THE ROYAL PASSING-BELL: OR, DAVID'S SUMMONS to the GRAVE. A Sermon preached (lately) in the Parish-Church of Orchard-Portman in SOMERSET. At the Funeral of the most hopeful, and truely-noble, Sr. HUGH PORTMAN, Baronet; the great loss and sorrow both of his Name and Country. By HUMPHREY SYDENHAM, Master of Arts, late Fellow of Wadham College in OXFORD.  Qui virtutem alterius publicarivult, virtuti laborat, non gloria. ANT. SEN. 
LONDON, Printed by W. Stansby, for Nathaniel Butter. An. Dom. 1630.   

TO MY DESERVEDLY honoured, JOHN HELENA, of Wembury, Esquire; the great hope of his NAME, and expectation of his COUNTRY.  
SIR;  
THis flies not to you for perusal barely, and survey, but for protection; I want not a a Reader, but a Vindicator; such a one, as can aswell justify Jnnocence, as shrine it: an Agent remarked, no less for Goodness, than for Power. And, in this my Appeal to Worth and justice, I sincerely wish, that, whilst I awake your Charity, I pull not on you Envy, or Dishonour; 'tis not my intention, but my fear. For, amongst other my weak endeavours which have formerly advanced me to the undeserved applause of many. This had the Happiness to displease, and I think it not my wound, but my Glory. Impartial discourses are equally blunt, and honest; and though sometimes, they have their relish and farewell in distaste, yet that is their Crown, and not their Fate. However, an affected Stoicism I ever loathed, and not only as a Stoicism, but as affected. There is nothing so open to contempt and laughter, as a composed sullenness. 'Tis true, a native roughness and austerity of language, I have pupilled from my youth, That's mine own, I confess, but I dote not on it; my Child but I lull it not; and therefore, if it sometimes prove wayward, and offensive, Nature praevaricates, and not will. I was never yet guilty of a premeditated trespass on men's Names, or Honours; I have neither so much time for rancour, nor disposition; or had I both, I should have here strangled them for his dear memory, to whom I owed, not only my services, but myself. He was nobly your Associate, (my honoured Sir) and (for I must still boast in the livery) my Master; nay, my Patron; and, what is higher yet, my friend, my unshaken friend. These have so engaged me both in Civil and Religious bonds, that should I labour to dissolve either by any Real affront, or discourtesy to his Tribe, I were neither moral man, nor Christian; and yet, lo, I am more than both, a Divine; but, a saucy one ('tis rumoured) and a Cruel; a sordid also, and Contemptuous; and, (O my impossible guilt! my unjust calamity!) a false one, and unthankful. Such Liveries I can wear with as much patience as the the former, though not triumph; and yet these, again are not my Cross, but my Laurel; I grow green in the opinion of mine own innocence, though whither, perhaps, in the Respects of others; who, if they were not so hot as to ravish words unnaturally, and force them from the honest intentions of the Speaker, they should find, I am a Levite, still, and not a Libeler; and, what I preached, was not an Inuective, but a Sermon. Me thinks, it is neither Charity, nor judgement in a hearer, to wrest Divinity to the disvantage of his own honour; 'twas ne'er my Custom to rubbe harshly, on particulars; my reproofs were, as they should be, of sins, and not of Persons; and those too, ran generally, which no Circumstances can reduce to paticulars, but where the Parties are either prejudicate, or guilty; And, if any such I met with (as I hope I did not) let them learn to reform, and not to censure; and thank him for his homespun advertisements, who was rather a Remembrancer of their errors, than a judge. This is the way to reseve their honour, and my innocence; which, as it hath been ever taught to magnify worth in others; so, to presume on yours, that, when you have read impartially this sad piece of mine, you will say that I have been a faithful Servant to my dead friend, and yours, whose noble respects to me, I have found to survive in you; whom, for many solid and material favours, I am captived to observe, whilst I am  
Yours most thankfully devoted, HUM. SYDENHAM.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Edward Lord Howard, Baron of Escrick, my very Honourable good LORD.  
SIR,  
WHen you were pleased, the other year, to admit me your Chaplain, I had intended, and prepared my paraemetiall oblations to your Lordship, from the Pulpit; But I was, then, prevented by a sudden, and severe sickness, which hath, hitherto, disabled me to tender you any thing that way. Now, because I would not be obnoxious to a double misconceit, I present you this piece from the Press, that your Lordship may read, and so remember the record, both of my devotions, and endeavours. I hearty wish I were so completely recovered for attendance, that I might as well speak, as write my labours; and then (perhaps) I should better satisfy your Lordship, then in this common kind; which hath made many of my Profession (and may me) ridiculous. But I fear my infirmities, and therefore, as I must beg the honourable charity of your Patience, so of your Protection also. For as I was, at first, a suitor for your service, (In which I have cause to glory) both for the greatness and goodness of your self, and name) so I am, still for the graces of it: and do hope, that when you have made a fuller enquiry, who I am, and where I have spent my time, and talon; your Lordship will not disdain to own, and honour me with your succeeding favours. In a word (my noble Lord) I shall not forget what you have made me, nor the duty enjoined me by it: I will pray for you, for your Lady, for your little Ones, and for the growth, and continuance of the house begun in you; and what else is required in a religious observance, you shall surely find in the faith and loyalty of  
Your Lordship's humble servant, Hum. Sydenham.   

The several Texts, and names of the Sermons herein contained.  
I. The Royal Passing-Bell: or David's Summons to the Grave.  The Text. PSAL. 32.6. 
Thou hast made my days as a span-long, and mine Age is nothing before thee; Surely, every man, in his best state is altogether vanity.  
II. The Rich man's Warning Piece.  The Text. PSAL. 62.10. 
If Riches increase, set not thy heart upon them.  
III. Waters of Marah and Meribah, or the sour of Bitterness, and Strife, Sweetened and Allayed.  The Text. ROM 12.1. 
I beseech you, Brethren, by the mercies of God, to offer up your Bodies, a living Sacrifice, Holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.   

THE ROYAL PASSING-BELL: OR, DAVID'S SUMMONS to the GRAVE.  TEXT. Psal. 39 v. 6. 
Thou hast made my days as a span-long and mine Age is as nothing before thee; surely, every man, in his best state, is altogether vanity.  
THE Text is a sad Story of man's frailty here; And 'tis a Prophet's, and a King's; a King, as mighty in Religion, as in valour; one that knew as well how to tune his sorrows, as his triumphs, and had often warbled sweetly to them both, and sung many a dainty Anthem in his Israel; so that, here wants neither eloquence, nor state; nothing that may persuade an auditory, or awe it. I need not beg then either your patience or attention; the one is enjoined you from a Prophet, the other from a King; a good Prophet, and a King, David, the King, and the Prophet after Gods own heart; whose words here are are as Compact, as they are powerful, so jointed and knit together in one piece (a piece so uniform, and exact) that should I disrank or sunder them, I must either deface this beauty, or destroy it. I take them then as I first found them in their rich pile and fabric; whereln I have observed three stories or ascents.  
Days in the first; and these days measured, and in that measure, resembled Instar pugilli; as a span-length; and this length, punctnall, and prefixed, not alterable by any power of man; for in posuisti, thou hast made it so.  
