themselues reckon a fewe yeares and daies that are able by arte to measure the globe of the earth and the spheres of heauen the quantities of the starres with their longitudes latitudes altitudes motions distances from the earth No verily For howesoeuer by a generall speculation we thinke something of our ends yet vnlesse the spirit of God be our schoole-master to teach vs our dutie wee shall neuer bee able soundly to resolue our selues of the presence and speedinesse of death And therfore let vs pray with Dauid and Moses that God would inlighten our minds with knowledge and fil our hearts with his grace that we might rightly consider of death and esteeme of euery day an houre as it were the day and houre of death The second dutie in this generall preparation is that euery man must daily indeauour to take away from his owne death the power and strength thereof And I pray you marke this point The Philistims sawe by experience that Sampson was of great strength therfore they vsed meanes to knowe in what part of his bodie it lay when they found it to be in the haire of his head they ceased not vntil it was cut off In like manner the time wil come whē we must encoūter hand to hand with tyranous and cruel death the best therefore is before-hand now while wee haue time to search where the strēgth of death lies which beeing once knowne we must with speed cut off his Sāpsons lockes and bereaue him of his power disarme him make him altogether vnable to preuaile against vs. Now to find out this matter we neede not to vse the councel of any Dalilah for wee haue the word of God which teacheth vs plaīly where the strength of death consists namly in our sins as Paul saith The sting of death is sinne Well then we knowing certenly that the power and force of euery mans partirular death lies in his owne sinnes must spend our time and studie in vsing good meanes that our sinnes may be remooued and pardoned And therefore we must daily inure our selues in the practise of two duties One is to humble our selues for al our sins past partly cōfessing thē against our selues partly in praier crying to heauē for the pardon of them The other is for time to come to turn vnto God and to carrie a purpose resolution indeauour in all things to reforme both hart life according to gods word These are the very principall proper duties wherby the power of death is much rebated he is made of a mighty bloody enemie so far forth friendly and tractable that we may with comfort incounter with him preuaile too Therefore I commend these duties to your christian considerations carefull practise desiring that ye would spend your daies euer hereafter in doing of them If a man were to deale with a mighty dragon or serpent hand to hand in such wise as he must either kill or be killed the best thing were to bereaue him of his sting or of that part of the body where his poison lies now death it selfe is a serpent dragon or scorpion sinne is the sting and poison whereby he wounds kils vs. Wherefore without any more delay see that ye pull out his sting the practise of the foresaid duties is as it were a fit worthy instrument to do the deed Hast thou beene a person ignorant of Gods will a contemner of his word and worship a blasphemer of his name a breaker of his Sabbaths disobedient to parents and magistrates a murderer a fornicatour a rayler a slanderer a couetous persō c. reforme these thy sinnes and all other like to them pull thē out by the rootes from thy heart cast them off So many sinnes as be in thee so many stings of death be also in thee to wound thy soule to eternal death therfore let no one sin remaine for which thou hast not humbled thy selfe and repented seriously When death hurts any man it takes the weapons whereby he is hurt from his owne hand It cannot do vs the least hurt but by the force of our owne sins Wherefore I say againe and againe lay this point to your hearts spend your strength life and health that ye may before ye die abolish the strength of death A man may put a serpent in his bosome when the sting is out we may let death creepe into our bosomes and gripe vs with his legs and stab vs at the heart so long as he brings not his venime and poison with him And because the former duties are so necessary as none can be more I wil vse some reasons yet furder to inforce thē Whatsoeuer a man would doe when he is dying the same he ought to doe euery day while he is liuing now the most notorious and wicked person that euer was when he is dying will pray and desire others to pray for him promise amendment of life protesting that if he might liue he would become a practitioner in all the good duties of faith repentance reformation of life Oh therfore be careful to do this euery day Again the saying is true he that would liue when he is dead must die while he is aliue namely to his sins Wouldest thou then liue eternally sue to heauen for thy pardon and see that now in thy life-time thou die to thine own sinnes Lastly wicked Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but alas it was to small purpose for he would by no means liue the life of the righteous For his cōtinual purpose and meaning was to follow his olde waies in sorceries couetousnesse Now the life of a righteous man standes in the humbling of himself for his sinnes past and in a carefull reformatiō of life to come Wouldest thou then die the death of the righteous then looke vnto it that thy life be the life of the righteous if ye will needes liue the life of the vnrighteous yee must looke to