A SERMON OR The Survey of Man.
Taken by J. B.
As it was Delivered at his Fathers Funeral, September 4 th. 1638.
LONDON, Printed in the Year, M.DC.LII.
THE APOLOGIE.
Hearken, O people, as fellow-feeling members: and look not but with moistned Eyes on my Complaints.
THe Lord hath filled my Cup full, even to the brim; yea, it doth overflow: but wo, and alas, it is with afflictions! Did not these The small Pox. Tokens of Gods wrath, that here you see to be fixed on my Face, portend the evils for to come, (just punishments for sin) at once to be bereft of both my neerest Friends? When Epaphroditus escaped death, God was mercifull unto me, said Paul, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow: Phil. 2.17. I have escaped death; God be merciful unto me, that have sorrows upon sorrow; not one or two, but an heap of sorrows. The sorrows of Death have compassed me about on every side, may say now, as once said Psal. 18.3. David: I meet with them at every turn; on my right hand, and on my left hand too: Here, on this, we have these my Fathers Corps, sad spectacle of Mortality, present before our eyes: There, on that, we may soon behold the place where she, good Woman, dear Mother, Twenty dayes before. lately has been interred. And which way now should I turn my self? no place can be free from Grief, I have no sanctuary to fly unto; how then should the Pulpit shelter me? In this perplexity you may perhaps expect to see a flood of Tears distilling from my blubbering eyes: yet how should I weep at all? when you know that where the water stands it is the deepest; great Parva loquuntur curae, ingentes stupent sorrows strike dumb; and the lesse the sound is of our grief, the greater is the sense thereof. In this perplexity, you may perhaps expect [Page 2] to hear more sighs and sobs, then words to issue through my mouth: yet how should I be silent, when the dead shall bid me speak. Then blame not (I pray, my brethren) though I presume to take this heavy task upon me; and think not that I soar to high above my Sphear, beeing thus deeply plunged in this Gulf of misery: but rather beseech Almighty God to enable me in the performance of this my last duty, which I owe to my Fathers Will; and that my Passion may be overruled by Patience, which will best manifest my self to be the true Son of this my deceased Parent, who here remains a lively pattern of Patience unto us, and Job was a pattern of Patience unto him, that even in the midst of his afflictions offended not with his tongue: only perchance he did (like Job) bewail the estate of our humane misery: and therefore out of the complaints of Job, I shall now derive the grounds of my present Discourse, as it is written in his fourteenth Chapter, and the tenth Verse. Job the 14 th and the 10 th it is thus written. Man dyeth, and wasteth away: Yea, man yieldeth up the Ghost: and where is he? The latter part of the Verse: Man yieldeth up the Ghost: and where is he?
THE PROLOGUE.
Text.Man giveth up the Ghost: and where is he?
BOsrah, a City on this side Jordan, the Metropolis of Idumea, was the Birth-place of most patient Job, born not long before the dayes of Moses, Johan. Boldung. since the Creation 2270. The fift or sixt in descent from Esau: Zerah was his Father, and himself called Jobab, at Gen. 36. No less then a Duke by birth; being Heir apparent and Lord Controuler of his Fathers Family. One of great Hopes even from his Infancie: and grown up unto riper years, he begins to look about the World, travelling a little Northward towards the land of Huz, Job 1. Ver. 1. the confines of his Native Soil: where his present conversation doth [Page 3] soon express the goodness of his disposition, to be both temperate and wise, just, perfect, and upright in all things. This it is that won the hearts of the common people, and their King Bela is no sooner dead, but they set him in his Regal Throne: where he soon became the most renowned Potentate of all the East: for the name of Job was exceeding famous, together with his wealth: nothing was wanting to advance his happiness. But stay a little, and see the Vanity of our frail nature, even in its best condition. Job all this while is thus prosperous, but to be made the more unhappy: he is now climb'd up to the height of Fortunes wheel; and at the next turn his fall will be but the greater. What though God had placed him above the reach of humane malice? yet his uprightness shall never want a Devil, as long as hell can yield him one. Sathan now is become his Calumniator, and said unto the Lord; Verse 9. Doth Job serve God for nought? only destroy his wealth and substance; then he will curse thee to thy face. On this false suggestion, 11. the Lord lets the Devil loose: who begins with his asses and his oxen, which he caused the Sabeans to steal away; 15. and left but one servant alive to bring the newes: next, fire from Heaven consumed his sheep: then the Chaldeans fell upon his camels: 16. last of all, 19. he lost his Children by the downfall of their feasting-house: and still (as the Devil would have it) to augment their grief, one only escaped to bring the newes. 