30 Ibid. 28. with the beasts of the field shall never bee blotted out Builde vp your selues your sonnes and families in the feare of God and then your houses and honors shal cōtinue longer then those that build them castles and cal their lands and livings after their owne names Els feare the curse which the Prophet hath pronounced Wo vnto Psal 49. 11. Jer. 22. 13. him that buildeth his house by vnrighteousnes and his chambers without equity and vseth his neighbor without wages and giueth him not for his worke hee saith I will build me a wide house and large chambers so he will make himselfe large windowes and seeling with cedar paint them with vermilion shalt thou raigne because thou closest thy selfe in Cedar Did not thy father eate and drinke and prosper when he executed iudgement Will you continue you name by your numerous progenie and multitude of children descended from your loines So might Ahab haue hoped if his sinnes had not beene a cause to cut of his seed and posterity But we knowe how his seventy sonnes had all their heads laid in a basket 2 King 10. 6 7 2. King 9. 33. on one day his wife Iezabell eaten vp with dogs all his posterity rooted out as the Prophet had pronounced To conclude this point then let the glory of God and his service be your chiefest aime speake for it stand for it fight for it die for it Sound it in your mouthes manifest it in your liues defend it with your swords and if need be seale it with your blood and so your names shal be blessed when your flesh bones shal bee consumed yea both body soule happy when your names shal be buried in oblivion The court you see cannot truely commend you your politique heads will no way profit you your moving eloquence cannot better you your gay clothes cannot grace you your stately house litle helpe you nor your multitude of children maintaine your honour heare on earth or procure your happynesse in heaven this only title given by the spirit of God vnto Moses to be the servant of the Lord is worth all the rest and will last for ever From the person Moses and his praise the servant of the Lord I proceed to his end or period death Moses 3. Part. the servant of the Lord died His period or end Doct. Neither great nes nor good nes is a good pleate against death It is neither his greatnesse you see nor his goodnesse that can purchase him a supersedeas against the arrest of death he that had fed many when they were readie to starue for hunger and refreshed many when their soules fainted within them for want of drinke hee at whose commande came frogges and lice and haile and darknesse and blood and blisters hath not his breath in his owne hand But I haue heretofore spent much time in pressing this point of mans mortalitie how death without difference of degree or condition summons all sorts of men Prince and Priest people the captaine and the common iouldier the master the man the mistresse her maid haue the same end they may die of diverse diseases at diverse times in divers places but they all die death hath the sole soveraignty of all the worlde and knockes assone at the great mans castle as at the poore mans cottage Would to God we were wise to apply this to our Vse owne selues for doth it not iustly reproue such as seldome so much as mind their mortalitie but liue here as though they thought verily they should never die If these men had no religion yet reason would teach them that their strength is not the strength of stone yet this the very drops of water weareth nor our sinewes of brasse or iron and yet this the rust and canker consumeth but a vapour but a smoake which the sunne soone drieth or the wind driveth away It was wittily said of Epictetus the Philosopher who going forth one day and seeing a woman weeping that had brokē her pitcher and the next day meeting another woman weeping that had lost her sonne heri vidi fragilem fran gi hodie video mortalem mori Yesterday saith he I saw a brittle thing broken and to day I see a mortall man die And what difference betwixt these two Much one manner of way for take a glasse saith St Austine which as it is bright so is it much more brittle then an earthen pitcher keepe it fafe in a cupboord where it may be free from the violence of outward wrong and it may continue many thousand yeares but take a man of the most pure complexion of the strongest constitution and keepe him as safe as thou canst hee hath that in his bosome and within his owne bones that will bring him to his end Nay I heare some say saith the same Father as I remember that such a one hath the plague or the plurisie and therefore sure he will dy but we may rather say such a one liueth and therefore sure he will die for diverse haue had those diseases did not die of them but never any man lived that did not die The consumption of the liver is a messenger of death the consumption of the lungs the minister of death the consumption of the marrow is the very mother of death and yet many haue had these diseases and not died of them but there is another kinde of consumption which could never yet be cured It is the consumption of the daies the common disease of all mankind and whereof all must die David spake of it my daies are consumed like smoake Let mee then warne Psal 102. 