THE BARONET'S BURIAL, OR A FUNERAL SERMON PREACHED at the solemnity of that Honourable Baronet Sr EDWARD SEYMOUR'S burial. BY BARNABY POTTER Bachelor in Divinity, Fellow of Queen's College in Oxford, and Preacher to the Town of Tottnes in Devon. PROV. 10. 7. The memorial of the just shall be blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. Printed at Oxford by joseph Barnes. 1613. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sr EDWARD GILES, KNIGHT HIGH Sheriff of Devon; and to his right virtuous and Religious Lady, the Lady MARY GILES: B. P. wisheth increase of all heavenly graces in this life, and in that other, eternal happiness, both to them and all theirs. RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, I Know there are many that will wonder at me, and those most that know me best, that after no less than ten years labour and toil in the Lord's harvest, I should hope to approve my pains, or improve my praise or profit with these few scattered ears, in such a plentiful crop of all kind of fruitful books that are daily brought into the Lord's barn. To these I may profess, and if need were protest, that it is neither my praise, nor profit that I aim at; and whatsoever my toil hath been for these ten years, yet this little crop was both sown, and ripe, and reaped, and brought into the barn, within less than the compass of half ten days, and therefore I cannot look either for praise or profit for such small pains, Others perhaps will pull me by the ears and put me in mind of that position, lately maintained in that great assembly of the a Act at Oxford 1613. doctior quisque fuit in scribendo parcissimus. Handled the same Act. learned, that the more learned are the moreloath to leave any thing in print to the view of the world. To such I answer, that it is my love not my learning that I would show, and therefore I hope the lawyers position will satisfy such, amor excusat in delictis, those actions that proceed from the passion of love are not liable to law, at least pardonable in reason. Unto both these objections I say that I had rather the world should condemn me as unjust, and the whole University as unlearned, than you should so much as think me unthankful. For since you first fetched me from the bosom of my mother the University, and ever since with extraordinary kindness have harboured me in your house, that countenance you have continually given to my weak ministry, that comfort I have taken from your continually frequenting the means of salvation, the preaching of the word, & your willing conformity unto it, that extraordinary respect which I have found, not from yourselves only, but for your sakes from the most and best of the country about you, whether I came as a stranger●may justly challenge a greater return of thankfulness, than these few indigested meditations; which as they were first preached, and now published at your earnest entreaty (whose will should be worth a command to me) so must I now entreat that they may pass under both your patronages, whose very names, for the love you have of all sides from all sorts in your country, will quickly procure them a quiet passage. If the curious or captious carp at them I care not, so the faithful Christian may receive some comfort by them. If your remembrance, with this honourable Baronet's (whose burial it is) may live a little longer by these lines, if the day of your death, now after that great pomp and height wherein you have passed the heat of your honourable employment may be renewed, and in all these my thankfulness testified I have my desire. Whatsoever these short meditations be, both ihey & their author desire to be yours, who will not cease when he prays for himself, to beseech God for the increase of his heavenly graces here, and eternal happiness hereafter, both to yourselves, and all such as are dear unto you. From your house at Bowdon, Aug. 24. 1613. Your Worships to be commanded BARNABY POTTER. DEVT. 34, VERS. 5. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. THere is a season, saith Solomon, for Fecles. 3. 1. all things under the sun; but of all other things a word in due season Prov. 25. 11. is like apples of gold with pictures of silver, pleasant and profitable. If any word, me thinks a word of comfort from the mouth of God's messenger should always meet with a good season; especially seeing it is a principal part of their office, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give Isay. 61. 3. unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, & the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness. Yet in this case, I find the saying of a sage Divine to be most true, that it is not so hard to give comfortable counsel to the sorrowful, as to find a fit season when to give it. For while the stream of sorrow runs fresh and full it is vain and to small purpose to oppose counsel; passions must have leisure to digest; time doth as much moderate them as wisdom doth. At the first then it is best to mourn with such as mourn for the loss of friends, and when our tears and theirs are dry to give counsel. And yet in this case I doubt what is best; for as before men have digested grief, advice comes too early, so it is too late to advise when they have digested it; as before it was unseasonable, so after it would be superfluous; as before it cannot benefit, so after it may hurt by rubbing a skinned sore afresh. This honourable, but heavy and sad solemnity than must bear the blame, if now that sorrow seems to have wearied herself having wept like David & his company, till she can weep no more, & with weariness is fallen asleep, 1. Sam. 30. 4. I awake (notwithout true grief) the remembrance of our great, our common loss. When our Saviour was to suffer, certain women well affected, followed him weeping, to whom he said, weep not for me but weep Luk. 23. 28. for yourselves, and for your children. Let me with some inversion of our Saviour's words solicit you, which both in habit and heart bear the greatest part of this sads●●●e, weep not for yourselves, though you have lost an honourable husband, a tender hearted father, a faithful friend, a kind master, a merciful landlord, as most he hath left behind; but put of these private passions of sorrow, and put on the sorrow of compassion, & come and bewail with us our common loss: The Church, the Church hath lost a choice patron, the Common wealth a chief pillar. But because this passion hinders our attention, & takes up our heart before hand, and makes men unfit to hear, as the people of Israel for anguish of spirit could not hearken to Moses: therefore Exod. 6. 9 you shall give me leave a little, to cast a vail over our sorrow, till we have heard what God hath to say unto us by the mouth of me his unworthy minister, from these words of Moses, Moses the servant of the Lord died, etc. The providence of God, (which like a well drawn picture, eyes every particular person in this great house of the whole world, and is as inward and familiar to every action therein, as our spirit is to our rains) did most plainly manifest itself, in the birth and life, in the death and burial of this man of God. For to say nothing of his birth and life, wherein both the wisdom and the power of God were deeply printed, these words you see call us to a consideration of his death described in the fifth verse: wherein you m●y see, we may observe, first the person, Moses, secondly his praise, The Division the servant of the Lord, thirdly his period and end, he died, four the place, in the land of Moab, and lastly the cause, according to the word of the Lord. Had it been but a private person, yet being so rarely qualified as he was who could have commanded his passion so much as to bid sorrow be silent'st but behold it is Moses a guide, a governor, a prince among the people: or had he been a governor that had proved either a traitor to his Prince, or a tyrant