A SERMON OF MORTALITY: Preached at the Funerals of Mr. THOMAS MAN. AT KINGSTON in SURREY, FEB. xxi. 1649. ISAIAH 40. VER. 6, 7, 8. A voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever. LONDON, Printed by RICHARD CONSTABLE, for the Author, 1650. To his honoured Friend Mr. ABRAHAM COLFE, Minister and Pastor of the Church of CHRIST at Lewisham in Kent. Honoured Sir; IN reverence to your Person, and in regard to your venerable Age, I have made choice of you to be the Patron of this Funeral Sermon: I present to your Eyes, what lately you heard with your Ears: It was Penned and Preached upon the occasion of your much esteemed Brother's death, and at the solemnising of his Funerals: Your Christian Wisdom, according to the pregnancy of your Wit and Apprehension, hath approved hereof, and recommended it to the Press. I intended it should have ended in the delivery of it; but yielding to your just importunity, and the benefit of some private Friends, I have made it public: Besides these are dying Times, and mine is but a Sermon of Death to the Living: All that I desire is to mind us of our Mortality, to mind us of our Condition, that we are here as Strangers and Pilgrims; that we have here no abiding nor continuing City; that we dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, which shortly must be broken in pieces. The Lord fit us for the day of dissolution, and the hour of our departure: The Lord grant that our last hour may be our best hour; that our work may be done before our day be done: That when we shall come to die, we may have nothing else to do but to die: For the hour of death will be the busy hour, than Satan will be busy, and Conscience will be busy: These things the Lord of Heaven and Earth root in our hearts. Sir, I desire the Almighty God to bless and prosper you; the Lord accomplish unto you your honourable and charitable intentions; And so I rest, Yours, in all Christian observancy truly devoted, R. G. IN OBITUM Viri Amplissimi, & Integerrimi THOMAE MAN, Civis LONDINIENSIS. AD Dn. ABRAHAMUM COLFIUM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fratrem; Ecclesiae Lewishamensis in Cantijs Ministrum & Pastorem Vigilantissimum. V. B. REIP. N. PRINCIPIBUS nasci, claroque à sanguine Regum, In fortuitis praedicant veteres Sophi. At non Principibus diversus contigit ortus, Quàm qui tenenti sarculun obdurâ manu. Sed repetunt etiam prima incunabula & illi, Et sortiuntur funera cum plebe paria. Nam neque fas Hominis prognatum semine quenquam, Est quicquid Humanum, à se alienum credere. Huic quoque natus HOMO cùm sit, tam Nomine, quàm Re, Obire certum est omnia vitae munia. Extremo moriens igitur neque deficit actu: Sed & sup rema jura naturae subit. Hoc voluit rerum series, supremus & ordo. Et Universi lex, stabiles servans vices. AT met as inter longinquas mortis, & ortus, Quid deceat Hominem publico natum bono; Id verò obnixâ est sapientis quaerere curâ Et quo perennet maximè nomen modo. Hoc docuit longo concessae tempore vitae, Et mortuus quoque Noster hic adhuc docet: Inprimis celebrare Deum, Christique benignis Meritis reponere unicam fiduciam. Dein Hominem natum sese meminisse, nec ultrà, Humana quâm quod vis queat, contendere; Et casus contra firmato incedere vultu: Humanitúsque ferre quaecunque accidant. Seque parem magnis praestare doloribus, illos Frangendo mentis strenuae patientiâ. Spargere per populos varia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 latè, Quàmplurimis & benefacere mortalibus. Posse voluptates, & luxum spernere mollem, Virtutis uti rigidum decet satellitem. Pectora cui tandem sunt has exculta per artes, Laticésque veri luminis vidit sacros; Ille lubens, gratánsque, potest occurrere fato. Haud esse fortuita Noster haec docet. Ita censuit GULIEL. BURTONUS; Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scripsit, Regiovici ad Thamesim in Regnis. A SERMON OF Mortality. JOB. 14. VER. 14. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my Change come. IN this Chap. tanquam in Speculo, as in a Glass, you may behold, Statum humanum, Man's State and Condition: His lamentable Ingression into the World, his sad Progression in the World, and his miserable Egression out of the World: The original of this disquiet and trouble is GOD'S Curse on the Woman; Man that is borne of a Woman is of short days, and full of trouble, ver. 1. In the following Verses he is likened to a Flower, for his fading; to a Shadow for his declining; and his days to the days of a Hireling: Nay, he showeth man's bodily condition to be worse than a Tree; for a Tree cut down may grow again in the same place, but a man cannot: Ver. 7. for there is hope of a Tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease; Ver. 8. though the Root wax old in the Earth, and the Stock thereof die in the Ground, Ver. 9 yet through the sent of water it will bud, and bring forth Boughs like a Plant: Ver. 10. But Man dyeth and wasteth away, is weakened or cut off; yea man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? In regard of bodily life, he is not; he lieth down, and riseth not, till the Heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their Sleep. This Verse, that I have chosen for the present Occasion, acquaints us with these three things; 1. The Frailty of this life present. 2. The Certainty of the life to come. 3. Our Care and Watchfulness to be performed in the one, that we may enter into the other. First, we have our frail Condition in these words, If a man die; Implying by force of Logic this peremptory Proposition, Man must die. Secondly; the Certainty of our Resurrection in these words, by way of Question, Shall he live again? Where by a Question of Admiration, he puts it out of all doubt and question, That man dying, shall surely rise, and live again. Thirdly, the Duty of waiting for this Dissolution and Restitution of the Body, in these words, All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my Change come. The words afford us three Doctrines. First, the End and Term of life is appointed, and die we must by ordinary Prescription; and this is, Mors in olla, Death is our Lot. Secondly, a Change shall come by Death, and there shall be a general Resurrection; and this is Spes in Urnâ, Hope in the Grave. Thirdly, we ought daily to Prepare for Death, and to live in continual Expectation thereof; and this is, Viaticum in via, Provision in the way. First, the Term of our life is appointed, and die we must, no avoiding hereof; And that for these Reasons: First, it is GOD'S Will and Decree, ver. 5. His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast set his bounds that he cannot pass: As he set bounds to the Sea, hither shalt thou come, and no further, so thus long shalt thou live, and no longer. 39 Psal. 5. Thou hast made my days (saith David) as an hands breadth. If GOD hath made them but an hands breadth, who can make them longer? Pilate would not alter his Writing. 19 Joh. 22. Nor GOD his Decree that is gone out. It was the first Doctrine preached to man after his Fall. 3 Gen. 19 Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Not by any necessity of his created Nature, but because he finned, GOD threatneth to make his End as base as his Beginning. Die than we must; Dance all in Death's Ring; sooner or later we shall be cut down by the Axe of Death, to be Fuel for Burning, or Timber for Building; to become a cursed Brand in Satan's Furnace, or a blessed Beam in CHRIST'S Palace: GOD hath passed upon Adam's posterity this sentence of Temporal Condemnation, Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return: All of us (without some extraordinary Dispensation, as that of Enoch and Elias was) are liable to the same. 5 Gen. 24. 2 Kings 2.11. Secondly, through the contagion of original Sin; Sin is the wicket that let Death into the World. 5 Rom. 12. As by one man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin, and so Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned: Sin hath given Death much advantage and victory over humane nature, that the kernel of a Raison, yea a hair in Milk hath choked and killed a man, as it did Anacreon, * Val. Max. lib. 9 cap. 12. and Fabius the Roman, and laid him lower than the beasts of the earth; for they lie upon the ground, while he is laid under it. Thirdly, from the Matter whereof the body of man consists: The original of man's body is Dust, 2 Gen. 7. Homo ab humo: Not any durable matter, as Marble and Rocks, against which the Winds blowing, and the Waves beating cannot prevail, 7 Mat. 25. but like Dust before the Wind, 18 Psal. 42. 4 job. 19 We dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust; i. e. in mortal bodies subject to corruption; which are crushed before the Moth; sooner and with less labour than the Moth is crushed, which is killed only with a little touch. 2 Corinth. 