3. you and stirre vp your meditations of your mortasity with the words of our Moses who hath walked that way before vs Deut. 32. 29. O that men were wise then would they vnderstand this then would they consider their Deu. 32. 29. latter end Wee are vnwise that wee consider not the times past the evill we haue committed the good we haue omitted the benefits of God we haue abused the time we haue mispent and yet we grieue not because we thinke not yet whether we shall die More vnwise are we not to consider things present as the shortnes of life the difficultie of salvation the small number of such as shall be saved and yet wee shame not because we thinke we shal not yet die But most vnwise that we consider not things to come death iudgement hell al to come and yet we feare not because I feare wee thinke we shall never die O that we were wise then would we consider our latter end Wise Princes vse to prepare tenne yeares before hand for a field of one day beloved let vs lay vp something every day for the last When we shall wrastle with death if wee winne that skirmish we haue enough and when or where wee shall come to the conflict who can tell For Moses when hee
not farre behind Gen. 7. 16. 17. when God sends his Angels to fetch his Lots out of Sodome it is a signe there is punishment for that sinneful Gen 19. 23. 24 citty shortly to insue From the party I proceede to the second part his praise Moses the servant of the Lord. Behold here Moses funerall sermon sent after him and perserved for posterity And it teacheth vs that sanctity is the highest honor and greatest commendations that can bee given a Sanctitie is the highest honour and greatest commendation that can bee given to a mā Heb. 11. 24. Eccles 12. 13. man He that refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter reioiceth here to be called the servant of the Lord. The end of all saith Salomon is this feare God and keepe his commandement for this is the whole duty of man There is nothing else that makes a man to bee a man without which we are below the brute beasts And amongst all titles of countries and kingdomes David had this as the highest honor afforded him that hee was a man after Gods owne heart If the name of a servant 1. Sam. 13. 14. seeme to imply some meanenesse and misery yet the name Iehovah Lord of heaven and earth whose servants they are wipes away this blot How earnest are we to sue and seek to be in some service about the King there is no service we say vnto such And yet when we haue spent our selues in great mens service either they cannot giue vs all they would or they will not alwaies giue vs what they can or if they both would could they knowe not what is best for them to giue or vs to haue But if wee serue God wee are sure to lacke nothing that is good We may want golde Psal 34. 10. and goods and health and wealth but then wee may assure our selues that God sees these are not good for vs else he would not keepe them from vs. For howsoever men make difference of servants and sonnes friends to seruants they commend their busines to our friends we commit our counsell but for our sonnes we keepe our choisest gold our choisest Iewels yea the whole inheritance Yet these are all one to God His servants are his friends his friends are his sonnes and his sonnes are both his friends and servants It is great favour in God great honor to vs that he wil vouchsafe vs to be his seruants but for our service to make vs his sonnes and friends what honor and dignity on earth if cast in ballance of comparison herein would not bee found to light Therfore David though a king counts this his greatest credit I had rather be a dore keeper in Ps 84. 10. the house of my God then to dwell in the tents of vngodlynesse For whether we consider the worke or the wages both will proue this service to surpasse all earthly things For what is the service of God but sanctity what is sanctitie but the renuing of that decaied image of God according to which we were created and the quieting of our clamorous conscience which will not be friends with vs vnlesse we be friends with God and dare not proue so kinde to vs as proue false to our master Now what worke so worthy vpon earth as to pray vnto God to praise his name to feed the poore hungry to cloath the naked to comfort the comfortlesse to do good to al especially our owne soules this is such service as we are set about the worst work that in Gods house his basest servant sets his hand vnto Secondly◠the wages wherewith God of his mercie not our merit crowns our worke makes it much more glorious Blessings are vpon the head of the righteous but iniquity shall cover the mouth of the wicked And salvation Prov 10. 6. saith David belongeth vnto the Lord and thy blessing is vpon thy people Salvation which is the greatest blessing Psal 3 8. is peculiarly appropriated to such as serue God as the greatest prerogatiue God can giue none are blessed but such as are saved none are either blessed or saved but such as serue him and if we respect either this life not only while they liue on the earth which is their inheritance the righteous man shall inherite the earth and dwell therein for ever but even when they Psal 37. 