die the death of the vnrighteous Remēber this and content not your selues to heare the word but be doers of it for ye learn no more indeed what measure of knowledge soeuer ye haue then ye practice The third dutie in our generall preparation is in this life to enter into the first degree of life eternal For as I haue said there be three degrees of life euerlasting and the first of them is in this present life for hee that would liue in eternall happines for euer must beginne in this world to rise out of the graue of his owne sinnes in which by nature he lies buried and liue in newnesse of life as it is said in the Reuelation He that will escape the second death must be made partaker of the first resurrection And Paul saith to the Colossians that they were in this life deliuered from the power of darkenesse and translated into the kingdom of Christ. And Christ saith to the
A SALVE FOR A SICKE MAN or A treatise containing the nature differences and kindes of death as also the right manner of dying well And it may serue for spirituall instructruction to 1. Mariners when they goe to sea 2. Souldiers when they goe to battell 3. Women when they trauell of child Printed at London by IOHN LEGAT Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge 1611. And are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Crovvne by Simon Waterson To the right Honourable and vertuous Lady the Lady Lucie Countesse of Bedford THe death of the righteous that is of euery beleeuing repentāt sinner is a most excellent blessing of God and brings with it many worthy benefits which thing I prooue on this manner I. God both in the beginning and in the continuance of his grace doth greater things vnto his seruants then they doe commonly aske or thinke and because he hath promised ayd strength vnto thē therefore in wonderfull wisedome hee casteth vp them this heauie burden of death that they might make experience what is the exceeding might and power of his grace in their weaknes II. Iudgement beginnes at Gods house and the righteous are laden with afflictions and temptations in this life therfore in this world they haue their deaths and hells that in death they might not feele the torments of hell and death III. When Lazarus was dead Christ said He is not dead but sleepeth hence it followeth that the Christian man can say My graue is my bed my death is my sleepe in death I die not but onely sleepe It is thought that of all terrible things death is most terrible but it is false to them that be in Christ to whome many things happen farre more heauie and bitter then death IV. Death at the first brought forth sinne but death in the righteous by meanes of Christs death abolisheth sinne because it is the accomplishment of mortification And death is so farre from destroying such as are in Christ that there can be no better refuge for them against death for presently after the death of the body followes the perfect freedome of the spirit and the resurrection of the bodie V. Lastly death is a meanes of a Christian mans perfection as Christ in his owne example sheweth saying Behold I will cast out diuels and will heale still to day and to morrow and the third I will be perfected Now this perfection in the members of Christ is nothing else but the blessing of God the author of peace sanctifying them throughout that their whole spirits and soules and bodies may be preserued without blame to the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Now hauing often thus considered with my selfe of the excellencie of death I thought good to draw the summe and chiefe heads thereof into this small treatise the protection and consideration whereof I commend to your Ladiship desiring you to accept of it and read it at your leisure If I bee blamed for Writing vnto you of death whereas by the course of nature you are not yet neere death Salomon wil excuse me who saith that wee must remember our Creatour in the daies of our youth Thus hoping of your H. good acceptance I pray God to blesse this my litle labour to your comfort and saluation Septemb. 7. 1595. Your H. in the Lord W. Perkins Eeclesiastes 7.3 The day of death is better then the day that one is borne THese words are a rule or precept laid down by Salomon for weightie causes For in the Chapters going before he sets forth the vanity of all creatures vnder heauen that at large in the very particulars Now men hereupon might take occasion of discontentment in respect of their estate in this life therefore Salomō in great wisdome here takes a new course in this chapter begins to lay downe certaine rules of direction and comfort that men might haue somwhat wherewith to arme themselues against the troubles and the miseries of this life The first rule is in this third verse that a good name is better then a pretious ointment that is a name gotten and maintained by godly conuersatiō is a speciall blessing of God which in the middest of the vanities of this life ministreth greater matter of reioicing and cōfort to the heart of man then the most pretious ointment can doe to the outward senses Now some man hauing heard this first rule concerning good name might obiect say that renowne good report in this life affoardes slender comfort cōsidering that after it followes death which is the miserable end of all men But this obiection the Wise man remooueth by a second rule in the wordes which I haue in hand saying that the day of death is better then the day that one is borne That wee may come to the true proper sense of this precept