thou wilt not have it in thy Closet it will be laid open before thee upon thy death-bed and wilt thou neglect the getting of it or the getting exact insight into it till it shall be presented to thee at that last hour when thou shalt have a dark eye and a blind heart canst thou with a dead hove upon thine eye-lids be a quick reader O there are many sentences at such a time will trouble thee especially these O Lord I have waited for thy salvation All the dayes of mine appointed time will I wait till my change come Teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye dayly Let your loyns be girt up and your lamps burning and be ye like men that wait for their master when he will return from the wedding that when he comes and knocks ye may open to him immediately Walk whilst ye have light for the night cometh when no man can walk Afterwards came the other Virgins also saying Lord Lord open unto us but he answered and said Verily I say unto you I know you not Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor hour when the Son of man will come Afterwards he would have inherited the blessing but he was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought the blessing with teares These and a thousand other heart-breaking sayings thou wilt meet with at that time which will be as ill as Hieroglyphicks to thee to understand if thou hast but read a word or two of them in thy life-time it will be confounding to thee to read a whole book of such a perplexing character and such enigmatical precepts at the hour of death O if all families would buy this book and set Conscience to mark the Contents of it what a reformation should we instantly see amongst Lords and Ladies Puffes and Browers giddy heads and crafty souls sherking Merchants and griping Officers young Damne-me blades and old Usurers corrupt Judges and temporizing Clergymen black Libertines and white Hypocrites for ought not all to learn the art of dying yes it had need be their art for it will be their fate whosoever doth stand he must fall The Cedar is fallen 2. Secondly this should serve to take men off from their high dependence that because they are Cedars therefore they shall not fall O how many because they dwell in houses of Ivory cannot find the way to the house of câ—â—y they have so many locks against theeves thaâ— they think death cannot get an entrance to them they have frighted so many inferiours that they think to daunt the King of terrours They full little think that a coffin at last must be their bed-chamber and worms their chamberlains that they shall be so eaten up that no fragments shall be left of them but bones and skulls shew them the dunghill they think that they shall never be swept out to remain in the heap shew them the Sapypot they think they shall never be dissolved into meer gelly hold this glass of mortality to their faces they are confident that this shall never be their grisly complexion they have enjoyed so much liberty that they have no bands in death they have so many conveyances lying by them that they think they have gotten a covenant with death and that they are at an agreement with hell they take make much pleasure in their flatterers and do infinitely depend upon their physicians But O let them put off their false spectacles and stop their ears against Siren-songs and think that Patents and Patrimonies Chimney-pieces and Head-pieces Shields and Spears cannot defend them against the Pursivant of the grave Thunderbolts strike upon the highest mountains There is no difference in death between the bodyes of the rich and the poor God will take away the honourable and the counsellors Feriuatque summâ—s fulmâ—na montes Horat. Nulla dâ—serâ—tio inter cadav ra dâ—vitum pauperum Amb. in hexam 3 Es 3. The Nobles of Judah are slain Job 39.6 The pillars of strength sall to the ground Eze. 36.17 They of high stature shall be cut off Es 10.33 He slew the wealthiest of them Psal 78.31 He will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment Eze. 34 16. The Nobles shall be called to the Kingdom and there shall be none Es 34.12 Here is a leaf-fall or Nobles or a Charnel-house for Peers noble bloud will congeal in the veins honourable breasts are but the fairer mark for deaths fatal dart God for his own use will beat the sweetest spices in his Mortar put the best herbs into his streyner feed his guests in the dark Ordinary with noble flesh have an handful of noble dust to shew that he is Lord of the Creation What tree shall stand when his axe is lift up no He will consume the glory of the forrest Es 10.18 The Cedars shall fall The Cedar is fallen 3. Thirdly this doth shew that the greatest are but temporary possessors of what they do enjoy for death is an absolute fall the Cedar doth not bow or bend shake or totter onely but the Cedar is fallen and when the Cedar is fallen what doth remain of it but a dead trunk thou enjoyest much whilst thou art living but when thou art in thy grave what of thy revenue doth remain unto thee no thou art fallen and all thy greatness fallen with thee Where are they which were ambitious of the chariot of Authority a Ubi sant qâ—i mb ebant currum potestatis ubi vestes oraamenta peregrina ubi turba servorum Aug. de mt grat Verae devitiae sunt quas porrat conscientia Chrys Where are their gorgeous vestures and outlandish dresses where are their troops of servants is there any thing left to themselves but dust and ashes Where then is the perpetuity of wealth or welfare no a man may say that those are onely a mans true riches which a good