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
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.
for their merit of the Nation For while others vapour on their Sejan horse of idle and vicious unfortunateness See my discourses of Arms and Armory printed An. 1660. these command the Trojan Horse out of which march continually the Hellio's of Learning the Hectors of courage the Critiques in Law the Magistrates in Towns the Nobles and Gentry in Parliament and Country The Nation is now peopledmore then heretofore and necessity giving aym to ingenuity there are now more courses of imployment and entertainment taken and approved then quondamly and as all sumptuary Lawes are vanished by the mixtures of gentry with the plebs in Corporations so ought all grudge between the Country and the City Gentry to be castated for that is the best Mine of Treasure in the Nation which advances men from low beginnings to eminent growths and leaves their posterity rich and respectfull after them And what would have become of the younger Brothers of England after the cessation of the Civill Wars by the Union of York and Lancaster in H. 7. of happy memory and ofter the dissolution of Religious houses by H. 8. In both which they were bestowed and from them supported If Sciences Trades and Callings of Civill request had not taken them up is easie to say either reason of State must have turned them to a forraign Warre or they must have lived at home upon the prey either of their elder brothers or of the Countrey SECT IX Discourseth of good Company and the great Addition and Benefit it is to free vertuous and liberall growth of Men and Families FIfthly To the former add good Company un-vicious and ingenious For since Man is a sociable creature whose time is best whiled away and his cross fates digested by the help of conversation and the pleasancy of company Company that abounds with those conjunct vertues which fertilize and adorn life and make men usefull to and honoured by the age they live in is most to be desired obliged and adhered to Cum plaâ—idissimo facillimo minime anxio morosoque vivendum est Sumuntura conversantibus mores ut quaedam in contactos amorem vini traxit ita animus mala sua proximit tradit Senec. lib. 3. de irâ—c 8. which the great Moralist observes to my hand With the most sweet tractable and least sowre companion men wisely court to live because their own manners are formed from their associates and such either in good or evil are men usually as their mates are So he Indeed life without society is but a motive death and a sensitive insenseness like a watch which has all the hours of the day inscribed on its Circumferential Table and has a finger to direct to every hour of Circulation but no spring within to carry about its finger according to the directed order So at a loss is man without company and those proper and adapt to him that the quickness of his parts being abated by absence of the edge of their presence example and of that little ambition of rivalry which is amongst them while he studies he loyters while he gathers he loses whiles he endeavours to be something he proves indeed nothing but lumpish stupid inexpert ignorant of men the best Expositors and sweetners of Books and the second noble expence of time Which has caused the judicious in all ages and Nations to fix their mayn content and conversational felicity on Company which is called between Man and Woman marriage between Men and Men friendship for this is so strict and severe a compago and in-laying of soules that it is not only hard to discern any character of inunion or to peep into the secrecy of their piecing but impossible to conclude them any thing else but a coanimation of divers numerical soules into one and the same single and undivided souliness The consideration of which choice and connexion of Companions by the bond of friendship made Senca conclude Detrahit amicitiae majestatem suam qui illam parat ad bonos casus Ep. 9. that when it is calculated only for and limited to prosperity it hath lost its Majesty and therefore is it the obâ—ectament of life because it is a fellowship of soules in community of Fortunes what ever they are Which Seneca describes fully Friends saith he be of coincident hearts making the common secrets of each other the Iewels of their retirement punctuality who prove themselves precisely such as transcend the suspition of imparity Nihil aeque oblectaverit animum quam dulcis â—idelit amicitia quantum bonum est ubi preparata sunt pectora in quae tuto secretum omne descendat quorum conscientiam minus quam tuam timeas horum fermo solicitu dine leâ—iat conâ—silium expediat hilaritas tristitiam dissipet conspectus ipse delectâ—t lib. de Tranq c. 7. whose