Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Velvet Slip-shooe is sometimes molested with the Gout the Diadem cures not an aching head nor the chain of gold the tooth-ach And are not these Symbola or singultus morientis naturae But I proceed to the Application of this momentous Truth mine eye is most on that but how to apply it to persons of quality I am yet to learn I may say of this subject Epist ad Francisc Sfort. as Bellarmin did of his book de Arte bene moriendi non allicit ad audiendum absterret potius praesertim viros magnos sive principatu politico sive sacro c. but as Augustin called on his so shall I on my godly hearers Enar. in Psal 39.4,5 orate pro nobis fratres ut quod videndum est bene videamus quod dicendum est bene dicamus I shall reduce what is in my thoughts to two heads Some practical Inferences and an use of comfort I begin with practical Inferences Are not Princes priviledged from falling Must they dye Then First Let this bee your greatest care and most earnest prayer that your souls may live Then life nothing is more desired Then the life of the soul nothing is lesse regarded It was Davids humble petition Psal 119 175. Let my soul live and it shall praise thee What if your bodies fall what though you dye If your souls live you shall do well O bee more solicitous about the lives of your souls with what Arguments shall I excite and quicken you Right Worshipful and Beloved hereunto bee pleased solemnly and seriously to consider That you never more indeavour the prolonging of the lives of your bodies than when you are most studious and solicitous about the lives of your souls Vide Photii Epist 133. de nobilitate animae E Coelo terra omnibusque thesauris suis pro ejusdem fabric◠quod molius ac praestantius desumit ex ipsa terra carnem oss◠ab aqua humorem ab aere anhelitum flatum ab igne temperamentum calorem a lunamotum c. d◠contemptu mundi lib. 1. pag. ◠That there is nothing below Heaven so precious and noble as your souls I confesse your bodies in some respects are very precious quid invenire potest majori magisterio erectum fabricatum quam corpus humanum Consumitur quasi natura in fabrica operis tam excellentis as Bartholdus excellently But speaking of the soul saith hee quid est Deus nisi anima increata quid est anima hominis nisi Deus creatus c. The preciousnesse of it will appear if you consider three things 1 Satan is most busy about your souls he hath an envious eye and aching Tooth at them Non nisi magnum bonum a Nerone damnatur 2 God principally requires the soul My Son give mee thy heart 3 Soul-murther is the greatest next to the blood of Christ the blood of souls is most precious 3 There is no life like to the life of the soul The life of grace is the grace of life it is the sweetest life it is the securest life it is the most honourable comfortable and durable life 4 The life or death of the body follows the fate and state of the soul to all eternity and therefore it concerns you much to look after the lives of your souls 5 Till your souls bee enlivened they cannot bee saved 6 Till your souls bee enlivened no duty shall be accepted they are all dumb and dead services 7 Till your souls bee enlivened the Lord cannot bee praised or glorified Psal 119.175 8 Till your souls live indeed you do not live the Father of the Prodigal dated his sons life from his return This my Son was dead and is alive If my words be of any weight with you if your own souls bee of any worth with you Honoured and Beloved then let this bee your care and prayer Your bodies shall fall I dare not undertake to tell you precisely where nor how nor when Utiliter Deus latere voluit illum diem ut semper sit paratum cor ad expectandum quod esse venturum scit quando venturum scit nescit saith Augustin Enar. in Psal 36 but this is certain fall you must Thrice happy are you if your souls bee transported into Heaven before your bodies bee laid in the bowels of the earth Secondly Learn hence the vastnesse of that distance and infinitenesse of that disproportion twixt God and you who can measure the disproportion twixt an ever-living God Isa 40.15 and an ever-dying creature The Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted when duly estimated as the small dust of the ballance All Nations before him are as nothing lesse than nothing and vanity Hee cannot dye nor lye Alas wee are all lying and dying creatures and cannot live When Moses desired to know what was his name Vide Aug. Enar in Psal 102 hee only receives this answer I am that I am i.e. I am a being of my self and truly wee cannot say so of any creature The Angels cannot say so nor men hee is an eternal being wee are all of yesterday hee is the Alpha and Omega wee are neither Before the world was hee was what now hee is and shall bee to eternity wee all fade as a leaf Isa 64.6 are shaken as a reed Matth. 