20. Notwithstanding all this Job was still upright, he fell upon his face and worshipped. Hereupon Sathan reneweth his suit unto the Lord, Chap. 2. and gets a larger commission, Verse 4. even to tempt Job in his proper person; then he smote him with boils and blanes in every part, 6. no place was left to rest him on; all sick from top to toe; 7. as many diseases as members in his body. The most general was the worst of ulcers: hence issued worms and streams of corrupted Humors, whereunto is joyned a Ʋt scripsit Galenus. flesh-consuming leprosie. He had the Quinsie in his neck and throat: diseases of the joynts and gout: morbus pedicularis: the Dysenterie or bloody flix: Colick, and torments of the Chap. 39. Reins: 16. Astma, Difficulty of breathing. Chap. 19.17. and the Hectick Feaver: Plurisie and a frightful sleep: Sore eyes and Head-ache: and a whole diseased bodie: all inflamed [Page 4] by the inward heat of a pestilent and biting humor: The dunghill is now become his Throne, and he that not long before did abound in silks, Chap. 2.8. for want of linen and sound nails, doth scrape his scabs with a broken Potsheard. Oh the exceeding misery of a man that had a Kingdom at command, yet now is ready to famish for want of bread! He had not a morsel for his belly, before his Basil. (Chrys. Olymp.) Jobi uxorem ad suam virique vitam sustentendam ostiatim mendicasse. Wife (from door to door) had begged it: who ( Tempore multo transacto, as it is in the Septuagint. after his fifteen If Theodoret speak true. Chap. 3. vers. 1.3, &c. years continuance in this calamity) said unto him; Doest thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and dye. Lo here the malice of the Devil, which had left him nothing but his Wife and Tongue, that with the latter he might blaspheme the Lord, and the former might serve as an instrument for to tempt him to it. Notwithstanding this Job did not sin. But although he did not curse his God, yet he did his birthday in his third Chapter: neither blame him for it, for the anguish of his soul was exceeding great, that at length burst forth into this (or the like) most doleful exclamation.
Ah me most miserable! let that night be never had in remembrance, when it was said, a man childe is conceived. Cursed be that day with darknesse wherein I was born: let not God regard it from above, that the clouds may cover it as a Canopy with blackness to make it terrible: let not the Sunshine come neer it; no, not so much as the twilight of the lesser stars, because it hid not these grievous sorrows from my weeping eyes. Alas; why dyed I not before I saw my being? Better it had been for me to have perished in the Haven, then thus to have lanched forth into this sea of troubles. O that I had been buried before I was born; and my Mothers Womb would have proved my Tomb; then should I sleep at quiet, and have been at rest: but now my dayes are lengthened to encrease my sorrow. Deliver me, O God, out of this distress: O spare me a little before I go hence, Chap. 14.7. and be no more seen. For there is hope of a tree, 8. although the spreading top thereof be lopt, and the whole bulk cut down; yet it will spring again, and not cease to send forth his tender Branch: 9. yea, though the root wax old and die, yet by the sent of moistning water, it will bud again, and flourish like a new set plant. But we must needs die, [Page 5] and are as water spilt upon the ground, 2 Sam. 14.14. which cannot be gathered up again. A man dieth and wasteth away: yea, a man giveth up the Ghost, and where is he?
These words will bear a double consideration. Division.
One is Relative: 1. Relative. and so they have dependance on the three precedent verses of this Chapter: and thus my Text were a piece of Jobs comparison, setting forth the distressed estate of a dying man, by the new and hopeful growth of an old consuming tree. But this is not that which now I intend to follow.
The other is Absolute: 2. Absolute. and (in this respect) if you will be pleased (with me) to look upon the words, at the first view, 1. Affirmative Proposition. you may behold, First an affirmative Proposition. Man yieldeth up the Ghost.
Secondly, words of Consequence, 2. Inference. or a sleight Inference by way of Questioning or Quere: where is he!
- In the Proposition you have
- 1. The Subject, Man.
- 2. The Act of this Subject,
yieldeth up. Man yieldeth up.
1. Part.
- 3. The object of this Act, or the Depositum, which is, the Ghost. Man yieldeth up the Ghost.
1 In the first, I shall take a short survey of man before he die.
2 From the second, you may learn the necessity of man to die.
3 And in the third, the nature of our Life and Soul: and what it is for a man to die.
4 Lastly, I shall conclude with an answer to the Quere; 2. Part. and will tell you as (neer as I can) where a man is, when he shall die.
Of these in their order, according to my Method of Division. And first of the first; The Subject of this Discourse, Man.
MAN.
We will take a Survey of Man before he die.
The last thing that received any Breath from God was Man, First Part. [Page 6] not that he was least, but perhaps because the Lord should have made so great a Prince in vain, if he had had no place wherein to rule. When the Lord had drawn out that large and real Map of the spacious world; he did then abridge it into the little Table of Man; which alone did consist of Heaven and of Earth; of Soul and of a Body.
