A DISCOURSE OF DEATH, BODILY, GHOSTLY, AND ETERNAL: NOR UNFIT FOR SOLDIERS Warring, Seamen sailing, Strangers traveling, Women bearing, nor any other living that thinks of DYING.  
BY THOMAS TUKE.  PSAL. 89. 48. What man liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the Grave? ECCLS 14. 17. All flesh waxeth old as a garment, and this is the condition of all times, Thou shalt die the death. JOB. 17. 13. The grave shall be my house, and I shall make my bed in the dark. 
LONDON, Printed by William Stansbie for George Norton. 1613.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SIR JOHN LEVENTHORPE Knight, and to the right-vertuous Lady, the Lady JOAN LEVENTHORPE, his loving Wife. (⸪)  
RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, many write, and many more do speak of Death: and it were not much, if as many wrote thereof, as could write at all. For it is the Way, that all must walk in: and although to all it be either very fortunate, or very fatal, yet of the most it is forgotten, till it seem to seize upon them: yea, even we, that speak and write about it, are sometimes too unmindful of it; perhaps then also, when we speak and write upon it. But howsoever we do forget it, it will be sure to remember us. It hath been wisely said, that to speak and think often and seriously of hell, is a good mean to save the soul from hell: so I suppose that a sad and sober thinking, and remembering of bodily death, will be a blessed help to keep the soul and body from eternal death. It is strange to see the fears of many: yet even the fearful sometimes show small fear of death, except then, when it is to be embraced. Others well near with the fear of death are brought to death. Some will not begin to live, till they feel themselves begin to die. And how many are there, that are a-fraid of death, and yet dare play with the sting of death? It were no great matter to handle a Snake, when her poisoning tooth is pulled out: but to fly a Snake, and in the mean time not to fear that, which makes her venom, were (I wot not well) whether more base, or foolish. I know not why death should not be counted terrible, whiles her venomous and kill tooth is in her head; but that being once pulled out, why she should affright a man, I see no reason. For why should he fear death, whom death doth help, not hurt, and ease rather than end? He that dies, whiles he lives, lives whiles he is dead: yea, and that death at last shall meet with death itself. Certainly death cannot be ill to him, that lives well: neither is that worthy the name of death, which is made the door of life. Yet I find the virtuous sometimes appalled with her grisly looks. They are loath to part, that have lived long together: and a man can scarce without some reluctation forsake the house, wherein he was bred, and hath ever lived, since he lived, to dwell in another, though a better, Country. But (me thinks) the delicacy of the place, the affluence of all good things there, amongst these the fellowship of the Saints, the presence of that loving and beloved Saviour, the fruition of the All-sufficient God, together with a certain expectation of a joyful return at last, should satisfy the departing Soul, and settle her unruly passions.  
As for you (Right Worshipful) I doubt not but that God, to whom you strive to live, hath taught you both ere now to die. I write not these things therefore, as intending to instruct you, but rather to show that the memory of your love doth live within me, and as one desirous by putting you in mind of those things, which ye know already, that, whiles you live, the remembrance of them might not die. Read them at your leisure, and enjoy them. And that God, under whom they were begun and ended, give a blessing to them: unto whose saving grace I do commend you both, beseeching him in Christ jesus to vouchsafe you his love while ye live on earth, and to crown you after death with eternal life in heaven. London St. Clem. Ann. 1612. November 5. A day never to be forgotten of true English hearts.  
Your Worships to be commanded in the Lord, Thomas Tuke.   

To the Reader.  
I Suppose there is not one thing more common and less thought of then death. 
Heu viwnt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur, aut velut infernus sabula vana foret.  All men must die, yet most men live, as if they thought they should never die. Wherein men are very injurious to themselves; the sad and settled remembrance of death being a notable furtherance of Repentance, and a profitable mean to keep us from eternal death. For I pray you, why should man lift up himself against his Maker, who ere long must fall into the earth? Why should we be proud and insolent, who are but dust? Why should we insult over any man, because we surpass him in wit, wealth, strength, honour, beauty? Are we not all food for the Worms? Will not death knock all our bones together? Is not our life a breath, a bubble? Why should a man pin his heart to the earth, and set his love on the World? Shall not the earth devour him? Will not the world forsake him? 
Note.  She is certain in nothing, but in uncertainty, uncertain in nothing, but in her certainty. If she do not him, yet of necessity He must forsake her. We are here but Pilgrims, 
1. Pet. 2. 11.  and Foreigners: Mors manet omnes: and we know not how soon our Pilgrimage will end: neither can we carry the world away with us. We come naked, and we go naked. Why then should we wed our souls to the World? Riches, pleasures, wife, children, friends, honours, and all the things that the world can afford, 
Linquenda tellus, & domus, & placens uxor. Hor. Carm. l. 2. od. 14.  are all mutable, momentany, mortal: but man's soul is immortal: wherefore then should it be set upon these things? Why not upon God, who is an immortal, and immutable Good, only indeed able to give true and full contentment to the soul? 
2. Tim. 6. jam. 7.  And finally why should men wallow in their sins, and devote themselves unto their lusts? Shall we not all die? And as the tree falleth, so shall it lie. In what estate we die, 
Eccl. 11. 3.  in that we shall be judged. Oh that we would therefore remember our latter end! Oh that we would number our days, and think of our death, that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom! 
Note.  Lie is uncertain, Death is most certain: if men could duly meditate of this, that is most certain, they could not abuse and misspend that so much, which is precious, but most uncertain. But besides that all men must once die, even by the course of nature; death being by sin bred in the bone, and will never out of the flesh: God, who hath the keys of life and death in his hand, doth by many means bring men unto their ends: and sometimes he doth punish ungodly wretches by untimely and unexpected death, showing his anger by the manner and occasion of his punishing. Famous were the judgements of God upon those persecuting Tyrants; Domitian, Hadrian, Valerian, Dioclesian, Maximinus, Aurelian, Arnolphus, Bajazet the Turk, and Mamucha a Saracen.  
The former was slain with Daggers by his own Servants, 
Domitianus. Apud Sucton.  in his privy chamber, his Wife consenting.  
The second having caused ten thousand Christians at one time to be crucified, 
Hadrian. Spartian. lib. 2. cap. 12.  and still raging against them; God took him in hand at last, smit him with an issue of blood, then with a consumption of his lungs, and lights, which he spat out, thirdly with a dropsy, and being in horrible torment he would have killed himself, but being hindered, he died in that miserable estate.  
The third being taken prisoner in the Persian wars, 
Valerian. Euseb. hist. lib. 7. cap. 30.  Sapor the King of Persia used him as a block or stirrup to get on horseback, and (as Eusebius saith) made him to be slayed alive, and powdered with salt.  
The fourth in hatred of Christianity by public edict commanded the Christians Churches should be beaten down, 
Dioclesian.  and their Bible's burnt and torn, and themselves to be put out of their offices in the Commonwealth, 
Ruffin.  which had any: but God met with him, plagued him with strange diseases, fired his house with lightning, and terrified him with thunder so, as that not knowing where to hide himself he fell mad, and killed himself.  
The fifth was smitten with a most stinking and vile disease, 
Maximinus.  which increased his cruelty, and at last killed him; 
Nicephor.  his carcase being rotten and full of worms. St. Chrysostome saith the Apple of his eye fell out before his death.  
The sixth had his throat cut by his own servants. 
Aurelian.   
The seventh rotten living, and sending forth lice and worms continually, 
Arnolphus.  at length died miserably in the twelfth year of his tyranny.  
Bajazet was taken captive by Tamerlaine, carried about in a Cage, and used as his stirrup, and ended his days miserably.  
Mamucha returning from the slaughter of many Christians, was with his whole Army swallowed up of the Sea, few or none escaping of an hundred sail of ships.  
What need I say so much? The judgements of God are many and fearful in all the world. Morindus a cruel Tyrant in this Island, was devoured of a Monster that came out of the Irish Seas. 
Stow Anno mundi. 3659.  Popiel a King of Poland, an Vncle-murtherer, and a notable curser, 
Munst. Cosm. lib. 1. cap. 32.  was with his wife (who consented to his uncles death) eaten up of Rats. Cerinthus perished with the fall of an hothouse upon him. Arrius voided his guts. The Emperors Constantius and Valence, 
Socrat. Zozom  both Arrians, were punished by God; the former by a sudden, and inexpected Apoplexy, whereof he died; the latter was burnt in a little house, 
Ruffin. l. 2. c. 13  in which he had hid himself in his slight from the Goths. But what need I go so far for examples? All ages are full of them. And we see how God suffers Adulterers, Drunkards, and other sinners which scape often unpunished, to fall into thefts and murders whereby they come unto their deaths. Which things, if men would duly consider, it would rouse them up by the grace of God unto better care and conscience: which God grant unto us. But I will hold thee no longer, but leave thee to consider the things I have prepared for thee.  
Thine in Christ, Thomas Tuke.   

A DISCOURSE OF DEATH: corporal, spiritual AND ETERNAL.  
THere is, 
Three sorts of Death.  as of Life, so of Death, three different kinds; external or bodily, internal or spiritual, eternal, or of both body and soul.  
external or bodily death is, as 
a Plut. comp. aq. & ignis.  Plutarch saith, the Privation of all heat, or as 
b Scal. Excre. 307 Sect. 23.  Scaliger speaketh, the Privatien of Life: or as they 
c Plut. de consolat. Scal. ibid.  both say, the Disjunction of the soul from the body, which two by God were coupled to make one living, and perfect man.  
Death, is a disjunction of the soul, not a destruction, 
Note.  it is a separation, and not an annihilation. Etsi morimur corpore, nunquam tamen spiritu: for though (as Martialis saith) we die in 
In Epist. ad Burdig.  regard of the body, yet we never die as touching the soul: because death (as Lactantius speaketh, 
De divino praemio, lib. 7. c. 16.  Mors non extinguit hominem, sed ad praemium virtutis admit tit:) doth not make a man to be just nothing, but admits him to the reward of virtue, if he have been virtuous: or else delivers him up to most grievous punishments, if he have been vicious.  
Among the heathen some there were, that held the death a dissolution of the soul, as Democritus, Epicurus & Dicaearchus: others there were, which held it was immortal, as Pherecydes, Plato, & many more. The Stoics (saith Lactantius) held that the souls of men continue, 
Lact. de diu. praem. l. 7. c. 6. 7. 13. Lib. 7. c. 10. Xenoph l. 8. de Instit. Cyri.  and that (nec interuentu mortis in nihilum resolui) they are not brought by death to nothnig. Cyrus' instructing his sons a little before his death saith, that he was (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.) never persuaded that the soul of man died; when it left the body: but saith, that the mind, when it is freed from the fellowship of the body, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is then most wise and understanding: and that, when a man is dissolved, every thing in the body (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) besides, the soul returns (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) unto the things of the same kind, that is, are resolved into the elements, out of which they were taken: and therefore he forbids his sons to think (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that he shall be Nothing any more after his death. In like manner Hermes describing the Nature of man saith, 
Vid. Lactantii l. 7. c. 13.  that God made man of both natures, to wit, of an immortal nature, and of a mortal, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) making the same man to be partly immortal, and partly mortal; which immortality is to be understood of the soul, experience showing the body to be mortal and corruptible without all remedy. And finally, the Devil himself, as he gave testimony to the divinity of Christ, so hath he by Oracle showed the immortality of the soul: 
Lact. l. 7. c. 13. de diu. praem.  for being by Polites consulted under the name of Apollo Milesius, Whether the soul remained after death, or was dissolved, he answered, that the soul, when it was departed from the body (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) is always free from the weakness of old-age, 
Lact. ubi supra.  and continueth altogether unvanquished.  
To these testimonies of the Creature we may for better satisfaction add the witness of holy Scriptures, 
Scriptures proving the immortality of the Soul. Ec. 12. 7. Is. 66. 24.  which are the very Oracles of the great Creator. Solomon saith, that when the body returns to the earth, the spirit returns to God that gave it. Esay saith, that the Worm of the transgressors shall not die, & that their fire shall not be quenched, which argues the mortal immortality, or immortal mortatalitie of their souls. Accordingly our Saviour showeth in two parables, that the souls of wicked men die not with their bodies, but remain in torments. The one is of him that said, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: 
Luk. 12. 19 20.  but God said unto him, Thou fool, this night will they fetch away thy soul from thee. The other of another rich Epicure, 
Luk. 16. 22. 23.  who was grievously tormented in hell after he was dead. It is true therefore, that as Lactantius speaketh, 
Lib. 7. c. 12▪ de diu. praem.  Mors non funditus perimit, ac delet, sed aeternis afficit cruciatibus, Death doth not utterly kill and extinguish, but everlastingly torment and punish.  
Now if the souls of the wicked die not, but continue (though indeed afflicted so, as that their life is worthy to be called and accounted death, an ever-dying life, or an everliving death) it were very absurd to think that the souls of the godly should perish with their bodies. Doth not our Saviour say, 
joh. 12. 26:  upon the death of Lazarus, that had lain dead four days, whom he raised up to life, Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die? Did he not say to the Thief, 
Luke 23. 43  that was crucified with him, 
Luke 14. 13.  To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise? Doth he not profess that his Martyrs are blessed, that they rest from their labours, 
〈…〉  and that their works do follow them? What blessedness have they now? what is their honour, if their souls do die with their bodies? And to what end should that his Proto Martyr Saint Steven commend his soul unto him, 
Act. 7 59  saying, Lord jesus receive my Spirit, but that he knew his soul did live, when his body was dissolved? Or why should Saint Paul, if he did not verily believe the immortality of the soul, desire to be loosed, 
Phil. 1. 23.  and to be with Christ, and use this boldness of speech unto the Corinth's. We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be destroyed, 
2. Cor. 5. 2.  we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? And finally, if Christ jesus be like unto his Brethren in All things, 
Heb. 2. 17. & 4. 15.  as the Apostle teacheth, Sin excepted: than it appears, that his Brethrens are like unto him: but Christ hath a soul, which is immortal, and did not die, though his body lay dead a time: their souls therefore live ever, and die not with their bodies. And that we may not seem to forget that memorable speech of our Saviour to the Sadduces, 
Mat. 22. 32.  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: but he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and jacob: therefore these three are living in their souls, though dead as touching the life of their bodies.  
And thus our faith concerning the not dying of the soul is founded, fed, and fortified by the testimony of the Scriptures, which being of infallible verity, are simply to be believed, for God, the Author, and Inspirer of them.  
Neither is Philosophy here of no use: therefore julius Caesar Scaliger, 
Exerc. 307. Sect. 20.  by three reasons proveth it, taken (as himself professeth) from Aristotle, and created Nature.  
First, 
Philosophical arguments showing the soul of man to be immortal.  no simple is resolved into the grounds thereof: for it is composed of no grounds: but the soul of man is a thing simple, and not compounded: for it is an Act, (and no Act is a Power: therefore it is not compounded) and a Ground, Principium effendi & agendi, which it cannot be, if it be compounded. It follows therefore that the soul being uncomposed is irresoluble, and so immortal.  
Secondly, the soul is a celestial Nature: namely, a fifth Essence, 
Arg. 2  differing from the Nature of the four elements: unsubiect therefore to corruption, whereunto all bodies elementary are obnoxious.  
Thirdly, if the soul do die, being a simple nature, it must needs be brought to nothing: 
Arg. 3.  for it cannot be resolved into the grounds of it, because it hath none (for grounds are the acts of those things whereof they be grounds: and no such ground as the soul, hath a ground of itself besides God, into whom nothing can be resolved:) now if the soul should be brought to nothing, then of something nothing shall be made.  
It is true indeed, 
Note.  that the soul and all created natures, may be corrupted & destroyed, how simple they be so ever. For there is but one absolute and prime Beginning or Ground of all things, which is God: all other things are dependent, they are all from and by him. Now whatsoever dependeth on God, at his will the same thing may be changed of God, and altered at his pleasure. But the souls of men depend on God, and therefore at his beck they may be deposed from that essence, in which he made them. Now they are not corrupted, because he will not have them so to be.  
These Arguments are of some solidity, and worthy to be received: but as for that, which some do bring to demonstrate the immortality of the soul, to wit, because (they say) it is (not only A Deo, but also De Deo) of the very essence of God, which is immortal, it is altogether unreasonable & wicked. For so it would follow that the nature of God should be captivated, 
Note.  deceived, altered, defiled, damned, & tormented. For though indeed we be the Progeny of God, 
Acts 17. 28.  and partakers of the divine Nature, as the Apostles speak, 
2. Pet. 1. 4.  yet are we not parts of his nature, neither doth he communicate by generation his nature to us, as a Father to his Children: For God hath but one natural son, which is Christ jesus, who is begotten from all eternity, and hath the whole Nature of the Father in his person, neither is the Nature of God capable of alteration or division: and for the speeches of these two Apostles, 
Note.  Paul and Peter, they are to be understood partly because God is our Architect and Creator, and partly in respect of those excellent gifts and graces, which shine in men, specially good men, more than in all other creatures, and partly in regard of that new name, state or Nature, which is through the grace of God in Christ bestowed on us. It is true indeed that the Soul in some sense may be said to be Mutable (in deterius scilicet desiciendo, 
Note.  & in melius proficiendo) to wit, by waxing better or worse, in respect of good and evil: yea, and Mortal, by dying either to sin by Mortification, or by being dead in sin, 
How the soul may be said to die.  through bondage, and submission to it, or else by suffering torments for sin, which deprive it of the joys of life; but to say that the substance, the essence of the Soul, doth die, doth perish, is dissolved, this is against all sound reason, both Theological, and Philosophical.  
It may be then demanded, 
Quaest.  if the souls of men die not, when their bodies lose them, whether go they, what becomes of them?  
The Author of the Questions in justin saith, 
Quaest. 75.  that the Souls of the just are carried into Paradise, where is the company and sight of Angels, and Arke-angels, and of our Saviour Christ: but the Souls of the wicked into Hell. 
Hom. 16. in Ep. ad Rom.  Death (saith Chrysostome) doth not sever us from Christ, but joins us to that company, which is with Christ. 
In Col. 1.  And Anselm agreeth saying, So great peace is wrought by the death of Christ, that the souls of the Righteous do now, when they go forth of the body, forthwith enter into Heaven, the Angels being glad thereof. And this appears to be true by that Parable in the Gospel, 
Luke 16. 22. 23.  which saith that the Beggar died, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom: the Richman also died, and was tormented after his death in Hell. For where should the souls of men be after Death, but either in Heaven with Christ, or in Hell with the Devil? Non est ullus ulli locus medius, 
Aug. lib. de pec; mer. & remis. c. 28.  ut possit esse nisi cum Diabolo, qui non est cum Christo. There is not any place for any man, to be any where but with the Devil, who is not with Christ, saith Saint Austen. There are two receptacles for men's souls, Heaven and Hell: Tertium penitus ignoramus: 
Author Hypog. l. 5.  a third place we are utterly ignorant of, saith one. The Scripture speaketh of no more, than two.  
Thus we have seen what Death is, to wit, a disjunction of the soul from the body, and not a dissolution of the Soul with the body; the soul remaining uncorrupt, 
lib. 7. de diu. prem. c. 12.  and In aeternum, as Lactantius speaketh.  
Death, though, for the Nature of it, it be but one, and the same, to wit, a temporary divorce or separation of the soul and body, which were married or united by God himself, yet in respect of the state, into which men are by it admitted, it is double: and in regard of the means or ways, whereby it is effected, it is manifold: for as Seneca truly speaketh, mill ad hanc aditus patent, there are a thousand ways to bring a man to Death.  
In respect of the persons dying, 
Of a double Death.  and of that estate, which they are let into by death, death is twofold, a death of the godly, and a death of the wicked, a sanctified and comfortable death, a miserable and unhappy death. 
Num. 23. 10. Psal. 116. 15.  Of the former, Balaam speaketh in his wish. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his: and David in the Psalm, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. Of the latter our Saviour speaketh in the parable when he saith, 
Luke, 12, 20. Luke. 16. 22, 23.  O fool this night will they (the devils he means) fetch thy soul from thee: And again, The rich man also died, and was buried, and being in hell tormented, etc.  
Furthermore, death we said was manifold for the ways or means thereof. 
Many ways of death.  For albeit death be the common way of all flesh, 
Iosh 23. 14. Maximianus.  (Omnibus est eadem lethi via, non tamen unus Est vitae cunctis, exitijque modus,) yet all men go not the same way unto death. 
