henry being grown Fat fell into a languishing Fever and by Will appointed his Successor and Council did on the 28th of January 1547. in the 56 Year of his Age and 38 of his Reign leaving Issue by Queen Jane Prince Edward by his first Wife Katherine of Spain the Lady Mary and by Ann of Bullen the Lady Elizabeth who all Successively came to the Crown The Death of King Edward VI. ABout three hours before his Death his Eyes being closed thinking that none heard him he made this Godly Prayer Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life
and but â—peck of Rubbidge so much Bone If he who â— this Bell tells me is gone now were some â—xcellent Artificer who comes to him for a â—â—ak or for a Garment now or for Counsel â— he were a Lawyer if a Magistrate â—or Juâ—ce O my God thou dost certainly allow that â— should do Offices of Piety to the dead and that â— should draw instructions to Piety from the dead â— not this O my God a holy kind of raiâ—g up seed to my dead brother If I by the meâ—ation of his death produce a better life in â— self It is the blessing upon Reuben Let Reuâ— live and not dye and let not his men be few â—ut 33. 6. Let him propagate many And it is â— malediction That that dyeth let it dye Zechar. â—9 Let it do no good in dying for Trees â—out fruit thou by thy Apostle callest Twice â— Jud. 12. It is a second death if none live the better by me after my death by the manner of my death Therefore may I justly think that thou madest that a way to convey to the Egyptians a fear of thee and a fear of death that there was not a house where there was not one dead Ex. 12. 30. For thereupon the Egyptians said We are all dead men The death of others should catechise us to death Thy Son Christ Jesus is the first begotten of the dead Apoc. 1. 5. He rises first the eldest Brother and he is my Master in this science of death 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 â— 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 ye the Voice belongs to me I am dead I was bâ—â— dead and from the first laying of these mud-wâ—â—â— in my conception they have moldred away and thâ— whole Course of Life is but an active death Whether this voice instruct me that I am a deâ— Man now or remember me that I have been dead Man all this while I humbly thank thâ— O Lord for speaking in this Voice to my Soâ— 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 â—â—llow his Corps to the Grave that in such a Spectacle as in a Glass I may behold my own Mortality or tho I always carry about me the Symptoms â—f Mortality and the marks of Death yet have hitherto lived as if I should never die In â—mall Villages where Instances of Mortality are â—ery rare there the inward thoughts of their â—earts seem to be that they and their Houses â—â—all continue for ever and their dwelling plaâ—s to all Generations In Populous Towns and â—â—ies there the commonness takes away the â—â—se of Mortality And oh how sad is it to beâ—old the unsuitable Carriage of the generality of â—hristians at Funerals those opportunities are sually spent in unprofitable Chat in Mirth in â—ating and Drinking and that sometimes to â—xcess and thus the House of Mourning is turned to the House of Mirth and Feasting But Lord â—ant that this may not be my practice when I â—me to the House of Mourning where my Friend â—w lyes dead Let my Eyes affect my Heart â—at I may seriously mind the present instance of Mortality and be affected with such Meditatiâ—s as these Lord this Tragedy that is now acting on my deâ—sed friend must ere long God knows how soon â— acted on me my Breath is ready to perish â—e Earth is gaping for me yet a little while â—d I shall be carried down into the Chambers Death Lord teach me so to number my days that I 〈…〉 Heart unto true Wisdom As thou art walking along to the House of 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 Nâ—dâ—s 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 Elishâ— was revived by the virtue of his Bones And we â—ead 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 sinister 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 praemittuntur 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 shalt be pleased to command that Breath again out of Mans Body then will he presently become a dead Carkass and so short is the Life of Man that many times he doth but cry and Die yea sometimes his Mothers Womb doth prove his Tomb so that he doth not once cry to tell the World that he did once Live Neither is the Thread of Mans Life at any time spun so strong but at one word of thy Mouth it is soon snapt in two Seeing therefore we do but Live to Die we beseech thee Oh blessed God let us Die to Live let us live well that so we may die well let Death never surprize us unlooked for or unprepared nor let it ever seize upon us in an unconverted unregenerate State Good Lord let us not so live as to be ashamed to live any longer or to be afraid to look grim Death in the Face when it comes to separate our Souls from our Bodies and to summon them to make their appearance before the great Judge of the Quick and Dead Let us with thy Servant Job wait all our appointed time untill our Change doth come Seeing it will be our greatest Wisdom to wait for Death which always waits for us and to expect that at all times which will come at some time and may come at any time Let us Pray and Preach and Hear and so spend our time as those who know and consider that all they do they do it for Eterninity and we shall never have but one Cast for Eternity Heaven and Glory is here to be won or lost for ever Blessed God thou hast taught us in thy Word that it is better to go to the House of Weeping than to the House of â—easting for that is the end of all men and thou hast said That the Living will lay it to heart Oh Lord we are this day come to the House of Mourning and Weeping and we have seen the end of one yea of many of our Friends and Acquaintance within a short space of time and in the Death of our Friends we may read our own Death and yet shall not we who are lest behind them in the Land of the Living lay these awakening instances of Mortality to heart shall we hear and see daily our nearest and dearest Relations giving up the Ghost and departing out of this into another World and yet shall we once think that we shall ever live to enjoy the Pleasures of this present evil World But seeing Lord this World is a dying World and all its glory is a dying Glory let our Minds and Hearts therefore be set upon the Glory of Heaven which is a never fading Glory Oh! did we believe and consider how much better â— Believers future Estate will be than his present State is then should we think that Timâ— is too long before we do and that Eternâ—â— will be too short when we shall enjoy our gracious Redeemer upon his Throne of Glory Let us ever live as those that have one Foot in thâ— Grave already Thousands and Millions yea innumerable Millions of Thousands are gone to their Graves before us and do we think thaâ— we that are but enlivened Dust animated Shadows dying Lumps of Clay can keep our Bodies from being a Feast for Worms or ouâ— Souls from seeking new Lodgings in another World Oh! let us therefore every day â—â— looking into our Graves and familiarize Death unto our Thoughts before it comes let us consider how many signal Admonitions thoâ— dost daily give us of our approaching end Iâ— not every Distemper and Sickness of Body as it were a little Death and a fair Warning to put us in mind of our last Change The Grey Hairs which are here and there upon our Heads the deep wrinkles which are engraven upon our Foreheads the loss of Teeth the Dimness oâ— Sight our Deafness in Hearing our Palsie hands our feeble trembling Limbs and the frequenâ— Sight of seeing Friends laid out in their Winding Sheets for Dead and carried to their Houses oâ— Clay the silent Grave are Circumstances anâ— Symptoms serving to remind us that the time draws near wherein we must die and that our departure is at hand Let us therefore live as dying Men and let us die as Living Christians let us set our House and our Heart in order remembring the Text It is appointed for all Men once to Die but after this the Judgment The Mourners being all come first sing the following Psalms and after that Read part of 1 Cor. Chap. 15. to bring your minds into a serious frame Psalm 39. I Said I will look to my ways for fear I should go wrong will take heed all times that I offend not with my Tongue As with a bit I will keep fast my mouth with fource and might Not once to whisper all the while the wicked are in â—ight I held my Tongue and spake no word but kept me close and still Yea from good talk I did refrain but sore against my will My Heart waxt hot within my breast with musing thought and doubt Which did increase and stir the fire at last these Words burst out Lord number out my Life and days which yet I have not past So that I may be certify'd how long my Life shall last Lord thou hast pointed out my Liâ—e in length much like a Span Mine age is nothing unto thee so vain is every Man Man walketh like a shade and doth in vain himself annoy In getting goods and cannot tell who shall
manifested in the Creatures Weakness From Vers 6. We may take notice it was ever in Christ's intention to manifest his Love and Goodness to Lazarus and yet he comes not near him for the present but rather goes away and leaves him upon his sick Bed and suffers him at last to give up the Ghost From Vers 14. We may observe that Christ his absence or the suspension of divine Grace and Love they are in infinite Wisdom ordered for the further advancing of Soul Comfort Had not Lazarus been sick had he not been dead and buryed the Wisdom Power and Goodness of Christ had never been so eminently discovered as it was towards him Martha and Mary cry out v. 21 32. Lord if thou hadst been here our Brother had not died It is true Christ might have recovered Lazarus upon his sick-bed but to fetch him out of the Grave after he had lain stinking four days was a higher demonstration of his Love Wisdom and Power There is not the like ground that Christ should shew forth his miraculous Power in raising up our dead Friends from the Grave as was then yet this special and useful conclusion may by way of Analogy be deduced from this instance namely That such Comforts and Mercies as are fetched out of the Grave as have had a sentence of Death pass'd upon them they are ever sweetest and tend most to Gods Glory Isaac had never been so precious to his Father Abraham had he not been so miraculously restored from dying as he was once But we shall hasten to see what is the cause of Christ his weeping and what the cause was you may see ver 32 33 34 35 36 when Christ saw Mary come weeping towards him having her heart running over with Grief for the departure of her Brother Christ groaned in Spirit and was troubled when they told him where dead Lazarus lay he wept as my Text expresseth Jesus Wept Oh Men and Angels stand and wonder to all Eternity When you read these two words Jesus wept What doth Mary's weeping set Jesus Christ a weeping Doth Mary and Martha shed Tears for the Death of Lazarus and doth Christ his Heart even bleed within him to see them troubled and mourning upon the same account so the word in the Greek seems to import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he troubled himself his own heart stirred up his Affections to be troubled Doth Christ weep upon the consideration of Lazarus Death Then hence we may learn that a moderate sorrowing for Friends departed is lawful tho excessive Sorrow is very unsuitable to a Gospel Frame of Spirit Solomon tells us There is a time for Weeping and Paul tells us We should weep as though we wept not But to come to the thing I chiefly intend and that is the occasion of Christs weeping which was the death of Lazarus a good man whence I shall observe and prosecute this Doctrine That it is a Christ-like temper of mind to be deeply affected with and to weep over the death of such as are truly pious Here 's Lazarus a good man in his grave and Christ he weeps over him you have a weeping Christ over a dead Lazarus When old Jacob an eminent person was buried it 's said Gen. 50. 10. That they mourned with a great and sore lamentation and that for 7 days together And so when Moses died and was buried by a secret hand it 's said the Children of Israel mourned for him 30 days Deut. 34. 8. My dearly beloved you have lost a Moses one that was valiant for God in former times when the people of God in England were coming out of Egypt and he hath been an eminent leader to the saints in their wilderness state and God did often take him to the top of Pisgah and gave him there glorious visions and that not onely of heavenly Canaan but also of that glorious land of rest and righteousness that the Saints shall injoy in this world Now that such a Moses should be taken off in the Wilderness while the people of God are yet short of this good Land is matter of great humiliation Likewise you find the same spirit in those Christians Acts 20. that Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles did there take his farewel of saying ver 25. And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more It 's said 37 38 verses And they all wept sore and fell on Pauls neck and kissed him Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more Now by all this it appears that it is both the duty and property of a Christian such an one as hath been baptized into the spirit of Jesus to be deeply affected with and weep over the death of such as are truly pious especially when they are eminent for use and service to Christ and his people We shall now give you the reasons why it is so and cannot be otherwise but that gracious persons must needs weep over the death of good men First Because every stroke in this kind puts a serious heart in mind of its own mortality tells us that we are dying creatures and that 's a very serious consideration to every awakened soul The living the living will lay it to heart saith Solomon Eccl. 7. 2. Alas my Brethren 't is a serious thing to dye And the stroke of death upon others tells us that die we must and how soon we know not This Evening sun may see us dead it went out Early this morning to score us out this lodging of a Tomb. And oh happy thrice happy is that person that can die well Now such strokes as these put a serious soul in miâ—d of dying There 's none present knows who may go to the grave next That 's the First but then 2. It Springs from that Sympathy that is both in nature and grace first in nature when God takes away a husband a Father a Child c. this cuts deep and affects much Abraham he mourns over beloved Sarah David over Absolon though a rebellions son To be stupid and not to mind the hand of God when he smites our near and dear relations doth declare that we do not onely want grace but natural affection And then in Grace there is also a great sympathy if God smites one member of the Church the rest are affected with it If a Paul a Minister of Christ â—â—pâ—stor a spiritual Father comes to take his farewell of his people and tell them that they shall never see his face more Oh What weeping and mourning and lamenting is there at his departure 3. The perishing of good men is a just cause of weeping and that because they are a great blessing to the nations cities families c. where they are cast It fares either the better or the worse with such places for their sake When God destroyed the old world the family of Noah
2. We should not any more love the World nor its Enjoyments and Pleasures seeing they will vanish in the twinkling of an Eye and after all the poor satisfaction they have given us fall into the dead Sea The Passing-Bells of others loudly tell us that Man in his best Estate is altogether Vanity Psal 39. 5. And what they have undergone will in a few days or hours more be our own Lot Though they are gone before we must tread in their steps and go the same way When that hour is come all our Friends and Acquaintance cannot hold us for we that now hear and move and speak shall fly away into a vast Expanse and not behold Man with the Inhabitants of this World any more Isa 38. 11. As we have seen the pale Looks and have heard the last Voice of others so shall we our selves in the like manner be made Spectacles of Mortality to those that remain after us We and all our Companions must take a long Farewel of each other and not meet again till the day of the general Resurrection And is it too soon to remember our Creator when we have seen many as Young as we are breathe their last And we that now mourn for others know not how soon our Friends may do the same for us and celebrate our Funerals When God took away many others that we knew he might at the same time or before have taken away you or me and why do we survive their Death but that we may set our House in Order The time is coming when Riches and Honour Health and Beauty Credit and Reputation among men will be of no value nor will Gold and Silver the Idols of this be currant in the next World We should not therefore be like those young people that are only serious in the House of Mourning or when they see their Friends carried to the Grave but iâ— the next vain Company suffer the Impressions of their Mortality to wear off again We must be always sober in our Conversation as not knowing when we our selves shall be gone only this we may know that as the Years we have already lived are soon past so will those that are to come with the same swift motion pass away The longest Life here on Earth is but as a moment if compar'd with the future Eternity 'T is as a flash of Lightning to the whole Element of Fire just seen and then vanish'd The Last Sigh MY dearest Children ye whom I love in the tender and yerning Bowels of Affection draw near and attend to the words of your dying Mother who am now sighing out my last breath A weak Woman ye see I am but yet sinful I am which peradventure ye see not O weep not my pretty ones do not pierce and break my troubled heart with your sad laments I must die my little ones and go to a better place whither ye I hope shall one day follow me We came not together into the World nor shall we go together out of it In vain do ye shed those Tears of Sorrow for although Nature teacheth you to bewail my departure yet Grace will teach you to moderate your Mourning My Heart even bleeds to leave you behind me fearing lest ye will forget the Commandments of your God I should be sorry to have just cause to say unto you as Moses did to the Levites yet I will put you in mind of his words Behold said he while I am yet alive with you this day ye have been rebellious against the Lord and how much more after my death Deut. 3â— 27. I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt your selves and turn aside from the way which I commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands vers 29. But I am persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though I thus speak Heb. 6. 9. O my dear ones hearken unto the words which I shall say They must be my Legacy unto you Hear me with patience and treasure up in your memories the last Speech of your Fainting your dying Mother How dear ye cost me before ye had life and what Pangs and Torments I suffered for you before ye were heard or seen in the World ye cannot imagine nor I express Yet all was forgotten for joy that ye were born Joh. 16. 21. and hoping that ye would add unto the Quire of Saints To this purpose I have laboured and taken care for the nourishment both of your Souls and Bodies and for your sustentation so much as in me lay from the Breast to this instant O what sad and perplexed thoughts have I had for you in the day times and how many hours have I borrowed from my sleep in the nights to think what would become of you if ye should not be obedient to the Commandments of my God! To the same God they are best known O how often upon my knees have I prayed for your happiness and wept and mourned when ye have done what ye ought not To him is it best known to whom I now am going Sometimes when ye have offended I was enforced to correct you but each stripe which ye received did cut me into the heart In many things ye failed because ye were young and in many things I failed too because I am a weak and a sinful Woman If at any time ye thought that I did not my Duty take heed that hereafter ye remember it not to my dishonour Ponder in your minds that curse which wretched Ham the Father of Canaan received from Noah when he saw his Nakedness and told his Brethren Cursed said Noah be Canaan a servant of servants shall he be to his Brethren Gen. 9. 25. But because Shem and Japhet took a Garment and laid it upon their Shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their Father and their faces were backward and they saw not their Fathers nakedness vers 23. Therefore he said Blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant vers 26. God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his Servant v. 27. Consider with your selves that I am your mother Whatsoever imperfections ye have discovered in me do in some kind reflect even upon your selves for as your Bodies were mine so my Credit and good Name you must account to be yours But I cannot think that ye will need more Advice for this which even Nature it self should teach you to practise My time is but short my Speech beginneth to fail me I will not trouble you with much although something more I must say unto you which I hope ye will remember when I shall sleep in the Dust Your first and chiefest Duty must always be for the service of your God If ye will daily observe the benefits which
of Devils in Hell from Paradise to a â—ungeon from Pleasures to Pains from Joy to Torment and that by hellish means damned Spirits into the infernal Lake of bottomless Barathrum where is wo wo wo And where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Mat. 25. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the people that forget God Psalm 6. Hearken also of a certain poor Beggar clothed in rags with miseries pained pained with griefs grieved with sores sorely tormented unmercifully condemned lying at this Rich Mans Gate desiring to be refreshed but with the Crumbs that fell from the rich Man's table the dogs had more pity than this rich man on this distressed creature for they came to visit him they came to comfort him they came and licked his sores Well his time being also determined he went the way of all flesh and death was the finisher of all his miseries and griefs Vita assumpsit mortem ut mors vitam acciperet He died once to live for ever And what became of his soul it was carried from his body to his Master from a House of Clay to a house not made with hands from a wilderness to a Paradise from an â—arthly prison to a heavenly Palace from the richmans gate â—o the City of the great God from pains to pleasures from â—iseries to joys from Adams corruption to Abrahams â—osom It was carried by Angels into the Quires of Angels to have his being and moving in the very moving Heavens with God himself Where is life food and abundance and glory and Health and peace and eternity and all good things all above all that either can be â—ished or desired And this is the subject that I shall â—â—w speak of And here let it please you to conâ—â—der the argument of this Scripture which is â—wofold First Our Saviour Christ hereby adviseth all â—ch men to be merciful to their poor Brethren in â—is Life lest they find no mercy in the life to â—ome Secondly He doth comfort all poor men that although they are afflicted in this life with great miseries and calamities yet they shall be comforted in the life to come and rest in Abraham's bosom And here observe what one formerly Notes viz. That if Jesus Christ had said only thus much There was a certain Rich man that fared sumptuously daily and a certain Beggar laid at his Gate full of sores The wicked would have straightway inferr'd that the rich man was the happy man for at the first view it seems to be so But take all together and you 'l quickly see that there is no man in a worse condition than this miserable wretch 2. That if a man would judge of persons according to outward appearance he shall very often take his mark amiss Here is a man to outward appearance appears the only blessed man better by half than the Beggar in as much as he is rich the Beggar poor he is well clothed but peradventure the Beggar is naked he hath good food but the Beggar would be glad of Dogs meat and he desired to be fed with the Crumbs of the Rich Man's Table the Rich man fares well every day but the Beggar must be glad of a bit when and where he can get it O! who would not be in the Rich man's state A wealthy man sorts of new Suits dainty Dishes every day enough to make one who minds nothing but his belly and his back and his lusts to say O that I were in that mans condition Oh that I had about me as that man hath then I should live a life indeed then should I have hearts ease good store then should I live pleasantly and might say to my Soul Soul be of good chear eat drink and be merry Luke 12. 19. thou â—ast every thing plenty and art in a most blessed condition But if the whole Parable be well considered you will see Luke 26. 15. that that which is had in high estimation with men is an abomination to God And again John 16. 20 21 22. that condition that is the saddest condition according to outward appearance is oft-times the most excellent for the Beggar had ten thousand times the best of it though to outward appearance his state was the saddest Methinks to see how the tearing Gallants of the World will go strutting up and down the Streets Sometimes it strikes me with amazement surely they look upon themselves to be the only happy men but it is because they judge according to outward appearance they look upon themselves to be the only blessed men when the Lord knows the generality are left out of that blessed condition Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. Ah! did they that do now so brag that no body dare scarce look on them but believe this it would make them hang down their heads and cry Oh! give me a Lazarus's portion But I 'll proceed to the division of my Text and in this Scripture observe these following parts formerly taken notice of viz. The parts of the Text are four 1. The life of the rich man in these words There was a certain rich man cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day 2. The life of the Beggar in these words Also there was a certain Beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his Gate full of sores c. 3. The death of the Beggar in these words And it was so that the Beggar died and was carried c. 4. The death of the rich man The rich man also died and was buried In the first part I note these three circumstances 1. What this Rich Man was and whether there were any such man or no. 2. What his Apparel was not mean or ordinary but Purple and fine Linnen 3. That his Diet was not base nor homely but delicious and not once nor twice but every day In the Life of the Beggar I find four Circumstances 1. Where he lived in no Palace or House but at the Rich mans Gate 2. How he lived neither in Health nor Wealth but miserable full of Sores 3. That he desired in this life not Lordships or Houses or Land or Gold or Silver but Crumbs to save his Life 4. Who shewed the Beggar kindness in his Life Not the Rich man but the Rich mans Dogs The Dogs came also and licked his Sores In the death of the Beggar I note these three Circumstances 1. What became of his Body being dead No mention hereof is made in Holy Scriptures it may be it was Buried with little or no respect because he was a poor man or else cast into some Ditch by reason of his Sores 2. What became of his Soul It went not out to Purgatory â—or there is no such place but it was carried into Abraham's Bosom 3. By whom By Angels It was carried by Angels into Abraham ' s Bosom In the Death of the Rich man I note these two
between Heaven and Hell everlasting Joy and everlasting Torment for you find when the Beggar died which represents the Godly he was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom or into everlasting Joy Psal 1. But the Ungodly are not so but are hurried by the Devils into the Bottomless Pit drawn away in their Wickedness Prov. 14. 32. for he saith And in Hell he lift up his Eyes when the Ungodly do die their misery beginneth for then appear the Devils like so many Lions waiting every moment till the soul depart from the Body sometimes they are very visible to the dying Party but sometimes more invisible But always this is certain they never miss of the soul if it do die out of the Lord Jesus Christ but do hale it away to their Prison as I said before there to be tormented and reserved until the great and dreadful day of Judgment at which day they must Body and Soul receive a final Sentence from the Righteous Judge and from that time be shut out from the Presence of God into everlasting woe and distress But the Godly when the time of their departure is at hand then are also the Angels of the Lord at hand yea they are ready waiting on the â—oul to conduct it safely into Abraham's Bosom â— do not say but the Devils oft-times are very buâ—ie doubtless and attending the Saints in their â—ickness yes and no question but they would willingly deprive the soul of Glory But here â—s the comfort as the Devils come from Hell â—o devour the soul if it be possible at it's deâ—arture so the Angels of the Lord come from Heaven to watch over and conduct the soul in spight of the Devil safe into Abraham's boâ—om David had the comfort of this and speaks it â—orth for the comfort of his Brethren Psal 34. â— saying The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them Mark the Angel of the Lord encampeth round about his Children to deliver them From what From their Enemies of which the Devil is not the least This is an excellent comfort at any time to have the holy Angels of God to attend a Poor Man or Woman but especially â—it is comfortable in the time of distress at the time of Death when the Devils beset the Soul with all the Power that Hell can afford them â—ut now it may be that the glorious Angels of God do not appear at the first to the view of the Soul nay rather Hell stands before it and the Devils ready as if they would carry â—t thither but this is the comfort the Angels do always appear at the last and will not fail â—he soul but will carry it safe into Abraham's â—osom Ah! Friends consider here is an ungodâ—y man upon his Death-bed and he hath none â—o speak for him none to speak comfort unto â—im but it is not so with the Children of God â—or they have the spirit to comfort them Here â—s the ungodly and they have no Christ to pray for their safe Conduct to Glory but the Saints have an Intercessor John 17. 9 Here is the World when they die they have none of the Angels of God to attend upon them but the Saints have their Company In a word the unconverted person when he dieth he sinks into the bettomless Pit but the Saints when they die do ascend with and by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom or into unspeakable Glory Luke 23. 34. And so let us consider the fourth and last part which is the Death of the Rich Man The Rich Man died also c. Here â—…e may again see that Death is the way of all flesh Death shaketh Cedar and Shrub Death calleth away the Rich man from his pleasure and Lazarus from his Pain and all must obey when Death calleth It is not the Majesty of a Prince nor Holiness of a Priest strength of Body feature of Face Wisdom Beauty Riches Honour nor any such secular regard can plead against Death or priviledge a man from the Grave Statutum est omnibus semel mori The Decree is out all must die once all must taste of this distasteful cup of death Let us know then that the Pale Horse and he that sitteth thereon whose name is Death comes running on towards us fall that is within us and without us are Remembrancers of Death The Sun rising in the East and setting in the West sheweth our rising and alling our coming in and going out of this World All cry unto us we must away we must away we must hence as Christ said My Kingdom is not of this World Death is a separation of the Soul from the Body the Husband separated from the Wife of his youth the Father separated from his Children whom he dearly loved the Children from their Parents the Master from his Servant and the Servant from his Master thus Parents and Friends ' and all must part The first circumstance of the Rich man is to know what became of his Body It was honourably buried But here we see that honourable Burial doth not profit the damned soul Tares are sown as well as Wheat in all times if the one grow up for the fire the other for the barn Gather the Tares in bundles and burn them but gather â—â—e Wheat into my barn Matth. 1. 30. But let us lastly consider what became of his Soul And being in Hell Torments c. But because â—one can so well relate miseries and none can deâ—cribe the torments of Hell so well as he that hath â—elt the same let the Rich man himself speak and â—et us hear him what he saith he being in Hell torâ—ents he thus beginneth O wretch that I am why did I sâ—ffer Lazarus to starve at my Gate â—or which I am shut in the Gates of Hell Why did not give Lazarus a crumb of Bread for which â— cannot have here now one drop of Water to cooâ—â—y tongue Why did I shew Lazarus no mercy oâ—â—arth for which no mercy is shewed to me in Hell â—hat shall I do for I am tormented in this flame â— will cry unto Abraham Abraham have mercy â— me and send Lazarus that he may dip the â— of his finger in water to cool my tongue I â— tormented here Abraham I am torn in pieces â—e Abraham I am plagued and continually pained â—e Abraham here my purple Rayment is flames â—â—re my light is darkness my day night my comâ—ions are Devils O how they hale me O how â— pull me O how they vex and torment me â—e my feet are scorched my hands are seared my â—t is wounded my eyes are blinded my ears are â—d my senses confounded my tongue is hot it is very hot send Lazarus therefore Abraham with a drop of Water to comfort me one drop good Abraham one drop of Water But Abraham answered him Thou damned wretch once thou didst disdain Lazarus once thou didst refuse Lazarus once thou didst scorn Lazarus now Lazarus shall disdain refuse