to his people, both Prince and people might have been glad, but it is Moses the servant of the Lord; or had he been but gone into the mount to talk with God, we need not so have grieved, but he is dead; or had it been in his own country the land of Canaan, (which God had given him and his people for inheritance,) or at home in his own house; but it is there in Mount Nebo upon the top of Pisgah in the land of Moab where he was withinken of that sweet country. And yet that you may not be cast down with all these cross accidents, or cry out upon badfortune, or condemn the fates, or father these crosses upon some malign aspect of the planets and constellations; know that nothing hath come to pass in all this but by the wise guidance and direction of God's all-seeing providence. Moses a great man, Moses a good man is dead & that in a strange land but according to the word of the Lord. In the words then the person comes in the first place to be considered; & the consideration thereof that Moses a governor a great man is dead affords us this doctrine; that Doct. 1. A great govenour quick lie gone. the most careful & conscionable Magistrates cannot look to live longer, yea oftentimes diesooner than other men. Wise Solomon, godly David, religious josiah, are all gathered to their fathers, and the most wise godly and religious must follow them, assoon as those persecutors of his church and children. For first they are but men and therefore mortal. Gods in calling but men in condition. I have said, ye are Gods and you are all the children of the Psal, 82. 6, 7. most high; but you shall die like men, & you princes shall fall like others. Secondly, the sins of the people doth oftentimes provoke God thus to punish them by depriving them of such benefit which they set so light of. This punishment God denounceth by his Prophet. The Lord God of Israel will take away from jerusalem and from juda hthe stay & the strength, even all the stay of bread & I say. etc. all the strength of water, the strong man and the man of war, the judge, and the Prophet, the prudent & the aged, the captain of fifty, and the honourable, and the counsellor; and I will appoint children to be their princes, and babes to rule over them; the people shallbe oppressed one of another, and every one by his neighbour; the children shall presume against the ancient, and the vile against the honourable. Thirdly, the Lord doth sometimes suddenly cut them off that they may not see the misery which he sends upon the church or common wealth; this God promiseth as a special blessing unto that good king josiah; because thine heart did melt & thou hast humbled thyself 2 King 22. 19 20. before the Lord, when thou hardest what I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants of the same, & hast rend thy clothes and wept before me: behold therefore, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place. Thus the righteous perish and no man considereth that they are taken away from the evil to I say. 57 1. come. See then, beloved, what cause we have to pray for Use. the life and perservation of godly governors as the Apostle exhorts, to prevent their death to our power: as 1. Tim. 2. 1. the Israelites prayed David that he would not go forth 2. Sam. 21. 17. to battle lest he should quench the light of Israel; to be thankful for them when we have them, and to be sorrowful when we see them taken away. I know not whether it be our coldness in praying or our carelessness in praising God for such gracious governors as he hath given us, or whether God be but preparing some heavy judgement against this whole land, (his judgements are secret, and I leave them to himself:) but sure we are senseless if we cannot see how deeply the Lord hath wounded us in the head, and heart, and whole body of this land, the remembrance whereof is yet fresh and bleeding. He hath wounded the whole kingdom by the untimely death of a most worthy Prince, he hath wounded the court by the sudden cutting off of a most wise counsellor, and now he hath wounded the country by depriving it of so honourable a maintainer of peace by righteous justice. If then a king thought he had cause enough to lament the sickness of a Prophet, & not only kindly to visit him but compassionately to weep over him; then give me leave as a Prophet to bewail the death of a great prince, a wise counsellor, a worthy pillar of the common wealth in the same words; O my father my father the 2. King. 13. 14. chariots of Israel and the horsemen of the same; or as David lamented the death of Saul: Ye daughters of Israel weep for Saul which clothed you in scarlet, with pleasures 2. Sam. 1. 24. and hanged ornaments of gold upon your apparel. In respect of themselves we have more cause to joy and say as Hierome, of his sinful time; Foelix Nepotianus qui haec non videt; Nepotian is a happy man that lives not to see the wicked world: and as Saint Ambrose speaketh of such a one, he was not so much taken from us, as from dangers. But for our selves and sins which have provoked God, we cannot sorrow enough. When God ships his Noah's, it is a sign there is a flood not far behind; Gen. 7. 16. 17. when God sends his Angels to fetch his Lots out of Sodom, it is a sign there is punishment for that sinful Gen 19 23. 24 city shortly to ensue. From the party, I proceed to the second part his praise, [Moses the servant of the lord] Behold here Moses funeral sermon sent after him and perserved for posterity; And it teacheth us that sanctity is the highest honour, and greatest commendations, that can be given a Sanctity is the highest honour and greatest commendation that can be given to a man Heb. 11. 24. Eccles. 12. 13. man. He that refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, rejoiceth here to be called the servant of the Lord. The end of all, saith Solomon, is this, fear God and keep his commandment for this is the whole duty of man. There is nothing else that makes a man to be a man, without which we are below the brute beasts. And amongst all titles of countries and kingdoms, David had this as the highest honour afforded him, that he was a man after Gods own heart. If the name of a servant 1. Sam. 13. 14. seem to imply some meanness and misery, yet the name jehovah Lord of heaven and earth whose servants they are, wipes away this blot. How earnest are we to sue and seek to be in some service about the King? & there is no service we say unto such. And yet when we have spent ourselves in great men's service, either they cannot give us all they would▪ or they will not always give us what they can, or if they both would & could they know not what is best for them to give or us to have: But if we serve God we are sure to lack nothing that is good. We may want gold Psal 34. 10. and goods, and health and wealth, but then we may assure ourselves that God sees these are not good for us, else he would not keep them from us. For howsoever men make difference of servants and sons & friends; to servants they commend their business, to our friends we commit our counsel, but for our sons we keep our choicest gold, our choicest jewels, yea the whole inheritance; Yet these are all one to God. His servants are his friends, his friends are▪ his sons, and his sons are both his friends and servants. It is great favour in God, great honour to us that he will vouchsafe us to be his servants: but for our service to make us his sons and friends, what honour and dignity on earth if cast in balance of comparison herein would not be found to light? Therefore David though a king counts this his greatest credit; I had rather be a door keeper in Ps. 84. 