A SERMON, PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL of the Right Worshipful Sir Robert Boteler Knight, of Wood-Hall:  
In the Parish of Watton in Hertford-shire, the ninth of january, 1622.  
PROV. 10. 7. The memory of the Just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.  
LONDON, Printed by Nicholas Okes for john Waterson, and are to be sold at the sign of the Crown in Paul's Churchyard. 1623.   

❧ TO THE RIGHT Worshipful and truly virtuous, the Lady FRANCIS BOTELER, late wife to the Right worshipful Sir ROBERT BOTELER Knight, deceased.  MADAM, 
IT was your Ladyship's importunity that brought these poor Meditations to the Press, and it is your name likewise that must countenance them abroad in the world, The Queen of Sheba heard very much of Salomon's glory: yet when she came in person to see it, she found it was far greater than the report. But here it is otherwise. For though haply some that do overlove either me or my Sermon, have told you more of it than it deserves; Yet when you come to see it, to read it, I doubt, you will find less in it then you do expect: And so will others too. But the difference is, that you can blame none but yourself; and they will blame none but me. Yet notwithstanding, as it was a great comfort unto me at the first, that my auditors were pleased to accept it then as a discharge of that debt, that service which I did owe unto the memory of that Noble Gentleman your loving husband: So will it be now likewise, if this dedication may any way express that reverential observance, which the virtues that are in you above your Sex, and the favours that you have done me beyond my desert, shall ever challenge at my hands. In the meantime what is wanting in my endeavours, I will supply by my prayers for your Ladyship, that God would be pleased to afford you a daily increase of comfort in the happy growth of that tender plant, your little Daughter, and to multiply his blessings upon you, and his graces in you both, to his glory.  
Your Ladyships faithful servant in Christ Jesus, T. H.   
1. PET. 1. 24. All flesh is as grass. 
TOuching obsequies and Funeral solemnities, wherewith all times and religions, have in some kind or other honoured their dead, it is the conclusion of a heathen man, and Christianity denies it not, Totus hic locus etsi contemnendus in nobis, tamen non negligendus in nostris; Though we ought not to make them any part of our care as touching ourselves, yet notwithstanding, where either a commixtion of blood by affinity and kindred, or a secret inter-inanimation, an union of souls by amity and love, or any other collateral and binding relation, hath entailed upon us the memory of the dead, there, it will be an act of a reverential and a pious affection, to provide that those rites and those ceremonies may accordingly have their course. 
Augustine.  But yet St. Austin hath set them their bounds too: we may not carry them so high as to think that they are mortuorum subsidia, any whit available unto those who are gone; but the respect that's due unto them, and the use that is to be made of them must end and determine in this, that they are Vivorum solatia, they do indeed in some measure assuage and lessen the sorrow, and so add something to the comfort of those that survive. And this use do we make of them, this comfort do we milk from them now; as being an act, not of safety only, but of piety too, that we are thus met together, you, to contribute your presence and condolencie, and I, (most unworthy) my poor meditations to the celebration of this day. For we shall thereby not only quit ourselves of a debt, wherein we all stand bound (though by different obligations) to the memory of that noble Gentlemen, whose day this is; but some gain also will arise, happily some advantage may accrue unto us, if we shall contemplate, exemplarily in him, and doctrinally in this text, Figmentum nostrum, (as the Prophet David calls it) our own composition and structure, and mould, and mortality; Omnis caro ut foenum, All flesh is as grass.  
In the handling of which words, we shall first pass through those considerations that are most obvious, and nearest hand; as first, the various acceptations of this word Caro, Flesh, in Scripture, and which of them we are to pitch upon here; then the extent, the latitude of it in that acceptation, and that is carried here as far as any term, any expression can do it, for it is Omnis Caro, All flesh; Lastly the condition, the nature of flesh in this latitude, in this universality, and that is set down by a similitude, a comparison, and the thing whereto it is likened, whereto it is compared is, Grass, Omnis Caro ut foenum, All flesh is as grass. And when these particulars have passed our discussion, we will then fall upon those resultances, those emergent and collateral considerations, wherein the text and the time shall best agree.  