and since my God as I undoubtedly believe hath been pleased to crown my brother with glory I will beseech him to comfort me here with his grace I will not immoderately weep lest I injure my self I will not weep without hope lest I offend my Maker but that I may weep as I should and hope as I ought and live as I am required I will humble my self at the feet of him to whom my brother is gone Put on Mourning Apparel Sermon III. ECCLES 7. 2. It is better to go to the House of Mourning then to the House of feasting for that is the end of all Men and the living will lay it to his heart IT is evident that in this Verse that I have now read to you the Wise man speaks of such a mourning as is occasioned by the Death of friends And he saith of that Mourning that it is better than to be in the House of Feasting That he speaks of such a mourning appears by that which followeth First he saith that this is the end of all men he speaks therefore of such a mourning as is upon the end of men upon the departure of men out of this World And Secondly he saith the living will lay it to his heart He speaks of such an end of Men as is opposite to the life of Men. In a word By the House of mourning he meaneth a house wherein some one is dead which giveth occasion to the parties that dwell there of sorrow and mourning for their departed friend It is better to go to such a house By the House of feasting he meaneth not only such a house wherein there is feasting but also all manner of abundance As commonly Men shew their wealth in Feasting By the end of all men he meaneth such an end of a man as that he ceaseth to be as he was upon earth and ceaseth to do as he did upon Earth By laying to heart he meaneth such a serious considering and pondering and discussing of every thing as they may bring it to some use may draw some Fruit and benefit out of it to themselves So that the sum and substance of the words is thus much It is a better thing for a Man to be conversant about the thoughts of death and to take hold of all occasions that may bring the serious consideration thereof into his heart than to delight himself in those worldly pleasures and sensual delights wherein for the most part men spend their lives The words consist of a Proposition And a proof or confirmation of that Proposition The Proposition It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the house of Feasting The Confirmation or proof of it is double First Because this is the end of all Men Secondly Because the living will lay it to his heart In the former he calleth the House wherein any one dies the House of Mourning It is better to go to the House of Mourning Where you see That the Death of Men with 〈…〉 live is a just occasion of Mourning to 〈…〉 〈…〉 holy Ghost would not have described 〈…〉 â—ouse wherein a man dies in this manner 〈…〉 were not some equity and justice in mâ—…ing upon such an occasion For he speaks nâ—â— here as I conceive â—nly with reference and â—espect to the common Custom of natural and worldly Men but with respect to the natural disposition and affection that is in the heart of man and the equity of the thing There should be visible signs of Mourning and there is in it a just occasion when men are taken away by death When Sarah died the text saith that Abraham came to Mourn for Sarah and to weep for her Gen. 23. 2. And Esau when he speaks of the death of his Father Isaac he calleth the time of his death the time of Mourning the days of Mourning for my Father are at hand Gen. 27. 41. So Joseph when his Father was dead it is said that he mourned for his Father seven days Gen. 50. 10. When Samuel was dead all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him 2 Sam. 25. 1. When Iosiah was dead there was such a great lamentation for him that it became a pattern of excessive mourning In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadriâ—â—on in the Valley of Megiddon Zach. 12. 10 Our Saviour Christ when he looked upon Lazarus he wept because he was dead And those Ephesians this was it that broke their hearts they sorrowed most of all for the words which St. Pâ—â—l spake that they should see his face no more Acts 20 38 We come now to the proof of the point why going to the House of Mourning taking these occasions to affect our hearts is better than to go to the House of Feasting than to take occasions of delighting our selves in outward things What 's the reason It is double First This is the end of all men What is the end of all men The House of Mourning That which he meaneth by the House of Mourning here is that which he calleth the end of all men that which putteth an end to all men and to their actions upon earth and that is Death So that the main point that in this place the wise man intendeth is but thus much I will deliver it in the very words of the Text we need not vary from them at all Death is the end of all Men. But here it will be objected We find some men that did not die It is said of Enoch that he was translated that he should not see death Heb. 11. 5. And of Elijah that he went up by a whirl-wind into heaven in a chariot of fire 2 King 2. 11. These men did not die To this I answer briefly Particular and extraordinary examples do not frustrate general rules God may sometimes dispense with some particular men and yet the rule remain firm I say it may be so But secondly we answer They had that that was in stead of Death to them some change though they did not die after the manner of other men So at the end of the world it is said that those that are alive shall be caught up and changed in the twinkling of an eye there shall be a sudden and almost undiscernable unperceivable change which shall be to them in stead of death But it will be objected further There is a promise made in Joh. 11. That those that believe shall never die To this I answer with that common distinction There is a twofold death which the Scripture calleth the first and the second death The first death is the death of the body that ariseth from a disjunction and separation of the body from the soul And there is a second death that ariseth from the dis-junction and separation of the soul from God The first death is no death properly the second Death is that which is truly Death And so they shall not die A man may have
princely Prophet was here This his serious consideration doth not only bespeak him to be religious wise and patient but also to be most holy Job although a very patient man never could nor would do thus but cursed even the day wherein he was born Job 3. 3. saying Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night wherein it was said There is a Man-child conceived Yet further if that you do but look upon this princely Prophet and good King in his Obsequies for his Son Absolom you will find him no otherwise affected than he was for this poor Infant as it is made manifest 2 Sam. 18. 33. Oh! Absolom Absolom faith he there by way of Epizeuxis when that the sad tidings concerning the death of his well-beloved Son had arrived unto his kdowledg I would to God that I haâ— given up the Ghost and died for thee yea even foâ— thee my Son Absalom my Son Absalom Oh Absalom my Son my Son As soon as he perceived Cushi to draw near unto him ver 32 then yea even then he had an Earthquake iâ— his Soul his faculties were all set on fire and when that the sad sorrowful news was told him of his dearly beloved Sons death then in a rage he put all out of the Room where he was and fell upon his knees with wet-shod Eyes still wringing his hands and wishing heartily that God had been pleased to take him instead of his son Absalom that precious Jewel of his I say that Abraham the Father of the Faithful could not have taken it out worse he could not have been more sorrowful if that his dear Son Isaac had been offered nor our old Grandsire Adam the Father of the Living for his slain Son Abel than holy David that good King of Israel did here for these two Sons of his but especially for Absalom 'T is true so long as the sweet Babe was alive still striving and strugling in his sight daily and hourly for Death which like that Serpent Regulus by no Charms can be charmed he took on most grievously but when he had yielded up the Ghost when Death Gods special Bailiff had arrested him with a Habeas Corpus then he could leave off sorrowing and resolve fully with himself to fast no longer So long as it was alive saith he in the former Verse I had hopes that God would hear my Prayer be gracious unto me and prolong his days here with me in this habitable Orb but now it hath pleased almighty God to take unto himself my dear Child out of this miserable world wherefore should I fast wherefore should I take on thus sadly being all is in vain No I will not do it I will not be guilty of such a great Offence for now he is dead wherefore should c. Daniel that holy Prophet was of such a tender disposition that he wept and mourned full three weeks together not suffering himself to eat any pleasant thing Dan. 10. 2. Esau wept for the loss of his Blessing and Joash for Elisha being ready to die Job wept and mourn'd for such as were in sorrow trouble or any other adversity and for his own afflictions and so did Isaiah with the good Prophet Jeremiah for the misery of the Israelites to come Jer. 13. Naomi wept and mourn'd most dolefully departing from her Country and so did Nehemiah for Jerusalem s misery Elisha did mourn and weep bitterly seeing the evil which Hazael should do to the Israelites Children and so did the Women for their harmless Children slain by Herod Luk. 23. 28. Insomuch that their cry penetrating the clouds and knocking at Heavens gate did enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts And to preceed Abraham mourned and wept bitterly for his Wife being deceased Abigail for Vriah her loving husband David for Saul Abner and Jonathan the Egyptians for Jacob seven days Jacob for Joseph supposing him dead Joseph for Jacob being dead Jeremiah for Josiah with great Lementation and the Israelites for Moses and Aaron thirty days But holy David here in my Text took a better course who as soon as his child was departed left off sorrowing saying Now he is dead wherefore should I mourn c. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans bids us weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. And for the dead 1 Thess 4. 13. but not as others sorrow which have no hope We must not weep and mourn immoderately lest with Samuel we be reproved when he lamented overmuch for Saul but moderately as St. Paul that blessed Apostle did for Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 27. They mourn moderately do nothing contrary to the Word of God For Almighty God by whom Death is inflicted would have the nature thereof to be such that it should bring Tears and sorrow not only unto them which die but unto those also of whom they that die are beloved Who but a man of a stony heart in the mourning Troop accompanying his loving Neighbours deceased Son unto his Grave dying in the Spring of his Youth even at that Age when he was most able to comfort his dearest Friends even her that brought him into the World or in the Winter of her Widowhood when she did most want him could refrain from mourning and weeping Children are walking Images of their tender Parents even Flesh of their Flesh and Bone of their Bone the Wealth of the poor man and the Honour of the Rich it must then be one step unto Weeping Cross when any Parents lose their Children St. Ambrose in his book concerning Naboth ch 5. makes mention of a Tragical Accident How that in his time there was a poor man in extream necessity constrained to sell one of his Sons in perpetual Bondage that he might hereby save the rest from a present Famine who calling all his dear Children unto him and beholding them as Olive Branches round about his Table could not resolve which he might best spare his eldest Son was the strength of his Youth even he that called him first Father and therefore not willing to part with him his youngest Boy was the Nest-chick the dearly beloved of his mother and therefore not willing to part with him a third most resembled his Progenitors having his Fathers Bill and his mothers eye therefore not willing by any means to part with him one was more loving than the rest and another more Diligent so that the good Father in conclusion among so many could noâ— afford to part with any Nay it is almost Death to some to part with any of their Children but for a Year or two although that they go but a little way and may return when they will Therefore could David be thought blame-worthy to mourn for his Child whom he could not see till he went to him but now he is dead c. And this brings me now unto the second thing considerable in my Text which is the Person whom David that good King wept and mourned for thus dolefully and
would have him Prince over his People That he should find two Men as soon as he was gone from him near unto Rachels Sepulchre God might have given unto him some other Sign but he chose rather this to give him to quell the Pride and Haughtiness of this new Honour as if he should admonish and put you in mind that the Ashes of so fair a Creature as Rachel should read a Lecture unto you what you must be And this is the reason why the Church though she might use other Metaphors to express the Misery and shortness of Mans Life as is often made mention of in the Ornament of Grace as by a Leaf a Flower and a Shadow yet it makes more particular choice of Dust and Ashes because the other are Metaphorical these Literal for nothing more properly appertaineth unto Man than Dust and therefore the Scripture termeth Death a Mans returning again unto the Earth from whence he came The Flower the Leaf and the Fruit have some good in them though of short continuance as Colour Odour Beauty Vertue and Shade and albeit not good in themselves yet they are the Image and Representation of Good but Dust and Ashes speak no other good Amongst the Elements the Earth is the least noble and the most weak the Fire the Water and the Air have in them Spirit and Actitude but the base Element Earth as it were a Prisoner laden with Weightiness A certain Poet styles the Earth Bruta not only for that it hath an unpleasant Countenance as Deserts Quick-sands Dens and Caves but also for that it is an Inne of Serpents Tygers Panthers and the like so that it is good neither to the Taste to the Smell to the Feeling nor to the Hearing nor yet to the Seeing Thou being therefore Earth why art thou Proud thou Dust and Ashes And thus far of the First Now the Second Thing regardable is If thou art Ashes why such a deal of Care in Pampering thy Body which the hungry Worms are to devour to morrow Consider those rotting and stinking Carkasses of your Relations that lye here under the Ground and the very thought thereof will moderate your desire of being over-dainty and curious in cherishing your own Isaac on the Night of his Nuptials placed his Wifes Bed in the Chamber where his Mother died Tobias spent all the Night with his Spouse in Prayer being mindful of the harm which the Devil had done to her former Husbands as being advised from Heaven that he should temper with the remembrance of Death the Delights and Pleasures of this short Life of ours The Camomile the worse you treat it and the more you tread upon it the better it thrives other Plants require Pruning and tending to make them fruitful but this Herb hath a quite contrary condition that with ill usage it grows the better It is the pamper'd Flesh that brings forth Thistles and Thorns but the Flesh that is trodden down and humbled that yields store of Fruit And this is likewise concerning the Second Now the Third thing to be considered is If thou art Dust and to Morrow must become Dust and Ashes why such a deal of coveting of Honours and Riches which on a sudden may take themselves Wings and flye away Esau sold his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage but he excused his so doing for that he saw his Death was so near at hand Behold I am ready to die what will this Birth-right profit me But to be brief as Man in respect of his beginning and proceeding is Earth even so he is Dust and Ashes in respect of his ending which is the last thing now to be handled for the Lord himself denounced as it is evident in the words of my Text Out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return When that Death mounted upon his pale Horse like a Serjeant sent from above upon Action of Debt at the Suit of Nature comes with a Habeas Corpus to pull down these Clay Walls wherein our Immortal Souls are kept close Prisoners within the narrow compass of these mortal Bodies of ours then shall our Dust return unto the Dust as it was then yea even then we shall be Terra à Terrendo because then every one shall tread on us A living Dog is better than a dead Lion every Thersites will Insult over Hector and every Scrub run upon Accilles Every Child is ready to mangle the strong Oak when it is down and he that durst not look Caesar in the Face is now bold to pull him by the Beard Our Bodies are not only Houses of Clay Job 4. 19. but as they be earthly so Tabernacles 2 Cor. 5. 1. Set up this Day and happily taken down the next And therefore the Years of Man are termed Days in holy Scripture as the Daies of Noah the Daies of Lot and the Daies of Elias because they lived but a few Days as the Patriarch Abraham Few and evil have been the Daies of my Pilgrimage Gen 47. 9. Although time may be divided into past prâ—sent and future yet there is no time belonging essentially to our Life but even the very Now because the time past is certainly gone and the future time uncertainly to come and therefore our blessed Lord and Saviour Christ enjoyned us to pray Give us this day our daily bread Matth. 6. 11. Not this Age Month or Week but only this Day because we may not care for to Morrow and therefore says wise Solomon Boast not thâ— self of to morrow Prov. 27. 1. For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth All flesh is grass saith Isaiah Grass withered or green Oh Fool this Night thy poor Soul may be fetched from thâ—â— and so thou shalt have no need of daily Bread to Morrow Josiah was a vertuous Governour 2 Kings 23. and vet he had but his time In the the daies of Josiah the Son of Ammon Jer. 1. 2. Noah was a very upright honest Man in his time Gen. 6. 9. and yet he had but his time In the days of Noah 1 Pe. t 3. 20. Herod was a most mighty Man and yet he had but his time In the daies of Herod King of Judah Luke 1. 5. If we be as strong as Sampson and as mighty as Alexander this Tyrant Death in time will take us all away Moses upon Mount Abarim Aaron upon Hoâ— and Methuselam after 99 years were all cut down and brought to dust again as they were Although the good Prophet Daniel Prophesied of one who should have a time and a time and a half time yet as it appeareth in the Revelation of St. John all is but a time and that a short time too For although Antichrist exalt himself above all that is called God yet he shall one day perish as a Man he came from Earth and notwithstanding his double Honour and triple Crown he must being Dust return to the Earth as he was and see Corruption Wherefore I
the next Hour be a Banquet for the Worm to feed upon Prepare to follow SERMON VIII ISAIAH 8. 38. Set thy House in order for thou shalt dye and not live Dearly Beloved I Am now about to speak of that which will shortly render me unable to speak and you are now about to hear of that which will also shortly make you uncapable of hearing any more and that is Death It will be but a little while before Death will cause both the Speaker to be Dumb and the Hearer to be Deaf Oh that I might therefore this day speak with that seriousness unto you as considering the time draws on apace when I shall be Silenced by Death and never more have an opportunity to speak one word unto you And Oh! that you might Hear this day with that diligence and reverence as considering that after you are once Nailed down in your Coffins and Covered with the Dust you will never hear one Sermon more or one Exhortation or one word more till you hear these words pronounced by the great Judge of the Quick and Dead Surgiâ—â— Mortui venite ad Judicium Arise ye Dead and come ye unto Judgment What is said in my Text as it is likely you have often heard it with your Ears so now you may ice it accomplished It is appointed unto all Men once to die Death hath long since come into our Nation and hath summoned many to make their appearance in another World yea you know that Death hath already entred into our Streets and hath not been afraid to step over our Threshold and to seize upon those that have been standing round about us yea it hath come into our very Bed-chambers and hath suddenly snatched away those that have been lying in our very Bosoms So that we have had warning enough of the near approaches of Death unto our selves and without doubt some of us have had the Sentence of Death within our selves as the Apostle speaketh and therefore it is high time for you and I seriously to consider what is said in my Text Set thy House in order c. Something we shall briefly speak now in order to the explanation of the words that so you may once more hear before you feel the meaning of them It is appointed or enacted by the Court of Heaven Statutum est it is a Statute or Law more firm and certain than the Laws of the Medes and Persians which is never to be repealed or abrogated We are not therefore telling you what may but of what must inevitably come to pass It is appointed unto Men that is as much as to say unto all Men once to die It is an indefinite Expression and so is to be understood of all the same kind without some special exception from this general Rule And indeed such an exception there is to be found in the Scripture for saith the Apostle We shall not all Die but some shall be Changed in a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye there shall be some at the end of the World who shall not pass under Death but yet they must pass under a Change which is thought will be equivalent unto Death But for the present time and according to the common Method and Course of Providence no Man or Woman hath any ground to expect that they shall escape the stroke of Death for it is appointed unto Men that is unto all Men once to Die Death will no more spare him that wears a Crown upon his Head than him that carries a Spade in his Hand as the Poet Elegantly expresses it Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede Pauperum tabernas Regumque Turres c. And the Scripture speaking of Kings useth this Expression I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. But what is the meaning of the Phrase to Die I can assure you if you know not yet it will not be long e're you will know the meaning of it The Philosopher describes Death thus Est privatio Vitae â—â— Anime separationem a Corpore As Spiritual Death is the Separation of God from the Soul so Temporal Death is the Separation of the Soul from the Body When those two the Soul and Body which have like Twins dwelt lovingly together under the same Roof must be parted asunder and enjoy no more sweet and intimate Communion one with another till the time of re-unition at the General Resurrection This is that which must once be done every one must here take their turn And though this happeneth to some at one time and to others at another time yet first or last it will happen to all The Greek word Thanatos which signifies Death is taken from a word which signifies extendere and indeed Death stretcheth out it self so far that no Man can live out of the reach of it As surely as thou wast once Born so surely shalt thou once Die Let me but ask you this one plain Question and your own Conscience shall be the Judge in the Case Couldest thou still remain a Drunkard or a Swearer if thou didst but once seriously consider that thou must once Die Or couldst thou so eagerly set thy Heart upon the empty lying and dying Vanities of this World didst thou but once seriously consider that thou must once and it may be before to Morrow be taken out of this World Or couldst thou neglect the means of Grace or Delight in Prophaneness didst thou but seriously consider that thou must once die and it may be before ever thou enjoyest another Praying or Preaching opportunity To die is much and as this must be once done so there is more to be done than this for after this cometh Judgment Whether the particular or general Day of Judgment is here to be understood needs no debate seeing both will certainly follow after Death As for the certainty of Death you need not look into your Bibles for a proof of that I shall only desire you to open your Weeping Eyes and let them but a little while be fastened upon the Dead Corps that now is before you and if afterwards you can question this Truth I shall say no more to you at present but that it will not be long e're others may say of thee as the Apostle Peter did to Saphira Acts 5. verse 5 6 7 compared with the 9 and 10. Verses And Ananias fell down and gave up the Ghost and the young Men arose wound him up and carried him out and buried him And his Wife not knowing what was done came in and Peter said unto her How is it that ye have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Behold the Feet of them which have buried thy Husband are at the door and shall carry thee out Then fell she down straightway and yielded up the Ghost and the young Men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth buried her by her Husband The same Bier and it may be the same Persons which have carried
