bruises and putrified sores Our wounds have not been cured with the infusion of oyle like the mans that lay betwixt Iericho Ierusalem they have not been closed nor bound up nor mollified with ointment Ibid. as the same Prophet speaks in a spirituall sense and we find it true in a literall I know that in my selfe saith Saint Paul there dwelleth no goodnesse we may alter the words and say we know that in our flesh dwells no soundnesse nor health it may sojourne or lodge there for a time but for any settled habitation or constant abiding it hath none be we at what cost we will for the entertaining of it let us bribe our Physitians to the wasting of our estates they cannot preserue our bodies from ach and rottennesse Sicknesses and death were the curses that God laid upon our first Parents disobedience Gen. 3.16 To the Woman first I will encrease thy sorrowes thy conceptions in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children And then to Adam In sorrow shalt thou eate all dayes of thy life in the sweate of thy face shaltthou eate thy bread till thou returne to the earth Sinne set the foure elements in our bodies and the harmony of our temper at oddes their continuall combate creates daily diseases so as we are still sicke And besides the malignity that sinne infused into the body it selfe there are vitiating and infesting qualities diffused by the same sinne over all the creatures that should nourish it there is a root of intemperance in our appetite that sucks unwholesomenesse out of these nourishments that are in themselves good and conservative Such a body provoked by such an appetite to feede on such nourishment must needs make the Physitian necessary and bring forth a large harvest of diseases Nature is corrupted and therefore tends to corruption the end of corruption is death the way to death is sicknesse So long then as we have such a nature about us we cannot thinke it strange if sicknesse doe often seize on us A corrupt fountaine cannot send forth sweet water nor a corrupt nature maintaine a healthy constitution The seeds of sickness are sowne in our nature by our Parents when they beget vs they lie lurking in our veines bones waiting every occasion to invade our health and to cut off the thread of our life though sometimes we perceiue them not yet in our flesh they are and will neuer remoove their seige untill they have given us an overthrow Colubros in sinu fovemus We carry scorpions in our bosomes And as it was said of Israel perditio tua ex te thy destruction is from thy selfe so are we authors of ours The body of man is nothing but a congeries a heap of infirmities as Martial said of Zoilus Non vitiosus homo es Zoile sed vitium Thou art not vicious but vice it selfe So I say to the body of man thou art not diseased but a disease it selfe goodnesse mercy iustice doe not onely belong to the nature of God but are the very Being and Essence of him he is not only good but goodnesse not perfect but perfection so on the contrary it is not much improper to say that we are not only miserable but misery not sicke but sicknesse it selfe Homo est animal aevi brevissimi Petrarch Iob. 14.2 sollicitudinis infinitae Man that is borne of a woman is of short continuance and full of trouble when we are in our best health we are Valetudinarij weak and sickly and as the Physitians say have only lucida inter valla perhaps one good day betwixt two aguish a calme betwixt two stormes Quid est homo 't is Seneca's interrogation and he answers himselfe a weak fraile thing liable and expos'd to all danger impatient of heate cold and labour they are all diseases vnto him Seneca Imò otio iturus in tabem alimenta metuit sua quibus rumpitur Ease consumes him and the bread which he eates to give him length of dayes doth shorten them Our breath is corrupted Iob 17.1 Iob 14.22 our dayes are cutting off and the grave is ready for vs while our flesh is upon us we shall be sorrowfull while our soules are in vs we shall mourne Seneca Si velis credere altius veritatem intuentibus omnis vita supplicium If you will beleeve the Masters of truth all our life is punishment He that by an experimentall tryall a serious observation and a true contemplation hath runne through all sublunary and inferiour things though of the most transcendent perfection speaks lesse than a truth if he saies he found not sicknesse or to use Salomons word vexation in them all When we come into the world we are throwne into a tempestuous Sea of trouble and there are beaten with incessant stormes Now the floud of discontent beates high whirls our troubled heads into amazement and now the ebbe of despaire sinkes our barque euen to the lowest hell now are we in danger of this rock now of that now this gulfe this shelfe this gust these quicksands doe make vs feare if not suffer shipwrack so let us saile where we will when we can we shall finde no haven of rest but the graue Epict. Homo est calamitatis fabula infaelicitatis tabula Mans life is a story of calamity a mappe of misery Iob. 10.17 Iob 10.1 changes and armies of sorrowes are against us and our soules are cut off though we live All our life is but a continued disease when we begin to live we enter upon a lease of sorrowes entaild on us and our heyres Ingressus flebilis progressus debilis egressus horribilis Our birth is mournfull our growth is sorrowfull our death is fearfull Ecclus 40.1 Great travaile is created for all men and an heavie yoak upon the sonnes of Adam from the day that they goe out of their mothers womb till the day that they returne vnto the mother of all things Such is the weight of griefe that doth depresse our hearts that we may truly say with Iob If our griefe were well weighed Iob 6.2.3 and were well laid together in the ballance it would now be heavier than the sand of the Sea sicknesse and troubles come upon us like Iobs unfortunate messengers one upon the neck of another Finis unius mali gradus est futuri Where one misery ends another begins as one wave followes another there is the same undivided continuation in sorrowes that is in waters no intermixtion nor interposition of any thing else We have Beares and Lyons and Philistims Sauls as David had that successively assaile us and we have no sooner ended the combate with this sicknesse but another with fresh supplies attempts our overthrow Vita quid est hominis nisi vallis plenâ—â— malorum We dwell in Megiddon the vally of teares sighes and lamentations are our companions and which is most miserable our times appointed for rest our