To begin then; This word Caro, flesh, is diversely taken in Scripture. Amongst other things which the Prophet David ascribes unto God by way of praise, Psal. 136. One is that he doth, Dare escam omni carni, he giveth food to all flesh; there, flesh is taken for every creature that hath life. In the 29. of Gen. Laban says to jacob, Os meum es, & caro mea, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh; there flesh is taken for consanguinity and kindred. Among other articles of the Creed, we believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the resurrection of the flesh: there, flesh is taken for the body of man. In the 7. to the Rom. St. Paul says, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, that is, in my soul, as far as it inclines unto, and is guided by the flesh, I know there dwells no good: there flesh is taken for the soul of man. In the 6. of Gen. God saw that Omnis caro, all flesh had corrupted their ways; there flesh is taken for those that had forsaken God. In the 2. of joel, God says, I will pour out my Spirit super omnem carnem, upon all flesh; there flesh is taken for those that should be called to the knowledge of God. Many other significations it hath; sometimes it is taken for the people of the jews; sometimes for the ceremonies of the old law; sometimes for the corruption of nature, sometimes for the infirmity of nature; and many times in a larger capacity it comprehends all men, and so it is taken here, Omnis caro, All flesh, that is, all men are as Grass.  
Now if you ask me the reason why men in Scripture are called by the name of flesh, (besides the reason of grammar, that the part is here siguratively taken for the whole) St. Chrysostome renders it thus: chries. Because (saith he) they are so wholly given over to the works and lusts of the flesh, ac si sola carne circundati, carerent anima: As if they were nothing else but a mass, a lump of flesh, that had no soul to quicken it, no reason to guide it at all.  
But yet we must take heed that we stretch not this reason of St. Chrysostome too far. For though it be true in most men, yet it is not true in all: God forbid that all men should be so fleshly. Greg. And therefore St. Gregory thought fit to correct and to limit it by a distinction, In sacro eloquio aliter dicitur caro iuxta naturam, aliter iuxta culpam vel corruptionem, (saith he) The sin, the corruption of flesh, is one thing: and the nature, the constitution of flesh, is another thing: these are two different considerations, and the Scripture takes them so: And therefore where it is taken in the first sense, there St. Chrysostom's reason is good, but not otherwise, for it holds not here; since it is only the nature, the constitution of flesh that is aimed at in this place, & in that sense it grows to an universality, which is the second thing we observe, Omnis caro, All flesh is as grass.  
All flesh: That flesh which is but coursely fed, with any thing that comes next hand: and that flesh which eats nothing but what is far fetched and dearly bought. That flesh which is clothed in rags, or perchance not so well; and that flesh which wears only what is rak't out of the entrails of beasts, and out of the bowels of the earth, and out of the bottom of the Sea. That flesh which is so macerated with fasting, that the skin is ready to cleave to the bones, much like a walking Anatomy: and that flesh which is so pampered and blown up by riot and excess, that the skin can scarce hold it. That flesh wherein is lodged and cloistered up as much learning, as much wisdom, as makes a man a walking Library: and that flesh which entertains nothing but ignorance and folly. That flesh which is painted and trimmed up as jezabells was; and that flesh which is squallida & fletibus siccata, neglected, and squalid, and dried up with tears; 
Hierom.  as St. Hierome writes of that virtuous Lady Paula. That flesh which is smoothly plastered on; and that flesh which is but rough-cast. The face that is so amorous and so angelical, that it ravisheth a beholder; and the face that is so ill-favoured, so There sites-like, that it may well serve for a skarrecrowe in a garden of Cucumbers. The body that is so eleganly contrived, so methodically laid together, with such an eutaxy of proportion, such a concinnity, such a harmony of limbs and members, as if nature meant to make it her masterpiece; and the body that is so misshapen, so discomposed, as if nature had shuffled it up in haste, or made it in the dark. The man that is so transported with the conceit of his riches or his honour, that he is ready upon every occasion to swagger in St. Bernard's terms, Quis ille, vel ille, aut quae domus patris eorum? What is this fellow, or that base fellow, and what is the house of their father that they should affront me? And the man that glories only in his infirmities, and accounts all but dross and dung in respect of Christ crucified, as St. Paul did: Omnis caro, all faces, all bodies, all men, all flesh is but as grass.  