The Body of Man.That the Body was created of Earth, I think that there is none doth doubt thereof: yet (saith Arias Montanus) it was not, Ex qualibet humo sed pinguissima; Ghaphar Adamah, that is the Original, of a reddish soft, and the fattest Earth. Nor is it so, that God made an Image moulded out of Clay, but out of it (by the power of his word) came blood, flesh and bones, with all the other parts of man, whose body is compounded of the four Elements, and doth partake of all their qualities, though earth predominates and nominates, whereunto the flesh doth bear resemblance; his vital Spirits agree with Air and Fire; his humors to the Water: yea, there is no piece so small in the whole Frame of man, wherein every one of the Elements do not intermeddle their power, although one of them doth alwayes command above the rest, and bear the sway. Now as the parts of man are many, so the principal is the head; there dwell those majestick powers of Reason, that make a man. The Senses, as they have their original from thence, so do they all agree there to manifest their Vertue. How goodly proportions hath the Lord set in the face of man; in the Breast, the Arms, the Legs, and the whole structure of every member? all as decent, as necessary. It were long for to speak of the Homogeneous or similary parts, which are nine, the Bone, Ligament, and the Gristle; Sinew, Panicle, and the Cord or Filament; the Flesh, the Artery, and the Veins. How hath the Lord disposed of all the inward Vessels, for the offices of Life, nourishment, and egestion; there is none of those (forementioned) idle; there is no piece in this exquisite frame, whereof the place, the use, and the form, do not admit wonder, and exceed it.
The Soul.But what is this Bodie if compared to the Soul, no more then a clay wall that encompasseth a treasure, or a mask to a [Page 7] beautiful face? Man was made last, because he was the worthiest: the Soul inspired last, because yet more noble. God that breatheth upon Man, and gives him the Holy Spirit; the same God did breath upon this Carkass, and gave it a living spirit. He alone did create our souls in their infusion; and infused them in their creation. Our knowledge in the beginning, and our righteousness was perfect like the first Copie from which we were drawn. O too too happy estate of man, had not his untimly fall so cancelled the divine character! His fall and misery. whence all the faculties of our soul are corrupted, continually prone to sin. This now is the law of our members, and the wages thereof is death. O the hard condition of a man, that before he can offend, (even from the womb) he is necessitated to it. Heraclitus therefore still wept in the consideration of our humane misery: and Plinie accounted him most happy, which should die unborn; or being born should die. Usually the new born babe that is a Male, cryeth A: and the Female E.
And what means Evah, but Heu Ha? both are interjections of sorrow, expressing the greatnesse of their calamity. There was some reason then for that custom amongst the Scythians, who still wept at the birth of their children, and did feast it out at the death of their parents: because that then they were delivered out of all their troubles. O how full of anxiety are mindes of mortal men? cares and crosses still set upon them; they are encompassed with afflictions on every side: Experto crede Magistro: Job 19. Job spake it by experience in his nineteenth Chapter; If I am ungodly, then woe is me: and if just, I cannot lift up my head, being fill'd with misery. And from this no estate, condition, nor age is free: all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Our infancie is full of folly: youth of disorder and toil: elder years of infirmity: each time hath its burthen, and that which may justly work our weariness. Art thou poor, O man? why then thou shalt be opprest with need, hunger, nakedness, and with cold. But art thou rich? why, hereby then thine abundance will prove to be thine overthrow: this gives thee reins to run after thy impious lust; and to rush upon all unlawfull [Page 8] Acts. Again art thou a servant? why then, either thy mind is terrified with threats; or thy body afflicted with many stripes. Or art thou a Master, and hast others at command? why then, if thou art cruel, fear will possess thee of rebellious servants, and if kinde and affable, they will soon neglect thee, and wax insolent. Either thy rigour will draw hatred on thy head, or familiarity contempt. So that there is no estate on earth can make a man compleatly happy. Yea, who ever lived one day in perfect joy? wherein either the guilt of conscience, the violence of wrath, or the motions of concupiscence, did not trouble him? wherein neither the spite of envie, the love of avarice, or swelling pride, did not touch him? and wherein neither loss, offence, or passion did not move him? Yea, that very time, the night which is granted us for our rest and quiet, is not granted to be quiet: for dreams do terrifie, and visions do molest us, and although those things are not truly terrible and sorrowfull, which Dreamers dream; yet they are truly terrified, and are sorrowful: insomuch that sometimes sleeping they do weep, and waking are much disturb'd. Yet above and besides all this, there are divers sicknesses whereunto our nature is continually incident. All the industry of Physitians have not hitherto found out so many names for diseases, as our humane frailty do dayly suffer, Suffer (did I say) unsufferablenesse of diseases; or unsufferable (did I say) sufferance. The sence will be best if we take both: for it is unsufferable from the bitternesse of the passions: and sufferable for the necessitie of it. JESUS therefore when he saw Mary lamenting her late diseased Brother, John 11.35. was troubled in the spirit, and wept: John 11. perhaps not because that Lazarus was dead: but rather for that being dead and at rest, he was about to recall him into the misery of this present life. But the Lord again will deliver both him and us out of all our troubles: Job 14.5. for our time is determined, and he hath appointed our bounds which we cannot pass: therefore we must die: Death is the wages of sin; therefore we all shall die: and for to die is the law of nature; therefore we cannot chuse but die: which sheweth you my second part, The necessity of death: The act in mans departing, He yieldeth up.
