giueth him most singular commendation and doubteth not but that his soule was in peace and rest with God Yea albeit at that time Valentinian had not receiued the Sacrament of Baptisme yet Saint Ambrose is resolued that propter voluntatem votum Baptismi for his desire and wish that he had to be Baptised the Lord had receiued him to mercy Where I may not forget a speech which he vttereth in that Sermon Iustus quacunque morte praeuentus fuerit anima eius in refrigerio crit The righteous man by what kind of death soeuer he be ouer taken or hastily caught away his soule shall be at rest I might rehearse the example of Iouian another famous Emperour who was the man that freed the Roman armie from the danger whereinto Iulian the Apostata going against the Persians had brought it In the midst of their perill the Captains and souldiers assured both of his vertue and his valour proclaimed him for their Emperour But he being a zealous and most resolute Christian and knowing that they not long before to giue contentment to Iulian had turned Heathens and Infidels made answer that himselfe professing for Iesus Christ would neuer take vpon him any gouernment ouer Gentiles which made them by and by returne to the Christian faith Yet this holy and worthy Emperour like to the Sunne breaking foorth after a fearefull storme was presently caught away and taken out of mens sight For going in health to bed he was found dead in the morning and no reason of that hastie change could be imagined but that either he had taken too liberall a supper or was choaked with the sauour of new lime on the walles of the house where he lay or with the smell of bad coles foetore prunarum as Saint Hierome doth deliuer it Nay I might tell of Iosiah whom Ieremy did terme the breath of their nostrels the Anointed of the Lord yet saith withall that he was taken in their nets that is was caught away suddenly He went into battel against Pharao Necho and there was wounded and slaine Iustine Martyr speaking of this most godly king and the maner of his death doth make this obiection why the wicked did not say that Iosias was so slaine and died in such a fashion because hee ouerthrew their idols and their altars Whereby he doth intimate that the maner of men is to giue a hard iudgement on the good as well as vpon the bad if any thing extraordinarie especially in their death do befall them Saint Hierome noteth the same where hee writeth thus Solent aliqui dicere Some men vse to say He who was slaine had not beene killed vnlesse he had beene a fornicator or had committed some sinne The house had not fallen vpon him vnlesse he had beene a malefactor He had not suffered shipwracke had hee not beene an offender But see what saith the holy Scripture Et sanguinem innocentem condemnabunt They shall condemne euen innocent bloud Though the person be innocent yet God sometimes doth suffer the euill man to condemne him This may well be a lesson to men in our time that they be not too quicke nor nimble in giuing vp their verdicts or censures of other men Especially since God disposeth all at his pleasure Since he hath said that All things come alike to all and the same condition is to the iust and the wicked to the good and to the pure and to the polluted to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not Which is to bee vnderstood of externall and outward things since the parties that speake this haue their owne breath in their nostrils and it may be their owne case if God should so determine it it being true that this noble man spake in another cause the very houre that he died Hodie mihi cras tibi It is my turne to day and it may be yours tomorrow I might amplifie this point much farther but I end it with that saying of the Apostle Paul What art thou that condemnest or iudgest another mans seruant He standeth or falleth to his owne master 15 Yet that truth may not be concealed in the matter which now I handle as God dealt with this noble person somewhat extraordinarily in taking him from among vs so it may be well supposed that he gaue him more than an ordinarie coniecture or suspicion that his death was not farre from him The last yeere when he returned after his greeuous sicknesse he spake it more than once to his honorable friends that he had setled his soule and composed it to another world whensoeuer God should call for him Soone after he began to dispose of all those worldly things which the Lord had lent vnto him Of late it was his common speech I am now an old man therefore this or therefore that as I my selfe can witnesse The day before he died writing with his owne hand to one of his grand-childreÌ„ he more than once in that letter vsed this or the like phrase After my death and when I am dead and gone The last morning of his life it was noted by those who were neerest about his Lordship that he was apparently longer at