illilp k% tffil,,,.,. ill n| ! "J give ikefi Bmks I I far He fawaSag ef a, CatUgi. at, £^ CaioHy" Gift of MISS SARAH S. LANE 1931 i)altiabl£ anir JTiitcrcsting Ulovks FOR FAMILY AND DEVOTIONAL EEADrNG, Elegantly Printed, Suit.ible for Presents, PUBLISHED BY D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY, SJ3S W°T ffl IS IK. TEE CHRISTMAS BELLS, AHd other Poena. By the Author of " Constance," " Virginia," Ac ISmo. II. THE EAELT ENGLISH CHUEOH; Or, Cbiifltian Hislorr of £ngtao,i,iuear); British, Saxon and Norman Timea. By the Rot. £dnanj ChuttoD, M. A. With a Prefiice by the Rt. Rev. Biahop Ives. I to). 16niu. Elegantly ornamented. III. LEAHN TO DIE. Disce Mori; a Relioona DiBcourse, moving every Christian man to enter into a serious re membrance orhis end. By Christapber Sutton, U.D.,Iale Prebend of Weatmioater. 1 vol. 16mo. Elegantly ornamented. IT. SAOHA PHIVATA The Private HeditatioHa, Devotiona aitd Pntyera, of the Rt. Rev. T. Wilson, VJD., Lord Bishop of Soder and Han. Fiiat complete edition, royal 16mo., T. HEART'S EASE; Or, a Remedy against all Troables. With a consolatory disconree, particiriarly adth-essed to those who have lost tfaeir rrienda and dear relations. Ky SLdwb Patrick, D.I)., soawtiiiie Lord Biflbop of Ely, 1 vol. royal 16n)o. Xlegantty ornamented. ^ VI. MEDITATIONS ON THE LORD'S SUPPER, €todIy Ueditalions npon the most Uoly Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. By Chrislopber Salton, DJD., sometime Lord Biahop of Ely. 1 »oL loyal 16mo, Elegantly ornamented. VII. A DISCOURSE OOWOERNING PRAYER, Ajid the frequenting daily Pablic Prayers, By Sinon Patrick, VD., sometime Lord Bishop of Ely. Edited by Francis E. Paget, M^A-, Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. 1 vol royal 16iao. El^antly omanentedk VIII. THOUGHTS IN PAST YEARS. A beamifal collection of Poetry, chiefly devoUonal. By. the author of the CathediaL 1 voL royal 16mo. Elegantly printed. (O -o mL LEARN TO DIE BT CHRISTOPHEB StTTTON, D.D. liT3 PEEBEND OP WB9TM1N8XEB. " Pat thy house in order, for thou shalt not live, "but die." Isaiah sixxviir. A NEW EDITION. NEW-YORK : D. APPLETON & CO., 200, PBOADWAT. M DCCC XLI. O -o o -" H. LUD"WIG. PRINTER 72 vesey-st., N. Y. v- J^ V b- o C _ o CONTENTS, Page Epistle Dedicatory to the Lady Elizabeth Southwell vii Copy of a Letter sent from Oxford ix ^ The Preface to the Godly Reader xi The Table iii CHAPTER I. Wherein is shewed, that as the most holy life of Christ ought to be unto aU well-disposed Christians, a pattern of living well ; so also His most holy death to be unto them a pattern of dying well 23 CHAPTER II. An exhortation moving every one to apply himself to this lesson of "learning to die Christianly" 32 CHAPTER III. The causes why men so seldom enter into a serious remembrance of their end 41 CHAPTER IV. How behoveful it is for every Christian man soberly to meditate of his end • 58 CHAPTER V. That the state and condition of the hfe present, may justly move us to this consideration 73 C D y O iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI- Page That a consideration of the life to come, may move in us the same remembrance of our end • 89 CHAPTER VII. That we need not fear death, much less to meditate thereof 100 CHAPTER VIII. That the afflictions of mind which are incident in the life of man, may move him to a meditation of his end 110 CHAPTER IX. That the griefs of the body may also move us to enter into this serious meditation of our end 117 CHAPTER X. How much it concerneth eveiy one in time of health to prepare himself for the day of dissolution 127 CHAPTER XI. The manner of preparing, or the stale and condition of life, where in the Christian man should stand prepared for death 139 CHAPTER XII. How the Christian man should demean himself, when sickness begiimeth to grow upon him 150 CHAPTER XIII. How the sick should^dispose of worldly goods and possessions.... 155 CHAPTER XIV. How necessary it is, for the sick leaving all worldly thoughts, to apply his mind to prayer and godly meditations 162 CHAPTER XV. How the sick, when sickness more and more increaseth, may be moved to constancy and perseverance 168 CHAPTER XVI. How they may be advertised, who seem unwilUng to depart the o- 'A o CONTENTS. -V CHAPTER XVII. p^^ How they may be induced to depart meekly, that seem loath to leave worldly goods, wife, children, friends, or such Ulie... . 184 CHAPTER XVIII. How the impatient may be persuaded to endiu-e the pains of sick ness, and die peaceably 190 CHAPTER XIX. How they are to be comforted, who in time of sickness seem to be troubled in mind, with remembrance of their sins, and fear of judgment to come 197 CHAPTER XX. How the sick in the agony of death may be prepared 208 CHAPTER XXI. In what manner the sick should be directed by those to whom this weighty business doth specially appertain 214 CHAPTER XXII. The manner of commending the sick into the hands of God at the hour of death 230 CHAPTER XXIII. A consolation to all those that lament and moumfor the departure of others 235 CHAPTER XXV. How those that undertake any dangerous attempts either by sea or land, (wherein they are in peril of death) should specially beforehand make themselves ready for God 245 CHAPTER XXVI. A brief direction for such as are suddenly called to depart this world 249 CHAPTER XXVII. An admonition for all such as find themselves troubled with evil motions to commit faithless and fearful attempts against themselves . 255 O -o O Q i CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVIII. Pago A consolatory admonition for those who are often overmuch griev ed at the crosses of the world 205 CHAPTER XXIX. An admonition to aU, while they have day and time before them, to make speed to apply themselves to this " lesson of learn ing to die" 274 CHAPTER XXX. The great folly of men in neglecting this opportunity of time offer ed to "learn to die" ¦ 281 CHAPTER XXXI. That amongst other reasons, this "learning to die" may justly move us to lead a Christian life, in holy conversation and godliness 290 CHAPTER XXXII. That the consideration of Christ's second coming to judgment ought to move every one to hve religiously, and to apply him self to this lesson of "learning to die " 297 6— __ 0 TO THE HONOURABLE AND VIRTUOUS, His very good Lady, THE LADY ELIZABETH SOUTHWELL, OSE OF THE LiDlKS OF THE QUEEN'S MAJKSTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY CHAMBER. LATELY entering (right virtuous Lady) into some more than ordinary consideration of the graceless attempts and despe rate enterprises, which many in these days, (and the more the more pity,) by a cowardly yielding to evil motions, commit even against their ownselves, yea, their own safety ; I thought to discharge my duty unto Almighty God, and plain meaning to men, by setting down only some short advertisement for discontented and dislress- ed minds, wherewith this sinful world doth much abound. But after weighing with myself how rauch it concerneth every man to be careful of his end, whereupon depends so great a charge, as his eternal welfare is worth ; I then began to draw that particular ad vertisement appertaining unto sorae, to a more general discourse, applicable unto all and every one, in this forra, Disce Mori^ " Learn to Die." For it seemed to me a thing most necessary for every sober Christian to be moved to enter into a serious remem brance of his end, to know the mean and manner of disposing him self to God, before, and at the time ofhis departure, that so by the assistance of God's good grace, he might live and die the life and death of the righteous, and that it may be said of him, which St. Ambrose sometimes spake of Abraham, Moriuus eat in bona senectute, eo quod in bonitate propositi permansit ; " Abraham died in a good old age, for why ? Abraham persevered in good re- -o o 9 viii THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. solutions, in his old age ; yea even unto the end/' Madam, I be seech the God ofAbrahara to grant you Abraham's good successive course, both in the way, and at the end of the way. Your more than usual favour, and long continued acceptance, hath bound me unto you, whom otherwise I truly reverence ; for that I am fully persuaded, you truly reverence God and serve him, whom to serve is blessed liberty ; yea, (as I shall in tho discourse following shew,) is the most honourable estate of all. To make issue of my dutiful regard, this small occasion is offered. Were I a mere stranger, I could not for protection's sake seek any better patroness of two brief treatises of learning to live and to die, than from a religious disposition : but your particular respect towards me many ways is such, as I shall live aud die ungrateful. I could have wished to have made testimony of my willing intention by some oiher means than by publishing under your Ladyship's name these small labours to the view of the world : for I must needs confess, I was very loath (respecting my own weakness) to raake that known unto others which is best known to myself, until at last being over entreated by some special friends, from tho University of Oxford, whose sober, judicious, and very learned advice 1 knew not how to gainsay, I was induced to let this present tract go forward in the name of God : wherein I seek not praise, where none is deserved, but only desire the Christian reader (where aiight is amiss) to atlribule that unto myself, and beseech your Ladyship, that if there be anything ob served which may move so much as a good thought, that it would please you to give the glory only unto God, to whose heavenly protection commending you ever in my prayers, I cease for this time to hold you any longer from the matter itself, which foUoweth, Your Ladyship's, In humble duty, CHRYS. SUTTON, o — o o o A COPY OF A LETTER SENT FROM OXFORD TO THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK, iND TUOHGHT GOOD IN HIS ABSENCE TO BE SET DOWN BY THOSE TO WHOM THE PUBLIC ALLOWANCE HEREOF DID APPERTAIN. Mr. Sutton, I HAVE perused your copy, which seemeth to me (in my simple opinion) devout, divine and learned. The subject of your book I greatly approve ; for to teach to die well, is the forciblest persuasive to live well, which, alas ! are in these wicked times both little thought on : for indeed men live as though they never made ac count to die ; and they die, as though they never thought upon another life. Your several treatises are very Christian, and most necessary for this dying ago to all goodness ; your phrase and vein of penning, sweet and pathetical ; your allusions, divine and comfortable. I say at once, and think, omnia in illo libra spiritum dlvi- num olent : wherefore my counsel unto you is, that you would make this your book live by printing, which may make many live from sinning. God's good Spirit hath not 6 ^ o O Q X COPY or A LETTER. moved you to take this good pains now to bury the fruit so soon as it is born, and none profited, but that it should be presented unto the world, to live when you are dead, foelix et formosa proles : be not, then, so unnatural, now to stifle it in the cradle, or cast it with Moses, to drown ing : it is worthy the nursing and bringing up of a prince's daughter, and your honourable patroness ; the Church looketh to have good service of it, the Univer sity, the college your mother, your friends expect credit and commendation by it ; yourself the father of it, will no doubt have great joy of it : go forward then, in God's name, and christen it to the world ; and so I leave with my heartiest commendations, longing to see that printed, which is now so near written, I could scarce read it. Your assured loving friend, R. K. From Lincoln College, 6th of Aug. 1600. c- c- -o THE PREFACE GODLY READER. THAT religion is somewhat out of joint, when Chris tian conversation goes not even, as it ought, with Christian profession, it is so apparent, that it cannot be denied, for such and so sensible is the defect, that thereby the whole body is not a little blemished. 2. Those whose hearts' desire is, that Israel may be saved, and whose true charity is wont to beseech God . for the good of all, have not only lifted up humble hands to heaven, but also endeavoured by painful labours to seek (as much as in them lieth, and so far forth as the times may permit and suffer) the best redress in this case they coidd : some, by substantial answering, and soberly as suaging the turbulent humours of those men on both sides, whose private fancies have much hindered higher pro ceedings in matters of faith ; (refuted they may be, and are ; quieted they will not be ;) others, by devout and learned exhortations, in seeking to make a stay of those evils, which atheism and want of the fear of God would 6 -o o ^ o xii TO THE READER. in great likelihood bring upon this declining world, both labouring for their times, to keep some remembrance of Jesus Christ in the minds of men, before all be too far out of square, or come to irrecoverable ruin. 3. But here may we not demand of the diligent observ ers of our imperfections abroad, whose manner is, so much to strike upon this one string, and by this defect take occasion to call in question, nay to bring in open ob loquy our Christian cause ; are none fallen at home from the ancient sincerity and harmless devotion of former and better ages of the Church T Some state-meddling actions, those uncharitable censures, in clean shutting out from the household of faith, and hope of life, those who have poor souls to save as well as others, and bear, I trust, as true a love to Christ crucified as themselves, may put them in mind that we may all bear a part together in that song of mercy, " Cleanse us, O Lord." 4. May we not all bethink ourselves on both sides, whether these be not the days whereof our Saviour Christ spake, " wherein iniquity should abound ? " Was ever that old complaint of St. Hilary more truly verified : " While there is strife in words, while there is question . in invocations, while there is occasion in doubts, while there is a waywardness in consent, none is of Christ." This nipping and galling of one another, and this eager pursuit of the living, and troubling the very ashes of the dead, (who cannot answer for themselves,) is far from that charity, that " hopeth all things," and the counsel of that Spirit that bids us pray one for another. 5. To see what wit and learning is wont to do in toss ing the testimonies of ancient record to and fro ; nay which is more, in wresting the very text of holy writ upon ; 0 (Q O TO THE READER. xiii the tenters of our own dispositions, would so amaze him that shall read over with advisement the controversies of these times, as he shall think some of them rather dis courses to try mastery, than otherwise sincere travels employed for God's glory, and his Church's good. 6. Now God of his mercy grant, that once this froward crossing world may draw to a Christian harmony, that we may have less fighting, and writing for the religion, and more endeavouring on all parts, to become (as we ought) more religious, that so this little ark of Christ's Church may now, in the cool of the evening, with a soft gale draw homeward, and with old Simeon embracing Clirist, make ready to depart in peace. It is the wise man's advice to every one, " Remember thy end, and let enmity pass." 7. And thus much we beseech at their hands in whose hardest judgment oux cause is so feeble, that setting aside aU private respects, they would at last consider whose gracious protection hath defended so long his and our cause, whose loving and watchful eye hath preserved him who is (and God grant long may be) the staff of our peace, calling to mind that of our Saviour, " If you will not believe me, yet believe me for my works' salce." 8. For those busy spirits nearer home, who would needs govern before they have well learned to obey, and that at their first boarding must needs sit at the helm to guide all, how raw, how unskilful soever: but experi ence hath long time since taught the world, by the ruin of the Eastern Church, how dangerous it is to sail in a ship where the pdots are of a disposition to be quarreling within themselves. These men's new devices in matters of mere conceit '0 ' O — Q xiv TO THE READER. have long seemed unto themselves better than aU the wis dom of the world. But may we entreat them, at the least to recount with themselves their own folly, in mak ing it (as they have done) a perfection of godliness, to call and reckon others ungodly ; and this cursed scofllng at Noah's nakedness, a sport to delight their sour aus terity. 9. Would to God these strange-minded men would lis ten to the grave counsel of St. Chrysostom, " If with a desire of judging thou wouldest needs be a judge, I will show thee, saith he, the judgment-seat, which shall be gainful unto thee, and no way touch thy conscience ; let thy mind and thought sit down to give sentence, call forth all thy offences, and begin to say with thyself. Why hast thou done this or that ¦? " 10. This private examining of themselves would soon make these public controllers of all others, by plausible pretences of reformation, to look nearer home, and amend in themselves, where much is amiss. St. Paul* blamed their course, whose manner was to go from house to house. Esau,t that lost the blessing, was hunting abroad ; but Jacob, that had the blessing, and the inheritance, did keep at home. The just man, saith Solomon, is the first accuser of hunself ; and Juda spake humbly of an offend er when he said, " She is more righteous than I. "J 11. Let these men know, that obedience is better than sacrifice ; and that he who is wont to give grace unto the humble, is also said to resist the proud. Be they well assured, this slight stuff will shrink when it comes to the wettmg ; this counterfeit coin will prove dross when it * 1 Tim. V. 13. t Gen xxvii. 