and it will reuiue thee it can heale all leprosie of sinne and remooue all maladies from a sin-sick soule it is the nectar of our saluation and the Lethe of our iniquines tast but once of this breade of life thou shalt euer after loath the sugered cares and bewitching damties of lustfull affections looke daily vppon this bread of life and thou shalt euer after hide thine eyes and stop thine eares which are now captiued vassailes to behold and heare the legerdemaine of humaine iugling desires all siren songes of carnall concupisence and vices loue-lines which now are imprinted in thy brest shall be quight cancelled out after thou hast once digested inwardly and thy soule hath had an happy concoction of this bread of life it purgeth all the hidden corruption of mans folly giueth working pills to vomit vp originall transgressions it is the present remedie for a body which lieth in a consumption of grace to tast of this bread of life with in a short space by the vnspeakeable hidden operation will make a blessed recouerie for this languishing creature If thy soule bee hungry or thirsty behold two sacramentall riuers flowing out of the Paradise of Christs body in the one thou shalt find this bread of life in the other this water of life tast either of them and thou shalt neuer hunger or thirst more yea the power of this bread cannot bee sufficiently declared by the tongue of the worthiest Orator VVherefore let vs only satisfie our soules with this bread of life whose power and efficacie our daily Orator Christ Iesus hath declared vnto vs in these words Hee that cōmeth to me shall not hunger and he that belieueth in me shall neuer thirst Wherefore to drawe to a conclusion let vs from the bottome of our hearts desire Christ Iesus euermore to giue vs of this bread that when the glasse of our life is runne out and with the Phenix wee may discerne the terme of our dayes and with the Swanne discouer our fatall end that it would please him to feed our hungry soules with this spirituall foode this bread of life and place them at his heauenly table to satisfie themselues with this celestiall banquet yea whē our breath vanisheth our eyes waxe dim and wee turned out of the houseroome of this transitory world repayre vnto our doomesday house where the wormes the dead mens lawyers shall take their fees out of vs their graue-clients and our bodies shall be their bread to satiate their hunger yet thou O Iesus would vouchsafe to giue vs thy body the only breade of life for to nourish our hungry soules that by the winges of a liuely faith wee may fly vp to the heauens and inioy that age of vnspeakeable pleasures the eternall father through the merrits of his deerest sonne by the scepter of his holy spirit so rule our hearts that wee being righteous as Elias and our prayers feruent as those of Elias they may peirce the clouds and open heauen and thence bring downe this bread of life this dew of diuine grace vppon vs and satisfie our soules with this misticall banquet of Christs body O Lord inflame our tongues with the zeale of deuotion that our prayers may bee feruent and may make a sweete incense to pacifie thy wrath that thou blotting out all our vnworthinesse out of thy memory maist graciously hearken to our petitions and maist grant vs this inestimable treasure the price and raunsom of our soules redemption if the Lyons seeke their meate of God if the Oxe knowe his owner and the Asse his maisters crib graunt vnto vs a most carefull desire to craue this meate of our soules and to waite and seeke for this bread of life that we which were created by a consultation of the Dietie redeemed with the pretious bloud of Christ sanctified by the holy Ghost may be partakers of this blessed bread of life and in the end and without all end sit at his heauenly table raigning together with the Trinity in the Kingdome of heauen to which bee all glory power praise and dominion both now and for euermore FINIS A SHORT AND necessary Treatise entituled Deaths welcome By Sa Garey AT LONDON Printed by I. R. for Ieffery Charleton 1605. ⧠To the most puissant Emperor and Conquerer of all the vvorld Death greeting LIfe saith the Philosopher is but a borrowed dreame of pleasure a vision of delight a pageant of transitory happinesse and Death is a Harbinger of eternitie a bringer of felicitie a Messenger of glory it is a pyrat of life and yet a pilot to life a conductor to the heauenly hauen of blisse the Angell to keepe Paradise wherein none enters but by the entrance of his fatall sword Sith therefore ô Death thou art the Groome-porter to let out life and let in life the remoouer as Aeschilus calleth thee of worldly