Yea but Omnis caro non eadem caro. (saith St. Paul) all flesh is not the same flesh, there is one manner of flesh of Men, and another of Beasts, and another of Birds, and another of Fishes. It is true: but yet mark the distinction that Tertullian gives here: 
Tertull.  All flesh is not the same flesh, in equality of prerogative; but, all flesh is the same flesh, in community of nature. It is differentia honoris, not differentia generis, (as he says there) a difference of honour, not of kind that St. Paul puts between them. Now then, make an Allegory of it; understand by men, those that are the best of men, those that live as men should do, that is, religious and exemplar Christians; Understand by beasts, men of a carnal and a bestial conversation; by birds, contemplative men, that soar up aloft to hidden and heavenly things; by fishes, men that are satisfied only with a baptismal aspersion, non-proficients in Christianity, that stand at the Font still, and are gone no further than their Godfathers first brought them: and then, though in regard of personal and particular qualities it may be true in this figurative, this Allegorical sense too, Omnis caro non eadem, all flesh is not the same flesh; though there be a great difference between the humours and affections and inclinations of men, yet notwithstanding, whatsoever their beginning or their progress be, they will meet still in the Centre of nature, they are all but flesh, & Omnis caro foenum, and all flesh is as grass.  
It is observable, that the first thing which ever sprung out of the earth, was grass; and the last creature that was made of the earth, was man. And surely (besides that infinite difference in nature) when God at first did put such a difference between the manner of their creation, Germinet terra, let the earth bring forth grass, but faciamus hominem, let us make man ourselves, let that be our own immediate handiwork; when he put such a distance between the time of their making, (for grass was brought forth the third day, and man was made the sixth day; and he was the last creature that was made, as being God's masterpiece here on earth, and the upshot and the Epilogue and the compliment of all;) when he did thus separate these two at the beginning, it was not likely that there should be, neither did he intend any such degeneration, any such declination in nature, that they should ever meet together in terms of comparison. Yet, see the confusion that sin hath brought in: Man that was so glorious a creature at the first, is now fall'n so far, and grown so mean, so vile, that grass and he are grown to a resemblance, to an affinity, & they are both weighed here, one against another in the balance, this text, Omnis caro ut foenum, All flesh is as grass.  
As grass, in diverse respects: 1. grass is light; and so is man. Sometimes a wind of doctrine, some new-fangled opinion, blows him out of the faith. Sometimes a wind of preferment, an ambition of honour blows him out of the society of his friends. Sometimes a wind of persecution blows him out of the Church. Every little blast of distemper makes him droop and hang towards the earth; but the impetuous gust of a violent disease blows him quite out of the world.  
Secondly, grass is short; and so is the life of man too. The Scripture, at longest, makes it but a span; and yet this span is continually cut off by inch-meales too. Sometimes it is cut off an inch above, when a Father or a Mother dies; and sometimes it is cut off an inch below, when a Son or a Daughter is taken away: and sometimes it is cut off quite in the middle, when a wife is parted from her husbaud, or a husband from his wife; death is still nibbling at it, every day, every hour, till at length it hath eaten it so low, so near the ground, that there is nothing left.  
Thirdly, grass is brittle, apt to be bruised with the least touch; so is man likewise: So thin, and so slight, and so weak of constitution, such brittle ware, that it falls to pieces many times, even by the least mischance. The light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Christ jesus, is the greatest, the richest treasure that we can enjoy here; and yet when we have it, Habemus thesaurum hunc in vasis fictilibus, saith St. Paul, we have this treasure but in earthen vessels, and such vessels, you know, are quickly broken. A pin, or a fish-bone, or a crumb, or a hair, these are but poor and weak, and despicable things: and yet history tells us that men have lost their lives, even by these. It is strange, you will think, they should do so; and yet I shall tell you that which is more strange than this too. Chilon the Spartan, when his son returned home a conqueror from the Olympian games, died, prae gaudio, merely for joy. When Clidemus the Athenian had a crown of gold set upon his head, he died prae gloria, only with the conceit of that glory. Plato died in a dream; and Crassus died in a laughter; and Tertullian reports all this too. So tender a piece is the body of man, so frail, and so feeble, and so brittle is his constitution.  
