is the earth the common receptacle of the living and of the dead other Elements serve us in our life her service continues after death when our funerall fires have turn'd us to ashes when the Aire our Breath hath left us and the water belcht us up shee is to our tossed bodies a shore to our bodies turn'd to ashes an Urne to our bodies out of breath a place of Repose a Seat to rest in Thus much of my second part our returne to the earth I now come to our returne as the end of evills Hercules his Pillars were the terme of his Travailes the terme of his life was the terme of his labours Life and Labour goe hand in hand death and rest hence some did conclude it the prime good not to be borne the next to dye speedily Plinie thought so well of death that he conceived no other end of venemous Herbes than to rid men out of life siquando taedio esset when it grew wearisome But seek not said Solomon death in the errour of your lives Death is not to bee hastened and need not bee feared never did Pinace arrive at the blessed Islands that first passed not through the straights of Death God and Nature have set them between us and home There is a place sayes Iob meaning the grave where there is no order and yet this for our comfort there is no tumultuous confusion for Pompey and Caesar are at peace the Senate and the people nay Rome and Carthage Fortune there rules no Orbe anger and revenge lye chained up and they that divide the Empire of our living world pride ambition injustice fraud covetousnesse oppression have not so much as one little Province 'T was well done of Nature that condemned us not to any long stay here that cuts off our sins with our thred and our paines with our lives for did not men weep oftner before the floud than after and did not old Priamus shed more teares than young Troilus to all that float upon the troubled waves of this world there is one common and universall Haven the haven of death and yet even there in the very haven doe all men suffer ship-wrack which casts me on my fourth and last part the discourse on death as death is an evill Sin and the punishment of sin are members adequally dividing humane evils the former presupposed no evill or privation it presupposed imperfection in him that sinned as mutabilitie of will which is no evill or privation for it is universally actually in all individuals but no privation is actually affirmed of the whole species the later presupposed evill an inordination in free actions or omissions called Malum culpae which in Gods justice is payed with that other called Malum poenae the evill of punishment to which member I reduce the hate of Nature the last enemy the last of evils Death but not the least Can that be the least of evils which is so abhorred of all those appetites which God hath printed in the soule to wit the naturall animall and rationall Does not the nutritive facultie earnestly labour to maintaine us in being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Aristotle Mor. 1. even when wee are asleep Does not the irascible defend our being and the concupiscible together with the generative propagate it Does not that universall facultie as Suarez cals it the will love and desire the being and well being of all inferiour parts Shew mee but any thing of the most obscure being that desires not to maintaine that being and I shall the sooner with the Egyptians believe two Gods that made the nature of things the one good the other bad Stay then take notice see and be amazed too to see by what strange wayes and windings the derived rivers become tributarie to the sea all things flow from the deep of divine goodnesse see how hee fetches them back againe hee hath made them all at least by some analogie to love him in that they love themselves for they are drops of the bucket and so much as they love themselves which are by participation so much they must needs love him which is of himselfe they cannot love to bee but they must love him who swallowes up in his infinitenesse of being all being whose nature and essence it is to be let me tell you of a paradox if there bee any in afflicted Jobs case that weep that they died not from the womb that blesse the barren mother and the paps that never gave suck even these the damned spirits and unhappie soules out of a meere love to their being desire not to be such is our love to our being and God himselfe glories to say of himselfe I am and yet this our being does death as far as it can destroy Againe can that bee the least of evils which drownes in teares the eyes of widdowes and orphans that leaves the streets as a green field and changes the palaces of Princes into lodges of Bats and Owles that had not God for a father not Nature for a mother till she was adulterate that is ushered in by a thousand evils the sword pestilence and famine excesse in labour excesse in pleasure lingring griefe and sudden mirth with a thousand more Now that death is a passage from these to a more blessed mansion from these cloudy regions to those enlightned by the Lord God it is no thank to death death is still the ruine of Nature the demolisher of Gods Worke this is the goodnesse and power of God who will raise us againe out of the dust and the dark grave and then will blesse us and shew us the light of his countenance and say in the end of the world as hee said in the beginning let there be light and there shall bee light a light that no Cloud from thenceforth shall dim that shall never set to which light hee lighten us who lighteth every man nay who is that very light and for Iesus Christ his sake our onely Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS The second Sermon ECCELES. 12.1 Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth THE Text naturally falls into these parts First an act Remember Secondly the object of that act and that first in a generall notion as the Creatour Secondly in a speciall with this restraint or appropriation thy Creatour Thirdly the time when set forth three wayes First in thy youth Secondly in the dayes of thy youth Thirdly now in the dayes of thy youth First of the act Remember But because the memorie of any thing does of necessitie suppose the former knowledge of that here comes in another act layd downe by way of supposition that we know God First then of this supposed Supremum in homine sayes S. August de Civit. Dei attingit supremum in mundo The noblest faculty in the little world man reacheth to the noblest thing in the great world God the builder of heaven and earth When God in the creation did