30. t Gen. xxxviii. 26. C __o I __Q TO THE READER. XV shall be put to the great trial. An easier matter it is for devisers to reprove others, than to amend themselves. So it is, that those who have a blemish in their eye, think the sky to be ever cloudy. Nothing more common with troublesome dispositions, which have not known the way of peace, than to be ever contending, seldom contented, what cause soever there be otherwise to be thankful unto God. 12. The Lord by the prophet Malachi saith, " I have blessed you : " the unthankful people replied, " Wherein hast thou blessed us 1 " If all be not answerable unto some men's conceits, all is amiss ; no blessing of God is acknowledged, no thankfulness at all remembered. To let these also go with their childish proceedings, men are men, truth is truth ; little need have we, did we bethink ourselves well, in this case to complain : worse we may fear, better to come we do not hope for : our rather want ing than enjoying, may make posterity to acknowledge our present good ; in which case the religious and well-dis posed may devoutly say, " O Lord, establish the thing that thou hast wTought in us, for thy temple's sake at Jeru salem."* 13. A third sort there is, who seeing the world divided into so many parts, care in effect for neither ; of these kind of men the Apostle could not speak but with weeping : and sure what more lamentable, than that those men, who bear the name of Christians, should live like pagans and infidels, and say in their hearts with the fool, " There is no God." Is not that of the same prophet found true in these men's manners — " Man that is in honour, may be L* Psalm Ixviii. 28, 29. 0 — o o o xvi TO THE READER. compared unto the beasts that perish 1 "* " I think sure ly," saith St. Bernard, " if the beasts could speak, they would call godless people beasts, "f 14. The danger great, the perU imminent, no fear of God, no remembrance of the state present, or that to come : if ever it were needful, it is now needful, compar ing what men are with what they should be, to call this world to a remembrance of itself, that it go not away in a sleep of sin. " If I am a father, saith God, where is my love ] If I am a master, where is my fear ? "J If there be a heaven, where is our care in directing our lives for the obtaining the same 1 If there be anything to do these men good, a remembrance of their mortality, and apply ing themselves to learn to die, should at least somewhat avail. 15. The handwriting once against Belshazzar caused his very heart to shake, and his knees to knock together, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres. || The word Men'e, God hath numbered thy days ; Tekel, Thou art weighed in the balance." If men take not heed in time, it may be written of every one whose days are in the numberino- • and we may fear, lest the hand write Peres too, which may make all to consider both what they are, and what they shall be. 16. When we see others dead, we may consider we shall shortly do the like, and take part in the same lot that they have done before us : the fall of them who went before, is the admonition of them who follow after." In the mean season, if death be an enemy, as it is, (saith the Apostle,^) then let us watch it as an enemy, prevent it * Psal. xlix. 11. + S. Bemardus in Cant. ± Mai i 6 II Dan. V. 25. « 1 Cor. xv. 26. ' ' ' c c!) ( 0 P TO THE READER, Xvii as an enemy, that so we may be able to endure the as saults thereof when need requireth, and at the hour of our departure rather rejoice than fear. 17. Hereupon this present discourse of Learning to Die shall first lay before thee, good Christian reader, how necessary it is, in the first place, for every one to enter into a serious remembrance of his end, and the manifold reasons that should move him to this remembrance. 18. Amongst these reasons, especially the meditation of his estate present, and the sundry afflictions incident to the same. 19. Correction causeth the scholar more painfully to apply himself unto his lesson : and do not the chastise ments in this world cause us the rather to be more indus trious in this learning 1 the means that call us away from so good a labour are mentioned, and the manner how to avoid these means. 20. To make an entrance into this so solemn a subject, I was some time since occasioned by the treatable visita tion and most Christian end of that very worshipful knight. Sir Robert Southwell, whose approved service in this commonwealth, and good reputation in his country, is well known unto many ; but of whose true heart to God- ward, both in the time of his life and at the hour of his death, myself can truly relate, before others. If there be (as without doubt there is) a duty which we owe to the faithful departed, and a good remembrance to be had of those happy souls ; then might I not omit a reverend men tion of him, whose portion I trust assuredly is with God. 21. Look what a mournful mind during the time of his so Christian a visitation could at times consider of, and observe in private, I have been since by special motives C O 0 o xviii TO THE READER. drawn on to make that poor labour public, as a discourse proper to the time. For although a consideration of our departure from this world be a subject not unfitting all ages ; yet seeing we are fallen into those days, wherein many live, as if they should never die, and die, as if with death all were done, and when they come to depart this world, they are so far to seek in a right disposing them selves to God, as if they seldom or never entered into any earnest consideration of the same at all. 22. Necessary are those many treatises which tend to the amendment of life ; for it is both an old saying and a true saying, " Live well, and die well ;" but because upon our last conflict dependeth our eternal victory, against the professed enemy of our souls, the well-behaving ourselves in this combat must needs of all other be most necessary. To guide the sliip along the sea, it is no doubt a good skUl ; but at the very entrance into the haven, then to avoid the dangerous rocks, and to cast anchor in a safe road, is the chiefest skdl of all. To run the race in good order, is the part of a stout champion ; but so to run to wards the end of his race, that he may obtain the crown, is the very perfection of aU his pains. Than a good life, what more Christian like 1 but after that passed, to die in the faith and fear of God, what more divine 1 Wherefore, to order aright the upshot of our own time, and farewell from this world, what more behoveful, if we respect our selves 1 but in these occasions to be also helpful unto others, what more charitable, if we respect the commu nion of saints, and that common joy we receive in the good of all ! 23. We are charged not to let men live loosely, and most unchristianly to depart this world, to lead their lives, 6 — 6 (O -o TO THE READER. XIX and to go out of their lives without order : what men do, is one thing ; what we wish were done, is another. God knows, and many can witness, how often, how earnestly, we call upon tliis careless world, to remember that high and weighty business of the soul men have in hand. Though there be not in use unguentes cum oleo, which we find rather appropriate to the former times of the Church, and nearest unto the Apostles themselves ; yet we say with St. James, Infirmaiur quis inducat preshy- teros. And to this end is our Church Form of Prayer set di)«Ti, " An order for the Visitation of the Sick," so entitled. 24. We wish as heartily as any Christian can, that once the holy exercises of fasting and prayers were more devoutly put in practice than we see, and are sorry to see they are not. We reverence antiquity, wherein, without all question, God was more carefully worshipped, memo rable deeds of devotion and hospitality to liis glory more cheerfully performed : what is consonant to faith and good manners, we allow and commend, even in those who seem other in the opinion of many, so far different from us ; and we heartily wish that men might see our good works, " and so glorify our Father which is m heaven." 2-5. It is said of Aristides, who, perceiving the open scandal likely to arise, by reason of the contention sprung up betwixt him and Themistocles, to have besought The- mistocles mildly after this manner : " Sir, we both are no mean men in this commonwealth ; our dissension wdl prove no small offence unto many : good Themistocles, let us be as one ; and if we will needs strive, let us strive who shall excel the other in virtue and love." The elements, though in quality diverse, yet do they 0 0 , — 0 XX TO THE READER. aU accord for the constitution of the body natural : what should Christians but accord for the conservation of the Church, (that they be not a shame to Israel,) which Church is a body mystical' We are all sheep of that fold whereof Christ is the shepherd ; we are all stones of that bmlding whereof He is the corner stone ; we are all branches of that vine, whereof He is the stock : we have but one God for our Father that created us all : one Christ Jesus oux Saviour, that redeemed us all : one Holy Ghost to our Sanctifier, that doth adorn us aU. We are but pilgrims and strangers, and we shall one day find, that a peaceable Christian life, with a good departure from this world, (whereof I shall speak towards the end,) shall stand us more instead than all the world besides, when after much jangling, and beating our brains in matters of contradiction, we shall perceive that this charitable Chris- "tian hfe was worth all : and therefore beseech we God, the Author of all good gifts, that " mercy and truth may meet together, that righteousness and peace may kiss each other ;" and that His glory dwell in our land, until we come to dwell in the land of glory. o — ¦ — ¦ o ( o- -0 THE TABLE. 12"3 » < Things past. 1. The good omitted in TMngs present Things .to come 2. The evd committedagainst 3. The time lost, which .isT. The short ness of life, which 2. The worldly va nity where- by 3. The space given to re pent where- -in 1. The of death; account2. The of death which is day day 1. Not providing for a time to come, 2. Neglecting the day of grace, 3. Desisting from doing well. 1. God by disobedience, 2. Their neighbour by hurt done, 3. Themselves by con senting to sin. 1. Precious, o LEARN TO DIE. 55 is there, that hath not sometime experience in him self, by feeling the infirraity of his declining na ture, by avoiding the perils of apparent danger, besides the sundry warnings to this effect, whi ther he must? and here we may all wonder atthe mercy and patience of God, who, by these mo tives, doth admonish us of our approaching end. But yet for all this, how little humbling of ourselves is there before Hira, whose dominion reacheth " unto the ends of the earth, whose power is above all powers, from generation to generation, world without end, who bringeth to the grave, and rais eth up again."* XVIII. What a dangerous course is it, never to awake Christ, though the ship leak, and be oft en in peril of drowning ! never to think on God, until we stand in need of Him ! never to begin to live until we are ready to die ! never to call to mind that time of tiraes, until we hear the trumpet sounding,! until we see the graves opening,J the earth flaming, the heavens raelting,|| the judgment hastening, the Judge with all His angels coming in the clouds,^ to denounce the last doom upon all flesh, which will be unto sorae, "woe, woe;'' " when they shall cry unto the mountains to cover them,"1[ and for shame of their sins hide them selves, if it were possible, in hell fire ! If we •ISam. ii. 6. 1 1 Thes. iv. 16. t John v. 25. II 2 Pet, iii, 10. 4 Mat. xvi. 27 ; Matt. xxv. 31. 1 Rev. vi. 16. o- ^ — o Q — — O 56 DISCE MORI. have any fear, this should move fear; if any remembrance, this should cause a careful remera- brance of our end. " O consider," saith the pro phet, " you that forget God, lest he take you away, and there be none to deliver you'!"* Salvation is a matter of great earnest. XIX. Our Saviour Christ by those parables of the wise virgins,! and watchful servant;:}: what else doth he teach his disciples, and us all, but in so weighty a cause to be careful indeed ? We have as much need as any that ever lived under the cope of heaven, considering these sinful days. When God said, " The wickedness of men is great upon earth,'' || it was time for Noah to pre pare for an ark to save himself. When once the cry of Sodom was ascended to heaven,^ it was time for Lot to think of his departure into the hill countries. As in the sick man, so in this world : after many strong fits, when it begins to trifle idly with every fancy, we may partly gather by these sickly signs which way it is drawing, and say, " God of heaven help that world for it is a weak world indeed !" XX. These be no days to live securely in : but rather tirae, and high time it is for every one to amend one, that God may have raercy upon us all. Have we not example by thera that " sleep until * Psalm 1. 22. t Matt. xxv. 4. t Luke xii. 37. II Gen. vi. 5. « Gen. xix. 13, 14. g- : ¦ . — __o ( o o LEARN TO DIE. 57 the bridegroom's coming,"* that every knock will not be sufficient warrant to enter ? by him that " wept for a blessing,"! when it was too late, that every sigh will not be satisfaction for our sins ? 'Tis most sure, and we had need look to it iu time : " Where the tree faileth, there it lieth.":}: And as the last day (saith St. Austin) of our life leav eth us, so shall the day of doom find us. To let all alone until it be too late, was their folly, who were long since drowned in the flood." || To cast only for wealth and ease, was his worldly wisdom, that made a sudden farewell from both, " when that night his soul was taken from him ;" taken from him, and so not yielded of him. To defer all unto the last push, never entering into a reli gious remembrance of our end, is an effect of that ill-spirit called sensual security, which kind of spi rit is not cast out, but by fasting and prayer. * Matt. XXV. 5. t Gen. xxvii. 38. t Eccles. xi. 3. II Gen. vii. 21. ( O -o Q- CHAPTER IV. How behovefial it is for every Christian man soberly to meditate of his end. In the whole tenure of a Christian life no part more heavenly than that we spend in religious me ditation : for this religious raeditation, no subject more nearly concerneth the state of raan, than oft en to beat upon a remembrance of his end, where in consisteth the centre of all his desires, the har vest of all his labours, his sure and most happy repose for ever. How behoveful then is it for every one to se quester himself sometiraes from incumbrances of the world, to be at leisure for God, and to call his best thoughts to counsel to this business of his soul ; the manifold effects of so good a practice will easily shew and approve as rauch. For who is there that with Hezekiah will not fail to set his household, his life, his soul, and all in order, when once that of the prophet moves his very heart ; " Hezekiah, thou shalt die, Hezekiah ;"* now God * Isaiah xxxviii. 1. o- , o LEARN TO DIE. 59 be merciful unto thee, thou art no longer a man of this world ; dispatch to be gone, thou must shortly die ! O man, set thy house in order ! There is a house of thy conscience ; a house of thy body ; a house of thy family; a house of eternity. All these must be set in order. The house of thy con science by good life, wherein thou mayest live quietly according to that, turn unto thy rest, O my soul. The house of thy body, by keeping it pure according to that of the apostle, " This is the will of God, even your holiness."* The house of thy family, by well governing it, and disposing of these temporal blessings at the last, according to this of the prophet Isaiah, " Set thy house in order." The house of eternity, by mercifulness unto the poor, according to that of our Saviour, "Make you friends of the riches of iniquity, that when you shall want, they receive you into everlasting habi tations."! W'ho is there that will not sit down, and cast over his bills of account, before he runs too far in arrearages, that thinks thoroughly he shall before long hear his master's voice to warn him out of office, " Thou shalt be no longer steward."! II. In a generality, how this or the like remem brance causeth a careful direction of all our life, when any temptation doth corae, that of the wise man doth briefly express ; " My son reraeraber thy * 1 Thes, iv. 3. t Luke xvi, 9- t Luke xvi, 2, o- O " — o 60 DISCE MORI. end, in whatsoever thou shalt take in hand, and thou shalt never do amiss."