11.7 wither as a Rush Job 8.11,12 Fade as a Rose which is blasted almost as soon as budded our lives like winds Job 7.7 or fomes Hos 10,7 Hee is an unchangeable being with him there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no parallax no revolution no declination nor shadow of turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How variable and changeable is frail man we dwell in houses of clay our foundation is in the dust no food no physick can keep us long from washing and wasting away Thirdly Whatever your hands finde to do do it with all your might Serve your Generation according to the will of God remembring that you must fall and that there is no knowledge nor wisdome nor working in the grave whither you are hastening Reges non creantur ut in otio vitam agant Kings and Princes are not created to live unprofitably It is not for you who are persons of quality to spend your lives your strength and estates in doing what is worse than nothing there are generous ingenuous liberal imployments sutable to your high births and educations Your noble Ancestors and renowned Progenitours rais'd their families to this pitch of Gentility not by tipling carding dicing hawking c. Delay not the doing of that which if once done all is done and if not done you are for ever undone Speedy indeavours are very necessary where delay is full of danger Some live as if this life should never have end the other no beginning I am now going to dye and yet have not begun to live was the doleful lamentation of Carolus King
heavenly Throne O bee to mine an help a friend a Mother Now Christ takes mee God give to thee another My dissolution I could better bear A lass than tidings of thy Death to hear Remove Deaths stroke O God accept a price Yea rather take mee for a Sacrifice And I had rather die than live to see Thee taken hence then comes my Misery Heavens keep thy soul my head shall bee a grave Ever to hold thee whilst an heart I have Revive my Dear can neither Skill nor Art Take deaths sad symptomes from thy tender heart Of all the Woes that ever mee befel None like to this my Joy my Dear Farewel Erubuit Facultas Extorsit amor Lugens posuit Bradleius Hayhurst AN Elegy upon the never sufficiently deplored Death of my noble Friend John Atherton of Atherton Esq High-Sheriffe of Lancashire ENvious Death what 's thy design t' undo Our Gentry Clergy and our Country too Lancashire's poor in one year there are gone Three Pillars Holland Ashurst Atherton Could Paracelsus men as birds revive Great John within one hour should bee alive Or in his room shouldst thou dispense would I Prepare for my accounts and gladly dye Could tears or prayers thee from the dead regain Who would not sigh and pray and weep amain There were in Caesar many Marii 'T is true in thee more both did live and die I dare avouch it contradict who can Each part of thee could make a perfect man Envious Death summe up thy gains and tell What hast thou got This body in this cell His noble soul was pure etherial fire His heart and thoughts did far above aspire The Crowns and Scepters of most potent Kings Hee held their Diadems inferiour things Thou could'st not such a soul surprize 'T is fled From Earth to Heaven where not one tear is shed There is no pain but pleasure there 's no trouble Life is eternal there here but a bubble No moans no groans now no complaints can come From him There 's joy and triumph in their room Blest soul thou art in peace and well dost know One hour in Heaven's worth thousands here below Another Epitaph on the Right Worshipful JOHN ATHERTON Anagram Ah no other in AH there 's no other in thy place Great Prince who can it so much grace Heaven's fill it and give to thy seed Age Virtue Honour with all speed This will repair our breach and grief In part abate and yeeld relief Ah there 's no other Magistrate With us to serve the Church or State Hee 's fal'n and enshrin'd here lies One noble valiant just and wise Give us an age to tell the rest Which may All cannot bee exprest Posuit Richardus Jolly Schola Athertoniensis praf Ad tumulum Principis illustrissimi viri honoratissimi Domini Joannis Athertoni Armigeri totius Comit. Lancastriensis praefecti Epitaphium ISte Athertoni tumulus tegit ossa Joannis quis qualis fuerit scit scio Magnus erat In vivis talis qualem vix Zoilus unquam dente Theonino carpere possit erat Esset