CHAP. I. Of the ineuitable condition of Death.

DEath is an Ar­cher, holding a Bow in his hand alwaies bent, aiming continually at one marke or other: sometime aboue vs, as at our Superiours: sometimes below vs, as at our Inferiours: sometimes at the [Page 2] right hand of vs, as at our Friends: sometimes at the left hand, as at our Enemies: at the last, haue at our selues. Since Adam broke Gods sta­tutes here on earth,Heb. 9.27. Pallida mors ae­quo pulsat pede pauperum taber­nas, Regumque turreis. Tendimus huc omnes, metam properamus ad v [...]am. Omnia sub leges mors vocat atra suas. A Statute came from Heauen for all men to die. Death keepes no order, but the learned and vnlearned, rich and poore, base and ho­nourable, old and young, are all to him alike.2 Sam. 14.14. Wee die all, and are like water spilt vpon the ground, not to bee gathered vp any more. Hence is Dauids Quaere, Psal. 89.49. What is hee that liueth, and shall not see death? Let A­dam lurke neuer so much a­mong the trees of the Garden of Eden, he must come forth, bee examined, indited, conui­cted, and adiudged to the death. Sisera by his flight could not so flee the hands of death determined against him, but a beame naile in the hand of Iab [...]l must fasten him to the [Page 3] ground.Ierem. 48.44. Hee that getteth vp out of the pit, shall fall into the snare. Amos 5.19. He fleeth from a Lyon, and a Beare meeteth him: lea­neth his hand on the wall, and a Serpent biteth him. Thou may­est escape six dangers, and the seuenth shall seize vpon thee.1 King. 19.17 Him that escapeth from the sword of Hazael, him shall Iehu slay: and him that escapeth the sword of Iehu, shall Elisha stay. Ierem. 15.1, 2. Cast them out of my sight, and let them depart: and if they aske, whither shall we depart? say, such as are appointed vnto death, vnto death: and such as are for the sword, to the sword: and such as are for the famine, to the famine: and such as are for the captiuity, to the captiuity. Some the Sea must swallow vp, as it did Pharaoh and his followers. Some are fuell for the fire, as the King of Edom was, whose bones were burnt to Ashes: the earth opened [Page 4] and swallowed Dathan, and couered the congregation of Abiram. Haman must bee hurried away by the hang­man: Iezabel must bee dogs meat: Herod must bee eaten vp of vermine: the man of God sent to Ieroboam, for his disobedience was slaine by a Lion in the way. Iobes sonnes and daughters, must by the fall of a house perish: and the mo­thers of Hierusalem with their babes and yonglings must bee starued to death. One complai­neth of his head, with the Su­namites sonne: another of his feet, with Asa: another is gri­ped in his guts, with Antiochus: another is shaken with the Pal­sie, as the Centurions sonne in the Gospell: another the Ague casteth vpon the bed, as it did Peters wiues mother: we come into the world one way, and goe out, I know not how ma­ny. The babes of Bethlehe [...] [Page 5] were slaine in their swathing bonds: Eglon in his Summer-house: Saul in the field: Ishbo­seth in his pallat: Sennacha­rib in his Oratorie and temple of his Idols: Joab at the hornes of the Altar: Homer was ouerset with sorrow: Sophocles was ra­uished with too much ioy, and died: a Gnat, the scorne of na­ture, choked Pope Adrian the fourth of that name: an haire in his Milke strangled a noble man of Rome: and the stone of a Raison stopped the life of Anacreon the Poet. Some pe­rish oppressed with penurie: others are absorpt, surfetted with satiety. In the mouth of two or three witnesses euery thing is confirmed: a sentence and rule of holy Scripture. Now we haue three witnesses, beyond all exception, of our vnauoida­ble mortality, 1. God. 2. Na­ture. 3. Experience.

1. God, who as he is the su­preme [Page 6] cause of all things; so of life, and of the shortnesse of it.Iob 14.15. Are not his daies determi­ned? the number of his moneths are with thee: thou hast appoin­ted his bounds which hee cannot passe. In the due regard where­of, the Philosophers of the Gentiles, who had a forge in their braines, haue enthronized three Goddesses, Clotho, Lache­sis, Atropos, three seuere sisters, the one the Spinster, the se­cond the Twister, the third, that cutteth asunder the threed of mans life. Thus in the midst of darknes, the Heathens saw the light which wee refuse to see, because we list to be blind with our eyes open. It is the Text that God deliuered Isaiah to Sermon on,Isa. 40.6. All flesh is grasse. As God was the Au­thor of the long life of Adam, nine hundred and thirty yeeres: of Seth, nine hun­dred yeeres: of Methusalem, [Page 7] nine hundred sixty nine yeeres: so in his iust iudgement hee hath abreuiated our dayes, and hath made them as it were but a span long.

2. Our second witnesse is dame Nature, which is, 1 vni­uersall; 2 particular. There be two organicall causes of life. 1 The humour radicall. 2 The heat naturall. The hu­mour is the preseruer of the heat, which is extinct as a lampe, when the oyle faileth. Also the continuance of life standeth to the courtesie of the breath within the nostrils: so as the mouth and nostrils being stopped, and the passage of the breath, which is no­thing else but a wind, be inter­cluded, life forthwith goeth out the gates of the body.Isai. 2.22. Cease you from the man whose breath is in his nostrils. Iam. 4.14. What is your life? it is euen a vapour that appeareth for a little time, [Page 8] and afterward vanisheth away.

But we leaue Nature perso­nall, and proceed to Nature v­niuersall. And wee will begin with those things that set clo­sest vnto vs, as with the gowne vpon our backes, which we cannot looke vpon, or touch, but it may be a memoriall of our mortall state vnto vs.Iob 13.18. Hee consumeth as a rotten thing, and as a garment that is moth-eaten. Eccles. 14.17. All flesh waxeth old as a garment. The best and beautifullest garment that is, is either by vse, or by the moth consumed, or by both. Euen so it is with the life of man. For by liuing, we make vse of life:Seneca, Vel tunc cum crescimus decrescit vita. but in the increasing vse thereof, it still decreaseth, saith Seneca. And sicknesses and sorrowes, what are they but moth-wormes, eating out the flesh? when we see our ve­sture moth-eaten, or threed­bare, we consider therewith it [Page 9] cannot last vs long, and we are ashamed to be seene abroad in it. Now thy skinne is the cloth to couer thee withall. Wherefore descend from it to the consideration of thy selfe, and thine owne frailtie. A fret or hole in thy garment may be stitched vp, and mended: but natures decay can by no meanes be repaired, as vnable to adde one cubit to our sta­ture. Our life holds fit compa­rison with a shadow, the lackie that alwayes followeth the bodie.Iob 14 He vanisheth as a sha­dow, and continueth not. Dauid telling vs what are our dayes by his owne, saith,Psal. 102.11. My dayes are like a shadow that fadeth.

But me thinkes, that the vi­sible workes of the six dayes, may be vnto vs in stead of six seuerall Sermons vpon this fu­nerall Text in hand. Wee will take a view of them one after another.

[Page 10] The workes of the first day.1 The creation of the day and the night, was the worke of the first day. In both of them as in a Crystall glasse, we may behold our owne similitude.Iob 7.1. Are not the dayes of a man as the dayes of an hireling? The day beginneth with the rising of the Sunne, and shutteth with the going downe therof. The dayes of an hireling, are in sweat, in sorrow, and in hard labor, for a poore liuing. And no better is the common con­dition of life being rightly ex­amined. To the maruell of the disciples, that Christ should touch Iudea againe, where they would once haue stoned him, Christ answereth thus, Are Ioh. 11.9. there not twelue houres in the day? therby making twelue houres, the measure of the arti­ficiall day, as it were the di­mensions and proportion of mans life.

The night, though it be ra­ther [Page 11] the image of death, yet it may serue vs as a worthy les­son, of the shortnesse of our life: in as much as it is resem­bled by Moses and Dauid, to a watch in the night: Psal. 130.6. My soule fleeth vnto the Lord before the morning watch. Thus our life for shortnesse is suited to a watch, which is but the fourth part of the night, consisting of three houres.

2. The second dayes worke, The workes of the second day. was the creation of the heauens, and the spreading of them a [...] a curtaine ouer vs; which as they be pregnant proofes vn­to vs, of the wisdome, power, and immutabilitie that are in God: so they are no obscure commonstrant [...] vnto vs, of the nature of our dayes: As Dauid and Peter expresly haue decla­red:2 Pet. 3.10. The heauens shalt passe a­way with a noise, the clements shall melt with [...]eat. Saturne that takes place of all the seuen [Page 10] [...] [Page 11] [...] [Page 12] Planets, finisheth his course in the space of thirtie yeares: Iu­piter in twelue: Mars in two: and Mercury, Sol, and Venus in one: and the Moone in a Mo­neth. This Christian Astrono­mie, portendeth a limitation of the life of man, and of the course he is to runne. For i [...] bodies celestiall which are of more durable and standing na­ture, haue their set bounds, be­yond which they may not passe: man that is more transi­torie, and weake by kinde, must not looke here for any long continuance.

The workes of the third day.3 The third dayes worke, was the creation. 1 of the Earth, 2 Waters, 3 Herbes and things vegetatiue, euery one of them reading vnto vs a lecture, of the more than certainty of our mortalitie.

1 The Earth so often as we behold it and tread vpon it, serueth vs to put vs in minde [Page 13] of the rocke out of which wee were first hewed, and of the pit out of which we were dig­ged. Wee are bound vp with a threefold cord of earth, twisted by the hand of the Creator himselfe, where hee thus summoneth vs, Earth, earth, earth, heare the voice of the Lord: as Earth by creati­on, Earth by continuation, Earth by dissolution. The At­tribute proper vnto vs is, the man of the earth, Psal. 10.20. that the man of the earth be no more exalted against them. Gen. 2.7. The Lord God made the man of the dust of the earth. And the sentence defi­nitiue against his posterity is this;Gen. 3.19. Thou art earth, and to earth thou shalt returne. The faithfull in the old Testament, much looked backe to their Origination, and to the sen­tence awarded against sinne.Gen. 18.27. Abraham pleading before God in the cause of Sodom [Page 14] and Gomorrah, humbly ac­knowledgeth himselfe to bee no better than earth and ashes. Dauid celebrating Gods mer­cie, and opposing the same to mans misery, speaketh thus:Psal. 103.14. Hee knoweth whereof we bee made, hee remembreth that wee are but dust. Iob cal­ling vpon God for mercy, amidst his miseries vseth the same phrase of speech;Iob 7.5. My flesh is cloathed with wormes, and filthinesse of the dust. This is the mould and materiall of mankinde, a lumpe of clay, an ash-heape, clods of earth. Hence is the wisemans Inter­rogatory derogatory,Eccles. 10.9. Why art thou proud O earth and ashes? Thus hee loadeth vs with grauell to make vs stoope, and to humble our proud lookes. And hence it is that the Apostle stileth vsRom. 9.21. earthen pitchers, potters ves­sels, which with an easie [Page 15] blow shatter in peeces.

2 The waters which wee see in the clouds are the ve­ry same note. The leuitie and inconstancie of the clouds, doe indigitate and point out this transient life of ours, no­thing running so apace as wa­ter.Iob 7 9. As the cloud vanisheth and goeth away: so he that go­eth downe to the graue shall come vp no more. The flowing of the sea twice a day, and then reculing, is likewise de­monstration declaratiue e­nough of our rising and fal­ling.

3. The Herbs in our gar­den, and the Trees in the for­rest, conclude the same Argu­ment.1 Pet. 1.24. All flesh is grasse, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grasse: the grasse withereth, and the flower fadeth away. The Herbs in the mor­ning that are greene and gay, about noonetime haue lost [Page 16] their lustre and glosse, and in the euening are withered and hang downe their heads. So how many among vs, in the middest of our age, as in the middle of the day, alter and decline: or else towards the euening of our old age, are quite done and die away?

The workes of the fourth day.4 In the fourth day were the Sunne and Moone created. The Sunne hath a double mo­tion; 1. Naturall, which it performeth in the space of three hundred sixty and fiue dayes, the compasse of a yeare. 2. Ʋiolent, begunne and de­termined in the space of twen­ty foure houres. The former motion distinguisheth the foure seasons, and quarters of the yeare; 1. The Spring, 2. Summer, 3. Autumne, 4. Winter. The second motion of it, diuideth into his parts, the Naturall day, into, 1. Mor­ning, 2. Noone, 3. Euening, [Page 17] 4. Night. Now the Spring of the yeare, and the Morning of the day, are the expresse Image and representation of our Infancie and youth: The Summer and Noonetime, of our middle age: The Au­tumne and the Euening, of our old age: The Winter and Night, of our death. One hath but his Spring and Morning: another goeth a degree fur­ther, and hath his Summer season, and Noonetide: ano­ther is ouertaken by the Win­ter and Night, before hee thought of his Autumne and Euening.

2 The Moone as it is nigher vs, so it is example of this argument, more visible and palpable; as setting be­fore our eies the degrees of our life, by her alternations and vicissitudes, euer in her change till she come to the full: as if thereby shee would insinuate, [Page 18] and represent vnto vs, our extraordinary changes and chances in this mortall life, by her troublesome Eclipses. But the Moone is restored, and renued.Acts 3.21. But man must wait the time that all things bee restored.

The workes of the fifth day.5. The fifth day doth spend it selfe vpon the Fishes and Birds. The Preacher sermo­ning of the scantnesse of mans life, saith,Eccles. 9.12. As the fishes are taken in the net, and the birds in the snare: so are the children of men snared in the euill time. Wee solace our selues not sel­dome in the sight of Birds flying in the aire: but wee lit­tle list to consider therewith how wee our selues flee away with them.Iob 9.26. We passe away at the Eagle that flieth to the prey.

The workes of the sixth day.6. The sixth day in the workes of i [...], is the hand that leadeth vs to the contempla­tion of beast and man, of [Page 19] whom we intreat. What is the life of a horse, a bullocke, a sheepe, a goat, a hart? the first neuer exceedeth the fiftieth yeare: and the last seldome attaineth to the sixtieth. And is it not so for the most part with vs?

These six daies are short and not sutable: but the se­uenth which is the Sabbath, is eternall and equall vnto all that shall doe the worke of the Lord faithfully, in the weeke daies of this life. Our labour and sorrowes end with our daies.Reuel. 14.13. The dead which die in the Lord are fully blessed: For they rest from their labours, and their workes follow them.

CHAP. II. Of the vncertaintie of mans life.

AS there is nothing in the nature of things so cer­taine as death; so there is no­thing more vncertaine than the houre of death. It is vn­certaine three wayes. 1. In the place where wee shall die. 2. In the time when. 3. In the manner how.E [...]cles. 9.12. Man doth not know his time. Mark 13.33. Yee know not when the time is. This life of ours is only constant in vn­constancie. [Page 22] [...] [Page 23] [...] [Page 24] Iam. 4.15. It is a vapour that appeareth but for a little time. Iob 8.9. Our dayes vpon earth are but a shadow. Iob 7.7. But a wind, Psal. 102. But a smoake. Iob 9.26. More swift than a post. Iob 10.22. Where is no order. 1 Chron. 29.15. Where is no abiding. And asSeneca, Fata non seruant or­dinem inter se­nes & iuuenes. Seneca saith, Death keepeth no order betweene young and old. Infancie is no stoppage,2 Sam. 12.18. for Dauids infant dieth:1 Kin. 14.17. So doth the childe of Ieroboam. It is not youth that skippeth like the Calfe vpon the grasse, that can hold vp life;Acts 19.9. for Entychus dieth. And old age must needs yeeld.Gen. 5.27. For Me­thusalem, in the nine hundred sixtie ninth yeere of his age dieth. The stile of a King, that hath a long traine after it, like the taile of a blazing starre, will not moue death:Mors sceptra li­g [...]nibus aequat. for scep­ters and plow-shares to him are both alike. All the Kings of the earth haue embraced and kissed the dust. The best [Page 25] Bible-Clarke that is, must a­way; his great Librarie and lear­ning cannot deliuer him. Salo­mon, the wisest man that euer was (the Sonne of man alwayes fore-prized) who wrote of all the trees of the forrest, to the hyssop and shrub growing vp­on the wall; notwithstanding this his Herball, and much o­ther his secret learning and wis­dome, hath slept his sleepe. Sampson, who was of that in­comparable strength, as by but leaning vpon an house, could make it come rumbling downe, could not saue himselfe. Ahasa, whose feet were as Harts feet, could not with his speediest pace run away from death. Abel by his innocencie, Absalon by his beautie, the purple Glutton by his opulencie, by his siluer and gold, could not ransome themselues. The motto pricked vpon euery mans sleeue is, Hee died, Hee was gathered to his fa­thers, [Page 26] He was carried out. Ludit in huma­nis diuina poten­tia rebus. Et certam prae­sens vix habet hora fidem. The state of life is so slipperie, as no man may say that hee shall liue till to morrow. Wherfore men thinke that they in Isaiah spake but absurdly, who said,Isai. 56.12. Come, I will bring wine, and wee will fill our selues with strong drinke; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. And S^t. Iames taketh such fellowes thus to taske,Iam. 4.13. Goe to now, yee that say, to day, or to morrow, we will goe into such a Citie, and conti­nue there a yeere, and buy and sell, and get gaine: whereas yee know not what shall bee on the morrow. Horat. Quis scit an adijcient ho­d [...]ernae crastina [...]ummae tempora Dij superi. For what is your life? Is it not a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vani­sheth away? 1 King. 16.9. Full little did E­lah King of Israel thinke, that while he was drinking to drun­kennesse in his stewards house, he should haue the stab there gi­uen him by Zimri his seruant. When the sonnes and daugh­ters [Page 27] of Iob were gurmundizing and bouzing in their elder bro­thers house, they were not a­ware of their end so nie at hand, by the fall of an house. Pha­raoh euen then enchaunted his soule with the promise of a cer­taine victorie, when the red sea was opening his mouth wide, to swallow him vp and all his forces.Isai. 47.5, &c. Babel, that called her selfe the Ladie of Kingdomes, she saith in her heart, I am, and none else: I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the losse of children: But destruction shall come vpon thee suddenly ere thou be aware. And Ieremie setteth downe this her destruction;Ierem. 51 [...] Thine end is come. I cannot better expresse this subiect ar­gument, than by this apologue or similitude: A man walketh by the way, and falleth into a deepe pit, full of noysome and venomous creatures: in his fall, he taketh hold of the branch of [Page 28] a tree at the pits brinke, and hangeth thereby: afterward comes a leane and hunger-star­ued beast, which gnaweth and eateth asunder the bough. The morall is this: This pilgrime is the person impenitent; the pit is hell; the branch of the tree, is the frailtie of this life; and this leane and greedie beast that deuoureth him, is Death.

I will not curiously ransacke the cause of this tickle life of ours, why children, young men and maids, are cut off as it were in the first grasse, in the flower of their age, and are pluckt vp like a cluster of vnripe grapes, while they might haue continu­ed many yeeres longer, to the common good of the Church and Common-wealth. Doubt­lesse as in some, God doth there­by set forth his glorie: so in o­thers, for the most part, he stop­peth the course and passage of sinne. For there be vngracious [Page 29] and vnhappy children,2 King. 2.2 [...] 24. such as were the two and forty boyes, that with scurrilous insectation vexed the righteous soule of E­lizeus the Prophet:Gen. 38 9. such as were the two nefarious fellowes, Er and Onan: 1 Sam. 4 1 [...]. such as were the two sonnes of Eli, Hophni and Phineas: 2 Sam 18 [...]. such an one was that varlet Absolon. All these being incorrigible compani­ons, were soone cut short, ac­cording to sentence and denun­tiation of Scripture;Prou 2. [...]. The wic­ked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressours shall bee rooted out of it. Answerable whereto is the doome of Da­uid, Psal. 55.3. The bloud-thirstie and de­ceitfull man shall not liue out halfe his dayes. And to this pointQuemadmodum ante tempus b [...] ­ni, ne diutius a noxijs vexentur, auocantur: ita mali & impij tolluntur, ne diu­tius bonos perse­quantur. S^t. Augustine speaketh thus, As the godly are called a­way before the time, that the wic­ked might not vex them: so the wicked die betimes, that they might not persecute the righ­teous. [Page 30] Other children bee to­ward, frugall, well inclined, of dutifull demeanour; who though in the fifth Comman­dement of the Law, they haue the promise of long life, and a benediction by Wisdom is pro­nounced ouer them,Prou. 3.12. [...] d [...] & Rh [...]phi­ [...] [...]st [...]ss [...]s v­ [...]s Q [...]i fuit è T [...]u­ [...]s, & [...]eruan­ [...] [...] aequi. Let thine heart keepe my commandements; For they shall increase the length of thy dayes, and the yeeres of life: yet in the sacred secret of his will, he soone and suddenly preuenteth them by death; [...]sal. 31.20. And doth hide them priuily in his presence, from the pride of men; and keepeth them secretly in his tabernacle, from the strife of tongues.

The houre of our death is concealed, that wee might bee suspitious of euerie houre: and as [...]reg. Vt dum [...]mper ignoratur, [...]emper proxima e [...]se credatur: & [...]anto [...] quisque [...] operatione sit [...]ruentior, quan­ [...] est de vocatio­ [...]e incertior. Gregorie saith, That while it is not discouered, it might bee alwayes suspected, and conceiued to be next, that so wee might bee the more feruent in operation, the [Page 31] vncertainer wee bee of our voca­tion. It is vncertaine, O man, in what place death will arrest thee: wherefore suspect thou him to be in euerie place.Senec. in Epist. Egregia res est mortem morte condiscere. Omnem crede di­em tibi diluxisse supremum. It is an excellent thing to learne death in death, saith Seneca. Whereas death is vncertaine, and the time thereof in it selfe so vncer­taine; we ought to be prouided and reckon euerie day the last. The Buzzard in the Bible crowed ouer his corne-heapes, as the Cocke vpon his dung­hill, in the view of his plenti­full prouision, made for many yeeres to come: but hee was found to bee a foole, and the e­uent shewed it, his soule the same night being taken away from him. Men care too much for life that is vncertaine, and too little for death that is most certaine. If the King, in his gracious goodnesse towards thee, should bee pleased to con­ferre a good office vpon thee, [Page 32] and should restraine thee to the short space of an houre, for the ingrossing and consignation of the grant, wouldest thou not giue all diligence to dispatch it with all speed? Now a greater grant is made to vs, of the hea­uenly Hierusalem, by the King of Kings, and meerely out of his free fauour towards vs, and now is the time or neuer, of assuring it vnto vs, and it is but short, and as vncertaine as wee see. Wherefore bee wee carefull to make our election sure, in these dayes of our pilgrimage vpon earth. If to acquire a temporall benefit, thou canst bee content to expell sleepe, to forbeare meat and drinke, and to de­priue thy selfe of thy delights, that so thou mightest not lose the occasion offered: buckle thy selfe to thy deuotions in time, and make h [...] to turne to the Lord thy God; and not of the gainefull aduantage of [Page 33] present grace ministred, to put off the worke of thy saluation from day to day, as Festus did Paul; as Pharaoh did Moses and Aaron: or till we haue fini­shed our fathers funerals, with him that would fawne and fol­low after Christ, noted in the Gospell. Regard not so much a long life as a good. Rather couet to liue well than long. It is dangerous to liue in that estate, in which thou wouldest be loth to die. Wherefore it shall be­houe thee to looke to thy life, in respect of the vncertaintie of the houre of death. It was fatherly indulgence on Gods side towards vs, that our death should bee vncertaine and vn­knowne to vs. The vncertain­tie of our dissolution, preuen­teth dissolution; and taketh bond of vs for resolution in re­ligion. For were we assured of life, we would liue out at length without remorse in our sinfull [Page 34] proceedings. But this vncer­taintie of life casteth a boll of water vpon our hot bloud, and is a bridle to our sinnes, and a principall spurre to pricke vs on to all manner duties of god­linesse. Againe, did a man know that his death should bee sudden, the scantnesse of the time would bee apt to beget a scant repentance. And if the time were long ere wee should depart, I feare it would be long ere wee would conuert: both which are ominous, and por­tend perill. Moreouer, the Lord detaineth the knowledge of life from thee, for thy neighbours good. Now the common good is in it selfe greater than the pri­uate. If thou couldest tell that thou shouldest die soone, many good deeds tending to deuotiō, & to the common good, would be left vndone. How many be there, who lying sicke in their beds, doe seriously turne vnto [Page 35] God, for they haue no hope of their recouerie: who, were they ascertained of their health to be renued, would turne copie, and sing another song. Finally, if thou couldest foresee the time of thy visitation, that is yet a farre off, thou wouldest runne with the prodigall sonne into a farre Countrey, farre from thy fathers house, thou wouldest pursue thy vindicatiue affecti­ons, and there would bee no peace within thy wals. And if wee could foresee our death to be at hand, wee would bee sad, melancholike, froward, and in­tolerable to all about vs: all which vnioynt peace, and are aduerse to humane conuersati­on. Wherefore for this benefit we giue God thankes, we mag­nifie and adore his most glori­ous name. Therefore that wee may conclude this latter act of ours, vpon the stage of morta­litie, euen this day, this houre, [Page 36] this moment, wee will count them all the last:Greg. Sic mors [...] sa cum venerit, vin [...]eiu [...]; si pri­usquam veniat, semper timeatur. So death when it commeth, shall be vanquished, if before it commeth, it be alwaies feared, saith Gregorie.

CHAP. III. Of the kindes of Death.

THere bee two kindes of death, as there be of life, in nature answerable each to other. 1. Corporall. 2. Spirituall. Corporall death is nothing else, but the diuorse of soule and body: as bodily life is the con­iunction of them both. This bodily death in holy writ, is called the first Death, because in time it goes before the se­cond. Spirituall death is the separation of the whole man, both in body and soule, from the fellowship with God. Of these twaine, the first is but an entrance to death: the second is the absolute accomplishment thereof. For as the soule [...]s the life of the body, so is God the life of the soule, and his spirit is the soule of our soule.

This spirituall Death hath three distinct degrees. 1. The first is when a man is dead in sinne while he liueth. And this is the degree the Apostle mea­neth, where he saith,1 Tim. 5.6. But shee that liueth in pleasure is dead while she liueth. And thus it fa­reth with vs all by nature,Ephes. 2.1. who are dead in sinnes and trespasses. 2. The second degree is the end of this life, when the body embraceth the earth, Free a­mong the dead: and the soule goeth downe to hell. 3. The third degree is the day of iudge­ment, when the body and the soule vnited againe shall be de­termined to damnation.

Of the two deaths, the se­cond is the worser. The bodi­ly death is terrible to nature: but the horror of the second is not to be expressed. For it is the curse of all curses, the misery of all miseries. The toothach, the headach, the collicke and the [Page 39] stone, are oftentimes so sharp and vehement, as the Pati [...]t wisheth he were dead. Now if these fits can so much distem­per minde and body, as all the pleasures of this life cannot qualifie them; what manner of torment shall that bee, when not one kinde of paine, but the whole viall of Gods wrath shall be powred out, not vpon one member, but on the whole soule, body, and conscience: and not for a time, vnder hope of a better condition, but for time, and times, and when there shall bee no more time; and that not in this world, where there are comforts, helps, and remedies; but in that vile and darksome place of tor­ments: and that not amongst liuing men, which might ei­ther ease thy paine, or pity thy case, but with the deuills and damned ghosts, which will laugh at thy destruction, and [Page 40] solace themselues amidst all thy miseries.

Quest. But how shall I e­scape the second death? that would I faine know.

Answ. By turning a new leafe, in turning to God, by affiance in the merits of Christs death and passion, keeping faith and a good conscience vn­to the end. Who so doth these things, shall not die for euer.

CHAP. IV. Of our necessary preparation a­gainst the time of death.

IN respect of the certainty of death, of the vncertainty of the time, and of the kindes of death, hitherto treatized of; it is more than necessary that wee be prepared against it com­meth. Of this preparation I see there be two sorts. 1. A Gene­rall. 2. A Particular.

The Generall I call that, which is in action all our life time. If any should reply, what need so much adoe, holding it sufficient to enter this course, when we draw nearer our latter end? I answer, It must without delay be presently performed.Heb. 3.7. To day if ye will heare his voice, harden not your hearts. Heb. 3.13. Exhort ye one another daily, while it is called to day, lest any of you bee [Page 42] hardened through the deceitful­nesse of sinne.

1 Motiue hereunto may be the doubtfulnesse of life: For who knoweth when or how he may be called out of life? This is Christs argument;Luk. 12.40. Be ye ready: for the Son of man commeth at an houre when ye thinke not. 2. A­gaine, the longer a man liueth in sinne, his estate is more dan­gerous. For sinne by custome, gathereth strength, becommeth habituall, and in a manner natu­rall. Custome in it selfe is so effi­catious, as looke what things wee delight in in our life, wee thinke of when we are dying.Prou. 22.6. Teach a childe in the trade of his way, and when he is old, hee shall not depart from it. Ierem. 13.23. Can the Blackmoore change his skinne? or the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are ac­customed to doe euill. 3. In the prorogation of thy repentance, thou doest heape vpon thy selfe [Page 43] the wrath of God, against the day of wrath. If a malefactor should bee enioyned euery day to carry a billet to the stake where he is to bee burned, for diuers yeares together, he vnder­goeth thereby great penance and misery. Now this is the condition of all such, as deferre their repentance. 4. The lon­ger our conuersion is put off, the more Gods grace faileth, and the more the deuill preuaileth. For God for his part expresly telleth vs,Prou. 1.24, 28, &c. Because I haue cal­led, and yee refused: I haue stretched out my hand, and none would regard: then shall they call vpon me, but I will not answer: they shall seeke me early, but they shall not finde me. And this is equall retaliation of iustice,Aug. Hac ani­maduersione iu­ste percutitur peccator: vt mo­riens obliuiscatur sui, qui viuens oblitus est Dei. according to that Saint Augu­stine speaketh, A sinner is iustly thus censured: to bee when hee is dying vnmindfull of himselfe, who, whilst he liued was vnmind­full [Page 44] of God. Againe the Lord saith,Ierem 51.9. we would haue cured Ba­bel, but she would not be healed: we therefore forsake her. On the other side the deuill, to whom it is meat, drinke, and pastime, to see men runne headlong into sinne, will freshly, and more fiercely set vpon vs. So as those of whom he could lay no hold of formerly in their life, now hee claspeth them in his armes by his temptations, when he espi­eth them lying at the point of death. If therefore when wee are at our best strength, wee are vnable to resist the least temp­tation; how shall wee in our doating and decreped estate, encounter the strongest? our aduersary being then stronger, and we weaker. Finally, a late repentance is scarce a due or true repentance,Aug. sera paeni­tentia, raro est se­ria aut vera. as Augustine obserueth. It is much to be fea­red, lest repentance it selfe dieth that proceedeth from a [Page 45] dying man; and he is serued a­right, that is contemned of God at his death, who had contem­ned God formerly all the time of his life. To repent aright, is to leaue our sinnes, before our sinnes leaue vs.

Obiect. Yea but may some say, the better theefe vpon the Crosse repented not before the last.

Answ. Indeed hee was not effectually called before the eleuenth houre, euen at the stroak of the twelfth. And ther­fore his repentance was extra­ordinary, and miraculous. And it was not without weighty rea­son, that Christ would not call him before the very nicke, vp­on the point of his passion; namely, thereby luculently to expresse the power of his passi­on. Now we are not to make a common rule of a singular ex­ample. It is therefore a fearfull fallacy to the enchantment of [Page 46] the soule, to feed vpon this fan­cy, that if he hath but an eie to cast vp to heauen, and can but blurt out these words, Lord haue mercy vpon me, before he giueth vp the ghost, he may do well enough. This is all one, as if so bee a notorious theefe should say, I will all my life time rob and steale, and when I am at the gallowes, and ready to be turned ouer, will call vpon the Iudge for mercy, and so I shall be saued. He that will liue after this life, must lay the ground of his saluation in this life. For there be three degrees of life euerlasting. 1. The first is in this life, when being iusti­fied and sanctified, wee haue peace towards God and our Lord Iesus Christ. Some sup­pose, there is no other life after this: But such deceiue them­selues; for it beginneth here,Ioh. 5.24. Verily I say vnto you, he that hea­reth my word, and beleeueth in [Page 47] him that sent me, hath eternall life, and shall not enter into con­demnation, but is passed from death vnto life. Wherefore the foundation of life euerlasting must be laid in this life, name­ly, by repentance, and by en­deuouring to make the con­science assured, that God the father of our Lord Iesus Christ is become our father: that God the Sonne is become our re­deemer: that God the Holy Ghost is become our comfor­ter. Nay we must goe further to say with Saint Paul, Galat. 2.20. I liue, not I, but Christ liueth in me. These are the seeds of eternall life.

2. The second degree is in the end of this life, when the body freed of all maladies and miseries, resteth quietly in his locker, and his soule returneth to God that gaue it.

3. The third is after the last Iudgement, when the body and soule shall be consolidated, [Page 48] and reunited, and exalted to glory. Now hee that will take this first degree, must arise out of the Sepulcher of sinne, wher­in hee hath lien all his life time hitherto. For to auoid the se­cond death, a man must partake of the first resurrection:Reuel. 2 [...].6. Blessed and holy is hee, that hath part in the first resurrection: For on such the second death hath no power. Paul telleth the Colossi­ans, Coloss. 1.13. that they were in this life deliuered from the power of dark­nesse, and translated vnto the Kingdome of his deare Sonne. And Christ saith to the Iewes, The Kingdome of God is among you. This is the first degree of life, when a man may say with Saint Paul, Galat. 2.20. I liue not, but Christ liueth in me. That is to meane, I finde, by the certifi­cate of a sanctified conscience within me, and partly by ex­perience, that Christ my Redee­mer by his holy Spirit leadeth [Page 49] and gouerneth, my thoughts, will, affections, and all the fa­culties and powers of body and minde, according to the rule of his holy will. Now that wee may say the like three graces of God are requisite in which this first degree of life consisteth. 1. The first is sauing knowledge, by which wee plentifully per­swade our selues, that God the fa [...]her of our Lord Iesus Christ is our father, Christ the sonne is our redeemer, the holy Ghost is our comforter.Ioh. 17.3. This is life eternal, (that is, it is the inchoati­on, and introduction into life eter­nall) to know thee the true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Iesus Christ. 2. The second grace is,Rom. 14.1 [...]. peace of conscience which passeth all vnderstanding. Hence is it that the Apostle saith, The Kingdome of God is righteousnesse, and peace, and ioy in the holy Ghost. The horror of a guilty conscience is the be­ginning [Page 50] of death and destructi­on. Therefore the quiet of con­science proceeding from the death of Christ, is life and hap­pinesse. 3. The third grace is the Regiment of the spirit, by which the heart, and life, is ru­led according to Gods word.