* III. This remembrance if it did sink into the heart, whereas often like a piece of rausic it sound- eth in the ear, then would it work better effects in the world than commonly it is wont. If covetous men, who seem possessed with a spirit of having, who like moles and ants are always turning in the earth. If the proud, who like giants with con tempt disdain the meaner of the world, who are made of the same raould as they are, did deeply consider that of the heathen, " mors sceptra lig- onibus aequat," death equals all, and that one of these days they shall become a clod of earth, when the same death, like a strait searcher, will see that they carry away nothing with them ; when they must strike sail, when those lofty looks shall be laid full low, and all their glory be eclipsed; some good thought to this effect would make them keep within compass, and say with Naaman the Syrian, " God be merciful unto us in this one thing,"! that we think not oftener of our end. IV. Would any Aramon commit that freely in the sight of God, which he sharaeth to corarait in the sight of the raeanest of all God's creatures ?J Would any Ahab oppress and wrong'poor Naboth,|| if he did hiraself reraeraber he were but a sojourn er as were his forefathers ; that shortly he must be- * Ecclus. vii 36. f 2 Kings v. 18. j: 2 Sam. xiii, 19. II 1 Kings xxi, 2. , ^ o . — o LEARN TO DIE. 61 come worms' meat ; and that after an evil course he must then go to answer for all, when the heart shall feel, for wrong offered, raany a cold pull, and the sin of oppression Ue upon the soul as heavy as lead? " Some there are (saith Job) that remove the land marks, that lead away the ass of the father less, that make the poor turn out of their way:"* many are so far frora doing good, that not to harm others may be accounted a great benefit received from them. Doth not the crying sin of oppression, like Abel's blood, go up to God ; seeing there is a voice of blood, which is a voice of justice ? assu redly it doth. Is there an ite maledicti,] go ye cursed, for them who do not feed the hungry ? And shall they go free that take away the bread of the hungry ? Is the punishment so great for them that lodge not the stranger? and is there nothing for thera that wrong the fatherless and stranger ? If those who clothed not the naked, find it so hard a doora, what may they fear that take away the clothing of the naked ? Well, there will corae a day when men may wish they had shewed mercy. Our inferiors, saith a godly Father % do so look for our mercy, as we at time of need would look for God's raercy. Our Saviour Christ, to forewarn revolters, said, " Reraeraber Lot's wife." So it * Job. xxiv. 2. t Matt. xxv. 41. t Greg. Naz. de pauper, amand. u o Q. O 62 DISCE MORI. raay be said to advise all oppressors, remember poor Naboth's vineyard. V. To call to mind that this world, and the glory thereof, so soon passeth away, that we are here to-day and gone to-morrow. If nothing else, yet with men of reasonable capacity this were enough were it considered, to quench the thirst of avarice, to hold in the hand of revenge ; in a word, to re strain all men within the lists and limits of a Christian and conscionable course. But because this is not considered, therefore so raany live as though they had no souls to save. Such is the calamity of our tirae ; but it was not so frora the beginning. When good men reraeraber another world, considering they were not born for thera selves, but for the good of others, and that there was nothing which more resembled God, than the doing of good to as many as they could. This they remembering, they departed from the world, first in their desires, then in deed. The godly patriarchs in purchasing only a " place to bury in,"* what doth it else but manifestly shew unto succeeding posterity, how mindful they were of their departure hence ! That song of Moses, which the ancient fathers say, the people of God used in form of a daily prayer, to wit, the nine teenth Psalm, wherein both raan's frailty is ac knowledged, as also this petition pathetically in- * Gen, xxiii, 4. O . Q 9 Q LEARN TO DIE. 63 ferred ; Lord, " Teach us to number our days !"* Doth it not shew unto us with what devotion they daily entered into a remembrance of their end. Where is that mindfulness of Abraham, so great a patriarch, " who confessed himself to be but dust and ashes ?"| of Job, " who daily waited till his changing should come ?"J of king David, who raade no other reckoning of hiraself but to be " only a stranger amongst men ?" of the apostle St. Peter, " who counted his continuance here but an abode in a tabernacle, which he should shortly lay off ?"|| Tabernacles were only for men in war fare, and pilgrims ; to shew while we were in tliese bodies, we are no other but men ready to re move. Of the old Christians, who coming to that article in their creed, " I believe the resurrection of the fiesh," should add this speech ; " even of this," pointing to some naked parts of their arms or hands, or alluding to that of the apostle, " this mortal." How far these were from setting their repose here on earth ; nay, how raindful they were of their departure hence, we raay hence easily perceive. VI. Amongst Heathen men, when their em perors were crowned, the sepulchres of the dead were shewed unto thera, and they were asked. What one should be raade for them ? thereby put- * Ps, xc. 12. t Gen. xviii, 27. t Job xiv. 14. Ps. xxxix, 12. II 2 Peter i, 14. 1 Cor. xv. 53. o _ o o -^-^ — o 64 DISCE MORI. ting them in remerabrance, that they must look for no other, but themselves shortly to have the like. The old saints and servants of God who lived in a continual farewell from the world did, like wise merchants, always thinking of their return, en deavour to take up treasures by bills of receipt, where they should stay and raake their abode for ever. VII. Jacob was careful for his journey to Haran, Jacob slept : the same night God shewed him a ladder, the top whereof reached to heaven ; * Ja cob, that is the journey which thou and all pilgrims should be careful of indeed, there is the great pas sage to heaven. VIII. The philosophers who saw no further than the clouds of human reason, perceiving the declining course of human nature, could say ; " The life of wise men, what should it else be, but a continual meditation of death ?" But the apos tle telleth us in effect, the life of Christians what should it else be, but a meditation withal of a bet ter hfe after death ! and therefore saith, " Set your affections on heavenly things, and not on earthly." The nature of the earth is cold and dry ; so are earthly afl'ections to devotion and piety. The earth stands still, and hath the cir cumference carried about it ; so are God's bene fits about earthly-minded men, and they are not at * Gen xxviii. 10, II. o o ^9 — Q LEARN TO DIE. 65 all moved. The earth doth often keep down the hot exhalations which naturally would ascend ; so do earthly affections keep down many good mo tions, which would raake us often enter into some good remerabrance of God. The earth is heavy, and heavy things go downward ; and therefore earthly affections go that way, to observe withal what is required of us, in the quality of the earth, which is to be fruitful after tilling and manuring ; so must we be after God's graces, because the ground that receiveth blessings from God, and brings forth briers, is subject to a curse. IX. If any to exercise himself continually in this speculative remembrance would keep a cata logue to this end, and often recite by name how many grave counsellors, how raany worthy men of arms, and gallants of the world, how raany of his nearest familiars he had known within these few years to have flourished with their troops and trains after them, saying ; Good Lord ! " Hath not the pit shut up her mouth upon them ! Are they not gone as wind that passeth, but returneth not again!" " Surely, saith Job, their houses shall know them no raore !" Are they not dead and rotten ; are they not all gone, almost as if they never had been! raight he not hereby call hiraself to a remembrance of hiraself! why should men make so rauch ac count of this world, that is so vain and transitory ! Again, what raore effectual mean is there to 0 — -— -0 o c 66 DISCE MORI. make us shake off the allurements of this life, as Paul did the viper into the fire,* than this or the like religious meditation of our end I X. Alraighty God would shew the prophet Jere miah His will in no other place than " a house of clay,"! the state and condition Of the despisers of His Word ; to signify that we are best lessoned, where our frail estate may be best considered. The prophet Isaiah must not say it, but cry it. To cry a voice of moving and mourning ; What must he cry ? that " all flesh is grass, and the glory of raan is as the flower of the field." J He must not cry that poor men are grass, or weak men are grass, or old men are grass, or some men are grass, but all raen are grass ; and that the glory or chief felicity of the world is but as the flower of the field. The wise raan could not but wonder why any should be puffed up with pride, considering what he was : " O earth, saith he, why art thou proud !"|| As if all our porap, and ourselves too, were no bet ter than the ground we tread upon. " And God made raan of the slirae of the earth ;" ^ not of the fire, or of the air, lest he should be apt to mount or aspire in his own conceit; but of the earth which occupieth the lowest place. A strange case to see the meanness of our be- * Acts xxviii, 5. t Jer. xviii. 4. t Tsaiah xl. 3. U Ecclus. x. 9. § Gen. ii. 7. o — o LEARN TO DIE. 67 ginning, and yet to be arrogant and exalt ourselves I To consider upon how weak a foundation we stand, and to care for nothing less ! If we will needs be high rainded, would to God we would " set our minds on heavenly things or things on high." * XI. For consideration, necessary it is to think on that which must necessarily befall ; were it but only for that which stands like the law of the Medes and Persians, it is enacted that all raust once die ; this were enough to cast a cloud over all our fairest delights : but the sarae, there is soraewhat raore behind, and that is called the tirae of judgraent. This once possessing the heart, there needed not so many penal laws to deter thera and their affections, which are often so far out of square, from extreme impiety ; amongst laws some are antiquated, as that of divorce : some changed, as that of circuracision ; some dispensed withal, as that of the Sabbath ; but this, statistum est, that all shall die and corae to judgraent, it is neither anti quated, nor changed, nor dispensed withal. Therefore the remerabrance of the four last things which the old writers so often raention, that is, the joys of heaven, the pains of hell, the day of death, and the time of judgment to corae, do work in us four good effects : the first is, a fear of God ; the second, a carefulness not to ofl;"end our neigh bour; the third, a conterapt of the world; the * Col,' iii. 2. O — Q C ¦ Q 68 DISCE MORI. fourth, a desire to live devoutly for the time to come. XH. The cock, saith one, fearing the eagle and the hawk, hath one eye fixed on his meat, and the other often directed in the air ; so a provident god ly man, providing beforehand things necessary, hath respect unto the eagle, or Christ's coming in the air to judgraent, as also unto the hawk, who is death, therefore called rapax, because it suddenly seizeth and preyeth upon all. XIII. A general restraint frora evil, saith Cas- sianus an ancient writer,* is a mindfulness of death, which the Egyptians perceiving, thought a bare resemblance thereof all trerabling and shaking brought in at their solemnest feasts, to be a special mean to move the beholders to all sobriety. XIV. The centurion in the Gospel, who other wise was far off from the acknowledging the Sa viour of the world, when " he saw the veil rent, the earth move, the stones cleave asunder, the heavens mourn in black, and after all, the graves themselves to open, and yield up the dead bodies of the saints, a spectacle of death ! artiidst all, was moved to give this testimony, " Surely this was the Son of God."! Seeing then, that' hence arise so forcible mo tive nto a godly and careful direction of our ways did we but sometiraes behold that " pale * '^^''- cap- 18, jt Matt, xxvii, 54 o . — i ! _ Q LEARN TO DIE. 69 horse, and him that sits thereon, whose name is Death,"* in our musing dispositions, it would make us trample under foot raany alluring occa sions, and cause us to step back in pursuit of some sinful vanities, which we follow so fast as we do. XV. The Holy Ghost, resembling the state of man to the grass,! to a shadow,^ the sraoke, || a vapour,'^ a flower ;T[ things of so sraall continu ance, what else should it intimate unto us, but a consideration of our inconstant and variable state ? The chiefest of man's glory is resembled to a flower, a flower is a thing of no long continuance ; the cold nips it, the heat withers it, the scythe cuts it down ; though it seem never so fair, it will wither of itself. The grass, the shadow, the va pour, the smoke, what else are these but vanish ing things ? XVI. The apostle St. Peter, writing unto the dispersed Jews, and converted Christians, to draw them from carnal desires, used this as an argu ment of effect : " I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers," as if h& should have said, seeing you are in this world but as wayfaring men, stay not yourselves upon carnal desires, the baits of Satan and very bane of your souls ; abstain frora thera, fly them. It is the raanner of strangers not to intermeddle » Rev, vi. 8. t Isaiah xL 6. t Psl. cxliv, 4. II Psl. cii. 3. i James iv. 14. T 1 Peter i. 24. O-^ ¦^-- ¦ — ^— Q O ( 70 DISCE MORI. with raany, much less dangerous attempts ; but as wise and circumspect men, to remember they are only the way to a further home, of raore continu ance, where they are to make their abode. Again, the life of man, saith Job, is a warfare ; and men in warfare have ever death before their eyes, wherefore saith St. Austin, " Let us medi tate in this life of nothing more than of our pil grimage, that here we shall not always be ; pre paring ourselves rather to that place whence we shall never depart, but have a sure stay for ever."* And St. Jerome : " He that doth remember that die he raust, little regarding things present, ever hasteth toward things to come.''! All which the old enemy of man perceiving to be behoveful for man, seeketh nothing more than to draw him from this frequent raeditation of death, chiefly by the pleasurable allureraents of enticing vanities. XVI. The hunter when he seeketh to take the tiger's young one, which is only one, is said to set up looking-glasses, where the tiger should pass along in seeking this young, which she doth some times by straying abroad, lose ; finding in the glass a resemblance of herself, leaves the pursuit, and loseth her young. This old hunter, perceiving man's industry in the conservation of that which is one, and only one, his dear soul ; would by * August. 13. Tract, in Joann. t Hieron, ad Paul, 0 0 o _ . LEARN TO DIE. 71 many goodly shows, make us neglect this religious care, and stay ourselves upon every frivolous de light, so long that we clean forget whereabout we go, and so hazard that which the prophet call eth " most precious, even the redemption of our souls."* XVII. But the provident Christian man, know ing how dangerous it must needs be for the bird to take delight amidst the gins and snares of the fowler, makes no stay upon these enticing evils, soars aloft, and taking the wings of contemplation, thinks of the joys of heaven, the pains of hell, his own death, and the death of the Son of God, for the salvation of us all ; with Daniel strews ashes ; and ashes sometimes keep fire, as thoughts of our mortality to devotion : he strews these ashes to descry the steps of death, who stealeth along and eateth out the continuance of our days ; or, like a skilful pilot who often sits at the stern, looks unto the Btars and planets, bears off from the shelves of many dangerbus occasions, that so by the pros perous gale of God, his Holy Spirit, he raay put into the part of everlasting rest. XVIII. No servants more orderly use their " master's talents,"! than those who ever fear their master's sudden return. No " householder more safe than he, who at every watch suspecteth the thieves entering."^ When that of the prophet • Psl. xUx. 8. t Luke xii. 38- t Matt. xxiv. 43. -o Q— — Q 72 DISCE MORI. Isaiah calls us aside from the world, and tells us softly, " Man, thou shalt die ; " it makes us peni tent for the time past, and respective for the- time to corae, causing the fear of God to have a predo minant for,ce in this our natural, and otherwise weakly constitution. XIX. To meditate, therefore, of our end at our lying down, which doth resemble the grave, and our rising up, which may raind us of a joyful re surrection, to make this remembrance the key to open in the day, and shut in the night, is a be hoveful practice, and we shall soon perceive it by the manifold effects which do thence consequently ensue. It will raake young men more heedful in their ways ; old men more fearful of their works ; all men more provident for the time to come. XX. Isaac, upon Sarah's death, went forth to meditate ; having lost Sarah, he met Rebecca.* We sometimes lose earthly comfort, but going forth religiously to meditate upon God his excel lency, and our own failty ; we meet with Rebec ca, better corafort, that is to say, heavenly. " Lord teach us to nuraber our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom !"! ' Gen, xxiv, 63, t Psalm xc. 12. c , ^ o o -o CHAPTER V. That the state and condition of the life present, may'justly move us to this consideration. Amo.vgst the manifold reasons which may in duce us to this religious remembrance of our end, none more effectual than a due consideration of our present state. For what is our life but a Jonas gourd, suddenly sprung up, and by and by wither ed again, and gone ;* but a Jacob's pilgrimage, " the days whereof are in nuraber few, and in con dition evil."! " The terapter,"- saith St. Ambrose, " shewed the glory of the world in the tvvinkling of an eye, which shall vanish too in the twinkling of an eye."