Lifes farewell. OR A funeral SERMON PREACHED at Saint Iohns in the devises in Wilshiere, the 30. of august last 1614. At the funeral of John Drew Gentleman. BY GEORGE FEREBE Master of Arts, and Preacher of the Word at Bishops Cannings in WILSHIRE. Mors vltima linea rerum. LONDON. Printed by Edw. Griffin, for Ralph Mabbe, 1615. TO THE RIGHT honourable WILLIAM Lord knolls Baron of Greyes, Treasurer of his majesties household, Master of his majesties Wards and liveries, and one of the Lords of his majesties most honourable privy counsel: The supreme felicity of both worlds hearty wished. Right honourable, THis funeral Sermon preached vpon the death of a Gentleman, my parishioner and neighbour; being by the importunity of some brought to the press( I hope) for the benefit of all; comes thus to light under the gracious and honourable Lyuorie of your Lordships name; as a remonstrance of that duty and thankful acknowledgement, whereunto I am engaged: for those many real and liberal encouragements, my rawer and riper studies haue received from that hand of bounty, which to myself and Brethren,( as well during our many yeeres abode in the university, as also since) hath always lain open; whereby as we all aclowledge the uttermost of our religious respect and observance, unable to satisfy the least part of that debt due to your Lordship: So wee trust the most just God( who leaves not a cup of could water unrewarded) will return your Lordship double and triple remuneration. What entertainment it may find in the broad world, I regard not; If from your Lordship it obtain the least approbation, I haue my hearts desire; which shall ever spend itself in prayer to God, for the completing here, and crowning hereafter, of your Lordships manifold graces and virtues. Your Lordships most bound and dutiful chaplain GEORGE FEREBE. THE TEXT. 2. Sam. Chap. 14. vers. 14. For wee must needs die. RApe, Incest, murder: three damnable Acts, occasioned the delivery of these funeral words. For( Right worshipful, christian and blessed brethren in our Lord and saviour beloved) thus stood the case: Amnon forced his own sister Thamar: 2. Sam. 13. 14. shee with grief of soul reveals her late received wrong to absalon her brother: he vows reuenge vers. 19. on the incestuous person with no less then fratricide, shedding of brother-blood, a more than murderous resolution. The manner of performing this was plotted thus: absalon invites his father david unto a vers. 24. sheep-sheering-feast: the King himself goes not, but gives his children leave to visit him; among these( as it seemed by the earnest invitation) the chiefest and most desired guest, yea the absolute mark that absalon aimed at was Amnon, who sitting at board( without all suspect of treachery) was suddenly surprised by Absolons hired slaves, mercenary deaths-men, and there killed dead in the place. A bloody banquet, when for the first mess the feast-maker serves in murder. vers. 29. A short and a sharp meal, the dinners done as soon as it is begun, every man at this stands wondrously amazed, the author and the Actors fly, the fearful beholders presently avoid the room, and hasten back to the Court. But tidings came before to the King( first a false alarum) that all his sons were slain, yet jonadab conjectures right, Ammon only is dead( saith he) because absalon had reported so, since first he forced his sister Thamar. Now absalon vers. 32. long after this came not into his fathers sight, living three yeeres a banished man with Talmai son of Amihud King of Geshur; yet joab was his friend. He vers. 37. sent to Tekoah for a subtle woman, put mourning cap. 14. 2. clothes vpon her back, and a parable in her mouth, lessoned her how to carry herself, and what to say; She cried out, help( o King) I am a widow, and mine husband is dead: I had two sons who strove together in the field, and( there being none to part them) the one slay the other in the quarrel, so the family of him that is slain, is risen against thine handmaid, and would take from me this son that doth survive, thus will they destroy the heir too, and so shall quench my sparkle that remaines, and leave unto mine husband, neither name nor yet posterity on earth. This tale ended, the King bad her return to her house, telling her he would take an order for her: yet shee continueth instant in her suite; the King replied he that speaks against thee, shall not touch thee; Yea but swear( quoth shee) it shall be so, the King answered, As the Lord liveth, not an hair of thy son shall perish. Why then( saith she) as one that is faulty, dost thou give contrary sentence in thy son absalon, grieve not his spirit, sand for him back, admit him into thy presence, let him not stand a banished man, what is done cannot bee undone, one time or other every one must hence, For we must needs die. Thus much in effect this cunning womans speech containeth. So here you haue the knitting of the Text to the precedents. There are no more in this verse red unto you, then The division. five words, those, but five syllables, those, full five parts. First, we haue a reason to be patient in misery, because of an expectation of the last approaching evil, death. Secondly, the generality of it. Thirdly, the power and authority of the act that decreeth it. Fourthly, the necessity of it. Fiftly, the doom itself, mortality. 1. For, makes the whole a reason persuading to patience in misery. 2. Wee, shows the generality. 3. Must, points at-Heauens authority. 4. needs, layeth down the necessity. 