THE LIFELESNES of LIFE on the hether side of IMMORTALITY.
A SERMON Preached at the Funerall of M. EDWARD PEYTO.
NOw you have listen'd unto the Text, Cast your Eyes upon the shrine too. For That doth verifie This, by no less then an Ocular Demonstration. You see the Reliques of a Person full of honour indeed, but not of years; he having had his December (I may say) in June; and reaching the end of his Journey, (as 'twere) in the middle of his Course. So that if I should be silent upon the mention onely of this Text [Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live,] That very Hearse would present you with a kind of visible Sermon.
Yet something I must say, in honour and Duty unto the Dead; and something too, for the use and benefit of the Living; that as Death already hath been to Him, so it may be also to us Advantage; That some [Page 2] at least who are here present, may go from Hence (when I have done,) if not the wiser or more intelligent, yet at least the more considerate, and the better Resolved for coming hither. I need not be teaching my weakest Brethren, (what common Experience hath taught us All) either the Misery, or the shortness, or the uncertainty of our Dayes. But yet recounting how many Souls do perish for ever in their Impieties, not so much by wanting Knowledge, as by abounding in the Thoughtlessness of what they know, I shall not sure be unexcusable (having 2 Pet. 1. 12. 13. 15. S. Peter for my example) if I tell you those things which you know already. An Honest Remembrancer is as needfull, as the most Eloquent Instructer to be imagin'd, because we do less want the Knowledge, than the consideration of our Duties. Saint Peter hath magnified the office no less than three times together, in that Epistle which he composed a [...] v. 14. little before his Dissolution. I will not (saith he) be negligent to put you alwayes in Remembrance, though ye know these things, and be established in the Truth. Yea I think it meet, as long as I am in this Tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting you in Remembrance. Again (saith he) I will endeavour, that you may be able, after my Decease, to have these things alwayes in Remembrance. When I consider that these words were by 2 Tim. 3. 16. divine inspiration, and that they were written for our Instruction, yea and inculcated upon us no less than thrice in one Breath; methinks they tacitely reprove us, for having such wanton and Itching Ears, as will be satisfied with nothing, but what is New. Whereas the Thing that is to us of greatest moment, is not the study of more Knowledge, but the making good use of the things we know. Not the furnishing of our Heads with a Richer Treasure of Speculations, [Page 3] but the laying them up within our Hearts, and the drawing them out into our Lives. Men would not live as they are wont, were they sufficiently [...]. Isocrat. [...]. mindfull that they are men. Did they but often enough consider, how short a time they have to live; how very 2 Cor. 11. 23 often they are in Deaths, before they dye; how much their short time of life is more Mat. 24. 42. uncertain than it is short; how very shortly they are to render a strict Account unto The Iudge, (I say not of every evill work, but) even of every Mat. 12. 36. idle word, and of each unprofitable howre; they would not make so many Demurrs in the important work of their Reformation.Luk 21. 36. The uncertainty of their Time would make them watchfull over their wayes; that how suddenly soever they may be caught (by the common Pursevant of Nature) yet it may not be by a surprise. That they may not die with the Fool's motto [Non [...]. Polyb. l. 10. p. 603. putâram] in their mouthes.
Now to consider my present Text in the most usefull manner that I am able, I must bespeak your best Attention, not so much to the dogmaticall, as to the Applicatory part of my Meditations. It being chiefly in my design, to shew what Profit we are to reap from all such melancholy Solemnities, as by many deep Mourners are sown in Tears. What kind of Influences and Virtues, from the great brittleness of our Lives, are to be shed upon the Practice and Conduct of them. What kind of Consectaries and Uses should flow from the one, upon the other.
I shall not therefore wear out my little Time, in any such accurate and logicall Analysing of the words, as would but serve to divert you from the scope and drift, for which the holy man Iob did make them a [Page 4] part of his Preaching, and for which I have chosen them to be the subject of mine own; but shall immediately consider them as an entire Doctrinall Proposition, exhibiting to us both the frailty, and frame of man, and the reason of the one implicitly rising out of the other. Man is born of a woman; there's his Frame. He hath but a short time to live, there's his Frailty. He hath but a short time to live, because he is born of a Woman; there is the reason of his Frailty from the condition of his Frame. Nor is He attended onely with vanity, but vexation of spirit. As Iacob said unto Pharaoh, His Dayes are evil, as well as Few. However empty of better Things, yet from the Bottom to the Top, (I mean from his Birth unto his Buriall) he is Repletus miseriis, fill'd full of Trouble.
And yet by way of Application, we may reflect upon the Text in a threefold Antithesis. For
To Man as born of a woman, we may oppose the same Man, as being Regenerate, and born of God.
To the very short life he hath by Nature, we may oppose the life eternall he hath by Grace.
And to his fullness of misery whilst he is here in the body, we may oppose his Fullness of Bliss and Glory.
But first let Man be consider'd in his Hypogaeo, that is, his state of Declination, as he is born of a woman, and having a short time to live; and that for this reason, because he is born of a woman. For tis a Maxime in Philosophy which never fails, That Generable and Corruptible are Terms convertible. It is demonstrably proved that we must one day Dye, because we did one day begin to live. All that is born of a woman is both mixt and compounded after the Image of the woman, of whom 'tis born; not onely mixt of the [Page 5] four Elements, but also compounded of Matter and Form. And all things Compounded [...]. Arist. E [...]h. l. 10. c. 3. must be dissolved into the very same principles of which at first they were compos'd. Hence are those pangs and yernings of the flesh and the spirit, of the Appetite and the Will, of the law in the members, and the law in the mind; [...]. Id. l. 9. c. 4. the one Inclining towards Earth, from whence 'twas taken, and the other towards Heaven, from whence 'twas sent. The truth of this had been apparent, if it had onely been taken out of Aristotle's Lycéum; but we have it confirmed out of Solomon's Portch too: for in the Day when man goeth to his Eccles. 12. 5. 3. 4. 6. 5. long home, when the grinders cease, and the windows be darkened, and all the Daughters of Musick are brought low, when the silver cord is once loosed, and the golden Bowl broken, so as the mourners are going about the streets; Vers. 7. Then the Dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. When God himself was pleased to be born of a woman, he submitted to the conditions of our Mortality, and had (we know) but a short time to live; for He expir'd by Crucifixion before he was full thirty four, as his younger Heb. 2. 17. Brother, whom we commemorate, before he was full thirty three.
