parts of Minera's Plants Animals Elements should at the voice of God return into their Primitive shapes and joyn again to make up their primary and predestinate forms as it is evident by his own words for saith he I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin wormâ— 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 Job 19 25 26 27. what is made to be Immoâ—â—â—l nature cannot nor will the voice of God destroy As at the Creation of the World all that distinct species that we behold lay involved in one Mass till the fruitful voice of God separated this united multitude into its several species so at the last day when those corrupted relicks shall be scattered in the wilderness of forms and seem to have forgot their proper habits God by a powerful voice shall command them back into their proper shapes and call them out by their single and individuals then shall appear the fertility of Adam and the Magick of that sperm that hath dilated into so Many millions seeing our Souls are Immorral nature cannot nor will Almighty God destroy wherefore David that Princely Prophet and good King knowing this and being fully perswaded that his Child was gone to Heaven and that he should follow left off his Doleful mourning rised from his law and â—amentable lodging chang'd his cloaths washed his hands went to prayer and brake his long fast ever cheering up himself knowing that he should quickly follow as you may see here by his own words read unto you But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I stall go to him but he shall not return to me The EJACULATION GOod Lord is it so that there is no returning from the Grave Then assist us by thy divine Grace to improve every Inch of Time before we â—o down to the Grave and be seen no more Is â—t true that our Dear and Piâ—us Relations that are â—ead and gone will never return to us again â—hen let us prepare to follow them to an happy â—ternity Good Lord now seeing all this is reaâ—y â—tue let us live as men and women that have â—lready one foot in the Grave Oh let the death â— others shew the weakness of our own Bodies and â—e many Grey-hairs that are â—ere and there upon our head put us in mind of our winding-sheet and of the day of judgment which is approaching very swiftly towards every one of us Let the daily instances of our dying Relations take such a living Impression upon our hearts as may deaden then towards all objects on this side Heaven Good Lord let us all be all for Heaven let all our thoughts be Heavenly thoughts let all our speeches be Heavenly speeches and let all our Actions be Heavenly-Actions and let all thine ordinances prove Heavenly ordinances to us ever drawing up our Hearts from Earth to Heaven seeing we must quickly return to Dust Good Lord it is a vain Imagination for any Man to think that he can be happy without God who is the Author of all happiness or to think that finite and sensual objects can satisfie infinite and spirtual desires or to think that Temporal uncertainties are more valuable and more desirable than an interest in Jesus Christ and Eternal Glory What Joy what inexpressible Joy will a good Conscience afford us when we come to be arrested by the cold hands of Death when we come to make our beds in the silent Grave We must needs confess it is contrary to Reason and much more inconsistent with Grace that we should prefer Earth before Heaven Yea there is as little Reason for it that we should endeavour to grasp so much of the Creature into our handâ— when as one Death-Gripe will soon cause us to let go our fastest hold of Created Injoyments Oh! therefore why should we go about to build a nest for our selves among the Stars when we have seen so many of our dearest Aâ—quaintance and nearest Relations carried to the Grave before us and there made a Feast for the Worms to feed upon Good Lord therefore do thou make us to know our End and the measure of our Days what it is that so we may be throughly convinced how frail we dre let us remember that we have no continuing City here and therefore it will be necessary for us to seek one that is to come Let us not spend our flying Daieâ— in â—â—er Impertinences but let us look after that Eternal Inheritance which will never fade away O! let us all improve our Time and Talents for God that when our Bodies return to the Grave from whence there is no coming back our Souls may go to God that gave them Bury my Dead out of my sight SERMON V. GEN. xxiii 4. Give me a possession of a Burying place with you that I may bury my Dead out of my sight THis is the conclusion of all Flesh they were never so dear before but they come to be as loathsom and intollerable now When once the Lines and Picture of Death is drawn over the Fabrick of Man or Woman's Body as it is said here of Sarah all their Glory ceaseth all their good Respect vanisheth away their best Friends would be fainest rid of them even Sarah that was so goodly and amiable in Abraham's sight must now out of his sight he must bury his dead out of his sight But Abraham as the Father of faithful men and a Pattern to all loving Husbands in all Ages ensuing doth not this till such time as the dead Sarah groweth noysom to all that look upon her As long as he could by his Mourning and Lamentation prosecute her without offence to his Eyes and danger to his Health he did it but now the time is come when Earth must be put to Earth and Dust must return to Dust There is no place for the fairest Beauty above Ground when once God hath taken Life and Breath from it it must go to its own Elements and to the Rock and Pit from whence it was hewen thither it must return After he had performed this perhaps he mourned three or four Days for his Wife he knew this Mourning must have an end he knew that he must commit her to the Ground Therefore when he had thus moderated himself as first to shew by his Sorrow that he was a loving Husband and then to shew in the ceasing of his Sorrow that he was a wise man and a faithful Christian He cometh to desire a possession of burial Give me What A possession of burial First A possession He would have it so conveyed as no man might make claim of it but that it should be for him and his for ever Therefore it was as it were a Church-yard that he begged such a one as was capable and had sufficient scope and
the Comfort to his soul that one day he should rise again in which he should enjoy the glorious presence of his Redeemer See Job 19. 26. Secondly it may Comfort the Saints of God against the persecutions of the body yea and death it self We read of the Saints of God in the days of Antiochus that they were racked and would not be delivered and why so because they looked for a better Resurrection Heb. 11. 35. No doubt but they counted the Redemption from the rack a thing much to be desired yet they knew that the Redemption from Hell and the Resurrection to eternal life was much more to be sought for without which condition they would not be delivered and no marvel for what though the rack might rend their flesh and disjoint their Lims yet they knew well enough and were fully assured that at the Resurrection all should be conjoined and perfected again The EJACULATION GOod Lord let us when we die sleep in Jesus that we may obtain a Glorious Resurrection when this World shall have an end for though we are as we have heard but enlivened Dust gilded peices of Clay sinking Bubbles and dying shadows yet these dying Bodies of outs shall at the last day when the Trumpet shall sound arise ye Dead enter into Eternal Glory or Everlasting Peace Oh let us consider how glorious a Creature man was when he first came cut of his Creators hand for thou didst make him but a little lower than the Angels thou didst crown him with Glory and Honour thou didst make him the very Summons and Epitomy of the whole World he was made the very Master-peice of all thy works the very Flower and Miracle of Nature he was even then a small draught of the divine Nature and a bright Beam of the increated light But how Glorious indeed will he be when he shall be raised at the Resurrection and shall shine as a resplendent Sun in the Firmament of Glory Good Lord therefore let us not be strangers to the relish of Heavenly things but let us live as those who hope to be Heirs of Eternal Joys when this World shall have an end Let us look up to God and let us look out to Eternity let us consider that our hastening Time will soon have an end and we shall never more be trusted with another space of Time to prepare us for Heavens Glory Oh let us not therefore set our affections upon any things which we can carry no further with us then the Grave but let us live in a daily serious beleif and in a joyfull expectation of that endlest Glory and that Glorious Resurrection which will be the Portion of all those who live in the Love and die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus for thou hast promised a Glorious Resurrection to them that sleep in Jesus AN ELEGY Upon the Reverend Mr. John Dunton Author of the House of Weeping LIKE a bright Lamp whose mounting Flame aspires To its Original those Heavenly Fires Till the fomenting Oyl consume it turns Twinckling to Ashes and no longer burns So his Divineâ— Soul though clos'd within An interwoven case of flesh and sin Mounts to its pure Original and strives By lighting others to amend their lives 'Till nature quite extinct with fixt desires Of Heavens Enjoyments his blest Soul expires Farewel dear Sir had powerful art a Charm To snatch your Life from Deaths surprising Arm We would not fail to re-imbarque your Spirit Gon to possess what Glorious Souls Inherit In highest bliss that sweet Christaline Iste Where God and Saints for ever ever Smile T is lovely to be Humble Faithful Kind This was the Emblem of the Authors mind Who 's soar'd aloft leaving Earths dusty Round Where sweetest Joys in one ill hap are drown'd To those Harmonious Orbs where now he sings Melodious Anthems to the King of Kings Where in the glit'ring Rank of Angels bright He took his place with radiant Sons of light His race was long and nimbly he did run To reach Heavens Glory by that Setting Sun Which guilds the Spheres which garnisheth and braves The lower World which scores us out our Graves And being gon to th'place his heart design'd He here hath left a Weeping House behind Which dolefully like a loud Passing-bell Rings out to th' World the Authors last Farewel O. O. An EPITAPH upon the Author of this Book Mr. John Dunton who was Interred in the Chancel at Aston-Clinton Novemb. 9th 1676. IN spight o' th' Grave bright Saint thou shalt survive Our grateful Age will keep thy name alive Heav'ns great Ambassador on Earth thou 'st lain The League being struck Heav'n call'd thee home again Yet Death hath left of thee Great Soul behind So much that we our loss shan't quickly find Nor can thy Name a dull Oblivion know Thy Works will an Eternity bestow O're Time and Fate thou l't an Ovation have And now dost Triumph over Death and Grave S. A. FINIS Death-Bed THOUGHTS The PROEMIUM BVT Oh my Soul What ails thee to be thus suddenly backward and fearful no Friend hath more freely discours'd of Death in speculation no Tongue hath more extolled it in absence And now that it is come to thy Bed-side and hath drawn thy Curtains and takes thee by the hand and offers thee service thou shrinkest inward and by the paleness of thy Face and wildness of thine Eye bewrayest an amazement at the presence of such a Guest That Face which was so familiar to thy Thoughts is now unwelcome to thine Eye I am ashamed of this weak irresalution Whitherto have tended all thy serious Meditations What hath Christianity done to thee if thy fears be still Heathenish Is this thy Imitation of so many worthy Saints of God whom thou hast seen entertain the violentest Death with Smiles and Songs Is this the fruit of thy long and frequent Instruction Didâ—â— thou think Death would have been content with words Didst thou hope it would suffer thee to talk while all others suffer Where is thy Fath Shall Hereticks and Pagans give Death a better welcome than thee Hath God with this Serjeant of his sent his Angels to fetch thee and art thou loath to go Rouse up thy self for shame O my Soul and if ever thou hast truly believed shoke off this Vnchristian diffidence and address thy self joyfully for thy glory All motions tend to rest Return then to thy rest O my Soul for God hath dealt bountifully with thee But Lord spare me a little before I go hence and be seen no more that my DEATH-BED THOUGHTS may be all imployed in the Contemplating of that Eternity into which I am now a launching Sect. 1. The Daily Remembrance of Death HAppy is he who always and in every place so lives as to spend his every last moment of Light as if day were never to return Epictetur most wisely teaching this Death saith he and Banishment and all that we look upon as Evils let them be daily set before
that immortal In-mate which for a little season hath been cloystered up in thy clay Breast And dost thou soundly believe that there is a future state of Infinite joy and eternal Sorrow And hast thou throughly pondered the certain uncertainty of all temporal Enjoyments And art thou heartily perswaded that Heaven is only worth the looking after What sayest thou to these things Oh my Soul Let the matter be urged home is everlasting damnation by all means possible to be prevented Or may Hell be supposed to be a tolerable Habitation Or can a poor guilty Worm endure with ease the burden of infinite Wrath Or is endless glory no whit desirable Or will it not repent thee Oh my Soul hereafter when it is too late if thou now neglect so great Salvation as is freely offered to thee in Christ Jesus Dost thou know Oh Man that thou must shortly give up the Ghost And yet hast thou not had one serious deep thought what place of entertainment thy naked Soul shall find in another world when it is stript of its present fleshly case and cloathing Oh press thy Soul hard with these thoughts how it is like to go with thee when thou first steppest into Eternity What sayest thou Oh my Soul are the things of time only or chiefly to be minded And are the precious things of Eternity utterly to be forgotten or disregarded Hath the infinitely wise and gracious God only given thee opportunities and abilities to desire and hasten thy eternal ruin And hast thou no time capacity understanding or will to work out thy Salvation with fear and trembling Canst thou once suppose thou shalt ever be an Inhabitant upon the Earth Or is the Earth with the sensual delights thereof which thou must certainly forego more valuable than Heaven with its fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Or if thy judgment be clear in this case why doest thou no more think upon love and long to be dissolved and to be cloathed upon with that house which comes down from Heaven Will the enjoying of sinful pleasures or empty lying vanities for â— few minutes recompence the loss of Heaven â—t self Can any thing be counted an advantage when the Soul loseth God and it self â—n the getting of it Or can any thing be had upon Earth that will hold ever Awake Oh my drowsie Soul and let thy Conscience and Conversation no longer contradict one the other â—f thou judgest Heaven to be Heaven indeed and one moments Communion with God more â—orth than ten thousand Worlds then let thy Conversation be now in Heaven that thy Conâ—cience may not hereafter witness against â—hee Or tell me plainly Oh my Soul â—ost thou pretend that thou art really willing to â—o to Heaven and yet art unwilling for the preâ—ent through thy weakness of Faith to leave this Earth with all the sensible comforts of it Or â—oth thy natural timorousness or unpreparedness â—ut a check to the vehemency of thy Desires Or â—hat is it that thou so much stickest at Is there â— Lion in the way Wouldst thou not be detained one day one minute or moment longer from drinking thy fill at the Fountain of Living Waters and yet art afraid to pass over that narrow darksome Bridge of Death which leadeth thereunto Indeed Death is the King of Fears but yet a Serpent without a Sting may safely be put into thy Bosom Thou art then willing to be with thy glorious Redeemer upon the Throne only the sad Thoughts of giving 〈…〉 thy tender Flesh to be meat for the Worms thâ—…thing startles thee But weigh the matter well 〈…〉 thou be for ever happy and not be with Christ â—…st thou be where Christ is and not die Well thâ—… wâ—â—â—om death tho' not for thine own sake yet for his sake whose Messenger thou art and who hath sent thee to fetch me home to himself with whom I shall be as soon as ever I am but parted from thee Then I shall with joy look back upon thee O sad Messenger and triumph over thee saying Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory But thanks be unto God who hath given me the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Oh Death though thy looks be terrible and thy last gripe paâ—nful yet is thy Message comfortable and I was more afraid than hurt For I see though thou leadest me through a dark Entry yet it is my Fathers House And as soon as I had passed from thee or ever I was aware my Soul made me like to the Chariots of Aminadib So come Lord Jesus come quickly He 's carry'd by Angels into Abraham's Bosom Sermon II. Luke XVI 32. And it came to pass that the Beggar died and was carryed by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom The whole Parable runs thus THere was a certain Rich Man which was cloathed in purple and fine Linnen and fared sumptuâ—â—sly every day And there was a certain Beggar namâ—â— Lazarus which was laid at his Gate full of sores â—ed desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from â—e Rich Man's Table moreover the Dogs came and â—â—ked his Sores And it came to pass that the Beggar â—ed and was carried by the Angels into Abraham ' s â—â—som The Rich Man also died and was buryed â—nd in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torments and â—th Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his Bosom c. Dearly Beloved In my Discourse upon these words I will not be over tedious but with as much brevity as I can I will unfold some of the weighty Truths contained therein And the Lord grant that they may be of general use to all persons that shall either read or hear them These words have Relation unto the precedent Verses in this Chapter wherein our Saviour Christ from the thirteenth to the seventeenth verse reproveth the Covetousness of the Pharisees by shewing unto them that no man can serve two Masters that is God and Riches All these things heard the Pharisees which were covetous and they mocked him Whereupon he aptly and fitly taketh occasion to relate this Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Hearken therefore now and I will speak of a great Rich Man that flourished here on Earth as a learned Divine observes In all pomp and abundance that shined in courtly purple Robes that was cloathed in Byssus and fine Silk and fared deliciously that was lodged softly that lived pleasantly But understand what became of this Rich Man his years being expired and his days numbred and his time determined he was invited to the fatal Banquet of black ugly Death that maketh all men sâ—bject to the rigour of his Law his Body was honourably buried in respect of his much Wealth but what became of his Soul That was carried from his Body to dwell with the Devils from his purple Robes to burning Flames from his soft Silk and white Byssus to cruel pains in black Abyssus from his Palace here on Earth to the Palace
of Devils in Hell from Paradise to a â—ungeon from Pleasures to Pains from Joy to Torment and that by hellish means damned Spirits into the infernal Lake of bottomless Barathrum where is wo wo wo And where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Mat. 25. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the people that forget God Psalm 6. Hearken also of a certain poor Beggar clothed in rags with miseries pained pained with griefs grieved with sores sorely tormented unmercifully condemned lying at this Rich Mans Gate desiring to be refreshed but with the Crumbs that fell from the rich Man's table the dogs had more pity than this rich man on this distressed creature for they came to visit him they came to comfort him they came and licked his sores Well his time being also determined he went the way of all flesh and death was the finisher of all his miseries and griefs Vita assumpsit mortem ut mors vitam acciperet He died once to live for ever And what became of his soul it was carried from his body to his Master from a House of Clay to a house not made with hands from a wilderness to a Paradise from an â—arthly prison to a heavenly Palace from the richmans gate â—o the City of the great God from pains to pleasures from â—iseries to joys from Adams corruption to Abrahams â—osom It was carried by Angels into the Quires of Angels to have his being and moving in the very moving Heavens with God himself Where is life food and abundance and glory and Health and peace and eternity and all good things all above all that either can be â—ished or desired And this is the subject that I shall â—â—w speak of And here let it please you to conâ—â—der the argument of this Scripture which is â—wofold First Our Saviour Christ hereby adviseth all â—ch men to be merciful to their poor Brethren in â—is Life lest they find no mercy in the life to â—ome Secondly He doth comfort all poor men that although they are afflicted in this life with great miseries and calamities yet they shall be comforted in the life to come and rest in Abraham's bosom And here observe what one formerly Notes viz. That if Jesus Christ had said only thus much There was a certain Rich man that fared sumptuously daily and a certain Beggar laid at his Gate full of sores The wicked would have straightway inferr'd that the rich man was the happy man for at the first view it seems to be so But take all together and you 'l quickly see that there is no man in a worse condition than this miserable wretch 2. That if a man would judge of persons according to outward appearance he shall very often take his mark amiss Here is a man to outward appearance appears the only blessed man better by half than the Beggar in as much as he is rich the Beggar poor he is well clothed but peradventure the Beggar is naked he hath good food but the Beggar would be glad of Dogs meat and he desired to be fed with the Crumbs of the Rich Man's Table the Rich man fares well every day but the Beggar must be glad of a bit when and where he can get it O! who would not be in the Rich man's state A wealthy man sorts of new Suits dainty Dishes every day enough to make one who minds nothing but his belly and his back and his lusts to say O that I were in that mans condition Oh that I had about me as that man hath then I should live a life indeed then should I have hearts ease good store then should I live pleasantly and might say to my Soul Soul be of good chear eat drink and be merry Luke 12. 19. thou â—ast every thing plenty and art in a most blessed condition But if the whole Parable be well considered you will see Luke 26. 15. that that which is had in high estimation with men is an abomination to God And again John 16. 20 21 22. that condition that is the saddest condition according to outward appearance is oft-times the most excellent for the Beggar had ten thousand times the best of it though to outward appearance his state was the saddest Methinks to see how the tearing Gallants of the World will go strutting up and down the Streets Sometimes it strikes me with amazement surely they look upon themselves to be the only happy men but it is because they judge according to outward appearance they look upon themselves to be the only blessed men when the Lord knows the generality are left out of that blessed condition Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. Ah! did they that do now so brag that no body dare scarce look on them but believe this it would make them hang down their heads and cry Oh! give me a Lazarus's portion But I 'll proceed to the division of my Text and in this Scripture observe these following parts formerly taken notice of viz. The parts of the Text are four 1. The life of the rich man in these words There was a certain rich man cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day 2. The life of the Beggar in these words Also there was a certain Beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his Gate full of sores c. 3. The death of the Beggar in these words And it was so that the Beggar died and was carried c. 4. The death of the rich man The rich man also died and was buried In the first part I note these three circumstances 1. What this Rich Man was and whether there were any such man or no. 2. What his Apparel was not mean or ordinary but Purple and fine Linnen 3. That his Diet was not base nor homely but delicious and not once nor twice but every day In the Life of the Beggar I find four Circumstances 1. Where he lived in no Palace or House but at the Rich mans Gate 2. How he lived neither in Health nor Wealth but miserable full of Sores 3. That he desired in this life not Lordships or Houses or Land or Gold or Silver but Crumbs to save his Life 4. Who shewed the Beggar kindness in his Life Not the Rich man but the Rich mans Dogs The Dogs came also and licked his Sores In the death of the Beggar I note these three Circumstances 1. What became of his Body being dead No mention hereof is made in Holy Scriptures it may be it was Buried with little or no respect because he was a poor man or else cast into some Ditch by reason of his Sores 2. What became of his Soul It went not out to Purgatory â—or there is no such place but it was carried into Abraham's Bosom 3. By whom By Angels It was carried by Angels into Abraham ' s Bosom In the Death of the Rich man I note these two