| What is all our glory but as the visions which Esdras saw, " goodly to look upon, and vanished in a moment ?"|| Or as Nebuchadnezzar's image, " that had a head of gold, breast and arms of sil ver,"^ and yet one dash with a stone out of the rock brought all to ruin ? May it not be said of the goodly porap, and most glorious shovvs, which * Jonah iv. 7, 8, t Gen, slvii. 9. i Ambr, in Luc. II Esdr, X. 32. « Dan, ii. 32. O- -O ) ¦ 0 74 DISCE MORI. we so much admire araongst raen, as Christ said of the buildings of the temple : " See you not these things ; verily, there shall not be left a stone upon a stone." As if little or no mention at all should be left of all. Are we not compared to certain sraall flies, that live near the river Hispanis, which in the raorning are bred, at noon are in their full strength, and at night they raake their end and are gone ?* Christ our Saviour said of his being here amongst men, " yet a little while ara I with you." David called his life and death a going forth and a coraing in. What are the things of this world ? As for popular applause, it is not much unlike sraoke, which the higher it raounteth, the sooner it vanish- eth away ? And for beauty, do not some few fits of a fever mar all the fashion ? O the inconstancy of all worldly glory ! in which there is nothing sure, no more than is of calm in the sea, because it is still subject to storm. II. All this stately and pageant-like pomp shall vanish away and come to nothing, as if it never had been. He that had come to the (:orab of Alexander the Great, and there found interred within the compass of seven feet hira whom the whole world could not suffice, raight he not have justly said, Is here the » Aristot.jle Nat. An. 3. o o Oh ¦ .Q LEARN TO DIE. 75 mirror of the world ? Is here the flourishing mon arch of his tirae ? 0 world, most unworthy to be affected of us, where are the riches that poverty hath not decayed ! Where is the beauty that age hath not withered ! Where is the strength that sickness hath not weak ened ! Where is the porap, that time hath not ruinated I I say not of men but even of cities, nay empires themselves. III. We are but tenants at will in this clay farm; the foundation of all the building is a small sub stance, always kept cold by an intercourse of air ; the pillar whereupon the whole frarae stays, is only the passage of a little breath ; the strength some few bones tied together with dry strings, or sinews; howsoever we piece and patch this poor cottage, it will at last fall into the Lord's hands, and we must give surrender when death shall say. This or this raan's time is come. IV. First, we mourn for others ; a little after, others mourn for us. Now we supply the places and offices and heritages of them that were before ; and ere long be, others shall corae afresh in our rooms, and rule where we rule, sway where we sway, and possess all which we have scratched to gether with care, kept with fear, and at last left with sorrow. Whereby we see, that we came not into this world to build houses or purchase lands ; to join c: ^ o Q 76 DISCE MORI. house to house, but rather by this our short con tinuance, we are put in raind to have these terapo- ral things in use, but eternal things in desire ; " To use this world, as if we used it not, and so be gone."* V. To this short continuance of life may be added the miseries of the sarae. For all is not life we here live ; when Job said, " Man that is born of a woraan, hath but a short tirae to live ;"! he by and by sheweth how this tirae is annoyed, and is, saith he, " full of raisery.'' " The years of raan's life are few, but the griefs thereof," saith one, " are many." Hereupon by the Grecians, the first day of the life of man was called " a beginning of a conflict; our ingress and egress, and progress too, are with signs of sorrow. St. Augustine saith of man's first entrance into the world ; A tender in fant not able to speak, and yet doth by tears pro phecy of the sorrows incident in the life of raan. The males from Adam, cry A, the feraales from Eve, E : all shew signs of sorrow. VI. Come we to our new birth, according to grace ; do we not in baptism take our prest-raoney, to fight a battle under the banner of Christ our Captain ? " And thou needest not," saith St. Au- gustin, " care to fight against many enemies ;"| for be thou well assured raany enemies will fight against thee ; which combat Cyprian declareth after « 1 Cor. vii, 31. t Job xiv, 1, t August, de pug. anim. o o r . Q LEARN TO DIE. 77 this manner: If thou, 0 man, overcorae covetous ness, covetousness being overcome, some evil af fection will assail thee ; if that evil affection be strangled, vainglory will allure thee ; if vainglory be despised, wrath and desire of revenge will in cense thee ; if wrath be pacified, then pride will puff thee up ; if pride be allayed, some other ene my will step in to give thee a fresh assault :"* as if the whole life of man were no other but a con tinual hacking and hewing at and off these hydras' heads of sin. " The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death ;"! to shew that until death be come and gone, an end of enemies will never come. When we see daily some go down, we perceive there is no peace to be looked for with this enemy ; from our swadling clothes to our winding sheet, we die daily. ' " I heard a voice from heaven saying," saith St. John, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, they rest from their labours ;"|: as if the saints never rest, until rest and blessedness, and dying in the Lord, raeet together. VIII. Here frail nature is the field wherein we must be ever toiling ; sin is the Jebusite that will be ever troubling ; the world is the step-mother to God's children, that will he ever chiding ; afflic- * Cyprian de mort. t 1 Cor. xv. 26. t Rev, xiv. 13. 0 — -6 O Q ''^8 DISCE MORI. tions are the waters, where our Gideon* will try whether we are fit soldiers to fight this battle : the Apostle saith, " He chasteneth every son."! If every son, then none excepted, no, not his own son. IX. We read in the eleventh, sixteenth, and twenty-first chapter of the book of Numbers, that the people rauch raurmured in tlie wilderness, thinking after their deliverance out of Egypt to have found their sweetness there ; the people were deceived : God kept that until they carae into the land of promise. We must not look for our happiness here, God keepeth that until we corae into the Holy Land. Here we are every day gathering manna : when the long Sabbath comes, then we cease gathering. Joseph gave his brethren provision for the way, but the full sacks were kept in store, until they came home unto their father's house. | God gives us here a taste and assay of his goodness, as a good merchant, willing to have our custora for greater coramodities ; but the full sacks are kept in store, until we corae unto His heavenly kingdora. X. For this life Adara, " in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread," || Nay, Adara, " in labour and sorrow shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life," until thou return unto the earth out of which thou .wast taken. As if the days of men, by reason of sin, were no other but the days * Judges vii. 4. t Heb. xii. 6. t Gen. xiii. 25. IIGen. iii. 19. o 0 0 . , LEARN TO DIE. 79 of sorrow ; because every day hath his grief, and every night his terror ; so that in this the ancient saying will be verified ; The life of man is rather calamity than life. " As one tossed with storras may rather be said to have been long tossed, than to have sailed far ; so may man, be said rather to have been long troubled, than to have lived long." XI. If one have goods and treasures, he liveth in travail, and is fain to imprison them under lock and bolt, for fear they shoidd fly frpm him. If he be destitute and needy, he liveth in grief, because want is grievous unto man's nature. If he be in high estate he is either envied or envieth, as if the chiefest felicity of worldings were infelicity ; and no other but a very shining misery. If we will hear Augustus, so great a potentate, we shall find him wishing rather to lead a private life than to en joy the whole regal erapire of the west. Cyrus, king of Persia, was wont to say, that if men did but know the infinite cares he sustained under an imperial crown, he thought no man would so much as stoop to take it up. XII. If these, who had the chiefest glory amongst men, found all so wearisome, much more may the Christian soul resolve never to sing her sweet re quiem, until she come to bear a part in that joyful choir of saints and angels above in heaven : if she cannot sing with the angels, " In earth peace," she shall one day sing, " Glory be to God on high." 6 -o )_ . — — o 80 DISCE MORI. For the delights of sin they go down as the wine, saith Solomon, pleasantly at the first, but at the last they bite like a serpent ; " they delight the sense, but slay the soul." And are as the rose when the flower is gone, there remains nothing but a prick. In a word, they play as a very tragedy, howsoever they begin with applause, yet at the shutting up of all they will end with horror. In the mean tirae, do we not see the vices them selves reward their followers with sundry griefs and infirraities ? And is not their fairest end often times extreme penury ? As if God would have licentious livers feel the smart of their own rod. XIII. For the world itself doth it not, saith St. John, pass away, and the lust thereof? Doth it not shew them a very Judas' part, and betray them unto Satan, saying. Whom I kiss with a feigned sign of love, " take them, torture them." Which is enough to raake them out of love with the same world, and with Lot, to get thera from Sodom ; or with the saints, to come out of Babylon, the affec tions of a sinful life, that they be not partakers of the punishment to be inflicted upon the same.* XIV. Now to come a little to the state of those in this world, whose inheritance is above ; what else do they find it but a main sea of calaraities, where they are tossed with the billows of raany storras, * Rev. xviii. 4. o — — o O) ! LEARN TO DIE. 81 and do feel this passage full of bitterness? lest they should take too much delight in wallowing and rolling to and fro upon worldly pleasures, God doth ballast their ship with some affliction. To see the state of God's own friends, there was never yet a Moses but had a Jannes and a Jambres to resist hira ;* never was there a good Joseph, but he had in his own father's house un kind brethren to envy him ;! never an Elias, but a Jezabel to hunt hira ¦,% never a Paul, but an Alex ander to do hira much evil;|| never a reverened Athanasius, or most learned and painful bishop of his time, but bold spirited schismatics wrongfully to malign hira.§ Wherefore to have eneraies in this world we must be content ; it was His case that now sits at the right hand of God in heaven. To suffer per secution it is no new accident. So persecuted they the prophets which were before you, saith our Saviour to His disciples ; the prophets of old drank of the same cup, all suffered.TF XV. From this annoyance we may come unto the domestical or home troubles, within ourselves, even our flesh, of which we may say, as one said once of a troublesome neighbour, " Neither can I live with thee nor without thee ;" because Adam was disobedient to God, nature is disobedient to " 2 Tun. iii, 8. t Gen. xxxvii, 11, t I Kings xix 2. 3. II 2 Tim. iv. 14. 1) Socr. Hist. Eccles. lib. 1. Chr, 20, IT Matt. v. 12. C3 6 ¦ n 82 DISCE MORI. Adara ; Hagar, the bond-woman, is very disdain ful towards her mistress, Sarah,* to wit, sin infus ed grace ; where the rebellious appetites conspire against the regimen of reason ; where our will like another Eve, is still provoking us to reach after the forbidden fruit ; where sin, like Tarquinius the proud, would tyrannize and usurp a perpetual dicta torship.! This sin is a sword in the heart, a ser pent in the bosom, a poison in the stomach, and a thief in the house ; it wounds nature, it stings the conscience, it kills charity, and spoils us of the favour of God, which is greater than all. When Abiraelech reigned, down went Gideon's children ; so is it with sin, when that swayeth, down go the fruits of faith. Again, for the condition of the world ; in pleas ing men, we often incur a greater loss by displeas ing God ; by pleasing God, (which is best of all,) we oftentiraes displease men ; but it raakes not so much what the standers-by think, so He approve of our race that gives the garland. Thus which way soever we cast our eyes, we see and find that of the wise man verified : " Great travail is created for all men, and a heavy yoke for the sons of Adam, from the day they corae out of their raother's worab, to the day they return to the earth, the mother of all things ; from Hira that sit- * Gen, xvi. 4. t Rom. vi. 12. O ! o o LEARN TO DIE. 83 teth on the glorious throne, unto him that is be neath in earth and ashes."* XVI. This is the state of all in general, sinners corrected, sons chastened : nay, the evil thera selves much tossed and turmoiled. They that " worship the beast," saith St. John, " have no rest day nor night,"! as they have not who make an idol of sensual pleasure. Look how raany vices, so many furies are wont to haunt the vicious minded man. The prophet David saith, " they that run after a strange god shall have much trouble ;"J as they have who made their dross mararaon|| their god, their glory their god, the world their god, their belly their god, as the apostle speaketh ; for so do epicures, whose shrine is their kitchen, whose priest is their cook, whose altar is their table, and whose belly is their god ; " when they have all done," saith St. Jerorae, " assuredly they find greater punishraent than pleasure, diseases of body, anxiety of raind." And thus the estate and condition of life is found troublesorae, even of hira to whom Abrahara said, " Thou in thy life receivedst thy joy : for the voluptuous in seeking his pleasures, the ambi tious his glory, the covetous his gain, endure in this world a very servitude and thraldom of life."§ • Ecclus. xl.l. t Rev. xiv. 11. t Psalm xvi. 4. II Phil. iii. 19. 4 luke xvi. 25. 0 Q 84 DISCE MORI. XVII. But the godly who are gold, and so must be tried in the furnace of adversity, who only here have their trials, who are tilled and manured as the plough ground, to be made fruitful and fertile, and are proved, with Simon of Cyrene,* every one with his cross must be contented to accompany Christ unto His kingdom. Manifold troubles are incident to all, but in more special manner unto those who are going from the dirt and raire of Egypt, to do sacrifice to God, who will bring thera into a good land,! the remera brance whereof may make them wish with David, " that they had wings like a dove, and so flying they raight come to rest."| Wherefore, for the transitory and fleeting de lights of this sinful world, happy are we if we see them, raore happy if we shun them, but raost hap py of all, when God shall take us clean frora them, when we shall be delivered from this irksome ne cessity of sinning, and not grieve the Holy Spirit any raore. XVIII. It is sorae comfort unto the wayfaring man, to commune of his journey's end ; joyfully doth the bondman reckon of the year of jubilee. This wearisome pilgrimage of ours may justly move us, this burdensome bondage raay raove us indeed to enter into a sad reraeinbrance of our end. Matt, xxvii. 32. t Exodus viii. 28, { Psalm Iv. 6. -"O o p LEARN TO DIE. 85 and pause with that saying of the apostle, " medi tate of these things."* XIX. Elijah fled but a day's journey before Je zebel, and he said, " It is enough Lord, take ray soul."| The angel would have Tobit rejoice, and Tobit replied, " What joy can I have, that do here sit in darkness, and do not behold the light of the sun?" The people of Babylon would have the " Israelites sing them a song."| Alas ! what song could they sing, being such sorrowful captives as they were ? Here we are flying before many Jezebels. Here we sit in darkness, and see not the true light that doth shine above in glory. Here we are poor captives ; what rejoicing should we have in a vale of tears, in so low and marshy a soil, naturally subject to moisture ? This life is rather a death than a life, as St. Austinll in effect sheweth upon these words of our Saviour : " They shall pass from death unto life,"§ calling this life death, and not corae to judgment ; that is to say, unto conderanation of judgment. This far country is full of penury and sorrow ; no plenty, no music, until we return unto our Fa ther's house.^ While we are on this side Jordan, we are amidst many trials ; and to say truth, we may look for no other. We find that saying of St. • 1 Tim.iv. 15. t 1 Kings xix. 4. t Psalm cxxxvii, 4. II August. Tract, in Joan. 22. i John v. 24. IT Luke xv. 24, 25, C — 0 o — c 86 DISCE MORI. Austin true : " What to live long, but to be long troubled ? "* XX. We read that Noah's dove, at the first flight from the ark, well she might mount aloft, fetched many retires, but she could have no rest ing-place, until Noah opened the window of the ark to receive her in again ;| so the poor soul may soar a time, but lifting up many a sigh and suppli cation unto God, who at last doth open the window of His heavenly ark ; and then, but not before, she hath sure footing, to rest for ever. XXI. " Those good men, saith the apostle Paul, of whom sometiraes the bad world was unworthy, wandered up and down in sheeps' skins, in de serts, as men forlorn:"! shewing evidently that their glory was not of this world, where they found so sorry a being, and therefore had their hope full of immortality, hoping for a reward to come, They sought God's glory in earth, and for their own glory, they let that alone, till they came to heaven. Now therefore, seeing in this state of life all is so troublesome: enemies at home, enemies abroad, perils on every side.