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A18977
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A monument of mortalitie vpon the death and funerals, of the gracious prince, Lodovick, late Duke of Richmond and Lenox: Earle of New-castle, and Darnley, &c. ... By Iames Cleland Doctor in Diuinitie and domestick chaplaine to his Grace.
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Cleland, James, d. 1627.
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1624
(1624)
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STC 5396; ESTC S108068
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29,880
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72
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daily his soule hath a bright cleare neate wit and vnderstanding in it so hath it a blinde will and foule affections the one part of his soule is reasonable the other part altogether brutish and full of sensualitie so that Man by Reason of the Philosophers must Die. Againe what saith Nature is there a generatur there must bee a corrumpitur euery oritur must haue a moritur is there an introitus there must bee an interitus euery beginning must haue an ending Wee receiue a life of Nature to render it wee enter into a life to goe out of it There is not an intrat without an exit in this life's Tragedie a very Tragedie I say for the most part because wee are all borne crying wee crie dying wee come in with moane and goe out with a groane let life haue leaue to flaunt and braue it a while on the Stage of the world yet all but a flourish all is but a flash Death still playes Rex strikes all the Actors one after one with a mortall blow there may bee a little mirth in the middest but Death at the last strongly steps vp and grimly comes in with a terrible Epilogue and concludes all and Death makes an end so Death in the end is the end of the Play for wee must all Die God and Nature are agreed vpon the point her dutifull submission to his Imperious Must must needes make all men mortall all men Die All both good and bad are Actors on this stage of Mortalitie euery one acting a part as I haue said some of lesse some of greater dignitie and the Play being ended Exeunt omnes euery one goes off the stage and as Chesse-men without difference they are swept from the table of this World wherein one was a King another a Queene a third a Bishop or Knight into Earths bagge onely this distinction being betwixt good and bad that the good are Actors of a Comedie and howsoeuer they beginne they end merrily but the bad are Actors of a Tragedie and howsoeuer they beginne or proceed yet their end miserable their Catastrophe lamentable And to conclude this point as the tree falleth so it lieth Eccles 11. 3. On euery mans particular Death his particular iudgement attendeth either of the soules eternall blisse in heauen or euerlasting woe in hell which all the praises prayers and preaching of men Saints or Angels cannot reuerse A consideration by the miscreant Atheist much contemned by the temporizing Politician greatly neglected by the carnall Gospeller slightly regarded by the Popes pardon purchasing and pickpurse-Purgatorie beleeuing Papist corruptly entertained and by very few of the best Professors so sincerely and seriously thought on and embraced as it ought to bee For it is the great fault not onely of great men whose greatnesse maketh them too often forgetfull of goodnesse but euen of vs all high and lowe rich and poore great and small that wee neuer thinke on Death or prepare to Die till wee finde and feele wee can no longer liue Yea wee so embrace admire adore and dote vpon this glittering World and are so loath to leaue the ruinous Tabernacle of our corruptible flesh that wee are not content or willing to goe to heauen till wee see there is no remedie wee can stay no longer on earth yet Die must all Experience likewise teacheth vs we must all Die to day our Superiours to morrow our inferiours euen now our equals Die while wee are liuing Looke aboue vs belowe within without and round about vs all tell vs wee must all once Die Consider we the things that are about vs wee shall see the apparell on our backes made of the wooll of beasts that are Dead the silke wee weare wrought by worms which Died in the worke the gloues on our hands the shooes on our feet the skinnes of Sheepe or Neat who lost their liues to couer our nakednesse The meate on our tables the members of creatures that haue died to maintaine our liues But what neede haue wee of these demonstrations and resemblances to conuince vs of our Mortalitie since we haue both