CHAP. V. Of the meditation of Death: an office appertaining to our ge­nerall preparation,

THe frequent remembrance of death is as it were a buc­ket of water, to quench the fie­rie flames of our sinnes. Whatso­euer thou takest in hand (saith the wise man) remember thy end, and thou shalt neuer doe a­misse. Moses in the suruey of the pleasures of sinnes,Heb. 11.25. that were but for a season: chose ra­ther to suffer affliction with the people of God. This maketh the elder more deuote than the younger: while they spend their thougts much and often [Page 52] vpō death. Isaac being now dim sighted through age, saith to Esau his son,Gen. 27.1. Behold, I am now old, and know not the day of my death: that is, because I am now aged, I cannot liue long. Ieremy repeating the sins and troubles of the Iewes, maketh this con­sequence,Lament. 1.9. They remembred not their last end. The meditation of death serueth to scatter an hoast of sinnes; for it is in stead of a fanne, to winnow the wheat from the chaffe.Mat. 17.3. Christ in his transfiguration on mount Ta­bor, conuented before him Mo­ses, that had beene dead long before, and with him Elias: to teach vs, that when wee are at the highest pitch of our ho­nour, to call death to our re­membrance. The memoriall of death is as fortunate a staffe to vs, while we walke this our pil­grimage of few and euill daies, as euer Iacobs was to him, in the way when he passed the foords [Page 53] of Iordan. Looke we to the end, as the Easterne Sagers did to the starre, and it will conduct vs vnto Christ, as it did them. They that vnderstand the ene­mie to be at hand, make them­selues readie all they may to en­counter them: death our last enemie commeth fast vpon vs. Be we therefore warned, and so armed against him. Such as ex­pect their Lords comming, come often to the side of the window, and looke out at the casement for him. So cast wee our eyes with holy Dauid to the heauens,Psal 123 1. Ʋnto thee doe I lift vp mine eies, O thou that dwellest in the heauens. The life of a Christian is a meditation of death. Ioseph of Arimathea did build his Sepulchre & Tombe in his life time, in the middest of his Garden. Which is exam­ample vnto vs, in the middest of our merriments, to thinke of our monuments, and not to [Page 54] forget Hierusalem in our mirth. The heathen Phylosophers tooke a felicity in the meditati­on of death, though void of the comfort of another life, that we looke for. For it doth vs good at the heart, to recognize the cause of our death, which is our sinne: together with the reme­dy thereof, the accursed death of Christ: cursed in respect of the inflicted punishment vpon our sinnes, but blessed in re­spect of our selues. Euery one cā sufficiently remember an iniu­ry offered him: but to many it is death, to remember death, so long as there is any bloud running in their veines, or marrow in their bones. There is none so old, but can well re­member the place wherein he hath laid vp his mony: but old and young can easily forget the place wherin their hiddē trea­sure is.Et viuunt ho­mines tanquam mors nulla se­quatur. We daily die, and are daily changed and yet we thinke our [Page 55] selues immortall, saith Ierome. Wee may well bee likened to Nebuchadonosor who forgat his dreame, and would haue others to interpret it. We are as young chickens all the sort of vs, who when any of the brood is caught by the kite, the rest high in haste to the wings of the damme, some on one side, and some on the other, and present­ly after their former feare for­gotten, doe meet and feed toge­ther, and become a prey vnto the vulture. We may be sampled to the swine, who make a hoarse and hidious out-cry, but it is, but while one of them is vnder the butchers knife: and then immediately there is a deepe silence and all the din is done. Death hath laid his hand vpon thy father, thy wife, thy sonne, one of thy kindred, or allies, and wee weepe, and take on, and seeme to be in pi­tifull plight: but almost so [Page 56] soone as the soule-bell ceaseth, the strength of our pang and passion is past. And as swine to the mire, and dogs to the vo­mit, they returne to their accu­stomed sinnes. As the defect of memory is a symptome and signe of a dying man; so the forgetfulnesse of death is a to­ken of a man dying in his sins. God by many arguments pres­se [...]h vs to the due meditation of death. 1. As from the consi­deration of the matter of which we are moulded, of dust, and lumps of clay: to monish vs of our frailty, soone dissolued, and shattered in peeces like a potters vessell. 2. From the surname of our prime progeni­tour, that from his name wee might learne our nature. Adam was his name, which is as much to meane, as Earth, Terrigena, bred of earth, that is, of brittle metall, that will not hold.Dan. 2 33. Nebuchadonosors great Image [Page 57] stood vpon mixt feet of iron and clay: and loe a stone cut without hands, smote the I­mage on the feet, and brake them in peeces

This Image is the Image of vs all, and of our earthly com­position, apt to dissolution: Homo ab humo: man hath his denomination from the mould, and so his appellation is an­swerable to his origination: who as often as he is named man, he is to bethinke him­selfe of his mortall estate, hee beareth his biere vpon his backe, and carrieth his graue about him. 3. From his vesture that couereth him, wherefore God cut out leather coats for our first Parents after their fall, to clad themselues withall, that the skinnes of the dead beasts that were about them, might tell them that they beare their bane about their backs. 4. From their opifice and of­fice, [Page 58] which was to digge and delue in the earth, with culter and plowshare: they should remember their sepulchre. 5. From admonition giuen them as well before, as after sinne committed. Before their sinne, thus:Gen. 2.17. In the day that thou cuttest of the tree of good and euill, thou shalt die the death, After their sinne, thus:Gen. 3 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou returne to the earth. The Philosophers of the Gentiles, insist in this sub­iect. Socrates was wont to say, that the study of Philosophy was nothing else but a meditation of death. Cic. 10. Tusc. phi­l [...]sophari nih [...]l est a [...]iu [...], quam m [...]r­tem m [...]d [...]tari. Plato saith, that a wise mans minde is set on death, that he desireth it, that this is his maine muse and meditati­on. Democritus was euer tram­pling vpon graues. Wee are counselled by Kings to be har­ping vpon this string.Aelian. lib 8. var. [...]ist. cap. 15. Philip King of Macedonia charged his [Page 59] chamberlaine, that thrice eue­ry day, hee round him in the eare with these words,Herod [...], lib. 3. Remem­ber thou art a mortall creature. The Egyptians, when a noble man solemnized the memoriall of his birth day, caused a dead mans skull to bee set vpon the board: to put them in mind a­midst their delights, of the estate of death. Some medi­cines serue for vnctions, some some for vlcers, some for wounds, some for swellings, some for potions, some for gli­sters. One kinde of eie-salue, is not for the inunction of all mens eies alike. Our actions & exercises, sort not alike to the subduing of all sins. But one vā­quisheth one vice, and this ano­ther. It is frequent Humiliation of our selues, that must plucke our peacocks plumes, abate the pride and high thoughts of heart. Our Prayers and Fastings must be the meanes to quench [Page 60] the coales of vngodly lusts. For this kind of spirit ānot be cast out but by prayer and fasting, accor­ding to the testimony of truth it sel [...]e. But for one salue to heale many sores, it is seldome or neuer seene. Only the often and much meditation of death, healeth all our spirituall infir­mities. The saying of Dauid of the sword of Goliah, I apply to this point of the meditation of death:1 Sam. 21.9. There is none like to that, giue it mee. As necessarie as the wings are to the Doue to flie; as the sailes, sterne, maine mast & card are to the mariners to saile by; as the fins and tailes are to the fishes to swim withall; as the wheele is to a wagon; as the iron shooes to a horse; so is the memoriall of death to vs, vsefull and auaileable to eter­nall happinesse. Wherefore put we not away the euill day from vs, which the ord [...]nance of God hath put so neere. Remember [Page 61] we our Creator in time, be­fore the d [...]s come wherein we shall say, wee haue no plea­sure in them. Walke we not al­waies with our faces to the East, but let vs sometimes looke backe to the West, where the Sunne goeth downe. Sit not euer in the prow of the ship: sometimes goe to the sterne. Stand we in our watch-towers, as the creature doth.Rom. [...].10. And wait we for the houre of our deliue­rance. Prouide we our armies, before that dreadfull King commeth to fight against vs, with his gre [...]ter forces. Order we our houses before wee die, that is, dispose we of our bodies and soules, and all the imple­ments of them both. Let not our eies be gadding after plea­sures, nor our eares itching after rumors, nor our minds wandring in the fields, when death is in our houses. Our bo­dies are not brasse, nor our [Page 62] strength, the strength of stones: our life is no inheritance: our our breath is no more than as the vapour, and the smoake of a chimney within our nostrills: and as a stranger within our gates, comming and going againe, not to returne any more till the day of finall redempti­on. What need more exhorta­tion in a subiect of such cōmon experience? If we were as Abel was, who neuer saw the exam­ple of precedent death: lesse ex­ception might be taken to our excuse. But wee know the cer­tainty of our death, as well as wee know our names, and the ioynts of our fingers: and yet we regard it not. What are all the Cities and Townes of the earth, so farre as the line thereof is stretched, but the lamentable pinfolds of the deaths of men. [...]al Max. Hu­manarum cladi­ [...]m miseranda This is a pointZach. 5.1. like the flying booke of Zacharie, that flieth to to all, suting to the simple and [Page 63] teaching Senators wisdome. It pulleth down the high looke of man, while he considereth with himselfe that he must turn to the earth, which hee now sets his feet vpon. Rather those nice and daintie dames, are here taken by the armes, that must not touch ground with the sole of their foot: but as if the face of the earth, were not prouided for the daughters of men: they must be alwaies carried like the foules of the aire betweene hea­uen and earth: Let them re­member, that the earth shall set her feet vpon their heads: and their lips shall kisse the dust of the ground; and the very gra­uell and slime of the graue shall dwell betweene their haughty eielids. Doe they fore­thinke what shall become of them? when after all their la­bour and cost bestowed, in whiting and painting the out­ward walls: there remaineth [Page 64] nothing but a stinking and rot­ten carkasse.Putidum & pu­ [...]utum codauer. When though now they say to their sisters in the flesh, Touch me not, I am of pu­rer substance than thou art; yet the bones of Agamemnon and Thersites shall be mingled toge­ther: of Vashti, the most beau­tifull Q [...]eene, and the sootiest Aegyptian bond woman, shall not bee found asunder. I will not say much to proud dust and ashes. But if the purple and fine linnen were an opprobrious note (for lacke of an inward clothing) to the rich man in the Gospell, if that parable were to be written in these dayes, pur­ple and fine linnen were no­thing. And what the burthens and carriages of pride in the age of Clemens Alexandrinus were,Mihi mirabile sit quod non necentur, cum tantum onus ba­ [...]l [...]. I know not: but if it were wonder to him, That they killed not themselues vnder the burthens, I am su [...]e, if the mea­sure was then full, it is now hea­ped [Page 65] vp to the highest, and sha­ken together, and pressed downe againe. We are made to forget nature. Adam had the wisdome to call all the beasts of the fields by their proper names: but he forgat his owne name, that he was called Adam, and that there was affinitie be­tweene the Earth and him. Hee was not made of that substance, whereof the Angels, no not of that matter whereof the aire and the water, inferior creatures were made. The earth was the wombe that bred him, and the earth the wombe that must re­ceiue him againe. For let him play the Alchymist while hee will, and striue to turne earth in­to siluer, and gold, & pearles, by making shew to the world, vn­der his glorious adornatiōs, that he is of some better substance, yet the time is not farre off, the earth shall challeng [...] him for her naturall childe, and say, hee [Page 66] is my bowels. Neither can his rich aparell so disguise him in his life time, nor feare-cloth, spices, and balmes, so preserue him after his death, nor immu­ring him in stone or lead, hide him so close: but that his origi­nal mother, wil both know him againe, and take him into her possession. Let the couetous also remember this, Nature shall as narrowly examine them at their going out, as at their first entring.Se [...]c. excutit redemptem na­turam, sicut in­trantem. They brought nothing with them into the world, but skinne ouer their teeth and ouer the other parts of their body: and it is certaine they shall carry away nothing.

CHAP. VI. Of the manifold benefits arising from the much meditation of death, accruing vnto vs.

MVch fruit groweth vp­on this stalke. Bee it ne­uer so true, that the stroke of death is most terrible; yea, the very remembrance it selfe of [Page 69] death: O death, how bitter is the remēbrance of thee, to man whose sole repose is in his riches? Bee it that death bee in the pot, of which the children of the Pro­phets complained to the man of God: be death as Aloes, and the waters of Marah, the wa­ter of wormewood and gall: let a man fret and feare at the ti­dings of death, as Saul did: let him wax pale and wan, at the bare mention of death only; and say, as the disciples to Christ,Ioh. 6.60. This is an hard saying, who can heare it? yet the medi­tation of death is as effectuall to driue away sinne, as the quo­tation of the scriptures were to our Sauiour, to driue away the tempter.Eccles. 7.36. Whatsoeuer thou ta­kest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt neuer doe amisse. There is nothing, saith SaintAug. lib. 10. con. Manich. N [...]hil sic reuo [...]at hominem à peccato, quàm frequens mortis meditatio. Augustine, that so reclaimeth a man from sinne, as the continu­all consideration of death. With [Page 70] whom agreeth Seneca, where he saith, Nothing can so much auaile thee to sobrietie in all things: as to recount often and much, the shortnesse and vncer­tainty of thine age. Senec. lib 20. Epist 2. ad I [...]cil. Nihil ita aeque tibi prosuerit ad temporantium omneum rerum: quam frequens cogitatio breuis aeui, & huius in­incerti. The denun­ciation of death, of it selfe suffi­ceth to correct vs, and con­taine vs in our duty. Isuaj no sooner had deliuered his lega­tiue arrand of death to Eze­chias, 2 King. 20.2, 3. But Ezechias turned to the wall and wept. Eliah spea­king bitter things against A­chab, Achab grew remorsed.1 King 21.27. And tare his cloths, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. No sooner the Baptist spake of the axe, now at hand to be put to the root of the tree.Luk. 3.9. But all sorts of people, flocked vnto him, inquiring of him what they should doe. Niniue that great Ci­ty had not stood long, had not Ionas prophesied of the destru­ction of it within forty daies. Now the message, ouerthrew [Page 71] the message: the Prophecie fell, and the city stood: because the fall of it was foretold,Chrysost. hom. 5. ad pop. Antioch The prediction of death, saith Chry­sostome, was the production of life: the sentence of destruction, wrought the nullity of the sen­tence: It was a snare, and it be­came a refuge: they heard that their houses should fall, and they forsooke not their houses, but themselues.

But especially it nippeth pride in the head, the cogitati­on of death.Aug. Agnoscat se homo morta­lem: & frangit elationem. Timor de futura morte, quasi cla­uis carnis, omnes molus superbiae ligno crucis ad­figit. So saith Saint Au­gustine, let a man take notice of his mortality, and it will teach him humility. Againe, the dread of death to come, is the naile of the flesh, which naileth all the motions of the flesh, to the tree of the crosse. The Peacocke that groweth proud in the sight of his taile, spread abroad, like a fanne, and in his vnconstant colours like the Raine-bow: is as much deiected, looking [Page 72] downe vpon his feet.Psal. 82.6. I haue said, yee are gods, and yee are all children of the most high: this is that, that maketh vs look high: But when we read on, Yee shall die and fall like one of the Princes: thereat wee wax pale, and shake in euery ioynt of vs, and our combs are cut. The pride taken vp, vpon the strength of our limmes, is tamed by the recogitation of death. For the dog insulteth ouer a dead Lion. The proud man speaketh plea­sings and leasings to his soule, saying,Isai. 14.13. I will ascend into heauen, and I will exalt my throne a­boue, besides the starres of God. I well set also vpon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the North: I will ascend aboue the height of the clouds: and I will be like the most high. But marke how God roundeth him in the eare, But thou shalt bee brought downe to the graue, to the sides of the pit: they that see [Page 73] thee, shall looke vpon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to trem­ble, and did shake the Kingdoms? The same doome deliuereth Iob against the haughtie man!Iob 20.6. Virgil Aeneid. En tellus & quam bello Tro­iano petisti, Italiam metire iacens. Though his excellency mount vp to the heauen, and his head reach vnto the clouds; yet shall hee perish for euer like his dung, and they which haue seene him, shall say, where is he, hee shall flee away as a dreame, and they shall not finde him, and shall passe away as a vision of the night. Sennacha­rib was in the ruffe for a time, and who but Sennacharib, scat­tering his proud boastings like some,Isai. 37.13. Where is the King of Ha­math? and the King of Arpad? (Kings which he had vanqui­shed) And haue the gods of the nations deliuered their clients and orators out of my hands? And Ezekias, let not thy God deceiue thee. But a man might haue asked him, where is the King [Page 74] of Assur? And hath Nisroch the god of Assyria deliuered Sennacharib himselfe out of the hands of God? And Sennacha­rib, let not thy god deceiue thee: nay, take heed that thine owne sonnes deceiue thee not. Herod that was pleased with the applause of the people,Act. 12.22. Non vox hominis orat. The voice of God, and not of man: in the same Theater where hee tooke his glory, hee re­ceiued his shame. The peo­ple shouted not so fast in his eares, but another people sent from God gnaweth as fast vp­on his bowells within, and al­tereth his stile. The nature of man at the first creation, before that lump was sowred with the leauen of sinne, was full of glo­ry and grace: All things were made for vs; for in a manner wee are the end and perfection of all things. For our sakes were the heauens created; and for our sakes were the heauens [Page 75] bowed: and God was man, to bring man to God. So that all is ours, and we are Christs, and Christ is Gods. The wise men of the world, who neuer looked so farre into the honours of man, as wee doe, yet euermore aduanced that creature aboue all others. One called him, A little world, the world a great man: another, A mortall God, God an immortall man: another, All things, because he partaketh of the nature of plants, of beasts, and of spirituall creatures. Pha­norinus maruelled at nothing in the world, besides man; at nothing in man, besides his minde. Abdala the Saracen, being asked what he most won­dred at vpon the stage of this world, answered, Man. And Saint Augustine saith, that man is a greater miracle than all the miracles that euer haue beene wrought amongst men. But whatsoeuer wee be, our nature [Page 76] is manifest to all the world. Our foundation is in the dust: we were fashioned beneath in the earth: we were brought together to bee flesh in our mothers wombe in ten moneths, and when we were borne we receiued no more than the common aire, and fell vpon the earth which is of like nature. Our father is no better than an Animonite; neither Angell, nor God; and our mother an Hit­tite; and we the vncleane chil­dren of vncleane seed. Let A­lexander seed vpon his fancy, that he was the sonne of Iupi­ter Hammon, till he receiue a wound in the warre, and seeth his owne bloud, and cannot sleept. Let Sapor king of Persia write himselfe, King of Kings, brother to the sunne and moone, copartner with the starres: Let Antiochus thinke to saile vpon the mountaines: Sennacharib to dry vp the riuers, with the soles of the feet of his followers: [Page 77] Let Edom exalt himselfe like an Eagle, and build his nest among the starres, and say in the swelling of his heart, who shall bring mee downe to the ground: yet when they haue all done, let them looke backe to their tribe, and to their fa [...]hers poore house, and to the pit from whence they were hewen: let them examine their pedi­gree and descent, and it will soone turne the edge of their conceited worth. And here I tender thee the pithy counsell of Scaliger to Cardan, I will ouer haue thee to remember, that thou and I and others are but men. For if thou knewest what man is, thou wilt easily vnderstand thy selfe to be nothing. For my part, I am not wont to say: that we are so much as men, but peeces of man, of all which put together, something may bee made, not great: but of each of them sun­dred, almost lesse than nothing.

[Page 78]2. In case Prosperity shall puffe thee vp with pride, the remem­brance of death will tame thee well enough. Hast thou had hi­therto the better hand against all? death will get the masterie at length ouer thee; whom nei­ther repulse, flight, or any thing that heart or art can excogitate, is able to subdue. Hast thou beene the death of others? What remaineth else, but that thou be swallowed vp of death thy selfe? Art thou laden with the spoile of the whole world? Be sure that thou thy selfe must be a prey to the iawes of death. This he well weighed, that well warned thee, Know thy selfe: a man, and so mortall.

3. If the fame and celebritie of thy name heaueth vp thine heart, and make thy thoughts as Iordan to ouerflow the banks; the meditation of death will qualifie this humour: For Psal. 6.5. in death what man remembreth [Page 79] thee? The dead and they that are gone down into the silence, shall not sing thy praise. What? From the liuing, to the dead? Nay of the liuing, and of succee­ding posterity that is to liue, must proceed all thy praise. But yet mortall are they all, whom thou dost expect to be trumpe­ters of thy value: and mortall & transitory are all the meanes by which thou doest lay the foundation of thy fame. The Grammarian, that teacheth his scholler to decline death, con­fesseth that it is not of any to be declined. The Logician that vn­dertaketh by his Dialect, [...]o proue black to be white, & white to bee blacke, and what not? cannot perswade death by any syllogisme to spare his life, but is in this point at a Non-plus. And here the Orators skill fai­leth with all his Rhetoricke, and eloquence cannot moue death, who is impartiall to alter [Page 80] his doome of death against him. My numerarie man with all his Arithmeticke, cannot suppute the number of his dayes. My Doctor of Physicke that taketh vpon him to recouer mee at the point of death, to li [...]e, cannot saue his owne life. Our Fencers and sword-players that can put by euery blow, cannot award the blow of death, when it is inten­ded against him. The Smith that smiteth harnesse, and pre­pareth military weapons, of of­fence, and defence, as if hee had beene an apprentice vnder Vul­can, cannot make a Brigandine or coat-armour for himselfe to beare off deaths darts. Achilles, though none could wound him in any part of his body, yet hee met with an enemy that had him by the heele, and there gaue him his mortall wound.

The equall condition of death in vnequals, giueth a grand dodge and rebuke to [Page 81] pride. In the carkasses of the dead, there is no difference to be discerned, vnlesse it be this onely, that the bodies of the rich, bombasted and distended & as full as the moone; through their excessiue riot, in their va­riety, and fulnesse of their great chargers, & their strong drinks and wine, send out a more grosse and noisome sauour.Bernard. serm. 1. de morte. Bernard telleth vs of a Dutchesse of Sa­uoy, as curious as costly. Shee would not dip forsooth in any common water, but her hath must be of the dew of heauē; her morsels of meat must bee carued her by her Eunuches, and put into her mouth by a golden forke: shee perfumed her selfe with all manner of fragrant and redolent smels. But marke what followed; the whole body so corrupted & putrified thorow­out, as none was able to come nigh her. The pride of2 Mach. 9.9. Antio­chus was so humbled by the [Page 82] stroke of Gods vengeance, as he is become the worlds wonder, being griped in his guts, and so tormented in remedilesse man­ner, in the inward parts, as his torture was more than intolera­ble. The wormes crawled out at the holes of his body: his soul­diers were so sensible of his smell, as they were not able to abide the ranknesse of his conta­gious sauour: and the Legend noteth it downe, as the punish­ment of his pride. And no mil­der iudgement befell Herod, as we haue said before. As the full kitchens of the rich are more fulsome and ranke in their sent, than those of the meaner sort, whose chimneys are more like the nose of a dog, that is alwaies cold, and neuer hot: so for the most part are their dead corpse. Alphonsus king of the Arragons, being demanded, what was that which equalized Princes and priuate men, answered, their [Page 83] ashes. As wee know one tree from another, while they grow in the forrest; but being burnt vpon the hearth, wee cannot se­uer the ashes of the one from the ashes of the other: so wee distinguish men here: some by the procerity of their stature, some by the greatnesse of their stocke, some by the beauty as it were by their leaues: but tum­bled into their tombes and graues, and reduced to their dust, who can diuide the beggar from the king? Diogenes the Cynick, by such a similitude cen­sured the loftines of great Alex­ander; who being of him asked, what they meant to bee rum­bling bones of the dead, is said to haue made this answer; I seeke the bones of king Philip thy father: Senec. lib. 3. Natural. Ques [...] but I cannot distinguish them from the bones of the com­mon sort. It is Seneca his com­munication and counsell, Why art thou so displeased with thy cli­ent? [Page 84] Forbeare a while, Death commeth that will make vs all e­quall.

CHAP. VII. Of the preparation in particular, to be made in the time of sick­nesse. And how God determi­neth of the life of man.

BEsides the precedent prepa­ration in generall, all our life long, a preparation in particu­lar is required to be made in the end of our life, when sicknesse and weaknesse do wait vpon vs. And this respecteth three sorts of duties: 1. Towards God. 2. Our selues. 3. Our neighbours.

1. That duty that hath relati­on vnto God only, is to take out our Quietus est from the Kings bench, to make our atonement and peace with God in Christ. All other offices are vnderlings to this: and all others in compa­rison of this, are nothing. This atonement is made by the re­newance of our former faith, [Page 86] and repentance in this manner. Assoone as we feele our sicknes vpon vs, that we duly consider the originall thereof, how it came in, not casually, but by the hand of diuine prouidence. Next to that, we are to enquire after the cause, that gaue the in­troduction thereunto.

For the first, euery mans state and fate is vnder diuine deter­mination and ordinance.Stat sua cuique dies. Euery man hath his day set him. So saith Syrach, Eccles. 17.2. He gaue him the number of dayes, & certain times. Againe,Eccles. 3.24. The life of man standeth in the number of daies. So saith Iob, Iob 14.5. Are not his dayes determined? the number of his moneths are with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds which hee cannot passe. So saith Dauid, Psal. 139.16. Thine eyes did see me when I was without forme; for in thy booke were all things written, which in continuance were fashioned, when there was none of them before. So saith the [Page 87] princely Preacher,Eccles. 3.2. A time to be borne, and a time to die. So saith Wisdome,Wisd. 1 [...].13. Thou hast the power of life and death: and leadest downe vnto the gates of hell, and bringest vp againe. So Dauid saith againe,Psal. 9.3. Thou turnest men to destruction: againe thou sayest, come againe yee children of men. But this period of life is not ap­portionated to euery one alike. Some are ordained to die as soone as euer they bee borne;2 Sam. 12.18. as Dauids sonne. Othersome in their infancy;1 King. 14.17. as the childe of Ieroboam. Some in their youth;Act. 20.9. as Eutychus. Others in their riper age;Iudg. 15.3. as Sampson; 2 Sam. 18.14. as Absolon. Othersome in their old age;1 King. 2.10. as Dauid. O­thersome in their decrepit age;Gen. 5.27. as Methusalem, who in the nine hundred sixty nine yeere of age dyed. Peter had once esca­ped the hands of that Hydra, Herod; for his time was not then come: therefore he was to [Page 88] bee deliuered,Act. 12.1.3. &c. though by the ministery of an Angell. On the other side, because that was the time wherein Iames must die, at that same time must hee bee put to the sword. Dauid came of­ten into great dangers vnder Saul and others: but because God had ordained him to life, he must escape them all. Neither Saul that bloud-sucker, nor that rebell or monster of nature Absalon, must hurt the Lords anointed. How furious was that hellish fury Baaliticall Ie­sabel against the man of God E­lia? But because his dayes were noted in Gods Register, and he was by a fiery chariot to bee hurried vp to heauen; all the furies of this fury must fade and fleet away. What shall I say of our Sauiour Christ himselfe? who was continually all his life time chased as a Doe.Matth. 2.13. In his in­fancy and swathing clouts pur­sued by Herod, hardly escaping [Page 89] the butchers knife.Luk. 4.29. Vpon the entrie into the execution of his office at Nazaret his Nursery, the mutinous multitude thrust him out of the city, and led him vnto the side of the hill, wheron the city was built, that they might cast him downe head­long. But hee passing tho­row the middest of them went his way. So the Iewes cast stones at him while hee was in the Temple: but hee slid tho­row their fingers: the rea­son is, his houre was not yet come. Sisera was not to die by the stroke of mans hand, or by the bow, or sword of the ene­my; but God reserued him to end his dayes in a tent, by a hammer and a naile in the hand of a woman. So, and no other­wise must Sisera be serued. Sen­nacharib was not to be slaine in the field, by the destroying Angel, as the greater part of his army was: but in his owne city, [Page 90] in his chappell, by his owne sonnes. The day of vengeance is stiled in holy Scripture, The day of the Lord. Not as though all o­ther dayes were not his, but because hee hath his appointed times for iudgement.Eccles. 3.2. A time to plant, and a time to plucke vp that which is planted. Ierm. 31.33. The daughter of Babel is like a thre­shing floore: the time of her har­uest is come: Reuel. 3.10. Christ speaketh of an houre of temptation, which shall come vpon all the world to trie them that dwell vpon the earth. Reuel. 14.6. The Angell flying in the midst of heauen, said with a loud voice, feare God, giue glory vnto him, for the houre of his iudge­ment is come. Reuel. 14.15. And another An­gell cried with a loud voice to him that sate on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reape, for the har­uest of the earth is ripe.

The consideration of this point serueth to the instruction of all, old and young: For nei­ther [Page 91] young nor old may escape death. N [...]que vlla aut paruo aut magno laethi fuga. Inuenibus in insidijs: senibus in januis. Death lieth in wait for the young, and standeth at the gates of the aged. Psal. 31.17. My time is in thy hand, saith Dauid: wherefore let our prayers come forth with Dauid, Psal. 39.5. Lord let me know mine end, and the number of my dayes, that I may be certified how long I haue to liue. Plato compareth the life of man to a game at ta­bles: It is not in vs what to cast; but when we see the cast, it is in vs to order it. So the euent of life which befalleth vs, is not in our hands: but to make the best of it, we are to doe our best.Aug. Infantia nostra innocentia sit: pueritia, re­uerentia; adole­scentia sit patien­tia; juuentus, vir­tus; senium, meri­tum; senectus sit sanus sapiens in­tellectus. Our in­fancy must be our innocencie: our childhood, reuerence: our young age, must bee patience: our riper age, vertue: our old age, merit: our decrepit age, prudent vnder­standing, saith S^t. Augustine.

And it affordeth no lesse com­fort than instruction, in all our difficulties, dangers and distres­ses. The number of our dayes is [Page 92] certaine, all of them are enrol­led in Gods Register, all our lots are in Gods lap. Wherefore though the world should swarm with as many Deuils as may be, they can neither abridge our dayes, nor preiudge our lots.Matth. 10.29. All the haires of our head are numbred. Are not two sparrowes sold for a farthing? and yet not one of them fall to the ground, without Gods prouidence. Where­fore feare we not, we are of more worth then many sparrowes. Greg. in Moral. Praefixidies sin­gulis ab aeterna Dei praescientia: nec augeri pos­sunt, nec minui: nisi contingat vt ita praesciuntur vt aut optimis operibus longio­res fiant, aut pos­simis breuiores. Eue­ry mans dayes are prefixed by di­uine prescience: neither can they be increased or minished; vnlesse they may so hap, that they bee so foreknowne, that by our good works we may lengthen, or by our bad deeds we may shorten them, saith S^t. Gregorie. For the Lord is the life of the godly, and the length of daies, Deu. 30.20. De. 32.48. Prou. 4.10. according to his promise annexed to the fourth Cōmandement, But the [Page 93] Psal. 55.24. bloud-thirsty and deceitfull man shall not liue out halfe his dayes. Iob 21 21. The number of his moneths is cut off.

Here we haue also Argument dehortatorie against the fond conceit of absolute N [...]cessity, or otherwayes Stoicall Destini [...]: to which the sacred Scriptures, and sounder Philosophers, are contrarious. And this Adage is fulfilled, Faete is Fatuus: Est fatuum Fa­tum: fatui qui fata sequuntur. and they that follow Fate are infatu­ated: Many infatuated herewith, haue desperately thrown them­selues vpon the pikes of appa­rent perils. And some by an im­prouident and effeminate cari­age, haue intercepted the course of life, which vngratious demea­nour the very heathen Philoso­phers did abhorre. One being on his knees, and ready to be­reaue himselfe of life, the dog­ged Diogenes told him, Wee liue not by the knees, but by the minde. Non cruribus viuimus, sed mente. Which was a quicke answer, [Page 94] For it is not in vs, Hieron. non est nostrum mortem arripere; sed ab alijs iliatam li­benter accipere. saith Saint Ie­rome, to seeke our owne death: but willingly (when it is inflicted) to receiue it.

CHAP. VIII. Of sinne, the occasion of sicknesse and death.

THe next thing I thinke vp­on in my bed of sicknesse, is the originall cause of my sick­nesse and death, namely my sins Originall and Actuall: For so the Scriptures teach mee.Wisd. 2.24. Through enuy of the Deuill came death into the world: and they that hold of his side, proue it. Rom. 5.12. By one man sin came into the world: and death by sinne. Lamen. 3.39. Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull? man suffereth for his sin. Wherefore Christ for the curing of the pal­sie man, tooke first away his sins, the radicall cause of his in­firmity, [Page 96] and so dammeth vp the fountaine and spring.Matth. 9.2. Son, thy sinnes bee forgiuen thee: take vp thy bed and walke: thereby de­monstrating himselfe to bee the true Physitian both of body and soule. To the man whom Christ healed at the poole of Bethesda, he saith,Ioh. 5 14. Beheld, thou art made whole, sinne no more, lest a worse thing come vnto thee. I easily conceiue that there bee other considerations of my languishing estate: which though they bee hid from mee, are not hid from God. For to the question of the Disciples touching the blind man, why he was so borne? our Sauiour answered,Ioh. 9.3. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the workes of God should be shewed in him. Yet I hold it or­dinarily, that all diseases are of sinne; in which,Psal. 50.7. We are all con­ceiued and borne: For so much power is yeelded to the Deuill [Page 97] against man: and he so ende­uoureth to depraue the first I­mage of God, set vpon man, as hee forbeareth not the babe in the mothers wombe. But some­times by Gods especiall suffe­rance, he doth much mischiefe: so as some are borne blinde,Ioh. 9.1. as the blind boy in the Gospell: or else borne lame,Act. 3.2. & 4.22. as the creeple who lay at the gate of the Temple, which was called beau­tifull, which was a Creeple from his mothers wombe: Or else weake and withered,Ioh. 5.5. as the man that lay at the bath of Be­thesda, which had beene disea­sed eight and thirty yeeres, and laid bedred: Or deafe & dumb,Mark. 10.32. with him of whom S^t. Marke maketh mention: Or wry,Luk. 13.11. with that woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteene yeeres, and was bowed together, and could not lift vp her selfe in any wise. Some are shaken with the palsie,Matth. 8.6. with the Centurions seruant. [Page 98] Act. 9.33. and with Aeneas who kept his bed in that disease the space of eight yeeres. Some are pos­sessed with an vncleane spirit;Mark. 9.18. as hee whose son was so taken, as he was bowed, and teared, he was made to some at the mouth, and to gnash with his teeth, so as hee loured, and pined away, and sometimes was throwne in­to the fire, and sometimes into the water: Or with an issue of bloud,Matth. 9.20. with the woman that was troubled therewith twelue yeeres together: Or are ouerrun with the scab of leprosie,Matth. 8.2. with Matthews Leper: Or brought low by an ague,Matth. 8.14. with Peters wiues mother: Or strucken with carbuncles or running sores,Iob 2.71. as Iob was,Luk. 16.20. and Lazarus. Or with some other kinde of ma­ladie and miserie. I wish euery man affected as my selfe, to spend the little remainder of their time, in contemplation and meditation of this matter. [Page 99] That so finding out the origi­nall cause of all diseases and de­fects in nature, namely sin, may with Ezekias turne to God,2 King. 20.2, 3 and craue pardon of his sinnes after his example. This Wisdome ad­uiseth vs to doe,Syrac. 38.9. My son, faile not in thy sicknesse, but pray vn­to the Lord, and he will make thee whole. Next let him vse the law­full meanes of Physicke;Syrac. 38.12. Then giue place to the Physitian, for the Lord hath created him. Let him not goe from thee, for thou hast need of him. And say as the Prophet teacheth thee,Mich. 7.9. I will beare the wrath of the Lord, for I haue sinned against him. Crine ruber, niger ore, breuis pede, lumine lus [...]us. Rem magnam praestans Z [...]ile, si bonus es. Hic niger est, hunc tu Romane caueto. Raro qu [...]ppe boni quos sic natura notauit. And be in the same minde with mee, not to despaire of the grace of God, or your soules health, for any defect whatsoeuer. The worlds iudgement of such as are blind, lame, mute, deafe, and such like, is oftentimes wicked, vaine, and profane: as, Take heed of such whom nature hath bran­ded [Page 100] aboue others, which the great God forbid. Be it farre from vs, once to hatch such a horrible conceit. The vncreated wis­dome of God,Isai. 55 8. (whose thoughts are not as our thoughts) knoweth why he doth euery thing. And whatsoeuer his reason is, of this or that vnknowne to mee, this one thing I know,Rom. 8.28. That all things worke to the best, to them that loue God.

