Saint Bernard calls it Againe by that parable in the Gospell of the Labourers Mat. 20.1 c. that were called into the Vineyard at seuerall houres in the day doe many wicked men take great incouragement to neglect the time of their calling repentance because they that were called in the last houre were accepted and rewarded equally with those which came in the first houre of the day But shew me which of those labourers being called did refuse to come It seemeth rather vnto mee that hereby they should learne without delay to repent when they are called to repēt at what time soeuer it be for he is not bound to vs but we to him Hee that saith when the wicked man turneth from his wickednesse that he hath committed Ezech. 18.27 and doth that which is lawfull and right shall saue his soule aliue doth say also It is good for a man that he beare the yoke in his youth Lam. 3.27 for old age is like to flint you may breake it before you can soften it In youth sinnes are few and feeble but by continuance they grow to be as strong as Giants and increase into mightie armies And where Salomon said before to the yong man Remember thy Creator in the daies of thy youth Eccles 12.1 in the same verse hee also sheweth the reason of the same and therfore saith Before thy euill dayes come and yeares approach wherein thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them These are the reasons for which Salomon would haue his yong man not to put off in the age of youth which is most prime and teachable the remembrance of his Creator and his repentance and they are taken from the many infirmities and withdrawings that are to be found in old age when youth is abused As much as if Salomon should haue said Well my sonne thou art now yong lustie and actiue of good apprehension and sharpe conceit indued with fresh and strong faculties of wit and remembrance thy feete are nimble thy sight is good and thy hearing perfect now therefore serue God and repent whiles thou mayest the time will come when thou wilt be old weake and sickly dull in apprehending and of bad capacitie and remembrance without good legges to bring thee to Church without a good eare to heare at Church and either without eyes or darke-sighted and not able to reade long nor to see a good letter but thorow spectacles Then it will bee too late to doe any good seruice to God thy Creator This I take to bee the Wisemans meaning in these words which teacheth vs that old age is no fit time wherein to begin repentance and godlinesse when the greene and fresh age of youth hath beene consumed in vanities The Israelites are complained of by the Lord in Malachy Mal. 1.8 that they offered the blinde for sacrifice and the lame and sicke for a hallowed thing And if yee offer the blinde for sacrifice is it not euill and if yee offer the lame and sicke is it not euill Offer it now vnto the Gouernour will he be pleased with thee or accept of thy person saith the Lord of Hostes He that would not haue a beast while he had no eyes in his seruice would haue thee while thou hast eyes to serue him the sicke and the lame were no good offerings then Leu. 22.20 as being forbidden in the Law and be they good ware now in the sicke and lame bodie of a man that hath desperately put off his repentance and turning to God till he can neither draw winde nor legge Moses knew this and therefore bore this burden yong and whiles his legges were able to beare him for the text saith Heb. 11.24 That when he was come to age he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter that is would not liue in delicacies while he had strength to liue vnto God Ioseph also in his beautie and faire person turned his backe to his tempting Mistresse Gen. 39.10.12 and his face to the Lord hee would not put off to serue God till olde age had made wrinckles in his faire face and his skinne withered Iosiah a good King 2. Chro. 34.3.4.5.6 in the eight yeere of his raigne and sixteenth of his age when he was yet a childe began to seeke after his God the God of Dauid his Father and in the twelfth yeere of his raigne and twentieth of his age made a famous reformation What So soone and so yong So saith the Scripture and so it was without controuersie For Gods children take the good dayes of youth for good duties and not the euill dayes of sickly and saplesse old age as commonly the children of the world doe Samuel serued God in his minoritie 1. Sam. 3.19 and grew in spirit as he shot vp in yeeres he was a good man and the better because a good yong man And Timothy from a child did know the holy Scriptures 2. Tim. 3.15 as the Apostle Saint Paul witnesseth for him The reasons why we must thus begin to repent betimes are these viz. First repentance as it can neuer come too soone where sinne is gone before so it must needs with much adoe and not without some speciall worke of God ouertake so many sinnes of youth and manhood so farre and much before it Secondly old age is full of wearinesse and trouble and where we haue elbow-roome in youth we cannot turne vs in old age perhaps we shall neither heare nor see nor goe nor sit without paine and torment in all parts and is