Chrys Olymp. Jobi uxorem ad suam virique vitam sustentendam ostiatim mendicasse Wife from door to door had begged it who 2 Tempore multo transacto as it is in the Septuagint after his fifteen 3 If Theodoret speak true Chap. 3. vers 1.3 c. years continuance in this calamity said unto him Doest thou still retain thine integrity curse God and dye Lo here the malice of the Devil which had left him nothing but his Wife and Tongue that with the latter he might blaspheme the Lord and the former might serve as an instrument for to tempt him to it Notwithstanding this Job did not sin But although he did not curse his God yet he did his birth-day in his third Chapter neither blame him for it for the anguish of his soul was exceeding great that at length burst forth into this or the like most doleful exclamation Ah me most miserable let that night be never had in remembrance when it was said a man childe is conceived Cursed be that day with darknesse wherein I was born let not God regard it from above that the clouds may cover it as a Canopy with blackness to make it terrible let not the Sunshine come neer it no not so much as the twilight of the lesser stars because it hid not these grievous sorrows from my weeping eyes Alas why dyed I not before I saw my being Better it had been for me to have perished in the Haven then thus to have lanched forth into this sea of troubles O that I had been buried before I was born and my Mothers Womb would have proved my Tomb then should I sleep at quiet and have been at rest but now my dayes are lengthened to encrease my sorrow Deliver me O God out of this distress O spare me a little before I go hence Chap. 14.7 and be no more seen For there is hope of a tree 8. although the spreading top thereof be lopt and the whole bulk cut down yet it will spring again and not cease to send forth his tender Branch 9. yea though the root wax old and die yet by the sent of moistning water it will bud again and flourish like a new set plant But we must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground 2 Sam. 14.14 which cannot be gathered up again A man dieth and wasteth away yea a man giveth up the Ghost and where is he Man giveth up the Ghost and where is he Text. These words will bear a double consideration Division One is Relative 1. Relative and so they have dependance on the three precedent verses of this Chapter and thus my Text were a piece of Jobs comparison setting forth the distressed estate of a dying man by the new and hopeful growth of an old consuming tree But this is not that which now I intend to follow The other is Absolute 2. Absolute and in this respect if you will be pleased with me to look upon the words at the first view 1. Affirmative Proposition you may behold First an affirmative Proposition Man yieldeth up the Ghost Secondly words of Consequence 2. Inference or a sleight Inference by way of Questioning or Quere where is he In the Proposition you have 1. The Subject Man 2. The Act of this Subject yieldeth up Man yieldeth up 1. Part. 3. The object of this Act or the Depositum which is the Ghost Man yieldeth up the Ghost In the first I shall take a short survey of man before he die From the second you may learn the necessity of man to die And in the third the nature of our Life and Soul and what it is for a man to die Lastly I shall conclude with an answer to the Quere 2. Part. and will tell you as neer as I can where a man is when he shall die Of these in their order according to my Method of Division And first of the first The Subject of this Discourse Man MAN We will take a Survey of Man before he die The last thing that received any Breath from God was Man First Part. not that he was least but perhaps because the Lord should have made so great a Prince in vain if he had had no place wherein to rule When the Lord had drawn out that large and real Map of the spacious world he did then abridge it into the little Table of Man which alone did consist of Heaven and of Earth of Soul and of a Body The Body of Man That the Body was created of Earth I think that there is none doth doubt thereof yet saith Arias Montanus it was not Ex qualibet humo sed pinguissima Ghaphar Adamah that is the Original of a reddish soft and the fattest Earth Nor is it so that God made an Image moulded out of Clay but out of it by the power of his word came blood flesh and bones with all the other parts of man whose body is compounded of the four Elements and doth partake of all their qualities though earth predominates and nominates whereunto the flesh doth bear resemblance his vital Spirits agree with Air and Fire his humors to the Water yea there is no piece so small in the whole Frame of man wherein every one of the Elements do not intermeddle their power although one of them doth alwayes command above the rest and bear the sway Now as the parts of man are many so the principal is the head there dwell those majestick powers of Reason that make a man The Senses as they have their original from thence so do they all agree there to manifest their Vertue How goodly proportions hath the Lord set in the