CHAP. IX. The sicke mans examination of his sinnes.

HAuing thus laid my hand vpon the cause of my sick­nesse, which is my sinne; I hold it my next duty to examine and arraigne my sins, in searching and trying my way, that so I may the better truly turne vnto thee as I ought.Lam. 3.9. Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull? Man [Page 102] suffe­reth for his sinnes. Let vs search and try our wayes, and turne againe vnto the Lord. This was Dauids course,Psal. 119.59. I haue conside­red my wayes, and turned my feet vnto thy Testimonies. And this was the counsell he gaue to Sauls Courtiers,Psal. 4.4. Tremble, and sinne not: examine your owne heart, and be still. Answerable where­unto is this exhortation of Ze­phania, Zeph. 2.1. Gather your selues, euen gather you, O nation, not worthy to bee loued. This examination and triall is to be made by the Commandements of the morall law. When a man entreth his house at midnight, he findeth or seeth nothing out of order: but let him come in the day time when the Sunne shineth, then hee shall espie many things a­misse, yea the very motes that flie about him: so if a man shall search his heart, in the igno­rance and darknes of his mind, he perceiueth nothing: but let [Page 103] him search it by the light of the Law, and he shall see a number of sinnes without number, of which he will be sensible. But especially let vs make a suruay of our sins, by the tenth Com­mandement, which search the heart more narrowly than euer Laban did search Iacobs tent. This was Pauls practice, and the meane of his conuersi­on. For when he was a supersti­tious Pharisee, in the glasse of this precept hee saw certaine sinnes, which without this hee had neuer discerned to bee sins.Rom. 7.7.13. I had not knowne lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not lust. But sinne tooke an occasion by the Commandement, and deceiued me, and slew me; that is to meane, humbled me. As concerning O­riginall sin, that is totally mine; the brests of Eue giuing no better milke vnto me. And Adam hath conueyed his whole nature vn­to me, so as my father is an Am­morite, [Page 104] my mother an Hittite: my father hath tasted sowre grapes, and his childrens teeth are set on edge. The seeds of e­uery sinne are in euery one, Christ only excepted, who was extraordinarily sanctified in his mothers wombe by the holy Ghost. As for our actuall trans­gressions, in the examination thereof, we must obserue these three rules: 1. Not onely to fer­ret out our palpable and grosse sinnes, but also to diue into the inward thoughts of the heart; for true repentance consisteth not onely in the alteration of thy words, attire, and outward actions, but also of the secret and hidden cogitations. Wher­fore Ioel calleth vpon the Iewes, Ioel. 2.13. To rend their hearts, and not their garments. And Paul telleth the Ephesians, Ephes. 4.23. That they must bee renewed in the spirit of their minde. And Simon Peter adui­seth Simon Magus Act. 8.22. to repent, and [Page 105] pray, if perhaps the thoughts of his heart may bee forgiuen him. 2. To consider the circumstan­ces of our sinnes. 1. Time. 2. Place. 3. Maner, whether igno­rantly out of weaknesse, or wit­tingly through wilfulnesse, we haue committed these sinnes. 3. To runne ouer all the parti­cular Commandements of the law morall, applying them as rules and directions to our hearts and liues, and so make long Registers of them, from our youth downeward. So shall wee come to the knowledge of our thrice miserable estate; that our sins exceed the haires of our head for number, and the sands of the sea for weight; and that they are a burthen too heauy for vs to beare. If after all this exa­mination thus made, we cannot sound the depth of our sins, (for what man doth know how oft he offendeth?)Ierem. 17.9. For the heart is deceitfull and wicked aboue all [Page 106] things, who can know it? As be­ing like a huge deepe, that hath neither banke, nor bottome; as hauing a maze of hidden cor­ruptions within it: then it shall behooue vs, in a religious iea­lousie to be suspitious of our vn­knowne sinnes, and to say and pray with Dauid, Psal. 19.12. Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O purge thou mee from my secret faults. Hence is it that the Apostle saith,1 Cor. 4.4. I know nothing by my selfe: yet am I not hereby iustified. And it shall be more than necessarie, that wee in this maner examine our selues, and suspect those sinnes which we cannot call to minde:Luk. 16.15. For we are such as iu­stifie our selues before men: but God knoweth our hearts. For th [...] which is highly esteemed amongs [...] men, is abomination in the sight of God. He laid folly vpon his An­gels; much more on them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foun­dation is in the dust.

CHAP. X. Of confession of sins, another duty that hath relation to God, as at all times needfull, so especial­ly by the Dying man.

IT is euidence of Gods wrath not to vnderstand our sinnes before, that repentance may fol­low after, saith Cyprian. How wee should appeare before the high God, in the humiliation of our selues, in the due confession of our sinnes, wee can learne of none better, than of the Prodi­gall, and Publican in the Gospell. The Prodigall son saith,Luk. 15.21. Fa­ther I haue sinned, and not sim­ply so, but against heauen and a­gainst thee: against the Father of my spirit and flesh, against him that gaue mee his law, against him that gaue me my life. The Publican stood afar off, not da­ring to draw neere to God, that [Page 109] God might draw neere to him, but smote his sinfull breast, the coffer and closet where all his sinnes lay: punishing himselfe, that God might spare him; con­demning himselfe in this world, that he might not be condem­ned in the world to come; say­ing,Luk. 18.13. God be merciful to me a sin­ner: I doe not say to thy crea­ture, to thy seruant, or to thy sonne; but to mee a sinner. All my whole frame and compositi­on is sin: whatsoeuer I am both in body and soule, to the vtter­most extent and straint of the whole man, I am a sinner: and not only by office, as a Publican; but also by Nature and Descent a sinner. There is nothing else mentioned of Mary Magdalen, but that she was a sinner.Luk. 7.37. Be­hold, a woman in the city which was a sinner: as if the spirit of God had forgat her other names. 1. Shee stood at Christs feet. 2. Behinde him. 3. Weeping. [Page 110] 4. Began to wash. 5. The lowest part of his body, His feet. 6. With her teares. If she had done this with riuer water, it might haue gone currant, for ciuilitie and seruice enough. 7. Shee wipeth them, not with the fringe or skirt of her vesture, but with the haires of her head, and she kis­sed them, & anointed them with ointment. The like dutious be­hauiour we finde in the woman diseased with an issue of bloud. For shee as Mary Magdalene Matth. 9.20. did come behinde Christ, and shee touched the hem of his gar­ment, and vertue went from Christ to her. The first token of life in the widows son of Naim, was,Luk. 7.15. He began to speake: so in our spiritual resuscitation frō death to life, the first signe of our saluation; is the confession of our transgressions. Pharao came to this,Exod. 10.16. I haue sinned a­gainst the Lord your God. So did Balaam, when he saw the Angel [Page 111] in the way,Num. 22.34. I haue sinned. So did Saul, 1 Sam. 15.24. I haue sinned. This was Dauids speech to Nathan, 2 Sam. 12.13. I haue sinned against the Lord. And the very same was Iobs language,Iob 7.20. I haue sinned, what shall I doe? O thou preseruer of men. And these were Daniels words, on the behalfe of him­selfe, the princes, and the peo­ple of Ierusalem and Iudea, Dan. 9.5. O we haue sinned, and commit­ted iniquity, and haue done wic­kedly, &c. Ezra hearing that the children of the captiuity remained consorted with the people of the nations, was re­solued into strange passions:Ezra. 9.3. He rent his cloathes, plucked off the haire of his head, and of his beard, and sate downe asto­nied vntill the euening sacrifice, deploring the case in this man­ner: O my God, I am confoun­ded, and ashamed to lift vp mine eies vnto thee my God. For our iniquities are increased euer our [Page 112] head, and our trespasse is growen vp vnto the heauen. As in old time it was the receiued cu­stome, in sorrowfull seasons, to assemble women and others, who had skill in weeping; so such as would repent, and haue no skill, let them resort to such as haue it: to Ezra the Priest, and such like, as may teach them. There is no such Tria­cle in Eden, or balme in Gilead, as this is, to heale the deadly wounds of sinne, the confessi­on thereof. Wherefore I say to thee O sicke man, as Ioshua said to Achan, Ios. 7.19. My sonne, I beseech thee, giue glory to the Lord God, and make confession vnto him. For wounds that are opened, Vulnera clausa plus cruciant. are soone healed, and those that are closed vp, are more to be dreaded, as it is well said of Seneca. Greg. si non con­fessus, lates, in­confessus dam­naberis. If thou lurkest priuily not confes­sing, vnconfessing thou shalt bee condemned, saith Gregorie. As he is a fo [...]le, call him no [Page 113] better, who being to begge an almes, strouteth in braue ap­parell, with rings on his fin­gers, and a gold chaine about him (for beggers are to shew their vlcers, their wounds, their ragges and nakednesse) to moue commiseration: so being to craue the almes of Gods mer­cy at the gate of his Temple, which may be called Beautifull, let vs not shew our merits, but our miseries; not our good deeds, but our mis-deeds; and call for the Psalme of mercy for our necke-verse. If the sicke man, when the Physitian shall let him bloud, shall let goe that which is pure, and retaine that which is corrupt, hee must needs faint and be in danger: so the sinner, that with a long trumpet shall sound his ver­tues, and smother his sinnes, must needs bee feeble in soule and at deaths doore. Where­fore I hold Balaam the sonne [Page 114] of Beor but a Buzzard, prating thus to God,Num. 23.4. I haue built seuen Altars: as though God were purblinde, and knew not what a feat hee had done, vnlesse hee had told him. It is the manner of the vn­godly, to boast themselues of the acts they haue done, as if the Lord were ignorant: wher­as he not only knowes the acti­ons of men, but also the seue­rall circumstances of the same. Abraham offered a sacrifice to the Lord; and God consi­dered it in his circumstances, saying,Gen. 15.12. Thou hast not for my sake spared thine only sonne. So did our Sauiour in his expostu­latory speech with Simon the Pharisee, in the cause of Mary Magdalen, Luk. 7 44. she hath washed my feet with teares, and wiped them with the haires of her head: she hath not ceased to kisse my feet: shee hath anointed my feet with ointment. Hee that sheweth his [Page 115] whole parts only to the Physiti­an, and hideth them that are diseased from him; how can he be cured? So it is with vs in hiding from God the infirmi­ties and diseases of our sinnes, by not confessing them to God. The Lord called Ezekiel to him, and said,Ezek. 8.8. Sonne of man, digge in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold there was a doore. And hee said vnto me, Goe in, and behold the wicked abominations that they doe here. So I went in and saw, and there was euery si­militude of creeping things, and abominable beasts. So the Lord would haue thee, O sinner, to digge in the wall of thy con­science, that thou maist behold the similitude of creeping things, and of a thousand kinde of sinnes, depicted in the wall of thy conscience: thy coue­tousnesse, pride, Luxurious­nesse, and behold more abomi­nations [Page 116] than these. The Lord refuseth that beast for sacrifice, that cannot ruminate or chew the cud: so such as cannot chew the cud by confessing of sinnes, are no oblation for the Lords Altar. As bees from soure herbs expresse sweet ho­ney; so thou shalt finde much sweetnesse comming to thy soule, by thy carefull confessi­on of thy sinnes. He that fal­leth into a deepe riuer, though vp to the beard, yet so long as he can open his mouth, hee may hope to liue. But in case he be so deepe in, as the water enter into his mouth, and stop­peth it, hee is a dead man. So if thou by thy manifold and most grieuous sinnes, shalt plunge thy selfe into the deepe waters of destruction, and the streame therof shall come ouer thy soule, yet if thou canst but open thy mouth, and confesse thy sinnes vnto the Lord, with [Page 117] the Lord there is mercy for thee, and plenteous redempti­on:Psal. 119.131. I opened my mouth, and drew in my breath, saith Dauid. He opened his mouth to take in aire, and liue: doe thou so, O sinner, draw in the breath of the holy Spirit of God, by con­fessing thy sinnes to God, that thy soule may liue. The wolfe assaulting the sheepe, first flieth to the throat of it, that so it might not by bleating call vp­on the shepherd for helpe, thereby to bee deliuered from his mercilesse maw: so that rauenous wolfe the deuill, rea­dy to teare vs in peeces, while there is none to helpe, first seeketh to take vs by the throat, that we might not confesse our sinnes vnto saluation, and so call vpon the great shepherd of our soules, Christ Iesus, who seeketh euery stray sheepe of his, and when hee hath found it,Luk. 15.5. bringeth it home vpon his [Page 118] shoulders. O my soule, thinke of that which Dauid said and did,Psal. 32.3. While I held my tongue, my bones consumed away, through my daily complaining. For thy hand is heauy vpon mee day and night, and my moisture is like the drought in summer. Now what did hee thereupon? I said, I will confesse my sinnes vnto the Lord, and thou forgauest the wickednesse of my sinnes. I reade of none that haue at any time truly confessed their sinnes to God, but ob [...]ined pardon. Vertue went from Christ to the cure of the Canaanitish wo­man, that touched but the hemme of Christs vesture. To Mary Magdalen many sinnes were remitted. The Publica [...] went out of the Temple more iustified. The children of the captiuity were deliuered. The latter daies of Iob were blessed aboue the former. Dauid at one time had his sinne dete­cted, [Page 119] at another time the pu­nishment qualified. Yea Pharao and Balaam fared the better for their confession, though it was counterfet.

CHAP. XI. Of feruent prayer to God for the forgiuenesse of sinnes con­fessed: another duty be­longing to the Dying man, to be performed to God, in his particular preparation vnto Death.

MY next duty to God-ward, in my particular prepara­tion, being now at the point to die, is to pray for the for­giuenesse of my sins confessed. And I consider that I am to per­forme it seriously, as a matter of the greatest consequence in the world. And here I bethinke my selfe of the poore prisoner, stan­ding at the barre, now ready to receiue the iudgement of death, crying out for mercy as for life & death. And so I come to thee most righteous Iudge, and will neuer leaue to beseech thee, vn­till [Page 122] thou hast mercy vpon mee. I come as the spittle man and la­zer by the high-way side, lame and full of sores, laying my wounds naked before thee, be­fore whom all things are naked and manifest: continually cry­ing vnto thee as he doth, that I may receiue grace, as hee recei­ueth almes. So I finde that Ozeas aduiseth mee in the name of the people;Hos. 14 2. O Israel returne vnto the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take vn­to you words, and turne to the Lord, and say vnto him, take a­way all iniquity, and receiue vs graciously: so we will render vnto thee the calues of our lips. And the like I am taught by Daniel to doe,Dan. 9.18, 19. We doe not present our supplications before thee, for our owne righteousnesse, but for thy great tender mercies. O Lord heare, O Lord forgiue. And this deuotion I descrie in Dauid, Psal. 51.1. Haue mercy vpon me, O God, [Page 123] after thy great goodnesse: accor­ding to the multitude of thy mer­cies doe away mine offences. Yea, my prayers shall bee mingled with teares and sighes, as the prayers of Ezechias, who wept, as for the sins of others, so for his owne. I finde that Dauid when he was sicke, fell to indit [...] this good matter, and compiled these foure penitential Psalmes: the sixt, the two and thirtieth, the eight and thirtieth, the nine and thirtieth, or at the leastwise afterwards, vpon the occasion of his sicknes. And I well perceiue that this was that, that did Ma­nasses all the good; who hauing fallen from God, and giuen vp himselfe to diuers very heynous sins, being in irons and misery in Babylon, hee gat himselfe to the Lord right humbly, by way of earnest prayer: and hee was heard in that he prayed for, and was brought backe to Hierusa­lem, and restored to his king­dome. [Page 124] And hereupon Manasses freely acknowledged, that the Lord was God. But oh time! Oh maners! Oh men! How cold or rather dead are we now adayes, in this so dutious a deuotion to­wards God? Who are so far off from renewing our repentance, in our sicke and dying estate, as we are then to be initiated and catechized in the very rules and principles of religion, and faith towards. God, as not knowing what it meaneth: neuer once en­quiting before wee be ready to depart, how we may bee saued. What is this else but demon­stration of our more than supin [...] security, and contempt of Gods Word?

Now in case the sicke man be not able of himselfe, thus to re­new his prayers for his new sins, let him seeke for helpe of others;Matth. 9.2. as the palsie man had his potters to conuay him to Christ, bed and all. As touching [Page 125] the helpe requisite in this case, many duties must be performed. Whereof Iames deliuereth foure: two of them respecting the dying man, the two others assistants. 1. It shall more than behoue the dying man to send for helpe. And here wee take notice of two circumstances. 1. Whom we are to send for. 2. And when. 1. The parties to bee sent for, are the Mi­nisters of the Church.Iam. 5.14. Is any man sicke among you? let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray ouer him. Neither is this office pecu­liar to the Minister alone, but it extendeth it selfe to all such likewise that haue the gift of prayer.Hebr. 3.13. Exhort one another while it is called to day. 1 Thes. 5.11, 14. Admo­nish them that are disordered, and comfort those that are weake. But here comes in the custome of our times to be considered, and condemned, in the visiting [Page 126] of the sicke. Not a word of in­struction or comfort haue they to minister to the sicke party: but they passe away the time, ei­ther in silence, or in wandring speculation, or in vaine words nothing to the purpose; as, how doe you my good neighbour, I am sorry you are in this case, I hope you shall doe well againe, and that wee shall bee merry a­gaine together, I will pray for you. But aske such a one how he will pray for him, and there he leaueth thee: for he hath ne­uer a prayer at all. If hee can mumble, and say ouer the ten Commandements, and blurt out a Pater noster, meerely like a Parrot, without vnderstan­ding. Now all this is long either of their ignorance of the Word, or that they thinke this to bee a businesse out of their element, nothing appertaining to their common wealth; but that this is the office of the Minister a­lone, [Page 127] peculiar to his charge. 2. For the other circumstance of the Time when the sicke man is to deuote himselfe to prayer, I say, in the beginning of his sick­nesse: when the Preacher hath done, the Physitian should be­gin; for the course quite con­trary now taken, is preposte­rous, and irreligious: for the Preacher to bee sent for, when hee is past physicke, and not himselfe. For vntill such time as remedy bee had for the surfet of the soule, and sinne the very root of all sicknesses and disea­ses be rooted vp, my Doctor of physicke with all his promises, and performances, shall per­forme nothing: for health com­meth from the highest, and is in Gods hand onely. But these times of ours haue altered the case, and turned it vpside down. The Physitian is thought vpon in the first place, and hee must bee sent for in all haste; [Page 128] but the Preacher is neglected vn­till death hath seized vpon the sicke man, and the bell begin to toll for him, as though the Mi­nister could worke miracles.

2. The second duty of the Dying man, is to confesse his sinnes: an Argument wee haue dealt with before. Now the first duty in the Assistance to bee done, is to pray ouer him, that is, in his presence, with him, and for him, and by prayer to pre­sent the person himselfe and his estate to God.2 King. 4.33. So did Eli­sha on the behalfe of the Suna­mites son raised from death to life, by the meanes of prayer.Act. 20.10. So did Paul for Eutychus. Ioh. 11.41. And so did Christ for Lazarus. And so it is a duty commended vnto vs from their examples. 2. Now the office of the hel­pers in the second place, accor­ding to S^t. Iames, is the anointing the sicke person: a Ceremony out of date, as during but for [Page 129] that time the gift of healing la­sted, which is now at an end. Neither doth this place serue a­ny whit the popish sort, for the maintenance of their greasie & slouenly Sacrament of Extreme Ʋnction. For S^t. Iames neither calleth it Holy oyle, neither a Sacrament of the Church, nei­ther saith that it auaileth ought to the health of the soule or bo­dy; neither teacheth hee vs, to speake to that as to a liuing crea­ture, All haile, O sacred Oyle. Aue sanctum oleum. Our Popelings vse to anoint their sicke, especially in their in­struments of sense, that the per­son thus anointed, may obtaine the remission of his sins, & spiri­tuall consolation against all the deuils temptations, in the houre of death; & strength to sustaine the anguish of the sicknesse, and the very terrors of death it selfe. But this is a meere mockery, void of all reasō. And Iames his text is pitifully handled, & strai­ned [Page 130] to the vttermost, as a parch­ment skin vpon the tenters. For the Vnction that Iames speaketh of, holds no agreemēt with their vnctuous Sacrament. 1. For that Vnction was the receiued Cere­mony among the Apostles, and others of the Primitiue Church when miracles were on foot, and the miraculous gift of healing was in place. Which donation now desisting, is determined. 2. The Vnction that S^t. Iames mentioneth, hath the promise on the side of it, that the sicke man shall recouer his estate of health: But the Pontificious Vnction can shew no such grant; because for the most part the parties die that are by them a­nointed: whereas such persons as were anointed in the Primi­tiue Church, recouered their health. 3 That ancient Vnction Iames speaketh of, serued only to the attainment of bodily health: but this of theirs goes [Page 131] farre beyond, to the procuring of the remission of sins, and the power to stand fast in the houre of temptation. But enough of this Argument.

CHAP. XII. Against the feare of death.

I Proceed now to the declara­tion of the duties, which con­cerne the Dying man himselfe; and first to those that belong to the soule. Now for the better safeguard of his soule, hee is to arme & fortifie himselfe against the feare of death. For howsoe­uer naturally, man feareth death all his life long, yet then more especially, when death is at the doore, and entring in vpon him. The childe of God is not [Page 133] ouer-much to stand in feare of death. Hee is to feare it, and not to feare it: feare it hee must for two causes; 1. Because death is the enemy to life, the destru­ction of nature,1 Cor. 15.26. The last enemy that shall bee destroyed: from which both man and beast doe flee. And it is the gracious pro­mise of God, plighted to the e­lect,Reuel. 21.4. That there shall be no more death. How did Elias dread, when vpon the ragious words of Iezabel, who sware by no beggars,2 King. 19.2. The gods doe so to me, & more also, if I make not thy life like one of their liues, by to mor­row this time. They pluckt him by the arme, and set him on his feet, and made him hie in haste to Bethsheba for his life: what account Dauid made of life, and how loth he was to die, may ap­peare, 1. By the Disputation, 2. Supplication, 3. Gratulation, that he made. 1. By his Disputa­tion, thus;Psal. 30.9. What profit is there in [Page 134] my bloud, when I goe downe to the pit? shall the dust giue thanks vnto thee, and shall it declare thy truth? 2. By his supplicati­on, in this wise:Psal. 39.15. spare me a lit­tle that I may recouer my selfe, before I goe hence, and be no more seene. 3. By his Gratulation, thus; Turne to thy rest, O my soule, for the Lord hath rewar­ded thee. For thou hast deliue­red mine eies from weeping, my feet from falling, my life from death: I will walke before God in the land of the liuing. In this case was Ezekias vpon the ti­dings of death he receiued,Isai. 38.2. He turned himselfe to the wall and wept. But at the second message done him of the prorogation of his life for fifteene yeares, he was iouiall, and became a glad man. Nay Christ himselfe, in the foresaid respect, was not free of this feare, though it was without sinne; which he shew­ed, where he said,Mat. 26.38. My soule [Page 135] is exceeding sorrowfull, euen vn­to death. Aug. Si non esset mortis amaritu­do, nulla esset Martyrum for­titudo. Were there not in death such a terrour, there could not be in the Martyrs such a valour, saith Augustine. Now for this cause that natures enemie, and the destroyer of it death, is to be feared: we are to feare it ther­fore, and not otherwise than we feare sicknesse, pouerty, famine, with other griefes and sor­rowes, which God will not haue vs to slight and despise, but to be sensible of them, be­cause they are the scourges in Gods hand of sinne. And there­fore he sendeth paines and pas­sions with death, that they might be seared, and auoided, and wee therewithall learne in time to preuent sinne, the maine cause thereof. 2. Againe we may feare death, for the dammage imported both to Church and common-wealth, in the death of such, who while they liued, were the props and [Page 136] pillars of them both. Other­wise we are not to feare death, but to be ioyous of it. 1. Be­cause it freeth vs from the ser­uitude of Sathan, from the bondage of sinne, the world, and condemnation; from the losses and crosses which this life is subiect to; and safely setteth vs vnder the sha­dow of the Almighty, and as it were vnder the wings of our blessed Sauiour. 2. Be­cause Christ by his death hath sweetned & sanctified vnto vs both our death and graue. 3. Because Christ both in life & death is aduantage;Philip. 1.21. For to me, to liue in Christ, and to die, is gaine. 4. Because the comforts which the spirit of Christ ministreth to the soule, doe farre surpasse the sorrowes which death can bring with it. 5. The longing desire that wee ought to haue to behold the most glorious face of God, the company of [Page 137] innumerable Angels, the con­gregation of first-borne, and Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament, whose bloud spea­keth better things than the bloud of Abel, should make death a comfort, & not a corsiue vnto vs. 6. In stead of our bo­dies, wee shall be cloathed and garnished with glory. 7. Be­cause the sting of death, which is sinne, is plucked out, so as that fiery serpent the deuill can no more fasten it vpon vs; but we may boldly defie him, and bid him doe his worst, and triumph ouer him, with the A­postle, in this wise;1 Cor. 15.55. O death, where is thy sting? O graue, where is thy victory? Heb. 2.14. For as much as the children are parta­kers of flesh and bloud, hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the De­uill: and deliuer them, who [Page 138] through feare of death, were all their life time subiect to bon­dage. We are not so pensiuely to thinke of death, as painefully to make account of our life. For he neuer dieth ill, that liued well. And it is seldome seene that he that hath liued ill, should die well. 8. Finally, the An­gells are at hand to doe vs ser­uice so soone as wee die, to take charge of our soules, and immediately to conuey them vp to heauen. Wherefore then should we dread death, which is not an euill, but an end of euill;Bernard. Transi­tus de labore ad refrigerium: de expectatione ad praemium: de agone ad brabe­um: de morte ad vitam: de fide ad notitiam: de peregrinatione ad patriam: de mundo ad pa­trem. A passage from labour, to rest: from expectation, to the re­ward: from the combat, to the crowne: from death to life: from faith to knowledge: from our pil­grimage to our long home: from the world to our father, saith Bernard. Wherefore be not afraid of death at all: For it is for him to feare death, who hath no minde to goe to Christ, [Page 139] It is for him to haue no minde to goe to Christ, who hath no hope to reigne with him, saith Cyprian. Cypr. serm. de mortalitate. Greg. Nazian­zen. de morte Patris. Melior habitatio firma quam peregrina­tio incerta. Better is a certaine dwelling place, than an vncer­taine pilgrimage, saith Gregorie Nazianzen. Sleepe is more wel­come than watching; rest than labour, sweat and sorrow: free­dome from the yoke and bur­then, than fetters, imprison­ment, captiuity. The due meditation hereof could make the heathen say, when it happeneth that it bee determined by God, that we should goe out of this life, wee ought cheere­fully to obey; recounting how we are deliuered out of gaile, and translated out of darknesse into light. Well, as in most things saith Seneca, Death as it is, is commended as the best inuenti­on to nature: which whether it includeth felicity, or excludeth calamity, or determineth the tiresome wearisomenesse of the [Page 140] aged, or the vnripe age of the younger sort; it is to all an end, to many a remedy, to some their hearts desire, of none more de­seruing, than of those to whom it commeth before it be called vp­on. Senec Contra iniurias vitae, beneficium mor­tis habeo. As againe where he saith, Against the iniuries of life, I haue the benefit of death. Yea but here is the griefe, saith some, that our flesh shall rot away in the earth. To this obiection saith Chrysostome, Chrysost. Homil. in Matth. 35. Thou shoul­dest rather be the more glad therefore, because in the corrup­tion of the body, death it selfe is corrupted; the mortality is de­stroyed, not the substance of the body. The same Father further prosecuteth this argument by way of the continued simili­tude of an Image thus: If any shall haue an Image eaten with rust and age, and in the greatest part consumed away, he break­eth it, and casteth it into the fur­nace, that by melting it he might [Page 141] giue it a new hue. Wherefore as an Image which is molten in a furnace, is not destroyed, but re­nued: so when our body dieth, it perisheth not, but is restored. Wherefore when thou shalt see an Image molten in the furnace, rest thou not in the speculation of this thing; but tarry a while vntill it be molten: neither yet art thou to content thy selfe in this, but further by a more through cogi­tation, thou must proceed. For the statuarie and craftsman of Images, when he casteth a body confected of brasse into a furnace, cannot make of the brasse a gol­den and immortall Image. But verily God himselfe, of an ear­then and mortall body, by ca­sting it into the furnace, shall much more fashion it after a gol­den manner. So farre Chry­sostome. This is that the Apostle saith,1 Cor. 15.53. The corruptible must put on incorruption: and this mor­tall must put on immortality. [Page 142] Philip. 3.21. That our vile body may be fashi­oned like vnto his glorious body. 1 Cor. 15.42, 43. It is sowen in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sow­en in dishonour, it is raised in glo­rie: it is sowen in weaknesse, it is raised in power. On what side so­euer therefore thou beholdest death, Policrates. death is not to be feared as an euill; but cheerefully to bee entertained, as the period and ter­mination of all euill, saith Poly­crates. Whatsoeuer therefore it is thou fearest in death, feare it not at all. Augustine. Looke to this, that thou lead a good life, and whenso­euer occasion shall serue thee to goe out of this bodie, thou goest out to thy rest, thou goest out to thy happinesse, which hath [...]i­ther feare, nor end. Augustine.

Now to this more masculine resolution to die without feare, I tender thee certaine practi­ces and Meditations to put thy selfe vpon. 1. For practice, That the Dying man doe not so [Page 143] much conferre his thoughts vpon death it selfe, as vpon the benefits that redound to him by death. Hee that is to passe ouer a broad and deepe Riuer, must not cast downe his eies to­wards the bottome; but to preuent feare, hee is to stand sure and to looke vpon the fur­ther side of the banke: so let the dying man set his eies vpon hea­uen, the hauen and the keyes side, at which the ship of our soule must arriue; so shall he b [...]e secure and free of feare. 2. Next the dying man is to behold the face of death in the glasse of the Gospell, not in the glasse of the moral law. For death by law is a curse and malediction, and the bottomelesse pit it selfe of destruction. But death through the Gospell, thanks bee giuen to God, is an introduction into eternall happinesse. The law sets downe death, as death: the Gospell sets downe death, not [Page 144] as death, but as a sleepe only, because it speaketh of death, as it is changed by the death of Christ.

Now the meditations I would giue thee be these; 1. Of the prouidence of God, which as it numbreth our haires, num­breth our daies; yea the very circumstances, as the Time, Place, Manner of our death, are foreseene, and soreordained.Psal. 139.15, 16. Thine eies did see my substance, yet being vnperfect: and in thy booke were all my members writ­ten, which day by day were fashio­ned, when as ye [...] there was none of them. Elsewhere the said royall Prophet beseecheth God, To put his teares into his bottle. Now if God hath a bottle for the teares of his seruants, shall he not much more haue one for the bloud and liues of them and so respect the miseries and circumstances of sicknesses and of death? 2. Thou shalt [Page 145] meditate on the singular pro­mise of God to his dying Saints;Reuel. 14.13. They rest from their la­bours, and their workes follow them. By death we are thrust out of our old house,2 Cor. 5.1. The earthly tabernacle of the body, and house dawbed with clay: but to this end only, that wee might haue a building of God, an house not made with hands, but eternall in the heauens. If a King should command a begger to cast off his rags, and in the roome ther­of to put on a royall robe, would he not gladly obey him? Now the King of Kings doth the same to vs, willing vs to put off the patcht garment of the bo­dy, which we receiued from Adam, to the end to be cloathed with the long white roabes laid vp in heauen for vs. 3. Consi­d [...]r the condition of all such, whether they be liuing or dead, that be in Christ. He that dieth in faith towards Christ, dieth [Page 146] in Christ, and is really vnited and consolidated to Christ, both in soule and body, accor­ding to the tenour of the coue­nant of grace. For death albeit it sundreth the body from the soule, yet none of them both are disioyned from Christ. The coniunction and vnion being made in this life, neuer to bee dissolued, remaineth for euer. 4. I muse vpon the speciall, happy, comfortable promise of Gods presence with such as are his, whether sicke, or ready to die, or any way afflicted. His word of promise is this, When thou goest thorow the water, thou shalt not bee drowned: or thorow the fire, thou shalt not be burned: For I am with thee. He is with vs, 1. Either by asswa­ging the extremitie of our sick­nesse, and the pangs of death: and hence it is, that the paines of death to many are not so grieuous, as are the crosses of [Page 147] this life: 2. Or else by cōforting vs by his free spirit, with ioyes that are not able to bee expres­sed. And here we say with the holy Apostle,Rom. 5.3, 5. Wee reioyce in tribulation, because the loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the holy Ghost, which is giuen to vs. This ioy and gladnesse, the Apostle Paul did heare of, which made his bones broken by great sicknesse to reioyce.2 Cor. 1.5. As the sufferings of Christ abound in vs; so our consola­tion aboundeth through Christ. Thus God sendeth a gracious raine vpon his inheritance, to refresh it when it is weary. And when mans helpe doth faile, Gods helpe doth preuaile, who in his owne person, at our bed side is present with vs in our sicknesse, yea maketh all our bed in our sicknesse. Now blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, who hath shewed vs such kindnesse [Page 148] in a strong City. 3. Or else by the ministery of his holy Angels, whom God hath made the kee­pers and nurses of his seruants, to stay vs, and to beare vs vp in their armes, as Nurses doe their sucking Infants: and to shield vs against Satan and his Angels, and against the power of all that hate vs. And this is seene espe­cially in the time of our sick­nesse, when his holy Angels pitch their tents round about vs, ready to conduct our soules to heauen, as they did the soule of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome.

