proper a companion of and obliger to Loyalty and subjection to Government that it is impossible to find it separate from it or to expect truth of fidelity upon Noble grounds any where but in such well tempered and well instructed souls And therefore to rebuke those Hot-spurs who think S'blood S'wounds Rammee Damme words not for a Heathens mouth Those that think to Drink Drab Raunt Prophane the only and best Cryterions of loyalty and trustableness Vbi enim regnat ebrietas ratio exulat intellectus obtunditur consilia devianâ— consilia subvertuntur Petrus â—les Ep. 7. do I profess my prealledged sense That the King is best and most effectually served by Pious Quorum exitio intelligi possit eorum imperiis Rempublicam amplisicatam qui Religionibus paruisâ—ent Cicero lib. 2. de Nat. deorum Moderate Sober Learned Well-directed Gentlemen whose resolution is to observe the Laws themselves and thereby to invite others so to do Note this or to shame and punish them that obstinately oppose themselves to it Quod me corripi putes affectio est ideoque mihi acceptiora sunt vestra verbera quam eorum ubera qui me lactant Idem Ep. 6. For as he is not a good man that desires to live without Law so he is not a good Subject that having a good and just Law dares wilfully and propensedly violate it Nor does he deserve any better Title then singular and proud Adeo non erit Christianus qui eam negabit quam confitentur Christiani his argumeâ—tis negabit quibus utitur non Christianus Tertullianus lib de Resurrect Carnis c. 3. who vehemently reasons against National constitutions though they conclude his private liberty and judgment for there must be in the Nation some Civill ultimate Judge which surely is in England the great Judgment of the Nation the King in his Parliament by them particular Subjects must be bounded in their judgment of Civil duty to the Laws of their Establishment And I pray God I may live no longer then to see the Law in power and credit against all opposition of private and seduced spirits SECT XLIII Commends the Meditation of God Death and Iudgment to Great men in their Conversations Actions and Counsels EIghthly and lastly I do humbly commend to the Nobles and Gentry of England That in all their Lives Counsels and Actions they would think of God Death and Judgment Of God the Soveraign being whom to know is life eternal whom to love is to be holy whom to live with Iohn 17. 3. Ch. 14. v. 15. is to be happy Of Death the common and inevitable state of mankind into which the greatest pride and gallantest pomp must be resolved and with which be veyled and vanquished Of Judgment the Just Assise wherein distribution shall be of rewards unutterable of Torments intolerable These three well and throughly debated and then applied as incitations to Vertuous and Godly demeanours and dehortating terrours to the contrary will be notable both Defensatives and Cordials Concerning God though the thoughts of him are precious yet there are some that have a specifique tendency to the whole latitude of godly life and godly action being not only Therapeutique and Medicinal to heal the flaws and gashes that the violence of depravation has made in the soul but Energical and Incentive to exercise of spiritual faculties to spiritual purposes And these I suppose may be reduced to five heads in which the whole of a Christians meditation of God in order to sins anticipation in its prevalence over man is most effectually visible The purity of Gods nature the power of his Hand the preception of his Eye the obligation of his Mercy the severity of his Sentence These well considered and applied by that serious digestive faculty that sincere piety discharges its thoughts into and from whence it draws forth its Spiritual Artillery upon occasion of Spiritual conflict Satans temptation make the first degree of my commendation of this Head to Great mens meditation 1. The purity of Gods Nature is the â—ourse and Womb of all purity for the created Purity being but a Ray of that Purity increate as to the quantum it is short to the quale it is incomparable to it God is pure Fontally as Purity is his Essence and as Purity is in the verity though inutterability of its being Thus pure he centrally himself only is who is light and no darkness Now in as much as to this Divine purity there is no possibility of attainment 1 Iohn 1â— 5. In Deo est magnitudo virtutis perfectionis non autem magnitudo molis Sâ—us Thomas part 1. q. 42 art 11. because it is incommunicable assumption of Manhood into the Godhead being onely in the Hypostatique union of Christ and without possibility of after condescension or assimilation that which of Purity â—s attainable by man being but a following of his president and an obedience to his precepts is yet as close an access to God and as full a price for glory as Mortality can attain to or offer for it And therfore since God is perfect unalterable purity as his command is to be pure so his acceptation is according to the truth of purity in men things For so far and no farther does the purity of God admit mortality as it is defecated by purity of intention and sincerity God that made the heart loves purity in the Cabinet of his Residence and Treatment and therefore â—eb 11. 6. as he that will come to God must believe his being that he is so he that will converse with God must be pure as he is For God heareth not sinners Iohn 9. 31. nor doth purity correspond with defilement and thereupon thou art 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. O man by Gods purity called upon to be pure as he is if thou wilt be happy as he is Matth. 5. 8. because blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And as thy heart so thy deeds must be pure nay if the heart be upright the Emanations from the heart transports and temptations only excepted will not be halting or down-right lame Christianity is a votal regularity a holy Order of reclucism Note this a temporal exinanition 't is an abstraction of the soul from the body of sin and an oblation of all that is worthy to him who is worthy all because Wise Pure Merciful Powerful above all And thereupon the consideration of Gods Nature has an avulsive operation it makes the Christian sit loose from and be indifferent to this world 1 Iohn 2. 15 16. which is so hostile to and quarrelsome with Purity It considers it self under the vow of God to be as he is as far as imitation of him can have being in it The true Puritan now the serious and practical Puritan commands his thoughts to be holy Psalm 139. 17 23. his words to be edifying his works to
Princes favours for if to them not onely Honours Riches Reputation but even in a sort much of the administrative divinity of Kings is indulged as Theodoric the Gothish King wrote to a Vice-king under him What fidelity ought they express to their benefactor in not neglecting their service disobliging their people misusing their trusts as did Wolsey who fraudulently got a warrant from H. 8. to execute the E. of Kildare though the Lieutenant of the Towers honesty in not executing it made it void by the Kings Countermand a Speed p. 775. p. 849. And Gardiner from Qu. Mary to execute the Lady Elizabeth the after happy Queen of this Land What conscience and reverence to themselves not to do any thing rashly and improvidently by which they may lose their ground and be outed the occasion of so general good For Princes favours being of delicate and casual composure are not to be put to the stress of gross and dull mettalled ones but to be humbly and modestly improved which the wise King Solomon adviseth to He that loveth pureness of heart Prov. 22. 