a continuall sight of it in others in our parents brethren kinsfolke neighbours and acquaintance which are gone the way of all flesh before vs and also a daily sense of it in our selues by the aches of our bones heauinesse of our bodies dimnesse of our eyes deafnesse of our eares trembling of our hands baldnesse of our heads graynesse of our haires that very shortly wee must follow after them Nay doe wee not consider that our eyes euery night Die to sleepe to shew vs in last wee must sleepe in Death the haire of our heads the nailes of our fingers calling so often for polling and paring tell vs that the whole body must shortly be shaued by Death Our stomacke still digesting our meate and crauing for more sheweth vs the insatiable manner of the graue that hauing eaten and digested our Ancesters gapeth for vs and when it hath deuoured vs will hunger also for our Successours The wormes take possession of vs almost as soone as wee doe of life and haue bespoken vs euen in our cradles for their fellowes that await vs on earth Thus Death is alreadie in vs and on vs wee it on our faces by wrinkles wee beare it in our browes whose furrowes are the emblemes of the Graue wee put it on our backes in our clothes and are clad in Death from top to toe wee cramme it in our mouthes with our meate wee haue it in our bones wee carrie the hansell of it in our bowels shew me where Death is not yet alas the Deuill doth dease vs the World doth so blinde vs and the sensualitie of the Flesh maketh vs so extremely senselesse that we neither heare nor see nor feele what lieth so heauie vpon vs. If wee be young wee feare not Death at our backes if sicke wee feele not Death treading on our heeles if old we looke asquint and see not Death before our eyes such is our dulnesse that neither Gods Word Reason nor Experience can teach vs We must all once die The first proofe of those three testimonies on earth should perswade al those who beleeue in God the second those who follow the light of Nature the third all sort of people Though we had neither Reason nor Experience to tell vs Wee must die yet Gods Word is sufficient to euince it though the Word of God proued it not yet Reason and Experience would force vs to beleeue it though we had neither the one nor the other of Gods Word and Reason Experience alone were enough to open all mens eyes in the World good or bad faithfull or vnfaithful wise or fooles We must all dye How euident then this Statute is you may easily obserue by these three cleere lights of the World whereof euery one of them apart or by it selfe is more then sufficient to proue this sentence We must all once die Whereof the first sheweth
effect is not As the great God who is the iudge of Life and Death hath disposed of the life of this great Duke by so fatall and mournfull Death to the end al that depend on Princes should know they be the effects of his great Iustice and that they put not their trust in Princes nor in the Psal 146. 3. Sonne of man in whom there is no helpe or else to shew that the World and all her greatnesse are but a shadow dust and a puffe of winde Now seeing we haue beene euery way sufficiently taught by Gods Word Reason and Experience by the Ancient and Prophane Poets and Philosophers that there is no sure rest or residence for vs in this World and that heere we haue no continuing Citie but liue euery day and houre in such vncertaintie that the highest healthiest holiest happiest among men cannot promise to themselues to morrow let vs esteeme of euery present day as the day of our Death and make such a conscience of all our Wayes Words and Workes as if we were presently to giue an account of our life Hee that thinketh alwayes of Dying will bee circumspect in his doing The Meditation of Death is a Christian mans Philosophie and rightly vsed may well bee termed mentis ditatio the enriching of the mind O let vs therefore as carefull Christians be continually exercised in this studie and as cheerefull and faithfull Professors bee alwayes busied in performing those righteous and religious duties which wee would doe if wee were Dying and because that Death in all places wayteth for vs let vs expect it euerie houre suspect it euerie where and be at all times prepared for it Especially at this time let the dreadfull spectacle of Death before our eyes in this my Monument be as a shrill Trumpet sounding aloud that message of Isaiah to Ezechiah in our eares that it may sinke deepe in our hearts Set thy Isa 38 1. house in order for thou must Dye and shall not liue Dispose of thy temporall affaires leaue not thy Lands intangled thy substance