CHAP. XIII. Whether death may bee desired: and how?

IT should seeme by the pre­misses, that death is rather to be desired than feared: and so I beleeue and teach; because I finde death described vnto mee in the scriptures, in such a milde manner, as I am weaned from my feare, and wonne to an ear­nest desire of death. And I per­ceiue many weighty reasons, drawing that way; which by Gods grace now in my sick­nesse I will hold mee vnto: which to thy comfort, O Chri­stian, I am content to recount vnto thee.

1. Whereas it is the nature of death to destroy and spoile, death it selfe in the Elect is de­stroyed and spoiled. 2. Be­cause death is nothing else but [Page 151] a passage to our fathers in peace; whereby is insinuated, that it is hard with vs here, where wee are no better than left to stran­gers, and are in hucksters hands. God speaking of the death of Abraham, telleth him,Gen. 15.15. Thou shalt bee gathered to thy fathers. 3. Because death is no dispersion, but a collection of vs, to our owne people. Where­fore God saith to Moses, in­timating his death to him,Num. 27.13. Thou shalt bee gathered vnto thy people: as though here wee were but scattered from the rest of the flocke; that so of the Elect, there might be as it were one liuing fold. 4. Because by death we are but said, to sleepe with our fathers. As where the Lord said to Moses, Num. 31.16. Behold thou shalt sleepe with thy fathers. Not vpon a stone, the boulster vpon which Iacob laid his head; nor in thy enemies tent and pauilion, as Sisera did;Isai. 26.20. but [Page 152] in thy chamber, thy doores being fast lockt vpon thee. The death of the faithfull is but a sleepe, se­uering soule & body; the body, that after corruption, it may be raised to greater glory: the soule, that it being fully sanctified, may immediatly after departure from the body, bee transported and rapt vp to the third heauen.1 Cor. 15.17. If Christ bee not raised, they which are asleepe, are perished. Act. 7.60. When hee had thus spoken, hee slept. Our bodily death there­fore in the sight of the Lord, and in very truth, is nothing else but a sleepe; for which cause, it is so commonly called in ho­ly Scriptures. The Lord saith to Moyses, Deutr. 31.16. Thou shalt sleepe with thy fathers. Of Dauid it is said, That hee shall sleepe with his fa­thers. 1 King. 2.10. 1 King. 11.43. So it is said of Salomon; 2 King. 11.21. So of Iehoshaphat; 1 King. 11. So of Ie­roboam; 1 King. 15.8. So of Abia; Dan. 12.2. Many that are in the earth shall sleepe. Isai. 26.20. They rest in their chambers. [Page 153] Psal 4.9. I will lay me downe to sleepe, and take my rest. Ioh. 11.11. Lazarus sleepeth. Act. 7.60. Stephen fell asleepe. 1 Cor. 15.6. Some of them are fallen asleepe. 1 Thess. 4.9. I would not haue you ignorant of those that sleepe. There is nothing (as the Pagan Cato Maior himselfe acknowledged) that hath such similitude with sleepe, as death.Ouid. lib. 20 Eleg. Stu [...]te quid est somnus, gelidae nisi mortis imago? Whereupon Seneca surnameth steepe, the Brother of death. And another Philosopher stileth death, the father of sleepe. And in common language it is cal­led, the image of death. This consideration, for our better in­struction, wee will draw out more at length. 1. Sleepe when the day is ouer, when the night commeth, seizeth vpon all in­differently. So against all pro­miscuously, the decree is out,Syrac. 8.8. Once to die. Iob 3.25. Horat. lib. 1. Od. Omnes vna ma­net nox, & c [...]l­canda semel via laethi. Death is the house appointed for euery man liuing. 2. Sleepe stealeth suddenly vpon vs, when wee thinke not of it, so doth death. [Page 154] 1 Thess. 5.3. When we shall say peace, peace, all things are well. Luk. 12.4. In the houre we thought not of. Ec [...]les 9.12. We are taken as the fish with the hooke. 3. In sleepe,Dum bibimus, dum se [...]ta, vn­guenta, puellas, poscimus: obre­p t non intelle­cta senectus. Senec. Domitor malorum, requies animi, pars hu­manae melior vi­tae. a man resteth from all the labours sustained in the day; whereupon it is named by Se­neca, The subduer of euils, the rest of the minde, the better part of mans life. So inasmuch as our daies are as the daies of an hire­ling, (as it pleaseth Iob to terme them) let vs abide the end of our worke, because death is a super­sedeas to all our labours, and lay downe all our burthen. 4. By sleep, the fore-wearied & wasted with labour, doe not onely rest, but they further gather to them­selues a new strength, and are fresh after their sleep, to returne againe to the labours and duties of their seuerall callings. So by death the faculties and powers both of minde and body are re­paired and renewed; that when Christ Iesus our day-starre, and [Page 155] the Sun of righteousnesse shall spring from on high to visit vs in the last day, we may be fitter and readier to performe all those works, according to the condition of our creation, and the consideration of our re­demption, & the natural sancti­fication by the holy spirit be­stowed vpon vs.1 Cor. 15.44. For it is sowne a naturall body, it riseth againe a spirituall body: Philip. 3.21. And shall bee made like vnto Christs glorious body. 5. In sleepe, while the bo­dy is at rest, & sleepeth, the soule sleepeth not; but notwithstan­ding executeth her powers, not onely those that are animall, but those also that are of the minde and inward senses. So albeit the body resteth and remaineth in the dust of the earth;Reuel. 13.1 [...]. And resteth from his labours; Ecccles. 12.7. Yet the spirit returneth to God that gaue it: it resteth in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch it. Luk. 23.43. It is with Christ in Paradise.Luk. 16.25. It is in so­lace [Page 156] and blisse in Abrahams bo­some. 6. In sleepe, a man is quiet, and thinketh not of any earthly thing: hee reckes not of any thing done round about him on euery side; whether men laugh or lament, eat or drinke, buy or sell, dance or fight; whe­ther it grow dark or light; whe­ther it raineth, snoweth, blow­eth, or whatsoeuer weather it be, or what else may betide; for hee sleepeth on both eares, lea­uing all such things to those that are awake to consider of. So the dead without any further re­gard or reckoning, sleep supine­ly in their lockers, carelesse and senselesse of secular affaires; whether there be peace or war; be the pestilence neuer so ragi­ous, or the famine grieuous: though heresies spread, and schismes arise; whether their po­sterity be in prosperity, or suffer aduersity, all is one to them; but discharged of all such disquiet [Page 157] thoughts, they sleepe sweetly. 7. He that endeuoureth to sleep soundly, layeth aside all the cares and businesses of the day, and separateth them from his thoughts as wide as hee can;Eccles. 5.6. For many dreames are the com­panions of many cares. Now where there bee many dreames, there be many vanities; which Seneca well obseruing, would read no letters brought him in an euening, vntill the morning, lest new businesses might distē­per his head with new incum­brances, & so displace his sleep. So let such as are desirous to sleep sweetly in the Lord, empty their mindes of all earthly thoughts, and turne the ball of their eye from things transitory, to eternall.Coloss. 3.2. Set your affections on things which are aboue, and not on the things which are on the earth. Philip. 3.8. Forget that which is be­hinde, accounting all things as dung, to win Christ. 8. We goe [Page 158] not to that end to our beds to sleepe, to take an epidemicall, or deadly sleepe; but to awake and rise againe at the crowing of the cocke, or at the rising of the Sunne: so wee sleeping by death, shall not sleepe an euerla­sting sleepe; but at the appea­rance of the morning of the Sun of righteousnesse, at the cocke crowing of the Angelicall trumpet we shall rise againe out of our cabbins.Ioh. 5.28, 29. All that are in the graues shall heare his voyce, and they shall come forth. 9. Fi­nally, as they that sleepe may soone bee awaked, if either they be called by their names, or taken by the hand and stir­red: so in the last day, Christ shall raise our bodies putrified in the dust, out of our sleeping holes, when hee shall giue a voice, and that a mighty voice, Arise yee dead and come vnto iudgement. When we shall be a­gaineIob 15.26. Couered with our skinne. [Page 159] Yea, Aug. Facilius Dominus excita­bit ex sepul [...]ro, quam nos è lecto. God shall sooner raise vs from our graues, than wee can a man out of his bed. When we shall enter with him into the land of the liuing, we shall see him face to face, & shall be alwayes with him. Now let this comfortable consideration of this so sweet a sleepe, serue to our instruction, that we abominate not so much the irefull and direfull lookes of death, as in the terrours thereof to bee loth to die.Tertul. Vita haec career est. This life is a prison. The best of it isPsal. 90.10. Senec. Mors om­nium d [...]lorum solutio & fini [...]. Isidor. Mors om­nem calamitatem adimit. Cypr. est finis ma­lorum, ianua vi­tae qua ad im­mortalitatem in morte transgre­dimur. Vt somnus mor­tis, sic lectus ima­go sepulcri. But labour and sorrow. But death is a sleepe, Death is the solution and end of all sorrow. Death is the fi­nisher of all calamities. Death is the stop of all euils, the gate of life, by which in death we all passe thorow to immortall life. Also so oft as we goe to rest, and climbe vp into our beds, let vs call to our remembrance, our field-bed of death: As sleepe is of death; so our bed is the image of our graue. As often as we arise out [Page 160] of our bed, so often let vs be­thinke our selues of our future resurrection to eternall life. And pray we, and say we, Lord make vs to arise out of the sleepe of sin, that at the last we may a­rise to eternall light and life.

Let vs also sucke comfort from the iuyce of this grape, against the bitter death of such, as while they liued, were most deare and neere vnto vs. They are not dead,Non obierunt, s [...]d abierunt; non amisimus, sed praemisimus. but they are de­parted; they haue but put off their clothes, and are gone to bed. Their bodies sleep in their closets; their coffins of death are the coffers of their life, sacred by the Sepulchre of their blessed Sauiour: the boulster and pil­low vpon which they leane their heads, is the towell and napkin of Christ, which serueth also to wipe away all teares from their eyes. And his resurrection is our Couerler. Our sleeping place is hanged round about [Page 161] with blacke cloth. Our doore, that our sleepe might not bee disturbed, is locked and barred vpon vs, which onely the trum­pet of the Archangell in the last day shall smite open. These rea­sons may suffice all such, whose liues are hidden in Christ, who know that they shall hereby make an happie exchange. For is this life of ours to be called a life? Our house being but clay, our spirit but smoke and va­pour, the body a body of death, our garments corruption, the moth and wormes our portion, and the earth, which as it was the wombe that did beare vs, so it must be the wombe that must receiue vs. Now what is a prison to a palace? a Tent or Taber­nacle, to an abiding City? the region of death, to the land of the liuing? the life of men, to the life of Angels? a body of humility, to a body of glory? a valley of teares to the holy [Page 162] mount Sion, where the Lambe is to gather the Saints about him, to the participation of the ioyes hee himselfe enioyeth? wherfore go we as cheerfully to our Creator, as Paul did to Car­pus to Troas, leauing his cloke & his Sermon notes in vellome in his hands. So let vs cōmend our selues, & the best things we haue, that are most precious vn­to vs, vnto our mercifull Crea­tor. And let vs say with S^t. Ste­phen, Lord Iesus receiue my spi­rit. What man would not wil­lingly be deliuered out of a vile prison house, where he can see neither Sun, Moone, nor Stars; ful of serpents, toads, & such vile and venomous creatures? Now this body of ours is this mise­rable and horrible prison, full of vglie sins: and heauen is our princely and most delightfull palace; wherefore it shall be­houe vs to make haste thither. Who would not speedily hie [Page 163] out of that house, as is in such ruine as is ready to fall? Now this mud-wall of our body, is this decayed house, euery day in danger of dropping downe. Vpon the foresight of a tempest at hand, the Pilot and Mariners betake themselues forthwith to their tackle, & striue with their oares, with all the contention of sides they can, to recouer the ha­uen. Now Christ our Pilot hath foreseene & foretold vs of a terri­ble tempest: wherefore haste we all we may, to heauen, which is our hauen and resting place. In the time of war [...]e, when the enemy besiegeth vs on euery side, and the roaring Cannons play about vs, so as some shot fall before vs, some behinde vs, some on the right hand, some on the left; if the enemy on a sudden should turne his backe to vs, how might wee reioyce? But so it is with vs in this life of ours, which is nothing but a [Page 164] warfare; where sin our mortall enemy letteth flee very fiercely it vs on euery side, & putteth sore to vs that we might fall. But by death our sins turne their backs, & are put to flight as the armies of the aliants: and the strings of our bow we make ready against the face of them, and we goe out of the battell we haue with the deuill, sinne, and the world, in­to the kingdome of heauen. The day-labourer is glad when the day endeth, for then hee re­steth from his labours, and re­ceiueth his wages. Wherefore let vs bee glad when our dayes bee done, for then wee shall rest our bones, and receiue the wa­ges of our righteous dealing. Men are glad when winter with his wra [...]hfull spight is wasted, and the spring time commeth; when the Sun rising from on high, visiteth vs. These dayes of ours are no better than win­ter dayes, and wee wait for the [Page 165] spring; when our night should be turned into day, and the Sun of righteousnesse shall shine vp­on vs. Hee whose raiment is all of rags, peeced together, would be glad of a royall Robe in the roome thereof: this skin of ours wherewith we are couered, is but a tattered vesture, stained and defiled with all manner of sin: but after death wee shall bee clad with the innocencie of Christ, as with a wedding weed; who shall change our vile bo­dies, and make them like his glorious body. The Merchant that trauelleth into sorraine parts, to negotiate and merchan­dize, desireth nothing more than to make a quicke dispatch of his businesse, and a returne to his wife, children, and friends at home. We are in this world, as in a farre countrey, and here we are but soiourners, as all our fa­thers were: wee long after our long home, to returne to our [Page 166] kindred and our fathers house; weary of being pilgrimes and strangers here on earth. He that is constrained to flee his coun­trey, either for debt, or for some nefarious fact that he hath com­mitted, how ioyous would hee bee to see the messenger that should call him home to haue his freedome? Wee liue in this world, as men that are bani­shed; now death is the messen­ger that cals vs home, euen to heauen, where wee shall haue our present freedome without further seruitude. If a man might know whither to goe, to see Abrahā, Isaac, Iacob, Moses, Elias, Dauid, Peter, Paul, Iames, Iohn, & such worthies betweene their eyes; I thinke hee would compasse sea and land, to please the sense of his eyes with such a sight: now by death wee shall see them all, with all such as are departed in the true faith. The wise men of the East, at the sight [Page 167] of the starre, ouer the place where the babe Christ was,Matth. 2.10. Reioyced with an exceeding great ioy. Now death is the star that wil lead vs to Christ, where wee shall see him face to face, in whose presence is the fulnesse of ioy, and at whose right hand are abundance of pleasures for euermore.Matth. 13.44. The merchant in the Gospel, vpon the hidden treasure hee found in the field, was so rapt for ioy, as hee made a present sale of all the goods hee had, either left him by his friends, or otherwise ac­quired by his owne endeuours, to make purchase of this field. Wherefore why should we not clap our hands, and shout for ioy when death commeth, whereby we shall not need to purchase, but wee shall possesse this our heauenly treasure Christ, in whom are all the treasures of the Godhead bodi­ly,1 Cor. 1.30. Our wisdome, righteousnesse, [Page 168] sanctification, redemption. Luk. 15.23. If such feasting and merriment was made by the father, vpon the returne home of the prodi­gall sonne; how shall not all ioy and gladnesse bee in the dwel­lings of the righteous? How shall not our hearts bee filled with laughter, and our tongue with ioy?

It followeth now to shew how death may be wished. For it should seeme otherwise; for it is against the veine it selfe of Prayer, which still cryeth, giue, giue, to craue to take away. For so was Dauids prayer,Psal. 119.34. Giue me vnderstanding. So was it Salo­mons his son,1 King. 3 9. Giue vnto thy ser­uant an vnderstanding heart. And so we are taught by Christ to pray, Giue vs this day our day­ly bread. That which descen­deth from aboue, from the fa­ther of lights,Iam. 1.17. is [...], A good and perfect gift. It is a Do­natiue, and not an Ablatiue. [Page 169] God is not close fisted, but hath a liberall hand, and giueth to e­uery one of his blessings boun­tifully. His Quaere of euery one is by the mouth of the Apo­stle, What is it that thou hast not receiued? We should there­fore desire God rather to giue life, than to take it away. If wee list to be the Ablatiues, and ra­ther to call for an Ablation than an Oblation, pray we him with Dauid, To take away from vs shame and reproach: to take away vanity and lying words far from vs, to take away the iniquity of his seruant, or to take away his iudgements, as Iob did,Iob 9.34. Let him take away his rod from mee, as Pharao did,Exod. 8.8. Moyses and Aaron, pray yee vnto the Lord, that hee may take away the frogs from me. No man prayeth God to take away the life of his beast, of his oxe, or his horse, giuē him for labour; therefore much lesse he should pray against his owne [Page 170] life. Paul being rapt to the third heauen, could not tell what to desire,Philip. 1.23. I am in a strait betwixt two, hauing a desire to depart, and to bee with Christ, which is farre better: neuerthelesse to bee in the flesh is farre better for you. But yet for all this, it is not al­wayes a sinne to wish for death: for Paul wisheth it,Philip. 1.23. I desire to be dissolued. And againe,Rom. 7.24. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliuer mee from the body of death? Yet this desire must not bee simple and absolute, but must go accompanied with cer­taine respects, which must bee his keepers. 1. First, death must be desired, so farre forth as it is a meanes to free vs from the corruption of our nature, from this miserable estate, in which almost, we doe nothing else but sinne and displease God. For this is the greatest griefe that can bee to Gods children by their sinnes to offend their so [Page 171] mercifull a father. As for such as are not sensible of the weight of their wickednesses, guiltinesse, and corruption, but bee slum­bring and snorting in their secu­rity, they are therefore the more miserable, in that being plun­ged in the gulfe of all miseries, yet they feele no misery. 2. Se­condly, as it is a meanes to bring vs to the immediate fel­lowship of Christ, and God himselfe in heauen. 3. Thirdly, death may lawfully bee desired, in respect of the troublesome miseries of this life, two cauti­ons being obserued. 1. That this desire bee not immoderate. 2. It must imply a submission and subiection to the will of God; where any of these bee wanting, the desire is faulty. It is a grieuous sinne to offer vnto God our impatience vnder the degree of prayer, as Ioab offered his treachery to Abner vnder pretence of a peaceable parley; [Page 172] and as Iudas put his treason vp­on Christ vnder the colour of a kisse. Wherefore Iob, Ieremie, Ionas, failed herein; because they desired death out of their impatient minds. It is too com­mon an vse, in forme of petiti­on, rather of banning and exe­cration, to wish for death, yea, strange and accursed kindes of death, wherein God sheweth a iudgement: Let me sinke where I stand, let me neuer speake more; and euery crosse and vexation of life, maketh it irkesome and wearisome vnto vs, and to say, I would I were dead. If God should then take vs at our word, how deplorable and desperate were our case? But as old Chre­mes in the Comedie, told Cly­topho his sonne, a young man, as much in discretion as in yeeres, who because hee could not wring ten pounds out of his fa­thers fingers, to bestow vpon his loue Bacchis, he would for­sooth [Page 173] liue no longer: but Emori cupio, was the eiaculation of my Gentleman. Whereas in this wise, wish not for death, before you bee ready for it: nay rather desire God to spare you a time, that you may recouer, I say not, your strength and bodily abili­ty, but his fauour and grace, before yee goe hence, and bee no more seene. The reason why the ApostlePhilip. 1.23. desired to bee dissol­ued and to be with Christ, which he said, was best of all: and the Saints that were racked,Hebr. 11.25. cared not to bee deliuered, that they might obtaine a better resurre­ction: that Peter and Andrew commend their crosses, as they were wont their dearest friends; that Ignatius called for fire and sword, & for the teeth of wilde beasts: and other Martyrs of Christ went to their deaths, with reioycing and singing of Psalmes, and ran as cheerefully to the stake, as though they had [Page 174] a race to runne for a garland; we haue partly shewed from the for­mer authorities, that they might be with Christ; & that they might obtaine a better resurrection. But the speciall consideration hereof was this,2 Cor. 5.2. Wee will not be vnclo­thed, & stript of our liues, we take no pleasure or ioy therein; but we would be cloathed vpon: wee haue no meanes to get that bet­ter cloathing, but by putting off this, or that vpon this, That mortality may bee swallowed vp of life, and corruption of in­corruption. So that their thoughts subsist not in death, but haue a further reach, because they know it to bee the high­way which bringeth vnto hap­pinesse. And it is no slender per­swasion vnto them, when they thinke how by ending of their dayes, they make an end of sin: Wherefore they cry as he did, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliuer me from the body of [Page 175] this death? In which postulati­ons notwithstanding, they euer­more submit themselues to the straightest and equallest rule, the will of God: desiring no o­therwise to haue their wishes accomplished, than with that safe and wary Condition, Not my will, but thy will bee done. These respects had lawfully without blame, a Christian may wish death.

On the contrary side likewise, a man may desire the continua­tion of life;Isai. 38.18. Ezechias prayed and desired to liue, when the message of present death was deliuered vnto him, to per­forme seruice to God.Phil. 1.24, 25. And Paul desired to liue for the Phi­lippians sake, thereby to edifie them in their holy faith: though in regard of himselfe, he knew right well that it was an aduantage to him to die.

CHAP. XIV. What to thinke of such as die in Desperation, or otherwise ra­uing and blaspheming.

BVt while I consider how many finish their liues in miserable wise, and how that the like may befall mee, I am loth to die: and so I finde the worthiest of all affected. As our Sauiour himselfe, who prayed in this maner,Luk. 22.42. Father if it bee thy will let this cup passe from me: yet not my will, but thy will bee done. Now is my soule trou­bled; Father saue mee from that houre. And not any other re­spect called him backe, There­fore I came: Father glorifie thy N [...]me. He would haue begged it three times more, that the cup [Page 178] might haue passed from his mouth: but the will of his Fa­ther was in the midst of his bowels, and his obedience was stronger than death. And Da­uid prayed thus,Psal. 6.4, 5. Returne, O Lord, deliuer my soule, saue mee for thy mercies sake: For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the graue who shall praise thee? Isai. 38.3. And Ezechiah when the Pro­phet warned him to keepe his Audit, and to set his house at a stay, because he was to die, pow­red out teares abundantly, and that in respect of the summōs of death. But the answer to these and such like examples, is, that our Sauiour when hee prayed, was in a mucke sweat of water and bloud, the most vnnatural­lest sweat that euer was heard of, through the load of all our sinnes laid vpon his shoulders: which expressed and wringed from him those his passions not able to bee expressed. Hee [Page 179] feared nothing the death of the body, but the first and second death ioyned together: both which were due to vs by the malediction of the law, and the iustice of his Father. As for Da­uid, when he composed the sixt Psalme, hee was not onely sicke in body, but distressed in minde likewise, through the terrours of the Almighty that fought a­gainst him, the venome where­of did sucke vp his spirits. So his sicknesse was of conscience, in the sense of Gods wrath, as the expresse words of the text manifest, Lord rebuke mee not in thy wrath. So hee prayed not simply against death, but against death at that instant only, when that temptation so grieuously assaulted him: for how death at other times could not dismay him, may appeare by that hee saith,Psal. 23.4. Though I should walke thorow the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear [...] no euill. To [Page 180] Ezechiah his prayer, I answer, It was not so much against death, as for that he was now to die without issue, that might suc­ceed him in his kingdome: ha­uing had a particular promise made him in the person of Da­uid, that so long as his posterity should hearken vnto the Lord, and walke in his wayes, the threed and line of his linage shall be so spun out at length, as there should bee euer an heire apparent to the crowne. Now in the time of these tidings brought vnto him, the condi­tion being kept of his side, and the Couenant not then perfor­med on Gods part, was Ezechi­as in that pitifull plight. Wher­fore God listned to this his prayer, and tooke him not a­way, but added to his time fif­teene yeeres more: and two yeeres after gaue him hi [...] sonne Manasses to sit on his throne after him. And whereas diuers, [Page 181] and they not of the meanest note, haue miserable ends, what through despaire, and what through rauing and blasphe­ming in fearefull maner; it may seeme that the day of death is the most dismall day that may be. But I answer hereunto gene­rally,Careat successi­bus opto, Quisquis ab e­uent [...] facta no­tanda putat. That the euent is no iust mer-wand of the nature of things outward, whether they be blessings or curses, life or death: For as Salomon saith,Eccles. 9.2. All things come alike to all, & the same condition is to the iust and wicked, to the rich and to the poore, and to the polluted, and to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacri­ficeth not; as is the good, so is the sinner; he that sweareth not, as he that feareth an oath. Secondly, I answer the particulars thus; Touching despaire, though it be a dangerous euill, whereby we willingly question the truth of his promises, and it is a sinne aboue others most contrariant [Page 182] to sauing faith: yet it is such, as for a time the dearest seruants of God are subiect vnto: as Dauid, where hee saith,Psal. 77.10. This is my death. As the incestuous Corin­thian who was in hazzard of de­spaire, of whose estate that way Paul was so tender, where hee aduiseth the Corinthians on his behalfe thus,2 Cor. 2.7. Comfort him lest the same should bee swallowed vp with ouermuch heauinesse. As Martin Luther, who confesseth of himselfe, that after his con­uersion he fell into despaire, and so continued therein the space of three yeeres; and this is ma­ny a good mans case yeere by yeere. Now we are to know that it is Gods wont, to worke by contraries; as in the creation, when all things were created, not of any preexistent matter, but of nothing, quite against the byas of nature. For of no­thing, nothing, can be made, as the schoole of Rationalists tea­cheth; [Page 811] as in the worke of our Redemption where God giueth life, not by life but by death. And if wee consider aright of Christ vpon the Crosse, wee shall finde our Paradise, out of Paradise, euen in the middest of hell. For out of his owne cursed death doth he bring vs life, and eternall happinesse. As in ef­fectuall vocation, when it plea­seth God to conuert and turne men vnto him, he doth it by the meanes of the Gospell prea­ched, which in reason should driue all men from God. For it is as contrary to the nature of man, as fire is to water, and light to darknesse. Further­more, when God will send his seruants to heauen, hee sendeth them a contrary way, euen by the gates of hell. And when it is his pleasure to make men de­pend on his fauour and proui­dence, he makes them feele his anger. The loue of God is like [Page 184] a sea, into which when one is cast, he neither seeth bottome, nor feeleth banke. Wherefore I conclude, that Despaire how­soeuer arising either of weak­nesse of nature, or of conscience of sinne, though it happeneth about the time of death, can­not preiudge the saluation of them that are in the state of grace. As for other fearfull ends, they are often the fruits of violent diseases, which tor­ment the body, and bereaue the minde of sense and reason. Rauings, and Blasphemings, are melancholicall fits and passi­ons, which attend vpon bur­ning agues, the choler shooting vp to the braine. The distor­tion of the lips, the turning of the necke, the buckling of the ioynts, are caused by cramps and conuulsions, the naturall effects of much euacuation. And whereas some in their sicknesse are of such strength, [Page 185] as that three or foure men can­not hold them downe without bonds; it comes not alwaies by witchery and possessions of euill spirits, as it is vulgarly con­ceiued, but of choler in the veines. And whereas some when they are dead, turne as blacke as pitch (as Bonner did) it may arise by a bruise, or an Impostume, or by the blacke laundis, or by the putrefaction of the liuer: And it doth not alwayes argue an extraordinary Iudgement. Now these and the like diseases, with their symp­tomes, and strange effects, though they may depriue a man of his health, and of the right vse of the parts of the bo­die, and of the vse of reason al­so; yet they cannot depriue the soule of eternall life. And all sinnes procured by violent dis­eases, and proceeding from re­pentant sinners, are sinnes of infirmitie; for which if they [Page 186] know them, and come againe to the vse of reason, they will further repent; if not, they are pardoned, and buried in the graue of Christ; and we are not so much to stand vpon the strangenesse of any mans end, when we know how well hee led his life. For his life, and not his death, must bee the rule and direction of our iudgement. And if this be true, that strange diseases, and thereupon strange behauiours in death, may befall the best man that is; wee must learne to rectifie the obliquity of our iudgement, of such at the point of death. The common conceit is, that if a man die qui­etly, and goe away like a lambe, (which in some diseases, as in consumptions, and such like, a man may doe) then hee goes strait to heauen. But if the violence of the disease stirreth vp impatience, and causeth franticke cariages, then they [Page 187] passe their censure thus, It is the iudgement of God against him for his sinnes; and he was rightly so serued. But in very deed it is otherwise. For truly a man may die like a lambe, and yet goe to hell; and ano­ther dying in most grieuous torments, and fearfull behaui­ours of the body, may easily goe to heauen. Wherefore by the outward condition of any man, wee cannot calculate his condition before God.

CHAP. XV. That no man may hasten his owne death.

HAuing thus taken a view of such duties, as particu­larly [Page 189] appertaine to the Dying man, in respect of his soule; we are in the next place to proceed to such as belong to his care, concerning his body. And this shall be the first in our catalo­gisme and note-booke; That the sicke man seeke by all good meanes to preserue that life which God hath lent him for a season, vntill hee shall take it a­way:Rom. 14.7, 8. For none of vs liueth to himselfe,; neither doth any die to himselfe. For whether we liue, we liue vnto the Lord; or whe­ther we die, we die vnto the Lord. Whether we liue therefore, or die, wee are the Lords. Wherefore we may not deale with our liues as wee our selues list; but they are wholly to bee left to Gods dispose, according to the pleasure of his owne will, to whose glory we are both to liue and die. The old Adage is, Life is sweet: the vse whereof is af­forded vs for the time, therein [Page 190] to imploy all the good meanes seruing to the attainment of life eternall.

