Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
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A04393
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Moses his sight of Canaan with Simeon his dying-song. Directing how to liue holily and dye happily. By Steuen Jerome, late preacher at St. Brides. Seene and allowed.
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Jerome, Stephen, fl. 1604-1650.
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1614
(1614)
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STC 14512; ESTC S100256
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249,259
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535
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to death to know that the minute or the moment of thy afflictions here shall be succeeded nay exceeded with an eternall waight of glory hereafter at the resurrection of the iust 2 Cor. 4.17.18 Thus the godly Dauid Iob nay Christ himselfe the afflicted Primitiue Christians that vnder Antiochus were racked and tormented sollaced their soules in the midst of their anxeties with this melodious Meditation of the Resurrection Psal 16.9 Iob 19.25 Acts 2.26 Heb. 11.35 Which onely apprehension puls off the vizard from Death pluckes off his Lyon skinne exposeth him as an Hobgoblin or meere scarre-Crow to the godlies dirision Let Atheists and Epicures feare him that haue their portion in this life let Infidels and vnbeleeuers feare him vvhose hopes of any better estate are languishing and faint and perish with their soules let his name be as terrible to carelesse impenitent worldlings as the name of Tamberlaine and Zisca once to Cowards which like guiltie fellons feare the face of the Iudge but let those that haue learned Christ better and know in whom they haue beleeued entertaine it as Cornelius did Peter as the Galathians did Paul as Peter did the Angell that brought him out of Prison as that which makes the happiest exchange of a Mansion terrestriall for a Citie coelestiall a vaile of teares for mount Sion a region of death for the land of the liuing an earthly tabernacle for an house eternall in the Heauens 2 Cor. 5.1 For who is so improuident or imprudent that desires to stay in an old smoakie decayed Cottage ready euery day to fall on his head when the Land-lord offers to reedifie it and to make it better since euen Mise Rats by Natures instinct flye from an house that is inclining to fall Now this clayie Cottage of thy body which is vpheld by the weake prop of breath and vapour is euery day declining blesse the prouidence of the Worlds great Architect that when it fals by resuscitation will raise the frame and the fabricke a thousand times both fairer and firmer then the first Secondly Vse 2. Of Direction let the thought of the Resurrection be as a consolation to thy heart so a direction to thy life Must body and soule meete together and eyther be blessed together or else for euer burne together after their departure and doth their euerlasting weale or woe blisse or bane depend vpon thy good or euill life here Oh then Let vs liue holily to rise ioyfully spinne the short thread of thy abridged life well and worthily that so it may tye a blessed peace to thy soule runne thy short race here well that thou maist obtaine an eternall Crowne hereafter passe the time of thy dwelling here with feare think as once S. Ierome that zealous spirit thought Quoties commedo c. as oft as I eate or drinke or walke or talke or rise vp or lye downe I alwayes heare the Trumpe sounding Surgite mortui c. Arise yee dead and come to Iudgement Thinke of dying and liuing againe of departing and returning of reuiuing and strict vnpartiall iudging which thoughts let them not perish like abortiue fruit but fixe them by these effects First euery day awake out of the sleepe of some sinne ere the darke night of death come now in this lifes light that God lends thee Secondly let it be a spurre to pricke thee to all good and gratious actions Thirdly a bridle to restraine thee from sin both in the action and affection Fourthly let them be meanes to rouze thee from the bed of securitie and to set thee on thy feete as the Angell did Elias in thy iourney toward heauen Fiftly as water poured out to coole the furnace of thy furious affections euen in thy youthfull and burning bloud Sixtly a Diall or watch to direct thee how to spend thy time well Seauenthly as a Fanne to winnow thee from the chaffe of sinne Eightly as a winde to scatter and disperse thy inordinate passions Ninthly as a paile or Parke to keepe thee within thy limits and bounds Tenthly as a Counseller to redeeme thy time Lastly a holy director as it was to Paul himselfe