face of man in the Breast the Arms the Legs and the whole structure of every member all as decent as necessary It were long for to speak of the Homogeneous or similary parts which are nine the Bone Ligament and the Gristle Sinew Panicle and the Cord or Filament the Flesh the Artery and the Veins How hath the Lord disposed of all the inward Vessels for the offices of Life nourishment and egestion there is none of those forementioned idle there is no piece in this exquisite frame whereof the place the use and the form do not admit wonder and exceed it The Soul But what is this Bodie if compared to the Soul no more then a clay wall that encompasseth a treasure or a mask to a beautiful face Man was made last because he was the worthiest the Soul inspired last because yet more noble God that breatheth upon Man and gives him the Holy Spirit the same God did breath upon this Carkass and gave it a living spirit He alone did create our souls in their infusion and infused them in their creation Our knowledge in the beginning and our righteousness was perfect like the first Copie from which we were drawn O too too happy estate of man had not
where is she In Purgatory No. The Papists strangely talk of four infernal places in the bowels of the Earth Hell Purgatory Limbus patrum and Infantium Perhaps Hell may be there but the rest are fabulous Hell they account to be the lowest and would have Purgatory to be next where the soul shall be sure to bear enough not only poena damni Aug. lib 21. cap. 13. de civit Dei Euseb de praefat Evang. lib. 1. cap. ult but sensus too As for the antiquity of this Purgatory even Plato is cited by S. Augustine and Eusebius to be the Patron of it Yea and may not Homer and Virgil too be alleadged for 't for who doubts but that Poets are alwayes Orthodox Yet O the cold devotion of those times this fire never began to burn out before Pope Gregories dayes and since that the Authority of the Turkish Alcoran hath much added to the flames thereof where there is seven yeers punishment for every sin But see now I pray the vanity of this new invention Are not all the Articles of our Faith declared in sacred Writ yet there we hear nothing of this fained Purgatory Sap. 3.1 Solomon doth utterly quench this fire The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God saith he and no torment shall come nigh them Wisd 3. Behold then either souls without a Purgatory Matth. 11.18 or a Purgatory without pain Come unto me all you that labor are heavy laden saith Christ and I will ease you Mat. 11. Lord whither wilt thou send us into Purgatory Surely there is little ease if the fire be so hot as the Papists tell us Esay 44. Thy sins saith God I will no more remember Esay 44. Call you that no remembrance of them to cast us into Purgatory Philip. 1.23 I desire saith S. Paul to be loosed and to be with Christ Phil. 1. Verily if he had thought to have gone through Purgatory he would not have been so hasty for there he should be sure to have met with a hot Bath to have cooled his courage Doubtless his soul that is departed did escape this place of torment And where then is she Is she gone and ascended up the Heavens Yes If Abrahams bosom be in Heaven a Heaven it may be though not the Heaven of Heavens In Coelo beatorum though not In sancto sanctorum the highest and most glorious Heaven Chrys 2. hom de Lazaro There are but two wayes for Souls departed saith Chrysostome some are hurried to the place of punishment and others are conveyed by Angels into Heaven not in an instant for that were an act of the Deity it self but they pass by a Physical by a local motion though it be no longer then the twinkling of an Eye This Abrahams Bosom is a place of bliss and receptacle of souls departed wherein there is peace and tranquillity of minde being in the sight of God yet that sight of God is as through a veil not cleer for how saith Origen can they have the full vision Origen hom 7. in Levit. and perfect happiness as long as they grieve at our errours lament our sins and have a longing desire to be united to their bodies Bellar. lib de Sanctis Bellarmin indeed taketh great pains to prove in six long Chapters that the Saints departed do presently enjoy the full sight of God and enter into perfect bliss and reproveth M. Calvin because he saith that the Saints are yet in hope of the full fruition But the Fathers generally deny that the souls of the Saints are yet in the very same place where the glorified Bodie of Christ remains S. Chrysostom S. Hillary and S. Augustine Chrys i. Epist ad Corinth hom 39. Hillar in psal 36. Just q 1. 