Statius.  mill modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat. Death meets with us a thousand ways. As into a great City, 
A Simile.  or into the main Sea, so unto death there are many ways. It is as the centre, wherein all the lines do meet; a town of Mart, wherein many ways from contrary coasts do end. Hos bella, 
Silius.  hos aequora poscunt: His amor exitio, furor his, & saeva cupido: Vt sileam morbos. Some are eaten up of wars: some are swallowed up of the Seas. The old world was drowned, the Sodomites were burned, 
2. King. 13. 14.  the disobedient Prophet was killed of a Lion, the mocking children were devoured of two Bears, 
2. King 2, 23. 24.  Senacheribs' Army was killed with an Angel, Herod Agrippa was eaten of worms, 
2. Chron. 32. 21.  Pherecides of louse, 
Act. 12. 23.  a King of Epirus was killed with a tile, a King of Israel with an arrow, and of France with a dagger, 
1. King. 22. 34, 35.  some have been swallowed up of the earth, some have been killed of Serpents, some have been eaten of Wolves, 
* Hatto Archbishop of Mentz. Anno Domini 940.  one was killed of rats, some by the fall of towers and trees, some by one means, some by another.  
But we will bring them to some heads, yet here we promise no accurateness. There is therefore an ordinary way of dying, 
Read Numh. 18, 19 30.  which is upon ordinary causes, and is common to all the sons of Adam since their transgression: 
Of the kinds of death.  or there is a death by causes more rare and extraordinary, as by pestilence, 'samine, battle, opening of the earth, wild beasts, and the like.  
Or thus, 
1. Kind.  there is first a natural death, which is when nature is spent, 
A Simile.  when her forces are exhausted. A light will go out of itself, when the flame wants oil, wax or tallow to feed on. A mellow apple will fall of itself, and through-ripe corn will shill without shaking. 
job. 5. 26.  O' this death Eliphaz speaketh, Thou shalt go to thy grain in a full age, as a ricks of corn cometh in due season into the barn: 
1. Chron. 29. 28.  and such a death job, 
job. 42. 17.  and David died, of whom it is said, they died in a good age, and full of days.  
Secondly, 
2. Kind.  there is a civil death, which is inflicted by the civil Magistrate, Who is the Minister of God to take vengeance on him that doth evil. 
Rom. 13 4. Iosh 7. 25. Mark. 15. 37.  Such a death died Achan under joshuah, and the two thieves under Pilate.  
But it may be asked if the magistrate may lawfully take away the life of an offender, 
Quest.  seeing no man is absolute Lord of the life of man, but only God? To the soiling of this doubt, 
Sol.  if any be, we must know that the Magistrate is God's Lieutenant, or God in office, 
Psal 82. 6.  according to the Psalm, I have said ye are Gods, 
2. Chron. 19 6. Rom. 13. 1.  and as jehosophat saith, he executes not the judgements of men, but of the Lord, whose creature he is, and whose person he represents, and who beareth not the sword for nought, but for the protection of the good, and for the terror and suppression of the wicked. Those therefore that are cut off by the Magistrate, as he is a Magistrate, or the Minister of God, as S. Paul doth style him, they are not cut off by Man, but by God, in as much as the authority is Gods, by which they be cut off. And although we be all as one by Christ, 
Gal. 3. 28.  yet is it in respect of the Communion of the Spirit, and not by reason of any politic, or worldly parilitie. And albeit Christ hath made us all Kings, 
Revel. 16  yet we may justly say with Christ, 
Job. 18. 36  Our Kingdom is not of this world, though begun in this world: and our regality may very well stand without wrong to Caesar, or his sword. But to return.  
Civil death is double, just, or injust. A man dies justly, when he dies for some wickedness committed, or for some notable villainy, as high treason, intended and plotted, though not performed. Thus joab was slain at the commandment of Solomon, 
1. King. 2. 31. 46  as also Shimei, both of them by Benaiah. In like manner Bigtan and Teresh were both hanged for intending & seeking to lay violent hands upon their King Ahashuerosh. Thus justly died those Powder-Papists, 
Anno 1605. Novemb. 5.  that most barbarously plotted with one blast to have blown up this whole Church and State, under the wings whereof it is protected; Praise be unto Christ for ever, who hath honoured us with this salvation, and let all good people say, Amen.  
Again, a man dies unjustly, when he dies undeservedly. Thus died Naboth under Ahab, S. john the Baptist under Herod, 
1. King. 21. 13. Mark. 6. 27. Note.  the Martyrs of Christ under Tyrants, and Christ himself under Pilate. For though that Christ his death was most just in regard of God, to whom he was to make satisfaction for us, whose room he did willingly stand in: yet Pilate had no just cause to condemn him, nor the jews to accuse him.  
But suppose the Magistrate will take away a man's life without cause, 
Quest.  or for maintaining God's cause; may not a man resist, take up arms against him, or practise his death? No, in no case: for though he abuse his power, 
Ans.  yet thou mayst not break thy patience: the misapplying of his authority, must not make thee forget thy loyalty. 
1. Sam. 24. 6.  David's heart smote him, when he did but cut the very coat of his Sovereign Saul. 
1. Pet. 2. 19 22. 23.  And Saint Peter saith, It is acceptable, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For hereunto (saith he, that was willingly crucified with his heels upward for his master's sake) ye are called: for Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: who when he was reviled, reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed it to him that judgeth righteously. 
1. Pet. 3. 14. 15.  Blessed are ye, if ye suffer for righteousness. And be ready always to give an answer to every man, that asketh a reason of the hope, that is in you, with meekness, and reverence, 
16, 14, 15.  having a good conscience. Yea, fear not their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. For what praise is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, 
1. Pet. 2. 20.  ye take it patiently?  
It is not indeed the praise of Martyrdom (for non paena sed oausafacis Martyram, 
Cyprian  the cause makes a Martyr, and not the Cross:) but if when ye do well, ye suffer wrong, and take it patiently, this is acceptable to God. And thus much of Civil death sustained by the authority of the Magistrate, who ought to be very wary how he smites, remembering that it is more Princelike to save then to destroy, and more difficult to revive one dead man, then to kill a thousand living, and that the smallest member is not to be cut from the body, but for the safety of the body, and finally, that the Emperor Theodosius (Maluit sibi homines religione, 
Ambros. de Obitu Theodos.  quam timore a stringere) thought it better to bind his Subjects to him by Religion, then by terror. For (Multos timere debet, quem multi timent) he must needs fear many, who will needs be feared of many: (Quem multi timent, pauci amant) whom many do fear, few do love: and quem quisque odit, perijsse expedit. 
Sed piger ad poenas Princeps, ad praemia, velox, Quisque dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox, ovid. de Pont. l. 1. eleg. 3.  But a Prince, that is slow to punish, and ready to reward, and which is sorry, when he is constrained to be severe, as it was spoken of Augustus Caesar, doth most resemble the Prince of Princes, and gaineth the love of his Subjects, which is (saith Seneca) Regi inexpugnabile munimentum, an invincible fortress for the King's protection. But we have too much digressed.  
Thirdly, 
3. Kind:  there is a voluntary, or rather a Wilful Death, when a man doth of purpose kill himself. Of this death died Achitophel and judas, 
2. Sam. 17. 23. Act. 1. 18.  who hanged themselves, & such as desperately cut their own throats, & throw themselves into Welles & waters, or burn themselves up; as she, that seeing her goods and bags consumed with fire, ran in a rage into the fire and there died: thus also died Empedocles a Sicilian Poet, 
De Art poet sub finem.  of whom Horace thus writeth,— Deus immortalis haberi Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam Insiluit—  
That is, Whiles that Empedocles desired that men should count him an immortal God, he leapt into the flames of Aetna; a Hill in Sicily, whence ariseth most horrible smoke and flames of fire, to the end that disappearing on the sudden from the sight of men, he might have been thought to have gone into heaven, and to have been a God, as he did affirm unto his fellow Citizens, the people of Agrigentum. But (by the way) mark the hap; The flame (as one saith) more just than he, discovered his imposture: for it cast up one of his pantofles or sandals, and so it was iusily conjectured that the poor ambitious wretch was there consumed. Here sundry Questions are to be resolved.  
First, 
Quest. 1.  whether upon any cause it be lawful for a man (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) to kill himself?  
I answer no, 
Ans.  except God do by special and extra ordinary revelation of his will command. The reason is, because a man is not created for himself, but for God: 
〈…〉  and no man is absolute and Sovereign Lord of his own life: 
Rome 14 8.  for we are not our own, 
1. Cor. 6 19 & 3. 23. & 6. 20.  we are Christ's: our bodies and our souls are not ours, but Gods, as Saint Paul doth teach us. Our bodies are the Temples of God: if any man shall pull down or destroy his Temple, if he have not express warrant for it, God will him destroy. The sixth Commandment saith, 
Ex. 20. 13.  Thou shalt not kill, now he, that kills himself, kills a man, therefore he violates the law, and so incurs the curse. And whereas true fortitude is occupied about things, that might engender fear, and because (as Aristotle speaketh) nothing is more terrible than Death, 
Eth. l. 3. cap. 6.  it might seem therefore that those which kill themselves, are very valiant men, and therefore to be commended as men endued with the virtue of true fortitude. 
Note.  But in truth they are of all other most cowardly, which do kill themselves to avoid discredit, shame, poverty, torments: for because they want discretion, and courage to bear the cross, therefore out of passion, and through saintnesse of Spirit they make themselves away. This is the courage of an Hare, which fearing to be rend in pieces of the Hounds runs under the Hunter. Which kind of fatal foole-hardmesse Ovid doth elegantly set forth in these Verses, 
De Pont. l. 2. eleg. 2.  
Qui rapitur fatis, quid praeter fat a requirit?  
Porrigit ad spinas duraque saxa manus.  
Accipitrem metuens pennis trepidantibus ales  
Audet in humanos fessa venire sinus.  
Nec se vicino dubitat committere tecto,  
Qua fugit infestos territa cerua canes.  
He that the fates have met with, what doth he seek,  
But things as fatal as the Fates, he met with?  
He grasps the sharpest thorns, & roughest stones.  
The tired Bird, fearing the greedy Hawk,  
Flies to a man, that is as greedy of her.  
and so the Hind dreading the hounds, that chase her,  
Takes up some neighbour house as Fatal to her.   
What valour was in the Fishes in the Fable, which leapt out of the Frying pan into the fire? What wisdom is it for a voiding shame to rush into a shameful death. Is this courage to kill thyself for fear of being killed by others? Fortitude hath his name (a Ferondo) of bearing: 
Eth. l. 3. c. 9 Lib. 3. Cap. 7. Sub sinem.  And men are called valiant (saith Aristotle) because they endure those things, which are troublesome and bitter. But (saith he) for a man to kill himself, that he might avoid poverty, or trouble, doth not betoken courage, but rather cowardice. For it is the point of a feeble and effeminate spirit to shun those things, which are painful. Neither do they endure to die for honesty sake, but that they might escape and avoid some evil, or grievous thing.  
Secondly, 
Quest. 2.  it may be asked whether a man may not lawfully hazard his life, yea, and expose himself to certain death for the Church's sake, or for the good of his Country?  
Yea, 
Aus.  no doubt he may and must, if necessity so require. 
1. Joh. 3. 16.  Hereby (saith Saint john) we perceived love that Christ laid down his life for us, therefore we ought also to lay down our lines for our Brethren. And Saint Paul saith, 
Acts 20. 24:  I pass not at all, neither is my life dear unto myself, so that I may fulfil my course with joy, and the ministration which I have received of the Lord jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. And when Agabus by the inspiration of the Spirit, 
Acts 21, 11.  had told Paul that the jews should bind him and deliver him to the Gentiles, whereupon some that heard it, 
12,  with tears besought him that he would not go to jerusalem; Then Paul answered, What do ye weeping, 
13  and breaking mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at jerusalem for the Name of the Lord jesus. And unto the Philipians he profesteth his willingness to die for their confirmation, 
Phil. 2. 17.  Yea, saith he, and though I be offered up upon the sacrifice, and service of your Faith, I am glad, and rejoice with you all: And this kind of death is very honourable. For (sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae) the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church. Persecutiembus crevit Ecclesia, 
Cyprian De laud. Martyrij.  Martyriis coronata est. The Church (saith Saint Jerome) increased by persecutions, and was crowned by Martyrdoms. Tanta est virtus Martyrij, ut per illam credere etiam ille cogatur, quite doluit occidere. So great (saith Saint Cyprian) is the force of martyrdom, that thereby even he is forced to believe with thee, that was ready to have killed thee.  
The Phoenix (as Epiphanius, 
A simile.  & others do report) when she is come to her full age, gathereth in some high mount a pile of Myrrh, Frankincense, and other Spices, which being kindled by the heat of the Sun, she suffereth herself to be burnt up; and of her ashes there first breedeth a little worm, which at last becomes a Phoenix: so the Martyrs of Christ having gathered a pile of virtues and good works, when they see the glory of God, and the good of the Church requires it, expose themselves to the scorching heat of persecution, and sacrifice themselves by patience in the flames thereof, that by their death the posterity of the Church might be preserved, another generation of faithful Christians springing (as it were) out of their ashes. 
A Simile.  Philo saith that the Coriander seed being cut into little pieces, every parcel thereof bringeth out as much as the whole seed would have done: so it may be said that every inch of the Martyrs, every drop of their blood is exceeding fruitful Ligabantur (saith Saint Austen,) They were bound, beaten, butchered, burned, & multiplicabantur, 
De Civit. Dei. lib. 22. cap. 6.  and yet they multiplied, insomuch as at last Christianity did prevail; Emperors, Kings and Queens submitting their souls to the Sceptre of Christ jesus, and being become noursing-fathers', and nursing mothers of the Church which is the Spouse of Christ, 
Isa. 49 23.  as Esay prophesied.  
In like manner honourable and honest is their death, that die for the safeguard of their King and Country. 
A Simile.  How ready is the hand to set itself before the head, caring for no danger (that I may so speak) so that the head may be preserved whole. The King is the Head of a Kingdom: what good Subject or Servant will not willingly glue his life to save the life of his Sovereign? 
Hor. l. 3. car. ode. 2.  Dulce & decorum est pro patriâ mori: it is a sweet and honest death (saith Horace) which a man endures for his country. Patria est communis omnium nostrum Parens: Our country (saith Tully) is the common Mother of us al. 
Or. 1. in Cat.  Chari sunt liberi etc. We love (saith he) our children, kindred, acquaintance: but our Country alone hath all the loves of all men (omnes omnium charitates patria una complexa est) for which what good man would refuse to die to do it good? 
Offic. 1,  For the Commonwealth is a name of an universal City, 
Cic. 2. de Leg.  on which we ought to bestow ourselves wholly, and as it were to consecrate ourselves. A wiseman should refuse no danger for the safety of his Country: for thus (saith Tully) he reasons with himself: Non mihi soli, sed etiam, atque adeò multo potius, natus sum patriae: 
Ad Heren. l. 4.  I am not borne for myself alone, but also, and much more too for my Country. Vita, quae fato debetur, saluti patriae potissimum soluatur: Let the life, which is due to destiny, be paid especially for the safeguard of the Country: O fortunata mors, 
Phil. 14.  quae naturae debita pro patria potissimum est reddita! O blessed death (saith he) which being due (as a debt) to nature, is paid especially for the Country's good! And undoubtedly they, that willingly and devoutly lay down their lives for God and their Country, being called thereunto, are of all others most loving, and most courageous: neither do they die but live in happy and eternal memory with God, who no doubt rewards their momentany cross with an immortal crown of glory in the heavens.  
Thirdly, 
Quaest. 3.  it may be demanded, whether the death of Christ and of the holy Martyrs may be called voluntary, seeing they died at the command and by the execution of others.  
I answer, 
Ans.  their death was voluntarily but not with wicked wilfulness sustained of them. For Christ could have saved himself then, 
Math. 26. 53.  when he suffered himself to be apprehended, condemned, and executed: 
john. 10. 18.  for he had power to lay down his life and take it up, and might to do what he listed: no man could take his life from him against his will: for being very God he could not be compelled. 
1. john. 5. 20.  And for the Martyrs of Christ, they died in deed by the malice of others, and not through the malicious wilfulness of their own spirits: 
Note.  yet did they willingly die, choosing rather to die, then to deny their Lord, and to betray a good cause. A man will cast away his wares rather, 
A Simile.  then be drowned himself: so the Martyrs would willingly embrace the fire rather, then dishonour God by cowardice, and lose their souls by Apostasy. And that it may fully appear that their death was with their wills (though not simply, 
Note.  as if they were in love with death, or were weary of their lives) ask the cause of their profession. What made, who forced them to embrace the faith? No man, but they willingly through the work of God's Spirit received it. Again, though they did embrace it, yet if they would have forsaken and for sworn it; they might have saved their lives, and perhaps have come to preferment also, many of them: but rather than they would deny their Lord, that bought them, and his truth commended to them, they did willingly and cheerfully endure those punishments which were laid upon them. There be two sorts of voluntary deaths, 
Two kinds of voluntary death.  the one lawful and honest, such as the death of Martyrs, the other dishonest and unlawful, when men have neither lawful calling, nor honest ends, as of Peregrinus, who burned himself in a pile of wood, thinking thereby to live for ever in men's remembrance. So of Hasdrubals wife, who at the surprising of Carthage, rather choosed to burn out her eyes, and yield her body to her country flames, then to behold her husband's misery, 
Judg. 9 53. 54.  and to be herself a prey unto the enemy: finally of Abimelech, who made his Page thrust him through and kill him, lest it should be said of him. A woman slew him: for a certain woman had broke his brainpan with a stone. But the holy Martyrs suffered themselves to be slain for the glory of God, the honour of his truth, the confirmation of his people, 
Heb. 11. 35.  & the remonstration of their gratitude and fidelity, and that they might obtain a better resurrection. 
Quest. 4.   
Fourthly, it may be asked whether this willing & alacrious death of the Martyrs deserved for the worthiness thereof to be rewarded with the joys of heaven?  
Undoubtedly no: 
Ans. Rom. 8. 23.  for everlasting life is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the gracious gift of God through jesus Christ, and not given for the blood of the Martyrs, which yet no doubt is very precious in his sight. 
De compunct. cord.  Et si millies moriamur: Although (saith Chrysostome) we should die a thousand deaths, Et si omnes virtutes animae expleamus, though we should show the perfection of all the virtues of the soul: Nil dignum gerimus ad ea, quae ipsi à Deo percepimus, yet do we nothing worthy in comparison of thoses things which we have enjoyed, of God. 
De verb. Apost. ser. 2.  Te coronat in miseratione, & misericordia saith Saint Austen, God crowns us in mercy and compassion. Notabis quod mors Christi sola potuit mererivitam vitam aeternam: 
Excit. l. 9  You shall mark (saith Cusanus) that the alone death of Christ was able to merit eternal life. Alij omnes Martyres non merentur ex sua morte vitam aeternam. 
Serm. 61. in Cant.  No other Martyr by his death dotht deserve eternal life. Merium meum miseratio Domini my merit, (saith Bernard) is God's meruie. 
How it appears that Martyrdom merits not of God.  And to make it sully clear, by reason that by their deaths they could merit nothing, I demand whether Martyrs stand not bound to Christ for his death, which is their deliverance, to die for him, if he require it? It may not be denied, a brow of brass would blush at the denial of it. I demand further, who gives them courage and conscience to suffer death? Even God, of whom we receive, what we have, and who for Christ doth give unto men, 
1. Cor. 4. 7.  not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Even Homer could say, 
Phil. 1. 29. Iliad. 2.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that God did increase and daunt the courage of men. And Pindar likewise, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, O God, great virtues (and what greater than fortitude and piety?) do come to mortal men from thee. I ask thirdly, is God bound to the Martyrs to give them courage, constancy, fidelity patience? No verily: for God is (Liberrimum Agens) a most free worker, tied to no man further than he list himself. 
Rom. 9 18. Rom. 11. 35.  He will do what he will, he hath mercy on whom he listeth. And who hath given unto him first? I demand yet once more; Is it by God's gracious assistance, or by their own proper strength, that the Martyrs did use their gifts and virtues well, and not lose them, or use them indifferently? No man, though his head were made of steel, could say but that it is by God's grace that he doth continue constant in grace, and use his gifts with profit. For who doth confirm us unto the end, but God? 
1. Cor. 8. Phillip 1. 6. 1. Pet. 15  who but he doth perform the good work begun, until the day of jesus Christ? By whose power are we kept and guarded through faith unto salvation, but by the power of God? Of whom are we to desire strength, 
1. Pet. 5. 10  confirmation, perfection, and establishment but of God? Whom to are we to ascribe them, but to God. It follows therefore that the Martyrs for their very martyrdoms stand rather bound to God, than God to them. No man having freely bestowed upon another a gift, 
Note.  is bound by the good use of the said gift to bestow more, but he that receiveth it, is rather bound to him, that gives it. But all the works of grace whatsoever, though never so well used, are freely bestowed upon men by God, who also of his free good will doth enable them to use them well: therefore God is not bound by the good use thereof to bestow more. And so consequently all holy Martyrs stand obliged unto God, and all their reward (which is very great: for according to their passions and their patience, such shall be their everlasting possessions in Paradise) is of God's mercy, and not for their merits.  