or rule three points are to be cōsidered First what is death here mentioned secondly how it can be truly said that the day of death is better then the day of birth thirdly in what respect it is better For the first death is a depriuation of life as a punishment ordained of God and imposed on man for his sinne First I say it is a depriuatiō of life because the very nature of death is the absence or defect of that life which God vouchsafed man by his creation I adde further that death is a punishment more especially to intimate the nature and qualitie of death and to shewe that it was ordained as a meanes of the execution of Gods iustice iudgment And that death is a punishment Paul plainely auoucheth when he saith that by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne And againe that death is the stipend wages or allowance of sinne Furthermore in euery punishment there bee three workers the ordainer of it the procurer and the executioner The ordainer of this punishment is God in the estate of mans innocency by a solemne law then made in these very words In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 But it may be alleadged to the contrary that the Lord saith by the Prophet Ezechiel that hee will not the death of a sinner therefore that hee is no ordainer of death The answer may easily be made that sundry waies First the Lord speakes not this to all men or of all men but to his owne people the Church of the Iewes as appeares by the clause prefixed Sonne of man say vnto the house of Israel c. Againe the words are not spoken absolutelu but onely in way of comparisoy in that of the twaine he rather wills the conuersion and repentance of a sinner then his death and destruction Thirdly the very proper meaning of the words import thus much that God doth take no delight or pleasure in the death of a sinner as it is the ruine and destruction of the creature And yet al this hinders not
him but so much fauour as to see his hinder parts at his request ô then what happines is this to see the glory and maiestie of God face to face and to haue eternall fellowship with God our Father Christ our Redeemer and the holy Ghost our comforter and to liue with the blessed Saints Angels in heauen for euer Thus now the third point is manifest namely in what respects death is more excellent thē life It may be here the mind of mā vnsatisfied wil yet further reply say that howsoeuer in death the soules of men enter into heauen yet their bodies though they haue bin tenderly kept for meat drink apparel and haue slept many a night in beds of doune must lie in dark loathsome graues there be wasted cōsumed with worms Ans. All this is true indeede but all is nothing if so be it we will but cōsider aright of our graues as we ought We must not iudge of our graues as they appeare to the bodily eye but we must looke vpon them by the eye of faith and consider them as they are altered and changed by the death and burial of Christ who hauing vanquished death vpon the crosse pursued him afterward to his owne wen and foyled him there depriued him of his power and by this means Christ in his owne death hath buried our death and by the vertue of his buriall as with sweete incense hath sweetened and perfumed our graues and made thē of stinking loathsome cabbines to become princely pallaces and beddes of most sweete happie rest farre more excellent then beddes of doune And though the body rot in the graue or be eatē of worms or of fishes in the sea or burnt to ashes yet that will not be vnto vs a matter of discomfort if we do well consider the ground of all grace namely our coniunction with Christ. It is indeede a spirituall and yet a most reall coniunction And we must not imagine that our soules alone are ioyned to the body or soule of Christ but the whole person of man both in body and soule is ioyned and vnited to whole Christ. And when we are once ioyned to Christ in this mortall life by the bond of the spirit we shall remaine continue eternally ioyned with him and this vniō once truly made shal neuer be dissolued Hence it followes that although the body bee seuered from the soule in death yet neither body nor soule are seuered from Christ but the very bodie rotting in the graue drowned in the sea burned to ashes abides still vnited to him and is as truely a member of Christ thē as before This point we must remember as the foundation of all our comfort and hold it for euer as a truth For looke what was the condition of Christ in death the same or the like is the conditiō of all his members Now the condition of Christ was this though his bodie and soule were seuered each from other as far as heauen the graue yet neither of them were seuered from the godhead of the sone but both did in death subsist in his persō And therefore though our bodies and soules bee pulled asunder by natural or violent death yet neither of them no not the body it selfe shall be seuered disioyned from Christ. It wil be alleadged that if the body were then vnited to Christ it should liue and bee quickened in the graue Ans. Not so when a mans arme or legge is taken with the dead palsy it receiues litle or no heat life sense or motion from the body and yet notwithstanding it remaines still a member of the bodie because the flesh the bone of it remaine ioyned to the flesh and the bone of the body euen so may the body remaine a member of Christ though for some space of time it receiue neither sense nor motion nor life from the soule or from the spirit of Christ. Furthermore we must remēber