5.1. The Apostle calls it an Earthly house or Tabernacle; For we know that if our Earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved, etc. St. Paul who was a * 18 Acts 3. St. Paul exercised a handicraft & wrought with Aquila, whose Trade was to make Tents of skins, then much in use in those hot countries. view Anot. on the Acts Tentmaker, elegantly compareth our body to a Tent, and that in many regards. First, a Tent or Tabernacle is easily raised up, and as easily taken down and spoilt; so is our body by sickness or outward violence; come but one ill night, one little touch of a Fever, some pain in the Side, or imperfection in the Lungs, come the stone in the Bladder, Abijt illa universa Scaena, all the Stage vanisheth. Secondly, a Tent is a movable House or Habitation; so are our Bodies, which are now like Tents pitched upon the Earth, but shall be hereafter transported into Heaven. Thirdly, a Tent is foul without, and soiled with Wind and Wether; so the Body and Outside of man is but vile, and contemptible, subject to blasts and storms, exposed to all the violence of Nature. Now that I may the better rivet the Truth into your Minds and Memories, consider with me, that the walk of Death is Universal, not some men die, but all; all that have breath must lose it and all that have life must leave it; as the Woman of Tekoah told K. David, 2 Sam. 14. cap. We must all die; you a Sovereign, and I a Subject; you a Man, and I a Woman, We must needs die, and be as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, We shall all be desperately lost; I have seen an end of all perfection, said Holy David, 119 Psal. 96. There is nothing so perfect on Earth but it hath an end; David had a sight of this; Happy are they which have David's Eyes: It concerns us to look into this matter; And GOD requires us to listen to the Proclamation of man's Mortality, that he makes by his Prophet, 40 Isaiah, 6. * Quia per nativitatem viret in carne, per juventutem candescit in flore, per mortem aret in pulvere. Greg. in Ps. 5. Penitent. A Voice said cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodness, the gracefulness, the glory thereof is as the flawer of the field. GOD would have the Prophet discover the Vanity of all humane Excellency; to cry it in the Ears of the People; to make such a noise, that might rouse a man that were slumbering, awake a man that were sleeping, move a man that were musing; so careful is GOD that you should learn this Lesson: For, First, no Eminency of Office or Dignity can privilege thee; though thou sittest in the Chair of Earthly Dignity, Death will pull thee thence: 82 Psal. 6. I said ye are * Nuncupatiuè, non Substantiuè Gods [by Name, not by Nature] but ye shall die like men. No Title of Honour shall excuse you, die you must, and render an account, as well as other men. We have seen this Truth verified in our days: He that made the Earth of nothing, can mar the greatest in a moment: He bringeth Potentates to nothing, and maketh the judges of the Earth as Vanity. 40 Isa. 23. He poureth contempt upon Princes, says Job, 12.21. And looseth the Girdle of the Strong; i. e. For their Wickedness and Tyranny, He causeth their People and Subjects to contemn them. Secondly, no Strength or Stateliness of any Place or Palace can protect thee: Xenoph. in Apolog. pro Socrat. Socrates would live no longer, unless his Friends could tell him of a place without the Territories of Athens where men never die: And it was a pretty Answer of Hormisda the Persian Ambassador to Constantius the Emperor, demanding of him how he liked the City of Rome, with the Amphitheatrum, the Capitolium, and other such rich Monuments as were showed unto him: In truth I think it the most glorious City in the World; * Id tantum sibi placuisse quod didicis set ibi quoque homines mori. Ammian. Marcell. lib. 16. Sigon. de Occid. Imp. lib. 6. But this only pleaseth me well, that I see men die at Rome, as elsewhere. So it may be said of all other Eminent Places, and Renowned Cities, from which Death cannot be excluded: Enter it will upon thee; either at thy Gates with full force, or in at thy Windows with great fear: There is no possibility avoid it, as the Prophet * 9 Jer. 20,21. jeremiah from the LORD tells the Mourning. Women who were usually hired at great * 2 Chron. 