Fourthly, grass is subject to beasts, they may eat it up and tread it down: so are men too, for whilst they are as tenacious of wrongs as a Camel, as lustful as goats, as deceitful and crafty as Foxes, whilst they lick up the dust of the earth by covetousness, with the Serpent, & foam with anger like a Boar, and are ready to devour one another by oppression, like Wolves; they make themselves a prey to these beasts, that is, to these base and bestial affections, which trample upon, and tread down their souls to the nethermost hell.  
Fiftly, grass is subject to Mowers, they may cut it down when they please; so are men too, if you consider them in respect of a civil and temporal estate; so, the Potentates, the great ones of this world they are mowers, inferior people are as grass: if there be any that stand in their way, and overshadow their steps never so little, that thrive and grow up faster than they would have them, they have their scythes ready, oppression and policy and supplantation, to cut them down. If otherwise you consider them in respect of a vital subsistence, a natural being, which is the consideration that we are to stop upon here; so there is one that hath been a mowing ever since the beginning of the world to this present, that is, Death; and yet there is a repullulation of grass, a succession of men every day: and where he is the mower, there great men, and mean men, and all men, Omnis caro, All flesh is as grass. He that comes to mow down a field, doth not spare and pass by the flowers that are in it, but cuts down all, perchance a Cowslip, or a Primrose, or a honeysuckle, as soon as other ordinary grass. Though we ascribe so much to the nobles and great ones of this world, as to account them the flowers of the field, the glory of a people; yet when death comes with his scythe, he doth not pass by them, and suffer them to stand and to flourish still, whilst others are cut down and fade away; but he takes all before him, flowers and grass, Prince and people, rich and poor, without any difference or distinction at all. A mower doth not pass by an herb, though happily it be very wholesome and medicinable, but cuts down that too, as well as the weed that is good for nothing. Though men in the general are said to be as grass, yet some men are as wholesome and sovereign, and medicinable herbs, there is much virtue in them. There is virtue in a good Statesman to cure the maladies, and to ease the grievances of a Commonwealth. There is virtue in an honest Lawyer, to support and to strengthen a weak and a feeble, and a crazy estate. There is virtue in a good physician to recover and restore to health an indisposed, and a languishing body. There is virtue in a learned Divine to bind up a broken heart, and to heal the wounds of a distressed conscience: these are wholesome herbs indeed; happy is that land wherein they grow: yet notwithstanding Death will not spare these neither, but cuts them down too, as well as the weeds, as well as deboshed and idle and ignorant people, that are not only not useful, but very hurtful and cumbersome to a Commonwealth.  
Thus have you a Catalogue, and an Inventory of man's infirmities: so light is he, and so vnsettled in his course; so short in continuance; so brittle of constitution; so subject to vile and bestial affections, and so apt to be mown down by the hand of death, that St. Peter did rightly cast it up, when he made the sum of all to be but grass, Omnis caro ut foenum, All flesh is as grass.  
Now, if the weakness, the frailty of humane nature be such, that flesh is but as grass; if this weakness, this frailty be so universal, so unlimitable, that there is no exemption, no immunity from it, quia omnis caro, for all flesh is as grass; Surely then amor corporis ebrietas animae, as St. Chrysostome calls it, 
Chrys.  the love of the body is the drunkenness of the soul; nay, St. Bernard gives it a higher term, 
Bern.  and says, that it is Spiritualis phrenesis, A spiritual kind of Lunacy: they are drunk and mad indeed, Qui sic intendunt tabernaculo suo ac si nunquam esset casurum, (as he speaks) that are so curious, so busy about the tabernacle of the body as if they thought it should never fall; so fond and so tender, and so careful over their flesh, as if it should never see corruption. But it is a lamentable complaint that St. Austin makes here; Quid meruit anima? whilst the flesh is thus magnified, and so much made of, that all the storehouses of nature are ransacked and exhausted to serve those two unthrifts, the back and the belly; quid meruit anima? What hath the poor soul deserved all this while, that men should be so careless of her, as that she is all naked and ready to starve, whilst they provide not for her any one drop of the comfort of the Spirit, any little rag of righteousness to hang upon her? Quid meruit anima? How hath the soul deserved so ill, that she should be thus neglected, for whom Christ died; and quid meruit caro? How hath the flesh deserved so well, that it should be thus cockered & pampered up, since it is but grass? Omnis Caro ut foenum, All flesh is as grass.  