intested to be a cause of variance to thy posteritie make thy Will doe it in time whilest thy thoughts are free thine affections stayed and thy Reason not distracted with feare or senses disturbed with paines so shall thy Testament be testatio mentis a witnesse of thy mind Whereas on the contrarie if thou put ouer the disposing of thine estate to that troublesome time of sicknesses when thine head aketh hand shaketh thy tongue faultereth thine heart fainteth and euery part is pained it may iustly bee feared that neither thy words or writing will so expresse thy meaning but that thou shalt be easily drawne to make a Will after anothers minde rather then thine owne Death hath a thousand Diseases to kill vs by which made the Cabalist Rabbins obserue nine hundred and seuen sorts of naturall Deaths vpon this Verse of Dauid Vnto God the Lord Psal 68. 20. belong the issues of Death not counting the infinite number of violent Deaths by which a man may Dye And to speake apparantly to truth there is a greater number of Deadly Diseases and sicknesses in a man then there are Bones Veines Sinewes Muscles Arteries Tennons and all the parts of a Mans bodie Cut vp an Anatomie and consider euery particular part of mans bodie and you shall not seeke nor find one ioynt free from the darts of Death She can kill vs in the Head by an Apoplexie by a Syncope in the Eyes by blindnesse Ophthalmies and Suffusions in the Eares by deafensse and runnings in the Nose by bleeding in the Mouth by Cankers in the Tongue by Swelling and Vlcers in the Throat by Angines and Squinances in the Stomacke by rawnesse and coldnesse in the Liuer with obstructions the Spleene with hardnesse in the Belly or Bowels with the Collicke in the Kidnies with grauell in the heart with beatings or pantings in the Sides with Pleurisies in the Hands in the Feet and Toes with the Gowt Knots and Crampes To conclude our whole Bodie and Members are seized on by these ordinary Diseases and such Besides a sudden Death may seize on you you may Dye in sleeping or in sounding or fainting as we see daily infinite Examples A man may bee murthered in the field as Abell was Gen. 4. 8. a man may fall backward sitting quietly in his 1. Sam. 4. 48. Chaire and breake his necke as Ely did or Isa 37. 37. Die in the Temple as Senacherib or at the Altar as Ioab While Iobs Sonnes were feasting 1. Reg. 2. 34. the house fell vpon them While the scoffing Boyes were mocking of Gods Prophet Beares 2. Reg. 2. came from the Wildernesse and deuoured them Num. 16. 31. When Corah and his company were contending the Earth opened and swallowed them In a word all our Life is but a Consumption vnto Death sorrowes of minde and sick nesses of the bodie are but the Harbengers of the graue Search the Gospell you shall finde one blind another deafe the third lame One Lazar lying at Diues gate another at the Poole Luke 16. 24. of Bethesda a third at the beautifull gate of the Temple you shall find heere a Leper crying there a woman with an Issue of Bloud adoring Here the house vntiled by the sick of the Palsie there the Graues haunted by men possessed of Deuils We cannot saith Saint Augustine tell what to call our life whether a Dying life or a liuing Death when euery day our houses of clay doe cramble to corruption Set therefore thine house in order now that thy soule bee not wearied when thou art at Deaths doore or on thy Death-bed with secular affaires Yea set thine heart in order also and forth-with dispose of thy soule to cast vp her reckonings turne thy selfe as Ezekiah did to the Wall that is from the World to God Consider what thou hast beene examine thy selfe what thou art premeditate what thou shalt be Thinke on thy naked Natiuitie and blush for shame sigh for griefe on Deaths approching tyrannie and tremble for feare or rather that thou mayest bee freed from feare griefe and shame Weepe as Ezekiah did bewayle thy sinnes past keepe a narrow watch 2. Reg. 20 3. Psal 126. ouer thine heart for the time to come Sow in teares that thou mayst reape in ioy Lastly not to leaue so good a patterne in any point vnfollowed which no doubt was practized by this our Prince pray too as Ezekiah did though thou canst not in the same manner Lord remember how I haue walked before thee in synceritie and truth yet to the same effect for mercie as Dauid did Lord remember Psal 25. 7. not the sinnes of my youth And as Saint Ambrose Amb. in Psal 38. did Lord forgiue mee my faults heere where I haue sinned for else-where I cannot be releeued except I haue my pardon heere it is in vaine to expect the restfull comfort of forgiuenesse hereafter Now