But this Question wee haue now on foot, whether we may be Authors of our owne death: Some haue answered, not with their tongues, but with their hands, with their swords rather than with their words. Some guilty of some nefarious and transcendent sinne, in despaire of Gods mercy, offer violence to themselues, & so desperately doe finish their [...]ccursed liues, as Iudas, who hanged himselfe vpon a tree. Some through im­patience of a present crosse, or in a feare of one to come, as in the losse of friends, or honour, or vpon some repulse in a suit taken, weary of their liues, be­come their owne executioners. Some macerate themselues, and pine away through iealousie: Some through gripplenesse of the world; as when the price [Page 191] of corne falleth: Some ouer-set & tried with vexatious wiues, vngracious children, perfidious friends, not able any longer to swallow such hookes, lay hands vpon themselues: Some through debt, plunging them­selues into such deepe arrerages, as they haue no hope of euer wading out: Some to preuent a sharper death, that the law would lay vpon them, doe fore­doe themselues: Some in a furi­ous and phreneticall humour, through strange apparitions vnto them, or through the grieuousnesse of sicknesses and diseases, or through the extre­mitie of torture, accelerate their end: Some through vaine glo­ry, cut themselues short; as Quintus Curtius, and others, thereby to procure to them­selues a name of magnanimitie and valour: Of such Augustine thus speaketh,August. Animi magnitudine fortasse mirandi non sapientiae sa­nitate laudandi sunt. They may bee for the greatnesse of their minde ad­mired; [Page 192] but are not for any sound­nesse of wisdome to bee praised. Neither doth reason regard it as a magnanimity, so to die. For it is more magnanimous, rather to suffer miseries, than to shu [...] them. Neither the Patriarks Prophets, Christ, or the Apo­stles, did pay their debts to na­ture, before the time that then creditour called for them. Some in the minde to bee the sooner immortall, doe maturate their mortality. Such a one was Cle­ombratus, of whom the story is, that hauing perused the trea­tise of Plato, of the soules im­mortality, threw himselfe from a wall to the ground, and brake his necke, that so by a shorter cut hee might atchieue his immortality. Some to pre­uent sinne, that they could not otherwise shift off, as modest Virgins, who to preserue Cha­stity, and to auoid impurity, haue not saued their liues, to [Page 193] saue their credits.2. 2ae. quaest. 64. artic. 5. Who are thus aduised and counselled by Tho­mas, 1.Non inquinatur corpus, nisi ex cō­sensu mentis. So be it they consent not let them liue, because they are in­nocent: the body is not stained but by the minds agreement. 2. And though they should con­sent, yet let them liue: that they may afterward repent them. And of the same iudgement is Saint Augustine, where hee saith, Of the two, Aug. Nonne sa­tius est incertum de futuro adul­terium: quam certum d [...] pr [...]e­senti homicidiū. is it not the bet­ter to chuse the vncertaine dan­ger of Adultery to ensue: than a certaine present death? This were cause enough if there were none else, to spunge the bookes of Machabees out of the Ca­non of the Bible: In as much as the Compiler of those books so applaudeth the desperate act of Razis, in the murther of him­selfe. For the mercy of God may come betweene the Riuer and the bridge; betweene the sword and the throat; betweene the cup and the vpper lip; the [Page 194] prouerbiall speeches that haue beene of old. The Donatists defend the affirmatiue of the Question, and would choake vs by Sampsons example,Iudg. 16.30. who pulled an old house ouer his head, saying, let me lose my life with the Philistins. But wee auoid their argument, by an­swering with Austen, 1. That hee did this by the suggesti­on of the spirit of God. For the text telleth vs, that his strength was renued, and that he called vpon the name of the Lord. 2. That he died as a Iudge, that he might vanquish his enemies. 3. That herein he was a type and figure of Christ. The second argument is from Iobs words, Iob 7.15. My soule chuseth rather to bee strangled, and to die, than to bee in my bones. Answer. The Saints of God striue often with such diseases; but they are not ouercome of them. Third­ly, they put vpon vs this text [Page 195] of Saint Paul, Coloss. 3.5. Mortifie your members on earth. Answ. Such speeches are allegoricall; wher­by he signifieth the mortificati­on of our sinfull affections; and not that men should tyran­nize ouer themselues, by de­stroying their owne liues. Fourthly, they vrge the exam­ples of the Gentiles, who com­mend this facinorous fact for fortitude; lauding their Lucre­tia, Cato, & such others. But this was effeminatenesse and weak­nesse, and no manhood at all: for masculine courage passeth the pikes, and encountreth all extremities. Seneca, otherwise no ignoble author, would ad­uise him that is deeply distres­sed, to make an end of himselfe; so to put an end to all his dis­quiet. But such counsell is no lesse dangerous than erroneous. Finally, they plead the pra­ctise of the ancient Church, which approueth and com­mendeth [Page 196] the disposition of such, who in defence of their chastity, haue chosen rather to foredoe themselues, than to bee defiled. Ambrose reporteth of the Lady Pelagia, that she, toge­ther with her mother and si­sters, did cast themselues head-long into a riuer; rather than the pursuing souldiers should violate them: and they are ca­nonized in the Kalenders of the Martyrs of the Church. So Eu­sebius writeth of Sophronia, a noble woman of Rome, that ra­ther than the Emperour Max­ertius should fulfill his filthy lust vpon her, shee fell vpon a sword and died. But in such cases they should rather haue vnderstood, that it is no sinne to suffer vniustly; vnlesse the minde concurreth with the deed. Hereupon Augustine, among other things, disputing this question, and opening the very veine of the point it selfe, [Page 197] saith elegantly,August. lib. 1. de ciuit. Dei. Virtus animi sine con­sensu voluntatis non violatur. Aug. de ciuit. Dei. cap. 20. The vertue of the minde is not violated with­out the agreement of the will. And it is effectuall, the same Fa­ther saith thus, The comande­ment that saith, thou shalt not kill; because it saith not as the ninth commandement, Thou shalt not beare false witnesse a­gainst thy neighbour, vnderstan­deth himselfe. Thou shalt not kill thy selfe. He saith moreouer that if the law had said more fully, Thou shalt not kill thy neighbour; yet in such a forme it had not exempted a mans owne selfe. Because the rule of louing my neighbour, chiefly & first of all, includeth my selfe. For the thigh is neerer than the knee:Heus tu ipsemet proximus sum mihi. and I my selfe am the nighest neighbour to my selfe. Neither by the law of nature written in our hearts; neither by the law of God written in Tables: is a man bound to loue his neighbour aboue himselfe. [Page 198] And so the conclusion is of vn­deniable consequence, Thou shalt not kill another; therefore much lesse thine owne selfe. Nei­ther doth hee that murthereth himselfe, murther any but a man.Gen. 9.5. I will require your bloud at the hand of euery beast; and at the hand of man, I will re­quire the life of man. But eue­ry man is nigher to himselfe, than his brother is.Frater enim di­citur quasi sere alter. [...]t amicus quasi alt [...]r i [...]em. The name of a Brother in the Latine lan­guage, is Frater, which is as much to say, as almost the other. And the saying is, Thy friend is thy second selfe. Aquinas by these reasons, proueth it vnlaw­full for a man to kill himselfe. 1. Such are euill by nature, in that they want the law of cha­ritie, by which euery one is bound to loue himselfe. Death is the maine enemie to nature; and life is the blessing of God, the promise annexed to the fift commandement. 2. Euery [Page 199] man is a part of the communion of mankinde. And therefore he is iniurious to the common wealth, who depriueth the same of any member or sub­iect thereof. 3. Life is the gift of God, and in his power a­lone, whose voice it is, I kill, and I giue life. Act. 16.27. The Iaylour at Phi­lippos when hee saw the prison doores open, drew out his sword and would haue slaine himselfe. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Doe thy selfe no harme. The Prophets and Apostles in their extremes, made their prayers and pati­ence their refuge; they would by no meanes bee their owne executioners. Ierome writing of the death of Blessilla, sets this note vpon her head, in the person of God;Hieron. Non re­cipio tales ani­mas, quae me nolente exeunt è corpore. I will haue none of those soules, which against my will depart out of their bodies. And such as doe in such man­ner, he doubteth not to tearme [Page 200] them,Martyres stultae philosophiae. The Martyrs of foolish Philosophy. And he regulateth and vmpreth the case, thus, It is not for vs to runne vpon our death: Non est nostrum mortem accipere, sed illatam ab a­lijs libenter acci­pere. Aug. lib. 1. de Ciu. Dei. cap. 1. but when it is inflicted by others, not vnwillingly to enter­taine it. Augustine disputeth against such thus, When a man kils himselfe, he either killeth an innocent, and so is guilty of inno­cent bloud; or a hurtfull man which is also vnlawfull for him to doe: in as much as he is not to be his owne iudge, and he giueth not space of repentance to himselfe. God hath set Iudges and Magi­strates ouer his people, so that no man in his priuate will, may bereaue any man of his life: so he may not by killing himselfe be an intruder into anothers of­fice. Our lawes well doe pro­uide, that he that shall endeuour to murther himselfe, albeit hee recouer, shall not so escape, but shall die for ir. And if vpon a wound giuen to himselfe, hee [Page 201] shall miscarry; he shall be bran­ded with infamy, and perpetu­all contempt. Nature it selfe teacheth vs, that our liues, goods, and good names, and whatsoeuer the good gifts of God, are tenderly to be preser­ued, & not profusely to be expē­ded; for no man hateth his owne flesh, but fostereth it. It is Socrates his dispute in Plato, Plato in phaedone that sithens we are in this station of our life by God, and man is Gods bond seruant, hee is not without his pasport, to goe out of this standing, which is his life. Cicero in his book stiled Ca­to Maior, or of old age, saith that Pythagoras was of the selfe same opinion. And in his Fragments of the common-wealth, Scipio entreateth his nephew, not to depart this life, before God shall call him. Caelius noteth it,Caelius in anti­quis lectionibus. to be the maner of the Atheni­ans, that the man that shall contriue his owne death, should [Page 202] haue his hand, the instrument thereof, chopt off, and burned a part by it selfe from the body. Seneca determineth, that the man who slayeth himselfe, should in regardlesse maner be debarred buriall: his reason is irrefragable, and it is this, be­cause there is small hope that he will spare others, that will not spare himselfe. The Thebans re­puted him no better than a hangman, that was his owne executioner. But there be diuers inuoluntary, murthers; 1. As when lunaticke persons in their lunacie doe themselues to death; and there the blame is to be giuen to the remisnesse of such as had the ouersight of them, and kept them no better. 2. As when by chance, inten­ding another thing, by dag or dagger, striketh himselfe and di­eth; or vnawares drinketh downe poison, in stead of a po­tion, or taketh physicke of an [Page 263] Empericke, who kill men down right, to get themselues experi­ence; or powreth in wine free­ly, when he is in his hot ague, not knowing what hee doth. But such are more in blame, who contrary to the aduice of their Physitians, drinke out of capable cups, and gurmundize beyond all measure,Prohibent gran­des patinae. and sicken and die of surfetting. For wee might liue longer, were it not for broad chargers that hinder it. 3. As such who in an idle­nesse will climbe high and steepe places, or without any need inforcing it, put them­selues vpon apparent perils. As also all such, who by inconti­nent and intemperate courses, waste nature, and mispend the state of their bodies; as they that stab themselues through despaire, and sense of their sins. Now it shall behoue all such to vnderstand and consider, that herein the deuill is a doer, who [...] [Page 220] loe they brought vnto him a man sicke of the palsie, Mat. 9.2. lying on a bed. And Iesus seeing their faith, said to the sicke of the palsie, a­rise, take vp thy bed and walke. After that Iesus found him in the Temple, and said vnto him, be­hold thou art made whole, sinne no more, lest a worse thing come vnto thee. 2 Chron. 16.12. And Asa in the nine and thirtieth yeere of his reigne, was diseased in his feet, and his disease was extreme: yet hee sought not to the Lord in his dis­ease, but to the Physitians.

Moreouer, bee wee here forewarned that we shunne the vse of vnlawfull meanes, for the recouery of health.Malo s [...]mper ae­grotare, quam tali remedio con­ [...]ales [...]ere. I had rather be alwaies sicke, than to be saued by such a salue. Of this kinde are all charmes, or spells, Chara­ctars, and figures, either in pa­per, wood, or wax, all Annu­lets, and Ligatures, which wee hang about the necke, or the parts of the body; vnlesse good [Page 221] natural reason be the groūd. As white Piony hanged about the necke is good against the falling sicknesse; and wolfes dung ap­plied to the body,Galen. lib. 6. & 10 de simp. Medic. is good against the chollicke, not by any in­chantment, but by an inward vertue. Otherwise they are all vaine and superstitious, because neither by creation, nor by any ordinance in Gods word, haue they any power to cure a bodily disease; for words can doe no more than represent; and yet ne­uerthelesse, these vnlawfull and absurd meanes are more vsed, and in more request among the people, than skilfull and good physicke. But it standeth all men greatly in hand, in no wise to seeke forth after enchanters, and sorcerers, which are indeed but witches, and wizards, though they be cōmonly called Cunning men, Cunning women, It were better for a man to die of his sicknesse, than to seeke [Page 222] recouery by such wicked per­sons.Leuit. 20.6. For if any turne after such as worke with spi its, and after Sooth-sayers, to go a whoring af­ter them, the Lord will set his face against them, and will cut them off from among his pe [...]ple. When Ahazia was sicke, hee sent to Baalz [...]bub the God of E [...]kron, to know whether hee should recouer or no. As the messengers were going, the Prophet Elias met them, and said, [...] [...]g. 1.6. Goe and returne to the King which sent you, and say vn­to him, thus saith the Lord, Is it not because there is no God in Israel, that thou sendest to en­quire of Baalzebub the God of E [...]ron? Therefore thou shalt not come downe from thy bed on which thou art gone vp; but shalt die the death. And thus much of the meanes of health.

Now followeth the manner of vsing the meanes; concer­ning which, three rules must [Page 223] be followed. 1. First, hee that is to enter vpon physicke, must not only prepare his body, as Physi [...]ians doe prescribe; but he must also prepare his soule, by humbling himselfe vnder the mighty hand of God, in his sicknesse for his sinnes; cal­ling vpon God, by holy prayer, for the forgiuenesse of them, before any physicke come into his body. Now that this course is to bee taken, ap­peareth plainly in this; that sicknesses spring from our sinnes, as from a roo [...], which should first of all bee stocked vp, that the branc [...]es might more easily die. And therefore Asa commended for many things else, is blamed for this by the holy Ghost.2 Chron. 16.12. That hee sought not the Lord, but to Physitians, and put his trust in them. Oftentimes it comes to passe that diseases curable in themselues, are made incura­ble, [Page 224] by the sinnes and impeni­tency of the party; and there­fore the best way is, for them that would haue ease, when God beginnes to correct them by sicknesse, then also to be­ginne to humble themselues for all their sinnes, and to turne to God. 2. The second rule is, that when wee haue prepared our selues, and are about to vse physicke; wee must consecrate it by the word of God and prayer, as we doe our meat and drinke. For the word must bee our warrant, that the physicke prescribed is lawfull and good; and by prayer we must procure a blessing vpon it,1 Tim. 4.3. For it is san­ctified by the word of God, and prayer. 3. The third rule is, to consider aright, of the proper end and vse of Physicke; not to thinke that physicke can stop the course of nature, by way of preuention of sicknesse or death; but serueth to produce [Page 225] the life of man, to his naturall period.

CHAP. XVII. That the sicke man is to recon­cile himselfe to his neighbour, whom he hath offended, before he die.

HAuing intreated of such duties, as haue relation, 1. To God. 2. To the sicke mans owne person. 3. We proceed to third and last duty, which he oweth to his neighbour. And here first I would wish him be­fore his departure, to reconcile himselfe to his neighbour, whom formerly hee hath any way harmed. For this duty is more than necessary, and there­fore not to be delayed. There is no man that l [...]ueth,Hieron ad Furi­um. Fieri non po­test vt absque [...]o [...]su homin [...]m, vitae pu [...]us cur­ricul [...] quis per­trans [...]a. but some time or other trespasseth against his brother. It is a wonder that a man should walke in the raine and not bee wet; to keepe in a mill or cole house, and not to be [Page 227] spotted with white or blacke. Among the best of the bunch, many and diuers causes of dif­ferences doe occurre, which must be taken vp in time and in­tercepted. Examples of dissen­tions and contentions, yea a­mong the worthiest are obui­ous vnto vs.Gen. 13.7, 8. What a heauy coyle was there betweene A­braham and Lot. about their sheepes gate; but the strife was stinted by Abrahams modera­tion, and reconciliation which he sought.Gen. 31.2. The like happened betweene Laban and Iacob; Laban could not afford Iacob a good looke; yet by commu­ning and couenanting toge­ther, they were reconciled the one to the other.Gen. 27.41. The hatred was such Esau haboured in his heart against Iacob, as he was at a resolution to haue stabbed him,Gen. 33.4. But Iac b so submissely sought his good will, as atone­ment was made, and they be­came [Page 228] good friends.Luk. 22.24. There was also a strife among the disci­ple, which of them should be the greatest.Mat. 20.24. And the ten were in indignation against the two brethren.Galat. 2.11. Paul with Peter, Act. 25.39. Paul and Barnabas, Augustine and Hierome, Basil and Eusebi­us, Cyren and Theodoret, and Iohn of Antioch with the Fa­thers of the Nicene counsell; whose bills of complaint the godly Emperour comman­ded to be burnt, & by this way of his reconciled them toge­ther.Christus praecepit, vt qui veniam imp [...]trare con­tend [...], f [...]atri ipse veniam det. Christ hath cōmanded that he that wil obtaine pardon, should pardon his brother. Well hath Chrysostome said, No man be­tweene two that are enemies, can be a faithfull friend to both; yea God himselfe is no friend to the faithful, so long as they thēselues remaine enemies. The Romans built a temple to Concord, that by sacrifices performed in the same, all discord and disagree­ment [Page 229] might bee laid aside. No sacrifice, seruice, prayer, almes, can please God, that proceed not from a quiet and reconciled minde. God (saith Chrysostome) more regardeth the concord of the faithfull, to mans benefit; than rewards offered him to his owne honour.Mar. 11.25. When ye stand praying, forgiue, if ye haue ought against any, that your Father also which is in heauen may for­giue you your trespasses. But who must be the first in this action of reconciliation? Surely, the delinquent, the offending par­ty. This is Augustines iudge­ment, where he saith, Hee that first gaue the matter of offence, let him first make amends. And so it is Chrysostomes opinion, who saith, If wee haue harmed our brother any way, then hee hath cause against vs: and wee against him, if hee hath wron­ged vs: in which case thou shalt not need to proceed to recon­cilement. [Page 230] For thou shalt not need to require it of him that hath done thee the iniury: but thou shalt onely remit him, as thou wouldest the Lord should remit thee that euill thou hast commit­ted. If thou hast offended thy neighbour in thought, in thought be reconciled to him: If by words, by words: If by deeds, by deeds. For thou shalt not make amends without deeds, whom thou hast violated by deeds. Wherefore ingenuously confesse thy fault, aske forgiuenesse at his hands, and sayLuk. 17.4. I repent: and recom­pence the harme thou hast done him; whether in body, goods, or good name: howsoeuer, as God hath commanded thee, Exod. 21.28. Leuit. 6.5. Numb. 5.7. By the example of Zacheus, Luk. 19.8. If I haue taken any thing from any man by forged cauillation, I re­store fourefold. I wish they would more carefully consider this with themselues, t [...]at are so [Page 231] slacke and obdurate of this du­ty; who are of such inflexibili­ty, as a rasor would sooner cut a whetstone, than any reason alter their resolution. So as though themselues be the ori­ginall of the offence, yet they had rather accumulate more dis­pleasures, than diminish the for­mer. In such the Deuill is the Authour and Abettor of all these brawles and broiles, and the bellowes it selfe that blow these coales: so as he with-hol­deth them from acknowledge­ment of their offences offered; deiecting their eyes, that they might not behold them; shut­ting their mouthes, that they might not confesse them, and intreat forgiuenesse of them; manacling their hands, that they might not performe agree­able satisfaction. But let all such know, that so long the Lord shall shut in his louing kind­nes in displeasure against them: [Page 232] as they shall continue thus inex­orable against their neighbour. What is therefore required at their hands, that haue to doe with such refractary fellowes? Shall that powre a bowle of wa­ter vpon their spirits to quench them? Or detaine them from Prayers, Sermons, and the ser­uice of God? Our Lord forbid it. Nay, they shall obserue, 1. The course and processe pre­scribed them by God;Mat. 18.15, 16 If thy brother shall trespasse against thee, goe and tell him his fault be­tweene thee and him alone, &c. 2. They shall retaine a tender minde ready to forgiue, and to doe good to such as hate them.Matth. 5.44. Doe good to them that hate you: and pray for them that per­secute you. Rom. 12.21. And ouercome euill with good. Caesar would not a­uenge himselfe of Catullus, who had diuulged inuectiue verses a­gainst him, full of virulency. Cato would not seeke to crie [Page 233] quittance with Lentulus, who teared his robe from his backe, scratched his face, and disgra­ced him in all manner of indig­nity: but wrapt vp all in silence, and patiently passed by all these inhumanities. Chrysostome re­porteth of Constantine the great, how when word was brought him, that a company of rascals had demolished his image, broken the head of it, mangled the face: moued his hand to his head, and not without a smile, answered thus; I cannot so thinke. To loue our enemies, August. Dilige­re inim [...]cos, gran­dis est lab [...]r in ho saeculo sed grād habet prae­mium infuturo. it is a great taske for vs in this world: but the reward shall be greater in the world to come. 3. They shall pray for their enemies, as Christ hath taught them by his owne example,Luk. 23.34. Father forgiue them, for they know not what they doe. And so Saint Steuen ensampleth them,Act. 7.60. Lord lay not this sin vnto their charge. And truly as Gre­gorie saith, Those prayers are [Page 234] most of force that are powred forth on the behalfe of our enemies. Greg. Illae preces summè valent quae pro miurijs funduntur. 4. And sometimes they shall seeke reconciliation at the de­linquents hand, by the example of Aristippus, Plutarch. lib. de Ira cohib. who besought Aeschenes that was the trespas­ser, that peace might be between them. For so hee shall haue the aduan [...]age as Chrysostome saith, If the party offended, shall first seeke the offender, he shall obtaine a double crowne: one that he was harmed; the other, that hee first intreated. 5. Finally, if any bee bitterly affected, let vs relin­guish such offenders to God, and to the iudgement to come; who shall take the matter into his hand, and iudge righte­ouslie.

On the contrary side, we are to learne what bee the duties of the offended parties: namely, not to behaue themselues fro­wardly with such as humble themselues to them, but to ad­mit [Page 235] of a friendly conclusion, to accept of equall conditions, and to d [...]scharge their heart of all displeasure.Luk 17.3. If thy brother trespasse against thee, rebuke him: and if hee repent, forgiue him: Of this we haue examples,Gen. 50.18. in Ioseph towards his brethren;1 Sam. 18.9. in Dauid towards Saul, 1 Sam. 25.33. and towards N [...]bal. In fine, on both sides let Saint Bernards rule goe currant,Bern [...]rd Sit ille humilis ad pe­tendam veniam tu fo [...] ilis a [...] dan­dam, & [...] mem­bra erunt in pace. Let him bee humble to aske, and the other pliable to grant pardon; and so the members shall be in peace. Yet this facility shall not let, but that the offen­ded party may somewhat argue the offender, and lay before him the things that he hath done:Gen. 31.36. As Iacob did to Laban, Gen. 45.4 &c: Io­seph to his brethren. Where not­withstanding, a moderate ex­aggeration is required, void of the gall of bitternesse, and ac­companied with equity and humanity. Touching which, thou hast golden rules giuen [Page 236] thee by Syracides, Eccles. 19.13. Reproue a friend lest he doe euill: and if he haue done it, that hee doe it no more, &c. Eccles. 22.24. As the vapour and smoake of the chimney goeth be­fore the fire: so euill words, re­bukes, and threatnings, goe be­fore bloud-sheading, &c. But here me thinke I heare the grie­ued party come in with his ex­ceptions, thus muttering be­tweene his teeth; I cannot cary such an easie minde, so to slight offences, and passe by them. S^t. Augustine answereth for mee, A man may say to mee, I cannot watch and pray, I cannot fast; but can he say, I cannot loue. A man may tell me, I cannot forsake all I haue, and diuide it among the poore, and serue God in a Mona­stery: but can hee say, I cannot loue? If thou tellest me, thou canst not forbeare wine, or delicate fare, I easily beleeue thee: but if thou sayest neuer so much I cannot be fauourable to such as shall of­fend [Page 237] me, I beleeue thee not a whit. Not from the wine celler, but from the promptuary of the heart, thou art willed to minister this almes, that by the way of life, thou maiest passe to an eternall countrey. 2. Next thou tellest mee, how great the wrongs bee that haue beene done thee; so great, as by no meanes thou c [...]nst for­giue them; so horrible, as they are intolerable. And here againe I answer thee by S^t. Augustine, Tell me, O thou Christian, Hast thou committed any sins against God? Thou sayest, I haue: I pray thee tell me which is the greatest, and manifoldest sinne; whether that which thou hast designed a­gainst God, or that which man hath committed against thee. Doest thou heed that which man hath done to thee? and neglectest that which thou hast done to God? If thou shalt throughly [...]examine thine owne conscience, thy sins are greater and more, which thou [Page 238] hast committed against God, than they bee which thy brother hath performed against thee. Now with what face canst thou desire of God, hee would forgiue thee much: when thou wilt not yeeld to remit a little? In the condition betweene God and man, there is no proportion. Thou forgiuest thy fellow seruant; but God for­giueth thee, who art simply his seruant and no better. As thou forgiuest, so thou hast need a­gaine to be forgiuen: but God hath no need at all of any of thy forgiuenesse: but he may say to thee as Dauid said to the King, Keepe thy rewards to thy selfe, and giue thy gifts to another. Thou forgiuest a definite debt, but God an infinite; decreeing a proscription of thy wife and children, and an ex [...]ent of all thou hast, for the payment of thy debts. Thus by an incre­dible mercy, he would call thee to a certaine pity. 3. Thou sur­ioynest [Page 239] againe, that thy neigh­bour hath offended thee not once, but often, and so often, as thou canst not forgiue him. And here againe I place Augu­stine in my roome to speake for me; If Christ hath forgiuen thee thy sins seuenty times seuen times, and now will no more; if he hath pardoned thee all thy life time hi­thereto, and hath denied to goe further: set thou thy selfe these bounds also, and there stay. Learne thou therefore often to forgiue, and to let goe displeasure. It was Peters interrogation put vp to Christ,Matth. 18.21. Lord how often shall my brother sinne against me, and I forgiue him? till seuen times? belike hee was loath to forgiue him eight times. But Christ his answer is, I say not vnto thee vntill seuen times: but vntill seuenty times se­uen: that is in Hieromes compu­tation foure hundred and ninety times: that is, so often as it is [Page 240] impossible for one man to of­fend another. Augustine deliue­reth as much in effect, where he questioneth the case thus, why doth not Christ speak of an hun­dred times eight, rather than seuenty times seuen? And his answer is, because from Adam to Christ, are seuenty generations: Therefore as Christ forgaue the sinnes of all mankinde, diuided into so many generations; so wee should forgiue all the offen­ces committed against vs all our life long. 4. But thou sayest, I will not forgiue, but I will a­uenge my selfe of my enemy, and I will fulfill my desire vp­on him. Here Chrysostome an­swereth, If thou wilt reuenge, re­uenge thy selfe on this maner: render good for euill, that so thou mayest make the malefactour thy debtor, and carry a notable victo­ry away. Rom. 12.19. Tertul. Satis ido­neus patientia se­quester est Deus: si inito ias depo­nes apud eum, vltor est. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. The Lord is a sufficient arbiter of thy [Page 241] patience; if thou shalt commit thine iniuries vnto him, he will be the auenger of them. 5. But thou sayest, I will stay a while, I will not out of hand forgiue euery thing to euery one. Augustine to this answereth, When at the length wilt thou finish the way? How long shall it be ere thou wilt listen vnto Christ? Thy aduersa­ry is in the way it selfe, that is, in this mortall life. But what saith he? Agree with thine aduersarie quickly, while thou art with him in the way. Hast thou heard, be­leeued, accorded? If thou hast discorded, accord, and bee at no further discord: when thou shalt end the way thou knowest not, but he knoweth it altogether. 6. But thou sayest, I will forgiue him, but I will not forget him: he may come into my Pater noster, but hee shall neuer creepe into my Creed; but this is but Satans sophistrie. Augustine to this an­swereth, Doe not say, I pardon [Page 242] him with my tongue, I pardon not him with my heart: for he know­eth what thou sayest: Man hea­reth thy voyce, the Lord behol­deth thy conscience. Thou doest better when thou criest not with thy mouth, and forgiuest in thine heart, than when thou flatterest with thy tongue, and art cruell in thine heart. 7. But thou sayest, I cannot forget him, can I root out of my memory the thing I know? Chrysostome answereth, To be mindfull of an iniury, it is a new anger, or a feruent passion; but the force of it, a setled and froward malice. And Isidore thus; To keepe in remembrance receiued iniuries, betokeneth not a minde that is generous, but wic­ked and wretched. 8. If thou shalt further demand, what shall I doe? He will giue but a deafe eare to all I can say, and when I haue perswaded all I can, I shall not perswade: To this Augu­stine answereth, If thou hast be­sought [Page 243] thy neighbour in an hum­ble and true heart, and he will not forgiue thee, take thou no further care. Ye are both the seruants of one Master, of God, and his Son Iesus Christ. Call vpon God, and it will suffice. In the meane while, let such inflexible and inexorable men know what sentence the Court of heauen hath decreed against them,Nazian. in orat. de laud. Caesaris. Peccatorum re­missio, vbi pec­catorū commissio: hic nobis prompta medela, post au­tem clausa est omnis medicina salutis. Aug. Frustra si­bi homo post hoc corpus promittit, quod in hoc cor­pore comparare neglexit. Ve­rily, verily, I say vnto thee, thou shalt not depart till thou hast paid the vttermost farthing. Now is the time of the account to bee made one with another. For there sins must be remitted, where sins are committed, &c. For as Au­gustine teacheth, In vaine doth a man after this body, pray; which whilest hee was in this body, hee neglected.

CHAP. XVIII. That the dying man, if hee bee a publike person, must prouide as much as in him lieth, for the good estate of his charge after his death.

THe second duty of the Dy­ing man, that is in relation to his neighbour, in case he be in office, is to prouide as solici­tously as hee can, for the future good estate, tranquillity and prosperity of the people vnder him. The Magistrate is to plant and settle true religion, and to enact and establish such whole­some lawes and discipline, as may most make to the admini­stration of iustice and vertue, that hee may say of his city or common-wealth, as Augustus said of the City of Rome, Inueni luteritia, marmoream red­didi. I found it made of bricke, but I leaue it made of marble; that all poste­rity [Page 246] may praise his doing, and say, This hath that man done. Such a worthy and carefull Ma­gistrate was Moses, who about the time of his death,Deut. 31.2. surro­gated Iosua in his roome; seri­ously charging him concerning the cariage of himselfe towards the people.Iosu. 24. And the like course ran Iosua when hee was to die, charging his people to bee reli­gious and valorous.1 Kin. 2.1, 2, 3. So did Dauid, nominating Salomon his lawfull successour to the Crowne, and gaue him his charge, as well for matters of re­ligion, as for ciuill affaires in his Courts of iustice.

1. The Minister is to proiect all he can, for the continuance of the good estate of his Church vnder his prefecture, for the better propagation of the Gospel after his decease. This was Peters fore-sight and prouision,2 Pet. 1.15. I will endeuour al­wayes, that ye also may be able to [Page 247] haue remembrance of these things after my departure. For which cause, no lesse diligently hee instructed the ages to come by his Epistles, as hee did the people present by his Sermons, that so the worship and seruice of God might bee perpetuated in the world. And next the wri­tings of the Apostles, it is diffi­cult to expresse, how greatly posterity hath beene benefited by the painfull and learned works, which Augustine, Am­brose, Hierome, Gregorie, Basil, with many others, haue left be­hinde them. But while men haue more regarded personall succession, than the proper suc­cession indeed, consisting in faith and doctrine; grieuous Wolues, not sparing the flocke, haue crept into the Church, and the apostasie2 Thess. 2.3. of which Paul speaketh, hath like a Gan­grene ouer-spread the face of the Church.

[Page 248]2. The master of a family must also doe his vttermost en­deuour herein, to sow the seeds of religion and vertue, in the hearts of his children and hous­hold, that his sonnes may grow vp like young plants, and his daughters bee as the poli­shed corners of the Temple. For this cause, Abraham recei­ued ample commendation from Gods owne mouth, and the gracious promise of the bles­sed seed that should come out of his loynes:Gen. 18.19. For I know that A­braham will command his sons, and his houshold after him, that they keepe the way of the Lord, to doe righteousnesse and iudge­ment; that I may bring vpon A­braham all that I haue spoken vnto him. What a carefull man was Iob, that his sons might not blaspheme and sin against God?Iob 1.5. To which end hee sanctified them, and rose vp early in the morning and offered burnt offe­rings, [Page 249] according to the number of them all. The Israelites are commanded to instruct their children in the vse and end of the institution of the Passeouer.Exod. 12.26. When your children shall aske you, what seruice is this you keep, then yee shall say, it is the sacri­fice of the Lords Passeouer, which passed ouer the houses of the chil­dren of Israel in Aegypt, when hee smote the Aegyptians, and preserued our houses. How in­dustrious in this duty parents were in times of old, the Odist telleth vs,Psal. 44.1. We haue heard with our eares, O God, and our fathers in time past haue told vs, what thou hast done in their time of old. Asaph prepareth his audi­tours to attention, while hee promiseth them to speake of great matters, which from hand to hand were deliuered by the Fathers to their posterities;Psal. 78.3. Which wee haue heard and knowne, and such as our fathers [Page 250] haue told vs, That we should not hide them from the generation of the children to come.

CHAP. XIX. That the sicke man is to make his last Will and Testament before his departure.

IT pertaineth to the office of the sicke man, to whom God hath giuen any portion of worldly wealth, though but in a kinde of competency, so to dispose of them while he liueth, as he may cut off all strifes and contentions, in the claime that may bee made to them after his decease. So did Abraham, who when hee was much strucken in yeares, and knew that he had not long to liue, he made his last Will and Testament, and bequeathed sundry legacies. So did Isaac; and so did Iacob af­ter him; in whose last Testa­ments, many worthy blessings were deliuered, and sundry sin­gular prophesies were pro­nounced, [Page 252] concerning the fu­ture estate of their children. So Christ vpon the Crosse had a prouident respect vnto his mother, commending her to the care of the disciple whom he loued. And truly it is a matter of great consequence, for a man to haue his Will by him, as the speciall meanes to preuent most tedious and costly sutes of law. And this is no indifferent mat­ter, as some suppose; who ei­ther for that they would not haue their wealth discouered, or else because they would smo­ther and suppresse their po­uertie, forbeare to make a Will.

Now a Will is to be made a­greeable to the lawes of nature, and the rules of Gods Word, and the good and wholesome lawes of the kingdome and place wherein they liue, and whereof they be members. But the Will of God must bee the [Page 253] measuring Rod of the will of man. Therefore the Will which checketh any of these, is to be checked and reproued.

These premisses considered, I haue no skill of such, who haue so profusely concocted their estate, as when they die, they haue not a dodrant left behinde them to bequeath. Yea, which is worse, they haue plunged themselues into such a depth of debt, as there is no get [...]ing out; to the remedilesse vndoing of their poore wi­dowes and orphans for euer. And they seeme to me no lesse strange, who are so gripple of the world, and are so wedded to the world, as to a wife, and they two are become one flesh; as it is a death to them to think of death, so long as they haue but a drop of bloud in their veines, or any little measure of marrow in their bones, though they be neuer so feeble and de­crepit [Page 254] through age, as they die intestate, and so leaue their wiues and children to goe to­gether by the eares, till the Lawyers haue licked vp all or the more part of their goods. Moreouer I am amazed in my muse at some, the very mon­sters of humane nature, who hoord vp such monies in walls,Cumuli tumuli. in vaults and caues of the earth, places vnknowne to any but to themselues, which they haue wretchedly gathered together, so as they neuer come to good. These verily bewray them­selues what they are, as vtter­ly deuoid of all conscience, as they be of affection of nature. Now by this testamentary Le­gacion of our goods, we make as it were a resignation of such things receiued from Gods hand, to the vse of this present life. And thereby we witnesse to the world, that we account the day of our death to bee at [Page 255] hand, and that we are to passe from the tiresome pilgrimage of the labours and sorrowes of this life, to our perpetuall rest; where no further vse is to bee had of this terrene and transi­tory pelfe and prouision that we make, to the wracke of our owne soules. And by this for­ward and cheerefull resignati­on, the minde is prepared, and made ready to die, before death seizeth vpon vs. And so wee shake off these secular cares, as Paul did the viper from his hand, and bid the world fare­well; & so lay in time for our bet­ter estate in the world to come. Finally, by this meanes we cut off future brawles and broyles about questions of right, that none might intrude themselues into that which is anothers.

CHAP. XX. That the sicke man in his will, is first to dispose of his soule, and to commend it to God.

THe sicke man is monished in the person of Ezechias, to set his house in order. Now to performe this in order, hee must first bequeath his soule to God, his body to the ground, his goods to the right owners. The soule in the first place is to be considered of, and commen­ded to God, as all other things that are most precious, in a full assurance that hee is able and willing to keepe them.2 Tim. 1.12. I am not ashamed, for I know whom I haue beleeued: and I am per­swaded that hee is able to keepe that which I haue committed vnto him against that day. Thus the cause why he cōmitted his soule, saluation, and all to God, [Page 258] was his faith in God that hee would safely keepe them. Saint Peter calleth vpon all Christi­ans to bee like minded;1 Pet. 4.19. Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their soules to him in well do­ing, as vnto a faithfull Creator. As one friend when hee dieth committeth to another in trust the dispose of all his goods, as to a faithfull executor; so let euery Christian man make God his executor, who is faithful­nesse it selfe. Thus Christ vpon the Crosse surrendred vp his soule into the hands of God:Luk. 23.46. Father into thy hands I com­mend my spirit. And hauing said thus, he gaue vp the ghost. So did Saint Steuen, saying,Act. 7.59. Lord Ie­sus receiue my spirit. And thus Dauid in danger of death, vsed the like language,Psal. 31.6. Into thy hands I commend my spirit; for thou hast redeemed mee, O Lord thou God of truth. The same we [Page 259] must doe. Now to doe this a­right, because it is difficult in it selfe, wee must fit our selues therunto, by vsing the meanes; 1. By duly considering, that God is the Creator of the spi­rits of all flesh, and so by way of necessary consequence, the preseruer of them: for the workman cannot but preserue the worke of his owne hands. No man is so carefull of any workmanship, as the Artificer and Craftsman himselfe. And shall not God bee much more carefull of the worke of his owne hands, than man can bee of his?Psal 95.6, 7. O come let vs therefore worship, and fall downe, and kneele before the Lord our Ma­ker: for he is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pa­sture, and the sheepe of his hands. And this is the motiue to this duty, pressed by Saint Peter, before mentioned;1 Pet. 4.19. That wee commit our selues to [Page 252] [...] [Page 253] [...] [Page 254] [...] [Page 255] [...] [Page 256] [...] [Page 257] [...] [Page 258] [...] [Page 259] [...] [Page 260] him, in that respect, that hee is a faithfull Creator. 2. That wee vnquestionably perswade our selues, that God is our Father, that we are iustified, sanctified, and adopted by Christ. In which most holy faith, if wee shall edifie our selues, wee shall cheerefully commit our soules to his trust. For this was the rea­son that put on Christ to be­queath his soule to God, for that he was his Father. 3. The continued experience wee haue of Gods loue, in the tender pre­seruation of vs, is a principall spurre to pricke vs on in this way. So it was to Dauid, who hauing said,Psal. 31.6. Into thy hands I commend my spirit; hee subioy­neth the materiall motiue there­unto, for thou hast redeemed me.