speech is a relief to solitude and are in Counsels Oracles in presence pleasures in absence grounds of confidence that they shall meet the same in kindness and cordiality that they were at parting This is Friendship which provoked a Synesius lib. de regno p. 11. Mea inquit in Antonium majora merita sunt illius in me beneficia notiora itaque discrimine vestro me subâ—raham ero preda victoris Paterculus lib. 2. p. 60. edit Lipsii Synesius to term this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Friend as a mans own soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Kingly present and to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who a pleasanter partaker of prosperity and a patienter consort in adversity who more upright in praise and more affectionate in reproof then a friend who like Asinius Pollio raised by Mark Antony and commanded by Caesar his enemy to attend him in the Actian War replied thus to him Sir My deserts of Antony are greater and his bounty more resented by and obliging upon me then to permit my so doing Behold I submit to your pleasure and withdraw my self from all appearance that you may not fear me who render my self a spoyl to your victory Thus he in testimony to the efficacy of friendship which because it is most confirmed by daily converse frequent compotation sameness of humour and end therefore is company so to be chosen by men that would reap the royal fruit and harvest of it as that the procerity of vertue the virgin verdure of sincere Ingenuity in the native marks of worthy and wel attended Generosity may appear herein For Company is the Glass in which the beauty or deformity of every mans mind is transparent 't is the crucible in which the loyalty or adulterations of their addictions are tried 'T is the Physick that either purges out peccant humours and abates the menace of them or else leaves dregs of offence to the body by its ill composition and the ineffectuality of its ingredients by reson of which as if men resolve to be evil they must not take good Company to them so
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
respect and augmentation Thus of old we read that the Patriarchs as they chose for themselves Wives worthy their piety and love so did they to their sons present Wives and them married placed in courses of life laborious and supportive upon which foundation they laid all the superstructure of their after happiness and thrift This after ages imitated them in while they saw themselves more then ordinarily mortall in their issues they either having none or such as concluded in their sex the nominal perpetuity of them they made provision for their continuity by assumption of Nephews and Kinsmen or by adoption of daughters children Totius familiae interest ne quis ex ea vel in servitutem de ducatur vel slagitiose damnoque dignitatis vivat Ferrerius ad legem 195. which I best like into their name and so investing them with what fortune and honour they had in their power so great a zeal to the prosperity of blood name and relations is there in a generous man that as their glory is his delight so their dislustre is his torment Hence has it been ever the study of brave men to promote their kindred and to resent their disobligements as unkindnesses done to themselves Nor is there any more sure sign of a Noble soul then this of endeavouring to know and improve the prosperity of his line and kindred yea and of his friends too for I preferre constant and prudent friends above relations that are loose and uncapable and truly I am declaredly of the opinion that Greatness or Riches is not desirable by any Heroique further then it capacitates the have to serve God Quid enim generosius quam tot literarum proceres habuisse majores nam si inveâ—eraâ—ae per genus ductae divitiae nobileâ— faciunt multo magis praestantior est cujus origo the sauris prudentiae locuplis invenitur Alatharicus Rex senatui Rom apud Cassiod var. lib. 8. ep 19. and his Prince officiates to the publique and is a hook to draw into and a hedge to secure worthy friends and relations in the fellowship and affluence of it For although the other perquisites of it as place plenty pâ—mp of life respect with men be tempting and taking motives to its pursuit and obtainment yet the prospect that it gives into the knowledge of men and things and the encouragement and reward it priviledges a man to give to what is excellent and useful though perhaps clouded and spiritless is the Royallest incentive to afâ—ect and accept it I like the charity that begins at home and since I account every one of my Family and Friendship that is vertuous and valuable in any Noble accomplishment they shall be the objects of my respect and neerest to my kindness who