Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A29933
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Harvest-home being the summe of certain sermons upon Job 5. 26 : one whereof was preached at the funeral of Mr. Ob. Musson, an aged Godly minister of the Gospel in the Royally licensed rooms in Coventry : the other since continued upon the subject / by J.B. D.D, ... ; the first part being a preparation of the corn for the sickle, the latter will be the reaping, shocking and inning of that corn which is so fitted.
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Bryan, John, d. 1676.
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1674
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Wing B5244; ESTC R19928
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23,363
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not feel the stroaks death daily giveth We must needs die and be as water spilt Upon the ground involv'd in Adams guilt That they shall die the living know full well The Grave 's the house where all ere long must dwell This is the way of all the earth Decreed It is by God the Worms on all shall feed Natural Causes may be given why All bodies perish necessarily The elements striving daily to Supplant Some one in time will be predominant Next the first matter burning with desire Of new forms longs th' old subject may expire And fresh succeed Thirdly the Radicall Moysture consuming still threatens a fall After it s pass'd the height of augmentation And wasted needs must follow dissipation Fourthly the Blood as it grows old grows thick By slow degrees and so corrupteth quick The Spirits also natural in the veins And vital in the Arteries by means Whereof the life 's maintain'd and animall In nerves whereby Sensations made these all By use and labour wast These causes cry All humane bodies must consume and dy 2 Cor. 4.7 Eccl. 9 2. Heb. 13.2 Testaceous Vessels and obnoxious To casualties that are most various Two ranks of men there are some good some bad Deaths Cannon plays against them both 't is sad To think why these must die that they may go To their own place Acts 1.25 to live in endless woe Death is to them an entrance into Hell Not so to those who study to do well Yet they must die that being freed from sin And death by death they may have entrance in To heavenly mansions and be ever there With God and Christ loving without all fear Receiving their reward of Gods free grace With joy beholding his most glorious Face The point is prov'd the reasons rendred why All as well good as bad must doubtless dye The circumstances where and when and how Are onely known to God and we must bow To his good pleasure First for time it is Determined by a Decree of His The criticall and punctual time Before Which none shall part with life on any score Beyond it shall not live a moment Whether The term of life be fixt or altogether Moveable Job hath stated some i th' womb After a short dark life do find a Tomb A thousand Sculls found in one Nunnery Some born alive die in their infancy In Childhood Youth and Man-age very many The rest filled with years Death spares not any The Poem stil'd Mortification Transcrib'd may prove edification How soon doth man decay When Cloaths are taken from a Chest of sweets To swaddle Infants whose young breath Scarce knows the way Those Clouts are little winding sheets Which do consign and send them unto Death When Boys go first to bed They step into their voluntary Graves Sleep holds them fast onely their breath Makes them not dead Successive nights like rolling Waves Convey them quickly who are bound for death When youth is frank and free And calls for Musick while his veins do swell All day exchanging mirth and breath In Company That Musick summons to the Knell Which shall befriend him at the hour of Death When man grows stay'd and Wise Getting a house and home where he may move Within the Circle of his Breath Schooling his Eyes That dumb inclosure maketh love Unto the Coffin that attends his death When age grows low and weak Marking his Grave and thawing every Year Till all do melt and drown his Breath When he would speak A Chair or Litter shews the Bier Which shall convey him to the house of Death Man ere he is aware Hath put together a Solemnity And drest his Herse while he hath breath As yet to spare Yet Lord instruct us so to dy That all these dyings may be life in Death We all are full of holes and take in Water At many breaches made of brittle matter At any time may be depriv'd of breath We know not when God knows our hour of death And as the Time the Place is known alone To God scarce any of us but can own The place where first we took our breath but where We shall breathe last this doth to none appear But him whose breath gave us both life and shape The place assign'd by him none can escape That strives to shun't Th' infants of Bethlehem Crying in Cradles Souldiers murther them Eglon is kill'd in 's Parlour In the field King Saul is slain His temple would not shield Sennach'rib from dying in 't Ishbosheth Upon his bed bereaved is of breath Joab at th' very Altar As the place Uncertain is where we shall end our Race So is the manner how A thousand ways There are whereby men terminate their days By sicknesses most ordinarily Of other ways there is infinity The Children of Jerusalem do dye By famine Sodom's by Saturity Some dye by Bears 2 Kin. 2.23 24. so Children that did jeer The new seen baldness of the Zealous Seer And some by Lions so that Prophet dyed 1 King 13.24 Who did obey not God but him that lyed Herod by worms gave up the Ghost Acts 12.23 Job 1.18 19. Jobs Sons And Daughters had their dissolutions In midst of feasting by the sudden fall Of that House where they fed together all Corah Numb 16.31 32 33. and his Complices Swallowed were By th' earth that opened so they payed dear For their rebellion By a broken Stone Cast from a Tower Judg. 9 53. 2 King 16 18. Abimelech is gone Two Captains and their fifties were by Fire Call'd for and sent from heaven forc'd t' expire Zimri was burnt in his own Palace 1 King 16.18 by A Fire himself did kindle wittingly Some dye by Dogs Euripides did so Some by a Fly a seeming silly foe So did a Pope of Rome A Counseller Of the same City strangled with an Hair Tullus Hostillius was with lightning struck Homer because he at a riddle stuck Propos'd by Fisher-men dyed with grief And Sophocles with joy being judged chief By one voice onely in a prize of learning Wherein he shew'd a judgment best discerning A Raisin stone did stop Anacreons breath Thus numberless have been the ways of death O by how small a thread does our Life hang When such small things can give a deadly pang In what shape death unto him will appear No man can tell these are to none made clear Time place and manner of mens dying known Are unto God and unto him alone These being secrets hid i' th breast of God Let us not search them but while our abode Is here below and while we move within The circle of our breath let us begin To school our eyes and minds at length and try What use to make of deaths necessity SECT III. An Enquiry why men decline fitting themselves for that Death that is thus certain Three Reasons of it assigned directions how to overthrow any force that is in them an Exhortation to dye dayly and the way
