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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36555	The forerunner of eternity, or, Messenger of death sent to healthy, sick and dying men / by H. Drexelius.	Drexel, Jeremias, 1581-1638.; Croyden, William.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650.	1642 (1642)	Wing D2183; ESTC R35549	116,212	389

pag. 291 16 Like life like death pag. 296 17 The desire of a good death pag. 298 18 Sleep the brother of death pag. 300 19 The forerunners of death pag. 302 20 How we must answer the messenger of death pag. 305 21 A sweet death the worst death pag. 307 22 Deaths blessednesse pag. 312 23 A dying mans farwell to the living pag. 315 24 What should be the words and meditations of a dying man pag. 319 25 Things specially to be observed by a dying man pag. 321 26 What a dying man should do pag. 323 27 Consolation for a sick man pag. 325 28 Holy ejaculations for a dying man pag. 329 29 The dying mans confidence in God pag. 333 30 The last words of a dying man pag. 336 31 Of the conforming our will to Gods will pag. 338 32 The dying mans emulation of the good thief pag. 339 33 Of the Heliotropium pag. 342 34 Prayers for a dying man pag. 345 A YE think DEATH sleeps Take heed he 'll wake ye'll mone B Health makes you skip and dance while sick men grone C Quails shower down to please the gluttons tongue D Sweet Zephyr strows his Flowres Alas how long E Yet Phoebus smiles and walks with goodly grace But clouds ere long will mask his radiant face F When Virtue moves Health gives you stubborn backs Like Rammes when Vice pliant as Virgin-wax G Feast frolick gallants feast drink-swagger rore and kisse But think how on this Point hangs endlesse we or blisse THE FORE-RUNNER of ETERNITIE Or Messenger of DEATH sent to healthy sick and dying men The Remembrance of Death propounded to the Healthy §. 1. Instructions to the Reader and an Introduction to the Work MAny have written comfortable Antidotes against Diseases and Death I determine the same and they are so far from discouraging me that they rather incite my Penne. Some of them with leave be it spoken are too long so that they burthen a sick man with their too too many precepts Others not so much forgetting brevity as a Methodicall Order doe make it too accurate They had not so much offended had they kept their Pens from paper as Apelles desired in Protogenes Plin. l. 35 c. 10. post initium Many have discours'd excellently but as I may say not satisfactory for Practise Theorie is to be commended but here wee must doe and in stead of words set forth action There are others that propose nothing to sick and dying parties but meere terrors and feares and so astonish them yet living I know my Reader that thy desire is to be prepared for Death with small expences I will endeavour to answer thy expectation and Briefly Orderly and Cheerefully I will lead thee to Deaths dore so as thou shalt scarce perceive it 1. Briefly Briefly for I write not a volume but a short Treatise which may be thy dayly companion 2. Orderly I will not observe a strict Order but rather a mixt the way that is plesant seems streight though there be many windings Cheerefully for I will not only treat of Religion 3. Cheerfully but will mix with it verses and fit old Epigrams so that my style shall not only be plaine but relishing of sanctified mirth Thus I thought fitting to admonish thee at the entrance into this subject §. 2. That the Remembrance of Death should be dayly HAppy is that man that spends every day as if it were his last Epictetus doth wisely teach Epictet Enchir. cap. 28. Death saith hee and Banishment and all other evills should be daily before our eyes especially Death So shall our thoughts never be too base nor too ambitious Wretched men why possesse you such large hopes why undergoe you such a great weight of disturbances who to morrow perchance may be dust and ashes Stand sure O man for the sable Goddesse Death daily stands over thy head and when the little remnant of sand in thy houre-glasse shall be runn'd out with a vigilant and undrousie eye expects thy arrivall and canst thou but expect Her as he sung Ortum quicquid habet finem timet i. e. All that a beginning have Doe expect and feare a grave Ibimus omnes i. e. We all must goe To the earth below Nor can any age bribe Death As soone as we are borne we pay tribute and are Deaths hirelings Nay as soone as greedy eyes the first light see Then doe wee even begin to die Death kills the Empresse as well as the Handmaid As the Poet well Horat. lib. 1. ep 4. Because wee dye so fast Think every day thy last Say every Evening This day I stand at the dore of Eternity §. 