felicity for the remoter distance and separation of the bodies neither shall the bodies either be sensible of the disjunction or shall it retard their meeting at the general day Although the bones of Jacob were carried into the land of Canaan and buried in the cave of the field of Machpelah which Abraham bought according as he had made his son Joseph swear to him before his death Gen. 50. 13. 5. yet he had formerly buried his beloved Rachel in the way to Ephrah which is Bethlehem and there Jacob set a pillar upon her Grave which was called the pillar of Rachel's grave cap. 35. 19 20. Thus do I sit and muse about the burial of him whom so dearly I loved Yet methinks I could most readily preserve him from the dust if either it were in my power or might bring me content But go he must and I must follow him This narrow room of his coffin must be put in trust with his mouldring earth and he who in his life time was entertained with variety of spacious chambers must now securely sleep in the chamber of a Grave O how it grieveth me to see this effect of sin Had not Adam fallen my husband had not died But oh he 's dead and since nor tears nor sigh's nor groans nor cries have power to recall him it is therefore my duty and it shall be my care to express my love to him in the rites of his funeral Friends shall carry him neighbours shall attend on him and my tears shall embalm him The preacher shall be instructed in the vertue which adorned him that so he may commend them to others for their due imitation The hearers shall greedily attend to the praises of the dead and not only acknowledg their truth but contentedly wish like him to live and like him to die Now O now another storm approacheth in mine eyes for the company beginneth to approach my doors and my neighbours and my friends are hastening to my house But when they come let them not think to comfort me lest they add to my grief while they vainly strive to conquer my Passion I cannot allow an intermission or forbearance of Tears lest I should appear unnatural If I do not weep I I did not love O methinks I could willingly weep my self into a Statue that I might become his monument It is the height of injustice to forbid my Tears since the delight of mine Eyes is now to be carryed to the place of Oblivion Methinks every thing seemeth to call for a Tear which is the object of a Sense Those Bells which so mournfully accord in their Tunes invite my Neighbours to come to the Funeral yet not to appear with empty Eyes unless they come to learn how to weep These Herbs these Strewings which lately were fresh and at ease in their Beds are willing to lye even under the feet of these that will mourn And because they have no Eyes themselves to weep us a Tear they lye to receive what shall drop from the mourners These Sprigs of Rosemary do call to my remembrance with what joy and delight they pleased me at my Nuptials But lest I should forget the greater happiness of the marriage with the Lamb even this Herb which served at our Wedding does attend at the Funeral O methinks these Spriggs have sad Rhetorick sitting on their leaves for those drops of Water which hang upon them were once the Blood of the fragrant Flowers and now are the Tears of the drooping Plants So ready were these Spriggs to come when I desired them that they slipped from their stems to attend these Obsequies These exotick Perfumes which delight the sense are willing to be burned rather than the living shall be offended with the dead These sable Garments strike Terror into the Eye and command the spectator to lend us a Sigh And what other Lecture is read here or taught but God's decree of Man s Mortality The chief Speaker and Orator is he who hath now forgotten to speak for the locking up of his Senses the silence of his Tongue and the coldness of his pale and frozen Body have more force to prove the shortness of our Lives than the most Eloquent Strains of the best Rhetorician These Bells assure me that my Life is but a sound a noise an air These Persumes tell me That it is but a Vapour These Herbs do teach me that Flesh is as Grass 1 Pet. 1. 24. And these Tears these early Tears which so suddenly arise when my Heart doth call teach me Mortality in their hasty falling And who can choose but weep for the shortness of our Lives Who can forbear a Tear at the Funeral of a Friend It was a curse inflicted upon the wicked Jews that they neither should be buried nor yet lamented They shall die of grievous deaths saith the Prophet they shall not be lamented neither shall they be buried but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth and their carkasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and for the beasts of the earth Jer. 16. 4. Grace must and most willingly shall have the chief predominance but let Nature have likewise it s qualifyed Drops so they grow not immoderate Though my loss be the greatest to whom he was a Husband yet others may weep too to whom he was a Friend When Joseph went to bury his Father then all the servants of Pharaoh went with him and the Elders of his house and all the Elders of the Land of Egypt And all the house of Joseph and his Brethren and his Fathers House And they came to the Threshing-Floor of Arad and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation and he made a mourning for his Father seven days Gen. 50. 7 8 10. When Lazarus was buried and the Jews saw Mary rise up hastily and go out they little imagined that she went to meet the Lord of Life but they followed her saying She goeth unto the Grave to weep there Jo. 11. 31. When her Brother Lazarus was dead she wept and her sister wept and her friends the Jews wept And when Christ did see them all thus weeping he was so far from blaming them that he wept himself ver 35. When Josiah was slain his servants took him out of the Chariot wherein he was wounded and put him in the second Chariot which he had and they brought him to Jerusalem And he died and was buried in one of the Sepulchres of his Fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah 2 Chron. 35. 24. When Samuel was dead all Israel lamented him and buried him in Ramah in his own City 1 Sam. 28. 3. When the old Prophet took up the Carkass of the Man of God who had been slain by a Lion he laid it upon the Ass and brought it back and came to the City to mourn and to bury him And he laid his Carkass in his own grave and they mourned over him saying Alas my
of the basest matter even of very Dirt but this Dirt being Moulded by God's own Hand and Inspiring it with so much Wisdom Counsel and Prudence it may be called Cura Divini Ingenii the Curiousness of God's Wit But Man growing proud hereupon and hoping to be a God himself God doomed him to Death and wrapped him again in his dirty Swadling Clouts with this Inscription Pulvis es in pulverem reverteris Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return Adam did not without some Mystery cloath himself with green Leaves for he gave therein as it were a sign and token of his vain and foolish hopes But as the Mother when the Bee hath stung her Childs Finger runs with all haste to get a little Dirt and claps it to her little One which doth asswage the Swelling and give it ease So those busie Bees of Hell daily stinging us and striking into our Breasts the Poyson of their Pride and Arrogancy Almighty God with a Memorandum of Death with a Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return abates this Pride and tells us of that swelling Arrogancy of ours In Ezekiel the King of Tyre said I am a God but he was answered that he was 〈…〉 man that is base vile and miserable So holy â—aâ—id said Let the Nations know that they aâ—â— but 〈…〉 that is base and vile and St. Paul said Are â—…ot men 1 Cor. 3. When we see a man swallowed up sometimes in the misery of the Body and sometimes of the Soul we say in the conclusion he is a Man Now if instead of the Gold of the Angels there was found Rust and that so fine Cloath as that was not without its Moths and that incorrupted Wood without its Worm what will become of those that are but Dust who dwell in Houses of Clay Verily they must as fearful of their own harm repeat this Lesson Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return One asking the question Why God having Created the Soul for Heaven did knit it with so straight a Knot to a Body of Earth so frail and so lumpish Whose answer was That the Angels being overthrown by their Pride He was willing to repair and to help this Presumption in Man a Creature in his superiour part as it were Angelical but having a heavy aâ—d miserable Body which might serve as a Stay unto him that if the nimbleness of his Understanding should puff him up yet that Earth which Clogged his Body should humble and keep him down Those that entred Triumphantly into Rome had a thousand occasions given them to incite them to Pride Arrogancy and Vanity As their great number of Captives their Troops of Horse their Chariots drawn with Elephants or Lions and their Ladies looking upon them from their Windows and the like But the Senate considering the great danger of the Triumpher ordered one to sit by his Side to whisper this still in his Ear Remember thy self to be a Man The Princes of the Earth have many Motives to make them forget themselves not regarding the Complaints of the Poor and Needy yet as the Wise Man saith Wisdom 7. 5. No King had ever any other beginning of Birth they are as other Men the Off-spring of the Earth and the Children of Men and to them it is also said Dust thou art c. But to proceed As Man is Dust and Earth by Procreation so likewise he is Dust and Earth by Sustentation and that in two respects In regard of Aliment and Indument Meat and Apparel It is truly said That of which we consist we are nourished with Elements are Aliments where we begin we do receive all Meats for our Bodies in Health and all Medicines for the same being Sick are Earth and Earthy even Dust and Ashes as we our selves are we feed on the Things of the Earth and walk and sleep thereon As for Apparel and Ornaments we borrow Wooll of the Sheep Hair of the Camel Silk of the Worm Furies of the Beasts and Feathers of the Fowls of the Air like unto Aesop's Crow having some Plume from every Bird something from every Creature Flowers are richly decked Plants with an infinite variety of coloured Leaves adorned and other Animals as well Vegetative as Sensitive comely covered only Man that unhappy and base Creature is born to nothing but Beggery and Misery So that we may justly exclaim and cry out with the good Prophet David saying What is Man c. Nay what are we If that the good Prophet Jeremy who was Sanctified in his Mothers Womb did bewail his Condition what may we do who are Born in Sin and Conceived in Iniquity being Formed of most base and unclean Matter God Created Stars and Planets out of Fire Birds out of Air Fish out of Water but Man with other Animals out of the Slime of the Earth therefore remember and consider O Mrn what thou art and thou shalt find thy self much worse than any other Creature whatsoever besides even Dust and Ashes Now from this Principle I will infer three or four Conclusions of very great Fruit and Consequence The First is this If thou art Dust and Ashes wherefore art thou proud thou Dust and Ashes Of thy Beginning No of thy End No Of what then If thou shouldest see thy self Seated between the Horns of the Moon think on the baseness of thy beginning and thou shalt then see clearly that Pride was not born for Man nor Anger and Pettishness appointed for Woman's Condition Pride cannot sute with Dirt nor Curstness with Woman's Softness Lord cleanse me from my secret sins and spare thy Servant from those that are strangers By Aliens you may understand those of Pride for it is a Stranger as it were and another kind of thing differing much from Man's base and vile Condition There is not any Sin more alien and strange to Man 's Condition than Pride or that doth carry with it less excuse Those Fools that are Painted forth going about to build a Tower that should overtop the Clouds and reach to Heaven Gen. 11. 4. did in their very first word say Come let us make us Bricks Bewraying their Foolishness What go about upon Earth to rear a Foundation that should emulate Heaven which is far beyond Thought and glorious beyond Report God Almighty said unto Ezekiel Take thou a Tile and pourtray upon it the City of Jerusalem the Walls the Ditches the Towers the Temple and a great Army of Men Ezek. 4. 1. Strange yet true we see it is that the Strength of Cities the Power of Armies is contained in a poor brittle Tile-stone The good Prophet Isaiah threatned those of Moâ—â— with Whips and Scourges Isa 16. because they insulted and proudly triumphed upon the Walls and Towers of his City Speak Punishment unto those that reioyce in Walls that are made of Brick What can earthen Walls raise up such Pride in Men Samuel being to Anoint Saul God gave him for a Sign that he
even in this place since I came among you so that I may say with Paul 1 Cor. 9. 2. and they indeed are and shall be unto me and I unto them a Crown of rejoicing at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and on their behalf I pray that their Faith may grow exceedingly and that their Love unto Jesus Christ and unto all Saints may every day more and more abound and I commend them unto God who is able to keep them from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding Joy As for others I am jealous over them with a Godly Jealousie as the Apostle speaketh continually praying that they may not be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ but that they may hold fast the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience Some indeed there are that cause me secretly to groan in my Spirit and my Heart I even bleed over them and I do pity them in the Bowels of Jesus Christ fearing least they should like the five foolish Virgins fall asleep and hereafter endeavour to enter into Glory when the Door is shut But now dearly beloved being come to Preach my last Sermon amongst you I request you all both good and bad to attend with double diligence to what shall be spoken unto you from that sweet portion of Scripture which you find recorded PHILIPIANS I. XXIII For I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better IN these Words are these two Parts First a Declaration of St. Pauls desire For I am in a streight between two having a desire to depart Secondly an Inclination of the ground of it which was this because he might be with Christ the word signifies solvere Anchoram to loosen the Anchor or to cut the Cable that the Ship may sail after While St. Pauls Spirit was tied up by the Flesh he desired it should be loosened by Death that it might Sail after into Glory Spiritual Desires they are always quickest and strongest whensoever they are nearest the perfect enjoyment of their desired Object Christ As the motion of every natural Body is quickest and strongest the nearer it comes to the Center so the nearer fulness of Glory the more fervent the Soul is in its desires after Christ Sirs my Text is usually the dying Expression of a living Saint for when a believer draws near to his End he sings most sweetly like the Swan and earnestly cries out Make haste my beloved he having a desire to depart to be with Christ evermore upon a dying Bed a Christians Pulse beats strongest Heaven-ward We groan as being in a great straight knowing to depart is far better much more better as if he should have said Oh! there is no comparison between the enjoyment of God in the State of Grace and the enjoyment of God in a State of Gloâ—y And here methinks I hear the dying Christian joyfully breathing out his earnest and longing desires for a Dissolution in the very words of a late Grave and Serious Poet who in an Heavenly Rapture and sweet Extasie of Spirit spake in the following manner viz. VVhy lingrest thou bright Lamp of Heaven why Do thy Steeds tread so slowly on must I Be forc'd to live when I desire to die Lash thou those Lazie Jades drive with full speed And end my slow-paced days that I may feed VVith Joy on Him for whom my heart doth bleed Post blessed Jesus come Lord flee away And turn this Night into the brightest Day By thine approach come Lord and do not stay Take thou Doves-Wings or give Doves Wings to me That I may leave this World and come to thee And even in thy glorious presence be I like not this vile VVorld it is meer dross Thou only art pure Gold then sure 't is loss To be without a Throne t' enjoy a Cross VVhat though I must pass through the Gates of Death It is to come to thee that gav'st me Breath And thou art better Lord than Dung-hill-Earth VVhen shall I come Lord tell me tell me when VVhat must I tarry Threescore years and Ten My Thirsty Soul cannot hold out 'till then Come dearest Saviour come unlock this Cage Of sinful Flesh lovingly stop the Rage Of my Desires end thou my Pilgrimage Give me a Place on High to Sit and Sing Anthems of Praise to thee mine only King Whose ratling Sounds may make the Heavens Ring But here I know the timerous Soul will object against this truth and say Oh how can the Christian so earnestly desire to be with Christ in the fulness of Glory were it indeed but a short step into Glory or were the way strewed with Roses and Flowers and with all the Spices of the Merchant it might be so but there is a Lion in the way as Solomon speaks in another case there is Death the King of Fears that stands srowning upon the Soul at the last cast when the Soul is upon its very Entrance into Christ his prepared Mansions of eternal Glory and therefore it were more desirable to dwell safely upon the Earth in a sensible Heaven made up of the greatest worldly profits and the most delightful creature Comfort rather than to venture over the terrible mountain of Death the very Epitomy of all Discouragements into the doubtful possession of those invissible Depths of spiritual Glory which the Scripture tells us is only attainable after this Life I answer that by nature of this Objection you may presently know the name of the Objector It comes from off a carnal heart and fully speaks the temper an Epiâ—urean Will that is against leaving its carnal interest in the Earth for uncertain interest in Heaven But Death though it be an intervening Cloud which seems to darken or cast a mist upon the Lustre and Comfort of a believers spiritual injoyment in God yet it doth but seem to do so and indeed it doth not at all extinguish the earnest desires of a serious lively Christian after Christ in the fulness of Glory and that especially when the believing Soul looks upon Death under these Considerations First that to die is no worse a rhing than to tread in the very steps of Jesus Christ we might indeed have been afraid to die if Jesus Christ had not first stept into the cold grave before us but if we will shew our selves true Soldiers unto Christ our Captain we must not fear to venture where he hath broken the way before us Now Christ hath died that he might by his Death procure the Death of Death and that he might free Believers from the fear of Death the sting being taken out of it Secondly Death is only ordained to refine and not to ruine Nature Death ends our sins and miseries and not our life as it may be made out unto you by this following Illustration those Trees which seem dead in the Winter yet they revive in the Spring because the
her Life in wanton Ayres and Charms of Lust the treacherous Inticements to Destruction but when she dies she breathes out her Soul in Howlings Sighs and Sobs in Pangs and Horror The Swan who spends her days in Innocence as white as her Livery in pensive Notes of Sadness mournful and black as her Feet when she dies she expires in joyful Anthems the voice of joy and gladness So when Death calls the Aged Swan from Streams She dying sings her own glad Requiems Good People had you the Reversion of a Rich Living or Office would you weep because it is faln into your Possession Invidi non amantis 't were more of Envy than Love to bewail an Earthly Happiness I close as Jesus to the Daughters of Jerusalem Weep not for me â—ut weep for your selves not for me that am dying but for your selves that are living for your selves that have refused my Doctrine despised your Saviour condemned your Innocent and Righteous Prince For the Sins and Sufferings of the Living I confess there is weeping work enough for him who hath Jeremy's wish His Head a Fountain of Tears to weep day and night But for the dead that die in the Lord weep not Weep not she is not dead but sleepeth The Application Since the Faâ—e of Rest in the state of Separation and Happiness at meeting again of Soul and Body depends upon the Holiness at parting Let us be composed in both that neither the disorder of the Body nor multitude of Business either ill done or undone may disturb the quiet of the Soul Before Men go to Bed they put off their Cloaths or else they sleep both unhandsomely and uneasily So let your Souls divest those Habits which Sin and Custom hath too long made fashionable Lastly Good Men before they go to Bed they always pray St. Paul adviseth Pray always though not with the Lip yet with the Life When Survivors see a Soul that hath lived long in this Region of Holy Duty to ascend to Heaven as the Angel Judg. 13. 20. In the Flames of the Altar their Charity and Hopes are sufficiently instructed to say Nolite flere Weep not she is not dead but sleepeth The Character I have done with the Text that I brought hither to you and now apply my self and discourse to that Text that brought you hither to me from that I presented to your Ears to that presented to your Eyes I close the Book of Life and now open the Book of Death So St. Ambrose Interr'd Theodosius Nazianzen the Immortal Athanasius and St. Hierome the excellent Lady Marcella Nay St. John hath taken short Notes of a Sermon made by Christ at the Funeral of Lazarus John 11. 12 13 c. wherein are Discourses of Faith Resurrection and Glory raised from the Dead and applyed to the Living I need no other because I can follow no better precedent Therefore hear me or rather hear her speak for the Dead can speak Heb. 11. 4. Our dead Sister speaks first in the dignity of her Extraction fairly proclaim'd to you by the Herauldry of her Hearse but fairer far in the suitable Character of her Life the worthiness of her Birth had no other influence on her but to engage her to worthiness of Action which she so nobly improved that the Vertue of her Life dignified the Honour of her Descent so the Glory she received from her Father on Earth by the Acts of Humility and Charity she enhansed to the glorifying her Father which is in Heaven Her Beauty which was a depository from Heaven she beautified with so much Piety and adorned with so much Religion as if she had been intrusted to preserve both the Lustre and the Vertues of the Celestial Bodies in her Epiâ—ome But the Beauty of her Soul was a Sun to this Taper from whence her starry Actions received a mighty Splendor When she spake Wisdom dictated and Wit delivered she hung her Language at your Ears as Jewels much of worth in a small bulk and as Jewels her Speech was Rich both in Lustre and in Medicine the Conceits of her Mirth would raise a Smile but the Gravity of her Conveyance commanded Reverence Her Reproofs like Lightning quick but short such as would melt the Blade yet not singe the Scabbard kill the Sin but preserve the Sinner Her Promises were made in her Head but bept in her Hand as a Nail fastned in a sure place driven by Understanding and clenched by Affection Her Attire neither fordid nor curious nor too early in nor too late out of Fashion not like those Mushroom Gentry who declare their late rise from Peasantry and Poverty by the Herauldry of the Dirt and Rags on their Back Her Table was both wholesome and handsome enough to satisfie the Stomach of the hungry and well enough to fancy the Palate of the Curious yea when the Sword had Carved her Meat to the fifth part her good Chear was as much as ever Her Visits were like the Sun 's beneficial where-e're she came and treading in her Saviours steps She went up and down doing good Her Access was free but not loose her Door as her Heart was open to all Friends so that without much shifting the Scene she would easily make her House a Court an Almes-house a School and an Hospital all in a day She had Treatments for the Greatest who came as Agrippa and Bernice with great Pomp. She had Relief for the Poorest who as Lazarus lay at the Gateâ— Instructions for the Ignorant and Charitable Remedies for the Sick Christian Applications for all feeding the Hungry cooling the Thirsty cloathing the Naked visiting the Sick and harbouring the Traveller what God requires in acts of Neighbourhood here and Reward hereafter the whole Voyzenage can witness with me and for her that she was a great parallel to Dorcas Acts 9. 36. This Woman was full of good Works and Almes-deeds which she did Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report she did them therefore if there be any vertue or any praise let her have it Her Relation as a Wife shews her without disparagement a rare example and standard to her Sex Society is the most precious Comfort in Nature the richest Jewel in her Cabinet Adam not in perfect Paradise not happy without it of all Societies with Man that of a Wife is nearest being made of his own Rib and dearest lying in his own Bosom Her Affection was great as Jonathan's wonderful and passing the love of Women 2 Sam. 2. 26. Marriage made her Husband and her one Flesh but Love made them one Soul She Married not only his Person but his Interests and Concernments loved his Loves wished his Desire as inseparable as Ruth and her Mother-in-law Ruth 1. 16 17. not to be parted but by Death She owed him an Affection equal to her Life being often ready to lay
leans towards Death This it desires this it meditates upon covetous of higher Objects And how clear is that of Plato concerning a better Life He saith he that spends his Life in the study of Wisdom seems to be the person who will die with confidence full of good hope that he shall obtain great rewards if he die This the Ancients saw in the dark and thou canst not see it by the light of the Sun What then my sick Friend do the things of the Earth trouble thee Shortly thou shalt inhabit Heaven Thither aspire and whatever miseries thou feelest thou wilt feel them the less Sect. 30. True Hope is a Blessed Life I Do not for this make use of either Poets or Philosophers 'T is a serious thing I will drink to thee out of the Fountain of Divine Eloquence Therefore lay aside thy sadness and with a certain hope say with the Doctor of the World I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Wherefore art thou afraid O Man of short hope hear the Son of Syras Who feareth the Lord standeth in awe of no Man and is not afraid for the Lord is his hope and strength Blessed is the Soul of him that feareth the Lord in whom putteth he his trust and who is his strength The Eyes of the Lord have respect unto them that love him he is their mighty protection and strong ground a defence for the health a refuge for the hot of noon day a succour for stumbling and a help for falling He setteth up the Soul and lightneth the Eyes he giveth health life and blessing The Kingly Prophet how Couragious is he how undaunted having a prospect of his own Funeral I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety What that safety is he expresses in another place For thou hast been my hope and a strong Tower for me against the Enemy I will dwell in thy Tabernacle for ever and my trust shall be under the covering of thy wings But thou wilt say my Impatience makes me hope ill Here I will help thee again Cry with David Thou art my hope even from my youth Frequently this King cry'd out God is my Salvation God is my Hope and also exhorts others to do the same Trust in him O ye people pour out your hearts before him Wherefore dost thou not follow him that goes crying so loudly before thee Say therefore from thy Soul O think upon thy Servant according to thy word wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust The same is my Comfort in my Trouble And with Jeremy the Prophet I nevertheless obediently followed thee as a Shepherd and have not taken this Office upon me uncalled Thou knowest it well Be not thou terrible unto me O Lord. For thou art he in whom I hope when I am in peril Hear him in another place Leave off from weeping and crying with-hold thine Eyes from Tears for thy labour shall be rewarded c. Job is most confident in this Though he slay me I will trust in him The same he utters upon the brink of Death After darkness I hope for light Was there ever saith the Son of Syrach any one confounded that put his trust in the Lord Whoever continued in his fear and was forsaken Or whoever did he despise that called faithfully upon him For God is Gracious and Merciful He forgiveth sins in the time of Trouble and is a defender of all that seek him in the Truth And Hosea Therefore hope still in thy God for whoever put their trust in God are not overcome Besides That the Lord is good unto them that put their trust in him and to the Soul that seeketh after him The good Man with stilness and patience expecteth the health of the Lord. Truly saith Nahum the Lord is Gracious and a strong hold in the day of Tribulation and knoweth them that trust in him And we also know saith St. John that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And every Man that has this hope in him purgeth himself even as he is also pure Hope therefore most firmly in the Goodness of God and thou shalt walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living Sect. 31. Tranquility proceeds from true Hope TVrn again O my Soul into thy rest for the Lord hath rewarded thee Art thou wearied with so many sorts of Labour behold the Lord is at hand and he will put an end to all thy Labours The beginning of thy rest is Sickness and Death Cease therefore O my Soul to be willing to be miserable and to consume thy self with so much turmoiling Painful Beginnings thou wilt say 'T is very true But thou knowst that no days are less quiet than those that are next to rest No days less Holidays than those that precede Festivals So it is with thee But thy rest shall be Eternal The preparation tires thee shortly the Paschal without end shall follow Go to then and expend a little Labour and Grief By and by thou shalt behold the Gate not that which leads out of this Life but that which leads to Eternity Then hadst thou but begun to labour it would prove sufficient if he for whom thou labourest think it so Therefore O my Soul dismiss vain things to vain people and turn thee to the Lord who hath rewarded thee His Mercies toward thee hath been innumerable thou maist sooner number the Sand of the Sea than them by which he designs to open thee the way to Heaven Bernardus Clarevallensis recommended this particularly to his Friends to cast the Anchor of their hope in the safe Bay of Divine Mercy Therefore let that Verse of the Psalmist In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion Sect. 32. Comfort in Pain THen should I have some comfort yea I would desire him in my pain that he would not spare for I will not deny the words of the Holy One. With this Comfort therefore while my pains do burn me I will warm my Zeal and recollect my Courage when the Excess of my Torments shall bring me certain hope of Death For I know that while the pains as it were of Childbirth Crucifie me the Rest and Tranquility of another Life is preparing for me and that the Mercy of God shines over me either inflicting Death or defending my Life Therefore let not God be delayed through any commiseration of me For if I die I shall escape free and secure from my Sins nor shall I ever any more resist the will of God as one that has left this Life and the Inconstancy of Mortals Yet I am very much afraid of my weakness lest I should faint in the right road and in my holy