are neerest of kin to the souls nobility and who have in them the most of intellectual Majesty practical Divinity But I return to a mans family which surely must be dear to him upon the reason of interest as it is his temporary conservatory and that in the Lunary motions whereof he sees the â—bbs and flows of his own fame For though he is but a termer for life in his person and has but a contingent estate in that yet in the continuity of his descendants he has a comparative fee and an estate as I may so say of temporary eternity at least the lease he has is such as it may last many hundred years which wise men contemplating if issue of themselves fail by corporal defects or anticipation of vice vow or what is parallel to them provide substitutions to their memory though they purchase them at rates transcending the ordinary values of reason This makes them venture on those designes of hazzard and labours of death that none would cope with but those that had a motion of mind above mortals Non potest grande aliquid supra caeteros loqui nisi mota mens cum vulgaria soliâ—a contempsit insâ—inctoque sacro surrexit excelsior Tunc demum aliquid cecinit grandius ore mortali non potest sublime quiddam in arduo positum contingere quam diu apud se est Senec. lib. de Tranq animi as Seneca sayes and whose eares could hear no discouragement though death were the Messenger to disswade them and though they saw the pit of their sepulchre opened before them and ready to receive them for then they most sweetly modulate the notes of greatness when they strayne their accounts beyond and above the Elah of ordinary attainment and assay the supern greatness by the projects of a more then mortall action which they meditate and are generously transported to produce SECT III. Treats of the perpetuation of Families as more the desire of brave men then their attainment and hereupon exhorts submission to Gods pleasure WHen men therefore propose to themselves by Gods permission to be founders of Families they doe as provident builders doe design models and lay in materials before they declare what they will build for according to their well advised scheme and orderly draught and the proper Instruments thereto so usually are the advances in and the conclusions of it He that will not consider in his mind the money he would expend upon the conveniences he would have in the time he would allow to the perfections of his Pile will never be a wise and thrifty builder nor will he in resolves of illustration to a family be more happy who considers not well and acts wisely and perseveres in his well-grounded design constantly to the effection of it and this if he does and is humble and civil in it he performs as much as man can doe to serve himself to compleatness and does by the very ambition to do generous things declare himself of natures Peerage and Nobility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Stobaeum Serm. 218. so true is that of Menander A Vertuous man though to his Mother He A Black have yet is o th' Nobility This desire of continuing and propagating their Families the Romans of all Nations were more remarkable for who as they knew learning valour and imployments of gain gathered estates and by thrift in and knowledge to get disciplin'd men in the tenacious keeping and the provident actuating of them so bred their youth to those frugal and masculine courses that as they despised vice and avoyded the costly expences of them so did they preserve their ancestors renown in its freshness and fragrancy by their patrization and where the contrary was their publique lawes restrained the wast of patrimonies and infamiz'd their degeneration which prudent caution and sage provision for a worldly perennation though it had not ever infallible influence upon the end aymed at the good pleasure of God being often not only negative of but opposites to such projects yet was it a prudent assay to a probable and rationall attainment of perpetuity or if not such in the propriety of the blessing which
