onely and no impieties delicta non facinora weaknesses and infirmities no flagicious offences yet was he much troubled at the sight of them oft crying out with righteous Iob Paenitet me and with that holy Prophet David Psal 45.7 peccatum pueritiae mea ne recorderis Domine Lord remember not the sinnes of my youth Observe next his carefull providing of his Viaticum or things necessary for his departure his preparing and fitting of his Lampe with oyle and patient expecting of the Bridgroomes call In all which as is the generall report his care was more then ordinary neither was there any one thing in Heaven or Earth which he so much desired as he did that full assurance of his reconciliation with God to understand what that love of Christ was that passeth all understanding not that hee doubted at all thereof for he found the beginnings and fruits of the same as formerly I have shewed already in his soule mightily cheering up and comforting thereof onely he desired yet more that hee might at the length be filled with the fulnesse of God Eph. 7.19 Eph. 7.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the little infant that having but once tasted of the milke of the mother is never contented but mourneth and cryeth until it be fully satisfied and the belly filled therewith or like the hunted Stagge in Summer-time who finding a pleasant streame having once tasted of it is never satisfied untill hee hath sounded the bottome and duckt himselfe overhead and eares therein or rather like that faire Bride the Church I meane Cant. 2.6 Cant. 2.6 who thinketh her selfe never sure of her spouse and love untill his Left hand bee under her head and his right hand doth imbrace her Life hee simply desired not and death hee slavishly feared not for he knew right well that which came first should bee his gayne and great advantage And because for want of sleepe and the malignant and fiery working of his Disease hee feared much least any disorderly impatient or prophane speeches should passe from him to the dishonour of Almighty God and griefe and sorrow of his Friends about him His request therefore was hourely to God for Christs sake to set a watch before his mouth and to keep the doore of his lips And if at any time it hapned as seldome it did that his braine beeing somewhat over-heated he a little swarved from the right rule and so forgot himselfe his manner was after the violence of the fit was over upon inquire made and the truth thereof found humbly to beg pardon for the same with teares to bewaile it All the time of this sharpe tryall and visitation of his was for the most part daily spent eyther in holy conference with such graue Divines as were continually about him for his soules health or in hearty prayers presented before the throne of grace and powred into the golden Censure of the sonne of God wherein earnest request was made unto the Father that though this young souldier of his were thus strongly assaulted yet that hee might so keepe himselfe upon the legs of his Faith that hee might neyther be foyled Ioh. 23.10 nor yet led into temptation and that though hee were tryed unto the full yet that hee might in the end come out like pure Gold Iob 23.10 Neyther did this blessed servant of God hold it sufficient to have others pray for him except he likewise performed the same duty himselfe remembring well that hee that hath but once drunke a full draught of the River of Grace it cannot be Iohn 7.38 but out of his belly must needes flow rivers of water of Life The which prayers of his were delivered with such contrition of heart such Faith resting it selfe upon the promises of God such patient and humble submission of himselfe to the will of his gracious Father that it was an admiration to all about him to behold so tender a plant to bring foorth such delicate and precious fruite And thus while his body is here below his soule is seeking after things above his body a prisoner laden with gyves and fetters of his disease his soule is at liberty soaring up on high and sweetly conversing with that blessed society in Heavenly places The which it did divers dayes together going and comming till at last like another Noahs Dove it quite left his troubled Arke and this tempestuous World mounting up a loft above all earthly things and seated it selfe uppon the pleasant Mount Syon Vbi moritur omnis necessitas Vbi oritur summa faelicitas where all want ceaseth and all blisse increaseth even that place where are those fragrant and delightful fields replenished with all the trees of Myrrhe Frankincense and Alloes with sweete beds full of the richest and chiefest spices Cant. 4.12 13. where he dayly feedeth and so shall doe till that blessed day breake and all shadowes flye away Cant 4.6 And