Providence in the frequent Examples of Mortality before us continually and in our own sensible Approaches to the Gates of Death I say besides these and infinite more this Mourning-Ring by Gods blessing and our endeavours may prove no small furtherance in our Pilgrimage The whole Work being the most Comprehensive history of Death and Funeral Monuments yet extant each Sermon and Meditation therein is as a several Legacy bequeathed by those upon the Occasion of whose Deaths they were written as by so many Testators who themselves have made a real Experiment of Mortality and left these for our Instruction that surviveve them It is true the dayly Examples of Mortality are so many real Lectures that by a kind of Dumb Oratory perswade us to expect our End but as they are Transcient so our Thoughts of them Vanish Therefore it can be no small Advantage to have always before us this Mourning Ring which will abundantly furnish us with Meditations in this kind and be still constantly putting of us in Mind of our Departed Friend It was a Custom in former times for Great Men to make them Sepulchres in their Gardens to mind them of Death in the midst of the Pleasures of this Life This present Work may not unfitly be termed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walk will find that Titles of Honour are written in Dust and that Princes and Great Men must Die that their very Monuments are Mortal and will in time be found as Archemedes his Tomb by Cicero in vepretis overgrown with Thorns and Briars And that even Poor Men too who have no Comet Prodigy or Earthquake to Toll the Knell of their Departure But who do as it were steal into their silent Graves with no greater noise than can be made by a Branch of Rosemary Sprig of Lawrel or a Black Ribband have Precious and Immortal Souls to save as well as they with the Methods and Courses both should take to get Saving Grace and the Knowledge of Christ which will prove a Possession for them to Eternity In a word be thy Estate and Condition what it will be here thou maist have both Directions to guide thee and Comforts to support thee in thy Journey on Earth till thou arrive at thy Heavenly Countrey The Author of this Mourning-Ring spent a great part of his Time in Holy and Devout Contemplations upon the things of another Life as this Excellent Piece of his sufficiently shews Missenden gave him Breath And Cambridge Education His Studies are of Death Of Heaven his Meditation His great Care was so to fit and prepare himself for a Happy Death whilst in the World that after this Life ended he might enjoy Eternal Happiness in that which is to come Let us then imitate so great a pattern of Piety that so when we come to Die we may have nothing to do but to Die and willingly to resign up our Souls into the Hands of Almighty God And now being refreshed with these Fragrant Leaves what shall I say Blessed Author art thou yet Alive Breathe longer in this Fruitful Air and extract more out of this so Rich a Stock A Scribe so well Instructed cannot have spent all but must have new or old to bring out of his Treasury Do not hide but improve thy Talent be not only a good and wise but a faithful Steward and yield us more of thy pleasant Fruits Thou hast begun well who what shall hinder thee Thy present were there no succeeding Reward is Spur enough to future Work Religion is Recreation and Heaven is the way to Heaven Good Men are there on this side the Grave Thy longing Soul was still peeping into it and sending thy Thoughts as Spies to view this Promised Land But art thou at Rest from thy Labours This among others thy Work follows thee and hath here erected thy lasting Monument Where ever thou wer 't Buried Obscurity shall not swallow thee Every good Heart that knew thee is thy Tomb and every Tongue writes thee an Epitaph Good Men speak well of thee but above all God delights in thee Thy Thoughts were still fluttering upwards richly fraught with Divine Meditations and ever aspiring till unlading themselves in the Bosom of thy Beloved We are hugely thankful that a few dropt from thee for the Comfort and Example of fainting weeping Mortals below Thou lived'st in deed whilst others live only in shew and hast changed thy Place but not thy Company But my Paper is short and my time shorter I must therefore conclude for the Book is wholly Printed and stops only until I have told thee that I am Thy Friend and Servant till Death c. In Praise of the Author of the Mourning-Ring with the Explanation of the Frontispiece Annext to his Book WIth sighs and groans and plunged Eyes attend The doleful Map of every Mortals End Enter the Sable House of Weeping see The lively Scene of Humane Misery Our Reverend Author could not stop a stream Of tears when treating on so sâ—d a Theme Survey these pious Lines and there you 'l find The lively Pourtraict of the Authors Mind In tears he preacht with tears he seem'd to write And may be term'd the Christian Heraclite He wrote he spoke 'em thus whoever says Needs not another word to speak their praise Since all must follow him or soon or late His pattern let us strive to imitate Our Entrance and our Exit seem to meet Our Swadling Bands almost our Winding-sheet Poor Man from Mother Earth does just arise Then looks abroad returns again and dies Some forty years perhaps with much ado He has prolong'd his tedious Life unto Then under Griefs and Cares he sinks away His Carkass mouldring into native Clay See where his Friends surround the Sacred Urn Where all his fond Relations fondly Mourn And when the Solemn Bell does sadly call The drooping Pomp attends his Funeral How he from Fortunes store can only have A narrow Coffin and a scanty Grave Happy thrice happy they who had the Grace To fix their Treasures in a better place Who e're from hence they did their Lodgings move Were careful to lay in a Stock above Those Death may wound but never can destroy Their House of Weeping proves an House of Joy W. S. Another on the Frontispiece SEest thou frail Man the Emblem of thy State Th' exact Idea of thy hasting Fate The Figure 's drawn to th' Life yea ev'ry part Is grac'd and deckt with more than Zeuxian Art The first Scene shows when Man 's laid out for dead When th' sprightly Soul from the Body 's gone and fled His mournful Friends no longer can endure The lifeless Corps therefore they do immure And shut it close up in a Sable Hearse As totally unfit for all Commerce O're which they showre such store of tears that they Mourning exhaust their Moisture and decay With sorrow wounded Hearts they sob and cry Themselves to death they take their turns to die Because one's death from th'
Circumstances 1. What became of his Body being dead It was Honourably Buried because of his great Substance 2. What became of his Soul It went to Hell He being in torments lift up his Eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his Bosom Of these successively And first in the life of the Rich man we noted what this Rich Man was whether there was indeed any such man or no Wherefore here may a Question arise whether this be a Parable or History The Writers hereof do not agree Marlorat saith Quanquam quibusquam haec simplex Parabola esse videtur tamen quia his Lazari nomen exprimitur rem gestam narrari probabile Some are of that mind that this is a Parable yet because saith he Christ twice expresseth the name of Lazarus it argueth that he spake of a thing that was so done indeed Likewise saith Franciscus Lambertus Credendum magis esse historiam exemplum verum quà m Parabolam It must be believed that this is rather a History and a true Example than a Parable But Theophilactus is of a contrary opinion who saith Parabola haec est non vera historia This is a Parable and no History Erasmus also saith that it is but a Parable whereby Rich Men may learn to be merciful to their poor Brethren that they may speak for them in the day of Vengeance and Wrath. Many Writers there are also that rather aiming at the Arguments and Observations herein have not set down their Judgments whether it be a Parable or History Therefore it might seem Wisdom in me to suspend my judgment also herein especially since Marlorat saith Paruâ— reâ—ert ut tam sit Parabola an Historia modo summam doctrinam teneant lectores It greatly skilleth not whether it be a Parable or History so that we duly consider the Doctrine herein But because it is requisite that I also shew my Opinion I will return my Verdict according to my Evidence And therefore in naked truth I find and hold that it is a Parable And my Reasons are these two First because our Saviour in the beginning of this Chapter doth relate a Parable of the Rich Man that had a Steward c. therefore he continueth in this Chapter to open his mouth in Parables according to the Prophet I will open my mouth in Parables and shew dark sentences of old time Secondly because the Rich Man cryed out of Hell unto Abraham and Abraham answered the Rich man which needs must be understood Parabolically For the Damned in Hell cannot see nor hear the Saints that are in Heaven neither by reason of the distance of place and also because of many Sphears and Orbs that are betwixt Heaven and Hell neither shall they see nor know what is done there And again Abraham's throat is dry and cleaveth to the Roof of his Mouth Therefore he cannot speak so loud as to be heard out of Heaven into Hell Therefore it is but a Parable Secondly let us consider what his Apparel was Purple and fine white as some will have But we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although some take it for fine Flax yet let it here be understood of Silk There was a very great difference betwixt the Apparel of John the Baptist and this Man John's Rayment was Camels Hair with a Leathern Girdle about his Loins which did Argue Repentance and Mortification in him but this Rich Mans Apparel was Purple and fine Silk whose outward Apparel did argue the Pride at his Heart The outward Habit for the most part resembles the inward Habit and condition of the Mind Pride as saith one is grounded in the Heart of Man a Vice most loathsom to God hateful to Men and hurtful to the Soul But let us consider the third Circumstance in the Life of the Rich Man to wit what his Dyet was Deliciously every day And here we see what the Children of this World delight in namely in fulness of Meat who neglecting the serving of God have given themselves to serve Bacchus and Venus Hence one noteth A gluttonous Person eateth more for Pleasure than Necessity So did the Rich Man so did our first Parents it was not through need or necessity that they did eat of the forbidden Tree but through Wantonness Pleasure and Idleness Gluttony is a flattering Devil and a pleasant sin and a sweet Poyson which whoso useth hath not the use of himself which who so hath not hath no sin for he is all sin it self Besides it hath an especial effect for it doth as Gregory saith generate Lust To be short it was Gluttony that caused our Parents to transgress It was Gluttony that caused Lâ—t to commit Incest It was Gluttony that made Esau to sell his Birth-right It was Gluttony and Drunkenness that caused Nabal's Death It was Gluttony that lost Belshasars Kingdom Be not thou desirous of dainty meats saith Solomon For he that loveth Banqueting shall be Poor and he that delighteth in Wine shall not be Rich. But let us a while leave this Rich Man and consider the second that which is the Life of the Beggar There was also a certain Beggar named Lazarus c. And here observe these things 1. That the Saints of God are a poor contemptible People There was a certain Beggar If you understand the word Beggar to hold forth outward Poverty or scarcity in outward things such are Saints of the Lord for they are for the most part a poor despised contemptible People but if you Allegorize and Interpret it thus they are such as beg earnestly for Heavenly food this is also the spirit of the Children of God and it may be and is a truth in this sense though not so Naturally gathered from this Scripture 2. That he was laid at his Gate full of Sores These words hold forth the Distempers of Believers saying he was full of Sores which may signifie the many Troubles Temptations Persecutions and afflictions in Body and Spirit which they meet withal while they are in the World And also the Entertainments they find at the hands of those ungodly ones who Live upon the Earth Whereas it is said he was laid at his Gate full of Sores Mark he was laid at his Gate not in his House that was thought too good for him but he was laid at his Gate full of Sores From whence Observe that the Ungodly World do not desire to entertain and receive the poor Saints of God into their Houses If they must needs be somewhere near unto them yet they shall not come into their Houses Shut them out of Doors if they will needs be near us let them be at the Gate And he was laid at the Gate full of Sores 2. Observe that the World are not at all touched with the afflictions of God's Children for all they are full of Sores a despised afflicted tempted persecuted people the World doth not pity no but rather labour to aggravate their Trouble
by shutting them out of Doors sink or swim what cares the World they are resolved to disown them they will give them no Entertaiment if the lying in the streets will do them any good if hard Usage will do them any good if to be disowned shut out of Doors rejected of the World will do them any good they shall have enough of that but otherwise no Refreshment no Comfort from the World And he was laid at his Gate full of Sores Poor Lazarus What lying at a Gate and full of Sores too Would not this Rich Man afford thee some out-house to lie in to shroud thee from Storms and Tempests no would not his servants pity thee no would not his Children speak for thee no Would not his Wife intreat her Husband for thee no Hadst thou ever done them any wrong no But Lazarus it may be thou art stout and often-times Beggars will be chusers thou perhaps wouldest have some great Alms or Copy-hold some Farm of this Rich Man no Or thou wouldest have some delicate Meat no Many Dishes no Or thou wouldest sit at the Table with his Sons and Servants no no What is it then that thou dost desire Nothing but Crumbs to refresh my Soul nothing but Crumbs to save my Life Nothing but Crumbs Crumbs that fall from the Rich Man's Table I know that he fared Plentifully and that he may well spare them What shall I say of the hardness of this screwing Rich Mans Heart Let me speak for Lazarus unto the Rich Man yet I shall but asiâ—am comere as one well observes get nothing of this hard Fellow I have a Message unto thee O thou Rich Man from the great God of Heaven and he doth desire thee that thou respect the Beggar that lyeth at thy Gate pained with sores pained with grief and even starved through Hunger And I beseech thee in Gods stead that thou have pity on this Beggar as God shall have pity mercy and Compassion on thee and look what thou layest out it shall be paid thee again But he answered I warant you he is some Runnagate Rogue and so long as he can be mantained by such easie means he will never take any other Trade upon him Nay but good Sir let please you only to behold this Poor Creature which suppose it were granted and he coming to the Gate where this wreâ—ched Object lay seeing him bewrayed with sores betattered with Rags and the Dogs licking him stopping his Nose with a squeamish Face and disdainful look began to say unto him I see thou art some lewd Fellow that such Miseries happen unto thee and such Plagues come upon thee it is not for thy goodness or Righteousness that these Afflictions light on thee But he reply'd O good Master some Comfort good Master some Relief good Master some Crumbs to save my Life I shall die else and starve at your Gate good Master I beseech you for Gods sake I beseech you for Christs sake take some Pity some Compassion some Mercy on me But he with an Angry look disdaining Lazarus said Away hence thou Idle Rogue not a penny not a Morsel not a crumb of Bread and so stopping his Nose from the scent and his Ears from the Cry of Lazarus returned unto his stately Palace And this Poor mans Throat being dry with Crying his Heart fainting for want of Comfort his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth being worn out with Fastings and miseries starved at the Rich Mans Gate Now must I speak for dead Lazarus against this Rich Man Nam si hi tacuissent nonne lapides clamabunt if I should hold my peace the very stones would cry O thou Rich Miser and more than cruel wretch Lazarus is dead he is dead at thy Gate and his Blood shall be upon thee thou shewedst no Mercy unto him no Mercy shall be shewed to thee thou stoppedst thy Ears unto his cry thou shalt cry and not be heard It is inhumane Wickedness to have no Compassion on distressed Lazarus but most of all to let him starve at thy Gate for want of Food What did be desire of thee but only Crumbs to save his Life Is it not a small thing I pray thee that thou having abundance of Meat shouldst see him starve for Bread That thou flourishing in Purple and Silk would see Lazarus lye in Rags That thou seeing even thy Dogs have pity on him thou wouldst have no pity upon him thy self What Eyes hadst thou that wouldest not see his Sores What Ears hadst thou that wouldest not hear his cry What Hands hadst thou that would not be stretched out to give What Heart hadst thou that would not melt in thy Body What Soul hadst thou that would not pity his silly Soul this wretched Body poor Lazarus If the stones could speak they would cry fie upon thee If thy Dogs could speak they would condemn thee of unmercifulness If dead Lazarus were here his Sores would bleed afresh before thy face and â—ry in thine Ears that thou art guilty guilty of his Blood and that thy sin is more than can be pardoned Why should not I tell thee the Portion that is prepared for thee This shall be thy Portion to drink Let thy days be few and let another take thine Office Let thy Children be Fatherless and thy Wife a Widow Let thy Children be Vagabonds and beg their bread let them seek it also out of desolate places let the Extortioner consume all that thou hast and let the stranger spoil thy Labour Let there be no Man to pity thee nor to have compassion on thy Fatherless Children Let thy Memorial be clean forgotten and in the next Generation let thy Name be clean put out Let him be an accursed Example to all the World Let him be cursed in the City and cursed in the Field let him be cursed when he goeth out and when he cometh in let him be cursed when he lyeth down and when he riseth up Let all Creatures and the Creator himself forsake him Angels reject him Heavens frown at him Earth open thy Mouth Hell receive him Spirits tear him Devils torment him let no mercy be shewed unto him that shewed no mercy Thus shall the miseries of Lazarus be revenged by the just plagues that shall justly fall upon the Rich man's head Secondly In the Life of Lazarus I noted how he lived to wit miserably and full of Sores and yet this rich Man would not pity him Christ could not of his mercy but cure the Leper when he saw him full of Sores and Leprosie and Elisha could not but out of Humanity teach Naaman the Assyrian to wash himself in Jordan that he might be whole but this rich Man would not help the poor Beggar neither by his counsel Purse Table or Crumbs but let him alone to pining Misery at his Gate Here we note in the person of Lazarus the great miseries and Afflictions that the Church of God doth endure in this World Great are
thus with Daniel when the World was against him and would have thrown him to the Lions to be devoured the Lions shut their mouths at him so that there was not that hurt befel to him as was desired by the Adversaries Dan. 6. But now let us consider the Third Part which is the Death of the Beggar It was so that the Beggar died Here is the adage fulfilled Mors optima rapit deterrima relinquit Now must I speak of Tragical matters of Funerals and Obsequies of Dissolution and Death This Beggar died that represents the Godly and the Rich Man died that represents the Ungodly From whence Observe neither Godly nor Ungodly must live always without a change either by Death or Judgment The good man died and the bad man died that Scripture doth also back this Truth that good and bad must die marvellous well where it is said And it is appointed to men once to die and after that the Judgment Heb. 9. 27. Now when it is said the Beggar died and the Rich man died part of the meaning is they ceased to be any more in this World I say partly the meaning is so but not altogether though it be altogether the meaning when some of the Creatures die yet it is but in part the meaning when it is said that Men Women or Children die for there is to them something else to be said more than a barely going out of the World for if when unregenerate Men and Women die there were an end of them not only in this World but also in the World to come they would be more happy than now for when ungodly men and women die there is that to come after Death that will be very terrible to them namely to be carryed by the Angels of Darkness from their Death-beds to Hell there to be reserved to the Judgment of the great day when both Body and Soul shall meet and be united together again and made capable to undergo the uttermost vengeance of the Almighty to all Eternity Ah Beloved if this great Truth that men must die and depart this World and either enter into Joy or else into Prison to be reserved to the Day of Judgment were believed we should not have so many Wantons walk up and down the streets as there do at least it would put a mighty check to their filthy Carriages so that they would not could not walk so basely and sinfully as they do Belshazzar notwithstanding he was so far from the fear of God as he was yet when he did but see that God was but offended and threatned him for his Wickedness it made him hang down his head and knock his knees together Dan. 5. 5 6. If you read the Verses before you will find he was careless and satisfying his Lusts in Drinking and playing the Wanton with his Concubines But so soon as he did perceive the Finger of an hand writing Then saith the Scripture the King's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his Loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another And when Paul told Felix of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come it made him tremble Further this is a certain truth that not only the Wicked but the Godly also must have a time to depart this Life And the Beggar died the Saints of the Lord they must be deprived of this Life also they must yield up the Ghost into the hands of the Lord their God they must also be separated from their Wives Children Husbands Friends Goods and all that they have in the World for God hath decreed it It is appointed namely by the Lord for Men once to die and we must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ as it is 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. But again in the Death of the Beggar First we noted what became of his Soul It was carried by Angels into Abrahams Bosom Whereby we learn the Immortality of the Soul Pythagoras was the first among the Grecians that taught the Soul was Immortal The Philosophers also and Heathen Poets do prove the Immortality of the Soul Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terram sed quod missum est ex aetheris oris Id rursum coeli fulgentia templa receptant The part of Man that was made of Earth went to Earth and that part as came from Heaven went to Heaven again But leaving these we prove by Scripture the Immortality of the Soul Man was made a living Soul Therefore the Soul is Immortal And here in the Text Lazarus being dead his Soul was carried into Abraham ' s Bosom Here therefore is the damnable Opinion of the Atheists overthrown For if they deny God they must also deny that they have Souls and so consequently that they are not men But St. John teacheth them that all things were made by the Word of God and without it nothing was made therefore if they are made they are made by the Word of God and of a reasonable Soul which do acknowledge and believe in the Creator Anima est primum principium vitae per se subsistens incorporea aâ— incorruptibilis The Soul is the first beginning of Life subsisting of it self incorporeal and incorruptible St. Austin Anima est spiritus est substantia incorporea corporis sui vita sensibilis invisibilis rationalis immortalis The Soul of man is a spiritual or incorporeal substance sensible invisible reasonable immortal For as he also saith Soluâ— homo habet animam rationalem Only Man with an Immortal Soul Lazarus Soul was carried into Abraham's Bosom which is a quiet Haven which the faithful have gotten by the troublesom Navigation of this Life that is the Kingdom of Heaven Here therefore we note that the Souls of the Elect being separated from their Bodies are presently in Joys and are carried into Abraham's Bosom so called because it belongeth only to the Faithful Well then Lazarus Soul went to Heaven and Christ said to the Thief on the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Not to morrow or next Year but this day Therefore the Souls of the Elect being separated from their Bodies are in Joy and Rest As also on the other side the soul of the Rich man and the Damned after they be separated from their Bodies are in Hell Torments And thus much concerning the place whither Lazarus soul was carried being dead namely into Abraham's Bosom Lastly We noted by whom by Angels It was carried by Angels into Abraham ' s Bosom And here an Objection ariseth viz. If this be so that the Godly die as well as the Wicked and if the Saints must appear before the Judgment-seat as well as the sinners then what Advantage have the Godly more than the Ungodly and how can the Saints be in a better condition than the Wicked Answ Read the 22d Verse over again and you shall find a marvellous difference between them as much as is