11. Fuit enim illi nobile ingenium furebundi regis Impatiens Senec. Nat. Quest. lib. 6. c. 22. for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend The failer of which in Calisthenes the Favourite of Alexander lost him both his interest in the King and in his own life That being true of Favourites over-confidence and peremptoriness which a friend of the Earl of Essex Sir Henry Wotton work p. Favourite to Queen Elizabeth told him O Sir These courses are are like hot waters which help at a pang but if they be too often used will spoil the stomach as it was wofully made good in him whose impatience to have any companion in favour with him or any grists of greatness go by the Mill of his only influence declined both his lustre and his life Yea above all what caution are they that have these intrusts to express in avoyding envy Sect. 2. Eicon Bâ—silic upon the E. Sraâ—â—ord Who moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous lustre raise many envious exhalations which condensed by popular odium are capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and integrity as the divine Kings words are and to chuse such choice servants and friends whose intâ—grity conscience prudence and industry they being responsible for Holinshed p. 324 p. 511. may not be defeated in and then they will be secure if not from the calumâ—y yet from the desert of envy which had the Spensers in E. 2. time p. 555. the Earl of March temps H. 4. Earl of Arundel and Lord Percy temps R. 2. guarded themselves against they could not have fallen as they did For much suspected by me does no hurt when nothing proved can be is true All which in such measures and proportions as God shall permit their prudences to method to themselves being protected and blessed by him makes Favourites not crazy but hayle and happy in their Princes favour then which there is no speedier way to Rise Riches Nobility Prelacy Splendour and Endowments of all kinds possible to be imagined for though Riches Industry and Frugality give many rounds to the ascents of men yet the Master Caper and the Noblest Capreol to advance is the Kings Favour which as it is too full a blessing for any but a Magnanimous and Royall minded person to disgest and well manage so to such as already have or hereafter may have it I beseech God it may be continued and enlarged for it is an opportunity to serve God the King the people and the havers to all beneficially Noble purposes it being under the King the spring that moves all without which nothing runnes currant but has cheques too many to pass by as is evident in the vivid representation of it in Haman who is said to have his seat set by Abashuerus above all the Princes that were with him Ver. 2. Esther 3. and to command that all the Kings servants should bow before him and his word so prevail'd with the King that he gave him his Royal Signet and said The Silver is given to thee the people also to do with them as it seemeth good to thee Ver. 10 11. and what Haman issues forth is dispatched to the Kings Lieutenants to be accordingly executed Ver. 12 13. In that I say these are the bounties of Princes to their Favourits from whom they seem to withhold nothing but the Throne it self there is great cause to conclude That no way to advance Men and Families is more expedite and energical then Service to and Favour from Princes For if the displeasure of a King be as the messenger of death Prov. 16. 14. and the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul Pro. 20. 2. If not only in case of Felony or Treason but upon displeasures penalties are not only inflicted upon persons but upon Lands Cambden in Doaset Britan. p. 214. and that indelibly as Mr. Cambden tells us the Lands of Hinde and others in New Forrest were charged and yet pay white hart Silver for killing a white Hart of H. 3. in that Forrest If these terrours and mulcts are in the disfavour of a King whose frown and word has killed the heart of subjects of courage who durst have out-lived any other hardship what joy and freedom is in the Kings favour No less sure then dew upon the grass Prov. 19 12. Ch. 20. v. 8. v. 26. Eccles. 8. 4. no less then scattèring all evil and bringing the wheel over the wicked no less then power and that visible in the testimonies of his favour and the effects of it the prosperity of which is such as the Princes in soul and government are whose the favour is and the design of the soul is who is a suitor for and obtainer of it For as to be in favour with Terrible Princes whose reigns are butcheries and whose instruments must be rigorous and cruel as was Peirce Exton to H. 4. who to be as that Kings words were The faithfull friend which will deliver me of him whose life will be my death and whose death will be the preservation of my life Holinshed in H. 4. p. 517. undertook and effected the execrable and damnable Parricide of good King Rich. 2. is to be a divel in Flesh and a miscreant more unhappy then almost Hell can make one So to be in favour with a vertuous and serene Prince whose soul is so serious and sincere that he dare appeal to God as his Compurgator and beseech God to try and search him if there be any malicious and premeditated iniquity in him and in his government by his privity To be a Favourite to a Prince whose faith in and relyance upon God comforts him Eicon Basil. Sect. 15. That no black veils of calumny shall
inappetible in Justice by him to forfeit all his primacy and prelature his pleasure and command his natures custody from decay and his posterities sustentation in perfection and inputrefaction and to make himself and all mankind in all parts of all ages to all purposes miserable and sinfull if I say consideration be had of this pristine instance of mans vanity there will be cause to conclude the life of man to be a vaine shadow the shew and semblance rather then the truth of any thing to be desired to have or having to hold For If the vanity of man in his thoughts conduct and life was so notorious in this none such heroique who was not made man by the power of Mortall Generation but by Miracle of almighty creation the morning Masterpiece of Gods Architectonique Power Wisdom and Goodness how much more vaine and visible will the vanity of men prove in their verticle and declination when sin has led them from their central rectitude so far and so long how will not only Cains murder Sampsons dalliance Dauids folly Solomons seduction Peters fear but also Iudas his treasâ—on Iulians apostacy Caesars ambition Alexanders curiosity Mahomets imposture Arrius his pertinacy all the great and prodigious actors and actions of the severall ages of the world anatomiz'd and ravelled out in the severalls of their projects and particles of their rise procedure conclusion how will these placed in rank and file and brought to orderly and distinct triall aggravate the life of man with sins shifts weakness wantonness and make man the Tennant of it a pittifull and treacherous subject to reason Upon this survey of the forrest of vanity mans life the verdict of its Court of Aire Jury would be very much abasive of him and all that comes from him How flat would his briskness how effete his boasts how inform his designs how improper his instruments how sinful his projects how frustrate his hopes how dishonourable his Reward Qui vult ascendere non laeta saeculi non amaena non de lectabilia sed plena doloris â—â—etus sequatur Stus Ambros lib de Fuga saeculi c. 1 No insect more deformed no stench more noysome no Figure more Torvous no Spectrum more formidable no rabble more unruly no confusion more amazing then the lives of men would be if they were denuded and a lecture of truth read upon the lymphatique vessels the Cavous veines the abstruce Meatuses the Occult Fibres the unriddleable Meanders of them If men were so thorowly possessed of the obligation of their duty and of the dishonour of their non performance of it according to the law of their being and the requiry of their Principall they would be ashamed to live so little like and so much unlike themselves God sends man into this world to lade himself with the Gold and Silver of Reason in his Soul Nuncii vestri à Romana curiâ— redierunt exonerati qâ—idem argento onerati plumbo Non multum indumentis aut evectionibus honorati Blesensis Ep 41. Henrico 2. Regi and Religion in his actions But he returns as Henry the seconds Ambassadour from Rome did with no Penny in his Purse no Pater noster in his Prayer having lost the assurance that Faith gives him to call God Father and parted with the Penny of Reason and Religion that is of great price with him And what has he in exchange the Lead and Wax of Bulls and Bawbles much in sound but little in signification so that if a sober man sits down considers the Scepticism Excentricity and narrowness of men in their actions and lives and views how greedy they are to taint and tarnish the virtuous fame and durable consistence of their Persons and Families he must needs wonder they should flatter themselves to be wise under such burthens of sin and in such engagements of madness To begin a war with Heaven to levy Subsidies on Gods Subjects against him their