Fiftly, it may be asked if a man seeing his neighbour about to cut his own throat, to drown, poison, hang, or otherwise to kill himself, be bound in conscience to hinder him, if he may possibly?  
I answer, 
Ans.  he stands bound by the law of charity. For if a man should save his neighbours sheeepe from drowning, or his house from burning, how much rather ought he to save his neighbour himself from perishing? It is true indeed, which the Poet saith, 
Hor. de. Art Puct sub. sinem.  Inuitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti: He that saves a man against his will, doth as he, that kills him, that is, he out of his corruption of heart, and distemper of brain accounts him as his murderer, that would save his life, because he accounts it worse than death to live: 
Note.  but our neighbour's corruption may not let our courtesy, his weakness and wilfulness must not cause us to be uncharitable: and though he by reason of distemper will take him for his enemy, that saves him, yet God, to whom every man owes his life, doth account it charitable, and agreeing to sound reason, that a man should to his power hinder any man, that out of will and weakness seeks his own destruction, and will not hold him guiltless of murder, that wittingly and willingly suffers his neighbour to make himself away, if it lay in his power to have hindered him with the safety of himself.  
Sixtly, 
Quest. 6.  it may be demanded, whether for a man wilfully to kill himself be a great sin, as it is commonly reputed, and whether it may be forgiven?  
To the first branch of the question I thus answer. 
Ans.  It is a most grievous sin for a man wilfully to murder himself. 
One reason against self-murder.  For first, he sins against God, who out of his goodness lent him his life to use it to his glory, and not to cut it off with shame and wickedness. Indeed if a man's life were his own, and not Gods, 
The first common cause of selfe-murder.  he might do with it what he would. Commonly a man makes himself away for one of these causes; either because he counts his sins unpardonable, and that with God there is no mercy for him: and this made judas hang himself, who notwithstanding his vile treason, and abominable covetousness, which brought him to it, might have found mercy, if he had had the grace by Faith to have come to Christ, and with true repentance to have returned: but to all his other sins adding these of final desperation, and wilful murder, he did wilfully deprive himself of mercy. judam traditorem non tàm scelus, 
Lib. de util. Poenit.  quod commisit, quam indulgentiae desperatio fecit penitus interire: The villainy (saith Saint Augustine) that the Traitor judas committed, was not the cause of his utter destruction, so much as his despair of pardon. Sceleratior omnibus, O juda (saith Leo) & infaelicior extitisti, quem non paenitentia duxit ad Dominum, sed desperatio traxit ad laqueum. Thou wast, O judas, more wicked and more wretched, than all men, for that Repentance led thee not to the Lord, but Desperation drew thee to the halter. 
Ob,  Yea, but a despairing man will say, I have been a most grievous sinner all my life long, how should I look that God should forgive me? let no man distrust (saith Saint Austen) let no man, 
Ju Ps. 50. Sol.  guilty to himself of his old offences despair, Novit Dominus mutare sententiam, si tu nouer●s emendare delictum, mend thou thy faults, and God will vouchsafe thee favour. Let thy end be good as the thieves was, and Christ will receive thee into his kingdom. Let no man despair of pardon (saith Isidore) though he repent about the end of his life: 
Lib. 2. de sum● bono.  for God doth judge every one as his end is, and not as his life was. And suppose that God will not forgive thee: wilt thou therefore by killing thyself make thy sin the greater, and send thy soul the sooner into Hell? this is very madness, and extremity of folly. But why shouldest thou despair? 
Ambros. in Luk. l. 2. Isid. ubi supra.  Desperatio certa mors est: desperation is certain death, faith Ambrose, Aeternae civit atis ianuas nobis desperatio claudit: Desperation doth shut the gates of heaven against us: 
Ibid.  Desperare est in infernum descendere, to despair is to descend into Hell, (saith Isidore) On the contrary, Prima salus est declinare culpam, 
Hug. l de vera sap.  secundae non desperare veniam, to avoid the fault is the first step to salvation, and the second is not to despair of pardon. Dost thou despair of mercy, 
Quest. Sol.  as thinking that God cannot help and pardon thee? He can do all things: with him nothing is impossible: neither can the fountain of his mercy be drained dry. 
Gen. 4. 8. 23.  My sins (said Cam) are greater than can be forgiven. Mentiris, Cain, maior est Dei miserieordia, quam omnium peccatorum miseria: thou liest, Cain, (saith Saint Austen) God's mercy is greater than the misery of all sins.  
Or dost thou despair, 
Quest.  because thou thinkest God will not forgive thee?  
Tell me, 
Ans.  O vain man, hath God made thee of his counsel; how canst thou thus think with reason? Why dost thou imagine that God hath no mercy for thee? Is it because thou art a grievous sinner? Who is not so? Is it because thou art not worthy of mercy? who is worthy? Man's worthiness is unworthiness, and his merits, demerits; if mercy succuored not, misery would swallow all men. But why will not he have mercy on thee? Is not God merciful and tenderhearted? Be merciful to thyself by repentance and true hope, and doubt. less God will be merciful to thee by pardoning thee. Dost thou think that he will not hear thee, if thou callest? Be not injurious to thyself: The Lord is near unto all, 
Psal. 145. 18.  that call upon him in truth. Come unto me, all ye, that are heavy laden, 
Mat. 11. 28.  saith Christ, and I will refresh you. justly doth he lack, that may have for ask. Thinkest thou that God delights in thy death? Be not injurious to God. As I live, 
Ezck. 33. 11.  saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn thee, turn thee, and despair not, and thou shalt live. Tertullian here exclaimeth, jurat Deus, Vivo, dicens, cupit sibi credi, God sweareth saying. As I live; He desires that men would believe him. O beatos, quorum causa jurat Deus! O miserrimos, si nec iuranti Domino credimus. O blessed men, for whose sake God doth swear; but O most miserable wretches, that we are, if we will not credit him, 
Ob.  though he do swear! But thou hast lived long without repentance, thou hast long abused his lenity, and hast settled on thy lees, it is now just that God should set the feet of his justice on thee, and tread upon thee like unsavoury salt, it is too late to repent, 
Sol.  repentance is hid from his eyes. It is true that God may justly deny thee mercy now, seeing thou hast neglected thy good, misspent thy time, abused his gentleness. But God neither doth always, neither hereafter will be ever do all which he may may justly do: but he sometimes shows mercy, when men are most miserable, and have very long abused his patience towards them. He vouchsafed mercy to the Thief upon the Cross, that no man by reason of long or grievous wickedness should despair of mercy. Despair not then, O Man, but hope in God: he can forgive thee, if he will: he hath not told thee that he will not: he will forgive thee, if thou wilt repent: repent then, and repent of these desperate imaginations, and he will remit thee. Cry out, and say, 
Lam. 5. 21. Cant. 1. 3.  O Lord, help, O Lord forgive, Turn me, O Lord, unto thee, and I shall be turned. Draw me, and I will run ●fter thee. Hide thy face from my sins, 
Psal. 51. 9 10. 11.  & put away all my misdeeds. Create in me a clean heart, and cast me not away from thy presence.  
And this is one common cause, to wit, the despair of pardon, which makesmen make themselves away.  
Another is very vanity of mind, 
The second common cause of Selfe-murder.  and to avoid reproach, insamy, beggary, contempt, and the despite of the enemy. Thus Saul commanded his Armour-bearer to thrust him through with his sword, lest the Philistims should kill and mock him: and because his Armour-bearer would not, 
1. Sam. 31. 4.  therefore he killed himself: And his Armour-bearer seeing him dead, fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. 
2. Sam. 17. 23.  In like manner Achitophel seeing his counsel was not followed, and no doubt fearing the wrath of his Sovereign, which he had by his treachery deserved, went home and hanged himself. Lucretia stabbed herself to renown her chastity. Cleopatra applied venomous Serpents to her body, 
Hor at. car. in l. 1 Od. 7.  because she would not be carried as a Captive in triumph. Others (we have heard) have hanged themselves, because the price of corn hath fallen against their covetous desire and expectation. Oh, what horrible injury is here offered unto God Such surely either think God is not, or that his eye minds them not, or else they presume upon his mercy, or distrust his providence: but how ever it be, it is sure there wants true wisdom, and fortitude of spirit, they forget to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, and are not contented with his corrections, and finally take upon them as if they were the Lords of their own lives, and forget to wind their care upon his providence.  
Now seeing these are causes of such selfe-murdering courses, we must needs account such selfe-slayers guilty of grievous sin, whereby they are very injurious to Almighty God, the Lord and author of their lives.  
Secondly, 
Reason 2. against selfe-murder.  he that murders himself is injurious to the Church of God. For whereas he should obey the doctrine taught him, which she commends unto him from Christ her Husband, he flatly shows himself disloyal, unthankful, and unruly: and is by this his wilful murder a grief unto her, & scandalous by his lewd ensample. And whereas his life should upon necessity have been given away in her service and for her security, it cannot now be, neither can he perform such service for her, as he ought and might have done, if this murderous spirit had not possessed and spoiled him.  
Thirdly, 
3. Reason.  he that murders himself, offers wrong unto his Country. For as he was borne in her, so he was born for her. His life, which he owed to death, should (if need had been) have been offered up in her service: but by this unnatural murder of himself, he deprives her of all help and honour, which otherwise she might have enjoyed of him, if true valour, faith, and wisdom had possessed him.  
Fourthly, 
4. Reason.  he offers wrong unto his Parents, which under God were the causes of his life. And is this all the thanks, the comfort, and credit, he does them, for their generation, and education, care and cost, to make himself away, to be his own hangman or executioner? Such a Son is a Shame to his Father, and an Heaviness unto his Mother, and by his wickedness deprives them of that help and comfort, which God and Nature claimed at his hands.  
Finally, 
5. Reason.  he is injurious unto himself: first to his soul, making himself guilty of murder, and so of death: Secondly, to his body, which with his own hands he doth destroy, and deliver to corruption, being never able to repair it by himself again, and deprives it of that honest and comely burial, which otherwise it might have had with the bodies of the Saints: Thirdly, he mars his credit, making himself famous by an infamous death, and gives just occasion to men greatly to suspect his salvation.  
We are now come to the second part of the Question, 
Second part of the 6. quest.  Whether may this Selfe-murder be forgiven? Undoubtedly it may, if God will; for God's mercy is greater than the mischief and malice of any sin or sinner: 
Ans. Selfe-murder may be pardoned.  and the death of Christ is of merit sufficient to wash away the foulest wickedness, that can be committed. This therefore I say, a man that kills himself, 
Note.  if he do repent of his murder, before he be dead, he may, and shall be forgiven. God's mercy may be bestowed, Inter pontem & fontem, between the bridge and the water, between the stab and death. 
Note.  The sin against the Holy Ghost might be forgiven, if the sinner could repent: but because he cannot repent by reason of the hardness of the heart, which shall not be removed to death, therefore he cannot be forgiven. But Selfe-murderers are not always (as those sinners) punished with final hardness and impenitency, and therefore they may be forgiven, and no doubt are sometimes, then when God doth give them grace to repent, and groan unto him for his mercy. But let no man presuming upon God's mercy dare to commit this barbarous villainy, lest by presuming on mercy, he meet with judgement, which is the ordinary portion of presumptuous offenders: but rather let him pray and say with David, 
Psal. 19 13, 14.  Keep thy Servant from presumptuous sins, and let the meditation of mine heart be acceptable in thy sight: for indeed the meditation and intention of murder is too too wicked and abominable.  
To conclude, 
Quest. 7.  it may be demanded whether a man be guilty of his own death, if he shall be killed, when out of a private humour, and desire of revenge he doth either make, or take a challenge?  
Yes no doubt: 
Ans.  for though he did not simply will, but rather nill his own death, yet because he left his calling, and did willingly agree and condescend unto the means of his death, which is fight, he becomes thereby guilty of his death. And it is not enough to say that he did not intend to work his death, but rather to save his credit, and honour, by offering or accepting the challenge, and by sighting. For neither God, nor the positive laws of our kingdom do allot and allow those means of saving men's reputations and of righting themselves by them, but utterly condemn them, and punish the usurpers of them: & beside, whatsoever he meant to effect by those irregular courses, yet the event shows (when he is slain by them) that they were the means of his slaughter, to which he gave consent without constraint. 
Note.  Yea, I add further, that whosoever holds this paradox, which is so commonly received in the world, 
A Paradox of our unwise Gallants.  That the giving of the lie, or of foul-mouthed language, must necessarily for the saveguard of honour be revenged with a Stab, a Stroke, or a Challenge of a combat, He is an embracer of a murderer's doctrine, and by holding it makes himself a very Murderer in the judgement of GOD, who condemns all murdering positions, intentions, & desires, as well as the acts of murder. And thus much concerning voluntary Death.  
Violent 
* I take not Violent in the largest sense. 2. Sam. 18. 9 14. 15.  death is when by force a man doth die. Such a death did Absalon die, when as full against his will he hanged in the Oak, where he was slain hanging, by joab and his ten servants. 
Dan. 6. 24. Luke. 13. 4.  The like death died daniel's accusers, who being cast among the Lions were crushed and killed of them. In like manner also this kind of death those eighteen died, upon whom the Tower in Siloam falling slew: and of this death Horace saith, 
Lib. 2. Carm. ode. 17.  he had almost perished by a tree that fell upon him.  
And that we may briefly conclude our discourse of the kinds and ways of dying, 
Other ways of dying.  one man dies more easily, another with more difficulty, and greater pains: One dieth in his full strength, being in all ease and prosperity: 
job. 22. 24, 25.  his breasts are full of milk, and his bones run full of marrow: and another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. One dieth being wasted with long sickness, and lingering diseases: another dieth suddenly, without warning, 
Quaest. 3.  and beyond his expectation. Now it may be by the way demanded, Whether it be lawful to pray against sudden death? 
Ans. It is not unlawful to pray (as in our Litany) against sudden death.  I answer thus; because our corruption is great, our sins are daily, our adversarieslie and subtle, ready to take all advantages, and because without repentance men may not look for pardon, and because as death doth leave us, so the latter day shall find us, therefore lest we should be taken unprepared, it is fit and needful for us to pray that God would not take us away upon the sudden: or if it shall seem good unto him to remove us suddenly, that he would be pleased not to take us away unprepared for him: but that, whensoever he doth remove us, he would pardon & accept us, 
Note.  & be pleased to smite us, whiles we be either in some holy work of his service, as preaching, prayer, meditation, or the like, or else in some honest work of our honest calling, or at the least in no evil plot, nor about any evil act.  
Now finally, of sudden deaths some are by the distemper of the passions, 
Of sudden death. Valer. Max. & Hen. Steph. ex Gregor. Gyrald.  as the death of such as die of fear, sorrow, or joy. Thus died that good old Poet Phileman, who being near an hundred years old, and seeing (as he lay) an Ass eat figs, fell into an extreme laughter, and having called his servants, he bade them give the Ass some drink after his figs, and laughing very earnestly so died.  
Plutarch also writeth of one Polycrita, who with joy conceived, 
De virtut mulierum.  for that her life was granted, whereof it seems she was not a little fearful, fell down suddenly, and so died. Again, some that die suddenly, are taken away by the extraordinary hand of God, as Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth opening her mouth by Gods command devoured: 
Num. 16. 30. 31 32. Leuit. 10. 2.  thus also two sons of Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, suddenly were killed by fire sent out from God. 
1. Sam. 25. 38.  Nabal also the Lord suddenly smote and slew, not long after his churlishness toward David. Others have died by the special permission of God, though by the means of the devil himself: as jobs children, who were suddenly slain with the fall of the house upon them, which was blown down with a sudden storm, 
job. 1. 18. 19  raised doubtless by the power of the devil. Others have been suddenly dispatched with their own hands, as Lucretius the Poet: 
Jud. 3. 21.  some have been suddenly killed of others as Eglon, whom Ehud slew with his dagger, or as the Princes and people of the Philistines, on whom Samson with the source of his arms pulled down the house, 
jud. 16. 30.  in which they were assembled: or also as Sisera, 
jud. 4. 21.  whom jael slew with a nail driven into his head, as he was sleeping in her Tent: but all these 
* 1. Eg. the Phil. and Sisera.  perished without treason: but some others have been suddenly dispatched by treason, as Senacherib, whom his own sous slew, 
Isa. 37. 38. 1. King. 16. 9 10  as he was in his Idols temple, & as Elah whom his servant Zimri killed, as he was in his drunkenness: and thus with inhuman barbarity should our noble king with many more have died in the Parliament house by the malice of wicked jesuits and their bloody scholars, 
An 1605. Novemb. 5.  had not God from heaven delivered them, Whose name be praised for evermore, Amen.  
And thus from the kinds of death we pass unto the causes. 
Of the causes of death. God inflicteth death. Psal. 39 5.   
The first and highest Ruling cause of death is Almighty God. David saith to the Lord, Thou hast made my days as an hand breadth. Hezekiah saith, Thou wilt make an end of me: to whom said God, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 
Isa. 38. 12.  By which it appeareth that God is (vitae necisque, arbiter) the Author and Ordainer of life and death. Yea the Lord by that commination unto Adam. 
Gen. 2. 17.  In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die, doth plainly show that in his hands is the power of life & death. Finally he saith, 
Isa. 45. 7.  I form the light, and create darkness, the light of prosperity, the darkness of adversity, the light of life, the darkness of death, I make peace, and create evil, the evil, not of sin, but of sorrow, of troubles, bloodshed, famine, pestilence, death.  
To all things (saith Solomon) there is an appointed time, 
Ec. 3. 1. 2.  a time to be borne, & a time to die: & who hath appointed this time, 
Act. 1. 7.  but GOD, who hath put times and seasons in his own power, as our Saviour teacheth? And surely, if God number the very hairs of our head, doubtless he hath numbered the days and hours, 
Math. 10. 29. 30  and minutes of our life, and hath set down the period of our age. And if a poor Sparrow cannot light on the ground without his will, surely than no man can fall into the ground but by his will. Even the wiser heathen knew this, therefore Hector saith in Homer, 
Iliad 22.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God did call him unto death. Tertullian another Doctor saith, Deus universa utique, 
Contra Marcel.  disponendo praescituit, & praesciendo disposuit, that God hath foreknown and disposed all things: if all things, than the lives and deaths of men. 
In lerem. c. 12.  Saint Jerome saith, What good things or evil things soever be in the world, Non absque, providentia, & fortuito casu accidit, sed judicio Dei, not one of them comes to pass by chance, and without providence but by the judgement of God, if nothing, than not murders, manslaughters, killing. Finally, Saint Austen saith, 
De gen. cont. Manich. l. 1. c. 2  Voluntas Deiomnium, quae sunt, ipsaest causa, that the will of God is the very cause of all things, that are: and to conclude with the Prophet's speech: Who is he that saith, 
Lam. 3. 37.  It cometh to pass, and the Lord commandeth it not?  
It will be thus perhaps objected, 
Ob. 1.  If God be the Author of death, than it seems he delights in the destruction of his creature: for by death life is put out, and the bodies of men are corrupted.  
I answer thus, 
Sol.  Death is a punishment, or at the best, and to the best a trial, a correction, a passage to a better life: now God ordains and appoints death, not simply as it is a destruction, but either as it is a punishment of wicked men, 
In what sense God may be said to ordain and cause death. A Simile.  or a correction and trial of the godly, and as a means of deliverance to his elect from worldly and wicked miseries. Even as a wise, potent, and just King appointeth places of execution, executioners, and the death of grievous malefactors, not as though he delighted in them, but for the maintenance of justice, the punishment of vice, and for the good of the Commonwealth: Or as a Father, who maketh and useth rods, not because he taketh pleasure simply in whipping, or in rods, but because he desires the good of his children, and that they might be afraid of evil: Or finally, as a Landlord that pulls down his Tenant's house, not because he delights simply in pulling down of houses, but for that he purposeth to cure it of all rottenness and ruins, and to build it for him new and fair again.  
It may again be thus objected: 
Ob. 2.  If God appoint and ordain every man's death, then if a man murder himself, or if he be killed by another, or be unjustly put to death by a Tyrant, God (you will say) appointed and ordained that man's death, which you will say is harsh.  
I answer, 
Sol.  and let my words be well observed. Our Saviour jesus Christ we all know was most wickedly put to death by the judges injust sentence at the malicious pursuit of the jews: now Saint Peter saith expressly that he was delivered by the determinate council of God, 
Act. 2. 23.  and that his enemies were gathered together against him: and what to do? To do (saith Peter) What soever thine hand, 
Act. 4. 28.  and thy council had determined before to be done. Thus therefore I say, if any man kill himself, or be killed by others, no more is done then was of old determined by the hand and counsel of Almighty God.  
Thou wilt then reply, 
Ob. 3.  if a murderer do but what God willed and determined to be done, than he is to be excused as one that fulfils the will of God.  