his priuate meditations then commonly hee did vse But the words of his will written with his owne hand may giue great satisfaction to a man of a hard conceit that he did fit himselfe to mortalitie whereof in the former yeere he had had a warning peece I will read his Lordships owne words in which letech man iudge whether it may not bee thought that there was some instinct more then ordinarie Thus then his will beginneth The eternall God of heauen and earth the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost guide and prosper this mine intent and purpose which in their name I heere take in hand and begin Because it is a trueth infallible such as euery Christian ought not onely perfectly to know and stedfastly to beleeue but also continually to meditate and thinke vpon namely that we are borne to die That nothing in this world is more certaine then death nothing more incertaine then the houre of death and that no creature liuing knoweth neither when where nor how it shall please Almightie God to call him out of this mortall life So as heere we liue euery houre nay euery instant a thousand waies subiect to the suddeÌ„ stroke of death which ought to terrifie teach and warne vs to make our selues ready as well in the preparation of our soules to God as by the disposition of all our earthly fortunes to the world whensoeuer it shal please the heauenly power to call vs from this miserable and transitory life vnto that blessed and euerlasting life to come Therefore c. 16 Yet to all this I may adde that by vs who are liuing there is an vse to be made of these thâ—ngs For Exempl â—moriâ—ntum sunt documenta viuentium The examples of men dying are the
soft and still voice nor as that where to describe the mildenesse of our Sauiour it is said of him He shall not stirre nor crie neither shall any man heare his voice in the streets but it is rather like that of Ionas the prophet who entring into Niniue cried and said Yet fortie daies and Niniue shall be destroied Or as that in our prophet Esay Crie aloud and spare not lift vp thy voice like a trumpet Heere must be such a noise as would mooue a man that were musing would whet him that were dull would rowse him that were slumbring would awake him that were sleeping So carefull is God that we should heare this lesson and lay it vnto our hearts 3 Hence we may perceiue the heauinesse and dulnesse of our nature when in a matter so cleere we need such a noise to remember vs of our mortalitie For set aside the word of God Philosophy and experience may informe so much vnto vs. The Churches and Church-yards thorow which we do passe the tombes of other men the going before vs of our parents and our kinsfolkes of our friends and acquaintance might proclaime this vnto vs. What should we need any crying or why should we lacke any speaking We may see this well enoughâ— So many men as wee meet so many mortall creatures Xâ—rxes though but a heathen man yet could make this vse of his sight For when he beheld from the top of his high tabernacle the huge numbers in his armie as Herodotus writeth he broke forth into teares and yeelded this reason of it that of all that multitude which was so great that for ought we reade there were neuer in the world so many souldiers at once compacted into one armie within one hundred yeres there should not one person be remaining aliue And if we would not see it yet feele it we may For as we reade in S. Austen the aches of our bones the heauinesse of our bodies the deafenesse of our eares the dimnesse of our sight the baldnesse of our heads the grainesse of our haires are signes of a house that is ready to fall to the ground Dum oculicaligant aures grauiter audiunt capilli fluunt c. hac omnia ruitur am iam iamque domum corporis citò praenunciant Hee alludeth to an old house whereof when the walles doe moulder and fitter away the roofe is vncouered the timber is disiointed it is an euident argument that it will not be long before this house fall Such tokens of the mortalitie of our bodies are those decaies and imperfections But Sathan doth so deafe vs and the world doth so blinde vs and our flesh maketh vs so senselesse that wee neither heare nor see nor feele that which lieth so hard vpon vs And therefore Gods voice must call vnto vs A voice said Crie What shall I crie 4 The Herald is in readinesse to doe as he is commanded And that is the highest part of his dutie What God enditeth he writeth what God will bid hee will performe So Ezechiel was taught Heare thou the word at my mouth and giue them warning from me And againe Thou shalt heare the word at my mouth and admonish them from me In like maner in the new Testament our Sauiour taking his leaue of his Disciples biddeth them Go and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost Teaching them to obserue all things whatsoeuer I haue commanded you And S. Paul to the