thus have I as briefly as I could without either wringing or churning being loath to lye for him as a man lyeth for his friend Pro. 30.33 Iob 13.9 set forth to you the Life and Death of this young Gentleman The which the more I thinke of the more I cannot but highly commend that true honour of Wedlocke and mirrour of widow-hood the noble and vertuous Lady his sorrowfull mother for her religious and Christian educating of him all his young and tender yeares dropping then grace into his heart and filling the same with Heavenly liquor the pleasant scent thereof never left him unto the last houre and minute of his life Her extraordinary care this way I shall not neede at large to relate unto you sith the whole Country round about can sufficiently witnesse the same to her immortall praise onely this I will say that if the holy Scripture as wee know it doth maketh such honourable mention of Bersheba and Evnice for their diligence in teaching their Sonnes Solomon and Timothy in their tender age the trade of their way And againe if holy Augustine ascribeth to his mother Monacha her teares and prayers next under God the ground of all the good that after so many wandrings and wanton actions of his at length appeared in him And lastly if Cornelia be so highly remembred in the Roman story for bringing up those famous Gracchi her sonnes so carefully as she did in their infancy and growing yeares making her the mother not onely of their naturall lives but also of their vertuous living and Heroicke demeanour I cannot see why his worthy Lady should not have the like honour and high respect at the hands of all for the religious care over this her sonne from his birth to his last breath And therefore being so however Almighty God for causes best knowne to himselfe hath thus as we see taken away the subject of her desired and chiefest care not suffering her lippes scarce to tast the fruite of that which she with a deale of paines had
sinne 2. By the true sence and feeling of the Love of God towards him And first for sinne if a man doe but seriously as I doubt not but this Gentleman did weigh and ponder in his heart both the number of his sinnes being indeede without number as also the nature of them not onely crossing but also violating the pure Law of an infinite God and so deserving an infinite punishment hee surely cannot but with a patient and contented mind beare and indure these short and light afflictions how ever bitter for a time yet bringing with them in the end the sweete fruites of righteousnesse Crying with the Church Micah 7.9 Mich. 7.9 I will beare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him And Lam. 3.22 Lam. 3.22 It is the Lords mercy that I am not consumed And agayne Patior domine quia peccavi patior ut non peccarem as a holy man speaketh I know sweete God that I suffer for that I have sinned And agayne I know that I suffer that I might not sinne These are the files whereby thou doest labour to scowre my heart and cleanse me from my sinnes and this is the Gall and Worme-wood wherewith thou doest strive to weane me from the pleasant pappes of this world and make me wholy distaste the pleasure of this wicked and sinfull life The second is the sence and feeling of the love of God which questionlesse had a mayne and principall stroake in putting this Gentle-man on as hee did to drinke so willingly of this bitter cup. For as soone as ever the love of God doth but once diffuse and shed it selfe abroad into the hearts of any his faithfull servants then presently such abundance of heavenly strength and vigor joy and comfort doth enter with it that hee feeleth not at all the burthen of affliction or if hee doe hee findeth it very light Hee feareth not the fiery tryall for well hee knoweth that though the hardest commeth yet will it in the end worke out for his good as a Fatherly correction no finall destruction yea triumphing in a glorious manner hee saith to Death Where is thy sting or what hast thou to separate me from the love of God 1 Cor. 15 Rom. 8.35 Ioh 5.22 For as for destruction I laugh at it neither doe I feare the Beast of the field Iob. 5.22 And hence is it that Daniel was so couragious and bold for the service of God Dan. 6.10 that he durst open his window at the time of prayer though the denne was open to swallow him and the hungry Lyons ready to devoure him Hence againe was it that the three children with such magnanimity and spirit so slighted the Tyrants ungodly command saying as they did Dan 3 16. Wee are not carefull to answere thee in this matter neither doe wee care what thou canst doe unto us For our God whom wee serve is able to deliver us and hee will deliver us out of thine hand Dan. 3.16 But how ever assure thy selfe ô King wee will not