75. Ambr. tract de bono mortis cap. 10. Tert. advers Marcionem l. 4. Justine the Martyr S. Ambrose and Tertullian I could here alledge who do all agree that the souls of the righteous are carried into Paradise or Abrahams Bosom there to remain in hope and joy but yet uncrowned until the end of things bring the fulnesse of reward by the resurrection of all men But what this Abrahams bosom is whether Lazarus soul was conveyed by the Angels or where it is the most learned hitherto could not know and therefore I dare not I cannot determine it Only by the words of S. Bernard in his third sermon on All-Saints day Bern. in Festum omnium sanctorum serm 3. I conceit it to be next unto the highest Heavens immediatly without the glorious presence of Almighty God There are three estates of the soul saith he in the corruptible body without the body in perfect blessednesse The first is in the Tabernacles the second in the Courts and the third in the house of God But into this most happy house the souls of the Saints shall not enter before us without us or without their bodies Art thou grieved O departing soul because at an instant thou shalt not receive thy full reward Why what then should Abel do who overcame so long since and not yet glorified what Noah the Patriarchs the Prophets and the rest of those times for behold they expected thee and expect others after thee they prevented us in their conflicts but they shall not in their crowns What though this Carkass be left to rottenness for a time when my soul at the very instant of separation knows her self to be happie What although my friends mourn about my Bed and Coffin when my soul is gone to enjoy the the loving embracements of my Lord and Saviour And what matter is it though my name be forgotten amongst men when I live above so neer unto the God of spirits that part which is corrupted feels it not but my soul findeth an abundant recompence and foreseeth a joyful reparation in the resurrection of the just When this mortality shall be clothed with immortality then all tears shall be wiped from our eyes both bodie and soul shall be made partakers of eternal happiness When the veil shall be taken away then we shall all enter into that Sanctum Sanctorum Gods chamber of presence where we shall have a full even a cleer sight of the beatifical vision When the day shall no more give place to night and time shall cease to be by the consummation of all things then we shall live and raign with God the Father with God the Son and with God the holy Ghost in perfect joy in perfect bliss and in perfect Glory for ever everlastingly even world without end ENCOM EPILOGUE Now here at this Funeral Solemnity you may well expect something to be spoken of this our deceased deerest Friend and indeed although it might better beseem another mans tongue then mine own yet being my lot to be now in this place I cannot omit it without incurring the guilt of an injury to the dead for as I utterly disallow the custome of some men
more then Tenants at will yet think our selves to be owners If this condition were proper only to our selves and Climate how unhappy should we seem to be But behold no place is secure from death Zacharie shall meet her though it be between the Temple and the Altar Men had a Sanctuary to flie unto of old yet there did Priamus there did Joab die and when is a man more sure then sitting yet Eli fell down backward from his bench and died And do not every Prince and Monarch dance with us in the same ring But what speak I of Earth the God of Nature the Saviour of men have trod the same steps and should we think much to follow him No. Consider but a little the Emblem of impartial death Vt pingitur per Gabrielem Inchinum as * some have pictured it and we need not A Carkass it is of man that only doth consist of bones united by the nerves ears eyes and nose it hath none naked and terrible to behold brandishing a sharp fickle with both her hands Mortis Icon. as if cutting down of corn This is the Icon the image of death wherein look how many parts so many mysteries First Death is pictured without eyes as an indifferent Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Sine oculis she is no respecter of persons which have no fear of the mighty nor pitty on the poor no noble dignity nor resplendent shew no riches not the greatest treasure can procure her peace O you Emperours Popes and Kings Princes and the greatest Potentates your Thrones Diadems and purple robes Sceptres Crowns and Miters death casteth to the ground You that are clothed in glorious garments and adorned to pomp shall die like men Thou shalt not be safe O Caesar in the Senate House Death will as well finde an entrance to the stately Palace Horat. as the poorest Cottage Pallida mors aequo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas Regumque turres 2. Sine auribus Secondly without ears that will admit no prayers no supplications to pacifie her rage and fury O you wise and learned Doctors your eloquence your knowledge shall not now prevail she is deaf and heareth not your Reasons and Arguments of Philosophie not the pleading of the wrangling Lawyer or the sweet tongued Orator The Poet with his pleasant Jests the subtil Sophister with his fallacies shall not now deceive her She yieldeth not to the sighs of the afflicted nor their tears Finally the prayers of the humble the vain smooth speeches of Flatterers she doth not she cannot hear * Boet de consolat Philos Heu heu quam surd â miseros avertitur aure Et flentes oculos claudere saeva negat Next Death is said to have no nose 3. Sine naribus as not to be deceived by any delightful