Corinthians I haue receiued of the Lord that which I also haue deliuered vnto you Thus the Minister should depend vpon the mouth of his Master Saint Paul could say to Timothy his scholar O Timotheus keepe that which is committed to thee Whereupon Vincentius Lyrinensis very elegantly doth descant What is it that thou must keepe That which is committed to thee not that which is inuented by thee that which thou hast receiued not that which thou hast deuised a matter not of thy witte but rather of thy learning If the Preacher of the Gospell doe keepe him to this rule he himselfe shall be safe and as for the speeding of it let him leaue the euent to God The Physicians of Egypt as Diodorus Siculus doth report had this rule prescribed to them that they should make their practise according to a booke deliuered vnto them from ancient Physicians and approued writers If any followed the rule and prescript of his booke though his Patient did miscarie yet hee was not blamed for it But if any went besides his booke though his Patient did well he lost his life for his labour We that are Physicians of the soule may make some vse therof We must teach by the booke The burthen of our song must be with the old prophets Thus and thus saith the Lord. If he command we must speak what he willeth we must cry So much of the Preparation And now to the Proclamation All flesh is grasse c. 5 Heere the speech is so significant that euery word hath his weight Flesh it selfe intendeth corruption When it is likened to the grasse it more noteth our mortalitie When the word All is added it designeth the generalitie of the doome which is giuen When the grace and beautie is named it demonstrateth that there is no hope to the contrarie The spirit of the Lord blowing on it sheweth the reason of the whole Of ech of these very briefly When flesh is named heere and it is not said a liuing creature or a spirit nay not so much as that which is ordinarie in the Scripture a man it implieth a dissolution For our flesh is propagated from Adam and of him it was said From the earth thou wast taken because thou art dust and to dust shalt thou returne This continueth on his successors who deriued their flesh from him It is written of Sheth and Enosh and Kenan and Methuselah that they liued nine hundred yeeres but it is added touching ech of them And he died And he died Dauid witnesseth this for othermen He seeth that wisemen die and so doe the ignorant and foolish Of all flesh that is true which Saint Bernard deliuereth Nascimur morimur We are borne and then we die And in another place In terra orimur interra morimur c. In the earth we haue our beginning and in the earth we haue our ending returning into that from whence at first we were taken Thus God hath decreed that there should be a succession of one man after another And as in the greatest shewes when one hath had his turne he is to be gone and to leaue the place to them that follow and if he should desire to keepe himselfe on the stage and by no meanes to depart he should be verie iniurious vnto those who are to succeed so it is heere in mens liues one hath his turne before another hath his
instructions of the liuing When in this present spectacle wee may sensibly beholde that life is so vncertaine that we may say with Plinie Whereas there be in men innumerable signes of death there is no assured signe of safetie and of securitie in the yongest or the strongest let vs remember the counsell of our Master and Sauiour Wake therefore for yee know not what houre your master will come either by death or by the last and generall iudgement Let vs be like the wise virgins euer readie with oile in our lamps the oile of faith and good life Let vs say to our selues as God sayd to Hezechiah Put thine house in an order for thou shalt die and not liue Let vs speake thus to our soules Let vs not weaue the spiders-web that is bestow all our labour vpon that which is but vaine but weake and of no profit Let vs not fasten our selues to this transitorie world making that to be our ioy our comfort and delight but let our minde be setled on some thing of higher nature Let vs daily pray to God as Moses sometimes prayed Teach vs so to number our daies that we may apply our hearts vnto wisdome which must be the wisdome spirituall celestiall and eternall And this is so much the rather to be desired in this life because as we reade in Salomon if the tree doe fall toward the South or toward the North in the place that the tree falleth there it shall be that is as Olympiodorus and Saint Bernard do expound it as a man doth die either in the fauour or the disfauour of God so he must remaine immutabiliter irretractabiliter without changing or recalling Therefore men while they doe liue should cary themselues warily as being euer assured that they are in the eye of God and that he is among them in their