Not so: 
Sol.  and the reason is, because though he did that act, 
No murderer is excused by God's decree.  which God would, and determined in his secret and eternal council to be done, yet he did it not upon those grounds, & for those ends, which God did propose unto himself. For all the works of God are done in wisdom and justice: but the murderer is set a work by the devil, and his own inward corruption. When the Father delivered his son, 
Epist. ad Vinc. 38.  (saith Saint Augustine) and Christ his body, and judas his master, wherefore is God in this delivery just, and man guilty, but that because in one thing, which they did, the cause is not one, for which they did it? 
Note.  Again, though a murderer do what the hand and counsel of God hath determined to be done, yet that is no warrant for his murder, because he sins against the revealed will of God, the which is to be obeyed of every man unto death: now Gods revealed will is that we should not murder. 
Ex. 20. 13.   
It will be said then that the revealed will of God (which forbids murder) is contrario to his secret will, 
Ob. 4.  by which he doth determine and appoint it.  
I answer, 
Sol.  the revealed will is not contrary to his secret will: for the revealed will forbids murder simply as it is murder: but the secret decrees and wills it, not as or because is is murder, sed propter coniunctum bonum, but for some good conjoined with it. For it is not possible that God, who is the fountain of good things, yea and goodness itself, should will any evil for itself.  
But that no man be mistaken, that readeth these things, I will here briefly show mine opinion in this point of murder.  
First, 
Note.  I say God is not the Author of murder, as it is murder, but doth detest and condemn it, and puts no (not the least) malice into any man's heart, which stirs him, or moves him unto murder.  
Secondly, I say that which God doth about murder, is comprehended in these actions.  
First, 
Three actions of God about murder. 1.  as the universal cause of all things he sustaineth man and all his actions, so that no man could either be, or act any thing, but that God doth sustain him. 
Act. 17. 28.  For by God we are, we live, and move. All a man's actions therefore, as they are actions, and every man, as he is a man, is the work of God, and therefore also good. The action then (which is the material part or subject) of murder, the naked action (I say) is of God, 
Note.  not the murder, which is the formal part, indeed the deformity of that action.  
Secondly, 
Act. 2.  God withholdeth his grace from the murderer, and leaves him to himself, being tied to no man further or longer than he list. Now, as Hugo de Sancto Victore saith, Peccatum necessary sequitur ex gratiae subtractione, Sin necessarily, follows upon the withholding of grace: but how? not as the effect follows the efficient: 
Note.  for God doth not put any murderous thought or intention into their hearts: but he doth only deny them his grace, which should make them tender hearted & loving: he gives Satan leave to egg them on, and offers them sundry objects by themselves good, which they turn into occasions of evil, having neither will nor power to stay themselves. And God may thus deal, because he is bound to no man.  
Thirdly, God ordereth and disposeth the murder, and that is thus: 
Act. 3.  he directs it so, as that it proceeds no further, nor no otherwise, than he pleaseth: sometimes he turns it to another end, than the murderer thought of: sometimes he makes a way by it to punish some other sin, and sometimes he turns it to the good of them, that are murdered.  
But I will set down some sentences of the learned, of whom I have light my candle: which I will propound as Answers to these ensuing Questions:  
First, 
Quaest. 1.  is there any thing, whether good or evil, which is not by the will of God?  
Non fit aliquid, 
Sol.  nisi omnipotens fieri velit, vel sinendo ut fiat, velipse faciendo: there is nothing done (saith Saint Austen) but that which the Almighty 
Enchir. c. 95.  will have done, Either by permitting it to be done, or by doing it himself.  
Secondly, 
Quest. 2.  may not a man will that with an unjust will, which God doth with an holy?  
Fieri potest ut hoc velit homo voluntate malâ, 
Sol.  quod deus vult bonâ. 
Enchir. c. 101.  It may fall out (saith Saint Augustine) that a man may will that with a will, that is evil, which God doth will with a good.  
Thirdly, 
Quest. 3.  Is it good that there should be evil?  
Quamuis ergo, 
Sol.  quaemala sunt, in quantum mala sunt, non sunt bona: tamen ut non solum bona, sed etiam sint & mala, bonum est. Nam nisi esset hoc bonum, ut essent & mala, nullo modo sinerentur ab omnipotent bono: 
Enchir. c. 98.  Although (saith Saint Augustine) those things, that are evil, as they are evil, are not good; Yet it is good that there should be not good things only, but evils also: for except it were good that evils be, they would by no means be permitted of that Good that can do all things.  
Fourthly, 
Quest. 4.  is that, which is against the word, at any time done with the will of God?  
Intelligendum est omnia vel adiunante domino perfici, 
Sol.  vel deserente permitti: ut intelligas tamen nolente Deo nihil prorsus admitti. 
De Praed. & Grat. c. 15.  Understand (saith Saint Augustine) that all things are either done by God's help, or suffered to be done by his forsaking, that thou mayst know that there is nothing at all committed if God nill it. Propterea namque magna opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates eius, ut miro & ineffabili modo non fiat praeter eius voluntatem, 
August. Enchir. c. 101.  quod etiam contra eius fit voluntatem: for therefore (saith he) the great works of the Lord are exquisite according to all his wills, that after a marvelous and unspeakable manner, that is not done besides his will, which is also done against his will.  
Fiftly, 
Quest. 5.  doth God will no more, than his will is to work himself?  
Est Dei voluntas beneplacitum eius, 
Sol.  voluntas eius operatio eius & voluntas Permissio Eius: the will of God (saith Hugo) is his good pleasure, 
Lib. 1 de Sacr. c. 7. part. 4.  his will is his operation, and his will is his permission.  
Sixtly, 
Quest. 6.  doth not God will contrary things, if he do will those things, which he doth in his law forbid?  
Yea (saith Perkins) if he should will that the same thing should come to pass, 
Sol. Depraedestin & great. p. 48.  and not come to pass in the same respect and manner: but God forbiddeth sin, as it is an evil: and doth will it should come to pass, as it hath respect of good. Here upon Thomas Aquinas saith, 
Sum. 9 19 art. 9  Deum velle mala sieri, & Deum velle mala non sieri, non opponuntur contradictoriè, cum utrumque sit affirmatum, this is no contradiction to say that God doth will that evils should be done, & that God doth will that evils should not be done, seeing both the propositions are affirmative.  
Seventhly, 
Quest. 7.  doth God make men sinners, or doth he only order them?  
Saint Austen saith, 
Sol.  God makes men just and order them, 
De Gen. ad lit. imperf. cap. 5.  peccatores autem, in quantum peccatores, non facit, sed ordinat tantum: but God makes not sinners, so far forth as they be sinners, but only orders and disposes them. 
De civit. Dei l. 11. c. 17  And again, as God is the best Creator of good wills, it a malarum voluntatum iustissimus ordinator, so is he a most righteous orderer of evil wills.  
Eightly, 
Quest. 8.  is it injurious to God to say that he draws good out of evil, and useth evils, as a wise Physician doth poison, unto good?  
Clemens Alexandrinus saith, 
Sol.  it is a point of divine wisdom, 
Strom. l. 1.  virtue and power, not only to do good things, but also to bring the devices of the wicked to some good and profitable end, & utiliter iss, quaevidentur mala utatur, and to use those things profitably, which seem evil. Austen saith, 
Euchir. ad Laur. c. 101.  Deus quasdam voluntates suas utique bonas implet per malorum hominum voluntates malas: God doth accomplish certain good wills of his, by the naughty wills of naughty men. And Fulgentius saith, De malo opere cuinslibet non desinit ipse bonum operari, that God ceaseth not of every man's evil work▪ to work that, which is good.  
But tell me yet again, 
Quest. 9  though God put no corruption into any man's heart, yet doth he not incline the will to sin by offering a man objects, and by leaving him to himself, as a Shepherd stirs up his sheep to eat by setting Hay or Grass before it, or as a Huntsman stirs up his Greyhound to a course by showing him the Hare, and letting the slip go?  
Manifestum est, 
Sol.  etc. It is manifest (saith Saint Austen) that God doth work in the hearts of men (Ad Inclinandas corum voluntates) to incline their wills, 
De great. & lib. arbit. cap. 21.  whither he pleaseth, either to good things for his mercy, or to evil things for their deserts, sometimes verily with his open judgement, sometimes secret, but always just. 
De amiss. great. l. 2. c. 13.  And Bellarmine saith that by a figure God exciteth men to sin, As an Huntsman setteth the Dog upon the Hare, by letting go the Slip, that held in the Dog.  
If these things then, which are spoken of sin in general, be applied unto the particular sin of Murder, it will appear that every Murderer doth (as it is said of the Murderers of our Saviour) Whatsoever the hand and counsel of God had fore-determined to be done, 
Acts 4. 28.  and that God doth permit, limit, and order him, as it seemeth best in his holy wisdom.  
Now we have seen how God is the Ordainer, and Inflicter of Death.  
But further we must know, 
Sin the mother of Death.  that death comes by Sin, as the Apostle showeth, and before sin there was no death at all. 
Rom. 5. 12.  For death is the wages of sin. 
Rom. 6. 23.  Quoniam mors non naturae conditio, ised poena peccati, sequatur necesse est poena peccatum. Because death (saith Saint Austen) is not the condition of nature, 
Depraed. & great. c. 11.  but the punishment of sin, it is necessary that the punishment should follow the sin. For it is most certain that God hath not made death (as though be were in love with death for itself sake) neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living: 
Wisd. 1. 13. 15.  but unrighteousness bringeth to death, and man by forsaking God hath procured his own death. And although (as saith Siracides) Life and Death come of the Lord, 
Eccles. 11. 14.  yet not upon the same ground. For vita is a donante, 
Aug. retract. l. 1. c. 21.  Life is a gift of God, that gives it: but Mors is a vindicante, Death is a punishment inflicted of God, avenging, as Saint Austen teacheth. But let us hear Saint Paul. By one man, saith he, that is, by Adaem, 
Rom. 5. 12.  sin entered into the world, and death by sin.  
And that we may briefly dispatch the causes of Death, 
Note.  we must understand, that as Death is of God For sin, so it comes by divers means (as hath been touched afore) all which from the greatest to the smallestare determined, ordered and directed by the Lord, so as that none of them come to pass, but according to his most holy providence. And thus we leave the causes of death, 
Who are Subject to Death.  and come unto the Subjects thereof.  
Albeit jesus Christ the Son of Mary died, yet we must know it was not by his own desert (for he knew no sin, 
2. Cor. 5. 21.  he was no Sinner) but because it was his will to die, 
joh. 10. 15. 18.  that by his death he might deliver us from eternal death, 
Rom. 3. 25.  and sanctify our death to be the door of life unto us.  
And although Adam died, yet it was not because he was a man, but because he was a Sinner. For if Adam had never sinned, Adam had never died, 
Bucan. loc. 11. q. 13.  because God had granted him this grace, Vt posset non mori, si eius mandatis obsequeretur, as to be able not to die, if he did obey his precepts.  
This than I say, 
1. Cor. 15. 22.  All the children of Adam by reason of sin (in which all but Christ are conceived and borne) are all without exception subject unto death. 
Rom. 5. 12.  By one man (saith Saint Paul) sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death went over All men. 
Lib. contra Fortunat. disput. 2.  The law of sin (saith Austen) is that whosoever shall sin, 
Gen. 3. 19  must die. The Law of death is whereby it is said to Man, Thou art earth, and unto earth thou shalt return. Out of it we spring, because we are earth. Et in terram ibimus propter meritum peccatiprimi hominis, And to earth we shall return for the first man's sins desert.  
But you will say, 
Quest.  How is it that Infants of a day old do die, seeing that they commit no sin?  
I answer, 
Ans.  Sin is either the corruption of nature, 
Why Infants die.  or any evil, which proceeds as the fruits thereof: or thus, sin is either original, or actual: the former is in Infants, though not the latter. For even Infants are conceived and borne in sin, 
Psal. 51. 5.  being naturally unclean and guilty of Adam's first transgression. 
Aug. de praedest. & great. cap. 2.  The stame of the root corrupted is so propagated & diffused through all the branches, which arise thereout, that as Saint Austen truly speaketh, Nec infans quidem unius diei a culpâ sit primae praenaricationis alienus, indeed an Infant of a day old is not free from the fault of the first transgression.  
But it may be asked, 
Quest.  how Infants can become guilty of that, they did not give consent to? I answer.  
The fall of Adam and Eve is the fall of all their Children begotten after the common order, 
Ans.  even as the righteousness of Christ is become the righteousness and salvation of all his Children: 
Why Infants are guilty of sin.  because as Christ, so Adam was no private person, but represented all Mankind, which was now within his loins. 
Lib. 16. de excel. Mariae. c. 10.  Because (saith Anselm) the whole nature of man was (in protoplastis) in our first form Parents, and nothing thereof was out of them, the whole nature was weakened, and corrupted. As therefore, if it had not sinned, it should have been propagated such, as it was of God created: it a post peccatum, qualem se fecit peccando, propagatur: so since it hath sinned, it is propagated such, as it hath made itself by sinning. Fuit Adam, & in illo fuimus omnes perijt Adam, & in illo perijmus omnes. Adam was (saith Saint Ambrose upon the Gospel of Saint Luke) and in him we all were: Adam perished, and in him we perish all; In him, because we were all in him, because we are all of him, and he as our Head and Representer received and lost for us all.  
But it will be objected that Infants baptized have no sin, 
Quest.  it being taken away in baptism, how haps it then that Infants baptized die? And how is it that the best Believers die, 
Reu. 1. 5.  seeing that their sins are washed away in the blood of Christ?  
I answer, 
Ans.  with the Augustane Confession out of Saint Austen: Sin is remitted in Baptism (non ut non sit, sed ut non imputetur) not so that it should no longer be, but that it should not be imputed. It is destroyed (saith Anselm) not as if it were made nothing, 
In cap. 6. ad Rom.  sed ut non cogamur ei servire, but that we might not be compelled to serve it. But to give a full answer; the reason why the Lord inflicts death on them, 
Note.  that are baptized and do believe, is not as if their sins were unforgiven, for they are for Christ forgiven fully: neither yet is it to be supposed that they should have died, though they had not sinned: for death is not the condition of Nature, but the Daughter and desert of sin: neither yet doth God take away their lives, as intending thereby to punish Them: for if sin be forgiven them (as it is indeed) then also all the punishments due to sin, which follows sin, as the shadow doth the body: God therefore inflicts death upon his Elect, 
Note.  not as a judge offended with them (for he loves them most dearly, 
Psal. 116. 15.  and their death is precious in his sight) but as a Father, a Friend, or gracious King▪ who by death doth humble, try, amend, and deliver them from worldly miseries, sinful diseases, and earthly discontentments, and brings their souls into heavenly Canaan, to the fellowship of Christ, and those blessed Spirits of Men and Angels, that tend upon him in the Heavens.  
To return therefore to the point a fresh. 
All men must die.  Every child of Adam is subject unto death. 
Heb. 9 27.  It is appointed unto men that they shall once die, saith Paul, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Death is a debt that all men owe. 
2. King. 2. 2.  I go the way of all the Earth, saith David, that is, I draw near to death, which is the common course of all men living upon she earth. 
Tuscul. 1. ovid. ad Liviam.  Moriendum est omnibus, All men must die, saith Tully.  
Tendimus huc omnes, met am properamus ad unam.  
Omnia sub leges mors vocat atra suas.  
To death (saith Ovid) we do All of us go, it is the mark we hast to, she causeth all to be in thrall her laws unto. 
Hor. Car. l. 2. od. 28. l. 2. ode. 3.  Omnes una manet nox, & calcanda semel via lethi. Omnes eôdem cogimur. Death waits for all, the way thereof must needs be once trod. Thither we are driven All, saith Horace. There is no writ of privilege to exempt us: her eyes are pitiless, her heart is inflexible, and her hands will hold no bribes. Piety, virtue, goodness cannot put by her stroke. 
Iliad. l. 6.  Hector in Homer is reported to have said unto his wife, that no man could kill him before the time of death destinated unto him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: but as for destiny, (and such a thing is death) he told her that no man, neither good nor bad, could scape it.  
— Nec pietas moram 
Hor. carm. lib. 2. odd. 14.   
Rugis & instants senectae  
Afferet, indomitaeque morti:  
Pretty (saith the Poet) will cause no stay to death. Abraham, Moses, joshuah, job, David were godly men: but yet the Scripture saith of them all; they died.  
Strength is not able to withstand death. 
Homer. ll. 18.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hercules was a strong man, yet the strength of Hercules yielded unto death, which overcame him. Milo was renowned for his strength of body, yet Milo was weaker than death. Samson was stronger than ever any mere man was, yet was he overcome of death.  
Fortitude and valour of spirit cannot outstand death, but the most courageous that ever lived, yielded unto death. David and his Worthies were valiant men, 
Hor. carm. l. 2. od. 16.  yet all of them are dead. Abstulit clarum citamors Achillem, Achilles' famous for his courage was taken away by death.  
Wisdom is a most excellent virtue, yet it is unable to conquer death. 
Psal. 49. 10.  Solomon the wisest King that ever reigned, is of death dispatched. Wise men die as well as Fools, and go whensoever death calleth them.  
Eloquence is not able to charm death, but the most eloquent men that ever lived, have also died, as Tully, Demosthenes, and the rest.  
Nobleness of birth and royalty are unable to encounter with death, and overmaster it. Alexander, julius Caesar, and the most victorious Princes, that have ever reigned, have stooped unto death, which subdueth all men! 
Hor. l. 1. Carm. od. 4.  Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, regumque turres. Death can find way into Prince's palaces, into the courts of Kings as well as into the peasant's Cottage. Magistrates are Gods in office, but yet as mortal as their subjects. I have said ye are Gods, but ye shall die as a man, and ye Princes shall fall like others. Agamemnon, Cyrus, 
Psal 82. 6.  Nabuchadnezzar, and Augustus Caesar, were mighty monarchs: but yet death hath preyed upon them all.  
Old age is venerable, youth is stout and lusty, swiftness and activity are commendable: but death reverenceth not the grey hoires of the aged: it respecteth not the green locks of the young: neither is there any by swiftness of foot or dexterity of hand able to outrun and outmatch death.  
Mista senum ac iwenum densantur funera: Old and young die in heaps together. 
Hor. carm. lib. 1. od. 28.  Death will not die under any Magistrate, neither will she be overawed with the hore-head, or grave behaviour of any aged father. Both old and young are a prey unto her. All is fish that comes unto her net. The lambs skin is common in the market, as well as the old sheeps. 
Hor. carm. l. 3. od. 11.  Mors & fagacem persequitur virum, nec paroit imbellis iwentae poplit ibus timidoque, tergo. Death follows him, that flies him, and spateth not young folks, 
ovid.  though fearful of him. Serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam: First or last we must all die. Yea but the beautiful peradventure may find better favour. No doubtless: Rebecca, Bathsheba, Ester, Helena, Irene were goodly creatures. Absalon and Achilles were gallants, yet all these with many more are dead and gone. 
2. Sam. 2. 18.  Asahel was as swift as a Roe, yet death outwent him, won him, Goliath was a great fellow, but death was the greater.  
Achitophel was very politic and subtle, Aristotle learned, Aesop witty, Mithridates a good linguist: but they be dead all. Rich and poor, Craessus as well as Codrus, wise and foolish, high and low, young and old, bond and free, all men must die. Omnia peribunt, sie ibimus, ibitis, ibunt. All must away, I, thou, and every man beside. Intrasti, ut exires: we came all into the world to go out again. Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis. No physic can prevent death, no charm can let it, no wile can catch it, no bribe can blind it, no grief can move it, no lest can abash it, no place, no pleasure, no man, 
Eccl. 3. 20.  no means can stay it. All go to one place, and all was of the dust, and all shall return to the dust. 
Quest.  Shall all men then die? have all men then in former ages died?  
Surely Saint Paul directed by God doth tell the 
Sol.  Corinth's that All (meaning them that live at the very last gasp of the world) shall not die: 
1. Cor. 15. 5.  but all must be changed, by which sudden change they shall be stripped of all corruption and mortality. And again, if ever any man in former days have not died, or if any man shall be translated without death into heaven, as Enok and Elias, who are now in their glorified bodies with Christ in heaven, it must be confessed that such a translation and assumption is of mere favour by a singular privilege, and not common: for commonly all men do die, and come not into heaven, till they have been dead. In like manner, if any man have been, or shall be smitten into hell alive in body (as Romulus, who by a devil was carried away in a mighty tempest of thunder & lightning: or peradventure Abiram and Dathan) this is to be counted to be by a singular and extraordinary judgement: for ordinarily all wicked men do die before they go into hell.  
Having spoken of the Subjects of death, 
Of the time of Death.  we come now to speak of the time, and number thereof: where we are to note these things.  
First, that God in his counsel hath determined the year, the month, the week, the day, yea the very hour, minute, and moment of every man's death that dieth. He that denies this, denies the providence of God.  