3. The remembrance of Death is a Medicine against all sinnes THE serious remembrance of Death shakes off all sense of Pleasure and turnes the sweetest hony to Wormwood S. Chrysostome saith Chrysost in his 5. Sermon of wickednesse repulsed pag. 678. The expectation of Death to come will scarcely suffer or give admittance to any carnall delights And truly what doth not the sense of Death work if but entred into the fingers or the pores of the Head much more when it seises upon the whole body it spareth no age no dignity one young man dies another Infant another old man One dies by the sword another by poyson a third by a fall one departs lingringly another suddenly as overtaken with some violent storme or thunder clap Now amongst so many doubtfull changeable and suddain events what security can be expected What courage can there be to sinne amongst such uncertainties And why because we die daily Think of thy houre-glasse though slowly to sense yet certainly by degrees the sands doe runne from the uppermost to the nethermost Cell Apply this to thy fleeting life Every moment some parcell of our life slides away Here 's nothing safe one houre deceives another one moment steales somewhat from another Happy is hee which makes every day his last more happy hee which reckons every houre but most happy that man who accounts every moment He will abstaine from sinne that counts this present moment to be his determined time Oh deceitfull Hopes how many have you deluded While you promise to many the end of their journey old age and yet cut them off in the middest of it in their youth You make men beleeve that may happen to them which many have enjoyed the flourishing of the Almond tree what a number have fallen with innocent hands yet peccant hearts How many have been overtaken by Death whilest they have beene in meditating of wickednesse How many sinners and sinnes hath Death cut off in the middest of their acts How many have smarted for their endeavours to sinne being examples of rashnesse presumption Have not many put a period to their lives and sinnes together What if thou shouldst be one of this number Or why shouldst thou be priviledged beyond others Oh! Scriban in Polit. Christ lib. 1. c. 27. who would think

Armour of the sick is Patience being guarded with this hee will not much fear pains diseases nor death it selfe Hee may encounter with all these Enemies and come off a Victor For Patience overcommeth all evils § 24. We are but guests at length we must be gone OUr life is but a way-faring and pilgrimage Wee are in a strange place and at anothers disposing We are often dismissed before we be well entertain'd and our remembrance departs with us We are but of yesterday as a Post that passeth away and is gone most richly Saint Augustine in this kinde All of us are Pilgrims and strangers Hee is a Christian which at home doth acknowledge himselfe a Pilgrime our Countrey is above there wee shall not be strangers For here every one at home is but a guest Will hee nill hee hee is but a stranger Bu● hee leaves his house to his children What then as one guest his lodging to the next commer Thy Father left room for thee thou must leave it to the next generation Neither while thou wouldst stay doest thou nor while thou wouldst stay shalt thou If we must all be gone let 's doe something here that may abide hereafter That when wee shall passe away and shall come thither from whence wee shall not depart we may finde some good treasured up Seeing therefore that wee are but guests let it not trouble us to set onward to our travell A traveller goes no way so merrily as when hee goes homeward § 25. The terme of life is certain THe number of his moneths is with thee Iob 14.5 Thou hast appointed him his bounds which hee cannot passe Whatsoever thou doest ô man whatsoever thou endevourest the days of thy life are numbred unto thee Summon and convocate all the Physicians to thee about thee Podalyrians Machaonists Aesculapians Hippocratists and command all the Galens to revive not all these can put one part of a short minute to thy yeares beyond Gods appointed time Empty all the Apothecaries shops swallow up Gold and Pearles to extend thy life Yet thou shalt not promote the termes which thou canst not exceed be thou never so wary decline from all dangers thou canst suppose hinder the growth of diseases yet thou shalt not increase the number of thy moneths Thou mayest wish vow desire it 's nothing the limits are appointed and what stirre soever thou makest thou canst not enlarge them Thou thinkest perhaps the sand of the sea to be innumerable but he hath that numbred which hath thy yeares moneths dayes houres minutes reckoned from Eternity Whatsoever thy skill or industry may promise thee they cannot enlarge thy space of time not a moment Let there be provided for thee the choice and most excellent diet and let it be never so rarely drest drinke the Creame of wine never labour but for health sleep just so long as thy Doctour prescribes thee and as thy health invites thee Be cold and hot to a just proportion notwithstanding all these things thou shalt prove mortall and when thou art come to the marke which God hath set up and foreseen from all Eternitie Then thou mayest bid Adieu to all humane things and all worldly affaires and prepare