In the next; these Days, are an Age; and this Age; weighed and compared, falls light in the scale, tanquam nihil, as nothing; not absolutely nothing, but comparatively, Ante te, before thee.  
In the third; these Days, and this Age, are man's; not man's in his Autumn, or declination, but in his best state; and man thus in his best state is but vanity; no peice-meale vanity; but omnimoda vanitas, altogether vanity; man is altogether vanity; man is so; not man in particular, this man, only; not I, David, the Prophet, or the King; but universus homo, every man; as well the Beggar as the King, or the Prophet; all mand-kinde; every man; every man, in his best state, is altogether vanity.  
Thus I have showed you the front of the Text, and what it promise's in the rooms within; if not so fully as you expect, or desire, please you to take a review; and than you may see, more at large; Days, in the first part; these days, proportioned; who did it: and how: and all this in a Tu posuisti, thou hast made them; and thou hast so made them that they are as a span-long; there I begin. Thou hast make my days as a span-long.  

A span-long.  
TO weigh the misery of things transitory, 
Pars prima.  with the glory of others more permanent and solid, is the most exact way to judge of either; the life of opposites is in Comparing them, when the good seem better; and the bad worse. Our Prophet therefore, in a deep speculation of the Almighty, and the frail rarities of his creatures here below, looking up at length to the beauty of the Celestial host, Sun, moon, and stars, brings up man unto to them; not to rival their perfection, but to question his; and, after some stand, and pause, in steed of Comparison, makes an enquiry; a double one; first, what man is? and then, what is the son of man? in his eighth Psalm, the fourth verse.  
Here is Homo, and filius hominis, and both, in the text, have their energia, and weight of emphasis. The word enosc, or enosh, translated, man, sign fles miserum & calamitosum hominem (saith Musculus) a man of calamity, and sorrow; 
Musc. in Psal. 8.4.  and ' ●● giu●n to all men as a remembrance of their mortality; so Psal. 9.20. Let the Heathens know that they be Enose, men, mortal men. Moreover, son of man, hath in the root. Adam; ut primae originis admoneamur, 
Musc. ibid.  to mind us of our carnal pedigree; and that our source and offspring is but Adamah, and so all mankind, earthy. And therefore some translations, following closely the track of the original, 
Aynsworth. Psal. 8.4.  read thus; what is sorry man that thou remember'st him, and the son of Adam, that thou visitest him? not what is man, that rare creature endued with wisdom, and understanding, the almighty's Masterpiece, the Image of his maker, and model of the universe? But, what is Enose? what is Adam? What, the son of calamity and sorrow? the son of earth and frailite? what is he? nay what is he not? what not of calamity and earth? insomuch that the patiented man, under the groan and sense of humane imperfections, and the daily bruise of his manifold affliction, is driven to his expostulation also, with a quid est homo,? what is man? job. 7.17. where we meet again with the word Enosc, misellus homo, wretched man; and not nakedly the word, but a particle joined with it, not mah, 
Bolduc. in Cap. job. 17.  but mi, (as Bolducus observes) non quis, sed quid quaerere intendens, as if the enquiry looked not to the person, but his condition; not, who is man? but what he is? knowing that man is not only the concrete, miserable; but, the very abstract misery itself; such a misery as may be an example, and precedent of all others. And, if we but observe the criticisms and curiosities of expositors upon the word man, they are neither impertinent nor fruitless; for we shall never meet it through the whole current of sacred Story without some descant and paraphrase from the Hebrew. To particular in that of Esay, where (in one text) words of opposite signification mask under a single antithesis, as in the fifth of that Prophecy, 
Bolduc. in cap. 4. job. 17.  Incuruabitur homo, & humiliabitur vir, man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled. Homo, there, is in the original, Adam, quod nomen infirmitatis est, a name of crazines and languishment. Vir, Ice, or Ish, Heroem, magnumque importans, which involues something of eminence, & renown; and so our new translation gives it, 
Esa. 5.  the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled; so that let man be of what condition or estate soever, he shall not be long in it, without a bringing down, or an humbling. If he be Isc, mighty in possession and name; humiliabitur, he shall be humbled; if he be Adam, of course and popular condition, and so humble already, yet he must be lower, incuruabitur, he shall be brought down; brought down and humbled with a witness, ad infernum, says the Text, even unto Hell. Aperit infernus os suum, the 16. verse of that Chapter. 
Esa. 5 16.  But Hell is the misery of another Age; our Text hath little to do with that, and so this place makes not for our purpose; but, the word Sheol will befriend us here, and make this infernum, a grave, too, and thither we are humbled every day; and then we ask nomore Quis? or quid est homo? who, or what is man? but, Vbi homo? where is man? 
job. 14.10.  for so the pensive man interrogates; man wasteth away, and giveth up the ghost, and where is he? job. 14.10. where is he? fuit, non vixit, he was here but now, but he is gone; gone from his Caluary to his Golgotha; his gall & vinegar in his late agony (the bitter Cross of his body) to his sepulchre (here) he wed out of the rock; 
He was buried in a vault.  his bed ready made for him in the dark, where he lies down, and rises not, till this fuit hath put on a resurrexit, this mortality, a resurrection. And, seeing he is now gone, let us no more ask, Quis? aut ubi? who, or where man is? but once more, quid est what he is? or rather, what his Age is? or (if you please) what his days in that age? and then the text will answer by way of similitude and resemblance, Instar pugilli, as a span-long. A short time (no doubt) that is inched out, or singred by the span; other things remarked in holy story, have their dimensions lin'dout by the farhome, or the cubit, or the foot, at least; nothing that I remember, by this frail measure, but the life of man; a thing so fragile and momentany, that there was nothing to express it, but a span; a word so tumbled by Expositors, that they are somewhat driven to the plunge, to give the original of it a proper signification in a second language, and therefore some translations have it instar pugilli; or, ad mensuram pugillorum, a little handful; so Felix, and Musculus; others ad mensuram quatuor digitorum, or palmi minoris longitudinem; the breadth of four fingers, or small inches; so Pagnine, and Tigurina; and near these, junius and Mollerus palmares posuisti dies thou hast made my days as a hand-breath. The word of the Septuagint, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the vulgar Latin read's mensurabiles; and Hierome, 
Vide Musculum in Psal 39.6.  Breves something that is measurable, and therefore, short. For, though the age of man, in holy writ, wears sometimes the attribute of days; sometimes, of months; sometimes, of years; yet these days, and months, and years are not without their frail Epithets of, vani, or, breves, or the like; so job is said to possess many months; but they are menses vanitatis, months of vanity, job. 7.2. & not only months, but years also; but these years are anni pancissimi; or breves anni, few years, and short job. 16.12. However, suppose these years were multiplied, and lengthened somewhat in their span, yet they are short still, because numbered. 