this say you a fit condition of life and time of age to serue God in But say that the forcible working of the holy Spirit like a great gale of winde be able to blow thee home on the sodaine yet art thou not sure to haue it And doest thou thinke seeing thou wilt not repent know God in youth that hee will know thee at these yeeres and in this case and state And wilt thou bestow on Satan the beautie strength and freshnesse of youth offer to God the wrinkles weaknesse and foule hew of old age or when thou hast giuen away the flower of thy youth to Gods enemie wilt thou offer to God who will haue the first and deserues the best the dregges and leauings To all such I say if you will not know God in your youth hee will neuer know thee for ought that thou knowest when thou art gray-headed If as hath beene said thou wilt not giue him the yong and sound and that which is without blemish he will neuer take in good part the old and sicke and euill fauoured which no man will giue to his friend nor dare offer to his prince If thou wilt not when thou art quick-witted when thou art come to the yeares of dotage he will not If thou wilt not heare him in his day thou shalt crie in thy day that is in the euill day and shalt not bee
a thousand in an houre a life of nothing this Prophet measureth it with a short span Behold saith he Psal 39.15 thou hast made my dayes as a hand-breadth The valiant Captaine Iosua being now resolued to die Ioshua 23.14 calleth death the path that all must treade Behold saith he this day I enter into the way of all the world So holy Dauid being readie to die calleth death the way of all the earth Experience taught the very Heathen thus much 1. King 2.2 One night tarrieth for all men and wee must all tread the path of death This present transitorie life is called a pilgrimage Gen. 47.9 a path a trauell and a way because it continually plieth to an end for as they which are carried in coaches Eccle. 40 1. or saile in shippes finish their voyage Psal 1.1 though they sit still and sleepe euen so euery one of vs albeit we be busied about other matters and perceiue not how the course of our life passeth away being sometime at rest sometime idle and sometime in sport and daliance yet our life alwaies wasteth and wee in posting speed hasten toward our end The way faring man trauelleth apace and leaueth many things behinde him in his way He seeth stately towers and buildings he beholdeth and admireth them a while and so passeth from them afterward he seeth goodly fields meadowes flourishing pastures and pleasant vineyards vpon these also he looketh a while he wondereth at the sight and so passeth by then hee meeteth with fruitfull orchards greene forrests sweete riuers with siluer streames and behaueth himselfe as before At the length he meeteth with deserts hard rough and vnpleasant wayes foule and ouergrowne with thornes and bryers heere also he is inforced for a time to stay he laboureth sweateth and is grieued but when he hath trauailed a while hee ouercommeth all these difficulties and remembreth no more the former griefes but alwaies he is trauelling till hee comes to his iourneyes end euen so it fareth with vs one while wee meete in our way with pleasant and delightfull things another while with sorrowes and griefes but they all in a moment passe away Furthermore in high waies and foot-pathes this commonly we see that where one hath set his foote there soone after another taketh his steppe a third defaceth the print of his predecessors foote and then another doth the like Neither is there any who for any long time holdeth or continueth his place And is not mans life such Aske saith Basil the fields and possessions how many names they haue now changed In former ages they were said to be such a mans then his afterwards anothers now they are said to bee this mans and in short time to come they shall be called I cannot tell whose possessions and why so Because mans life is a certaine way wherein one succeedeth and expelleth another Behold the seates of States and Potentates of Emperors and Kings how many in euery age haue aspired vnto these dignities and degrees and when they haue attained them after much trauell labour and waiting in short time they are compelled to giue way to their successors before they haue well warmed their seats Yesterday one raigned to day he is dead another possesseth his roome and throne to morrow this man shall die and another shall sit in his seat None as yet could therein sit fast they all play this part as on a stage they ascend they sit they salute they descend and sodainly are gone The Apostle Paul in respect of the celeritie and swiftnesse of life compareth it to a race What is our life 1. Cor. 9.24 saith Saint Augustine but a certaine running to death Our life while it increaseth decreaseth our life is dying our death is liuing The traueller the longer he goeth on his iourney the nigher he is to his iourneyes end the children of Israel the longer they wandred from Egypt the nigher they were to the promised land so euery mortall man the longer he liueth the nigher he is to his iourneyes end Death Time and