The time to commend our soules to God is; 1. When any trouble or danger takes hold of vs. So did Dauid in the place before named, when through [Page 261] the snares that Saul laid for him, he was in perill of life, and had none whom hee might trust. As also in the time of a siege laid to a city; or in a combustion, at what time who­soeuer hath money, plate, iew­els, or any thing else of speciall worth, if he may haue time, hee will conuey them from the place. 2. But specially when we are ready to die; for then the soule is in the greatest hazzard; for that is the white that Satan aimeth at, with al the arrowes of his quiuer. 3. Yea all times are fit for this office; for at all times we ought to be in a readinesse, whē the Lord our God shall call; for at all times Satan lieth in the lurk for vs, admitting no truce. For we cannot be ignorant of his sleights. By so doing in the time of our best health, wee shall be more prompt and pro­uided for this, at the time of our death. This was Dauids beha­uiour [Page 262] in danger;1 Sam. 30. [...]. And Dauid was in great sorrow; for the people intended to stone him: but Da­uid comforted himselfe in the Lord his God. And so it was Pauls; 2 Tim. 1.12. I suffer these things, and am not ashamed, for I know whom I haue beleeued; and I am perswaded that he is able to keepe that which I haue committed vnto him, against that day. But how hath the God of this world blinded vs in this maine mat­ter of our soules health? Wee daily commit our children to Tutors and Gouernours; if we haue flocks of sheepe, wee set keepers ouer them; but as though our soules could keepe themselues,O curuae in terris animae, & caele­stium inanes. or had no need of any to keepe them in his waies, we let that alone for euer.

CHAP. XXI. Of the last words of the Dying man.

AS we are at all times so to order our footsteps, that we slide not, and to set a watch before the doore of our lips; so it shall behoue vs most of all, to craue of God the grace, that at the point of death our words may declare our faith, and mi­nister grace vnto the hearers.1 Ioh. 3.31. He that is of the earth, is earth­ly, and speaketh of the earth. Mat. 12.35. A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things; and an euill man, out of the euill treasure of his heart, bringeth forth euill [Page 265] things. The tongue is the mes­ [...]nger and bewrayer of the [...]de. If the heart be inditing of a good matter, the tongue will bee the pen of a ready wri­ter: If the clocke striketh false outwardly, it is plaine that it is out of kelter inwardly. Vnsauou­ry speech argueth directly an heart not sanctified. The standers by no sooner heard Peter speak, but immediatly they knew who he was,Mar. 14.70. Surely thou art one of them, for thou art of Galilee, and thy speech agreeth thereto. As the French or English are knowne by the language of their countrey; so is the true Christian by his Christian speech. By a mans exulcerate and broken out lips, wee con­clude that he hath had an ague: so corrupt & ilwords are a symp­tome & signe of a spiritual ague.Matth. 12.34. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. I haue read of a triobular and pawltry [Page 266] fellow, who being to receiue three pounds in three yeeres, lying on his death-bed, had no other words but these which he alwayes plodded on, Three pounds, three pounds: this was an aguish humour in him. I will not preiudge sicke men for their idle talke, but rather shall impute it to the sharpnesse of their sicknesse; to which when the braine is ouer-much distem­pered, the best man of al may ea­sily be subiect. But for the most part the last words of a well dy­ing man are seasoned with salt, they sauour altogether of sobrie­ty and piety; they are words bred in the brest, drawne from as deep a fountaine of the heart,Ioh. 4.11. as euer water was from Iacobs well. For vpon the exigent, the seruants of God enlarge their spirits, and raise vp themselues by celestiall contemplation, and speake as it were out of heauen, in heauenly wise. They come [Page 267] composedly, and professedly thereunto, as by plenty of ex­amples shall appeare. What a singular lecture of diuinity, sto­red with all instructions and comforts, read Moses to his people, when hee was to goe hence and bee no more seene;Deut. 32. witnesseth the spirituall Ode and Swans song that he sung, deliuered in Deuteronomie. Peter perceiuing the time of his death approaching, tooke in hand his second Epistle written to the Churches. So Saint Paul about the time he was to die, called an holy conuocation of the Bi­shops, Elders, and Clergie of Asia; yea out of the gaole dis­patched he his directions, now to some, and then to othersome: and when hee was to bee put to the sword vnder Nero, he wrote to the Church, and to Timothie his disciple, to recount the eia­culations sent vp to heauen by diuers of the worthies vpon [Page 268] their death-bed, to make the way plaine before their face, be­cause it is such a cordiall to my soule, it shall not irke me.Gen. 49.10.18 The Scepter shall not depart from Iu­dah, and the Law-giuer from be­tweene his feet, till Shiloh come. Lord I haue waited for thy salua­tion, the last words of Iacob vp­on his death-bed.2 Sam. 23.2, 3. The Spirit of the Lord spake by mee, and his word was in my tongue: the God of Israel spake to me, the strength of Israel said, beare rule ouer men: the Antheme of the sweet Singer of Israel not long before his death. The last words of Christ when he stood vpon the Crosse, now ready to be offered vp a sacrifice for our sins, how sweet are they vnto my mouth, sweeter than hony to my throat? as where he said, 1. To his Fa­ther,Luk. 22.34. Father forgiue them, they know not what they doe. 2. To the theefe,Ioh. 19.26, 27. Verily I say vnto thee, this day shalt thou be with mee in [Page 269] Paradise. 3. To his mother,Luk. 23 43. Mother, behold thy sonne; and to Iohn, Behold thy mother. 4. And in his agonie,Ioh. 19.28. My God, my God, why hast thou for­saken me? And when he said, I thirst, to shew that hee thirsted for our saluation. 5. It is finished: that is, hee had finished and gone thorow stitch with the work of the common saluation: the consideration of his Incar­nation, Death, Passion. 6. And when body and soule were to bee seuered,Luk. 23.46. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit: who would not wonder at these gra­cious words which thus pro­ceeded out of his mouth? The last words Saint Steuen vttered, were full of spirit and life; 1.Act. 7.56, 59, 60. Behold, I see the heauens o­pen, and the Sonne of man stan­ding at the right hand of God. 2. Lord Iesus receiue my spirit. 3. Lord lay not this sinne to their charge. The last words of Poly­carpus [Page 270] were much fruitfull and answerable to his name: Thou art a true God without lying; therefore in all things I praise thee, and blesse thee, and glorifie thee by the eternall God, and high Priest Iesus Christ, thy onely be­loued Sonne, by whom and with whom, Euseb. li. 3. c. 30. to thee and the holy Spirit, bee all glory now and for euer. The last words of Ignatius came from a tongue set on fire by coales from the Lords Altar, who exposed to the Lions, said; I am the Lords bread, and I am to bee grinded by the teeth of beasts, as by a mill, that I may bee pure manchet for the Lords owne mouth, who is the bread of life for me. The last words of Saint Ambrose relished like Ambro­sia the meat of the gods as the Poets faine; I haue not so liued, as if I were ashamed to liue: nei­ther stand I in dread of death, because I haue a gracious Lord. The last words of Augustine [Page 271] were rightly augustious, that is, blessed words: Hee is no great man who thinkes it a great mat­ter that trees and stones fall, and mortall men die. Iust art thou, O Lord, and righteous in thy iudge­ment. Bernard in his last admo­nition and farewell to his friends, perswaded them to ground the anchor of their faith on the safe and sure port of Gods mercy: and hee com­mended three precepts to their imitation, which hee himselfe had practised. 1. Not to stand vpon the singularity of their owne reason and opinion. 2. Not to prosecute a reuenge of iniuries offered. 3. To offer harme to no man willingly; and for any harme done, to make amends in the best man­ner that we may. The last words of Zuinglius, hauing found that hee had receiued his deadly wound in the Heluetian wars, were few and forcible; They [Page 272] may kill the body, but the soule they cannot. And it doth mee good at the heart to recount the last speech of Oecolampadius, so pious and religious. His monition to the Ministers was, To maintaine the wholesome do­ctrine of faith, in purity and sin­cerity vnto the end; and to leade a quiet and peaceable life vnspot­ted in the world. 2. He contested for himselfe, that whereas hee was questioned, as a corrupter of the truth, he nothing regar­ded such scandalous imputati­ons, but appealed from the vn­ciuill and vncourteous courts of their sinister conceits, to the high Commission Court of heauen, to the Iudge of all the world, whose iudgements are truth and righteousnesse alto­gether. And so hee cited the standers by, as witnesses of this his peremptory appellation, ra­tifying and confirming it with his last breath. 3. To his chil­dren [Page 273] he said, Loue God the Fa­ther. And to his kinsfolkes tur­ning himselfe, he spake further in this wise; I haue bound you with this contestation, you shall doe your endeuour that these my children may be godly, peaceable, and true. 4. To his friends that came to visit him, What shal I say vnto you? newes, I shall shortly be with Christ my Lord. 5. Finally, he rehearsed the whole fifty one Psalme, (the Psalme vsually among vs in our Assizes exhibi­ted to the malefactors for their necke-verse) and not without strong sighes, and a profound feeling of what he said. 6. This was the Epiphonema and hap­py conclusion, Saue mee, Lord Iesus. And I shall remem­ber euery day I liue, the ghostly words of Luther at his death; My heauenly Father; God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, and God of all comfort, I giue t [...]t thankes that thou hast re­uealed [Page 274] vnto me thy Sonne Iesus Christ, whom I haue beleeued, whom I haue professed, whom the Bishop of Rome and the whole company of the wicked persecu­teth and reuileth. I pray thee my Lord Iesus Christ, receiue my poore soule. My heauenly Fa­ther, though I be taken from this life, and this body of mine is to bee laid downe; yet I know cer­tainly that I shall remaine with thee for euer, neither shall any bee able to pull mee out of thy hands. The last words of Babylas Mar­tyr of Antioch when his head was on the blocke, and the heads-man ready to strike it off, were these; Returne, O my soule, vnto thy rest, because the Lord hath blessed thee: because thou hast deliuered my soule from death, mine eyes from teares, and my feet from falling; I will walke before thee Iehouah, in the land of the liuing.

CHAP. XXII. That the Dying man is to rest himselfe altogether vpon God, trusting assuredly that his sins are forgiuen him, and that hee shall be saued.

HEe that will dispose him­selfe aright to die, must die in the faith. Death maketh them Christians, that can bee made Christians: for then is the time to awake our faith. When Dauid saw nothing but [Page 277] present death before his eyes,1 Sam. 30.6. The Lord his God was his Qui­etus est. And for this hee may thanke his faith, that was the cause of it, which he laid as a salue to his soule, to heale his sore, as he witnesseth, where he saith,Psal. 119.49. Remēber the promise made to thy seruant, wherein thou hast caused me to trust. It is my com­fort in my trouble, for thy promise hath quickened mee. As againe where hee vttereth himselfe thus,Psal. 73.25. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, Ioh. 3.14. and my portion for e­uer. When the Israelites were stricken in the wildernesse by fiery serpents, and were euen at deaths doore, by casting their eyes vp to the brazen serpent that was set vp, they were hea­led of that wound. So haue thou the eye but of a true Isra­elite in thine head, to behold Christ lifted vp to the Crosse for thy sinnes, and thou art pre­sently [Page 78] healed of them all. But this faith of thine must be an ab­solute confidence, not ouer­clouded with the least doubt of the state of saluation. This Faith hath no skill of the word If, which is a word of doubt: Faith cannot so pronounce. For If commeth rather from the lips of Babel, of whom it is written,Ierem. 51.8. Bring balme for her sore, if she may be healed. This If, is a plai­ster more proper for the run­ning sore of Simon Magus, whō Peter called vpon to repent.Act. 8.22. That if it be possible the thought of thy heart may bee forgiuen. True faith nestleth it selfe in the wounds of Christ, as Doues doe in the clifts of rockes. It flieth not as the Crow betweene hea­uen and earth. For true faith and doubting are opposite each to other.Matth. 21.21. If yee haue faith and doubt not. And of Abraham it is said,Rom. 4.20. He doubted not of the pro­mise of God through vnbeleefe. [Page 279] And it is Saint Iames his aduice,Iam. 1.6. Let him aske in faith and wa­uer not. Wherefore where faith is, there is no preuailing doubt; where such doubt is, there is no faith; for doubt is repugnant to iustifying faith, which is a sub­sistence, euidence, and a plenary perswasion: whose property it is,Ioh. 3.33. To seale it, that God is true: whose property it is to be con­fident, and to be of good com­fort, because our sinnes be for­giuen vs; whose nature it is, where it commeth, to conquer.1 Ioh. 5.4. This is the victory that hath ouercome the world, euen our faith. Now hee that doubteth or wauereth,Iam. 1.6, 7. Is like a waue of the sea, tossed of the wind, and caried away. Neither let that man thinke, that he shall receiue any thing of the Lord. It is re­pugnant to the end of the pro­mises of God,Rom. 4.16. Therefore by faith, that the promise might be sure to all the seed. It is repug­nant [Page 280] to the oath made by God himselfe;Ezech. 33.11. As I liue (saith the Lord God) I desire not the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turne from his waies and liue. Ioh. 5.24. Ʋerily, verily, I say vnto you, he that heareth my word, and be­leeueth in him that sent me, hath euerlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but hath pas­sed from death to life. Heb. 6.16. An oath for confirmation, is among men an end of all strife. It is repug­nant to the end of the Sacra­ments,Rom. 4.11. which are seales & ob­signations of the righteousnesse of faith. It is rep [...]gnant to the end of the oblignation of the holy Spirit.Ephes. 1.13. The spirit of pro­mise by whom we are sealed; Rom. 8.16. who heareth witnesse with our spirits, that wee are the sonnes of God. Finally, this Doubting maketh God a lyar;1 Ioh. 5.11. Hee that beleeueth not God, hath made him a lyar. Let the faithfull therefore free their hearts of [Page 281] this perplexed doubt. Wee be­leeue the remission of our sins, as being an article of our Chri­stian faith. Wee know whom we haue beleeued.Act. 15.11. We beleeue through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ to be saued. Wee know that wee are of God;Rom. 8.38. and are perswaded that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God, which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. This confidence and hope of ours (saith Chrysostome) is the foundation of our saluati­on and life, the guide of our way that leadeth to heauen, in which our whole saluation consisteth. Faith hath a denomination of that which is done, Aug. Fides ap­pellata est ab eo quod fil. saith Au­gustine. Wherefore I aske thee, saith he, whether thou be­leeuest? Thou answerest me, I [Page 282] beleeue. Then doe that thou saist and thou hast beleeued. For Faith (as Chrysostome againe saith) the chiefest vertue of the minde, consisteth in this, that it doubt not. If any shall doubt, that verily is a token of infidelity and distrust: it is an euident argu­ment of an incredulous and vn­faithfull heart. Yet the firmest faith that is, is mingled with doubts, eclipsed with clouds, shaked with tempests, winnow­ed by Satan. Otherwise to what end serued this our Sauiour Christ his cautelous watch­word to Peter, Luk. 22.31. Simon Simon, Satan hath desired to sift thee as one sifteth wheat; but I haue prayed for thee, that thy faith faile not. What, shall we thinke of our selues that we are like vnto Mount Sion, that cannot be remoued: The Target and Helmet of our faith is driuen at by all the fierie darts of the de­uill. The consideration where­of [Page 283] occasioned Paul thus to boast;2 Tim. 4.7. I haue fought a good fight; I haue kept the faith. Thus he would in no wise lay aside the shield of his faith; howsoeuer else, hee bare the marks of the Lord Iesus in his body. The faith of a Christian is alwaies in the field in skir­mishes and sufferings, as Christ was in the garden in his agony and bloudy sweat, resisting vn­to bloud, yea vnto hell it selfe. Faith sometimes in the hearts of Gods seruants, is like the last sparke of a coale of fire going out; like the little graine of mustard seed, which the smaller birds deuoured; and like the last gaspe of a dying man; yet it recouereth it selfe, and gathe­reth new strength. It fareth of­ten times with the good chri­stian in his faith, as it did at a time with Eutychus, who slept at sermon time, and fell from the third loft, and was taken vp [Page 284] dead, of whom Paul said,Act. 20.10. Trouble not your selues, for life is in him. Isai 6.13. There is substance in an elme, or an Oake, when they haue cast their leaues. Isai. 65 8. Wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, De­stroy it not, for a blessing is in it. There be such Apoplexies of faith with men by fits, as if so be God should not take vs vp in his armes, as Paul did Eutychus, we might perish euerlastingly; we so faintly inwardly draw the breath of life, as it can hard­ly be perceiued. In such an Apo­plexie was Dauid, when for a whole yeares space hee wallow­ed in the mire, and puddle of his adultery without touch of breast. So was Peter in his Apo­stasie; and Salomon in his Ido­latry. He that neuer doubted of his saluation, neuer yet be­leeued. The true beleeuer fee­leth often and much fluctuati­ons, and wauerings; euen as a healthfull man feeleth grudg­ings [Page 285] and quaimes of an ague, and sicknesse, which he should not feele if he were not haile. I read of a man who said to Christ,Mark 9.24. Lord I beleeue, helpe my vnbeleefe; which is all one, as to say, I beleeue, and I doe not beleeue. Therefore he who be­fore was a suppliant to Christ, to heale his sonnes infirmitie, is now as earnest a solicitor for himselfe, to heale his owne in­credulity. How pittifully did Dauid plaine his case, when hee spake thus passionately?Psal. 77.7, 8, 9, 10. Will the Lord absent himselfe for euer? and will he be no more in­treated? is his mercy cleane gone for euer? and is his promise come vtterly to an end for euermore? Hath God forgotten to be graci­ous? and will hee shut vp his lo­uing kindnesse in displeasure? yea, he stoppeth not here, but proceedeth as if he were in de­speration; I sayd this is my death. And this appeareth by [Page 286] that he elsewhere saith, Why art thou so vexed, O my soule, and why art thou so disquited within me? Faith hath not onely her Spring time, and her Summer season, but also the fall of the leafe, and the winter. Many Christians are but as broken reedes, ouerthrowne by euery blast of wind; and but as smo­kie flax which hath fire in it, but so weake, as it neither can giue heat nor light, but smoke only. But as the Infant who as yet hath not the vse of rea­son, is a reasonable creature; as he that is in a swound, and is not sensible of life, yet is not dead; so a Christian hath many quaimes creeping vpon his heart, and falleth often into a spirituall swound, and cannot perceiue at all any life of faith in him, and yet he is a Chri­stian.

Now I exhibit these salues vnto thee, for the cure of this [Page 287] thy sore. 1. The commande­ment of God, to beleeue in Christ, 1 Ioh. 3.23. Now this is his com­mandement, that we should be­leeue on the name of his sonne Ie­sus Christ. Thou shalt not steale, it is Gods commandement, and thou darest not but keepe it, because of the curse inflicted on the violaters of it. Now the former is Gods commande­ment as well as the latter. And therefore why should wee not as much stand in awe of the one as of the other? 2. The inde­finite nature, and generality of his promises made to all, exclu­ding none;Ioh. 3.16. So God loued the world, as he gaue his only begot­ten Sonne, that whosoeuer be­leeueth in him should not perish, but haue life euerlasting. When the king sealeth a generall par­don for all theeues, euery one is apt to make present vse of this pardon to himselfe, al­though his name be not men­tioned [Page 288] in the parchment: so God particularly offereth vn­to thee pardon and saluation, in his word of promise generally deliuered. 1. In Baptisme. 2. in his Supper. Why shoul­dest thou therefore question the matter? By doubt and de­speration thou dost as much displease God, as thou dost al­most by any sinne else. Yea in Hieromes iudgement, Iudas his sinne of Desperation was more transcendent than the other his bloud-red sinne was of his trea­son against his Sauiour. And Isi­dore rendreth vs the reason for it, because to sin hainously is the death of the soule, but to de­spaire, is to throw it hastily and headlong into hell. To despaire of Gods mercy, is to derogate from God in the highest de­gree: for thereby we turne his truth into a lie, and iustifie Sa­tan more than God; for God hath promised, sworne and set [Page 289] to his red wax, euen the bloud of his Sonne vnto it. Desperati­on is an immedicable maladie; for wee doe thereby as hee that hath a wound, and almost hea­led vp, that thrusteth in his nailes, and maketh it as raw and rancke, and as grieuous as at the first. Desperation is the state and condition of the damned; for euery thing on earth liueth vn­der hope: for he that liueth, li­ueth in hope; and he that dieth, dieth in hope. Yea, the creature groaneth vnder hope, and loo­keth for deliuerance in the ex­pectation of the reuelation of the sonnes of God. Desperation is like the fourth beast mentio­ned in Daniel, not named, but noted to beDan. 7.7. fearefull, and terri­ble, and very strong: and to haue great iron teeth, that it deuoured, brake in peeces, stamped: ten bornes, and a mouth speaking pre­sumptuous things. It hath hornes to push at God with blas­phemies, [Page 290] at our neighbours with iniuries, at our own soules by distrust of the mercies of God towards vs: wherefore cast we not vp the bloud of Christ to the aire with Iulian, neither spill we it vpon the earth with Saul, or sacrifice it vpon a tree with Iudas. For is this the wa­ge [...] wee shall giue to him, who hath borne the heat and bur­then of the day? Shall hee reape no better haruest than this, for his sowing in teares? Is this the bowle of wine we offer to him, who hath trodden the wine­presse of the wrath of God? For the cup of saluation hee hath graciously giuen to vs, shall we minister vnto him the cup of desperation? Nay, ye that are Lions in your owne houses, fiercer against your selues than others, behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world. His death moued the boniest parts of the earth, [Page 291] the rockes and the stones; and shall it not much more moue vs? It is an Aphorisme worthy to be applauded by the double spirit of Elias, Why should I bee afraid in the dayes of euill, when iniquity compasseth mee at the beeles? Fortune may forsake an honest man, but faith and hope cannot: hee that is without hope, is without his best aduo­cate that should plead his cause. A Gentile spake it, and let euery true Christian confirme it,Seneca, Qui ni­hil potest sperare, desperet nihil. He that can hope of nothing, let him despaire of nothing. Hope is as the showre of the second raine in the drought of summer. Cy­negerus a noble gentleman, and a valiant man at armes among the Athenians, in a fight at sea, when other meanes failed him, griped with his hands a ship of the enemies, to hold it to bat­tell; and when his hands were chopt off, hee tooke hold with his teeth, and would not let goe [Page 292] his hold, till hee was strucken out of life. So I will not by Gods grace giue ouer my hold of salua­tion while I liue: No, though the Lord should kill me, (as Iob saith) I will put my trust in him. Wherefore, O my soule, say thou with Peter, It is good for me to be here: And with Dauid, My trust shall bee in the tender mercies of God for euer and euer. I will not so fall as the Elephant falleth, who when he is downe cannot rise againe. I will taste of the fruit of the tree of life, that mine eyes may bee opened.Cantic. 3.4. I will hold him whom my soule loueth, and will not let him goe. The Saints at all times, amidst their vttermost feare, haue inter­posed hope. Dauid who said in his haste,Psal. 31. I am cast out of thy sight, could yet againe assume to himselfe new spirits, yet thou heardest the voyce of my prayer, when I cried vnto thee. And hee sendeth out his exhortation to [Page 293] all, That they would put their trust in the Lord, and hee shall stablish their hearts. And in ano­ther place he saith, I am forgot­ten like a dead man, I am become like a broken vessell: but my trust hath beene in thee, I haue said thou art my God. Christ was not without his conuulsion, and a quicke one to, when as in the sense of humane nature, hee thought himselfe to bee forsa­ken; yet had he an assured hope and confidence in God. For which cause in his extremes, hee called him his God, My God, my God. Thus God sen­deth alwayes a gracious raine vpon his inheritance, to refresh it when it is weary.

CHAP. XXIII. Of the necessitie of Prayer.

PRaier is the life of the soule, when it is in such heaui­nesse, as neither wine, nor strong drinke can refresh it, but the spirits within the bow­els be as melting wax, taking no delight in light or darkenesse, in pleasures or riches.Iam. 5.13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Yea vnder the correction of so great an Apostle bee it spoken, afflicted or not afflicted, let him pray. But such as ingrosse the prosperiry of the times, and wallow in worldly wealth, and are eminent for their honours and high places, very hardly can bee brought vpon their [Page 297] knees by prayer. For as Basil saith, A custome which length of time hath begotten, is a second nature. Wherefore wee com­pare them with the horse and mule, without vnderstanding; neither conceiuing the benefits of God, neither drawing neere to him as their founder. Where­fore God peirceth their iawes with sorrowes and sicknesses, as with an hooke.Psal. 32.10. Whose mouths must be holden with bit and bri­dle, lest they fall vpon thee. Now by such meanes it pleaseth God to conuert some of the wealthi­est and proudest among them. For the crosse (as saith Gregorie Nazianzen) is the salue of sal­uation. Greg. Nazian. Crux [...]harma­cum salutis. It is the fountaine of life as Chrysostome termeth it.Greg. Malaquae nos pr [...]munt, ad Dominum ire­compellunt. For the euills which here presse vs, pricke vs on to Godward, as saith Gregory. And many when they feele the smart, correct the fault. Bern. Et multi cum sentiunt poenam corrigunt culpam. It is the saying of Saint Ber­nard, Where the affliction is, and [Page 298] the temptation, Aug. Vbi crux & tentatio, ibi vera eratio. there is praier and deuotion. So saith Augu­stine very rightly. I know the mans name, that while he was in the ruffe, there was no rule of him; his tongue was too bigge for his mouth, saying,Psal. 30.6. I said in my prosperity. I shall neuer be remoued, thou Lord of thy good­nesse hadst made my hill so strong. But with the turne of a hand, he found his ouersight, and turned copy, singing another song, Thou diddest turne thy face from me, and I was troubled. And this alteration begat bet­ter bloud in him, euen prayer, the iuyce and bloud of the foule: Then cried I vnto the Lord, and gat me to the Lord right humbly. Iacob when hee perceiued that death had stricken him,Heb. 11.2. worshipped, lea­ning vpon the top of his staffe. Thus his prayer was the effect and fruit of his faith. Where­fore when our miseries and ma­ladies [Page 299] doe multiply, and grow more and more vpon vs, let vs not mutter betweene the teeth, and say,Psal. 4. Who will shew vs any good? But let vs take out our lesson in the words following, Lord lift thou vp the light of thy countenance vpon vs. Thou hast giuen me more ioy of heart, than they haue had when their oyle, wheat, and wine did abound. Shall wee amidst our sorrowes and sicknesses, cast our selues downe vpon a bed of desperati­on, as Iezabel did cast down her­selfe vpon a bed of fornication? Shall wee swallow downe sor­row and heauinesse, as the Be­hemoth doth the waters of Ior­dan with her mouth? Shall we liue the life of Caine, or die the death of Iudas? Or shall we be­ginne to curse the day in which we were borne? Our God for­bid it. What then? I will say my prayers; and that is a su­persedeas to all my sorrowes, [Page 300] and my absolute quietus est. Ber­nard in a conceit, setteth downe a Table or Map before our eies, in which are pourtraied out the Kings of Babylon and Hierusa­lem; by whom hee vnderstan­deth the Church & Common­wealth at strife betweene them­selues. Now in this combate, one of the King of Hierusalems souldiers conuayed himselfe by flight to the castle of Iustice. But the Castle being besieged by armed men round about, Feare dismayed and danted all Hope. But Madam Prudence gi­ueth encouragement and new spirits, saying, Knowest thou not that our King is the King of glo­ry, strong and mighty in battell? Wherefore dispatch thou a mes­senger to this King, who may sig­nifie thy necessity. But hereto Feare replieth, But whom shall I send? For darknesse is vnder his feet, and thicke clouds are his pauilion round about him: our [Page 301] enemies are on euery side of vs, our iourney is farre, and we know not the way. Now here Ladie Iustice is consulted with, who saith, Be of good comfort, I haue a faithfull messenger that knoweth the way, and dare presume to presse to the Kings bed-chamber doore, and take hold of the ringle, and knock and say, Open vnto me the doore of righteousnesse, and be ye left open yee euerlasting doores, that this messenger Prayer may come in. We haue no other mes­senger saue this; for if I shall make a mittimus of my merits, the starres thinke scorne of this, which are impure in Gods sight: if wee shall dispatch our diffidence vp to heauen in our heauinesse, it will faint before it hath gone halfe the way. If wee shall addresse our blasphemies and impatience, all the crea­tures both in heauen and earth will rise vp against vs. Prayer therefore is the true and surest [Page 302] friend I haue, that shall goe on my errand, and plead my cause before the high God.

Wherefore in all our sick­nesses & Oeconomicall distres­ses, let vs not runne to Magici­ans, Negromancers, Sooth-sayers, Wizzards, Witches, the deuills agents, being expresly commanded the contrary, Leuit. 19.30. Deut. 18.11. Leuit. 20.6. vpon paine of be­ing cut off as a rotten branch, from among the people. Nei­ther are we to trudge to dead Saints; for the Saints in hea­uen doe not know what is done on earth, as Augustine rightly saith, and according to the Scriptures,Isai. 53.16. Doubtlesse thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of vs, and Israel knoweth vs not. Much lesse are we to runne to carued and en­grauen Images of wood, gold, siluer, stone, brasse, or of what­soeuer other matter they bee [Page 303] made of. The vanity whereof is largely drawne out at length,Psal. 115.4. by Dauid, and set before our eies. These beeIerem. 2.13. the broken pipes and cesterns that will hold no water. But wee are to flee to God alone by way of prayer; for he isPsal. 46.2. our refuge. He callethMatth. 11.28. all that are weary and laden to himselfe. Psal. 91.15. He shall call vpon me, and I will heare him: yea I am with him in trouble, I will deliuer him. Psal. 50.15. Call vpon me in the time of trouble, so I will heare thee, and thou shalt praise me.

Now the effect of holy praier is most effectuall.Eccles. 35.17. The prayer of him that humbleth himselfe, goeth thorow the clouds, and cea­seth not till it come neere, and will not depart till the most High haue respect thereunto. Prayer (saith Saint Ambrose) is the best buckler, Ambros. Bonum scutum est oratio. it maketh vs of men the Temples of Christ: and he whom the heauens cannot containe, en­treth into the soule conuersant in [Page 304] prayer, saith Chrsostome. And as the Sunne sheweth light vnto the body, so prayer is the light of the soule: saith the same Father. And as the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary, delighteth him that smelleth it; so prayer hath its effectuall force, pleasing the nostrils of the Almighty. Ps. 145.18, 19. The Lord is nigh to all them that call vpon him: yea, to all such as call vpon him faithfully. He will ful­fill the desire of them that feare him: he also will heare their cry, and will helpe them. Psal. 50.15. Call vpon me in the time of trouble, so I will heare thee, and thou shalt praise me. Chrysostome furnisheth vs with a cloud of witnesses in the cause, as how prayer quenched the violence of the fire, in the three young men, the consorts of Daniel: shut vp the mouthes of the Lions, that they might not hurt Daniel. As how the prayer of Moses stilled the rage of the people: as how prayer [Page 305] opened the gates of paradise; at how that prayer hath opened the kingdome of heauen to all beleeuers; as how that praier hath beene effectuall to make the barren woman fruitfull, and to be a ioyfull mother of chil­dren; as how that the prayers of the Church hath broken the gates of brasse, and smote the barrs of Iron asunder, to loose Peter and Paul out of their pri­sons; as how the praiers of Cor­nelius peirced the heauens; and finally, as how prayer iustified the Publican in the Temple. And here I may say with the Apostle,Heb. 11.32. The time will not serue me, to speake of all who haue preuailed mightily with God through praier.

But the common praiers of the Church, when (to vse Ter­tullians words) wee ioyne toge­ther in a company, and as it were by a set match, to set vpon God by praier; hath I know not what se­cret [Page 306] power in it. For it is a posi­tion in Politie, which holdeth good also in Diuinity,Vis vnita for­tior. Vnited force is stronger. So much Chry­sostome sheweth by similitude; coales scattered vpon the hearth, giue some heat and light; but heaped together, they afford a farre greater; so the priuate prayers of Christi­ans in their closets, the doores shut vpon them, are not with­out their vertue and effect; but the multitude in the open church, in their prayers, exceed them in the efficacie thereof. If the prayers of one good man auaileth much, the praiers of many righteous soules assem­bled together, shall auaile much more in this their holy exercise. If the woman of Sy­rophenissa obtained that she prai­ed for on the behalfe of her chil­dren; how shall not an assem­bly of much people, meeting together in the house of prayer, [Page 307] to lift vp pure hands without wrath or doubting, on the be­halfe of Gods children, bee heard of God. If where two or three bee gathered together in his name, there he hath promi­sed to be present among them; how shall hee not much more be present among a multitude that meet together, with one heart and one soule? Hierome compareth the noise of pub­lique prayer, with the noise of a thunder, that rendeth the clouds with the roarings that it maketh. Basil likeneth it to the noise & rage of the sea. And Chrysostome saith, that prayers are more powerfull than proui­sion military,Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 5. Niceph. lib. 14. cap. 10. which hee com­monstrateth by the examples of Moses, of the souldiers of Au­relius, of Athanasius, of the Or­thodoxall Fathers against Arri­us, of Theodosius, and of Con­stantine the Emperour.

Obiect. Yea but in the paines [Page 308] and pangs of death when they come vpon vs, our senses for­sake vs, and our speech faileth vs, and so we become vnfit for prayer.