Pineda in job 16.22.  And therefore the Latin version here, breves annos, the Hebrew reads annos numerari; and the Septuagint, annos dinumeratos, years to be numbered, or years already numbered, and not only numbered, but prefixed; and not prefixed barely, but circumscribed; circumscribed by the finger of the Almighty; and that in a narrow circuit, this span-long; so job says, man's days are determined, and his months are with thee; thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass, job 14.5. Insomuch that days, 
Bolducus in cap. 16. job. v. 23. Pined. ibid.  or months determined are but short; and short days and months, the Hebrews call dies numeri, and menses numeri; days, and months of number quia pauci, & numerabiles (saith Pineda) because they are numerable, and therefore few. Neither are days only, and months, and years so styled, but the men of those days, and months, and years; so in the twelfth of Ezekiel, 
Ezech. 12. v. 16, 17.  the Prophet speaking of the desolation of the jews, says, that God will scatter them amongst the Nations, and disperse them in their Country, but would leave of them homines paucos à gladio, & a fame, some few of them, that is, homines numeri, some few that he had selected and numbered, these he would reserve from the sword, the pestilence and the famine, that they might declare all their abominations amongst the Heathens, whether they came, that they might know that he is the Lord their God.  
Thus, measure, or number, of times, or seasons, in what proportion soever, presuppose a kind of rottenness and instability; so our months are numbered, and our days measured, 
Pineda in cap. 14. job. v. 5.  job 14.5. that is, short. The Latin word there, is praecisi, (according to Tremeluis) decurtati, others; curtailed and contracted; from the original, Charats; which signitieth, acuere, or, praescindere; to sharpen, or cut off. So, the lofty Prophet, assuring to a remnant of Israel, their safctie form the Assyrians, tell's them of a consummatio praecisa, in the midst of the Land. A consumption decreed, 
Esay 10.22.  the English says, but that rendering is to narrow, and will not bear up with the latitude of the original, and therefore not, a consumption; for, that linger's too much; but rather, a consummation; a precise one; such a one as argues both a certainty, and quickness in the doing; so quick and certain, as if it were done, 'ere it began; and, acted, as soon as prophesied; so joel also calls the valley of jehosophat, 
Pin. in cap. 4. job.  vallis concisionis; multitudes, multitudes in the valley of concision; that is, vallis abreviationis; or, vallis praecisionis; the valley of abreviation, or cutting off; because that the vast multitude of people there met, should be rarified, and lessened; 
joel 3.14.  and only a few number of the Just selected. In like sort, the days of man, here, may be called dies concisionis, or dies praecisi, because they are abreviated maimed, cut off, determined, & straightened to a prescript time; a strict measure; this span-long, which man can neither diminish, nor dilate in his own power; but he is penned up, here, in his narrow Royalty; his frail enclosure, where his days are spanned out, his pillars pitched; his non ultra limited; his circuits bounded; & tu posuisti terminos, and thou (O God) hast appointed those bounds, & tu posuisti dies, and thou hast made those days; so made them, that thou hast measured them; measured them, exactly; by a span; a narrow span, which he shall neither fall short of, nor exceed, no not one tittle or punctum of it; not the breadth of the smallest hair, or atom; no, not the rare-spun gothsimere; or any other extenuated or imaginary thinness whatsoever. For tu constituisti, and, tu posuisti, thou hast appointed, and thou hast made it so: 
job. 14.5. Psal 33. 6  and whatsoever is thy appointment, is thy Law; a Law not to be corrupted, or minced, or disannulled, either by equivocation, or partiality, or rigour, or any other juggling or imposture of flesh and blood. There is none (saith job) that can deliver out of thy hand. Statuta eius fecisti, & non praeteribit, 
job 10.7. Lat. Interp. in 10. cap. job. v. 20.21. Prou. 8. v. 24.  thou hast appointed man his bounds that he cannot pass, statutes which he cannot violate certain channels & banks in thy decrees, which he cannot possibly exceed. And as thou hast established the clouds, and strengthened the fountains of the deep, bound up the floods from overflowing, and given them thy command that they shall not pass, but placed the sand as a wall about them by a perpetual Decree; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, 
jer. 5.22.  yet can they not prevail, though they roar, yet can they not swell over; so all those tossing; and swellings of flesh and blood the surges and billows rising in the tempests of our life, 
job. 38.10, 11.  have their cliffs and shores, & strict limits, and God hath done to them, as to the great deep, broke up for them his decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, hither you shall come, no further; here shall your proud waves stay: for tu posuisti dies, thou hast made our days, and those days but a span-long & tu constituisti terminos, thou hast appointed our bounds, and those bounds we shall not pass. 
Pineda in cap. 14. job.  And therefore the afflicted man seems to complain of the Almighty, that he had environed him, terminis suis, with his bounds; that is, praeceptis suo, & statutis, with his precepts, and his statute; such orecep saved statutes, as he cannot abrogate; so in the eight of the Proverbs 29. the Wiseman speaking of the mighty providence of God in ruling and ordering the vast deep, says jegem ponebat aquis, he gave the waters a law, or a decree, that they should not pass his command, and yet the singer of Israel calls this very law, a bound, thou hast set a bound that they cannot pass, Psal. 104 9 so that, that terminus, or bound was a law to them; and this lex, or decree, a bound to us; and neither this bound, nor law, to be overpassed; and therefore we find it once again spoken of in the 148. Psalm, and there is a non praeteribit, to it; it shall not pass away, pass away? No, not one jot, or tittle of it. Heaven and earth shall first pass away, before one jot or tittle, either of God's Word or Law, his posuit, or his constituit, his bound, or his span-long, which are a law to him; a law irrevocable, both in matters of life, and death. And therefore this necessity of fate, Saint Paul expresseth, by the name of a law, with a statutum est, and a semel statutum est, it is appointed to man to die, and it is once appointed. Statutum est there is the law, or the decree, and the semel once, says, that this law is firm, constant, inviolable; for God speaks once, and he speaks but once, 
Pinedain cap. job.  ut iterato pracepto opus non sit, saith Pineda, that we should not expect any iteration or doubling of his command. And therefore in the seventeenth of the Acts, we have, though not this statutum est, the law punctually set down, yet we have the statuta tempora, the times prefixed for the execution of that law; so the text, God hath made of one blood all the nations of men, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, which they cannot pass, the six and twentieth verse of that Chapter. And lest we should think times determined to be no law, our death, which is a thing determined, and to a time determined, is called, a Testament, or, a Law. Remember that death will not be long, in coming, and that the Covenant or Law of the grave, is not showed unto thee. Ecclus 14.12.  
So that this business of death and the grave, is a law certain, and prefixed, both for the time and manner, and that beyond all possibility of alteration; and therefore whether we style it a decree, or a statute, or a law, or a testament, or a bound, 
Pin. ibid.  or this span-long, Semper dicis aliquid quod praeteriri non poterit, says the jesuite, there is something involved that is both constant and inviolable; whose rampiers, and walls, and bulwarks, thou shalt never scale nor dig through; for 'tis the Almighty's Citadel and strong fort, so garrisoned and entrenched by his eternal power, and wisdom; the doors and gates of it so barrocadeed, and blockt-up against all invasions of flesh and blood, that no earthly stratagem, no temporal assault, no humane policy, shall ever raze or demolish; but it stands unshooke, against all tempests; firm, against all batteries; solid, against all undermine; so that if the floods rise, and the winds blow, and the waves beat, they shall never stagger it.  
Seeing then there is a Statutum est passed upon all mankind, that it must once die (and that statute is not rough, though it be sometimes unpleasing, to die once, so we die no more, for a double death is our due, though not our pay) and knowing that there are precise bounds, and limits, and span-longs to flesh and blood, beyond which it cannot pass, and these bounds, and spans, and limits have the Inscription of God's unalterable Decree, with the authority of his stamp and seal, his posuit, and his constituit, let us take up the prayer here of our Psalmist. 