that by the vertue of this cōiunction shal the dead body be it rotten burned deuoured or howsoeuer cōsumed at the day of iudgment rise to eternall glory In the winter season trees remaine without fruite or leaues and being beaten with winde weather appeare to the eie as if they were rotten trees yet when the spring-time comes againe they bring forth as before buds and blossomes leaues and fruit the reason is because the bodie graines armes of the tree are al ioyned to the root where lies the sap in the winter season and whence by means of this coniūction it is deriued to al the parts of the tree in the spring-time Euen so the bodies of men haue their winter also in which they are turned to dust so remaine for the space of many thousand yeares yet in the day of iudgement by means of that mistical coniunction with Christ shall diuine and quickening vertue streame thence to al the bodies of the elect to cause thē to liue againe and that to life eternall But some will say that the wicked also rise again Ans. They do so indeede but not by the same cause for they rise by the power of Christ as he is a iudge to cōdemn thē wheras the godly rise againe by the vertue of Christs resurrection whereof they are partakers by meanes of that blessed and indissoluble coniūction which they haue with Christ. And the bodies of the elect though they cōsume neuer so much in the graue yet are they still in Gods fauour and in the couenat of grace to which because they haue right beeing dead they shall not remaine so for euer but shal rise to glory at the last iudgement Therefore the rotting of the bodie is nothing in respect and the death of the body no death And therfore also death in the old new testament is made but a sleep the graue a bed wherof the like was neuer seene wherein a man may rest nothing at al troubled with dreames or fantasies and whence hee shall rise no more subiect to weakenes or sickenes but presently be translated to eternal glory By this thē which hath beene said it appeares that the death of the righteous is a second degree to euerlasting happinesse Now then considering our coniunction with Christ is the foundation of all our ioy cōfort in life and death wee are in the feare of God to learne this one lessō namely that while we haue time in this world we must labour to be vnited vnto Christ that we maybe bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh This very point is as it were a flaggon of wine to reuiue our soules when they be in a swowne at any instant And that we may be assured that we are certainly ioyned to Christ we must shew our selues to be members of his misticall body by the daily fruites of righteousnes and true repentance And being once certainly assured in conscience of our beeing in Christ let death come when it wil
let it cruelly part asunder both body soule yet shall they both remaine in the couenant and by meanes thereof be reunited and taken vp to life eternall Whereas on the contrary if men be out of the couenant and die out of Christ their soules goe to hell and their bodies rot for a time in the graue but afterward they rise to endlesse perdition Wherefore I say againe and againe labour that your consciences by the holy ghost may testifie that ye are liuing stones in the temple of God branches bearing fruite in the true vine then ye shall feele by experience that the pangs of death shall be a further degree of happinesse then euer ye found in your liues euen then when ye are gasping and panting for breath Thus much of the meaning of the text now followes the vses they are manifold The first principall is this In that Salomon preferres the day of death before the day of birth he doth therein giue vs to vnderstand that there is a direct certain way wherby a man may die well and if it had beene otherwise he could not haue said that the day of death is better And wheras he auoucheth this he shewes withal that there is an infallible way whereby a man may make a blessed end Therefore let vs now come to search out this way the knowledge and true vnderstanding wherof must not be fetched from the writings of men but from the word of God who hath the power of life and death in his owne hand Now that a man may die well Gods word requires 2. things a preparation before death and a right behauiour and disposition in death The preparation vnto death is an action of a repentant sinner whereby he makes himself fit and ready to die and it is a dutie very necessary to which we are bound by Gods commādement For there bee sundrie places of Scripture which doe straightly inioyn vs to watch pray to make our selues readie euery way against the secōd comming of Christ to iudgement Now the same places doe withall bind vs to make preparation against death at which time God comes to iudgement vnto vs particularly Againe look as death leaueth a man so shall the last iudgement finde him and so shall hee abide eternally there may bee changes conuersions from euill to good in this life but after death there is no change at all Therefore a preparation to death can in no wise be omitted of him that desires to make an happie blessed end This preparation is twofold generall particular Generall preparation is that whereby a man prepares himselfe to die through the whole course of his life A duty most needefull that must in no wise be omitted The reasons are these First of all death which is certaine is most vncertaine I say it is certain because no man can eschew death And it is vncerten 3. waies first in regard of time for no