35.25. Funerals to Mourn, and to make exquisite Lamentation, Hear the Word of the Lord, O ye Women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your Daughters Wailing, and every one her Neighbour Lamentation: 21 ver. For Death is come up into our Windows, and entered into our Palaces. Our strongest places cannot keep it out. Thirdly, nor the height of Honour or Estimation can privilege thee from the fatal Dart of Death: The Rich man's Gold it cannot guard him; the Wise man's Wit cannot ward him; the Knowledge of Learned men cannot keep it out, their Skill cannot save them; nor the Arms and Trophies of Noblemen exempt them; nor the * Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres. Horat. lib. 1. Od. 4. Guard of Kings deliver them. Visuntur magni parva sepulchra jovis. * Paulus Jovius, de vita Illustr. Tamburlaine the Terror of the World died with three fits of an Ague: And Saladine that that Mighty Pagan, which won the Holy Land from the Christians, in the height of his Pride and Ruff, in the midst of all his Pomp and Glory, in the top of his Honours was surprised by Death; and the Solemnity he had at his Interment was only this, one carrying his Shirt or Shroud one a Spear or Spade, crying, * G. Parad. in Heroicis. Hae sunt reliquiae Victoris Orientis. This is all that Great and Mighty Saladine the Conqueror of the East carrieth to his Grave. You see then die we must; thou canst not withdraw thyself from it; no place can privilege thee; no power protect thee; no strength defend thee. GOD alone hath an eternal Being, according to that expression of the Apostle, 13 Heb. 8 JESUS CHRIST the same yesterday and to day, and for ever; an Incomprehensible Being, an Independent Being. GOD alone can say, * 3. Ex. 14. I am that I am, and will be what I have been: Men may say nothing else, but I am, and shall not be: I am to day a fresh and lusty creature, perhaps to morrow smitten like jonahs' withered Gourd, or Palmarist, jonah 3.7. To this agreeth the * Plutarch. Lacedaemonian Song consisting of three parts; The * Quondam alij, nunc nos, subitò crescentque minores, Quorum nos stirpem sata videre negant. Elder sang, We have been strong, and are not now; The Youth replied, We shall be strong but are not yet; The Middle-age sang, We are now strong but shall not be: All men must needs sing this note. Now I shall further demonstrate this unto you: And first from things above us, secondly from things about us: First, look above you, there you see the Sun that glorious creature over you daily rising and setting; the Moon monthly waxing and waning; the Stars shining, and anon shutting: What doth this but tell us, hold out unto us, that we who now rise must set; who now wax must wain; who now shine and glitter must shortly shut and fall? Secondly, look about you; * Vtque notus frondes ad terram dejicit imam post alias viridi prod●cunt ver●ice sylvae, sic g●…s humanum rursùs crescitque caditque. Glauc. apud hom. In your fields and gardens, you see the Trees and Flowers now flourishing, anon withered; Doth it not teach us, that we who now flourish must perish? Look to the Sea, now flowing and filling high banks, anon ebbing; Doth it not teach us, that our life which is now at full tide, must be at a low ebb; we must be emptied by Death. 1. Consider the Apparel on your backs, the Gloves on your hands, the Shoes on your feet, the Meat on your tables; All teach and instruct us, that these bodies of ours which are kept alive by the death of other creatures, must at last yield to Death. Consider the several parts of your bodies. 1. Your Eyes every night dying in sleep, do show that we at last must sleep in Death. 2. The Hair and Nails calling for poling and shaving, tell us that the whole body must shortly be shaved by Death. 3. The Stomach still digesting our meat, and craving for more, sheweth the unsatiableness of the Grave, which having eaten and digested our Friends, gapes for us; and when it hath devoured us, will hunger for them that must come after us. 4. This very place showeth we must die; the action that we are about, this last function of Charity to our deceased Brother, that it will not be long ere our Friends must meet here, or elsewhere to requite our kindness, by doing the like for us: My Text tells us we shall die. All things in this life make way for Death, that she may triumphantly pass through the field of this world, over the carcases of her slain. Thus Death rules on Earth, as Eternity in Heaven; there all live, here all die. The Dominion of Death is Universal: 'Tis a Clock that always strikes; a Sword that always executeth; a Snare which always entrapeth; a Sea whereinto all Rivers run, wherein all Ships suffer wrack; a Pain which every one must endure; a Tribute which every one must pay; sooner or later thou must taste of Death's cup; even in the furthest and fairest path of Nature thou art not far from it; and the day will shortly come, when thou shalt live in the morning, and at night be dead. But I must look into my second Doctrine, namely, there shall be a Resurrection, a Restitution of the body from the Grave. 