thy Neighbour thy Husband thy Wife thy Brother or Sister already to the Grave behold they stand ready to do so much for thee And let every one consider with himself that he may be the very next in the Town or Family for whom the Bier may be fetched to carry him unto his long home And then as for the certainty of Judgment though every one hath a sufficient Proof in his own Conscience of the truth of this yet for as much as some have seared Consciences and therefore would put off the Evil Day and say with those 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. And there will come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts saying Where is the Promise of his Coming since all things continue as they were from the beginning c. You may therefore Consult these plain Scripture Proofs Eccles 11. 9. compared with Rom. 14. 11 12. For we shall all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ yet that is not all but as it followeth So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the Body according to that he hath doae whether it be good or bad ISAIAH xxxviii Set thy House in Order for thou shalt Die and not Live MANS Body before that dismal Conquest we all deplore as well as the Poor Soul was conditionally Immortal and so to this very day had ever continued if it had not been for the damnable Sin of Disobedience committed by Adam and Eve our First Parents But this was no sooner Gained than Lost and the time of Mans Life ever since hath been as a Point the Substance of it ever flowing the Sense obscure and the Whole Composition of the Body tending to Corruption If that you should live three hundred years or as many thousand of years yet with all remember this that at the last you shall be compelled by Death Gods all-resting Bailiff to lay down these rotten ruinous and clay-decaying Tabernacles of yours for Dust you are and unto Dust you shall return and peradventure you shall not have a good warning beforehand as the good King Hezekiah had here but be thrust out of House and Harbour in less than an hours warning For Death which will put a period to every Mans days 2 Tim. 4. 7. is like a Sergeant sent from above upon Action of Debt at the Suit of Nature mounted upon his Pale Horse will come on unawares rap at your Doors Alight Arrest you all and carry you bound Hand and Foot into a Land as dark as Darkness it self from whence you shall be summoned at the last dreadful Audit to the Bar of Justice in the high Court of Heaven when your Bill shall be brought in how that you have ever Rebelled and most notoriously transgressed against the Lord of Hosts both in Thought Word and Deed and have ever spun away our time as tho' that Death which is the end of all flesh would never follow wherefore to the intent that Hezekiah that good King might be made more certain of his fatal Destiny occasioned by our first Parents and have the less account to make at the great and terrible day of Doom when Christ Jesus the Worlds Saviour shall descend from Heaven which is the center of all good wishes with his Heavenly Host of blessed Angels riding in Pomp and great Majesty upon the Wings of the Wind with the loud sounding Trumpet of God and the all tearing Voice of the Arch-Angel to judge both the quick and Dead God sent unto him the good Prophet Isaiah to incounter with him and to put him in mind of his mortal Song The whole verse runs thus In those days was King Hezekiah sick unto Death and Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came into him and said unto him thus saith the Lord. Set thy House in order for thou shalt die and not live These words as they distribute themselves do consist of 2 Principal and Essential Parts First of an Admonition or earnest Exhortation Set thy House in Order And then secondly of a sound and undeniable Reason which is threefold Affirmative and Negative First Affirmative for thou shalt Die and the Negative and not Live Set thy House c. Now of thefe in their due order severally and first of the Admonition or earnest Exhortation Set thy House in Order in which you have these three things regardable First the Reason warning which was Almighty God by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah as is made manifest in express termes in the former part of the Verse And Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came unto him and said unto him thus saith the Lord. Secondly the Person warned or exhorted which was none other but even good King Hezekiah and by him all other And then thirdly and lastly the matter of the Exhortation and that was to Set thy House in Order Now of these which shall have the first place in my Discourse shall be of the Person exhorting 〈…〉 that was God Adam who had attained uâ—… state of Perfection in his Life and Conversation relying wholly upon Natures first intentions never so much as once dream'd of Death which is a Separation of Soul and Body or any Alteration until Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open no secrets hid seeing his corrupt and base nature came unto him and told him plainly and roundly to his face how that he was but Dust and Ashes and thither should return again Gen. 3. 19. Thus Almighty God by the mouth of Moses the Faithful was ever warning the Israelites being ever a most stiff-necked and rebellious Generation of their Mortality Deut. 32. 21. saying They have moved me to Jealousie with that which is not God they have provoked me to Anger with their Vanities And I will move them to Jealousie with those which are not a People I will proâ—oke them to Anger with a foolish Nation for a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the Foundation of the Mountains I will heap mischief upon them I will spend my Arrows upon them they shall be burn with hunger and devour'd with burning heat and with bitter Destruction I will also send the Teeth of Beasts upon them with the poyson of Serpents of the Dust and to raise this Blister the higher the Sword without and Terrour within shall destroy both the Young Man and the Virgin the suckling also with the Mâ—n of Gray Hairs vers 25. Thus Almighty God did threaten them if that they would not set their House in Order and repent that he would bring them to the Dust again wherefore Moses being a true Mirror of pity out of his most tender Love and boundless Affection towards them all in general lest that Almighty God should send forth his sharp piercing Arrows
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 lâ—vâ— 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 Millâ— and doth thy Bones run full of Marrow as Job speaks and thereupon dost 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 Yeâ— 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 Lakâ— 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 Eâ—… Sixthly What is before him 〈…〉 and worldly vanities And then seventhly and lastly He desires man seriously to consider what is behind him inâ—â—llable Death for semel aut bis morimur omnes Some once some twice we must all die and not live You cannot like Enocâ— Hâ—b 11. â—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
it self to the Earth from whence it came or was drawn by the heat of the Sun Such as is the nature of a Vapour even such is the Life of Man for he is extracted out of the Earth by the Sun of Righteousness and he either perisheth before he seeth the Sun or else in the Morning of his Youth or if he escape the mid and noontide of his growth yet at the last he falleth away by Age to the Earth from whence he was taken The Text thus explained we may observe these Points of Doctrine for our Instruction The first is the Frailty of our Constitution in these words It is even a Vapour Secondly the Shortness of our continuance Which appeareth for a little time Thirdly The vanity or nullity of our Life after Death in these words And afterward vanisheth away First Of the Frailty of our Constitution the Apostle doth not compare the Life of Man to Silver or Gold or Iron or Brass which are durable Substances or some Body that is Corpus perfecte mixtum that is perfectly mixed or compounded of the four Elements but to a Vapour that is Corpus imperfecte mixtum that is such a Body that is imperfectly mixed and that for two Reasons First because it hath not perfectum Miscibilium numerum that is all the Elements in it then also because it hath not perfectum Mixtionis modum the true manner of a mixt Body and therefore it vanisheth away into Air either per attenuationem by rarefaction and attenuation as the Philosopher speaketh aut â—per condersationem when it returneth to the Earth from whence it came And well might this our Apostle compare the Life of Man to such an Imperfect Body as a Vapour is For first if we consider our Birth we are brought forth in the danger of our selves and them that bear us Our Feet are not our own neither are they able to carry the bulk and trunk of our Body our Tongues are not our own our Hands are not our own but we lye bound and wrapped for many Months together we Live and yet we seem not to breathe in our Youth we are liable to many Diseases If it be true that the Physicians say our Eyes are subject to an hundred Perils how much more is the whole Body Some cry My Head My Head as the Shunamites Child some are troubled with lame Legs as Mephibosheth some with Gouty Feet as Asa some are pained in the Belly as Jeremy This is that miserable Frailty which the Prophet Isaiah signifieth in these words Almighty God said unto his Prophet Cry and the Prophet answered What shall I cry God said unto him All Flesh is Grass and all the glory thereof like the Flower of the Field the Grass withereth the Flower fadeth away but the Word of the Lord continueth for ever Upon these words St. Ambrose saith thus Truely it is even so for the glory of Man flourisheth in the Flesh like unto Grass which although it seem to be great it is in very deed but little it buddeth like a Flower and fadeth like Grass so that it hath no more but a certain flourishing in appearance and no firmness and stability in the Fruit. For what firmness can there be in the matter of Flesh Or what good things of any long continuance are to be found in so weak a Subject To day thou maist see a young Man in the flourishing time of his Age with great Strength Lusty and jetting up and down in the Streets in great Bravery with a jolly lofty Countenance and if it so fall out that this very next Night he be taken with some Disease thou shalt see him the next day with a Face so far altered and changed that whereas before he seemed very amiable and beautiful he shall now seem ill-favoured miserable and loathsom to behold nay Mans Fading away is such and so sudden oftentimes that there can be no reason given of his Death for many have gone to Bed well in the Even that in the Morning have bee found dead in their Beds and many suddenly have dropped down in the Highways and Streets as they have walked about their Affairs And this is no wonder if we consider the Substance of Mans Body which being a Building compact of green Clay is easily overthrown with a small puff of Wind. This being then the frailty of our Constitution the consideration thereof should be used to put away and abandon our natural Pride and make us humble our selves under the Hand of God An Example hereof we have in Abraham who said Gen. 18. 27. Behold I have begun to speak to my Lord who am but Dust and Ashes Mark here how the consideration of his frail condition made him to abase and cast down himself in the sight of God In like manner if we could but consider how Frail we are it would straightway pull down our Peacocks Feathers and make us with Job to abhor our selves in Dust and Ashes Secondly The next Point I am to treat of is the shortness of our continuance intimated in these words Which appeareth for a little time c. Man that is Born of a Woman saith Job is of short continuance and full of Miseries he shooteth forth as a Flower and is cut down he vanisheth also as a Shadow and continueth not Job 14. 1 2. In which words in that Job compared Man to a Shadow and a Flower he notably setteth forth the short continuance of Mans Life a Shadow we see if the Sun be never so little overclouded it vanisheth away and a Flower we know is a comely and beautiful thing yet for all that there is nothing sound more sading and vanishing even so Man during the time of his Childhood and flourishing Youth seemeth to be of a wonderful Comeliness but his Beauty is of small Price because it is more brittle than Glass seeing that Man carrieth always the Cause of Death in his Veins and Bowels We see at this day what a great matter it is for one to live Threescore and Ten or Fourscore years and this is commonly the ordinary Race of Mans Life insomuch as when they live so long they account themselves not to be evil dealt withal as the Prophet signifieth when he saith The days of Man are at the uttermost but Threescore and Ten Years and if the Strongest do reach to Fourscore what followeth is but labour and grief Now if we should deduct those years which Infancy and Childhood spendeth if also we should take away that time which passeth away when we sleep it would be a small number of Years that would remain which remnant if we should compare with the Life to come it would seem but as a drop of Water compared with the whole Sea so short is his Fading Life in regard of that which lasteth always Neither is our Life so short only but as it is short so is it uncertain how long it shall continue for though there is nothing more certain than
Death yet is there nothing more uncertain than the hour of Death and therefore a certain Philosopher compared the Lives of Men to Bubbles that are made in Water pits when it raineth of the which some do vanish away suddenly even at their very rising others do endure a little longer and out of hand are decayed others do continue somewhat more and others less So that although they do all endure but some little time yet in that little there is great variety This being then the shortness and uncertainty of our Lives it should teach us so much the rather to embrace our Saviours Counsel in the Thirteenth of St. Mark 's Gospel Watch because ye know not the day nor the hour The which is as much as if he had more plainly said Because ye know not that Hour watch every hour and because ye know not that day watch every day and because ye know not the Month and the Year watch therefore every Month and Year And to make this matter more plain by a Similitude If thou shouldest be invited to a Feast and being set at the Table seest before thee many and sundry sorts of Meats a Friend of thine secretly admonisheth thee that among so many dainty Dishes there is one Poysoned what in this Case wouldst thou do which of them darest thou touch or raste of wouldst thou not suspect them all I think though thou wert extremely hungry thou wouldst refrain from all for fear of that one where the Poyson is It is made manifest unto thee already that in one of thy seventy Years thy Death lieth hidden from thee and thou art utterly Ignorant which year that shall be how then can it be but that thou must suspect them all and fear them all O that we understood the shortness of our Life how great Profit and Commodity should we then receive by the Meditation thereof Thirdly and lastly the vanity and nullity of our Life after Death intimated in these words and afterward vanisheth away The whole Course of Mans Life is but a flying Shadow a little spot of time between two Eternities which will quickly disappear the same Earth which we now so negligently tread upon may suddainly receive us into her cold Imbraces Well may Life then be said to be vanishing away Though now we are in perfect Health yet before to morrow some dear Friend or other may passionately follow our Hearse to the Grave Our time past is like a Bird fled from the Hand of the owner out of sight and our present time is vanishing away and on Earth we have no abiding But here consider if Life be so vanishing and uncertain a thing then 1. This reproveth those that Squander away their precious time as if their abode on Earth would be too long to prepare for Eternity if they did not mispend it half but it is time for us to cry out The time past is more than enough to have wrought the Will of the Flesh 1. Pet. 4. 3. or as it is Rom. 13 14. 'T is high time to awake out of Sleep 2. If Life be thus vanishing then be not over solicitous as to future Events but willingly submit to a Divine Providence be not so much concerned for to Morrow do not cumber your selves with too much Provision for a short Voyage 3. If Life be thus short and vanishing then do much work in a little time shall we loose any of that time which is so fleeting and so uncertain And thus I have briefly shown you the frailty of the Life of Man and the profitable use we might make of this Consideration That our Life is â—â—â— a Vapour which appeareth for a little time and afterward Vanisheth away 4. If Life be so short and uncertain then look upon every day as your last so did the Apostle Paul who said I die dâ—â—l as there is nothing more certain than Death so there is nothing more uncertain than the time of Death We are all Tenants at Will and therefore the great Landlord of Heaven and Earth may turn us out of our Clay Houses when he pleaseth It was a worthy Custom of a Roman Emperor that would have his Man come every morning to his Bed side and pronounce these Words Remember thou art a dying Man certainly such are justly to be reproved who look upon Death as at a great distance from them It is a common saying of some that they thought no more of such a thing than of their dying day surely it argues a very wicked frame of Heart to be so forgetful of Death when 't is that we are to expect every minute and know not but each day that comes may be our last THE EJACULATION GOOD Lord what is the Life of Man is it not like unto a Vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Is it not like unto a Bubble which quickly swelleth to a considerable bigness and as quickly sinketh again Is it not like unto the Grass which groweth up and flourisheth in the Morning but is cut down before the Evening come Oh Lord though Life be sweet yet common experience shews that it is short and as our Life is short in it self though we should live to the very outside of the strength of Naeture so will it seem much shorter if it be compared with Eternity it self And yet as short and as uncertain as our Life is we have a long work to dispatch before we go away from hence and be seen no more we have a great way to go by a setting Sun a great Race to run by a short Breath and if Life be but as a Vapour how little reason have we then to squander away precious time Yea how great reason have we to redeem the time that is past and to improve every Inch of the present time Let us remember that we have no continuing City here and therefore it will be necessary for us to seek one that is to come Good Lord therefore do thou make us to know our end and the measure of our days what it is that so we may be throughly convinced how frail we are Dying Christian SERMON X. Being the last Sermon this Author Preacht at Grafham in Huntingdonshire Beloved Brethren THE Lord hath set it home upon my Heart ever since I came amongst you earnestly to desire and to pray for the Salvation of your Souls it hath been no small Encouragement to me to lay forth my weak endeavours in the Ministry when I consider that he which converteth a Sinner from the Errour of his way shall save a Soul from Death and hide a multitude of Sin James 5. 20. To save a Soul from Death is so glorious an Imployment that herein I cannot chuse but rejoice with the Apostle when I see the word of the Kingdom working effectually in any Soul I bless God every day without ceasing that he hath given me a full proof of my Ministry in the Hearts and Consciences of some
even in this place since I came among you so that I may say with Paul 1 Cor. 9. 2. and they indeed are and shall be unto me and I unto them a Crown of rejoicing at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and on their behalf I pray that their Faith may grow exceedingly and that their Love unto Jesus Christ and unto all Saints may every day more and more abound and I commend them unto God who is able to keep them from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding Joy As for others I am jealous over them with a Godly Jealousie as the Apostle speaketh continually praying that they may not be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ but that they may hold fast the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience Some indeed there are that cause me secretly to groan in my Spirit and my Heart I even bleed over them and I do pity them in the Bowels of Jesus Christ fearing least they should like the five foolish Virgins fall asleep and hereafter endeavour to enter into Glory when the Door is shut But now dearly beloved being come to Preach my last Sermon amongst you I request you all both good and bad to attend with double diligence to what shall be spoken unto you from that sweet portion of Scripture which you find recorded PHILIPIANS I. XXIII For I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better IN these Words are these two Parts First a Declaration of St. Pauls desire For I am in a streight between two having a desire to depart Secondly an Inclination of the ground of it which was this because he might be with Christ the word signifies solvere Anchoram to loosen the Anchor or to cut the Cable that the Ship may sail after While St. Pauls Spirit was tied up by the Flesh he desired it should be loosened by Death that it might Sail after into Glory Spiritual Desires they are always quickest and strongest whensoever they are nearest the perfect enjoyment of their desired Object Christ As the motion of every natural Body is quickest and strongest the nearer it comes to the Center so the nearer fulness of Glory the more fervent the Soul is in its desires after Christ Sirs my Text is usually the dying Expression of a living Saint for when a believer draws near to his End he sings most sweetly like the Swan and earnestly cries out Make haste my beloved he having a desire to depart to be with Christ evermore upon a dying Bed a Christians Pulse beats strongest Heaven-ward We groan as being in a great straight knowing to depart is far better much more better as if he should have said Oh! there is no comparison between the enjoyment of God in the State of Grace and the enjoyment of God in a State of Gloâ—y And here methinks I hear the dying Christian joyfully breathing out his earnest and longing desires for a Dissolution in the very words of a late Grave and Serious Poet who in an Heavenly Rapture and sweet Extasie of Spirit spake in the following manner viz. VVhy lingrest thou bright Lamp of Heaven why Do thy Steeds tread so slowly on must I Be forc'd to live when I desire to die Lash thou those Lazie Jades drive with full speed And end my slow-paced days that I may feed VVith Joy on Him for whom my heart doth bleed Post blessed Jesus come Lord flee away And turn this Night into the brightest Day By thine approach come Lord and do not stay Take thou Doves-Wings or give Doves Wings to me That I may leave this World and come to thee And even in thy glorious presence be I like not this vile VVorld it is meer dross Thou only art pure Gold then sure 't is loss To be without a Throne t' enjoy a Cross VVhat though I must pass through the Gates of Death It is to come to thee that gav'st me Breath And thou art better Lord than Dung-hill-Earth VVhen shall I come Lord tell me tell me when VVhat must I tarry Threescore years and Ten My Thirsty Soul cannot hold out 'till then Come dearest Saviour come unlock this Cage Of sinful Flesh lovingly stop the Rage Of my Desires end thou my Pilgrimage Give me a Place on High to Sit and Sing Anthems of Praise to thee mine only King Whose ratling Sounds may make the Heavens Ring But here I know the timerous Soul will object against this truth and say Oh how can the Christian so earnestly desire to be with Christ in the fulness of Glory were it indeed but a short step into Glory or were the way strewed with Roses and Flowers and with all the Spices of the Merchant it might be so but there is a Lion in the way as Solomon speaks in another case there is Death the King of Fears that stands srowning upon the Soul at the last cast when the Soul is upon its very Entrance into Christ his prepared Mansions of eternal Glory and therefore it were more desirable to dwell safely upon the Earth in a sensible Heaven made up of the greatest worldly profits and the most delightful creature Comfort rather than to venture over the terrible mountain of Death the very Epitomy of all Discouragements into the doubtful possession of those invissible Depths of spiritual Glory which the Scripture tells us is only attainable after this Life I answer that by nature of this Objection you may presently know the name of the Objector It comes from off a carnal heart and fully speaks the temper an Epiâ—urean Will that is against leaving its carnal interest in the Earth for uncertain interest in Heaven But Death though it be an intervening Cloud which seems to darken or cast a mist upon the Lustre and Comfort of a believers spiritual injoyment in God yet it doth but seem to do so and indeed it doth not at all extinguish the earnest desires of a serious lively Christian after Christ in the fulness of Glory and that especially when the believing Soul looks upon Death under these Considerations First that to die is no worse a rhing than to tread in the very steps of Jesus Christ we might indeed have been afraid to die if Jesus Christ had not first stept into the cold grave before us but if we will shew our selves true Soldiers unto Christ our Captain we must not fear to venture where he hath broken the way before us Now Christ hath died that he might by his Death procure the Death of Death and that he might free Believers from the fear of Death the sting being taken out of it Secondly Death is only ordained to refine and not to ruine Nature Death ends our sins and miseries and not our life as it may be made out unto you by this following Illustration those Trees which seem dead in the Winter yet they revive in the Spring because the
Body and the Arms of the Tree they are joyned to the Root where the Sap lies all the Winter and by means of this conjunction the Root it conveys life unto all the parts of the Tree And the Bodies of Believers they have the Winter to when as they are turned into the Dust but their Life it is hid with Christ at last they are revived and raised up into Glory Now here you may observe the great difference of Tempters according to the various Complexions of Mens Spirits the Atheist he dares not die for fear of being put out of his being and the prosane Person he dares not die for fear of exchanging his present bad being for a worse â—ut the Believer he earnestly desires to die that besides this present temporal being he might enjoy a future eternal well-being Indeed to a wicked Man the best had been not â—o have been and this next best were to live long â— was ill with him that ever he was born and worse A Carnal Mans continual cry is this Dum Spiro Spero I love to live for my present hope is my only help for indeed such an one hath only help in this Life but a Christians common Expression is this Dum Exspiro Spero Expiration is my Expectation for such an one hath hope in the Life to come when a wicked Man dies he thinks he shall live worse but a Christian when he dies he knows he shall live better he cries with the holy Apostle for one to live is Christ and to die is gain Job 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth and he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God Thirdly Death was never intended to be as a privation of good but as a priviledge for good to the Believer and it is attended with these several Priviledges First Corporal and Temporal Death it serves to set out the Beauty and Excellency of eternal Life It is Gods usual method to set out one contrary by another Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescurt In War God commends Peace to us In Adversity Prosperity in Sickness Health and in Death he commends eternal Life to us As the Limner lays the Foundation of a curioâ— Picture in a Dark Ground-work so God doth ofte times lay the foundation of our sweetest Mercies iâ— the greatest miseries and this he doth that â—â— Mercies may appear more lovely in our eyes aâ— thus he sets off the joys of Heaven by the troublâ— we meet with on the Earth It is said of Zeno thâ— he was wont to eat bitter things that he might tâ—â— better taste sweet and he would say sweet thinâ— were nothing worth if they were not so commenâ—ed to us And so bitter Death it is but an Eâ—gine devised by infinite Wisdom and for â—â— set out the Unspeakable sweetness of Everlasting Joys God could as easily have received all his redeemed ones into the immediate imbraces of Divine Love and Glory without letting them know what it was to be tempted to be afflicted or to die but only for the better sweetning and endearing fulness of Glory to them Secondly Deaths mortal Wound it is but preparatory to an immortal weight of Glory Death it is the midnight of all troubles and sorrows which is in Travel with a morning of everlasting Joy and Comfort Death it is the Saturday or last day of our Weekly labours which ushers in a Sabbath of eternal rest Rev. 14. 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their VVorks follow after them Here the Believer hath labour without rest but in Heaven he shall have rest without Labour Death tends indeed to a Believers perfect everlasting reign and rest The Believer Afflictions upon Earth they are fore-runners of Deliverances they are as throws to the Birth of future Comforts The Whale which swallowed up Jonah God appointed as the means of bringing himself to the Shore And so the trouble which we often times think may swallow us up it brings us to our harbour Death it lands us safely upon Glory One excellency sets out the state of a dying Christian in these Words Per Augusta ad Augusta per Spinas ad rosas per Procellas ad Portum per Mortem ad Vitam migramus Lastly Death it is as a Bridge that all Saints must walk over to the everlasting Hill of endless Peace to the perfection of Grace to the participation oâ— Glory to the full possession of Christ 1. Death it leads us to the perfection of Grace the believer would live that he might be more perfect but when he dies he is perfect indeed a dying life that is a dying to sin it frees us from a living Death well doing fits us for dying Holiness frames us for Happiness 2. Death it leads us to a participation of Glory the consummation of Grace is the incoation of Glory Grace that puts the Soul into a capacity of enjoying glimps of God as in a Glass darkly but glory brings the Soul ad visionem beaâ—ificam into an immediate converse with God face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then I shall know even as I am known 3. Death it leads us into a full possession of Christ Luke 23 43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise so saith Paul Then shall we be ever with the Lord comfort comfort ye one another with these words to be always with Christ will be very comfortable indeed Death that deprives us of commerce with men yet it delivers us up into an immediate communion with God and Christ and the blessed Angels Saints in Heaven shall be as the Angels nay saith John now are we the Soâ—s of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be we know that when he shall appear we shall â—e like him for we shall see him as he is Death speaks the sad disjunction of the Soul from the Body and the sure and sweet Conjunction of the Soul with Christ and therefore saith Paul and every Christian when he is in a right temper I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is best of all And thus I have endeavoured to lay open before you those Soul supporting and Soul encouraging Arguments the consideration of which makes the believing Soul so willingly and so boldly to look Death in the Face to invade Death in its own Quarters which is indeed but as a Passage or Bridg whereby the Soul is carried over unto the Mountains of Mirrh and unto the Hill of Frankincense where it shall lie down with Christ on his Green Bed of Love which is perfumed all over with the fulness of increated Glory And thus having shewed you many Arguments the Consideration of