5. Die, tieth all the premises to a true conclusion, mortality. That we may the more safely and handsomely fall vpon the contingent and occasion of the words, let us For. in this first particle take a view of the parties from whom, and to whom this speech is directed, and of their distance and disproportion between each other, that is to say, a woman, a weak vessel, weak in iudgment, to a man of noble endowments; a subject to her sovereign, a silly Tekoite to a mighty Monarch, 2. Sam. 14 4. observe. doth boldly deliver this speech. And reason good. For when great ones do forget themselves, they may not scorn if God do put them in mind of their duties, though it be by mean ones. A dumb ass, may reprove a man( if he sin) though a Prophet, as there in Balaam. A silly woman may aduise a man, if he forget himself, though a King, as here in david. Num. 22. 30. david is a King indeed, and a Prophet too; yet the abundant meekness of his heart, and tender love unto the sons of his own loins, had well-nigh made him sin; his natural passions put him almost into impatience. The sudden and unseasonable death of his two ungracious sons, first of Ammon, then of absalon, were( as I think) a pair of matchless crosses. It touched him near, when his eyes distilled salt tears, and his heart powred out deep groans and his tongue pronounced smarting words with sharp accents of grief, and lamentation. See, see what a twin of deep and inward complaints this good Father maketh for a couple of bad children; Amnon slain sitting at a feast suddenly 2. Sam. 13. 29. 2. Sam. 15. 28. by the plot of absalon: Absalon slain under a three, hanging by the hair of his head, at the command of joab; see( I say) how feelingly the Father doth bewail the loss of both; First the death of Amnon thus: assoon as jonadab had left speaking, behold 2. Sam. 13. 36. the Kings sons came, lifted up their voices all, and wept, and the King also, and all his seruants wept exceedingly sore. Next the death of absalon in this form 2. Sam. 18 33. of words: The King was moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept, and as he went; thus he said: O my son absalon my son my son absalon, would God I had died for thee! O absalon my son my son. As if his soul had been fastened to the memory of his son Absolons death, and his tongue tied to the delivery of his son Absolons name. Alas good david, thou wast a blessed father, of vnblessed sons: tho'ne a very Sodomite, for he defiled thy daughter 2. Sam. 13 14. his own sister: the other a murderer of his brother and an open traitor to thyself his Father, and yet 2. Sa. 15. 10. art thou so natural to these unnatural imps to lament the fall of those that would haue wrought thy ruin, & haue brought thy gray hairs to the grave with sorrow? Patience good david. Doth the vntimly perishing, as of the former here, so of the latter 2. Sa. 18. 33. hereafter, grieve thy soul, and vex thy wounded spirit? It is even so: and questionless( beloved) flesh and blood in him could do no less: their death was much, the manner of their death was 2. Sa. 12. 22. 23. more; that touched him most. When his infant died his sorrow ceased, because in act, being sinless, he knew it went to God; but these died in their sins, actual sins, and those late, heinous sins, and those sins unrepented of, therefore was he doubtful, fearful of their future bliss, Hinc illae lachrimae not that they died, but that they so died, suddenly, violently, desperately; this, and chiefly this, was the cause and chiefest cause, that the Kings perplexed soul fals into this current of ingeminated and treble deplorations. Thus Gods children haue their woes and huge ones too, troubles many and mighty too; and howsoever at first they are tart, and irksome; yet well considered, and well received, they are good for me, and good for thee, and good for all that would be saved: good for Kings, yea good for good King david; his own mouth speaks it, It is good for me that I haue been in trouble. Psalm. Caeli virga salus licet aspera Regibus altis Dura manus Domini Principibusque bona est. It is health for high mortals to be whipped with heauens rod, Good, to feel the hard hand-stroake of the high supreme God. For as the universal flood drowned not the ark but the more the flood increased the higher the Gen. 7. 18 ark was mounted. So these waters of trouble the deeper they are, the nearer they lift us up to heaven. It is fire that purgeth gold from dross, it is the wind that severeth corn from chaff, it is the grindstone that scoureth rust from iron, it is trouble that maketh the proudest Nabuchadonosor confess that the most high hath power over the kingdoms of men. A Dan. 4. 3. vine the more it is pruned the faster it sprowteth: Pepper the more it is brayed the hotter it tasteth: Frankincense the more it is burned the sweeter it smelleth; flesh and blood the more it is salted, the better it savoureth; the more it is purged, the purer it waxeth; the holier the heauenlier it liveth, the fitter for God. If then crosses come upon us they should not be unwelcome to vs. It is our duty with thankes to receive them, with patience to keep them, in hope to digest them, with wisdom to apply them, in meditation to bury them, so in the end they shall end to us in unspeakable glory, and possess us of never ending joys in the palace of eternity. And let this be the period of the first part being the first word, For, which maketh the whole a reason persuading to patience in misery. For wee must needs die. 2 Wee The second principal point is the generality of our mortality in the next word, Wee. Wee, that is, Thou the greatest, I the meanest, thou the richest, I the poorest, thou the highest, I the lowest, thou and I and all of all degrees between us, Wee must needs die: all mortals equalled with us; all superiors ranked above us, all inferiors placed below us; we, all we must needs die. All strangers unknown to us, all our neighbours round about us, all our friends that dearly love us, all our kindred never so near us, all our fathers who begat us, all our mothers who conceived us, all our wives sweet comforts to us, in a word our children all that come out of us, we, all we must needs die. Are we men? and do we live? we must needs die; david concluded it with a question questionless; what man is he that liveth and shall not Psal. see death? And Paul directly speaks to this, and that at large in Adam death went over all, in whom all haue sinned. And Salomon saw as much in the first mans fall, Ro. 5. 