Tide stay for no man No bridle so strong that can keepe in our galopping daies He that runneth in a race neuer stayeth til he come at the end therof so euery mortall wight will he nill he neuer stayeth till death the end of his race stayeth him Iob 9.25 Iob 7.6 Iob 9.26 The mirrour of patience Iob by name compareth the race of man to the swift daies of a poste saying My dayes are swifter then a poste yea swifter then a weauers shittle they are as the motion of the swiftest shippe in the sea and as the Eagle that flieth fast to her prey 2. Pet. 1.14 The Apostle Peter compareth our time to a Tent or Tabernacle pitched in the field soone vp Psal 90.9.10 soone downe Our yeares are spent saith the Psalmist as a tale that is told yea our life is quickely cut off and wee are soone gone 1. Chro. 29.15 Dauid a little before his death offering with his Princes for the building of the Temple freely confesseth that they were strangers vpon earth as all their forefathers were their daies like a shadow and that heere was no abiding for them Isa 40.6.7 The Prophet Esay rebuking and checking mans forgetfulnesse doth crie out and say All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the field the grasse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth vpon it surely the people is grasse the yong grasse as the olde and flourishing as a flower Grasse growes soone and soone decayes The poore who in respect of their base condition in this world are compared to the grasse the noble and rich in respect of their fresh and flourishing shew are resembled vnto the flower to both which sorts noble and ignoble rich and poore there is no difference in death vnlesse as Ambrose saith the body of the rich being pampered with ryot and varietie of meates shall yeeld the more loathsomâ— smell The grasse and the flower are made by many meanes to wither and wee by many more meanes are brought to our end The flower of the field may bee by such as passe by willingly plucked vp or negligently troden on an hungrie beast may deuoure it a worme may eat it or make it to wither as it did the goard of Ionas Ion. 4.7 The winde may blow it downe the lightning may burne it the Sunne may scortch it or at least-wise the nipping winter will marre it The like may be said of vs hunger may famish vs abundance of meat and drinke may quench our naturall heate with surfetting and drunkennesse the ayre can infect vs the water can poison vs the fire can burne vs the beasts can deuoure vs wars can dispatch vs plagues can consume vs diseases can kill vs and a thousand other things can destroy vs. For Alexander the Great was poisoned by his owne Taster Antiochus of
how well would they reward him But the children of God reioyce at the newes of Death to shew their obedience to it and their ioy is according to the ioy of haruest as the Prophet speaketh and as men reioyce when they deuide the spoyle Isa 9.3 And they may say of Death when it commeth as the people triumphantly somtime spoke of the day of King Dauids coronation Psal 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it And they may call Death as Iacob did the place where he came Mahanaim because there the Angels of God met him when hee was to meete with his cruell brother Esau Gen. 32.1.2 euen so when the children of God are to meete with cruell Death the Lord will send his holy Angels Hebr. 1.14 who are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of saluation to carrie them into Abrahams bosome Tell one of our gallants in his sicknesse that Death is come for him 2. King 9.20 and that his driuing is like the driuing of Iehu comming furiously toward him he hath the Athenian question presently ready What will this babler say Acts 17.18 But this newes comming to the childe of God in his sicknesse hee may be talked withall for he hath learned with Samuel to say Speake Lord for thy seruant heareth 1. Sam. 3.10.18 and to say with Ely It is the Lord let him doe as seemeth good to him and with Dauid to say Heere am I let him doe to mee 2. Sam. 15.26 as seemeth good to him Now the reason of this great difference betwixt the wicked and the godly why they are thus diuersly affected vnto Death is this the wicked enioy their haue-best in this life but the godly looke for their good and are walking toward it And if it should be demanded when a wicked man is at his best the answere is the best is euill enough and that his best is when he comes first into the world for then his sins are fewest his iudgements easiest they goe astray as soone as they are borne saith the Psalmist Psal 58.3 It had beene good for him therefore that the knees had not preuented him but that he had died in the birth Nay it had beene good for him Iob 3.11.12 as our Sauiour Christ said of Iudas which betrayed him if he had neuer beene borne Mat. 26.24 For as a Riuer which is smallest at the beginning increaseth as it proceeds by the accession of other waters into it till at length it be swallowed vp in the deepe So the wicked the longer he liueth he waxeth euer worse and worse 2. Tim. 3.13 deceiuing and being deceiued saith the Apostle proceeding from euill to worse saith Ieremy till at length he be swallowed vp in that lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Ierem. 