'Tis neither total, nor perpetual: It strikes upon the base part; the body is dead because of Sin. Rom. 8.10. We shall live again, none may deny it: All the people of GOD have a holy persuasion of this Truth; there is an impression in them of their Immortality; this hath been a nail of the Sanctuary to keep them from desperate distractions, to set them forward to Perfection, to make them undaunted in the terrors of Death: job was hereof persuaded, * Job. 19.24,25. I shall llve again: He was undauntedly assured hereof; so assured that he would have it written, and how? Not in lose Papers, but in a Book, O that my words were written! And not only written, but engraven! and that with an Iron-pen, in lead, or in stone, to endure, not for a time only, but for ever, for the solace and comfort of all the distressed Saints of God: David in his distress anchored in this Hold; * 27 Ps. 13. Verily I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living: St. Paul was ravished with the assurance of life after death; his note ever after was to be dissolved, * Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to be dissolved, or resolved into my first Principles, or to be discharged or released out of the prison of my body, that I may presently be with CHRIST my Saviour in Heaven, in rest and in bliss. View Annot. in Philip. Now a word or two of my third Doctrine, and I shall make Application. A Change will come, and we must daily expect it. We are all desirous of Change; Adam would be changed, 3 Gen. He had enough Wisdom, he would be as wise as his Maker: And * 2 Sam. 15. Absolom would be changed, he would sit in his Father's Throne, and of a Subject become a Sovereign: Solomon would have change of Wives, 1 K. 11.3. 700 whom he solemnly married: The Israelites would change Samuel for Saul. 1 Sam. 5.8. And the food of Angels for the fleshpots of Egypt. 11 Numb. 4,5,6. Men affect alterations, chopings and changes, but we seldom or never remember the great Change of which the Apostle speaks, 3 Phil. 21. Who shall change our vile bodies, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Beza Annot. the body of our vileness, that it may like unto His glorious body, or the body of his glory. We never think of this Change. O the glorious estate that a child of God shall be transchanged into! this corruptibility and mortality shall be changed into incorruptibility and immortality: But I will fall Application. upon the Application of these Points; Application being the Life of Doctrines. The use in gerall that we are to make of all this precedent Discourse, is to prepare for Death and Dissolution. We read in Solomon's distribution of times, that * Eccl. 3.2. there is a time to be borne, and a time to die; but of no time to live; as if our Birth bordered upon our Death, and our Cradles stood in our Graves. That Death therefore may not surprise you as it did that wicked * Adversus omnia pericula me munivi praeterquàm adversus mortem, amp; c. 1. Seriously. Caesar Borgia, think upon it, 1. Seriously. 2. Rightly. 3. Seasonably. 1. Seriously. 1. Do it Seriously; this do by laying it to heart: * 7 Eccl. 2. This is the end of all men, and the living will lay it unto heart: [to the very heart of our heart] We must not lay it to our Eyes to gaze upon it; nor to our ears to hear of it; nor to our tongues only to discourse and talk of it, O such a one is dead, such a one is gone to his long home: but we must apply it to our hearts; ruminate it in our minds, rivet it in our memories, ponder it in our meditations, suffer it to make a deep impression in us: And that for these reasons: * Qui considerate qualis erit in morte, semper: fit timidus in operatione. Lud. Gra. Tit. Morb. He that thinks seriously of his death, will be very circumspect in his deeds: Men will not be such traders in Sin, such drinkers in of Inqivity; Religion and the Ways of GOD will not be so slighted; set before thine eyes the picture of Death. A serious thought of thy Death, will help to drive evil thoughts out of thy heart: Mortem cogitare est vitiis omnibus renunciare: ' Twi●l divorce thee from the World; 'twill alienate thy affections from things earthly; this pricketh in the right vein. 2. The thought of Death will make you lessc worldly; you will not be such drudges to the world: Now thou art like a Mole over head and ears in earth, anon comes Death like a Mole-catcher and takes thee up. The * Luke 12,19,20. Rich man had Goods for many years, but not many years for his Goods: Death will turn thee empty into thy Grave, as Carriers turn their horses into a dirty Stable with a gaulled back, and thee perhaps with a gaulled Conscience. Now thou mayst state it, and stout it out, but shortly death will make thee stoop: Now you may feed your unsanctified desires, but you shall have at length your full deserts. 