greatest consultations and most honourable assemblies God standeth sayth Dauid in the Congregation of Princes he is a Iudge among Gods A Iudge to see and examine them a Iudge to strike and call vnto him whom and when it pleaseth him Let him euer be before our eyes that when he shall send for vs we may appeare with readinesse with alacritie and with confidence before the Throne of his Grace Which God the Father grant vs for his Sonne Christ Iesus his sake to both whom with the Holy Ghost be laud and praise and glorie now and euermore Amen TO THE READER BEcause there is mention made in this Sermon of a Ring sent vnto that Honorable person by his most sacred Maiestie the humble acceptance whereof is set downe with so gratefull remembrance of his dutie and deuotion to his Highnesse and because the words otherwise imply a great deale of obseruable matter I haue thought it not amisse to offer them to more publike view as they are deliuered by his Lordship in his last will which is as followeth ALso I giue will and bequeath vnto my sayd wel-beloued sonne ROBERT Lord BVCKHVRST after my decease for and during his life onely out of those Iewels of Golde Pearle and Precious stone which I keepe and reserue as Iewels for my selfe the sole vse and occupation only of one Ring of Golde enameled blacke and set round ouer all the whole Ring with Diamonds to the number of twentie whereof fiue Diamonds being placed in the vppermost part of the said Ring do represent the fashion of a Crosse and the other fifteene are set round and ouer all the sayd Ring And after the decease of my said sonne BVCKHVRST then I giue will and bequeath the like sole vse and occupation only of the said Ring vnto my Nephew RICHARD SACKVILLE his eldest sonne for and during his life only And after his decease then vnto the next heire male begotten of the bodie of the sayd RICHARD SACKVILLE my Nephew for and during his life only And so from heire male to heire male of the SACKVILLS after the decease of euery of them seuerally and successiuely for and during the life and liues only of euery such heire male seuerally and successiuely charging and earnestly requiring all and euery of my said heire males before specified euen as they regard the last request of him by whose great trauell care and industrie if the Diuine prouidence of God that hath vouchsafed to giue it shall so please to continue it they are like to receiue the addition and aduancement of so great honor possessions and patrimonie that although percase in this strict course of the common lawes of this Realme the Entaile of goods and chattels may hardly stand vpright that yet for the preseruation and continuance of this gift of mine intended by mee to remaine as an heire-lome to the house and familie of the SACKVILLS so long as almightie God according to the effects of his former goodnesse vnto that house by the continuance thereof during the space of so many hundred yeeres past shall please to vpholde the same they and euery of them will forbeare in any sort to oppugne it or to bring it in question or to brandle and controuert the will of their so well deseruing Ancestour and specially in a matter so honest reasonable fit and conuenient as this is but rather with all willing readie and contented mindes to suffer the same to passe as an heire-lome from heire male to heire male according to the true intent and meaning of this my last will and Testament in that behalfe Which said Ring set all ouer with twentie Diamonds as is aforesaid I desire charge my said sonne BVCKHVRST vpon my blessing and in like sort all other the heires male whom God shall vouchsafe from age to age to raise vnto my house and familie and vnto whom if the Highest so please my heartie desire and meaning is the said Ring set with twenty Diamonds as is aforesaid may lineally and successiuely descend and come for euer namely that with all prouident care and heedfull circumspection they will safely keepe retaine and preserue the said Ring whensoeuer and as often as he shall come to their hands and possession euen as one of the greatest gifts and iewels which in true estimation all circumstances considered I haue to leaue vnto them And to the intent they may know how iust and great cause both they and I haue to holde the said Ring in so high esteeme it is most requisite that I doe heere set downe the whole course and circumstance how and from whom the said Ring did come to my possession which was thus In the beginning of the moneth of Iune 1607 this Ring thus set with twentie Diamonds as is aforesaid was sent vnto me from my most gracious Souereigne King Iames by that honorable personage the Lord Hay one of the Gentlemen of his Highnesse Bed-chamber the Court then being at Whitehall in London and I at that time remaining at Horsley house in Surrey twentie miles from London where I lay in such extremitie