Yet notwithstanding, as in those particulars which we specified before, flesh was compared to grass in respect of its weakness and mortality; so there is yet a further analogy and relation, and a resemblance between these two, that makes not a little for its grace and for its glory. Though grass be eaten up or cut down never so low, yet there is a root still left in the ground, and that root is capable of a repullulation: as soon as the warmth of the Sun, and the influence of heaven comes at it, it springs up again, more green and more lively than it was before. So likewise, though happily affliction may bring a man to so low an ebb and declination of fortune, as to level him with the ground; though death bring him yet lower, and lay him in his grave; yea, though his race, and his name, and his memory perish among the living, as if he had never been; yet there is a root still left in the earth, the body that sleeps in the dust, and that body is capable of a resurrection: as soon as the Spring of judgement shall begin to advance, and that glorious Sun of righteousness to appear and shine in his strength; Surget caro, & quidem omnis, & quidem ipsa, & quidem integra, (as Tertullian speaketh) flesh shall rise, 
Tert.  and all flesh shall rise, and that flesh shall rise which was buried before, and it shall rise with a full proportion of feature and perfection of parts without any diminution at all.  
Though you heap upon it all the terms of ignominy and infirmity that may be devised: Say that it is Immunda à primordio, Unclean from the very beginning, as being made of the slime of the earth; and unclean in its propagation, as being conceived in sin: say that it is frivola, infirma, criminosa, onerosa, molesta, a weak, and a frivolous, and a sinful, and a burdenous, and a troublesome thing. Say further, that it is Caduca in originem terram, that it will dissolve again into that dust of which it was first made; that it will change the name of a man into the name of a carcase, and say that it falls from that name too, In omnis iam vocabuli mortem, (as Tertulltan doth elegantly deliver it:) say that it dies so far to all expression, that no term, no name can be found for it; yet notwithstanding all this weight of Rhetoric, and of infirmity cannot keep it down, or diminish one hair, one atom of it, but it will rise again, Quia in deposito est apud Deum; God himself hath taken it into his tuition, his custody, Et quis eripiet? And who shall take it out of his hands? And surely it is a good reason that Tertullian gives for it, 
Tertull.  because (saith he) it stands in better congruity with the nature and majesty of God, to restore to a being that which he once rejected, then utterly to destroy that which himself once made, and liked well too. Et sic caro foenum, in this respect also flesh is as grass, it will spring and rise up again, and this makes for its glory.  
Yet this is not all its glory neither. 'Tis true, that in the 6. of Gen. God says, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, quia Caro, because he is but flesh; there indeed flesh is branded with infirmity. But in the 2. of joel, God says that he would pour out his Spirit, Super omnem carnem, Upon all flesh; there flesh is advanced to a great deal of glory. St. Paul says, that in carne, in his flesh there dwelled no good; this was St. Paul's infirmity: But job was confident, that in carne, in his flesh he should see God, and this was jobs glory. St. Peter says here, Caro foenum, flesh is as grass; What greater infirmity? and yet St. john says, Verbum caro, the Word was made flesh; and what greater glory?  
St. Austin Aug. hath a passage to this purpose too; Let no man think (saith he) that God doth not regard the sins of the flesh: For, know ye not (saith the Apostle) that ye are the Temple of God? If therefore you sin, you defile God's Temple. Yea but dicit aliquis, haply some wicked man will say, it is my soul that is God's Temple, not my body; that's no fit place for him to dwell in, & adijcit testimonium, perchance he brings this testimony to confirm it, Omnis caro ut foenum, all flesh is as grass. Infelix interpretatio, punienda cogitatio, (saith the good Father:) this is a dangerous exposition, a damnable imagination. For flesh is therefore called grass, quia moritur, because it fades, it dies; but Quod ad tempus moritur, vide ut non resurgat cum crimine, take heed, that that which dies for a time, but for a time, take heed that it rise not again laden with sin: For the same Apostle says elsewhere, that our bodies also are the Temples of God; and therefore vide quid agas de Templo Dei, take heed how thou usest thy body, thy flesh, for it is God's Temple. Now then, Caro Dei Templum, that flesh should be so highly advanced as to be called God's Temple; this is man's excellency and this is his glory: but Caro foenum, that flesh, notwithstanding all this, should be as grass, this is man's infirmity and this is his frailty. And this infirmity, this frailty Christ himself could not take from our nature, though he took our nature upon him. Verbum Caro, the Word was made flesh; & yet Caro foenum, that flesh also was as grass, he died too.  