There is a time to be born, and a time to die, saith the Preacher: but this Preacher could not tell us what year, The necessitie of Death. or in what time of the year, this time of Death should be. And that she is most to be feared in March, and in Autumn, is no more then a popular perswasion. Every moneth, every day is fitted unto death. The Church yard is alwayes open; and every hour may be heard the dolefull sound of the passing Bell. sooner or later we must all shake hands with impartial death. Gen. 5.24. Thom. Aquin. in Haebr. c. 11. It is true that Enoch is not yet dead; yet (saith Aquinas) he must sometime die; for it is an irrevocable sentence laid on sin: Morte moriemini, ye shall surely die; or dying, you shall die; Motthamoth, as it is in the original, Gen. 2.17. Gen. 2.17. Which kinde of speech we may not call a Pleonasm; or a vain Grammatical repetition, and doubling of the word moriendi: for in the Hebrew Dialect, by this is meant, Certissimè mori, the certainty and necessity of death: and not only this, but citissimè mori, the suddenness of death: and not only this, but violentèr mori, the violence of death. For as often as the Scripture makes mention of death and doubleth it; there is not meant a natural death, but Philo-Judaus. violent and judicial. Our first parents died against nature, their death being an act only of Gods Justice towards them for their disobedience. The Lord made a Covenant with Adam, wherein Adam tyed himself, his Heirs, and Executors, but he forfeited his Bond; and we that succeed him in his sin, are lyable to the debt: Death is the debt that we must all pay though never so unwilling, as the word [moriendum] sheweth; it would be bootless to resist. Do we not receive our life but upon condition? why then should we grieve to pay it at the first asking? A wise man will make a vertue of necessity; and when his soul that was lent him is required, he (will be thankfull unto God for its use, and) is very ready to render it to him again: he yieldeth it up. By death we restore but what was borrowed. Homo vitae commodatus ( Publius Mimus. saith one) non donatus est. But I may well alter the case, and say, (non homo vitae, sed) vita homini commodata est, non donata. Doth God then lend us one another, and do we grudge when he calls for his own? [Page 10] So have I seen ill Debters, that borrow with prayers, keep with thanks and repay with enmity. We much mistake our Tenure, and account that for gift, which God intends for loan. We are no more then Tenants at will yet think our selves to be owners. If this condition were proper only to our selves and Climate; how unhappy should we seem to be? But behold, no place is secure from death. Zacharie shall meet her, though it be between the Temple and the Altar. Men had a Sanctuary to flie unto of old, yet there did Priamus, there did Joab die: and when is a man more sure then sitting? yet Eli fell down backward from his bench, and died. And do not every Prince, and Monarch dance with us in the same ring? But what speak I of Earth? the God of Nature, the Saviour of men have trod the same steps: and should we think much to follow him? No. Consider but a little the Emblem of impartial death, Ʋt pingitur per Gabrielem Inchinum. as * some have pictured it and we need not. A Carkass (it is) of man, that only doth consist of bones united by the nerves: ears, eyes, and nose it hath none: naked and terrible to behold: brandishing a sharp fickle with both her hands, Mortis Icon. as if cutting down of corn. This is the Icon, the image of death: wherein look how many parts, so many mysteries.
First, Death is pictured without eyes, as an indifferent Judg, [...]; 1. Sine oculis. she is no respecter of persons, which have no fear of the mighty, nor pitty on the poor: no noble dignity, nor resplendent shew; no riches, not the greatest treasure can procure her peace. O you Emperours, Popes, and Kings; Princes, and the greatest Potentates; your Thrones, Diadems, and purple robes; Sceptres, Crowns, and Miters, death casteth to the ground. You that are clothed in glorious garments and adorned to pomp shall die like men. Thou shalt not be safe, O Caesar, in the Senate House: Death will as well finde an entrance to the stately Palace, Horat. as the poorest Cottage: Pallida mors aequo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas, Regumque turres.
2. Sine auribusSecondly, without ears: that will admit no prayers, no supplications to pacifie her rage and fury. O you wise and learned Doctors, your eloquence, your knowledge shall not now prevail; she is deaf, and heareth not your Reasons and Arguments [Page 11] of Philosophie; not the pleading of the wrangling Lawyer, or the sweet tongued Orator. The Poet with his pleasant Jests; the subtil Sophister with his fallacies shall not now deceive her. She yieldeth not to the sighs of the afflicted, nor their tears: Finally the prayers of the humble; the vain smooth speeches of Flatterers she doth not, she cannot hear.
Next Death is said to have no nose: 3. Sine naribus as not to be deceived by any delightful smell. O you wanton and lascivious Girls! your fragrant odours will now be nothing worth: the apparel that is all perfumed, and your sweetest powders, 2 Reg. 9.30. Death will esteem as dust. Jezabel no sooner looks through the Window with her painted face, but it is torn in pieces by the ravenous Dogs. To what purpose then are all these kindes of savours, so many strange distilled waters, your Musk, Perfumes, and Ambers?
Death also is represented naked; 4. Nuda. to shew the small regard she hath of Coin, rewards, and Earths abundance. O you rich and wealthy men, whose hope is placed in your large possessions! think not when your Barns are full to be freed from death. Thou fool if this night thy soul be required, Luke 12.20. then whose are these?