man knoweth when hee shall die secondly in regard of place for no man knowes where he shall die whether in his bedde or in the field whether by sea or by land thirdly in respect of the kind of death for no mā knows whether he shal dy of a lingring or sudden of a violent or naturall death Hence it follows that men should euery day prepare themselues to death Indeede if wee could know when where and how we should die the case were otherwise but seeing wee know none of these it stands vs in hand to looke about vs. A second reason seruing further to perswade vs is this The most daungerous thing of all in this world is to neglect all preparation To make this point more manifest I will vse this comparison A certaine man pursued by an Vnicorne in his flight fals into a dungeon in his fall takes hold and hangs by the arme of a tree now as hee thus hangs looking downeward he sees two wormes gnawing at the root of the tree and as he looks vpward he sees an hiue of most sweet hony wherupō he climes vp vnto it and sitting by it he feeds theron In the meane season while he is thus sitting the two wormes gnaw in pieces the root of the tree which don tree and man all fal into the bottome of the dungeon Now this Vnicorn is death the man that flieth is euery one of vs and euery liuing man the pit ouer which he hangeth is hell the arme of the tree is life it self the two wormes are day and night the continuance whereof is the whole life of man the hiue of honie is the pleasures and profits and honours of this world to which when men wholly giue thēselues not considering their ends til the tree root that is this temporall life be cut off which beeing once done they plunge thēselues quite into the gulfe of hell By this we see that there is good cause that men should not deferre their preparation till the time of sicknes but rather euery day make themselues readie against the day of death But some will say it shall suffice if I prepare my selfe to pray when I begin to be sicke Answ. These men greatly deceiue thēselues for the time thē is most vnfit to begin a preparation because all the senses powers of the body are occupied about the pains and troubles of the disease and the sicke party is exercised partly in conference with the Physitian partly with the minister about his soules health and matters of conscience and partly with friends that come to visit Therfore there must some preparation goe before in the time of health when the whole man with all the powers of body and soule are at liberty Again there be some others which imagine and say that a man may repent when he wil euen in the time of death and that such repentance is sufficiēt Ans. It is false which they say for it is not in the power of man to repēt when he himselfe will when God will he may It is not in him that willeth or runneth but in God that hath mercy And Christ saith that many shal seek to enter into heauen and shal not be able But why so because they seeke when it is too late namly when the time of grace is past Therefore it is exceeding follie for men so much as once to dream that they may haue repentance at cōmand nay it is a iust iudgement that they should be condemned of God in death that did cōdemne God in their life and that they should quite be forgotten of God in sicknesse and did forget God in their health Again I answer that this late repētance is seldome or neuer true repentance It is sicke like the party himselfe cōmonly languishing and dying together with him Repentance should be voluntary as all obedience to God ought but repētance taken vp in sicknes is vsually constrained extorted by the feare of hell other iudgements of God for crosses afflictions and
church of the Iews the kingdome of heauen is amongst you Now this first degree of life is when a man can say with Paul I liue not but Christ liues in me that is I finde partly by the testimonie of my sanctified conscience and partly by experirience that Christ my redeemer by his spirit guideth and gouerneth my thoughts will affections and all the powers of bodie soule according to the blessed direction of his holy will Now that we may bee able truely to say this we must haue three gifts and graces of God wherein especially this first degree of life consists The first is sauing knowledge whereby wee do truly resolue our selues that God the father of Christ is our father Christ his sonne our redeemer the holy Ghost our coÌ„forter That this knowledge is one part of life eternall it appeares by the saying of Christ in Iohn This is life eternall that is the beginning and entrance to life eternall to knowe thee the onely God and whome thou hast sent Iesus Christ. The second grace is peace of conscience which passeth al vnderstanding and therefore Paul saith that the kingdome of heauen is righteousnesse peace of conscience and ioy in the holy Ghost The horrour of a guiltie conscience is the beginning of death destruction therefore peace of conscieÌ„ce deriued froÌ„ the death of Christ is life and happinesse The third is the regimeÌ„t of the spirit whereby the heart and life of maÌ„ is ordered according to the word of God For Paul saith that they that are the children of God are led by the spirit of Christ. Now seeing this is so that if we would liue eternally we must begin to liue that blessed and eternall life before wee die here we must be carefull to reforme two common errours The first is that a maÌ„ enters into eternall life when he dies and not before which is a flatte vntrueth Our Sauiour Christ said to Zacheus