conscience do carry away As for these worldly riches we know the date of their continuance all must at last leave their free Deeds behind them give up their Keyes seal away their Estates to new heirs What pleasure hath a man in his house when the number of his moneths are cut off Job 21.21 When his goods are increased he shall take nothing away with him neither shall his pomp descend after him Psal 49.16 17. His substance shall not continue neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon earth Job 15.29 They have slept their sleep and all the men of might have found nothing Psal 76.5 If this night thy sont should be taken from thee whose shall those things be whose name the man thou canst not name thy self no whosoever shall be left rich if thou hast not a secret stock thou shalt dye a very beggar Ye talk much of your riches and your vast means but so soon
A CEDARS SAD and SOLEMN FALL Delivered in a SERMON at the Parish-Church of Waltham Abbey in Essex By THOMAS REEVE D. D. Preacher of Gods Word there At the Funeral of JAMES late Earl of Carlisle 4 JAMES 14. What is our life it is but a vapour which appeared for a little season and afterwards it vanisheth away 2 SAM 14.14 We must all needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any Person LONDON Printed for William Grantham at the black Bear in St. Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door 1661. To the Right Honourable Margaret Countess-Dowager of Carlisle my very noble Patroness c. Length of dayes Dayes of gladness the holy Calling the holy Annointing Light in the Lord the Light of Gods countenance the Spirit of the fear of the Lord the Spirit of comfort the height of Honour and eternity of Bliss Right Honorable and graciously-accomplish'd Lady MArriage is an image of heaven for the celestial state is compared to espousals This mystery is great Ephes 5.32 because union of hearts in wedlock doth much resemble the glorious union Then you have had in this kind the heaven upon earth as much as Marriage can afford it you for the dear and entire mutual and reciprocal love which passed between you and your noble Bridegroom was so eminent that it seemed not onely to be affection but passion it was expressed to admiration and it might be presented to the world for imitation But all earthly comforts have their stints and limits They that rejoyce must be as if they rejoyced not 1 Cor. 7.30 There is nothing here so transcendent but it is transitory the sweetest fruit doth corrupt the brightest gemms do lose their lustre that which doth most delight us doth leave us with an heart-gripe we must turn away our eyes from our most enamouring objects with a storm of tears So hath it happened to Your Honour He which lay nearest to Your heart it taken out of Your bosom and the want of him hath caused You to be a true mourner Thus heavenly providence doth order all things concerning our temporary comforts he will have nothing here permanent that we might rely upon him which is unchangeable it is not the wedding-ring that can endow any with lasting felicity constant joy is not to be found in the Bride-bed they are not our embraces that can keep fast our desired delights nor our eager eyes that can fix a face long for us to look upon No death doth pluck many a dear pledge out of our hands and extinguish many a lamp when it is shining before us with the greatest brightness This moth doth fret in pieces our costliest robes this thunderbolt doth cleave asunder our most admired monuments there is no armour of proof against this dart when this blow is given adamantine chains break when death doth give the knock there is no keeping within doors when death doth come with the ground-spade who must not be buried under ground we had need not to fancy any thing too much for the best is but a perishing delight we had need to provide something that is immortal for every thing that we do here enjoy is mortall The wisest head at last will be but a deaths-skull and the kindest husband we may at last take him up in an handful of dust or go lye by him in a bed of clay Death doth but smile when we do call any thing here our own and deride us that we laugh in that face which with a stroke can be made pale and grisly Your Honour therefore hath done well to furnish Your self with that which might comfort You beyond Nature and give You engagements when all the privileges of Nature do fail and indeed Godliness is profitable to all things and hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 these are the great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 How would You have done if You had had nothing above this world to strengthen You against this trial You did but a little if You remember leave Your self to Your self and Your footsteps were well nigh gone You did but conceive Your Husband to be dead when he was not dead and yielding to Natures sad apprehensions what a sad fit did it bring upon You Your own life was in danger but You no sooner left consulting with flesh and bloud and began to take up Religion to be Your director but You were able with more patience and prudence moderation and Christian submission to undergo what God in his high and over-ruling wisdom should appoint and determine You could then speak to the honour of God and conform to the will of God saying Why should You try masteries with God when You knew that A sparrow doth not fall to the ground but by Gods appointment So that noble Lady there is no light like to a beam of Gods Spirit nor no counsellor like to a sanctified heart