serve thy gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up Lastly hence was it that those most noble confessors Dionysia and Victorianus so constantly and with such an undaunted courage indured those unmercifull torments and scorching flames of Martyrdome The one crying out De Deo sum secura cruciate ut libet I am sure of Christ a fig for your torments The other securus sum de Christo Domino meâ—â—haec dicite regi vestro c. I am resolved of the love of Christ my Lord and my God and therefore tell your King from me that I weigh not his torments a rush If then the love of God was so strong in these no marvaile then that this young Gentleman feeling the same in his tender heart so patiently and with such contented mind passed through not onely the bitter Symptomes of his cruell malady but also through the shadow of death it selfe For Love saith the Church Cant. 8.6 7. speaking by her owne experience is so strong that death it selfe cannot quell it nor all the water in the Ocean quite drowne it But leaving this let us come to the second namely his true and hearty repentance For the cleere demonstration whereof it must bee considered how the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures mentioning true repentance doth commonly use two words in themselves very significant and full of divine expression 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first whereof signifieth an after wit The other an after sorrow By the one understanding a poore penitent looking backe upon his former course of life and then finding how he hath beene guld by Sathan deluded by the World and beguiled by the deceitfulnesse of his owne heart he cryeth out Heu miser quot mala feci Alas wretch that I am What evill have I done and thereupon looketh for time to come more narrowly to himselfe By the other setting forth a sorrowfull creature striking on his thigh grievously vexed for his sinnes past asking pardon and promising a new life In the first of these we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iame. 3.17 That wisedome from above Iames 3.17 In the second we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sorrow toward God and in both together mixed with faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 2. Cor. 7.10 An example of both these meeting together in one wee have in this young Gentleman as may appeare plainly by the circumstances following The first was his speedy and timely casting off the world upon the first arrest of his sicknesse together with the vaine pleasures and delights thereof speaking by his practise unto her as that Heathen Philosopher spake unto his rich treasure when hee was about to cast it into the Sea Abite a me pessimae voluptates ego vos mergam ne mergar a vobis Away from me ye bewitching pleasures I will drown you that you drowne not mee or rather as they are fore-told to speake to their Idols Isa 30.22 throwing them away with a kinde of detestation Isa 30.22 Apage cuique eorum c. Away get you hence fawning world Thou painted Iezabel and flattering Harlot now doe I see the conquest of thee in Christ is exceeding easie my blessed master telleth me that he hath already overcome thee Ioh 16.33 willing me to be of good cheere and so I am My soule magnifying the Lord and greatly rejoycing in God my Saviour being fully resolved that I at the last in him shall obtaine the like noble victory over thee that this young Gentleman hath done before me The second was the exact surveigh that he tooke of his former life wherein however blessed bee God he found not those Damnabilia peccata as St. Augustine calleth them from which saith the holy Father youthfull age is seldome free yet those that hee found although they were but aberrations
LIFES BREVITIE AND DEATHS Debility Evidently Declared in a Sermon Preached at the Funerall of that Hopeful and Uertuous yong Gentleman EDVVARD LEVVKENOR Esquire c. In whose Death is ended the name of that renowned Family of the Lewkenors in Suffolke By Tymothy Oldmayne Minister of the Word of God at Denham in Suffolke Our dayes on Earth are as a shaddow and there is none abiding Also an Elegy and an Epitaph on the death of that worthy Gentleman by I. G. Dr. of D. LONDON Printed by N. and I. Okes dwelling in little S. Bartholmewes neere the Hospitall gate 1636. FLECTAR NON FRANGAR TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL AND Of high Desert the Lady MARY Lewkenor and Mris Elizabeth Lewkenor the Mother and sorrowfull Widdow of this Deceased Gentleman together with the right worshipfull and truly noble Lady the Lady Anne Le-strange Wife to Sir Nicholas Le-strange Baronet As also to her two vertuous and worthy sisters Mistris Katherine and Mistris Mary Lewkenor Eternall Happinesse c. LOth I am