sorrows the deliuerer as Cicero saith of troubled mindes the laylor which art content with the fees of our life to set our Soules at libertie I heere inuite and welcome thee to the loathsome banquet of my body fat thy pale cheekes with the cates of my life and glut thy hungry appetite with my vitall spirits onely doe me this fauour that I may say my Grace at this last supper and then sit downe vpon my dying bed and drinke vp the sweet drop of sower life and the scraps and dead bones of my body and carkasse of my flesh take away and keepe thē in the doomsday house vntil my Soule by the liuely wings of faith descending frō heauen at the generall resurrection be vnited one to another and there enioy an endlesse age of pleasures to the which ô Death soone bring mee that I may say to the VVorldes misery which I say to thee farewell Your louing and vntill you come liuing friend Sa. Garey Tu nil rescribas attamen ipse veni ⧠A Treatise entituled Deaths welcome THE principall motiue vvhich doth encourage a man to welcome and imbrace death is the assured hope of the future life and of those ioyes which hee shall enioy in the neuer fading kingdome Therefore S. Paule saith Vnlesse the dead be raised againe what aduantageth it me to haue fought with beasts at Ephesus For vnlesse there were a resurrection of the dead and an immortall life to be obtained after this our pilgrimage why should we liue in ieopardy euery howre suffer such persecution in this world not rather follow the rules of the Epicures eate drinke for to morrow we shall die and vppon our graues engraue the Epitaph of Sardanapalus which hee writ a little before his death Cum te mortalem noris presentibus exple Delicijs animū post mortem nulla voluptas Et venere et plumis et caenis Sardanapali This I say were the best pleasing life to eate with the Epicure sleepe with Endimion carouse with Alexander with the rich man in the scripture to flatter our selues saying Soule thou hast much goods layde vp
sound a retraite froÌ„ sin alwaies remembring Christ crucified For as Bernard saith The remembrance of Christ crucified crucifieth sinne And as S. Augustine saith Then Christ dooth sleepe in thee when thou hast forgot his passion The readiest way direct path to goe to Heauen is to swim through the red sea of Christes blood The droppes of Christs precious blood raigning downe from the clowdes of his mercie must queÌ„ch the angry flame of Gods wrath which wee cannot extinguish by the vertuous water of any merrit It is the oyle of Grace which must purge our defiled harts It is the dewe of heauen which will make vs florish beeing ingrafted into the true Oliue It is the welspring of our saluation it is the heauenly manna which all of vs should gather vp in the wildernes of this world Loue this good thing in which all goodnes is it is enough for thee yea obserue but this short lesson which Augustine giueth thou art a good Christian Ama deum et amices in deum et inimicos propter deuÌ„ et beatus es Loue Christ who loueth thee loue his friends that loue Christ and thee loue Christes enemies that hate Christ and thee then thou shalt be beloued of Christ for louing him thou shalt bee beloued of Christ for louing theÌ„ that hate Christ thee the haters shall perrish yet thou louing shalt be beloued Loue GOD without measure theÌ„ shalt thou be happy without measure Loue God withal thy hart whoÌ„ thou shalt behold without end loue without pride praise with out wearines Therfore if men did but obserue this briefe lesson wee need not feare death but welcome him vvith a thousand kisses for that messenger doth bring vs gladde tidings for by him we change transitory mortall and corruptible things for certaine immortall and incorruptible treasures earth for heauen sin for godlines darknes for light feare for security trauell for quietnesse sicknesse for health death for life the company of men for the companie of the omnipotent God and heauenly angels the vile pleasures of this world for the inestimable ioyes of heauen Oh therefore let vs hartily wish to be losoned froÌ„ this life that we may come to appeare before the presence of God let vs say with Dauid Like as the Hart desireth the water brookes so longeth my soule after thee ô God O GOD thou art my God early will I seek thee my soule thirsteth for thee my flesh also longeth after thee in a barren and dry land where no water is Let vs say with Iob It grieueth my soule to liue longer in this mortall body Let vs say with holy Toby O Lord deale with me according to thy will and command my spirit to be receiued in peace For wheÌ„ the liuely threds of our life vntie the spindle vndoe the web riue and our