which was first by a life of Vegetation then of Sense afterwards of Reason To die daily is this daily to attend upon and exercise that great duty of Mortification according to our solemn Vow and Covenant made to God at our Baptism which Vow and Covenant we renew at our first coming to the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Alas how few do consider or understand this great duty of Mortification and fewer practise it And yet this above all others is the Grace which fitteth and prepareth us for Death this Grace putteth us into the possession of Life Spiritual and by perseverance in it into life Eternal Rom. 8. 13. But if ye live after the flesh that is after the appetites lusts affections of the flesh ye shall die But I bless God I have nothing to do with the World nor the World with me Riches Pleasures honours transport me not affect me not nor am I dejected and afflicted with poverty common pains sicknesses disgrace or scorn Christ liveth in me and I in him therefore I humbly thank the power of his grace I can die as willingly as I can go out of one Room into another For the manner of dying AMongst Men it is a matter of chief mark the manner of a man's death The chief good of Man is his good departure out of this life Before you die set your house in order He that hath not a house yet hath a soul no soul can want affairs to set in order for this final dissolution The chief grace of the Theatre is the last Scene It is the Evening that Crowns the day and we think it no good sign of a fair Morrow when the Sun sets in a Cloud The end Crowns every Work Most men wish a short Death because death is always accompanied with pain We die groaning To lie but an hour under Death is tedious but to be dying a whole day we think beyond the strength of humane patience He that desires to be dissolved and be with Christ dies not only patiently but delightfully Happy is he that after due preparation dies ere he be aware so likewise is he happy that by long sickness sees death afar off for the one dies like Elias the other like Elisha both blessedly The best posture to be found in when Death comes is in the exercise of our calling Press saith St. Paul towards the mark for the prize of the high calling Phil. 3. A good Man by his good will would die praying and do as the Pilgrim doth go on his way singing and so adds the pains of singing to that of going Who yet by this surplus of pain unwearies himself of pain But some wretches think God rather curious than they faulty if a few sighs with a Lord have mercy upon us be not enough at the last gasp But commonly good Men are best at last even when they are dying It was a Speech worthy the commendation and frequent remembrance of so divine a Bishop as Augustine which is reported of an aged Father in his time who when his Friends comforted him on his sick bed and told him they hoped he should recover answered If I shall not die at all well but if ever why not now Surely it is folly what we must do to do unwillingly I will never think my Soul in a good case so long as I am loth to think of dying There is no Spectacle in the World so profitable or more terrible than to behold a dying man to stand by and see a man dismanned Curiously didst thou make me in the lowest part of the Earth saith David but to see those Elements which compounded made the Body To see them divided and the man dissolved is a rusul sight Every dying man carries Heaven and Earth wrapped up in his bosom and at this time each part returns homeward Certainly death hath great dependency on the course of man's life and life it self is as frail as the Body which it animates Augustus Caesar accounted that to be the best death which is quick and unexpected and which beats not at our doors by any painful sickness So often as he heard of a man that had a quick passage with little sense of pain he wished for himself that Euthanafie While he lived he used to set himself between his two friends Groans and Tears When he died he called for his Looking-glass commanded to have his Hair and Beard kembed his reviled Cheeks smoothed up Then asking his Friends if he acted his part well when they answered Yes why then says he do you not all clap your hands for me Despair in dying may as well arise from weakness of Nature as from trouble of Mind But by neither of these can he be prejudiced that hath lived well Raving and other strange Passions are many times rather the effect of the Disease than coming from the mind For upon Death's approaches choler fuming to the Brain will cause distempers in the most patient Soul In these cases the fairest and truest judgment to be made is that sins of sickness occasioned by violence of Disease in a patient man are but sins of infirmity and not to be taken as ill signs or presages A Son of so many Tears cannot but be saved I will not despair in respect of that man's impatient dying whom the Worm of Conscience had not devoured living Seldom any enter into Glory with ease yet the Jews say of Moses His soul was sucked out of his mouth with a kiss David in this case the better to make his way prayed and cried Lord spare me a little O spare me that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more Indeed to Ezekias some Years of Days were lent But we are not worthy of that favour we must not expect that God will bring back the shadow of degrees when once it is gone down in the Dial of Ahaz we must time it as we may and be content to live and die at uncertainties Therefore as a sick man hearkens to the Clock so let us watch Death For sudden coming of Death finding a weak soul unprepared makes it desperate and leaves it miserable Death approaching what our last Thoughts should be SEneca saith the last day judgeth all the precedent The last is the best dying words are weightiest and make deepest impressions Our last thoughts are readiest to spend themselves upon somewhat that we loved best while we lived The soul it self when it is entring into glory breaths Divine things At this time a good man's tongue is in his breast not in his mouth his words are then so pithy and so pectoral that he cries O Lord Jesus take thine own into thy own custody Anatomists say there are strings in a man's tongue which go to his heart when these break Man speaks his heart Oh that they were wise said Moses and would understand and fore-see their latter end When he was dying Christs last words in the Bible
fault ought not to have lessened my Love to which both Nature and Religion did strongly oblige me Had he loved me but coldly and faintly as divers do yet I ought to have warmed his affection with the fervency of mine But oh he dearly loved he cordially affected me and yet his love and his affection could not prolong his life Had my Brother and I been Idolaters together I might have believed that that sin had slain my Brother But as our Love was constant so our Religion was undefiled yea the strength of our Love was founded on the purity of our Religion and yet he hath payed his debt to Nature The Lord did threaten to set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and that they should fight every one against his Brother Is 19. 2. Those Egyptians were heathens and Enemies to the Church but my Brother and I were united both in the Profession and the Love of Christianity and yet through our sins I fear that even we destroy each other My sins are partly punished in his death and his death hath given me so deep a wound that peradventure I shall not long survive him Our love was so entire that methink's I could willingly sleep with him in his Grave for while I live my breast is but his walking monument Such love as ours did not always possess the hearts of some as nearly allyed which maketh me sigh to think that ever there were any which had layen successively in the self same womb and yet did not joyn in the unity of affection Methinks the complaint of the Church may be part of an Elegy upon my deceased brother for with her I may cry out and that justly too The good man is perished out of the earth But neither can I say that he was a Jew in supplanting or an enemy to the Church lying in wait for blood What secret Devil did guide both the tongue and the hand of Joab when under the colour of friendship he asked Amasa Art thou in health my brother And took him by the beard with the right hand to kiss him 2. Sam. 20. 9. and yet even at that time smote him with his sword in the fifth ribb and shed out his bowels to the ground that he died v. 10. What cursed fiend did guide the tongue of that wicked miscreant whom the Psalmist chargeth thus and saith Thou sittest and speaketh against thy brother thou slanderest thine own mothers son Psal 50. 20. Had my brother either supplanted me or hunted me with a net or sought to slay me or slandered me with his tongue then I might peradventure have saved this great expence of my Tears But he was always so good a Brother that I could never justly charge him with the least discourtesie O no we took sweet Counsel together and walked unto the House of God in company Psal 55. 14. I may say of him as Nehemiah spake of Hanani the Ruler of the Pallace He was a faithful man and feared God above many Neh. 7. 2. His blood was near to me but his Soul was nearer His person I loved as I was prompted to it by Nature But his inner man I more zealously affected to which I was allured by his gracious endowments yet neither his Counsel nor his society nor his fidelity nor his Religion could preserve him from the sentence of a temporal death O what would I not do to call him back again What would I not give to have him restored to life again But all that I can either do or give cannot perswade his Soul to return back to its Prison Well then seeing that I cannot fetch him from the Grave I will yet send up my sighs towards the place where he is blessed This I may do without any check either of reason or religion It was a curse which God did inflict upon Jehojakim for his sins That they should not lament for him saying Aâ— my Brother Jer. 22. 17 18. But on the contrary when Deborah though she was but Rebekah's Nurse was buried beneath Bethel under an Oak the name of it was called Allon-Bachuth the Oak of weeping Gen. 35. 8. When the enemies of David were visited by sickness he behaved himself as though they had been his Friends or his Brethren Yea he bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his Mother Ps 35. 14. But he who now is dead was not my enemy but my friend yea and no common friend but a Brother yea and not a Brother in the flesh so much as in affection even as dear as a Mother Why then should I not sorrow for the loss of such a Brother I will grieve I will lament when I remember the Love and the courtesies which he shewed unto me and I will speak in the language of the Church to Christ and say O thou that wert my Brother that sucked the breasts of my Mother when I should find thee without I would kiss thee yet I should not be despised Cant. 8. 1. I will lament him as David did Saul and Jonathan and say the Beauty of Israel is dead 2 Sam. 1 19. he was lovely and pleasant in his life ver 23. I am distressed for thee my Brother very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of Women v. 26. But what advantage to the dead are the tears of the living Can my sighs inspire life into his bosom Can a draught of my tears fetch him back again to life O no 't is this 't is this therefore that doth heighten and increase my sorrows even that my tears cannot recover him whom I lament But cease fond woman cease thy sobbs and cryes of discontent By the extremity of thy passion thou mayest hasten to his Grave yet if thou murderest thy self with excessive sorrow thy soul may be deprived of the society of his 'T is true indeed 't is most true Little can I expect to come to heaven if I violently force my self from the earth Why then do I take on as if I either suspected his happiness or doubted of following him What comfort can it bring to his body of earth to have it cabined in the Grave with his dispersing ashes The dust of both of us may mix in the vault and yet no joy arise to our sensless ashes If his earth was that which drew mine affection I see my fondness in the corruption of that Earth but if his gracious soul was the object of my love I must strive to come where that surviveth To heaven he 's gone and to heaven I 'll hasten and because I will go the surest way I will walk in those paths which faith and patience shall direct me in I will no more disturb the peace of my mind since that cannot help me to the company of him Weep indeed I do I am enforced unto it 't is the law of nature 't is an act of necessity I cannot avoid it Yet though I weep I will labour for content
room for his whole Posterity in the time to come Give me a possession a burying-place Here is the end why he would have this Possession A strange kind of Possession Behold Abraham see how he beginneth to posâ—ess the World by no Land Pasture or earable Lordship The first thing is a Grave So every Christian must make his Resolution The first Houâ—hold-stuff that ever Seleâ—cus bought in Babylon was Sepulchre-stone a Stone to lay upon him when â—â— was dead that he kept in his Garden Give me a Burying Place to Bury my Dead Behold he calleth here Sarah his Dead he calleth her not Wife though it is said after in the Text that Abraham buried Sarah his Wife yet that is in repesct of the time of her life when they lived together and in respect of the former Society and Converse they had but now he speaks to the point she is no more his Wife but his Dead My Dead Yet notwithstanding though she was not Abraham's Wife yet she was Abraham's Dead This must teach a Man after he is freed by remaining for the Dead A Man is bound to lament and sorrow for his Dead as Abraham did here to love the Memory of the Dead to speak well of the Dead when occasion serveth to commend them for their Vertues to use the Friends of the Dead as far as is in their power with all Courtesie to be good to the Children of the Dead to be good to all that come of that Issue for their sakes Let me bury my Dead Lastly it followeth why he would bury his Dead Out of my sight A strange thing Out of my sight The best Friend in the world cannot endure the sight of a dead Body it is a gastly sight especially when it cometh to that dissolution that the parts begin to have an evil savour and smell as all have when they are Dead then to keep themselves in Life and Health it is necessary to avoid them to bury their Dead out of their sight And what so sweet a sight once to blessed Abraham as Sarah What so sweet a spectacle to the World as Sarah The great Kings of the World set her as a Parragon and she came no where but her Beauty enamoured them she was a sweet prospect in all Eyes every Man gaz'd on her with great content to see the Beauty of God as in so many lines marked out in the face of Sarah Yet now she is odious every Eye that looked upon her before now winks and cannot endure to look upon her she must be taken out of sight Oh bethink your selves of this you that take pride in this frail Flesh that prank up your selves to make you Graceful in every Eye you that study to please the Beholders you that are the great Minions of the World you that when Age beginneth to purle your Faces begin to redeem your selves with Paintings think of this Mother Sarah the beautifullest Woman in the World is loathsome to her Husband her sweetest Friend when once she is dead The Funeral Procession SERMON VI. ECCLES 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the streets ALthough I might in the Kings King Solomon's name command yet I will rather in the Preachers his other style humbly entreat your religious Attention to the last Scene and Catastrophe of Man's Life consisting of two Acts and those very short 1. The Dead's Pass he goeth c. 2. The Mourners March they go about c. Little Children newly born take in their first Breath with a sigh and come crying into the World assoon as they open their Eyes they shed Tears to help fill up the Vale of Tears into which they were then brought and shall be after a short time carried out with a stream of them running from the Eyes of all their Friends And if the Prologue and Epilogue be no better what shall we judge of the Scenes and Acts of the Life of Man they yield so deep springs of Tears and such store of Arguments against our abode in this World that many reading them in the Books of Hegesiâ—s the Platonick presently brake the Prison of their Body and leaped out of the World into the Grave others concluded with Silenus Optimum non nasci proximum quam primum mori that it was simply best never to be born the next to it to die out of hand and give the World our salve and take our vale at once The dead go directly to their long home the living fetch a compass and round about the termini of which their motions shall be the bounds of my Discourse at this present Old Men are a kind of Antipodes to young Men it is evening with them when it is morning with these it is Autumn in their Bodies when it is Spring in these The Spring of the year to decrepit old men is as the Fall Summer is Winter to them and Winter death it is no pleasure to them to see the Almond-tree flourish which is the Prognosticatour of the Spring or the Grashopper leap and sing the Preludium of Summer for they now mind not the Almond-tree but the Cipress nor think of the Grashopper but of the Worm because they are far on in their way to their long home and the mourners are already in the streets marshalling as it were their Troops and setting all in equipage for their Funeral no dilectable objects affect their dull and dying Senses but are rather grievous unto them desire faileth because Man goeth to his long home that is it doth in the best and should in all for what a preposterous thing were it for a Man that hath one foot already in the Grave and is drawing the other after to desire to cut a cross Gaper and dance the Morrice or for him that is near his eternal Mansion-house to hanker by the way and feast and revel it in an Inne By long home according to the Chaldee Paraphrase is here meant the Grave or the place where our Bodies or to speak more properly our Remains are bestowed and abide till the time of the Restitution of all things the place where all meet who lived together the rendevouze of all our deceased Friends Allies and Kindred even as far as Adam this home may be called a long home in comparison of our short homes from which we remove daily these Houses we change at pleasure that we cannot there our Flessi or our Bones or at least our Ashes or Dust shall be kept in some place of the Earth or Sea till the Heavens shall be no more Job 14. 12. I answer By Mourners are here meant all that attend the Corps to the Funeral whether they mourn in truth or for fashion and they are said here to go about the Streets either for the reason alledged by Bonaventure quia predolore quiescere nequiunt because they cannot rest for Hearts Grief and Sorrow or they go about the Streets to call company to the Funeral
or because they fetch their compass that they might make a more solemn Procession to the Church or Sepulchre Among the Romans the Friends of the deceased hired certain Women whom they called Prefiâ—â—â— to lament over their dead for the most part among the Jews this sad task was put upon Widows for they took it upon themselves as the words of the Prophet imply and there were no VVidows to make lamentation and of the Evangelist also Acts 9. 39. and the Widows stood by weeping for Dorcas and indeed Widows are very proper for this imployment When a Pot of water is full to the Brim a little motion makes it run over Widows that are Widows indeed and have lost in their Husbands all the Joy and Comfort of their Life have their Eyes brim full of Tears and therefore most easily they over flow There are but Three things appertaining to Man here 1. Life 2. Death 3. Burial And see they are all Three in the Text. 1. Man goeth there is his Life 2. To his long home there is his Death 3. And the Mourners go about the Streets there is his Burial described by Pariphrasis And so I am upon the first Stage The Doctrine Man's Life is a Voyage his Death the term or period of this Voyage his Grave his home and Mourners his Attendance The Hour-Glass is running whether the Preacher proceeds or makes a pawse and the Ship is sayling whither it is bound when we sleep in our Cabbine so whether we wake or sleep move or rest be busie or idle mind it or mind it not we walk on toward our long home We are expiring and dying from the running of the first Sand in the Hour-glass of our life to the last from the moment we receive Breath to the moment that we breath out our last gasp Thus the Man in my Text goeth or rather runneth still in his natural Course that is every Man I need not direct any Man in his Natural Course from Life to Death every Man knows it and whether he knowes it or no he shall accomplish it the Spiritual Course is more considerable which is itinerarium ad Deum a Journal to Eternity a Progress from Earth to Heaven this Progress a Man begins at his Regeneration and in part endeth in his Dissolution by Death but wholly and fully after his Resurrection the way here is Christ the viaticum the blessed Sacraments the light the Scriptures the guides the Ministers of the Word the Thieves that lie in wait to rob us of our Spiritual Treasure the Divels our convoy the Angels our stages several vertues and degrees of Perfection the City to which we bend our course Jerusalem that is above wherein are many Mansions or eternal houses I am now come though long first to Man's long home which cannot be described in a short time and therefore I leap into my last stage which as you may remember was The Application of the Text to this sad Occasion I must now use in the Application of my Text a method direct contrary to that which I followed in my Explication for therein first I shewed you how the natural Man goeth to his long and the Spiritual to his eternal home and after how and why and what sort of Mourners went about the Screets lamenting the deceased but now I am to speak of the Mourners who have already finished their circular motion and then of the direct motion of the Man the man of quality the man of worth the Man of estate and credit who is already arrived at his long Lete and now entring into his long home Touching the Mourners I cannot but take notice of their number and quality the number is great we see yet we see not all who yet are the truest Mourners pouring out their Souls to God with tears in their private Closets Illa dolâ—t vere quae sine teste dolet Her portion of sorrow like Benyamins is five times more than any others whose loss of a Husband and such a Husband is invaluable Secondly the quality of the Mourners is not â—lightly to be passed by debeter iis religiosa mora for not only great store of the Gentry and Commons but some alâ—o of the Nobility the chief Officers of the Crown and Peers of the Realm not Religion only and Learning but Honour and Justice also hath put on Blacks for him thereby testifying to all men their joint-respect to him and miss of him Let them who have lived in credit die in honour let them who in their life time did many good Offices to the dead after they are dead receive the like Offices from the living Out of which number envy it self cannot exempt our deceased Brother Of whose natural parts perfected by Art and Learning and his moral much improved by Grace I shall say nothing by way of Amplification but this that nothing can be said of them by way of Amplification All Rhetorical Exaggeration will prove a diminution of them In sum he was a most provident Housholder loving Husband indulgent Father kind Landlord and liberal Patron The Night before he changed this Life for a better after an humble Confession of his Sins ingeneral and a particular Profession of the Articles of his Belief in which he had lived and now was resolved to die he added I renounce all Popish Superstition all Mans Merits trusting only upon the Merits of the Death and Passion of my Saviour and whosoever trusteth on any other shall find when he is dying if not before that he leaneth upon broken Reeds Here after the Benediction of his Wife and Children being required by me to ease his mind and declare if any thing â—ay heavy upon his Conscience he answered nothing he thanked God He besought all to pray for him and himself prayed most servently that God would enable him patiently to abide his good will and pleasure and to go through this last and greatest work of saith and Patience and the Pangs of Death soon after coming upon him he fixed his Eyes on Heaven from whence came his help and to the last gasp lifted up his hand as it were to lay hold on that Crown of Righteousness which Christ reacheth out to all his Children who hold out the good â—ight of Faith to the end Earth to Earth and Dust to Dust SERMON VII GEN. iii. 19. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return THE Remembrance of Death among other Remembrances is as Bread amongst other Meaâ—s howbeit it is more necessary for the poor thirsty Soul than Bread for the hungry Body for a Man may live many Days without Bread but the Soul cannot do so without the remembrance of Death which like that Serpent Regulus by no Charms can be charmed And it is the general Opinion of the best and most Holy Writers That the most perfect Life is a codtinual Meditation of Death When our blessed Saviour said If any man will follow me let him deny himself and take up