10. the house of my God, then to dwell in the tents of ungodliness. For whether we consider the work or the wages both will prove this service to surpass all earthly things. For what is the service of God but sanctity? & what is sanctity but the renewing of that decayed image of God according to which we were created, and the quieting of our clamorous conscience, which will not be friends with us, unless we be friends with God, and dare not prove so kind to us, as prove false to our master. Now what work so worthy upon earth as to pray unto God, to praise his name, to feed the poor & hungry, to the naked, to comfort the comfortless, to do good to all, especially our own souls? & this is such service as we are set about, the worst work that in God's house his basest servant sets his hand unto. Secondly●, the wages wherewith God of his mercy not our merit crowns our work makes it much more glorious. Blessings are upon the head of the righteous but iniquity shall cover the mouth of the wicked. And salvation Prov 10. 6. saith David, belongeth unto the Lord and thy blessing is upon thy people. Salvation which is the greatest blessing Psal. 3 8. is peculiarly appropriated to such as serve God, as the greatest prerogative God can give; none are blessed but such as are saved, & none are either blessed or saved but such as serve him; and if we respect either this life not only while they live on the earth which is their inheritance, (the righteous man shall inherit the earth and dwell therein for ever,) but even when they Psal. 37. 29. are gone their name and memory is blessed, they grow in credit when the glory of sinners shall end in shame. Therefore, saith Solomon, the memorial of the just shall be blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot; though Prov. 10 7. sinful men are magnified by sinners, yet they are made abominable to Saints: you shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen, for the Lord God shall slay your, and call Isa. 65. 15. his servants by a new name. But if they live never so meanly here, yet the glory they shall have hereafter, will recompense all. For if either life, or glory, or a kingdom, or inheritance, will give content, we shall have them in abundance. What more desired among men than life? What life more desired than a life of glory? What glory compared to the glory of a kingdom? What more glorious kingdom then that that is had by inheritance? What inheritanc 〈…〉 gdome like to that which cannot be shaken? When the Apostles were little less than proud that devils were subdued unto them in his name whom they served: true, saith Christ, I saw Satanfall down fronheaven like lightning; nevertheless rejoice not that spirits obey you, but rejoice that Luk 18. 18, 20 your names are written in heaven. Rejoice not in your ennobled bloods, admired with living praises, & preserved the jaws of oblivion by sumptuous sepulchres, ancient coats and arms, large revenues; alas it is theleast matter of joy that the name lives in bright honour on earth, when the soul lies in the rusting restless miseries of hell: to have all the kingdoms in the earth to command, and not to have the lowest place in the kingdom of heaven; to quarter our arms with kings, and to want the arms of Christianity, to have no part in the red cross of our crucified Saviour. These latter only behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. with open face, and are changed by the same image from glory to glory: from glory here, for the spirit of glory resteth 1. Pet. 4. 14. Psal. 149. 9 upon us, unto glory hereafter, such honour have all his saints. Let this then pull down the pride of all wicked men: be they never so high and honourable here in Use. 1. this world, they are worthless and base if this testimony of Moses may not worthily be sent after them, that they are the servants of the Lord. For howsoever generous and noble spirits, are ready to spit at the name of slave and baseness, yet their sinful carriage proves them plainly to be such. Know you not, saith Rom. 6 16. the Apostle, that to whomsoever you give yourselves as servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Yea, saith St Austin, Quot vitiorum servus tot dominorum, & quot dominorum tot daemoniorum: so many sins thou servest, so many masters, and so many masters in this matter, so many devils. For what is it but the powerful command of sin, which like Mark 9 22. the devil in the man possessed, casts us sometimes into the fire, where we burn and boil with lust; sometimes into the water, where either we swim in vain delights, or are drowned in the drunken pleasures of this flattering world; sometimes it blows us up into the air, with a giddy desire to hunt and hawk after the honours and preferments of the world; and anon again throws us down groveling upon the ground, nailing our affections to this earth with the covetous desires of worldly goods? In choosing a master one wisely admonisheth us to beware of three sorts of men, thy enemy, thy servant, thy fellow servant. He serves his greatest enemy that serves the devil, he serves his fellow servant that serves the flesh, and he serves his servant that serves the world. It is base then to serve the world, for that is to become a vassal to our servant: it is an uncertain service to serve the flesh so wayward, so weak, so frail, so fickle, that we may fear every hour to be turned out of doors: it is an unthrifty service to serve the devil, the more work we do him, the worse wages, and the more stripes, and the wages of the least work we do him is death. It is folly Rom. 6. 23. then to forego God's service, and serve any of them, for they will bring shame at the last. Where then is the glory of our grey hairs? where is the honour of our houses and blood? where the credit of our politic heads, when we suffer ourselves to be ensnared with sin? we know it is evil, and we know it is of the devil, and all the world knows that we are wise enough to know it; we hate the name of it, and we are ashamed of the sun when we commit it, we know that the end of it is death, and the fruit of it shame to our honour & houses, and yet we will not forsake it. Look but back upon your sinful lives you that live still in the same; & tell me what comfort take you now in the pleasure of those sins which you have committed? What profit in those Rom. 6. 21. things whereof you are ashamed? as the Apostle speaks. Nay where is your reason & understanding that suffers you not to see that by your sins, you are no better than beasts, & in a fair forwardness to degenerate into devils? I will conclude this use with the words of S. Bernard, verily, if the beasts could speak they would call wicked men beasts. A second use is for instruction, that as we desire that Use, 2. praise which is perpetual, and that honour which will both hold out here on earth, and help us to heaven, we will make the service of God our chiefest and greatest care. Many courses there are to compass seeming honour, but all of them are quickly blasted and will whither away. Nay, they are all accursed and will bring shame in the end, but he that honoureth me him will I honour, 1. Sam. 2 30. saith the man of God unto old Ely. Divers men propose diverse ends unto their lives and actions, and therefore use diverse means; One runs to the court, another to the camp, a third to the schools, all in hope of honour. Would you know the safest course in this case? Let the honour and service of God be your chief aim, so shall you be sure, your end cannot be dishonourable. For else what will you do? Whither will you go to get you a great name? To the court? This glory is like glass, bright but brittle, and courtiers, saith one, Plutarch. are like counters which sometime in account go for a thousand pound, & presently before the count be cast, but for a single penny. But for true commendations, when all the glory of court & kingdoms shallbe dashed, and dampt, and the lustre of their honour be wrapped up in darkness or covered in the dust, the memory of our Moses shall ever be blessed; who being in great credit in Pharaohs court, and accounted the son of Pharaohs daughter, chose rather to endure affliction with the children of God, then enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, Heb▪ 11. 