to cause thee in euery thing to endeuour to keepe a good conscience towards God and man Acts 24.15.16 The immortall soule dyes not but departs Thus wee haue seene that the body must returne to take part with the soule after the dissolution the same foundation vvill beare this truth that the soule is dissolued it dyes not for which cause Paul cals his death a dissolution Phil. 1.23 it departs it dyes not therefore Simeon cals death onely a Departing and in the mouth of these two witnesses it is euicted that the soule is immortall Death kils not the soule but onely lets it out as Noahs Doue was let out of the Arke as a man is let out of prison and fetters for Plato cals the body Ergastulum animae the Prison of the Soule as Luther cals it the Asse of the Soule Sómá i. Sémá. and Erasmus Sepulchrum animae the sepulcher of the Soule Now death onely breakes open this prison doore vnties the fetters of the senses vnlooseth this Asse roules away the stone from this Sepulcher le ts out the soule sends graue deorsum leue sursum the grosse body downeward the soaring soule vpward the soule is put here in saccis vilibus in a base sacke as Ioseph put his golden Cup and siluer treasure in Beniamins sacke Now Death like Iosephs Steward opens the sacke naturally or rips it vp violently takes out the treasure vntoucht if any thing perish the sacke is vnripped the body destroyed the soule is as safe as Iosephs siluer for it cannot die being vnmateriall and a forme abiding in it selfe which forme cannot be taken away like roundnesse or squarenesse from a Table because it subsists not in the matter but in it selfe Secondly the soule is impenitrable insufferable it suffers not of any externall agent from the fires heate or ayres coldnesse it receiues no hurt from the frozen Ice of Norway or the scorching Sands of Affricke therefore receiuing nothing whereby it should decay it cannot corrupt or marre or dye since nothing in the whole world is contrary to it Thirdly man is desirous of immortalitie Now how could hee desire it and discusse of it how should man so labour and seeke for immortalitie some by skill and policie some by martiall exploits as Hercules Thesus c. some by Soueraigntie as Alexander and Caesar some by Bookes nay some by villanies as the burners of Diana's Temple vnlesse mans soule were immortall for Ignoti nulla cupid◠Fourthly God by creation infusing it or by infusing creating it gaue vnto it in the first originall the gift of immortalitie Reasons prouing the soules immortalitie Fiftly the rage of conscience in the wicked their soules accusing them of secret sinnes as Caine and Nero and Herod of their murthers Iudas of his Treason c. their inward horrour appearing by
Titus Pauls Scholler wee account him very aged but if hee exceede his hundred as Heroditus writes of some of the Aegyptians and some of Masinissa the Numedian King to an hundred and foure as did Hipocrates or an hundred and fiue with Xenophilus or an hundred and seauen with Terentia or an hundred and eight with Homer or an hundred and tenne with Gnarinus and Helias the Abbot or an hundred and twelue vvith Cyrus a Bishop but chiefely to an hundred and twentie with Romualdus the Hermite we admire and wonder at him as much as former times wondred at their Hermites The shortnes of our present dayes demonstrated And vvell wee may since our life seemes to be but the Epitome and Compendium of former yeeres so short so momentanie that as the Scripture compares it to a flower to grasse to smoake to clay to dust and chaffe which the vvinde scatters to a bubble a blast a breath a vapour a dreame a shadow a Weauers shittle and such fading things so Antiquitie hath called it a winged woman fruitfull of sinnes yet swift Ambrose saith it is like the glory of the world In Lucam which the Tempter shewed CHRIST in the twinckling of an eye like the Vision which Esdras saw vanishing in a moment Esdras 1.8 like Ierusalems Temple that was soone destroyed for as one stone was not left vpon another in that materiall Temple so shortly one bone will not be left vpon another in the temple of the best compacted body liuing which saith Inchinus is nothing else but Carnea glacies fleshie Ice or Icie flesh soone thawed and dissolued a clayie frame saith Pontanus standing on the pillers of a little breath ready euery day it is so ruinous to fall in manus Domini into the Lords hands of whom wee haue it as tennants at will The largest limits of our Lease being but a day for so Dauid and Moses when they play the holy Geometricians and Arithmeticians in measuring and numbring their time goe not by yeeres and moneths but by dayes yea and to some it is but a short Winters day to the longest