that is thus Munificent and subsidiary to Men and Families is such by its conjunction with God and its benediction from God 'T is that voyce which God calls for Let me hear thy voyce In specie autem fictae simulationis sicut reliquae virtutes ita pietas inesse non potest cum qua simuleâ— sanctitatem religionem tolli necesse est for it is sweet Cant. 2. 14. 'T is that sweet savour that 's grateful to him Phil. 4. 18. 'T is a potent charm with reverence I write which has a pleasing restraint on him Deut. 9. 14. 'T is that without which there is no peace Isa. 57. 21. 'T is that with which there is no want Quibus sublatis perturbatio vitae sequitur magna consusio Cicero lib. de natur deorum for to such as have it The Lord is a Sun and a shield he will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that love him Psal. 84. 11. And is not this Piety to be valued are Riches Power Parts Beauty Friends comparable to it which how useful soever they are and how creditable soever they appear are only termers to the worlds casualty and ebb and flow as the vicissitudes of it do when the fear of God endures for ever in its rule and reward and thereby deserves a name or esteem above all names Yea if piety be sincere and Scriptural it is such a representation of God as dazzles all mortalls eyes and silences all mortall detraction such it is as extorts from enemies the acknowledgement that God is in it of a truth and thus the Spirit of glory resting on it the obstinacy of man must become suffragan to the testimony of its superexcellency For if the glory of God be that fixedness of his to his purposes and the indefeatibleness of his creatures expectations then is Piety which is the imitation of God in what he is imitable Not besides that proportion of glory it is capable of even for its conjunction to and sameness with him And thus it is accounted by me in Founders or Continuers of Families a great vertue yea the greatest of vertues and that which gives acceptation to all the rest SECT VI. Of Iustice the second Vertue and Means of raysing Men and Families with Examples out of Sacred and Civill Story NExt unto it I account Justice and Civil honesty of Conversation and dealing a great strengthning to the Rise of a Family For Justice is the basis of Gods Throne Psalm 79. v. 14. and an Attribute essential to him above all created beings which are so far only Just as they are partakers of his original Justice which he has so implanted on Omnium honestarum rerum semina animi gerunt quae admonitione excitantur non aliter quam scintilla flaiu levi adjuta ignem suam explicat Senec. Ep. 94. and riveted into the soul and mind of man that thence to avell it or there to usurp upon it is a rape upon and an insolence against the Modesty and Majesty of it Hence is it that the obligation and tincture of this vertue is generally admitted by all mankind as the principle of all natural Religion and morall converse because it fortifies a man against all seidges of dismay terrours of accidents and composes him to set his soul upon the duty of its design and being Ecce spectaculum dignum ad quod respiciat intentus operi suo Deus Ecce par deo dignum vir forâ—is cum â—ala fortuna compositus Senec. lib. de Providentia to serve his Maker and serve his age and relations which perhaps may be something of the reason why crosses and mis-fortunes befall the best men in this world God delighting to see the Vertues of his Hectors tried in these combats and the truth of their Mettall hammered on so hard an Anvil gains the greater content to himself and glory from others by this their stability which is not onely explorative of his bounty to them but exemplary to others whose courage and resolution is thereby exerted and confirmed Which Solomon rightly considering appends a great Encomium to it in the benediction he promulges upon it when in his own experience of the providence of God he testifies to the world That the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the Iust Pro. 3. 33. And the Psalmist Psal. 7. 9. O let the wickednes of the wicked come to an end but establish thou the Iust. To which if we adde that of the 37 Psalm v. 25. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread there is enough to conclude with the wise man Blessings are upon the head of the just but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked Prov. 10. v. 6. For however it may fall out that just men sometimes suffer in common evils and are boaren down by publique oppressions not only as but more remarkably beyond violent and perverse men and that to punish some notable failing in them visible to Gods eye though latent from men and to possess them that all things many times fall alike here to good and bad this World being neither the Heaven of the one nor the Hell of the other but so checquered with black and white veines and with lardings of fat and lean occurrences that there may be thought in the contingents of it no ground of concluding good or evil by what are the returns of them we seeing here many impious men live in honour and die in peace while men more excellent then they are living unfortunate and violently dealt with in their deaths As were the two Transfigured Chiefs who on the mount of Majesty appeared in their respective ages trangsfigured K. Henry the Sixth and the never to be forgotten but everlastingly to be admired and bemoaned Our late gracious Lord and Master Sir Henry Wottens Character p. 141. King Charles the First the Martyr who was stiff in Good and stout in great resolutions Though I say these Princes on whom no designed evil acted by them can be honestly charged were villanously dealt with and by the prevalence of usurpation destroyed yet is it mostly otherwise the Just in their persons and posterities being seâ—undated and kept by his power to their perfect day of discovery and glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basâ—l Seleviae Orat. 5. p. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz Orat. 27. Gods justice becoming to their justice a Buckler of defence as well as a bucket of store to them and theirs to whom it hath conveyed waters of relief and faecundation This was remarkably made good to Noah a very just man whom because God saw truly religious in his generation Gen. 7. 1. when he overwhelmed all the world he preserved him by an Ark on the Waters and with him secured his relations and in them the seed of
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
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
loved no liberty but such as was suitable to my port and such as those took that are called good Subjects Non admittit status fidei allegationem necessitatis nulla est necessitas delinquendi quibus una necessitas est non delinquendi Tertullianus lib. de Coron Militis and good Christians O but O ye Nobles and Gentry consider this World and Gods Tribunal judges by different rules and values at â—nequal rates and having in your Bapâ—ism renounced this World and accepted the Cross of Christ for your Signature the â—w of Christ for your Rule and the love â—f Christ for your Magnetique your â—â—eerage is by another Compass and your senses to be superelemented This worlds â—ove joy fashion example content is to â—e alien to you not mens examples or â—our own conveniencies are to engage or â—â—gulate you but yee are to weigh your obligation and conform to your Allegiâ—nce You are not not to be conformed 〈◊〉 this world Rom 12. 2. but to be transformed in the â—irit of your mind Matth 1. not to revenge but forâ—ive enemies Haec sunt quae carnis opera appetitus anxietatis vecordiae actus abominationis immunditiae exitus paenitudinis verecundiae Petrus Blesens Ep. 15. Not to do as the most but the best do and to hate those actions â—hich are troublesom in their desire abomiâ—able in their act penal in their consequence 〈◊〉 Blesensis notably expresses them And â—f this ye do not the wrath of God imâ—ends you and the terrour of God will â—cede you and the comforts of God will â—oid you and the plagues of God will â—nihilate you These are the sentences of severe inquisition and the Decrees 〈◊〉 the Star-chamber of Heaven Indignatioâ— and wrath Tribulation and anguish upoâ— every soul that obeyes not the Gospel Rom. 2. 8 9. upoâ— the Iew first and also upon the Gentile Anâ— is not this hand of God so impartial 〈◊〉 sure so terrible considerable to your imâ—pedement and avocation from sin Yet further ruminate the intentness in diversion and penetration of Gods eye alwaies upon alwaies within thee anâ— thy actions in the visible denudation anâ— clear scrutiny of thee and them Heb. 4 13. All thing are naked and bare before the eyes 〈◊〉 him with whom we have to do No abâ—struse designe no Tenebrious corner 〈◊〉 Eclips'd Horizon no profound Cave 〈◊〉 secret from him whose Microscope magâ—nifies the least atome and whose vehiclâ— carries to the perception of the most reâ—mote object He it is that knows the imâ—ginations of the thoughts of mans heart to bâ— evil Gen. 6. 5. And as they are wicked aâ—bominates them Isai 59. 7. Prov. 6. 26. Bringing evâ— upon men Ch. 66. v. 18. as the fruits of their thought Ierem. 6. 19. And if such insect pullulaâ—tions and sinful nonentities as I may 〈◊〉 say if such putid inarticular Embrio 〈◊〉 are discoverable to his Omniscience whaâ— plain and full view shall we not think h◠〈◊〉 of the daring Effronteries that chalâ—nge the Noonlight those monsters that 〈◊〉 begot fostered and produced by the â—homoths and the Leviathans of lubriâ—iy and violence Isa. 48. 4. How will the brow of â—iss Ier. 3. 3. and the whores forehead Ier 17. 