Apellis opus te pingere Clare Joannes languentis patriae fida calumna tuae Pastorum tutela tuae decus Inelyte stirpis gloria Magnatum religionis honos An generis splendor nil non illustria prosint stemmata nec virtus bellica chara phalanx Nil tua te pietas nil te veneranda potest as Juvit heu flecti mors truculenta nequit Occubuit magnus princeps florentibus annis lilia ceu saevo frigore verna cadunt Proh dolor hic jacet exanimis quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis proh dolor ut cecidit Marte cadit non Morte cadit fatalia Parcae stamina ruperunt non reparanda manu Pulvis umbra sumus quassum vas somnus aura Ros spectrum ventus vita caduca vapor Te vivo suavis vita est moriente peracris Dulce mihi tecum vivere dulce mori Non longum praeclare vale vir fidus Achates Tu mihi pro multis millibus unus eras Tros Anchisiades amissum morte parentem flevit ut occisum Pergama maesta ducem Nos ita te miseros longa O dignissima vita sedulus extinctum flere coeget amor Flere jubet Pietas suadet Spes gaudia Nomen tua ad extremum stent monumenta diem Molliter ossa premat tellus clementia servet alma dei sobolem teque Maria tuam Macte tua virtute puer clarissime tandem Solamen nostrum est surculus arbor erit Vive Deo precor quod patri fata negarunt producant vitae tempora longa tuae Ita precatur lugens J. L. Vpon the much lamented Death of the honoured and truly honourable John Atherton of Atherton Esq High-Sheriff of Lancashire HAd'st thou grave Plutarch or Laertius Or Trajans Pliny or Hesychius Had'st thou Callisthenes to write thine acts As Alexander had his noble facts Had'st thou Achilles fate great Homers Pen To draw thy portraicture or Nazianzen To limne thee to the lire or Melchiors quill Or quaint Protogenes with his pencil Rare Phaenix of our age then might thy glory Remain on record in eternal story The Babes unborn should ask whose is this Herse And wee 'l our tribute pay in moanful verse But thy Renown is such thy Name more graceth The verse then they can it who ere thee praiseth Only Seraphick tongues due laud can give To thee great John too good with us to live If to admire were to commend then wee Thy worth could tell with more facility Thy vertues thee commend to after ages Without the help of Elegiack pages Each tongue could tell and every eye did see An impetus heroical in thee Thy Grave deportment on the Bench was such Though young that Myriads did admire it much Just Aristides like concord and peace Heavens legacy 't was thy design t' increase A parallel Husband Father Friend or Brother Justice or Sheriffe where can you discover Eyes to the blinde legs to the lame an Harbour To the afflicted and the poor mans succour Humble when Highest of Man-hood the Mirrour Noble to Friends to Foes a mighty terrour Each wrinkle in thy brow nay credit mee Earle Nevils-like a Princes Tombe might bee Thine eye like Luthers Leonine and fierce Or as the Basilisks so would it peirce When they beheld thee march they thought another Caesar was there or Alexanders Brother In war thy prowesse policy and skill Scanderbegs like ever appeared still True to thy trust none in our Memory Abhorred turn-coats more or treachery Such was thy temperance and sobriety Thy patience prudence and dexterity Great Atherton the style of Parasite I need not fear while in thy praise I write Thy care to curb prophanenesse and to keep The Wolves from preying on Christ's tender Sheep Thy pains about the Clergy Helicon Wee may exhaust in lamentation Better enough than All such rare perfections Center'd in thee as transcend my expressions As Croesus's son dumb and appal'd I 'd
sunt c. If death bee evil to any man it is mans fault not deaths fault It is a peece of folly to fear what cannot bee avoided Nihil facit mortem malam nisi quod sequitur mortem nor evaded by any Prince or Peasant Good education may free you from absurdities grace may free you from Hell neither can exempt from the arrest of death Certainly there is not so much reason for you who have part in God peace with God and well-grounded hopes of fruition of God to tremble as Lewis the eleventh of France did at the naming of Death Death will do that for you in a moment which all the Ordinances of God the graces of his Spirit yet never did It will set you free from sin sufferings and sorrow At the death of your bodies you shall bee fully delivered from this body of death Why should men disgust their own felicity and cherish an antipathy against that which so much conduceth to their eternal blisse It was more difficult to perswade some of the Heathens to live out their daies than it is to perswade thousands of us Christians to die Were Death so great an evil as is imagined Vide Ambros de bono mortis cap. 2. 