|| A Christian meditation of our departure from the world, and consequently from all enemies, may tell us : " All will one day be better!" XXH. That we should not think of our continu- ' August, de ver. Dom. Serm 70. t Gen. viii, 9. } Heb. xi, 38, II 2 Cor. xl, 26. o o 9 Q I LEARN TO DIE. 87 ance here, we see this life to be only a pilgrimage. That we should not take the way for our country, or think of setting up our rest, where our state is so cumbersome and unquiet as it is ; where we have much wormwood, but little honey ; more motives to read the lamentations of Jeremiah, than we have to sing the songs of Solomon ; more tast ing of the sour leaven of adversity, than we have of the sweet meal of prosperity : God would have it so, that we should look for another home, and hope for a better rest. If every creature groan,* then much more may man, the most excellent of all creatures ; waiting for that adoption of the sons of God, which shall be given in the resurrection of the just. If they would be unburdened, how much more may man desire to be freed from the burden of sin ? When the prophet Micah would raise up the pensive hearts of the people, in the time of their captivity, he put them in mind of their departure, as thus : Arise, begone, here is not your place of rest.! In like manner, to quicken a little our weary spirits amidst raany calaraities, the lifting up of our hearts, by a meditation of our deliver ance frora this earthly thraldora, as the prison of the soul, will tell us of a blessed state to come, where we shall have rest ; " which is the end of every motion, and the perfection of labour and tra- ¦ Romans viii. 22: t Micah ii. 10. O Q -o 88 DISCE MORI. vail." Godly men depart this world, as travellers that come to their own home ; as hungry people that approach to a rich banquet ; as poor creatures to a gate where there is great alms. 6- -o c- o CHAPTER VI. That a consideration of the life to come, may move in us the same remembrance of our end. It is a rule in natural philosophy, that to see the stars and planets, and those superior lights at mid-day, men must go down into some wondrous deep pit or well, clean frora the light of the hori zon, where they live ; to behold with the eye of the soul, the light and joys of the life to corae, we must be far removed from the love and delights of this inferior world. The people never tasted manna, until they came from the leaven of Egypt.* Our ancestors, when they saw no other but straw cottages, they never minded any farther building ; but when once they beheld more seemly mansions, they began forthwith to dislike that, which before did no way dislike them. Whilst we set our af fections on earthly things, we seek for no better, for we look no higher, but once taking a taste of heavenly, we begin to grow out of love with that, * Exodus xvi. 15. o — — ¦ — o O- ( 90 DISCE MORI. which before was very acceptable unto us. And therefore as Zacchaeus, so long as he abode in the press,* was upon too low ground to see Christ, un til he gat him up into the fig-tree : so while we are in the route of too raany worldly affairs, we are too low, and therefore should get up into the sweet fig-tree, or conteraplation of heaven and heavenly things, that there and thence we raay see the joy of Israel, or excellence of the life to come ; and with the apostle, who after he was rapt into the third heaven, reckoned earthly things but dung. II. God said unto Abrahara, Rise, and walk about this land, this is the country that I will give thee.! God says unto faith. Arise, behold thy heavenly inheritance ! that is, the city where thou shalt have thy blessed abode forever. III. Sea-faring men having been long weather- beaten in the surging and dangerous seas, are wont to shout for joy, when they do discry their haven; joyfully may the Christian behold afar off, after the manifold storms of this world, his heavenly and everlasting harbour, the remerabrance whereof may move us either to wish with St. Paul, to be dissolved and be with Christ,^ or reply with the saints in the Apocalypse, unto him that said, I corae, " Even so, come Lord Jesus." || IV. Here we do but sow in tears, there is the * Luke xix. 3. t Genesis xiii. 14, 15. } Phil, i, 23. || Rev, xxii. 20. O o 0 LEARN TO DIE. 91 place where we shall reap in joy : here we are members of the Church militant, where is nothing but combating, there shall we be parts of the Church triumphant, where is no other but rejoic ing. V. The state of the life present and that to come, is figured by the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament ; the tabernacle, for that it was moveable,* may resemble the condition of the life present : the temple, for that it was fixed and im moveable,! the fruition of the life to come. To the framing of the tabernacle carae the Jews only ; but to the building of the temple, with the inhabi tants of Jewry, the men of Tyre and Sidon ; to wit, both Jews and Gentiles, all concur in this building, wherein is never heard the noise of a hammer. " Blessed are they, O Lord," saith Da vid, " that dwell in thy house," | where the Son of God in glory is light to their eyes, music to their ears, sweetness to their taste, and contentraent to their heart; where in seeing they shall know Him ; in knowing, they shall possess Him ; in possess ing, they shall love Him ; in loving, they shall re ceive eternal blessedness, and blessed eternity, which is the garland we all run for,|| the crown we all fight for. All our watching and fasting § and praying, is *lSam.vi.3. 1 1 Kings viii. 13. J Psalm Ixxxiv. 4. || 1 Cor.ix.24. (j 2 Tim. 4, 7. O ('^ C Q 92 DISCE MORI. like Jacob's striving with the angel, O bless us. Lord!* VI. Everything doth in nature require a perfec tion ; the heavens which are in continual raotion, the angels which are ascending and descending, are said not to have their full perfection ; but especially raan in this troublesome raotion, until he come to the accomplishraent of all his hope. If to see the state of blessedness be no small joy, then what will the fruition thereof be : where faith hath no more place, because we behold that which we believed ; where hope ceaseth, because we possess that we before hoped 7 If the apostle, of whom mention is before raade, taken up into the third heaven, and is thought to have seen part of this blessedness, could not ex press the excellence thereof, being so high a sub ject, the raore he did consider it, the raore he seem ed to wonder at it ; yet thus much he could say ; " That eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, the heart of man could not conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him."! Reach as far as huraan understanding can reach, all is not answerable to the sarae. " Of things infinite, we cannot but infinitely consider." VII. To lift up your eyes towards those glitter ing beams of God's glory, where the sharpest eagle may be dazzled ; to wade into the depth of * Gen. xxxii. 29. 1 1 Cor. ii. 9. o 0 0 o LEARN TO DIE. 93 his excellence, wherein a camel may be plunged ; the short reach of human reason may rather move us to cry with the apostle, " 0 the depth of the love, and bounty, and mercy of God I" * They that corae to the main ocean find water enough, if they come by millions, to take of it, if they bring vessels with them ; be there a multi tude which no tongue can number, God hath crowns for their heads, and palras for their hands, when they shall follow the Larab wheresoever He goeth, when they shall rest upon Mount Sion, when they shall sit with Him, and reign with Him.! VIII. ¦' If you ask," saith Lactantius, " why God created the world, it was for no other cause but that man should be created ; if you demand why raan was created, it was because he should worship his Creator ; if you ask why he should worship his Creator, it was for no other cause, but that he should be rewarded by Hira." ^ " Lord, what was raan, that thou didst so respect hira I" || These- are the bowels of God's mercy, who had no other cause of His mercy, but His mercy no other end but His own glory and our good, which is called " His most great and ample reward," wherein there is no end of His goodness, no num ber of His mercies, no measure of His wisdom, no depth of his bounty : " So God doth deal like God *Rom. XI. 33. tRev. vii. 9. t Lact. lib. vi, de. Divin. pram. 11 Psalm viii. 4, 9 5 Q O 94 DISCE MORI. Himself." The value of which glory is apparent in this, in that it cost the precious death of the Son of God. " If there were so great faith in earth as there is reward looked for in heaven," saith Tertullian, " merciful Lord, what love should we have to the life to come."* IX. Pharaoh was content at last, that the people should go to do sacrifice, but they must leave their herds of cattle behind.! No, Moses will not leave a hoof in Egypt; all our desires must go with us, in believing that high reward of blessedness so far above all human desert, that is or raay be. X. Seneca writeth that Alexander the Great, giving a poor man two talents, the man was so as tonished with the greatness of the gift, that he an swered the king : " Most princely sir, I am not worthy to receive so much ;" to whom Alexander replied, " I do not respect, good man, what thou art meet to receive, but what beseems rae so great a potentate for to give.":}: God doth not so rauch regard what we raost unworthy creatures are worthy to receive, as what becometh Him, the God of all mercy and magnificence, to bestow and give. Herod promised much, when he promised half his kingdora ;|| but Christ, when He gives, we find Him giving a whole kingdom : " Come ye blessed * Tertul, de Hab. mulierum, t Exod. x. 24. t De Beneflciis lib. 2. II Mark vi, 23. O CO 0 LEARN TO DIE. 95 of my Father, receive the kingdom," nay, " the kingdom prepared for you."* Seeing Christ hath prepared heaven for us, for the love of God let us prepare ourselves to heaven. Men are soraetiraes liberal in promising, but more niggardly in performing ; with God it is not so. Again, amongst men, the elder, or one only doth inherit ; but with God all sons are heirs, all heirs inherit ; and the inheritance too, is a heaven ly kingdora ; to reign, to rejoice, for ever.! The raeditation of this happy end of man, if man did know his own happiness, were enough to make him little respect a thousand worlds ; nay, to say with the prophet, " Like as the hart desireth the water streams, so is my soul athirst for God : 0, when shall I enter those courts of joy ."J XI. Demetrius Phalereus hearing the philoso phers dispute about the immortality of the soul, " Wretched raan that I am, quoth he, who have so long lived in the perishing delights of this cor ruptible body. We know not what we lose, when we lose opportunity of seeking and buying that precious pearl, for which the provident husband man should sell all that he hath." || XII. When the people, as we read in the two and thirtieth chapter of the book of Numbers, § were come to their entrance into the land of Pro- * Matt, xxv, 34. t Rom. viii. 17, * Ps, xiii 1, 2. t Matt, xiii, 44. 11 Numbers xxxii. 1, Q. O I o — o 96 DISCE MORI. mise, the children of Reuben and Gad, regarding not the proraise so often promised, desired Moses that they might stay on the hither side of Jordan, be cause it was a place meet for their droves of cattle, which they more respected than their passage into the Holy Land. Are there not sorae in the world, not far unlike these children of Reuben and Gad, who desire to make their stay here, and would go no further, for that they esteem the pleasures and profits of a life temporal, more than they do the in comprehensible joys in that life eternal. Not unlike those guests, who being invited to a great supper, feed so long upon coarser dishes, that when they corae to the banquet, they have no appe tite ; they are so satisfied with earthly things, that when they should come to the best, or desire of heavenly, they have no desire at all ; or as men led captive into a foreign land frora their infancy, do not only forget their natural language, but even a desire of returning home. But for the true Israelites, all is weariness, until they come into the land of rest. Whereas in other things, saith Cyprian,* we are wont to blame it, yet in the expectation of so great a good, we may commend irapatience. Woe is rae, saith David, that my pilgriraage is prolonged. St. Austin writes of certain beasts that are so patient of thirst, that seeing many puddles, yet they will never drink of * Cyprian de mort. -o O Q I LEARN TO DIE. 97 any, till they come to a fountain that is clear ¦ surely the faithful have this property, they stay the satisfying of their desires, till they come to the true fountain ; here we are but refreshed : " We still are hungry, until we come to be satisfied to our desire." XIII. In things that are ordained unto an end, the rule and measure of all actions is taken from the same end, which end is first in the intention, and last in the execution : the end ever moves the agent, saith Aristotle.* Now if blessedness be man's end, then is it the mark we shoot at, and the scope of all our enterprises whatsoever. Every thing is required for blessedness, and only blessed ness for itself Jacob's seven years' service seemed but light in regard of Rachel, for whom he served.! The la bour and travail, not of seven years, but of all the years of our life, is nothing in respect of Rachel, the fairer, the happier state to come. XIV. And this doth answer the profane atheist, and meet with the objections of Job's friends : "What good hath thy righteousness brought thee?" or as some would not blush to say, in the time of the prophet Malachi : " What profit is there by serving God 1"'^ The most happy reward in the life to come, doth strike them all dumb ; His very assistance in * Arist. met. t Gen. xxix, 28. } Mai. iii. 14. 0 —0 0 ~o 98 DISCE MORI. the life present may make them amazed. " Do but try me," saith the Lord, " if I will not pour out a blessing upon you." The prophet David sheweth, that men rejoice when their wine, and corn, and oil increaseth ; but Lord, saith he, " lift thou up the light of thy coun tenance ;" as if there were greater rejoicing in this than in any other blessings whatsoever. XV. This blessing, say the ancient fathers, is both of the way and of the country.* That which God giveth in the way, is spoken of by the same prophet David in the first Psalra, where mention ing the state of him that walketh not in the coun sel of the ungodly, he shall be blessed, saith the prophet, and how ? " Look, whatsoever he doth, it shall prosper."! So saith he of the man that feareth God, he shall be blessed, and wherein ? For he " shall see his children's children, and peace upon Israel."! XVI. The world's raanner is the Jew's manner, who were wont to bring the best wine first : " Christ He observes his old manner, and keeps the best until the last."|| It is said of Isidore, that being at a banquet, and there beholding a great sign of God's bounty to wards the sons of raen, suddenly he breaks out in to abundance of tears ; being demanded the cause. * Cyril, de fide ad rog. Hil. de uni, pat, et fil, f Ps, i, 3, t Ps. cxxviii. 16, II John ii. 10. -0 Q -O LEARN TO DIE. 99 for that, quoth he, " I here feed on earthly crea tures, that am created to live with angels.'' XVII. To conclude, worthily hath Aristotle said, there is nothing more beseeming the excel lence of man's nature, than conteraplation. God hath set the earth under our feet, and there fore it should not be too rauch esteemed. The world itself is of a round figure, but the heart of man is triangular, and so comprehends more than the world. Our bodies walk on earth, but our souls should be in heaven, by our heavenly de sires ; and we should frame our affections in form of a ship ; that is close downward, but open up ward, in a hearty desire of a superior condition ; the remembrance whereof is like the message of the Angel Gabriel, which brought tidings of great joy, which raay make the faithful answer with Hezekiah, and say : " The word of God is good, let there be peace,"* and that too peace eternal. The philosophers tell us, that above the highest sphere, there is nothing subject to alteration; peace will corae, happiness will come. " In the mean tirae," saith St. Austin, " let ray rhind rause of it ; let my tongue mention it; let my heart love it, and ray whole soul never cease to hun ger and thirst after it."! " O Lord God of Hosts, blessed is he that putteth his trust in Thee." J ? 2 Kings XI. 19. i August. Man. ult. cap. i Psalm Ixxxiv. 12_ ) ^ O n o CHAPTER VII. That we need not fear death, much less to meditate thereof. When Moses saw his rod turned into a serpent, it did at first soraewhat affright hira, for he began to step frora it :* but when God commanded him to take hold thereof, he found afterward by raany effects, it did him and the people of God much good. At first sight death doth fray our natural weakness, and we begin to shrink from it : but having con fidence in God, who hath willed us not to fear, we find it a means to divide the waters of many tribu lations, to make us a passage from the wilderness of this world unto a better, even the land of rest. II. It is strange we should make so nice of ourselves as to count it a death to meditate of death. Nay, to esteem the very remembrance thereof, as Ahab did the presence of the prophet Elias,! to be troublesome unto us ; whereas death is so far from hurting them who put their trust in * Exod. iv. 3. 