Soveraign to hope to thrive by Blood Oppression Parasitism Adultery Avarice falshood is to make God not good nor Great For if good he must hate evil and if Great punish it And if God command Justice Kindness Chastity Constancy Charity and Contentation and has annexed his Blessing to them Beatus plane quem delectatio non revocat quem voluptas non inclinat qui ad inferiora non respexit Stus Ambros. lib. de Fuga saeculi c. 1. then because he is Just he must prosecute the contrary to these with his Malediction and disappointment Yea the doctrine of Morality is so direct against these courses that by the teaching of that there is enough to decline Injury love Rectitude and value Contentation For the Conquests of Alexander the Tyranny of Dyonise the Factions of Rome the Gottish Irruptions the attempts of Solyman the Magnificent and Mahomet the Great the discoveries of the new World the Colonizing of Places uninhabited which were the great actions of the Worlds curiosity and ambition though they are good for mankind as God over-ruled them by accidental advantages yet in the nature of their intent did but hatch the Cockatricâ— egg of a bird and brat of vanity Ask the conscience survey the consequence of the greatest proficient in natures secrets and masteries what he aymes at by his restless and bold spirit couragious heart undaunted enterprises and he will reply to you to be talked of feared in esteemed for a gainer by them and what 's that above a vanity when the Cream skimming of that collection of courage and curiosity serves but for a present to a curious eye a flattered eare an amorous touch an enchanting tongue of a temporary and blandiating mortall whose pallate devours whose train consumes whose foot treads upon whose prattle coggs away whose fruition swallows down the riches power delights wits labours of Men â—ountries and Continents and is not tâ—â—s vanity and the life of its transaction vanity and vexation When men of parts person ingenuity success grind in the mill of danger and dive into the bottom of seas to fetch thence that Pearl that serves only for a Mornings-draught or a bodies Ornament or a sacrifice to the insatiable Vorago of a Mercurial Philosopher who if he had the Indias would exhaust them to feed his fancyfull intense expensive Fyre which sooner finds out the bottom of his purse then teaches him to find the Aurifycating Elixar and is not this vainity Yea when the gravity of Counsells the wisdom of studies the results of Negotiations the force of Armies the pleasure of Countries the power of Governments the prevalence of Words the prudence of Actions and all that is additional hereunto is but preparatory to death and departure from his world wherein we shortly sorrowfully sinfully live is not life a vanity and vexation And since the wisdom and power of the world with all its accumulable structures and artifices are but to expatiat and adorn mans moment that with greater pomp and more
visible disgrace he may be outed his part of state and be passive to his resolution into dust how vaine are our unquietnesses to start pursue and overtake those fugitives that neither make us happy when we have them nor miserable when we want them To live so as to have our life hid with Christ in God is to live above and to be Lord over the vanity of life And is this O Nobles and Gentlemen not worthy you most to think upon who are deepest engaged in and probably most responsible for the vanity of life or can you but think civiily kindly of him that is your Monitor to this that is so much your security renown interest And that you may not take my report of the vanity of life and the beseemingness of your considering it such and as such providing against it Be O Gallants consulters which Solomon whose latitude of knowledge was a notable second to his Regal dignity by both which he commands his credit with his readers Truely the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun but if a man live many years and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the dayes of darkness for they shall be many all this cometh to vanity Eccles. 11. 7 8. verses And our King Solomon the second so experimentally confirms it who after so long knowledge of the light and dark side of the cloud of Greatness Eicin Basilic Meditat. upon Death cap. 28. sets down this conclusion As to the last event I may seem to owe more to my Enemies then my Friends while those will put a period to the sins and sorrowes attending this miserable life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more then Conquerour thorow Christ enabling me for whom I hither to have suffered as he is the author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against errors Factions and Confusions Thus he Whereupon I conclude that if as Heliogabalus measured the greatness of Rome by the many Cobwebs found in it which being weighed after gathering came to 10000 pound weight so we calculate the miseries of life by the Impertinent trifling vanitys of it there wil be found such a mass of them that we shall be forced to despise our selves who are so by sin deteriorated and impayred which was the Sentence of the Preacher I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them c. Eccles. 4. 18. SECT XLIII Shews That to think of God Death and Iudgment prepares to encounter with the varieties of humane state here in the World MY second Motive to you O Nobles and Gentlemen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Maxim Tyrius dissert 25. to think of God Death and Judgment is that thereby you may the better encounter the varieties of this your humane state For though God himself be immutable and hath a permanency of being by reason of which he is compleat and indefectuous neither capable of addition to him or liable to substraction from him yet we men and all things attendant on useful to and created for us being compound and Elementary are not only alterable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mac. Antoninus lib. 2. but are to be made reputatively compleat and according to our capacity happy by those gradations and motions of ascenr and retrorsion which circulate our revolution and cursory circumambiency and therefore Inconsistency being our conditions punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian Epict. lib. 3. c. 10. p. 285. Edit Holstenii and in a very full sence ascribable to it we ought to arm our selves by patience piety and wisdom against the moâ—ion and malevolence of it This Epictetus makes the summe of all Philosophy to be ready and prepared for every mission of Gods good or evil for let us look upon the best condition of us men and we shall find it not only unlike God who is without variableness and shaddow of turning being the same yesterday to day and for ever but even so unlike our selves Lege Doctissi mum Gatakerum Annotat. in lib. 2. Antonini p. 54 â—5 that to morow we are not what to day nor the next day what the anteceding but are turned from one side to another till we are turned topsie turvey and our Proteus repeated change brings us captive to the unchangeable state of death Thus we pass from our first conception in the womb to articulation thence to further mutrition thence to birth thence to childhood thence to youth thence to Adultism thence to Manhood thence to Old age Declension and thence to the dust of death and as our bodies so our minds and manners vary we first are discovered animate by motion then by invigoration then by expression of our inward wants by extern Organs of notice Then we mark what is said and done then we imitate then we enquire the reason then we judge and improve then we design and fabricate then decline in Memory and Counsell and at last again are Children in Understanding Answerable to these are the stations and Agible terms of our lives we are apprentices to Mysteries and Studies before we become Masters when we come to be Freemen we profess what we desire to live by Omnis saeculi faelicitas dum tenetur amittitur imò antequam tenetur elabitur Stus Hieron in c. 38. Isaiae Sr. Hen. Wotton p. 12. when we think our selves setled an accident disjoynts us then we stop our leak by another Engine which we hope more successful but that fails perhaps in the meridian or vespers of our lives when for the most part all Horizons are charged with thick and unpleasant vapors and then we give our selves for lost yet God makes this shipwrack our port this defeat our victory this fall our rise sometimes in youth we are Princes and in age Peasants in the summer of our lives Warâ—â—ours and in the autumn Confessors while â—â—ch scatterers and leud undoing and unâ—one in poverty recalled serious pruâ—ent in sickness peevish moopish nasty 〈◊〉 health good humoured and neat â—hile in counsel severe and short of â—â—ech but in converse affable and open â—â—ow in the presence of Kings beloved â—â—ppy affluent anon discarded out of â—â—vour despised miserable which well â—â—ewed and considered made Seneca cry 〈◊〉 of the instability of worldly things Humanorum rerum circulus hinc inde rotatus Fortunatâ—s esse homines non sinit â—nd resolve to keep vertue fixed what ever 〈◊〉 in or neer man be volatile which would â—e ambitions of our nature circumvolve â—nd by the restraints of them prevent â—he Fate of their consequence men of â—reat emulation would liue more serene â—nd dye more happy then they mostly â—oe Lord what a Pageantry is this subluâ—ary Greatness what Regal and