8 Ambrose amongst the Fathers had not writ so much de bono mortis nor Plotinus and Seneca amongst the Philosophers Take but the pomps of death away saith one the disguises and solemn bug-bears the Tinsel Plotin Ennead lib. 7. c. 3. per totum and the actings by Torch or Candle-light and then to die is easy and quitted from its troublesome circumstances The troublesomenesse of it is owing to our fears Enchir. cap. 10 as Epictetus speaks truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Methodius mortem piorum definit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death cures us of all our maladies determins all our miseries Good men gain this by it that their calamities are not eternal Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death yea the dust of a Saint Christ hath taken away the death that was in death whatsoever is an evil of punishment though not death from the Saints It is now but a sleeping in Jesus a putting off of the old raggs of frailty and mortality that they may bee decked with garlands and stoles of glory For Consolation Use 1 1 Though Princes and Great men fall and die yet solace your selves in this Their souls are immortal it is the body only that 's laid in the dust The Romans when their Emperours and great ones died and their bodies were burned they caused an Eagle to mount on high thereby to signifie the souls immortality and ascent Socrates told Chiton asking him how hee would bee interred or what should bee done with him when dead Vide Heinsium de contemptu mortis lib. 2 I think saith Socrates I shall escape from you and that you cannot catch mee so much as you feize and lay hold on use it as you see cause I could never yet bee moulded into their opinions who maintained the traduction Est in Sentent lib. 2. Dist 17. Parag. 11. ad 17. the propagation of the soul and consequently the mortality of it Aquinas and Gerson both call them Hereticks who deny the creation of it meethinks it is absolutely impossible for any simple and uncompounded viz. essentially nature to bee subject to death and corruption Non excluditur omnis compositio solius dei proprium est esse perfecte absolute simplex Contarenas argues thus to omit all others Nihil potest perdere esse quod non perdit actum per quem est Istae autem formae simplices non possunt perdere actum per quem sunt quia sibi ipsis sunt actus nihil autem potest seipsum perdere Ergo Cont. de immort animae lib. 1. Et Plotin Ennead lib. 7 per totum The Scripture also is clear in my opinion for its immortality Phil. 1.23 Matth. 10.28 Eccles 12.7 the Heathens had some glympses of its immortality as Plato Tully and most or all of their Philosophers In a word as Cato Major said so I If I do erre in this I erre willingly neither will I ever suffer this errour in which I delight to bee wrested from mee as long as I live 2 Again Solace and comfort your selves in this also Though Princes and great men fall yet they shall rise again If a man die saith Job shall hee live again yea as sure as death hee shall live again There is a double certainty of the resurrection of their bodies 1 Certitudo infallibilitatis ratione divinae praedictionis there is a certainty of infallability in respect of divine prediction Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one of his words fall to the ground 2 Certitudo immutabilitatis ratione divinae praedeterminationis a certainty of immutability in respect of Gods decree and eternal purpose and his counsel shall stand This staid up the drooping spirit of holy Job See his Creed Job 19.25,26 I know my Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Kinseman liveth and that hee shall stand at the last day upon the Earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another How confident is this holy man of his resurrection in the same individual body It is disputed in the Schools Resurrectionem Philosophis notam ex Hebraeorum doctrina affirmant non-nulli whether the resurrection of the body bee quid cognoscibile lumine natura It is said Theopompus Zoroastres and Plato whom none of the Ancient Gentiles contradicted taught the resurrection of the body and Plato thought that after the revolution of some years hee should live again and teach his scholars in the same chair hee sate then in but resurrectio mortuorum est fides Christianorum as Augustin Tertullian and others more solidly Vide Aug. in Psal 101. Et D. Chytr de fine mundi Res Mort. ubi fufius Propria Ecclesiae dei sapientia est praedictio de fine