25. esteeming the rebukes of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Wilt thou show thy wisdom in deep plots and politic employments, in church or common wealth? Believe it, no wisdom that is not from heaven and hath ground out of God's word will hold out long. Whatsoever is repugnant unto it, or is not sanctified by it, will end in shame: labour rather for a sanctified heart then a politic head. Achitophel was as wise as the most, and yet who ever played the fool so 2. Sam. 16. 23. much as he? The shame of his fact like Naamans' lepro sic cleaves unto his name; he saw his counsel contemned, 2. Sam. 17. 23. and therefore goes home, sets his house in order, and wisely hangs himself. Yea the devil as deep a politician as all the men in the world, yet the foolishest creature that ever God made to work his own wo. It is not policy then that can praise thee. What is it a sweet & fluent tongue, whereby thou canst tie the ears of those that hear thee, and ravish them with admiration of thy eloquence? Herod had this & yet he could Act. 12. 23. not persuade the worms to pity him, nor preserve his name from everlasting infamy. Is it gay & gorgeous apparel will grace thee? No: if every silken coat had care to save his soul, & all that glister with gold without had grace within, what a happy world were we in? But all the pomp of apparel, in silks and velvets gold and silver, chains and ornaments, will never have that honourable commendations, that the holy Ghost gives to those poor persecuted Christians, which wandered up and down in sheeps skins and in goat's skins, who notwithstanding through their faith and patience, obtained a good report. Will you build up your Heb. 11. 39 names by some glorious buildings? Look you lay the groundwork in sanctity and the true service of God; else building you may build, but nothing but a Babel, a tower of confusion which will fall down and crush you to pieces. Where is now the praise of nabuchadnezzer's pomp? The very rubbish & ruins of it, are long since ruinated, but his shame for his proud boasting, is not this great Babel, etc., and his punishment to feed Dan. 4. 30, Ibid. 28. with the beasts of the field, shall never be blotted out. Build up yourselves, your sons and families, in the fear of God, and then your houses and honours shall continued longer than those that build them castles and call their lands and live after their own names. Else fear the curse which the Prophet hath pronounced. woe unto Psal. 49. 11. Jer. 22. 13. him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers without equity, and useth his neighbour without wages, and giveth him not for his work; he saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, so he will make himself large windows and ceiling with cedar, & paint them with vermilion; shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself in Cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink and prosper when he executed judgement? Will you continue you name by your numerous progeny and multitude of children descended from your loins? So might Ahab have hoped, if his sins had not been a cause to cut of his seed and posterity. But we know how his seventy sons had all their heads laid in a basket 2 King. 10. 6, 7 2. King. 9 33. on one day, his wife jezabel eaten up with dogs & all his posterity rooted out as the Prophet had pronounced. To conclude this point then; let the glory of God, and his service be your chiefest aim, speak for it, stand for it, fight for it, die for it. Sound it in your mouths, manifest it in your lives, defend it with your swords, and if need be seal it with your blood, and so your names shallbe blessed when your flesh & bones shallbe consumed, yea both body & soul happy when your names shallbe buried in oblivion. The court you see cannot truly commend you, your politic heads will no way profit you, your moving eloquence cannot better you, your gay clothes cannot grace you, your stately house little help you, nor your multitude of children maintain your honour hear on earth, or procure your happiness in heaven: this only title given by the spirit of God unto Moses to be the servant of the Lord is worth all the rest and will last for ever. From the person, Moses, and his praise, the servant of the Lord, I proceed to his end or period, death; Moses 3. Part. the servant of the Lord died. His period, or end. Doct. Neither greatness nor goodness is a good pleat against death. It is neither his greatness you see nor his goodness that can purchase him a supersedeas against the arrest of death; he that had fed many when they were ready to starve for hunger, and refreshed many when their souls fainted within them for want of drink, he at whose command came frogs and lice, and hail and darkness and blood and blisters, hath not his breath in his own hand. But I have heretofore spent much time in pressing this point of man's mortality, how death without difference of degree or condition summons all sorts of men. Prince and Priest, & people the captain and the common iouldier, the master & the man, the mistress & her maid, have the same end; they may die of divers diseases, at divers times, in diverse places, but they all die; death hath the sole sovereignty of all the world, and knocks assoon at the great man's castle, as at the poor man's cottage. Would to God we were wise to apply this to our Use. own selves: for doth it not justly reprove, such as seldom so much as mind their mortality, but live here as though they thought verily they should never die? If these men had no religion, yet reason would teach them, that their strength is not the strength of stone, & yet this the very drops of water weareth; nor our sinews of brass or iron, and yet this the rust and canker consumeth; but a vapour, but a smoke▪ which the sun soon drieth, or the wind driveth away. It was wittily said of Epictetus the Philosopher, who going forth one day and seeing a woman weeping that had broken her pitcher, and the next day meeting another woman weeping that had lost her son; heri vidi fragilem fran▪ gi', hody video mortalem mori: Yesterday, saith he, I saw a brittle thing broken, and to day I see a mortal man die. And what difference betwixt these two? Much one manner of way: for take a glass, saith St Austin, (which as it is bright so is it much more brittle than an earthen pitcher) keep it fafe in a cupboard, where it may be free from the violence of outward wrong, and it may continue many thousand years: but take a man of the most pure complexion, of the strongest constitution, and keep him as safe as thou canst, he hath that in his bosom, and within his own bones that will bring him to his end. Nay, I hear some say (saith the same Father, as I remember) that such a one hath the plague or the pleurisy, and therefore sure he will die, but we may rather say such a one liveth, and therefore sure he will die; for divers have had those diseases, & did not die of them, but never any man lived that did not die. The consumption of the liver is a messenger of death, the consumption of the lungs the minister of death, the consumption of the marrow is the very mother of death, and yet many have had these diseases and not died of them: but there is another kind of consumption which could never yet be cured. It is the consumption of the days, the common disease of all mankind, and whereof all must die: David spoke of it, my days are consumed like smoke. Let me then warn Psal. 102. 3. you, and stir up your meditations of your mortasity with the words of our Moses, who hath walked that way before us, Deut. 32. 29. O that men were wise then would they understand this, than would they consider their Deu. 32. 