naturall life endeth yet the spirituall and essentiall part namely the soule shall be receiued with Angels carried to heauen most louingly as a precious relique into the kingdome of heauen It shal be like a Doue carried on the wings of Angels into this heauenly Palace For as Augustine saith It is the office of Angels to carry soules to the company of the blessed Now therefore when Death shal breake vp your mortall house imprint this lesson in the forefront of your languishing flesh yea euen when you are halfe berest of life that you remember Christ crucified remember him to be the onely Sauiour remember God the Father to bee a most mercifull Father Fixe the eyes of your faith on Iesus Christ on his merrits on his passion death on his blessed body breaking and his most precious blood shedding on his triumph and victory ouer fathan and his hellish army Forget not that all your sinnes are washed away in Christes blood that by vertue of his death and passion you are made beyre of euerlasting saluation Fight a good fight be not discouraged by the paines of death neuer shrink in Deaths battell call vppon Iesus for no baulme will be more comfortable to a wound theÌ„ the name of Iesus to deaths wound Put on the Helmet of saluation the brest-plate of righteousnes the girdle of truth the shield of faith the sworde of the spirit and your feete shod with the preparation of the Gospell of peace Feare not stand fast quit your selues like men for in this spirituall battell you sight vnder the banner of the mighty victorious Emperor Iesus Christ onely continue with these weapons the day is yours If sathan tempt you you may with hartie prayers good Orators for your saluation inchant that Dragon that hee may sleep while your soule is translated to tast of the golden fruite of blessed soules perseuere in this battell which is the true complement of vertue The paine of the battel is small the glorie of the triumph shall abide for euer euer For so saith the scripture To him that ouercoÌ„mmeth I will giue to eate of the tree of life which is in the midst of Paradice be faithful vnto the death and I wil giue thee a crowne of life Hee that ouercommeth I wil make a piller in the temple of my God and hee shall go no more out yea to him that ouercoÌ„math wil I grant to sit with me in my seate These precious promises rewards may make vs couragious against death folow your captaine Christ you cannot erre for he is the way belieue christ you cannot be deceiued for hee is the truth abide and remaine in Christ and you cannot die the death euerlasting for he is the life wherfore cleaue with strong faith to Christ and say with that wise man My minde is rooted and built in Christ and then you neede not feare when death shall giue your soule the winges of true libertie to depart out of your fraile flesh and to flie vp to heauen and rest within Abrahams bosome for theÌ„ you shal rest from your labors trauels For so saith the scripture the soules of the righteous are in thy haÌ„d ô God the paine of death shall not touch them In the sight of the vnwise they appeare to die but they are in peace they are as the Angells of God they are clad with white garmeÌ„ts haue golden crownes vpon their heads They doe stand day night before his Maiesty there they haue all ioy solace and harts contentments By death we passe from earth to heauen from men to Angells from warre to peace from paine to pleasure from griefe to gladnesse from miserie to perpetuall felicitie we passe by death from this life which is like a bubble in the water like a weauers Shettell like a smoake like a vapoure like a shaddowe like a flower that fadeth like grasse that withereth it is but a span-long it is a warfare it is like a ruinous house euer readie to fall it is like a cloude in the element whereof wee are vncertaine where and when it falleth This cloude sometimes melteth in the cradle sometimes in the chaire Death is like the Sunne whensoeuer it shineth it melteth our cloudie life be the cloude thereof neuer so thicke or thin in yeares this life is like an vncertaine wethercocke which turnech at euery blast like a Waue that mounteth at euery storme like a reede that boweth at euery whistling wind This world is an exile a vale of miserie a wildernesse of sorrowes a dungeon of sinners a sea of miseries where wee passe away the wauering daies of this vncertaine life sayling as Pilgrims on the waters of this world tossed by the tempests of aduersitie and oppressed by sundry Pyrats the flesh sin and the deuill and yet by the Barke of a liuely faith and by the Marriner death wee shall bee transported from the flesh pots of Egipt to eate of comfortable