Peaâ—â—ntly what wise and waggish parts does â— put men to act whom it neither makes â—â—ng Great by vice nor keeps mean for â—ertue What Tennis-balls does it render men of great parts and great births while it leads them to be what they are â—ot and divests them of what really they are When Flaccus Attilius the great Favourite of Tiberius falling into disgrace with his master shall be bereft of his wits and bemone himself poorly and with meanness of spirit shall wring his handâ— and complain How am I fallen that waâ— once the wonder of Alexandria and Egypt how miserable is my condition Philo lib. in Flacâ—um p 988. who aâ— now to believe my prosperity was rather a dream then a truth I am deceived my honours were rather the shaddows then realities of Good and so as he bemoaningly proceeds When Pompey the Great after the victory of 22 Kings in the East Longa â—ita Pompeium magnum vertenti â—radidit Fortunae Livius lib. 9. and the government of the Roman Empire shall yet at last be forced from all and flie for his life unaccompanied and miserable When Tomombejus the great Sultan of Egypt Turkish History p. 550. the first and the last that enjoyed the height of that command when he who had warred so successfully and setled himself so â—irmly is assaulted and over come by Selimus and exquisitely tortured yea from being the glory of Egypt becomâ— a captive and a scorn to the very Egyptians raggedly cloathed set upon a meaâ—ger Camel with his hands bound leâ— thorow Caire to be derided and after alâ— stangled with a Rope Turkish History p. 280. When the greaâ— Bassa Carambey General of Annieaths arâ— my when overthrown by Hnninades waâ— â—aken Captive and valued but at ten â—uckets when the fortune of Amurath 〈◊〉 conquering all that he would turned and broke his heart upon the declension â—f it p. 331. when Scanderbeg who was the â—errour of the Turk and could not sleep â—or desire to fight him and that with his â—rm bare and that with such fierceness â—hat the blood often gushed out at his â—ips p. 424. yet even this man must become â—eaths prisoner and his dead body be taâ—en in Lyssa and happy that Turk that â—ould get any part of his bone to set in Gold when Techelles the Hermite who was so fortunate a General against Bajaâ—â—et the second p. 473. and all others yet comes to be burnt alive at Tunis when Belisaâ—ius the great Conquerour becomes exâ—culated and a beggar by the high-way side and Dyonisius the Tyrant of Sicily 〈◊〉 Musique-master for his living When we shall consider the examples in our own Land of Henry the great Duke of Exeter who married the sister of E. 4. driven to such misety Cambden in Deâ—onshire p. 205. that he was seen all tattered and torn and bare-footed to beg for his living in the Low-countries And Roger the great Bishop of Salisbury taken from a Mass-priest and put in highest authority next King Stephen and yet become so under his displeasure that not only his Castlâ— at the Devizes and Shirburn And in Wiltshire 244. were taken from him with all his Goods Moveables and Riches but also he himself kept in prison so low what with misery and hunger that between the fear of death and torment of his life he neither had will tâ— live or skill to die When to these wâ— adde the Myriads of Examples of alâ— ages which have been tossed to and froâ— with various treatments and in various postures of condition we may and must conclude that great is the variety of state which God inclines Man to exercises him by and concludes him in and that it is rather a wonder that we have not more and greater then feweâ— and less Considering that our ingenuitie are as Mutable from God and as fixed to evill as pravity assisted by Satan caâ— provoke us to be When I consider mens restlessness to doâ— mischief and their impatience to be prevented it I bless God that Eustace the Son of King Stephens Condition Holingshed p. 60. to run maâ—â— before they enjoy the least of their end and after dye defeated as he did is not thâ— condition of such men And when I contemplate the fast and loose that men are a with God they will and they will not Is it not a Mercy that God makes not their condition like a storm at sea full of ridges and rollings up and down like the rebounds and descents of a ball banded and touch'd by a vigorious arm against a marble wall or a brazen footing was it not thus with the great Nevill Tempt H. 6. Who though no King was saith Mr. Cambden above Kings as who deposed H. 6. a bountifull Lord and Master to him placed E 4. in the throne after deposed E 4. and restored H 6. engaging not only England in a cruell Civill Warr Cambden Britania p 570. but himself in those troubles that made him stiled the Tennis Ball of Fortune And with Cecilia Mother to E 4. who saw Richard D. of York her Husband even then when he thought himself sure of the Kingdome and her Son the Earl of Rutland slaine together in a field battle and some â—ew years after her Eldest Son E 4. enjoying the Crown deprived of it by untimely death when he had made away her second Son and his own brother George D. of Clarence after she saw her Son the D. of Gloucester aspiring to the Throne by the murder of his Nephews and slaunder of his own Mother with the greatest dishonour and after he had thus impiously obtained the Crown she saw him slain in Bosworth field and those Her miseries saith Mr. Cambden were so linked together Idem p. 511. that the longer she lived the greater sorrowes she felt and every day was more dolefull then other When I say these examples direct us to many of semblable import how much to be admired is the patience of God that these smart and earthquake providences which shatter all about mens ears and swallow them up in the rage of them do not befall men oftner And therefore it is no wonder that the Spirit of God portraits our life as a Passing so Iob. 14. 20. Thou washest away the things that grow of the dust of the earth and thou destroyest the hope of man thou prevailest for ever against him and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendeth him away so Psal. 78. 39. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a Flower of the field si he flourisheth For the wind Passeth over it and it is gone Psal. 103. 15 16. so Psal. 144. 4. Man is like to vanity his daies are as a shadow that Passeth away Nor doth the spirit of God Toul this passing bell over Mortall changes but Rings it out to its utmost extent and note of Proclamation that this variety mans state is subject to As the whirlwind passeth so is