29. latter end. We are unwise that we consider not the times past, the evil we have committed, the good we have omitted, the benefits of God we have abused, the time we have misspent; and yet we grieve not, because we think not yet whether we shall die. More unwise are we not to consider things present, as the shortness of life, the difficulty of salvation, the small number of such as shall be saved; and yet we shame not, because we think we shall not yet die. But most unwise that we consider not things to come, death, judgement, hell, all to come; and yet we fear not, because (I fear) we think we shall never die. O that we were wise, then would we consider our latter end. Wise Princes use to prepare ten years before hand for a field of one day; beloved, let us lay up something every day for the last▪ When we shall wrestle with death, if we win that skirmish we have enough, and when or where we shall come to the conflict who can tell? For Moses when he was now ready to set foot in the promised land, lives not to enjoy it, but when he comes within ken of it, it pleaseth God to prevent him by death, & to take him away in the land of Moab. Which is the fourth particular that I proposed to be handled, name lie the place where Moses died. In the land of Moab.] See after all the care & pains that Moses hath taken with this people, to bring them 4, Pa●t. The place to the promised land, now that he was come near the confines and borders of it, & God had set him in such a place where he might see it, he suddenly here calls him out of this life. Whence we might well observe the fickle state and condition of all worldly things. Moses greatest comfort, I imagine, both against the tediousness of the way, and weiwardnesse of this people, and the perplexities of his own soul, was to consider how happy he should be, when after all this he should come to live quietly in the land of Canaan: and now behold that he is ready to come into it, he is suddenly Doct. All worldly hopes quickly vanish. cut of. O the uncertainty of these worldly things, O the vanity of those men that vex themselves with hope of such things as they shall never have! Great men's favours, and old men's shoes, thou mayst look for, perhaps hope for, but never trust to. And yet how many chameleons are there that live only by the air and breath of hope (not of heavenly, but) of earthly things, which when a man should put forth his hand to lay hold upon, vanisheth away and is seen no more? One hopes to grow rich, & suddenly his trade fails him; another hopes for his fathers, or some other old man's living, and the old man outlives him; a third hopes to rise to honour, and his means are taken from him. The hope that is deferred, saith Solomon, Prou. 13. 12. maketh the heart sick; If then the hope be defeated, me thinks it should die. Moses had as much reason to hope to come to this happy land, as any man living of any earthly thing: and yet how is his hope quite dashed, when a man would not have dreamt how his comfort could have been crossed? It is wisdom then to hope for such things as we may have, and to ground our hope upon such a foundation as cannot fail. Let the word of God be the ground of thy Christian persuasion, and so thou mayst boldly hope for heaven. A second point which from the consideration of the place I will propose and lightly pass by, is the uncertainty of the place where we shall die. As death spares not any persons, so it respects not any place. When thou art walking peaceably with thy brother in the fields thou mayst be murdered as Cain was; Gen. 4. 8. when thou art sitting quietly in thy chair, thou mayst fall backward and break thy neck, as old Eli did: when thou art at thy devotions in the Temple, thou mayst 1. Sam. 4. 18. die there as Zenacherib did: yea at the very altar, as joab: Isay, 37. 37. 1. King. 2. 34. job 1. 19 2. King. 2. 24. while jobs sons were feasting, the house falls upon them; while the scoffing boys are mocking, bears come from the wilderness and devour them; while Chore and his company are contending, the earth opens Num. 16. 31. and swallows them: while the captains & their fifties are fetching the Prophet perforce to the King, 2. King. 1. 10. fire falls from heaven and consumes them. Thus death dogs us wheresoever we go, and hath his darts ready wheresoever we are. Let this then teach us to take heed that we be always Use. prepared for death, seeing it is so uncertain where it will meet us. Go to now, you that say to day or to morrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a Jam. 4. 13. 14, 15. year, and buy and sell and get gain, and yet cannot tell what shall be to morrow; for what is your life? it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and afterward vanisheth away; for that you ought to say if the Lord will, and if we live, we will do this or that. Nay go to you, that by play & pastime, drive away the remembrance of death, nay by surfeiting and drunkenness, hasten your own death, and yet never think of dying. How will you dare to look death in the face, whom you would not vouchsafe the least room in your hearts, nay whom eftsoons you did in your daring humours scorn & defy? Let experience tell whether many do not meet with death in places of greatest mirth, now merry and presently mourned for: whether a bone in our meat may not choke us, or a hair in our milk strangle us, or a stone in a raisin stop our breath, as it did Anacreon's. O then let us wheresoever we are, whithersoever we walk, make the meditation of our end, our vade mecum & best companion! least, like unthrifty servants in great men's houses, having their allowance of light & misspending the same in dicing or dancing, or drunkenness; at last are feign or rather forced to go to bed darkling; so while we neglect the time of light in this life which God hath granted, the night of our death do suddenly surprise us when we do little dream of it. To him that is to walk through some dark and dangerous place, one light carried before, will do more good than many that are brought behind: so the serious preparation for death before it come, arms us both with more confidence against it and comfort in it▪ then that which comes not till death call. I will conclude this point with our Saviour's words; Take heed to yourselves least at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfeiting & drunkenness, Luk. 21 34. 35 26. and cares of this life and least that day come upon you at unawares, for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell upon the face of the earth; watch therefore and pray continually that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and that you may stand before the son of man. Give me leave now, I beseech you, to apply these things to our present occasion before I proceed to the last particular in my text. When our Saviour, Luk. 4. 20. light upon a place of Luk 4 20. the prophet Isaias, & had red it in the audience of the people, he closed the book, & gave it again to the Minister, and sat down & said; this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, and all bore him witness. I doubt not, beloved, but you will all witness with me this day, that what you have hard, the same you have seen, and the words which I have handled, are fulfilled in your hearing. Moses a great man, and our Moses the servant of the Lord, is dead, and he died in the land of Moab from his own house and home, but it is according to the word and the will of the Lord. That he is dead, I wish, (if it had been the will of the supremest,) that we had cause to doubt. That he was a Moses, and the servant of the Lord, lend me but your patience a little longer and you shall hear. Moses is as much as drawn out, Ex. 2. 10. And might Moses in name. not he say with David, Psal. 18. 16. He hath sent down from above and saved me, he hath drawn me out of many waters? Moses pitied, the distressed and oppressed estate of his poor country in their misery: and when he could In nature 1▪ His pity. do no more, he looked upon them, no doubt, with a heavy countenance and a sorrowful heart, yea with hazard of his own life he was ready to redress their wrong, Exod. 2. 