Manna not in the wildernesse but in new Ierusalem Therefore hast ô good God to deliuer me froÌ„ this painfull life to that glorious life from this wretched mansion to that excellent tabernacle from this stormie worlde to the calme country of heauen where I shall haue liberty without imprisonment health without sicknes ioy without sorrowe pleasure without paine in such securitie eternitie and perpetuitie as passeth all thoughts Come therefore Death thou art welcome thou art thrice welcome death For when the Tree of my life shall fall downe heere vpon earth and I shall see my father dust my mother ashes yer my soule shall be carried into Abrahams bosome Adiew vile life farewell life sinfull life adiewe and welcome Death the Embassador from my louing Sauiour for by thee my misery shall end So that O Death thou art welcome VVelcome sicknes for my Lord Iesus hath nowe sent thee to fetch mee from this prison to his Pallace from a strange pilgrimage to dwell in the restfull Country of Canaan from these teares and mourning to the day of mariage sweet Iesus to bee espoused to thee in thy merrits for euermore where I shall liue like a Demie-god hauing the sight of the glorious Trinitie and the companie of holie Patriarks Prophets Apostles Martirs and blessed Saints inherite such ioyes as neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hart euer conceiued Therefore welcome death welcome sweet death for thou shalt remooue me out of this prison deliuer me froÌ„ this body of sinne to enter into the amiable tabernacles of my Lord where one day is better then a thousand else-where I shal no more weep by the waters of Babilon when I shal remember thee ô Sion for now I shall be in Sion and dwell there for euermore Come therfore ô death to mee at thy pleasure for it is a pleasure for me to die com death ô my ioy for it is a ioy for mee to enioy thee VVelcome death the beginning of ioy the first fruite of pleasure when thou commesâ—â—ar well sorowes adiew miseries death is the Prince of delights Arise therfore make hast ô my beloued my delight my comfort for at thy comming my winter is past and the tempestuous waters of miseries are ceased thou art ioâ—es messenger and gladde tidings bringer ô life thou art my death ô death thou art my life this life is a coÌ„tintiaÌ„ll death but after this death hath ceased vpon my body theÌ„ shal my soule go vnto her life Adiew therfore ô myserable liâ—e welcome thrice welcome death farewell also ô death welcome immortall life Laus Deo FINIS
thy mouth but record therein day and night Their Lawes should be axioms arising out of their owne deedes but they themselues are the readiest to infring the same Now then when the lease of the liues of these Stewards who hold all their possessions by seruice is expired and shall be summoned by death to appeare before their Land-lord to giue there accounts how beneficially they haue imployed their talents then they will beginne to haue a feeling sense of there owne miserie seeing how ill they did gouerne the people ouer the which the Lord had made them ouerseers We reade that Dauid being chosen of God to feede his people in Iacob and his in heritance in Israell did feede them according to the simplicity of his hart and guided thee by the discretion of his handes These Dauids be few now adaies and as the Poeth saith Rex bonus est sapiens qualem vix repperit vnum Mellibus e cunctis hominum consultus Apollo A good King and wise such a one as Apollo beeing asked counsell of coulde scarce finde one among all men Yet thanks be giuen to God who by his blessed prouidence hath elected a second Dauid to raigne ouer vs whose loynes are girded with righteousnesse and faithfulnesse the buckle of his raines in whose throne Astraea sits weying euery mans merrits by the equall ballance of their actions whose minde is inuironed against vice with the cleere streames of sweet vertue And therefore sith it hath pleased God to set a temporal transitory crowne of glorie on his head he needs not feare but that in the world to come he shall be crowned with a farre surpassing weight of glorie there shall tast the heauenly Manna and drinke the nectar of ioy But as for other Princes who heere doe tast the Roses of prosperitie shal in the world to come for their wickednesse drinke the worme-wood of aduersitie when they shall recount with themselues that they haue touched the Lords annointed and done his Prophets harme iniured the fatherlesse oppressed the innocent prophaned the sanctuary of God onely delighted themselues with the vaine pompe of this world how can they hope that their impure soules shoulde bee translated to this pure place