12 thence( as it seems) inferring this: Wis. 4. Through the envy of the devill death entred into all the world. What into all the world? This then dethroneth Polycrates from the height of his worldly felicity, abateth the plumes of Alexanders triumphs, trophies and conquests, humbleth the pride of Craesus sitting abroad vpon the heaps of his riches, to consider that they must come down and make their beds in the dust, and become putida & putrida cadauera, loathsome and rotten carcases; ye muckwormes of the world, and covetous whom God abhorreth; ye rich ones, great ones, proud ones of this earth who put the evil day far from you, hang down your haughty heads, and know that you must of necessity subscribe to this vnappealeable decree of my Text which hath passed over al mankind, We must needs die. Shall I further make this present point concerning our general mortality, somewhat more familiar to us by some fit similitudes, shall I haue your patience? Why then( me thinks) the witty chess play doth Simile. prettily resemble it, there is king, queen, bishop and the rest ranked in their orders, even to the lowest pawn, and while the game holds out, the highest stands subject to the check, and when all is donne all kind of Actors in that kind of play are last of all huddled up all and bagged up altogether. How like are living men to growing trees; dead bodies unto sapless ones; rotten consumed carcases to burnt ones, whose dust once mixed admits no separation till the iudgement day; for as trees while they grow Simile. are apparently known by their several kindes, and commonly called by their names, but being felled, fired, consumed, none can distinguish their ashes; So men while they live do very much differ in office, title, person, place and power, but when they bee dead and resolved into cinders, by no means can they then bee directly divided: as there is the like ashes of the shrub and the cedar; so there is the like dust of the King and the beggar. In this the mightiest more then the meanest haue no privilege: show me the gallant Conquerors of the world, are they not all conquered by this undaunted universal Conqueror death? yes; and we all out of their personal precedents must needs confess the truth of this Text we must needs die. O master less death quam nec repulsa nec fuga nec artes domant, Which neither foil nor flight nor cunning could yet ever discomfite: It was ment generally of the whole mass of mankind. Nosce teipsum, i. hominem ideoque mortalem, Know thyself, that is, to be a man, a man and therefore mortal; So singeth david sweetly Let the Heathen know Ps. 9. 20. themselves to be but men, men; and therefore mortal; hence it is that the great Macedonian King would daily be remembered with this loud alarum Homoes Phillippe, Phillip thou art a man,( a man and therefore mortal) that so being put in mind of his mortal condition he might the less insult over the subdued Athenians. That mighty rich eastern noble man job is not ashamed to confess his descent; see the ancienth ouse and pedigree whence he derives himself & the goodly kindred he boldly allieth himself to, I said to corruption thou art my father, & to the worm job. 17. 14 thou art my mother and my sister, and in another place he sets up his rest for another world, solum mihi remanet sepulchrum, only the grave remaineth for me; a brave job. 17. resolution, and surely if wee would seriously think on our ends, we should be a great deal more sinless in our lives then wee are; the place that telleth us so in Scripture is very well known, Remember thine end Eccles. 7. 36. and thou shalt never sin; not that thou shalt not at all sin, but that thou shalt the less sin, because thou shalt fear to sin. For not any thought more fruitful to keep us from offending the Lord, then that of our end: This makes me call to mind those four short lines I lighted on this morning ere I forsook my study; take them as I find them, though they are rhyme yet there is reason in them. Cum recordor quod sum cinis, Et quam eito venit finis; Sine fine pertimesco, Et vt cinis refrigesco. I will English them onely for those who haue but their English only. When I think that I am dust, And how quickly hence I must; It puts me to an endless fright, Like ashes pale and bloodless quiter. 3. Must. But I come to the third point, which is the authority of the Act that decreeth it, for it comes in with authority, Must: must? Satis pro imperio. For what is the old saying? Must is for the King: true; therefore wee must needs die, because the King of heaven hath said it must be so. For, We must all appear before 2. Cor. 5. 11. the iudgement seat of Christ; must wee? why do we struggle then? shall we contend with God? can man resist this Must? mans might, the might of God; mans impotency, Gods omnipotency. Is it possible? may we compare them then? alas what comparison between them? Lay them both together, and you shall find That no more to This, than weakness unto strength, or the feeble Kidde, to the fearful roaring lion; The odds is more between the workman and the work, the Potter and the pot. I speak not of strong Hercules, whose labours were fictions all incredible; but of other Champions, such ones, as once were so indeed. Stout Samson, who with an Asses judge. 