9.3 Reuel 19.20 And this the Apostle expresseth most significantly when he compares the wicked men to one gathering treasure wherein he heapes and treasureth vp wrath to himselfe against the day of wrath and the reuelation of the righteous iudgement of God For euen as the worldling who euery day casteth in a peece of money into his treasure in few yeeres multiplies such a summe the particulers wherof he himselfe is not able to keepe in minde but when hee breaks vp his chest then he finds it in sundry sorts of coyne whereof he had no remembrance Euen so and worse it is with thee O impenitent sinner who not only euery day but euery houre and minute of time multiplyest thy transgressions and defilest thy conscience hoording vp one euill work vpon another To what a reckoning thinkest thou shall thy sins amount in the end though thou forgettest them as thou dost cōmit them Rom. 2.5 yet the Apostle telleth thee that thou hast laid them vp in a treasury and not only so but that with euery sinne thou hast gathered a portion of wrath proportionable to thy sinne which thou shal◠perfectly know in that day Psal 50.21 wherein the Lord shall breake vp thy treasure and open the booke of thy conscience and set thy sinnes in order before thee But if you wil aske when the children of God are at their best I answere praised be God our worst is away our good is begun Iohn 7.6 our best is at hand As our Sauiour said to his kinsmen so may we say to the worldlings Your time is alwayes but my time is not yet come the children of God are not at their best now it is in the working onely wee were at our worst before our conuersion For our whole life till then was a walking with the children of disobedience in the broad way that leads to damnation and then were wee at the worst when wee had proceeded furthest in the way of vnrighteousnesse because then we were furthest from God Our best began in the day of our recalling wherin the Lord by his word and holy Spirit called vpon vs and made vs turne our backes vpon Satan and our face toward the Lord and caused vs to part company with the children of disobedience amongst whom wee had our conuersation before then we came home with the penitent forlorne to our Fathers family but they went forward in their sins to iudgement That was a day of diuision betwixt vs and our sinnes in that day with Israel we entred into the borders of Canaan into Gilgal and there we were circumcised Iosua 5.9 and the shame of Egypt was taken from us euen our sinne which is our shame indeed and which we haue borne from our mothers wombe The Lord grant that wee may keepe it for euer in thankfull remembrance and that we may count it a double shame to returne againe to the bondage of Egypt to serue the Prince of darknesse in bricke and clay that is to haue fellowship any more with the vnfruitful workes of darknes but that like the redeemed of the Lord Psal 84.7 we may walke from strength to strength till wee appeare before the face of our God in Sion For heere wee are not at our best but our best is to come Now our life is hid with the Lord and wee know not yet what we shall be 1. Iohn 3.2 but wee know when hee shall appeare we shall be like him the Lord shall carry vs by his mercy and bring vs in his strength to his holy habitation hee shall plant vs in the mountaine of his inheritance Exod. 15.13 euen the place which he hath prepared Isa 35.10 and the Sanctuary which he hath established Then euerlasting ioy shall be vpon our heads and sorrow and mourning shall fly away from vs for euer Therefore for this cause we must first indeuour that our death be voluntary for to die well is to die willingly Secondly we must labour that our sinnes die before vs. And thirdly that wee bee alwayes
death is of no continuance it is buried in its own birth it vanisheth in its own thought and the paine is no sooner begunne but is presently ended Though the flesh bee weake and fraile yet the spirit is strong to encounter the crueltie of Death and to make it rather a kinde kisse 1. Cor. 4.16 then a cruell crosse We faint not saith the Apostle for though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renued day by day Our Sauiour Christ said at his death and last farewell Iohn 17.1 Father the houre is come glorifie thy Sonne that thy Sonne also may glorifie thee Is there glory in death and is death but an houre It is of no long abode that abideth but an houre and little doe I doubt but that in that houre the soule is more rauished with the sight of God then the bodie is tormented with the sence of death Nay I am further perswaded that in the houre of my death the passion of mortalitie is so beaten backe with impression of eternitie that the flesh feeleth nothing but what the soule offereth and that is God from whom it came and whither it would as Saint Augustine saith with as great hast as happinesse And therefore whether you please to define or diuine of death what it is if it bee rightly broken into parts and passages the elect of God shall finde it a