of the Historie that man is of the earth witnesse the like qualities of his nutriment his sinking in the water melancholy his compact flesh the drynesse of his bones the constancy of his figure and that which is not of least moment the base worldling that has fixt his eyes on the earth and by his life-preaching Gentilisme does sacrifice at Vesta's Altars and calls her the mother of gods and men it may be Lucretius read his Pedigree where hee tells of men whom the earth after certaine conversions of the heaven growne big brought forth and nursed with her owne milke But let the Poet dreame of prodigious birthes we know that God made man of the earth I doe not say as some did fetcht from the foure extremities of the earth to shew that his Dominion and the world had the same bounds but of earth First that wee might the more joy in our Ascension to heaven and glorifie our Maker for raising our heavie bodies to so high a place above the Ayre above the Fire above the Moon and though Leucippus taught {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that the Orb of the Sunne was the supreame Orb above the Sunne above all the Starres except those that praysed him in the morning Iob. 38. The blessed Angels whose early harmony eccho'd to the harmony of the new borne world Secondly of earth that we might have from whence to raise our soules but not why to raise our Crests that great ones might not look too big on the poore but resemble in this that glorious Planet the bright eye of the World the Sun the higher it is the lesse it looks that they might consider the humble shrub lives in Mount Lebanon as well as the stately Cedar and many times lives longer alway safer that 't is somecimes in States as in nature that gives to lighter bodies the higher place that all faces are drawn in dust though some in illustrious dust that very Cyrus who in his time was writ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} now begs his memorie as Strabo writes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} O man I am Cyrus he that stiled himselfe great from the Empire of the earth stood but like the Embleme of inconstancie with his foot upon a Globe a slippery Globe earth upon earth he and poor Diogenes lived both but for a time and both in a time though not both in a Tub and Plutarch sayes they dyed both in one day Death you see makes no difference and Christ himselfe seemes to make none 't is noted to this purpose that on the mount there appeared with him Moses and Elias the one in his younger yeares was a mightie man in Aegypt after a leader of Gods people the other alway poore cold and hungrie cloathed with Goats haire Away then with that Knave Lisippus that must needs paint Alexander with a Thunder-bolt in his hand with Caligula that set his head on Jupiters shoulders and with Darius that by all meanes must bee a god though but for thirtie dayes better was that speculation of Philip the Macedonian who on a time falling and viewing in the dust his length cryed out Lord what a little portion of earth is not content with the whole earth he well took notice that as he had falne on the earth so hee came from the earth which is my first part and should returne to the earth which is my second {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rhet. 2. Arist. who knowes not that he shall dye to consult about an escape were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} seriously to deliberate what course a man might take that the Sun should nor rise or set I have read of Temples dedicated to Feares but that no people did ever consecrate a Priest or Temple to death as being well knowne to bee inexorable who have not heard of the gates of Death who knowes not that they lye open and that for him yet because Evills that may bee farre off doe not much affect and wee while the bloud runs hot in our veines put farre from us that frozen and benumbed age as if eternall Hebe or Youth fild our Cups as Poets say shee does their Joves it will not be out of place or time in the middle of Summer to admonish of Winter 't was the Devills policy in old time to have the dead buried without the Walls out of sight that the living might not lay it to heart he that steeres well must sit at the end of his Boat and 't is the good Politician {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} when danger is farre off then to suppose it neate in this respect it cannot bee out of season this is my second part our returne to the earth The whole man came not from earth and therefore cannot returne to the earth the soule shall goe to places deputed to her the body to the earth one and the same our Mother our Nurse our House our Tombe that these two should part proceeds from causes Morall and Naturall the Morall cause is sinne that made a separation of God from the soule then followed a separation of the soule from the body for God made not Death neither taketh the Potter pleasure in bruising an earthen Pitcher two things I may safely say cannot God make a God and Sin of these take the word properly he has no Idea The Naturall causes of Death are either externall or internall exrernall O that I could number them I should then learne to number my dayes the internall cause is the mutuall conflict of contrarie qualities the brain being cold the Stomack and the Liver hot the Bones drie and the Reines moyst the soule comes from the Father of Spirits it selfe a Spirit into a body whose principles exercise naturall and irreconcileable enmitie me thinks at her first entrance into an house so divided against it selfe she should looke about her like that fellow in Libanius that comming home and finding painted on his Wall two ready and instructed Armies cries out {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} who has made my house a Military Campe The members of every mans body are at continuall Warre wee may bee at peace with forraine enemies our domestick are alway in armes 'T is false that Solinus writes of a people in Iurie that are so equally mixt their temper so arithmeticall without excesse defect or jarre ut aeternagons sit cessantibus puerperiis that there is alway the same number of people and yet no children borne Who shall make me believe that Iurie or any part or Jurie is exempted from death since life it selfe our Lord and Saviour Jesus did dye in Jurie Death erects her Trophies as well in Iuries as Greece and in Greece as Scythia her victories are here above her Captives lie below God made the face of the earth to bee inhabited sin and death the bowells this is the place of them that live that of them that have lived Thus