Aug. in Psal. 38.  Lord make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; the number, what it is? & est, & non est, saith Saint Augustine.  
The measure of our days you have had in an exact proportion, in this span-long; but the number of them, 
Aug ibid.  is both secret, and uncertain: it is and it is not, truly. Nec esse possumus dicere, quod nòn stat, nèc nòn esse, quod venit, & transit, says the father, we cannot properly say that that is which remains not, nor that is not, which comes and goes. Day's past, and future, are as no days. Yesterday, was; and to morrow, will be; and so, now, are not; and of such things as are not, there is no number, today, only, is man's; and this not long his, neither; for it is going; or if it did not go, it is but one day, and of that, there is no number, neither; so that the total here, aut nòn est, aut quasi est, is either no number at all, or, 
Aug. ut supra.  as it were, a number. Summe up all the minutes and hours thou canst, and those, truly, and thine own; thou shalt make up but one day, and that day (wholly) not thine own neither. Let's begin from the first dawn, or hour of it; where is that hour, saith the father? 'tis gone, where is the second then? perchance thou wilt say that's gone too; but, the third (doubtless) thou enioy'st; that's thine own; 
Aug. ibid.  be it so; and yet si tertiam dabis, non diem, sed horam dabis. Dost thou talk then of number, that hast but a day, or of a day, that hast but one hour? an hour? not that neither, not that very hour thou thinkest thou enioy'st; for, if some part of it be now past, and another as yet remaining; and of that which is past thou canst not dispose, because it is not now; nor, of that which remains, because it is not yet, what canst thou give of this hour? or if thou givest, what is't of thine own thou givest? the Father is at a stand, here; and in steed of a resolution put's a quaere. Cui committam hoc verbum, ut dicam, Est? what shall I do with the word. Est (saith he?) 'tis but one syllable, and one moment, and three letters in that syllable, and moment. We cannot come to the second, but by the first, nor to the third, but by the second; and then quid mihi de hac una syllaba dabis? & tenes dies, qui unam syllabam non tenes? do we talk of years, and months, and days, and hours, when we cannot give an account of one syllable? not of one letter of it? Away then with this vain credulity, this fond assurance of our settled plantation here below; momentis transuolantibus cuncta rapiuntur, all things are snatched away in moments; moments that have wings, and no feet; momentis transuolantibus, moments that fly away, as if they were afraid of mortality, or loath to assist it. And yet, behold, our tents here are not so thinnly built, but they will endure the blasts (or breathe rather) of a few days, a few days (indeed) that are spann'd-out; and when these are gone, Lord, what are we? surely, even as nothing; as nothing before thee: so the Prophet in the words following Mine Age is as nothing before thee.   

Mine Age is as nothing before thee.  Mine Age, etc. 
IVstinian reads it vitamea; 
Pars secunda. awm meum. vulg. lat: Jun. & Trem. Musc. in Psal. 39 Aynsworth. in Psal. 39 1. Cor. 7.31.  Pagnine, tempus meum, my life, and my time; the two Fathers, Hierome and Augustine (following the Greek) substantia mea my substance; the Caldee (not much unlike) Corpus meam, my body; but, the Hebrew word, Cheled, signifies, the World, Psal. 17.14. used here, for man's life or Age, or time in the world; so that, as the fashion of this greater world passeth away, saith the Apostle, so doth the body and substance of the lesser; insomuch that this whole pilgrimage on earth, is but as nothing (most translations reading here ut nihil, or tanquam nihil) and though some be so merciful in their renderings, 
Aewm meum eoram te est, ac sinon essot. Musc. Aewm meum ac si nibil esset ante te, Molcrus.  as to make man's Age a something, yet that hath but an Est, acsi non esset: or else an Ac, with a si nibil esset: so that I find little difference in the readings, the one making man's age as nothing; the other, a something, as if it were not. But suppose it were a something, indeed, such an age as had a stability both of days and years, and these not spanned so narrowly, but they might climb up to the miracle of a thousand years, yet this huge mass of time is little better than the tanquam nihil in the Text, as nothing before thee, such a nothing, as is resembled to the decursion and sticklenes of one day, not a day present, but already spent, A yesterday, 
Psal. 90.4.  a yesterday that is past. A thousand years in thy eyes are but as yesterday that is past, or as a wacth in the night. Psal. 90.4.  
Had our Prophet resembled it to a day, such a day as we enjoy; this day, or, one hour of this day; or one minute of this hour; or, one moment, or ictus of that minute, we might have presupposed some stability, though short-breathd, and panting, in the course of man's age; but, to a day, a day languished, and consumed; to yesterday, to yesterday expired; how doth it whisper our frailty? how our transitoriness? not such a frailty, and transitoriness, as shall hereafter fade and whither, but a rotten transitoriness, a putrefied frailty; a yesterday frailty and transitoriness; a yesterday that is worm-eaten and dusty; a yesterday that is past. The natural man than looked not home to the brittleness of our constitution, when he styled Man a creature of a day; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arist. job. 8.9.  nor the righteous man, when he clothed him with an hesterni sumus, we are but as yester day, job 8.9. but, the man after Gods own heart (whose knowledge was as pure as his integrity) he displays him at the full, when he makes his Age, a season obsolete; 
Psal. 90.4.  a Calendar out of date; a yesterday that is past.  
And therefore in a deep contemplation of our mortality (bottoming and sounding (as it were) all humane wretchedness) he opens the fleetness of his age by a nihil, here, a nihil (I confess) with a tanquam to it, Mine Age is as nothing before thee: as nothing (indeed) before thee; thy Omnipotency, thy Infiniteness; before these, as nothing. For, if a thousand years to thee be but as yester day, must be nothing to thy thousand; thy thousand thousands; thy myriades of thousands, thy eternity; thy everlastingness. And therefore, my Age, or, my substance, is a tanquam nihil ante te, Ante te, qui vides hoc (Saint Augustine echoes) & cum hoc video, ante te video, ante te homines non video. I confess, that it is nothing that I am, in respect of him; that is, ante te domine, ante te; ubi oculi tui sunt, non ubi oculi humani sunt; 
Aug. in Psal.  so the Father warble's. To a blemished or a deluded eye (and such a one is a mortal eye) my age may be something; a something of some few dimensions, a span-long, and yet this is but a tanquam nihil, a tanquam nihil, unto man, too; as nothing before him: but to thee; to thy eyes (which are brighter than those beams, which dazzle mine) those eyes, substantia mea, purè nihil; no tanquam, there; mine age is nothing; purely nothing, there. Nothing? why? universa vanitas omnis homo, every man is vanity; such a vanity as is stol'n-by; or else, now going; as, yester day; or, as a watch in the night. And, these have their tanquam nihil, too; are as nothing before thee; so truly nothing, that they make not up an Age, or a day, but some few hours; enough to make up the watch of a night; no more. But suppose this tanquam nihil beaten out to the perfection of an Age; and that age, threescore and teu: this, trodden on to an hundred; that trebledup to Nestor's; and his, to Methusalah's; yet all these would not make up our number of a thousand; and so, in God's eyes, would be less than a day; then a day that is past. Than a day? one night; nay, one poor watch in that night; a watch of some three houres-space, that's all. For the jews divided their day into twelve hours, and subdivided their night into four watches, and every watch, three hours. 