which doth much facilitate a Believers passage through Death into Glory I shall in the next place for a further Illustration of this truth present unto you the admirable carriage and department of some famous Christians since Christ his time as in Relation to their contempt of Death and earnest desiring to be with Christ in Glory and in this Relation I shall begin with Iâ—natiâ—â— who lived while Christ was upon the Earth and so proceed to several other remarkable Instances in successive Generations Ignatius when he was sent by Trajan the Emperour to Rome there to be devoured of Lyons for his free reproving of Idolatry instead of fearing Death he thus couragiously expressed himself I wish says he that I could see those wild Beasts that must tear me in pieces I would speak them fair to dispatch me quickly and if that would not do I would incite them to it Hierom of Prague the renowned Bohemian Martyr he uttered these words with much chearfulness at his very giving up the Ghost Hanc animam in flammis affero Christe tibi freely do I burn for the sake of Christ Oecolampadius lying upon his Death Bed and a certain Friend coming to him Oecolampadius asked him what news unto whom his Friend answered I know none but says he I can tell you some good news nam ego subitâ— cum Christo regnabor I shall suddainly be with Christ upon his Throne Melanchton a little before his Death he would often say capio ex hac vita migrare propter duas causas primum ut frurar desiderato conspectu filii Dei deinde ut liberer ab immunibus Theologorum odiis I desire to die to injoy a sight of Jesus Christ c. But what need I tell you of the resolute and undaunted Carriage of Christians in former ages we need look no further than upon the carriage of Christians in latter Ages Casper Obevian the famous Lawyer lying upon his Death Bed he would often say O Lord let not my journey be long deferred ere I be with thee I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ he had rather depart this Life and take but one Feast in Glory than take many fees and still live in this miserable World Strigelius the learned Suetzer falling sick he would often say Seperare se finem vitae suae ad esse He hoped this Sinful Life was now at an end that he might injoy God perfectly Grinâ—us the learned Helvetian died with these words in his mouth O praeclarum illum diem cum ad illud animarum concilium Caelumque profiscar Oh fairest day when I shall make a journey to Heaven that convocation of Souls should I but relate the dying Speeches of Mr. Rollock the learned and devout Scotch-man they would melt any Heart that shall hear them he breathed out these words with his Life I Bless God says he I have all perfect Sences but my Heart is in Heaven And Lord Jesus why shouldst thou not have it it hath been my Care all my Life time to devout it unto thee I pray thee therefore take it that it may live with thee for ever Come Lord Jesus put an end to this sinful miserable life haste Lord tarry not come Lord Jesus and give me that life for which thou hast redeemed me Nay further that I might Christians leave your Spirits in this sweet temper of contemning Death and desiring to be with Christ in Glory where I should much rejoice and indeed earnestly pray that I might meet you all I shall yet mind you of some remarkable instances in this kind even in our own Nation Mr. Cooper that famous Champion for the Truth when he was brought to be burnt at the Stake in Queen Mary's days and there having a box set before him with a pardon in it as soon as he perceived so much he cried out If you love my Soul away with it if you love my Soul away with it Dr. Taylor when he was brought to Hadly in Suffolk to suffer Martyrdom for his Profession of Christ the History says he was as merry in his going from London as though he had been a going to some Banquet or Bridal And when he was brought unto the place of Execution he kissed the Stake uttering these Words Now I am even at home Lord Jesus receive my Soul into thy Hands Before Mr. Bradford was Martyr`d his dear Wife came running into his Chamber and said Mr. Bradford I bring you heavy news for to morrow you must be burned your Chain it is now a buying but when Mr. Bradford had heard these Words he lifted up his Eyes to Heaven and said I thank God for it I have looked for this a long time this news comes not to me suddainly but as a thing that I waited for every day and hour the Lord make me worthy of it And when he was brought into Smithfield to be burnt where there was another young Man to suffer with him he turned himself to the young Man and said Be of good Comfort Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord Jesus Christ this Night Bishop Jewell lying upon his Death-bed he would often say Now Lord let thy Servant depart in Peace break off all delays Let me this day quickly see the Lord Jesus And observe further one standing by him and praying with Tears that the Lord would be pleased to restore this Godly Bishop unto his former Health he over-hearing of him seemed to be very much offended and replied thus I have not lived so that I am ashamed to live any longer neither do I fear to Die because I have a merciful Father And now truly Friends out of the tender Affection which I bear unto all your Souls I could heartily wish that this might be the dying Language of you all that you might every one be able to say from a good and clear Conscience at last I have not lived not so that I am ashamed to live longer neitheâ— do I fear to die because I have a merciful Father And further I do protest in the presence of God with Saint Paul in the 4th to the Phillip at the first Verse That it is my greatest joy and richest Crown if that ever since I came among you I have spoken any thing leading to mutual Love and Peace And if all my pains and endeavours among you in much weakness have taken any effect upon any of your Spirits to win you unto a love of Christ that so you may be holy here and happy hereafter I shall sincerely rejoice But I shall say no more at this time but only conclude with the words of Saint Paul Phill. 4. I pray mark the words for they will be the last I shall speak among you Verse 1. My Brethren dearly beloved and loâ—ged for my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved Verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say Rejoice Verse 5. Let your moderation be known
Bosom from this Vail of Tears to the Kingdom of Glory Moreover as Death helps us to our Rest so it is our Rest Why should we fear it The Scripture terms it but a taking away of the Soul to Peace a sweet Sleep of the Body Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and the Patriarchs are fallen asleep St. Stephen fell asleep Our Burying-places are but Dormitories Sleeping-places The Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come and he shall enter into Peace they shall rest in their Beds Such a Blessed Rest have the Righteous in Death as our Saviour wept because his Friend Lazarus was to be deprived of it it is both the Observation of an Ancient Father and the Resolution of an Ancient Council concerning Christs weeping over Lazarus John 11. 35. Doluit Lazarum non dormientem sed resurgentem Christ did not weep because Lazaras was dead and taken out of the World but because he was to return from the Grave into a Troublesome World after he was gone to his Rest It may be for the same Reason the Thracians of old used to lament at the Birth of their Children but rejoice at their Funeral The time will come that we must part with our Isaac's our Benjamin's nearest Friends and dearest Comforts Then remember my Text if they die in the Lord take no care for them they are Blessed they are at their Rest But some will say Shall we meet with our Friends again departed in the Faith Yes without peradventure if we walk in ways of Obedience to the end It was David's Comfort upon the death of his Child While the Child was living he fasted and wept and laâ— upon the Ground but when it was dead he arose and anointed himself aad eat Bread His Reason is very strong and convincing 1. An impossibility of Recovery He shall not come to me 2. An assured Hope of meeting again in Heaven But I shall go to him He shall not come to me that would be for his loss to part with his Rest in Heaven for a restless condition on Earth but I shall go to him I have not lost him for ever we shall meet again as comfortably as Jacob and Joseph met in Egypt meet again in Heaven and never part Now you know it never troubles us to see the Sun set because we know it will rise again in the Morning it never troubles us to part with a Friend when he goes to Bed because we hope to see him again in the Morning Beloved the Death of a Friend is but like the setting of the Sun or the uncloathing of a Man when he goes to Red there will be a glorious appearing in the Morning of the Resurrection and therefore St. Paul condemns immoderate sorrow for the dead I would not have you sorrow as those that have no hope Nature will be sorrowful but let Grace moderate the sorrow and keep it within the bounds of hope and the ground of hope is set down If ye believe that Jesus died and is risen again even so also them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is true the Scripture mention some that shall not die as they that shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ to Judgment St. Paul tells us in plain terms we shall not all sleep but we shall be changed The meaning is they shall not so sleep as to continue in the state of the dead but be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye yet such a change as they shall have a dissolution and in the same moment a redintegration a real Death and a real Resurrection though no sleeping in the Grave of Corruption You see one Generation passing and another Generation coming one Friend and Neighbour drops into the Grave after another and when your turn shall be you know not This you may be assured of Death will come certainly and it may be speedily it may be suddenly What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death Psal 89. 48. Now I beseech you embrace and improve these few directions in order to a Pious Life and a Peaceable Death First if you would live to the Lord and die in the Lord labour for exemplary purity of Life Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom but he that doth the Will of the Father Secondly If you would live to the Lord and die in the Lord give the World a Bill of Divorcement otherwise it will clip your Wings and clog your Souls and hinder your pursuit of Heaven there is nothing in all the World that is worthy of your Affections nothing but what is transitory and unsatisfactory and therefore look on it and pass away Gregory Nazianzen speaks of a Land which had abundance of Curious Flowers in it but no Corn for Bread to satisfie the Peoples Hunger the World is very like that Land here are many Flowers which may please our Sences and our Phantasies but here is no Corn for Bread no substantial satisfying Comforts As Death should be the Subject of your Meditation so Heaven the Center of your Affections Richard the First sometimes King of England gave charge that his Bowels should be Buried at Charron but his Heart at Roan the Faithful City the City of his Love Truely the World deserves but our waste parts we may Bury our Bowels in the Earth but our Hearts should be laid up in Heaven the Royal City the New Jerusalem That so after a troublesome Life we may have a peaceable Death and after Death a glorious Reward of Everlasting Rest in Heaven according to this voice from Heaven in the Text. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labâ—urs and their Works follow them I have now done with the Text and now come to address my self unto that sad occasion which hath given my present Discourse this Mourning Suit The occasion of our present meeting is to Solemnize the Funeral of our deceased Neighbour and Friend to do our last office to her Body by affording it the benefit of a Christian and Comely Burial Concerning whom I might upon very good and warrantable Grounds enlarge my Discourse in the description of the blessedness both of her Life and Death but as the Orator said Quid opus est verbis What need is there of words when her deeds are so manifest She died the death of Moses he died leisurely God gave him notice of his Journey before-hand for his better preparation Go up to the Mount and die So departed she from the World not before she expected Death not before she provided for Death God was pleased in Mercy to give her warning before she flitted to ring her Passing-bell in her Soul many days before she died and whereas many are flattered with hopes of Life till the very Hour of Death yet she was upon a meditation of Death from the first beginning of her sickness Death was not sudden to her either in
Generations of Men Solomon puts the question Eccles 11. 5. Tell me how the Bones grow in the Womb of her that is with Child Can you tell how the Child is framed Thou canst not give an account of thy own Production nor find out the Work of God in forming the Body Therefore as to the manner how such things are done we must have recourse only to the Almighty power of God to the All-powerful God who is able to subdue all things to himself Mine Eye shall behold and not another Though my Reigns be consumed within me I touch upon the Interpretation of this Clause before as it suits with that passage vers 26. Though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body and though my Reins be consumed within me Though I be totally consumed Skin without and Reins within yet notwithstanding I believe that I shall rise and see God Thus it was joined with the first Words of the 26th Verse to shew the triumph of Faith over all Difficulties that lie in the way of the Resurrection The Yearly Mourner SERMON XIV JUDGES 11. ult And it was a Custom in Israel that the Daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the Daughter of Jeptha the Gileadite four Days in a Year TO a place appointed for their meeting to this end possibly to the place where she was Sacrificed to express their sorrow for her loss according to the manner or to discourse of so the Hebrew Lamed is sometimes used the Daughter of Jepthah to Celebrate her Praises who had so willingly yielded up her self for a Sacrifice We find our Saviour weeping over Lazarus's Grave insomuch as the people could infer thence See how much he loved him John 11. 35 36. I know no Divinity that excludes Humanity but delights always to plant it self in soft Breasts and either make or finds good Nature I find in the Catalogue and Spawn of highest Crimes which the dregs of these last times should bring forth want of natural Affection reckon'd 2 Tim. 33. So then 't is not only not unlawful but a Duty to Mourn with those that Mourn if you will receive the Apostles Prescription Rom. 12. 15. It is in the Scripture noted as an extream Judgment and Curse on the Wicked Job 17. 15 Psal 78. 64. his Widows shall not weep as either wanting leisure from other Sorrows or liberty from their Cruel Enemies Tears are the first Office we do for our selves and the last for others They may not please themselves that can with dryest Eyes behold the Sicknesses the Losses the Funerals of Friends as who had attained a greater measure of Religion or Discretion or the Spirit or who had subdued their Desires to a perfecter Resignation and submission to Gods Will. Let them question themselves whether this stoutness proceeds not from a Spirit void of Sense and Natural Affection and not from an humble Resignation to the Providence and Pleasure of God whether this Caâ—m arise not alike to that of the dead Sea from a Curse On the other side Though Religion forbids not Mourning yet it forbids us to Mourn as those that have no hopes though it excludes not all grief yea it moderates our Grief and teacheth us to turn our sadness to an holy sorrow Weep not She is not Dead but Sleepeth SERMON XV. LUKE 8. 52. And all wept and bewailed her But he said Weep not she is not dead but sleepeth OUR Life is divided into Labour and Rest which Nature wisely hath contrived into waking and sleeping in an admirable manner providing the preservation of our being by a seeming dissolution of it We must intermit it to continue it Die we must one half of the natural day that we may live the other Lye down and sleep as it were to die in the night that we may awake and arise to live on the Morrow so well acquainted is our Life with Death that our whole Age appears the Changes and Intercourse of both Nay this kind of Death is that which continueth Life such is the Frailty of the Creature that it immediately owes its being to a kind of not being to a privation though not simply of Life yet Tali to something very well like Death For tell me strongest Constitution How long canst thou labour without the relief of rest How long canst thou awake without refreshment of sleep But would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not as others that have no bâ—pe For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them which sleep in Jesus God will bring with him as affirms St. Paul 1 Thess 4. 13. 14. John 11. 12. Whence it appears that if she sleep she shall do well and shall we take it ill that our Friends are well Shall we be troubled upon Earth because our Friends are at rest under it Forbid it Religion Pereaâ— contristatio uâ—iâ—anta est consolatio Be not ye sad because your Friend is gone to a state of Joy If Nature sadned at departure will let fall a Tear let Faith gladned with Hopes of meeting again wipe away that Tear Wrestle not with the Decrees of Heaven nor murmur at the procedures of its Providence 't was God that closed her Eyes in sleep that forbids your Eyes to weep Weep not for she is not dead â—ut sleepeth The Division of this Text is made to my hand s by the meeting of this Congregation three Parties are visible in the presence Which discover three parts legible in the words 1. The Dead She. 2. The Mourners All wept 3. The Preacher he said Weep not Weep not This I said is the Mourners Comfort to improve it into practice thereby to lessen the number or to lighten the weight of their Mourning I profess my self unfurnished of any other Argument than the numberless Felicities and weight of Glory which Crown those that are not Dead but Sleep Yet whilst we live in this Valley of Tears natural Affection will so far prevail upon our Reason that even the Father of the Faithful when he was to sow his nearest Relative in the Earth could not but Water it with a shower from his Eyes For Abraham came to Mourn for Sarah and to weep for her Gen. 23. 2. Attend the first words Christ spake to a Woman after his Resurrection was it not Whâ— weepest thou Joh. 20. 15. Indeed before Christ had opened the Gates of Death Marâ— nay the whole World had cause enough to weep But now Christ the Head was risen and had made way for all his Members to follow now Jesus had beaten Death at his own Weapon and kill'd it by dying since he hath changed the Grave into a Bed Death into Sleep and made the Land of Darkness the ready way to the place where Light dwelleth Tears are both unreasonable and unseasonable why weepest thou is as much as weep not Considerable are the Syren and the Swan whose different Fate is thus The Syren Sings away
hath no Interest in Jesus Christ who hath not him to be his Advocate who shall then be his Judge And this you will certainly find and feel to be true whether you fear it or not for God hath appointed it and if none can disappoint him then all must first dye and after that be judged c. And thus having Explain'd the Words of my Text I shall next shew you what Observation or Doctrine may be drawn from them and it is this Doct. That it is past all dispute that all Men must pass through Death and Judgment As for the certainty of Death you need not look into your Bibles for a Proof of that I shall only desire you to open your Weeping Eyes and let them but a little while be fastened upon the Dead Corps that now is before you and if afterwards you can Question this Truth I shall say no more to you at present but that it will not be long e're others may say of thee as the Apostle Peter did to Saphira Acts 5. vers 5 6 7. compared with the 9. 10. Verses And Ananias fell down and gave up the Ghost and the young Men arose wound him up and carried him out and Buried him And his Wife not knowing what was done came in and Peter said unto her How is it that ye have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Behold the Feet of them which have buried thy Husband are at the door and shall carry thee out Then fell she down straightway and yielded up the Ghost and the young Men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth buried her by her Husband The same Bier and it may be the same Persons which have carried thy Neighbour thy Husband thy Wife thy Brother or Sister already to the Grave behold they stand ready to do so much for thee and let every one consider with himself that he may be the very next in the Town or Family for whom the Bier may be fetched to carry him unto his long home And then as for the certainty of Judgment though every one hath a sufficient Proof in his own Conscience of the truth of this yet for as much as some have â—eared Consciences and therefore would put off the evil Day and say with those 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. And there will come in the last dayes Scoffers walking after their own lusts saying Where is the Promise of his coming since all things continue as they were from the beginning c. You may therefore Consult these plain Scripture Proofs Eccl. 11. 9. compared with Rom. 14. 11 12. For we shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ yet that is not all but as it followeth So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Now when you are about any badness and doing any evil I dare say you never think of this suddain and strict account that you are to give to God of all your Thoughts Words and Deeds But howsoever we shall next shew you the reasons and grounds why it will and must be thus that all must dye and that all must come to Judgment The reasons of the Doctrine then are First We have Gods Ipse Dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it God hath said it shall be so and if his words be true who is Truth it self and if he can make good the words which have once passed out of his Mouth who is Almighty you must all Dye and after that come to Judgment and tell me when God hath once said it that it shall be so who can say it shall not be so and make good his words when he hath done Secondly All have â—inned and therefore all must Dye and be Judged Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one Man sin entred into the World and Death by sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that or in whom as it is in the Original all have Sinned in whom c. Treason stains the Blood the first Man Adam having sinned and all that were in him as we all were deriving Guilt from him so we must all come under the same Penalty of Death which he by sinning made himself and his Posterity obnoxious unto Thirdly The Justice and Mercy of God requires it should be so for as God will openly manifest his Justice by the Punishing of unbelieving Sinners who in this Life have escaped Punishment by the hands of Divine Justice so he will openly manifest his Mercy in the Pardoning and Saving of all Believers who have seemed in this Life to serve God without Reward You may read to this purpose at your leisure 2 Thess 1. 7 8 9 10. compared with Matth. 25. 31 33 34 41. Though now there seemeth to be little difference between the Godly and the Ungodly between the Righteous and the unrighteous between those that serve the Lord and them that serve him not yet then it will be a plain Case that it was better to be a poor Believer than a rich Unbeliever then it will be put out of all doubt who was the wisest and who shall be the happiest Man whether he that preferred Christ before the Creature or he that valued the Creature more than Christ yea then will appear a great difference between the Sanctified and the Glorified though the Sanctified were happy in enjoying of God on Earth in having Communion with him in Duties and Ordinances yet will the Glorified be more yea most happy when they shall fully and perfectly enjoy immediate Communion with God without the use of all means according to the Philosophical Maxim Finis nobilior est mediis The principal ultimate End is more excellent in it self and more desirable and valuable than the Means conducing unto the End But this you that have feared loved obeyed and served the Lord in this World will most understand in the World to come We shall next come to make some brief USE of the Doctrine and the USE is Fourfold 1. Of Information 2. Of Reprehension 3. Of Consolation 4. Of Exhortation 1. VSE of Information And we may hence be Informed that if it be certain both in Scripture and by common experience that all must dye and after that be Judged then it argues gross Ignorance for any one to think that it is possible for him to make such a Covenant or agreement with Death and Judgment that they shall not come near him Indeed such Atheists and Fools there have been as the Scripture speaks and it is likely some such there may be amongst us But hath God appointed that thou must once dye and afterwards come to Judgment Then what art thou Oh poor Worm that thou shouldest once Dream that thou canst null or make void this Ordinance and Decree of Heaven
Shall the weak Earthen Vessel as the Prophet speaketh rise up against the Potter and say Now I am made I will not be broken in pieces or dost thou know how to bribe Death that it may alwayes stand at a distance If any shall think that he may escape Eternal Judgment let me desire such a one to make sure how he may escape in the first place Death for if thy old sinful Companions to whom thou hast sometimes in thy Cups spoken thus desperately shall see that thou canst not Ward off the Stroke of Death they will not have any reason or thy self to believe that thou canst put by the Day of Judgment The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Death is from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to dye surely or to dye suddainly which fully intimates the nature of Death unto us which is alwayes sure and often suddain He that lives the longest if any may be said to live long must dye at the last and he that lives most Years lives but a few Minutes or Moments in respect of Eternity and upon this consideration Methuselah which was the longest Liv'd Man was indeed but a short Liv'd Man It was good old Jacob's Answer unto King Pharaoh when he asked him how old he was Few and evil saith he have been the dayes of the Years of my Pilgrimage and Job tells us that Man who is born of a Woman is but of few dayes in the Hebrew the Expression is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 short of Dayes Winter dayes are the shortest dayes and indeed the Life of Man is but a short Winter day as it followeth short of dayes and full of Trouble This Life is but a momentaneous Life and yet Ex hoc momento pendet aeternitas as short as our Life is yet we have a great work to do namely the securing and seeking the Salvation of our Souls and if this work be not done before our time be done we shall be undone to all Eternity 2. VSE of Reprehension And it serves justly to reprove those who being convinced in their Consciences and knowing very well even as well as the Preacher can tell them that they cannot possibly escape either Death or Judgment yet do they never prepare for Death or once think how they may stand in the day of Judgment Read what is written Psal 14. 5. The ungodly are not so and therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the Judgment If God himself knows who shall be Damned and who shall Perish for ever and ever this will be the case of all unrepenting and unbelieving Sinners as the Scripture saith Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish and whosoever believeth not shall be Damned and yet it may be thou art so far from Repenting and Believing though Death may be very near thee that thou dost not know to this very day what saving Repentance or a true justifying Faith is It may be necessary for you to think on Job's Question Man giveth up the Ghost and where is he or whither goes his Soul when it is once gone out of his Body Is his Soul gone to Heaven or to Hell into everlasting Happiness or into Everlasting Misery and Torments It will be worth the while to make this Preinquiry of the future Estate of thy Precious and Immortal Soul It is related of Saint Gregory Bishop of Neo-Caesarea that he blessed God for this great Mercy that when first he undertook that great Charge upon him he found not above seventy Believers and when he left them he had not in all his Jurisdiction so many Unbelievers It will be a Crown of Rejoycing to every good Minister that can say so much and much more cause of rejoycing will every one have to himself who can prove himself to be such an one in the great day of Judgment but Unbelievers as they must shortly pass under the Pangs of Death so they must next expect to pass under the Pains of Hell if God knows what will become of them after this short Life is ended 3. VSE of Consolation You that are Believers you must also expect to pass through Death and Judgment but yet this will be a great and sufficient ground of Confidence and Comfort unto you that Death shall meet you without a Sting and you shall have boldness in the day of Judgment upon the account of Jesus Christ the Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 54 55 56 57. I cannot say that any Believer shall not pass under a black Cloud or that he shall not Walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death but this I can say as once did Athanasius concerning the Persecution which was under the Emperour Valens Nubecula est citò transibit You shall but come under a little Cloud and when that hath once passed over your Heads you shall find and feel the Light of his glorious Face who Sits upon the Throne Shining sweetly and warmly upon your Souls Last VSE of Exhortation And that in a word or two is this Oh live as Men and Women that know and certainly believe that you must once Dye and after that come to Judgment It is an excellent Character that is given of Origen Quemadmodum doâ—uit sic vixit quemadmodum vixit sic docuit that is he Preached as he practised and he practised as he Preached he Taught as he Lived and he Lived as he Taught such a Preacher is indeed sent of God who having first read his Text in the Pulpit others may afterwards read the Exposition of it in his Life and Conversation And so I say unto every Hearer of me this day Do you talk as you walk and do you walk as you talk even like those that know and believe and consider that they must shortly and may suddenly pass through Death and Judgment Such a Consideration would I am sure put you upon new Thoughts new Resolutions new Discourses and new Actings shall I say of any of you that hear me this Day that you do not believe or think that you must once Dye and afterwards come to Judgment I dare not say so of any of you yet this I will say if you do verily believe so much it will soon appear in your Expressions and Actings For all such that shall enter into Heaven Heaven must first enter into them and they do here lead a Heavenly Conversation who shall Live in Heavenly Glory hereafter Amen The EJACULATION OH Lord our God in thee and by thee we live move and have our being As thou didst at the first breathe into Man the Breath of Life and he became a living Soul so when thou shalt be pleased to command that Breath again out of Mans Body then will he presently become a dead Carkass and so short is the Life of Man that many times he doth but Cry and Dye yea sometimes his Mothers Womb doth prove his Tomb so that he doth not once Cry to