thy selfe to give in account for the Tribunall calls thee to Appearance Seeke no delay here no truce no putting off thou must goe slinke not backwards The account must be given doe not excuse thy selfe all delay is cut off request not lingring ô God the number of all mens moneths is with thee his bounds are set which cannot cannot I say be past Seneca was not ignorant of this who said No man died too soon Consol ad Marciam c. 20. who was never intended to live longer then he did He hath arrived at his set mark And now must lie alas i th' dark Every man hath his prefixed stint hee shall remayne for ever in his Stanza Let an hundred Physicians six hundred friends a thousand Kinsmen attend or hedge in thy bed yet not one of them can helpe thee One onely God can doe the deed It is concluded ô man it is fully concluded concerning thee ô if God be thine Enemy it is concluded upon thee for ever Thou per●shest for ever if in this moment of death thou beest not received into grace and favour the last moment of thy life pronounceth sentence of thee as thy death as thy fall is so shall thy resurrection so shall thy life be to all Eternitie ah begin to be wise and live to God and whatever thou doest remember Eternitie § 26. The first Objection of the sick man I Could easily have comforted my selfe when I was healthy and lusty I then provoked these evils when they were absent behold now the sorrow that so often I have pronounced tolerable behold the death against which I have spoken many great words I thought otherwise while I stood healthy and strong I think not so now being cast down upon my bed of sicknesse It is no hing to provoke an absent Enemy but it is a matter of difficulty to retaine stou nesse of spirit to his face We usually contemne death but it is when wee think and believe our selves free from his reaching darts It is one thing to fight in thought another thing to fight really The Coward may performe the first ●ut none but Christian Champions the latter What saist thou ô my sick man why doest thou complain against thy selfe why changest thou thy yesterdays minde though it was good what as though it were the part of a Champion to be wise and valorous in the dark onely but when hee enters the lists to be sottish and cowardly A good Fencer will not reject counsell when hee is entred the Theatre though before hee wanted it Stand ô man and be bold thou hast overcome if thou wilt onely despaire not Behold Iesus Christ thy rewarder looking on thee he is not onely a Spectatour but an Helper And hee reaches to thy hands all the weapons which thou needest use but perhaps they are to thee as Sauls were to David not fit thou refusest the scourge the thorns and the Crosse yet take the shield of Patience under this thou mayst fight safe secure Commit the rest to thy good GOD. Thou knowest that of Abraham to his sonne God will provide § 27. Another Objection BEhold I die which might have liv'd longer Truly thou couldst not For if thou couldst why doest thou not but ●his thou mayst say I hoped or desired to live longer And in this I b lieve ●hee What if thou hadst lived longer thou hadst but then lived awhile the spaces of this life are unequal and uncertain yet they are all short Some men have lived 80 yeers what have they now more then he ●hat lived eight Unlesse you put cares and labours and griefs and toy●ings as advantages into he b●rgaine and what more had hee had he● liv'd eight hundred unlesse wee can reckon his vertues as we l as his yeeres

wee carry about us is not our dwelling but our June it must be left when once the Master is weary of our company Therefore ô my good Christian hasten to live holily and thinke every day an entrance into a new life Who so fits himselfe this way shall meet death with comfort That man never died ill who lived well § 35. That Procrastination is the greatest damage and blemish to our lives WE put off any thing but wickednesse that not onely takes up the present day but is likewise promised the morrow In sin wee are prompt actors in other things usuall promisers and fair-speakers then wee use to say to morrow it shall be done or next week or next yeere without delay so doe dayes moneths and yeeres slide away while we onely delay and promise but performe not Seneca speaks admirably in this point Lib. de Brev. vit c. 4. Many shall yo● heare saith hee who say at fifty 〈◊〉 will take mine ease the sixtieth yeer● shall discharge me from all encumbran●ces and what surety else desirest tho● of a longer life but who will suffe● things to goe at thy disposing Blushest not thou to reserve the refuse and the dregs of thy rotten yeeres to God and to destinate onely that time for his service which thou art not able to manage in any other manner It is too late then to begin to live when it is time to leave off work What senslesnesse is it to refuse to follow good counsell till a man comes to fifty or sixty yeeres of age and to resolve there to begin to live where most leave off Sigismund