right Worshipfull and truely Honorable that this rough unpolished discourse of mine should unfortunately renew Your former griefe or fill those Eyes againe with teares which were never fully dried sithence this heavy Accident befell this Noble Plant so neere so deere unto you For sorrow I know right well is of a quick and apprehensive nature that the least touch maketh the Vessell easily overflow How ever I humbly intreate that mine innocency herein may answer for me my ayme beeing chiefly this to strew onely some few flowers upon the Hearse of this my honourable friend such as in his life time his owne Hand gathered pleasant unto the Eye and of a most odoriferous Sent. Neither is this Treatise of mine otherwise intended but to bee a true Remembrancer to tell succeeding Ages the greatnesse of the losse when your renowned Family was by the Untimely Death of this so Hopefull a Young Gentleman thus fatally smitten if not quite overturned This Towne which now affordeth me my being formerly afforded mee my first breath And foure generations of your honourable Family haue I seene here upon the Stage successiuely acting their several Parts Angels and Men were the lookers on and with great applause highly commended their true Action generous demeanour But now alas the Theater is wholy empted and all the Actors quite gone the Stage hourely expected to be pulled down and if it stand yet little hope there is that ever our eyes shall see such Actors any more upon it to play their parts so commendable as those Antients did The consideration whereof as it carrieth with it not onely trouble but indeed a kind of amazement so is there much wisedom required in censuring and patience in induring what is hapned My humble request therfore unto you right Worshipfull is as those that haue the greatest share in this unvaluable losse that in the middest of so many differing Thoughts in searching out the true cause and end that the Almighty hath in doing this you would be pleased to remember these three Things First that there is in God an unbounded will that his Judgements are Vnsearchable and his Waies past finding out Secondly that You would bee pleased to looke backe upon the happinesse and glory of your Family which formerly You have both seene and tasted Beleeve mee right worshipfull the sight thereof will be a Soveraigne preservatiue against Repining Lastly that seeing it was determined by an eternall and inevitable decree that the Sirnames of your Family should heere fatally end that you would bee pleased to solace and cherish your Hearts that it is done without the least spot and blemish to the same And that this young Gentleman so honourably concluded and closed up all so happily as Hee hath done to his immortall praise But I desire not to tell the Travailer the way hee knoweth so well already or light a Candle when the Sunne is up or leade the hand of the skilfull Artist Here therefore I doe humbly take my leaue desiring You to accept of what is done heerein as the Fruite of that unfeigned Loue and dutiful Respect which was alwayes borne by him to your Honourable and worthy Family who still remaineth Yours in the Lord to be commanded to the uttermost of his power untill Death Tymothy Oldmayne Perlegi concionem hanc cui titulus est Lifes brevity in qua nihil reperio quo minus cum utilitate publica imprimatur Ex aedib Fulham decimo die Septem 1625. SA BAKER LIUES BREVITY AND DEATHES DEBILITY ISAIAH 26. VERS 19. Thy dead men shall live with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of Herbes and the earth shall cast out the dead IT would have brought much ease and comfort to our sorrowfull hearts if we had only heard of this sad accident the death I mean of this so noble a Plant this Honourable young Gentleman and not beene Eye-witnesses of the same And that the same Countrie which received his last breath had likewise imbraced his honourable Ashes his living presence how welcome would it have been unto us But comming thus amongst us shrouded under the blacke mantle of death we tremble at it For this is one of the miseries of man when death seizeth on him that he that was neerest unto him in affection then desireth to bee farthest from him in action and that living face that affoorded greatest joy when once dead carrieth with it greatest terrour neither can the conclusion of all this sad Catastrophe but adde vineger to our bleeding wound that whilst we were seriously bethinking with our selves in what sort wee may best expresse the inward griefe and trouble of mindes for this our losse in doing all the honour that possibly wee could unto him in this his Funerall obsequies Lo the tediousnesse of the way and terriblenesse of the disease had so shattered and crushed that tender