mundi resurrectione mortuorum c. Those Eagle ey'd Philosophers mocked at the Doctrin of the Resurrection Act. 17.32 divine mysteries are above humane reason's shallow capacitie from that principle of nature and axiome amongst Philosophers A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus they argued against this fundamental truth but know it to your comfort that you and yours too shall rise again this Prince and Great man shall return from his grave again not by the power of nature nor by the help of the Creature but by the power of the Creator As for mee saith David I will behold his face in Righteousnesse I shall bee satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse it is meant of the awakening of his body from the sleep of death in the day of the resurrection Psal 17.15 the Jews call the grave Beth Chaiim the house
them Ubi supra like a Tennis-ball tossed hither and thither from hazard to hazard and anon out of the Court Notable is that of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not your power your policy your command or magnanimity puffe you up Insitum est humanis ingeniis imperio insolenter uti De Const lib. 2. c. 25 said Lipsius as great men have been carried about in an Iron cage The blood which now is warm shall freeze anon in your veins the marrow shall drie up in your bones your sinewes shall shrink and eye-strings crack within a short space you shall not bee able to help your selves Let not your beauty or bravery make you ambitious supercilious or haughty Your bodies are vile bodies not God but sin hath made them so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elut ubi supra beauty is a thing desirable but it is not durable it is but skin deep a raise with a pin or a daies sicknesse may spoil you of it Let not your Rings your Ornaments raise your spirits they are but badges of your sin and shame It argues a vain frothy heart to bee so proud of such petty things a naughty heart to bee proud of any thing If thy out-side be thy best side thou art poor miserable wretched Worthy Gentlemen when God lifts up your heads let it be your care to keep down your hearts all the world cannot keep that man up that doth not keep down his spirit Remember the doleful Catastrophe of Herod the great of Agrippa the great of Alexander the great you are all in his hand who touches the mountains they smoak who bindes Kings in chains and Nobles in fetters of Iron you are in his hand who will bring you to death and to the house appointed for all the living I shall close up this with that of Bernard Quid prosunt Divitiae quid Honores Divitiae non liberant a morte nec delitiae a verme nec honores a faetore nam qui modo sedebat dives gloriosus in throno modo jacit pauper in tumulo qui prius delitiis oblectabatur modo a vermiculo consumitur qui paulo ante in aula principium honorandus efferebatur modo in sepulchro ignominiosus jacet Eighthly Labour to get sin pardoned No sooner did iniquity enter into your souls but mortality seized on your bodies The parcels of dust which were bound together in Adam by a bond of Innocency were shaken loose upon the commission of his first sin and are not you of his posterity Death like an Archer sometimes shoots over the mark and takes one away that was above you sometimes short of the mark and takes one away that was below you sometimes on the right hand there falls a friend anon on the left then dies a foe but the game is never done till you fall and therefore it concerns you to importune the sin-forgiving God to wash your souls in the blood of Jesus to free you from the guilt and filth of sin Notable is that of Job c. 7. ult And why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity Observe the importunity of this holy man what 's the matter that Job so expostulates with God for the remission of his sin Bern. Peccare humanum est perseverare in peccato est diabolicum what need of so much speed and expedition hee gives you the ground and reason For now shall I sleep in the dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall go into the earth I shall die thou shalt seek mee in the morning but I shall not bee It was Chrysostomes complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Mat. 22. c. it is in that excellent peece of his which Aquinas professed hee had rather have than to bee chief Lord of Paris Every mans care is and labour is about this present life but about pardon of sin Mallem habere opus imperfectum J. Chrys super Matthaeum quam esse dominus Civitatis Parisiensis Carthus de 4 Nov. p. 48 assurance of Gods love and things to come Death and Judgement Not