1. Evening. 2. Midnight. 3. Cock-crowing 4. Dawne. Mare. 13.35. Math. 14.13.  A goodly monarchhie, of flesh and blood; a spacious; sovereignty (no doubt) both in power and time; a Reign of some three hours; three hours of a night too, not of a day; as though the time of our sway, and sceptre, here, were attended merely with obscurity and dulness, a scene of heaviness and slumber, such as are incident to this watch in the night. And, indeed, what is our life, but a very Watch? and the the time of it, but as the night season? wherein, by reason of the darkness that mantles, and o'respreads it, we grope in uncertenties and errors: the light we have of things is but weak and borrowed; a glimmering, or twinkling only, no true light; and, rather a conceit, and apprehension of what we seem to see, than an exactken or knowledge of what we should.  
Moreover, in this watch of ours, we are apt to nod, and forget; forget, not only that we are here at Sentinel; who set us here; and the short time we are at it, our three bowers; but the strict charge of our Commander, and the danger of surprisal and defeat, by the invasion of our powerful Adversary. But, night and frailty (as what is our age but these?) are beauie-eyed, and drowsy; and then, our three hours, are (perchance) no more a watch, but a dream; And what is our age but a dream too? a dream of some three hours; and that's a long one (you will say) but, however long, 'tis but a dream; and, as a dream, not long neither. But did I say, man's Age was a dream? nay, rather, man, in that Age, 
Tob 20.8.  a dream. He flieth away, as a dream, and is chased as a vision in the night. job. 20.8. So that, now, here is a dream in a dream, Ezechiels' vision; a wheel in a wheel, this mole's in that, and yet, but one vision, one dream; or, if there be disparity any where, 'tis in man; and he, the vainer dream of the two.  
Our life (you know) hath been called a shadow; and not only a shadow, but a vain shadow, in which man is said to walk; He walketh in a vain shadow, in the seventh verse of this Psalm; And not only walk's in it, but dream's in it; so dream's in it, that he is of it, too; and therefore the Heathen calls him umbrae somnium, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pindar.  the dream of a shadow; and what is that, but the shadow of a shadow? for there is nothing so truly a shadow, as a dream, in which (oftentimes) there are strange objects presented to the fantasy, whereof in nature, and true being, there is not so much, as a resemblance, no, not a shadow; and yet, even these so captive and shackle the whole man, that (according to the variety of species offered) they take us, either with delight, or horror; sometimes commanding our sigh, our groan, our tear; sometime, our elevation of spirits; our applause, our laughter; even then, when our out ward senses seem fettered and chain'd-vp in the bands of sleep; and all this was but the Fisher-man's dream in Theoeritus, whose Golden Booty vanished with his dream, and he awak's at length to himself, and his old wants gulled with an apparition and shadow of that substance, of which he now finds there was neither shadow, nor substance, truly, but, a dream of both.  
Again, Dreams are the true Hieroglyphics of our mortal state, in which the whole passages of our life, are either prophesied, or acted; and that, much to the complexion, or quality of humours in him that dreameth. Sometimes, they are ambitious; and then we think we are upon the tops of hills, or mountains; now on Basan, then, on Libanus; where (for our pride and loftiness) we are called Oaks, and Cedars; sometimes they are more humble, and dejected, and then we grovel in bottoms, and in valleys; where, for our low estate, we are called shrubs and hyssop; sometimes they are presumptuous, and then we are at the fall of a steep Cliff, or Rock; sometimes, they are desperate, and then we are at the quicksand, or the gulf; sometimes, they are vainglorious, and then we are at the battlement, or pinnacle of the Temple; sometimes they are pusillanimous and fearful; and then we are at the roaring, or swallowing of the great deep; sometimes they insinuate a kind of auspice and blessed abundance, and then we tumble in Arabian spices, gold of Ophir, Indian Diamonds; but this (for the most part) is a very dream, such a one, as our fantasy tell's us, in our dream, is a dream indeed; sometimes again, they are Ominous, and then ghastly apparitions, and fearful shrieks startle and affright us; Galbas' halter, or knife, or poison, or some other Engine of blood and death more horrid; lastly, sometimes they are fatal, and then we dream that we have feet of clay; walk in a Caemeterium, or a Golgotha, tread amongst tombs, or dead men's bones, stumble at a Coffin, or (perchance) a green meadow, and that (they say) is an infallible predication of mortality; I know not whether a meadow be, I am sure grass, or a flower is; or, if not a prediction, at least, an emblem. All flesh is grass, 
Esay 40 6.  and the beauty thereof as the flower of the field, the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, Esay 40.6.  
Mark, the substance of flesh and blood (here) is but grass, such grass as withereth, and the beauty of that substance, as a flower, such a flower, as is open to all tempests, a flower of the field: and that flower of the field which fadeth too. Here is nothing but withering, and fading, no time of flourishing, as if man were a piece merely of declination, and wasted before he grew. And yet lo, he groweth, and he flourisheth too, but it is for a day only; a day? nay. the first part of that day, the morning; so says our Psalmist. 
Psal. 90.6.  In the morning be flourisheth, and groweth up, Psal. 90.6. That's well; here is man, and the glory of man; he groweth, and he flourisheth; and all this is in the morning; But what follows this morning, and this growth, and this flourishing? surely, a ripeness, a sickle, and a harvest; an evening, a cutting-downe, and a withering. In the evening he is cut down, and withereth, the same verse, of the same Psalm.  
But, hath all flesh and blood (the grass here mentioned) a time of growing up ' ere it be cut down? a flourishing before it wither's? we read of grass, that wither's before it grows; before it grows up, up to any ripeness, or perfection; and this the Psalmist calls grass on the house top, Psal. 129.6, 7. 
Psal. 119.6, 7.  So thinly grown, that the mower, filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth up fheaves, his bosom. Oh, that the Top of a house, the main beam, and rafters of a Family, the chief buttress, and pillar of a name, should be so barren, the fruit of it so soon fade, when those that are nearer earth, take better root. But lo; He grew so thinly up, that there is not so much left of him, as to fill a hand, not to make up this span-long, in the text, no not this tanquam nibil; He withered before he grew-up; we had him only in the morning, in the blooming of youth, when the Damask and the Lily danced in the cheek: Before his noon, he is reaped away, and his sheaf bound-up, and now he is gone, gone like the day you heard of, the yesterday, or the watch, or the shadow, or the dream, or the grass, or the frail flower, nothing remaining, but the memory, that He was; And why? Vniversa vanitas omnis home; surely, man is vanity; every man is vanity; every man, in his best state is vanity; every man, in his best state, is altogether vanity. So the words run in the next part. Every man in his best state is altogether vanity.   

Every man in his, 
Parstertia.  etc.  