Man hath a short time indeed, as he is born of a woman, because he is born of a woman; for (as it presently follows in the verses immediately after my Text) He cometh forth as a [...]. Homer. Flower, and (as a flower) he is cut down. He flyeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. And therefore Epictetus did fitly argue the very great fickleness and frailty of worldly things, first because they were [...]. made, and therefore had their beginning; [...] [Page 8] Mark is Threescore and Ten, if Moses himself hath set it right. Or place it further, at fourscore; farther yet, at an hundred; the life of man (we see) is short, though it should reach the very utmost that Nature aymes at.
But how many wayes are there, whereby to frustrate the Intentions and Ends of Nature? How many are there buried before their Birth? How many men's Cradles become their Graves? How many rising Suns are set, almost as soon as they are risen? and overtaken with Darkness in the very Dawning of their Dayes? How many are there (like the good King Iosias, like righteous Abel, and Enoch, and that laudable Person whom now we celebrate,) who are taken away wisd. 4. 11. speedily from amongst the wicked, as it were in the Zenith or Verticall point of their strength, and lustre? It is in every man's power to be Master of our Lives, who is but able to despise his own. Nay 'tis in every one's power who can but wink, to turn our beauty into Darkness; and in times of Pestilence, how many are there can look us Dead, by an arrow shot out of the Eye into the Heart? For one single way of coming into the world, how many are there to go out of it before our Time? (I mean, before Nature is spent within us.) Many are sent out of the world, by the Difficulties and hardships of coming in. We are easily cut off, even by eating and drinking, the very Instruments, and Means of Life. Not to speak of those greater slaughters, which are commonly committed by Sword, and Famine, (which yet must both give place to surfet,) Death may possibly fly to us, as once to Aeschylus, in an Eagle's wing. Or we may easily swallow Death, as Anacreon did, in a Grape. We may be [Page 9] murder'd, like Homer with a fit of Grief: Or fall, like Pindarus, by our Repose: we may become a Sacrifice, as Philemon of old, to a little Iest. Or else, as Sophocles, to a witty Sentence. We may be eaten up of worms, like mighty Herod. Or prove a Feast for the Rats, like him of Mentz. A man may vomit out his Soul, as Sulla did in a fit of Rage. Or else like Coma, may force it backwards. He may perish by his strength, as did Polydamas and Milo. Or he may dye, like Thalna, by the very excess of his Injoyment. He may be Provender for his Horses, like Diomedes. Or provision for his Hounds, like Actaeon and Lucian. Or else like Tullu [...] Hostilius, he may be burnt up quick with a flash of Lightning. Or if there were nothing from without, which could violently break off our Thread of Life, (and which by being a slender thread is very easily cut asunder) we have a thousand Intesline Enemies to dispatch us speedily from within. There is hardly any thing in the Body, but furnisheth matter for a Disease. there is not an Arterie, or a Vein, but is a room in Natures work-house, wherein our Humors (as so many Cyclops's) are forging those Instruments of Mortality, which every moment of our Lives are able to sweep us into our Graves. An ordinary Apoplexie, or a little Impostume in the Brain, or a sudding rising of the Lights, is enough to make a man Dye in Health; and may lodge him in Heaven or in Hell, before he hath the leasure to cry for Mercy.
Thus our Job 4. 19. Poma oculis tenus, contacta cinerescunt. Tertull. Apol. c. 40. p. 70. Houses of Clay (as Eliphaz the Temanite did fitly call them) do seem as false, and as frail, as the Apples of Sodom; which being specious to the Eye, did fall to crumbles by every Touch. The frame of our building is not onely so frail, but (as some have [Page 10] thought) so ridiculous, that if we contemplate the body of man in his condition of Mortality, and by reflecting upon the soul do thereby prove it to be Immortall, we shall be tempted to stand amazed at the inequality of the Match, but that to wonder at our Frailty, were but to wonder that we are Men. Yet sure if We, that is, our souls (for our bodies are so far from being Us, that we can hardly call them Ours,) are not capable of corruption, our Bodies were not intended for our Husbands, but for our Houses; whose Dores will either be open that we may go forth, or whose Building will be ruinous, that needs we must; we cannot, by any means possible, make it the place of our Continuance; for though our bodies (as saith our Saviour) are not so glorious as the Lillies, yet (saith Job) they are as frail. And by that time (with David) they wax old as doth a garment, how earnestly (with S. Paul) shall we groan to be cloath'd upon? to be2 Cor. 5. 2. cloathed with New apparell, whilst that the old is turning? for when Christ shall come in the clouds with his holy Angels, at once to restore, and to reform our Nature, he shall change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. But here I speak of what it is, not what it shall be; though it shall be glorious, yet now 'tis vile; though it shall be immarcescible, yet now 'tis fading; though it shall be a long life, 'tis now a short one.