afterward was shee more troubled than became a Caesarean and discretion and without teares afterwards she could repeate his vertues his excellencies and those did best please her that did most remember him As no man went beyond Sylla in cruelty so not in the love of a son yet the sad story of his fatall end was almost as soone forgotten as related But what neede I goe for a precedent beyond my Text. Now the childe is dead why should I fast saies as tender as loving a father as the Scripture can shew us But some there are more stoically obstinate than wisely couragious Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 35. which barre a discreet man from the least impression of griefe Potest non dolere cor humanum defuncto charissimo melius tamen dolet sanatur cor humanum quùm non dolendo sit inhumanum I will easily beleeve that such men were never owners of a jewell of this prize or if they were so they are still otherwise the losse would have humbled their hauty confidence and have forc'd a confession of what they deny Reason hath done her part if she hath cut off and defalcated the luxuriancy and over-plus of griefe in great detriments 't is stupiditie and dulnesse not to lament at all as the excesse is madnesse the meane is safest and will gaine you the opinion of a discreet and well-tempered mourner Permittantur itaque pia corda charorum de mortibus suorum contristari dolore sanabili et consolabiles lachrymas fundant conditione mortali Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 34. quas citòreprimat fidei gaudium quâ credunt fideles quando moriuntur paululùm à nobis abire ad meliora transire I will allow that the floud-gates of your eyes may be open but not too wide nor too long and I will give you leave to sigh from the bottome of your hearts but not too often nor too much No man shall perswade mee but they are Gods children which silently suffer and with patience endure his correction humbly and contentedly submitting themselves to the wisedome of his proceedings Especially in this case when that which we take to be a punishment is a blessing for they that dye in the Lord as Saint Bernard saies ab omni peccato labore periculo liberantur are freed from all sinne Bern. de trans Mal. labour and danger of either but these that survive are not and at last must dye And so I come to Davids meditation on his owne mortality I shall goe to him Turne over the whole booke of nature Pars quarta and you shall read mortality in every page every character is written in dust and the hand of Time wipes it out sooner in this later decrepit age of the world than heretofore We cannot now say with Iacob The daies of the yeares of our Pilgrimage are 130 yeares Gen. 47.9 but we may conclude with him Few and evill are the yeares of our life we have not attained unto the dayes of the yeares of the life of our Fathers in the dayes of their Pilgrimage When first wee begin to live we begin to dye â—or Nascentes morimur or to use Saint Ambrose his words which excellently expresse our condition Vitae hujus principium mortis exordium Amb. l. 8. de voc Gent. nec augeriâ—â—â—jus quam minui incipimus If death make a thrust at us we have no defence if she assault us we cannot finde a place of security to protect us Ille licet ferro caâ—tus se condat are Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput Whither can we go from the presence of death take wee the wings of the morning and flye whither wee will wheresoever we settle our selves under heaven she will be sure to finde us out And as she is unavoideable so is shee unpartiall 't is not greatnesse nor height of place that can priviledge any man from her attempts The Scripture cals Kings gods of the earth but least they should flatter themselves with the hope of immortality it immediately followes They shall dye like men Could any get a Patent for eternity these are they but a late example fresh still in our memories tells us they have it not Where are the great Commanders of the world where are the Rulers over thousands and 10000 the Princes Potentates of the earth are they not dead Goe search the grave and you shall bee no more able to distinguish betwixt their dust and the meanest beggers than Diogenes was to finde Phillip the King of Macedons bones Intervallis distinguimur exituaequamur Life makes a difference betwixt us death none neyther in the meanes of dissolution nor the ruines after shee can make a weapon of the least of the unlikeliest of things to destroy them a needle a fish-bone a raysin-stone is sufficient nay two great Princes one of India the other of Rome were slaine by a hayre A great Duke of Brittanny was prest to death in a throng Aemilus Lepidus and Aufidius great Romanes died with a stumble the one at his owne threshell the other at the senate house EtiaÌ„ cibus potus sine quibus vivere non possumus mortifera sunt Mors aequo pede c. Hor. no lesse to them than us She doth as wel besiege the palace of the King as the cottage of the Beggar as they have the same sun the same clymate the same seasons with us so have they the same infirmities the same ages and not unequall deaths If there be odds the advantage