tell the World that he did once Live Neither is the Thred of Mans Life at any time Spun so strong or drawn out so long but at one word of thy Mouth it is soon snapt in two Seeing therefore we do but Live to Dye we beseech thee Oh Blessed God let us Dye to Live let us live well that so we may dye well let Death never surprize us unlooked for or unprepared nor let it ever seize upon us in an unconverted unregenerate State while we live that so when we Dye Corporally we may live Spiritually and Eternally with thee in a State of Glory Good Lord let us not so live as to be ashamed to Live any longer or to be afraid to look grim Death in the Face when it comes to separate our Souls from our Bodies and to summon our Souls to make their appearance before the great Judge of the Quick and Dead Let us with thy Servant Job wait all our appointed time untill our Change doth come indeed it will be our greatest Wisdom to wait for Death which always waits for us and to expect that at all times which will come at some time and may come at any time Let us Pray and Preach and Hear and so spend our time as those who know and consider that all they do they do it for Eternity and we shall never have but one cast for Eternity Heaven and Glory is here to be won or lost for ever Blessed God thou hast taught us in thy Word that it is better to goe to The House of Weeping than to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all Men and thou hast said That the Living will lay it to Heart Oh Lord we have this day been at the House of Mourning and Weeping and we have seen the end of one yea of many of our Friends and Acquaintance within a short space of time and in the Death of our Friends we may read our own Death and yet shall not we who are left behind them in the Land of the Living lay these awakening Instances of Mortality to Heart shall we hear and see daily our nearest and dearest Relations giving up the Ghost and departing out of this World into another World and yet shall we once think that we shall ever live to enjoy the Treasures and Pleasures of this present evil World But seeing Lord this World is a dying World and all its glory is a dying glory let our Minds and Hearts therefore be set upon the Glory of Heaven which is a never fading Glory Oh did we believe and consider how much better a Believers future Estate will be than his present State is then should we think that Time is too long before we do and that Eternity will be too short when we shall enjoy our Gracious Redeemer upon his Throne of Glory Let us ever live as those that have one Foot in the Grave already Thousands and Millions yea innumerable Millions of Thousands are gone to their Graves before us and do we think that we that are but enlivened Dust animated Shadows dying lumps of Clay can keep our dying Bodies from being a Feast for Worms or keep our Souls from being turned out of their Tenements of Clay from seeking new Lodgings â—n another World Oh! let us therefore every day be looking into our Graves and familiarize Death unto our Thoughts before it comes let us consider how many signal admonitions thou dost daily give us of our approaching end Is not every Distemper and Sickness of Body as it were a little Death and a fair Warning to put us in mind of our last Change The Grey hairs which are here and there upon our Heads the deep wrinkles which are engraven upon our Foreheads the loss of Teeth the Dimness of Sight our Deafness in hearing our Palsie-hands our feeble trembling Limbs and the frequent Sight of seeing Friends laid out in their Winding Sheets for Dead and carried to their Houses of Clay the silent Grave are Circumstances and Symptoms serving to remind us that the time draws near wherein we must Dye and that our departure is at Hand Let us therefore live as dying Men and let us dye as Living Christians let us set our House and our Heart in order remembring the Text It is appointed for all Men once to Dye but after this the Judgment SERMON VI. All Men both good and bad shall arise to Judgment ISA. xxvi xix Thy dead Men shall live together with my dead Body shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for thy dâ—w is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out the dead I might spend an hours work in delivering unto you the several opinions of Men concerning the meaning of these words I find such difference among the Learned about the Interpretation thereof Some would have them to bear this sense That the Prophet by the earth raising up of her dead signifieth the delivering of Gods people the Jews who being trodden on and oppressed by their enemies as dead should have a resurrection that is a reparation of their decayed Estate they should have a time of refreshing even as the Dew makes the leaves to spring that is they should have a time of deliverance Many other Opinions I might recite unto you But I will not trouble you with them at this time But because there is not one word in my Text but may very well fall upon the common place of the Resurrection as Junius and Tremellius Hyeron August Lyra and all the most judicious Interpreters have well observed I reduce whatsoever may be spoken of them to these two heads either to the Resurrection of the dead in Christ or to the Resurrection of those which are contemners and despisers of God both which as the Nothern Rivers have many turnings yet they all meet in the main Ocean so the Elect and the Reprobate though there be main difference and discrepancy betwixt them yet they all meet in the general Resurrection all I say must arise The Godly unto everlasting glory to eternal bliss and happiness The Wicked to perpetual Torments and Condemnation Having thus set the letter of my Text in tune and shewed you the general drift and scope of the words I proceed now to the particular meaning and interpretation of them Thy dead Men shall live c. As there hath been a Death so there must be a Resurrection Gods people that have dyed from the beginning of the World or shall die to the end of it hereafter are but as the seed sowen in the Earth They must endure rottenness for a while but being â—owen in dishonour they shall rise in glory The miseries they endured in this life â—hey were but the tokens and forerunâ—ers of Death But let them hope yea â—et them know assuredly that there will â—ome a day of refreshing when God â—hall say unto these bones I will cause â—reath to enter into you and you shall â—ive and will
the Comfort to his soul that one day he should rise again in which he should enjoy the glorious presence of his Redeemer See Job 19. 26. Secondly it may Comfort the Saints of God against the persecutions of the body yea and death it self We read of the Saints of God in the days of Antiochus that they were racked and would not be delivered and why so because they looked for a better Resurrection Heb. 11. 35. No doubt but they counted the Redemption from the rack a thing much to be desired yet they knew that the Redemption from Hell and the Resurrection to eternal life was much more to be sought for without which condition they would not be delivered and no marvel for what though the rack might rend their flesh and disjoint their Lims yet they knew well enough and were fully assured that at the Resurrection all should be conjoined and perfected again The EJACULATION GOod Lord let us when we die sleep in Jesus that we may obtain a Glorious Resurrection when this World shall have an end for though we are as we have heard but enlivened Dust gilded peices of Clay sinking Bubbles and dying shadows yet these dying Bodies of outs shall at the last day when the Trumpet shall sound arise ye Dead enter into Eternal Glory or Everlasting Peace Oh let us consider how glorious a Creature man was when he first came cut of his Creators hand for thou didst make him but a little lower than the Angels thou didst crown him with Glory and Honour thou didst make him the very Summons and Epitomy of the whole World he was made the very Master-peice of all thy works the very Flower and Miracle of Nature he was even then a small draught of the divine Nature and a bright Beam of the increated light But how Glorious indeed will he be when he shall be raised at the Resurrection and shall shine as a resplendent Sun in the Firmament of Glory Good Lord therefore let us not be strangers to the relish of Heavenly things but let us live as those who hope to be Heirs of Eternal Joys when this World shall have an end Let us look up to God and let us look out to Eternity let us consider that our hastening Time will soon have an end and we shall never more be trusted with another space of Time to prepare us for Heavens Glory Oh let us not therefore set our affections upon any things which we can carry no further with us then the Grave but let us live in a daily serious beleif and in a joyfull expectation of that endlest Glory and that Glorious Resurrection which will be the Portion of all those who live in the Love and die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus for thou hast promised a Glorious Resurrection to them that sleep in Jesus AN ELEGY Upon the Reverend Mr. John Dunton Author of the House of Weeping LIKE a bright Lamp whose mounting Flame aspires To its Original those Heavenly Fires Till the fomenting Oyl consume it turns Twinckling to Ashes and no longer burns So his Divineâ— Soul though clos'd within An interwoven case of flesh and sin Mounts to its pure Original and strives By lighting others to amend their lives 'Till nature quite extinct with fixt desires Of Heavens Enjoyments his blest Soul expires Farewel dear Sir had powerful art a Charm To snatch your Life from Deaths surprising Arm We would not fail to re-imbarque your Spirit Gon to possess what Glorious Souls Inherit In highest bliss that sweet Christaline Iste Where God and Saints for ever ever Smile T is lovely to be Humble Faithful Kind This was the Emblem of the Authors mind Who 's soar'd aloft leaving Earths dusty Round Where sweetest Joys in one ill hap are drown'd To those Harmonious Orbs where now he sings Melodious Anthems to the King of Kings Where in the glit'ring Rank of Angels bright He took his place with radiant Sons of light His race was long and nimbly he did run To reach Heavens Glory by that Setting Sun Which guilds the Spheres which garnisheth and braves The lower World which scores us out our Graves And being gon to th'place his heart design'd He here hath left a Weeping House behind Which dolefully like a loud Passing-bell Rings out to th' World the Authors last Farewel O. O. An EPITAPH upon the Author of this Book Mr. John Dunton who was Interred in the Chancel at Aston-Clinton Novemb. 9th 1676. IN spight o' th' Grave bright Saint thou shalt survive Our grateful Age will keep thy name alive Heav'ns great Ambassador on Earth thou 'st lain The League being struck Heav'n call'd thee home again Yet Death hath left of thee Great Soul behind So much that we our loss shan't quickly find Nor can thy Name a dull Oblivion know Thy Works will an Eternity bestow O're Time and Fate thou l't an Ovation have And now dost Triumph over Death and Grave S. A. FINIS Death-Bed THOUGHTS The PROEMIUM BVT Oh my Soul What ails thee to be thus suddenly backward and fearful no Friend hath more freely discours'd of Death in speculation no Tongue hath more extolled it in absence And now that it is come to thy Bed-side and hath drawn thy Curtains and takes thee by the hand and offers thee service thou shrinkest inward and by the paleness of thy Face and wildness of thine Eye bewrayest an amazement at the presence of such a Guest That Face which was so familiar to thy Thoughts is now unwelcome to thine Eye I am ashamed of this weak irresalution Whitherto have tended all thy serious Meditations What hath Christianity done to thee if thy fears be still Heathenish Is this thy Imitation of so many worthy Saints of God whom thou hast seen entertain the violentest Death with Smiles and Songs Is this the fruit of thy long and frequent Instruction Didâ—â— thou think Death would have been content with words Didst thou hope it would suffer thee to talk while all others suffer Where is thy Fath Shall Hereticks and Pagans give Death a better welcome than thee Hath God with this Serjeant of his sent his Angels to fetch thee and art thou loath to go Rouse up thy self for shame O my Soul and if ever thou hast truly believed shoke off this Vnchristian diffidence and address thy self joyfully for thy 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 Epictetur 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 any thing 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 menaces 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 Sâ—ras 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 â—ot how long but how well it is acted It imports not where thou mak'st an end leave oâ— where thou pleasest only put a good period No other is the Opinion of Epictetus Remember saith he that thou art the Actor of the Fable as the Poet directs If short of a shâ—â—t 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 please 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 Homunicio 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 Dust 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 travelling through the Ages of Childhood Youth and Old Age in one day In the Morning it is hatch'd at Noon it fluorishes in the Evening it grows old and dies But this is more to be wonder'd at in that winged Creature that it makes no less provision for one little day than if it were to live the Age of a Crow or a Raven To this little Animal the Life of Man is most fitly to be compar'd It inhabits by the River of gliding Time But more fleet than either Bird or Arrow And often only one day determines all its Pomp oft-times an Hour and as often a Moment Wherefore then
never unprepar'd but meets thee at every turn But when only Death is enough for one Man to desire wherefore before the last Death do so many Deaths assassinate miserable Man so that the Question may not be ask'd in vain If all my Life makes but one little drop Why then so many Death 's my Course to stop Hear St. Bernard Let the continual Meditation of Death be thy chief Philosophy And therefore variety of Death disturbs thee Whatever happens to others saith St. Bernard may happen to thee because thou art a Man A Man of Earth Clay out of Clay Of Earth thou art by the Earth thou livest and out of the Earth shalt thoâ— return when that day comes that often comes and perhaps may come this day Certain it is because thou shalt die though it be uncertain when or how or where Because Death expects thee every where if thou beest wise expect that every where 'T is the saying of Annaeus Uncertain it is saith he in what place Death may expect thee therefore do thou expect Death in every place Sect. 16. Death is at home to every Man VVE trifle and at distance think the Ill While in our Bowels Death lyes lurking still For in the Moment of our Birth-day Morn That moment Life and Death conjoin'd were Born And of that Thread with which our Lives we measure Our Thievish hours still make a rapid seizure Insensibly we die so Lamps expire When wanting Oyl to feed the greedy Fire Though living still yet Death is then so nigh That oft-times as we speak we speaking die There is a Fish in the Northern Ocean near Muscovy which is called Mort. This Monster of the Sea has very great Teeth so that as Cardanus relates the Handles of Swords are made of the Teeth Every one of our Bodies is a Pond O Mortals wherein we nourish this Fish called Mort and therefore not to be sought at such a distance from us Every Mans Death is at home Sect. 17. Death Inexorable THough Rocks be deaf and blind be Tygers rage Though furious War'gainst Man the Billows wage Morsels will Tygers tame and the soft Gale Of Western Winds upon the Waves prevail But fier cer than the Waves or Tygers Rage Deaths untam'd Fury no Prayers can asswage The Parcae to whose Distaffs Spindles Shears the Ancients committed all the power of Life and Death are inexorable not to be mov'd by all the Supplication in the World For when The Parce in their Order come Beyond command there 's no delay No putting off th' Appointed Day There 's no beseeching those cruel Spinstresses So precisely do they observe their day prefixed According to this Conception Painters and other Artificers describe the Triumpher over all Human kind For they Picture him without Ears as not hearing the Prayers of any blind also as not moved with the Tears of any He is Painted without a Tongue or Lips that Men should not think to receive the least word of Comfort from him He is Painted without Flesh to shew that he wants all sense of Humanity Only his Nerve Arteries and Muscles his Bow and Arrows his Darts and Stings remain behind to strike poor miserable Mortals And surely then if ever he shewed his rage and insulted over the World when he assailed Christ himself the Son of God the Author of Life at what time the very Rocks wept the Earth trembled the Stars bewailed the Sun grew pale and Angels mourned acting a dismal Tragedy upon the Life of Life it self Whoever thou art if thou art a Man Death will be inexorable to thee Therefore be mindful of Death the Hour flies from thence my admonition Therefore is every day to be reckoned as thy last and as the first of Eternity Sect. 18. Most certain Death is most uncertain WHat more certain in Human things than Death St. Bernard exclaims What more uncertain than the Hour of Death It sits at the Doors of old Men and lyes in ambush for the young Therefore boast not of to Morrow not knowing what to Morrow will bring forth This the Venunian Lyrick was not ignorant of Who knows whether the Gods to this days sum Will add to Morrow though but just to come Most perspicuously saith St. James the Apostle Go too now ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year â—nd buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know â—ot what shall be on the morrow For what is â—our Life It is even a Vapour that appeareth for â— little time and then vanisheth away Whereas â—e ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and â—o this or that We shall all go all all for we all die and â—â—k into the Earth like Water that never returns â—either canst thou be ignorant that thou art so beâ—tten as to remember that there is a Law set at â—e same time by the Nature of all things both for â—ceiving and restoring thy breach And as no â—an dies that has not lived so no man lives that â—ll not die Though when he shall die is uncerâ—â— And therefore Christ stirring us up by a â—st faithful Exhortation Take ye heed watch â—d pray for ye know not when the time is And â—n repeating the same again VVatch ye therefore â—h he for ye know not when the Master of the â—â—e cometâ— at evening or at midnighe or at the Cockcrowing or in the Morning lest coming suddenly he find you And what I say unto you I say unto you all VVatch. Sect. 19. Death to many sudden to all unlook't for VVHO will not stand upon his guard against the Efforts of Death that threatens us every Hour who has appointed no time when he intends to meets us He creeps flies leaps upon us with a tacit motion a stealing pace making no signs before hand without any cause without any caution in sickness in health in danger in security so that there is nothing sacred or safe from his clutches Sound and merry was Tarquin when he was choaked with a Fish-bone Healthy also was Fabius when a little Hair that he swallowed with his Milk cut the Thread of his Life A Weezel bit Aristides and in a moment of time he expired The Father of Caesar the Dictator rose well out of his Bed and while he was putting on his Shoes he breathed his last The Rhodian Ambassador had pleaded his Cause in the Senate even to admiration but expired going over the Threshold of the Court-house A Grape-stone killed Anacreon the Poet and if we may believe Luciar Sophocles also Lucia the Daughter of Marcus Aurelius died with a little prick of a Needle Cn. Brebius Pamphilus being iâ— his Pretorship when he asked the time of the day of a certain youth perceived thâ— to be the last Hour of his Life The Breath of many is in haste and unexpected Joy expels it Aâ— we find it happened to Chito the Lacedemoniâ—â— and Diagâ—ras of Rhodes who embracing
Send me thy Head Whoever thou art King or Caesar when the Emperor of Heaven sends thee his black Letters there 's no resisting no excuse no deprecation will serve ` T is in vain to fly or delay the Sentence is decreed Therefore do this and trample upon necessity What thou shouldst be compelled to do against thy will that do of thy own accord Send thy Head not to a Tyrant but to a Father not to a Man but to God Make no delay but be willing to die For why should not the Will prevent Necessity ` T is the part of Necessity to submit but of Vertue to be willing Sect. 27. Every Day is to be observed PLatonius in Stobelas ` T is not enough saith he to spend the present day well unless thou spendest it so as if it were to be thy last The last day lyes hid that all days may be observed alike But thou wilt say these Contemplations upon Death are sâ—d things and do but hasten Death Thou art deceived the Wise Man calmly meditates upon it no otherwise than he beholds the Winds and rhe Sails of a Ship as the Instruments that bring him into the Haven This is our Folly and Error altogether We are willing to be tossed by the Waves and Billows yet fear the place whither Nature and reason carries us From Nature we know We are all carried to the same place The Glass of all Men runs But if we look at reason who that enjoys it can deny the Argument What is here but tumbling and tossing Cares Miseries Griefs of Body and Mind What dost thou fear Behold the Port. But indeed as they who are Imprisoned would escape and often might unless the Keeper kept the Door lockt so here that Jailor hinders us call Love of Life He is to be repelled and that he may be so we are to think full often upon that which is but once to be suffered And because the last Day is uncertain and unknown let every day be suspected Hereby thy Mind will be the more Couragious thy Life the more Correct more Gladfom and free from Care for what can terrifie or disturb him Whom of all fears that fear most Terrible The fear of instant Death can never quell The Dart foreseen does less harm Death frequently meditated upon strikes with less force Sect. 28. The Coffin the last Comfort of our Pride ABraham that great Person when he by the command of God had been forced as a Pilgrim to war der from place to place minded nothing more than the Purchase of a Burying-place That he would have to be so surely his own that he might possess it by all the Right and Law imaginable For this reason he paid down the Money demanded of the Seller Currant Money among the Merchants Nor was it enough for him that the Purchase should be publickly made he required that all the Inhabitants of the Countrey should be witnesses of the Bargain Whereby that person of high Credit intimated that nothing is more a Mans Property than his Sepulchre which he may truely above any thing else call his own according to the Example of Abraham the best of Men always reckoning it among their chiefest Cares to take care of their Sepulchers The Emperor Maximilian the First three years before he died caused his Coffin made of Oak to be put up in a great Chest and carried along with him where-ever he went and provided by his VVill that his Body should be put into it without Embalming wrapt in Linnen without any Embalming or Disembowelling his Nose Mouth and Ears only being filled with Quick-lime VVhat meant that great Personage Only to have his Monument always in his sight to give him this continual Document Think upon Death that it should also farther say where dost thou amplifie and extol thy self wherefore dost thou possess so much and covet more Thee whom so many Provinces and Kingdoms will not contain a little Chest must hold But why did he put the Lime into those hollow parts Behold the Spices that Embalmed him Maximilian that thou wert great thy actions declare but this more especially before thy Death What need I call to mind the Bier of Ablavius who being Captain of the Pretorian Bands a Prince among the Courtiers of Constantine the Great an insatiable Devourer of Gold which he thought upon more than his Tomb. This Person Constantine taking by the Hand How long said he Friend shall we heap up Treasure and speaking those words with the Spear that he held in his Hand he drew out the form of a Coffin in the Dust and then proceeding though thou hadst all the Riches in the World yet after thou art dead a place or Chest no bigger than this which I have here marked out must contain thee if so large a piece of Ground do come to thy Lot Constantine was a Prophet For Ablavius being cut into Biâ—s had not a piece left big enough to be Buried The Emperor Charles the Fifth of Famous Memory most piously imitating that Maximilian whom I have mentioned long before his Death withdrew himself of his own accord from publick Affairs and having resigned his Cares to his Young and Vigorous Son shut himself up in the Monastery of St. Justus in Spain only with twelve of his Domesticks applying himself to Religious Duties He forbid himself to be called by any other Name than Charles and disclaiming with Business the Names of Caesar and Augustus contemned whatever savoured of Honourable Title This also is farther reported that long before the resignation of his Empire he caused a Sepulcher to be made him with all its Funeral Furniture which was privately carried about with him where-ever he went This he had five years by him in all places even when he Marched against the French to Millaine causing it every Night to be placed in his Chamber Some that waited on him imagine the Chest had been full of Treasure others full of Ancient Histories some thought one thing some another But Caesar well knowing what it contained and wherefore he carried it about smiling said that he carried it with him for the use of a thing which was most dear to him in the World Thus Charles continually thought upon Death and every day could say I have lived rising every day to Heavenly Gain Many others have happily imitated Charles the Emperor who have been used twice every day to contemplate their Coffins the Monument of their Death Genâ—bald Bishop of Laudanum lay in a Bed made like a Coffin for seven years together all which time he lived a most severe Life Ida a Woman of applauded Sanctity long before her Death caused her Coffin to be made which twice a day she filled full of Bread and Meat which she twice a day gave liberally to the Poor The Study of Vertue is the best preparation for Death No Death can defile Vertue He easily contemns all things who always meditates upon this that he is to die Sect. 29. What
is Life IT is a Flower a Smoak a Shadow the Shadow of a Shadow A Bubble Dust Froth Dew a Drop It is Ice the Rainbow a wasted Torch a Bag with holes in it a ruinous House treacherous Ashes a Spring day a most inconstant April one twang of a Harp a broken Bucket the Wheel of a Well a Spiders VVeb a little drop of the Sea a slender Stalk a Solstitial Plant a short Fable a shooting Spark a little Cloud a Bladder full of VVind a Doves Neck glistering in the Sun Life is a thin Glass a tender Leaf a fine Silk Thread a Golden Apple rotten within If a shadow be nothing say whar is the Dream of a shadow A thousand such like things may Humane Life be compared to To me they seem to have spoken most truely who call Life the shortest Dream of a shadow VVe will abbreviate the Business Life is A Dream a Bubble Ice a Flower and Glass A Fable Ashes and the fading Grass A Shadow a small Point a Voice a Sound A blast of VVind at length 't is nothing found Poor miserable Mortals what Riches do we seem to heap what Honours do we invest our selves withal what Pleasures do we seem to enjoy yet all these are but a Dream how short and how vain They have slept out their sleep and all the Men whose hands were mighty have found nothing O Men you dreamt that you were happy and blessed but of all those things which ye had which ye hoped for what do ye retain These were the Dreams of those that waked and the meer Toys of Dreamers Now punishment opens your Eyes that Sin shut before Life therefore what is it I will tell ye in short The time of Humane Life is a Point Nature Inconstancy Sense Obscurity The whole Body a composure easily corrupted The Mind a Rover Honour Smoak Riches Thorns Pleasures Poyson And in a word all things pertaining to the Body a River all things belonging to the Mind a Dream Life is a warfare and the Habitation of a Stranger in a Forreign Land the Shop of innumerable Misâ—ries Fame after Death Oblivion According to Ausonius How wonder Men should die the Hours decay Ma ble and Fame it self to Death give way Before Death to compleat thy days in Vertue is the Noblest Designs Sect. 30. Life a Mimick ALL Life is a Comedy VVe are the Actors One plays a King another a Beggar One takes upon him the Person of a Priâ—ce another of a Physician another of a Husbandman VVhatever part God has imposed upon us that we ought decenâ—ly to perform Neither does the praise consist in this for thee to act an Emperor or a Duke VVhatever part thou acts thou shalt win applause so thou performedst it well VVhich is the seasonable admonition of Epictetus Remember saith he that the Actor is to be the Actor of such a part as the Composer pleases If he would have thee act a Beggaâ— be sure to represent that person ingeniously So do iâ— thou art to act a Lame person a Prince of a Plebeian This is thy Duty to play thy part well but it is the business of another to chuse it Augustus the Emperor the last day of his Life asked his Friends that were about him whether he seemed to them to have acted the play of Life well Adding this little Clause if so give me your applause Seneca most admirably concerning this Comedy of Life I must often saith he use this Example For this Mimicry of Life is by no Simile better Expressed which has assigned us those parts which through our fault and ignorance we act amiss Laertius in Leno faith that a wise Man is like a good Actor who whether he be to represent the Person of Thersites or Agamemnon doth both well Therefore we must not take notice what we now are but what we are to be when we have put off our Vizards and our Habits Nor matters it whether we take up the part of the first or last Actor so we act well Sect. 31. The Type of Humane Life OLD Balaam propounded to Jehosaphat the King the deceitful Joys of Humane Life A certain Person saith he flies from a Unicorn which is a fierce Creature in his flight he is ready to tumble into a deep Ditch but as he is tumbling catches â—old of a Tree which preserves him from the fall VVhile he clings to the Tree contemning his past danger he sees two Mice the one white the other black gnawing the Root of the Tree and now got as far as the very Pith. Then looking into the Ditch he spies at the bottom a terrible Dragon breathing Fire Lastly casting his Eyes about he spies the Heads of four Asps reaching out of the adjoyning Well At eâ—gth neglecting all these sights he perceives a small quantity of Honey distilling out of the Tree Wherefore now forgetful of the Unicorn the Mice the Dragon and the Serpents he falls to licking the sweet Honey And this said Bartaam is the Type of Humane Life The Unicorn represents Death that every where persecutes Mankind The Ditch is the World full of Calamities The Tree which we hold by is our Life confined within certain bounds The two Mice Night and Day which by little and little consume that Tree The four Asps the four Elements whose Repose being disturb presently follows a disunion of Soul and Body That Fiend and fierce Dragon represents the Jaws of Hell always open to devour us The drops of Honey signifie the filâ—hy Pleasures of this Life and the deadly sweetness of Vice Allur'd with this noxious Sweetness we neither fear Hell nor think of Heaven contented to die voluptuously Thus Barlaam to Jeâ—saphat O certain O most certain all these Sayings If we are wise we should believe every Hour the last Eternity hangs at every moment of Life Sect. 33. The Prologue of Life the Narration the Epilogue THE Prologue of Humane Life is To be Born The Narration To Grieve The Epilogue To Die The Explanations of this Oration are Moan and Tears or Joy which is worse than Weeping Most learnedly Seneca Behold saith he all Mortals There is ampâ—e and daily occasion of weeping one tedious Want calls to daily Labour another restless Ambition sollicites another is in contiâ—â—al fear for the Riches he enjoys and is tir'd with his own Wishes Another Care Another turmoiling Torments Another the continual throng of Clients This Man grieves that he has Children another that he has lost his a third that he never had any We shall want Tears before the occasion of shedding them Dost thou not see what a kind of Life Nature has promis'd us that has order'd Weeping to be the first Omen that attends our Biâ—th This is our beginning with this the Series of our Years agrees and thus we spend our Days This is that which most deserves our Tears and which they never can sufficiently wash away that none of us seriously considers that there is a