It is indeed so short, and withall so uncertain, that Psal. 90. 9. we bring our years to an end like as a Tale that is told. Death come's so hastily upon us, that we never can Psal. 89. 48. see it, till we are blind. We cannot but know that it is short, for we Psal. 90. 5. fade away suddenly like the grass; And [Page 11] yet we know not how short it is, for we pray that God will Vers. 12. teach us to number our Dayes. This we know without teaching; Wisd. 5. 13. that even then when we were born, we began to draw towards our End. Whether sleeping, or waking, we are alwayes flying upon the wings of Time; And even this very Instant, whilst I am speaking, doth set us well on towards our Journey's end;Iob 18. 4. whether we are worldly, and therefore study to keep Life; or Male-Contents, and therefore are weary of its possession; the King of Terrours will not fail, either to meet, or overtake us. And whilst we all are [...]. Travelling to the very same Countrey, (I mean the Land of forgetfulness, without considering it as an Antichamber to Heaven or Hell,) although we walk thither in Hunc diverso tramite Mortales Omnes conantur adipisci. Boethde Consol Philos l. 3 p. 98. severall Rodes; 'tis plain that he who lives longest, goes but the farthest way about, and that he who dyes soonest, goes the nearest way home.
I remember it was the humour, I know not whether of a more Cruell, or Capricious Leo Isaurus [...]. Emperour, to put a Tax upon child-births; to make it a thing excizeable, for a man to be born of a woman. As if he had farm'd Gods Custom-house, he made every man fine for being a Man; which as it was a great Instance of his Cruelty, so 'twas as good an Embleme of our frailty., our state of Pilgrimage upon Earth. For we arrive at this World, as at a forraign and strange Country; where I am sure it is proper, although not just, that we pay Tole for our very landing. And then being landed, we are such transitory Inhabitants, that we do not so properly dwell here, as Psal. 39. [...]4. sojourn. All the meat we take in, is at God's great Ordinary; and even the breath which we drink, is not our own, but His; (which when he taketh away, we dye, and are turn'd again [Page 12] into our Dust.) Insomuch that to expire, is no more in effect, then to be honest: 'tis to restore a Life, which we did but borrow.
And well it were, if it were no worse: for if the life of man were pleasant, it would the less disgrace it, that it is short. A short life and a [...]. Euripin Alcestide. Merry, is that which many men applaud. But as the son of a woman hath but a few dayes to live, so it follows in the Text, that even those few dayes are full of Trouble. And indeed so they are, in whatsoever Condition a man is plac'd: for if he is poor, he hath the trouble of pains, to get the goods of this World. If he is rich, he hath the [...]. So. rat. in epist. ad Anonym. p. 8. trouble of Care, to keep his Riches; the trouble of Avarice, to increase them; the trouble of fear, to lose them; the trouble of sorrow, when they are lost. And so his Riches can onely make him the more. illustriously unhappy. If he lives as he ought, he hath the trouble of self-denyalls; the trouble of Col. 3. 5. Rom. 8. 13. mortifying the flesh, with the affections and lusts; the trouble of being in 2 Cor. 11. 23 Deaths often; the trouble of Rom. 6. 6. Gal. 6. 14. crucifying himself, and of 1 Cor. 15. 31 dying daily. If to avoid those Troubles, he lives in pleasure, as he ought not, he hath the trouble of being told, that he is 1 Tim. 5. 6. dead whilst he lives; the trouble to Eccles. 41. 1. think that he must dye; the trouble to fear (whilst he is dying) that he must live when he is dead, that he may dye eternally. Not to speak of those troubles which a man suffers in his Nonage, by being weaned from the breast, and by breeding teeth; in his boyage and youth, by bearing the yoke of subjection, and the [Page 13] rigid discipline of the Rod; in his manhood and riper years, by making provision for all his Family, as servant-Generall to the whole; Nor to speak of those Troubles which flow in upon him from every quarter, whether by Losses, or Affronts, Contempts, or Envyings, by the anguish of some Maladies, and by the loathsomness of others; rather then want matter of trouble, he will be most of all troubled that he hath [...]. Herodot. in Thalia. c. 43. p. 179. nothing to vex him. In his sober Intervalls and Fits, when he considers that he must dye, and begins to Wild. 4. 20. cast up the accounts of his sins, it will be some trouble to him that he is without chaslisement, whereby he knowes he is a Heb. 12. 8. Bastard and not a son. It will disquiet him not a little, that he liveth at rest in his possessions; and become his great Cross, that he hath prosperity in all things. Not onely the sting, and the stroak, but the very Remembrance of Death will be bitter to him; so saith Jesus the son of Sirach chap. 41. vers. 1.