1. have the conâ—â—ence of proclaiming their sin Isa. 3 9. like Sodom â—d not hiding it Omnia prorsus in quandam caenosam latrinam confluxerunt flagitia neâ— vel unum ei vitium deerat Apuleins lib. 9. de Sergio Galba How will the Worlds â—soloms that are impudent on hous-tops 〈◊〉 the Ammons that are kept at distance 〈◊〉 no lines of nearness the Reubens that 〈◊〉 parricide their fathers pleasures the â—â—liogabalusses the Sardanapalusses that â—blish their wantonnesses to prostitute â—dicity Loquebar enim leges spiritu in illic praedictâ—s exhortationibus de terribili sententia distincti extremi judicii diceham Quod necappellationis remedio nec supplicationis suffragio nec actione infactum subsidiatur nec all quo restitutionis beneficio poterat attentari Petrus Bleâ—ensis Fr. 8. How will the wickednesses in â—â—gh places and persons hope for a covert 〈◊〉 apologie will he not look upon these â—iscreants and their mischiefs with his â—oody and enraged eye and ride to the â—venge of them upon his pale horse and â—ite these with his sharp Sword and â—ound these with his envenomed arrow â—ill he not vex these in his sore displeaâ—re and turn down the lees and dregs of â—ell upon these setled and daring sinners â—ho have no respect to the Holy one of Israel 〈◊〉 the godly have Isai. 17. 7. Though they have 〈◊〉 away the evil day far from them and â—ough they say no eye sees us and conclude â—eir to morrow of sin shall be as this day and much more abundant I say notwithstanding all their braving and roystery may not God bring a woe on these shaâ—dowing their wickedness with wings 〈◊〉 Isai. 17. 1. May not God prove to these a Lion of dilaceration and a Moth oâ— corrosion May not he bathe his whetted Sword in the blood of these Nobles and Great men which are as the Constellations of Heaven above the reach of earthly contradicting Yes sure for these sinâ— and sinners God may justly Turn thâ— streams of Nations into Pitch Isa 34 9. and the dusâ— into Brimstone and make the land as burning Pitch And all this prefational to Hell the last and unreleasable lodge oâ— impenitent sinners And this he will doâ— to vindicate the perspicacity of his eternaâ— eye from which nothing is conclavedâ— not the adulterers stollen pleasure noâ— the Oppressors injustified cruelty nor theâ— Curtizans impudent sorcery nor the Divines practical Atheism nor the Lay-manâ— prophane Sacriledge nor the learned manâ— withholding the truth in unrighteousness nor the Nobles and Gentlemans persistencâ— and confidence in wicked pleasures and beastly sensualities And when the eye of God is thus lift up to scorn the scorners of his Holiness and to remove from them the pleasure of their eyes How bitter will the remembrance of their folly be and how anxiously will they reflect upon their wisdom Knowledge Greatness that hath perverted them and curse those ravings of theirs that are thus rewarded with their own shame their Gods curse O Lord what a Hell will be in the conscience of a sinner when the fire of his torment and auguish of his conscience shall be fed by the fuel of abused mercy and contradicted goodnes and how shall it aggravate his dolours and burst his spirit for very abhorrence Quid tibi pauperi sacellano superbe Fatue Tu eminentiam generis tui tuâ gravitate deprimis conculcas ille in medio suorum sancta honesta conversatione praeradiat Petrus Bles. Ep. 3 ad nobilem Iactantem to see a poor Commoner a soul that he would not breath upon look towards or give a good word to when this wretch whom his lofty
looks thought fellow only to the dogs of his flock shall be â—iducially quiet and hopefully couragious to encounter death and shall have a seat at Gods right hand when this great and wise disdainer shall be extruded Heaven and intruded into the place of Devils Hearken to this In compendiam mittimus mala si presentia facimus esse judicia Casâ—iod Var. lib 6. c. 2 1 O ye Nobles and Great men that too often think of death never â—ill it comes and are too often unprepared for it when it comes who ought to be the Lights of your Countreys the Tutors of your Neighbours in all morral literature the terrors of your ages Exorbitancies be not blind Guides to your seeing Countreymen be not dead Flies in the oytment of Grandeur cause not the way of Honour and the worth of Blood to be depreciated by your oblivion of and contraition to God but let this eye of Gods condescension in these distinguishing external mercies expressed to you above others provoke your eyes to be lifted up to him in holy gratitude in humble love in fixed faith in exemplary charity That you may expiate for the failings of some Great men by the vertues of you Great men that are Great and Good And that this Ye may do consider the mercy of God ought to melt and the patience of God to shame you into this holy Justice to it and your selves This the Apostle presses upon his Romans Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore saith he by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service Where the Apostle enforces his argument on them from not only his Apostolique condescension in beseeching them whom he might command but from Gods goodness to them not barely in the mercy of his Ministery which though he knew salvifique to them De quatuor â—iliabus magnae miseâ—icordiae dictum est quae