1 1 Kings xviii. 17. 0 -6 p — n LEARN TO DIE. 101 God, as they shall rather find it a gentle guide to bring them home to their own city, where they would be, there to remain and abide for ever. ¦¦ A good man's care is," saith one, " not how long he lives, but how well ; not when he dies, but in what good sort, how soon soever." " The evil are sorry that time passeth away so fast ; the good desire to be where time passeth not at all." The matter was once disputed before Leo, b}' two philosophers, about dying and rising again ; for him that held we need not care for either, this man's opinion, said Leo, is the merrier, but surely the other is the truer. III. That which we call life is a kind of death, because it maketh us to die ; but that which we count death, is in the sequel a verv birthday of life, for that indeed makes us to live. There is a death which some call mortal sin, and this is the death of the soul, which death in deed we should all fear. There is also a moder ate fear of the other death, which is profitable to withdraw us frora the allurements of evil. But so to fear it, as if it were the utter ruin and overthrow of all our being we need not, we ought not. IV When St. Paul spake of an unconquerable faith which was his stay, and the stay of all thera whose hope was in Christ, " We," saith he " know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle be destroyed, we have a building not made with 6 ¦ o ! Q 102 DISCE MORI. hands, but given of God, eternal in the heavens."* As if he would tell the persecutors of his time, that miseries for a moment could not dismay them ; the perishing of the outward man, could not in anywise daunt them ; no present death could discourage them, for they knew their habi tation was in heaven, and themselves incorporated citizens into that Jerusalem which is above ; well, they raight kill their bodies, but to kill in them the faith of the Lord Jesus, all the torments of the world could not. V. A heathen man could say, this abject fear is far different from a generous offspring. He that fears death, saith Plate,! is either a lover of the body, of riches, or at least of honour ; without all doubt philosopher- or lover of wisdora he is not. But Soloraon saith, " The just raan is as a lion,"! of whora the naturalist writeth, that he is of such courage, as being fiercely pursued he will never once alter his gait, though he die for it. With what constancy answered the second of those seven brethren, who all yielded up raanfully themselves to torment, for the maintenance of the law of God ? " Thou, O King, takest these our lives from us, but the God of Heaven shall raise us up in the resurrection of everlasting life."|| The philosopher might say, that is of things terri- I * 2 Cor. V. 1. t Plato inPhsd. i Prov. xxviii. II 2 Mace. vii. 9. -o 0 O LEARN TO DIE. 103 ble, none more terrible than death.* But it is otherwise with Christians. Tertullian told the persecutors of his time, that their cruelty did but open a door to God's distressed people, whereby they might enter the sooner into a state of glory, and therefore death was acceptable to them.! VI. " Why should I fear," saith the prophet, " in the evil day ?"| As if David saw no cause of dreading death, howsoever nature may begin to tremble at the raention thereof. Hilarion could not but wonder his soul shotdd be so loath to de part, after he had served God, and God hira so many years. |t Consider death as in itself, and so naturally we fear it ; consider death as a means to bring us unto Christ, willingly we may erabrace it ; if we fear death, let us seek out the cause of this fear : are our sins the cause ? let us repent of thera ; is the love of this world the cause ? let us forsake this love : is it for want of faith ? (for sure we are but of little faith,) let us say with hira, " We believe. Lord, help our unbelief." VII. When Jacob saw the chariots of Egypt, and thereby perceived his son Joseph was alive, his fainting spirits revived, saying, " I will go and see hira before I die."^ When faith doth bring us raany testimonies that our Joseph liveth, the • Arist. Eth. Ub. 3. t Ter. in Apo. t Psalm xlix. 5. II Hier. de vit. Hd. « Gen. xlv. 28. 5 . — 0 o ¦ 104 DISCE MORI. Christian man may recomfort himself in tirae of dis tress and say, Moriar at videam ; in the name of God to see hira let rae die. Peradventure it holds in this, saith St. Austin : " Men shall not see Me and live :" well to see Thee, let rae die, Lord. VIII. Now for these corruptible bodies, they take no damage at all by death. It is no harm to the seed, though it hath for the time a little earth harrowed or raked over it, it shall spring again and flourish, and bring forth fruit in due season. And no hurt is it to these our bodies to be cast into the ground : " Being sown in weakness, they shall rise again in power ; being sown natural bodies, they rise again bodies spiritual; being sown in dishonour, they rise again in glory."* IX. The keeping green of Noah's olive tree under the flood : the budding again of Aaron's rod :! the deliverance of Jonas from the depth of of the sea ;| the voice that calleth " Come again ye children of men ; "II the hope of Job, that he should see God with no other, but with the self same eyes.^ The prophecy of Ezekiel, unto the dry bones that should come, "Bone to bone," TT may stir up in us a joyful hope, and cheer our pen sive souls against all the fears and terrors of death. But the resurrection of our Saviour Christ is the comfort of all coraforts. The voice of Christ, is • 1 Cor. XV. 43, 44. t 1 Num, xvii, 8. }Jonaliil7. IIPs.xc. 3 i) Job xix. 27. IF Ezek, xxxvii, 7, c- i 9 o LEARN TO DIE. 105 by Christ the voice of Christians, saith St. Austin. " Death, where is thy sting ? Hell, where is thy victory?"* First he speaks as a challenger: " O death, I will be thy death;" then as a con queror, ¦' Death, where is thy sting?"! Which in terrogation assumeth an absolute negation. Now death, thou hast no sting ; or death thou art now no death, because I have a resurrection to life. And thus Christ triumphed over the strongest holds of the enemy, to shew we are delivered from hell and death ; and this comfort take we by those divine articles of our creed, which shew His de- scension and resurrection. As Christ was the cause efficient, so was He also a figure of the re surrection. He rising, we all arise ; as one cast into a river, if the head keep above water, the whole body is in safety. X. Of a more powerful cause there is a more powerful effect. Epiphanius saith, Adam was buried in Calvary,^ where Christ was crucified, where the eflects of Christ's blood distilled frora His blessed body, might say. Arise thou that sleep est. If the sin of Adara, who was a living soul, was the cause that death reigned over all, rauch more the resurrection of Christ, who was a quick ening Spirit, shall be of power to raise up all that believe, to the hope of everlasting life. Wherefore what greater joy, than to be able to • 1 Cor. XV. 25. t Hos. xiii, 14, t Epiph, lib. 1, tom 33. o ^ 0 o ¦ O 106 DISCE MORI. know Hira, as the apostle speaketh, " And the power of His resurrection ? "* As Christ in dying shewed that we should suflfer, so in rising frora death he sheweth what we should hope, to wit, that all the bones in Golgotho should rise,! and those " that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. "f Wherefore though death do swallow us up as the whale did Jonas ; blind us as the Philistines did Samson ; seal the sepulchre upon us, as the Jews did upon our Lord Jesus, yet we shall corae forth and break the bands, as the bird out of the snare: "the snare is broken, and we are delivered." XI. They may well fear death, saith St. C)''- prian, that have no faith in Christ ; but for those who are merabers of that head, who vanquished the power of hell and death, Death is to them ad vantage, and a gentle guide, that brings them horae to everlasting rest. Hence is it that dying, they are said only to fall asleep. || They that sleep in Jesus, as saith the apostle, they lay thera down and take their rest, and God it is that raakes them dwell in everlasting safety. We are not wont to fear to fall asleep, for sleep is a refreshing after wearisorae labours. The painful labouring man, after his day's work ended, sleeps often more quietly than Dives in the mar ble palace, on his bed of ivory, where he tosseth * Phil, iii. 10. t Dan. xii. 2. X Join xi. 25, 44. II 1 Thess. iv. 13. o- o ¦ o LEARN TO DIE. 107 and turableth : he sleeps not quietly either in life or death ; and of such is that verified, O death> how bitter is thy reraeinbrance ! What a sorrow ful day is this to careless sinners, when justice shall set such a fine upon their heads, as they are but decayed men for ever? Having wearied tl^era- selves, saith the wise raan, in the way of wicked ness, they shall cry out, " What hath pride pro fited us, or the porap of riches brought us?"* after all our stir, we are never the nearer, " Death is not evil, but after death to go to punishment, that is evil." XII. Surely this barren and light land of world ly delights, after all our drudgery, yields no other but a crop of cares, trouble, fear, and vexation of mind, whereas those that have laboured in the vine yard, and have been often in watching, in fasting often, passed raany sleepless nights and restless days, do rest from their labours, and fall asleep to rise again with their bodies, when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear in everlasting glory. Of these the apostle saith, " I would not have you sorrow as raen without hope, for those that are asleep."! How acceptable therefore may death be, when in dying we sleep, and in sleeping we rest frora all the travails of a toilsorae life, to live in joy, to rest for ever ? XIII. Again, whereas death is a tribute, we • Wis. V 8. 1 1 Thess. iv, 13. = o— o 0^ — Q 108 DISCE MORI. must all pay homage ; " Let us make that volunta ry which is necessary, and yield it to God as a gift, which we stand bound to pay as a due debt."* Had we no further hope than only to attain a state temporal, we might fear indeed, because when we die all our happiness shall die with us ; but when God made man of the dust of the ground, God " breathed into him the breath of life, and man was made a living soul,"! therefore not a dying soul. XIV, Cassar writeth, that the bare opinion of the Druids, (who taught that the soul had a con tinuance after the separation from those bodies) raade many of their followers hardy in great at tempts, and abated in most the fear of death.:}: Cy rus himself could say unto his children, when he was ready to die, " Think not, dear children, that I shall be no where, or nothing." If a bare reposal of a future Being could so much avail against the fear of death ; what doth faith effect, which doth warrant us by good evi dence ? The testator is dead, the assurance is good in law, to set us in peaceable possession of an inheritancetocorae,so surely confirraed. O hap py Christians that have so good hope of happiness ! " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust."|| * Chrisost.Hom, 10, inMatt, 1. FGen,ii,7. } C!esar,lib.6.de Bel.Gal. II Isaiah xxvi. 19. o o o _o LEARN TO DIE. 109 XV. If Abraham the faithful patriarch left his own country and kindred at the comraandraent of Almighty God, and went into a strange land,* how willingly should we leave this country, where we are only strangers, and go where we have our own home and abode for ever? This was the resolution of St. Ambrose, who neither loathed life, nor feared to die, " because," saith he, " we have a good Lord"! This was the faith of Simeon, who having seen Christ, prayed to depart in peace.J This was St. Paul's gain, when he said, " To die is to me advantage,"! be cause this passage was a dissolution ; and this dis solution was to be freed from the prison of the bo dy ; and this freeing from the body was to be at liberty with Christ. Seeing therefore that death itself being duly con sidered, should nothing at all dismay us, then much less may the only meditation thereof. The more we meditate of death, the less we fear it ; the less we fear it, the more faith have we. " Who shall separate us frora the love of God, that is in Christ? shall tribulation or anguish? shall life or death ?"§ " Blessed be God," saith St. Peter, " who hath be gotten us to a lively hope of the resurrection." * Gen. xii, 4, t Possid. in vit, Aug, t Luke u, 29. II Phil. i. 21. „ l> Rom. viii. 35. o -¦ O o -Q CHAPTER VIII. That the aflUctions of mmd wliich are incident in the life of man, may move him to a meditation of liis end. Solomon, whom God for wisdom chose to be as it were the foreman of a great inquest to raake in quiry of the state of the world, to corae forth to speak for all, and his conscience of all ; having seen and experienced the nature of things under the sun, yields up his verdict of all, as thus : " All is vanity and vexation of mind."* This is in brief the condition of all in general, recorded for poste rity, all is vanity. II. The rich are discontented in honours, the poor languishing in grief, the learned full of rest less labours ; for raight not the learned fathers have well said, as the lamps of the temple. We serve other and consume ourselvffs^ All, of what es tate soever, are subject unto troubles and vexations of mind. As if Solomon should have said. You may look for no other, all is vexation. I will tell you what you shall find of the world, delight in it as long as you will, all is vanity. * Eccles, ii. 11. o- -o Q1 _ Q LEARN TO DIE. Ill III. Small cause had the Israelites to care for their continuance araong the task masters of Egypt: and as small cause have any to desire to live in this world ; as in a wilderness amongst many wolves. We know Christ our Saviour hath told us, " That being in the world, we are not of the world ;"* in, but not of. Here we may not look for perfect rest of body, or all contentment of mind, and therefore to medi tate of deliverance raay be sorae refreshing to the distressed soul, who raay pour out her coraplaints, saying, " Would to God that day might once shine, when I shall see my Redeemer ; when I shall come where is peace within and without ; when I shall appear before the presence of God with joy, and be no more oppressed with grief, disturbed with desires, molested with thoughts, but live and rest for ever ; " Such is the lot of our estate present, to be born, to sorrow, to die." IV. What comfort can a man reap, or what quiet should he take where want is miserable, plenty is full of peril, which way soever we cast our eyes, we find cause of complaint, that we may well count laughter error, saying, " Why art thou so mad,''! and subscribe to that of the prophet, " Lord, thy terrors have I suffered frora ray youth upward with a troubled mind."! " The just raan," saith St. Austin, " lives not as he would, until he come * John xvii, 16- t Eccles. ii, 2. } Ps. bcxiviii. 15. o o O Q 112 DISCE MORI. where he cannot die, be deceived, or annoyed at all."* V. Having then so little cause to joy in this life, where there is small occasion offered to make us rejoice, where the mind is so invested with cares, molested with griefs, vexed with pain, we may re count with ourselves the happiness of thera, who after the storms of this troublesome sea, have cast anchor in their safest road. VI. Noah had much molestation in the old world, he had the waters swelling under him, the heavens dark and gloomy over hira: at last the ark stayed upon the raountains of Ararat, and then was Noah a glad man ;! Lot was grieved amongst the sinful Sodomites ;J at last, God sent His angels to take him clean away. Elias mourned for a time, sat under a juniper tree,|| sent up his sighs to heaven, at last came the chariot, § and then there was no more Jezebel to persecute hira, no more false pro phets to band themselves against him. The saints under the altar may for a time cry, " How long, Lord Jesus I" After a little more suffering, their disgrace shall be turned into glory, their mournful tears into a gladsome triumph. VII. " Why art thou so vexed, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me ! O put thy trust in God."1[ " In the multitude of the sorrows," • Aug. Dei Civit, lib, 14. cap, 25. t Gen. viii. 4. t Gen. xix 9. II 1 Kings xix, 3. ^ 2 Kings ii, II. TPs.xlii. 11. OD- O LEARN TO DIE. 113 saith the same prophet, " that were in my heart, thy coraforts, Lord, have refreshed my soul."* Thereby showing, that as the world had a multi tude of sorrows to assault his heart, so God hath a multitude of comforts to refresh his heart amidst a sea of sorrows. " As our sufferings in Christ do abound, so our consolations also in Christ do abound too," saith St. Paul! VIII. Our Saviour knowing that His apostles should have many and great discoraforts in the world, proraiseth to send thera, after His ascension up into heaven, another Comforter ;% for His pre sence was their comfort for the time being, and afterwards in their deepest prisons, they should have the Holy Ghost their fellow prisoner ; and howsoever the world did outwardly annoy them, yet they should inwardly have a Comforter to make them rejoice in their sufferings, and after all to re joice for ever. St. Chrysostora upon that of the apostle, " If God be on our side, who can be against us ?"