unregarded weather-beaten tattered Noble in nothing but in the Moss of time and the Moulds of Bullets discharged against but repelled by them Though I say this may be the mis-fortune of deserving men Sir H. Wottons letter to the Duke of Buckingham who yet are like those â—ell-fishes which sometimes they say oversleeping themselvs in an ebbing water feel nothing about them but a dry shore when they awake Yet in Heaven whither O Nobles and Gentlemen I hope by the mercy of God many of you will come there will be as no preterition of you nor no separation from your glory so will your glory keep your vertues in constant actuation Omnes virtutes erunt ibi in effectu potenitalitate tarditate ac difficultate operandi omnino sublatis erunt itaque in continuâ— actualitatis suae Gulielâ—us Parisiensis c. 1 de trib Sanctorum And when you have considered this compensation promised and certain your mortal varieties of state ought not so much to fear you to encounter with as your immortal stability and unalterableness encourage you to overcome them And is not God a good Master and the thoughts of him a notable cordial to provoke you to despise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De corpore Christi Stus Athanasius Orat. de Salutari adventâ— Salvatoris advers Apollinar p. 648. Tom. 1. and carry you thorow whatever this life which Athanasius calls a sequestration from glory can inamour you with by its power or discourage you in by its policy which is nothing at all to a good man whose treasure is magazin'd where nothing malicious or injurious can come yea in spight of which God will speak peace by the voyce of conscience whose meâ—â—age is as solacing as that to Leo the ninth was Ego cogito pacis cogitationâ—s non afflictionis Platina in Leone 9. I think the thoughts of peace and not of affliction For God makes this World to Holy men what the Father calls affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil. Selenciae Orat 6. p. 37. The Schole of Vertue the Safe of Nature in which are deposited the Laws Rights of it the admired shadows the victorious Tree of the Cross. SECT XLIV Shews That by thinking of God and the account Nobles and Gentlemen are to make to him better preparation is made for Death THirdly Quantumlibt enim vivat diutius somnium sibi esse videtur quod vixit cum moritur non ergo longaevitatem homo hic habet ubi quandoques moriâ—urus est Anselmus lib. de similitud c. 58 by this ye Nobles and Gentlemen shall the better prepare for the suddenness and inevitability of death which being the wages of sin and the doom of God upon culpable nature is to be expected till and welcommed when it comes for alas what is life which death is the intruder upon and the determiner of but a wind that soon passes a vapour presently dissipated a tale ending while telling a Flower in a moment faded a Flash of Lightning as instantly departed as darted a bubble that with the least touch is prick'd and flatted and when life so tender and mercenary to every trifle is trod upon by death and trampled upon by its insultings then all the Pageantries of mens visible greatnesses gives way to their recess into silence and forgetfulness the meditation of this Epictetus commends to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euchyrid c. 23. as that which renders life not much to be desired or death much to be feared for in that life is rather lent and deposited by God with us then given to us as Retrarchs notion of it is wisdom calls upon men to reckon themselves ever accountable Homo quippe vitae commodatus est non donatus sapiens in hac vitaa sic dies studeâ— agere transitorias ut in futura dieâ— aeternitatis inveniat Petrarch lib. 1. de vera sapientia and to be willing to return it every moment which is confirmed by holy Moses whose desire for Israels useful and practical good was That they were wise to consider their latter end and I suppose upon this ground is that of the Wiseman Better go into the house of mourning then into the house of laughter because the mourning house is disciplinary of mortality and referential to that fatal period which sin and sorrow the two unhappy Twins of life have set to them Indeed sin is so natural to life and so true â—n alliance of sorrow that it is not ordiâ—arily possible to separate their conjunctiâ—n or to disanul their cognation Hence â—t is that because we are all in the shadow of death life being but glittering death Iob 10. 11. Iob 30. 23. and death as it were but ecclipsed life all â—hat man who is born can look for here 〈◊〉 to die that is to ravle off the bottom of his daies and to become what he was when he was not man that is dust and to â—he expectation of this nature and expeâ—ience do every day manifoldly summon â—nd lesson him For in that we see all â—ges all conditions all sexes render themselves prisoners to death how Noble is it to die daily and to cherish life but as a present good not worth delighting in or progging for further then as the season to sow what in eternity we would â—eap Death being thus stated and certain God has mercifully seconded Nature with his premonitions to man how to encounter and overcome the force and fear of it and that by not only meditating upon Gods decree For all men once to dye but also by pawsing upon those written parts of Gods pleasure introducing to the maine conclusion Thus we are told of Sorrows of death compassing us Psal. 18. 4. and of being in the valley of death Psal. 23. 4. of being harassed with the terrours of death Psal. 55. 4. Of being brought neer the gates of death Psal. 107. 18. before we sleep the sleep of death and are not these notable Monitors to vigilance and excitations to watch against deaths approach to us as a thief in the night of our security in the Moment of our unpreparation in the midst of our dreams of dainties dalliance and sensuall sinfulness and ought not the possibility of this dismal approximation of death in this moment before the next put us upon prayer to God to fit us for himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrianus Epictâ—t lib. 2. c. 5. p. 179. by giving us new hearts and forgiving us our old sins that we may be living for him dye in him and after death reign for ever with him Ought not the discovery of the truth that man who is born must dye Perswade us to live and doe and think and dye as those who have Magnaminity and are inspired with thoughts above fearing death or charging God with indurable love or determining goodness For in that he suffers revolutious to be he does not impair his power or kindness but improves
them as by them he makes way for the worlds Circumâ—erence and the succession of the Elementary Vigour in its Specifique appearance and respective usefulnesse Hearken to this O ye who pish at the day of death and live as if ye were born ever to live and never to dye and be judged and Condemned for an evill life and an impenitent death Consider this â—ee Nobles and Gentlemen The mortality of whose ancestors has made way for your being and bravery and since ye being born of corruptible seed must be corruptible in your bodies do not live as if you never meant to dye or come for an evil life to judgement Can you hold out the seige of deaths terrours and repell the force of his assaults can you peep into the Counsells of the Almighty and seize his judgments for your prisoners are your eyes all light your feet all wing your fingers all force your weapons all steele your armour all proof can you make time stand at your big words or diseases keep off for your grim looks Have ye the art to fix the fluency of life wrapping up its motion in a punct of consistence beyond which it shall not stirr are yee Masters of those millions of accidents that your sins have 〈◊〉 against made mischievous to and masterfull over ye Can ye corrupt the last Judge Can ye dwell with everlasting burnings Can ye turn your sins red as scarlet to become white as Wool Are ye stronger then he that made the world and all in it Or wiser then he that rules the world and all the concerns of it Or durabler then he that is from everlasting to everlasting If thus ye be furnished then reproach his Champion Marshall your Forces produce your Artillery beat up the Drums and sound the Trumpets of your defiance and reverse the sentence of death by Force and enact your priviledge from the fate and certainty of death But if ye have less force to encounter lesse prudence to regulate lesse certainty to overbear and vanquish death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd lib. 2. p. 158. then death has to subdue you and your Fancyed greatnesse Then kisse the Son of God while you are in the day and on the way of life to death and so compose your selves in life against your change That your death may not become your torment nor your dissolution your despair O Consider God holds the glass of time in his hand and as he has appointed to â—very thing its season so is it to act and not otherwayes and though in the course of nature Youth has a larger Circuit and greatnesse a probabler trench â—bout it then age or meanness has which â— as it were naked exposed to every hazâ—rd yet so can God errand accidents â—nd so leaven the advantages that most â—rprise and