Thus (we see) the child of man, or the man who is born of a woman is so full of Trouble to the brim, that many times it overflow's him. On one side, or other, we all are troubled; but some are troubled on 2 Cor. 4. 8. Occidere est; vetare cupientem mori. Sen in Thebaide. every side. Insomuch that they themselves are the greatest Trouble unto themselves; and 'tis a kind of death to them, that they cannot dye. We find King David so sick of Life, as to fall a wishing for the wings of a Dove, that so his soul might fly away from the great Impediments of his Body. He confessedPsal. 54. his Dayes were at the longest but a Psal 39. 5. span, and yet he complained they were no shorter. It seems that Span was as the span of a wither'd Hand; which the farther he stretched out, the more it griev'd him. He was Psal. 6. 6. weary of his groaning. His soul did Psal. 42. 1. pant after Heaven, [Page 14] and even Vers. 2. thirsted for God. And he might once more have cryed (though in another sense) Woe is me, that I am constrain'd to dwell with Meseck, and to have mine habitation among the Tents of Kedar! I remember that Charidemus, in Dio Chrysoslom, compared man'sDio Chrysost. orat. 30. pag. 305. D. Life unto a Feast or Banquet. And I the rather took notice of it, because the Prophet Elijah did seem (in some sense) to have made it good. Who after a first or second Course (as I may say) of living, as if he had surfetted of Life, cryed out in hast, It is enough; and with the very same breath, desired God to take away; for so faith the Scripture, 1 Kings 19. 4. He went into the Wilderness (a solitary place) and there be sate under a Iuniper (in a melancholy posture) and1 King. 19. 4. requested of God that he might dye (in a very disconsolate and dolefull manner,) even pouring forth his soul in these melting Accents, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better then my Fa [...]hers. And if the Dayes of Elijah were full of trouble, how was Iob overwhelmed, and running over with his Calamity? when the Iob 6. 4. Terrours of God did set themselves in aray against him, how did he Vers 8, 9. long for destruction? O (saith he) that I might have my request, that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please him to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off. How did he Iob 3. 1, 3, 4, 5, &c. Curse the Day of his Birth, and the Night wherein he was conceived? Let that Day be darkness; let the shadow of Death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let blackness terrifie it. And for the Night, let it not be joyned unto the dayes of the year. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; neither let it s [...]e the dawning of the day. And what was his reason for this unkindness to that particular Day and Night, save that [Page 15] they brought upon him trouble of being a Man borne of a woman: for we find him complaining a little after,Vers. 11, 12. why dyed I not from the Womb! why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the Belly? And then for the Life of our blessed Saviour, who is call'd by way of Eminence, The Son of Man; as I observ'd before that it was short, so must I here put you in mind that it was full of Trouble. He was therefore call'd by way of Eminence, Vir Dolorum, Isa. 53 [...]. A Man of sorrows. The Prophet adds, he was Ibid. acquainted with Grief. For the whole Tenor of his Life was a continuation of his Calamities.
The Time would fail me, should I but mention the hundredth part of those men, whose short Time of life hath seemed long to them, even because they have felt it so full of Trouble. But enough hath been said concerning the Doctrine of the Text. And it lyes upon us to make some use.
First then let us consider, that if man (as born ofThe Application. a woman) hath but a short time to live, It concerns us to take up the prayer of David, that God willPsal. 39. 4. teach us to know our End, and the number of our Dayes, that we (like 2 King. 20. 6. Hezechiah) may be fully certified how short our Time is. It concerns us to take up the ResolutionIob 14. 14. of Job; All the Dayes of our appointed time, incessantly waiting till our change cometh. It concerns us, not to say, with the rich man in the parable, we will pull down our Barns and build greater, and there we will Luk. 12. 18. bestow all our fruits' and our goods: much less may we say, with that other Worldling, Souls take your Ease, eat drink and be merry, for you have much goods laid up Vers. 1 [...]. for many years: for (alas!) how can we know, (silly creatures as we are,) but that this very Night, nay [Page 16] this very minute, either they may be taken from us, or we from them? there is such a fadeingness on their parts, and such a fickleness on ours. But it concerns us rather to say with Job, Naked came we into the world, Iob 1. 21. and naked shall we go out of it. Or it concerns us rather to say with David, that we are strangers upon Earth, Psal. 38. 12. and but so many sojourners, as all our Fathers were: for whilest we consider we are but strangers, we shall as 1 Pet. 2. 11. Heb. 11. 13. Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And so long as we remember we are but sojourners upon earth, we shall pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. And behaving our selves among the Gentiles, as a chosen Generation, a Royall Priesthood, 1 Pet. 2. 9. 12. an holy Nation, a peculiar People, we shall shew forth his praise, who hath called us out of Darkness, into his marvellous Light.
Secondly let us consider, that since our Life is uncertain, as well as short, (inasmuch as we know not how short it is) it concerns us immediately, to labour hard in the Improvement of this our span into Eternity; to employ our very short and uncertain Time, in making a seasonable provision against them both; I mean, it's shortness, and its uncertainty. For shall we be lavish even of that, which is so easily lost, and of which we have so very little, and every minute of which Little does carry so great a weight with it, as will be either a kind of Pulley to help raise us up to Heaven, or else a Clogg to pull us down to the lowest Hell? Of whatsoever we may be wastefull, we ought to be charie of our Time, which doth incontinently perish, and will eternally be reckoned on our account. Per [...]unt & imputantur, the Epigrammatist could say of his pretious Hours.
[Page 17]Now the way to provide against the shortness of our Life, is so to live, as to dye, to the greatest Advantage to be imagin'd; and so to dye as to live for ever. What Tobit said to Tobias, in respect of wealth, Tobit 4. 21. [Fear not, my son, that we are made poor, for thou hast much wealth, if thou fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is pleasing in his sight.] He might have said as well in respect of wisdome, and by consequence as well in respect of long life. For as the Iob 28. 28. fear of the Lord is solid wisdom, and to depart from Evil is understanding; so Honourable Age is not that which standeth in the length of Time, nor that is measured by Wisd. 4 8, 9. number of years, but wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. To be devoted (like Anna) to the House of God, so as to serve him night Luk. 2. 37. and day with fasting and prayers, and not to content our selves with that which is meerly lawfull, or barely enough to serve turn, (as men do commonly reason within themselves,) but to study the things that are Rom. 2. 8. more excellent, to streine hard towards 2 Cor. 7. 1. perfection, to forget those things that are behind, and to reach forth unto those things that are before, pressing on towards the Phil. 3. 13, 14. mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus, this is to amplisie our lives, and to frustrate the malice of our mortality; and as the want of stature many times is supply'd in thickness, so this is to live a great deal in the little time of our duration.