|| yea rather, saith he, " Who is against us ?" Nay, who is not against us, if God be with us ! But howso ever they are against us, they shall not prevail or long trouble us : God is a rewarder of patience, and death the finisher of pain. " We have passed," saith the prophet, " through fire and water," not fire only as the Three Children, or water only as •Psxciv, 19. t2Cor. 1, 5, I Jolm xiv. 16. II Rom. viii. 31. c Q ) Q 114 DISCE MORI. the Israelites, but fire and water, all kinds of ad versities, we have passed thera, and so not stayed in them, but Thou hast brought us to a place of rest, so rest will follow. IX. Now, therefore, though the burden be heavy, yet it isa lightsomeness to remember the way is not long. What? saith Christ our Saviour, " Be hold I come quickly, and my reward is with me."* X. When the apprentice calls to mind that his years of covenant will now shortly expire, and that then he shall have his freedom confirmed, the re membrance hereof maketh many laboursome works seera more light and less grievous unto him. The poor traveller in thinking of his inn, goeth on more cheerfully towards the end of his painful journey. The bondman in calling to mind the year of Jubilee, is wont with more patience to pass through the years of bondage. Now then amidst the sundry sorrows incident to the state of man, and our condition here, a meditation of our end may much mitigate, if not altogether take away the greatest sorrows of all. " Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of all :"! how many and how great soever they are, yet an end they shall all have ; for the Lord taketh either troubles from thera, or taketh them frora troubles. Great are their trials, " but salvation will one * Rev. xxii. 12. t Ps. xxxii, 10 ; xxxiv, 19. O ¦ — — c^ o ¦ — ¦ ¦ o LEARN TO DIE. 115 day make amends," when they shall have all tears wiped from their eyes, and their reward be so much the more joyous, by how much the course of their life hath been grievous unto them. XI. Seeing therefore, that on every side we have such urgent occasion to pass the days of this wearisome pilgrimage in anxiety and pensiveness of mind, raay not we think them thrice blessed, who are now landed on the shore of perfect secu rity, and delivered from the burden of so toilsome a labour, to be where are no tears, and where there is no cause of tears, no trouble, for that there is no cause of trouble ? May we not think them happy raen who are gone frora a shadow of life to true life itself, from dark ness to light, frora trouble to rest, frora men to God! May we not be refreshed, I say, in calling to mind that this battle will one day have an end, and we freed frora the throes of all these bitter calamities ? Well may we weep and mourn as Job and Jere miah did, in consideration of our birth or entrance into this vale of tears, and often may we nmse with gladness of the time of our departure from the same. After all sorrows and those threatening voices, " A voice will come from the throne, when the vial of the seventh angel shall be poured out,"* and will say, Now all is done. Though God do begin with, " I have afflicted * Rev. xvi 17. o o -o 116 DISCE MORI. thee," He will surely end with, " I will aflSict thee no more." XII. Consider we the state of man from the very beginning of Adam, besides his continual travail in the earth, the remembrance of his felicity lost, could not but be irksome unto him ; he hath but two sons, and one is taken away by untimely death: Abel, in the flower of his age. Noah lives long, and what with his sorrows in the world, the coming of the flood, the mocking of his son, we find his life more bitter than a hundred deaths ; so to suffer is not our lot alone. First, God called Abraham to a trial of his faith ; and after, to a blessing for his faith, because thou hast endured by faith ; " in blessing I will bless thee,"* saith the Lord. * Gen, xxii, 17, o- -o -o CHAPTER IX. That the griefs of the body may also move us to enter into this serious meditation of our end. When the prophet Daniel saw what was, and in all likelihood (unless God had set to His help ing hand in time) what still should be the estate of the people, while they were in the thraldrom of Babylon, he thought raore and more of his and their deliverance, and besought God to look upon the desolation of Plis people, " to shew mercy for His raercy's sake, in ridding them from all."* When we see and feel what is, and still will be the condition of this our Babylon, griefs of body and afflictions of mind, we raay in our highest de votion to God, call to raind the time of our dismis sion, and our good delivery from all. Yea, we may consider that there will come a day when these crazed bodies, subject to several infirmities, as the head to megriras, the lungs to suffocation, the joints to gout, the stronger parts themselves to convulsions, by shrinking in of the sinews ;! there * Dan. ix. 18, t Grig. Patriar, 1, 3. c o 118 DISCE MORI. will be a time when these bodies, I say, which have holpen to bear the burden of the day, shall with the happy soul " live together, and rejoice together.'' II. In the mean season, we raay remember in all these infirmities, that of the prophet, " The Lord will not fail His people, neither will He for sake His inheritance."* David knew it was God's manner to try His servants, and therefore in his afflictions he made this protestation of himself, and then, " Though all this come upon us, yet will not we forsake Thee."! III. It is our Isaac's use, first to feel us by tribu lation, and then to bless us ; by these infirmities of the body, we may consider God's feeling. Now after we have suffered a little, " Then take a bless ing, my son."! IV. Though the wind blow cold, yet doth it cleanse the good grain ; though the fire burn hot, yet doth it purify the best gold. Afflictions, as they are ¦jra.Hix.a.ra, passions painful, so are they also ¦7ra6yii,>,(tT», lessons gainful, both sufferings and instructions. For these afflictions do often cause an utter conterapt of all worldly pleasures, hura- bleness of mind, penitence, and sorrow of heart for sins passed, and a more heedfulness for the time to come ; thus by bodily chastisements, God doth kill His and our eneraies, that is, our sins in us. * Ps. xciv. 14. t Ps. xliv. 17, i Gen. xxvii, 23, c — ^ — ——6 O ( LEARN TO DIE. 119 By this means also, sickness is unto the faith ful as a physician, both things " that make them sorrowfifl, and those that do not, God turneth all to their good," saith St. Chrysostom.* V. In the hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, the people's captivity is thus mentioned, " By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept ;" in the verse following : " As for our harps we hanged them up upon the trees that are there nigh."! '¦ We sat down," a token of their huraility, "and wept," a sign of sorrow and penitence, " as for our harps we hanged them up,'' which shewed they were now very far from mirth and melody. But here we meet with a question worth the ask ing ; If sin and transgression were the cause that Adam had sorrow in the fruit of the earth, and Eve sorrow in the fruit of the womb ; nay, that death was inflicted as a punishment upon thera and theirs, how is it that the punishment of sin by Christ now taken away, both sorrow and death still remain? " I will shew you," saith St. Austin, against the Pelagians, " how this holdeth. First, these were punishments for sinners, but now they are exerci- tia fidelium, exercises of believers, and so were they in effect in all ages.":]: VI. All the life of Soloraon was full of pros perity, and therefore we find that Solomon did * Chryst, sup. cap. 50. Gen. t Ps, cxxxvii, 1, 2, t Aug. de. Remis, Peccat. cont. Pelag. 6— ~- — ¦ — 0 o 120 DISCE MORI. much forget God ; but the whole life of David had much adversity, and therefore we see by his peni tential Psalms, and others, that David did much remember God. VII. These chastisements of the body in par ticular, as they are in the consequent, means often times for our good, " For the worser part of man," saith St. Jerome, " is sometimes punished, which is the body, that the better part of raan, to wit, the soul, in the day of judgment may be saved,"* so are they in the cause, effects of God's love. For, though He be at tiraes a chastening Father, yet a Father; though a lancing Physician, yet a Physician ; and therefore One that loves, and that cures. We need no raore, but lay open our griefs, and let Hira alone with the salving, who sees chastiseraents soraetimes are as necessary for the soul, as medicines for the body, who knows better than ourselves, how best to do us good. VIII. Wherefore though affliction be hard of di gestion to the natural man, though the potion be sharp, yet it is His, whose intent is to procure health, " Whom I love I chastise,"! saith Christ unto His, whose love in chastening we may not refuse. St. Chrysostora could say, " A great temptation it is, not to be tempted at all." IX. Job was a righteous man, by the testiraony of Him, whose testiraony was raost true. " What * Hieronymus. t Rev, iii. 19. -o O) ( LEARN TO DIE. 121 sayest thou to my servant Job, an upright and just man, one that feared God ?"* The next news we hear of him, Job is afflicted in body, frora the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. " You have heard," saith St. Jaraes, " of the pa tience of Job, and what end God made with hira."! The holy man was tempted to teach us what we should do when we are tired. X. St. Jerorae having read the life and death of Hilarion, who after he had lived religiously died most Christianly, folding up the book said, " Well, Hilarion shall be the champion whom I will follow." If St. Jerome could say, Hilarion should be the champion whom I will follow : if chaste men say, Joseph shall be the champion whora we will follow, then raay afflicted raen say for true patience. Job shall be the charapion whora we will follow. Tobit, after the deed of mercy in burying the dead, was accepted of God : the next tidings we hear of Tobit is, the holy man Tobit is stricken blind,* and lest Tobit might surmise he was out of the favour of God, a reason is added in another chapter, as some read, " Because thou wert accept ed with God, thou wast tried." XI. To suffer some chastisements we may be content, for respecting our sins, God by these afflictions doth lay but a soft hand upon us. Esther said, " We have sinned against the Lord, ¦Job L 8, t James v, 11, tTobit ii 7, 10. 6i 0 o 0 122 DISCE MORI. therefore a punishment is come upon us ;" so these bodily infirmities we may impute them to our sins. So saith Daniel in his prayer, " We have sinned against Thee, and are made a re proach to all that are round about us."* It was an ancient father's prayer; " Lord, here sear and cut me, that thou mayest heal me for the time to come." " Better to suffer here than hereafter," saith St. Chrysostom, " respect not so much that the way is painful, as that the end thereof is pleasant."! XII. When St. John asked the angel what they were that appeared in long white garraents, with palms in their hands, the angel answered ; " These are those that came out of many tribulations in the world."! To shew that after the storms of a troublesome life they bear palms, and wear crowns in token of everlasting triumph. XIII. There is a threefold consideration that raay raove in us matter of meditation to this effect. The first, What we once were. The second. What we now are. The third. What after a short space we shall be. What we once were is shewed by that of Esdras, " O Adam," saith he, "what hast thou done!"|| When Adam fell, we all fell. If the estate of man had been without sin, man's estate had been as the angel's in heaven. • Dan. ix. 16. t Chrys, Hom, VII, Ep, ad Heb. J Rev. vii, 14 II 2 Esdras vii, 48. -o O— — D LEARN TO DIE. 123 saith St. Austin, " It had attained immortality without passing by death."* Solomon in his princely seat was clothed in great royalty, and yet Solomon in all his princely royalty, was not clothed like the lillies of the field. But neither Soloraon in all his royalty, nor the lillies of the field were ever so clothed as was Adam before he lost the clothing of innocency. O happy Adam, if Adam had considered so much ! XIV. Wherefore as the people in the time of the prophet Haggai, beholding the form of the temple, how far inferior it was to the former glory thereof, might well sorrow when they saw the one and remembered the other. In like manner when we call to mind the estate of innocency wherein God made all things for man, and man for Hiraself, (in that wonderful excellency,) placed him in para dise, a garden of all delights, subject to neither grief of body nor vexation of mind, we cannot but with some sorrow for sin, wherewith we should ever be at utter defiance, remembering our loss by sin, be think ourselves of t'uat former felicity, and in the first place. What we once were. XV. For the second consideration. What we now are, even sojourners in this vale of tears, ex iles from our native home, where troubles come like Job's messengers, no sooner one hath told his tale but another steps in to say as much, where ¦ August, de Civit. Dei hb. 12. c, 21, c o o 124 DI SCE MORI. men are beset with crosses and calamities round about, the feeling whereof may raove us to break forth into that desire of the apostle, " Who shall deliver us frora these bodies of death."* XVI. Cato, the wise heathen, could tell his scholars, that if it were offered him to be young again, he would in no case accept of such an offer ; so wearisome counted he the condition of his estate present. XVII. For that future state. What we shall be, when these drossy bodies shall be changed, and made like unto the glorious body of the Son of God,! of which bodies God in mercy saith as sometimes he said unto Abraham, for Ishmael, I will bless hira also : so of these bodies in their resurrection, though as Ishmael they are not so free born as Isaac the soul, yet shall they have a blessing too. XVIII. A Christian remembrance hereof doth make us desire with a longing perfection elsewhere, " Hope," saith Solomon, " that is deferred, doth afflict the mind."!: In the mean season considerincf that nothinor is indeed joyful but in that place of joy, it may make us the more cheerful to pass over the greatest griefs of body, and afflictions of raind whatsoever, which afflictions in this life, are testimonies of * Romans vii, 24. t PMl. iii. 21. t Prov. xiii. 12. o o Oi ¦ O LEARN TO DIE. 125 God's love, but in the life to corae signs of his His justice. XIX. It is the wont of fathers to hold a hard hand over their own children, when they suffer the children of bondraen to go loosely as they list : God that keeps an inheritence for His, after His rod in correcting, " He hath a stafl' of stay and comfort,"* and an inheritance in the end, which makes amends for all. Wherefore we may reckon these trials as harbin gers to warn us beforehand of death coraing as testiraonies of God's care over us, as raedicines to cure our diseases, which raedicines at the first they do make us sick, but a little after we are the better for them. In a word, these chastiseraents are as schoolmasters towards our end, to teach us this lesson of " Ifearning to die." " If God," saith St. Jerorae, " had promised us all peace and quiet, both in this world and in the world to come, then our troubles here raight araaze us, and make us doubt of our future rest: but find ing by proof the manifold tribulations of this life present, we may expect with comfort the proraise of the tirae to corae."! XX, If a heathen man could say, when he saw a sudden shipwreck of all his worldly wealth, all lost in a moment, " Well, fortune, I see thy in tent, thou wouldst have me to be a philosopher ;" » Ps. xsiii. 4- t Hieron, de Consol, in Adversit. O 0 0 o 126 DISCE MORI. how much more raay the Christian man say after the many and manifold afflictions in mind and body : Well, I see that God would have me even to become religious, and to enter into a meditation of the life that is freed of all : for departing this world unto God, " We cease to grieve, we cease to sorrow, we cease to sin." O ¦ O o o CHAPTER X. How much it concerneth e\'ciT one in time of health to prepare himself for the day of dissolution. Seeing that our good or bad estate in the life to come, depends much upon the quality or condi tion of the life present ; " For where the tree fail eth there it lieth,'* and our passage in order is from the life of grace to the life of glory, they see but little, that perceive not how greatly it concern eth every Christian in tirae of best health, while yet he hath day before him, to set forward in a provident course ; that so in the cool of the even ing he may arrive at the port of everlasting rest, " to be always fearful, always watchful, always heedful." Solomon tells us the ant, by instinct of nature, reraembers it will not be always summer. Jere miah tells us the crane and the stork think of an other season to corae ; we raay go to school to these silly creatures. If we reraeraber David's blessed raan, he is re- serabled unto a tree that brings forth fruit in tem- * Eccles. xi, 3. o 'O o o 128 DISCE MORI. pore suo. The fruit which the careless sinner bringeth forth is often in tempore non suo, while he presuraes to strike in with God in his last extre- raities. It is far better to enter in while the gate is open, than to knock in vain when the gate is shut ; to seek the Lord when He raay be found than to be found of Hira unprovided, when we would not be sought. The ship should be raended in the haven, not in the tempestuous sea. The breach should be repaired in time of peace, and not in hot skirmishes of war. In tirae, a care should be had of our' estate, for a time to come. II. The days of man are but short, his tirae un certain, that little raoraent we have to provide for a state of all continuance, and to gain eternity in, is run over before we are aware ; God's raercy in giving us tirae and grace passeth along as a plea sant river, if we stop the course thereof by our con tinuance in sin, it will arise high and turn into justice, bear down by force, and overthrow our surest repose in the world. III. That which once, and never but once is done, should be advisedly begun, carefully prose cuted, and raost seriously laboured with all indus try unto the end ; " we sleep with our cause and we rise with our cause," as St. Austin speaketh. IV. It is the counsel of the Holy Ghost, " Do good while ye have tirae."