smell O you wanton and lascivious Girls your fragrant odours will now be nothing worth the apparel that is all perfumed and your sweetest powders 2 Reg. 9.30 Death will esteem as dust Jezabel no sooner looks through the Window with her painted face but it is torn in pieces by the ravenous Dogs To what purpose then are all these kindes of savours so many strange distilled waters your Musk Perfumes and Ambers Death also is represented naked 4. Nuda to shew the small regard she hath of Coin rewards and Earths abundance O you rich and wealthy men whose hope is placed in your large possessions think not when your Barns are full to be freed from death Thou fool if this night thy soul be required Luke 12.20 then whose are these Again Death is fained to have no flesh no blood nor skin 5. Sine carne no esteem of tender Age of strength nor of complexion Ipsa rapuit Juvenes primâ florente juventa Lastly Death doth shake her Sithe 6. Vibrans falcem to declare how she cuts down men like corn the good together with the chaff all shall down that which is ripe for the coelestial Garner and the green as straw to be burnt in eternal fire Luke 16. When Lazarus is conveighed into Abrahams bosom the rich Glutton shall be cast into the pit of Hell So thus Beloved by this Mortïs imago Deaths image you may well conceive how that all assuredly shall die There is a necessity it cannot be avoided why then are we unwilling for to die Morieris thou shalt die why it were foolishness to fear what I cannot shun I shall not be the first nor last many have gone before all shall follow Morieris thou shalt die Why it is our humane nature not a punishment I had a beginning and must therefore end Morieris thou shalt die Why it is no news I am sworn to it and should I then repent to this purpose I came into the world and every day am walking to the Grave Morieris thou shalt die Good God! what can be better unto mortal man if Heaven be our countrey earth is but a place of Banishment Morieris thou shalt die This is Jus Gentium to pay the Creditor what we have received why then should a man repine he knoweth this Coin not to be his own that his Soul is only lent him and he yieldeth up the Ghost which is the depositum the Act of this Subject and now comes next to be handled Homo moritur Man yieldeth up the Ghost Third part GHOST That divine Essence the Soul of man is in Scripture sometimes called a Spirit and sometimes a Ghost Stephen when he was stoned Acts 7.59 John 19.30 cryed out Lord receive my Spirit Acts 7. JESUS bowed and gave up the Ghost John 19. But there hath been great contention amongst Philosophers what this Soul this Ghost should be Thales Milesius the Athenian who lived in Kings Ahabs dayes was the first that ever would undertake to define it Of the Souls Essence and that was thus The Soul is a nature alwayes moving it self Pythagoras did make it no more then a number and Plato A moving substance that went by Harmony But Aristotle comes neerer to the purpose Aristotle lib. 2. de anim cap. 1. text 6. and calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual Act of a natural of an instrumental Body that may have life But indeed we may more truly say what the Soul is not then what it is the greatest perfection we describe by Negatives She cannot proceed from the matter from the figure or qualities of the Body neither from the Harmony Conjunction and Agreement of the same this the soul is not The vital and animal spirits are only the Instruments of the soul and not the soul it self if otherwise she were not immortal but would perish together with the Body Now the soul can be without the body and vital spirits though the bodie and vital spirits cannot be without the soul without her the bodie moveth not all She in a moment by the cogitations
passeth through the whole Heavens encompasseth the Earth and Seas this is invisible and cannot be perceived by sense For the operations of her Essence she hath Spirit Will and Judgement Sense Understanding Reason and for her Beauty Temperance Justice and other Vertues of the Minde in fine she is so divine that she can hardly be comprehended by Reason much less then be perceived by sense God hath given us a soul more to use it then to know it He only knows it perfectly that is above it we now know it only by the effects but shall come to a cleerer revelation in the eternal Heavens Neither do the Philosophers wrangle more concerning the Essence of our souls then they differ about the parts thereof Of the parts of the Soul Most and the latest writers would have them to be four Understanding Reason Anger and Desire but yet the best received opinion will allow no more then two under which they comprize the rest The one is spiritual intellectual and therein you have the discourse of Reason the other sensual brutish which is the Will wandering of it self disordered wherein all evil desires have their dwelling However the soul that is immortal cannot properly be said to be divided because what is divided dissolveth and what is dissolved perisheth yet it may be said to be compounded and made subject during the