very easie passage euen as it were but a going out of prison a shaking off of our giues an end of banishment a breaking off our bands a destruction of toile an arriuing at the hauen a iourney finished the casting off an heauie burthen the alighting from a madde and furious horse the going out of a tottering and ruinous house the end of all griefes the escape of all dangers the destroyer of all euels Natures due Countries ioy and heauens blisse And from hence doe flow those sweete appellations by which the holy Ghost which is the Spirit of truth doth describe the death of the godly in saying that they are gathered or congregated to their people that is to the company of the blessed and triumphing Church in heauen to come to those which haue deceased before them in the true faith or rather haue gone thither before them So that the holy Ghost vseth a most sweete Periphrasis of death as speaking of the death of Abraham Gen. 25.8 Then Abraham gaue vp the ghost and died in a good old age Gen. 35.29 Gen. 49 33. Numb 20.24 Num. 27.13 an old man and full of yeeres and was gathered to his people And of the death of Isaac And Isaac gaue vp the ghost and died and was gathered vnto his people and so likewise of Iacob of Moyses of Aaron c. It is but the taking of a iourney which we thinke to bee death it is not an end but a passage it is not so much an emigration as a transmigration from worse things to better a taking away of the soule and a most blessed conueying of it from one place to another not an abolishing for the soule is taken from hence and transposed into a place of eternall rest it is a passage and ascension to the true life it is an out-going because by it the godly passe out of the slauerie of sinne to true libertie euen as heretofore the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt into the promised land And as S. Peter termes it it is a laying downe of the tabernacle 2. Pet. 1.14 2. Cor. 5.4 for so he stiles our bodies And as S. Paul termes it it is an vnclothing or putting off of it and a remouing out of the bodie from a most filthie lodging to a most glorious dwelling They are said to be loosed from a port or from a prison and to come to Christ Phil. 1.23 seeing they are led out of the Inne of this present life to the heauenly Countrey and out of the dregs of wicked men to the most blessed societie of Christ and his Saints in heauen They are loosed by death out of the bonds of the bodie for euen as cattell when they haue discharged the labour of the whole day at last about the euening are set free and as they which are bound in prison are loosed from their fetters so the godly are led foorth by death from the yoke of their labours and sorrowes of this life and out of the filthie prison of sinne and by a wonderfull and most sweet translation are caried to a better life Out of all which it clearely appeareth Phil. 1.21 how truely the Apostle hath called the death of the godly aduantage seeing it is aduantage to haue escaped the increase of sinne aduantage by auoyding worse things to passe to better from labour and daunger to perfect rest and security and which is all in all to eternall blessednesse All which appellations of death doe teach vs to be so farre from beeing afraid of it that we ought willingly to welcome it as the easie and ioyfull messenger of our happy deliuerance and not sing loth to depart as all worldlings doe who tremble at the very name of it And thus I passe from the facility of dying to the felicitie of dying of which I may say as Sampson did of his riddle Out of the eater came meate Iudges 14.14 and out of the strong came sweetnesse Now the meat that commeth out of this eater and sweetnesse that proceedeth forth of this strong one is a cessation of all euill and an indowment of all good and by this doore we haue an easie and readie passage to all blessednesse and happinesse where God and with him all good is Man that is borne of a woman saith Iob hath but a short time to liue Iob 14.1 and is full of misery O sweet death that turneth time into eternity and misery into mercie so graciously hath our Sauiour done for vs making medicines of maladies cures of wounds and salues of sores and to his children producing health out of sicknesse light out of darknesse and life out of death Psal 27.13 This made Dauid to daunce in the midst of all his affliction and calamitie when he said I should verily haue fainted vnlesse I had beleeued to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the liuing This hath supported the soules of Gods Saints in the seas of their sorrowes when they thought vpon the day of their dissolution wherein they should be made glorious by their deliuerance For as our Sauiour Christ tooke his flight from the heauen to the Virgins wombe from her wombe to the world from the world to the crosse from the crosse to the graue from the graue vnto heauen againe Euen so from the womb wee must follow his steppes and tread the same path that he hath traced out for vs. Iohn 14.6 I am the way saith our Sauiour the truth and the life He is the way without wandring the truth without shadowing the life without