Again, Death is fained to have no flesh, no blood, nor skin: 5. Sine carne. no esteem of tender Age, of strength, nor of complexion.
Lastly, Death doth shake her Sithe; 6. Vibrans falcem. to declare how she cuts down men like corn: the good together with the chaff, all shall down; that which is ripe for the coelestial Garner; and the green as straw to be burnt in eternal fire. Luke 16. When Lazarus is conveighed into Abrahams bosom, the rich Glutton shall be cast into the pit of Hell.
So thus (Beloved) by this Mortïs imago, Deaths image, you may well conceive, how that all assuredly shall die. There is a necessity, it cannot be avoided, why then are we unwilling for to die?
Morieris, thou shalt die: why it were foolishness to fear what I cannot shun. I shall not be the first nor last: many have gone before, all shall follow.
[Page 12] Morieris, thou shalt die: Why it is our humane nature, not a punishment. I had a beginning, and must therefore end.
Morieris, thou shalt die: Why it is no news, I am sworn to it, and should I then repent? to this purpose I came into the world, and every day am walking to the Grave.
Morieris, thou shalt die: Good God! what can be better unto mortal man? if Heaven be our countrey, earth is but a place of Banishment.
Morieris, thou shalt die! This is Jus Gentium, to pay the Creditor what we have received: why then should a man repine? he knoweth this Coin not to be his own; that his Soul is only lent him, and he yieldeth up the Ghost, which is the depositum, the Act of this Subject, and now comes next to be handled. Homo moritur, Man yieldeth up the Ghost.
Third part.GHOST.
That divine Essence, the Soul of man, is in Scripture sometimes called a Spirit, and sometimes a Ghost. Stephen, when he was stoned, Acts 7.59. John 19.30. cryed out, Lord receive my Spirit, Acts 7. JESUS bowed, and gave up the Ghost, John 19. But there hath been great contention amongst Philosophers, what this Soul, this Ghost should be. Thales Milesius, the Athenian, (who lived in Kings Ahabs dayes) was the first that ever would undertake to define it; Of the Souls Essence: and that was thus. The Soul is a nature alwayes moving it self. Pythagoras did make it no more then a number; and Plato, A moving substance that went by Harmony. But Aristotle (comes neerer to the purpose, Aristotle lib. 2. de anim. cap. 1. text. 6. and) calleth it [...], a continual Act of a natural, of an instrumental Body, that may have life. But indeed we may more truly say what the Soul is not, then what it is: the greatest perfection we describe by Negatives. She cannot proceed from the matter, from the figure, or qualities of the Body: neither from the Harmony, Conjunction, and Agreement of the same: this the soul is not. The vital and animal spirits, are only the Instruments of the soul, and not the soul it self: if otherwise, she were not immortal, but would perish together with the Body. Now the soul can be without the body, and vital spirits; though [Page 13] the bodie and vital spirits cannot be without the soul: without her the bodie moveth not all. She in a moment by the cogitations passeth through the whole Heavens, encompasseth the Earth and Seas: this is invisible, and cannot be perceived by sense. For the operations of her Essence, she hath Spirit, Will and Judgement; Sense, Understanding, Reason: and for her Beauty, Temperance, Justice, and other Vertues of the Minde: in fine, she is so divine, that she can hardly be comprehended by Reason, much less then be perceived by sense. God hath given us a soul more to use it, then to know it: He only knows it perfectly that is above it; we now know it only by the effects, but shall come to a cleerer revelation in the eternal Heavens.
Neither do the Philosophers wrangle more concerning the Essence of our souls, then they differ about the parts thereof. Of the parts of the Soul. Most and the latest writers would have them to be four: Understanding, Reason, Anger, and Desire: but yet the best received opinion will allow no more then two, under which they comprize the rest. The one is spiritual, intellectual, and therein you have the discourse of Reason: the other sensual, brutish, which is the Will, wandering of it self, disordered, wherein all evil desires have their dwelling. However the soul (that is immortal) cannot properly be said to be divided: because what is divided, dissolveth; and what is dissolved, perisheth: yet it may be said to be compounded, and made subject (during the union with the body) to these two principal parts, the Will and Understanding. The causes of Death. The soul indeed may be said to be divided (but in another sense) to be separated from the body; which may happen even in the best complexions: Wherein Life consisteth. if there be any excesse or defect in the Humors, then it causeth Death; in the Radical Humor I mean, which is the root of Life: for as the heat consumeth this Humidity, so doth the party languish, he dieth: just like the flame which lesseneth her light and vigour, as the oil wasteth in the Lamp, till it be extinguished. Again, the life of man consisteth in his breath, which is no more then winde or Air that refresh the Heart, which if retained either in the Mouth or Artery, the man is surely dead. What then is death, but the taking down of these [Page 14] sticks whereof this earthly Tent is built? But the separation of two great Friends until they meet again: but the Goal-delivery of a long Prisoner that rejoyces to be at liberty. The sleep of the Body, and the awaking of the Soul which hastneth to be gone, flyeth away, and where is she? my last particular, the Quere. Man yieldeth up the Ghost, and where is he?