15. 15. judge. 16. 29. 30. jaw bone slay a thousand men; and with his very hands pulled down a fast-built-house vpon his enemies heads. And great goliath, that huge Philistine, whose weapon was as a weavers beam, which yet he brandished as easily as the strongest of our souldiers can wield their warlike spears. And those big-bon'd giants, the sons of Anak, who went about to build a Tower to Gen. 11. 4. reach to heaven, thereby to purchase to themselves an everlasting name. I speak of these or the like to these; and what of these? say that, with such as these, the earth were all throughout replenished, and that the general strength of these might meet in one, yet were it no more to the matchless power of God, which hath this most commanding Must in it, than the push of a bulrush to the stroke of a spear, or the strength of the boy Iether to that of Gedeon his father. For judge. 8. 20. what is man, the mightiest man, take him in the prime and glory of his age? his strength is not the strength of job 6. 12. stones, his body is not brass, every small misfortune thowes him down, an Ache takes away the use of all his limbs, sickness brings him to the doors, unto the gates, into the inner chambers of death; his flesh may soon be pierced, his breath slips out at a little breach, his life leaps out at a little hole, his spirit departs, and he returns to his dust. This david well considering, though his arms were made so strong, that they could break a bow even of steel, yet having an eye to the incomparable power of God altogether to the disabling of his own ability, he humbly thus concludes of himself in the lowest style, At ego sum vermis & non vir, But I am a worm and no man; and yet Psal. 22. 6. he was a King. O put not your trust in Princes, then( saith he) nor in any son of man, for there is no help in them, his breath departs, and he returns to his earth, Psal. 146. 3. 4. and then all his thoughts do perish. As for the power of the proudest Prince on earth, let him glory in it as he listeth, and solace himself in his tyrannous rule, as his own heart fancieth, let him speak his pleasure: Sic volo, sic jubeo, stat pro ratione voluntas. So I will, so I command. My will for reason good shall stand. yet alas this holds but a while, but a very little while, death quickly comes and cuts him off. God hath a will to curb his will, and a Must beyond his Must, a command that shall command both him and others also, whereto both he, and they, and we, and All must needs yield, For we must needs die. The laws of the Medes and Persians, which might not be altered, were Dan. 6. 8. Esther 8. 8. not so strong as this Law enacted in the Parliament of heaven, never to bee repealed, Statutum est omnibus Heb. 9. semel mori, It is appointed for all men once to die. And Paul elsewhere illustrates this by an excellent similitude, Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened 1. Cor. 15 36. except it die. For as corn that is sown must die before it be quickened, so our flesh in the earth must rot before it be raised: And as here is a Must that brings us hence to the grave, for we must needs die: so there is a Must that fetcheth us thence out of the grave to heaven, This corruptible Must put on incorruption, 1. Cor. 15. 53. and this mortal Must put on immortality. Thus there is a double Must, from life to death, from death to life. This Must must be, ere that Must can be. For what think ye? hath life a licet, and hath not death an oportet? May we live? we Must die. Wee may live all while: tis true, it may bee so; but that wee must die all at last, is a truth inevitable, it must be so. Men may say and safely say, Wee may live: but how long, it is hard to determine: I dare say it asseueranter,( and swear it with an oath) that we must needs die. But to define, either when, or where, or how, or what our deaths shall be, were to enter into the scrutiny of Gods secrets; for we cannot say it, because it is uncertain, but be it must, we must needs die, that is certain, it is one of the oracles of Gods doomsday book. 4. Needs. But let me not wrong the point that followeth, by allowing it less time in the handling of it, than indeed it is worthy of. The time runs on, & this to the former sticks very close, they do both( as it were) hold hand in hand as loathe to be partend; For always, what must needs be, must be. And though not always, yet sometimes what must be, must needs be. As here, because( you see) authority begets necessity, & necessity is appendent to divine authority; Gods oportet hath fast by it a necesse est, his must hath a needs, and I must needs join them, for we must needs die. The saying is old, Durum telum necessitas, need maketh the old wife trot; shee will trot for life, I'll warrant you; Me thinks the consideration of this need, this necessity of death, this wee must needs die, this deadly need should make old and young, trudge and trot for life, not this, but that life which endureth ever. The rigour of this fatal necessity, infoldeth all of all degrees, from which there is no evasion by shifts or tergiversation; time is the winding-sheet of all things, no age, no sex privileged from the grave. In the world is sea and land; our life in the world resembles both. Is there a sea? is our life so too? tis mere amarum then, a bitter & unsavoury Sea, which we must needs sail through in this slender bark of our bodies; we must needs at last shoot the gulf and depth of death, before wee can put into the haven, heaven. Is there land? is our life so too, 'tis Terra spinosa & petrosa then; a thorny and stony plot, ill ground for a race, yet if we would needs run it