This day is saluation come to thy house giuing vs to vnderstand that a man theÌ„ begins to be saued when God doth effectually call him by the ministery of his Gospel Whosoeuer then will be saued when he is dying dead must begin to be saued while he is now liuing His saluation must beginne in this life that would come to saluation after this life Verily verily saith Christ he that heareth my word and beleeueth in him that sent me hath eternall life namely in this present life The second error is that howsoeuer a man liue if when he is dying he can lift vp his his eies say Lord haue mercie vpon me he is certainely saued Behold a very fond foolish conceit that deceiues many a maÌ„ It is al one as if an arrand thiefe should thus reason with himselfe and say I will spend my daies in robbing and stealing I feare neither arraignment nor execution For at the very time wheÌ„ I am to be turned off from the ladder if I doe but call vpon the iudge I know I shall haue my pardon Behold a most daungerous and desperate course and the very â—ame is the practise of carelesse men in the matter of their saluation For a man may die with Lord haue mercy in his mouth perish eternally except in this world he enter into the first degree of eternall life For not euery one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into heauen but he that doth the will of the father which is in heauen The fourth dutie is to exercise and inure our selues in dying by little and little so long as we liue here vpon earth before we come to die indeede And as meÌ„ that are appointed to run a race exercise themselues before in running that they may get the victory so should we begin to die now while wee are liuing that we might dywel in the end But some may say how should this be done Paul giues vs direction in his own example when he saith By the reioycing which I haue in Christ I die daily And he died daily not onely because he was often in danger of death by reasoÌ„ of his calling but also because in all his dangers troubles hee inured himselfe to die For when men doe make the right vse of their afflictioÌ„s whether they be in bodie or minde or both and doe with all their might indeauour to beare them patiently humbling themselues as vnder the correction of god then they begin to die wel And to doe this indeede is ro take an excellent course He that would mortifie his greatest sins must begin to do it with small sinnes which when they are once reformed a maÌ„ shal be able more easily to ouercome his master-sins So likewise he that would be able to beare the crosse of all crosses namely death it selfe must first of all learne to beare smal crosses as sicknesses in bodie and troubles in minde with losses of goods and of friends and of good name which I may fitly tearme little deaths the beginnings of death it selfe and we must first of all acquaint our selues with these litle deaths before we can be able to beare the great death of all Again the afflictions and calamities of this life are as it were the harbingers and puruiers of death and we are first to learne how to entertaine these messengers that when death the Lord himselfe shall come wee may in better manner entertaine him This point Bilney the martyr well coÌ„sidered who oftentimes before he was burned put his finger into the flame of the candle not onely to make trial of his abilitie in suffering but also to arme and strengthen himself against greater tormeÌ„ts in death Thus ye see the fourth duty which ye must in any wise learne and remember because we cannot be able to beare the pangs of death well vnles we be first well schooled and nurtured by sundrie trialls in this life The fifth and last dutie is set downe by Salomon All that thine hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power And marke the reason For there is neither worke nor inuention nor knowledge nor wisedome in the graue whither thou goest To the same purpose Paul saith Doe good to all men while ye haue time Therfore if any man be able to doe any good seruice either to gods Church or to the Common-wealth or to any priuate man let him doe it with all speede with all his might lest death it selfe preuent him He that hath care thus to spend his daies shal with much comfort and peace of conscience end his life Thus much of generall preparation Now followeth the particular which is in the time of sicknes And here first of all I will shew what is the doctrine of the Papists and then afterward the truth By the popish order and practise when a man is about to die he is enioyned three things First to make sacramentall confession specially if it be in any mortall sinne secondly to
may be spoken here as the holy Ghost hath vttered in the word and that I wil reduce to certaine rules The first is that the will must be made according to the law of nature and the written word of God and the good and wholesome positiue lawes of that kingdom or cuntry wherof a man is a member The will of God must be the rule of mans will And therefore the will that is made against any of these is faultie The second is that if goods euill gotten be not restored before they must euen then be restored by will or by some other way It is the practise of couetous mē to bequeath their soules when they die to God withall to bequeath their goods euill gotten to their children friends which in all equitie should bee restored to them to whom they belong Quest. Howe if a mans conscience tell him that his goods be euill gotten and he knowes not where or to whome to make restitution