11. 12. And was not our Moses the only man that would step forth and stand up to free his country from all such taxes & toules, as cunning catchpoles & prouling officers could have been content to have imposed upon the people? And when they were such as could not be helped, yet I know he did hearty grieve at them, & heavily look upon them that were oppressed. Moses was a man of peace, not a peace keeper only 2 His peacemaking. but a peace- maker. When he saw two Hebrews strive together, he said, Sirs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one another? Act. 7. 26. And who knows not what care he had, what comfort he took, what pains he endured, to compose controversies, to prevent law suits, to persuade peace, to procure love among neighbours? Moses was content to leave the court, where he might have lived in great credit and account, and to 3. His piety. employ his pains for the good of his country, Heb. 11. 24. 25. And who knows not that it was neither want of wit, or wisdom to commend him, nor want of friends to countenance him, nor want of means to maintain him, that kept our Moses from the court; but a godly desire to do his country good, wherein neither his purse nor his pains were at any time wanting? for did he not many times as Moses did, Exo. 18. 14 Sat from morning till even to hear the matters of the people 4. His pains. and to judge amongst them? Till of late either his own experience taught him, or his friends advised him, as jethro did Moses. Thou weariest thyself greatly and the Ex. 18. 18, etc. people with thee, for the thing is too heavy for thee, thou art not able to do it thyself alone; prepare thee helpers and let them judge the people at all seasons, but every great matter let them bring unto thee and let them judge all small causes; so shall it be easier for thee, when they shall bear the burden with thee. In the executing of which works of justice howsoever His just dealing in public. fear, or favour, or gain makes many fail, or faint, or deal unfaithfully: yet surely, saith God, my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house, Num. 12. 7. And who ever could say of our Moses that in matters of justice, or such causes as concerned the good of the common wealth, either fear of great men, or favour of friends could stop his mouth, or bribes blind his eyes, or his own private passion or profit prevail so far, as to move him to speak or do any thing, against the known truth of the cause? but as he was singular in searching out of the truth, so was he sincere in judging. I know not whether ever he did see that table of Ptolemy Arsacides which the Emperor Marcus Aurelius found at Thebes, & was by the same Marcus left as a singular treasure to his son Commodus; but sure me thought I could plainly in his life & carriage of matters in the course of justice, read the sum and sentences which were written in that table, which were these: I never preferred the proud man though he were rich, nor hindered the poor if he were just: I never denied justice to the poor for his poverty, nor pardoned the rich because he was wealthy: I never gave reward for affection, nor punished upon passion: I never suffered evil to scape unpunished, nor goodness to go unrewarded: I never committed the execution of manifest justice to another, neither determined that which was difficult by myself: I never denied justice to him that desired it, nor mercy to him that deserved it: I never opened my gate to the flatterer, nor my ear to the backbiter: I always sought to be loved of the good, & feared of the wicked: Lastly, I always favoured the poor that was able to do little, and God who was able to do much always favoured me. This was his faithfulness in public. Neither did it in his private carriage less appear. For In Private. which of his neighbours hath he causelessly vexed? nay whom did he ever vex? which of his tenants hath he cruelly oppressed? which of his creditors hath he craftily defeated? whom that ever dealt with him hath he deceived? Surely in this faithless age cum annulis Senee. magis creditur quam animis, as Seneca speaks, wherein a man's hand or signet is better to be trusted, than his faith and soul, he was not fit to live. He trusted every one, and every one (shall I say) deceived him? no, not every one. He had those with whom he might, with whom he durst have trusted his own soul, who may now sit down, and sorrow as David did, for the death of his dear jonathan, 2. Sam. 1, 26. Woe is me for thee my brother jonathan: very kind hast thou been unto me, thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. Another singular commendation the holy Ghost hath 6. His meekness. given to Moses, Num. 12. 3 Moses was a very meek man above all the men that were upon the earth. And surely such as heard the conference, or heeded the common talk, or In his conference. observed the carriage of our noble Moses, know that not many men will be found more meek than he. In conference who hath ever hard him clamorous and contentious? or seeking as some do rather the victory and last word, than the truth and verity? yea he would rather meekly yield, then multiply words so that with whomsoever he did confer, his mildness made it sweet or profitable. For where two meek men meet together, their conference, saith S. Bernard, is sweet and profitable: where one man is meek, it is profitable; where neither, it proves pernicious. And therefore it was S. Bernard's manner, (and our Moses had learned it,) because he would be sure to retain this modesty, on the one side, to be very urgent upon those that in their meekness would yield much, and to yield another time to him that urged. And as his graver conference, so his common talk In his common talk. did taste and relish much more of meekness. I have often been vouchsafed his company, yet I never heard him speak evil of others, or good of himself. But his carriage was the map of meekness. For besides his low In his carriage and loving carriage even to the poorest, would he not quietly rather endure two wrongs; then complain of one? rather suffer many wrongs, then return one? rather put up all wrongs, then revenge one? And had he not the happy reward of meekness attending him, even sweet content of mind, and a quiet passage of such crosses as accompany this life: whereby he did enjoy both his rest and sleep more sound, & received his meat and drink more merrily and thankfully then most men do. So in him we might see it true: that, that which will break a proud and angry man's heart, will not break an humble, and meek man's sleep. I proceed. Moses was learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians; Act. 7. 22. In this indeed Moses did overmatch our Moses: but herein our Moses did overmatch the most that I have known, that having no greater depth of learning, he could in any point both conceive so quickly, and object so acutely, and speak so judiciously, and to purpose as he did. Thus you see that Moses is dead; Moses for his place of government, Moses for his pity, Moses for his peacemaking, Moses for his piety, Moses for his pain fullness in his place of justice, Moses for his faithfulness in public, & his trueheartedness to his private friends, Moses for his meekness; & in what one thing he came short of Moses; it was not so much as most of his rank came short of him. But that which commends all these former commendations, 7. His zeal. is the praise of Moses in this place, the servant of the Lord. And was not our Moses such? For his soundness and sincerity in the true religion & service of God, and perfect hatred of Popery, and superstition, all the country can witness with me. Who hath been more ready to put in execution those good laws of our land, against our wilful Recusants? Who was so great or dear unto him that he would wink at, in this case which concerns God's glory, and the advancement of religion? And though in other matters of justice he was as merciful as any man living, yet in the service of God, and punishing of Idolaters, his zeal hath been hot like Moses, who when he saw the people Exod. 32. 