As we are thus to provide against the shortness, so in like manner we must provide against the uncertainty of our time. And the way to do that, is to distrust the future, and to lay hold upon the present; so to live [Page 18] every houre, as if we were not to live the next. Having a short time to live, our time to repent cannot be long. And not assured of the Nemo tam Divos habuit faventes, crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri. morrow, 'tis madness not to repent to-day: when we see many persons of the most promising countenance, and the most prosperous constitution, not onely snatched by an early, but sudden death, why should we not seriously consider, that we may be of their number, having no promise of the contrary, either within, or without us? Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest. Publius. What happens to any man, may happen to every man; every man being encompassed with the same conditions of mortality. 'Tis true indeed, that we may live till we are old; but 'tis as true, that we may dye whilst we are young; and therefore the later possibility should as well prevail with us for a dispatch of our repentance, as the former too too often prevails upon us for a delay. Nay if we procrastinate our repentance, in hope of living till we are old, how much rather should we precipitate it, for fear of dying whilst we are young? (if yet it were possible to precipitate so good and necessary a work, as a solid impartiall sincere repentance.) For as to repent whilst we are young, can never do us the least harm; so it may probably do us the greatest, to post it off till we are old. Nay it may cost us the loss of heaven, and a sad eternity in hell, if we deferr our repentance (I do not say till we are old, but if we deferr it) being young, till we are one day older then now we are. And shall we deferr it beyond to-day, because we may do it as well to-morrow? This is madness unexpressible. For as 'tis true that we may, so 'tis as true that we may not. Our knowledge of the one, is just as little as of the other. (Or rather our ignorance is just as much.) And shall we dare to tempt [Page 19] God, by presuming upon that which we do not know? Are heaven and hell such triviall things, as to be put to a bare adventure? shall we play for salvation, as it were by filliping cross or pile? implicitly saying within our selves, if we live till the morrow, we will repent and be saved; but if we dye before night, we will dye in our sins and be damned for ever? shall we reason within our selves, that though we know our own death may be as sudden as other men's, yet we will put it to the venture, and make no doubt but to fare, as well as hitherto we have done? what is this but to dally with the day of judgement, or to bewray our disbelief [...]—S [...]phoc. in Ira. chintis. that there is any such thing? Its true we may live untill the morrow, and so on the morrow we may repent. But what is this to the purpose, that 'tis certain we may, whilst 'tis as doubtfull whether we shall? Is it not good to make sure of happiness, by repenting seriously at present, rather then let it lye doubtfull, by not repenting untill anon? Methinks we should easily be persuaded to espouse that course, which we are throughly convinced doth tend the most to our Advantage.
When the rich worldling in the Parable was speaking placentia to his soul, [Luk. 12 20. soul take thine ease,] alleaging no other reason, than his having much goods for many years; nothing is fitter to be observed, then our Saviour's words upon that occasion, Stulte, Thou Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? However the men of this world have quite another measure [...], and do esteem it the greatest prudence to take [...] pleasure whilst they are young, reserving the work [...] mortification for times of sickness and old age, (when [Page 20] 'twill be easie to leave their pleasures, because their pleasures will leave them,) yet in the judgement of God the Son, (the word and wisdom of the Father) 'tis the part of a blockhead and a fool, to make account of more years, then he is sure of dayes or hours. He is a sot, as well as a sinner, who does adjourn and shift off the amendment of his life, perhaps till twenty, or thirty, or fourty years after his death. 'Tis true indeed that Hezekiah, whilst he was yet in the confines and skirts of death, had a 2 King. 20. 6. lease of life granted no less than fifteen years long; but he deferred not his repentance one day the longer. And shall we adventure to live an hour in an impenitent estate, who have not a lease of life promised, no not so much as for an hour? shall we dare enter into our beds, and sleep securely any one night, not thinking how we may awake, whether in heaven or in hell? we know 'tis timely repentance which must secure us of the one, and 'tis finall impenitence which gives us assurance of the other. What the Apostle of the Gentiles hath said of wrath, may be as usefully spoken of every other provoking sin, Ephes 4 26 Let not the Sun go down upon it. Let us not live in any sin untill the Sun is gone down, because we are — [...] S [...]ph. ubi supra. far from being sure that we shall live till Sun rising. How many Professors go to sleep, (when the Sun is down, and the curtains of the night are drawn about them,) in a state of drunkenness or adultery, in a state of avarice or malice, in a state of sacriledge or rebellion, in a state of deceitfulness and hypocrisie, without the least consideration how short a time they have to live, and how very much shorter then they imagine? Yet unless they believe they can dream devoutly, and truly repent when they are sleeping, they cannot but know they are damn'd [Page 21] for ever, if the day of the Lord shall come upon them as a 1 Thes. 5. 2, 4. 2 Pet. 3. 10. thief in the night, and catch them napping in their impieties.
Consider this all ye that forget God, least he pluck you away, Psal. 50. 2 [...]. and there be none to deliver you. Consider it all ye that forget your selves. That forget how few your dayes are, and how full of misery. Consider your bodies, from whence they came; and consider your souls, whether it is that they are going. Consider your life is in your breath, and your breath is in your nostrils; and that in the management of a moment, (for the better, or for the worse,) there dependeth either a joyfull or a sad eternity. If our Time were certain as well as short, (or rather if we were certain how short it is, there might be some colour or pretence, for the posting off of our Reformation. But since we Mat. 24. 42▪ 43, 44. know not at what hour our Lord will come, this should mightily ingage us to be hourely standing upon our Hab [...]k. 2▪ 1. watch. And this may suffice for the subject of our second Consideration.