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 â—et 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 iâ— 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 continual 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 asswages 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 Failings 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 fixest thy Feet 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 but 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 any time why not now Death calls upon all Men alike Thither we must all come sooner or later of that we are certain we doubt not of that thing but of the time VVhat then Does not he seem to be the most fearful and imprudent Creature of all who with so much earnestness desires the delay of Death Would not he be the Laughing-stock of others who being Condemned among many should beg to be the last Executed Yet this is the Folly we are guilty of We think it a great happiness to die last The Capital Punishment is destined to all and by a most just determination Now
Mind the vast throng of those that went before thee of those that are to follow thee and those that are to go along with thee Many thousands of Men and Creatures at this very moment that then fearest to die are now making several and various Exits out of this World Take a view of the whole World the new the unknown Most certain it is that every moment Millions are born and die and many die the same death Now couldst thou think that thou shouldst never come to that end to which thou art always going Death is a safe Road to Rest neither is there any thing of evil in Death but only the fear of Death therefore if we would live quietly the Soul must be always ready Shall I fear my end when I know I must have an end when I know that all things have their end Shall I fear my last gasp that puts an end to all my Sighs Why should I fear to restore that which I received upon that condition But you will say it is a difficult thing to contemn Death 'T is Death but to him that knows how to Live He that his hours on Vertue doth expend Neither doth wish for nor yet fears his end We do not deny but that there is something terrible in Deathâ— there we must learn not to be afraid of it No Man learns to be contented upon a Bed of Roses to sit down at a Banquet but this to be exercised not to give way to Grief He chearfully embraces Death who has long composed himself to waâ—t for it And this is the greatest Argument of a generous Mind not to fear thy departure For he knows whither he shall go that remembers from whence he came Such a person was Theodosius the Emperour of whom Saint Ambrojs was wont to say I loved the man whom when he died was more grieved for the state of the Church than for his own Condition Therefore do thou make it thy business not to fear Death Sect. 6. An Example of the Contempt of Death NInachtus the Governour of Malaca in Judea being commanded to resign his Authority could not brook the Indignity ignorant of true Honour and solid Vertue Therefore making a Funeral Pile of Lignum Aloes and other Odoriforous Woods He spread a square Scaffold which he had erected near to the Pile with rich Tapestries and sumptuous Carpets Then he appeared himself upon the Scaffold glittering in a Robe of Tissue set with precious Stones and discoursed to the People of his Actions and the whole Course of his Life And having declared the Kindnesses which he had shewed the Captive Pottugalls at a time of necessity he most saoly and bitterly complain'd of his being undeservedly put by his Command Then reproaching the Ingratitude of the Pâ—râ—ugalls such fatal Fury did his Ambition inspire him with he threw himself headlong into the burning Pile a Contemner of Death Aelian relates a Contempt of Death not much unlike this The end of Calamus saith he is worthy to be mentioned if not to be admired It was thus When he had taken his leave of Alexander the Macedonians and a long life he made him a Funeral Pile in the fairest part of the Suburbs of Babylon composed of Cedar Cypress Myrtle Laurel and o her sweet Wood and having performed his usual exercise of Running he ascended the Pile and stood Crown'd upon the heap of Word the Sun whom he Ador'd shining all the while Which done he gave the Macedonians a Sign to kindle the Pile Which being now all of a light Fire Calanus wrapt up in Flames stood still unmov'd till he fell as the heap fell and expir'd in the midst of the Ashes Alexander admiring the Courage of the Man is reported to have said That Calanus had vanquish'd more Potent Enemies than he For Alexander had wag'd War with Prous Taxilus and Darius but Calanus with Labour and Death Shall the vain Heathens shew so much Courage in Death and Christians trusting in God be afraid and tremble Death is not an evil but the fear of Death is an evil Let us I beseech ye examine things themselves and not the Nature of things If we believe Seneca Death is the best Invention of Nature the Remedy of all Evils Why therefore do we fear at last Immortal Peace Eternal Joy will entertain us Let us take Courage from the despair of longer Life Make that a Vertue which would be necessity Certainly a prudent Christian does nothing unwillingly he avoids all necessity because he wills what that would compel him to Let us therefore do willingly what we cannot but do Let us with a contented Mind expect our end or rather our beginning He shall be always serene and calm in his Mind who contemns Death Sect. 7. A Man ready to dye ZENO the Critick as Swidas relates as he was going out of his Schoole chanc'd to stumble and hurt his Toe But he believing himself call'd to the Grave strook the Ground with his Hand adding these Words I come Wherefore dost thou call me Thus the old Man of Ninety Years of Age died without ever being Sick Hunger was a great Friend to Zeno for he frequently fasted till he fainted But willingly Zeno made himself so sick that he might not be sick and that he might enjoy a quiet old Age free from Diseases Both he attained to according to his wish Let us not wonder at the shortness of our Lives nor the incertainty of our Health For we wast our Health and our Lives with Giuttony and Drinking never thinking our selves satisfied till our cramm'd Bellies be as hard as a Drum Ridiculous yea Mad Men we shorten our Lives by those things which ought to lengthen it But that proceeds from this because we will not be perswaded that Abstinence has so great a power to prolong Life But daily experience tells us that the saying is true so much food as you spare so many days you add But to the Business Vrsinus the Priest as St. Gregory witnesses being comforted with a Celestial Vision in his Sleep often cried out I come I come I return thanks and when he had declared to the standers by what he had seen he repeated the same Words I come behold I come and with these Words in his Mouth he expired A Mind prepared for Death thus speaks I come behold I come '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 Theophrastus as if less favourable to Man than Beasts certainly she 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
leans towards Death This it desires this it meditates upon covetous of higher Objects And how clear is that of Plato concerning a better Life He saith he that spends his Life in the study of Wisdom seems to be the person who will die with confidence full of good hope that he shall obtain great rewards if he die This the Ancients saw in the dark and thou canst not see it by the light of the Sun What then my sick Friend do the things of the Earth trouble thee Shortly thou shalt inhabit Heaven Thither aspire and whatever miseries thou feelest thou wilt feel them the less Sect. 30. True Hope is a Blessed Life I Do not for this make use of either Poets or Philosophers 'T is a serious thing I will drink to thee out of the Fountain of Divine Eloquence Therefore lay aside thy sadness and with a certain hope say with the Doctor of the World I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Wherefore art thou afraid O Man of short hope hear the Son of Syras Who feareth the Lord standeth in awe of no Man and is not afraid for the Lord is his hope and strength Blessed is the Soul of him that feareth the Lord in whom putteth he his trust and who is his strength The Eyes of the Lord have respect unto them that love him he is their mighty protection and strong ground a defence for the health a refuge for the hot of noon day a succour for stumbling and a help for falling He setteth up the Soul and lightneth the Eyes he giveth health life and blessing The Kingly Prophet how Couragious is he how undaunted having a prospect of his own Funeral I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety What that safety is he expresses in another place For thou hast been my hope and a strong Tower for me against the Enemy I will dwell in thy Tabernacle for ever and my trust shall be under the covering of thy wings But thou wilt say my Impatience makes me hope ill Here I will help thee again Cry with David Thou art my hope even from my youth Frequently this King cry'd out God is my Salvation God is my Hope and also exhorts others to do the same Trust in him O ye people pour out your hearts before him Wherefore dost thou not follow him that goes crying so loudly before thee Say therefore from thy Soul O think upon thy Servant according to thy word wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust The same is my Comfort in my Trouble And with Jeremy the Prophet I nevertheless obediently followed thee as a Shepherd and have not taken this Office upon me uncalled Thou knowest it well Be not thou terrible unto me O Lord. For thou art he in whom I hope when I am in peril Hear him in another place Leave off from weeping and crying with-hold thine Eyes from Tears for thy labour shall be rewarded c. Job is most confident in this Though he slay me I will trust in him The same he utters upon the brink of Death After darkness I hope for light Was there ever saith the Son of Syrach any one confounded that put his trust in the Lord Whoever continued in his fear and was forsaken Or whoever did he despise that called faithfully upon him For God is Gracious and Merciful He forgiveth sins in the time of Trouble and is a defender of all that seek him in the Truth And Hosea Therefore hope still in thy God for whoever put their trust in God are not overcome Besides That the Lord is good unto them that put their trust in him and to the Soul that seeketh after him The good Man with stilness and patience expecteth the health of the Lord. Truly saith Nahum the Lord is Gracious and a strong hold in the day of Tribulation and knoweth them that trust in him And we also know saith St. John that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And every Man that has this hope in him purgeth himself even as he is also pure Hope therefore most firmly in the Goodness of God and thou shalt walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living Sect. 31. Tranquility proceeds from true Hope TVrn again O my Soul into thy rest for the Lord hath rewarded thee Art thou wearied with so many sorts of Labour behold the Lord is at hand and he will put an end to all thy Labours The beginning of thy rest is Sickness and Death Cease therefore O my Soul to be willing to be miserable and to consume thy self with so much turmoiling Painful Beginnings thou wilt say 'T is very true But thou knowst that no days are less quiet than those that are next to rest No days less Holidays than those that precede Festivals So it is with thee But thy rest shall be Eternal The preparation tires thee shortly the Paschal without end shall follow Go to then and expend a little Labour and Grief By and by thou shalt behold the Gate not that which leads out of this Life but that which leads to Eternity Then hadst thou but begun to labour it would prove sufficient if he for whom thou labourest think it so Therefore O my Soul dismiss vain things to vain people and turn thee to the Lord who hath rewarded thee His Mercies toward thee hath been innumerable thou maist sooner number the Sand of the Sea than them by which he designs to open thee the way to Heaven Bernardus Clarevallensis recommended this particularly to his Friends to cast the Anchor of their hope in the safe Bay of Divine Mercy Therefore let that Verse of the Psalmist In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion Sect. 32. Comfort in Pain THen should I have some comfort yea I would desire him in my pain that he would not spare for I will not deny the words of the Holy One. With this Comfort therefore while my pains do burn me I will warm my Zeal and recollect my Courage when the Excess of my Torments shall bring me certain hope of Death For I know that while the pains as it were of Childbirth Crucifie me the Rest and Tranquility of another Life is preparing for me and that the Mercy of God shines over me either inflicting Death or defending my Life Therefore let not God be delayed through any commiseration of me For if I die I shall escape free and secure from my Sins nor shall I ever any more resist the will of God as one that has left this Life and the Inconstancy of Mortals Yet I am very much afraid of my weakness lest I should faint in the right road and in my holy
the Hart panteth after the Rivers of Water so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul hath thirsted after God the Fountain of Life when shall I come and appear before the Face of my God Bless me O Loving Jesu and dismiss me in peace because I am now truely thine and to all Eternity will I not forsake thee What have I now more to do with the World O my sweet Jesu Into thy Hands Lord Jesu I commend my Spirit Receive me O Celestial Love that I may be happy in thy Embraces to all Eternity and may for ever rest in thee A Conclusion of the Second Chapter To the Reader THese things I have therefore said for the comfort of the Healthy and the Sick that they may not be altogether without Comfort partly to stir them up to vigilancy partly to strengthen them that they may overcome prepared against all Assaults of Death An ill death is not only the worst but the most indeliable and inexpiable of all Errours in the Word Now I come to give some Precepts to the Dying not to see them read but to be read in health to profit them in that dreadful Hour CHAP. III. The Remembrance of Death is represented to Dying People Sect. 1. The Art of Dying well is briefly Taught NOT to know how to die is the most miserable piece of Ignorance in the World Therefore that we may learn that which we ought to learn all our Lives there are five things that conduce to good Death First A free and undaunted Mind This is that which is of chiefest moment and upon which the rest depend It is a great satisfaction for our offences so willingly to abandon'd what is most dear to us Therefore saith David an Offering of a Free-heart-will I give unto thee There is nothing so acceptable to God nor so profitable to Man as a free and ready Mind and a generous Trust in God Secondly A Will made and Debts discharged T is an Errour never to think of a Will till Death is at the Door Dispose of thy Goods while thou art well in thy Sences Moreover as to the giving away of such things as are at our disposal Sect. 2. Nine causes why we are to Diâ— with a contented Mind BEfore all things consider the death of thy Saviour and thou wilt fear thy own with a most contented Mind Compare I beseech thee thy Bed to his Cross thy Pillows to his Thorny Diadem thy Food with his Gall thy Drink with his Vinegar thy Pains with his Torments Thoâ— didst die in the midst of thy Friends and Comforters he in the midst of his Enemies and Revilers Thou among thy Helpers and Assistants he expir'd deserted by all For thy health so many Medicines are still prepar'd His extream thirst wanted the refreshment of cold Water Yet he the Lord and chief of all Thou a Servant most vilâ— and mean Him all these Miseries befel both Innocent and Undeserving thee for thy Deserts anâ— Impiety And therefore thou hast no reason â— complain 2. The chiefest Grace of the Supream King is â— Good Death To die well is to avoid the danger â— Living ill But he dies well who dies willingly Who does not readily rise from a hard Bed They only desire to lye long who cherish'd by the heaâ— are loth to leave a warm Nest If it be ill witâ— thee in this Life wherefore shouldst thou not willingly pass to a better If well 't is time for thâ—â— to make an end lest Prosperity cast thee as it doeâ— many into a late but fatal Ruin 'T is a hard thinâ— for the Fortunate to die How many Men aâ— Condemned to perpetual Torments who had theâ— dy'd Children or young had gone to Heaven 3. The Saints and all our dearest Friends inviâ—… us to them But saist thou we must leave oâ—… Friends and Companions Unadvisedly spoken â—hou art going to them Where are thy Parents Dost not thou hope in Heaven And that thou â—halt also go thither But these are things uncerâ—ain and only hoped for Very right there is no Man hopes for what he sees or is certain of And â—herefore God affords thee an occasion for that Verâ—ue He commanded thee to hope for Heaven he would never promise it thee certainly And yet â—hou art carried thither still with a certain hope â—hough to a thing to thee uncertain A Creditor â—as no reason to mistrust a Faithful Debtor God â—â— become thy Debtor Consider thou to whom â—hou art a Creditor Doth not St. Paul cry out â—ith joy I know whom I have believed 4. Consider O Man of little Soul the extraorâ—inary alacrity of Mind and the ardent desire to â—e of many Martyrs who contemn'd all the preâ—arations of Death and suffered the severest Torâ—ents with a smiling Countenance Certainly neiâ—â—er Death nor Labour is terrible but the fear of â—eath or Labour Therefore let us applaud the â—ying of him who said Death is no evil but to 〈…〉 shamefully Children are frighted with Hobâ—blins for want of knowledge What is Death Hobgoblin Turn the Argument and thou shalt â—d it so Yet neither Children nor Infants nor â—dmen fear Death and therefore 't is a most â—ameful thing that reason should not afford us that â—â—curity which reason produces Death is a Triâ—â—te and a Duty to be paid by all why then art â—ou troubled Why dost thou not pay the Debt â—â—u owest for Death allows no priviledges No 〈…〉 was ever exempted or shall be The World â—â—th St. Basil is Mortal and the Region of them 〈…〉 die 5. What is a long fear of Death but a long Torment Dost thou live long Thou art long in Torment Well said Tertullian That is not to be fear'd that frees us from all fear But thou wilt say 'T is a terrible thing in Sickness to foresee Death creeping on by degrees Worm of a Man what wouldst thou have Did not thy Saviour Christ foresee his Death and that a most sharp one for thirty years and more Art thou better than he But because thou dost not so much fear Death as the previous Inconveniences of Death hear Epietetus And shalt not thou saith he depart with a firm and constant mind but trembling and cowardly because of thy fine Cloaths or thy gaudy Silver Plate Unhappy Man Was it thus that hitherto thou hast lost all thy time What if I prove Sick Thou shalt be honestly Sick Who shall Cure thee God I shall lye hard But as a Man I shall not have a convenient House 'T is an inconvenience to be Sick What shall be the issue of the Disease Nothing but Death Therefore dost not thou believe that the Fountain of all Evil is the chief mark of a degenerate and dastardly Mind is not so much death it self as the fear of Death Therefore exercise thy self against it make use of whatever thou hearest or readest as weapons to Encounter it So shalt thou know there is no other way for Man to gain his own
Syllogisme is the Conclusion the Conclusion of Life Death But the Conclusion is either true or false according to the Nature of the Antecedents so is Death good or bad as the Life before was good or bad Thus St. Paul severely prononnces saying Whose end shall be according to their VVorks 2 Cor. 11. 15. Memorable is the Death of that Holy Martyr Felix who being led to Execution rejoicing to himself with a loud Voice I have said he preserved my Virginity I have kept the Gospels I have preached the Truth and now I bow my Head a Victim to God There is a Relation of one who died suddenly in his Study and was found with his Finger pointing to that Verse in the Book of VVisdom câ— 4. v. 7. which says Though the Righteous be overtaken with Death yet he shall find rest pretious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints whether slow or suddain The Copious St. Bernard being near his end Because saith he I cannot leave you great Examples of Religion yet I commend Three things to your Observation which I remember observed by my self 1. I less believed my own than the Judgment of another 2. Being injured I never sought Revenge 3. I never would offend any Person Gerard the Brother of St. Bernard upon his Death-Bed broke out into that Davidean Rapture Praise the Lord in Heaven Praise him in the Highest Where is thy Victory O Death Where is thy Sting O Grave Gerard through the midst of thy very Jaws passes not only securely but joyfully and triumphantly to his Country He cannot die ill who has lived well Sect. 16. As we Live so shall we Die The weary Huntsman in his rest all Night Dreams of new Sports and of his past Delight IN the same manner those things that pleased us in our Health we are delighted with at our Deaths Antiochus miserably afflicted the Jews and Maximinâ—s the Emperour had designed the utter Exterpation of the Christians At length they both fell into a most lamentable Disease and when they saw no other way the one besought the Jews the other the Christians to pray to their God for their Recovery Like Esops Crew which being taken desperately sick cautioned his Mother as she sate by him not to weep for him but rather pray ro the Gods for his Recovery To whom she replied O my Son which of the Gods dost thou think will be propitious to thee that has robbed the Altars of every one of them Therefore as we live so we die so are we reprieved and condemed so destined to Heaven or to Hell Sect. 17. A good Death to be desired I Pray God my Soul may die the Death of the Righteous and that my last end may be like his cried the Prophet Balaam How much more rightly had he wished Let my Soul live the Life of the Just that it may also die the Death of the Just 'T is a Ridiculous thing to desire a good Death and flie a good Life 'T is a Labour to live well but a Happiness to die well he that refuses to pass the Red Sea must not think to eat Manna He that loves the Egyptian Servitude shall never reach the Land of Canaan Piously and Elegantly St. Bernard Oh that I may fall saith he frequently by this Death that I may escape the Snares of Death that I may not feel the deadly Allurements of a Luxurious Life that I may not besot my self in sensual Lust in Covetousnes Impatience Care and Trouble for worldly Affairs This is that Death which every one ought to wish for who designs a Life that shall never know Death Before Death to die to Sin and Vice is the best Death of all Sect. 18. Sleep the Brother of Death PAusanias relates that he saw a Statue of Night in the shape of a Woman holding in her right Hand a little white Boy sleeping in her left a little black Boy like one that were a sleep The one was called Somnus Sleep and the other Lethum Death but both the Sons of Night Hence it is that Virgil calls Sleep the Kinsman of Death Gorgias Leontinus being very old was taken ill In his Sickness he was visited by a Friend who finding him fall'n asleep when he waked asked how he did To whom Gorgias made answer Now Sleep is about to deliver me to his Brother Whoever thou art O Christan before thou layst thy self to Sleep examine thy Conscience and wipe away the stains and spots that defile it There are many who have begun to sleep and die both together and ended their Lives before they had stept out of their Sleep The Brother of Death is to be feared and not only cautiously but chastly to be fallen into He that sleeps not chastly shall hardly wake chastly Sect. 19. The fore-runners of Death THE fore-runners of Eternity is Death the fore-runners of Death are Pains and deadly Symptoms One deadly Symptome if we believe Pliny in the height of Madness is Laughter in other Diseases an unequal Pulse But the Eyes and the Ears shew most undoubted Prognosticks of Death Experience teacheth us that when sick People talk of going Journeys and endeavoured to escape ouâ— of their Beds when they pull and pick the Blankets they are near Death Augustus the Emperor a little before he expired suddainly terrified complained that he was carried away by Forty young Men. Which saith Suetonius was rather a Presage than a sign of any Delirium for so many Pretorian Souldiers when he was dead carried him to his Funeral Pile When Alexander went by Water to Babylon a sudden Wind rising blew off the Regal Ornament of his Head and the Diadem fixt to it This was lookt upon as a Presage of Alexander's Death which happened soon after In the Year of Christ 1185. the last and most fatal end of Andronicus Commenus being at hand the Statue of St. Paul which the Emperour had caused to be set up in the great Church of Constantinople abundantly wept Nor were these Tears in vain which the Emperour washt off with his own Blood Barbara Princess of Bavaria having shut her self up in a Nunnery among other things allowed her for her peculiar Recreation she had a Marjoram-Tree of an extraordinary bigness a small Aviary and a Gold Chain which she wore about her Neck but fourteen days before she died the Marjoram-Tree dried up the Bâ—rds 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 uuwonted 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. â—o 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 fâ—â—r to die because we have a graciâ—us 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 Peâ—â—ilence Famine continual Iucursions unspeakable Solitude and continual Death But when he was ready to give up the ghost He cryed out aloud Glory be to thee â—O God â—or 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 thornâ— 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 â—â—â— 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 〈…〉 with the perpetual volubility of Day-night 〈…〉 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 descaâ—ted upon the King â— 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 â— 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 â—â—bours and their works follow them To die in the â—â—rd is the same thing as to die a Servant of the â—â—rd 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 Besom 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 faith 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 follow them as Children follow their Parents as Servants follow their Masters as Scholars follow their Teacher and Souldiers their Captain They follow them to the Tribunal of God to the Court of Heaven as Peers follow their Prince whither these Noble Servants are only admitted Sect. 23. The Farewel of a dying Person to the living which are to go the same way THere are many things of which it behoves me to Repent of Vertue often neglected and Time ill spent How much did it become me to have been more patient more submissive more studious of daily Death How small a Spark of Divine Love did glow in me Pity me O God pity me