that liued a Summers day in which hee that hath the most prosperous Sunshine may be compared to those Flyes that breede in the Sunne neare the Riuer Hipanis Aristot de hist animalium which appeare in the Morne are in their full strength at Noone Homâ— Ephimeron and dye at Night Whence came the Prouerbe Hominem esse Ephimeron that man is a continuer for a day beyond which determined day hee cannot here abide Foure causes of the long continuation of things Other things are continued long by extrinsecall meanes or intrinsecall qualities vvithin themselues some by their extreame cold as all sorts of Mettals some by their exceeding heate as Pepper Ginger and the like some by motion as Water and Wine that by motion are kept from putrifaction some by continuation of the parts with the whole as the Sea that corrupts not in the whole but in the parts as may be seene and felt in the creekes in Essex that come from the Sea but man being made mortall and so hauing that Epithite more fitly appropriated to him then any other creature neither by his naturall composition can nor in the wise Gods disposition must continue long vpon the earth neyther can any Physicall meanes preserue him vnlesse a Metaphysicall power doe vphold him and cause him to hold out to his old yeeres as Simeon here did Is Death so certaine and Life so short Vse 4. Of Instruction then let vs learne to bestow it well so long as God lends it Absolon after a long time knew not how to pacifie and appease his Father we haue but a short time allotted to pacifie and appease our displeased GOD therefore let vs speedily labour our reconciliation let vs worke out our saluation with feare and trembling As Abigall speedily met Dauid and appeased his wrath 1 Sam. 25. and as Dauid speedily met the Lord by repentance after his numbring the people 2 Sam. 24.10 and as Peter went out presently and wept bitterly after the denying his Master Mat. 26. So let vs who in the whole course of our life haue as much displeased as wee haue dishonoured our GOD instantly haue recourse to the throne of grace that the Lord may smell the sweet sacrifice of our broken hearts ere wrath goe from the Almightie to our destruction Oh our dayes are few and our sinnes many wee haue beene barren in good fruitfull in euill plentifull in sinning Our many sins are to be mourned for and why penurious in sorrowing If Dauids sinnes were moe then the hayres of his head ours are moe then the sands in the Sea and if hee washt his couch vvith teares vvee had neede wash our soules with flouds of vvaters turning like Niobe into fountaines and like that old conuert Pelagia be Pelagus lachrymarum a Sea of sorrow as wee haue beene vncleane sinckes of sinne nay if wee should now for euer shake hands with sinne and haue no more commerce with the flesh and the world but liue retyredly mortifiedly piously and penitently as the old Hermites pretended and if we should liue Noahs and Nestors yeeres and euery day weepe as much as Mary Magdalene did at her spirituall marriage vvith Christ as much for our selues as the Daughters of Ierusalem did for Christ nay if we should weepe out our eyes like some penitents that Cassianus mentions remembring with Ezekias our former vanities in the bitternesse of our soules it were not a sufficient recompence for our fore-past rebellions nor a satisfactorie sacrifice for our former sinnes But what shall wee say to those that in this short life make a long and a continuated custome of sinne neuer redeeming the time Vse 5. Of Redargution or thinking of their few and euill dayes or of the reckoning they must make when they are expired but passing their time in iollitie singing to the Tabret and the Harpe letting the reynes loose to all licentiousnes making their bellies their God planting here their Turkish Heauen of Wine and Women wallowing like Swine in all lusts like Sardanapalus amongst his wantons seruing no other God then Mammon or Goddesses then Venus making Dogs and Horses or such base Creatures their beloued Idols They thinke no more of death then the stiffe-necked Iewes that made a league with the graue and a Couenant vvith Hell such as some lazy Pastors make vvith their people that if these will neuer trouble them they would neuer thinke of these What is the estate of these that liue merrily as they say like Pope Iohn in corporeall and spirituall pollutions like Pope Ioahn these must trie experimentally vvhat that cursed Pope once ieasted at Atheistically that there are long paines in another life for these that misspend their golden dayes in gracelesse impurities and impieties in this short life The profane mans practise these they both make this their short life shorter