Thirdly let us consider, that if our dayes, which are few, are as full of trouble, it should serve to make us less fond of living, and less devoted to self-preservation, and less afraid of the cross of Christ, when our Faith shall be called to the severest Trialls. Ecclus. 41▪ 2 O death (saith the son of Sirach) acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy, and to him that is vexed with all things. The troubles incident to life have made the Iob 3. 20▪ 21. bitter in soul to long for death, and to Vers. 22. rejoyce exceedingly when they have found the grave. If the Empress Cuspinianus in vitâ Sigismundi. p. 498. Barbara had been orthodox, in believing mens souls to be just as mortall as their bodies, death at least would be capable of this applause and commendation, that it puts a conclusion to all our troubles. [Page 22] If we did not fear him, who can cast both body and soul Mat. 10. 27, 28. into hell, we should not need fear them, who can destroy the body onely; because Ecclus. 41. 4. there is no inquisition in the grave. Iob 3 17. 18, 14, 19, 18. There the wicked cease from troubling: and there the weary are at rest. There the Prisoners lie down with Kings and counsellers of the earth. The servant there is free from his master. There is sleep, and still silence, nor can they hear the voice of the oppressor.
But we have farther to consider the threefold Antithesis, which we ought to oppose to the three Clauses in the Text: for as man, who is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of trouble; so man, as regenerate and born of God, hath a long time to live, and is full of bliss. A life so long, that it runs parallel with eternity; and therefore (without a Catachresis) we cannot use such an expression, as length of time. It is not a long, but an endless life; it is not time, but eternity, which now I speak of. Nor is it a wretched eternity, of which a man may have the priviledge as he is born of a woman; but an eternity of bliss, which is competent to him as born of God. And of this bliss there is such a fullness, that our Heads are too thick, to understand it. Or if we were able to understand it, yet our hearts are too narrow, to give it entrance. Or if our hearts could hold it, yet our tongues are too stammering, to express and utter it. Or if we were able to do that, yet our lives are too short; to communicate and reveal it to other creatures. In a word, it is such, as not onely eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, but it never hath entred into the heart of man to conceive. Incomprehensible [Page 23] as it is, 'tis such as God hath prepared for them that love him, 1 Cor. 2. 9.
If we compare this life, with the life described in the Text, it will severall wayes be usefull to us; for it will moderate our joyes, whilst we possess our dear friends; and it will mitigate our sorrows, when we have lost them; for it will mind us that they are freed from a life of misery, and that they are happily translated to one of bliss. Nay if we are true lovers indeed, and look not onely at our Philip. 2▪ 4. own interest, but at the interest of the parties to whom we vow love, we even lose them to our advantage, because to theirs. Lastly it sweetens the solemn farewell, which our souls must take of our mortall bodies; we shall desire to be dissolved, when we can groundedly hope we shall be with Christ; we shall groan, and groan earnestly, to be uncloathed of our bodies with which we are 2 Cor. 5. 23. 4. burdened, if we Vers. 7. live by this faith, that we shall be cloathed upon with our house from heaven; we shall cheerfully lay down our bodies in the dust, when 'tis to rest in his peace, who will certainly raise us by his power, that we may rest and reign with him in glory.
THus have I done with my Text, though but in the middle of my Sermon; and but briefly considered it in its Antithesis, because it is not pertinent any otherwise, then by affording to such as are Mourners, a use of comfort. And because I am confident, that there are many such here, (when I consider how many losses lye wrapt in one) not onely wearers of black, but serious Mourners, whose very souls and insides are hung with sable, and whose unaffected [Page 24] sorrows do call for comfort; I shall raise you matter of reall joy, from the ground and occasion of all your sorrows.
For there is yet another Text, upon which I must give you another Sermon. A Text, I say, whose matter and form have been divided by God and Nature. The [...]. [...]. Alexis in Olympiodoro. inward form is ascended, to him from whom it came down; but the outward matter still lyes before us. And well may that person become our Text, who was himself a living Sermon; since the integrity of his life was truly doctrinal, and the resplendent piety of his death a very pertinent application. I am sure 'tis well known in another place, and therefore I hope 'tis believed in this, that I am none of their number, who use to scatter abroad their Eulogies upon every man's Hearse, meerly as customary offerings, or things of course. No, those alone are my seasons wherein to make narratives of the dead, when it may righteously be done for the use and benefit of the living. You know that Jesus the son of Sirach doth set himself solemnly to the work: and that with an [...] Let us now praise famous men. Men Ecclus. 44. 1, 2 [...]. &c. renowned for their power; men of knowledge and learning; wise and eloquent in their instructions. Rich men furnished with ability, and living peaceably in their habitations. There be of them that have left a name behind them, if their prayses might be reported. And some there be who have no memoriall, who have perished as though they had never been, and are become as though they had never been born, and their children after them. But these were mercifull men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten, [...]. Eurip. in [...]. their bodyes are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore; for the people will tell of their wisdom, [Page 25] and the congregation will shew forth their praise.
Our honour'd Brother now departed (I will not say the unhappy, but) the now-blessed occasion of this solemnity, as he deserves a noble Eulogie, so he needs none at all: He being one of those few of my particular acquaintance, of whom I have seldome, or never heard an ill word spoken. But in this one thing, he had the least resemblance unto his Saviour, who was hated by many, despised by more, and basely forsaken almost by all. This is therefore no commendation, on which our Saviour proclaims a Woe. Woe be to you when all men speak well of you. Nor do I say that this worthy Gentleman was ill spoken of by none, (he was sure too worthy to be so befriended by the world) I onely say that I have seldom or never heard it. AndIames 4. 4. he was so much the less obnoxious to the dishonesty of the Tongue, because (as far as his Quality would give him leave) he ever delighted in that obscurity, which most young Gentlemen are wont to shun. For although his extraction (we know) was noble, and his fortune extremely fair, though his naturall parts and abilities were truly great, as well as greatly improved by art and industry, (he having been Master of many Languages, and (I am sure) well vers'd in great variety of Learning) yet still his modesty and his meekness were so much greater then all the rest, that (in a perfect contrariety to the vainglorious and hypocriticall) he ever turn'd his worst side outward. The late retir'dness of his life made him so blameless and inoffensive, that I suppose it hath ditted the mouth of envie.