well, we must needs run it out, full to the end, to the last post, Death, before we can win the bell, the goal, and bear away the reward of endless glory; which glory in eternal life we cannot come to, but by a temporal death. This is the ordinary passage hence to heaven, there is no by-way, this is Regia via the Kings high-way, no way but this common-way to the Court, where the King is, no way but by death unto life in heaven where the Lord of life is; for wee must needs die if we would needs live, die once to live ever. If it bee needful then, that we die, we ought to make a virtue of this necessity, we should not now repined at it, since no man can resist it, but rather should embrace it, since it bringeth us such a benefit, as the end of all our misery, and an entrance into glory. But o blessed need what is thine entertainment in the world? art thou thus received with patience? it is patience perforce then: for most men strive against this mortal need, and never yield till they must needs, no nor then though needs they must. If it were not so why struggle and strive they in their sickness so much for life as commonly they do; when nature cannot help art, nor art comfort nature, and beyond these when God( perhaps) is pleased to with-hold his blessing from both( which if it be wanting all means can do nothing) yet still there is a stir; physicians and Surgeons must come with their purges and plasters, the cook in the kitchen must make broathes and cullases, the Mistris seek her closet for the soueraignest restoratives, seruants trudge to and fro, clothes must be heated, beds warmed, heads held fast, bodies boulstered up, standards by pitying, friends sighing, children mourning, their eyes streaming, their hands wringing, their hearts aching, Lord what a stir is here, and to how little purpose, that when all is done, wee must needs die. For wee must needs go on our way, the right way we were born to, the great beaten way, the universal way of all flesh, wee must needs go home to our surest home, to our last home, even to this long home of my text, wee must needs die. It must needs be so: needs? and why needs? surely we cannot be clothed with heauens glory, but first wee must needs be unclothed of earths misery, we cannot enjoy life there, but first we must needs suffer death here; we cannot govp to that palace above but first we must needs go out of this prison below; so if then, we would needs live, certainly now we must needs die; and thus from the necessity I come to the mortality itself, which is the last word and the last part, the end of my Text and the end of us all; Die. 5 Mortality. Die] mark how strongly this last point is here confirmed; we must needs die, why? God in Scripture says it, God by Nature shows it, and this wee know is true by Word and by Experience, infallible proofs both. First God by Moses, God by jeremy, God by job, God by many others in his holy book doth tell us that these our corporal Coppyholds are not inheritance here; ticklish states; taken only for term of life, and how long that may be, or how short it shall be, who can say? a doubtful lease, a tenor quickly crazed, and by many casualties forfeited; what saith God by the mouth of Moses? enough to daunt the courage of the proudest were it rightly thought on; for none of all the sons of Adam could ever hitherto, or hence forth ever shall, from this day to the day of the general assizes, frustrate this irrevocable doom Dust thou art, and into dust thou Gen 3. 19 shalt return: E pulvere pulvis in pulverem, of dust thou wast, now dust thou art, into dust thou shalt; what nothing but dust? then the which nothing more vile? stones are good for something, day is good for something, dirt is good for something, dust is good for nothing, therof man was formed, thereto man is turned. The Prophet jeremy secondeth this with a triple Acclamation: o earth, earth, earth, hear jer. 22. 29 the word of the Lord. Earth thou camest hither, earth thou staiest here; earth thou goest hence: Earth thy first foundation, earth thy middle mansion, earth thy last resolution. Now job cometh in with a cutting knife and loppes the flower-like life of man, with a sharp saying more keen then any razor: Man cometh up and is cut down like a flower. What cut and job. 14 2. cut down? here is a cut with a witness, a down right swath, done by the edge of Saturnes sieth who was the Pagans god of time, wearing out the beauty and bravery of the world into rags; rags into rottenness, and a rueful end of all. An end? nay, it were well for the wicked if that were an end, for the end of this soon ended life, is to them the beginning of a neuer-ending death. again mark the words, Man cometh up and is cut down like a flower; so man is up; up and cut down, down as assoon as he is up; up and strait down, no sooner up but instantly down; what a no-middle vp-and-downe creature is man! job makes no mention of any stay, as if mans time of continuance were not worth, the speaking of; now he cometh into the world; anon he goeth out of the world, now in and anon out, Lord what an in-and-out uncertain creature is man! he saith further ( like a flower) which is flourishing and fading and all in a summer. job determineth the times as the men of Bath reckon the seasons,( pardon me in the comparison, that wondrous place giveth me cause to love it well) there is no talk there of midsummer and as little of midwinter, all is spring and fall there. O that we would look to the Day-spring as well as the yeere-spring; the light of Gods countenance as the increase of our substance; and no less regard the fall of our life, then the fall of the leaf; as the leaf must vanish so life must perish, for we must needs die. Out of Adams state in paradise may be fetch't five forcible motives that may stir men up to a ready remembrance of their present mortality: 1. The Matter whereof man was made. 2. The Name whereby man was called. 