Secondly, this time prefined by God for death, cannot be avoided by man, or prorogued. For the counsel of God shall stand (saith Esay) 
Isa. 46. 10. 11.  and his purpose shall be performed. Even Homer brings in his jupiter, affirming, 
Iliad. 1.  (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that whatsoever he doth will, shall irrevocably and undoubtedly be fulfilled. Seeing therefore the day of death is defined in the decree of God, it is not to be imagined that any man can ever die sooner, or tarry longer than the time by God appointed.  
Certa quidem finis vitae mortalibus adstat,  
Nec devitari lethum pete, 
Lucret.  quin obeamus,  
A certain term of life to each there is appointed  
And die we must, death cannot be avoided.  
Lanificas nulli tres exorare puellas  
Contigit: 
Martial.  observant quem statuere diem.  
The purpose of God doth stand unalterable,  
His day for our death he keeps unchangeable.  
For though it be true that the Scripture saith of Hezekiah, that God added fifteen years unto his days? yet it is not meant as if God did alter his eternal purpose concerning Hezekias his death, 
Isa. 38. 5.  but gave strength unto nature now decayed in him, by reason of his grievous disease, 
Note.  so as he should be able by his grace to hold out fifteen years longer: not longer than God had from eternity determined, but longer than he now had reason to look for, being wasted and worn with sickness and sorrow.  
Thirdly, the time of deaths coming is not to all alike, or the same: for one dieth old, another in his full strength, 
Seneca. Herc. fur.  and from some, (Prima, quae vitam dedit, hora carpsit) the hour that first gave them life, did also take away their life.  
Fourthly, no man can tell certainly how long he shall live, 
Death's hour is unknown.  nor certainly foretell the very time of his death, unless God do teach him, or unless death be present and visible in his causes, Quis est, quamuis sit adolescens, cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum? Who is there (saith Tully) though he a youth, who is certain of his life till evening?  
Fiftly, 
Tul. 1. de finib.  death is a daily attendant. Mors quasi saxum Tantalo semper impendet. It hangs and hovers over us always. There is not one moment of life without some motion unto death: We die daily (saith Seneca) for every day we lose some part of our life. 
Epist. 23.  Et tunc quoque, 
Note.  cum crescimus, vita decrescit, and even then, when we do increase, our life doth decrease. Hunc ipsum, quem agimus diem, cum morte dividimus: this very day, which now we live in, we divide with death. And as every man doth carry death about him in his forerunnrs, 
A Simile.  even so also every man the longer he carries it, the nearer he is to it, as a glass, the longer it runs, the sooner its run out, less sand remaining in it. 
Death is but once.   
Sixtly, death befalls one man ordinarily but once. It is appointed to men that they shall once die, 
Heb. 9 27.  saith the Apostle, 
Carm. l. 1. odd. 18  Et calcanda semel via lethi: the way of death must once be trodden, saith Horace. Yet some we doubt not but that they have died twice, as Lazarus, and the man that rose from death, when the Prophet's dead body touched him, 
2. King. 13. 22.  as he lay in his grave, and some others also: but this was extraordinary. Thus much for the time and number of death: I will add here moreover two things: first that it is an easy thing for a man to be deprived of his life: secondly, that as death doth leave us, so the judgement of God in the latter day shall find us.  
Of the easiness of deaths coming we need no long discourse: 
Death takes possession easily.  experience shows that men are many ways easily brought to death. Our nature is very frail of itself, and beside subject to many exterior anuoyances. Nun fragiliores sumus, quam si vitrei essemus? Are we not more brittle (saith Saint Austen) then if we were of glass? Vitrum enim et si fragile est, tamen seruatum diu durat, for though glass be brittle, yet being kept it lasteth long. But though we keep ourselves never so well, yet death will steal upon us, and overcome us. For what is your life (saith Saint james?) It is even a vapour, 
jam. 4. 14.  which is easily dissolved. And for external means, how easily can any thing kill, if God permit? A little fire, a little water, a little weight, a little bullet, a bone, a fly, what not, who not? Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest: at nemo mortem: mill ad hanc aditus patent: There is none, saith Seneca, but can take away a man's life, but no man can hinder death: to it there are a thousand passages. There are not more rivers run into the Sea, than ways leading unto death. It is much more easy to destroy then to build, to fall then to rise, soon is an house burned down, that hath been long in setting up, corruption is readier than generation, and a tree that hath been an hundred years a growing is blown down or cut up in one day, and may easily be soon consumed to ashes. 
Hor. car. l. 4. odd. 7  Our life is transitory. For (pulvis & umbra sumus) we are but dust and shadows (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) nothing but a breath and a shadow. 
Eurip. Hor. 16.  The continuance of our life is very uncertain. Quis scit an adijciant hodiernae erastina summae tempora Dij superi? Who knows if God will let him live to morrow? And how easily may death arrest us? It is an easy thing to blow out a candle, 
A Simile.  or to put out a little fire: so it is an easy thing to cut asunder the thread of life: easily is the life of man extinguished; a little smoke or vapour (such as is the life of man) is easily and soon resolved, and vanished out of sight.  
For the second; In what estate a man's last day shall find him in this estate (saith Austen) shall the last day of the world receive him: 
As death leaves so the judge finds men. Ad D●oscor.  Quoniam qualis in die isto moritur, talis in die illo iudicabitur: For as he dies in this day such shall his judgement be in that day. As the tree falleth, 
Eccl. 11. 3  so it lieth. For this life is the only time allowed unto man to provide against damnation. Quando hinc excessum est, 
Cyp. Tract. ad Demetrian.  nullus iam poenitentiae locus: When we are once gone hence (saith Saint Cyprian) there is no place for repentance.  
I come now to speak of the commodities, that come by death. 
Of the commodities of death.  Death unto the Reprobate and ungodly doth bring no good, but deprives them of all earthly benefits: and though it rid them of many crosses, which they did perhaps endure, whiles they lived, yet it makes them no true gainers, but sets them in further misery, for measure greater, and for continuance longer. For the wicked are in bitter and inextricable torments so soon, as death hath preyed upon them▪  
The true commodities then of death belong truly to the Elect and Godly, 
To whom death is ●ndeed a benefit.  whose death is sanctified by the death of Christ, who by his death hath been the death of sin, which is the cause of death, and by fulfilling the Law for us hath made an entrance for us into heaven.  
First of all, 
Commod. 1.  by death the Children of God are delivered from all worldly troubles and vexations. Mors est malorum remedium, 
Vid. Plutarch. de consolat. ad Apol.  & portus humanis tempestatibus: Death is the remedy of all earthly evils, and brings us out of all storms and tempests.  
Secondly, 
Commod. 2.  by Death the godly are delivered wholly from sin: after death they sin not at all: but in their souls, and after the Resurrection in their souls and bodies, they do serve God purely; God in his providence ordaining that the Daughter should eat up the Mother, that sin the mother of death, should be devoured by death.  
Thirdly, 
Commod. 3.  by death the souls of the Faithful are brought into Abraham's bosom, and enjoy the fellowship of those only, who are just and holy, and do live in all peace and quietness in a Paradise of everlasting pleasures, where the King is Verity, the Law Charity, the peace Felicity, and the Life Eternity. Precious is the death of the Saints (saith Bernard) precious without doubt, as the end of labours, as the consummation of a victory, tanquam vitae ianua, & perfectae securitatis ingressus, as the door of life, and the entrance to perfect security.  
And the only discommodity, that death doth bring unto the godly, is that it deprives the soul of the body for a time: which discommodity is not void of many commodities, which do make amends. For by this departure of the Soul, 
Note.  a man is taken from the sight and sense of many sins and sorrows, many crosses and calamities: he looseth earth, and gaineth heaven: he forsaketh men, but findeth Angels and holy Spirits: he looseth the company of his friends on earth, but enjoys the face and fellowship of God, of Christ in heaven: and though he leaves his body, which he loves most dearly, 
A simile.  yet he shall not be deprived of it always: he goes but as it were out of a smoky and sluttish house, waiting a time (yet with unspeakable joy all the while with pleasing companions there where is good being) till it be renewed, and made clean. Whereupon Saint Austen saith. 
In joh.  Qui cupit dissolui, & esse cum Christo, non patienter moritur, sed patienter vivit & delectabiliter moritur, He which desireth to be dissolved, and to be with Christ doth not die as a Patient, but lives as a Patient, and dies with delight.  
Indeed Death to the wicked is full of discomforts. 
Death is discommodious to the wicked 1. 2 3 4 5.  For it deprives them of their worldly promotions, profits, and pleasures: it robs them of their Friends and Familiars: it deprives them of their bodies: it abridges them of the light of the sun, the society of the living, and the comfort of the creatures: and finally, it closeth them up in Hell with Devils and Reprobates, there to be tormented in endless, 
Aug. ad Julian. ep. 211.  easeless, and remediless tortures, Vbi mors optabitur, & non dabitur, where death shall be desired, but not granted to them.  
Having thus far discoursed of bodily death, we will now see whereto it is compared, and then answer a few questions, and so come to apply the former doctrines to our edification, and this with as much brevity and perspicuity, as we may conveniently.  
Death is compared to a Physician, 
What to death may be compared. Simile 1. Death is a Physician. Adissimile.  because it cures men of all earthly miseries, as the physicians cure men of their maladies. But herein it overgoes all Physicians: for whereas it kills them all, they are not all able to kill it.  
It is also likened to an Haven. 
Death is an Haven,  For as an Haven affordeth quietness, and comfort to those, that have been tossed with winds and waves upon the Seas: so death unto the Godly is a quiet and safe harbour, freeing them from all that hard weather, and tedious travels, which they did endure in the world, which as a Sea, is full of changes, crosse-windes, tempests, and vexations; according to that of the Scripture, 
* Isay. 57 1. Reu. 14. 13. Adissimilitude.  The righteous are taken away from the evil. They rest from their labours, and their works follow them. But yet here is some dissimilitude in two other respects. 
In two cases Death is unlike an Haven.  For first, the haven entertains and comforts all, whether good or bad: but death affords no true rest, no true comfort, but to the godly only. For much more miserable are the wicked after death, as may appear by the parable of the rich Epicure in the Gospel: 
Luke 16. A second dissimilitude.  Secondly, sailors tarry not long in the haven, but put forth again, when they see convenient, into the Seas a fresh: but men, when they once come into deaths Haven, there they continue till God will, there they tarry, and never return more into this mortal life, they never come more upon this glassy Sea, unless it be by an extraordinary work of God. He shall return no more to his house saith job, 
Job. 7. 10.  neither shall his place know him again. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Diseases come and go, 
Vid. Nat. 〈◊〉. Myth. l. 3. c. 13.  and return again: but death comes but once, neither did any man ever see (saith Agathias) a dead man to come again. Let the holy Land be excepted, and it will not be denied, I think, except perhaps in Troas once a dead man was by Paul revived. 
Acts 20. 9 10.   
Thirdly, 
Death is a Night.  Death is compared to the Night. For as the night is the privation of the light, so death is the privation of life: as the night follows upon the going down of the Sun, which is the fountain of light, so death ensueth the departure of the soul, 
A dissimile.  which is the Author of life. But yet here also is some odds: for the night comes and goes, and comes again: the Sun doth set and rise again: but when our life is gone, when our death is come, we return no more to a life with men on earth: our night ends not, our Sun riseth not, until that determined time of the Resurrection be fulfilled, which how long or how soon it will be, before it be expired, God, that hath appointed all times and seasons, can only tell.  
Furthermore, Death is compared to a Medicine or Remedy, for it cures all crosses, it is a salve for all sores, 
Agath. in Nat. Com. ubi supra. A dissimile.  a medicine for all maladies, and the remedy of all calamities, Quae morbos placat, pauperiemque levat. But here is the difference; a man may choose whether he will use a medicine or no: but death will not be denied, cannot be eschewed, Dat cunctis legem, recipit cum paupere regem. And where as medicines are applied during the residence of the Soul in the body: this medicine is the reliction of the body, the discession of the Soul out of the body.  
Again, Death is like Fire, that saith not, It is enough: 
Pro. 30 16. Death a fire.  so is Death unsaturable, it is not contented with those infinite millions, which it hath already devoured, 
A dissimile.  but still waiteth to swallow up more. Indeed here is great diversity in another respect. For there is no fire made by man, but it will either be put out, or go out: but death is a fire, that man by sin hath kindled, which he is not able to extinguish, neither will it die of itself. Christ alone is able to slake it with his blood: he will be the death of death.  
Moreover death is likened to an Haruester with his Sickle cutting down the corn without partiality, 
Death is a Reaper.  or respect: so death moweth down all, and spareth none: Mors resecat, mors omne necat, nullumque veretur: it cuts up all, kills all, fears none. And as the Haruester cuts down the corn, but is not cut up himself of the corn, neither can be: so death takes away all, but itself is killed of none. Mors mordet omnes, mordetur a nullo: it bites all, it devours all, 
A Dissimilitude.  it is bitten, it is devoured of none. Yet here also is something unlike: For harvesters tarry till the corn be ripe: but death stays not always till men come to ripeness of age, but like a woman, that longs, pulls the green Apple off, before it be half ripe, or like hungry cattle, which crop up corn as soon as it sprouts up. Pelles quot pecorum, tot venduntur vitulorum. Infants die as well as old men: the calves skin is as usually sold in the market, as the old Cows, and the Lamb goes to the shambles as well as the Ewe.  
Seventhly, death is compared to a cruel Tyranness, that pities neither age, 
Death is a Tyrant.  nor sex: and so death, altogether pitiless, spareth neither man nor woman, neither young, nor old. Esop's wit, irene's beauty, Tully's tongue, the Infancy of David's first child by Bathsheba, no respect whatsoever can withstand death, obtain her favour. Indeed here is a difference: for as Iwenall saith, 
A Dissimili. Satyra 10.  Ad generum Cereris sine caede & vulnere pauci Descendent reges, & sicca morte tyranni, few tyrants scape unmurdered: but no man can tyrannize over death, no man can kill her. He that could kill a thousand with an Assesiaw, 
judg. 15. 15.  could not kill death with all his weapons. Euulsisque truncis Enceladus iaculator audax. 
Horat. Carm. l. 3. Od. 4.  He (if any such) that could pull up trees by the roots and cast them like darts, could not strike a dart through death. And they, that have been most skilful in poisons, could not save themselves from the poison of death, and poison her: no sinner can subdue her.  
Moreover, death is compared to a woman winged. For death is fruitful and very swift: 
Death is a flying woman.  it often takes men ere they be aware, and like a Sergeant is at their backs before they look for her.  
Again, 
Death is a Sea.  death is like the Sea, which is terrible, not to be drained, not to be turned out of his channel, and which breaking banks and prevailing without mercy carries all away with it, which it meets with. And as into the Sea, so unto death, there are many ways and means to bring men.  
Besides, it is compared to the Lion in the fable, to whose den many beasts went, 
Death a Lion.  but none returned: so many die, but from death to life again we see no man to return. It accepts as many as comes, but like a covetous niggard, it keeps all and parts with none.  
Finally, death is compared to Sleep. Homer calls Sleep the Brother of death (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) And Diogenes being wakened out of a dead Sleep, 
Death a Sleep.  and asked of his Physician, how he did, 
Laert. lib. 6. Plutarc. Consol., ad Apoll.  answered I am well, Nam frater fratrem amplectitur, for one brother embraceth another.  
And Gorgias being near unto death and sleepic, if any man asked him how he did, returned this answer, I am somnus incipit me fratri suo tradere. Sleep begins now to deliver me to his brother, meaning death. Which two are something alike. For death is common as sleep: and a dead man is deprived of worldly cares, and is at rest in his soul, if godly, and his body lieth in the grave as in a bed: 
A Dissimilitude.  but yet a man sleeping is not wholly deprived of the use of his body: for the pulses beat, the stomach digesteth, and the breath comes & goes: but death deprives a man wholly for a time of all use of his body: Again, a man wakes out of his sleep and returns unto the works of his calling a fresh: but a dead man wakes not to the works of his former life: neither can he be awakened out of the sleep of death, but by the power of God, of whom alone the day of our resurrection is seen and known.  
Thus much for the things, where unto death may be compared.  
There remain certain Questions concerning death, 
28 questions about Death.  worthy to be soiled, which I remembered not in time to set in their more proper places, neither are they here so methodically digested, as plainly resolved.  
First, 
Quest. 1.  it may be demanded whether any death may be said to be natural, seeing it destroys life, which is according to nature, Quae cupit suum esse, which delights still to be?  
I answer, 
Sol.  a thing is said to be natural more ways than one. 
How death may be said to be natural.  Death being simply in itself considered is not natural: but forasmuch as that which doth necessarily follow the nature of a thing, and hath the beginning or ground of his existence therein, to which that, which is violent, is opposed, is called natural, 
Note.  That death therefore, which follows the consumption and dissipation of the natural moisture by the natural heat, seeing it comes of causes, which are within the body, in that respect is called natural.  
Secondly, 
Quest. 2.  it may again be asked, what natural death is properly? 
Sol.   
I answer, 
Natural death described.  that properly is called natural death, when natural heat faileth, by reason that the moisture is dried up by it, as a lamp goeth out when the oil is spent. And this death is with much ease, and with little or no pain, as Aristotle writeth.  
Thirdly, 
Quest. 3.  it may be asked, what violent death is properly?  
I answer, 
Sol.  that is called violent death, when by accident, either the moisture is drawn out of the body, 
What violent death is.  or the heat extinguished by some inward or outward violence and oppression. Inward violence is by poison, 
A Simile.  gluttony, drunkenness, or such excess, as when a lamp is drowned in the oil. Outward violence is when a man is strangled with an halter, as a fire suddenly choked with some huge heap of earth, 
A Simile.  or ashes, thrown upon it; and many more oppressions of life there are of this kind. So that, taking violent death in this largeness of sense, it will appear that few die a natural death.  
Fourthly, 
Quest. 4.  it may be demanded, when a man doth die, or when the soul doth leave the body?  
I answer, 
Sol.  then when there is a defect of those instruments of the soul, whereby life is prolonged. When the body is become unfit for the soul to work with, then doth the soul forsake the body, which it loves most dearly, 
Note.  and not before. Death comes not by the impatience & fickle-mindednesse of the soul, but by reason of the impotency and unaptness of the body; 
A Simile.  as a workman leaves his tool, when it is become altogether unfit for his use.  
Fiftly, 
Quaest. 5.  but whence is it that one man dieth sooner than another, that nature fails in one sooner than in another?  
I answer, 
Sol.  the highest reason hereof is God's decree: but the Principal natural cause of the length of life is first a fit composition of heat and moisture in the sinews, 
The causes of long life.  marrow, spirits, etc. And secondly, the long and fortunate continuance of this good temper, which being interrupted by diseases and other oppressions death necessarily follows, & a man's life is ended, as an artificers occupation than ends of necessity, when his tools are worn and passed working with, 
A Simile.   
Sixtly, 
Quest. 6.  whether natural death be by no means to be avoided (if a man escape violence) seeing that the radical humour, as it wasteth, may be repaired by nurture, and therewith maintained?  
I answer, 
Sol.  that the radical humour may indeed by nourishment be daily renewed, yet that restored moisture is not so good, as that which was wasted of the beat: 
This answer belongs to the state of man's fall by sin.  it is not so pure as that, which was of the seed: it is not so well wrought and excocted as the seed, neither so exactly mingled and attenuated. Seeing therefore that which is restored, is not so pure as that, that was wasted, the heat for want of convenient matter to feed upon at length is dissipated and put out. Neither is the quantity of the humour restored so much to be respected, 
Note.  as the quality: whereupon Auicennus saith that, Though there were as much restored, as is daily wasted, yet must we of necessity die. And besides all this, we are all Sinners, 
Note.  unable to keep such a precise and regular diet, but that we shall offend herein, and old age will steal upon us, do what we can. Festinat enins decurrere velox Flosculus augustae, 
Jwenal. Satyr. 80.  miseraeque, brevissima vitae Portio, dum bibimus, dum serta, unguenta, puellas Poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus. Sensim, sine sensu senescimus.  
Seventhly, 
Quest. 7.  what difference is there betwixt the death of a man, and of a beast?  
I answer, 
Sol.  when a beast dies, his soul doth vanish, and is dissolved: but when a man dies, his soul still continues. For the soul of a beast is mortal: but the soul of man is immortal, as hath been showed. God (saith Gregory) created three living spirits: 
Three living spirits created  one, which is not covered with flesh: another which is covered with flesh, but dies not with the flesh: a third which is covered with flesh, & dies with the flesh. Primus Angelorum secundus hominum, tertius brutorun animaelun: the first is of Angels, the second of men, the third of brute beasts. And albeit the Scriptures sometimes speak of the death of the souls, 
How man's soul is said to die.  yet either the person or the life is to be understood, or such a death as is not the extinction and deletion of the soul, but her separation from God, who is her comfort and contentment. 