Ans. The case is common the answer is this When he is known whom thou hast wronged restore to him particularly if the partie be vnknown or dead restore to his executors or assignes or to his next kin if there be none yet keepe not goods euill gotten to thy selfe but restore to God that is in way of recompence and ciuil satisfaction bestow them on the Church or common-wealth The third rule is that heads of families must principally bestowe their goods on their owne children and them that be of their kindred This man saith God to Abraham of Eleazar a straunger shall not be thine heire but the son which shal come of thy loynes And this was Gods commaundemēt to the Israelites that when any man dies his sonne should be his heire if he haue no sonne then his daughter if he haue no daughter then his brethren and if he haue no brethren then his fathers brethren and if that there be none then the next of the kinne whosoeuer And Paul saith If ye be sonnes then also heires and againe He that prouides not for his owne and namely for them of his houshold is worse then an infidell Therefore it is a fault of any man to alienate his goods or lands wholly finally from his blood and posteritie It is a thing which the very law of nature it selfe hath condemned Againe it is a fault to giue all to the eldest and nothing in respect to the rest as though the eldest were borne to be gentlemen yonger brethren borne to beare the wallet Yet in equitie the eldest must haue more then any euen because he is the eldest because stocks and families in their persons are to be maintained and because there must alwaies be some that must be fitte to doe speciall seruice in the peace of the common weale or in the time of warre which could not be if goods should be equally parted to al. The fourth and last rule is that no Will is of force till the testatour be dead for so long as he is aliue he may alter and change it These rules must be remembred because they are recorded in Scripture the opening of other points circumstances belongeth to the profession of the law The second dutie of the master of the familie concerneth the soules of such as be vnder his gouernment and that is to giue charge to them that they learne beleeue and obey the true religion that is the doctrine of Saluation set downe in the writings of the Prophets Apostles The Lord himselfe cōmends Abraham for this I knowe Abraham saith he that he will command his sonnes and his houshold after him that they keepe the way of the Lord to doe righteousnes and iudgement And Dauid giues Salomon on his death-bed a most notable solemne charge the summe and substance whereof is to know the God of his fathers and to serue him which beeing done he further commends him to God by prayer for which purpose the 72. psal was made This practise of his is to be followed of all Thus gouernours when they shall carefully dispose of their goods and giue charge to their posteritie touching the worship of God shall greatly honour God dying as well as liuing Hitherto I haue intreated of the two-fold preparatiō which is to goe before death now follows the second part of Dying-well namely the disposition in death This disposition is nothing els but a religious and holy behauiour specially towards God when we are in or neare the agonie and pang of death This behauiour containes three speciall duties The first is to die in or by faith To die by faith is whē a man in the time of death doth with all his heart rely himselfe wholly on Gods speciall loue and fauoure and mercie in Christ as it is reuealed in the word And though there be no part of mans life void of iust occasions whereby we may put faith in practise yet the speciall time of all is the pang of death when friends and riches and pleasures and the outward senses temporall life all earthly helpes forsake vs. For then true faith maketh vs to go wholly out of our selues and to despaire of comfort and saluation in respect of an earthly thing with all the power strength of the heart to rest on the pure mercie of God This made Luther both thinke and say that men were best Christians in death An example of this faith we haue in Dauid who when he sawe nothing before his eies but present death the people intending to stone him comforted him at that very instant as the text saith in the Lord his God And this comfort he reaped in that by faith he applied vnto his own soule the mercifull promises of God as he testifieth of himselfe Remember saith he the promise made to thy seruant wherein thou hast caused me to trust It is my comfort in trouble for thy promise hath quickned me Againe My flesh failed and my heart also but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for euer Now looke what Dauid here did the same must euery one of vs do in the like case When the Israelites in the wildernes were stung with fierie serpents and lay at the point of death they looked vp to the brasen serpent which was erected by the appointment of God and were presently healed euen so when any man feeles death to drawe neere his fierie sting to pierce the heart he must fixe the eye of a true and liuely faith vpon Christ exalted and crucified on the crosse which beeing done he shal by death enter into eternall life Now because true faith is no dead thing it must be expressed by especiall actions the principall whereof is inuocation wherby either praier or thanksgiuing is directed vnto God When death had seazed vpon the body of Iacob he raised vp himselfe and turning his face towards the beddes head