So that the sum, & the resultance; and the harmony of this text is briefly this; that as in diverse other places of Scripture, so here also, grass is set down as an emblem and an Hieroglyphique of man's mortality, which is the Centre, wherein all those lines that we drew before, have their concurrence and period.  
Now, though the very Heathen themselves have declaimed so largely & so elegantly upon this theme, that we may dig silver enough out of their Mines, learning enough out of their books to make us rich in this knowledge, that we must die: yet notwithstanding if we desire to find out that fine Gold of saving knowledge, to make such uses of our mortality, as may conduce to our salvation, we must seek for that elsewhere, we must dig for that in another Mine, that is, the Scripture. Every Poet & every Philosopher can tell us that our life is a moment, but that it is momentum tanti momenti ut ab eo pendeat aeternitas, a moment of so great moment, as that thereupon depends happiness or misery, joy or sorrow that shallbe as endless as eternity itself, this is more than they can tell us; and this we learn out of the Scripture. When they had traveled over all that Microcosm, that little world, Man, and curiously observed all that was in it; when they had made an exquisite survey, an exact description of every Country, every climate; his generation and his nativity, and his infancy, and his childhood, and his adolescency, and his man's estate, and his middle age, and his old age; when they had passed over all these; yet when they came once to that same Mare mortuum, that dead Sea, the grave, there they sat them down, and set up a pillar, as Hercules did, & they wrote upon it Nil ultra: Further they could not go, for they thought there was no further being. But Christianity hath taught us that there is Plus ultra; we have discovered another world besides this, and a far greater than this, whereof this earth is but the Centre. We know that the grave is Diversorium non domicilium, it is but an Inn wherein the flesh must sojourn for the while, not the house wherein it must dwell for ever. The Scripture says that the dead do sleep in the dust: If so, than the grave is a bed: we know that we shall lie in this bed but one night, but a St. Lucy's night; and when that great and glorious day of judgement shall once begin to dawn, we know that then we must lie there no longer.  
Now, in this abundance and plenty of knowledge, what remains but that we commit it to the good joseph of the land, the memory; that if haply there do fall out a famine of grace in the soul, she may find whereby to sustain her self. Memorare novissima, (saith the Son of Syrach) Remember thy end, and thou shalt be sure not to do amiss.  
He that will guide a Ship well, must put himself into the hindmost part of it, the Stern; so likewise he that will shape the course of his life aright according to the card & compass of Faith and Hope, that finally he may arrive at the land of living, must convey himself to the hindmost part of his life, by a continual meditation of Death.  
That great tempest mentioned in the Gospel, wherein the disciples were like to be cast away, it rose (as the text says there) while Christ was asleep in Puppi, in the hindmost part of the Sip: so likewise the tempests of God's judgements and the storms of the Devil's temptations, wherein many a soul doth suffer Shipwreck, they rise whilst we sleep too in Puppi: in the hindmost part of the Ship, the latter end of our life; whilst we are secure and careless, & think not of Death. 'tis true, there is no man so brutish, as to think that he shall never die; but yet, alas! how many are there so Godless, that they never think they shall die? So strangely doth the Devil blind their eyes, that they may not see that ditch, that deep infernal ditch, into the which he leads them.  