Where the Body is.Although it hath been a custom, amongst some Heathenish people, to burn the bodies of their dead; and the more Barbarous for to eat them: yet still the most civil nations had the humanity to bury the Corps of their deceased Friends; for keep them we cannot, because they corrupt, they putrifie. Their Bodies therefore are committed to the ground, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes, as in THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. That the Bodies of the dead do return to the Earth from whence they were taken, no man can deny. But what is become of the soul? Where the Soul. there is the question. Where is she? Doth she vanish into nothing, or wander in the Air? doth she enter into beasts, and so inform them? is she idle and falls asleep? or else doth she hasten into Purgatory, or fly to Heaven? There is the question; Where is she? Doth she vanish into nothing?
1 No. The Sadduces dare not die, for fear of not being; and do merrily sing with the Hogs of the Epicures Stye, Ede, bibe, lude, post mortem nulla voluptas. But the Christian is assured that the soul is immortal (otherwise he denyeth the hope of his resurrection, and his faith is also vain) he doth well know that his soul survives his body; she cannot be annihilated, nor vanish like a vapour: why then, where is she? In the Air?
2 No. The spirits of the dead do not wander in the Earth nor Aia; they frequent not Churchyards, Sepulchers, nor Tombs; and what after death is seen, is but the devil to deceive the people in their likeness; she shall no more be beheld of men. Why 3 then, where is she? Doth she inform any other creature?
No. The transmigration of Souls was but a fable that the Chrys. hom. 2. of Lazarus. Egyptians had taught Pythagoras, and Pythagoras the Platonists; who Herodian. Lib. 2. Aug. Lib. 12. de civit. Dei. believed how that (that in tract of time) there [Page 15] should come a certain year, wherein all causes and effects long past, should return again, and continue constant: as for example, that at Athens, Plato himself, who once had many Pupils there, after a long appointed season (36000 thousand years) the same Plato, City, and School, should return again; in which space Ptolomy the great Astronomer did conceive that the course and motion of the Sphere would be finished from West to East. And in the mean time it is taught by these brutish men, that when the soul doth depart the bodie, she doth inform some Beast answerable to her former life: that the soul of an hasty and an angry man should degenerate into a Serpent: Thieves into Wolves; and those that are delighted in swinish pleasure into Hogs: Homer into a Peacock, and Orpheus into a Swan. Yea, and Origen writeth, Origen. lib. de proverb. Solom. that this Heresie of the souls departed) hapned among some (in his dayes) that were seeming Christians, occasioned by that they did not rightly understand the Scriptures: as where it is said by Christ of John the Baptist, He is Elias, they refer that speech to the soul of John; which was only meant to be in the Spirit or power of Elias, to convert their souls unto God: They did not know how a man doth become a Dog or an Asse; Herod is a Fox: it is by their resemblance in condition: not that the soul doth depart into a Beast. Why then, where is she? is she alwayes idle, or asleep?
No. I (saith the Lord) am the God of Abraham, the God 4 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matth. 22. And if the soul departed live, Matth. 22.32. she cannot be asleep nor idle; for to live is to be in action: and what action doth better agree unto a departed Soul then the love and contemplation of her God? although Irenaeus, (and some others) will not grant thus much before the resurrection day. Whose opinion doth seem to be grounded on that in the sixth of the Apocalyps, and the ninth verse: Apoc. 6.9.10. where S. John saw lying under the Altar, the souls of them that were slain: but this is answered in the next verse, That they cryed unto God, and therefore were not asleep. But where then doth this Altar stand? when the soul is under it, where is she? In Purgatory?
[Page 16]No. The Papists strangely talk of four infernal places in the bowels of the Earth: Hell, Purgatory, Limbus patrum, and Infantium. Perhaps Hell may be there, but the rest are fabulous. Hell they account to be the lowest, and would have Purgatory to be next: where the soul shall be sure to bear enough, not only poena damni, Aug. lib 21. cap. 13. de civit. Dei. Euseb. de praefat. Evang. lib. 1. cap. ult. but sensus too. As for the antiquity of this Purgatory, even Plato is cited (by S. Augustine and Eusebius) to be the Patron of it. Yea, and may not Homer and Virgil too be alleadged for't? for who doubts but that Poets are alwayes Orthodox? Yet (O the cold devotion of those times!) this fire never began to burn out, before Pope Gregories dayes, and since that, the Authority of the Turkish Alcoran hath much added to the flames thereof; where there is seven yeers punishment for every sin. But see now (I pray) the vanity of this new invention. Are not all the Articles of our Faith declared in sacred Writ: yet there we hear nothing of this fained Purgatory. Sap. 3.1. Solomon doth utterly quench this fire,: The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God (saith he) and no torment shall come nigh them. Wisd. 3. Behold then, either souls without a Purgatory, Matth. 11.18. or a Purgatory without pain. Come unto me all you that labor, & are heavy laden (saith Christ) and I will ease you. Mat. 11. Lord, whither wilt thou send us? into Purgatory? Surely there is little ease, if the fire be so hot as the Papists tell us. Esay 44. Thy sins (saith God) I will no more remember. Esay 44. Call you that no remembrance of them to cast us into Purgatory? Philip. 1.23. I desire (saith S. Paul) to be loosed, and to be with Christ. Phil. 1. Verily if he had thought to have gone through Purgatory he would not have been so hasty: for there he should be sure to have met with a hot Bath, to have cooled his courage. Doubtless his soul that is departed did escape this place of torment: And where then is she? Is she gone and ascended up the Heavens?