sunt immistio amaritudinâ—s substractio opportunitatis vâ—rtus resist eâ—di saniâ—as affectationis Serm de Tripl misericord quatuor miserationibus Ostendit uno exemplo ei ritualia perfâ—ci per res solidiores quae unibris istis ex adverso respondeant Iudaei offerunt corpus mortuâ—m vos corpus vinum id ect una cum corpore actiones ejus nâ—m agere est vivere Grat. in locum Hostia vivens est corpus pro domino afflictum Aâ—selmus in locum yet he magnifies not amongst them but by the mercies of God which are exemplified by Godly sorrow wrought for sin by defeat of opportunity in which to commit it by gift of grace to resist it by confirming them in a constancy of good resolution I say the Apostle does not only press them by these which St. Bernard calls the daughters of Gods great mercies but moves them to become Gods in their bodies fully no member no faculty exempted freely for that 's offering our selves without any compulsion or mercenary respect and this by holiness tending to acceptation with him From the consideration that thus to do is to be reasonable ereatures and thus to offer is to offer to God reasonable service For if God made the bodies and has honoured the bodies of men above other creatures with the inhabitation of reason in them is it not reasonable that their bodies should be devoted to God who is the giver of the life lustre of their bodies by the inspiration of their divine souls to quicken their bodies And this Gods Spirit provokes Ye to in the conviction of your reason and the convulsions of your conscience That God has made you among Creatures Men â—mon Men Christians among Christians Free-men among Free-men Noble and Gentle-men are cogent exertions of mercy in retributions to which your lives are too short your parts to low your fortunes too narrow to give mercy a suitable return and when you do the utmost you can and above as it were your selves if yet you are short of that you ought how unlike your selves and your just acknowledgements to your God are of ye among Noble Gentlemen who by Oathes and Blasphemies Adulteries Oppressions of poor Neighbours and Creditors indiligence in your Charges and heedlesness of Gods service endavour to provoke God to determin your pace which is yet as a river and your righteousness as a wave of the Sea Isai. 6. 18. For when sins of Great men are enormous Exemplary Truculent and the sufferers by them have no Earthly remedy God takes them to task and sets them home in the fatal return of them which leaves them wretched pittiless remediless For who shall gather when he scatters who shall bind up when he breaks in pieces who shall powre in Balm when he causes the wound to rage and the playster to be invalid Remember O remember He that has waited that he might be gracious Isai. 30. 18. been discouraged any longer to wait that he might be gracious has a Fan in his hand to purge Ier. 15. 7. a Fining-pot to try Mal. 3. 2. a Hammer to break in pieces Iur. 23. 29. and an Ax to hew down Ier. 51. 20. impenitent sinners and such all will appear that are rather vitiously Great then vertuously Good and then what ever silence your power and mens civility favours here your vanities with the Truth the whole Truth of them then will out and then shall ye appear to be the sinners whom the long-sufferance of God has not led into nor kept in continual repentance nor work'd into amendment of life O therefore forget not Saint Bernards Meditations Consider whence you came Vnde veneris erubesce ubi sis ingemisse quo vadas contremisce Serm. de primordiis mediis noviffimus nostris and be abashed where and what you are and be sorrowful and perplexed whether you are passing post and be amazed and tremble And O Nobles and Gentlemen having thus meditated of God and approved your selves Candidates to his favour you will be the better disposed to die comfortably and appear in judgement couragiously to die in the comfort of God lived unto Primo dominandi spes in arduo ubi sis ingressus adsunt studia ministri Tacit Annal. 4. is to prepossess God lived with 'T is to have a chaire of connexion between the upper and lower Worlds 'T is to be Magnetique as I may say of God into a Mans soul and to breath out Hyperhumane Hallelujahs 'T is to contend and vye with Angels in comfort of condition rapture of Intuition and delight of permanency 'T is to be what God is fixable on a Created stump and improvable into an increated attainment This is the true Nobility and Generosity that God designed our nature little lower then the Angels For in that he hath made us Kings and Priests to himself by effectual vocation testified in an holy life and death what has be done less then superiorated us to Angels
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