2. Difference.  Secondly, the death of a man is wont to be with much comfort, or else horror of hell itself, our conscience telling us of another state after death: but beasts, because they have no conscience, no hope of heaven, nor fear of hell, are not therefore subject to such passions, either of joy or sorrow. 
3. Difference.  Thirdly, when beasts die, they die for ever: but though death devour us, as the Whale did jonas, and bind us as the Philistines did Samson, yet we shall come forth again, the bands and snares of death shall be broken, and we shall be delivered. For it is most true which Saint Bernard saith: 
In Cant. ser. 107  There is a threefold state of holy souls: the first in the corruptible body (and that is in this life:) the second out of the body, (and this is after death;) the third in the body glorified (and that shall be at the Resurrection,) And so there is a threefold condition of wicked souls: the first is in their bodies of sin: the second is in misery out of their bodies by death dissolved: the third shall be in eternal torments within their bodies at the Resurrection: which Resurrection shall be of men, 
john. 5. Act. 24. 15. Quest. 8.  both just and unjust, but not of beasts.  
Eightly, Whether may death be said to be evil?  
Thales said that death was no more evil, 
Sol.  than a man's nativity: 
Laert. lib. 1. c. 1.  wherefore being asked by one, that heard him say so, Cur igitur tu non moreris? Why do not you die then, Thales? He made him this witty answer: Ob hoc ipsum, quia nihil refert. Potius enim habetur, quod accersitur: which is as if he should have said, The reason, why I die not, and forsake my life, is because there is no difference betwixt life and death one is not better than another: for that is counted the better, which is desired. If therefore I should hasten mine own death, it might be well supposed that I do account death better than life, whereas I make no difference between them. But to pass by this conceit of Thales: that we may answer rightly to the question we must distinguish.  
Death considered simply by itself, 
Ans. How death is an evil, and how not.  and as it is an effect of sin, is evil: for if life be good, than death must needs be evil: and if it be an evil to be in Hell tormented, then to an evil man death must needs be evil, because by death his soul is brought into affliction in hell, and he altogether deprived of those benefits of life, which he did before enjoy.  
But death being considered as bereaved of her sting, 
Note.  which is sin, 
1. Cor. 15.  and as it is sanctified by the death of Christ to be the door of life unto his members, it is not in this respect evil, but rather good. Chrysostome saith well, Mors nonest malum: sed post mortem poenas dare malum est, Death is not evil, but to suffer punishment after death is evil. Death is an evil, not in regard of god's justice, for so it is good: but it is evil to him, that suffers it; for it is a punishment, and a very curse to the wicked: But unto the godly it is become a benefit▪ the grave is as a bed, Death is as a sleep, and the soul is at peace with Christ.  
9 Whether is the day of a man's birth or death the better? 
Quest. 9   
I answer, 
Sol.  if a man's birth and death be simply considered, surely it is better to be borne, then to die, Melius est nasci, quam denasci. But if we remember how we are borne in sin, 
Psal. 51. 5.  how we sin, as long as we live, 
Note.  and that our life is full of crosses: and if withal we do remember that death, if we die God's Servants, doth deliver us from all worldly evils, both of sin and sorrow, and is the mean, whereby our souls are brought unto the Cape of Hope, and Haven of pleasing rest, then surely we may say with Solomon, 
Ec. 7. 3.  the day of death is better than the day that one is borne in: & melius esse denasci, quam nasci.  
10. Whether is better to die quickly, 
Quest. 10.  or to live long?  
I answer, 
Sol.  it is better for a Reprobate to die betimes even in the cradle, then to live till old age: because his sin increaseth with his years, and his punishment shall be answerable to his sin. But for an Elect and godly man to die quickly, is better than to live long, and not better.  
It is the better in this sense, 
Note.  because he is the sooner delivered from sin and sorrow: it is not so good in another regard, namely because by his long life he may do much good unto others, and he may come to such growth of grace, & to show forth such abundance of good works, as that his glory in the life to come may be much augmented: for as we do excel in grace in this world, so we shall exceed in glory in the world to come.  
11. Whether is it lawful for a man to hasten his death, 
Quest. 11.  that he might be the sooner with Christ?  
I answer, 
Sol.  we may not do evil, that good may come of it. 
Rom. 3. 8.  The end makes not an act good, but the good ground of it, 
We must not die till God call us.  the good form and the good end together. Thou shalt not kill, saith God, as not another, so not thyself. Non est nostrum mortem arripere: It is not for us (saith Saint Hierome) to catch at death, but to accept it willingly if others inflict it. unde & in persecutionibus non licet propriâ manu perire: Wherefore also, when we are persecuted, it is unlawful to kill ourselves.  
12. Whether is it lawful to desire death, 
Quest. 12.  or no?  
I answer thus: 
Sol.  To desire death merely for death's sake, and only or principally to be rid of grievances is a certain weakness; and unlawful. But to desire death to be delivered from all sin; and to be with Christ, and in the last place) to be rid of crosses (and annoyances, so long as we refer all to the good pleasure of our God, it is undoubtedly lawful, 
Phil. 1. 23.  and according to Paul's ensample. It was well said by Saint Austen: Potest justus justè optare mortem in vitâ amarissimâ: si non concedat, justum pativitam amarissimam: a just man may justly wish for death, when his life is full of Wormwood: but if God grant not this, just it is to suffer this most bitter life.  
13. Whether may a man pray against death? 
Quest. 13.   
I answer, 
Sol.  to pray against death as it is the stipend of sin it is allowable: 
lu what sense a man may pray against death.  again to pray against death, till a man have learned how to die is lawful, provided that he study and desire to be prepared and instructed: to pray against death, till a man have effected some good work, which he desired to see done before his death; & generally if a man's ends of his deprecation of death be good, it is lawful for him to pray against it, 
Note.  Provided, that he commit all to the will of God, resting himself therewith content, 
job. 13. 15.  resolving with job, that though the Lord do kill him, 
job 17. 3. 4. 6.  yet to put his confidence in him, and so long as his breath is in him, to speak no wickedness, nor to forsake his righteousness.  
14. 
Quest. 14.  Whether is death to be feared? 
Sol  
Epist. 88   
When thou hast walked much and long (saith Seneca) thou must return home. It is folly to fear that, which thou canst not avoid: he hath not escaped death, who hath deferred it. Hac conditione intravi, ut exirem, I came into the world with this condition, to go forth again. Therefore for a man to torture himself with the fear of Death, and as it were to die for fear lest he should die, is baseness of Spirit, and unchristian.  
But yet altogether to be without fear of death is not good: 
Note.  for death being against Nature, doubtless Nature cannot but something fear it: 
How death may be feared.  and for a man nothing to fear it is a certain oppression of Nature. Besides, the fear of death, if moderate and mixed with Faith in the Death of Christ, doth further to repentance and sanctimony of life, 
Aug. l. 2. de doct. Christ.  and (quasi clavis carnis omnes motus superbiae ligno crucis affigit) doth fasten all proud and carnal motions as it were with nails unto the Cross. Again, the moderate fear of Death makes us meditate the deeper of it, & nihil sic revocat a peccato, quam frequens mortis meditatio, and nothing (saith Saint Austen) doth so much recall a man from sin, as doth the often meditation of his death. And finally, there is no better way to vanquish the terrible aspect of death approaching, than a well tempered fear of Death before it do come. 
Greg.  Sic mors ipsa, cum venerit, vincitur, si prius, quam veniat, semper timeatur. Death, when it comes, is overcome, if, before it do come, it be always feared.  
15 Whether is the suddenness of death in itself an evil? 
Quaest. 15.   
I answer, 
Sol.  if the death be not evil, the sudden coming of it is not evil: 
When sudden is evil.  Anselm saith well: Non nocet bonis etc. It is not hurtful to good men, though they be slain, or die suddenly: non enim subito moriuntur, qui semper se cogitaverunt morituros: for they die not suddenly, which have always thought they should die. Precious in the sight of the Lord, always is the death of his Saints: as it is said, Quacunque hora justus moriatur, justitia eius non auferetur ab eo. Whensoever a righteous man dieth, his righteousness shall not be taken from him. And as the Common saying is, Qualis vita, finis ita, a good life hath a good end, how sudden soever it falleth out.  
16 Whether is it unlawful to lament the death of Parents, 
Quest. 16.  Children, Friends, Kinsfolks, and honest Christians?  
Not to be grieved at all for their death, 
Sol.  is a sin to be lamented with grief of heart. For they are our flesh, 
How we may lament the death of our friends.  we have enjoyed comfort by them, and are now deprived of it: and their life sometimes is very profitable to the Church and Kingdom. To grieve then is a thing both natural and honest. Contristamur (saith Austen) set non sicut caeteri. 
De verb. Ap. ser. 3 2.  We sorrow, but not as others, that are hopeless. Non culpamus affectum (saith Bernard) but excessum, 
In Cant. ser. 29.  we accuse not the affection, 
1. Thes. 4. 13. 14.  but the excess, Saint Paul forbidding the Thessalonians to sorrow for the dead, doth not simply forbid all sorrow: but Sorrow not (saith he) as other, that have no hope. For if we believe that jesus is dead, and is risen, even so them, which sleep in jesus, will God bring with him. And he himself professeth that God had mercy on him, 
Note.  in sparing Epaphroditus, 
Phil. 2. 27.  Lest (quoth he) I should have sorrow upon sorrow. What should I heap up the examples of Abraham mourning for his wife Sarah, of the Israelites for Samuel, of the Maccabees for judas their noble Captain, of David for jonathan, of the Widows for Dorcas, of Martha for Lazarus? Infinite are examples hereof. 
Note.  But this our mourning must be moderate, and mixed with hope. For they are not (amissi but praemissi) lost. but sent before us. And (Sapiens eodem animo fert illorum mortem, quo suam expectat) a wiseman will take their death, as he doth expect his own. 
Whiles I was a writing these things, it pleased God to take from me mine only son, before he was a fortnight old.  Filium meum memini me genuisse mortalem moriturum.  
Thy child, that's borne to day, and dies to morrow,  
Loseth some days of rest, but years of sorrow.  
Thou losest wife, and friends, and parents dear,  
The Heavens find them, though thou lose them here.  
17 But of all the means of death: 
Quest. 17.  which are very many, which doth death most certainly follow and attend?  
Seneca shall give the answer. 
Epist. 30.  Other kinds of death (saith he) are mingled with hope. 
Sol.  A disease endeth, a fire is extinguished, a man escapes a ruin, which was likely to have oppressed him, the Soldier being ready to cut the neck asunder held his hand back: nil autem habet, quod speret, quem senectus ducit ad mortem: but there is no hope of escaping lest for him, whom Old-age leadeth unto death.  
18 Of all, 
Quaest. 18.  that die: who commonly forget themselves and die without sound repentance?  
The sinner (saith Caesarius) is smitten with this punishment (Vt moriendo obliviscatur sui, 
Sol.  qui vivens 
In admonit. 6.  oblitus est Dei) that he should forget himself at his death, who forgot God in his life. Et vix benè moritur quimalé vixit, and he, that lived ill (saith Saint Austen) doth scarcely die well,  
19 Whom to is death most terrible, 
Quaest. 19  and unwelcome?  
Surely to those, 
Sol.  whose GOD is their Belly, whose portion is the world, whose end is damnation, and whose conscience affrights them. Death (saith Tully) is terrible to those, 
In paradox.  who lose all things with their life, not unto them, whose praise is immortal.  
20 Who die most cheerfully, 
Quaest. 20.  and with least discomfort?  
They questionless, 
Sols  whose conscience witnesseth with them. Venientem nemo hilaris mortem recipit, nisi qui se ad illam rectè composuerit, No man gives death a cheerful welcome, when it comes, but he that hath rightly prepared himself for her. He dies most readily that lived most religiously.  
21 Is there any thing in the world more certain, 
Quaest. 21.  and withal more uncertain than death?  
No verily. 
Sol.  What (saith Saint Bernard) in human things is there more certain, than death, and what is found more uncertain, 
Death both certain and uncertain.  than the hour of death? She pities not poverty, she reverenceth not riches, she spareth not wisdom, manners, age: nisi quod senibus mors est in ianuis, iuvenibus vero in insidijs: saving that death looks old men full in the face, but lies skulking to take youngmen napping at unawares.  
22 Doth death make no difference between the bodies of the rich and the poor, 
Quaest. 22.  the noble and the simple? And are all these worldly differences among men become dead by death? 
Sol.   
We are all borne naked (saith Saint Ambrose) and we die naked: there is no difference among the carcases of the dead, unless perhaps the bodies of rich men do savour more strongly by reason of their riot. 
A Simile.  And as a merchants Counters upon his counting table may stand for a greater or lesser number, as he pleaseth, but are all alike, when they are shuffled together, and put in the bag: even so these earthly differences, which were amongst men, whiles they lived upon earth, do all take their end, and die, when death hath once shuffled them together on heaps in the grave. Alphonsus, asked what made all men equal? answered Ashes.  
23. But of all kinds of death, 
Quaest. 23.  which is the best, and worst?  
Doubtless of the best the death is the best, 
Sol:  and of the worst the death is the worst. 
Whose death is best.  Of the death of good men, I suppose the death of Martyrs to be the best, because it is endured with show of the greatest virtues, and (as I think) is best rewarded: and they lose that for God, which is most dear to nature, namely life.  
And of Malefactors their death is the worst simply, 
Whose death is counted worst.  who have lived and die most wickedly: but theirs is counted most odious and infamous, who either murder themselves, or else die by Law for their outrageous villainies. Bias being asked, What kind of death was evil, 
The juster the Law, the worse the death.  answered (Quod legibus constitutum est) That, which the Laws ordained, meaning that which men have deserved for their wickedness, as treason, murder, robbery. In like manner he in Plautus saith, So I die not for my faults, I care not much though I perish here: Qui per virtutem peritat, non interit, He that dies for well-doing, doth not die.  
24. Why do not men know the very time, 
Quest. 24.  that is appointed for their deaths?  
Saint Austen shall answer, 
Sol. Why God keeps from men the time of their deaths De consolat. ad Apoll.  Latet ultimus dies, ut obseruentur omnes dies: A man's last day is kept secret, that all days might be observed. Ad hoc fortè nescis, quando veniet, ut semper paratus sis: therefore it may be thou knowest not when he will come, that thou mightest be always prepared. I suppose (saith Plutarch) that Nature knowing the confusion and shortness of our life, would therefore have the period of our life unknown to us: for it is commodious for us. For if we should forknow it, many would pine away with untimely mourning, & would prevent death with death: he means the fear of death would kill them, whereas otherwise by course of nature they might have lived longer.  
25. Whether is a man worse at his death, 
Quest. 25.  or at his birth?  
Peiores morimur, 
Sol.  quâm nascimur, we die more evil than we are borne, saith Seneca. But this is our fault & not natures, 
Epist. 22.  if we consider it simply without relation to corruption. Indeed we are borne in sin: but that sin is not acted of us, but by propagation derived to us: but before we die, if we live the age of a man, we die after the commission of many actual transgressions. Nevertheless by the grace of God in Christ a man's death may be better than his birth, & much more comfortable. 
Note.  For to be borne is a work of nature, but to die with Christian faith & fortitude either for Christ, or in Christ, is a work above nature. I have read of some, that are said to die, or to sleep in Christ: but I read of none, that is borne in Christ: reborn, and borne a new in Christ we may be said, 
Note.  but not borne. In brief, There is no man borne justified and absolved. But a man may die justified and absolved. Now it is better to die justified, then to be borne a sinner: It is better to die the child of Christ, 
Note.  then to be borne the son of Adam. This than I say; an old man dying (if we regard him by himself) is worse than an infant newly borne: but if we consider an Infant without Christ, & an old man in Christ, certainly it is much better for him to die with many sins forgiven in Christ, then for the other to be born (though but with one sin) out of Christ, & so to die in that estate.  
26. Of all kinds of death considered simply without respect of grace, 
Quest. 26.  or sin, which is the best?  
julius Caesar said that sudden death was best, 
Sol.  and a sudden death befell himself. But (as I take it) a sudden death, except it be by the course of nature, without violence, 
What is the best death, without reference to sin or virtue.  is not the best. For that doubtless is the best, which is most agreeable unto nature: now a natural death is not simply sudden, because it is not without messengers, and signs foregoing: yet sometimes it comes on the sudden, that is, in a trice, or before a man thinks, or while he thinks, he may live a while longer, or when he thinks not of it, 
A Simile  sometimes whiles he sleeps, sometimes whilst he is awake, as a mellow apple which drops of, whilst a man sometimes is lookng on it.  
27. Whether is it lawful for a man to pray that 
Quaest. 27.  God would tell him directly when he shall leave the world and die?  
I would not say it is altogether unlawful, by reason of some extraordinary occasions. 
Sol.  But usually and ordinarily it is not expedient. 
Why it is unlawful to pray to know the time of our deaths.  For revealed things belong to us, 
Tu ne quaesieris scire (nesas) quem mihi, quem tibi finem Dij dederint. Seu plures hyemes, seu tribuit jupiter ultimakm. Hor. car. l. 1. odd. 11. Rom. 14. 23. Psal. 39 5.  but not the secrets of God, such as are hidden seasons, locked up within God's breast, as the day of our death, & the day of Christ's coming. And as it is no way fit to pray to know the day of judgement, the very time of the judges coming, so neither is it to pray to know the certain hour of death. For though our end may be good, yet that is not enough to make a prayer good, but it must be made in faith according to the will of God. But the curious enquiring into such things hath a check in the Scriptures. And though David pray, Lord let me know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, and let me know how long I have to live: yet he means (as I take it) not to beg the knowledge of the very point & article of his death, but desires God to give him grace to acknowledge, consider, and duly to acquaint himself with the shortness and frailty of his life, as to me it seemeth, by considering the words ensuing, and by comparing it with Psal. 92. 12. But howsoever it be, we know (Legibus vivitur, non exemplis) that good and obedient Christians must live by laws. and not by ensamples. But I demand, why wouldst thou know the very moment of thy death? That thou mightest prepare thyself the better for it? Thy meaning may be good, but this thine aim is of little moment. 
Note.  Know this, thou art a man, die thou must: this very day may see thy death: prepare thyself this day. 
Spacio brevi spem lougant reseces. Dum loquimur, sugerit invida aelas. Hor. car. li. 1. odd. 11. Act. 1. 7.  Thou mayst die any day, to day, to morrow, next day, be therefore prepared every day, to day, to morrow, next day, any day, every day: Miserable man, why dost thou not prepare thyself every hour? Think of thyself as if thou wert now a dying, for thou knowest thou must die. It is not for thee to know the times or the seasons, which God hath put in his own power. If God will not have thee know them, then desire not to know them. It is enough for us to know we must die: how soon, or when, it skills not: it cannot be long to: for we are but foam, and fume.  
28. What honour ought the living to perform unto the dead? 
Quest. 28.   
I answer, they ought moderately to be touched with the loss of them: 
Sol.  they ought to give them honest burial: they ought to commemorate and imitate their virtues: 
The honours performed to the dead.  they should praise God for his graces given them, and for receiving them to mercy, out of a miserable & merciless world: they ought to maintain their credits: they ought not to misuse their bodies, neither speak evil of them: if the deaf ought not to be evil spoken of, 
Leuit. 19 14.  much less the dead: for who deafer than a dead man? who further off. Who less able to answer for himself?  
Having thus ended these questions concerning death, and dead men; I come now to set down some principal uses of that, 
Uses of the former discourse. ●.  which hath been said before.  
First, seeing death destroys not the soul, though it dissolve the body, 
The bodic is base than the soul.  we see that the soul is of a more noble nature, than the body, and therefore more to be esteemed, and with greater care and love to be kept and tended. As God excelleth all souls, or as the Lady excels her handmaid, 
A Simile.  so the soul excelleth all bodies. 
Note.  What would a man have evil? Surely nothing, not his wife, not his son, not his servant, 
Why should a man have an evil soul, that would have a good body?  not his horse, not his ground, not his fruit, no not his coat: and wilt thou have an evil soul? For shame take care of it, that it be not evil. Evil it is, or good. For (Omnis anima aut Christisponsa, aut Diaboli adultera est,) every soul (as Saint Austen speaketh) is either the Spouse of Christ (and then good) or the devils harlot, and so is evil. If evil, than thy state is evil; and if death find it evil, it leaves it evil: and this soul which cannot die, in respect of dissolution, yet it doth die in regard of consolation, being separated by evil, as well from God (who is the soul and solace of the soul) as from the body, which in life it did enjoy with joy. And forsomuch as the soul doth survive the body, 
A comfort against the fear of death.  and live, when it is dead, it should comfort men against the dread, that death brings with it. For they shall not be Nothing, nor Nowhere. Death doth subdue but one part, and that which is the base of them.  