THe translations (here) run diversely; so do the faucies on them. Vniversa vanitas omnis homo; 
August. Musculus. Mollerus. jun. Trem. in locuin.  so, Saint Augustine; omnis vanitas universus homo; so Musculus; mera vanitas omnis homo; so Mollerus; and omnimoda vanitas omnis homo; so, junius and Tremelius. Every Translation is double-strung, and harp's altogether on the plural. The Prophet says not, I am vain, or man is vain, or, man is vanity; nor that men are vain, or vanity; but the whole series, 
Aynsworth in Psal. 39  and descent come within the chorus; Every man is vanity; nay, every man is every vanity; all mankind, all manner of vanity; so the Root, All Adam, all Hebeb, all mankind, all vanity. There is nothing within the round of this little world, the whole circuit of flesh and blood, (whosoever, whatsoever, or how great soever) but it is vain, 
Bolduc. in cap. 11. joh. v. 11.  vanity, all vanity. And therefore some Commentators (perusing that of the eleventh of job, vers. 11. God knoweth vain man) read it novit Deus hominum vanitatem, God knoweth the vanity of men: or, as others, more nimbly, novit Deus homines vanitatis; God knoweth the men of vanity. So, Saint Augustine, paraphrasing on that of the Preacher, Eccles. 1. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. will not read the words, 
Aug. lib de vera Religione cap. 21.  Vanitas vanitatum, but vanitas vanitantium, as if men made the vanity, and not vanity the men, so. Neque frustra additum est vanitantium, (saith the Father,) quia si vanitantes detrahas, non eritcorpus vanitas, sed in suo genere, quamuis extremam pulchritudinem, sine ullo errore remonstrabit, in his Book, de ver a Religione, cap. 21. And, indeed, we too much injure and disparage, not only the times we live in, but also, those of our Predecessors, crying out on the vanity of either, when the Stoyicke tells us, hominum sunt ista, 
Sen. Epist. 56.  non temporum; the vanity is in the man, and not in the Age; or, if it were there, and the vanity of all creatures within it, man would engross it all; so, the same Saint Augustine, expounding the Apostles, 
Aug. in cap. 8. Ro. cap. 53.  vanitati subiecta est creatura, the creature is subject unto vanity, Rom. 8. First, put's all vanity into the creature, and then; all creatures into man, and that without the least calumny, or, injustice (so he professes) omnem creaturam in ipso homine, sine ulla calumnia cogitemus, in his tract upon the Romans, cap. 13. And, indeed, it was just, that he who had the glory of all creatures, whilst he stood clothed in his integrity, should have all their frailty, too, when he was disrobed; and so it fell out at length; that he that was the occasion of all vanity, man, was all vanity himself. 
Verse 4.  There was a time, when he was but like unto it, Man is like unto vanity, Psal. 144. now He is vanity itself, 'tis his essential, and proper quality; not in part, or resemblance only, but, altogether vanity; man is altogether vanity. And what is that? 
Aug. in Psal. 38.  Totum hoc quod transit vanitas dicitur. Every transitoriness is a vanity; That which reside's not, we call vain, because it vanisheth; so doth a vapour, we say, or a smoke, and man is both; and therefore a vanity, and a vanity; or, (if you please) once more, a vanity of vanities; for that which the Septuagint read's so in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Hierome, and others would have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vapour fumi, and, aurea tenuis, the vapour of a smoke, or, a thin air; Hebel, a soon vanishing vapour, as the breath of ones mouth, or nostrils; so Viues note's upon the Father, in his twentieth, De Civitate Dei, cap. 3. 'tis true then, whatsoever vanisheth, we call vanity; and man, that vanished vanity; insomuch that he seems to be a frail creature, indeed; some what less than vanity, or beyond it. 
Psal 109.23.  And therefore our Prophet doth not only compare him to a shadow (which must as a shadow vanish) but to that shadow, when it declineth, Psal. 109.23. and it seems this is not enough neither, and therefore, 
Psal 102.12.  Psal. 102.12. Dies mei similes umbrae declinatae; I am gone ae a shadow declined. He is gone, and declined, not declining, as if his passage were rather conjectured then discerned. And therefore, in Scripture, we seldom find man's Age resembled to a shadow, but there is a fugit with it, fugit velut umbra. job. 
job 14.12.  14.12. He sties as a shadow; flies with a nimble wing; so nimbly, that sometimes He out-doe's the acuteness of our sight; I be held him (says David) and he was gone, 
Psal 37.37.  I sought him, and he was no where to be found; so also, dies nostri, quasi umbrae super terram, 
1. Chron. 29.15.  & nulla est mora, 1. Chron. 29.15. Our days are as a shadow upon earth, and there is no stay; they pass along; nay, they fly; fly so swiftly, that they are gone, when we think them going, like a gasping coal, which in one Act, glare's, and dies; or the rude salutations of fire and powder, which but meet, and part; touch, and consume. And, indeed (if we but observe) a shadow is not so proper a resemblance of our life, as of our death; or, rather, something between both. 'tis an unequal mixture of light and darkness; or rather, a light masked, or vayl'd-vp in darkness, so that, the greater part must be obscurity; and that resemble's death; what remayne's of light, is screened and intercepted, and so looks but dimly towards life. Every shadow is an imperfect night, and every night, a metaphorical death. Sleep and Death have been long since called two sisters; and Night, the mother of them both. Moreover, as every shadow is an imperfect night, so every life is an imperfect death. The greater the shadow is, the nearer unto night, and so is the life protracted, unto death. And therefore our Prophet knowing that his earthly Tent was a little wind-shooke, and obnoxious to daily ruin, will have his age emblemed by a shadow that is declined, ad occasum vergens, 
In Psal. 102.12. & 109.23.  & in tenebras evanescens, saith Muscuius; hastening to darkness, and the night, and that night, death. When the Sun is in the Meridian, and the beams of it perpendicular to our bodies, shadows change not suddenly, but when it begins to decline to the fall, every moment, almost, they vary; and therefore his days are velut umbrainclinata, seu serotina, 
Museul. ibid.  as an evening shadow which declines with the Sun, and so set's. For, though shadows appear larger, when the Sun is near the fall, yet that greatness is not fatre from vanishing; vanity (I should say) the vanity in the text (here) man; whose honours and triumphs, at the height, and, in his best state, are but as shadows at noon; and his days, but as shadows near the set; nay, not so hopeful, for they return again with the Sun; but man once set, riseth not, till the Sun and Heavens shall be no more. job. 14.12. And 'ttwere well that only the time of man's life were vanity, but his actions in that time are a wilder vanity than the other. The Poets signified so much, when they set in combustion all Greece and Asia for a gaudy Apple; and all Troy and Greece, for a fair Courtesan; two dainty trifles to cause such bloody agitations in States and Empires. What, but vanity could have projected it? What but this, omnimoda vanitas, put it in execution? But, who knows not, that most things arrive mankind, as they seem, not as they are? As we please to fancy them, not as they prove in their own nature? And so we are fooled out of the truth, and realty of things, by a vain apprehension of what they are not; showing one thing in the rind, an external appearance, another, in the core and internal essence; Sophistications, Impostures, Lies. And therefore the Prophet complains on the sons of men, that they loved Vanity, and followed after lies, Psal. 4.9. not only because all worldly allurements yield no true contentation, and felicity, but because (in very deed) they tend either to equivocation, or falsehood; a deceivable falsehood (so the word Cozab signifies) which is such a lie, 
Aynesworth. in Psal. 4.9.  as deceiue's men's expectations; and therefore that which in the twelfth Psalm, verse 3. We translate deceitful lips, according to the Hebrew, is false vanity, or vain falsehood, the word Shau noting both vanity of words, and deeds, and sometimes that which is false too. Here upon the Prophet Agur amongst other petitions he preferred to his God, his principal desire was, that he would remove from him, vanity and lies, Pro. 30.8. And commonly they go hand in hand; for, whatsoever is vain must be false too; Insomuch that under the word vanity, a lie passes frequently in Scripture, or, 
Vide Pineda & Boldnc. in cap. 11. job 11.  at least in the Expositions on it: so in the eleventh of job, what the vulgar read's, hominum vanitatem, vanity of men, Pagnine calls homines mendaces, and Caietan, homines falsitatis, lying men, or, men of falsehood; 
Pagn. Vatab. Caiet. in cap. 11. Job. 11.  and Vatablus, (unwilling, as it seems, to sunder vanity from the lie) translates both ways, Novit Deus quàm vani, & ne quàm homines. God knoweth how vain and false men are; And therefore in the 62. Psal. 10. the Latin hath it, Mendaces homines in stateris, men are lies in the balance; the English, thus, men are vanity in the balance. And, indeed, the whole race of mankind comes within the verge of these two words; if they be of cheap and humble condition, they are called Vanity; if, of a more climbing, high, and noble estate, a lie. Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are ally, Psal. 62.9. 