3. The apparel wherewith man was clothed. 4. The Labour whereabout man was busied. 5. The interdiction wherewith man was charged. By these in Adams glass thou maiest see the face of thine own deformity. By these in Adams fall thou maiest veiwe the flesh of thine own frailty. By these in Adams ruin thou maiest behold the map of thine own misery. By these and every one of these, Ipse jubet mortis te meminisse Deus, Author qui vitae est. Lifes Author God who gives thee breath, bids thee be mindful of thy death. First the matter whereof man was made, the dust, the day or slime of the earth: Man is then an earthen Gen. 2. 7. vessel vas fragile & fractu facile; brittle and easily broken: therefore must needs die. Secondly, the name whereby man was called Adam, i. Terrenus of the earth. Homo ab humo; Man of the ground, that hearing his name he might think on the matter, and the base rubbish whereof he was formed, and so resolve that he must needs die. Thirdly, the apparel wherewith man was clothed; we red Gen. 3. 21. unto Gen. 3. 21 Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them therewith: It may bee eithet Lyon-skinnes, or Beare-skinnes, or Goate-skinnes, or Calue-skinnes or the like, that beholding the garments on their backs which came from the backs of dead beasts, they might be put in mind of their ends, and so bee persuaded that they must needs die. Fourthly, the labour whereabout man was busied, for God commanded him to plow, to dig Gen. 3. 23 to till the earth. That so often as he turned up the earth with either spade or plowshare, he might remember his grave, the earth whence he came and whether he must, and so bee satisfied that he must needs die. Fiftly, the commination wherewith man was threatened. First, before he sinned, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death, Gen 3. 3. Secondly, after Gen. 3. 3. transgression, In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken, because thou art dust and to dust thou shalt go, Gen. 3. 19 Gen. 3. 19. All these did directly prove to the first mans face that he must needs die. Next what saith nature? is there a Generatur? there must be a Corrumpitur; every oritur must haue a moritur. Is there an introitus there must be an interritus; every beginning must haue an ending: Vitam acceptmus Senec. à natura vt reddamus, ingredimur vitam vt exeamus, We receive a life of nature to render it, we enter into a life to go out of it. There is not an intrat without an exit in this lifes tragedy; a very tragedy wee are born crying, we cry dying, we come in with moan and go out with a groan; let life haue leave to flaunt it, and brave it, and pomp it while on the stage of this world, yet all is but a flourish, all is but a flash Death still plays Rex, strikes all the Actors, one after one with a mortal blow; there may be a little mirth in the midst, but Death at the last strongly steps up and grimmely comes in with a terrible Epilogue & concludes all; so Death makes an end; so Death in the end is the end of the play, for we must needs die. But alas is there no remedy must we die? needs die? must life away? needs away? yes; none can save it, but God that gave it, he will haue it: at the Lords hand we first received it, and must surrender it into the Lords hand again: Lord and Seruant, Master & handmaid, God and Nature,( as you haue heard) are agreed vpon the point; Her dutiful submission to his Imperious must, must needs make all men mortal, all men die: if He command, She must obey; if he say I will do it, she must say thy will be done: she must answer her maker as the clerk doth the Priest; if he begin with a be it so, she must end with a so be it: to conclude, what he once concludes, she must sound her Amen to the same conclusion; shall I thus conclude? if I should, is not Amen a good conclusion? true, placed where it should be: but here it presseth vpon us a little too soon, let Amen be the last; Amen best cometh in when all is out, and why not now? is not the glass run and the hour all out? It lacks but a little: It is high time then that I begin to bind up my speech into a conclusion. Some of good note are at this time assembled to celebrate this funeral; some as lookers on are come to observe the manner of the solemnity; the whole number of hearers( if it be as I beleeue) affecting Maries choice are met for the best thing, whereof in the closet of their hearts I trust they will treasure up something; of you all I crave now at last only this one thing, that when you go hence; among others things you would carry away with you nothing. I need not desire this, it is easily done without intrety: but indeed soundly to consider that the body you bear about you is nothing if you look directly on your mortal condition, here is the point, he that well learns nothing thus, never learned a better lesson, therefore I pray learn nothing well; learn well I mean what nothing means; there is a little lecture laid out in a line whereof a good construction may be made, Vertitur in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil. The same which was nothing in former times past. Is turn'de into nothing again at the last. Purge it from paganism, and put it into a Christian sense, then it hitt's us all home. The Beginning, Nothing, the Ending, Nothing, what's the middle then? quod fuit, that that was; what's that, Nihil, nothing. And let that be Dust. For as Dust in respect of any other substance, is the vilest substance of all, so the dead carcase, in respect of any excellent substance, is said to bee nothing, or no substance at all. david could say little less of the living, and may not I say so much of the dead? Yes verily; of the former it may be affirmed with a verily, the Prophets own asseveration, Psal 39. 