detain you That they shall â— miserable Comforters to you What deâ—ght do Titles and Honours give to â—e torture of the cout Or what ease â—o Treasures or Mannors present to the â—exation and anguish of the stone What â—eliefe does the fame of strong beautiful â—eloved Minister to the torment of a â—roken limb or what comforts come to a â—angreen'd body from Fomentations of â—â—sts and Baths of pleasure Doe the â—â—lls of Couscience own suppling from â—ires of Musick or the Hells of despair â—â—ap cooling from merry company doth â—ot God often reach Pharoah's power â—nd pride with Armies of Insects and â—ortify the First born of Countryes to â—proach the folly of Mortall insolence â—ould Herods Oratory that spake him a â—od free him from dying like a man or â—â—ther like a beast Or Selymus the Firsts â—mbition who vowed conquest of Europe â— of Asia Turkish History p. 561. not meet with a Canker that â—ulled him back to buriall He that can â—ise up death and envigour faintnesse â— Cebelits to be his Executioner upon the p. 209. victorious Amurath and can disselse the subtilty of Duns Scotus by an Apoplexy which shall conclude his Learning with his life he that is the Lord of life and death and does whatsoever he pleases in order to life and death he only is the Fountaine of content and the hope and happinesse of the Soul and to him and to his joyes we are carryed by death and hereupon because death is beneficiall to good men it is desired entertained resigned to Mors timenda non est quia vita adimitur sed quoniam acerba mors nihil aliud est quam vitae sceleratae Carnisex dictâ—m Bruxilli morientis ad Senatuâ—â— Guevara Horolog Princip lib. 1. c. 6. by them with all chearfulnesse The very Heathen said Death was not tâ— be feared because it determined life buâ— because a bitter death was nothing else buâ— the Executioner of a wicked life And Christians inasmuch as Christ has by tasting death sweetned it to and victor'd iâ— for them ought to meet it at Gods time and upon his account with joy and spiriâ—tual Triumph as it is Vehiculary of theâ— to Christ as it is the conclusion of theiâ— sorrowes and the buriall of their sins as it is the expedient that only can unit their hopes and feares their faith witâ— their fruition whereupon St. Bernarâ— writing to his friend uses this Meditatioâ— I would have thee if not escape yet not at aâ— to fear death sor a holy man though he caâ—not sometimes avoid death yet ever ought â— â— beware fear of it Volo te mortem etsi non effugere certe vel non timere justus quippe mortem si non cavet tamen non pavet bona mors si peccato moriarts justitiae vivas Bona mors justi propter requiem melior propter novitatem optima propter securitatem mala mors peccatorâ—m in mundi amissione pejor in carnis separatione pessima in vermis ignis duplicis contritione Stus Bernardus Ep. 104. ad Gualteruns de Calvo monâ—e for if it be a good death â—hich a good man dyes to sin and lives to â—ighteousnesse it is an ill fear that makes a â—an avoid so Good an expression of Gods â—race and mercy the death of a holy man is Good for therest he hath from his labours â—etter for the change he hath of his life his â—bour his Company his reward best for 〈◊〉 security he hath against lapse or â—â—verter of evill to him whereas the â—eath of the wicked man is bad in the â—ss of the world his Paradise worse in the â—peration of his Flesh worst in the worm of â—â—nscience and fire of Hell which after it he â—ust everlastingly be punished in Thus St. â—ernard And is death thus advantageous to â—ood men then is the thought of death the â—ost necessary and healthfull theme the â—ul at its senses can take Comfort from â—ust death come because it is appointed â—y God the wages of sin Must the seâ—ond death follow where in the sting and â—orrour of it the first is not passed Must â—e day of death be
hidden from all men â—at they may alwayes be solicitous about â— preparing for it expecting of it joyâ—ll at it does it come as a thief in the â—ght in the cloud and umbrage of a â—ontemned accident with a potent and not to be refused errand in the moment of thy Jollity in the heigth of thy youth in the glory of thy preferment when all eyes are upon thee all tongues applaud thee and all knees bow to thee and perhaps all backs bear burthens for thee in defiance of thy power in Confront of thy Learning in ruine of thy designs without pitty of thy relations without fear of thy fury without diversion of thy policy Will not thy bags buy off its execution nor thine eloquence soften its stroak nor thy bravery transport it to kindnesse nor thy charms bind its hands but with its rapacious claw it must seise and by its mall burst asunder the fabrique of soul and body Must these things be without baile or Mainprize or saving of the Contenement Then O then what manner of men ought yee O Nobles and Gentlemen to be in all Holy Conversations How ought ye to be tuned Heaven-ward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz in Encomio Athanasii p 22 and as it is said of Athanasius to have your lives words and works unisonous full of harmony and concent not jarring and combatting one with another How ought your vessels to be pure your lights to shine your Lamps to be trim'd your loynes to be Girded How ought ye to anticipate deaths terrour by dying dayly in terrour to your lusts How ought ye to take Heaven by force as it were while you live for whom if penitent the possession is purchased when you dye what is the graves visage to one that is dead unto sin and alive unto God Quid caput strophiolo aut Dracontario damnas diademati destinatum nam Reges deo patri suo fecit Iesus Christus Quid tibi cum flore morituro habes Florem ex virga Iesse super quem tota divini spiritus gratia requievit Tertulliâ—nus lib. de Corona Militis cap. 15. What is the dissolution of Soul and body to him at any time whose resolution is to make Christ his at all times and to live no longer nor other then to please God alwaies and to be pleased with Gods pleasure concerning him How can the expiration of a Mortall life be troublesome to him who lives as one born to exercised in assured of a most glorious and durable life consequent to it And this no man being possible to attain but by Meditating and living in a dayly exercise of Christian severity and fiducial Mortification How important is it to presse upon the Memories and Consciences of Great-men not to be infected with Pride not to be buryed in secular affairs Parvi defectique animâ— est de subditis non profectum quaerere subditoruâ— sed quaestum proprium Stus Bernard de consider lib. 3. not to be glewed to and glutted with varietyes of pleasures Happy that Prince that can say I received my Life and Crown from God and as I managed them for him so I am willing to resign them to him happy that Peer and Gentleman who can appear before God in the Coat armour of humility and dare to appeal to God for his Justification That he has walked before him with an upright heart and desired to do the thing that was right in his sight Isai. 38. 3 Happy that Prelate who has deserved Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In vita Athanasii Fortes fuere in bello non molles in sericis c. Si â—tlius es Apostolorum prophetarum tu fac similiter vendicae tibi nobilâ— genus similibus moribus quod non aliunde nobilâ— quam morum ingenuitate fidei Fortitudine fuit Stus Bernard lib. 2. consider his character to be a living and immovable Pillar of Virtue whose life has bin a continual sermon of Moderation self denyal charity diligence who has followed the Apostles Martyrs and Confessors in their prayers and private agonies in their care and tendernesse to teach and keep together the flock of God commited to them and whose Consciences on their death beds can solace them that they have preach'd and lived and ruled not for their own fame and pomp but for their Masters honour and their fellow labourers encouragement and their flocks edification to life eternall this will be the sweetest and takingst cordial to the departing soul to consider that their labour in the Vineyard shall have the penny of eternity and their denying themselves for Christ shall be recompenced with Christs imparting his glory to them and their taking up Christs Crosse in self contempt self abasement shall return them a partaking in Christs crown and glory with him Happy he and he only that can so live