29. are gone their name and memory is blessed they grow in credit when the glory of sinners shall ende in shame Therefore saith Salomon the memoriall of the iust shall be blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot though Prov. 10 7. sinful mē are magnified by sinners yet they are made abhominable to Saints you shall leaue your name as a curse to my chosen for the Lord God shall slay yor and call Isa 65. 15. his servants by a new name But if they liue never so meanely here yet the glory they shall haue hereafter will recompence all For if either life or glory or a kingdome or inheritance will giue content wee shall haue them in abundance What more desired among men then life What life more desired then a life of glory What glory compared to the glory of a kingdome What more glorious kingdome then that that is had by inheritance What inheritāc 〈…〉 gdome like to that which cannot be shaken When the Apostles were little lesse thē proud that divels were subdued vnto thē in his name whom they serued true saith Christ I saw Satanfall down frōheaven like lightning neverthelesse reioice not that spirits obey you but reioice that Luk 18. 18 20 your names are writtē in heauē Reioice not in your enobled bloods admired with living praises preserved the iawes of oblivion by sumptuous sepulchers ancient coates and armes large revenews alas it is theleast matter of ioy that the name liues in bright honour on earth when the soule lies in the rusting restlesse miseries of hell to haue all the kingdomes in the earth to command and not to haue the lowest place in the kingdome of heaven to quarter our armes with kings and to want the armes of Christianitie to haue no part in the red crosse of our crucified Saviour These latter only behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. with open face and are changed by the same image frō glory to glory from glory here for the spirit of glory resteth 1. Pet. 4. 14. Psal 149. 9. vpon vs vnto glory hereafter such honour haue all his saints Let this then pull downe the pride of all wicked men be they never so high and honourable here in Vse 1. this world they are worthlesse and base if this testimony of Moses may not worthely be sent after them that they are the servants of the Lord. For howsoever generous and noble spirits are ready to spit at the name of slaue and basenesse yet their sinfull carriage proues them
plainely to be such Knowe you not saith Rom. 6 16. the Apostle that to whomesoever you giue your selues as servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether it be of sinne vnto death or of obedience vnto righteousnesse Yea saith St Austine Quot vitiorum servus tot dominorum quot dominorum tot daemoniorum so many sinnes thou servest so many masters and so many masters in this matter so many divels For what is it but the powerfull command of sinne which like Mark 9 22. the divell in the man possessed casts vs sometimes into the fire where we burne and boile with lust sometimes into the water where either we swim in vaine delights or are drowned in the drunken pleasures of this flattering world sometimes it blowes vs vp into the aire with a giddy desire to hunt and hauke after the honours and preferments of the world and anon againe throwes vs down groueling vpon the ground nayling our affectiōs to this earth with the covetous desires of worldly goods In choosing a master one wisely admonisheth vs to beware of three sorts of men thy enimy thy servant thy fellow servant Hee serues his greatest enimie that serues the divell hee serues his fellow servant that serues the flesh and hee serues his servant that serues the world It is base then to serue the world for that is to become a vassall to our servant it is an vncertaine service to serue the flesh so wayward so weake so fraile so fickle that we may feare every hower to be turned out of dores it is an vnthriftie service to serue the divell the more worke wee doe him the worse wages and the more stripes and the wages of the least worke we doe him is death It is follie Rom. 6. 23. then to forgoe Gods service and serue any of them for they will bring shame at the last Where then is the glory of our gray haires where is the honor of our houses and blood where the credit of our politicke heads when we suffer our selues to be ensnared with sin we know it is evill and we know it is of the divell and al the world knowes that wee are wise enough to know it we hate the name of it and we are ashamed of the sunne when we commit it we know that the end of it is death and the fruit of it shame to our honor houses and yet we wil not forsake it Looke but back vpon your sinnefull liues you that liue still in the same tel me what comfort take you now in the pleasure of those sinnes which you haue committed What profit in those Rom. 6. 