and delicate body of his comming along to us riding in that dolfull Chariot of death that no sooner had a few teares given him a sad welcome but we were enforced to give his body to the earth and we to him a sorrowfull Adieu But in all this patience must possesse our soules And seeing he is now already entred into the house of his age and sweetly sleepeth upon his bed of honour amongst the rest of his noble Ancestors let us I pray you turne our thoughts awhile from him and looke a little upon the hand of God in doing this to him and with him in cutting off as it were with one stroake the name and glory of so renowned a family amongst us To that end it must be remembred as a thing not wholy past the memory of man how the Grand-father of this young Gentleman of high repute joyning himselfe in marriage with a Right Worshipfull family in this County left that former feate and dwelling of that ancient family of his owne in
1 King 21 13. Get thee to thine owne house and when thy feete enter into the City the childe shall dye and all Israel shall mourne for him and bury him for he onely of Ieroboam shall come to the grave because in him is found some good thing toward the Lord God in the house of Ieroboam Lastly who would not have thought but some one or other sinne committed by himselfe or some of his Ancestors had been the cause why Iosiah the mirrour of Kings fell in battaile in the flower of his dayes by the sword of Pharao Necho King of Egypt True it is that sin was one cause and a maine one for sin causeth every calamity as the distemper of humours every ordinary Ague but this was not the true cause 2 Chro. 35.25 and end that God aymed at in his suddaine death but that by this means he being the sooner freed from trouble and vexation of heart might enter his grave in peace Isay 57.1 and might not see the evill to come From all which examples two things by the way offer themselves unto us worthy of our due consideration The first is that men in censuring Gods heavy chastisements lightning on the backs of the righteous do usually misse the true and right end in inflicting of the same taking them as fiery Scorpions of his wrath when as they are indeede the fruites of his Fatherly affection toward them 2 That when Almighty God performeth not his promise to his children in regard of outward blessings then his usuall manner is to provide Heb. 11. Better things for them For instance when he denieth them this outward trash and transitory riches to give them Riches never fading but alwaies blossoming Hee denieth them outward comfort and filleth their soules with glee and mirth They weepe for a time and laugh eternally Lastly hence we may learne to be very wary how wee doe rashly passe our Verdicts in cases of this nature for feare least missing Gods ayme wee overshoot our selues and highly offend But above all that we take heed of playing the Cantharides or stinking flye where wee see the least skinne off there to bee sucking and opening agayne the skars and blemishes that were long since healed with the blood of Christ Crying out with those clamorous Iewes Men of Israel Act 21.28 these be the men so wee these are the sinnes that have procured wrath and undone this Family Nay brethren let us rather hearken to Davids blessing Psalm 41.1.2 Blessed is the man that considereth wisely of the poore the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble Colo. 3.14 And to that sweete counsell that the Apostle giveth Above all things my brethren sayth hee let us put on love which is the bond of perfectnesse So shall wee with her faire mantle not onely cover a multitude of sinnes but construe things in a better sense 1 Peter 4 drawing our conclusions not from hatred but from a far milder Roote namely From the loue of God 1. To this young Gentleman himselfe 2. In him to us all 1 1 To him 1 1. In taking this noble plant from the evil to come 1. Of sinne Isay 57.1 2 Of punishment 2 2. In providing for him a Richer and more noble inheritance even the sure mercies of David Isay 55.3 Isay 55.3 2 2. To us all if fairely we can draw honie out of the Eater and wholsome instruction out of the dead carkasse of this dead Lyon as God grant wee may Fourthly it must bee remembred that though the name of the Family in Suffolke bee quite extinguished yet that the Family it selfe is not blessed bee the name of God utterly destroyed It is falne here but it flourisheth elsewhere For amongst many other outward blessings wherewith Almighty God marvailously enriched the Grand-father of this young Gentleman he added that of Iosephs Gen 49 25 namely Vbertatem uberum vulvae the blessing of the breasts and of the wombe So that hee had Numerosam prolem plenty of children two Sonnes and seaven daughters a goodly