his Cross daily Commanded not that we should bear upon our Backs that heavy burthen of the Wooden-Cross but that we should always set Death before our Eyes making that of the ever blessed Apostle St Paul to be our impress I die daily In the Second Book of Kings it is reckoned that the good King Josias did cleanse the People from their Altars Groves and high Places where innumerable Idolatries daily encreased And to amend this ill he placed there in their stead Bones Skulls and Ashes of dead Men. Whose Judgment herein was very discreet for from Man's forgetting of his Beginning and his End arise his Idolatries and so reviving by those Bones the remembrance of what they were before and what they shall be hereafter he did make them amend that mischief Very many nay numberless are those Men which adore the Nobleness of their Linage and out of a desire that they have to make good their Descent and beginning they multiply Coâ—ts one upon another hang up Escutcheons Blazon forth their Arms tell vou very large Histories of their Pedigrees and Genealogies and many â—mâ—s most of them meer Lyes and Fables The good Prophet Ezekâ—el â—â—d represent these unto us in those Twentâ— five young Men which were Besotred and 〈…〉 â—â— beholding the labouring Sun that glorious 〈…〉 and vast Eye of all the World whose gâ—… upon the Waters and hatched in Six Days all the World which by way of Exposition signifieth the adoring of the Glory of their Birth But leaving these to themselves as silly Fools who glory in the Gold that glisters God Almighty comes here unto old Adam with a 〈…〉 of Death and reacheth him another Lesson saying Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return The end ever holds a correspondence with its beginning Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and naked shall I return The Rivers come from the Sea and thither again they return and so doth the labouring Sun from the East and thither it retires again That Image of Gold Silver Brass and Iron that had its Feet of Earth must in the end turn to dust Baâ—ak having asked Where are the Princes of the Nations makes answer himself and saith The earth hath swallowed them up all Now to comment upon this same place we may make the like question and give the very self-same Answer Nonne omnia Pulvis nonne Fabula nonne in paucis ossibus memoria eorum conservatur The very greatest and famousest of us all have been are and shall be but dust and there is no Memorial to be left of us but a few rotten and stinking Bones But to proceed because in Preaching Plainness is ever counted the best Eloquence In these words as they offer up themselves unto our consideration you may with me as they naturally arise from the express words in my Text observe these two regardable Circumstances First How these Mortal Bodies of ours are said to be Dust And then secondly How they shall return to Mother-Earth from whence they came Now of these two in their due order severally And first of the First and that is How we are said to be Dust Now as for the Walls of Flesh wherein the Soul doth seem to be immur'd before the Restauration it is nothing but an Elemental Composition and a Fabrick that may fall to Ashes All Flesh is Grass is not only Metaphorically but Literally trâ—e for all those Creatures we behold are but the Herbs of the Field digested into Flesh in them or more remotely Carnified in our selves Nay further we are what we all abhor Anthropophagi Cannibales Devourers not only of Men but of our selves and that not in Allegory but a positive Truth for all this huge Mass of Flesh which we behold came in at our Mouths yea this Frame which we look upon hath been upon our Trenchers In brief we have devoured ourselves Man is such a frail sorry and base Creature that the good Prophet Jeremy calls him to his own Face thrice Earth at one Breath saying O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord Jer 22. 29. Man is Earth by Procreation Sustentation and by Corruption First He is Earth by Procreation for the first Man is called Adam that is red Earth Of the dust of the Earth made he Man Gen. 2. 7. The Patriarch Abraham acknowledging the baseness of his beginning said unto the Lord I am but dust and ashes Gen. 18. 27. Now Almighty God the Creator of all things made this Earth of which he made Man of nothing according to the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth He made not this Heaven and Earth of another Heaven and Earth but he Created both as having nothing but nothing whereby and wherewith to build this goodly Frame and so consequently proud Man in respect of his Materials is brought unto nothing And therefore our Princely Prophet David says Psalm 144. 4. That Man is like a thing of nought Yea and to confirm this the better St. Paul that ever blessed Apostle in his Epistle to the Galaâ—ians says If any Man seem to himself that he is something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself in his imagination Gal. 6. 3. Adam begat Cain and Abel Gen. 4. Cain signifieth Possession Abel Mourning or Vanity to teach us that Possessions are but Vanity and vexation of Spirit yea Vanity of Vanities all vanity Eccles 1. 2. And as Adam begat Sons like to himself so his Sons also Sons like to themselves of a loathsom Excrement carried in those Members of the Body which are least honourable brought forth into the World with intollerable Pain so vile and so soul that I shall spare to speak wanting Epithites whereby to express my self only give me leave to Cry out with our Princely Prophet David saying What is Man O God that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him or with St. Paul O Man what art thou who pleadest against God As if he should have said as Cyprian said once to Demetrius Consider how base thou art in respect of God even as Clay in the hand of the Potter and then I think thou wilt not enter into dispute with thy Creator That any Man is miserable let it suffice him that he is a Man that is Infelicitatis tabula nec non Calamitatis fabula a Map of Miseries and as it were the Table of Troy whomsoever thou seest to be miserable thou maiest without all doubt conclude he is a Man and therefore the first Voice uttered by the new-born Babe is Crying hereby Prophecying that he is come into a World full of Care and Grief Crying and taking it grievously to heart because he is a Man Blushing because he is Naked Weeping and wailing because he is born into a most wicked and miserable World and murmuring because indued but with a dull Genius and made up of so base matter which every Disease like a Storm is ready to totter down God Almighty Created Adam
of the Years but Man is meerly a Tenant at will is put out of Possession at less than an Hours warning Wherefore now while it is said to day set your Houses in order seeing that you must die and not lâ—vâ— It is not sufficient at the last Hour of Death to say Lord have mercy on me or Lord into thy hands I commend my Soul But even in all our Life-time yea and especially in our youth we must strive ever to set our Houses in order for we shall die and not live Samson was very strong Solomon very wise and Methusalem lived many years yet at last they with many more were brought to Mother Earth If it seem pleasant unto you at the present to let your rotten and ruinous Houses stand out of order yet with all remember what the Prophet saith The day of Destruction is at hand and the times of perdition make haste to come on Art thou a young Man in the April of thine Age and hast thou thy Breasts full of Millâ— and doth thy Bones run full of Marrow as Job speaks and thereupon dost promise to thy self length of days yet thou must know also that a man even at the highest pitch of health when he hath that same Fencer-like kind of strength is nearest danger in the Judgment of the best Physicians remember with all that observation of Seneca Young Men saith he have Death behind them Old Men have Death before them and all men have Death not far from them we may in a manner complain already that the great God of Battle threatens an utter ruin to all the World the Earth hath trembled the Lights of Heaven have been often darkned Rebellions have been raised Treasons have not long since been practised Plagues of late have been dispersed Winds have blustered Waters have raged and what wants there now but those two Arrows of God even Sword and Fire from Heaven for us to be consumed Is it now think you a time to buy to sell to eat to drink and to live securely in sin as they did in the days of Noah and think of nothing else is it now a time to say unto Almighty God as the Nigard doth unto his Neighbour come again to me to morrow as that drousie Sluggard doth Prov. 6. 10. Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little foulding of the hands to sleep The foolish Virgins supposed that the Bridegroom would not have come like an Owl or a Batt in the night there is time enough said they what needs all this haste but poor Fools they were excluded Oh! I cannot forbear my very Heart even bleeds within me to think of it yea all the faculties of my Soul and Body are strucken with horrour and amazement while I declare unto you how that many Thousands now are doubtless in Hell who purposed in time to have set their Houses in order but being prevented by Death are for ever condemned O here I could heartily wish with Jeremy that I had in the Wilderness a Cottage Yeâ— I could wish with Job that I were a Brother to the Dragons and a Companion to the Ostriches whilst I think of that wish I am now uttering nay I could willingly desire with the Princely Prophet David that my Heart were full of Water and that mine Eyes were a Fountain of tears that I might weep Day and Night for the too too common Sins of this our Age in every kind Now you are in your preparations for Eternity and therefore had need to be very watchful over your selves to see that you set your Houses in order for you shall die and not live And this brings me now unto the very last thing observable in my Text and that is of the reason Negative and shalt not live set thy House c. Chrysostom prying into the base Nature of Man and finding him ever out of order teacheth him a seven-fold consideration of himself First What he is by nature what he is in himself Dust and Ashes Gen. 18. 2. Secondly What is within him much sin Thirdly What is before him a burning Lakâ— which is spoken of Isai 30. 33. Fourthly What is above him an offended Justice Deut. 32. 16. Fifthly What is against him Satan and Sin two notorious and deadly Eâ—… Sixthly What is before him 〈…〉 and worldly vanities And then seventhly and lastly He desires man seriously to consider what is behind him inâ—â—llable Death for semel aut bis morimur omnes Some once some twice we must all die and not live You cannot like Enocâ— Hâ—b 11. â—5 be translated but must suffer Death as well as other Men being common to all Whatsoever thou dost affect whatsoever thou dost project so do and so project all at once who for any thing thou knowest may at this very present depart out of this Life Hypocrates although he could not cure till Death came upon him Heraclitus who writ many natural Tracts concerning the last and general consolation of the World could not find out a Remedy or a Medicine for his Distemper but died out of hand Thus you may see how that God spares none but sends one thing or other to bring us to our long home And thus far concerning the Death of the Body shall suffice which was the Death good King Hezekiah was forewarned of Wherefore now I shall but only speak a word or two of the Soul and likewise of the Death of the Soul and Body and so conclude First as there is a Natural Death viz. the Death of the Body so likewise there is a Spiritual Death viz. of the Soul when it is deprived of those Graces which formerly God did bestow upon it for as the Soul is the light and life of the Body even so Almighty God is the light and life of the Soul When he takes his holy Spirit from us then we walk in the shadow of Death this Death is an ill Fruit of Sin therefore let us set our Houses in order But secondly As there is a natural Death and a spiritual Death so likewise there is an eternal Death called in the Ornament of Grace the second Death This Death as well as the Death of the poor Soul is lamented by God Esay 59. 2. As I live saith the Lord I desire not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he may turn from his Wickedness and live I might now likewise add a fourth Death and that is a civil Death an undoing of our Credit and honest Reputation which many Men die but this I shall leave to your consideration and so conclude O my dearly beloved Friends consider what you are all by nature What is within you What is above you What is below you What is against you What is before you What is behind you and that is infallible Death For here is not one here amongst you be he never so strong never so healthly but that within the Revolution of a few years shall be brought in spight of his
unto all men The Lord is at hand Verse 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Verse 7. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Verse 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue and if there be any praise think on these things Verse 9. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do so I have received them from Christ those things do and follow And the God of Peace shall be with you THE EJACULATION GOOD Lord let our Souls be filled with breathings and pantings after Grace and Glory Let us be ever willing with St. Paul to depart and to be with Christ Let us dayly look and long to be in Heaven where we shall sit down in the same Throne with our blessed and glorious Redeemer where there will be no more sinning nor sighing nor more weeping for dead and dying Friends Let us long long to be there where time will be no more but all will be swallowed up in an endless Eternity of joy and delight Lord let us often ponder upon the blessed state above for certainly one deep and serious consideration of the never fading Glory of the other world is enough to wing our hearts with earnest desires as we have heard it did thy Holy Saints and Martyrs to depart and leave this vain world to be with Christ And good Lord let us when we leave a weeping House and the many instances of our dearest Friends going so often to the Grave before us shew that we must quickly follow be received into that Celestial Mantion above which will prove an eternal House of Joy The Eye that hath seen him shall see him no more SERMON XI Upon ACTS 20. 38. Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake That they should see his Face no more IN the latter part of this Chapter you have the Declaration of two things First You have declared the Carriage of the Apostle Paul that was he Preach'd while he was at the Church of Ephesus Secondly You have declared the Character of the Church of Ephesus when they were parting with this Blessed Preacher in the words that I have read and the verse before or the two last verses and it was full of Love and manifested in three things 1. They fell upon his Neck and kissed him that 's the close of the 3â— verse 2. They accompanied him unto the Ship when he was to launch into the Ocean They went with him as far as they could as some of them it may be will to the very edge of Eternity 3. They shew'd to him their Love by their Weeping and Sorrowing at parting They cannot part with dry Eyes They sorrowed most of all especially for this that they should see his Face no more It was not so much that Paul was to go from them but that they should see his Face no more From this practice of this Church I would lay down this Doctrine That it is the property and practice of the Saints and People of God to be sorrowful and affected at the final parting with their Pastors and Teachers This was that that most of all cut their Hearts That they should see his Face no more That Patriarch Jacob that wrestled and prevailed when he came to die as you read in Gen 49. and the last verse That he pull'd up his Feet into the Bed and he 's goone Now see what a Mourning there was for him in Gen. 50. 1. Joseph fell upon his Fathers Face and kissed him and verse 3. And the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days here was a mourning for Jacob and verse 10. They came to the Threshing floor of Atad which is beyond Jordan and there they Mourned with a great and very sore Lamentation And made a Mourning for his Father seven daies The young Prophet in the 1 Kings 13. who without doubt in the main was Faithful to God though seduced out of his way and out of his Life by an old Prophet whereby a Lion was appointed by God to destroy him but see now how the old Prophet was affected with it as soon as he hears it causeth the Ass to be Sadled and goes and brings the Carcase home to the City to Mourn and to Bury him and laid him in his own Grave in the 30. verse and brings all to Mourn over him and charges his Sons that when â—e was dead that they Bury him in the same Sepulchre where the Man of God was and lay his Bones besides his Bones I shall now instance in the New Testament it was so with them of Ephesas when they parted with Paul They should see his Face no more He had been such a Preacher that they could not part with him without Tears or with dry Eyes Devout Men also carried Stephen to his Burial and made great Lamentation over him When Christ was carrying to be put to Death there followed him a great multitude of People and Women which also bewailed and lamented him There was great lamentation Oh they could not part with Jesus Christ without lamenting That they should see his Face no more But it will be here objected in the next verse that Jesus Christ in Luke 23. 28. turn'd to those Women that wailed and wept and said Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but for your selves That therefore there ought not to be weeping or lamenting for the departure of any Eminent Saint seeing he forbids it for himself it argues indeed we should not weep for them but for the want of them which is ours Why should those that are Hearers be deeply affected at the final departure of Holy Ministers I answer This arises from the love that is between them There is a mutual Love between a Faithful Preacher and a Sincere Hearer Where there is Love there is Mourning in the absence of it It 's said that Israel loved Joseph more than all his Children and therefore when News came to Jacob that Joseph was not Oh! saith Jacob ver â—5 I will go down into the Grave unto my Son mourning So David lamented for Absolon Oh Absolon my Son my Son Absolon and David lamented exceedingly for Jonathan in that 1 Kings I am distressed for thee my Brother Jonathan if you love your Preachers so as it s said of them that could pull out their Eyes for them while living you will even weep out your Eyes for them now dead I could tell you of a thing that I have lookt upon as a Piece of Prophesie it was Printed and Writ Ten Years before the Fire of London and it was this London look to it what Heaven 's a doing Thy Flames are coming
Bosom from this Vail of Tears to the Kingdom of Glory Moreover as Death helps us to our Rest so it is our Rest Why should we fear it The Scripture terms it but a taking away of the Soul to Peace a sweet Sleep of the Body Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and the Patriarchs are fallen asleep St. Stephen fell asleep Our Burying-places are but Dormitories Sleeping-places The Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come and he shall enter into Peace they shall rest in their Beds Such a Blessed Rest have the Righteous in Death as our Saviour wept because his Friend Lazarus was to be deprived of it it is both the Observation of an Ancient Father and the Resolution of an Ancient Council concerning Christs weeping over Lazarus John 11. 35. Doluit Lazarum non dormientem sed resurgentem Christ did not weep because Lazaras was dead and taken out of the World but because he was to return from the Grave into a Troublesome World after he was gone to his Rest It may be for the same Reason the Thracians of old used to lament at the Birth of their Children but rejoice at their Funeral The time will come that we must part with our Isaac's our Benjamin's nearest Friends and dearest Comforts Then remember my Text if they die in the Lord take no care for them they are Blessed they are at their Rest But some will say Shall we meet with our Friends again departed in the Faith Yes without peradventure if we walk in ways of Obedience to the end It was David's Comfort upon the death of his Child While the Child was living he fasted and wept and laâ— upon the Ground but when it was dead he arose and anointed himself aad eat Bread His Reason is very strong and convincing 1. An impossibility of Recovery He shall not come to me 2. An assured Hope of meeting again in Heaven But I shall go to him He shall not come to me that would be for his loss to part with his Rest in Heaven for a restless condition on Earth but I shall go to him I have not lost him for ever we shall meet again as comfortably as Jacob and Joseph met in Egypt meet again in Heaven and never part Now you know it never troubles us to see the Sun set because we know it will rise again in the Morning it never troubles us to part with a Friend when he goes to Bed because we hope to see him again in the Morning Beloved the Death of a Friend is but like the setting of the Sun or the uncloathing of a Man when he goes to Red there will be a glorious appearing in the Morning of the Resurrection and therefore St. Paul condemns immoderate sorrow for the dead I would not have you sorrow as those that have no hope Nature will be sorrowful but let Grace moderate the sorrow and keep it within the bounds of hope and the ground of hope is set down If ye believe that Jesus died and is risen again even so also them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is true the Scripture mention some that shall not die as they that shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ to Judgment St. Paul tells us in plain terms we shall not all sleep but we shall be changed The meaning is they shall not so sleep as to continue in the state of the dead but be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye yet such a change as they shall have a dissolution and in the same moment a redintegration a real Death and a real Resurrection though no sleeping in the Grave of Corruption You see one Generation passing and another Generation coming one Friend and Neighbour drops into the Grave after another and when your turn shall be you know not This you may be assured of Death will come certainly and it may be speedily it may be suddenly What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death Psal 89. 48. Now I beseech you embrace and improve these few directions in order to a Pious Life and a Peaceable Death First if you would live to the Lord and die in the Lord labour for exemplary purity of Life Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom but he that doth the Will of the Father Secondly If you would live to the Lord and die in the Lord give the World a Bill of Divorcement otherwise it will clip your Wings and clog your Souls and hinder your pursuit of Heaven there is nothing in all the World that is worthy of your Affections nothing but what is transitory and unsatisfactory and therefore look on it and pass away Gregory Nazianzen speaks of a Land which had abundance of Curious Flowers in it but no Corn for Bread to satisfie the Peoples Hunger the World is very like that Land here are many Flowers which may please our Sences and our Phantasies but here is no Corn for Bread no substantial satisfying Comforts As Death should be the Subject of your Meditation so Heaven the Center of your Affections Richard the First sometimes King of England gave charge that his Bowels should be Buried at Charron but his Heart at Roan the Faithful City the City of his Love Truely the World deserves but our waste parts we may Bury our Bowels in the Earth but our Hearts should be laid up in Heaven the Royal City the New Jerusalem That so after a troublesome Life we may have a peaceable Death and after Death a glorious Reward of Everlasting Rest in Heaven according to this voice from Heaven in the Text. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labâ—urs and their Works follow them I have now done with the Text and now come to address my self unto that sad occasion which hath given my present Discourse this Mourning Suit The occasion of our present meeting is to Solemnize the Funeral of our deceased Neighbour and Friend to do our last office to her Body by affording it the benefit of a Christian and Comely Burial Concerning whom I might upon very good and warrantable Grounds enlarge my Discourse in the description of the blessedness both of her Life and Death but as the Orator said Quid opus est verbis What need is there of words when her deeds are so manifest She died the death of Moses he died leisurely God gave him notice of his Journey before-hand for his better preparation Go up to the Mount and die So departed she from the World not before she expected Death not before she provided for Death God was pleased in Mercy to give her warning before she flitted to ring her Passing-bell in her Soul many days before she died and whereas many are flattered with hopes of Life till the very Hour of Death yet she was upon a meditation of Death from the first beginning of her sickness Death was not sudden to her either in
it down for his Preservation as appears by her Swouning at any News might threaten ill to him as if her Soul conceived it but Duty to be Bail for her Husband The Head of the Woman is the Man 1 Cor. 11. 3. so her Husband wore the principality she received influence from him and gave conformity to him But a Vertuous Woman is a Crown to that Head Prov. 12. 14. so she gave safety plenty and honour to her head as Crown may signifie The Heart of her Husband did fasely trust in her she did do him good and not ill all the days of her life Longer she is not obliged Till death us depart was their agreement Death ends her natural Relation and enters her into a Divine which she began here by her Religion Her Religion was not as her Sex Female that is all Face and Tongue but pure and solid not despising the Form but delighting in the Power of Godliness She attired not her Devotion as the Lacedemonians did their Gods according to the several Fashions of each City so to gain Reputation from Man but she persevered in the constant substantials of Religion so to gain Grace and Favour from God To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be Glory and Honour now and for ever Good Night NOW art thou drawing near thy home Heaven is within sight and its Melody almost within hearing thy Lord hath the Curtain in his hand ready to draw it to shew thee all that glory that hitherto he hath been but telling thee of and give thee a Possession of all that which hitherto thou hast enjoyed only in Hopes and Title What dost thou fear and shrug and tremble at Oh my Soul thou peevish froward Creature Shall his Angels stand waiting to convey thy departed Soul home with Songs of Triumph And shall nothing of all this abate thy Fears silence thy Complaints and bring thee to a Chearful Submission Fear not then my Soul but â—oldly throw thy self into his Arms who will certainly keep that safe which thou committest to him But what if I was willing to bid adieu to my Fathers House and leave this World and all its Enjoyments behind me as being sufficiently tired with the Frustrations of a pursued Happiness therein Yet methinks the change I shall pass at Death will be so very great and amazing I fear I shall not bear it To go hence from them I know to a Place and Company I never knew or saw in all my Life to leave my Friends Relations Neighbours with whom I have a long time lived and with whom I have familiarly conversed to go into a Country where I may not meet with one face I know how strangely shall we look on one another What little content do I take in any company on Earth where I meet with shâ—â—ess Will it not be so in Heaven Answ Art thou truly Godly said the pious Wadsworth in his Answer to the Fear of Death and dost thou say thou knowest none in Heaven that is strange Who is he whom you call Father every time you pray what are you born of God united to God by faith and love and hold communion with him and yet not know him Well sayst thou but if I know him it is bâ— very little I never saw him in all my Life 〈…〉 what if thou hast not seen him with thy 〈…〉 eyes yet hast thou not believed in him whom thou hast not seen and rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though thou hast not known him after the Flesh yet thou hast after the Spirit But comfort thy self though thou hast known him but little and that through a vail darkly yet he knoweth thee most perfectly He knows thee by name and separated thee to himself from the Womb and effectually called and justified thee he knows thee by thy name and knows thy dwelling and visiteth thee every morning and is with thee living and will not leave thee dying and when he hath taken thee to himself in the Heavens thou shalt know him as he knows thee that is intimately perfectly But sayst thou if I know in some measure God and his Son the Lord of that City I know no more There are ten thousands of Angels there and I know not one of them and as many Spirits of just men some little acquaintance I had with some of the latter on earth but since arrived thither they are so transfigured so wonderfully changed I shall not know one of them when I see them What if thou knowest not one Angel in all the Heavens is it not enough that many of them may know thee But how do I know that How thou hast been their special Charge ever since thou wast born to Jesus Christ Are they not all ministring Spirits to them that are Heirs of Glory How kindly did an Angel comfort Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when they early came to visit the holy Sepulchre of our Lord How well did he know their Persons and their Business when he said Mat. 28. 5. Fear not I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is risen from the Dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee â—here shall ye see him so as I have told you What Discourse could be more kind friendly and famiâ—iar than this But that thou shouldst think thy self an utter stranger to all the Spirits of the Just is more strange when there may be some of thy near Relations â—here and many of those that thou hast had for many years such sweet Eellowship in the Ordinanâ—es of the Gospel If I shall sit down with Abraâ—am Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom surely I â—hall know them to be such Besides their Natures in Heaven are all perfectâ—y gracious and holy and I shall be like them and â—e shall all know each other to be so and what â—iness can there possible be among such who are â—â—tisfied in each others sincere love and affection â—hou mayst be acquainted with a thousand Saints â— Angels in an hours time as if thou hadst known â—â—em a thousand years And if this be so be not poor Soul amazed at this great change of Company at Death For it is but as dying Doctor Preston said I shall change my Place but not my Company Return therefore to thy Rest Oh my Soul for God will assuredly deal bountifully with thee So that Death will bring a Good-Night to thee here and a good Morrow hereafter The End of The House of Weeping The House of Weeping SERMON I. The certainty of a Dying Hour HEB. 9. v. 27. It is appointed unto Men once to Dye but after this the Judgment Dearly Beloved I Am now about to speak of that which will shortly render me unable to speak and you are now about to hear of that which will also shortly make you uncapable