hath wisely knit together intending the one for the laxation yet continuance of the other {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The finall cause of rest is labour Arist. Ethic 10. Now penall labour there is a continuall succession of these two the end of the one is the beginning of the other the one is from justice the other from mercie Now let Anaxagoras look up and see whether heaven be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} all of stone To be is good but to be doing is the good and end of being wee perfect our selves by action for the defects of nature are supplyed by habits and habits acquired by actions which so long as they are simply voluntarie are pleasant once forced become tedious so much as they have of constraint so much of griefe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rhet. Arist. 1. Violence is beside nature and therefore hath griefe annexed to it These painfull actions which my text cals for are of the same nature with those that Aristotle cals {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} partly voluntary partly violent for as the poore man parts with his purse to a thiefe yet would not doe it but to save his life setting the lesse evill in the place of good so wee spend our spirits in some actions not because they are pleasing to the will but because they are necessarie partly to satisfie the Law partly for the attaining partly for the ornament partly for the maintenance of happinesse supposing then that we efficaciously will this end or happinesse wee necessarily will these penall actions as meanes to the end no other way to be purchased For our condition is not like that of the Lillies which are cloathed and spin not nor that of the little Lambs whom their mothers bring forth in the mountaines wrapt in naturall rags against the injuries of the aire neither is it with us as they say it was with Mercury who was borne in the morning found playing on the lute at noone and driving of oxen at night wee are first infants then boyes then youths how many are the wants of these ages and when wee come to be men wee espy more and are faine to double our paines the more our knowledge is the more intense are our desires and our desires employ our members the vast capacitie of our soules and our large wills adde much to our travaile the appetite of bruits is terminated here below ours ranges about the earth the sea the aire attempts heaven with waxen wings mounts up to Angels to God himselfe and rests not there which very unrestinesse though it be full of anxietie Non enim est absque dolore quòd aliquis perfectionem appetat Aquin. Comment on Ethic. seeme to me wonderfully to exalt man above other creatures that whereas they al disport themselves in some slender rivulets of good onely man looks to that boundlesse and bottomlesse deep the Deitie of his Maker not to be sounded not to be compast You have heard the sentence that God hath past on the sons of men and that an heavie sentence yet me thinks easier than if he had condemned us to doe nothing this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Aristotle termes it contradicts not only the nature of the soule whose verie being is to be and whose well being is to be well doing but also the whole nature of things Could a man stand in Delph which Cosmographers call Vmbilicum terrae the very navell of the earth and turne his eyes to all positions of place to the right hand to the left behind before above and beneath hee should find them all meet and conspire to smother or expose this spurious or supposititious brat and shall man father it and harbour it in his bosome Goe to the little Bees thou sluggard Pullos vel triduanos ad pensam vocant they set their little ones their task at three dayes old nec insenectute in fucos degenerant neither turne they Drones in their old ages Next turne to the Ant and see her wayes what are those wayes Ask the naturall Historian Etiam per saxa silices vestigia videas semitas Thou mayest find her steps and paths upon the hardest flints So often does that little yet exemplary creature trudge this way and that way backward and forward to store her earthy granarie and keep off a winter famine Now if there be any to whom God hath dealt so liberall a portion of these temporall goods as that they need not labour to prevent either want or cold or famine even to these also do I preach In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate thy bread they that sit on high so high that the poor below seeme {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no bigger than Ants sayes Lucian are not alway to sit still qualitie and condition exempt not from labour but from the manner of labour and therefore does Solomon set the Spider that embleme of industrie in that she spins her Web out of her owne bowells to spin even in the Courts of Princes though she has beene often swept out for her labour Why now should the sluggard yet fold his armes why should he for fortie fiftie sixtie yeares rest those bones to whom nature owes so long a rest surely his soule is crept into his bodie to the same end that Epimenides did into his Den to sleepe out sixty yeares he forgets how long a rest he is like to take in the grave hee and all the travellers of the earth let the poore labouring man he that grinds in the Mill the hireling whose paines are trebled by the sins of great ones solace himselfe with this that this day shall end in a night not like the nights of the yeare which after a few houres give place to the day nor like that in Ogyges his time famous for nine monthes but longer and more shadie where Abel has slept almost from the foundation of the world where Israel makes not nor Aegyptian Pharaohs tire the people with building Pyramids where silent Nations sleep in beds of Clay and shall not rise nor wake nor rub their eyes till the Trumpet shall sound in their eares and heaven and earth inflamed shall light them new start up to Christs Tribunall Thus much of our sufferings the terme of suffering followes in these words Till thou returne to the earth where you may take notice of foure things the first implyed our comming from the earth the second exprest our returne to the earth First as the end of evills Secondly as it selfe an evill First of the part implyed our comming from the earth Luc. Iun. Brutus consulting with the Oracle who should be Consull received this answer That he should be Consull that first kissed his mother he by and by fell on his face kissed the earth returned home and was created Consull Romes first Consull beside the faith