union with the body to these two principal parts the Will and Understanding The causes of Death The soul indeed may be said to be divided but in another sense to be separated from the body which may happen even in the best complexions Wherein Life consisteth if there be any excesse or defect in the Humors then it causeth Death in the Radical Humor I mean which is the root of Life for as the heat consumeth this Humidity so doth the party languish he dieth just like the flame which lesseneth her light and vigour as the oil wasteth in the Lamp till it be extinguished Again the life of man consisteth in his breath which is no more then winde or Air that refresh the Heart which if retained either in the Mouth or Artery the man is surely dead What then is death but the taking down of these sticks whereof this earthly Tent is built But the separation of two great Friends until they meet again but the Goal-delivery of a long Prisoner that rejoyces to be at liberty The sleep of the Body and the awaking of the Soul which hastneth to be gone flyeth away and where is she my last particular the Quere Man yieldeth up the Ghost and where is he Fourth part Vbi est Where is he Where the Body is Although it hath been a custom amongst some Heathenish people to burn the bodies of their dead and the more Barbarous for to eat them yet still the most civil nations had the humanity to bury the Corps of their deceased Friends for keep them we cannot because they corrupt they putrifie Their Bodies therefore are committed to the ground dust to dust and ashes to ashes as in THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER That the Bodies of the dead do return to the Earth from whence they were taken no man can deny But what is become of the soul Where the Soul there is the question Where is she Doth she vanish into nothing or wander in the Air doth she enter into beasts and so inform them is she idle and falls asleep or else doth she hasten into Purgatory or fly to Heaven There is the question Where is she Doth she vanish into nothing No. The Sadduces dare not die for fear of not being and do merrily sing with the Hogs of the Epicures Stye Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas But the Christian is assured that the soul is immortal otherwise he denyeth the hope of his resurrection and his faith is also vain he doth well know that his soul survives his body she cannot be annihilated nor vanish like a vapour why then where is she In the Air No. The spirits of the dead do not wander in the Earth nor Aia they frequent not Churchyards Sepulchers nor Tombs and what after death is seen is but the devil to deceive the people in their likeness she shall no more be beheld of men Why then where is she Doth she inform any other creature No. The transmigration of Souls was but a fable that the * Chrys hom 2. of Lazarus Egyptians had taught Pythagoras and Pythagoras the Platonists who * Herodian Lib. 2. Aug. Lib. 12. de civit Dei believed how that that in tract of time there should come a certain year wherein all causes and effects long past should return again and continue constant as for example that at Athens Plato himself who once had many Pupils there after a long appointed season 36000 thousand years the same Plato City and School should return again in which space Ptolomy the great Astronomer did conceive that the course and motion of the Sphere would be finished from West to East And in the mean time it is taught by these brutish men that when the soul doth depart the bodie she doth inform some Beast answerable to her former life that the soul of an hasty and an angry man should degenerate into a Serpent Thieves into Wolves and those that are delighted in swinish pleasure into Hogs Homer into a Peacock and Orpheus into a Swan Yea and Origen writeth * Origen lib. de proverb Solom that this Heresie of the souls departed hapned among some in his dayes that were seeming Christians occasioned by that they did not rightly understand the Scriptures as where it is said by Christ of John the Baptist He is Elias they refer that speech to the soul of John which was only meant to be in the Spirit or power of Elias to convert their souls unto God They did not know how a man doth become a Dog or an Asse Herod is a Fox it is by their resemblance in condition not that the soul doth depart into a Beast Why then where is she is she alwayes idle or asleep No. I saith the Lord am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. And if the soul departed live Matth. 22.32 she cannot be asleep nor idle for to live is to be in action and what action doth better agree unto a departed Soul then the love and contemplation of her God although Irenaeus and some others will not grant thus much before the resurrection day Whose opinion doth seem to be grounded on that in the sixth of the Apocalyps and the ninth verse Apoc. 6.9.10 where S. John saw lying under the Altar the souls of them that were slain but this is answered in the next verse That they cryed unto God and therefore were not asleep But where then doth this Altar stand when the soul is under it