6. Verily every man living is altogether vanity. vanity is a poor silly something, if it be any thing; nay to strip all Adams brood out of all conceit of their own worthiness, he saith, that all the children of men, being weighed vpon the balance are deceitful Psal. 62. 9. upon the weights and cannot bear scale, no not with nothing itself, that they are altogether lighter then vanity or inanitie, Nihili nihil, the nought of nothing. I say not so much of the latter, for if the dead body bee nothing; it is onely Nihil tale, no such thing as it was. The body is nothing so, when it is dead, as erst before it was when it lived, because that through the several Organs thereof( the soul being departed) for a while it leaveth( not wholly looseth) the lively use of all it's faculties, and is so nothing. The eye nothing, because the sight nothing, for the eye cannot see, and so of the rest, for Omnes corporis sensus, Visus, Olfactus, Gustus, Tactus, Auditus, in morte nihil, All the bodies sences of Seeing, Smelling, Tasting, Touching, Hearing, in death are nothing, and are put to silence and unprofitableness in the grave: neither can the maintenance of this point thus, make any whit against the sweet and comfortable doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, for it sheweth onely a dissolution, not an abolition or annihilation of the parts; for though the body go into dust, & that dust into it's elements, and those elements appear not, and so do seem nothing, yet God will pick out the parcels, and distinguish the seueralls of all, whether drowned in the water, or devoured by beasts, or burnt in the fire, God can and will set all scattered ashes, all divided dusts, all separated parts together, to make up their own proper total, and put them into their first-founded structure, even to an hair. — nec me nec dent nec vngue Prudent. Fraudatum reuomet patefacti fossa sepulchri. Nor shall the deep wide grave( the bodies jail) Cast me'vp at last with loss of tooth or nail. So speaketh Esay, Thy dead men shall live; with their body shall they rise; Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Esay 26. 19. dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. here the Prophet resembleth the resurrection of the righteous unto the dew of herbs; for as herbs dead in winter, flourish again by the rain in the time of the spring; so they that lie dead in the dust, shall rise up to ioy, when they feel the dew of Gods quickening grace in the resurrection of the just. So saith John; I saw the dead both small & revel. 20. 12. 13. great stand before God, and the Sea gave up her dead which were in her, and Death and Hell delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man, according to their works. And marvell not at this( saith Christ our saviour) for the hour shall come, when all joh. 5. 28. 29. that are in the graues shall hear the voice of the son of God; And they shall come forth that haue done good to the resurrection of life, but they that haue done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. So( you see) God will raise the dead all, and all out of all places. he will fetch them up all again, and all again the same, no other but the same, the very same, the selfsame, though in quality altered from the same, yet in substance still the same, as job profoundly, I( now the job 19. 25. 26. same) shall rise( hereafter the same) out of the earth( there and thence the same) at the last day( then the same) and shall see God in this my flesh, and shall behold him not with other but with these) same eyes. As then( being dead) we are nothing, not absolutely, but in respect; so( being alive) we are now likewise nothing, & that in respect of our first creation, or our future glorification: as may appear by the right answers unto these four interrogatory heroics significant enough, though rudely framed: Quid primò fuimus primi patris ante reatum? Esse quid antiqua nostra ambitione velimus? Quid posthac erimus quum nos haec vita relinquit? Esse quid hoc fragili debemus & orb fruentes? What were we first ere our first Fathers fall? What would we be once in our old Ambition? What shall we be when this life leaves us all? What should we be in this frail worlds fruition? Let us answer here to 1. What we were. 2. What we would be. 3. What we shall be. 4. What we should be. 1. What were we in our first Creation? we were then in the state of innocency; wee are nothing now in respect of that. 2. What would wee bee by our Ambition? wee would bee once like God himself; wee are nothing now in respect of that. 3. What shall we be in Glorification? we shall bee as the glorious Angels; wee are nothing now in respect of that. 4. What should we be in Sanctification? wee should bee holy as our heavenly Father is holy; we are nothing now in respect of that. But I haue abused your patience too long with nothing, by making too much ado about nothing. Let me now end with something of this late something, new nothing, now nothing, as nothing. So the Prophet Esay 40. doth tell us; God sitteth on the circled of the earth, and the inhabitants in comparison of him are but as grasshoppers: he maketh the Princes of the earth as nothing, the Iudges of the land nothing, the people nothing, as if they were never planted, never sown, for he but blows vpon them and they whither, and the whirlwind takes them away like straw. The Lord speaks this, despise it not: here's one shows this, then doubt it not: if the audible voice of the speaker cannot persuade thee, let the