and so dye that living and dying he may be Gods Which the Meditation of death is a great furtherance to because it both keeps from folly of action and keeps in eye eternity of joy or misery for in that lifes determination gives entry to death and that to particular Judgement it is a high part of Christian Prudence to ruminate on death in the summer and brightest day of life and by a quotidian view of it to lessen the terrour and usher in the treatment of it by such diseases and other loosenings of life from its basis as God uses to make the access of death understood by us and this whoever does will not only possesse his Soul in patience and prevent the exorbitances of his passions whose evolations are not easily leured home or whose tumours are not presently asswaged but also settle in the mind ready to leave the world the sedatenesse of a prelibating Saint whose earnest of heaven appears in a sensible senselessenesse of what is tumorous troublesome avulsive and incongruous with his departing sublimity God that has called his heart to heaven in the Divinity of its Love having left the faculties of the soul yet resident in the body to expressions of themselves suitable to their origen Office and other circumstances by which they subsist and serve the conjunction of soul and body Peregrinus nimirum potest facile occasione viatici plus quam oporteat detineri quaerendo praegravari portando mortuns si desit ipsa sepultura non sentit sic vituperantes ut laudantes sic adulantes audit ut detrahentes imo vero nec audit quod mortuus est Stuâ— Bern Serm. 7. in Quadrages by reason of which they being dead to sin and alive to God in their option of dissolution as well as in their ligament of faith and in their assurance of acceptance rather are detained by then living in or to the world For the world being nothing to them but their prison Death which brings their Habeas Corpus must needs be their joy and Gods Writ of Ease their gratulation for Men
having set an end to all their desires and seen a period of all their labours by the enfranchisement of their departure become from Earths villaines and lifes vassals Gods freemen yea Kings and Priests to God The just consideration whereof if the dictates of pure nature and the assurances of Gods word had any power with men would lenify the thoughts of deaths trouble in the worlds adiew and the body and Souls dissociation because the incontinuity of them does but resolve them into their respective Principle the Body retiring to the dust from whence it came and the Soul to God that gave it Nor is any man happy in life further then he has provided for a good death or in death if he have not the testimony of a good yet of a penitent life my meaning is if before he dye the errors of his life be not expiated for in the palliations of his guilt and Gods ignoscency of them and in the acceptation of his sorrow and person with Gods agnition of him for a dyer in him That is in the beliefe and assurance of his forgivenesse and filiation which once had the soul cannot but trample upon despondency and bid defiance to despair since Christ justifies it is too late for any to condemn if life makes us debtors to nature the whole Creation being but as one lump of power and mercy masshed together in the common fatt and fate of vicissitude and the providence and wisdom of God brewing us together till we work out the Lees of sin and nature and become defecate or as neer it as the pleasure of our maker design'd us to arrive at and by our respective proportions to auxiliat the productions and gradations of succession towards perfection then to dye when we have lived our time and out-lived our innocence by as many degrees as we have at all lived is but the payment of our debt to nature and the surrender of our forfeiture to God and we are to account that a Good death which not so much takes away as betters life because it does rather advance the Soul then depresse the body Bona mors quae vitam non aufert sed transfert in melius bona qua non corpus cadit sed anima sublevatur rerum enim cupiditatibus vi vendo non teneri humanae virtutis est corporum verò similitudinibus speculando non involvi angelicae puritatis est utrumque tamen divini muneris est utrumque excedere teipsum transcendere est Stus Bernardus Serm. 52. in Cant. Cant. for to be in Soul an Angell while in state a man is to be an arriver at what ever God requires and man can attain to in this under-age of Glory And O Nobles and Gentry If death be thus Emolumental if it be the Ladder to heaven if it be the disarray of those uneasy harnassings that sin and life put upon you such as Iob oft calls shaking of the bones Iob. 4. 14. piercing the bones Ch. 30. ver 17. and David calls vexing the bones Psalm 6. 6. If it brings no rest to the bones Psal. 38. 3. breaks the bones Psal. 51. 8. if it streightens the compass and disedges the Divine soul and its faculties in their raptures and sallies and fill the heart with grief the eye with tears and the countenance with wanness and disspiriting then to be by death enlarged and to have a separation of a troublesome match Vivebas antea O beata anima sed in specioso carcere nunc immensus aether palatium est vidâ—bas sed non nisi per fragiles atque angustas corporeae Massae â—enestras nunc liberè sine transenna sine velamine audiebas sed per sinâ—osos aurium meaus mortalium eos ingâ—atos sape sermones nunc dulcissimam caelorum Harmoniam aeternarum intelligentiarum concentus precipis Ludovicus Fabritius in Orat Inaugurali super moâ—â—em Domini de Saletione and an assignation of body and soul to their proper Spheres is to be released from both the labour and the guilt of sin and to be in the road and upon the march to the Hercules pillar beyond which there is nothing but hope of being more belief of becomming more then you unclarifiedly are and is not this a great motive to be ready to dye and to be advanced by dying well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basilius Mag. p. 229. for as the Sea and the wind and the stars and the compasse and the industry of Seamen and the titeness of the ship well rigg'd well steered are all furtherances to the one attainment of the Port Habitatio ista nec deserviret hominibus ut patria cum in ea nullus nasceretur nec deserviret ut exilium cum in ea nullus exulare mereretur Gulielm Parisiens parte 1. de universo part 3. c. 48. nor do men ordinarily come thither safely and seasonably but by the subserviency of these to the purpose and project of the mind where the designs upon the port are united so neither does any man attaine the Vision of God the Clarification of his nature the Comprehension of happinesse but by the passe of death Which lets us out of toyle and combate into pleasure and quietnesse And that not as pleasure and quietnesse is notioned here which is Planetary and moving as well as tired with vexation and confusion but as it is in Gods presence fullnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore Thus shall a good death befriend the providers for it who only have Confidence in and comfort from it For though God did translate a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil Mag Orat. p 65. ol 1. Enoch without sight of death as an example by himselfe of a Celestial man who in a sort lived above sin and was taken away without death yet the grave is the usuall Supersedeas to life and death the Port of Mans march off and therefore since nature piety and the interest of both tends to death to set your souls O ye Nobles and Gentry in Order to receive deaths charge is to discharge your selves of being surprised and to receive your charger and enemy with Courage and by victorying his terrours to be victors of the joyes consequent to it which St. Paul intended in that Epinichion which he athletarily chanted out 1 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought the good fight I have finisht my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse SECT XLV Evidences that to meditate of God and the great concerns of the Soul is the way to come unto and come off from Iudgment Honourably MY last and not least Argument to beseech ye O Nobles and Gentry to think of God and of the great concerns of your soules is that thereby ye may come off honourably in the day of judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil. Mag. Epist. ad virgin laps p. 755. operum 2 Thes. 2. 8.