off spring and which increaseth more the blessing not one of them but was the choisest shaft of a thousand Certainly Psal 126. he need not be a shamed For he might speak boldly with his Enemy in the gate Now in the younger sonne of that honourable Knight younger I meane then his Brother but deserving indeede the Elders place in any Family of his degree is the ancient and Worshipfull name of this Family still continued and beeing rich in Sonnes with the Favour of the Almighty is like for many ages so to bee And besides it is the masculine and manly blood of the Lukenors onely heere in Suffolke which by the untimely fall of this flourishing branch is thus perished as wee see and quite dryed up otherwise much of that honourable blood runneth yet along although in a milder straine through the pure veines of those three truely vertuous Sisters no waies inferiour to those daughters of Zelophehad yea Num. 27.1 besides these there is a little Ruth left a pledge of his love to his deare wife and now sorrowfull widow who although a daughter yet by the pious and religious education of that wise and vertuous Gentlewoman her mother wee are to hope will in Gods good time build up againe this decayed and shattered family of Elimelech Fiftly and lastly to close up all in a word we must not be ignorant how that most of the richest promises which our heavenly father hath in his great love and free mercy made to his dearest children are not usually and ordinarily fulfilled here in this life Sometimes they are but commonly they are not and if they be yet but in part for the full recompence is reserved till afterwards 1 Cor. 15. And if it were not so of all others saith the Apostle we are most miserable as the truth is they had bin Their holinesse and piety being accompted no better then madnesse and folly and their whole religion Exitiabilem superstitionem unde cuncta atrocia et pudenda confluunt A damnable superstition and the mother of all villany And that we may see this yet the better let us I pray you look a little into the lives of some few omitting multitudes of the choysest servants of God and see their reward heere in this world And first Iohn the Baptist a great Prophet and one of a most austere life and unspotted conversation the fore-runner and bright morning starre making way for the Sunne of righteousnesse arising in his full strength what was the reward he reaped for all his preaching and paines taking in the Church of God his thundring out of judgements against the wicked without all partiality and promising mercies to the true penitent and afflicted soule surely to have his head struck off from his shoulders at the command of an arrant strumpet and his body to be cast forth as dung upon the earth onely here was his
and songs of Love Then shal we see I doubt not this sweete young Gentleman comming forth with his Laurell on his head Rev. 19.7 and his rich Robe on his backe washed in the Blood of the Lambe singing Alleluiahs unto God and saying with the rest Let us be glad and reioyce and give honour unto him for the Lambe is come and his Wife hath made her selfe ready The consideration whereof ought to bee another maine comfort against that sadnesse which the shadow of death bringeth with it when a darke cloud shall oppresse our hearts when our songes shall be turned into heavy sighes and all our mirth into dolefull complaints then let the Childe of God thus thinke with himselfe well though I cannot now bee merry yet the time is comming when I know I shall now I am sad but then I shall sing my ship being entred the wished Haven and this boysterous tempest wholly over But I hasten to an end intending as briefly as I can to close up all with the reason that the blessed Spirit yeeldeth in the latter end of the verse why the dead carkasses shall not onely arise but in so beautifull also and joyfull a sort the which is no other in word then the opperative and working power and vertue of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ being the same to the dead that the dewe and sappe in the spring is to the hearbes and grasse of the field All the Winter long experience teacheth us when snow and frost covers the ground the grasse and plants of the earth appeare as dead and withered untill the spring commeth when a pleasant dew armed with the power of the Sunne not only mouldreth and prepareth the earth but soaking downe unto the rootes of the plants causeth them speedily to arise and grow so that within short time after the travailer may with their beauty feede his eye and the Labourer with the Fruite of the same fill his lap or bosome All which the Spirit of God in saying thy Dew is as the Dew of Hearbes and the Earth shall give up her dead intimateth to be the happy