Aynsworth in Psal. 62.9.  A lie, or a vanity? nay, lighter than both; so that if they were laid in balances together, they would mount up, says the text; In balances to mount up, they together are lighter than vanity; intimating, 
Psal. 62.10.  that if all men were put together in one balance, and this vanity and lie, in another, the balances would mount up, and the frailty in man's side. A pretty piece of aeyre, and levity, that vanity should weigh-downe; or, alley; childhood, or wantonness, or folly, or ignorance, are not so light; nay, not the levity of all these, woman.  
The Locust, or the Grasshopper (creatures of emptiness and fear) are no greater slaves of the wind than he. He is tossed to and froas the Grasshopper, and driven away as the Locust, 
Aug. jun. & Trem. Psal. 30. In imagine none in umbra.  Psal. 109.23. Thus, his whole life is but a tossing, or a driving (types of instability, and trouble) and these in a vain way too; so our Psalmist, here; He walk's in a vain Image (as if his life were rather suppositious, and imaginary, than a life indeed) and in this, he is at no peace, but he disquieteth himself in vain, or, (as some read it) in vanity doth he make a stir; And what is the issue of this vain tumult? He beapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them, in the seventh verse of this Psalm. Of all earthly vanities this is the most superlative; the omuimoda vanitas in the Text, 
Aug. de Temp. 49. in cap. 3.  is not so vain as this. Conturbaris, o homo (saith Augustine) Vanè conturbaris; quare? thesaurizas; cui? nescis. A rare providence (no doubt) to treasure up, I know not what, for I know not whom. The Scripture scarce affords a fleeting at tribute to flesh and blood, but Riches have a share in it. Men are called vanities, so are Riches, shadows, so are Riches; nothing, so are Riches. Hark, Mammonist, here is a vanity, as well of Riches, 
Aug. ibid.  as of men, and both these a shadow, and a nothing. But suppose those riches firm, and solid; what then? Non infructuosè conturbaris, sed vanè conturbaris, (says the Father) perchance the trouble is not so fruitless; but, 'tis as vain; vain? Why? Thou knowest not who shall gather them; and, if thou knowest not that, why dost thou heap them up? or, if thou dost, tell me, for whom? thyself? darest thou say so, that art to die? thy issue, then? darest thou say so of those that shall? Magna pietas! thesaurizat pater filijs; imò, magna vanitas, thesaurizat moriturus, morituris; the Father, still, in his nine and fortieth Sermon, de Tompore.  
But grant thy heaps enlarged; thy fortunes, prosperous; thy loins, fruitful, yet there is a moth and gangrene haunts that estate that is purchased with too much solicitude, the heir of it, (oftentime) subject to a fit of improvidence, or luxury, or pride, or folly, or else, that common fever of lust, and riot; or (perchance) the palsy of a die, shake's out his posterity into misery, and want; and then I'll fluenào perdidit, quod tu laborando congregâsti; 
Aug. ut supra.  what before was a dropsy, is now grown to a consumption, thy base avarice, to a reproachful penury; and what thou hast long fed on, with the bread of carefulness, is at last brought to the bread of sarrow, to the lean cheek, the hollow eyes, and the clean teeth; and he that was before the object of thy wretchedness, and poor anxiety, is now, 
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Prou. 28.18. Vide Eccles. 2.26. Psal. 127.  of another man's Charity, and remorse; and then thou wilt acknowledge this vanè conturbaris, too, that thou hast disquieted thyself in vain, and to no purpose heaped up riches, since thou knowest not who hath gathered them. But, suppose thy issue, both hopeful, and provident, such a one as will not only preserve thy treasure, but enhance it; yet oftentimes his vine is barren, and there are no Olive plants about his table; God doth shut up the womb, or so emasculate his loins, that either the fruit of it is abortive, or none at all; or, if he have any (as Bildad said unto job) the first borne of death shall devour his strength, 
job. 18.13, 14.  and bring him to the King of terrors, 
Eccles 5.4. job 33.34. job 15.33. Vide Eccles 4.8  he shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine and cast off his flower as the Olive; and then the vanè conturbaris comes here also; He hath disquieted himself in vain, and heaped up riches, and knows not who shall gather them. Thus, Except the Lord build the house, they labour but in vain that build it; 
Psal. 127.2.  Children are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward; others may plant, and water, but be give's the increase; and where he give's them as blessings (as oftentimes he does) they are as arrows in the hand of the strong man, 
Psal. 127.4.5.  and happy is he that hath his quiver full: but when they are given otherwise (as they are sometimes) as the whip and sword of a declining house than they are as arrows in the hand of the Almighty; arrows that are sharp, and keen, shot from a deadly hand, and a bow of steel; arrows that stick fast, 
job 7.  and pierce the very joints and the marrow; the venom whereof drinketh up the spirits, the spirits of a Name and Family, when the light of it shall be put out, 
job 18 5.  and the sparkle of his fire shine no more. Who knows not that God doth often scourge the sin of the Father in the children? and, for the foul 
a The crimes here mentioned, were Avarice, Oppression, Sacrilege; which (spoken only in communi, and as a positive truth in Divinity) the misprision, or prejudice of some did wiredraw and restrain too personally; and broughthome that to particular Families, which was intended only in general, and at large. And therefore, if there be any bosom so guilty, as to eutertaine them otherwise, I am sorry for the Application: the Author is innocent.  obliquities of the Predecessor, set's a rot upon the whole Posterity, when the name shall moulder with the Body, and the Fortunes with the name; so that the curse against the wicked man, runn's double; first, against his fortunes; they shall dry up as a river, and shall vanish with noise like a great thunder in vain; next on his Issue; they shall not bring forth branches, but are as unclean roots upon a hard rock. Eccles. 40.13, 15. Here is a vanè conturbaris, indeed; and not barely so, but, an infructuosè conturbaris, also; not only a vain anxiety, but a fruitless; for, here is neither a thesaurizas, nor a congregabis; no Riches left that were heaped up; or (if there be) none to gather them.  