a word is spoken O that the Lord would make his own discoveries unto you of the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy without pardon of sin you can neither live well nor die well It is a mercy which God ever gives in mercy it is a mercy which makes way for the obtaining of eternal mercies it is a mercy which makes all other mercies to look like mercies taste like mercies and work like mercy it gives liberty to the soul in prison ease in bonds life in death sense of pardon takes away the sense of pain It is bonum comprehensivum in the bossome of it Jer. 33.24 all the riches of Heaven and Earth too are treasured up It is the souls Sanctuary as Augustin speaks The one thing necessary in the day of adversity then there is plus periculi and then it is suavius beneficium How few Princes and great men have you heard upon their knees confessing and praying with that man after Gods own heart For thy Name sake O Lord pardon our iniquities In hoc nomine vincam Luth. for they are great Most miserabley on will bee though now honourable wretched you will bee though now rich if you go out of the world as you come into the world with the guilt of sin upon your consciences Nulla satis magna securitas dum pericliâ—atur aeternitas It is not imaginable that your resurrections shall bee to glory if you die in your iniquity your graves shall bee but the suburbs of Hell You shall bee digged out of those burrows and dragged out of those nasty dens to answer for all your wicked pranks and practises done in your mortal bodies Petitions for pardon speak the Petitioners dependence on another great men will not close with this they would bee thought to have all others to depend on them themselves on none petitions for pardon suppose guilt and guilt the breach of a divine Law Princes and great men would bee reputed guiltlesse lawlesse Petitions for pardon intimate a power in God to punish delinquents penes quem facultas remittendi penes â—um potestas puniendi this is not much regarded The God who multiplies pardons as wee multiply provocations open our eyes to see the sinfulnesse of our sins and the dolefulnesse of our state Anon there will bee no place left for repentance nor remission neither in Christs heart nor ours Anon wee shall have no more comfort from that promise of pardon Prov. 28.13 if now wee neglect it then now the Devils have the gates of mercy shall bee shut eternally and neither Christ in a capacity to give nor your selves in a capacity to receive a pardon Remember O remember this lay not the greatest burden upon the weakest beast leave not the greatest work for your sick-bed It is no beginning to caulk the Ship when in a storm it is
and Trains what is truly vertuous and amiable in them for that love them Yet know it is not safe to love any thing very much but that which you can never love overmuch viz. Jesus Christ Notable is that of Seneca and Epictetus two grave Philosophers Senec. 〈…〉 Equum empturus solvi jubes stratum detrahis vestimenta venalibus ne quae vitia corporis lateant hominem involutum aestimas si perpendere te vel alium voles sepone dignitatem domum pecuniam intus te ipse aliosve considera When wee go to buy an Horse wee prize him not by his rich saddle Trappings and goodly furniture wee strip these off and then judge of his worth so should wee by men Boetius relates a passage of a Philosopher if a man saith hee had Linceus his eyes or could see into the body of Alcibiades though it bee very comely and his feature admirable yet how filthy and nasty would it appear And I remember Epictetus his counsel in his Enchiridion cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Remember what that is which thou settest thine affections on begin with the least and lowest things Is it a fine glasse an Horse or what is it a man a child or what Remember a glasse is brittle and may bee broken an Horse may bee pricked or stollen a man may dye certainly shall dye if so bee not troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who was greater than Alexander I shall not tell you how hee lived what hee had nor what hee did but rather how hee died his pomp and solemnity at Babylon was great to admiration within a few daies after hee could scarce obtain the honour of Burial but lay many daies above ground Vide Quint. Curt. lib. 10 at or before his Funeral some Philosophers meeting spoke thus of him as P. Alphonsus relates it Yesterday all the world would not suffice Alexander now a few yards will serve his turn and spare Yesterday said another Alexander commanded all men now any man may command him Yesterday Alexander