But as Christ in the Gospel restored that blind man to sight by applying to his eyes a plaster of spittle clay, so must we do in this case too; we must take spittle, that is, the tears of repentance, and clay, that is, the consideration of our own frailty, and temper these two well together, and apply them to the eyes of our Soul; and then we shall easily discover any danger that is before us, and prevent it too. Pliny writes of Bees, that when they swarm and fly up into the air, if you do but cast a little dust amongst them, they will quickly come down. When vainglorious, and ambitious and aspiring thoughts do swarm in our hearts, let us learn to do so too: That is, to intermingle them with the meditation of that dust into which we must one day be dissolved; and then they will soon fall from that pitch to humility and mortification. I have heard, that it is a present remedy to assuage a swelling in the body, if you rub it with a dead man's hand: when there riseth up any tumour of pride in thy heart, do thou so too; rub and chase it well with this consideration, that Caro foenum, Flesh is but as grass; that the body which thou dost so much tender and value at so high a rate, shall at length become a liveless, and a stinking carcase; and surely thy proud heart will quickly down: So useful and so operative and so sovereign is the meditation of our mortality, that as David s●ake of Goliabs' sword, so may we of it, Non est ei altera simile, There is no other like unto it.  
Yet notwithstanding how little do the world makes of it in these days, I shall show you by a homely comparison, I confess, and yet suitable enough to the disposition of most men. When a Hog is killed; it is an usual thing for the rest of the Hogs to run together, and to make a great noise, a grunting for the time; but anon they go all away, and return every one to his mire and to his wallow again. So likewise when a neighbour dies, it is a common custom for people to flock about his Corpse, & to follow it to the Church, and perchance some lamentation is made, some good thoughts are entertained for the time; but when the solemnity is once over, they all part, and return every one to his own home, to his old sin again, as if there had been no such matter. But I hope better things of you, who have at this time, not only a text and a precept to put you in mind of your mortality, but an instance also and an example, the example of a worthy Gentleman; unto whose memory we do now offer up this last act and sacrifice of our love: In which love I hold myself to be so far interessed, that I cannot but ascribe unto him those terms and titles of worth, which all you do know better than myself, to be but his due. As he was descended of an ancient and worthy family, so did he entertain those dispositions and those affections, whereunto men of such a race do commonly incline: so humble he was and so affable, and so inoffensive in his behaviour; so upright and so conscientious in his dealings; so liberal and so bountiful in his hospitality; so even and so equal in his temper: but above all, so well devoted to religion (as will appear by some special evidences) that now nomen eius quasi unguentum effusum, his name is like a sweet ointment poured out, the box is broken, and the fragrancy of it is dispersed over the wholehouse. And those tokens, those evidences of his piety were these. 1. He was quite out of that common fashion which too too many of his quality are in, that is, he was no swearer; he hated it in himself, and he hated it in others too. 2. He was so tender and so chary over the truth, that he could not abide to hear it tossed and tumbled up and down in a controversy, lest peradventure heat and impatience might do it wrong. 3. He was much and often grieved at the irregularities and exorbitancies of those present times; which I take to be, not a probability, but a demonstration of an honest and a Christian heart.  
Touching his sickness, which is usually the abstract and Epitome of the whole volume of a man's life, what I saw, I will relate.  
As God hath given to all things in the world their several instruments to laud and to magnify his name; the heavens have their motion, their light, their influence; the seasons their succession, their vicissitude; the elements their conducibility to the use and service of man, and all creatures their sustenance and being; so man hath his instrument for this purpose too, that is, his tongue: and this instrument did he dispose and tune to the sweetest harmony that can be under heaven, that is, he prayed. Sometimes he made his chamber a Church, Ego & domus (as he spoke) he and his family joined together in prayers & supplications unto God. Sometimes he made himself a Church: for wheresoever a man gathers together the powers and faculties of his soul to pray, there is a Church and there is a congregation, Ibi duo vel tres, there are two or three, Et ibi Deiu, and there is God in the midst of them. Sometimes he prayed in a continued form, and sometimes he prayed by Eiaculatious, as the pauses and intermissions of his agony gave him leave. When his tongue failed him, than his hands took their turn, and by a frequent elevation testified his zeal, and did (as it were) say Amen to the prayers of those that were about him. And when his hands lost their strength, than his eyes were lifted up; & surely ubi amor ibi oculus, his eyes were fixed where his love was fixed, that is, upon the Kingdom of heaven. And when all these failed him, I doubt not, but the heart, as it is ultimum moriens, the last thing that died in nature, so was it in religion likewise; it lived longest, & it prayed longest too. Yet for all this, he was but a man; his breath was in his nostrils, & his foundation in the dust. Et quid de mortali nisi mortale expectandum, What can be looked for at the hands of a mortal man, but that he must dye?  