all the Preachers upon earth all the Angels of heaven can hardly so well informe us as our own regenerate consciences They which fear not God fear all things they which have learned God are taught against all exigents therefore the fear of the Lord is the treasure Es 33.6 I know that it shall be well with them that fear the Lord and do reverence before him Eccles 8.13 Natural perfections are a scant and fickle livelyhood therefore the Saints fee-simple is free-grace then have we something to rejoyce in and rely upon when he in heaven according to his godly power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 This is the stock that is to be preferred before Rubies yea of greater value than all the treasures of Aegypt The Carbuncle of high birth is nothing like to the jewel of new-birth all Academical Arts are nothing like to the eye-salve of the Spirit There is a spirit in man but the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Job 32.8 Here is the mind which hath understanding Rev. 17.9 The most solid judgment is that where there is a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord Es 11.3 Through Christ I can do all things saith the Apostle but without Christ we can do nothing or very little The heart of the wicked is little worth There is not such a faint-heart as an unregenerate person he doth flee when none doth pursue the least trial doth cause in him astonishment of heart yea the sound of a shaken leaf doth chase him Lev. 26.37 he is like a silly Dove without heart Hos 7.11 We see it in Haman who wanted nothing for outward pomp and potency and yet the least check of neglect doth make all that he was worth a burthen yea a very loathing to him for What doth all this availe me And the like is to be seen in Achitophel who had greatness enough and pusillanimity dastardlinesse enough for being
enough till they be skilled in the Magick of Religion he though he had been amongst the Inchanters yet would he learn none of their sorceries Few Noblemen had been in more European Countries than he himself and there where the Crafts-masters dwelt yet none of these could corrupt him or seduce him he returning home a true English Protestant when his Mother-Church had given him his grounds he hated that a Step-mother should be his new Mistriss he ever hated errour and novelty and was sound both in doctrine and discipline It is true the jewel was his own yet he came often hither to have it filed for as he stored the Church with the ablest men he could find so he was a diligent frequenter of the Sanctuary and a reverent hearer and those which he found to be intelligent and invariable he both countenanced and honoured them that as it was said of Pertinax that he was pater Senatus pater omnium bonorum The father of the Senate and the father of all good men so he was the Patrone of Orthodox Doctrine and Orthodox Teachers And as he lived so he dyed for a little before his departure he made a solemne profession of his faith and then said that he died a profest adversary to all Romish doctrine and a true Son of the Church of England according to the 39. Articles And thus ye find him fragrant concerning his faith 2. Secondly was he not fragrant towards his King yes name me a more loyal Peer He was lapis quadratus a squared sone neither Sequestrations nor Imprisonments Basil Compositions Taxations or Decimations could make him fickle or false he had rather have been sick of any disease then have had the Leprosie of disloyalty to have appeared in his forehead He was as it were one of the stedfast Angels which remained firm when Lucifer and his train rebelled His fidelity in this kind was so eminent that it was Gods high mercy that it did not once cost him his life at home and it drew him when he got free often to hazard his life abroad and when he returned how was his Estate drained till it almost fell into an Epilepsie So then for his Loyalty he is come to his grave with this honour that he lived and died an unblemished and an unstained Royalist fragrant he was to his Prince 3. Thirdly was he not fragrant towards his neighbours yes 1. First in patience I hope there is not here or elsewhere the most impatient or pacified man that can accuse him to have been an irefull man It is true he had an high magnanimity of spirit to defend his just Rights and Royalties but for common injuries he regarded them no more then Northern blasts Suidat he did not with the Athenians set up a spear to run that man to the heart which had injured him or offered him an abuse But when he was provoked divers times to compell satisfaction for high affronts and contempts he thought it was beyond his Religion and his noblenesse to right himself for every trivial distast no dart would stick in this water Telum in aqua non remanet Chrysost Non mâ—m ni me percussum yea when he had been highly irritated he was ready to say with the Philosopher I do not remember that I was stricken He had learned that of Solomon say not I will do to him as he hath done to me and that of St. Paul why do ye not rather suffer wrong who of his degree and quality lived more peaceably amongst his neighbours or had a more relenting heart or troubled the Age lesse with vexatious suits 2. Secondly was he not fragrant in his Justice yes he might be set up for the Standard The Lamb can as soon bite as he could gripe or oppresse another Pericles that never caused any man to go in a sad garment for his rapines He might have said with Samuel whose oxe have I taken whose asse have I taken or to whom have I done any wrong