3. Think of thy death, and it will take thee off from all thy unjust deal: We should not have so many Oppressors; there would be less wrongs in the world: A heavy Judgement hangs over men's heads because of oppression and violence: Nay thy Conscience will one day rebuke thee; at thy death it will trouble thee. * In Baron's Wars. I have read of a Great man in this Land, by whom a poor Widow was exceedingly wronged, and put from her house and home, and constrained to make an old Oak her best harbour; But when he came to die, he was so affrighted, that in horror of mind he often exclaimed, O the Widow under the Oak! O the Widow under the Oak! In the midst of your Ruling remember your Reckoning: He that thinks upon his death seriously, will be afraid to get his goods wrongfully. 4. To think of Death will greatly humble thee; nothing so powerfully treads down Pride as this: Consider that thou art but a dead man, and thy body be it never so strong or beautiful is but a lodging of Death; thou art but a rotten creature; yea, vermis crastino moriturus, a worm that must die to morrow: So oft therefore as corrupt Nature stirreth up thy heart to Pride, because of the flowers of beauty and strength that grow out of it, let this humble thee; thy flowers, O man, cannot but whither, for the root from which they spring, namely the body, is dead already. 2. Rightly. Secondly, think of thy death Rightly: Send out the scouts of thy heart aforehand; And that for these reasons: 1. To discover the Power of Death. 2. The Peril of Death. 1. The Power of Death: Great is the Power of Death; 'tis unresistible; thou art not able to encounter it: Art thou able to withstand the Messenger of the Almighty? No: Death is an Iron-hammer that breaks us all to pieces, as so many Potter's vessels: Death comes upon the Wicked as jehu came upon jehoram. 2 K. 9 v. 23, 24. He made with all speed to his Chariot, thinking to fly away, but in vain; for the Arrow of jehu overtook him: So when men with all speed run to their Chariots. i e. to their refuges of vanities, the dart of Death surely overtakes them. 2. To discover the Peril of Death: O there is a great dealt of peril and danger in Death! Death will be very terrible to an unregenerate man: Art thou a Sweater or a Drunkard? 'tis the Devil's Sergeant to arrest thee, and carry thee without bail to the prison of utter darkness. It is Satan's Cart to carry thee presently to execution in Hell. 3. Sesonably. 3. We must: think upon it seasonably, timely, and in due season: Think on it while we are young and strong: Remember thy death in the days of thy youth, in the days of thy strength, before sickness and weakness seize upon thee: Lay not the greatest burden on the weakest beast: Adjourn not the longest journey to the shortest day: A whole life is but short enough to provide for Death. We are a week providing for a Feast; a month preparing for a Wedding; three months deliberation about a Bargain; And will we make no provision, no preparation for this aforehand? We take time to make provision for the burial of the dead; And shall we take no care to provide for Death itself? Many men never think of Death, until Death come and take away their thinking. Think upon it I beseech you in season, whoever thou art that hearest me this day; whether friend or foe, stranger or familiar, be not deceived; the great God of Heaven and Earth, the great Determiner of time and days, hath allotted thee such a portion of time which thou shalt not pass: Death * Rev. 6.8. mounted on his pale horse is posting towards thee: Here is not thy abode nor rest, thou dwellest a House of clay; in a Tent pitched up to day, and removed to morrow: Thou art a Didapper peening up and down, in a moment depart thou must and be gone, God knows how soon. First then, this may reach us watchfulness, we know not the hour go; let us watch every hour: We know not the hour wherein Death the Lord's Handmaid with the broom of sickness or sorrow will sweep us away, as the maid doth the spider's house. 2. It may teach us to provide for things Eternal, what ever becomes of Temporals; for Death will strip us of all. 3. Labour to bid Death welcome: How shall I do this? First, follow the precious Counsel of Christ; * Mat. 6.20 Lay up Treasure for yourselves in Heaven: Which are Works of Piety, and Deeds of Charity; they will comfort you in Death, and accompany you to Heaven. 