Now, though David prayed earnestly unto God, that he would not take him away in the midst of his age; yet let no man think this good Gentleman the less happy, because he was taken away much about that time, for he was but two years over, 37. years old when he died: do not think him the less happy in this respect; for Christ himself died before he came to the middle of man's age, when he wanted two years of it, when he was but 33. years old: Et quis Christo beatior? Who can be more happy, who can be so happy as Christ is? Neither yet let any say that they have lost him, though he be dead: as, I have lost a loving husband, or I have lost a loving brother, or I have lost a loving friend, or I have lost a good Landlord, or I have lost a good Master: for though he were all these, and though this be the usual phrase of the world, yet it is a plain solecism in the language of Christianity. For why should we think that lost, which God hath? Non est amissus sed praemissus, He is not lost, but only sent before us into heaven. And now, that which lies upon us to do, is, that we endeavour and strive to follow him thither.  
Which that we may the better do, first it will easily be granted that we must follow, Quiae omnis caro ut foenum, For all flesh is as grass.  
Secondly, two places of Scripture there are, wherewith I shall close up this exercise, and which will be, perchance, not unworthy your remembrance. The first is that of our Saviour in the Gospel, Facite vobis amicos, Make you friends of unrighteous Mammon, that when ye die, they may receive you into everlasting habitations: and upon this text I shall descant by way of history. I remember I have heard of a certain man, that had three friends; it fortuned, that suit being commenced against this man, he was summoned to appear before the judge. In which extremity, he did as all men use to do in the like case; that is, he went to his friends, for advice and assistance. When he came to the first, his answer was, that he would lend him a good cloak to go before the judge in a decent and a handsome fashion, and that's all he would do for him. When he came to the second, his answer was, that he would go along with him to the Court gate, and there he would leave him. But when he came to the third, his answer was, that he would accompany him into the Court, and stand before the judge, and speak for him too. This man that we speak of is a Christian, and he hath three friends too, his wealth, his kindred, and his good works. When death arrests him by some mortal disease to appear before the Tribunal seat of Almighty God, if he come to his riches, they will lend him a winding-sheet, and that's all they can do for him. If he come to his kindred, his acquaintance, they will attend him to the door, the grave; that's all they can do for him. But when he comes to his good works, they answer, That they will never leave him, they will go up with him into the Court of heaven, and plead his cause before almighty God. Happy is the man that hath store of such friends, for they will receive him into everlasting habitations.  
The second place of Scripture that I would commend to your memory, is that of the Preacher, Vbicurque ceciderit arbour, ibi erit; and upon this text I shall descant by way of Allegory. Wheresoever the tree falls, there it lies; if it falls towards the North, than it lies toward the North; and if it fall towards the South, than it lies towards the South: but which way soever it falls, there it lies. Now, look which way we would have a tree to fall, it is an usual thing to lop off the boughs on the contrary side, that their weight may not carry it that way; and then when it doth fall, it will fall according to our desire. Beloved, every man is a tree, his inclinations and affections the branches; though he spread never so far, and grow up never so high, yet the hand of Death must one day cut him down: and he hath but two ways to fall; either toward the cold and pinching North of damnation; or toward the warm and comfortable South of salvation: but wheresoever he falls there he lies. If thou then wouldst fain have thy tree fall the right way, be sure that thou begin betimes to cut off all the luxuriant boughs on the contrary side, those carnal and rebellious desires, that grow and weigh towards hell. Cut off that lower branch of covetousness, that doth so hover over earth; and cut off those middle branches of lustful and licentious affections; and cut off that top branch of ambition and pride; cut off all on that side: but cherish those branches on the other side, good affections, good desires; and then when this time comes that thou must fall, their weight will carry thee the right way towards salvation, towards heaven. Which the Lord of his infinite mercy grant unto us all, for the all-sufficient Merits of his only Son and our alone Saviour Christ jesus: To whom, etc.  
FINIS.