him and will accept for worâ—hy to dwell with him be not solicitous of securing your honours and families â—gainst temporal diminution while you make no provision for your souls salvation and your Gods blessing on your posteâ—ities would ye share with Christ in his glory inoculate him into the stock of â—our glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Orat. 18. p. 283. be not ashamed of his Crosse â—e not defiers of his humilitie be not â—ghters against his prevalence provide â—y prayers and tears by self denyall and â—ove-like meeknesse against the siege of death and the scrutiny of Judgement Which because the wicked of the world do not therefore are the thoughts â—nd dread of Judgement so terrible to â—hem As God is not in all their thoughts so neither is the account they are to give to God ever before the eye of their consideration this makes the worlds Felixes when they are discoursed to of Temperance Righteousuesse Acts â—4 15. and Iudgement to come to tremble and either to wish that assize not to be at all or themselves not at all to be when the Sessions of it is This does not only touch aci'dly and with twitches of torment their naturall conscience which yet has some part of it tender and relucting but it rends themselves from themselves and makes an Earthquake that confounds all that is in them and makes them dubious of their futurity in any thing but wo. Venerable Bede tells a notable story of a Monck who lived very prophanely not observing any regularity when his brothers were at Chappell he would keep in his Cell Sicut Beatus Stephanus vidit caelos apertos ita ipse inâ—ernum Iudam Cajaphum Pilatum in medio eorum alios item Crucisixores domini sibi misero non longe ab eis locum esse paratum Historia Anglorum Folio p. 943. when they were praying he was bousing and delighting himselfe sensually at last God brought sicknesse upon him and then he had smitings of Conscience and told his brothers in great anguish that he had seen in a vision his future estate as St. Stephen saw Heaven opened to him Christ ready to Crown him so he saw Hell open and in it Iudas Cajaphas Pilate and others the crucifiers of our Lord not far from them a place for his soul full of horrour and torment And when Greatness is begirt when the delicate and proud mind of it is thus gashed and sawed between hopes and fears when it feels the Gravel of dispaire fretting and wounding its tender vessels and knows not how soon the soul of such fools may be required from them then it is bitter in tears and sad in countenance then it forbears feasting keeps a Lent too late and knocks for entrance when the door is shut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis. then these Esau's seek a place for repentance but are denyed it when as the Mourners for sin and the Sealed for salvation come into this furnace of judgement for Triall and come out of it with Triumph they are not only sure to be quitted but to be blessed Psal. 1. 1. and that because they have not walked in the way nor by the Counsells of the ungodly but because their delight was in the Law of the Lord and herein they exercised themselves day and night their â—eaf the lightest part of them shall flou â—â—ish and whatever they doe shall prosper when sinners shall not stand in the Congregation of the Iust but shall be filled with â—eeping and wailing for the torment of â—he â—ire that never shall extinguish and 〈◊〉 with gnashing of teeth by reason of the worm that never dies Ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium Fletus quidem ob ignem qui non extinguitur stridor verò ob vermem qui non moritur Fletus ex dosore stridor ex furore Sermone in Psal. Qui habitat as St. Bernard on that place Matth. 24. And happy it is for good men that they have another world to confide in and rest upon For God knowes here they have but cold comfort and hard usage exposed to the injuries of power the prejudices of envy the censures of mistake the extremities of want the violences of death but when the other world comes uppermost when Martyrs and Confessors are court Cards and they trump all the Diamonds Hearts Clubs and Spades in this pack of Cards which is so much the game of our lives and the desport of this world then it is well with the righteous Micha 7. 13. for the fruit of his works are given him Then what the Duke of Guise replyed to the Emperour's General D' Avila That whatever the Condition of the man he complained of was while in the â—ield now he was entred the bowells of France Caeterum regni Franciae id Iuris esse ut quicunque servilis conditionis pedem in ea posuerit Mox libertatem recuperet Thuanus volum 1. lib. 11. p. 343. Heb. 4. 9. he was free Mal. 3. 17. for that France admitted noâ— servility or basenesse of degree into it but presently enfranchised whoever was commorant in it becomes true with infinite advantages when the day of judgment comes then commenceth the rest of the people of God then shall they appear Gods Iewells and be ranked as his sheep theâ— shall they sit to Iudge Matth. 19. 28. not stand to be Iudged and cry out for vengeance on their malevolent persecutors who were deaf when to them they cryed for Mercy then shall they acknowledge Gods promise In quo enim quemquam invenerit suus novisâ—imus dies in hoc cum comprehendet mundi novissimus dies quoniam qualis in die illo quisque moritur talis in die illo judicabitur Stus August Ep. 80. Hâ—sychio the Basis of their faith and his spirit the mover of their consciences and his Word the directory of their conversation then shall not only the Judge purge them and their fellow Saints rejoyce in them but their own consciences being the charter part of Gods record shall acquit them and the testimony of that is instead of all witnesses For if our consciences accuse us not then have we boldnesse before God 1 Iohn 4. 17. O Rom. 2. 15. c. 9. 1. I say when a good conscience 2 Cor. 12. 1. which Saint Paul glories so much in the testimony of 1 Tim. 1. 5. bears witnesse of the Soules sincerity Heb 13. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dictum Antiphoâ—t apud Stobaum Serm. 106. what comfort and confidence thence results no tongue can utter no melody parallel no thought conceive Fancy what O yee Nobles and Gentry in nature or art you can the straines of which are most hallucinating and the aires most inebriating sense and by the kind and pleasing raptures of it forcing nature from her Staple and leading reason captive to their spoile let the Musick of the Orbs