2. Look earnestly to things that are above; To GOD, to JESUS CHRIST who sits at God's right hand, carrying on the great work of Man's Redemption. So did * Acts 7.55 Stephen, in that extraordinary vision he saw the admirable Glory of Christ in Heaven. 3. Live after the Laws of the new jerusalem; become a new creature; be borne again; he that is borne but once, shall die twice; and he that is borne twice, shall die but once. 4. Labour to get an assurance of the forgiveness of thy Sins: Labour to find God reconciled unto thee: Labour to feel the power of CHRIST'S Death, and the virtue of His Resurrection. 5. Live in all good Conscience: they that live in all good Conscience till their dying day, shall departed in abundance of Comfort at their dying day: Get a good Conscience, and keep a good Conscience, that when thou shalt come to die, though thou want the benefit of a comforting Minister, thy Conscience may supply the place of a comforting Minister, and may be the same to thee as the Angel was to CHRIST in His Agony; and minister such comfort unto thee, as may make thee ready for joy to leap into the grave. last; be willing to die: fear it not, JESUS CHRIST was once among the dead; thou must follow him through the horrors of the grave. Art thou a child of God? Hast thou given up thy Name to JESUS CHRIST? Though Death invade the natural powers of thy body, and suppress them; though Death break in upon this lodging of clay, and demolish it to the ground, yet be in no wise daunted; thy death is but like the renting of * Gen. 39 josephs' garment from him; the man of God fled, and left his garment in the hand of his Mistress: So a child of God escapes out of the hands of Death without danger; Vivendo decrescit transeundo nos terit. he leaves his garment in the hands of Death i e. his body, which like a garment, the longer we wear it will be the worse for wearing: The dissolving of the body to the man of God, is but the unfolding of the Net, and breaking open the Prison, that the Soul which was prisoner may escape. Here is notable comfort for the man of God; He hath a life in him which no death can extinguish; though the body descend into the grave, the Lord will take it out again, He will not leave it in the grave, neither cast off the care thereof, but shall watch over the dust thereof, though it taste of corruption it shall not perish in corruption: The Holy Ghost who dwelled in the body, shall be unto it as a Balm to preserve it to Immortality: This same flesh, and no other for it, though it should be dissolved into innumerable pickles of dust, shall be raised again, and quickened by the omnipotent power of the eternal Spirit of GOD. Occasion I now come to the Occasion: Something I shall say of this deceased Gentleman, here arrested before our eyes for a debt of Nature. I shall not praise his Birth, nor his Education, nor his Profession; but as * Hierom Epitaph Mar. Hierom said of Marcelia, that godly Woman, Nihil in illa laudabo nisi quod proprium; I will praise nothing in him but what was proper and peculiar to him. Consider him as a Man, Husband, Christian; And we shall find him a pattern worthy imitation. 1. Consider him as a man: As a man he had his Infirmities; For Lord what is man? 8 Ps. An infirm frail creature; many and great infirmities we labour under as we are men: We have strong Corruptions in us; as we are men we can do no thing but Sin: Yet this I may safely deliver of him, that he kept himself (or rather GOD by His Grace kept him) from those Sins against which Holy David prayed, * Ps. 19.13. Lord keep thy servant from presumptuous sins: We are are naturally prone to great sins; he was not a strong Sinner: O the strength of sin in our days! Notwithstanding Admonitions, judgements, Mercies, men go on still in sins: No reformation, no amendment; we were sinners before the Wars, and we are sinners still: He was none of these. 2. Consider him as a Husband: And there he observed the rule of the Apostle, * Col. 3.19. Husbands love your Wives, and be not bitter against them: He lived lovingly with his Wife in the sacred Conjunction of their GOD six and thirty years together. Children he had none that lived; but a cheerful respecter of them whom Law and Love had made his own: No Lion in his house, no Tyrant among his servants; friendly, affable, courteous towards his Neighbours; observing another precept of the Apostle, * Rom. 12.16 equalling himself to them of low degree, whereby he gained love, and lost nothing of his reputation. 