Answ. The sobs and sighes of a broken and contrite heart, are as effectual prayers before God, as they that are vocall. Prayer consisteth in the affection of the heart; the voice is but only the outward messenger of the heart. God regardeth not the lips, but the heart:Psal. 10.19. O Lord thou hast heard the desire of the poore, thou preparest their heart, and thine eare hearkeneth thereto. Psal. 145.19. Hee will fulfill the desire of them that feare him. Yea the teares of the faithfull are loud prayers in the eares of the most High. Zacha­rias was dumbe, and could not speak; yet were his praiers heard. He that made the heart and the tongue, & the language of them both, doth vnderstand and con­sider both of them alike, and is [Page 309] as nigh to the reines as to the lips. In the eares of God, Bernard. In Dei auribus desideri­um vehe [...]es cla­mor magnus est: remissa intentio vox submissa. a ve­hement desire, is a vehement cry, and a slack intention, is a low pro­nunciation. 1 Sam. 1.13. Hannah a figure of the Church, praied in her heart, her lips did but moue only, but her voice was not heard: wher­fore Ely thought she had beene drunken. And truely shee was drunken; but not with wine nor strong drinke, but with deuoti­on, issuing from the winepresse of a broken heart. The heart is the cesterne that containeth Gods honour, and the tongue is the pipe that letteth it out to others. The soule and the body haue Caesars Image and super­scription vpon them; and ther­fore the tribute of them both he requireth. And these bee the two mites, which being cast in­to Gods treasury, we offer more to him, than the wealthiest of all. Wherefore lift we vp our soules with Dauid, our hands with [Page 310] Moses, our eyes with Stephen, our voice with Deborah, and all the children of God, who de­sire to giue God the praise due vnto his Name.

CHAP. XXIV. How the Dying man is to dispose his goods before his Death.

TO set our house in order, as Ezechias was willed by [Page 312] Isaiah. is to settle our estates and goods vpon the right owners. The right owners are our wiues, children, kinsfolke, allies, the Church and the poore. Wherfore Abraham is told con­cerning Eleazar, who was but a stranger:Gen. 15.4. This man shall not be thine heire; but one that shall come out of thine owne bowels, he shall be thine heire. Wherefore it was giuen to the Israelites for a law:Num. 27.8. If a man die and haue no sonne, thou yee shall turne his in­heritance vnto his daughter. And if he haue no daughter, yee shall giue his inheritance vnto his bre­thren: And if hee haue no bre­thren, yee shall giue the inheri­tance vnto his fathers brethren. And if his father haue no br [...] ­thren, you shall giue the inheri­tance to the next kinsman of his family, and hee shall possesse it. From this written law, agreeing with the law of Nature, the A­postle euicteth this his conse­quence: [Page 313] Rom. 8.17. If children, then heires. And this law vnder the Law, is thus confirmed by the Law of the Gospell:1 Tim. 5.8. If any prouide not for his owne, and spe­cially for those of his owne house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an Infidell. Where­fore it is vnlawfull finally and totally, for a man to alienate all his possessions and goods from his progeny and posteritie.Plato de repub. lib. 2. And this the law it selfe of Nature disclaimeth, as Philosophers haue taught. 2.Arist. lib. 5. cap. 8. And here is checked the awke practise a­mongst vs, in conferring almost all vpon the eldest son, leauing, in respect of the elder, little more than nothing to the youn­ger to liue vpon. As if the elder brother were borne to be a Gen­tleman, and the younger to be beggers, and to carry the wallet. We grant that the first-borne is to goe away with the greatest portion; 1. In respect he is the [Page 314] first-borne. 2. For the preser­uation of the name in the fami­ly and person. 3. The better to beare out the charge of office and prefecture in the Cōmon­wealth, which would not so well be performed, in case the lands and goods should bee equally diuided.

2. Againe, for a man to set his house in order, hee is to re­store such goods as haue beene any way wrongfully acquired and detained. So teacheth vs Zacheus to doe, who when he was conuerted, proclaimed a sa­tisfaction that he would make to all such whom hee had for­merly iniured:Luke 19.8. If I haue ta­ken any thing from any man by forged cauillation, I restore him foure-fold. It is a hainous sinne for a man when hee is to die, to commend his soule to God, and his goods wickedly gotten to his children, not making satis­faction.

Quest. But what if a man hath not wherewith to make a­mends?

Answ. Let him craue for­giuenesse, and God will accept the will for the worke. So Paul auoucheth in the like case:2 Cor. 8.12. If there be first a willing minde, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

Quest. But in as much as a man cānot restore, without ble­mishing his good name; how may satisfaction bee perfor­med, and his credit kept vntou­ched?

Answ. Let him make choice of some honest and faithfull friend, who may performe this office for him, and suppresse his name.

Quest. But what if the party wronged be dead?

Answ. Hee must satisfie his heires; and in case an heire and successour be wanting, let resti­tution [Page 316] be made to the Church, and to the poore.

Now this satisfaction is ano­ther phlebotomie, which mini­sheth the quantity of the bloud, but taketh away the matter of the ague, and preserueth life. So he that restoreth goods got­ten by guile, impaireth his stocke, but it purgeth his infa­tiable greedinesse of getting, the death of his soule, and sa­ueth the life of it. While thou catchest others in the snare, the Deuill catcheth thee; and so long as thou holdest such goods in thy fists, the Deuill holdeth thee. Thou gettest gold, and losest heauen: thou dost vniust­ly keep that which is anothers, and dost iustly depriue thy own selfe of thine eternall Inheri­tance. An vniust gaine, but a iust losse: gaine in thy coffer, but griefe in thy conscience. Now a mischiefe on such money that spoileth my soule. I maruell not [Page 317] that thine heires restore not the goods ill gotten by thee: I mar­uel not that they loue them bet­ter than another mans soule: in as much as thou hast loued them better than thine owne soule. Augustine in this case is peremp­tory, in this manner:August. ad Ma­ced. epist. 54. pae­nitentia non agi­tur, sed simula­tur. If that which is anothers, for which thou hast sinned, may be restored, and is not, it is no faithfull, but a fai­ned repentance. August. Non re­mittitur peccatū nist restituatur ablatum. If it be truly per­formed, the sinne is not remitted, vnlesse satisfaction be performed: alwaies presupposing that the par­tie bee of abilitie to performe it. Fulgentius vpon this text from Matthew, Euery tree that bring­eth not forth good fruit, shall bee hewen down and cast into the fire, argueth thus; If sterilitie be de­termined to the fire, what shall we iudge of extorting rapacity? If hee shall burne in hell that giueth not his owne, how shall he escape that taketh from another? And the like Rabanus speaketh in ef­fect [Page 318] vpon the doome of Christ to bee denounced against the wicked in the last day. I was an hungry, and yee fed me not, &c. I was an hungry, and my little bread that remained, thou hast beguiled me of: I had but a vile garment to couer mee, and thou hast stript me of it: I had but a poore pight-hill at the bak-side of my house, and thou hast taken the morgage of it. Behold Zacheus, little in growth, but great in graces a principall receiuer, & a principal restorer: rich in goods, and richer in good workes: in his sinfull state of life, renoun­cing sinne: He gaue not crums from his table, or fragments of meat, but halfe of his goods, not to his friends that could retaile them; but to the poor that could make no requitall: he restored, not the principall, but gaue foure-fold satisfaction: hee voi­ded himselfe of earthly goods, to replenish his soule with hea­uenly [Page 319] goodnesse. If thou canst not say with old Samuel, 1 Sam. 12.3. whose goods haue I taken say with Za­cheus, Luke 19.8. whose goods haue I kept. We are charged in the first place not to offer wrong, and in the next to make amends. So much the Inhibition serued vpon vs insinuateth vnto vs:Iosua 6.18. Beware of the execrable thing, lest yee make your selues execrable. For that which is vnlawful, we may well terme execrable. This is the first point. The second is in these words of Daniel to Nabuchado­nosor the King,Dan. 4 24. Breake off thy sinnes by righteousnesse. As disea­ses are cured by their contrary remedies, so are our sinnes: as pride, by humility: gluttony, by abstinence: offences, with re­mission: couetousnesse, with almesdeeds: so is robbery and rapine by restitution. As the Camel being to enter the stable, shaketh off his burthen at the doore, the easier to get in: so the [Page 320] gate of heauen being a strait gate, it is impossible, with the burthen of other mens goods vpon our backes, we should en­ter in. Therefore they must of necessitie bee cast off to make vs a passage.

CHAP. XXV. The sicke man disposeth his body to the ground.

THe Iob. 25.6. sonne of man (as Iob saith) is but a worme; Earth and ashes are our materi­alls; So telleth vs Syrach, Eccles. 10.9. Solon. Putredo os in exhortu; esca vermium in morte; ter [...]am geris; terram teris; et in ter­ram reuerteris, quia de terra sumeris. Why art thou so proud, O earth and ashes? we are corruption at our birth; we are wormes meat at our death; we beare earth; wee tread earth; we are taken from the earth; we returne vnto the earth. Call wee into our often and much consideration (as Basil aduiseth vs) how that these the now liuely members of our body, and the concupi­scence of the flesh, which is now present with vs, by and by shall be no more; the mem­bers being to be dissolued, and resolued into their earth. Bee we mindfull of nature, and all [Page 323] the force and prouocation to malitiousnesse shall vanish a­way. Let vs trauell to our graues (the words of Chrysostome) shew me thy father, shew mee thy wife, where is hee that ietted in his purple, who was caried in his coach betweene heauen and earth, who led armies after him, who was circuled with souldiers round about, who went garded with his tormentors, and officers of that nature, who slew some downe right, imprisoned other­some, and set at liberty such as it pleased him? I see now nought else but rotten bones, and wormes, and spiders. All things are but at a tale that is told, a dreame, a shadow, a naked nar­ration, and an Image. Here is no distinction (saith Ambrose) betweene the carkasses of the dead, vnlesse perhaps it be this, that the corps of the rich man di­stended with luxurie; giueth a more ranke and noysome fa­uour. [Page 324] Wherefore learne we this one lesson, to despise life. No man hath well gouerned it, but he that hath despised it. Seneca. Nemo illam bene rex­it, nisi qui con­tempserit. No man can at­taine to a quiet life, who thinketh ouermuch how he may lengthē it.

Wel, I now die, I desire you my friends, that you see that I be bu­ried in seemely sort; in as much as my body while it liued, was the temple of the holy Ghost. I intreat you with Cyrus king of Persia, in Xenophon, This body of mine, O my children, after it be dead, conclude not in any sumptu­ous monument: for what are we to desire rather, than that we should returne to our mother the earth, which brought vs forth: wherfore bury it out of hand. And now all of you farewell; & hear­ken yee to the words of Syrach, Eccles. 38.16. My son powre forth teares ouer the dead, and begin to mourn, as if thou hadst suffered great harme thy selfe; and then couer his body according to his appointment, [Page 325] and neglect not his buriall.

I doe not deny but that it is lawful & commendable to bury the dead, according to their e­state and condition while they liued.Gen. 50.2, 7. Thus Ioseph commanded the physitians his seruants, to embalme his father Israel. And Ioseph went vp to burie his fa­ther, and with him went all the seruants of Pharao, both the el­ders of the house, and all the el­ders of the land of Aegypt; like­wise all the house of Ioseph, and his brethrē, & his fathers house.Gen. 50.26. And Ioseph himself was embal­med, & put in a chest in Aegypt. 1 Sam. 3.31. So Dauid solemnized Abners funeralls, and followed the Biere and Hearse himselfe.Ioh. 11.31. So many of the Iewes accompanied Ma­ry to the buriall of Lazarus, and it shall become vs right well to doe the like; it being the last office of courtesie and charity, which euery one ought to per­forme to other. But yet here a [Page 326] moderation is required, where Chrysostome roundly reproueth such, who bedecke dead bodies with rich array, rings of gold, and precious stones, speaking in this wise, Cease from this madde magnificence about fune­rals: for what meaneth this superfluous cost, much vnprofita­ble to them that bestow it, and doth no manner of good to the dead, but hurt rather? For a sumptuous buriall, very often causeth theeues to digge the dead out of their graues, to strip them of their ornaments, and iewels, and to leaue them open and na­ked to the publique view. But they will perhaps say, that af­fection, sorrow, and commise­ration of the dead, vrgeth thee so to doe. Hereto answe­reth Chrysostome, It is not pietie, or pity, but vaine glory: For if thou meanest to be pitifull to the dead, I will shew thee a better way; namely, to adorne them [Page 327] with such vestures, as shall rise againe with him, and make him glorious. And what be they I pray? Namely, thy almesdeeds. Almes is his signet and seale-ring he caries with him; in these gar­ments he shall shine, when he shall heare these words; you saw mee hungry, and you gaue me to eat, &c. These are the fairest fune­ralls vnder the sunne; these a­uaile such as remaine, and honour them that are gone.

Neither doe wee forbid any to mourne ouer the dead; for the Saints like it well.Gen. 23.2. Abraham mourned and wept for Sarah. Gen. 35.19. Iacob for Rachel. Gen. 50.10. Ioseph and his brethren for Iacob; And they came to Goron-Arad which is beyond Iordan, and there they made a great and exceeding sore lamentation, and hee mourned for his father. Num. 20.30. The Iewes for Aaron, Deut. 34.8. for Moses, 1 Sam. 21.1. for Sa­muel, 2 Chron. 32.33. for Ezechiah. 2 Chron. 35.24 And Ie­remiah lamented Iosiah, and all [Page 328] singing men and singing women mou [...]ned for Iosiah in their lamen­tations to this day, and made the same for an ordinance vnto Isra­el, and they were also written in their lamentations, and became a common word amongst them. For whensoeuer afterward there was taken vp any great lamen­tation, it was sampled and mat­chedZach. 12.11. with that Hadradrimmon in the field of Megidde. Where­fore according to the counsell of the Apostle,Rom. 12.15. Weepe wee with them that weepe, ouer the dead,Eccles. 22.11. Because hee hath lost the light. Yea weepe we bitterly,Eccles. 38.17. Make a grieuous lamentation, and be ear­nest in mourning, and vse lamen­tation as he is worthy: and that a day or two, lest thou be euill spo­ken of. This not onely naturall inbred affection inuiteth vs to doe, but also charity it selfe re­quireth it at our hands, as mem­bers of one and the same body: and so consequently others e­uils [Page 329] are our owne, by a sympa­thie of the body of Christ.

CHAP. XXVI. Of the end of the Reprobates, and of their paines in hell.

HAuing laid open these par­ticulars, we will last of all speake, De fine malorum & bono­rum; of the end of the Reprobate and Elect.

The Reprobates shall not be able to stand in the iudgement, neither the wicked in the Con­gregation of the iust. They shall rise againe to condemnation; both the liuing and the dead shall then haue immortall bo­dies, but without glory: and they standing vpon the earth at the left hand of Christ the Iudge, shall heare the sentence of condemnation,Matth. 25.41. Depart from [Page 331] me ye cursed into euerlasting fire, which is prepared for the Deuill and his Angels. That there is an hell prouided for the Repro­bates, our Sauiour witnesseth in plaine words, Goe yee cursed into hell fire, &c. The Apostle witnesseth,2 Thes. 1.8, 9. In flaming fire, rendring vengeance vnto them, which shall be punished with euer­lasting perdition, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. The throbbings and throwings in conscience which the wicked sustaine, witnesse the fame,Rom. 2 15. Their conscience also bearing witnesse, and their thoughts accursing one another. The damned themselues wit­nesse it, speaking thus in the language of hell,Wisd. 5.3. This is hee whom we sometime had in derisi­on, we fooles thought his life mad­nesse, and his end without ho­nour, &c. The Deuils them­selues witnesse it, dreading these infernall torments, Art [Page 332] Matth. 8.29. thou come to torment vs before the time? Iam. 2.19. The Deuils beleeue, and tremble. The heathens themselues, by the little remai­ning light of that sparke of knowledge in them, though they haue mingled the truth with their fond fables, witnesse it,Iust. Martyr. serm. ad Gentes exhort. as Iustine Martyr sheweth it. Now albeit (as Chrysostome saith) Nothing is more fruitfull than to reason of hell fire, for it shall purifie the soules aboue siluer tried seuen times in the fire: yet it is both vnprofitable and rash, curiously to enquire after the si­tuation and proper place where hell should be, as not a few haue done; who determined it to be in an hollow caue, or center of the earth, and so punctually doe describe vnto vs the space ther­of, as if with a reed or metwand in their hand they had taken the iust measure of it. But let such see to that, saith Saint Au­gustine, how they vnderstand [Page 333] their Poeticall inuentions. Chrysostome saith, Thou wilt say, in what place is this hell that is spoken of? I aske thee why thou doest stand vpon that so much? All the matter is, that wee proue that there is a hell, and not that we shew where hell is. Finally, saith the same Father,Chrys. serm. 31. in 16. cap. ad Roma­nos. Our care ought not so much to bee to know in what place hell is, as to learne and study how we may auoid it. When an house is on fire, it is but an idle question to aske from whence, and how the fire came; but all our care must bee to know how to quench it.

Touching the paines and torments of the damned in hell, they are horrible, intolerable, in­explicable. They shall be exclu­ded the kingdome of heauen,Matth 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed, &c. Matth. 22.13. Binde him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into vtter darknesse, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There shall [Page 334] bee weeping with a witnesse; For their eyes shall bee a foun­taine of teares, and their teeth within their heads shall clatter like a troope of armed men.Iob 10.22. Into a land darke as darknesse it selfe, into the shadow of death, where there is no order, but the light is there as darknesse. Reuel. 21.8. Into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Psal. 11.7. Where hee shall raine vpon them snares fire, brim­stone, storme, tempest, this shall be their portion to drinke. Psal. 49.19. Hee shall neuer see light. Isa. 66.24. Their worme shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched. 2 Thes. 3.8, 9. The Lord shal shew himselfe in flaming fire, and shall punish them with euerla­sting perdition. Bern. Fletus ob ignem qui non extinguetur, stri­dor ob vermem qui non morietur Plane fletus ex dolore, stridor dentium ex fu­rer. They shall weepe by meanes of the fire, that shall neuer bee quenched: they shall gnash with their teeth, for their worme that neuer dieth. For weeping a­riseth from dolour, gnashing of the teeth from furor. Reuel 9.6. They shal seeke death and shall not finde it: and [Page 335] shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Reuel. 14.11. They shall haue no rest day nor night. Ierem. 20.14. They shall cry, Cursed be the day wherin I was born, & let not the day wherin my mother me bare be blessed. Cursed be the man that shewed my father, saying, a man childe is borne vnto thee, and comforted him. Reuel. 6.16. They shall say to the mountaines and rockes fall on vs, and hide vs from the presence of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lambe. Then shall the horrible places of punishments lie open, a Chaos and mist of darknesse, the horror of misery and tribulation, the feare of an­guish and confusion, the griefe of horrible visions, the formi­dable feare of fearefull mansi­ons, the place of men weeping, the noise of teeth chattering, where there is the lamentati­ons of those that mourne, where is the voice of crying sinners, and saying, woe be vnto vs the [Page 336] sonnes of Euah: these bee the words of S^t. Augustine. There shall be no one part of body or soule that shall be able to helpe it selfe. The Memorie shall re­count nothing else but old fore-passed and thrice-odious sinnes. The Fantasie shall present no­thing but most fearefull visions. The Eares shall heare no other musicke than the scritchings of infernall furies. The Nostrils shall smell nothing else but sul­phureous fumes. The Feet shall walke no further than their chaines shall suffer them. What, and of what sort, and how great their tortures shall be, who is a­ble to conceiue?Greg. Infernus si­ne misericordia, quos tenet, cru­ciat. Hell tortureth without mercie, such as it re­taineth, saith Gregorie. Wee reade of exquisite torments ex­cogitated by tyrants; as the teeth of wilde beasts, hot bur­ning furnaces, vessels of boyling oyle and lead, fiery Buls, and engines of brasse, agitations and [Page 337] circumrotations in hogsheads full of sharp pointed nailes, scor­chings and roastings by an easie fire, perforations by awles and bodkins, the diuision of the flesh from the nailes by needles, the laceration and discerption of the flesh by wilde beasts, and many such like extreme tor­tures. But the torments of hell prepared for the damned, are infinitely more, and more into­lerable: and so much the more, as the wit of the Deuils goeth beyond the wit of man, and his malice more able to execute and performe his vnmercifull deui­ces. There is the cup of the deadliest wine that euer any ta­sted of, such wine as the Prophet speaketh of,Psal. 60.3. Thou hast giuen vs a drinke of deadly wine. Psal. 40.2. There is the horrible pit of mire & clay; and those profound graues out of which they can come forth no more,Isa 66.24. There is the fire ne­uer to be quenched. Ierem. 8.14. There bee [Page 338] those waters of gall that shall bee giuen them to drinke, of which Ieremie speaketh,Ezech. 38.21, 22. There bee those vnmercifull plagues whereby God will dispute his cause against Gog and Magog. Reuel. 14.10. The sword, the pestilence, the raine, the hailestones, the fire, the brimstone. There is the wine of Gods wrath, which is powred in­to the cup of his wrath; and hee shall bee tormented in fire and brimstone, before the holy Angels, and before the Lambe. Reu. 16.1.6. And the smoke of their torment shall as­cend euermore, and they shall haue no rest neither day nor night. There be those seuen vi­ols of the wrath of God, out of which, bloud shall bee giuen them to drinke. There they shall bee tormented with the heat of fire, and they shall gnaw their tongues for sorrow. The rich glutton in the Gospel, ex­perienced in these things,Quorum pars magna sui. as Aeneas was in the calamities of [Page 339] Troy, affordeth vs a kinde of skill in them. For the torments of hell were so importunate to haue their due to the vttermost of him, as if hee would haue shed more teares than euer Esau did for his blessing, hee could not haue obtained so much as a drop of water vpon the tip of his tongue, for the cooling thereof. And what if all the Ri­uers of the South had beene yeelded him? they would not haue sufficed him, but he would still haue howled out in the lan­guage of hell, and said, More, more.

But yet these vnutterable torments might be more tole­rable, if there might be hope of deliuerance at the last: but there is no redemption to be hoped for out of hell. There is no or­der, but euerlasting horrour; an end without end, a neuer dy­ing death, fire inextinguable, darknesse more palpable than [Page 340] the Aegyptian darknesse, a dark­nesse more blacke than very darknesse it selfe. Their tor­ments shall continue for time, and times, and when time shall bee no more. The euerlasting gates of hell shall bee so ram­pierd vp, as there can bee no e­gresse: as the East side of the garden of Eden Gen. 3.24. was warded by Cherubims, and the blade of a sword shaken, to keepe the way of the tree of life for euer, our first parents neuer to enter in any more. These gates of hell shall be kept sure, not by Che­rubims, but by Satan and his blacke guard; and the seale of Gods decree shall bee set vpon them, as the seale of the high Priest vpon the tombe-stone of Christ. The couenant of the day and of the night shall be chan­ged, the starres in the firmament shall finish their course, there shall be a time when winter and summer shall bee no more, the [Page 341] heauens shal passe away with the noise, the elements shall melt with heat, but the torments of the damned sort in hell shall neuer cease. A godly Matrone solicited by a villaine to vn­cleannesse, she desired him in declaration of his loue towards her, to hold his hands ouer a pan of coales but for the space of one houre, who answered her that it was an vnreasonable request; whereupon with this replication she disparched him, Shall you thinke it much to burne but a hand, & that but an houre for my sake; and shall I to satisfie your lust, burne both in body and soule in hell fire for euer? O consider this yee that forget God, lest by sinning with­out end, ye be tormented with­out end.

The often and much consi­deration of this, is more than necessary: for it will worke much to our amendment. For [Page 342] the nature of man is so seruile and brutish, as bitter things beget better things, and goe better down with vs. Hence it is that an iniury doth more spight vs, than a benefit doth delight vs; wee are more ready to re­uenge a wrong, than to recom­pence a good turne: wee are more disquieted through sick­nesse, than thankfull for our health: more deiected with re­straint, than erected with the freedome of our liberty: we are touched more with sorrow than with solace: more with trouble than with rest: more with pu­nishments than with rewards: more with threat [...] than with promises: more with the feare of euill, than with the hope and expectation of good. Hence it is that the Apostle exhorteth vs,Philip. 2.12. To finish our saluation with feare and trembling. The same Apostle hauing treatised of the Catholique iudgement, before [Page 343] which we are all of vs to be con­uented, hereupon inferreth,2 Cor. 5.11. knowing therfore that terrour of the Lord, wee perswade men. For there is not a better Orator to perswade than feare. Wherefore feare is said to be The beginning of wisdome. And Iob determi­neth it to bee wisdome it selfe. Absalon when he could not win Ioab on his side by faire means, he fired his barley fields, and by that tricke gained him. So whom the promises of God wil not perswade, the denuntiation of his iudgements will inforce. Were it not for the terrour of hell, wee should all of vs runne headlong into hell, saith Chryso­stome. And the same Father saith, No lesse (as I haue spoken it often) the commination of hell fire commendeth the prouidence of God towards vs, than the pro­mise of a kingdome. And this hee instanceth in the case of the Ni­neuites, Nineuie could not haue [Page 344] stood long, had not Ionas first pro­phesied of their fall: Yet within forty dayes, and Nineue shall bee destroyed. The message ouertur­ned the message: the Prophesie fell, and the city stood, because the fall thereof was foretold. The denunciation of death effectuated life; the sentence of destruction nullified the sentence. It was for a snare, and it became a refuge: They heard that their houses should fall, and they forsooke not their houses, but themselues.

CHAP. XXVII. Of life eternall, and of the felici­ty of the faithfull.

THat there is a life eternall, no Christian doubteth; it being so cleare and manifest by so many pregnant proofes of Scriptures.Dan. 12.2. Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to euerlasting life, and some to shame and perpetuall contempt. Mat. 25.46. And these shall goe into euerlasting paines, but the righteous into life eternall. Ioh. 3.16.36. God so loued the world, that hee hath giuen his onely begotten Sonne, that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish, but haue euerla­sting life. He that beleeueth in the Sonne, hath euerlasting life. Ioh. 6.40. This is the will of him that sent me, that euery man which seeth the Sonne, and beleeueth in him, [Page 347] should haue euerlasting life. Ioh. 10.28. And I giue vnto them eternall life, and they shall neuer perish. Heb. 13.14. Here we haue no continuing City; but we seeke one to come. 1 Thess. 4.17. Wee shall be euer with the Lord. Hugo lib. 3. de anima; Quic­quid in Scriptu­ra sacra docetur, veritas est; quic­quid praecipitur, bonitas est; quic­quid promittitur, foelicitas est. Now whatsoeuer is taught out of holy Scriptures, is the truth; what­soeuer is cōmanded, is goodnesse; whatsoeuer is promised, is happi­nesse. Wherefore what minde will feed vpon doubt any lon­ger, and will not absolutely quiet himselfe that way?

This is the reward laid vp in store for the righteous, and to all such as are true of heart.1 Thess. 4.17. Wee shall be euer with the Lord. Mat. 13. [...]3. We shall shine as the sunne in the kingdome of the father. 1 Cor. 15.43. That which is here sowen in corrupti­on, shall rise againe in incorrup­tion. Psal. 126.5. Prosper. Erit ibi eterna sanitas, & sana aeternitas; sec [...]ra trāq [...]illi­tas, tranquilla iucunditas; iu­cunda foelicitas, foelix aeternitas, aeterna foelicitas. August. Gaudi­um vitae illius nunquam decres­cet, neque amor tepescet; gemitus nullus audietur, neque dolor senti­etur; triste nil videbitur, laeti­tia semper habe­bitur. They that sow here in teares, shall reape then in ioy. There shall be eternall health, and healthfull eternity; a secure quietnesse, and a quiet ioyfulnesse; [Page 348] an happy eternity, and eternall happinesse; the words of Pro­sper. The ioy of that life shall ne­uer haue decrease, neither loue shall wax cold; no sighs shall bee heard, no paines shall bee felt, no sadnesse shall be seene, therein all ioy is to be had. 1 Cor. 2.9. The eie hath not seene, neither eare hath heard, neither came it into mans heart, the things that God hath prepared for them that loue him. Reuel. 21.4. And God shall wipe away all teares from their eies, and there shall bee no more death, neither sorrow, neither crying, neither shall there bee any more paine. The blessed estate of the life to come, Aug. Omnem ser­monem effugit, omnem sensum humanae mentis [...]xcedit, desideria & vota trans­greditur; acqui­ri potest, astima­ri non potest. saith Augustine, goeth be­yond the tongue of man to vtter, it goeth beyond the compasse of all humane senses, it goeth be­yond all a man can desire or wish for; it may be attained, but not estimated. The ioy thereof shall not bee worldly, vaine, transitory. The ioy of the flesh [Page 349] endeth with the flesh, saith Chry­sostome. It is perpetuall and eter­nall, which may not bee taken from vs.Isai. 35.16. The redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, an euer­lasting ioy shall come vpon their heads; they shall obtaine ioy and gladnesse, and mourning shall flee away. 2 Cor. 4.17. The light affliction which is but for a moment, cau­seth vnto vs a farre more excel­lent and an eternall weight of glory; while wee looke not on the things which are seene, but on the things which are not seene. For the things which are seene are temporall; but the things which are not seene are eternall. 1 Cor. 12. Bernard. Ibi a­mabimus sine modo; videbi­mus sine termino; cohaerebimus si­ne med [...]o: nam semper manebi­mus in Deo. Aug. de triplici tabernaculo. Then we shall see face to face. There wee shall loue be­yond measure; we shall see with­out end; we shall cleaue to him without meanes; for there wee shall alwaies abide in God. Ve­rily, saith Saint Augustine, there shall bee a heape of happinesse, when the Lord shall bring his [Page 350] Saints in the vision of glory, the society of Angels and Saints, and our presēce in the presence of God, incomparably exceedeth the king­dome of the whole world, though it might be eternall. Greg. in Homil. Gregory treatising vpon this subiect, tel­leth vs, that no tongue can vt­ter, nor vnderstanding compre­hend, how great the ioyes may be to be present in the quire of hea­uenly Angels, with the holy spi­rits, to stand by the glory of the Creator, and to see his present countenance. And truly as Saint Bernard saith, That is the solid and sole ioy, which is not from the creature, but from th [...] Creator; which when thou shalt possesse, none shall dispossesse, thee of; with which all other ioy be­ing compared, is but heauinesse, all pleasure, is sorrow; all sweet­nesse, is bitternesse; all comlinesse, filthinesse; and what may seeme delightfull, troublesome. More­ouer to the augmentation of [Page 351] their glory, they shall see the punishments of the wicked, which by the grace of God they haue escaped, saith Saint Gregory. Let the carefull consi­deration hereof raise thee vp O man, O faithfull soule.Greg. Quos vi­dentes, non dolo­re affici [...]ntur, sed laetitia satura­buntur; gratias agentes Deo de sua liberatione visa impiorum ineffabili calami­tate. Whom they heholding, they shall not bee touched with sorrow, but shall bee fulfilled with ioy; singing praises vnto God for their deliue­rance while they behold the vn­speakable calamitie of the dam­ned. Eccles. 5.1. Then shall the righteous stand in great boldnesse, before the face of such as haue tormented him. Aug in Psal. 138. Miseria tua dolor medicinalis est, non sententia pae­nalis. Thy misery is a medicinall grieuance, and not a penall sen­tence. The punishment of this life is short; and he that afflicteth, and he that is afflicted, are mor­tall, saith Isidore. Rom. 8.18. The afflictions of this present time are not wor­thy of the glory that shal be shew­ed vnto vs. Greg. Considera­tio haec praemij, minuet vim fla­gelli. The consideration of the reward, minisheth the force of the punishment. I cry out with [Page 352] Saint Bernard, O that I might die the death of the righte­ous; that I might attaine to the ioy of the blessed. There bee foure speciall names, by which the felicity of the faith­full is specified. 1. First it is sti­led a life, and such a life as is eternall. 2. A glory, and a crowne of glory, and that of such a weight, as is not to be ballanced. 3. A king­dome, and such a kingdome, as is not to be moued. 4. An in­heritance, and such an inheri­tance, as is immortall, vndefi­led, and fades not away. Now tell mee, O man, what is that thy heart would haue? Is there any thing that thou esteemest aboue life? Is there any thing that may hold comparison with the life of glorie? Is there any greater glorie than a kingdome of glorie? Is there any surer kingdome than that which is thine, by the right of an immor­tall [Page 353] and permanent Inheri­tance? Now all these are thine in Christ Iesus in the life to come.

And here we take notice of the excellencie of that life that we shall haue, in that it shall be a life of glory. It shall not be therefore base or contempti­ble; but the state thereof shall be euery way conspicuous and glorious. Wee may in some sort iudge of that glory, how glorious it shall bee, by the glo­ry of God manifested in his workes. If these workes of God which our eies behold, bee so glorious, what shall we thinke of those we see not? For doubt­lesse, among all the workes of God, those that are inuisible, are most excellent. The body of man is a beautifull worke­manship, but it is not compa­rable to the soule. This Glory I account the highest degree of eternall life. The first is righte­ousnesse, [Page 354] the second is Peace, the third is Ioy, the fourth is Glory. Righteousnesse begets Peace, and Peace brings forth Ioy, and our Ioy shall be crow­ned with Glory. If our perfor­māce of the works of righteous­nesse bring such comfort to the minde, as the godly finde by experience; how shall our com­fort exceed, when wee shall re­ceiue the reward of righteous­nesse,Bernard. in Cant. serm. 47. Si sic bonus es quaeren­tibus te; qualis es assequentibus▪ which is glory? If thou Lord be so good to them that seeke thee; what shalt thou be to them that finde thee? Wee may bee well assured, that these first fruits of the spirit, and the ear­nest of our heauenly inheri­tance, wherein standeth our greatest comfort, shall appeare as nothing, when that masse of glory shall bee taken vp, and communicated vnto vs. As the light of the Sunne when it ari­seth, obscureth the light of the Moone and the Starres; so [Page 355] that glory when it shall bee re­uealed, shall eclipse these our ioyes, which wee now easily suppose to be the greatest.Aug. de temp. serm. 49. Adeò enim pulchra est sa ies illa, vt illa visa, nihil aliud posset delectare. For so amiable is that face of God, that they who once see it, can be de­lighted with no other thing. The southerne Queene had a large report made her of Salomons wisdome, and of the glory of his kingdome; but when shee communed with him her selfe, and saw his state, shee found more by halfe beyond the re­port. And so shall wee one day, not only say with the Psalmist, As we haue heard, so haue wee seene in the city of our God: but shall be inforced to acknow­ledge that the glory prepared for vs, infinitely beyond all we can vtter or conceiue, excelleth all that we haue heard with our cares, or our fathers in times past haue told vs.Basil. Hexam. Semper enim ma­iora tribuit De­us quam promit­tit. For the Lord our God giueth alwaies greater things than he promiseth.