21. things whereof you are ashamed as the Apostle speakes Nay where is your reason vnderstanding that suffers you not to see that by your sinnes you are no better then beasts in a faire forwardnes to degenerate into divels I will conclude this vse with the words of S. Bernard verily if the beasts could speake they would call wicked men beasts A second vse is for instructiō that as we desire that Vse 2. praise which is perpetuall and that honour which will both hold out here on earth and helpe vs to heaven we will make the service of God our chiefest and greatest care Many courses there are to compasse seeming honor but all of them are quickly blasted and will wither away Nay they are all accursed and will bring shame in the end but he that honoureth me him wil I honor 1. Sam. 2 30. saith the man of God vnto old Ely Diverse men propose divers ends vnto their liues and actions and therefore vse divers meanes One runnes to the court another to the campe a third to the schooles all in hope of honor Would you know the safest course in this case Let the honor and service of God be your chiefe aime so shall you be sure your end cannot be dishonourable For els what wil you do Whither will you go to get you a great name To the court This glorie is like glasse bright but brittle and courtiers saith one Plutarch are like counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound presently before the count be cast but for a single penny But for true commendations when all the glory of court kingdoms shal be dasht and dampt and the lustre of their honor bee wrapt vp in darknes or covered in the dust the memory of our Moses shall ever be blessed who being in great credit in Pharaohs court and accounted the sonne of Pharaohs daughter chose rather to indure affliction with the children of God then enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season Heb 11. 25. esteeming the rebukes of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Wilt thou shew thy wisdome in deepe plots and politique imployments in church or common wealth Beleeue it no wisdome that is not from heaven and hath ground out of Gods word will hold out long Whatsoever is repugnant vnto it or is not sanctified by it will end in shame labor rather for a sanctified heart then a politique head Achitophel was as wise as the most and yet who ever plaid the foole so 2. Sam. 16. 23. much as he The shame of his fact like Naamans lepro sic cleaues vnto his name he saw his counsell contemned 2. Sam. 17. 23. and therefore goes home sets his house in order and wisely hangs himselfe Yea the diuell as deepe a polititian as all the men in the world yet the foolishest creature that ever God made to worke his owne wo. It is not policie then that can praise thee What is it a sweet fluent tongue whereby thou canst tie the eares of those that heare thee and ravish them with admiration of thy eloquence Herod had this yet hee could Act. 12. 23. not perswade the wormes to pitty him nor preserue his name from everlasting infamy Is it gay gorgeous apparel wil grace thee No if every silken coat had care to saue his soule all that glister with gold without had grace within what a happy world were we in But all the pompe of apparel in silkes and velvets gold and silver cheines and ornaments wil never haue that honorable commendations that the holy Ghost giues to those poore persecuted Christians which wandred vp and downe in sheepes skinnes and in goats skins who notwithstanding through their faith and patience obtained a good report Will you build vp your Heb. 11. 39. names by some glorious buildings Looke you lay the groundworke in sanctitie and the true service of God else building you may build but nothing but a Babel a tower of confusion which will fall downe and crush you to peeces Where is now the praise of Nabuchadnezzers pompe The very rubbish ruines of it are long since ruinated but his shame for his prowde boasting is not this great Babell c and his punishment to feede Dan. 4.
was now ready to set foot in the promised land liues not to enioy it but when he comes within kenne of it it pleaseth God to prevent him by death to take him away in the land of Moab Which is the fourth particular that I proposed to be handled name ly the place where Moses died In the land of Moab See after all the care paines that Moses hath taken with this people to bring them 4 Paâ—t The place to the promised land now that he was come neere the confines and borders of it God had set him in such a place where he might see it hee suddenly here calls him out of this life Whence wee might well obserue the fickle state and condition of all worldly things Moses greatest comfort I imagine both against the tediousnesse of the way and weiwardnesse of this people and the perplexities of his owne soule was to consider how happy he should bee when after all this hee should come to liue quietly in the land of Canaan and now behold that he is ready to come into it he is suddenly Doct. All worldly hopes quickly vanish cut of O the vncertainty of these worldly things O the vanitie of those men that vex themselues with hope of such things as they shall never haue Great mens favours and old mens shooes thou maist looke for perhaps hope for but never trust to And yet how many Cameleons are there that liue onely by the aire and breath of hope not of heavenly but of earthly things which when a man should put forth his hand to lay hold vpon vanisheth away and is seen no more One hopes to growe rich suddenly his trade failes him another hopes for his fathers or some other old mans living and the old man outliues him a third hopes to rise to honour and his meanes are taken from him The hope that is deferred saith Solomon Prou. 13. 