Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A94777
|
A sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Worcester the second of Febr. last being Candlemas day, at the funerall of Mris Alice Tomkins wife unto Mr Thomas Tomkins one of the gentlemen of His Majesties chappell royall. By John Toy, Master of arts and one of the petty canons of the said cathedrall church.
|
Toy, John, 1611-1663.
|
1642
(1642)
|
Wing T1996; Thomason E154_47
|
12,390
|
28
|
A SERMON PREACHED IN THE Cathedrall Church of Worcester the second of Febr. last being Candlemas day at the funerall of Mris ALICE TOMKINS wife unto Mr Thomas Tomkins one of the Gentlemen of his Majesties Chappell Royall BY JOHN TOY Master of Arts and one of the Petty Canons of the said Cathedrall Church London Printed in the yeere 1642. A Sermon preached in the Cathedrall Church of Worcester at the funerall of Mris ALICE TOMKINS JOB 14. part of the 14. vers All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come NOt to deduce this Text by long descent from precedent verses this whole Chapter is a short discourse of the course of mans life how full of miserie how miserably short which holy Job considering armes himselfe with devout resolve All the dayes of my appointed time c. Which resolve may bee resolved into these sixe heads 1. First we have but our time 2. Secondly this time is but of dayes very short 3. Thirdly this time nor comes nor goes by chance but by Divine appointment 4. Fourthly after this time comes a change death 5. Fifthly this change is not terrible but by all good men to be desir'd and expected 6. Sixthly this expectation by Job's example should remaine with us all our daies All the dayes c. 1. Yea indeed he that is the Map masterpiece and wonder of the world hath man but this time Why did God make his chiefest vessell for use and honour of such brittle stuffe which would serve him but for a season why did he build so gloriously to throw it downe again so soon wherefore would he print his image in common clay and adorne with such art a piece of mouldring earth O the pitie that wormes should pull in pieces so Divine a Forme or that an immortall soule should be married to worms meat a rotten carcase the starres above far beneath man in dignitie hold still their place and splendour and shine as cleare as when fresh from the hand of the Creatour man like a bearded Commet blazeth a while with troubled flame and anon consumes to nothing or rather like the sparkle flies up with heat and haste as if it meant to visit the Celestiall fires and vanisheth by the way within few yards of the earth If any thing of the vast creation were worthy an immortall being man more yet alas nothing more frail and mutable then he Why and who may be thanke himselfe and his sinnes Had he kept that Righteousnesse with which God invested him in Paradise he had equall'd the dayes of heaven though this building were of clay in the calm aire sun-shine of Gods favour it might have stood for ever our sin turned his favour into fury and tempest and so our Cottage cannot abide the blasting of the breath of his displeasure the sparke deserves to die that in pride flies away from the fuell that did feed it so did man the commet merits darknesse that bearded the starres blazeth with pride and terrour fils the world with blood and feares so did man what is the clay fit for but abjection that hath lost the stampe and image that ennobled it above common dirt Why should not worms have justice if man trespasse on their kingdome why may they not avenge it they have little reason to spare him not only these Creepers but even the whole Creatures groane under a curse for him that God formed so glorious a Creature out of clay teacheth us his power who ex omni ebore can worke wonders out of meane materials that he made us of clay kin to the dung-hill and dirt in the kennels was to teach man humilitie nor hath he wrong'd the celestiall part the soule by cloathing her in clay would she keepe it cleane from sin God himselfe desires no better dwelling the Son of God Christ Jesus did not disdaine to become man Yea and we may thank the mercy of God that we are thus confined to time sin so adheres to our tainted nature that we can never cease to commit till we be committed to the earth death doth enlarge us from the slaverie of sinne since the earth is curst with thornes our hearts hedg'd with cares since nature is become our stepmother and the good which should satisfie our soule withdrawen it is an happinesse that we shall once die and cease from our labours yea periissemus nisi periissemus we had lost by our righteousnesse we got by our sin the goodnesse and wisdome of our God hath wrought a greater weight of Salvation for us out of our ruines if the first Adam had stood wee had enjoy'd but an earthly Paradise the second Adam hath made us heires of a celestiall Inheritance 2. As this life is but for a time so this time is but of dayes very short The summe is but short where all the figures are but pence the journey not long that may be measured by Inches the lease may well bee termed little whose date is but for dayes Were the life of man reckoned by Olympiads decads lusters ages or yeares we might expect a spatious being betwixt the Cradle and the Grave but there needs no such large Arithmeticke no puzling composition of numbers to fathom the life of man minutes multiplyed will make houres a small passage of ours will dispatch a day and a few dayes will measure the life of man many doe but just looke upon the world disdaine and die many rather commit patricide and kill their mothers in the wombe then they will daigne to looke on such a world How many come only to suck a Bib or shake a Ratle and returne again to earth I dare say the third part of mankind do not attaine to a moneth Our common phrase is All the dayes of our life the same phrase is most frequent in holy Scripture Jacob had lived an hundred and thirtie yeares ere he descended into Egypt yet he cals them but dayes Few and evill have my dayes been Adams time was called but dayes though 830. yeares Gen. 5.5 They whose possession is but for their naturall life are allowed in Law to set but from three yeares to three yeares and truly the taker doth presume and sometimes suffers for it well then may we reckon humane life by dayes when our whole was casuall and incertaine and every piece of a day a severall mercy hence it is I thinke that day is declin'd with the doubtfull Gender But indeed dayes is a large expression if you will consider it more narrowly all is but a day yesterday was as to day and to morrow will not much differ all dayes are sisters so like that there is little or nothing more then a numericall distinction between them he that sees but one day hath seene the Sun arise and set he that lingers to an hundred yeares hath seene but little more It is true the yeare like a Gentlewoman varies oft her attire but the person and substance is alwayes the same