be perswaded that it is impossible that the Earth should hold down man God commanding it to cast up and therefore though the ship and the ship-master the Wagganer and the Waggan I mean the Soul the governour of the body and the body the receptable of the Soul may be severed and parted for a time by death yet they shall one day meet the one shall return to the other these whom the Almighty hath put assunder these can he joyn again at his pleasure For if he hath done the greater then need we not doubt but that he is able so do the less He which hath made the body of nothing doubtless is of power sufficient to raise it out of the dust at the last day To come then to some use Here then first of all is matrer of great consolation to the Children of God in that the Love will raise them up again to Glory at the last day The consideration whereof may comfort us exceedingly under the Cross For so many are the troubles and afflictions that the Children of God are subject unto in this life that if they did not call to mind and remember that there shall be a Resurrection that a time of refreshing shall come when they shall be freed of these miseries and these tears shall be wiped from their eyes they would never be able to hold out For if the Children of God had hope only in this Life they were of all men most miserable but here is there comfort that though they have their Hell in this life they shall have their Heaven hereafter all which is most lively set forth in this Text. When Rachel had born six sons to Jacob she said God hath endowed me now with an exccllent Dowry now will my husband dwell with me because I have born him six sons Beloved could we not be content to live yea to dye with this sentence which hath born and brought unto us these six places of consolation suerly it is a sentence much to be embraced for it offers exceedingly great comfort unto us Wherefore let us often meditate of it let us often have recourse unto it yea let it be as a Sanctuary or place of refuge for our troubled Souls to fly and resort unto when as we shall be pressed with any miserie or affliction whatsoever The EJACULATION Good Lord if it be true that at the last day the Earth shall Cast up all that ever it received into her cold imbraces and if it be likewise true that all the wicked shall then be doom'd down to Eternal Torment let us then be preparing our selves for that day that we may be able to receive it with joy when it comes and that we may hold up our heads with comfort to think that our Redemption draweth nigh Let not Death find us out of our way because such a surprize would be attended at last with a miserable Resurrection Let our conversation be in Heaven from whence we expect that our Saviour should come that he may change our vile Bodies into the likeness of his own most Glorious Body Good Lord let our hearts and souls be there now where we hope our Bodys and Souls shall be for ever hereafter and let our choicest Affection and chiefest Meditations be set early set and earnestly set upon that state which will be our Eternal State that so we may be everlastingly happy both in body and soul when our bodies shall arise to Judgment at the last day SERMON VII A Glorious Resurrection for them that sleep in Jesus ROM viii xi He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you THese words Beloved are a most comfortable Conclusion shewing and declaring the certainty of the Resurrection of the Bodies of the Saints to an Immortal glorious happy life at the last day wherin we may more particularly note First The Action Quicken Secondly the Object or rather if ye will the Subject that shall be Quickned your mortal Bodis Thirthly the Author or Efficient Cause God deled by an effect the raising up of Christ Fourthly the means whereby God shall quicken them by his Spirit Lastly the Condition of the Persons whose mortal Bodies shall be quickened And they are such as have the Spirit of God dwelling in them as appear by the last words By his Spirit that dwelleth in you The Text thus opened and the sense thereof being made clear and manifest the main Point that offers it self to our considerations is this Doct. That there shall be a Resurrection of the Bodies of the Saints at the last day This for the general And this is a matter very comfortable to the people of God that there shall be a Resurrection Nulla consolatio tanta est quanta mortuorum Resurrectio saith Mr. Gualter There is no consolation of a Christian so great in this life as is the Resurrection of the Dead and therefore Tertullian calls it the Christian's hope and so it is indeed For if in this life only the Christian had hope he were of all Men most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19. Tolle spem Resurrectionis c. resoluta erat observantia nimis pietatis Take away the hope of the Resurrection saith Chrysostome and you take away all care of Piety and Godliness out of the World And indeed what makes the Husbandman to take such pains in tilling manuring and sowing of his ground but the Hope of a joyfull harvest wherein he shall reap the fruits of his labours What makes the Labourer to subject himself to so much pains and labour all the day long but that he hopes for a time of rest wherein he may be refreshed What makes the liberal and charitable Man disperse his wealth unto the Poor but that he looks for a day of payment wherein he shall be sure that what he hath laid out shall be payed him again Prov. 19. 17. But all this is the Resurrection unto the Sants of God For first it is as the Christians Harvest For though he have Sowen in tears all his life time by reason of the continual afflictions thereof yet he shall be sure to reap in joy at the Resurrection And this did animate and encourage them to undergo any torture of the Body rather than they would be subject to the rack of an evil Conscience And this may serve as a strong ground of Comfort unto us if God at any time should call us to suffer for his Name for as yet we have not resisted unto bloud This is an honour that God doth not vouchsafe to all his Saints say this may serve as a notable means to support us in our sufferings that though Tyrants may rage never so much and Persecuters may wrack their malice upon the Bodies of the Saints as they did in the Primitive Church for they cast the Bodies of the Christians to be devoured of wild bests nay they threw them into Rodanus thinking thereby to hinder
their Soâ—â— that had been victors at the Olympick Games at the same time and in the same place presently expir'd Lastly Death has infinite accesses through which he breaks into our Houses Sometimes through the Windows sometimes through the Vaults sometimes through the Copings of the Wall sometimes through the Tyles and if he cannot meet with any Traytors either in the City or in the House I mean the humours of the Body Diseases Catarrhs Pleurisies and the like which the makes use of as Ministers in his Councils He â—tears up the Gates with Gunpowder Fire Water Pestilence Venom nay wild Monsters and Men themselves as bad he leaves no Engines untryed to snatch and force away our Lives Mephiboseth the Son of Saul was slain by Domestick Thieves as he was sleeping at Noon upon his Bed Fulco King of Jerusalem as he was Hunting a Hare fell from his Horle and was trampled to death by his Hoofs gave up the Ghost Josias of all the Kings of Judah David excepted for Piety Sanctimony and Liberality the chief was unexpectedly wounded with an Arrow and died in his Camp The Holy Ludovicus in the 57th year of his Age upon the African Shore in the midst of his Army the Pestilence there raging died of the Distemper Egillus King of the Goths a most excellent Prince was killed by a Mad Bull which the madder people not enduring the seveâ—ity of his Laws had let forth Malcolm the first King of Scotland after many examples of Justice while he was taking cognizance of the Actions of his Subjects by Night was on a sudden suffocated have not many gone well to Bed that have been â—ound dead in the Morning Of necessity the Soul â—â—ght to stand upon its guard Vzza a person of no small Note in Davids Lifeguard when he attempted to stay the shogging Ark as it was carry'd in Triumph to Jerusalem was presently struck from Heaven so that he died by the Ark. The hand of God arm'd a Lion out of a Wood against the Prophet that had eaten contrary to his command The sudden voice of Peter compelled Ananias and Saphira to expiate their Crime by as sudden a death whose Souls the greatest part of Divines believe to be freed from Eternal Punishment thereby But enough of Ancient Examples In the year 1559. Henry the Second King of France was slain in the midst of his Pastimes and Triumphs and in publick Joy of the people For while he Celebrated the Nuptials of his Daughter at Paris in a Tilting the Splinter of a broken Lance flew with that violence and pierced his Eye that he died immediately In the year 1491. Alphonsus the Son of John the Second King of Portugal being about Sixteen years of Age a Prince of great Hopes and Wit 〈◊〉 to Wife Isabella the Daughter of Ferdinand King of Spain whose Down was the Ample Inheritance of her Fathers Kingdoms The Nuptials were Celebrated with the preparations of six hundred Triumphs Every Plays Running Racing Tiâ—ting Banquets So much Plenty so much Luxury that the Horse-boy and Slaves glistered in Tissue But Oh immensâ— Grief hardly the seventh Month had passed wheâ—… the young Prince sporting a Horseback upon thâ—… Banks of Tagus was thrown from his Horse to thâ— ground so that his Scull was broken and 〈…〉 wounded to death He was carried to a Fisheâ—… House scarce big enough to contain him and 〈…〉 of his Followers There he lay down upon a Bed Straw and expired The King flies thither with tâ—… Queen his Mother There they behold the miseâ—â—ble Spectacle their Pomp turn'd into Lamentation the growing Youth of their Son his Vertues Wealth like Flowers on a sudden disrobed by the Northwinds blast and all to be Buried in a miserable Grave O the sudden Whirlwinds of Human Affairs O most precipitate Falls of the most constant things What shall I remember any more Basilius the Emperor was gored to death by a Hart while he was entar gled in a troublesom Bough The ancient Monument in the Camp of Ambrosius near Aeniponâ—us witnesses That a Noble Youth though under Age set Spurs to his Horse to make him leap a Ditch twenty foot broad The Horse took it but the Rider and the Horse fell by a sudden and almost the same kind of death That the Spoils of the Horse and the Garments of the Youth speak to this day But this sudden Fate is common as well to the good as to the bad neither does it argue an unhappy condition of the Soul unless any person in the Act of burning Impiety feel himself struck with the Dart of Divine Vengeance Such was the Exit of Dathan and Abiram whom the gaping Earth miserably swallowed up obstinate in their Rebellion against Moses Such was the End of those Souldiers whom for their irreverence to Elijah Heaven consumed with Balls of Fire Such was the End of the Hebrew whom the Revengers Sword pass'd thorough finding him in the Embraces of the Midianitess turning his Genial into his Funeral Bed So many Pores of the Body so many little doors for Death Death does not shew himself always near yet is he always at hand What is more stupid than to wonder that that should fall out at any time which may happen every day Our Limits are determined where the inexorable necessity of Fate has fix'd them But none of us knows how near they are prefixed So therefore let us form our Minds as if we were at the utmost extremity Let us make no delay Notes upon the first Paragraph DEath has infinite accesses So it is indeed and to what I have said I add It is reported that a certain person dreamt that he was torn by the Jaws of a Lion He rises careless of his Dream goes to Church with his Friends in the way he sees a Lion of Stone gaping that upheld a Pillar then declaring his Dream to his Companions not without Laughter Behold said he this is the Lion that tore me in the Night So saying he thrust his hand into the Lions Jaws crying to the Statue Thou hast thy Enemy now shut thy Jaws and if thou canst bite my hand He had no sooner said the word but he received a deadly wound in that place where he thought he could have no harm For at the bottom of the Lions Mouth lay a Scorpion which no sooner felt his hand but he put sorth his sting and stung the young Man to Death Are Stones thus endued with anger Where then is not Death if Lions of Stone can kill In the same manner died the young Hylas who was kill'd by a Viper that lay hid in the Mouth of a Bears resemblance in Stone What shall I mention the Child kill'd by an â—sicle dropping upon his Head from the Penthouse Of whom Martial laments in the following Verses Where next the Vipsan Pillars stands the Gate From whence the fâ—lling Rain wets Cloak and Hat A Child was passing by when strange to tell Vpon his Throat a frozen drop
there fell Where while the Boy his cruel Fate bemoan`d The tender point straight melted in the wound Would Chance have us adore her lawless will Or tell where Death is not if drops can kill Thus has Death infinite Accesses then nearest when it is least thought of Sect. 20. An Antidote against sudden Death HEre Reader though out of order I will give thee three Prayers as Examples made against sudden Death It is at thy choice every day to make use of one or all cordially and sincerely They are designed so many it being but reason that we should fall three times at the Feet of Christ when we beg so great a Boon For this we must know that in this respect there can be no Man too cautious or too provident The first Prayer MOst Merciful Lord Jesu by thy Tears by thy Agony and Bloody Sweat by thy Death I beseech thee deliver me from sudden and from unexpected Death The second Prayer O Most Gracious Lord Jesu by thy most sharp and ignominious Stripes and Coronation by thy most hitter Cross and Passion by all thy Tender Goodness most humbly I beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased not to permit me to depart out of this Life by a sudden death without receiving my viaticum for Heaven The third Prayer O My most Loving Jesu O my Lord and God by all thy Labours and thy Pains by thy precious Blood by those Sacred Wounds of thine by those thy last Exclamation upon the Cross O my sweetest Jesu my God my God why hast thou forsaken me by that loud cry of thine Father into thy hands I recommend my Spirit most earnestly I beseech thee that thou wilt not take me hence in haste Thy Hands O my Redeemer made me and formed me throughout O do not suddenly cast me headlong Grant me I beseech thee time of Repentance grant me an Exit happy and in thy favour that I may love thee with my whole Mind that I may praise and bless thee to all Eternity Nevertheless O merciful Jesu all things are in thy power nor is there any one who can resist thy will My Life depends upon thy nod that must end when it is thy pleasure Neither do I desire my most gracious God but that my will should be conformable to thine In whatever place at whatever time by whatever Disease thou art pleased to call me home thy will be done All these things I commit to thy Goodness and to thy Divine Providence I except no place or time no sort of Death though never so ignominious This only one thing I beg of thee O Christ my God that I may not die an unexpected and sudden Death Nevertheless not mine but thy will be done If it so pleases thee that I must die a sudden Death I do not repine Let thy will be done in all things O God For I hope and trust through thy great Mercy for the sake of which I make this only Prayer that I shall die in thy favour and grace wherein if I depart not sudden death can separate me from thee For the Just Man though prevented by Death shall be happy There is no Death can be unexpected to him whose Life has been always provident Wherefore if I have not space and time which is only known to thee O God wherein to commend my self to thee behold I do that now and as submissively and as ardently as I am able I send up my Prayer to Heaven to thee Have mercy on me O God according to thy tender loving kindness thy will be done O Lord in Heaven and in Earth into thy hands I commend my Spirit Thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth Let all Created Beings bless and praise thee O God In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me not be confounded for ever Sect. 21. The Days of Mans Life are few and evil HOW old art thou Threescore And how many art thou Seventy And how many art thou Fourscore Ah! my good friends where are your years Where are thy Sixty Where hast thou left thy Seventy Where wilt thou find thy Fourscore Wherefore dost thou number thy lost years Elegantly answered Laelius that Wise Man to a certain person saying I am Sixty years of Age. Thou callest these Sixty answered he which thou hast not Neither what is past nor what is to come is thine We depend upon a point of flying Time and it is the part of a great Man to have been moderate The Egyptian Pharaoh asking the Patriarch Jacob how many are the years of thy Age the old man answered The days of the years of my Pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years few and evil Hear ye O Tantalus`s that thirst after extent of fading Life and know that ye are but Pilgrims not Inhabitants nor are ye Pilgrims for a long Journey neither Your Life is both short and evil Short because perhaps to be ended before this very Hour that we divide with Death No man but must know it to be evil that enjoys it It affords us Brambles sooner than Roses to be trod upon And yet still will ye loyter and delay in these Bushy and Thorny places So forgetful of your Countrey Famous is the Sentence of St. Gregory This Life is the way to Heaven But most of the Travellers are so taken with the pleasantness of the way that they had rather walk slowly than come quick to their Journeys end Oh most miserable Franticks We are taken with Flowers and pick up little glittering Stones but neglect immense and unbounded Treasures We scrape together the filth of the Earth and the froth of Caverns forgettful what great and real Treasures we lose while we labour after such as are false Miserable and vain Creatures What has a Pilgrim to do with Flowers and Pibbles if he return not to his Countrey What matter is it if he leave those behind if he come to his Countrey To labour in this way to be wearied to sweat to endure all inconveniences is to be looked upon as the chiefest point of Gain For thy Countrey will please thee so much the more by how much the more ungrateful thy Exile was Sect. 22. How a Young Man may Die an Old Man AS we may meet with old Men not old Men but Children so we may meet with young Men not young Men but stricken in years Barlaam the Hermit an old Man of Seventy years when Jehosaphat the King asked him how old he was answered Forty five at which when the King admired he reply'd that he had been absent from his Studies Twenty five years as if those years which he had spent upon the Vanity of the World had been quite lost So Similius being Buried in the Cares of the Court and living rather for his Emperors sake than for his own caused this Inscription to be put upon his Tomb. Here lyes Similius an old Man of Seven years of Age. The Book of Samuel relates of Saul that
some standing by him ready to help and assist him How easie is it then to cast in a word by the by how easie is it for him to point or cry to his Friend say this Prayer read this Psalm or that Paragraph Who so hard-hearted as to deny so small a Duty to the Sick So that when a sick person cannot pray with his own he may with anothers Lips And therefore I repeat this again Pray always in Sickness We can never unseasonably have recourse to God Sect. 17. In Pain and at other times what is to be meditated upon what to be done every day A Man that trusts in God though oppressed with Miseries and full of Pain may rightly say this while I breathe I hope and so much always the better the nearer to my end I find my self Seneca has most excellently Philosophized concerning pain No Man saith he can feel excessive pain and long for thus has Nature most favourable to us ordered it that pain should be either tolerable or short For the intense excess of grief finds an end Therefore this is the Comfort of vast pain that thou must of necessity cease to feel it if thou feelest it over-much But this is that which troubles the unskilful in the pains of the Body They are not content with their Souls alone they have still so much Business with the Body And therefore O Sick Person accustom thy self by degrees to wean thy Soul from thy Body and to converse with thy better and more Divine part but with thy Body the frail and weak part no more than needs must And though pain is seldom so constant but that it has some intermission therefore do not think that all Exercise of the Soul is to be omitted when thou lyest sick when thou feelest pain Above all things take care that thy Morning Prayers and thy Evening Examination of thy Conscience as much as in thee lyes may make a due progress If thy Tongue fail thee let thy Mind pray Never begin the Night nor compose thy self to sleep till thou hast examined thy Conscience In the day-time when thy pain-ceases or relaxes take a good Book and there read and weigh every Period every Day set aside a small Hour for Prayer pious Groans and humble Ejaculations so thou wilt believe thy self to have pray'd an Hour in Heaven At the beginning and end of all thy Prayers refer thy self wholly to the will of God with a prepared Obedience All which things are so far from difficulty that a dying man may perform them as well as he whose Pain is not so severe If thou canst not or rather will not perform these Duties yet for that one little Hour patiently endure thy Pains Make not thy Misery more intollerable than it is nor burthen thy self with Complaints Pain is the Lighter of Opinion and Conceit and not to the Weight On the other side if thou beginst to exhort thy self and say 'T is nothing or else it is very little let us endure it will be over by and by thou wilt make it easie while thou believ'st it so Every Man is miserable as far as he believes himself to be so Sect. 18. We are of one Opinion in Health of another in Sickness LAcides the Philosopher when he had lost the most of his Houshold-Goods We dispute saith he otherwise in the Schools than we live at home Thus the Healthy well suggest a thousand Consolations to the Sick But where is that sick person who is able to comfort himself How like Glass is our Srength crackt with the least crush We think our selves made of Brass when we are in health and in a manner challenge pain but when they come we fly them we fall we lie down before any Conflict with the Enemy We are Men thou sayst and dying Bodies are not able to endure the force of Pain I deny not but that Humane Bodies are frail yet not so infirm but that they have strength enough to endure any Affliction unless the Mind be weaker than the Body 'T is our softness that causes so many Deserters of Courage while they refuse all Extremities as intollerable But Courage dies if you take away the Subject of it which is Difficulty Sect. 19. Pious Ejaculations to God in all Sickness and Infirmity O Lord my Strength my Power and Refuge in time of Trouble Jer. 16. v. 19. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. v. 18. O Father Let Job be well tried because he hath answered for wicked men Job 34. v. 36. Before I was troubled I went wrong but now have I kept thy Word Psalm 119. Therefore have I delectation in Infirmities in Rebukes in Necessity in Persecutions in Anguishes for Christ's sake for when I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12. 10. And now O Lord deal with me according to thy will and command my Spirit to be received in peace Tobias c. 3. v. 6. Sect. 20. Certain Vices of Sick-people FIrst To listen after Curiosities News and Trifles 2. Not to give Ear to the Admonitions of Death 3. To complain of those that look after them 4. To refuse their Dyet as ill drest 5. To find fault with the Bed as ill made 6. To believe they are not well lookt after and therefore to murmur and be angry 7. Seldom to discourse of God and divine things 8. Not to be resign'd in all things and submissive to the will of God 9. To believe some things intollerable and not digest all things with a Christian Patience Now I would fain know of thee O sick Man what concerns it thee what is transacted in Germany France Italy or Spain Do thou rather enquire what is done in Heaven among the Saints Or what is done in Hell among the Cursed Let the dead bury the dead Do thou only mind thy Salvation that 's the onely one thing necessary VVhat hast thou to do with News and false Reports Thou dost not profit thy self thereby but offend others Why art thou angry with those that mind thee of the approaching danger Know 'em they are the Heralds of Death I beseech thee do not imitate those old Men many of which perhaps thou hast known to whom it was death to hear any one disccursing of Death Hast thou not hitherto profited more then so childishly to fear Death Hast thoâ— not learnt in so many years calmly quietly and undisturbedly to die What are thou afraid oâ— Commit thy self entirely to the wil of God and thy business is almost done If thou wilt believe those who have had a large prospect into Truth All life is a punishment Here I seasonably cite to thee the words of the wise Roman Being thrown saith he into this deep and unquiet Sea flowing with uncertain Tydes now advancing us with sudden encrease of Riches now again leaving us upon the barren Sands of greater Losses we can never stand fixt in any place We float up and down are washt one