3. Consider him as a Christian: And so he was; 1. Peaceable. 2. Humble. 3. Charitable. 4. Devout. Four most infallible evidences (as I take them) of a true Christian, and a Sanctified heart. His Devotion towards GOD was not only public, but private: He was careful to set up the duty of Prayer in his Family; for he had often heard from my mouth, that Families as well as Kingdoms were cursed, that called not upon the Name of the LORD. And truly, GOD will visit private Families, as well as public States: GOD will lay His Axe to the root of an unpraying Family, as to the root of an unpraying Kingdom. O set up the duty of Prayer in your Families, that they may be GOD'S Families. Many men rise in the morning like the wild Ass to their prey, to their trade, to their business, and they lie down at night, as Dogs do in their kennels; they call not upon the Name of the Lord. I never knew a praying Family, a Family of much Sin: Prayer doth break the power of Sin in a Family, and weakens the Kingdom of Satan in the hearts of God's people. I have been often called to pray with his family; doubt not but GOD hath in mercy accepted the services of his poor servants. He had a weak and crazy body, but GOD gave him a religious mind in so great weakness of body: He was born for the good of Many: Most liberally he remembered the poor; both in his life time giving often privily many large gifts to his poor Neighbours, when he saw them in want; and at his death bequeathing ten pounds to the poor of lower Tooting in Surrey, where he dwelled; and fifty pounds to the poor of Kingston upon Thames where he was borne (and both his Father and Mother, and his elder Brother and Sister with himself now lie buried) to be distributed among them the next year after his decease: Yea in his life time, according to a former promise made to his loving Brother in Law, Mr. Abraham Colfe, Minister and Pastor of the Church of CHRIST at Lewisham in Kent near Greenwich; and as a farther testimony of his love to his loving Wife Elizabeth sister to the said Mr. Abraham Colfe, he did from the 25th. of March 1642. now almost nine years past, give six pence every week weekly on every Lordsday in every year yearly to six poor people of Lewisham, being of honest life and conversation, and chosen by the Minister Incumbent, and Officers of the Church and Parish, to be distributed at the public Church, they being in health, at the end of the Sermon before noon: And also at his death hath given by Will thirty pounds to purchase lands for the perpetuating of the said gift to six poor people of Levisham in like manner successively for ever. Also he bequeathed great Legacies, to the value of above two thousand pounds, to his poor kindred, friends, and servants. As GOD gave him Riches, so GOD gave him a rich heart. O this distribution of Wealth is the only thing! This breaking of Loaves among the needy! This casting our Bread upon the face of the waters! Eccles. 11.1. Men think laying up the way to be rich, but God thinks laying out to be the way. The loins of the poor will bless you for your Liberality. I see the faces of many rich men; I know not the frame of your hearts; I know not the bias of them: This I know, that the clouds that are full pour out rain to refresh the earth; so the rich that have abundance must distribute it liberally. Now for his sickness: Dolore calcu●i miserè expiravit. terrible as his disease, of the stone in the bladder; wherein were found twelve stones weighing above six ounces, which put him to strong Out-cries; Out-cries for the Lords Mercy, Outcries for pardon; deep acknowledgements for his great, and many sins, God had laid great pain and torment upon him. I never heard him repine, nor charge GOD foolishly: 1 Job 22. He was patiented, and prayed for patience; Lord give me patience to suffer thy good will and pleasure: He died praying even when death shaken him by the hand; his Prayer was, O FATHER, SON and HOLY GHOST, O Blessed Saviour and Redeemer have mercy upon me. Thus lived and died this worthy Gentleman: The Garment which he wore of borrowed earth, he hath left to be restored to the earth again. I forbidden not his Friends to lament him: We may lament the dead, but not the estate of the dead: CHRIST sorrowed for his Friend Lazarus: But my counsel is, let not the Temple of GOD be over-sad: And as the Apostle adviseth, * 1 Thes. 4.13. Sorrow not without hope for him that is asleep: He is but a sleep; his Grave his Bed; he shall awake as sure as he lay down; yea more fresh and glorious in the great Day of Resurrection. FINIS.