according to thy great Mercy Spare a Sinner O Infinite God through the Passion and Blood of thy dear Son But I have also offended you both in Word and Deed Pardon me you find me both Consessing and Sorry and deny me not this Provision for my Journey the pardon of all my Transgressions Let not your Vertue decrease by my Example which was always bad You have before your Eyes the Lives of the Saints to which yours must conform Enable their Patience Submission and Obedience to the utmost of your power I also return you thanks for your Pains for your Assistance for your Advice and for your Love God the inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness and the Immense Ocean of Love recompence your Affection God is certainly most Liberal to those that Commit themselves to his most holy Providence Obedience is a most Noble Vertue Patience is absolutely necessary Submission is a most excellent Vertue and Contempt of our selves Poverty is a Vertue belov'd of Christ Charity is the Queen of Vertue Yet above all the Vertues Faith in God seems to me to have something singular and most excellent and a Plenary Resignation of a Man's self to Divine Providence which the holy Scripture so commends and which is continually in the Mouth of the Kingly Prophet and which Christ endeavours to inculcate into us by so many Arguments drawn from Flowers c. little Birds The Vertues of this Faith and the Tranquility that attends it he only knows and finds who in every thing as well small as great most perfectly trusts in God and confines himself to rely upon his Providence and Will Neither do I believe there is any man who had this Hope and Trust in God but that strange and hidden Mysteries befell him Therefore let us trust in God and commit our selves wholly to his Will and Protection I whom ye here see am cited to the Tribunal of God to give an Account of Sixty Years All my Deeds Words and Thoughts are open to this Judge Nothing is concealed from him All my Lifes Actions shall receive their definitive Sentence How I tremble for it is a terrible thing to stand in Judgment before God But in this Extremity there is that which comforts me Therefore though I am a wicked Servant my Lord is Gracious and Infinitely Good who will acknowledge his Servant though he have been bad And now God be with you all that Survive Farewel all you that are to follow me in your order Sect. 24. The last Admonitions of Dying People AS the Sun towards his Setting shines often forth more pleasantly So Man the nearer he is to Death the wiser he is Hence those Admonitions of dying People which Wisdom has so much applauded Cyrus being about to die My Son said he when I am dead close up my Body neither in Silver nor in any other Mettal but return its own Earth to the Earth again His last Words were Be grateful to your Friends and you will never want the Power to punish your Enemies Farewel my dear Son and tell these my Words to your Mother also Wisely saith Theophrastus upon his Death Bed Many fine and pleasant things doth Life impose upon us under the pretence of Glory then the Love of which there is nothing more vain Hither may be referred the saying of Severus the Emperor I was all things but nothing avails Constantius Father of Constantine the Great upon his Death-Bed as he was resigning his Empire to his Son with a wonderful Chearfulness Now said he do I almost esteem Death above Immortality I leave a Son Emperor Here is the Man that after 270 years has wiped away the Tears of the Christians and avenged the Cruelty of Tyrants Christ was truly in Arms with Constantius Lewis King of France gave these his last Admonitions to his Son Beware my Son that thou never commit any deadly Sin rather suffer all manner of Torments First chose such about thee as will not be afraid to tell thee what thou art to do and what to beware To thy Parents give all Obedience Love and Reverence Ferdinand the Great King of Castile falling sick of his last Sickness caused himself to be carried to the great Church in all his Royal Robes where putting off all his Royal Ornaments and as it were restoring God his own he put on a Hair Cloth and casting himself upon the Ground with Tears in his Eyes Lord said he the Kingdom which thou gavest me I return to thee again seat me I beseech thee in Eternal Light Charles King of Sicily spoke these Words Oh the Vain Thoughts of Men Miserable Creatures we are delighted with Honour heap up Treasure and neglect Heaven O the happy Fate of the poor who content with little Sleep in Tranquility What does now my Kingdom what do all my Guards avail me I might have been Miserable without all this Pomp. Where is now the power and strength of my Empire The same necessity involves me as hampers the meanest Begger Of so many Thousands of Clyents Servants and Flatterers there is not one that will or can accompany to the Tribunal of God Go Mortals go and swell your Breasts with great Thoughts to Day or â—â—â—orrow ye must die Farewel Earth would I could say welcom Heaven Nor must we forget the most Holy and Opulent of Kings the Son of the Hebrew Nation David who being near Death I saith he am going the way of all the Earth and then turning to his Son But thou my Son Solomon said he keep thou the watch of the Lord thy God that thou walk in his Ways and keep his Statutes and Precepts If thou seek the Lord thou shalt find him but if thou forsakest him he shall cast thee off to Eternity A terrible Exhortation and enough to have pierced a Heart of Adamant Thus Death devours all cuts off Kings lays Nations wast and swallows the People up deaf to Prayers Riches Tears noâ— to be overcome by any humane force Only the wise-Man dies contented the Fool murmurs at his departure Sect. 25. Christ is invited ABide with me O Lord for it draweth toward Night and the day is far passed The day of my Life hastens towards Night and there is no Joshua to stay the Sun or prolong the Day But as the Sun is daily buried under ground yet every Morning revives so I and all that live shall go to the Earth but we shall return from the Earth clearer than the Sun it self Therefore O Christ O my most Gracious Saviour abide with me behold it draweth towards Night My Eyes my Ears all my Senses fail me but do thou I beseech thee not fail me O most loving Jesu and all the rest I most willingly abandon Begon all other things I dismiss and give ye leave My Creator is with me it is enough It is well with me But that thou may'st tarry with me till Night even till Death still I cry abide with me O Lord for it draweth towards Night
not fail Wherefore my heart was glad and my glory rejoiced my flesh also shall rest in hope For why thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption Thou shalt shew me the Path of Life in thy presence is fulness of Joy and in thy right hand is pleasure for evermore Psal 16. v. 8. c. To Charity What shall I return to the Lord for all his Benefits I will receive the Cup of Death from the hand of God and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will call upon God with Praises and I shall be safe from my Enemies Into thy Hands O Lord I commend my Spirit Thou hast created me O God thou hast redeemed me thou hast sanctified me thine am I alive and dead I offer my self up entirely to thy will Jesu Son of David have mercy upon me Sect. 36. What is always to be in the thought and Mouth of a sick and dying Christian IN sickness O Christian if thou art asked how thou do'st or how is it with thee Beware of returning any other Answers but these As God will As God pleases As the Lord's pleasure is So let it be done According to the good pleasure of God As it pleases God so let his will be fulfilled in Earth as it is in Heaven Nor will it be amiss to have these threefold Prefaces continually in thy lips and in thy mind as well in thy Sickness as at the hour of thy Death 1. Blessed be God to all Eternity 2. Have mercy on me O Lord according to thy loving Kindness though I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies O God 3. Oh Lord my God I surrender my self wholly up to thy will let thy will be done Sect 37. Certain Precepts to be particularly observed by a dying Person FIrst Not to depend upon the Merits but with all thy Sins and Omissions to cast thy self into the Fathomeless Ocean of Divine Mercy Next To adhere stedfastly and constantly to the belief of the true Holy Church and to receive the Holy Sacrament Thirdly To forsake all the frail and passing Vanities of this Life and to unite thy self to God with all thy Soul and Affection To breath after the Land of Promise where thou may'st be able to offer up a lasting Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for all his Mercies Fourthly To offer up thy self a Living Sacrifice to the Glory of God for his great good will toward thee and to endure patiently for his sake all the pains and troubles of Sickness and the bitterness of Death Fifthly To set continually before thy Eyes the terrible Death and Passion of thy Lord Christ that so thou mayst unite thy Body and Soul with the wounded Body and afflicted Soul of Christ But the safest way is whatever thou wouldst do in the utmost extremity of thy Sickness to begin to do that in the prime of thy Health Sect. 38. Refreshments for a dying Person COme my People enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy Doors about thee Hide thy self for a little while till the Indignation be overpast Isa 26. â—0 When I was angry I hid my Face from thee for a little season but through everlasting goodness I have pardoned thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Isa 54. 8. Why art thou so full of heaviness O my Soul And why art thou so unquieted within me Put thy trust in God for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his Countenance Psalm 42. 6. For we are the Children of the Holy Man and look for the Life which God shall give unto them that never turn their belief from him Tob. 2. 18. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish Mat. 13. 14. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life John 3 16. But if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Attonement for our Sins not for our Sins only but for the Sins of all the World 1 John 2. 1. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Damnation but is escaped from Death unto Life John 5. 24. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6. 37. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me yea though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall not dye eternally Joh. 11. 25 26. In my Fathers House are many Mansions 14. 2. If God be on our side who can be against us Who spared not his own Son but gave him for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen It is he that justifies who is he that coâ—demnesh It is Christ which dyed yea ratheâ— which is raised again which is also on the Righâ— Hand of God and maketh Intercession for us Roâ— 8. 31 c. For no Man livech to himself and no Man dyâ—th to himself for if we live we live unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were destroyed we should have a Building of God even a Habitation not made with Hands but Eternal in Heaven For therefore sigh we desiring to be farther cloathed with our House which is from Heaven for if that we be cloathed we shall not be found naked 2 Cor. 1 2 3. Now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by death For Christ is to me Life and Death is to me Advantage Having a desire to depart and be with Christ Philip. 1. 20 21. But our Conversation is in Heaven whence also we look for the Saviour who shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like his glorious Body This is a fâ—ithful saying and by all means worthy to be received that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 1. 15 But he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Mat. 24. 13. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2. 10. These Fountains refresh and cool the hot Baths of death he shall happily swim therein who plunges himself over Head and Ears in these Rivolets Sect. 39. The Sighs and Prayers to God proper for a Dying Person ENlighten my Eyes O most merciful Jesu that I sleep not in death Lest my Enemies say I have prevailed against him Psal 13. 3 c. Lord Jesu Christ Son of the Living God Lay thy Passion Cross and Death between thy Judgment and my Soul O
Lord Jesu Christ remember not our old Sins but have mercy upon us and that soon for we are come to great misery Psal 79. 8. Sweet Lord Jesu Christ for thy glories sake and for the Effectual Vertues sake of thy Sufferings cause me to be written down among the number of thy Elect. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant O Lord for there is no Man righteous in thy sight I worship thee O Christ I bless thee because thou hast redeemed the World by thy Sufferings Saviour of the World save me who by thy Cross and Blood hast redeemed me O most merciful Jesu I beseech thee that with thy precious Blood which thou didst shed for Sinners that thou wouldst wash away all my iniquities O Blood of Christ purifie me let the Body of Christ save me let the Water from Christs side wash me let the Passion of Christ comfort me O kind Jesu hear me hide me between thy Wounds Permit me not O merciful Jesu to be separated from thee in this my Hour of death call me command me to come to thee that I together with thy Saints may praise thee to all Eternity Cast me not from thy Countenance nor take thy Holy Spirit from me Sect. 40. At the Moment of Death NOW Lord according to thy good pleasure deal mercifully by me and command my Spirit to be received in peace Sound into the Ears of my Mind those sweet words this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Now let thy Servant depart in peace because mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation O Jesu Jesu Jesu permit me to enter into the number of thy Elect. O Jesu Son of David have mercy upon me O Lord Jesu make haste to help me O Lord Jesu receive my Soul Sect. 41. The true Confidence of a Dying Person in God HEre I confidently aver with St. Bernard Let another pretend to Merit let him boast of enduring the heat and burthen of the day my desire is to adhere to God and to put my hope in the Lord. And though I am conscious to my self that such was the naughtiness of my pass'd Lise that I deserve to be forsaken of God yet will I not cease to relye upon his Immense Goodness and to hope that as hitherto his most Holy Grace has afforded me strength to endure all things so the same will still uphold me and enable me to finish my course Therefore this one thing I beg of thee O God that thou wilt never suffer me to distrust of thy Goodness though I know my self to be weak and miserable Yea though I should perceive my self in that Terror and Consternation ready to fail like St. Peter upon one blast of Wind let me remember him let me call upon Christ Lord make me whole Then O then shalt thou stretch for h thy Hand and save me stom sinking But if thou sufferest me to go farther yet with Peter to run headlong into denial then such is my hope that thou wilt look upon me with an Eye of Mercy and Compassion as thou lookest upon Peter and grant me a new Confirmation of Eternity This I am certain of that unless the fault be mine the Lord will not forsake me I acknowledge that saying of St. Austin God may save some without good works because he is Good but he condemns none but for their evil works because he is Just And therefore I commit my self to him with a full hope and confidence in him If he suffer me to perish for my Sins yet his Justice shall be magnified in me Yet I hope and most certainly hope that his most merciful Goodness will most faithfully preserve my Soul so that his Mercy rather than his Justice shall be praised in me Nothing can happen to me against the will of God Whatever he pleases to whom ever it seem ill is still the best to me VVhatever pleases thee that will I that will I O God Sect. 42. The Last Words of Dying Persons AVgustus the Emperor dy'd with these words in his Mouth Live mindful of our Nuptial Knot and so farewel How much more holilv would these Christians do that direct their last words to the Beginning and Creator of all things Dyonisius the Areopagite being condemned to lose his Head with a Christian Generosity contemning the Reproaches of the Spectators Let the last words of my Lord upon the Cross said he be mine in this World Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Basil the Great lying at the last period of Life after he had piously instructed his own Friends breathed out his Soul with these last words Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit St. Bernard upon his Death-bed Oh Christian said he despair not of this Infirmity Christ has taught thee what thou oughtest to say in all the dangers of death whom to fly to whom to invoke in whom to hope Therefore do thou so behave thy self that at the hour of death thou maist be able to say In thee Lord have I trusted let me not be confounded to Eternity Therefore let the last words of a dying Person be directed to God All his Prayers Wishes Desires and last Hopes must ever tend to him Let the dying Person say from the bottom of his Heart To thee Lord I turn my face to thee I direct my Eyes Sect. 46. Let the dying Person imitate the Penitent Thief in Golgotha Lord remenber me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Happy Thief who in the School of Christ had learnt more in three Hours than the Unhappy Iscariot in three years Lord God! How great is the Abyss of thy Judgments Thy Friends and Kindred are silent thy Disciples forsake thee the Angels appear noâ— Where are those thousands fed by this Crucified Lord Who of all that multitude speaks one word for so great a Benefactor Yet the Thief against his Companion pleads the Cause of Christ and justifies his Innocency take off all Scandals from him and convicts the Multitude of Murther Nor was the Son of God asham'd of such an Advocate but rather applauded him Nor was the happy Rhetorician wanting in his Cause But we truly said he are righteously punished for we receive according to our deeds but this Man hath done nothing amiss Oh how truely may I say the same of my self I justly now dye I receive according to my Deeds but my God and my Lord did nothing that he should dye and dye in so much Torment And therefore may I truely use this Prayer Lord remember me because thou art come into thy Kingdom And because thou art now in thy Kingdom look upon me weeping in this Exile and admit me going hence into thy Kingdom This I beg of thee for the sake of thy Scourgings thy Thorns thy Cross and through thy Torments and thy Death Therefore what remains but for me to throw my Soul into his Bosom who alone considers its Pains and Sufferings He knows what conduces to the Salvation of Souls I wait for thy Salvation
O Lord. Sect. 47 A Heliotropian Receit against all Sickness and Death THE Heliotrope is a Flower which as we find by daily Experience turns it self with the Sun from East to West and doing the same even in cloudy VVeather and in the Night for want of the Sun contracts and shuts up the Beauty of its Colours Let the will of Man always wait upon Divine Pleasure continually turning and winding it self to the beck of Sacred Power though the VVeather be cloudy Nor can any day in all the life of Man be more cloudy than the day of our death Then let the dying Person with fix'd and stedfast Eyes like the Heliotrope â—urn himself to his only Sun This let our Saviours words teach us Even so O Father for so was it thy good pleasure After this manner my dear dying â—riend speak altogether In all things to be done to be avoided to be endured and born according to thy Lords Example always say Even so O Father even so always submitting thine to the most holy VVill. Even so O Father even so both now and for evermore Philip the second King of Spain groaning under the pains of a desperate Disease was wont continually to repeat these words of our Saviour Father not mine but thy will be done And one time among the rest as the Passion of Christ was read to him while the Chirurgeons were Lanching open an Aposthume he caused the Reader to stop at these words So highly did that great King value this Heliotropian Recâ—it as well in Health as in Sickness This Heliotrope cures Sickness Death and all sorts of Diseases He is far from Destruction who in his will is so near to God THE Fatal Moment VVHen we dye our Everlasting state is to be determin'd After Death the Judgment The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Trâ—bunal of God It will make us either to shine with the Angels above or to set with the Devils It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise or in an intolerable state of Woe So that we may say with Nieremberg How many things are to pass in that Moment In the same is our Life to finish our Works to be examined and we are then to know how it will go with us for ever and ever In that Moment I shall cease to Live in that Moment I shall behold my Judge in that moment I must answer for all my publick and my secret Actions for all that I have ever thought or spoke or done for all the Talents the Time the Mercies the Health the Strength the Opportunities and the Seasons and Days of Grace that I have ever had for all the Evil that I might have avoided for all the good I might have done and did not and all this before that Judge who has beheld my ways from my Birth to the Grave before that Judge who cannot be deceiv'd and who will not be impos'd upon Little can he that has not been brought near to Death and Judgment know what Thoughts the Diseased have when they are so Little very little does a Soul in Flesh know what it is to appear before the Great God This is so great and so strange a thing that they only know it who have receiv'd their final Sentence but they are not suffer'd to return to tell us how it is or what passes then and God sees it fit it should be concealed from us who are yet on this side the Grave But who does not tremble to think of this mighty Change and of this Moment that is the last of Time and the beginning of Eternity that includes Heaven and Hell and all the Effects of the Mercy and Justice of God Who does not tremble when he considers that Infinite and Holy Majesty before whom the Angels cover their Faces that considers him Omniscience and his Greatness and the mighty Consequences of that Sentence how sudden it is and how irresistible and that it is an irrevocable Decree and by a Word of this mighty Judge we live or dye for ever It is no wonder if the thoughts of it make us shrink and quiver It is a greater wonder that when some or other whom we know are almost every week going to such a place and state as this we who are not yet Cited to the Bar are no more concerned and use no more endeavours to be ready for it Oh my Friends when you come to the Borders of the Grave when you are within an Hour or two's distance from your Final Judgment and your unalterable state what a mighty Change will it cause in your thoughts and your apprehensions You will then know and feel it Then when the Perspective is turn'd and the other World begins to appear very great and this very little This that I have represented to you is a part of that which we call dying It is a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledg'd that God allows us so much Time wherein to prepare our selves for this final and irrevocable Doom It is an instance of his Patience that is truly Divine that notwithstanding our many repeated Sins he has not cut us off It is his great Meâ—cy that gives us leave to appear in his Courts before we appear at his Tribunal and that he affords us such large notice and warning that so we may be ready for our Last Tryal whereon so very much depends THE TREATMENT OF OUR Departed Friends AFTER THEIR DEATH In Order to Their Burial WHen we have received the last Breath of our Friend and closed his Eyes and composed his Body for the Grave then solemn and appointed Mournings are good Expressions of our dearness to the departed Soul and of his worth and our value of him The Church in her Funerals of the dead used to sing Psalms and to give thanks for the Redemption and Delivery of the Soul from the evils and dangers of Mortality But it is good that the Body be kept veiled and secret and not exposed to curious Eyes neither should the dishonours wrought upon the Face by the changes of death be stared upon by impertinent persons When Cyrus was dying he called his Sons and Friends to take their leave of him to touch his Hand to see him the last time and gave in charge that when he had put his Vail over his Face no Man should uncover it And Epiphanius his Body was rescued from inquisitive Eyes by a miracle Let it be interr'd after the manner of the Countrey and Laws of the Place and the Dignity of the Person for so Jacob was Buried with great Solemnity and Joseph's Bones were carried into Canaan after they had been embalmed and kept 400 years and devout men carried St. Stephen to his Burial making great lamentation over him And Aelian tells us that those who were the most excellent persons were buried in publick and men of ordinary Courage and Fortune had their Graves only trim'd with Branches of green Olives and
much Wealth drowns Men in perdition Of Love A Bulwark of Adamant is not more Impregnable then the Love of Brethren Of Temptations The Devils first Assault is violent resist that and his second will be weaker and that being resisted he proves a Coward The Death of AUGUSTIN HE died Anno Christi 430 of his Age 75 and of his Ministry 40. He was a Man of a Charitable Disposition very sparing in Diet and a hearty Lover of all good Men. His Table was more for Disputation than for Revelling and had Engraven upon it He that doth love an absent Friend to jeer May hence depart no room is for him here He Collected together several Precepts of a Christian Life which whoever perused it might see their Duty this he called A Looking-glass His usual Wish was That Christ when he came might find him either Praying or Preaching When the Dâ—naâ—ists upbraided him of Levity in his Minority Look said he how much they blame my former faults by so much the more I commend and praise my Physicians He used to say of Marriage Humble Marriage is better than Proud Virginity Of Death There is nothing that more abateth Sin than the frequent Meditation of Death he cannot die ill that lived well and seldom doth he die well who lived ill Of Christian Thoughts A Christian at home in his House must think himself a Stranger and that his Countrey is above Of Riches If Men want Wealth it is not to be unjustly gotten if they have it they ought by good Works to lay it up in Heaven He so admired the Seven Penitential Psalms that he had them hung up in great Letters within his Bed-Curtains that so he might depart in the Contemplation of them The Death of CYKIL of Alexandria HE was Famous for Wit Eloquence and Piety Concerning Charity he used to say 'T is the best way for a Rich Man to make the Bellies of the Poor his Barn and thereby to lay up Treasure in Heaven Of Modesty Where the Scripture wants a Tongue of Expression we need not lend an Ear of Attention we may safely knock at the Council-door of Gods Secrets but if we go further we may be more bold than welcome He lived under Theodosius Junior and died Anno 448. The Death of PETER CHRYSOLOGUS HE was a Man of an Excellent Wit and by his Example and Ministry wrought upon many Souls He used to say of Charity Let not thy Care be to have thy hands full whilst the Poors are empty for the only way to have full Barns is to have Charitable Hands And Vertues separated are annihilated Equity without Goodness is Severity and Justice without Piety Cruelty He lived under Martian the Emperor having been Rishop above 60 Years He died Anno 500. The Death of PROSPER PRosper having under Martian continued 20 years in that Episcopal See he fell sick many of his Friends coming to vâ—â—it him and perceiving them to weep bitterly he comforted them with these words The Life which I have enjoyed said he was but given me upon condition to render it up again not grudgingly but gladly for me to have stayed longer here might seem better for you but for me it is better to be dissolved So falling into fervent Prayer he with great Alacrity resigned up his Spirit into the hands of his Creator dying Anno Christi 466. His usual Sayings was of Conscience That it was his utmost endeavour to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man Of Vice Thou shalt neither hate the Man for his Vice nor love the Vice for the Mans sake Of Pride Consider what thou art by Sin and shalt be in the Grave and thy Plumes will fall for every proud Man forgets himself Of Gods Secrets Those things which God would have searched into are not to be neglected but those which God would have hidden are not to be searched into by the latter we become unlawfully Curious and by the neglect of the former damnably Ingrateful The Death of FULGENTIUS WHen Fulgentius fell Sick during which sickness he behaved himself with wonderful Patience and Humility and when his Physicians told him a Bath would do well for the recovery of his Health he answered What tell you me of a Bath can any Bath preserve the life of him who has run his natural course that he shall not die and why perswade you me now I am at the point of death to abate of that rigor which I all my life have used When having taken leave of those that came to visit him and distributed what Money he had to pious uses he yielded up the Ghost dying Anno Christi 529 and of his Age 65 having sat Bishop 25 years He used to say If want of Charity be tormented in Hell what will become of the Covetous In his greatest Suffering he would say We must suffer more than this for Christ The Death of GREGORY the Great HE never could read these words Son remember that thou in thy Life-time receivedst thy good things c. without Horror and Amazement lest he by enjoying such Dignities and Honours should lose his Portion in Heaven He dyed Anno 605. The Death of ISIDORE HE so wasted his Body with Labours and enriched his Soul with Divine Contemplations that he seemed to live an Angelical Life upon Earth He used to say of a Guilty Conscience All things may be shunned but a Man 's own Heart a Man cannot run from himself a Guilty Conscience will not forsake him wheresoever he goâ—s Of the danger of Pride He that begins to grow better let him beware lest he grow proud lest Vain-glory give him a greater overthrow than his former Vices He dyed 675. The Death of Venerable BEDE IN his Sickness he was wont to encourage himself with the words of the postle Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And when he beheld some of his Scholars weeping over him he comforted them with these words The time is come â—â— my Creator pleaseth that being freed from the Flâ—â—â— I shall go to him who made me when I was not ouâ— of nothing I have lived long and the time of mâ— dissolution is approaching and my Soul desireth to see my Saviour Christ in his Glory And so gave up the â—host 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 1. 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 haâ—h Death at his Back the old Man before his Eyes aud that 's the most dangerous Enemy that pursues thee than that which marches up towards thy Fâ—ce 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 Pâ—rents 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 wâ—re 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 Bishop standing by said Now we commit thy Soul to the Devil but Huss lifting up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven said Into thy Hands Lord Jesus I commend my Spirit which thou hast redeemed with thy most precious Blood Then they Burnt his Books at which he with a joyful Countenance said to the People Think not good People that I die for any Heresie or Errour but through the hatred and malice of mine Adversaries As he lifted up his Face in Prayer the Cap fell off whereupon a Souldier put it on again saying He should burn with his Masters the Devils whom he had served Then rising up said Lord Jesus assist and help me that with a constant and patient mind by thy most gracious
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 Inquisiâ—ors 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 theâ—ce to Tubing where he ended his days Annâ— 1565. his Brother being dead before him â—ot 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 repeating 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 Men deceased 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