Secondly, 
Use. 2.  seeing God inflioteth death, without whose providence it could not come, 
Why death is to be borne with patience.  it teacheth us in all patience, quietness, and humility to be contented with his work, not opening our mouths against him, though he take us away in the flower of our time, or by the cruelty of wicked men. And to them, that truly serve God according to his will, it cannot but be a comfort that when they die, 
A comfort to a good man dying.  they die not without the knowledge, but by the will and disposement of their gracious and loving Master, who is able to save them in death, 
Dan. 3. & 6.  as he did Daniel in the Lion's den, and the three Children in the fiery furnace.  
Thirdly, 
Use. 3.  seeing death is the fruit of sin, it should teach us to detest sin. Death is not very pleasing, but rather odious to flesh and blood: How much more odious than should sin be counted, 
A reason to hate sin.  by which death found entrance into the world, and without which no man had ever died? Diseases, death, 
Sin a very Crabtree.  and damnation come by sin: diseases hinder health, death endeth life, and damnation deprives man of the joys of salvation: will any wise man than delight in sin, a thing so odious, hurtful and unhappy? Solomon being directed by the Spirit of God calls him a Fool that maketh a mock of sinew, 
Pro. 14. 9 & 10 23.  and as a pastime to do wickedly. Doth any man love the plague, the gout, the palsy, the stone, the cramp, the canker, or the dropsy? I suppose no man. All these diseases are the consequents of sin: the world had not known them, had she not been acquainted with sin: and certainly these diseases are not more hurtful to the body, than sin is to the true health and life of the soul. Sin is a Tiger, a Bear, a Lion, an Asp, a Viper, a destroyer both of body and of soul.  
Fourthly, 
Use. 4. Inordinate fear of death to be suppressed.  the inevitable necessity of Death, which lies upon all the world, condemns the immoderate fear of Death in many men. There is no man so ignorant, but knows he must die: yet when death is threatened, what fear is there, what fainting, what tergiversation, what impatience is there to be seen in many? 
Senec. 78. epist.  Quid fles miser, quid trepidas? Eye wretch why dost thou weep? why dost thou tremble? This yoke is laid upon every neck: thou goest the way that all mê go. To this wast thou born, this hath befallen thy Father, thy Mother, thine ancestors, to all men before thee, and to all that succeed thee. Wilt thou not think to come thither at last, whither thou hast been a going always? 
Epist. 24.  Nullum sine exitu iter est: there is no journey without an end. We make our life unquiet with the fear of death, and such is the madness of men, that some by the fear of death are brought unto death: we ought to fortify ourselves, that we love not our life too well, and that we hate not death too much: and when reason adviseth us, to die, and not to fear. Vir fortis & strenuous non fugere debet de vita, sed exire, a man of courage and spirit should not fly out of life, but go out. 
Epist. 78.  To die is not glorious, but to die courageously is glorious.  
Finally, 
Use 5.  seeing all men must die, and seeing Christ will find them at the day of judgement, as the day of their Death doth leave them, it behooves all men to prepare themselves for Death, that it may not hurt them, but rather help them. To this end these things are to be considered, 
Rules of preparation against Death. 1.  and performed.  
First, he that would have comfort in his death, must believe in God the Author of life, in jesus Christ, who saves us from the power and evil of Death, 
John 5. 24.  Verily, verily, I say unto you (saith Christ:) He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but hath passed from death to life. And to Martha speaking of himself he saith, 
john 11. 25. 26.  I am the Resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever lineth, and believeth in me. shall never die, meaning the death of the damned. Now Christ, who thus speaketh to us, is omnipotent, and true: Verbum eius ab intentione non dissentit, quia Veritas est: nec factum a Verbo, quia Virtus est. He is Truth, and therefore he speaks, as he means: and he is Might itself, therefore he does as he speaks. But he doth profess and promise that those, that believe in him, shall not perish by death, but live for ever: therefore we may be bold upon his word, and should stir up ourselves to believe. 
Note.  And let no man deceive himself: For he only doth aright believe in Christ, 
Who is a right believer, and who fantastical.  who believes him in his word and Sacraments, and in his Ministers speaking according to his word. In vain it is for men to say or think they believe in Christ, who believe not his Law, who regard not his Sacraments, who believe not his Servants, declaring to them their masters mind. This faith is not faith, but fancy.  
Secondly, 
Rule 2.  he that would die the Death of the Godly, must repent of the sins of the wicked. For without Repentance it is unpossible to escape the damnation of unrepentant Sinners. 
Ezek. 18. 30. 31.  Return (saith God) and iniquity shall not be your destruction. Cast away all your transgressions: For why will ye die? Qui per poenitentiam peccata diluit, angelica foelicitatis consorsin aeternum erit. He, which by repentance purgeth away his sin, shall be partaker (and saith Saint Austen) of Angelical happiness for ever. 
Five duties of a true penitent.  Now a true penitent person must be thus disposed. First, he must plainly and from his heart confess his sins to God. Secondly, he must earnestly beg pardon of his sin, desiring God for Christ to be reconciled to him. Thirdly, he must resolve fully to leave his sinews, and to practise all holy, and honest duties. 
Ezek. 18. 22.  If the wicked will return from all his sins, and do that, which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, 
Note.  and shall not die. It is not enough to set himself against one fault, but against all, all, all, without exception of any. 
A Simile.  For one wing belimed may cause the whole bird to be taken, and one disease may be the death of all the body: so one unrepentant of known enormity, even one (though there were no more,) may, yea and will be the ruin of the soul, the destruction of the sinner. Fourthly, where an injury is done unto our neighbours, there ought we to seek reconcilement, and to give them satisfaction. For he, that having offended man, seeks not to be reconciled to him, doubtless shall never truly be at peace with God. Briefly, he that would show himself a true penitent, must be truly grieved, because his repentance is so poor, his devotion so cold, and his life so bad.  
Thirdly, 
Rule 3.  he that would die comfortably in Christ, 
jobn 3. 16.  should live obediently to Christ. For he that obeyeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Now he, that will prove his obedience unto Christ the Lord, must show it unto the Bishops and Ministers of the Church, his Servants speaking unto them in his Name according to his Law. 
Heb. 13. 17.  Obey them (saith the Holy Ghost) which have the oversight of you, and submit yourselves. Certainly they, that dishonour, disobey, and disdain them, dishonour, disobey, and disdain Christ their Master.  
Fourthly, 
Rule 4.  it behooves us to wean our affections from the world: for the pleasures and vanities of the world are very bands and bolts unto our souls, if we wed ourselves unto them, and they will make us altogether unwilling to depart.  
Fiftly, 
Rule 5.  do good unto the poor and afflicted members of Christ jesus; pray for them, visit them, and advise them, help them, feed them, cloth them, 
Pro. 16. 6.  harbour them. By mercy and truth iniquity shall be forgiven, saith Solomon, Charge them that are rich, 
1. Tim. 17. 18. 19  saith Paul, that they be rich in good works, and be ready to distribute and communicate, laying up in store for them a good foundation against the time to come, that they may obtain eternal life. That which is given to poor christians, 
Note.  because they be christians, 
Mat. 25.  is given unto Christ himself, who will recompense our temporal gifts with eternal glory. Poor christians are as a rich fieldif: the rich will sow the seed of their charitable almsdeeds on them, 
A Simile.  they shall by the heavens blessing receive a plentiful crop of eternal happiness. On the contrary, he shuts against himself the doors of God's mercy, 
jam. 2. 13.  who will show no mercy to his afflicted brother.  
Sixtly, 
Rule 6.  he that would have comfort in his death, aught to live, or at least to die in the love and reverent affection to the Church of Christ: neither mean I only the Catholic Church, part whereof is triumphing in heaven, and a part warring on earth: but that true visible Church, in which he is borne and baptized, and to the obedience whereof he is most properly called. 
English Papists & Brownists are liable to damnation. for their obstinate Schism.  For I do very much doubt of the salvation of all such as die unreconciled to the church, out of love with that church, unto the love and obedience whereof God doth call them. Let our Papists therefore, Brownists and such like spirits take heed unto themselves, how they live and die, out of love and loyalty to this church of England, whereof they should be loving and obedient members: but unto which indeed they stand ill-affected, disobedient, and undutiful. They malice her, they write and speak against her, they speak evil of her, and of her chiefest members. I mean not to dispute of her lawfulness and truth: this is all I say: 
Note.  if she be found to be a true Church of Christ, as it will appear one day, I do much fear that these her enemies, her slanderers, her disobedient and unruly children, will not be able to stand unconfounded before her Head, 
Reu. 22. 12.  & Husband, Christ jesus, who then will recompense to every one according to his works, even everlasting life to them, 
Rom. 2. 7. 8.  which through patience in well-doing seek glory, and honour, and immortality: but unto them, that are Contentious, and disobey the truth, indignation and wrath. It behooves us therefore for our better assurance of comfort and salvation, to know the true Church, and to cleave unto it being known.  
Seventhly, 
Rule 7.  let a man set his house in order, and dispose of his estate. 
Isay 38. 1.  It was the last wise work, which Achitophel performed. 
2. Sam. 17. 23.   
And finally, when death seemeth to approach (if it give him any warning; 
Acts 7. 59  as usually it doth) let him commend his soul with Steven into the hands of Christ, Lord jesus receive my Spirit, craving for mercy, and not forgetting that the joys of Heaven, after which he gaspeth, are far more complete, and are able to give a thousand times more true contentment to the soul of man, than all the transitory pleasures, profits, and preferments of this world can do. 
The death of the godly commended.  He that is thus composed for death, shall not die, but live for ever: his death shall be as a pleasant sleep: his grave as a bed: and his soul shall rest in peace with Christ, till the time appointed for the Resurrection of our bodies be fulfilled.  
Oh that men would think of these things, practise these things! Wouldst thou have comfort in thy death? then seek and sue for comfort in thy life. Wouldst thou be armed against the fear of death? 
1. Cor. 15. 56.  then die betimes to sin: Death is a Serpent, her sting is Sin: pull out the sting by true repentance, and thou needst not fear the Serpent: Death can not hurt thee, if thou hurt not thyself by sin. 
Note.  Death is not (Interitus) Death to the penitent, (Introitus) but an entrance into heaven: and the way is made, and the door is opened by true repentance, and by Faith in Christ, who is the Sun of our glory, and the Salvation of our soul, by whose death letum delethum, mortua mors est) death is defaced, 
Note.  and dead itself. But wouldst thou give hope of the truth of thy turning? then turn, whilst thou mayst run on, repent when thou mightest yet sin: defer not thy turning till thy death, lest it be thought that the world doth forsake thee, and not thou the world, and that sin rather leaves thee, than thou dost leave sin, and that the cause of this turning is, not the love of GOD and godliness, but the fear of death, and the apprehension of damnation only. Take heed therefore, and deal plainly with thyself. I know many men think well of themselves, and would count themselves much injured, 
A false imagination of sundry persons  if they should be censured as evil members, which yet how they will avoid, I cannot see. This is my reason, they are notorious and ordinary profaners of the Lords day; even those hours, that are destinated to the public worship of GOD, even those very hours, are misspent usually in eating and drinking, in buying and sclling and gaming.  
This is a mortal sin (stat against the Law of God and his Church) 
Ex. 20. 8. 10.  and is commonly practised of many: how is it possible for these Sinners to have any true comfort? How can they be saved? Undoubtedly so continuing they are in the state of death, 
Rom. 6. 16.  and not in the state of grace. 
1. Joh. 3. 8. 9  For he that oheyes sin is the Servant of sin, is not borne of God, doth not serve God. And there is no way to scape but by true repentance, 
Ezek. 18. 21.  which consists in Aversion from sin, and in Conversion unto God; 
Is. 1. 16. 17.  these are the two celestial Poles or Hinges, whereon repentance turneth. I name this one sin: but there are others, as drunkenness, whoredom and such like, which bear sway with many, and if they look not to it, will sway and weigh them down into the pit of Hell. It behoves us all therefore to look unto ourselves. Death and the judgement are the things most certain: but when, or how, or where our death shall happen, that we know not. If we should be taken away in our sins, all the world could not save us: but if we repent unfeignedly, then happy are we: death cannot come amiss: we may embrace it, kiss it, welcome it: we lose the earth, but we find Heaven, we go forth of the wilderness into Canaan, out of the Region of death into the Land of the living, the everliving, we go from Sinners to Saints, from Men to Angels, to God, with him to live in immortal glory, and in glorious immortality, in that Kingdom, wherein all shall be Kings, and of which there shall never be an end; unto the which, God for his mercy bring us through jesus Christ, unto whom with their Holy Spirit be all honour, praise, and glory this day and evermore, Amen.  
Having finished our discourse of corporal (or temporary) death, it remaineth that we say something of Spiritual, and Eternal deatb. 
Of spiritual death.   
Spiritual death is either of the wicked, or of the godly.  
The spiritual death of the wicked is a certain spiritual separation of them from spiritual and Christian grace and goodness, when as they lie dead (without all godly feeling) 
Eph. 2. 1.  in sins and trespasses, their hearts being alienated from God, 
Col. 2. 13.  and true godliness.  
This is a most miserable kind of death: for they, that are thus dead, are the Servants of sin, the Vassals of Satan, the Children of wrath, out of the state of grace, and in the Region and shadow of death, liable to damnation, which to escape they can have no hope, while they continue in that estate.  
The spiritual death of the godly is threefold. 
The spiritual death of the Godly, is threefold.   
The first is, whereby they are dead to sin. This death stands in the disallowing and condemning sin in the judgement, in the nilling and refusing it in the will; in the hatred of it and grieving for it in the affections, and finally in the declining and forsaking it in the life and conversation.  
This death is the separation of the soul from the approbation, 
What death to sin is.  love and embracing of wickedness. It is of God through Christ, and with much comfort and contentment. For he, that dies to sin, shall never die for sin: he that dies to sin, doth live to God: and whosoever lives unto God in this world, shall live for ever with GOD in the world to come. 
The pre-eminence of a Saint.  To die to sin is to live a Saint: and precious in the sight of the Lord is both the life and the death of his Saints. They be like the Mountain that was not to be touched: 
Ex. 19 12.  They that touch you (saith the Lord) touch the apple of mine eye: 
Zak. 2. 8.  and we know that the apple of the eye is very tender.  
The second Spiritual death of the Godly is whereby they are dead to the Law: 
Rom. 7. 4.  and this is because the Law doth not condemn them, 
Gal. 2. 16. 19  
Note.  that are in Christ jesus, who by justifying us through his righteousness doth deliver us from the curse of the Law, and rids the conscience of those terrors, which the Law might cause by sin unpardoned.  
The third death Spiritual of the Godly is, whereby the world is crucified or dead to them, and they dead unto the world. 
Gal. 6. 14.   
The World is dead to them, 
When the World is dead to a man.  when as they dote not on the world, but contemn all worldly things, and account them as nothing in comparison of Christ jesus, and his benefits. This death is very needful: for he, that lives to the World, lives not unto GOD: and he lives to the World, to whom the World is not dead, but who doteth on the World, shall perish with the World: he that lives not to God in this life, shall not live with God in the life to come.  
Godly men are said to be dead to the World, 
How a man is said to be dead to the World.  when the World coutemnes them, hates them, persecutes them, and wisheth (as it were) to be rid of them. This kind of death is the ordinary portion of the Godly. For they being not of the World, 
job. 15. 19 & 16. 3.  but of God, whom the World knows not, and being but as Foreigners and Strangers, it is no marvel if the World frown on them, 
1. Pet. 2. 11.  and show herself an unkind Stepmother towards them, it is no wonder though wicked Worldlings beat them, bite them, bark at them, and fly at their throats: for thus Dogs use to deal with Strangers, which they know not.  
And thus much we have seen what death is in respect of the World, to wit, the Separation and abalienation of our hearts from the World, or of the World from us: and so much also for Spiritual death.  
The third kind of death is called Eternal death, 
Reu. 22. 8  or the second death, 
What eternal death is.  which is the Separation of the soul from God, or the everlasting punishment of the whole man, consisting of soul and body, from the comfortable presence of GOD, 
2. Thes. 1. 9  in hell fire.  
The Provider and Inflicter of this death is God, 
God the inflicter of eternal death.  who is a most just judge, Whose very soul doth hate the wicked, 
Psal. 11. 5.  and him that loves iniquity. Tophet (which indeed is Hell) is prepared of old. 
Is. 30. 33.  He hath made it deep and large; the burning thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord like a River of brimstone doth kindle it. By which we see that hell-fire is prepared, and kindled by the Lord.  
Now God doth not ordain and inflict death for itself, 
Note.  as if he did delight in death and destroying: but it is for the clearing of his justice: for if wicked men should never be punished, they would imagine either GOD is not, or that he is not just. But all the world shall know that God both is, and that he is just, and therefore he will punish wicked sinners, 
Rom. 2. 5. 8.  and by that mean declare his just judgement against vicious wretches.  
The deserving cause of death of sin, 
Death the fruit of sin.  as ignorance of God, disobedience of the truth, especially of the Gospel of Christ jesus, 
Rom. 6. 23.  and obedience of unrighteousness, 
2. Thes. 1. 8.  as the Apostle showeth, as also want of charity, 
Rom. 2. 8.  and charitable behaviour towards the poor and needy members of Christ jesus, as he himself doth teach us. 
Matth. 25. 41. 42.  Neither are these sins only meritorious of death, but even every sin, though the smallest want of that, which the law requireth, is in itself odious, and deadly. For the wages of every sin is death.  
The persons subject to this death are all the Sons of Adam, 
Who are subject to eternal death.  is as much as all are Sinners: yet all of them shall not die this death, namely they that are redeemed by the blood of Christ, who by his death hath delivered them from this death, by them through sin deserved.  
Those than shall die this death, 
Who shall die this death.  that were reprobated of God, and who by their wickedness and hardness of heart, which could not repent, have treasured up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath. 
Math. 25. 41.  Depart from me, ye cursed, saith Christ into everlasting fire. The cursed then are they, that must die this accursed death. I never knew you saith Christ, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. They that shall die this death are such as Christ knew not, 
Math. 7. 23.  owned not, never acknowledged for his: and such as whiles they lived, were very hypocrites, nourishing some sin or other in their bosoms, though they did many glorious and good works, as preach, baptize, eject devils, cure diseases, and were perhaps of great account with men. The Apostle saith that the Lord jesus will render vengeance at his appearing unto them that know not God, 
2. Thes. 1. 8.  and obey not the Gospel. So that all, which are ignorant of God, and which disobey the Gospel of his Son, shall die this death.  
This than I say, All impenitent sinners shall be damned, all that believe not in jesus Christ, as Mahometaus, incredulous jews, and all other Infidels, and all that profess Christ in name, but deny him in example: All these living and dying without sound repentance shall die this death. And I prove it thus. 
joh. 8. 24.  Except ye believe, saith Christ, that I am he, you shall die in your sins: 
Note.  but the jews believe not that jesus the son of Mary was the Messias foretold: therefore they shall die in their sins. He that obeys not the Son, 
joh. 3. 36.  shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him: but neither jews nor Mahometans obey Christ jesus: Therefore neither of them shall live, but die. Peter being full of the holy Ghost said, 
Act. 4. 8. 11.  that Christ is the Stone, even the fundamental stone of man's salvation: Neither is there (quoth he) salvation in any other: 
1 Pet. 2. 4. 6  for among men there is given none other Name under heaven, 
Act. 4. 12  whereby we must be saved. All therefore, that either deny him, or believe not in him, and do not know him, whether jew, Turk, Persian, Moor, Indian, American, or who else soever, all such shall be damned, cannot be saved. 
Isa. 53. 11  For by his knowledge shall my righteous servant (Christ jesus) 
Gal. 2. 15. 16  Instifie many. And we, which are jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of jesus Christ. God (saith Saint john) hath given unto us eternal life, 
2. joh. 5. 11. 12  and this life is in that his Son. He that hath that Son, hath that life: and he that hath not that Son of God, hath not that life. But Mahometans, jews, and Infidels have not that Son, therefore they have not eternal life (in spe) and shall not have it (In Re,) 
In hope.  but so continuing shall undoubtedly die the damned death of the wicked, 
In actual possession.  for aught that man can tell.  
I say further, 
Note.  that those, which profess Christ in word and in show, but deny him by their deeds, addicting themselves to wicked lusts, as whoredom, pride, drunkenness, avarice, idleness, epicurism, those (I say) shall undoubtedly perish without mature and true repentance. 
1. Cor. 6. 9 10.  Know ye not (saith Saint Paul that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wantonness, nor buggers, nor theives, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. But among Christians there are offenders in all kinds of the sins aforesaid, therefore (if they shall die in them) they cannot possibly scape damnation. Our Lord saith, that The fearful and unbeleening, the abominable and murderers, whoremongers, 
Reu. 21. 8.  sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars (wherewith the Christian world aboundeth) shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And finally S. Jude speaking of sundry wicked Epicures cept into the Church, 
jude. 4. 13.  saith that for them is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.  