and each day the Epitome of our whole life but me thinkes a day is too much to attribute to man that is his which he enjoyes what is that the time past no that is dead and gone the time to come no that may never come the present yea but what 's that an instant point an individuum an ens rationis a conceit of our braine indeed almost nothing but stay I should goe beyond my Text if I doe I doe not goe beyond Scripture David saith Mine age is nothing unto thee Indeed that is halfe a nothing which hath an end man hath two our whole space is even just nothing in respect of the dayes of Eternitie for between finite and infinite is no proportion looke back on all the time past all the dayes yeares and houres are measured with one sudden thought which is next to nothing The generations of men saith the Poet are like the succession of leaves which no sooner are greene but already turning yellow and readie to fall Harke to the Prophets cry what will he cry that All flesh is grasse and the glory thereof as the flower of the field rising withering flourishing fading growing declining living dying as it were all in an instant David calls mans life a spanne a dreame a vapour a bubble Salomon saith lesse all things sublunary are vanitie that is the appearance of nothing Till thou canst enjoy life 't is not a life but a being or at most but as the life of trees which is without sence of it selfe We have perhaps seventie yeares before us but little of this doe we enjoy minimum est quod vivitur Infancy and Childhood is but the portall through which we enter into life all that while we are not come to our selves in youth we are so sublimed with pride or so vehemently forc'd with headlong passion that all that while we live like madmen beside our selves we cannot well be said to live till we arrive at gray haires and no sooner do we arrive at that Meridian but we are mellow and ripe for the grave and indeed senectus ipsa morbus age is nothing but a long disease a lingring death Again of that space we live how little do we live to our selves halfe of all is consumed in sleep the sister of death thanks to nature so long we are innocent of the rest much is worne out in businesse for others much lost and lavisht on our pleasures some slips idlely through our fingers little bestowed on God or goodnesse almost all expended on businesse that least concerns us diù fuit non diù vixit so much we have lived as we have lived well and alas how ridiculously short are our lives if measured by our goodnesse O how much are they too blame that haunt company and hunt after pastime that 's the world beguiling themselves of those pretious houres which God hath given them to studie and procure Eternity alas are the wings of time so leaden and lazie that we should adde and impe more feathers to it time lacquies with the motions of the heavens and they are as swift as thought the Sun one of the lower and slower Planets moves not lesse then foure thousand miles every minute if you are sure of heaven spur on delude time as you list but if not O why should you hasten your misery O how much to blame is the covetous man he not considering how short his time is rakes and toiles to heap up a miskin of wealth as if he meant to live for ever what doth he think to continue still why there is a statute of mortalitie against him Statutum est semel mori Doth he think to bribe death it will not be Mors aquo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres The rich man died also doth he think to carry it with him no we must not allow transportation of our money to hell nudus venit naked he came naked he must return What will he lay it up for his children I thinke he that truly loves money little thinks of that if he did marry he would doe them a great pleasure to leave them cursed wealth to undoe them he will lay it up for his old age and then enjoy it least of all quo minus via eo plus viatici covetousnesse is fiercest in the close he will rather choke himself with cares or starve himself not daring to diminish his mouldy god his treasure Since our time is so short a Kalendar of a day O how much too blame is the intemperate glutton and drunkard that drink away their health and fill their body with diseases every intemperate draught is but a sweet poyson the glutton eates his knife and God may justly challenge them of self murder that thus will eate and drinke in spight of health and nature and so shorten that precious time which God indulged for better purpose Is life so short at utmost extension O cursed condition of men that delight in bloud that like Atropos make a trade of killing butchers of their brethren traytors to nature why should we cut that thread which another will shortly cut why should we envy our Brethren a little light why shouldest thou envie light to thy self thy thread murderer is twist with his whom thou slayest just vengeance hath decreed the bloudy minded man shall not live out half his dayes Is life so short why then being mortall doe we nourish immortall hatred against our Brother hath he done thee wrong forbear the fault the sentence of death is upon him anon the worms will pull him all to peeces what greater revenge canst thou desire dum luctamur aderit immortalitas spight of all thy spight death will disarm the make thee lye quietly in the grave with thy contemned Brother If life be so short why doe we post off repentance and make so little care to prepare for the presence of the Judge and hazard our salvation to the extreamest minutes how many that long since might have been raked up in the grave are but beginning to live nay 't is not so well they doe but say they will begin but let him that means to goe to heaven set out betimes lest like the foolish boy we game out the candle which should light us to bed time past will not be recalled and we have a spatious distance to dispatch in a few minutes how short and uncertain soever our dayes are to us with God they are determined and appointed so saith my Text All the dayes of my appointed time 3. God Almighty hath set up bounds which wee cannot passe and untill that houre which he hath determined doe approach we cannot dye this paper body of ours is proofe against all violence to this agrees that of Job above thou hast made my dayes as the dayes of an hireling the hireling is but for a certain time That of Salomon There is a time to be borne and a time to dye this appears by this that