just Indignation Thy Mercy Lord that is a vast and immense Ocean Into this Ocean into this Gulph I throw my self headlong out of a certain hope that in those Waters I shall be safe from the Flames of Hell I cry out therefore with David Have mercy on me O God according to thy mercy According to the multitude of thy mercies blot out my iniquity But in the utmost of my Extremities in the last hour of my Life when my Soul is departing out of this Tabernacle let all my Sighs and Gaspings repeat this wholesom Prayer Have mercy on me O God according to thy Infinite mercy Sect. 48. The sick Patient Covenants with God THat great and almost the last Ornament of the African Church Fulgentius conspicuous for his Learning and Sanctimony seventy days before his Death continually cried out Lord give me first Patience then Pardon This the holy man used as a Buckler against the violence of his Sickness Yea the more vehemently his Grief assail'd him the more vehemently he cried out Patience Lord patience After that Pardon This is a most sweet way of Covenanting with God neither to desire Wages before Labour nor Triumph before Victory nor to shake off the Yoak of Death without Pain Thus as Death is a Punishment to the Wicked so to the Righteous it is a Bridge and entry that leads to Eternity So true it is that Death commands the unwilling but serves and obeys the Willing Sect. 49. Thanks be to God should be the continual Song of the sick Patient SAint Cyprian when he heard Galerias the Proconsuls Sentence read to him It is our pleasure that Thuscius Cyprianus die by the Sword gave no other Answer but Thanks be to God Saint Laurence Roasted upon a Gridiron cried out Thanks be to God Euplius the Martyr who was Beheaded with the Gospel hanging about his Neck often repeated these words God be thanked Truly said Saint Augustin What better thing can we bear in our Minds or utter with our Lips or express with our Pens than Thanks be to God! Nothing can be more quickly said more gladly heard nor more acceptably understood than Thanks be to God who has endued thee with so much Faith In Adversity saith Saint Chrysostom the Wicked curse the Christians give thanks When we please God we shame the Devil For at the same time thou givest Thanks God eases thy Pain and the Devil departs There is nothing more holy than the Tongue which in Adversity Gives God thanks Tertullian commending Job That good man said he upon the receit of all his had tidings still used no other expression but Thanks be to God John Avila the most skilful Teacher of the Inward man was wont to say That in Calamities and Afflictions one Thanks be to God was worth more than six thousand in prosperity and health For in Prosperity to give Thanks is common to all men but in Adversity particular to the Righteous Therefore O my sick Friend so frame thy Mind and Tongue that the worse it is with thee the more readily thou mayst say Thanks be to God Then shalt thou be said to imitate thy Crucified Lord when thou shalt have the Courage in the midst of thy Sorrows to say Let Troubles vex me Grief torment me Want Oppress me Thanks be to God Let my Pains rage my Torments multiply Thanks be to God These Ejaculations penetrate Heaven This is Musick most pleasing to God To this St. Paul exhorts us In all things give thanks in Sickness in Health in Want in Plenty in Adversity in Prosperity In all things give thanks For many times Sickness Want a comfortless Condition loss of Dignities are a greater benefit of God than of all things flowing according to thy wish In no pains at no time let the Sick-person think it a burthen for the Sick-person to cry Thanks be to God So much the more noble is thy Patience so much more graceful thy Giving of thanks by how the more vehement thy Disease and Pains are Sect. 50. The true Confidence of a Sick-man in God TO Die is a serious business And we may well demand of the Patient Wilt thou commit thy self to the Cast of Eternity Thou art going a long and unknown Journey and whither wouldst thou To this the sick Patient does best to answer that does not murmur I am grived I am compelled But rather replies with a chearful Mind willingly freely I resign my Spirit to God Thus I commit my sef to Eternity Thus glady to God Leâ— the Healthy be of this mind of the number of which rightly said one I have already begun to die now I die I waste and am consumed now I travel to Eternity And because the Mercy of God knows no end therefore I travel undauntedly In the O Lord I have put my trust Let me never be put to confusion And though the Sacred Scriptures afford me a thousand Instances I will not despise the Light of Reason which enlightneâ— the wise Roman For what the ancient Heathen thought of Death and our passage from Death into Eternity he thus teaches us When that Day shall come which shall seperate this mixture of Divine and Humane I will leave this Body where I sound it and return my self to God Nor am I now without him though detained by this Ponderosity of Earth These delays of Mortal Age are but a Prelude to a better and a longer Life As we are Nine Months in the Mothers Womb before we are sent forth into this Place so by that space of time between our Infancy and old Age we are prepared for another Birth of Nature Another Original attends us another Condition of Life That Interval fits us to brook the Brightness of Heaven therefore let us undauntedly expect that peremptory Hour noâ— the last to the Soul but to the Body That Day which thou art afraid of as thy last is the Birth-day of thy Eternity These Thoughts will suffer nothing abject nothing sordid to reside in thy Mind These Thoughts command us to approve our selves to God to prepare our selves to God to propose Eternity to our selves of which he that has a true Hope and Confidence shall not fear those numerous Hosts when awakened by the trembling Sound of the last Trumpet Sect. 51. Constantly COnstantly I beseech thee Constantly there is no Patience if Constancy be wanting But one will say it is not two three four or five Weeks that I have layn thus Another will say this is the sixth the tenth the sixteenth Month that I have layn in this miserable Condition Others will cry they have been visited ten thirteen or more Years Persevere I beseech ye persevere and reserve your selves for a Celestial amendment The patient Man continues though he has been afflicted for many more years It is but a point of time saith he that this Sickness has held me when I consider Eternity Happy was that Servant who has the Great Gregory for his Applauder who
Syllogisme is the Conclusion the Conclusion of Life Death But the Conclusion is either true or false according to the Nature of the Antecedents so is Death good or bad as the Life before was good or bad Thus St. Paul severely prononnces saying Whose end shall be according to their VVorks 2 Cor. 11. 15. Memorable is the Death of that Holy Martyr Felix who being led to Execution rejoicing to himself with a loud Voice I have said he preserved my Virginity I have kept the Gospels I have preached the Truth and now I bow my Head a Victim to God There is a Relation of one who died suddenly in his Study and was found with his Finger pointing to that Verse in the Book of VVisdom câ— 4. v. 7. which says Though the Righteous be overtaken with Death yet he shall find rest pretious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints whether slow or suddain The Copious St. Bernard being near his end Because saith he I cannot leave you great Examples of Religion yet I commend Three things to your Observation which I remember observed by my self 1. I less believed my own than the Judgment of another 2. Being injured I never sought Revenge 3. I never would offend any Person Gerard the Brother of St. Bernard upon his Death-Bed broke out into that Davidean Rapture Praise the Lord in Heaven Praise him in the Highest Where is thy Victory O Death Where is thy Sting O Grave Gerard through the midst of thy very Jaws passes not only securely but joyfully and triumphantly to his Country He cannot die ill who has lived well Sect. 16. As we Live so shall we Die The weary Huntsman in his rest all Night Dreams of new Sports and of his past Delight IN the same manner those things that pleased us in our Health we are delighted with at our Deaths Antiochus miserably afflicted the Jews and Maximinâ—s the Emperour had designed the utter Exterpation of the Christians At length they both fell into a most lamentable Disease and when they saw no other way the one besought the Jews the other the Christians to pray to their God for their Recovery Like Esops Crew which being taken desperately sick cautioned his Mother as she sate by him not to weep for him but rather pray ro the Gods for his Recovery To whom she replied O my Son which of the Gods dost thou think will be propitious to thee that has robbed the Altars of every one of them Therefore as we live so we die so are we reprieved and condemed so destined to Heaven or to Hell Sect. 17. A good Death to be desired I Pray God my Soul may die the Death of the Righteous and that my last end may be like his cried the Prophet Balaam How much more rightly had he wished Let my Soul live the Life of the Just that it may also die the Death of the Just 'T is a Ridiculous thing to desire a good Death and flie a good Life 'T is a Labour to live well but a Happiness to die well he that refuses to pass the Red Sea must not think to eat Manna He that loves the Egyptian Servitude shall never reach the Land of Canaan Piously and Elegantly St. Bernard Oh that I may fall saith he frequently by this Death that I may escape the Snares of Death that I may not feel the deadly Allurements of a Luxurious Life that I may not besot my self in sensual Lust in Covetousnes Impatience Care and Trouble for worldly Affairs This is that Death which every one ought to wish for who designs a Life that shall never know Death Before Death to die to Sin and Vice is the best Death of all Sect. 18. Sleep the Brother of Death PAusanias relates that he saw a Statue of Night in the shape of a Woman holding in her right Hand a little white Boy sleeping in her left a little black Boy like one that were a sleep The one was called Somnus Sleep and the other Lethum Death but both the Sons of Night Hence it is that Virgil calls Sleep the Kinsman of Death Gorgias Leontinus being very old was taken ill In his Sickness he was visited by a Friend who finding him fall'n asleep when he waked asked how he did To whom Gorgias made answer Now Sleep is about to deliver me to his Brother Whoever thou art O Christan before thou layst thy self to Sleep examine thy Conscience and wipe away the stains and spots that defile it There are many who have begun to sleep and die both together and ended their Lives before they had stept out of their Sleep The Brother of Death is to be feared and not only cautiously but chastly to be fallen into He that sleeps not chastly shall hardly wake chastly Sect. 19. The fore-runners of Death THE fore-runners of Eternity is Death the fore-runners of Death are Pains and deadly Symptoms One deadly Symptome if we believe Pliny in the height of Madness is Laughter in other Diseases an unequal Pulse But the Eyes and the Ears shew most undoubted Prognosticks of Death Experience teacheth us that when sick People talk of going Journeys and endeavoured to escape ouâ— of their Beds when they pull and pick the Blankets they are near Death Augustus the Emperor a little before he expired suddainly terrified complained that he was carried away by Forty young Men. Which saith Suetonius was rather a Presage than a sign of any Delirium for so many Pretorian Souldiers when he was dead carried him to his Funeral Pile When Alexander went by Water to Babylon a sudden Wind rising blew off the Regal Ornament of his Head and the Diadem fixt to it This was lookt upon as a Presage of Alexander's Death which happened soon after In the Year of Christ 1185. the last and most fatal end of Andronicus Commenus being at hand the Statue of St. Paul which the Emperour had caused to be set up in the great Church of Constantinople abundantly wept Nor were these Tears in vain which the Emperour washt off with his own Blood Barbara Princess of Bavaria having shut her self up in a Nunnery among other things allowed her for her peculiar Recreation she had a Marjoram-Tree of an extraordinary bigness a small Aviary and a Gold Chain which she wore about her Neck but fourteen days before she died the Marjoram-Tree dried up the Bâ—rds the next Night were all found dead and after that the Chain broke in two in the middle Then Barbara calling for the Abbess told her that all those Warnings were for her and in a few days after died in the Seventeenth Year of her Age After her death above twenty other Virgins died out of the same Nunnery Several other Presages there are that foretold the death of Princes and great Men As the uuwonted Howlings of Dogs the unseasonable noise of Bells the Roaring of Lions c. Therefore said Pliny The Signs of Death are innumerable and that there are
none or very few Signs of Safety or Security What do all these things Admonish us but only this Remember O man that thou art a man think upon Eternity to which thou art hastening Go to prepare thy self thou art called to that Tribunal of God as thou didst live shalt thou be judged Sect. â—o What Answer is to be given to the Messenger of Death SAint Ambrose having received the News of his Death when his Friends bewailed him and begg'd of God to grant him a longer space of Life I have not lived as to be ashamed to lieve among you neither do I fâ—â—r to die because we have a graciâ—us God Saint Austin nothing troubled at the News of his Death He never shall be great saith he who thinks it strange that Stones and Wood fall and that Mortals die Saint Chrysostom a little before his Death in Exile wrote to Innocentius We have been these three Years in Banishment exposed to Peâ—â—ilence Famine continual Iucursions unspeakable Solitude and continual Death But when he was ready to give up the ghost He cryed out aloud Glory be to thee â—O God â—or all things Let a dying Christian imitate these most holy Persons and repeat these Sayings often to himself Thanks be to God Glory be to thee O God for all things I have watcht long enough among thornâ— Labour'd long enough in Storms Now because I see the end of my Watching and my Labour Thanks be to God Glory be to God for all things For Life is tedious Death a certain gain Sect. 21. Death is better than a sorrowful Life IT is better once to Die than to be always Dying We daily Die we have lost â—â—â— Childhood our Youth is gone All our Time even to Yesterday is slid away These things Gregory Nazianzene comprehending in a few words There is no good among men with which there is not something of evil mixt Riches are a Snare Poverty a Fetter Honour a meer Dream Empire dangerous Subjection troublesom Youth is the Summer of Life Grey hairs the Sun-set of Life Matrimony a Bond Children the growing Crop of Care Fulness breeds Petulance Want begets Impatience Whatever we behold in this World is like the World in a perpetual motion Whatever seemed stable is now doubtful 〈…〉 with the perpetual volubility of Day-night 〈…〉 Diseases Sorrows Pleasures and Calamities Death is most certain Elegantly St. Austin Death saith he is only certain all things else uncertain A Child once Conceived perhaps is born perhaps not but perishes in Abortion If he be born perhaps he grows up perhaps not perhaps he grows old perhaps not Peradventure he shall be Rich peradventure Poor perhaps he shall attain to Honour peradventure live Contemned perhaps he shall have Children it may be not perhaps he shall die in his Bed it may be slain in the Field But who can say perhaps he shall die perhaps not The first Book of Maccabees thus describes the Death of Alexander Then he fell sick and when he perceived that he should die Alexander had wished for several Worlds in hopes of Victory and thought with himself that he had performed Atchievements that deserved Eternal Annals Nevertheless after so many and such great Victories overcome at length he fell not only into his Bed but into his Tomb contented with a small Coffin Peter Alfonsus reports That several Philosophers flockt together and variously descaâ—ted upon the King â— Death One there was that said Behold now four Yards of Ground is enough for him whom the spacious Earth could not comprehend before Another added Yesterday could Alexander save whom he pleas'd from Death to Day he cannot free himself Another viewing the Golden Coffin of the Deceased Yesterday said he Alexander heaped up a Treasure of Gold now Gold makes a Treasure of Alexander This was their Learned Contention yet all ended in this Then he fell sick and died Thus forgetful of our selves what Mountains do we raise to our selves in Thought We revolve in our Minds Immortal I wish they were Heavenly Things whilst Death surprizes us in the midst of our vast Undertakings and that which we call Old Age is but the Circuit of a few Years Wherefore do we trust to Death Behold through what slight Occasions we lose our Lives Our Food our Moisture our Watchings our Sleep are unwholesome to us without their due measure A small hurt of a Toe a light pain of the Ear a Worm in the Tooth make way for Death The little Body of Man is weak frail subject to Diseases this Air these Winds those Waters offend him therefore let us believe the Son of Syras Death is better than â— bitter Life and Eternal Rest better than continual Sickness So that it is much better to be an Inhabitant on Earth than a Pilgrim in Heaven Sect. 22. The Happiness of Death BLessed are the dead that die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit that they may rest from their â—â—bours and their works follow them To die in the â—â—rd is the same thing as to die a Servant of the â—â—rd as the Scripture speaks concerning Moses Moses my Servant is dead As if God had said saith Cajetan Though he were once a Sinner and was not then my Servant nevertheless he died my Servant He so died that whatever he was or whatever he did was mine for a Servant wholly belongs to the Master And let such a Servant of the Lord sing that Song of Simeon at his death Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word Altogether in peace and that Eternal in the beginning whereof all the Warfare of good men is at an end never more to be rekindl'd For such Servants of God die in the Lord who dying rest in the Besom of God and so resting sweetly sleep in death Thus Stephen among so many Showers of Stones in such in the midst of the Tumult and Dinn of the Enraged Multitude slept in the Lord. Thus Moses the Servant of the Lord died by the command of God Thrice happy and blessed are such that never more shall be miserable The death of the Just faith St. Bernard is good because of its Rest better because of its Novelty best of all by reason of its Security Blessed and again thrice blessed are such for their Works follow them They follow them as Children follow their Parents as Servants follow their Masters as Scholars follow their Teacher and Souldiers their Captain They follow them to the Tribunal of God to the Court of Heaven as Peers follow their Prince whither these Noble Servants are only admitted Sect. 23. The Farewel of a dying Person to the living which are to go the same way THere are many things of which it behoves me to Repent of Vertue often neglected and Time ill spent How much did it become me to have been more patient more submissive more studious of daily Death How small a Spark of Divine Love did glow in me Pity me O God pity me
according to thy great Mercy Spare a Sinner O Infinite God through the Passion and Blood of thy dear Son But I have also offended you both in Word and Deed Pardon me you find me both Consessing and Sorry and deny me not this Provision for my Journey the pardon of all my Transgressions Let not your Vertue decrease by my Example which was always bad You have before your Eyes the Lives of the Saints to which yours must conform Enable their Patience Submission and Obedience to the utmost of your power I also return you thanks for your Pains for your Assistance for your Advice and for your Love God the inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness and the Immense Ocean of Love recompence your Affection God is certainly most Liberal to those that Commit themselves to his most holy Providence Obedience is a most Noble Vertue Patience is absolutely necessary Submission is a most excellent Vertue and Contempt of our selves Poverty is a Vertue belov'd of Christ Charity is the Queen of Vertue Yet above all the Vertues Faith in God seems to me to have something singular and most excellent and a Plenary Resignation of a Man's self to Divine Providence which the holy Scripture so commends and which is continually in the Mouth of the Kingly Prophet and which Christ endeavours to inculcate into us by so many Arguments drawn from Flowers c. little Birds The Vertues of this Faith and the Tranquility that attends it he only knows and finds who in every thing as well small as great most perfectly trusts in God and confines himself to rely upon his Providence and Will Neither do I believe there is any man who had this Hope and Trust in God but that strange and hidden Mysteries befell him Therefore let us trust in God and commit our selves wholly to his Will and Protection I whom ye here see am cited to the Tribunal of God to give an Account of Sixty Years All my Deeds Words and Thoughts are open to this Judge Nothing is concealed from him All my Lifes Actions shall receive their definitive Sentence How I tremble for it is a terrible thing to stand in Judgment before God But in this Extremity there is that which comforts me Therefore though I am a wicked Servant my Lord is Gracious and Infinitely Good who will acknowledge his Servant though he have been bad And now God be with you all that Survive Farewel all you that are to follow me in your order Sect. 24. The last Admonitions of Dying People AS the Sun towards his Setting shines often forth more pleasantly So Man the nearer he is to Death the wiser he is Hence those Admonitions of dying People which Wisdom has so much applauded Cyrus being about to die My Son said he when I am dead close up my Body neither in Silver nor in any other Mettal but return its own Earth to the Earth again His last Words were Be grateful to your Friends and you will never want the Power to punish your Enemies Farewel my dear Son and tell these my Words to your Mother also Wisely saith Theophrastus upon his Death Bed Many fine and pleasant things doth Life impose upon us under the pretence of Glory then the Love of which there is nothing more vain Hither may be referred the saying of Severus the Emperor I was all things but nothing avails Constantius Father of Constantine the Great upon his Death-Bed as he was resigning his Empire to his Son with a wonderful Chearfulness Now said he do I almost esteem Death above Immortality I leave a Son Emperor Here is the Man that after 270 years has wiped away the Tears of the Christians and avenged the Cruelty of Tyrants Christ was truly in Arms with Constantius Lewis King of France gave these his last Admonitions to his Son Beware my Son that thou never commit any deadly Sin rather suffer all manner of Torments First chose such about thee as will not be afraid to tell thee what thou art to do and what to beware To thy Parents give all Obedience Love and Reverence Ferdinand the Great King of Castile falling sick of his last Sickness caused himself to be carried to the great Church in all his Royal Robes where putting off all his Royal Ornaments and as it were restoring God his own he put on a Hair Cloth and casting himself upon the Ground with Tears in his Eyes Lord said he the Kingdom which thou gavest me I return to thee again seat me I beseech thee in Eternal Light Charles King of Sicily spoke these Words Oh the Vain Thoughts of Men Miserable Creatures we are delighted with Honour heap up Treasure and neglect Heaven O the happy Fate of the poor who content with little Sleep in Tranquility What does now my Kingdom what do all my Guards avail me I might have been Miserable without all this Pomp. Where is now the power and strength of my Empire The same necessity involves me as hampers the meanest Begger Of so many Thousands of Clyents Servants and Flatterers there is not one that will or can accompany to the Tribunal of God Go Mortals go and swell your Breasts with great Thoughts to Day or â—â—â—orrow ye must die Farewel Earth would I could say welcom Heaven Nor must we forget the most Holy and Opulent of Kings the Son of the Hebrew Nation David who being near Death I saith he am going the way of all the Earth and then turning to his Son But thou my Son Solomon said he keep thou the watch of the Lord thy God that thou walk in his Ways and keep his Statutes and Precepts If thou seek the Lord thou shalt find him but if thou forsakest him he shall cast thee off to Eternity A terrible Exhortation and enough to have pierced a Heart of Adamant Thus Death devours all cuts off Kings lays Nations wast and swallows the People up deaf to Prayers Riches Tears noâ— to be overcome by any humane force Only the wise-Man dies contented the Fool murmurs at his departure Sect. 25. Christ is invited ABide with me O Lord for it draweth toward Night and the day is far passed The day of my Life hastens towards Night and there is no Joshua to stay the Sun or prolong the Day But as the Sun is daily buried under ground yet every Morning revives so I and all that live shall go to the Earth but we shall return from the Earth clearer than the Sun it self Therefore O Christ O my most Gracious Saviour abide with me behold it draweth towards Night My Eyes my Ears all my Senses fail me but do thou I beseech thee not fail me O most loving Jesu and all the rest I most willingly abandon Begon all other things I dismiss and give ye leave My Creator is with me it is enough It is well with me But that thou may'st tarry with me till Night even till Death still I cry abide with me O Lord for it draweth towards Night
Sect. 26. The dying Man is encouraged WHen thou hast not the convenience of reading much behold a few Verses not a little useful to ease thy Troubles and confirm thy mind Consider that St. Cyprian whispers these Words into thy Ears When we die we pass to Immortality Nor can we attain to eternal Life unless we depart from hence Neither is this an Exit but a Passage and a flight to Eternity after the short Conclusion of a Temperate Race How preposterous how perverse a thing it is when we desire that the Will of God should be done when he calls us forth of this World that we should not streight be obedient to his Will We strive we struggle and like head-strong Servants we are haled into the presence of God with Sadness and Sorrow forc'd rather by Necessity than won by the tie of our Obedience and is it reasonable we should be honoured by him with Celestial rewards to whom we go unwillingly Wherefore do we desire and pray that the Heavenly Kingdom may come when our Earthly Captivity so much delighteth us Wherefore do we so earnestly wish for the fulfilling of Christs Kingdom when we had rather serve the Devil here then raign with Christ there Then shall the Servants of God injoy Peace and a calm and quiet Rest when freed from the troubles of this World when having vanquished Death we come to immortality When to see Christ it shall be our joy when we can have no joy but by seeing Christ What blindness of mind what madness is it to be in love with the Oppressions Pains and Tears of this World and not rather to make haste to that joy which can never be â—ak'n from us Death is therefore the Hav'n of all Mortals O happy Shore O secure Port wherein none but the obstinate can Shipwrack Sect. 27. Faith in the Resurrection THis Flesh of ours now lives though shortly to return to its Clay to its mouldring Dust to be the Food of Fish Locusts Ants and poysonous Vermin And yet after all this the same Flesh shall rise and the Butcheries of Executioners and the Coats of Martyrs shall be crown'd Neither â—â— thou dream of any Flesh than the former unless thou canst imagine God unjust to give the reward to any other than that which has won the Prize or that he should receive another to his Heavenly Rest than that which won the Prize The same Soul in all things which in this Flesh fought the good fight stood stedfast learnt God put on Christ sowed the hope of Salvation the same shall reap The same Flesh that with the Soul ran through the whole Order of Life endured bled with the same Soul its Companion shall reap the reward Lazarus was the same after he had been four days in the Sepulchre as before The same the Son after the Mothers Tears were tried up as before The same was Christ after his being entombed as before Neither does any aid of Sepulture deprive God of his Omnipotency or put a stop to his Goodness The sâ—me was the Tongue of the Rich Man that was fed with Banquets and that which was scorched in the Infernal Flames and begg'd to be relieved by the Finger of the more happy Begger the same Flesh shall be rewarded or punished according to its Merits Is not God able to enliv'n the Clay with the same breathing of his Spirit as formerly He that formed the Muscles the Bones the Nerves the Veins the Marrow out of the same Clay Can he not form the same out of the same again Is there a necessity that what perishes once should always Perish By what Law Behold that I may not stumble thee with any higher Philosophy behold thy Universal returning Order of all things that is a testimony and argument of returning Man Summers and Winters revolve Springs and Autums have their turns The light of Sun and Stars return with the morning Splendor or the natural Darkness had obscured Thou wouldst think the 〈…〉 dead and the Branches only fit for the Fiâ—e yet we see them revive again and thicker clad than before and what the cold Kills the heat of Summer restores more Beautiful as if decay it self paid use Not that these things in all things prove the Reparation of Human Life but lead us to it Wouldst thou have more signal Arguments We have a pledge in Christ in whom we Usurp Heaven and the Kingdom of God Wouldst thou have it in Man The mortified and putrified Flesh of Lazarus wise Flesh Moses and Elias made known to the Apostles demonstrated that the same Habit and Condition of Body is still preserv'd in Glory And the departed Souls delivered out of the Prisons of this Flesh and returned to their own pure Light and Substance yet desire nothing more than to be clad with this refin'd Clay and in the former Matrimonial Society to continue a Life with the same Flesh never to be dissolved that they which endured together may injoy the same equality of Glory like Christ their Captain who ascended Flesh and Bone into Heaven a Pledge and Argument of our future Purity Therefore let us not be sad When the old House falls a fairer will rise in the stead He not only believed without a Cause but lived for no Cause that thought himself born to Perish Sect. 28. The hope of Resurrection our greatest Comfort JOB almost buried in the Grave of innumerable Calamities yet with a vast alacrity of Mind I know saith he that my Redeemer Lives and that I shall rise out of the Earth at the latter day and shall be covered again with my Skin and shall see God in my Flesh when I my self shall see and mine Eyes shall behold and none other for me This my hope is laid up in my Bosome Christ also as it were returning an Answer to Job I am the Resurrection and Life saith he whoever believeth in me though he be dead shall live There will most certainly come a day that will restore us to Light and therefore ought to depart contentedly 'T is reported that there is a Bird in the East Indies called Semenda which being sensible of her approaching Death fetches Wood into her Nest sings sweetly and by the clapping of her Wings sets it a Fire where being consumed out of the Ashes grows a Worm which afterwards comes to be a Bird of the same Nature A plain Symbolum of the Resurrection Mirmeius the Roman Orator a great Antagonist of the Christians see saith he how for our comfort all nature points out our Resurrection The Sun sets and rises the Stars fall and return Flowers decay and refluorish the withered Trees recover their Vendure Seeds return their several species Thus the Body deceased like Trees in Winter cover their Vigour with a feigned dryness We are also to expect the Spring of the Body I know that my Redeemer Lives and that I shall rise again at the last day Sect. 29. The hope of Heaven WHat wouldst thou What