Thirdly, I say that all they which professing Christ do notwithstanding add unto the faith of Christ, 
Note.  and coin articles, which they do propose as necessarily to be believed to salvation, all such I say by this their presumption do cut themselves off from Christ, and shall undoubtedly perish except they shall repent. In like manner they that do take from the faith any essential point, and needful absolutely to salvation, they also are subject to damnation, which without repentance they cannot scape. Ye shall put nothing unto the word, which I command you, 
Deut. 4. 2. & 12. 32  neither shall ye take aught therefrom: It was twice at least given in charge by Moses. When Moses was now dead, and the government cast upon joshuah, God gave him the same lesson in effect: 
Josh. 1. 7.  Thou shalt not turn away from it to the right hand, nor to the left. In like manner Agur saith. Put nothing unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. 
Pro 30. 6.  I protest (saith Christ) to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man how precise, how pure, how holy, how austere, how sanctified soever he seem, or how learned soever he be, 
Reu. 22. 18. 19  and witty in the judgement of men, shall add unto these things, 
How dangegerous it is to tract or add unto the word of Christ.  God shall add unto him the plagues, that are written in this book, and if any man shall diminish of the words of the book (he meaneth the true sense and substance of the words) of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy City, and from those things which are written in this book. If any subject, or subjects shall presume to repeal the laws of the kingdom, or to make new laws, and to urge men to receive and obey them, the king in the mean time unacquainted with their proceeding, or disliking it, 
A Similitude.  they show themselves busy bodies, rebellious, turblent: and taking upon them as kings they incur the displeasure of the king, and deserve no better than death itself: even so are they the Children of death, 
Note.  who teach their Traditions in the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ, for the doctrines of God, and devise new articles of saith not heard of in the ancient Church, and press them upon us as necessarily to be believed, and they likewise, who destroy the faith, or maim it by their subtractions, and denials of Articles necessarily to be believed.  
Let them look to it therefore, 
As Antitrinitarians, Arians  that deny the Trinity, or the Divinity of Christ, and which deny salvation by Christ alone, and they, that teach worshipping of images, 
As Papists.  adoration of relics, prayer for the dead, transubstantiation, and all they, that believe it is of necessity to salvation, for every Christian to be subject to the Bishop of Rome, affirming all to be Heretics, that refuse him to be their chief Pastor on earth.  
Finally, 
No salvation for sinners during their impenitency.  all wicked and impenitent Sinners without exception of any, shall die this death. Wit, wealth, birth, beauty, strength, friends, attendants, these things cannot exempt them. Tophet is prepared for Kings, 
Isay 30. 33.  if wicked: and Christ (as Jude speaketh out of an ancient Prophecy) will rebuke All the ungodly. 
Jude 15.  Saul shall not be delivered by his crown, nor Nabal by his Coffers; Achitophel shall not be helped by his counsel, nor Absalon by his beauty, nor Haman by his honour, nor Caiaphas by his priesthood, nor any man by his greatness, by his high Offices, and spacious Kingdoms. These things cannot save the body from Death, much less able are they to save the soul from Hell. Nec prece, nec pretio: the judge will not be persuaded by prayer, nor blinded by bribing, nor perverted by any mean, 
Reu. 22. 12.  but will reward every man according as his work shall be, 
Rom. 2. 6.  without respect of persons.  
The nature of this death is not easily to be described to the full: 
Eternal cannot be fully described.  for neither hath the eye seen, nor the ear heard, neither hath it entered into man's heart to conceive the pangs and torments, that are prepared for the wicked. Only they, that feel them, are able (if able) to express them.  
Nevertheless seeing the Scriptures are not wholly silent, 
Three things about this death to be noted.  we may be bold to speak by their direction.  
First therefore the damned are deprived of the favour of GOD, 
1. Paena damni.  and the comfort of his presence.  
Secondly, 
Paena Sensus.  they do endure horrible and very painful punishments, both in Soul and body.  
Thirdly, 
Aeternitas Paenae  their pains are endless, their tortures abide without ease for ever.  
All these three Saint Paul affirmeth in one Verse together, 
2. Thes. 1. 9  when he saith, they shall be Punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. Here is (Paena Damni) the punishment of loss and lack at the least expressed, and the eternity of it, if not also (Paena Sensus) the punishment of feeling pangs, and torments: but our Saviour showeth that the wicked shall suffer Everlasting Pain: 
Math. 25. 46.  and Esay saith that their worm shall never die, 
Esay 66. 24.  nor their fire be quenched. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Planè fltetus ex dolore, stridor dentium ex furore, They shall weep (saith Bernard) for sorrow, and grind their te-th through rage. Hell fire is full of pain, and altogether void of comfort. 
In fire two things.  In fire there are two things, heat and light: hell-fire is hot, but dark: if it give light, it is not the light of comfort, but of misery, to let the damned see those things, which might affright and grieve them. 
Note.  But this fire is not (as I suppose) such fire as ours is, neither is their worm such a worm as creeps upon the earth, or as is bred in our body: 
hell-fire is not like our fires.  but it pleaseth the Holy Ghost by these words to point out, and as by simitudes to show unto us the griefs and gripes of the damned, which shall be with much pain and horror, as the burning of a fire, or the gnawing of worms. 
Lib. 4. de ortho. c. 28.  The Devil and the wicked (saith Damascene) shall be delivered up into everlasting fire, Non materialem, qualis est apud nos, not unto a material fire, as is with us, but into such as is known to God. And Saint Austen doth thus somewhere dispute about this point: 
Lib. de cogn. verae vitae c. 40.  If the fire of Hell be corporal, it must be fed by corporal fuel, which being once wasted it also must go out, But it's certain that hell-fire shall never fail, therefore it is spiritual: but if it be a corporal fire, but by creation everlasting, then must the souls of men feel a corporal fire  
The Gluttons Soul in the parable was tormented grievously, 
Luke 16.  burned extremely: but with what fire? with hell-fire indeed; but it is improbable that elemenrary or bodily fire could affect a spirit out of the body.  
But let us not dispute what kind of fire it is, 
Note.  but rather study to keep ourselves from feeling it.  
This fire, 
Math. 25. 41.  saith Christ, is everlasting, semper urens, nunquam exurens: torquet, non extorquet: punit, sed non finite: it always burns, but never burns them up: it pains them but kills them not: it afflicts, but ends not. It is called Ignis inextinguibilis fire unquenchable: for it neither is put out itself, neither doth it extinguish those, whom it doth torment.  
hell-fire (saith S. Gregory) seeing it is (incorporeus) not bodily, 
In 20. cap. job.  it is neither kindled by the help of man, nor fed with wood, but being once made it continueth unquenchable, and stands not in need to be kindled, neither wants it heat.  
Neither must it seem hard that the pains of the wicked must endure ever, 
Note.  For though indeed their lives had an end, 
Why the death of the damned is for ever.  some sooner, some later, yet if we consider the infinity of his person, whom they sinned against, and again that their sins left an immortal and indelible stain in their souls, and finally the eternal aversion of their wills, that if they had lived ever, they would have sinned ever: if we consider these things (I say) it will appear there is no cruelty or injustice in the Lord to punish them with eternal perdition, so as that their death shall be without death, their wants without want, their destruction without destruction.  
And that, 
The companions of the damned. The Place.  which doth aggravate their misery is that their companions are no better than the Devils, and the place of their abode no sweeter no better than Hell itself, which of all places in the world is the worst, the habitation of Devils, void of order, full of horror, ubi nulla spes boni, nulla desperatio mali, where there is no hope at all of any good, and no despair of evil.  
But yet in Hell there shall be differences and degrees of pains, 
Difference of torments.  even as in heaven there will be degrees of glory: For pro disparibus ponderibus peccatorum, 
Lib. 4. contr. Donat. c. 19 de Bap.  erunt etiam disparia tormenta paenarum) as Saint Augustine speaketh according to the different degrees of sins there shall be different degrees of torments. The servant, that knows his masters will, 
Luke 12. 47.  and doth it not, shall be worse beaten than he, that knows it not, and doth it not. Christ tells the Scribes and Pharisees that, because under the cloak of Religion they preyed on Widows, therefore they should Receive the Greater damnation: 
Math. 23. 14. 15  and says that they make their seduced proselytes Two fold more the children of Hell, than themselves. And speaking of them, that contemn the Gospel offered them, 
Math. 10. 15.  he saith, It shall be easier for them of the land of Sodom and Gomorrha, in the day of judgement, then for that City.  
As for the situation of Hell; 
Where Hell is.  to say precisely where hell is, 
Isay 30. 33.  it is not easy: below it's doubtless, as may appear by sundry places of the Scripture, 
Luke 16. 26.  and far from heaven: 
Reu. 9 11. & 20. 3. & 17. 8.  but that there is an Hell, to wit, 
Num. 16. 30. 33  a place appointed for the tormenting of wicked Angels, 
Jude 6.  and ungodly men, it is clear enough: our chiefest care should be so to demean ourselves that we may never come there. 
2. Pet, 2. 4.   
And assuredly whosoever is in the state of grace shall never come into that horrid place prepared 
Note.  
Whom Hell shall not receive.  only for graceless and wicked people.  
He is in the state of grace, 
Who is in the state of grace.  which depends wholly on the grace of God, which turns not his grace into wantonness, which delights not in ungracious wretches, which maketh much of those means of grace, which God hath in his Church: and finally, who out of a grateful spirit doth bestow himself, his soul & service upon God, labouring tooth and nail with might and main for the advancement of his honour, and the welfare of his house, which is the Church, being sorry at the heart that his service is so simple, his weaknesses so many, and his obedience so unperfect as it is, Certainly this man shall not die, but live eternally: not hell, but: heaven shall be his habitation: God doth honour him with his grace in this world, and will crown him with eternal glory in the world to come.  
Trin-Vni Deo Gloria.   

Because these few pages left untouched should not be lost, I have set down some Positions which are not disagreeing from the matter handled.  

The first Position.  
Death is not the End of man, if we speak properly.  
THE end is that properly, to which a thing is ordained, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Aristot.  or for which it is, But when God mad: a man, death was not the end he shot at: dissolution is not the scope of God's creation, nor of Parent's generation. Again, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  the End by itself and of it own natnre is only good: but death of itself and in it own nature is not good, but the privation of life, which is a certain good: death came in by sin, is the fruit of sin, 
1 Cor. 15. 26.  and is (as the Apostle showeth) an Enemy. which shall be destroyed as an enemy: and therefore death properly is not good, but evil: therefore properly death is not the end of man. Furthermore, Finis est, quod maximè volumus, that is the end, which we do chiefly desire: but neither God nor man doth chiefly desire death. A good Christian desires death, not for itself, but to be with Christ, to be unburdened of his concupiscence. Many men out of distemper of mind and an ill-informed will do covet death, and kill themselves: but yet it is not for death itself, but for some respect beside: as Cato Vticensis killed himself with his own sword, because he would not fall into the hands of julius Caesar: Sophronia to keep her chastity from the lust of Decius the Emperor, who daily assaulted it by her husband's consent slew herself: Portia the wife of Brutus, unable to bear the news of her husband's death, killed herself with eating burning coals: Labienus hearing his books were condemned to the fire, killed himself, because they should not die before him. Silvius Italieus murdered himself to rid himself of the torments of his grievous and incurable disease. Pontius Pilate, being banished to Vienna, and feeling the gripes of an accusing conscience, and fearing punishment for his misdeeds, to prevent all, killed himself. These and such like are the ends of Selfe-slayers, and not death itself. And albeit God do appoint men to die, yet it is not death he aims at, but the manifestation of his justice in punishing sin, of his power in raising men dead to life, and for such ends, as are best known unto himself.  
To conclude then, 
Aristot. lib. 1. de Anima.  Death is not properly a man's end non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the highest scope of God's creation: nor a man's perfection or be atitude, which is the full and final fruition of Almighty God: but it is a certain Extreme, or the end of privation, which end is the corruption and the dissolution of a thing.   

The second Position.  
It is just with God to smite Sinners with death, even in the very act of their wickedness, and with that wherein they do offend.  
COrnelius Gallus and Quintus Elorius, two Roman Knights died (as Pliny lib. 7. recordeth) in the very action of filthiness. Arichbertus, eldest son to Lotharius King of France died, as he was embracing his whores. Anacreon the Poet, a notable Drunkard, was choked with the husk of a grape. A certain African called Donitius eat so much at a Supper that he died there with. Philostrates being in the Baths at Sinressa, devoured so much wine, that he fell down the stairs, and almost broke his neck with the fall. Alexander the son of Basilius and Brother of Leo the Emperor, being a very belly-god, one day having crammed himself too full, as he got up his horse, he burst a vein, whereat flowed such store of blood that he died. These and many more such are the judgements of GOD upon Sinners and are in him most just. For first his will is the rule of justice: but these punishments he doth will and ordain (for there is no evil in the City, no punishment, which he sendeth not): therefore these must needs be just. 
Rom. 6. 23.  Secondly they are deserved: for the wages of sin is death: 
Note.  and in that God doth not strike every Sinner alike, the reason is, because he is tied to no Law, but is a Law unto himself, and may do what he will. But sometimes he is pleased to smite suddenly, to terrify the wicked, and to keep his own in obedience, and to let all men know that there is a God, that judgeth the world, and hateth wickedness, and wicked men.   

The third Position.  
A wicked man, though wickedly and cruelly murdered, is not not therefore discharged of his wickedness unrepented of, and saved.  
SEnacherib was murdered of his sons, 
2. King. 19 37.  yet for that his own Idolatry & other sins were not forgiven. For men are not saved for any good thing either done by them, or for any evil sustained of them. The Eastern Emperor Zeno was such a loathsome Belly-god, that his wife Ariadne fell to loath him, and on a day as he lay senseless (as his manner was) through gormandizing, she got him into a tomb, and throwing a great stone upon it, pined him to death. This was a just punishment of a glutton, in regard of God, though unjust in respect of her, that did it. This than I say, If a man out of the state of grace be murdered, or die by an injust sentence of the Magistrate, yet he is not therefore delivered from the sentence of God, but must suffer as he hath deserved; that his untimely death being also long of his sin. And though a wicked man or one not within the state of grace may die not deserving it of man, as Archelaus King of Macedonia, who was murdered of one Cratenas, whom he loved dearly, or as that forenamed father was of Adrameleke and Sarasar his sons, yet is this their death justly sent from God, whom they knew not, worshipped not, served not, as they should have done. Yea their death may be justly punished in their murderers (as Cratenas was himself also after murdered) and yet death deserved at the hands of God. For though God and the murderer agree in the act, yet not in their grounds and ends: God therefore pursues the murderer, because he violates his law so souly, he not bidding him, 
Why God punisheth a murder, which he doth permit.  but forbidding him to murder, and putting no malice into his heart to make him murder, giving him no commission, but only a certain permission, which God being Lord of all, and bound to no man, may justly do.   

The fourth Position.  
The number of such as shall suffer eternal death, is greater than of them that shall be saved.  
MAny are called, 
Math. 20. 16.  but few in comparison of them are chosen: now none shall be saved but the chosen. There are, & have been many, that never had a verbal calling. An infinity of people there is at this day in the world, as of Turks, jews, Indians, Tartars, and other savage nations, in number beyond Christians: & of all that rabble there can be no hope of life, 
joh. 3. 18.  so long as they live out of the Church, 
Heb. 5. 9  and by no extraordinary favour, 
joh. 27. 9  know Christ, who himself doth teach that the way of life is straight, 
Math. 7. 13. 14.  and found of few, but that the way to death is broad, and full of travelers. And finally, even among Christians, only those shall be saved which embrace the true faith, and are obedient unto Christ, in those particular true visible. Churches, in which they were bred and baptised, and to the obedience of which God doth call and tie them. Now how few these are to heretics, schismatics, and other factious firebrands, and evil livers, as drunkards, fornicators, earthwormes, idle and unprofitable wretches, the multitude of sins and sinners which swarm like the flies of Egypt in City and country doth demonstrate.   

The fifth Position.  
Whosoever doth simply and sincerely will and desire to be delivered from eternal death, shall not die, but live eternally.  
I Make it plain thus; 
Note.  he that wills the end simply and sincerely, doth seek out means unto it, & doth use those means: for if he know the means whereby he may obtain his desire, & yet neglects to use them, and cares not for them, he shows his desire is but confused, uncertain, & unsincere. If therefore a man with an honest and true heart do will, wish, & desire to live, and to escape death, he will seek out means to accomplish his desire, & when he knows them, he will be careful to use them. It is an old and true saying, Wishers and Woulders were never good Householders: the meaning whereof is to tax the foolishness of such, as wish and would, but will take no pains, will use no means. An idle peeson would be rich, but he will not labour: a truant would be a scholar, 
Note.  but he will not study. The truth is that he, that indeed would enjoy a thing, will use means to compass it: If then I would not die, but live, I must not run on in sin, I must not distrust God, I must not disobey the Church of Christ, and kindle coals of contention, I must not contemn the word and Sacraments, but I must believe in Christ, repent of my sin, beg their pardon, reverence my Minister, love my Brethren, and take heed I give no offence. 
Ezek. 18. 21.  Now he, that doth carefully use the means of life, 
joh. 3. 16.  and avosdes the ways of death, shall undoubtedly live, and not die. But he, that saith, I would live, I would not die, and yet goes the broad way, and regards not the narrow path, this man surely is wrong: his will is not simple and sincere, but confused and misshapen; and except he reform his course, he shall perish notwithstanding his wishing and woulding. 
Note.  Tell me, if a man shall say, he would be in health, and yet will use no means of health, no good diet, no labour, nor the like, but delights only in eating, drinking, glouzing, sleeping, idleness; tell me, does this man indeed will health, and a good temper of body? He doth not doubtless: he may wish health, but he will take no pains for it, which argues very foolishness. Every man would be saved, who would die? Balaam would not: no man would: yet in the mean time who useth the means? Who leaveth his sins? Who fighteth with his lusts? Who honoureth his Minister as the man of God? Who thirsteth after Christ? Who is loving and obedient unto the Church? Is not sin committed & countenanced? Is not the Sabbath commonly, and notoriously profaned? Do not oaths, drunkenness, pride, idleness, and hard-heartedness abound? And are not many to seek (as it were) in the Alphabet of religion. They know not which is the true Church, which are the people of God, which is his house. 
Note.  What miserable times do we live in! How vain is the world! Men would fain live, they would not die, they say, and yet they care not for the ways of life, whereas if men did truly and effectually will to live, and to avoid death, they would not run the broad way, but would show themselves wise men, that is, as well seek out and use the means as affect the end.   

The sixth Position.  
Though a man feel not the fruits and working of the Spirit in him, yet he must not despair of life, and think he is ordained to death, and must needs be damned.  
A Man may be called before death, though now he be in sin over head and ears, 
Isay 59  and altogether void of mercy: God's arm is never too short to save, his ear is never too dull to hear: neither doth any man know what the purpose of God is. Paul was as bad as one God; did call him, & so was the Thief, that was called on the Cross.  
Again, a man may be in the state of grace, and yet sometimes feel no comfort, 
Note.  no working of the Spirit, even as a man in a swoon or sleep doth live, though he knows not so much, and a child (we see) lives before it knows it lives.  
I say finally, what though thou feelst no grace? what though thou be'st nothing so good, as thou shouldst be? Wilt thou therefore despair? Is there no way with thee, thinkest thou, but death? Wrong not thyself: where is thy faith? we live by faith, and not by feeling. It is not thy graces in thee, that doth save thee, it is God's grace in Christ unto thee, of which grace thou mayst be partaker, though thou feelest no graces in thee. 
Note.  And know this, that it is not so much thy love of God and thy knowledge of Christ, which is saving to thee, as God's love, whereby he loves thee, as Christ's knowledge, whereby he knows thee, who knows and loves thee before and better, 
1. joh. 4. 10. 19  than thou canst know and love him. And certainly, if thou dost earnestly seek and affect his grace, thou hast grace: for it is a grace to desire grace: and it argues that, if thou dost truly seek Christ for Christ, thou hast already found Christ, or rather that Christ hath found thee. And finally, what if thou findest not all the works of the Spirit in thee? 
Note.  If thou findest but one, there is reason of quietness. If feeling no grace, thou dost feelingly desire and covet grace, one drop of grace, this is a grace, a voice of the Spirit, and there is reason of comfort, and why thou shouldst not be dismayed. One green leaf upon a Tree will show the tree is alive, one sigh doth argue life. 
Note.  This than I say, if out of the want of Christ thou desirest Christ, if feeling the want of the Spirit thou dost desire and pant after the Spirit, assure thyself thou art not void of grace, Christ doth love thee, the Spirit hath taken possession of thee: stand not in thine own light, be not over wise, but be ruled, and remember that Christ cries, 
Mat. 11. 28.  Come, unto them, that are heavy laded, 
Mat. 12. 20.  and is so pitiful that he will not quench the smoking Flax nor break the bruised Reed. (⸪)   
Trin-Vni Deo Gloria.  
FINIS.