longer stay O loose this frame this knot of man unty That our free souls forthwith may take their flight Soaâ— up to God and Christ this is their cry There there and no where else is our delight They in their death are Volunteers In the ungodly no such thing appears Unwilling oft They are to live but find No will to dy their life 's thrust out of door With violent hand not with a cheerfull mind Their shame pour'd out upon the open floor Death welcom is unto them why Life is a burden through their misery It 's otherwise with godly men attend What Simeon says Luk. 2.29 Lord let thy servant now Depart my life most joyfully I end And so St. Paul had a desire to bow At th' feet of death Phil. 1.23 how did he thirst To be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus shall it be with every godly one Truth having seal'd it and Christ having been Laid in the dark bed of corruption Perfuming it without corruption seen T'undress themselves they all see cause And call'd to come they seldome use to pause Nor without honour shall they thither come This is the fifth good promis'd in these words To good men th' illustration following home No small addition of delight affords But that a while must be supprest Till application's made of all the rest Yet a few words we 'l speak t'it though the dead Are not at all affected with what 's done Unto their bodies yet when we do read Among the rest this commination Against Jehojakim that he Should have the burial of an Ass and be Drag'd and cast out beyond the Gates o' th' City Jer 22.19 2 Châ—o 35.24.25 Gen. 50.10 Acts 8.2 And find Josiah Jacob Stephen were Brought to their graves with a most dolefull ditty Great mourning made for them it doth appear 'T is necessarily infer'd 'T is a great blessing to be so interr'd To be with honour buri'd none shall miss Of such a happy life and death as hath Described been who ever godly is And persevereth in a pious path Against these points objections lye Experience seems to prove the contrary Some very godly very sickly are Object Most of the best are very poor and many Dye very young nor is it very rare To find Saints loth to part with life scarce any Have honour more than usual When they are born unto their burial I Answer Answ first all is not gold that glisters Many seem godly really not so No other than i th' Churches body blisters Who find by search themselves such let them know These blessings are denyed to them Because they are not of the holy stem The promise is not made to Hypocrites If upright sincere hearted ones be sickly In want short liv'd at sight of death have frights Loth to depart and meanly buried quickly This answer is return'd though letter Be not made good to them they have much better In lieu of all who hath the weight in Gold For so much promis'd brass will not complain Of breach of promise were it good God could Give every Saint all these in kind maintain Health wealth long life It s good some want Some of these outward goods have measure scant But all 's made good in value passing kind Abundantly Communion with God Is best ten thousand fold content of mind Fully they have though here under the rod Of sickness poverty they have In God health wealth long life all passing brave SECT V. What is requisite to render us happy where it is shewed that God is the Greatest and only happiness of a Christian all things desireable are found in him Reasons why nothing else can satisfie the mind of man and that the promise of all good things is with advantage fulfilled to us in the enjoyment of God A Pure sufficient satisfying good Eternal also must that good thing be That can make happy if but one of these Be wanting it is understood By all that have but half an eye There 's not enough to give man perfect ease It must be pure if any ill be in it Sinfull or penal it will never do it Sufficiency is likewise requisite And satisfaction too to win it Eternity must be put to it Else happiness will be far out of sight Now God and he alone these properties Of beatification hath in him Light without any darkness all sufficing Abounding with abilities An Ocean wherein man may swim And in joyes full and true without disguising But nothing else is such a good the best Of creature-comforts mixt with something which Is not good else how could they vanity Be call'd and with vexation drest Men honourable healthfull rich That this is truth do by experience try Again all creatures in the world if they Stand by themselves so many Cyphers are Till God a solid number added be Not to be valued but laid by As light as blasted Corn or tare Set God aside there 's not sufficiency For one Soul in the whole creation who Hath most of this worlds goods hath not enough He that hath least he hath too much unless He can as Austin did say so All the abundance I pass through Is just nothing but want doth not me bless At all if it be not my God in whom Is all the good that is in wife child friend Health beauty learning wisdom wealth and power Though not the same in kind the same And more in value doth extend Beyond them all and on the owner show'r The world and God together put are not More excellent than God alone for if An excellency be in any creature More eminently every jot Already 't is in God the chief Nor does that adding give a fuller feature What ever God is pleased to bestow Upon me let him take it all away Give me himself the bargain will be good Enough St. Austin speaketh so So should each pious person say So saying and so thinking breeds good blood Satisfactoriness sufficiency Follow no happiness without content And quietness of mind if what we have Do not delight and fill stand by Say sence and reason merriment Cannot be had if th' appetite shall crave Now leave out God what ever we take in The heart will still be capable of more The world with all its stock which cannot fill The narrowest soul let us begin To search the reason why such store Cannot make silent but here 's craving still Some say because the world is sphericall The heart triangular others do drill it To the concupiscible faculty Whose size so large is that not all The earth being a globe can fill it But there will still be some vacuity Others say th' object is not sutable Unto the faculty none fill a Chest With wisdom nor a Bag with vertue can Even so things gross and mutable Have no conveniency at best With spirits no fit food for th' heart of man Another reason 's given namely this The appetite is rais'd by having as A fire