Yes. If Abrahams bosom be in Heaven: a Heaven it may be, though not the Heaven of Heavens: In Coelo beatorum, though not In sancto sanctorum: the highest and most glorious Heaven. Chrys. 2. hom. de Lazaro. There are but two wayes for Souls departed (saith Chrysostome) some are hurried to the place of punishment; [Page 17] and others are conveyed by Angels into Heaven: not in an instant (for that were an act of the Deity it self) but they pass by a Physical, by a local motion, though it be no longer then the twinkling of an Eye. This Abrahams Bosom is a place of bliss, and receptacle of souls departed, wherein there is peace and tranquillity of minde, being in the sight of God; yet that sight of God is as through a veil, not cleer: for how (saith Origen) can they have the full vision, Origen. hom. 7. in Levit. and perfect happiness, as long as they grieve at our errours, lament our sins, and have a longing desire to be united to their bodies? Bellar. lib de Sanctis. Bellarmin indeed taketh great pains, to prove (in six long Chapters) that the Saints departed do presently enjoy the full sight of God, and enter into perfect bliss; and reproveth M. Calvin, because he saith, that the Saints are yet in hope of the full fruition. But the Fathers generally deny, that the souls of the Saints are yet in the very same place where the glorified Bodie of Christ remains. S. Chrysostom, S. Hillary, and S. Augustine: Chrys. i. Epist. ad Corinth. hom. 39. Hillar. in psal. 36. Just. q 1. 75. Ambr. tract. de bono mortis cap. 10. Tert. advers. Marcionem l. 4. Justine the Martyr, S. Ambrose, and Tertullian, I could here alledge, who do all agree that the souls of the righteous are carried into Paradise or Abrahams Bosom, there to remain in hope and joy, but yet uncrowned, until the end of things bring the fulnesse of reward by the resurrection of all men. But what this Abrahams bosom is, whether Lazarus soul was conveyed by the Angels, or where it is, the most learned hitherto could not know; and therefore I dare not, I cannot determine it: Only by the words of S. Bernard in his third sermon on All-Saints day, Bern. in Festum omnium sanctorum. serm. 3. I conceit it to be next unto the highest Heavens, immediatly without the glorious presence of Almighty God. There are three estates of the soul (saith he) in the corruptible body, without the body, & in perfect blessednesse. The first is in the Tabernacles the second in the Courts; and the third in the house of God: But into this most happy house, the souls of the Saints shall not enter before us, without us, or without their bodies.
Art thou grieved, O departing soul, because at (an instant) thou shalt not receive thy full reward? Why what then should Abel do, who overcame so long since, and not yet glorified? what Noah, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the rest of those [Page 18] times? for behold (they expected thee, and expect others after thee) they prevented us in their conflicts, but they shall not in their crowns. What though this Carkass be left to rottenness for a time, when my soul at the very instant of separation, knows her self to be happie? What although my friends mourn about my Bed and Coffin, when my soul is gone to enjoy the the loving embracements of my Lord and Saviour? And what matter is it though my name be forgotten amongst men, when I live above, so neer unto the God of spirits? that part which is corrupted feels it not: but my soul findeth an abundant recompence, and foreseeth a joyful reparation, in the resurrection of the just. When this mortality shall be clothed with immortality; then all tears shall be wiped from our eyes, both bodie and soul shall be made partakers of eternal happiness. When the veil shall be taken away, then we shall all enter into that Sanctum Sanctorum, Gods chamber of presence, where we shall have a full, even a cleer sight of the beatifical vision. When the day shall no more give place to night, and time shall cease to be, by the consummation of all things, then we shall live, and raign with God the Father, with God the Son, and with God the holy Ghost, in perfect joy, in perfect bliss, and in perfect Glory; for ever everlastingly, even world without end.
ENCOM—EPILOGUE.
Now here at this Funeral Solemnity, you may well expect something to be spoken of this our deceased, deerest Friend: and indeed (although it might better beseem another mans tongue then mine own, yet being my lot to be now in this place) I cannot omit it, without incurring the guilt of an injury to the dead: for as I utterly disallow the custome of some men, that justifie the ungodly, by often abusing the Pulpit with their pleasing tongues, that savour more of Flattery then of Truth; so neither would I be perverse to condemn the Innocent, and rob vertue of her reward, which doth here principally consist in praise.