Thus, they that sow vanity shall reap the wind; not a wind that shall lull and whistle them, but a wind that driue's and scatter's; scatters them, as the chaff from the face of the whole earth. And though they grow mighty in possession, or name; so mighty, that in height they reach the very cloud's, yet God shall persecute them with his tempest, 
Psal. 18.12.  and make them afraid with his storm; at his presence, these clouds shall be removed; and then, hailstones, and coals of fire. Or, though they aspire not so high, but climb the mountains only (though some mountains (they say) kiss the clouds, too) yet, tangit montes, & fumigabunt, God shall touch those mountains, and they shall smoke; and as they smoke, vanish, and vanishing, confess Tusolus altissimus super omnem terram. Thou, O Lord, art above those mountains, and not only above them, but all the World beside.  
And I could wish that my words were altogether at random here; and looked not collaterally, both to the text and the occasion. Who see's not (and let me not be thought rough, or uncharitable, in that I say, who see's not) that in latter ages the almighty's Bosom hath been here; and, in the circuit of a few years, swept away many brave Worthies of the name; and not only his Bosom, but his Axe too, lopped off many a hopeful twig, and glorious branch; and now of late, strooke at the 
b The Root (however) is still green; & I wish hearty that it may growup, and bud, & branch, to the flourishing and perpetuity of the Name; though some have barked at my integrity, making my words here, a churlish prophecy, of the extirpation of it, and sinal doom. But such snatlers and closebiters of men's honours, I mustproclaime ignorant, or unjust, or both; for, either they understood not what I spoke, or, if they did, were injurious in their application. Hoc tu Romane caveto.  Stem, of the Family; and at a blow heweed down, one of the goodliest Cedars in all our Libanus. The very stones and walls speak so much; those untimely Blacks, and these sorrows. And yet (me thinks) our sorrows are not as they should be; our Firre-trees howl not that their Cedar is fallen, neither are our Harps (as yet) hung upon the willows; but we can sing an Epithalamium, when we should be sighing of an Elegy, as if our projects could befool the Almighty's, and 'twere in our power to raise or establish a name, when God seems to threaten the pulling down. But (O thou altogether vanity) look up to the Hills above, and to the Heavens above them; and there, to the maker of them both; who sits in his great watchtower, and obserue's all the passages of the sons of men; and not only obserue's them, but laughs them to scorn; and, childing our presumptuous and vain designs, bids us look back to the text here; where we may read the story of our wretchedness, and so acknowledge, at length with our Prophet, that, Thou, O God, hast made our days as a span-long, and that our Age is as nothing before thee; and surely every man in his best slate is altogether vanity.  
I have done now with the text, and should begin with the occasion of it; the death of our Honourable Friend; but I was commanded only for a Sermon, not for a Panegyricke, that (I suppose) you might have had (here) in a more keen and accurate discourse; mine (I confess) like my griefs, heavy, and bedewed. True sorrow is more hearty, then Rhetorical; and not so fit for applause, as for a groan. Your sauning eloquence playe's to much with the tongue, and leaue's the inward man unsearched; but, my bosom is engaged here, and not my lips; and that is too full to be emptied in this span-long of an Auditory; the world shall have it in an impartial Anniversarie: or, should I vent my respects, here I could be only your Remembrancer, not, your Informer.  
The Country was not so much a stranger to his worth, but must acknowledge this truth with me; that he was not guilty of any peculiar sin, either of greatness, or of youth; no lofty-ones, of arrogance or scorn; no grinding-ones, of cruelty or oppression; no flaming-ones, of riot, or of lust; no base-ones of anxiety, or solicitude; no lewdones, of profanation or debauchment; no biting-ones, of rancour, or detraction; no creepingones, of Insinuation, or popularity; no painted-ones, of ceremony, or hypocrisy; but all his Actions went by the line, and the square, as if his life had been an exact Epitome both of morality, and Religion. There was nothing mortal about him, but his Body, and that was too frail a cabbonet for those rich eminences to lodge in, 
Plin: Paneg.  so that, as Pliny told his Traian mortalitas magis finita est, quam vita his life was not terminated, but his mortality; Goodness and virtue (which were his being) have a kind of Divinity in them; and so, not mortal. Bonus a Deo differt tantum tempore, saith the Stoic, 
Sen. Ep. 73.  Between God and a good man, there is no distinction but in time; nor in that neither, if he mean (as it seems he does) a titulary God, 
Idem Ibid.  not an essential; for, nulla sine Deo mens bona, there is no good mind without a God in it: and that's the reason (I think) great men were first called Gods; for, greatness presupposeth some rarity and perfection in it, and where that is, there is a kind of God head. And, if it were ever in greatness, it was here; whether you take greatness for the name, or for the spirit; not, that he was either haughty or supercilious, but of a temper, truly generous, and heroic, and (what is above either) truly Christian. A fast friend, and a noble brother, A munificent and openhanded Master; and (what I know, and therefore speak, and speak that you should know, and so imitate) an uncorrupted Patron; no firebrand in his Country, nor Meteor in his Church; a flash, and falfe-blaze in Religion, he was so fare from approving, that he loathed; neither was he so benighted in his intellectuals, as to be led up and down in a perverse ignorance and darkness, by an Ignis fatuus; your vocal purity, and tongue devotion, and furious zeal, even when he was no more a dying man, but a Saint (and the words of dying Saints are Oraculous to me) he both censured and disclaimed; wishing the walls of our Jerusalem built up stronger in Unity and Peace; and, a more temperate and discreet silence amongst the wayward Hot-spurres of our Spiritual Mother. And, indeed, this Clamorous Sanctity, this affected dress of holiness, without, is not the right dress. 
Prou. 30.12.  There is a generation (saith the Prophet) that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness; the rag, or the menstruous clout, not so loathsome as some of these. Our bodies (you know) are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost; our heart, the Altar of that Temple; true devotion, the fire of that Altar; sighs, and groans, and sobs, the sacrifice for that fire; These castup the acceptable odour; these, only these, the sweet incense in the nostrils of the Almighty. The Hecatomb, and outward pomp of sacrifice, hath too much of the beast in it, the manyheaded beast, the multitude; that, within, is of the spirit; and that of the spirit, is the true Child's of God; And this our noble friend had, without gloss or varnish, his life a recollected Christianity; his sickness, a penitent humiliation; and his death, an unbattered assurance of his richer estate in glory; Insomuch, that I knew not, whether I might envy, or admire, that God had bestowed such a plentiful mortification, on a Secular condition, and left Divinity, so barren. No Viper in his bosom; nor Vulture at his heart; no convulsion or gripe of Conscience; no pang of the inward man (so he confessed to me) for the reigue of any darling sin. And (indeed) his private meditations, groans, soliloquies, pensive elevations of eyes, and spirit, rapture's full of sublimity, and contemplation (such as the heart could only eiaculate, and not the tongue) undaunted resolutions and defiance of death, and all her terrors, spoke him glorified, before he died. And thus, having made a full peace with God, and with the world, he sang his Nunc dimittis, and made a willing surrender of his Soul into the hands of his Redeemer; where he hath now his Palm and white Robe, his Penny of true happiness, and Crown of ever lasting glory; to which God bring us, with him, for jesus Christ his sake. Amen.  
Gloria in Excelsis Deo.   
FINIS.