man of life deprive But life reforms by keeping life alive Thus the best and all the best of men have the same beginning of Happiness as end of Mortality Sect. 32. Against those that Die unwillingly SO it is we generally fear Death neglect Life and die unwillingly And yet this is Ingratitude not to be content with our time allotted They will always be but a few Days saith Seneca if they be numbred The Prolongation of Life nothing avails to Happiness How much more satisfactory is it to put a good Value upon our own than to value the Years of another Did God think me worthy of this time This is enough He might have added more but this is a Favour Here opportunely Horace But having his compleated time enjoy'd Let him like a full Guest the Room avoid Who would endure a Guest that at the end of a Banquet should cry I have not filled my Belly Who can praise that man who departing out this life shall complain and say I have not lived long enough and bemoan himself as if his life were broken off in the third Act 'T is not only a shameful but a ridiculous Complaint The bounds are set but whether a long Life or a short there is to be an end of it So it pleases the Author of Life Th' hast eat and drank enough enough hast plaid And now Time calls that will not be delaid Most admirably Epictetus Thy Honour is at end be gone depart gratefully modestly give place to others Others must be born as thou wert and being born they must have Habitations and Food But should not the first depart what would be left Why art thou insatiable why art thou not satisfied why dost thou stifle and croud the World But more admirably than Epictetus St. Austin At what time soever God would have thee make thy departure let him find thee ready For thou art a Stranger and not Master of the House The House is only let to thee nor hast thou any certain Lease of it What said the Lord thy God When I please when I say the word be gone depart I will turn thee out of thy Inne but I will give thee a House Thou art a Pilgrim upon Earth thou shalt be a Tenant in Heaven He more earnestly expects more confidently hopes for Heavenly Pleasures who denies himself Earthly Delights Who life doth count severe Less cause hath death to fear Sect. 33. Delay is the Rock of dying People WE have admonished the Healthy the Sick we must also admonish the Dying to beware of this Rock Delay How many thousand People have made an ill end only because they have delaied those things which were not to be delaied Why O dying Friend dost thou set apart to Morrow or the next Day for thy Salvation To Morrow is not thine to Day is To Day this very Hour even now do what is to be done Where wilt thou be to Morrow or next Day Emylius and Pluterch that the approach of the Theban Exiles being reported to the Magistrates of the Thebans they being in the midst of their Jollity took no notice of it At the same time Letters being brought to the Chief Magistrate wherein all the Counsels of the Exiles were discover'd and deliver'd to him at the same Banquet he laid them under his Cushion Sealed as they were saying I defer serious Business till to Morrow But this Deferrer of Business with all his Friends was that Night surprized and killed Thus Death uses to surprize those that delay while they deliberate while they muse while they defer he comes and strikes with his unlookt for Dart. Sâ—aint Austin a most faithful Monitor thus instructs one that promises I will live to Morrow God has promised thee pardon but neither God nor Man has promised thee to Morrow If thou hast lived ill live well to Day Fool this Night thy Soul shall be taken from thee God calls thee now exhorts thee now expects that thou shouldst now repent and dost thou delay He is not so patient in suffering as never to be just in revenging He has divided his times Do not say then To morrow I will repent to Morrow I will serve God For though God has promised thee Pardon he has not promised to add to Morrow to thy delay Delay not thy Conversion to God for then God will be angry and destroy the work of thy hands The Day is to be prevented that so often is accustom'd to prevent Sect. 34. A ready Mind I Will receive the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. This Cup is bitterer yet my Saviour drank it up and from the bloody Cross drank the same to me that I should pledge him This Cup is the fatal Cup of Death which Christ which those most dear to Christ which all Mortals drink through an inevitable necessity Why should I alive refuse it Who ever began to live must cease to be that he may begin that life that never shall decay Both Good and Evil Life and Death Poverty and Riches proceed from God What meanest thou then vain Fear wouldst thou not that I should drink the Cup which the Father provided for me which Christ mingled for me I am Mortal and do I wonder at Death When Alexander the Macedonian lay sick and that some of his Spiritual Flatterers seemed to hint to him as if Philip his Physician had mingled Poyson in his Physick the King receives Philip just then coming to him with the Poyson prepared with one hand he gave him his Friends Letter with the other he received the Poyson from him and as he put it to his Mouth he fixed his Eye upon the Physician 's Face to try whether he could discover any Marks of Guilt in his Face but perceiving none and being thereby confirmed in the Fidelity of his Physician he forthwith drank off the Poyson So will I do when my dear Jesus my Physician and Saviour shall reach me that wholesome Cup that is to procure my Eternal Rest while I drink it I will fix my Eyes continually upon this Physician 's Face upon the Countenance of my Crucified Lord wherein I shall read his Love toward me and fearless I will take off the Cup which the more of Love it has the more it has of Salvation Sect. 35. The dying Person arms himself with Faith Hope and Charity THat this may be the more readily and easily done we have set down certain Forms for the Exercise of Faith Hope and Charity To Faith I do protest in the presence of God his Holy Angels and the Church both Triumphant and Militant that I believe what ever the Holy Universal Church believes and that I live and die in the Faith which the same Universal Church Profession in Union which and under her Head our Lord Jesus Christ From which whatever is dissonant I utterly reject and abandon To Hope I have set God always before me for he is on my right hand therefore I shall
not fail Wherefore my heart was glad and my glory rejoiced my flesh also shall rest in hope For why thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption Thou shalt shew me the Path of Life in thy presence is fulness of Joy and in thy right hand is pleasure for evermore Psal 16. v. 8. c. To Charity What shall I return to the Lord for all his Benefits I will receive the Cup of Death from the hand of God and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will call upon God with Praises and I shall be safe from my Enemies Into thy Hands O Lord I commend my Spirit Thou hast created me O God thou hast redeemed me thou hast sanctified me thine am I alive and dead I offer my self up entirely to thy will Jesu Son of David have mercy upon me Sect. 36. What is always to be in the thought and Mouth of a sick and dying Christian IN sickness O Christian if thou art asked how thou do'st or how is it with thee Beware of returning any other Answers but these As God will As God pleases As the Lord's pleasure is So let it be done According to the good pleasure of God As it pleases God so let his will be fulfilled in Earth as it is in Heaven Nor will it be amiss to have these threefold Prefaces continually in thy lips and in thy mind as well in thy Sickness as at the hour of thy Death 1. Blessed be God to all Eternity 2. Have mercy on me O Lord according to thy loving Kindness though I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies O God 3. Oh Lord my God I surrender my self wholly up to thy will let thy will be done Sect 37. Certain Precepts to be particularly observed by a dying Person FIrst Not to depend upon the Merits but with all thy Sins and Omissions to cast thy self into the Fathomeless Ocean of Divine Mercy Next To adhere stedfastly and constantly to the belief of the true Holy Church and to receive the Holy Sacrament Thirdly To forsake all the frail and passing Vanities of this Life and to unite thy self to God with all thy Soul and Affection To breath after the Land of Promise where thou may'st be able to offer up a lasting Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for all his Mercies Fourthly To offer up thy self a Living Sacrifice to the Glory of God for his great good will toward thee and to endure patiently for his sake all the pains and troubles of Sickness and the bitterness of Death Fifthly To set continually before thy Eyes the terrible Death and Passion of thy Lord Christ that so thou mayst unite thy Body and Soul with the wounded Body and afflicted Soul of Christ But the safest way is whatever thou wouldst do in the utmost extremity of thy Sickness to begin to do that in the prime of thy Health Sect. 38. Refreshments for a dying Person COme my People enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy Doors about thee Hide thy self for a little while till the Indignation be overpast Isa 26. â—0 When I was angry I hid my Face from thee for a little season but through everlasting goodness I have pardoned thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Isa 54. 8. Why art thou so full of heaviness O my Soul And why art thou so unquieted within me Put thy trust in God for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his Countenance Psalm 42. 6. For we are the Children of the Holy Man and look for the Life which God shall give unto them that never turn their belief from him Tob. 2. 18. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish Mat. 13. 14. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life John 3 16. But if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Attonement for our Sins not for our Sins only but for the Sins of all the World 1 John 2. 1. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Damnation but is escaped from Death unto Life John 5. 24. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6. 37. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me yea though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall not dye eternally Joh. 11. 25 26. In my Fathers House are many Mansions 14. 2. If God be on our side who can be against us Who spared not his own Son but gave him for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen It is he that justifies who is he that coâ—demnesh It is Christ which dyed yea ratheâ— which is raised again which is also on the Righâ— Hand of God and maketh Intercession for us Roâ— 8. 31 c. For no Man livech to himself and no Man dyâ—th to himself for if we live we live unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were destroyed we should have a Building of God even a Habitation not made with Hands but Eternal in Heaven For therefore sigh we desiring to be farther cloathed with our House which is from Heaven for if that we be cloathed we shall not be found naked 2 Cor. 1 2 3. Now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by death For Christ is to me Life and Death is to me Advantage Having a desire to depart and be with Christ Philip. 1. 20 21. But our Conversation is in Heaven whence also we look for the Saviour who shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like his glorious Body This is a fâ—ithful saying and by all means worthy to be received that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 1. 15 But he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Mat. 24. 13. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2. 10. These Fountains refresh and cool the hot Baths of death he shall happily swim therein who plunges himself over Head and Ears in these Rivolets Sect. 39. The Sighs and Prayers to God proper for a Dying Person ENlighten my Eyes O most merciful Jesu that I sleep not in death Lest my Enemies say I have prevailed against him Psal 13. 3 c. Lord Jesu Christ Son of the Living God Lay thy Passion Cross and Death between thy Judgment and my Soul O
his Conversion declaring the Christian Faith to be the only means of Salvation declaring that he was ready to die for the same which accordingly he did they being both Beheaded at the same time As for the Body of our Apostle it being Interred near Jerusalem was from thence brought into Spain and there said to do many Miracles but what Credit is to be given to that I leave to the Reader 's Judgment The Death of St. JOHN HE died said the Arabian as Kirsten has it in the Lives of the Four Evangelists in the expectation of his blessedness from which he infers that he died peaceably and not a violent Death although Theophylact and others do conceive that he died a Martyr Many there are likewise who have cherished a fond Opinion that he never died but rather that sleeps in his Grave alluding to the words of our Saviour upon Peter's enquiry If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee John 21. 23. Others say that having commanded his Grave to be dug he went into it and ordered such as went with him to fasten down a great Stone upon the same and come the next Morning and look into it which they did and found nothing there but the Grave-cloaths from which as Nicephorus relates they concluded he was Ascended he having intimated some such thing before his lying down The Death of St. PHILIP THis Apostle was seized and carried to Prison and being Sentenced he was cruelly Scourged and hanged by the Neck against a Pillar though some would have it that he was Crucified but however during the Execution such a terrible Earthquake happened that the Earth began to open so that the affrighted people cried to Heaven for Mercy upon which it instantly staied The Apostle being dead his Body was taken down by St. Barnabas his Companion in the Ministery of the Gospel at that time and Mariamne St. Philip's Sister who bore him Company in all his Travels After they had taken him down they decently Interred him and when they had confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ they departed thence The Death of St. BARTHOLOMEW HIS Sentence was to be Crucified and when the Day of Execution came he went chearfully to embrace his Death Comforting and Exhorting his Profelytes to keep stedfast in the Faith and Doctrine that they had received which was able to make them wise unto Salvation and so continued to instruct them to the last moment of his Life Several there are that affirm he was Crucified with his Head downwards and that he was fleied alive which cruel usage as Plutarch relateth was common in that Country After his Death his Body was removed to Darus a City in the Borders of Persia from thence to Beuevent in Italy and from thence to Rome The Death of St. MATTHEW the Evangelist WE find in an ancient Author that he suffered Martyrdom at Naddabar a City of Aethiopia but what kind of Death he died is not mentioned and as Dorotheus reports he was Buried at Hierapolis During his Lifetime he was a great Assertor of the true Religion a Contemner of Worldly Treasure which is evident by his leaving so gainful a Calling to follow our Saviour As for his Humility he exceeded many of his Fellows which may well be observed in his Writings where he gives them the Pre-eminency His Age at the time of his Death is not certainly known though some are of Opinion he died in the Seventy Year â— The Death of St. THOMAS THE Brachamans or Heathen Priests were so enraged against St. Thomas that they sought always to destroy the Apostle as hoping by that means to extirpate his Doctrine which by being embraced on all hands had near spoiled their Trade So that one Day when he was praying alone in a solitary place they came upon him with Stones Darts and Spears and having grievously wounded him one of them run him through the Body with a Spear His Body being taken up by his Well-willers was Buried with great Solemnity in the Church that he had built which was afterwards greatly enlarged The Death of St. JAMES HE was took up by force and thrown down from the Battlements notwithstanding which Fall He reared himself upon his Knees and prayed for them the which whilst he was doing such Villains as they had appointed for that purpose fell upon him with Clubs and Stones till one among the rest notwithstanding the entreaty of many to save his Life with a Fuller's Club beat out his Brains and by that means gave his Soul a passage to the Eternal habitations of Bliss and Joy that fade not away He died in the Ninty fourth year of his Age and Twenty four after Christ's Ascension to the grief of all good men Gregory Bishop of Tours informs us that he was buried upon Mouâ—t Olivet in a Tomb which he had caused to be erected during his Life In which â—e had buried old Simeon and Zacharias though Hegesippus will have it that he was buried near the Temple in the place where he was Martyr'd and that there being a Monument erected for him it continued there for many years after The Death of SIMEON the Zelot THE Devil that great Enemy of our Salvation stirred up the Multitude to persecute him whose barbarous rage in a short time after Crowned him with Martyrdom as not only Dorotheus and Nicephorus affirm but also expressed in the Menologies where we are informed that St. Simeon went at last into Britain and having enlightned the Minds of many with the Doctrine of the Gospel he at length was Crucified by the Infidels and buried there but as to any particular place of his Burial no mention is made Some there are who tell us that after he had Preached the Gospel in Aegypt he went to Mesopotamia where meeting with St. Jude they journeyed together into Persia where having planted the Gospel they were both Crowned with Martyrdome The Death of St. JUDE NIcephorus tells us that after all he came tâ— Edessa where Aâ—garus was Governour anâ— where the other Thaddaeus who was one of the Seventy had been before him and there perfecteâ— what was begun and having by his Preaching anâ— Miracles established the Gospel he died a peaceable and quiet Death But Dorotheus affirms thâ— he was slain at Berytus and buried there in a stately Tomb although by the General Consent of the Latin Church he went Preaching the Gospel in Persia where after he had brought many over to the Faith and established the Christian Religion there for many years he at last was for his reproving and strongly opposing Idolatrous and Diabolick Devices of the Magi by their procurement cruelly put to Death The Death of St. MATTHIAS the Apostle HE was treated with all manner of Rudeness and Inhumanity from whom for all his Pains and Labour about saving their Immortal Souls and directing them in the way to everlasting Life he was at last Marty'd by them Anno Christo 59
Death of HILARIUS HE Travelled to Italy and France instructing the Bishops in those parts in the Catholick â—aith He was very Eloquent and wrote many Treatises in Latin also Twelve Books of the Triniâ—â— Expounding the Canon containing the Clause 〈…〉 One Substance being of sufficient proof against the Arrians He died under Valentinian and Valence Anno 355. The Death of CYRILLUS IN the midst of all his Affictions he kept his resolution to die in the Faith He used to say concerning the benefit of Hearing Some come to Church to see Fashions others to meet their Friends yet it 's better to come so than not at all In the mean time the Net is cast out and they which intended nothing less are drawn into Christ who catches them not to destroy them but that being dead he may bring them to Life Eternal He died Anno 365. The Death of EPHREM SYRUS HE died Anno 404. He used to say concerning Perseverance The resolute Traveller knows that his Journey is long and the way dirty yet goes on in hopes to come to his House So let a Christian though the way to Heaven be narrow though it be seâ— with Troubles and Persecutions yet let him go on till he has finished his Course with Joy for Heaven is his Home Concerning the Soul he used to say ` He that feasts his Body and starves his Soul is like him that feasts his Slave and starves his Wife He died Anno 404. The Death of BASIL Bâ—sil died at Caesarea when he had sat Bishop there eight years departing this Life Anno Christi 370. At his departure he uttered these words Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit He used to say of Self-knowledge To know thy Self is very difficult For as the Eye can see all things but it self so some can discern all faults but their own Of Love Divine Love is a never-failing Treasure he that hath it is Rich and he that wanteth it is Poor Of the Scriptures It 's a Physicians Shop of Preservatives against Poysonous Heresies A pattern of profitable Laws against Rebellious Spirits A Treasury of most costly Jewels against Beggarly Elements And a Fountain of most pure Water springing up to Eternal Life The Last Sayings of GREGORY NAZIENZEN IN his Minority he joined Studies with Basil and accompanied him to Athens and Antioch where he became an Excellent Orator There is so much Perfection in all his Writings and such a peculiar Grace that he never tires his Reader but he always dismisseth him with a thirst after more Concerning Pâ—eaching he used to say That in a great multitude of people of several Ages and Conditions who are like a Harp with many Strings it is hard to give every one such a touch in Preaching as may please all and offend none He lived under Theodosius Anno 370. The Death of EPIPHANIUS VVHen he found himself Sick he said to his Friends God bless you my Children â—or I shall see you no more in this Life He died Aged 115. He used to say this was his Antidote against Hatred That he never let his Adversary sleep not that he disturbed him in his sleep but because he agreed with him presently and would not let the Sun go down upon his Wrath. The Death of AMBROSE AFter Ambrose had sate Bishop about Sixteen years Death summoned him to lay down this troublesom Life for a Life more lasting Before his Death he resolved to provide a Shepherd for his Flock and for that purpose sent for one Simplicianus and ordained him Bishop in his stead after having given many Godly Exhortations tâ— such as were about him he gave up the Ghosâ— dying in the third Year of Theodorus Anno Christ 397. He used to say of Repentance When Gold 〈…〉 offered to thee thou usest not to say I will come again to morrow and take it but art glad of present possession But Salvation being proffered 〈…〉 our Souls few Men haste to embrace it He used to say of true Charity It is not much to be enquired how much thou givest with what Heart It 's not Liberality when the takest by Oppression from one and givest it to another Of Conscience A clear Conscience should not regard slanderous Speeches nor think that they have more power to Condemn him than his own Conscience hath to clear him The Death of GREGORY NISSEN HE lived under Constantins Julian Jovian Valentinian Valence Gratian and Theodosius the Great He was President in the Council of Constantinople against the Macedonian Hereticks 492. Amongst his Similitudes he compared the Userer to a Man giving Water to one in a Burning Fever which proves prejudicial So the Userer though he seems for the present to relieve his Brother yet afterwards he torments him This Character he also gave the Userer He loves no Labour but a Sedentary Life A Pen is his Plough Parchment his Field Ink his Seed Time is the Rain to Ripen his greedy desires his Sickle is calling in his Forfeitures his House the Barn where he Winnows his Clients he follows his Debtors as Eagles and Vultures do Armies to prey upon dead Corps Again Men come to Userers as Birds to a heap of Corn they covet the Corn but are caâ—cht in the Nets He died under Valentine and Valence The Death of THEODORET HE died in the Reign of Theodosius Junior not with Age but hard Studies He used to say That the Delights of the Soul are to know her Maker to consider his Works and to know her own Estate The Death of HIEROM HE died Anno Christi 422 and of his Age 91. He wrote many large Volumes being a Man of singular Chastity of great Wit slow to Anger aud in Learning exceeding most of his Time His usual Prayer was Lord let me know my self that I may the better know thee the Saviour of the World An Excellent Saying he had of Christian Fortitude If my Father was weeping on his Knees before me my Mother leaning on my Neck behind my Brethren Sisters Children and Kinsfolks howling on every side to retain me in a single Life I would sling my Mother to the ground run over my Father despise all my Kindred and tread them under my Feet that I might run to Christ Of Chastity That Woman is truly Chaste that hath liberty and opportunity to Sin and will not Of Vertue All Vertues are so linked together that he that hath one hath all and he that wants one wants all In all his Actions he ever fansied this sound in his Ears Arise ye Dead and come â—â— Judgment The Death of CHRYSOSTOM THE exact year of his death I find no where set down but that he flourished in the 〈…〉 shoprick of Constantinople Anno Christi 400 is 〈…〉 certain He used to say of Lust As a great shower of Rain extinguisheth the force of Fire so Meditation of Gods Word puts out the Fire of Lust in the Soul Of the danger of Riches ` As a Boat over-laden sinks so