[Page 19]The Object here set before our eyes, is the subject of my Text, a sad spectacle of Mortality, Man. If we search the Records for his antiquity and descent, it appeareth that his Father was an Amorite, and his Mother a Hittite, even one of Adams own ofspring, in that he was made subject to the Act, the curse, when he yielded up the Ghost: Morte moriêris, thou shalt surely die; an irrevocable sentence denounced by Gods own mouth, for our former fault and disobedience. But, and if we come neerer to our selves, of his Descent and Parentage I will not speak, for he was known as well to many others here present, as my self: onely I shall desire thus much, that none here amongst you will despise him, because he was your Neighbour, and your Countrey man; nor to say of him disdainfully (as the Nazarites did once of Christ) His Father and his Mother we well did know: his Brethren, his Sisters, and his Children are they not all with us? whence then hath this man any vertuous or religious Works?
In the first place, at his Birth-day, when the curtain of the attiring room was drawn, he then did enter upon the Stage of this present world, where his Prologue was but short, and he spoke but little by reason of his Infancie; only he shewed to the world the meekness of his disposition, and good inclination of his nature. But when he came to some riper years of Judgement, he then well acted his part which was variable and full of changes, to the life expressing the vanity and uncertainness of humane kinde; where he left his paths for our feet to tread upon, and drawed forth a pattern for us to imitate by a pious conversation. His Zeal to God was expressed not only by his delight he had to frequent the Temple of the Lord; but also by his daily prayers in his private family. The chastity of his words and actions did declare that he never violated his plighted troth to his loving wife, for his soul solely clave unto her: And the love that he alwayes had to his needy neighbour did promulge his charity: who only not omitted the occasion of well doing, but also sometimes sought it, well knowing that he had lost that day wherein he had not done some good. It would here be tedious to speak of his domestick [Page 20] discipline; to recite his publick conversation, which was alwayes just, honest and vertuous: and that the words I utter may the better appear to be impartial, I take all you to record that hear me this day, how that he was pure from offence to all men, and I am verily perswaded that no man can justly say as much as black unto his eye. Truth was placed in his words, and constancie in his deeds. There was a freedom in his presence, and in his visage cheerfulnesse. He was easie to forgive, courteous unto all, yea even to his enemies, for some he had, because vertue cannot be without them. In a word, he carried himself in all his Fortunes with an equal mind, not too much puft up with the swelling floods of prosperitie; neither sinking to despair at the lowest ebbe of adversity. Of whom (me thinks) the more I say, the more is still behinde and unsaid. I am taken with the largeness of his goodness, even the plenty of his praises were enough to make me eloquent. What shall I say of this mans uprightness, when that of Horace might more then an hundred times be repeated of him: Integer vitae scelerisque purus? and what shall I say of his Constancie, Faith, and Patience? with all which he was so excellently well adorned, that whereas he was not second unto any, so you shall finde out few that can equal him, but to be excelled by none.
Thus have I in him represented to your view a short platform for your imitation in the way of Godliness; a moral Comedie which the soul of our deerest departed Friend hath here acted amongst us, in this now dead Trunk, this Carkass, to the general applause of all the Spectators, only I shall desire you to hear his Epilogue, and I have done, to finish his Pilgrimage, although it be Tragical.
The same magnanimity of spirit that kept him all his life time, did not now forsake him, even in his greatest sickness, for being visited of the Lord by divers (as I suppose) and strong diseases, he bore them all most patiently, insomuch (that although I was after my own recovery, very often with him, yet) could not at any time observe him, either to grudg, groan, or sigh for grief under the rod of Gods correction: neither [Page 21] was his heart any thing dismayed at the remembrance of his dissolution, for he told me again and again, that although his bodie was weak, yet his soul was strong by Faith in Christ, for the remission of his sins: he well knew, it was that mans property to be afraid of death, who is unwilling for to go to Christ: accounting that the earth was not given us for a dwelling place, but an Inne; that our being here which we call [Life,] is not so properly a life indeed, as a journey to it: that his Hope was not here fixt on Earth, but Heaven: that he knew full well whither he was going, not by his own merits, but the mercies of Christ, in whom alone he had placed his confidence of eternal safety. And in this assurance he devoutly took the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper (at my hands) to furnish him with fit provision for his journey to his long home: so that at length when his glass was run, he willingly gave an ear to his Makers call; and in the midst of his childrens tears, & their pious invocations, he departed hence from this vale of misery: He yielded up the Ghost, and where is he? As for his soul, 'tis fled: we may go to him, he cannot come to us: why do we weep and mourn? his gain doth far exceed our loss: he is now in Paradise, in Abrahams Bosom, for the Angels have conveyed him to his place of rest. But as for his Corps, this breathless bodie, which doth here remain with us, let us accompanie it unto the Grave, the last kinde office we can shew to our deerest Friend, and interre it in the dust, where it may lie in peace and rest until the resurrection at the last, when we with him again may receive a joyfull union both of bodie and of soul, and enter into that most glorious Heaven of everlasting happinesse; Sing an eternal Halleluiah; Salvation, and Honour; Justice, and Power; Mercie, and Thanksgiving, be ascribed unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore. Amen.