And yet albeit wee cannot speake of it as wee should, let our mindes muse vpon it as they may. When the Apostle was rapt to the third heauen, he heard such words as he could not vtter. And againe, the eye neuer saw, the eare neuer heard those things which God hath prepared for them that loue him.Aug. de verbis Domini, serm. 64. Facilius inueni­emus quid ibi non sit, quàm quid sit. And it is (faith Augustine) more easie to tell what that life is not, than to shew what it is. Yet certainely the Lord would neuer vse it as an Argument to com­fort vs in troubles, were it not, that it is his will that we should exercise our mindes in the con­sideration thereof. When the Lord first promised to giue A­braham the land of Canaan for inheritance, he commanded him to arise, and walke thorow the land to view the length and the bredth of it. And albeit he was not to giue him a present pos­session thereof, yet the Lord [Page 357] would haue him to view it, that the sight of that which God had promised, might refresh and sustaine his soule, till the day wherein hee should possesse it, came. So we, though we bee not presently to enter pos­session of our heauenly Canaan; yet seeing the Lord hath so commanded vs, let vs now and then goe with Moses to the top of mount Pisgah, and view it: that is, let vs separate our selues from the earth, and ascend vp by prayer and spirituall medita­tion, and solace our selues with some sight of that land, which it shall please the Lord one day to giue vnto vs. Now we see the Lord but thorow a veile, and in a mirrour; but then wee shall see him face to face, and shall in such sort behold his glory, as we shall be transformed into it. This change, as witnesseth the Apostle, is begun by the sight of God, which we haue in [Page 358] the Gospel. For euen now wee behold as in a mirrour, the glory of the Lord with open faith, and are changed from glory to glory, by the Image, by the Spirit of the Lord: but in heauen this change shall be perfected, and we shall be fully transformed into his similitude, so that nothing shall be left in vs, but that which is his workmanship. O Lord, how hast thou magnified thy mercy to­wards vs? Thou hast raised our honour from the dust, and deliuered our soules from the nethermost hell, and hast made vs to sit with thy selfe in the highest places, where wee shall bee filled with the ioyes which are at thy right hand, we shall drinke of the riuers of thy pleasures, in thy light wee shall see light, and bee transformed by the light of thy counte­nance. Moses was forty dayes with God vpon mount Sinai, and his face shined so bright, as [Page 359] when he descended, the people of Israel might not behold him. If those forty dayes remaining in the wildernesse with God, did so much alter him from the man hee was before; how shall we be altered, who shall for euer abide with him, and neuer any more come downe from him? Our face in that day, as our Siuiour Christ faith, shall shine as the Sunne in the firmament. O what glory shall be then a­mong them all, when the glory of one shall bee like the bright­nesse of the Sunne!August. ad Fra­tres in eremo. Quolis tunc erit splendor anima­rum, quando solis habebit cla­ [...]itatem lux cor­porum? When the light of that body shall bee like vnto the light of the Sunne, how great thinke yee shall bee the re­splendent light of the soule? The three disciples that were with our Sauiour vpon Mount T [...] ­bor, were so rapt with ioy at the glance of his glory which they saw, as they would there haue fastened the cords of their of­ten remoued tabernacles, and [Page 360] would there haue had their a­bode for a full doe; how then shall we be replenished with ioy when we shall see that full ma­nifestation of his glory? Wee shall couet no further remoue from that mountaine of the Lord. Another heart shall bee giuen vs, and wee shall become other men than we are. So that as a drop of water powred forth into a great vessell full of wine, loseth both the taste and co­lour of water, and becommeth wine; or as the iron put into the fire, assumeth after a sort the nature of fire; and as the aire illuminated with the bright shining sun, seemes not so much to bee illuminated, as to be light it selfe; so our soules and bodies, when the glory of God shall shine vpon them, shall be so maruellously chan­ged, that after a sort they shall become partakers of the di­uine nature.

Moreouer, the excellency of that glory shal better appeare, if we shal consider the companiōs with whom we shall be glorifi­ed. There is the congregation of the first-borne: all of them are men of excellent strength and dignity. None of them are of base linage, but of most no­ble descent. For by their se­cond birth, they are the sonnes of God, and so coheires with Christ, and the brethren of our Lord Iesus Christ. The Citi­zens of Tyrus are described by Isaiah, to haue beene compani­ons to Princes; but in that hea­uenly Hierusalem, euery Citi­zen is a crowned King; and none but Kings are freemen of that City, knit among them­selues by the bond of one spirit into so holy a communion, as euery one of them account the ioy and glory of his brethren an enlargement of his owne ioy and glory. It is otherwise there, [Page 362] than here on earth, when the ioy of one is anothers sorrow. The light of the Sunne darke­neth the Moone, and the light of the Moone dimmes the light of the Starres; if the one halfe of the earth be illumina­ted, the other is left in darknes: but there the light of one in­creaseth the light of another; the glory of one shall be the glory of all; euery one of them reioy­cing, not onely because the lightsome countenance of God shineth vpon themselues; but also because they see their bre­thren admitted to the partici­pation of the same glory.

But among all those with whō wee shall be glorified, there is one companion of our glory, who aboue all the rest shall be the fulnesse of all ioy, euen Ie­sus Christ the righteous. O with what boldnesse and spiri­tuall reioycing shall we stand a­mong the holy Angels, whē we [Page 363] shall see the Lord of the house, the Prince of glory, cloathed with our nature? Now we are sure that our Redeemer liueth, & we shall at the last day see him in our flesh, wee our selues shall see him, & our eyes shall behold him, and none ether for vs.

Hence we learne to resolue a noble question, whether wee shall know one another in hea­uen? My answer is affirma­tiue, that we shall: my reasons are these; Our knowledge in heauen must farre exceed the knowledge of man on earth, when he was at his best in his estate of innocency. But Adam knew Euah, no sooner hee was awake, and not onely called her by her proper name, but also like a Diuine, sermoned of the indissoluble knot of marriage. And this may be one argument in the cause.Matth. 17.4. When Christ was transfigured vpon mount Ta­bor, Peter knew Moses and E­lias, [Page 364] whom he had neuer seen be­fore. Now, that transfiguration was an Idea & resemblance vn­to them, and vs, as the aptest for our apprehension of the future glory that remaineth for vs in heauen. And that is another ar­gument in the cause.Luk. 16. The rich man that went to hel, knew La­zarus in heauen, in the bosome of Abraham. And this history Ambrose taketh to be a narrati­on of a thing done, & not a na­ked parable. But suppose it to be a parable, parables are of true things, and therefore the diui­nity is good. And this is ano­ther argument in the cause. Our knowledge there shall be abso­lute and perfect: wherefore I doubt not of this point. But whether we shall know one an­other as wee doe here, in an earthly manner; as to say, this was my father, and this my mo­ther, these my brethren and si­sters; because the Scriptures say [Page 365] nothing thereunto, I hold my peace.

Finally, the due regard of the place where we shall be glorifi­ed, will further set forth vnto vs the excellency of that glory. As for the place, it is some­times called a Paradice. So it is by our Sauiour, there being no meeter place in the earth to sha­dow it, than was that garden of Eden named Paradice, the dwel­ling place of man in his estate of innocency. Sometime hee calleth it his Fathers house, wherein are many mansions. Sometimes, the euerlasting ha­bitations. S. Paul calleth it, the third heauen, an house not made with hands, but eternall in the heauens. Wee see in this frame and fabricke of the world, that the finest things are seated in the highest places. The earth as the grossest Creature is pla­ced in the lower roome, the waters aboue the earth, the aire [Page 366] aboue the water, the fire aboue the aire, the spheres of heauen purer than any of them, aboue the rest, but the place of our glory is aboue them all, in the heauen of heauens, which doth not only note the excellent pu­rity thereof, but sheweth also what principall purity is requi­red in all them that are to dwell therein.

There be three places of the residence of the sonnes of God, in their three seuerall times. 1. Our mothers wombe. 2. The wombe of the earth, the mother of vs all. 3. The Palace of glo­ry which is aboue. From the first, the Lord hath brought vs to the second; and from the se­cond, we rest in hope that the Lord when the fulnesse of time be come, will bring vs to the third. If we shall conferre these three together in their circum­stances of Time, Bounty, Beau­ty, we shall finde the second not [Page 367] so farre to excell the first, as the third excells the second. The ordinary time of our abode in our mothers wombe is nine moneths; the time of our so­iourning in our second house is much longer, threescore and ten twelue moneths; but in our third house, neither daies, mo­neths, nor yeares shall be num­bred vnto vs: for it is the place of our euerlasting habitation. To compare them in limits and latitude of place, we shall finde, that as the wombe of a woman is but of narrow dimensions, in regard of the spatiousnesse of the vniuerse: so this is nothing in comparison of that high Pa­lace, wherein are a number of mansions without number, pre­pared for many myriads of e­lect men and Angels. For if one starre be larger than the whole earth, what is the fir­mament, the continent of so many starres? And if the fir­mament [Page 368] be so wide, what shall we thinke of the heauen of hea­uens, altogether boundlesse? Lastly, for Beauty and Bounty, the inequality is exceeding great. When thou wert in thy mothers wombe, howsoeuer thy body was qualified with his faculties and senses, yet what sawest thou, or heardest thou there? Euery sense wanting the owne naturall obiect, could breed thee no delight. But this thy second house thou seest re­plenished with variety of all ne­cessary and pleasant things, e­uery sense accompanied and stored with innumerable ob­iects that may delight thee. And yet all the beauty and bounty of this earth is as farre inferiour to that which is aboue, as it is su­periour to that which the In­fant had in the mothers womb. The firmament, which is the seeling of our second house, beautified with the Sunne, [Page 369] Moone, and Starres, grauen in it by Gods owne hand, and shi­ning more gloriously than all the pretious stones in the world, shall be no other thing than the nether side of the paue­ment of our Palace. Iohn the Baptist sprang for ioy in the wombe of his mother Eliza­beth, at the comming of Christ Iesus into the house, in the wombe of his mother Mary. But afterward, when he saw the Lord Iesus more clearely face to face, and pointed him out by the finger, saying, Behold the Lambe of God, &c. when hee stood by him as a friend, and heard the voice of the bride­groome, he reioyced in another manner. So in very truth, all the reioycing that wee haue in the house of our pilgrimage, is but like the springing of Iohn Baptist in his mothers wombe, in comparison of those infinite ioyes wherewith wee shall be [Page 370] replenished, when wee shall meet with our Bridegroome in our Fathers house, wherein wee shall see him face to face, and a­bide with him for euer. It is re­corded of Ahashuerus that hee made a sumptuous feast to his Princes and Nobles, which continued for the space of halfe a yeare; which being finished, he made another for his Com­mons, which lasted seuen daies. The place was the outmost Court of the Kings Palace, the hangings were of all colours, white, greene, blew, fastened with Ribbons of fine Linnen, and Purple, through Rings and Pillars of Siluer and Marble: the beds were of Gold and Sil­uer, the pauement of Porphy­ry, Marble, Alablaster, and blew colour: the vessels wherein they dranke were all of gold. All this he did, that he might shew the glory of his kingdome, and the honour of his maiesty. If a [Page 371] worme of the earth hath done so much in ostentatiō of his vain beggarly glory, as rauished men with the admiration thereof, how (I pray you) shall the Lord our God the great King declare his glory, when hee shall make his banquet couer his table, and gather his Princes, that is, his Sonnes thereunto, not for a few dayes, but for euer, not in the outmost Court, but in the in­ward Court of his royall Pa­lace? Verily no tongue is able to expresse it. For seeing he hath decked the world wherin we so­iourne, and which I haue called the outmost Court of this Pa­lace, in so rich and glorious manner, that he hath ordained lights, both by day and night to shine in it, and hath prepared a storehouse of Fowles in the aire, another of Beasts in the earth, and the third of Fishes in the Sea, for our necessity, be­sides innumerable pleasures for [Page 372] our delight. What glory and variety of pleasures may wee looke for, when he shall altoge­ther separate vs from the chil­dren of wrath, and assemble vs all into the inward Court of his owne Palace, into the chamber of his presence? Now because, if wee would declare these things, they are more than wee are able to expresse, or thinke of, wee will rest and say with Dauid, Psal. 65.4. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to come to thee: hee shall dwell in thy Courts, and be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house.

Hauing thus scholied vpon the excellency of this glory, it is fit in the next place some­what should be said of the eter­nity thereof. The state of the e­lect in heauen, and their glory there, is not subiect to corrup­tion, or alteration. This may appeare in that notable and stately description of the hea­uenly [Page 373] Hierusalem, Reuel. 21.14. &c. and from the 10. verse to the 21. It hath a great wall, and high, twelue gates, twelue Angels for Porters, and the wall had twelue foundations, of twelue forts of most excellent precious stones, and the wall it selfe was Iasper, and the city pure gold like crystall. The state of it is shadowed by precious stones, and gold, to signifie as well the durablenesse, as the excellencie thereof. For this cause Dauid calleth it,Psal. 15.1. The mountaine of Gods holinesse. Hils are hardly remoued, and therefore Dauid saith,Psal. 125.2. Mount Sion cannot be re­moued, but remaineth for euer. Now if that bee true of Mount Zion in this world, which must needs bee taken either literally, for the state of the visible Church, which cannot be vtter­ly ouerthrowne; or mystically, for the state of Gods grace, which in this world cannot to­tally and finally be lost: I say; if [Page 374] this mount Zion standeth fast, and cannot be remoued: how much more true is it of the state of glory in heauen, and of the triumphant Church, and of heauenly Zion, that is so vn­changeable, so durable, so vnre­moueable that it cannot be sha­ken, but standeth fast for euer.

Secondly, the state of the e­lect in heauen, is not onely sure, but euerlasting, that is, without end.Psal. 37.18. The inheritance of holy men is perpetuall. Therefore Saint Peter saith, that the inhe­ritance reserued in heauen for vs,1 Pet. 1.4. is immortall, and not fading away. It fades not away, there is the vnchangeablenesse: It is immortall, there is the eterni­ty of it. Where wee learne the great difference betwixt the state of that world, and this pre­sent world wherein wee liue in the body. For what is there in this world so excellent, so preci­ous, [Page 375] so costly, so artificiall, but is subiect both to alteration, and in the end to dissolution? The longest day hath his night, and the longest life endeth in death, after many miseries and maladies: the longest Empires, and mightiest Monarchies had their stop and period after ma­ny mutations: the stateliest and strongest Cities ended in ruine after many ciuill broiles, massa­cres, and other miseries. Though a man had all the earth for his kingdome, yet it could not be a kingdome of eternity. No Prince euer reigned the whole age of a man, and so long time as a man naturally may liue, w^ch the Philosophers say, is the space of an hundred yeeres. But our kingdome in heauen en­dures not only the age of a man, but for euer and euer. Iezabel had a glorious kingdome, but within a few yeeres it was said [Page 376] of her,2 King. 10. Where is that Iezabel? When it was fulfilled which the Prophet Ieremiah foretold;Ierem. 13.28. Tell the King and Queene, humble your selues, for your dig­nity shall bee taken away, and the crowne of your glory shall fall downe. And the like is the greatnesse of all earthly king­domes, so that no glory, no strength, no happinesse, nothing at all is there in this world, that is either constant or perpetuall, but subiect to vtter dissolution in the end, and in the meane time, to ruthfull alterations. So weake a foundation hath this world, and the best things in it. But contrariwise the glory of heauen hath such a foundation, as is both vnchangeable and eternall. This is our hope, and the perfection of our desires, and therefore as the Creed hath his period in life euerlasting; so the Lords prayer endeth in [Page 377] glory euerlasting. The Apostles counsell therefore is not one­ly reasonable, but needfull,1 Tim. 6.17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they bee not high minded, and put not their trust in vncertaine riches, but in the li­uing God. And follow wee the aduice of our blessed Sauiour,Mat. 6.19, 20. Lay not vp for your selues trea­sures on earth, where moth and canker corrupt, & theeues steale: but in heauen, where is neither canker moth, theefe, nor any other corruption.

CHAP. XXVIII. Of the glory of the elect, and of the benefits of eternall life in speciall.

AS the tortures of the Re­probates in hell shall be in the whole man, and in euery part both of body and minde, as we haue formerly specified: so the ioy and the glory of the elect shall be answerable on the contrary side, as now it remai­neth in like maner to be mani­fested. The minde shall be emp­tied of all incumbrances, as of ignorance, incredulity, ambition, emulation, anger, fleshly lusts, terrours of conscience, corrupti­on in affections. The body shall be eased of all his clogs, as faint­nesse, sicknesse, paine. Reuel. 21.4. And God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes, and there shall bee no [Page 380] more sorrow, nor crying, neither any more paine.

2. Our knowledge of God shall be absolutely perfect, and nothing that can be wished shal be wanting to the fulnesse of it. Here wee haue scales and rub­bish in our eyes, and we see but as old men doe, by the helpe of Spectacles.1 Cor. 13 12. Now we see thorow a glasse darkly, but then shall we see face to face. Now we know but in part, but then shall we know euen as we are knowne.

All the knowledge we haue now of GOD, lyeth in two bookes.

• 1. The booke of his Crea­tures.
• 2. The booke of the Scrip­tures.

In these wee reade in great Characters, and behold the righteousnesse of the Lord, his loue, his mercy towards vs.

So Dauid in the nineteenth [Page 381] Psalme teacheth vs, where he noteth and nameth these two bookes.

1. That of the Creatures, in these words,Psal. 19.1. The heauens de­clare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy worke. One day telleth another, Verse 8. and one night certifieth ano­ther.

2. That of the Law, and of the Scriptures, in these words, The Law of the Lord is an vnde­filed law, conuerting the soule: the testimony of the Lord is sure, and giueth wisdome vnto the simple. But this life ended, when that which is imperfect shall be done away, and that which is perfect shall come in place, we shall so know God as hee is to be knowne, so farre forth as the Creature can be ca­pable of his infinite maiesty. God is infinite, and therefore the compleat knowledge of his [Page 382] maiesty can be no more com­prehended of the Creature, than all the waters of the vast Ocean can be taken vp with a spoone.

3. Our loue towards God shall be so full in all dimensions, as the loue of the Creature can be. The cause of this loue of God shall be God, Bern. Causa dili­gendi Deum, De­us est: modus si­ne modo diligere: mensura sine mensura. and the manner beyond all manner, the measure of it shall exceed all measure. For we shall actually haue the fruition of God himselfe, & shall be so as it were absorpt and swallowed vp of the Ocean sea of his loue to­wards vs, as we shall returne to him againe all the loue our hu­manity can extend, to the vtter most straint of it. For the loue of a thing apportionateth it selfe to the knowledge of the thing. And [...]herefore in this life, be­cause we can know God but in part, wee can loue him but in part. But in the life to come [Page 383] our knowledge shall be perfe­cted, and so consequently our loue. And in this respect Loue hath the precedency of Faith and Hope, albeit Faith and Hope haue the right hand of Loue: Euery day in Heauen shall be Sabbath day, hallowed by the Saints. Here wee keepe Sab­bath day but one day in seuen, and by the narrower obseruers of it, it is kept but by halfes; but in heauen there will be no such shredding of his seruice, but it shall be entirely and to­tally performed,Isa. 66.23. From moneth to moneth, from Sabbath to Sab­bath, shall all flesh come to wor­ship before the Lord. Our bodies shall be conformed to the body of Christ in glory. Philip. 3.21. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like vnto his glori­ous body. Now the conformity betwixt Christs body and ours, consists in these specialties.

[Page 384]1. Incorruption.

2. Immortality.

3. Spirituall nature.1 Cor. 15.44. It is sowen a naturall body, it riseth a­gaine a spirituall body. Not that the body is metamorphosed & turned into spirit; for the bo­dy as touching the substance of it, remaineth the same for euer: but because it is in a spirituall manner, and not any more by a naturall course, continued and conserued. For here the body is sustained and kept by out­ward meanes, as by meat, drinke, sleepe, rayment, phy­sicke, diet, quiet: but after this life it is preserued without any meanes, by the omnipotent power of the spirit of God for euer.

And thus it standeth with the body of Christ in heauen: and thus it shall be with the bo­dies of the elect.

Againe, as the body of Christ [Page 385] now glistereth, and is glorious: (the argument whereof is in his transfiguration vpon mount Tabor) so it is more than like­ly that the bodies of the elect shall be euery way conspicuous and glorious, though they re­maine the same bodies in sub­stance, as before.

Finally, as Christs body, af­ter his resurrection from the graue, had a property of velo­citity and agility of ascending vp to the third heauen, di­stant I know not how many miles from earth: so the bodies of the Saints, when they shall be transfigured, shall be quali­fied with ability of ascending without any violence or straint offered them.

Furthermore, our ioyes shall be vnutterable and eternall.Psal. 16.12. In thy presence is the fulnesse of ioy, and at thy right hand is plea­sure for euermore. Gen. 45. The bre­thren [Page 386] of Ioseph, for Ioseph [...] sake, partaked of the pleasures of Pharaohs Court; much more the Saints for Iesus Christ his sake, shall enioy the ioyes of the high Court of heauen.Matth. 2. The wise men of the East were not a little ioyous when they saw the starre ouer their heads, which conducted them to Christ. But our ioy shall exceedingly sur­mount theirs, at the sight of the glory of the blessed in heauen. How are the Birds of the aire ioyous when the Sunne ari­seth? Much more shal our soules reioyce and sing, when we shall see the Sunne of righteousnes, Christ Iesus, so shining vpon vs, in the light of his counte­nance.

The Baptist was so repleni­shed with ioy, as sensible of Christs presence, hee leaped in his mothers wombe, albeit hee saw him not with a bodily eye: [Page 387] therefore how shall wee be rapt with ioy, when we shall see him face to face in glory? If the Bethshemites were so io [...]iall and glad, when they saw the Lords Arke: If Zacheus was such a glad man, that Christ vouch­safed him that fauour to diuert to his house: how much more should wee reioyce and be glad with him in his eternall habi­tations?

Matth. 13.If the Merchant in the Go­spell was so possessed with ioy, when he found the treasure hid­dē in the field, as he parted with all that he was worth besides, to purchase that field: how incre­dible shall our ioy be, when our soules shall plenarily possesse that hidden treasure of eternall glory?

1 King. 1.If when Salomon was en­thronized, the Acclamation and Ouation of the people so reuer­berated the aire, as the eccho [Page 388] thereof resulted on the earth, & made it to ring: how shalt thou exult & triumph through ioy, when thou shalt see the true King of Peace, greater than Sa­lomon, crowned with all glory and maiesty in the heauens?

Now, if God should affoord thee this felicity, but for the space of halfe an houre, it were infinitely of more value than a thousand worlds. Wherefore, sithence he hath giuen thee the feesimple thereof for all eterni­ty,O curuae in ter­ris animae & cae­lestium inanes! how shalt thou not in the longing expectation thereof, wax weary altogether of this present euill world wrapped with such woes? The children of this world put to rebuke and shame, the children of the light in their supine security of the world to come. They and their affaires secular, about things transitory, and vainer than va­nity, are warie, watchfull, sub­till: [Page 389] but we in ghostly matters appertaining to life euerlasting, are improuident, remisse, faint, feeble. This we finde in the am­bitious, libidinous; epicurious, and others the children of the world. For what doe they in­tend else, but to glut their lusts, and to bring their purposes to passe, though it be with the ma­ceration of their bodies, and vexation of their soules. And as Hierom saith well,Hieron. Gulosus cor habet in ven­tre, lasciuus in libidine, cupidus in lucr [...]. The heart of the glutton is in his belly, the wanton mans heart is vpon his lusts, and his that is couetous is vpon his Coffers, yea oftentimes to the expence of his health and life.

Now, to whom shall I liken this generation? or to what may I compare them? They are like the Panther, who (as Plutarch reporteth) is so greedy of the excrements of a man, as place them in a vessell aboue his [Page 390] reach, it will tire it selfe to death with the straint of body, and o­uer-reaching it selfe.

Now, if the children of this world be so toylesome and tire­some about such momentany matters, little better than no­thing; yea, as I may so say, for­did, filthy, and vncleane: how should not the children of God be solicitous and industrious, about the acquisition of the e­uerlasting Tabernacles in the life to come? If wrastlers be­ing to enter the lifts, doe keepe a spare dyer, intending onely the mastery to carry away the game, and the garland that wi­thereth and fadeth away: how much more should we imploy all our thoughts and endeuours to gaine and beare away the crowne of immortall glory?1 Cor. 9.25. Euery man that proueth maste­ries, abstaineth from all things: and they doe it to obtaine a cor­ruptible [Page 391] crowne, but we for an in­corruptible. But we, Hieron. In mini­mis cauti, in maximis negli­gentes. Et hoc fit quia vbi vera vita sit, ignora­mus. as S. Hierom s [...]ith, are cantalous in small things, carelesse in the greater. The cause whereof is, that wee know not where the true life is. Now were this world of its owne nature good, and the things of this world of recko­ning and worth, and might we liue herein a thousand yeares in health and prosperity: all this were but [...]ond and ridiculous, compared with the most happy fruition of God. But that is the true and due ioy which is recei­ued from the Creator, not from the Creature, which when thou shalt receiue, thou canst neuer be depriued of: in comparison whereof, all ioy, is sorrow; all pleasure, is paine; all sweetnes, is bitternesse; all beauty, is de­formity. Wherefore, as the faithfull seruant of Iesus Christ, haue before thine eyes the land [Page 392] of the liuing, towards which thou art trauelling: that thou mayest so die, as thou mayest liue and reigne for euer in eter­nall glory with Iesus Christ the righteous.

CHAP. XXIX. Of the differing degrees of glory in the kingdome of heauen, the [...]l [...]ct shall bee partakers of in the life to come.

IT hath beene a great questi­on in the Schooles, whether the blessednesse of eternall life shall bee alike, and the same to all? To this we answer by way of distinction; Life eternall it selfe shall bee one and the same to all: for all the blessed shall see God face to face, as he is.1 Ioh 3.2. And we shall be changed into the same [Page 395] image, from glory to glory, which sight is the supreme & the high­est happines.Greg. Quidenim est quod non vi­deat, qui viden­tem omnia videt. For what doth not he see, who seeth him, that seeth all things? But in the nature and course of this happinesse, there be differing degrees, as may ap­peare by these arguments; Daniel speaking of the conditi­on of the chosen after this life, saith,Dan. 12.3. They shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament, and they that turne many to righteousnesse, shall shine as the starres for euer and euer. But the brightnes of the firmament is farre exceeded by that of the starres. It is an Argument de­ducted from the contraries, that in as much as there is difference of punishments, it naturally fol­loweth there should bee diffe­rence of rewards. Now that the punishments differ, and are not the same, it is manifest from Christs owne words,Matth. 11.21. It shall be [Page 396] easier for Sodome and Gomorrha in the day of iudgement, for Ty­rus and Zidon, Corazin and Bethsaida. Another Argument may bee this, that Christ saith,Ioh. 14.2. In my Fathers house are many mansions. Againe where Christ saith,Matth. 22.30. that in the kingdome of heauen we shall be like the An­gels, and there bee diuers de­grees and orders among the Angels, this point is concluded. So much also seemeth to bee confirmedMat. 13.8.23. by the seed the husbandman sowed in the ground, which brought forth seed in differing manner, some a hundred, some threescore, some thirty fold. And the Parable of the talents insinuateth so much, which were more and fewer committed to his seruants in trust: and the rewards were sundry, apportionated to the sundry improuements of the same. And it is said in the Reue­lation, [Page 397] Reuel. 14 4. that some there bee that follow the Lambe wheresoeuer he goeth: a grace which belike is not granted to other some. As also where it is said,Matth. 5.19. Whosoeuer shall breake any of these least Commandements, and shall teach men so, hee shall bee called the least in the kingdome of heauen. But whosoeuer shall obserue and teach them, the same shall bee called great in the kingdome of heauen. As where it is said,2 Cor. 9.6. He that soweth sparingly, shall also reape sparingly: and he that sow­eth liberally, shall also reape libe­rally. As where it is said,Rom. 2.6. Hee will reward euery man according to his workes. As where it is said,1 Cor. 15.41. There is one glory of the Sunne, another glory of the Moone, ano­ther glory of the starres: now these words Paul applieth to the present point, saying, so also is the resurrection of the dead.

Obiect. But for all these argu­ments [Page 398] wee reade otherwise,Matth. 20. How that the labourers sent to worke in the vineyard, re­ceiued wages alike, euery one his peny, though their labours were vnlike: for some came but the last houre of the day, and some there were which bare the heat and burthen of the whole day.

Answ. Christs meaning is not in the said Parable, to shew the equality of rewards in heauen; but his onely purpose is to teach, that such as were of the former ranke, and were first called, had no cause to finde themselues grieued with them who were called out of due time, or not yet called: in as much as they may be ballanced with them, and hold equality, if not a precede [...]cy. How these degrees of glory shalbe diuided, it is not for me to iudge: but so farre as we may diue hereinto [Page 399] by probable coniecture, wee suppose, that the degrees of glo­ry shall answer the measure of gifts and graces here bestowed vpon vs, and our diligence and faithfulnesse in the dispensation of them to the glory of God, and the edification of the Church. And so that the twelue Apostles, who were more enri­ched than others with the gra­ces of the spirit, and laboured more than all, being master builders of the Church of the new Testament, shall haue the greater glory, as to whom it shall be giuen to be in Commis­sion, and as it were Iustices to assist our Sauiour Christ the Lord chiefe Iustice, and to sit vpon twelue seats, and iudge the twelue tribes of Israel.

Obiect. Yea, but if there bee such liberall diuidences of glo­ry; some perhaps may goe without, and come short of their [Page 400] glory, in as much as there may not any more be left.

Answ. It is not with this glo­ry, as it is with an houre-glasse, where the filling of one part is the emptying of another; or as the lands or goods of the Te­stator, who the more he giues to one, the lesse is left to others: for heauen is so fraught with glory, as the augmentation of the glory of some, shall be no di­minution of the glory of other some. There is a fulnesse of ioy for him that shall haue least, that shall be but a doore-keeper in the Lords house. Cast neuer so many tankards and vessels into the wide sea, some more, some lesse capable, all of them will be filled; so shall it be with vs in heauen, in the resurrection of the iust. So well are wee, and happy shall we be.

CHAP. XXX. Of the manifold vses arising ou [...] of this doctrine of eternall life.

THe due consideration of our eternall life, affor­deth vs variety of good lear­ning.

1. As so to vse the world, as though we vsed it not; as liuing in expectation of a better world. The Pilgrims mind is alwaies set [Page 403] vpon his iourneys end, & he is grieued when as at any time he is out of the way: so fix we our thoughts vpon our long home, and let vs be disquieted not a little vpon euery by-way, occa­sioning a diuersion from the Kings high way. Abraham be­ing called out of Vr of the Chal­deans, & from his own kindred, & his fathers house, to a strange place, was straight wayes obedi­ent to the heauenly Comman­dement, and by faith dwelt in the land of Canaan, as in an vn­couth country, and as one dwel­ling in tents. But the principall spurre that pricked him on so speedily, was the expectation of life eternall.Heb. 11.8. For he looked for a City whose builder and ma­ker is God. We are not therefore to bathe our selues in the liquid and languide pleasures of this world. Pilgrims take but small pleasure in their iourneyes, as [Page 404] considering they are not at home. This is Peters argument,1 Pet. 2.11. Dearely beloued, as strangers and pilgrims, abstaine from fleshly lusts, which fight against the soule. We are not to be carried away, no not with the necessary com­forts and delights this world can afford vs. For the Pilgrim [...] passing thorow a strange coun­trey, regardeth not the goods and commodities of that coun­trey where he is, but making vse onely of such things as may serue his present necessity, hee calleth his thoughts home to his owne countrey. This minde should bee in vs, amidst all our pleasures and prosperity this world can yeeld vs: wee are to weane our thoughts from it, and spend all our cares vpon that countrey where our con­uersation is to be.Colos. 3.20. But our con­uersation is in heauen, whence we looke for our Sauiour Iesus Christ, [Page 405] this is the Apostles exhortati­on. But worldly men make their belly their God; that is, o­uerwhelme themselues with these secular sensualities so far, as they thinke not of any other life, neither is God in all their thoughts. Wee are to vse the world no otherwise than the traueller doth his walking staffe, and the ferry-man his oares, who lay them aside when their iourney is at an end.

2. This point, as I may so terme it, is a schoole-house of pa­tience in the time of affliction, for iudgement often beginneth at Gods house. The mother be­ing about to weane her childe, layeth mustard, wormewood, or some such bitter thing, to her breasts, that the childe by a di­staste, may loath and leaue the brest: so the Lord by our affli­ctions, doth mortifie our cor­ruptions, and doth weane and [Page 406] win vs from the loue of this world. As al rawflesh is offensiue to the stomacke, so is euery sin­ner to Gods stomack, vntill such time as God by afflictions doth mortifie our affections in the corruptions thereof, especially this of the loue of this life. Hope of heauen begets patience, and contentment in all e­states of life: wherefore the Disciples disquieted at Christs departure from them, he heart­neth them with these words of comfort;1 Ioh. 14.2. In my Fathers house are glorious mansions, I goe to prepare a place for you. Hence many may perceiue, how they deceiue themselues, while they prate and boast of heauen, and presume enough thereof: and yet can concoct and digest no wrong, but they are ready to mutter betweene the teeth, to blaspheme the name of God, and to prosecute euery one that [Page 407] harme them, in all spleneticall and vindicatiue maner. Againe, in case the Lord shall lay an heauy hand vpon them, they runne to wizzards and witches, the Deuils factiue instruments & right hand as I may so terme them; and so runne to very hell it selfe for helpe. These and all such doe but flatter and beguile themselues, for if they would fit themselues, for heauen, they would runne contrary courses; for questionlesse that man is carelesse, hap to him what hap may in this present life, who looketh for heauen at Gods hand after this life. Let our mindes be grounded in the assured expectation of life eter­nall, and the yoke of affliction shall bee easie vnto vs, and the burthen light. Example hereof wee haue in Moses, whom the Apostle celebrating for his faith, saith,Heb. 11.24. By faith Moses [Page 408] when hee was come to age, chose rather to suffer aduersity with the people of God, than to enioy the pleasures of sin for a season, estee­ming the rebuke of Christ grea­ter riches, than the treasures of Aegypt. For he had respect vnto the recompence of the reward. When God shal giue vs a whole bowle full of afflictions, and bid vs drinke all out to the bot­tome, the meditation of life e­ternall is as it were sugar to sweeten the bowle, and to make it taste pleasantly and strongly like to Aqua vitae.

Finally, whereas there is a life to come after this, but not for all, but for the elect onely, it shall stand vs in hand to ende­uour all wee may, that wee may bee found worthy to bee inheri­tors thereof: by first seeking the kingdome of grace here, that there wee may attaine to the kingdome of glory, euen by Ie­sus [Page 409] Christ who hath so dearly bought vs, & purchased vs with his bloud; to whom all blessing, praise and power be ascribed for euer.