and the Streams of that Jordan between us and our Canaan run furiously but they stand still when the Ark comes Let your Anchor be cast within the Veil and fastned on the Rock Jesus let the End of the Threefold Cord be buckled to the Heart so shall you go through He died Anno 1619. The Death of Andrew Willet GOing from London his Horse threw him and by the Fall broke his Leg which was presently set by a Bone-setter and being confined to his Bed he would meditate upon Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery Isaiah 38. especially on the 9 10 13 and 15 Verses Hearing a Bell Toll he peradventure had apprehensiors of Death which oceasioned him to discourse with his Wise concerning Death and our blessed Hopes after Death and the mutual Knowledge the Saints have of one another in Glory Then he repeated the first Verse of the 146 Psalm and said it was a most sweet Psalm but stirring to ease himself he fell into a Trance his Wise crying out he looked up and used these last words Let me alone I shall do well Lord Jesus and so departed Anno 1621. Aged 59. The Death of David Pareus AT Aâ—villa he wrote his Body of Divinity which having Finished he said Lora now let thy Servant depart in peace because he hath Finished that which he desired He earnestly besought God that he might lay his Bones at Heidleberg which not long after he returned thither safely where he was received with much joy but his former Disease of a Catarrh returning upon him being sensible of approaching Death he frequently opened his Mind to Henry Alting and others and so quietly departed Anno 162â— Aged 73. His Works are in 3 Volumes The Death of Robert Bolton MR. Bolton falling sick of a Quartane-Ague and finding himself weaker and weaker he Contemplated upon the four last things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell and being asked if he could be content to live if God would permit him He said I grant that Life is a great Blessing of God neither will I neglect any means that may preserve it and do heartily desire to submit to God's Will but of the two I infinitely more desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ When the Pangs of Death were upon him he breathed out I am now drawing on apace to my dissolution hold out Faith and Patience your Work wiâ—l quickly be at an end He died Anno 1631. Aged Threescore The Death of William Whately IN his Sickness he comforted himself with that Promise Psalm 41. 1 2. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in the tâ—me of trouble the Lord will strengthen him upon the Bed of languishing c. A little before his death a Friend prâ—ying with him That God wold be pleased if his Time were not expired either to restore him or put an end to his Pains He lifting up his Eyes towards Heaven one of his Hands in the close of that Prayer gave up the ghost shutting his Eyes as if he was fallen into a soft Slumber Anno 1639. Aged 56. The Death of Anthony Wallaeus HE was much troubled with the Stone in the Kidneys and Hypocondraical Wind which still encreasing upon him he called his Family and exhorted them to fear God then taking his leave of them he fell asleep out of which he never awaked only strived a little when his Pains came upon him so on the Sabbath-day at a Eleven of the Clock he resigned up his Spirit to his Maker Anno 1639. Aged 66. The Death of Henry Alting HE sell fick at Groning of a Catarth and Feaver accompanied with great Pains in his Back and Loins which caused often Faintings The day before his death he sang the 130th Psalm with great Fervency In the Evening he blessed his Children and exhorted them to fear God and to persevere in the Truth of the Gospel Being sensible of the time of his Departure by his Prophetick Spirit he accordingly died about Three of the Clock August 25. Anno 1644. Aged 57. The Death of Frederick Spanhemius HIS last Sermon he preached aâ— Easter upon Phil. 3. 24. Who shall change our vile Body that it may be like his glorious Body c. He prayed earnestly to God to continue his Blessings to his Family and never suffer them to be seduced to Popery he prayed likewise that in the Pains of Death he might with all his Soul breath after God and migh before-hand have some taste of the Glory of Heaven Having ended his Prayers his Voice and Strength failed him and so about Sun-setting he quietly departed and slept in the Lord 1649. Aged 49. The Death of Sir John Oldcastle HE was sent for before the Council when the Bishop proffered to absolve him he replied He had never trespassed against him and therefore had no need of his Absolution When they told him unless he would recant they would condemn him as a Heretick He bid them do as they thought best for said he I am at a Point that which I have written I will stand to it to the death Then kneeling down he lifted up his Hands towards Heaven and said I shrive me here unto thee O Eternal and Ever-living God in my frail Youth I offended thee O Lord by Pride Covetousness Wrath Vncleanness and many Men have I hurt in my Anger and committed many other horrible Sins for which good Lord I ask thee forgiveness And so with Tears in his Eyes he stood up and turning to the People he said Lo good People for breaking God's Laws and his holy Commandments they never yet accused me but for their own Laws and Traditions they bandle me most cruelly and therefore they and their Laws by God's promise should be utterly destroyed Then they proceeded farther to examine him but he returned such Answers to their Questions as made many wonder at his Wisdom yet they proceeded to read the Bill of Condemnation against him as a Heretick After which he lifting up his Eyes towards Heaven said Lord God Eternal I beseech thee of thy Infinite Mercy to forgive my Persecutors After that he was sent to the Tower The Sentence against him was That like a Traytor he should be drawn through the Streets of London to the Gallows in St. Giles in the Fields and there hanged and afterwards burnt upon the Gallows as he hung The Death of Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex HIS Enemies durst not bring him to a Tryal but procured an Act of Attainder whereby he was Condemned before he was Heard yet the King after his death repented this Haste and wished he had his Cromwell alive again Being mounted the Scaffold he made an humble Confession and begged the Prayers of all those which were present then in a pious Prayer he recommended himself into the Hanâ—s of the Almighty and at one Blow his Head was severed from his Body Anno 1541. The Death of the Lady Jane Grey THE Morning before her Exit from this World her Husband
House of Weeping it is justly nam'd Cause for sad Funerals it 's greatly fam'd What! nought but Monuments of Death's dire Rage Which Mortals fiercely hurls off this wide Stage Who can withhold from mingling Tears with Grief To see this Tyrant reign as Monarch chief Sad Havock makes Deaths Sythe for oh alas It cuts down Myriads like to Piles of Grass And Earths cold Bowels doth their Mansion make Till they to endless Bliss or Woe awake And e're these Crumbled into Atoms are Makes Thousands more of this dread Lot to share No sooner is one Corps entomb'd in Dust But King of Terrours to his boundless Lust Offers a second and e're from Bright Eyes Mourners cast off their doleful Red Disguise With dying Breath th' last Boon crave of their Friends Which Rites discharg'd their lives Death quickly ends Thus the Supporters of the Dead Mans Pall Return them home then in the Grave do fall What Marble Eyes distill not showr's of Tears What Stoick Heart is not harrast with Fears To ken this Embleme to revolve this Book Where Death 's Memento's stand where e're you look Your Eyes being fed with th' Limners skilful Art Impress this Preachers Eccho on your Heart Which will unsting this ghastly Scorpions Tail Transport you with sound Joy when others wail Adapt you to ascend on Cherubs Wings To th' Highest Orb where th' Chore of Angels sings Where you to Jah shall with sweet Symphony Carol Hosannahs to Eternity J. S. Books Printed for John Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultrey 1. MR. Doolitel on the Sufferings of Christ from the Garden to the Grave being a Second Part to a former Treatise on the Sacrament 2. Mr. Jayes Sermon on the Lord Presidents Imprisonment and Miraculous deliverance entituled Daniel in the Den. 3. Mr. Showers Sermon at Madam Barnardistons Funeral with an Account of her Life and Death 4. The House of Weeping or Mans last Progress to his Long home in several Funeral Discourses By Mr. John Dunton M. A. Illustrated with a lively Emblem of a Funeral Solemnity and recommended as the best Book yet extant for a Funeral Gift TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Remember a while ago there was a Question proposed to the Athenian Society Whether Books are not more proper to be given at Funerals than Bisquets Gloves Rings c. The Answer they returned was That undoubtedly a Book would be a far more convenient more durable and more valuable a Present than what are generally given as much exceeding them as the Soul does the Body and besides will much better and more profitably preserve the Memory of a Deceased Friend if good teaching him how to follow him if bad to avoid his Example that they may escape his End and the Truths contained therein we should think would make a more lasting Impression even than a Sermon it self much more than a Dull Deaths-head for having always before our Eyes the Idea of those for whom 't was given they 'll still as it were Preach from the Dead unto us Thus far you have the Opinion of the Athenian Society in this Matter And certainly nothing can more conduce to our eternal Well-fare and to put us in mind of Mortality than Books of this kind and to the end they may be more Profitable and Useful to Christians it were to be wished that this Mourning-Ring which is so Entituled that it might be given at Funerals instead of Gloves Bisquets Wine And those that think it proper may Print in a Sheet of Paper the most Material Passages in the Life of their Dead Friend and bind it up with those Mourning-Ring they give away at his Funeral and for the more effectually perpetuating the Memory of the Party Deceased There is room left in the Title of this Book for inserting his Name and Place of Burial And indeed all serious practical Books are proper for this Design and if Bound in Black with a Cypher of Mortality as this Mourning-Ring should be when given at Funerals will be very decent and proper for such a Solemn Occasion to make the serious Impressions of our Frailty more strong was I suppose the first Original of Funeral Sermons and for this purpose they are still Printed that the consideration of the Dead may further the Holyness and Salvation of the Living And doubtless Reading and Meditation would be much more decent at such Solemnities than Eating and Drinking and putting on Gay Attire Books of this Subject would make the People mind the present instance of Mortality and affect them with devout Meditations thereon How sad is it to consider the unsuitable Carriage of a great many Persons at Funerals those opportunities are usually spent in idle Chat in Eating and Drinking and that sometimes to Excess so that the House of Weeping is turned into a House of Mirth and Feasting Many have put in Practice this useful Design of giving Books at the Interment of Friends which if it were more general the good Effect thereof would be soon discerned in the Lives of Christians for it may be fitly be said of a Book given at Funerals as Divine Herbert says of a Verse viz. A Book may find him who a Sermon flies And turn a Gift into a Sacrifice When Christians attend at Funerals and sit over Graves and are amused with the doleful Passing-Bell and look upon Skulls and dead Bones and Ghastly Spectacles upon the dropping Eyes and despondent Looks of Mourners they have if ever some suitable self-humbling Apprehensions of their own Mortality which wou'd abide with 'em by a frequent perusal of such a Treatise as this which puts them in mind of their departed Friends and serves as King Philip's Boy who saluted him every Morning with a Remember Sir you are a Man There are no Ingredients in the Shop of Nature that are a sufficient Cordial to fortifie the Heart against this King of Terrors or his Harbingers The Velvet slipper cannot fence the Foot from the Gout nor the Gold Ring the Finger from a Fellon the richest Diadem cannot quit the Head-ach nor the purple Robe prevent a Fever Beauty Strength Riches Honour Friends nor any nor all can repeal that sentence Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return Every Fit of an Ague and every Distemper of this frail Constitution being as a light Skirmish before the main Battle of Death wherein weak Man being vanquished is led Captive to his long home And when once the Lines of Mortality are drawn upon the Face of the fairest Mortal he becomes a ghastly Spectacle how lovely soever before and the conclusion is Bury my Dead out of my sight This inevitable necessity however it be confesâ—ed and acknowledged of all yet lamentable experience teacheth that in the Christian World most Men so live as though they should never die Now That we may be fitted to encounter with this last Enemy besides the manifold helps which God hath reached to us in his Word in the Passages of his
Providence in the frequent Examples of Mortality before us continually and in our own sensible Approaches to the Gates of Death I say besides these and infinite more this Mourning-Ring by Gods blessing and our endeavours may prove no small furtherance in our Pilgrimage The whole Work being the most Comprehensive history of Death and Funeral Monuments yet extant each Sermon and Meditation therein is as a several Legacy bequeathed by those upon the Occasion of whose Deaths they were written as by so many Testators who themselves have made a real Experiment of Mortality and left these for our Instruction that surviveve them It is true the dayly Examples of Mortality are so many real Lectures that by a kind of Dumb Oratory perswade us to expect our End but as they are Transcient so our Thoughts of them Vanish Therefore it can be no small Advantage to have always before us this Mourning Ring which will abundantly furnish us with Meditations in this kind and be still constantly putting of us in Mind of our Departed Friend It was a Custom in former times for Great Men to make them Sepulchres in their Gardens to mind them of Death in the midst of the Pleasures of this Life This present Work may not unfitly be termed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walk will find that Titles of Honour are written in Dust and that Princes and Great Men must Die that their very Monuments are Mortal and will in time be found as Archemedes his Tomb by Cicero in vepretis overgrown with Thorns and Briars And that even Poor Men too who have no Comet Prodigy or Earthquake to Toll the Knell of their Departure But who do as it were steal into their silent Graves with no greater noise than can be made by a Branch of Rosemary Sprig of Lawrel or a Black Ribband have Precious and Immortal Souls to save as well as they with the Methods and Courses both should take to get Saving Grace and the Knowledge of Christ which will prove a Possession for them to Eternity In a word be thy Estate and Condition what it will be here thou maist have both Directions to guide thee and Comforts to support thee in thy Journey on Earth till thou arrive at thy Heavenly Countrey The Author of this Mourning-Ring spent a great part of his Time in Holy and Devout Contemplations upon the things of another Life as this Excellent Piece of his sufficiently shews Missenden gave him Breath And Cambridge Education His Studies are of Death Of Heaven his Meditation His great Care was so to fit and prepare himself for a Happy Death whilst in the World that after this Life ended he might enjoy Eternal Happiness in that which is to come Let us then imitate so great a pattern of Piety that so when we come to Die we may have nothing to do but to Die and willingly to resign up our Souls into the Hands of Almighty God And now being refreshed with these Fragrant Leaves what shall I say Blessed Author art thou yet Alive Breathe longer in this Fruitful Air and extract more out of this so Rich a Stock A Scribe so well Instructed cannot have spent all but must have new or old to bring out of his Treasury Do not hide but improve thy Talent be not only a good and wise but a faithful Steward and yield us more of thy pleasant Fruits Thou hast begun well who what shall hinder thee Thy present were there no succeeding Reward is Spur enough to future Work Religion is Recreation and Heaven is the way to Heaven Good Men are there on this side the Grave Thy longing Soul was still peeping into it and sending thy Thoughts as Spies to view this Promised Land But art thou at Rest from thy Labours This among others thy Work follows thee and hath here erected thy lasting Monument Where ever thou wer 't Buried Obscurity shall not swallow thee Every good Heart that knew thee is thy Tomb and every Tongue writes thee an Epitaph Good Men speak well of thee but above all God delights in thee Thy Thoughts were still fluttering upwards richly fraught with Divine Meditations and ever aspiring till unlading themselves in the Bosom of thy Beloved We are hugely thankful that a few dropt from thee for the Comfort and Example of fainting weeping Mortals below Thou lived'st in deed whilst others live only in shew and hast changed thy Place but not thy Company But my Paper is short and my time shorter I must therefore conclude for the Book is wholly Printed and stops only until I have told thee that I am Thy Friend and Servant till Death c. In Praise of the Author of the Mourning-Ring with the Explanation of the Frontispiece Annext to his Book WIth sighs and groans and plunged Eyes attend The doleful Map of every Mortals End Enter the Sable House of Weeping see The lively Scene of Humane Misery Our Reverend Author could not stop a stream Of tears when treating on so sâ—d a Theme Survey these pious Lines and there you 'l find The lively Pourtraict of the Authors Mind In tears he preacht with tears he seem'd to write And may be term'd the Christian Heraclite He wrote he spoke 'em thus whoever says Needs not another word to speak their praise Since all must follow him or soon or late His pattern let us strive to imitate Our Entrance and our Exit seem to meet Our Swadling Bands almost our Winding-sheet Poor Man from Mother Earth does just arise Then looks abroad returns again and dies Some forty years perhaps with much ado He has prolong'd his tedious Life unto Then under Griefs and Cares he sinks away His Carkass mouldring into native Clay See where his Friends surround the Sacred Urn Where all his fond Relations fondly Mourn And when the Solemn Bell does sadly call The drooping Pomp attends his Funeral How he from Fortunes store can only have A narrow Coffin and a scanty Grave Happy thrice happy they who had the Grace To fix their Treasures in a better place Who e're from hence they did their Lodgings move Were careful to lay in a Stock above Those Death may wound but never can destroy Their House of Weeping proves an House of Joy W. S. Another on the Frontispiece SEest thou frail Man the Emblem of thy State Th' exact Idea of thy hasting Fate The Figure 's drawn to th' Life yea ev'ry part Is grac'd and deckt with more than Zeuxian Art The first Scene shows when Man 's laid out for dead When th' sprightly Soul from the Body 's gone and fled His mournful Friends no longer can endure The lifeless Corps therefore they do immure And shut it close up in a Sable Hearse As totally unfit for all Commerce O're which they showre such store of tears that they Mourning exhaust their Moisture and decay With sorrow wounded Hearts they sob and cry Themselves to death they take their turns to die Because one's death from th'
which was first by a life of Vegetation then of Sense 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 Baptism 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 Spiritual 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 the manner of dying AMongst Men it is a matter of chief mark the manner of a man's death The chief good of Man is his good departure out of this life Before you die set your house in order He that hath not a house yet hath a soul no soul can want affairs to set in order for this final dissolution The chief grace of the Theatre is the last Scene It is the Evening that Crowns the day and we think it no good sign of a fair Morrow when the Sun sets in a Cloud The end Crowns every Work Most men wish a short Death because death is always accompanied with pain We die groaning To lie but an hour under Death is tedious but to be dying a whole day we think beyond the strength of humane patience He that desires to be dissolved and be with Christ dies not only patiently but delightfully Happy is he that after due preparation dies ere he be aware so likewise is he happy that by long sickness sees death afar off for the one dies like Elias the other like Elisha both blessedly The best posture to be found in when Death comes is in the exercise of our calling Press saith St. Paul towards the mark for the prize of the high calling Phil. 3. A good Man by his good will would die praying and do as the Pilgrim doth go on his way singing and so adds the pains of singing to that of going Who yet by this surplus of pain unwearies himself of pain But some wretches think God rather curious than they faulty if a few sighs with a Lord have mercy upon us be not enough at the last gasp But commonly good Men are best at last even when they are dying It was a Speech worthy the commendation and frequent remembrance of so divine a Bishop as Augustine which is reported of an aged Father in his time who when his Friends comforted him on his sick bed and told him they hoped he should recover answered If I shall not die at all well but if ever why not now Surely it is folly what we must do to do unwillingly I will never think my Soul in a good case so long as I am loth to think of dying There is no Spectacle in the World so profitable or more terrible than to behold a dying man to stand by and see a man dismanned Curiously didst thou make me in the lowest part of the Earth saith David but to see those Elements which compounded made the Body To see them divided and the man dissolved is a rusul sight Every dying man carries Heaven and Earth wrapped up in his bosom and at this time each part returns homeward Certainly death hath great dependency on the course of man's life and life it self is as frail as the Body which it animates Augustus Caesar accounted that to be the best death which is quick and unexpected and which beats not at our doors by any painful sickness So often as he heard of a man that had a quick passage with little sense of pain he wished for himself that Euthanafie While he lived he used to set himself between his two friends Groans and Tears When he died he called for his Looking-glass commanded to have his Hair and Beard kembed his reviled Cheeks smoothed up Then asking his Friends if he acted his part well when they answered Yes why then says he do you not all clap your hands for me Despair in dying may as well arise from weakness of Nature as from trouble of Mind But by neither of these can he be prejudiced that hath lived well Raving and other strange Passions are many times rather the effect of the Disease than coming from the mind For upon Death's approaches choler fuming to the Brain will cause distempers in the most patient Soul In these cases the fairest and truest judgment to be made is that sins of sickness occasioned by violence of Disease in a patient man are but sins of infirmity and not to be taken as ill signs or presages A Son of so many Tears cannot but be saved I will not despair in respect of that man's impatient dying whom the Worm of Conscience had not devoured living Seldom any enter into Glory with ease yet the Jews say of Moses His soul was sucked out of his mouth with a kiss David in this case the better to make his way prayed and cried Lord spare me a little O spare me that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more Indeed to Ezekias some Years of Days were lent But we are not worthy of that favour we must not expect that God will bring back the shadow of degrees when once it is gone down in the Dial of Ahaz we must time it as we may and be content to live and die at uncertainties Therefore as a sick man hearkens to the Clock so let us watch Death For sudden coming of Death finding a weak soul unprepared makes it desperate and leaves it miserable Death approaching what our last Thoughts should be SEneca saith the last day judgeth all the precedent The last is the best dying words are weightiest and make deepest impressions Our last thoughts are readiest to spend themselves upon somewhat that we loved best while we lived The soul it self when it is entring into glory breaths Divine things At this time a good man's tongue is in his breast not in his mouth his words are then so pithy and so pectoral that he cries O Lord Jesus take thine own into thy own custody Anatomists say there are strings in a man's tongue which go to his heart when these break Man speaks his heart Oh that they were wise said Moses and would understand and fore-see their latter end When he was dying Christs last words in the Bible
are Surely I come quickly Our answer is Amen Even so come Lord Jesus c. I have but small acquaintance with the future State but this I 'm sure there will be no change that will be so surprizing to me as that By Death It is a thing of which I know but little and none of the millions of Souls that have past into the invisible World have come again to tell me how it is I. It must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A dismal and Mysterious change When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere wing away When Time shall be Eternity and thou Shalt be thou know'st not what and live thou know'st not how II. Amazing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in the Clouds as if to thee Our very knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more sad retinue find Sickness and pain before and darkness all behind III. Some courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be You warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to dye But you having shot the Gulph delight to see Succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty IV. When Life 's close knot by writ from Destiny Disease shall cut or age unty When after some delays some dying strife The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life With what a dreadful Curiosity Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity V. So when the spacious Globe was delug'd o're And lower holds could save no more On th' utmost Bough th' astonish'd Sinners stood And view'd th' Advances of th' encroaching Flood O're topp'd at length by th' Elements encrease With horror they resign'd to the untry`d Abyss It is very desirable to know in what condition our Souls will be when they leave the Body and what is the Nature of that abode into which we must go but which we never saw into and through what Regions we must then take our flight and after what manner this will be done 'T is certain my Soul will then preserve the faculties that are natural to it viz. to understand to will to remember as 't is represented to us under the Parable of Dives and Lazarus But alas we little know how the People of the disembodied Societies act and will and understand and communicate their thoughts to one another and therefore I long to know it What conception can I have of a separated Soul says a late Writer but that 't is all Thought I firmly think when a mans body is taken from him hy Death he is turned into all Thought and Spirit How great will be his Thought when it is without any hinderance from these material Organs that now obstruct its Operations In that Eternity as one expresses it the whole power of the Soul runs together one and the same way In Eternity the Soul is united in its Motions which way one faculty goes all go and the Thoughts are all concentred as in one whole Thought of Joy or Torment These things have occasioned great variety of Thoughts in me and my Soul when it looks towards the other World and thinks it self near it can no more cease to be inquisitive about it than it can cease to be a Soul Tears FOR A Dead Husband WHen Mary came where Jesus was and saw him she fell down at his feet saying unto him Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not died Jo. 11. 32. She wept indeed yet it was but for a Brother and the Jews also wept vers 33. yet it was but for a common Friend But what was all that to the death of a Husband O my Husband my Husband That very name of Husband methinks would flatter me with comfort as if I might imagin that he could hear me But oh he is dead he is dead He cannot hear me he cannot behold me he cannot answer me His Ears are locked up his Eyes are closed his mouth is sealed his Soul is gone O what shall I do for my head my guide my heart my Husband Were my Saviour upon Earth again I could send one to him as Mary did who should say Lord behold he whom thou lovest is dead Dead say Iâ— O dead dead he is gone he is departed and can never be recalled But why Why can he not be called back again Did not my Jesus cause Lazarus to arise when he had been four days dead ver 39. Yes he did But what then I neither love my Saviour so well as Mary did nor I fear doth he love me so well as he did Mary or if both were so yet since Miracles are ceased I cannot so much as hope that he will call back the Spirit of my Lord my Husband Oh could he be wooed by the Tears of a sinful Woman never did any mourn so much as I would But nothing will perswade I seek but the disturbance of him whom I mourn for if I desire to call him from his eternal rest When Sarah died in Kirjath-Arba Abraham stood up from before his deceased Wife and spake unto the Sons of Heth saying I am a stranger and a Sojourner with you Give me a Possession and a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23. 3 4. Though he so tenderly affected her whilst she was living yet he would not look too long on her when she was dead It is a duty as full of humanity to interr with decency the Bodies of the dead as it is of Religion to love the Persons when they are alive Yet vain is man in this affection if he fixeth his love only on the beauty of the body This flesh which is so tender this skin which I strive to preserve both smooth and white must one day be a banquet for the loathed Worms No greater priviledge belongeth to me than did to my Husband for the time will come when I shall follow him to the Earth Had I loved only his outward form my love should now either be quite forgotten or else I should fondly desire to deny it interment But it was his body enlivened with a rich and excellent Soul which drew mine affection and commanded my desires Had that Soul and body continued their Society I had been freed from my laments but they have bid farewell till the general Resurrection and hence am I enforced to utter my complaints I weep for my loss because we are divorced But oh what conflicts then can I imagin that he had when he was not only to part from his indeared Wife but likewise his Soul was to leave this chillowed Earth Oh for him for him for my loss of him do I pay the tribute of these watering Eyes Yet these tears must not flow in too great abundance lest by them I should seem to envy his happiness Even when his body shall be