It was no doubt an effect of those two virtues, (I mean his modesty and his meekness) that he so constantly observed that Apostolicall Precept, Iames 1. 19. [Page 26] For he, if any man living, was swift to hear, but slow [...].—Hom. [...]. to speak. And when he thought it his turn to speak, it was rather much, than in many words. As the speech of Menelaus describ'd by Homer, so perfectly free were his discourses, from the fault of impertinence, or superfluity.
So far was he from sitting down in the chair of the scornfull, (as too many of his quality are wont to do) nay so far from walking in the counsels of the ungodly (from the time that he found them to be such,) that he made it his care and chiefest caution, (in his later years more especially,) not so much as to stand in the way of sinners.
For as much as I could judge of him, (who had the happiness to know him for many years) he was a true Nathanael, Ioh. 1. 47▪ 48. an Israelite indeed; who, though he had many Imperfections, as one who was born of a woman; yet he had sure no guile, as being also regenerate, and born of God. Methinks I hear him now speaking to all that knew him, as Samuel did to all Israel; I have 1 Sam. 12. 2, 3. walked before you from my childhood to this day. Behold here I am, witness against me before the Lord; whose Oxe have I taken? or whose Ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe, to blind mine eyes therewith, and I will restore it? To which methinks I hear the Answer which was made to Samuel in the next verse, thou Vers 4. hast not defrauded nor oppressed us.
'Tis this that speaks a man right honest; which is a nobler title then right honourable, though I may say very truely, that he had many due titles of honour too. For not to speak of his Ancestors, who came in hether with the Conquest, and that from the city Poitou in [Page 27] France, (from whence they derived the name of Peyto) I think it more for his honour, to have been many wayes [...]. Chrysost. Hom. (in Gen.) 23. good; to wit, a good husband and a good father; a good master and a good friend; a good neighbour and a good land-lord; a good christian and a good man. And, which is a sign of more goodness then all the rest, he never thought he was good enough; especially in the first, and the two last particulars.
It is an excellent ingredient in that religious composition, which he had sent before him to bless his soul, and left behind him in memory to perfume his name too, that having been charged with a debt, (whether by his Father's last will and testament, or by the condition of the times, or by both together,) he was ever in some pain till he had paid that debt, or at least had made provision for it; because untill he had done justice, he knew he could not so well shew works of mercy; and that was doubtless a pregnant token of walking humbly with his God. The three grand Duties which God requires, in the sixth chapter of Micah, at the ninth verse.
The end of Christ's coming into the world, was to make us live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. (Tit. 2. 13.) the first implying our whole duty towards our selves, the second towards our neighbour, the third towards our God. That extraordinary person, of whom I speak, doth seem to me, as well as others, to have reached those ends. He was so eminently sober, that I believe he was never known to have sinn'd against his own body in any kind; so eminently righteous, that (as I said) he was in pain, till he had rendred to every man his due. Being so sober, and so righteous, he is inferred to have been so godly too, as to [Page 28] have liv'd in opposition to those bare professors of Christianity, who having a form of godliness deny the power of it; for give me leave to tell you, what is not every day considered, that the most materiall part of godliness is morall honesty. Nor was there any thing more conspicuous in the holy life of our blessed Lord. The second Table is the touchstone of our obedience unto the first. And to apply what I say unto the honourable person of whom I speak, we may conclude him to have lived the life of faith, because we find him toGal. 3. 11. Num. 23. 10. have dyed the death of the righteous.
To pass on therefore towards his death, as the fittest transition unto his buriall; I am enabled to say of him, (by such as were eye and ear witnesses,) that he abundantly injoyed [that [...]] that happy calmness of death, which the Emperour Augustus was wont to pray for. I say he injoy'd it in both acceptions of the word. For first however he was sick of a burning Feaver, (which carried him up like Elias in a fiery Chariot) yet he had this rare happiness which is the priviledge of a few, that he even injoyed his whole disease without the least taint of deliration. That knot of union betwixt his body and his soul, was not violently broken, but very leasurely untyed; they having parted like two friends, not by a rude falling-out, but a loving farewell. Thus was his Euthanasia in the first acception of the word. But he had it much more, as to the second. For
Two things there are, which are wont to make death terrible. The first is suddenness, and the second is sin. He was so arm'd against the first, that he did not onely take care for the setting his outward house in 2 Kin. 20. 1. order, to the end that nothing in this world might [Page 29] trash his flight towards a better; but he also sent for the Divine, to imp the wings of his devotion; and farther told his Physician, that God had sent him his summons; so well was he arm'd against the first of those Phobera, and that by the help of our English Litanie, which prompt's us to pray against sudden Death; and which he commanded one of his servants to assist him with upon his death bed, bestowing upon it (when he had done) a great deal of holy admiration.
Again, so well was he prepared against the second, that for the tenderness of his conscience, and his deep resentment of all his sins, those of the times more especially, in which he deplored his unhappiness that he had had a great share, (till God was pleased in much mercy to shew him that errour of his judgement, by which the errour of his practice was bred and cherish'd,) Next for his hatred of himself in the remembrance of them, (though we may say, that in comparison with many others alive and dead, he had kept himself unspotted from the world,) then for his steadfast resolutions Iam. 1. 27. of better life, of making ample satisfaction for every ill that he had done, and so of bringing forth fruits Luk. 3. 8. Act. 26. 20. worthy of repentance, (if God should be pleas'd to inlarge his time;) and last of all for his sollicitude, that all his Iosh. 24. 15. family might live in the fear of God, and redeem those opportunities which he seem'd (at least unto himself) to have sometimes lost, or neglected; I say, in all these respects, he appears to me, (as well as to others) a more then ordinary Example.