the second King of Poland for his delayings and slothfulnesse in matters of weighty consequence was called Rex Crastinus the delaying King such sure are we though wee know not that wee shall be to morrow yet we hazard the mainer work upon such uncertaine probabilities Wee put off all most willingly would wee● if wee could put off death too But death's businesse admits of no delay nor putting off when Death knocks the bars must speedily open Therefore as the Proverbe saith The onely way to be long an old man is to be such an one betimes The King of Macedon obtained such glorious Conquests by being speedy upon his actions Wee lose the best nay all by deferring and delaying Chrysologus said well Most men put off to do well Ser. 125. Med. untill death debar them of time Wee come to death by degrees as men who sleep walking The first day wee put off good duties the second day wee doe them slightly the third day wee forget them on the fourth we are not able to performe them O Mortals to morrows life is too late learn to live to day give earnest to day grieve to day for your sins For who except your owne conceits hath promised you the morrow that which may bee ought to bee done to day why should it be procrastinated to tha● which yet is not may perhaps not be time or if it be perhaps not thine to deferre good actions hath always prov'd dangerous Deferrings are obnoxious to our lives Iumb vet You seldome see the slothfull man that thrives Let us make hast therefore and let us but seriously thinke how speedily wee would foot it if wee were sure there was a destroying Enemy behind us Wee would strive to be formost that we might be furthermost from our pursuers It is so we are followed close to hasten is to escape so shall wee enter into eternall rest It is the greatest comfort against deaths approach to have done all our worke before he comes to call for us To the Sick A Winter 's at hand leaves fall Death 'gins to snatch His Ax and spies thy Glasse spent Sick man watch B What th' Presse to Grapes that Sicknes is to thee If thou be ripe as Grapes in Autumne be C The stouping Hern oft gores her towring Foe So outward grief oft frees from inward woe D Sicknes lays men along as hail doth corn Better fall well then stand with shame an● scorn E Just now 't was cloudy now Sol shew his face Now clouds again This is the Sick man case F To scape the Scorpions sting and th' Archers dart Sicknes and Death I know no meanes 〈◊〉 art G A Sick man 's like an Horse plunging i● sturdy waves Who knows if th' one shall scape the flood● the other the grave § 36. Deaths haunt WIlliam the third Duke of Bavaria a Patron of the poore and Protector of all religious and godly men being dead though all men should have held their peace yet the cryes and teares of the poore lamenting his losse would have been sufficient Trumpets to have blazon'd his Princely worth this prayse-worthy Prince I say when he He returned from the Councell of Basil where he in the place of the Emperour sate chiefe returning to Munchen dreamed such a dreame as this following Hee seem'd to see a lusty great Stag which carried upon one horne little bels and upon the other divers wax Tapers and Torches lighted there was a nimble Huntsman and a pack of hounds who withall swiftnesse and eagernesse had this Stag in chase at the last the Stag having no other way leapt into the Churchyard in which there was a Grave made for a Mans buriall which was open into which the Stag fell and there was taken and killed at the sight of this the Prince wakened and was wondrous desirous to know what this Dreame should mean on the next day he told it to his Lords and this Dreame was variously interpreted which when Duke William had heard presently replyed I am said he this great Stag which Death so eagerly hunts and will shortly and speedily take me and end my days and I will be buried in that Church All things were ordered accordingly and these presages had their events answerable For in short space after this worthy Prince did yield to Death and commended his soule to God piously and was there inter●'d where hee desired A good Death is the introduction to a blessed Eternity § 37. Why though wee daily are Spectators of Burials yet we doe not meditate on Death THe Devill being skilful in the perspective art useth this cunning policy that those things which are furthest off hee makes them seem neer unto us and those which are neer unto us he makes seem a great way distant from us Thus he represents Death to us that though it be so neere us that it is ready to lay hold on us yet it appeares a great way off hence in a vaine security wee promise to our selves many yeares and put the evill day far from us to our great disadvantage Hence is it that wee looke upon other mens Burials as though ours were not to be this long time and though we are decaying daily yet for all that we fancy an eternity to our own souls Sir Thomas Moore our Countriman lest any age should promise him a long life and