visible object, the dumb Actor, lying here in deaths bosom win credit with thee: Si mihi non creeds, experto creed Iohanni. In this if thou wilt not give credit to me, Let John who hath tried it here credited be. I speak not of the living to the dead, Mortui non habent aures, the dead do not hear. But I speak of the dead to the living, Non desunt viuentibus aures, The living haue ears and must hear, unless they will be like those deaf adders, & those dead Images, which Psal. 135. david speaks of, the one that haue stopped ears, and will not; the other, that haue uncircumcised ears, and cannot hear: But as the Papists say, Images are Laicorum libri, Lay-mens books: so may I say, that these dead Images, are vivorum libri, living mens books, wherein every one may plainly red a true lesson of his own inevitable mortality. The Dead praise not God, nor pray to God for the living. For who will give thee thankes in the pit? But the living Psal. 115. must praise God for the dead that die in the Lord, for the righteous must be had in an everlasting remembrance. Psal. Hic jacet in loculo, here he lieth in a coffin, wrapped in his winding sheet, now to be laid in his grave, there to rest for a while, till that voice comes, surgite mortui and then shall he presently rise with a Gloria Patri. It ill becomes any man, either flatteringly to add more, or injuriously to give less to the dead then is due. God blessed him every way most graciously, in himself and his. The bright favours of his heavenly Maker began to shine on him betime, and so continued towards him till the evening and sun-set of his life. Blessings embroidered, enfolded vpon him, God from heaven powred down blessing vpon blessing with a full horn, temporal, corporal, spiritual: faire possessions, propagation of a sweet progeny, children and childes children. The natural and comely lims out of the body of this three spreading, are in number just so many, as the world hath parts, and from the chief of these sprout forth a many of little, pretty, tender blessed olive branches, that sit round about the Fathers table. And who might not find in this late lively pattern of piety, now present spectacle of our mortality, a commendable expressing of himself to all in a faire plaine-meaning fashion, without curious and affencted compliments, now in use with the most, the notable disguisements of deep hypocrisy. add hereunto that humorous and fantastical vanity of changeable and chargeable suits of clothes; silken outsides on the back, shows of swelling insides at the heart: outward ensigns of inward pride: these were most distasteful( I may say hateful) to him ever: I may not forget that which was very remarkable in him, and which is rare in these daies, that he was an extraordinarie-good tenants Lord, not racking or gripping to grind the faces of the poor. And therefore Christ his saviour hath received him into his holy habitations, as a tenant in one of those many mansions that are in his Fathers house. A citizen, a free denyson of the new jerusalem that is in heaven. And that I may give a true and deserved testimony of his virtuous and Christian carriage, worthily manifesting his lively faith working by charity. He was the same he shewed himself to bee, commmendably courteous unto strangers, very kind to honest passengers, truly comfortable to his neighbours, dearly tender to his friends, exceeding merciful to his enemies, admirably patient in all his crosses, compassionately pitying the state of the poor, not enviously repining at the increase of the rich, ever entirely loving to all: This faith of his, thus built vpon the foundation of the Prophets & Apostles Iesus Christ himself being the head corner ston, hath now brought him to the state of immortality, & made him a blessed Saint in the kingdom of glory. And to end with his end, because the end of a man perfectly trieth a man, let the world know that God armed him with heavenly preparations all the time of his languishing sickness till he came vsque ad metam, even to the end of the goal; and being one of the chiefest among those many within that Charge whereof the holy Ghost hath made me an overseer, love & duty brought me often to him, and knowing it to be the best office, & fearing it would be the last service that ever I should do him, I followed him with such necessary instructions as men in such cases do most stand in need of, which God enabled me then to deliver, and strengthened him effectually then to receive. And whereas not long before he left the world( even in his death-bedde) he desired to haue his heart comforted with the pledge of Christs love, that thereby the remembrance of his sweet saviours death for his sin might be stamped with a deep impression on his heauen-thirsty soul, & that by the Sacrament and seal of his assured salvation by the body & blood of his blessed Redeemer, I did then receive from him such a full confession of his faith, profession of his piety, detestation of his sins, petition & supplication for forgiveness, that nothing more could be expected from a Christian man; telling me he had an apprehension that he should not long continue here, with manifest tokens of a most sanctified & lamb-like patience, reverently yielding infinite thankes to GOD who had so humbled him before his death, & vouchsafed him so large & precious a time of repentance; It pleased the Lord then; to let his seruant with Simeon depart in peace, peace in the assured merits and mercies of his crucified Redeemer, of which peace he hath now plentiful fruition with the God of peace in the kingdom of Glory, whereunto the Lord bring us all for his mercies sake, by the merites of his onely son our blessed Lord and saviour Iesus Christ, Amen. FINIS.