12. maketh the heart sicke If then the hope be defeated mee thinks it should die Moses had as much reason to hope to come to this happy land as any man living of any earthly thing and yet how is his hope quite dasht wheÌ„ a maÌ„ would not haue dreamed how his comfort could haue beene crost It is wisdome then to hope for such things as we may haue and to ground our hope vpon such a foundation as cannot faile Let the word of God be the ground of thy Christian perswasion and so thou maist boldly hope for heaven A second point which from the consideration of the place I will propose and lightly passe by is the vncertaintie of the place where wee shall die As death spares not any persons so it respects not any place When thou art walking peaceably with thy brother in the fieldes thou maist bee murthered as Cain was Gen. 4. 8. when thou art sitting quietly in thy chaire thou maist fall backward and breake thy necke as old Eli did wheÌ„ thou art at thy devotions in the Temple thou maist 1. Sam. 4. 18. dy there as Zenacherib did yea at the very altar as Ioab Isay 37. 37. 1. King 2. 34. Iob 1. 19. 2. King 2. 24. while Iobs sonnes were feasting the house falls vpon them while the scoffing boyes are mocking beares come from the wildernesse and devoure them while Chore and his company are contending the earth opens Num. 16. 31. and swallows them while the captaines their fifties are fetching the Prophet perforce to the King 2. King 1. 10. fire falls from heauen and consumes them Thus death dogges vs wheresoever wee goe and hath his darts ready wheresoever we are Let this then teach vs to take heed that wee bee alwaies Vse prepared for death seeing it is so vncertaine where it will meet vs. Go to now you that say to day or to morrow we will goe into such a city and continue there a Jam. 4. 13. 14 15. yeare and buy and sell and get gaine and yet cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterward vanisheth away for that you ought to say if the Lord will and if we liue weÌ„ will doe this or that Nay go to you that by play pastime driue away the remembrance of death nay by surfeiting and drunkennesse hasten your owne death and yet never thinke of dying How will you dare to looke death in the face whom you would not vouchsafe the least roome in your hearts nay whom eftsoones you did in your daring humours scorne defie Let experience tell whether many do not meet with death in places of greatest mirth now merry and presently mourned for whether a bone in our meate may not choak vs or a haire in our milk strangle vs or a stone in a raisin stop our breath as it did AnacreoÌ„s O theÌ„ let vs whersoever we are whithersoever we walk make the meditatioÌ„ of our end our vade mecum best companion least like vnthrifty servaÌ„ts in great mens houses having their allowance of light mispending the same in dicing or dancing or drunkennesse at last are faine or rather forced to goe to bed darkling so while we neglect the time of light in this life which God hath granted the night of our death do suddainely surprize vs when we do litle dreame of it To him that is to walke through some darke and dangerous place one light carried before will do more good then many that are brought behinde so the serious preparation for death before it come armes vs both with more confidence against it and comfort in it then that which comes not till death call I will conclude this point with our Saviours words Take heed to your selues least at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfetting druÌ„kennesse Luk. 21 34. 35 26. and cares of this life and least that day come vpon you at vnawares for as a snare shall it come on all theÌ„ that dwell vpon the face of the earth watch therefore and pray continually that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to passe and that you may stand before the sonne of man Giue me leaue now I beseech you to apply these things to our present occasion before I proceede to the last particular in my text When our Saviour Luk. 4. 20. light vpon a place of Luk 4 20. the prophet Isaias had red it in the audience of the people hee closed the booke gaue it againe to the Minister and sate downe said this day is this scripture fulfilled in your eares and all bare him witnesse I doubt not beloved but you wil all witnes with me this daie that what you haue hard the same you haue seene and the words which I haue handled are fulfilled in your hearing Moses a great man and our Moses the servant of the Lord is dead and hee died in the land