But some may say, that sick persons are ever sorryObject. for their sins; but it is many times a sorrow squeez'd out by sickness. And as soon as they recover, they do relapse too.
[Page 30]To which I answer, that though it is often so in others, Answ. yet in this exemplary Christian it could not be so. For
First, it was a mark of his sincerity, that he look'd upon his failings, as through a Macroscope; which made them seem nearer, and very much greater then they were. He warn'd all those who stood about his sick bed, to beware of those sins which the world call's little; and of the no-little sins which the world calls none; yea from the least 1 Thes. 5. 22. appearances and opportunities of sin. It was his own expression, that all the sins of his former life did even kick in his very face; yetProv. 5. 8. he remembred the Mat. 20. 9. labourer, who went late into the Vineyard, and was rewarded. He also made some reflexions upon the Cito igno scit Dominus, quia citò ille convertitur. Ambros. in Luc. 23. 43. thief on the cross; that his faith might steer an even course, betwixt the Scylla of despair, and the Charybdis of presumption.
Secondly, it was another good token of his sincerity, that he was not meerly a death-bed penitent, whose repentance too too often is but [a [...]] a sorrow according to the world; but, (as diverse persons can well witness) he began the great work in his time of health; so as his sickness did but declare his having been a 2 Cor. 5. 17. new creature by 2 Cor. 7. 9. change of mind, and that he did not fall back, but Philip. 3. 14 press forward towards the mark, and persevere in so doing unto the [...]. Mat. 24. 13. end.
Thirdly, it was another mark of his sincerity, that he insisted on the nature of true repentance, which still importeth an amendment and reformation of life. Nor had he a willingness to recover his former health, unless to the end he might demonstrate his renovation, by that carefullness, that fear, that indignation, that vehement desire, that zeal, yea that revenge, which S. Paul 2 Cor. 7▪ 11. [Page 31] hath recorded as the effects of a godly sorrow in his Corinthians. Abhorring and deploring those desperate notions of repentance, which the world is so commonly mistaken in.
Fourthly, it was a comfortable token of his sincerity, that he was obstinate in his Prayers, against the precept of his Physician, and resolv'd to pour out his soul, though to the prejudice of his body. As if he were piously ambitious of being too strong for his own infirmities; when a reverend Divine (who was standing by) would fain have done that office for him, at least as a Deputy to his lungs onely, that he might not spend his few spirits as yet left in him; he made him this resolute and hasty, but pious answer, that whilst a tongue was in his head whereby to speak, and whilst he had breath in his body to move and animate his tongue, and whilst he had lungs in his brest to supply his breath, he would shew forth the goodness and the glory of God, who had been pleas'd to do so great things for him. And in a mercifull Answer to all his Prayers, which he continued to the amazement of all that heard him, (after some conflicts which he had had with the ghostly enemy, that so he might be happier in a victorious, then he could possibly have been in an untempted innocence,) God was pleased (very signally) to reveal himself to him, to speak peace unto his conscience, to fill him inwardly with joy in the holy Ghost, to give him some glimmerings and fore-tasts of the glory to be revealed. That I may use his own words, (which, as he came out of a trance, he was observed to speak,) he had a ravishing glimps of the Beatifick vision; meaning thereby (as I interpret) that God had refreshed his drooping soul with his unspeakable comforts; saying unto his soul, [Page 32] I am thy salvation, or this day salvation is come to thy Psal. 35 3. Luk 19 9. house. So that now being plac [...]d above the levell of temptations, and exempted from the fear of what the Rev. 12. 3. red dragon could do unto him, he cheerfully lifted up his head, and first his eyes upon Iesus the author and finisher of his faith, and for the joy that was set before him, Heb. 12. 2. expected the Advent of death, as of a very dear friend.
Fifthly, it was another great sign that his heart was right towards God, and therefore not treacherous to himself, that he extended his care to the souls of others, with as true a charity, as to his own; exhorting one in particular against the love of this world; charging another to be watchfull against intemperance and debauch; exciting a third unto frequent and servent prayer. I do but mention the severall subjects, on which he treated like a Divine. To all his servants in the generall, and to three of them in special (for his words like Exod. 16. 18. Manna in the wilderness, and the Apostles Act. 2. 45. doal, were discreetly proportioned to every one as he had need; so as they who had most of his instruction had nothing over, and they who had least had no lack.) I say, in generall, and in speciall, he was by his precepts, as well as practice, (even as righteous 2 Pet. 2. 5. Noah) a true preacher of repentance. Nor did his care end here. But
As it were in imitation of good old Iacob, before he was gather'd to his fathers, he gave a blessing to all hisGen. 49. children. And farther gave it in charge to his [...]irtuous consort, whom he worthily esteemed his dearer self, (and of whom he also requested pardon, if by any cross word he had ever griev'd her,) not to educate his children, so much to learning and other accomplishments, as [Page 33] to the knowledge, and service, and fear of God. Nor was it a little to his advantage, that he was carefull to have them seasoned with those his last principles, which by his later experience he found the best.
Not to be endless upon the subject, (on which it is difficult not to be long, and yet impossible to be tedious,) he was briefly all that, which I pray God of his mercy to make us all. That whensoever he shall appear unto us, in death, or in judgement, we may be found, like Mat. 25. 7, 8 wise virgins, with oyl in our lamps. And that together with this our brother, (whose remembrance (like that of Ecclus. 49. 1 Iosias) will ever be sweet unto us as musick at a banquet of wine,) we may be ioyned in consort with the quire of Angels, and with the generall Heb. 12. 22, 23 assembly of the first born which are written in heaven, and with the souls of just men made perfect, singing Hosanna'sRev. 5. 13. and Hallelujah's, to him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for evermore.