many times lyes on our sides If travell or gold or watchings or the industry of the best of Physitians could have given life this curious peece of mortality had not been yet defac'd Let this visible argument a stronger I cannot use rectifie the truth of your frailty If you desire a confirmation from Gods Word I can give it All flesh is grasse Esa 40.6 and the glory thereof as the flower of the field Here is set downe the condition as well of the noblest as the common sort their glory fades as a flower the other dyes like grasse all meet in the dust The causes of the necessitie of death which are laid upon all men are three first the decree of God Statutum est omnibus semel mori which as the law of the Medes Persians is unchangeable Secondly the composition of our flesh which is of contrarie qualities their struglings and combustions necessitate diseases they death Thirdly the sin of our soules which is the true Non mors homini accideret nisi ex paena quam praecesserat culpa Aug de verb. Dom. serm 34. Steriles dominantur avenae Virg. reall and radicall cause God in our creation sow'd in our bodies the good corne the wholsome graine of health and soundnesse sinne and disobedience came with an after-cast and sprinkled tares of sickenesse amongst the corne and they grow up together with it and
penance and now hath undergone the last Death Now mee thinkes wee should stand all like Belshazzar when hee saw the hand-writing upon the wal Dan. 5.5 our countenances should be changed our thoughts troubled so that the joints of our loines should be loose our knees smite against one another to think upon this harmelesse innocent that here hath suffered for one sinne and that sin none of her owne to thinke now that t is we that are dead and yet shee is to be buried The multiplication of our yeares hath been but an increase of the reckoning wee must make for sinne and runs us further stil upon the score Wee have put off our innocencie long since with our infancie the elder wee grow the worse we are as our first parents were in their clothes of figge-leaves It may grieve us to see the happy estate we have outliv'd and put us in minde of the fitnesse of a reparation We may live untill we are old and old men are twice children but this last is a childishnesse of impotencie not of innocencie of such was this Ladie Mrs of whom I cannot speake the full truth but that I make an argument against mine owne purpose which is to settle Davids resolution in you to beare this losse with patience As David then resolv'd when his child was dead to fast no more so let us to weep no more let his reason be ours t is a good one We cannot bring her back againe Me thinks the thought of this should allay the impetuousness of our sorrow that it doth not profit her whose life we desire but hurts ours If griefe could doe her good every night I would wash my bed with weeping and wish my head a fountaine of water nay had I but one teare to spend after those for my sinnes shee should have it But Seneca a meere Heathen hath taught mee to hate unprofitable griefe Quae amentia est poenas à se infoelicitatis suae exigere mala sua augere what madnesse is it to revenge my crosses on my selfe wilfully to augment my griefe Is not my sorrow weightie enough but with a fresh supply of teares I must encrease the burthen of it But why so violent now you could not but perceive long since that thus it would be Could you imagine that such perfection could be of continuance Things sublimated of a superusuall goodnesse take a suddaine flight from us The brightnesse of the fire argues a vicinitie to extinction it is of longer durance when it feeds on dull grosse matter as it is lesse quick and agile so children the more forward spritely they are the lesse hope they give me of a long life But that which wee grieve for in this Lady is her blessing we toyle are full of sorrowes and must dye but shee doth rest from all labour without which with the Saducees you will denie a resurrection Cesset igitur dolor compassionis ubi oritur fides resurrectionis I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we beleeved that Christ Iesus died and rose againe Thes 4.13.14 even so all those which sleepe in Christ will the Lord bring with him Could this yong Lady speak she would bid us not weep for her but for our selves for shee is not dead but Matt. 9.24 like the maid in the Rulers house she sleepeth Therefore comfort your hearts drive sorrow far from them for sorrow hath slaine many there is no profit therin Ecclus. 30.33 saith Iesus the son of Sirach Let us not for the greatest losse grieve too much lest we make our friends grieve for the losse of us for through immoderate sorrow death can finde an easie passage to destroy us And now to end with my Text let us with David from hence take up a meditation of our own mortalitie let us think on death but not occasion it let us assure our selves that wee shall go to her but let us not through immoderate griefe send our selves before God calls us lest we dispossesse our selves of the place where she is Let every occasion be a memorandum of our mortality I like the custome of the Egyptians who at their festivals and times of mirth had ever at the last course a deaths-head seru'd in which was a silent insinuation of the frailty of their nature A frequent iteration of this would make us understād ourselves better than we do O may the God of light unseal our eies make us see and know how subject we are to die good God imprint in our memories the thought of death bestow on our harts a preparatiō to welcom it grant that with Iob we may wait al the daies of our appointed time untill the Son of righteousness appear then be exalted into an everlasting mansion in heaven there to raign with him for evermore To whom with the Father the holy Ghost be ascribed all power c. Amen FINIS