bring me that man that can say truly that he hath a Tenement belonging to him that he hath gotten by the wrest or one furrow of Land in his whole Estate which doth cry out against him for injustice 3. Thirdly was he not fragrant in Charity yes Town and Country can testifie that odoriferous sent His house was a kind of Hospital a Store-house to haile and sick his White Wood-stacks and his black pots can never be forgotten Those which came went not away empty and those which did not come he would seek them out and relieve them his heart was the poores Guardian and his hand was their Treasurer He had troops of poor attended upon him as it was said of Henry the third a German Emperour and wheresoever he met them either in streets high-waies or fields his sympathising spirit melted towards them and his communicating hand dropped bounty to them thus every way his fragrancy was felt A right Cedar he was in all respects and though he be fallen yet as the forrest will want him so it should not see him cast to the ground without an heart-stroke a lip-roar yea a passionate howling Howl Firee-tree for the Cedar is fallen But saith one when you have magnified your Cedar to the height I see a spot in him dost thou so did he in himself and I hope that his repentance hath prevented thy censure and his remorse thy rancor To me to others he often lamented his errours and with fervent prayers and bitter tears begged pardon at the hands of God Almighty And is God reconciled to him and wilt thou be inexorable But what was his spot hast not thou the same hast not thou more hast not thou worse He was no Persecutor he was no Traitor he was no Temporizer he was no Hypocrite There are many spots and the Leper may be apt to cry out of anothers foul skin It is good for every one to sttitch up his own rents before he do complain of a seam-rent place in anothers garment or to wash his own face clean before he do find fault with a spray in anothers checks Who can say my heart is clean I am clean from sin in many things we offend all If thou Lord shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amisse who is able to stand But let his spot be what it will I trust he hath prayed it away and we have prayed it away that by the vertue of his tears and his friends tears for God was reconciled to Jobs friends for his prayers and sacrifices or howsoever by the infallibility of Gods Covenant and efficacy of Christs blood it is rinsed away To give thee all the assurance that by the judgement of Charity is requisite that be died a true Penitent Consider what I am now to propound unto thee A little before his departure like a man that had his deaths stroke in his bosom and a yearning for divine favour in his conscience he fought for nothing but mercy and thirsted for nothing but reconciliation he abounded in tears was frequent in supplications forced himself beyond his strength to the prayers of the family had often the prayers of divers Church-men in his Chamber and would lift up his hands devoutly at those things which moved him he wanted no Counsel and embraced Counsel delighted to have the Bible read to him even eight Chapters at a time he called for mercy whilst he had freedom of speech and when for four dayes together he lay in a manner speechlesse yet God gave him liberty to utter these words Lord Lord have mercy Lord Lord have mercy and these were the onely words it that long space which came from him distinctly to the hour of his death God taught him I trust the language with which he should breathe out his last gasp or God himself which is very likely spake for him But if he had never shed tear nor uttered prayer the tears and prayer of his friends if there be any power in Christian intercession I hope have beaten out a way to Heaven for him for his friends were seldom without watery eyes we were seldom off from our knees so that God I trust hath received our prayers and received his soul he went like Elias with a whirl-wind and a fiery Chariot into Heaven Come on then ye Firre-trees will ye suffer such a Cedar to be carried off from the ground without a forrest-clashing and beating your tops one against another no let the wilding-tree the aspe-tree the sloe-tree the beech-tree and wicl ree be silent if they will but let all the Firre-trees joyn together in a generall mourning for when shall we see his equall when shall we behold his Superiour do ye bury him with thrilling spirits and torn hearts make all the wood to ring and rend and roar at his fall yea do ye break out into an absolute howling Howle Firre-tree the Cedar is fallen Well since he is fallen let us leave him to the Lord Paramount of the Forrest onely let his Memory be precious and his fragrancy sweet in our nostrills let us for a farewell to him call him the Mirrour of worth and the Monument of honour Let us hope that God hath but taken him away because he hath use of some Cedar above for his own building and that he that planted him hath disposed of him for the honour of his own Court yea that he sent special Messengers even the blessed Angels to carry him from hence upon their shoulders and to lay him within the Court-gate to be made a Pillar in the Temple of God There lie thou thou noble Cedar and remain to thy everlasting honour and blisse Onely he being gone God give us grace to think on our own fall that we that howl for his fall may not howl at or after our own fall but fall with comfort and be carried away at last to the building of God an house not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens FINIS