19 fall to Idolatry dancing about the calf; his wrath waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them in pieces, and burned the calf in the fire, and ground it to powder, and made the people of Israel to drink of it, Exod. 32. 19 which godly zeal of this our Moses made him often say, (& me thinks I see with what feeling and fervency he spoke it, when there was none present but myself alone,) that till we might see them handsomely shipped, and the sea betwixt us & such as have a Pope in their heart, neither can we be safe, nor the service of God pure and sincere. Neither can the country only witness, but the King and Council confirm their assured persuasion of our Moses his zeal: when in those disastrous, and dangerous times of the powderplot, they pleased to appoint him to that high & most honourable office the command of the whole Country, though he had not long before borne the burden of that office. What shall I say of his particular carriage in the service of God? I have often seen him at public Sermons and service: sometime in private we have prayed together, and praised God together. And sure his diligent attention in the one, as unwilling that a word should pass him, and his devout carriage in the other, gave good signs of a sincere heart, not willingly sinning, but willingly sorrowing when he had sinned. What shall I say more? You see now, and cannot but say, that he was a Moses, and the servant of the Lord; yet Moses was a man, else he had not died; and subject to his personal sins, his faults, his frailties, which God doth punish, else he had not died in the land of Moab. For if you would know the cause why Moses must not come into the land of Canaan, but die in the land of Moab, when he is now within ken of that pleasant country: the holy Ghost hath expressed it, Deut. 32. 51. Because you have trespassed Deut. 32. 51. 52. against me among the children of Israel in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; for you sanctified me not among the children of Israel: Thou shalt therefore see the land before thee, but shalt not go thither. See then, and observe hence another point of Doctrine, which in my passage I purposely omitted, but The best men are subject to their frailties and faults. now comes fitly to be handled, namely; The best men are subject to their frailties and falls. Even Moses though a rare man, yet cannot be free from infirmities; yea sometime falls into such sins, as God doth severely punish. In many things, saith St james, we sin all, as jam. 3. 2. might be made plain by particular instances in the best servants of God. But I take no comfort to uncover the nakedness of worthy patriarchs & Prophets, who when God but for a time did leave them to themseives, did stumble and fall and lie along under their sins. Optimus ille qui minimis urgetur; he is happy, could the heathen say, that hath fewest faults, and those the least; for there is none so happy as to have none. Which as Use. it serves for a just reproof for all such as are ready to condemn their brethren, and cast of their Christian company and kindness, for some one fault they find in him, and never look to commend those good graces, which they might see; so it serves Secondly, for instruction unto the best, willingly to submit themselves to the word of God to godly instructions, Christian admonitions, and wholesome reprehensions. For none so good but something the word of God will find amiss in them which they cannot amend till they see, nor well see till the word of God show it unto them. Will not the best garments grow dusty; if they be not brushed? the finest lane and linen grow loathsome, if it be not washed? the sweetest garden overgrown with nettles or worse, if it be not weeded? and the best man, worse if he will not be admonished? Lastly, all should learn hence to run to the mercy of God, and lay hold upon the horns of that altar. Commissum atque conscriptum est, (saith S. Austin upon the 51. Psalm, concerning the adultery and murder of David;) It is committed by him, & by him committed to writing, for our learning, that those who yet stand fall not, and those that fall lie not still but may rise again. Stand not upon the perfection of thy purity. patriarchs have fallen, Prophets have fallen, Apostles have fallen, stars have not been so fixed but they have fallen, Angels not so firm but they have fallen. Trust not then in the righteousness of thy works; for they are but polluted; trust not in the integrity of thy nature, for even it is defiled: but rely upon the mercy of God, for that only is absolute, & in the merits of Christ, for they and they only are all-sufficient. And say with David: If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is Ps. 130. 3, 4. done amiss, O Lord who may abide? but there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared. Thus you have seen both the party, Moses, & his praise, the servant of the Lord, and his end, he is dead, and the place where, in the land of Moab. And as in their lives you have seen how like they were, so were they in many particulars like in the manner of their death. I will only point at them. Both died in a strange place, where they were but within view, & were now come to take the comfort of that pleasant country, that God had promised and provided for their posterity. Both died when they were in outward appearancelike to live long. For of Moses it is said here, that his eyes were not Deut 34. 37. dim, nor his natural force abated. And may we not say so of this second Moses, whose understanding & sight and hearing, & other senses, might easily be observed to have been more sharp and quick than many that have not past half his years? was it not much that a man of his years, and of so much employment should have at his dying day neither grey hair nor unsound tooth? Yea, I may say it was little less than a miracle, that his vital and natural powers should continue even until his dying day in that perfection; when all his vital parts as appeared afterwards were so strangely corrupted, as that if the most learned Physicians had known the state of his body as they imagine it hath been these many years, they could not have hoped nor conceived how he should continued so long in that health and strength as continually he did. His sickness was but short, and (saving some fits) not very sharp: his carriage therein (I dare speak it upon the word of those that were continually with him) very quiet and patiented. When the Minister of God came to him, to fit him with comfort and confidence against the terrors of death, having prepared himself for this purpose, he entertained him kindly, hard him attentively, professed he received much comfort by him, made a worthy confession of his faith with his own mouth, and entreated his company & comfort again assoon as conveniently he could resort unto him. In the mean time how his mind was busied, we may imagine by that worthy acknowledgement of God's love unto him, when he thanked God, that in all that time of his sickness he had neither a bad thought, nor a bad dream. But death is now at his doors, and as he lived quietly and peaceably, so he lays him down like a lamb: never opened his mouth to murmur, nor moved any part of his body to strive and struggle with death: but with a deep groan, as from a sorrowful & repentant soul, sends his soul into the hand of his Saviour, where now, no doubt, he rests in joy. There follows now Moses his funeral, which (as appears in the next verse) was performed as honourably Ver 6. as ever was hard of, even by God himself; yet so secretly, as his sepulchre could never be seen unto this day. And have not the godly friends of our honourable Moses, herein showed their love and care, by as honourable a solemnity, as (I think) most of our eyes have seen? The last thing is the mourning & sorrow which followed upon his death. The children of Israel wept for Ver. 8. him in the plain of Moab thirty days, and have not we as great cause to sorrow in respect of ourselves? And yet that our sorrow may not exceed, know that though Moses a great man, and Moses a good man, the servant of the Lord, be dead, & in the land of Moab: yet nothing hath happened in all this, but by God's appointment, according to the will of the Lord, which was the last point I proposed out of the words of my text, and which I can only touch now. The point of doctrine which we may observe from Doct. All crosses cometh from God. Amos, 3. 