of endlesse comfort So likewise to descend lower by a lineall degree throughout all the pedigrees of men Behold the Ministerie who haue the ouer-sight of our soules see if they can boldly run vnto the goale of death who haue not ledde theyr liues according to their inioyned vocations The Ministers which should haue two eyes as Gregory saith one of famous learning the other of an vpright godly life many of them haue one of these eyes but want the other And as the same Gregory saith Many declare that in wordes vvhich in life and manners they goe against These haue the eye of learning but want the eye of honest life Yea manie are blinde of both eyes but they be worse then the former For the Ministers should by their endeuours and honest coÌ„uersation reclaime the wicked from the brink of perdition they should inuent medicinable receits against the gostly maladies of sinners they should in the generall famine of spirituall foode prepare with Ioseph abundance of the breade of Angels for the repast of theyr soules Yea they should studie spirituall Phisicke and be trauelled in the scrutinie of the soules diseases and be acquainted with the beating and temper of euery mans pulse they should purge theyr flock from the leaprosie of sinne they should lift vp theyr voyce like a trumpet and shewe the people their offences and the house of Iacob theyr sinnes They are the Prophets of the Lord that shal bring the messages from the Mountaines and proclaime peace They be the light of the VVorlde the salt of the earth they be watch-men which for Sions sake should not holde theyr tongues for Ierusalems sake should not cease Nowe when they shall remember that they haue beene dumbe dogges which did not bark wheÌ„ the wolues did teare their flocks And as Gregory saith Thou hast seene the wolfe and hast escaped saying by chance I haue escaped all Thou hast escaped because thou hast kept silence Thou hast been heere in body thou hast escaped in spirit Or as Saint Bernard saith when they shall remember they were Ministri Christi sed serni anti Christi or call to mind the straight commandemeÌ„t giuen by christ to Peter to feede Christes flocke and they haue been rather wolues theÌ„ shepheards which did rather fleece and oppresse them then protect them when they did imitate Souldiers in habit husbandmen in gaine indeede they were neither because they did neither fight against the Wolues as Souldiers nor as husbandmen labour in Gods Vineyarde nor as Clarkes preach the Gospell in the Church and while they desire both they confound both As Bernard saith therefore their consciences will be perplixed their mindes distracted nor shall they perceiue the melodious harmonie of excusing thoughts or perswade themselues of that comfortable assurance that the opening of the booke will showe that their names are written in heauen or shall they tast that continuall feast of a cleere conscience the soules blessed banquet they shall wring their hands for griefe when they might haue clapt for ioy they shall tremble when they might haue triumphâ—d they shall weepe when they might haue laught they shall wish that the Mountaines would couer them hide them from the sight of God and these bee the causes why so vnwillingly they yeeld to dy yea euen wheÌ„ their forces languish their senses impaire their body droupeth and on euery side the ruinous cottage of their fraile body threatneth a fall yea when they may behold their grasse wasted their grapes gathered their house broken and nothing remaining but the stocke of the grapes the skinne of the flesh and but one only blast of life yet notwithstanding they will say with Callimachus I am too old to liue and too young to die and they are afraid to close vp their eies when they heare the Bell of death knelling in their eares but had rather fight still in this Campe of miserie then by deaths paspot to bee conducted out of this world They had rather with Aristippus prolong life then with Socrates yield to die and the causes bee these because they haue not beene carefull in their functions but haue beene carelesse in their liues dissolute in their actions they were not the instruments of God hauing a sound to teach well but the bones of the deuill because they did want the feeling and therefore they hauing deuoted their liues only to the deuill their conscience doe assure them that they hauing gorged the deuill with the fairest fruites of their liues God will not feede vppon the scrappes of his leauings gleane the reproofe of his haruest and therefore they bee vnwilling to depart out of this life But to passe ouer the spirituall gouernors and come to ciuell Magistrates The Lawyers