could deliver thousands how hee cannot deliver himself from death Yesterday Alexander with his troops pressed the earth now it shall presse him Yesterday all Nations feared Alexander now all contemn him Yesterday Alexander had no superiour upon earth now every man of us is something above him Beloved Consider what you fix your hearts and your affections on Love not your Lords as if there were no other It is easier to love them into their graves than to bring them thence by all your doleful Lamentations But I shall proceed Twelfthly Envy not the prosperity the honour and majesty of these Princes and great men high seats to many are uneasy and the downfall's terrible All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lie in glory everyone in his own house Latemur ad ascensum timeamus lapsum non est tanti gaudii excelsa tenuisse quanti terroris est de excelsis cecidisse It is not a matter of so great joy to have been high and honourable as it is of grief anguish and vexation to bee afterwards despicable and contemptible Lazarus envyed not the Rich man for hee was much happier himself though hee was sine domo yet not sine Domino without food yet not without faith hee had not terrene goods laid up for many years but a stock of grace for an eternity Though hee had no Physicians for his body but Dogs to lick his sores yet dying hee had a guard of Angels to transport his precious and heaven-born soul into Abrahams bosome Let mee rather bee a beggar of bread with Lazarus on earth than a beggar of water with Dives in Hell Friends would you bee great men Know greatnesse without goodnesse is but like the greatnesse of a man with a dropsy which is his disease not his happinesse a crosse and not a comfort Know your greatnesse could not exempt you from falling and by how much you are the higher your fall by so much will bee the greater if not shortly yet surely perhaps signally and miserably you shall down to the house of rottennesse have not some wished when they have been breathing out their last that they had never been Kings nor Queens nor great ones where is there one of a thousand who are advanced and thereby any thing bettered Solus Imperatorum Vespasianus in melius mutatus you will not beleeve beloved what vexations lye under the Princes pillow Damocles highly extolled Dionysius his condition Dionysius to convince him of his mistake provides a royal Feast invites him to it commands his servants to attend him no meat no mirth no musick is wanting but withall hee caused a sharp sword to bee hung over his head by an horse-hair which made Damocles tremble and to forbear both meat and mirth such even such saith the Sicylian Tyrant is my life which thou deemest so pleasant and delicate It is true of Riches Honours and all what Euripides speaks of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Pauls coat with his heavenly graces is infinitely better than the purple of Kings with their Kingdomes Argue your selves beloved out of this sinful distemper check your souls as David did his once and again Psal 37.1.7,8 compared with 73.21 Do not grudge them their grapes their honours and abundance they will cost some of them dear you would bee loath at last to have them at the rate which they must pay for them Thirteenthly Learn hence Not to fear these Princes and great men who art thou Christian Isa 51◠12 that thou shouldest bee afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man which shall bee made as grasse It is a notable saying of that Stoick Philosopher Kill mee thou mayest Epictet Enchirid p. ult hurt mee thou canst not Nihil magnum nisi magnus Deus Let the Lord bee your fear and your dread the fear of man works a snare it is extremely prejudicial Moses feared not the wrath of the King though hot nor the looks of the King though feirce nor the words of the King though terrible Wee are commanded to beware of man but in the same chapter Matth. 10 and thrice in the compass of six verses commanded not to fear man An Deus est in mundo pro nihilo is his heart full of love and is not his head as full of care Wee may lose much for Christ wee cannot lose any thing by Christ wee cannot lose so much for him but wee shall finde more in him is it life liberty are not these ensured us hath not hee promised to pay us an hundred-fold whether they fawn or frown resolve with him I will not fear what flesh can do unto mee Psal 56.4 Once more Fourteenthly Learn hence Not to bee afraid of death It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher hints yet another of them saith mors inter illa est Senec. Ep. 82 per totam quae mala quidem non