5. hence is this: What soever crosses and calamities do befall us here, they come not by fortune or haphazard, but at God's appointment and his all-ruling providence. Can a bird fall into a snare where no fowler is? Amos, 3. 5. Men that lie under Gods punishing hand or some heavy cross, are like a bird in a net whereinto we often fall, before we see the fowler; and being caught, the more we strive & struggle to get out, the more we entangle ourselves therein. Now it were a strange thing to see nets and snares set themselves to catch birds without a fouler; and no less strange it is that crosses and calamities should befall any man at haphazard without a guide and governor. Which the Prophet plainly proposeth, Ibid. v. 6. ver. 6. Shall there be any evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it? Who gave jacob for a spoil and Israel Isay, 42. 24. to the robbers? Did not the Lord because we have sinned against him? Isa. 42. 24. Howsoever men may attribute the plague of pestilence, to the infection of the air, or party about us; the calamity of the sword, to the malve of the enemy; the desolation of famine to fowl wether, consumptions unto want of exercise, fevers and burning agues to the malignity of some dish of meat or draft of drink, (& rightly too, as to the second causes:) yet the holy Ghost would have us to look to a higher hand in all these: for it is God that sends both pestilence Deut 28. 21. 22. and famine, and the sword, and consumptions & fevers and burning agues, Deut. 28. 21. 22. Let this then (for this present) persuade us to patience Use. under all crosses. Thou hast lost thy father or friend or child by untimely death as thou dost imagine, and therefore criest out either of want of care in their keeper, or want of skill in the Physician, or absence of friends, and sayest as Mary did to our Saviour, if thou hadst been here my brother had not been dead, or thou Ioh 11. 32. condemnest thy hard hap, and considerest not, that it is God's hand. Thus have the children of God begun their serious consultations in the day of affliction, and hereby beckoned as it were to themselves for silence, Dominus est, it is the Lord. When that heavy news came to old Elies ears, which whosoever should hear his two ears should tingle: he imposeth silence to himself, and arms himself with this resolution, it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good. It is the Lord, 1. Sam. 3, 18. who hath more right to my soul, than I have to myself, more power over my body, than I have over a thought in my soul; and shall I not be silent when he sends for one of them, and says they shall be sundered? What other shield was it wherewith job repelled all those venomous darts, which either in the death of his children, or loss of his substance, or the running of his sores, or the cursed persuasion of his wife, or the miserable comforts of his friends, or the malicious and importunate accusations of Satan were cast upon him, when in all this nothing came from his mouth, but thanked be God? The devil made no doubt, I think, but he would have blasphemed, and his wife a more dangerous devil in his bosom persuaded him to curse, and his flesh and fraikie no doubt was forward enough; but what kept him back? even this resolution; The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, even as it job. 1. 21. pleaseth the Lord so come things to pass. I conclude with Tertullian: Totunlicet seculum pereat, dum patientiam lucrifaciam; I care not though the whole world perish so I may gain patience. But our Moses is not perished, his soul lives in heaven, and himself lives still on earth in that noble slemme, that hath sprung from his stock, & is now risen up in his stead. Whom I will humbly solicit in the same words that God speaks unto joshua: Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise. It is now no longer joshua, 1. 2. time for you to pin up yourself within your private walls, no time now to sleep upon the bed of pleasure and delight. Arise, the Commonwealth calls for you to stand up in the room of your honourable Father; the eyes of all are cast upon you, from their hearts wishing you would be pleased, to set before your eyes your father's footsteps, and to walk therein. Doubt not of God's blessing upon you in such courses: but what God speaks to joshua in the same Chap. v. 5. you may imagine even spoken to you: As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee, I will not leave thee, neither for sake Ver. 5. thee, be strong and of a good courage. And again, vers. 7. Only be thou strong and of a most valiant courage. And again, V 7. ver. 8. Have I not commanded thee saying, be strong V 8. and of a good courage? fear not nor be discouraged, for I the Lord thy God will be with thee whither soever▪ thou goest. Behold a threefold exhertation, let it arm you against a threefold temptation: the world, the flesh, and the devil; all which are linked in a hellish conspiracy, to hinder and discourage every one in any good course, especially such as are set in high place, or are employed for the public good. He had need therefore both of a sound head, and a sanctified heart that should hold out in a high place. Wherein consider, I beseech you, that your care of religious carriage should be so much the greater, as God's love hath been the more in raising you above many in the world. The goodness of a private man is his own, and his sins seldom hurt any but himself, but the goodness of a principal man is the whole countries, and his sins infectious unto many. The common means which both the world, the flesh, and the devil, use in this wanton age of the world, is the contagion of bad company, which you have cause to curse and avoid, because the canker common eats into the goodliest flowers in the garden, seldom settles upon nettles and such worthless weeds. And surely such as our company is, such either we are, or such we will be shortly, or such we would be thought to be, or at least the world will judge us to be such. Let me therefore beseech you even for the glory of God, the honour of your house, the good of your country, the comfort of your friends, the peace of your own conscience, and the salvation of your own soul, take heed of bad company. Out of good and godly minded men choose your acquaintance, out of your acquaintance cull out some few for your friends, out of your friends some one familiar, whom you may trust with yourself; herein, I doubt not, you shall find more solid comfort and content, then in variety of company, which will be bold enough to thrust in upon you, then in great multitudes which will be ready enough to flatter you. In a word (for you are wise) use those good talents of wisdom, and wealth, and honour (which God hath given you) so, as God's glory may gain by them, and you shall be sure not to lose at the last. Nay, you may assuredly look to hear both on earth, and in heaven, It is well done good servant and faithful: thou hast been faithful in much, I will make thee ruler over more, enter into thy master's joy. FINIS.