condition of all the Elect at the latter day So that how ever their Bones bee drye their Beauty lost and they returned agayne to Earth and Dust yet shall the fruite and benefite of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus Christ like an heavenly dew or rather like the breath of GOD himselfe soake downe and pierce into the bottome of their Graves causing them to arise and blosome foorth like the Rose of the valley and Lilly of the field the darlings of the Spring all which is by the finger of God Cant. 2.1 And that the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus shall doe all this Rom. 6 Iohn 6.4 1 Cor. 6.14 2. Cor. 5.10 Ephes 6. Col. 6.4 may appeare both by multitude of places of Scripture proving the trueth hereof as also by so many exhortations which wee usually meete withall wherein wee are earnestly put on to fit and prepare our selves for so high a dignity and preferment amongst others 1 Thes 5.6.8 1. Thessalon 5. where the blessed Apostle willeth us Not to sleepe as others doe but but watch and bee sober putting on the breast plate of Faith 1 Pet. 3.14 and Love and for our Helmet the hope of salvation And the Apostle St. Peter in exhorting us in his 1 Epistle 3.14 so earnestly as hee doth that seeing wee looke for such things to bee diligent that wee may be found of him in peace without spot or blemish Jud. 20.21 The like doth the holy Apostle Saint Iude in the twenteth Chapter and the twenteth first verse of his Epistle in this sort Wherefore my beloved keepe your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of the Lord Iesus Christ unto eternall Life But if this I have spoken something before with which contenting my selfe I will in a word or two and that very briefly shew unto you the reason of the comparison wherein the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ Iesus is compared unto that dew of Hearbes The which indeede doth most excellently demonstrate and expresse the nature of the same as may appeare by these instances following First the Dew descendeth from above wholly wrought and perfected by those superiour bodies and is as it were the sweat of their brows such surely and undoubtedly is the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ a Divine and caelestiall Dew pleasantly distilling and dropping downe from the sacred top of that caelestiall Hermon at all times but then chiefly and more especially when hee unlooseth and untyeth the sorrows of Death it beeing unpossible for it to hold him Secondly the Dew is of a mollifying and softning nature as I sayd before fitting the plants to spring and the earth to bring foorth such is the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour of so powerfull and working a nature leading things on in so sweete and excellent an order to their several ends that neither the hardnesse and stubbornnes of the earth the drinesse and rottennesse of the trees nor the indisposition of the dead bodies themselves shall hinder but that the earth shall cast up her dead Thirdly the dew of hearbes is not onely full of spirits and of a cheering and quickning nature but likewise sweete and pleasant casting foorth a most odiferous scent and savour witnesse our Gardens in the Spring mornings of such both quickning and perfuming nature will the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ be by meanes whereof the Bodies of the Elect shall not onely bee restored to life againe but the stinch and rotten savours of the Grave being remooved they shal bee so sweetned and perfumed with the odiferous savours of the same that all their Garments shall smell of Myrrhe Alloes and Cassia together with all the choisest spices of the Merchants fitting the Ivory pallace whereinto they are to enter and where they are to rejoyce for evermore Fourthly the Dew is of a most beautifull and faire aspect gracing much the flowers with her christall droppes like so many orient pearles dangling on the severall slippes and sprigs thereof so surely will the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ Iesus bee to all those that are truely his at his second comming which will be to judgement beautifying and adorning them in a more rich and costly manner then all the chaines broaches and ornaments on the earth possibly can do yea past the apprehension of man Sith then Brethren it is so and the sonne of God hath done all this for us making by his owne Resurrection ours likewise every way so certaine and sure and every way so joyfull let us then in time I pray you make sure of the same which beleeve me we may easily do if we get but our part in the first Resurrection For if by the Resurrection of Christ we be once raysed out of the Grave of sinne then let us no way question but by the power of the