* The place of mak- » Gal. vi, 10. O O Q _0 LEARN TO DIE. 129 ing atonement with our adversary is " while we are in the way;'* if there be no preparing "oil in our lamps,"! there will be no entering with the bridegroom : if no running, no crowning. For a sure rule it is with God, Do well, and have well. Live the life of the righteous, and die the death of the righteous. V. " If any ask,"! saith Lactantius, " whether death be good or evil," ray answer is, " Look unto the condition of the life precedent, which if it be passed over in virtue." " 0 well is thee, and hap py thou shalt be ; "|| if otherwise the case is alter ed, the death of sinners is worst of all. For why, they pass over their days, saith Job, in great jollity, and suddenly fall into a sea of miseries.^ Because we know not the day, we should watch every day ; because we know not the hour, we should watch every hour. We see that in matters of weight, foresight and deliberation is wont to bring them better to pass. " Those that run for a corruptible crown," saith the apostle, " abstain from all things ;"T[ then we for an incorruptible crown ought to do as rauch. The husbandman will take his season, the soldier will watch his fittest time to assault the enemy, every one will cast the best way to compass the business he hath in hand ; Snd shall the Christian man be altogether careless and • Matt. V, 25. t Matt, xxv, 10. } Lact. lib 6, II Ps, cxxviii. 2 I) Job xxi- 13, ir 1 Cor. ix, 25, O- i Q 130 DISCE MORI. negligent in preparing himself for his departure ? God forbid ! Should he not turn to God but when the favour of God is turned from him ? Should he put off a matter of so great weight as his con version is, until the last extremities ? It is no safe course so to do: when the infirmities of body in the patient, and griefs of mind make hira unfit for so needful a charge as he hath at these times to dis pose of things. When by reason of pain, he is neither for the most part willing nor able to order aright his conversion to God : then, and not be fore, to think of the welfare of his soul. Is this we!l ? No certainlv. It is the v.ise man's wise counsel . " Before thy languishing grief, consult of the medicine ; before judgment, examine thy self. Abigal shewed herself a provident woman who went beforehand and pacified David s wrath, and so prevented imminent dangers. VI. The prophet Darid expressing the provident care and careful providence of a holy raan, saith, ' He shall pravunto Thee in a tirae convenient,' ' or remember Thee, O Lord, in a time when Thou mayest be found. The careless servant that said in his heart. The master doth defer his coming, the master of that servant shall come in a time he thinketh not, and give him his portion, where shall be weepi.og and gnashing of teeth ; for il they are happy, whom he • PsL xxi:^. 6. o: o LEARN TO DIE. 131 shall find so doing, then what are they whora he shall find not so doing. H appy are those servants who attended his return, these are those that sorae tiraes look forth, sit as Abraham at the entrance of the tents : these are those who have their loins girt, their lamps burning, oil ready ; these are those that wait with the wise virgins for the bridegroom's return ; these are those whom their Lord shall find so doing, and therefore make thera rulers over much, " Take them by the hands, and bring thera to the participation of everlasting joy." VII. To conclude, these are those who are ever ready, saith Bede, whether the great Lord knock or come ; " He knocketh, when by sicknesses he sheweth death is near : He comes when He ap pears to pronounce judgment."* O that men would with carefulness prepare theraselves in tirae, while they are their own men ! They shall one day find the benefit of this carefulness. VIII. To him that passeth through dark places, one light carried before him, will do more good than many that are brought after. For hira that undertaketh a long journey, advice beforehand will stand him in stead. For this spiritual voyage, the vow of the Prophet should be the vow and resolution of every particu lar man, by the assistance of God's grace, " I said I will take heed unto my ways." * Vener Bede in Luc. CD ^ 0 — — O 132 DISCE MORI. A religious preparation in tirae would do men more good than they are aware of; happy are they that seek the Lord while He may be found, for there will come an " I know you not," for them that corae to buy when the market is done. IX. Christ wept for the men of Jerusalera who would not weep for theraselves ; and all was be cause they knew not the things that did belong unto their peace,* in that day of theirs. Antiochus, after his many injuries offered unto the people of the Jews, and unto the temple of God itself, taking sacrilegiously from thence the orna ments appointed for God's service,! when the Lord called hira to answer the cause at his own consis tory, he could then wish he had never raeddled with sacred goods ; only consecrated ad pios usus, to the Church, to godly uses. When Pharaoh saw the sea ready to swallow hira, he could then no doubt be sorry that ever he had wronged poor innocents, and oppressed God's own portion. When sleep is gone frora their eyes, when rather extreraity of grief than true sorrow doth rake out a little sick repentance from the most careless : when rest is departed from their tossed beds, then many may wish that they had used less oppression, that they had fasted often with the apostle Paul,| prayed with Daniel, || wept with » Luke xix. 41, 42. 1 1 Mace vi, 12, 13. } 2 Cor. xi. 27. IIDan. ix. 21. 6 6 O- LEARN TO DIE. 133 Mary Magdalen,* lived in mean estate, and so have feared God, rather than to have enjoyed the plea sures of sin for a season, which they find to be full of bitterness at the last : " These things should be considered in tirae, and now is the tirae." X, " They shall seek me,'' saith Wisdom, speak ing of negligent sinners, " but they shall not find me."!" -^^^ '"'liy ^ Because they seek vi-hen it is too late. The foolish virgins may call Lord, Lord ; but when the bridegroom is past,j and that mild countenance of Christ turned away, the woeful plight of these virgins shall be such, as it were enough to break their hearts with sorrow, if it were possible for their hearts to break. Are not the pleasures of sin dear pleasures ? Had we not need then in a case of such importance, to stand evermore ready by a serious preparation for our end; " To hold us fast in the fear of God, and to wax old therein," || as Syrac counselleth us ? XI. Moreover, this our continuance here is cer tain in uncertainty, therefore saith one, " Let our uncertain condition put into us a certain careful ness of our estate to come."^ If in any thing, that care of the prophet is to be remembered, who would " not suffer his eyes to sleep, nor his eyelids to sluraber ;" it would surely in this of all other be remembered. •Luke vii. 38. t Prov. i. 28, J Matt, xxv, II, 12. I Ecclus. ii. 16. 1) Euseb. Emis. Homil, ad Mona, -o o ¦ o 134 DISCE MORI. Who would pass a day in sinful security ? Who would lay hira down in that state of life, wherein he would be loath to be gone and leave this taber nacle ? Do not many meet with death, and are they not often surprised at places of greatest tri umph, where men are wont to think of nothing less ? now merry, and in a short tirae mourned for ? A bone in the meat, a husk in the cup, the laying wait of an enemy, hath made many a stout cham pion, after manifest perils escaped in the midst of the hateful enemies, to yield by so weak a means, whether they would or no. Isaac the patriarch, Aaron the priest, David the prophet, Josias the young prince, Israel the people, by little and little all wear away; '' Be the day never so long, at last comes the evening." XII. Many good friends oftentimes in the world shake hands at parting, and we see their next meeting is at heaven. Wherefore when we keep our solemn asserablies, we had need keep thera religiously rainded ; for we know not whether we shall ever keep them any more. When we make our humble repentance to God, we had need do it sincerely indeed, it may be our last ! " There is a time to seek,"* saith the Wise Man ; here is the tirae of seeking, life is here won or lost, here provide and be safe for ever. And because the time is short, let thera that use this world, saith • Eccles. 1. 13. c ' O O ( LEARN TO DIE. 135 the apostle, " be as though they used it not ;'' this is the sure way, though narrow, this is the right gate, though strait, and it leadeth unto life. Satan, he is busy, because his time is short, and therefore his wrath is the fiercer; at first he as saulted the Church by violence, but now by deceit. " The woman was deceived,"* saith the apostle, deceived, and so not overcome ; whereby we raay learn that our relapses into sin, corae not so rauch frora our eneraies' force, as from our negligence. But we remembering the continuance of time, should use all diligence, and have the greater care to prevent the subtle serpent. We know not whe ther we shall have so fit a time of repentance ever hereafter. It is said of certain hawks in colder countries, that they are most earnest and eager to take their prey, when the daylight there is of least continu ance. Let us not care so much what shall be after us in the world, but let us care what will become of us when we are departed hence, in the world to corae. " Hear good counsel," saith St. Austin, " Do that before death, which may do thee good when thou art dead."! XIII. The Church doth pray, and that in most Christian manner too, that the faithful may be de livered from sudden or unprovided death ; and surely great cause hath the sober Christian man to * 1 Tim. ii. 14. t Aug. in Enchirid. ad Lau. de dulcit. Quaist. 0„. . ^ -H c 136 DISCE MORI. desire rather leisurely to yield hiraself to God if it .shall so stand with His good pleasure, than to be taken in a raoment frora the society of raen. To have a good departure out of the world, may be a good man's prayer, and to close up the course of life with a treatable dissolution, is that fair Christian end we may all beg at the hands of God. Notwithstanding, when the mind is well prepar ed, and every day resigned to His will, who know eth better than ourselves how best to bring us to His kingdora ; though the Christian end his days by a more short riddance from these bodily infirmi ties, the suddenness, with God's help, is no preju dice unto his future good, that lives ever prepared for the day of his departure; and they are not over taken with death, how suddenly soever they are gone, that daily mind the time of their dissolution. XIV. We may reraeraber, that if we respect our estate and condition of life, we are all at one and the self-same stay. " Consider,'' saith St. Ber nard, " not so rauch what thou art, as what thou shalt be."* What is becorae of all Adara's poste rity for these many hundred years passed ? ex cepting a remnant, are they not all gone ? must not the remnant follow after ? XV. Moses, mentioning the age of those who lived before the flood, when as yet the days of man were of more continuance than they are, saith, • Bernard, de consid. ad Eug. hb, 3, o o o — ( LEAR.N TO DIE. 137 " All the days of Seth were nine himdred and twenty years ; and he died. — All the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty and two years ; and he died. — All the days of Methuselah, were nine hundred sixty and nine years ; and he died ;"* that same " and he died," will ere long be the clause appliable to us all. In the mean season we read the epitaphs of others, and follow the funerals of sorae dear friends ; we see raany, as " those on whom the tower of Siloa fell,"! gone in a moment ; they are warnings sufficient, if warnings will serve, to make us live prepared for our end. XVI. Careless men, saith one, are not unlike dissolute servitors in princes' courts, who, having their allowance of lights, spend them out in riot, and so at last are to go to bed darkling : provident Christians have a foresight to think of the time to come, consider this transitory estate will have an end, and therefore prepare for another world where they may have a stay, or perpetuity of rest. XVII. Now then to be ever in a readiness for the giving up our account to God, to live prepar ed for the day of death, the uncertainty! of life, the weightiness of the charge may justly move us, all to be careful indeed. How rauch therefore it concerneth us in time of health to provide for ano- ? Gen, V, 8, 20, 27, t Luke xiii. 4. t Luke xvi. 2, o o c o 138 DISCE MORI. ther world, every one doth see ; we have not two souls, that we may hazard one. In the twenty-third of Leviticus, God tells his people of a day and a way of reconciliation or atonement ; he that hurableth not hiraself that day, it should go evil with him ;* whence they might perceive, how it should go well with them, that did that day humble theraselves. This life is the day of reconciliation-; if we now humble ourselves, it shall by the grace of God go well with us. In the twelfth of Exodus, God willed His people up on their passage out of Egypt, " to have their loins girt, their staves in their hands, their shoes on their feet," that there raight be no let when the time of their delivery should come ; we know not how soon God will send us from this Egypt ; Jesus Christ grant we may keep our passovers with souls prepared to be gone. " Whoso feareth the Lord," saith the Wise Man, " it shall go well with hira at the last, and he shall find favour in the day of his death." * Levit, xxiii, 27. G- c -o CHAPTER XI. The manner of preparing, or the state and condition of life, wherein the Christian man should stand prepared for death. The mean then to die the death of the righteous, is first to live the life of the righteous. The mean to sit with Abrahara, is here to walk with Abraham ; for God hath appointed a virtuous life to go in order before the great reward of eter nal life, not as the cause, but as the consequence of our blessed righteousness in Christ our Saviour. II. What reraaineth, but to frarae the preraises, as we would find the conclusion ; to sow as we would one day reap ? for those that will lie soft, must raake their bed thereafter, and to live the life we hope to live, is in sincerity here to live reli giously. " If we provide not in this life, there is no providing after this life."* III. The old Christians made the world to read in their lives what they did believe in their hearts, and gave occasion to heathen men to say, " This is a good God, whose servants are so good."! Heathen men see and hear of the great devotion of the old Christians ; they in effect thus reason : * Aug. de cur, ger, pro morte. t Just. Mart. C ^0 P— o 140 DISCE MORI. Surely these men are of God, these without doubt look for a world to come. The labours, the learn ings of the ancient Fathers, their sincerity araongst men, their devotion to God, it was the wonder of the world. The servants of Ahaziah tell their master of the raan that met him in the way, his attire, his words, &c. Ahaziah saith it was Elijah the Tishbite.* Therefore then this good and holy conversation of life after the example of good men, what better state for a Christian man to stand in, ever prepared for his end ? IV. Was not that a memorable protestation of Sarauel, when before his death, in the presence of all the people, he declared as thus, his integrity of life? " Behold here I am, bear record of me be fore the Lord and His anointed."! -As if he should have said. Give me my quietus est at parting. Whose ox have I taken ? To whom have I done wrong ? The people's reply in effect was, Now God be with thee, good Samuel, to whom thou art going, thou hast indeed done us no wrong. And so with mournful hearts they gave him this good testiraony at parting. V. That of St. Paul, when he took his farewell of the men of Ephesus, who wept abundantly for the words he spake, being chiefly sorry they should see his face no more ; " I take you to record this day, I am pure from the blood of all men, I have • 3 Kings i. 8. 1 1 Sam. xii. 3. i -o o o LE.iRN TO DIE. 141 coveted no raan's silver or gold."* After so good a life, was not this a good farewell ? That of Siraeon a just raan, one that feared God, and wait ed for the consolation of Israel, was it not a godly course to embrace Christ, and " pray to depart in peace."! VI. " 0 good life," saith an ancient Father, " what a joy art thou in tirae of distress !"| It raade the same Father neither asharaed to live any longer, because he had lived honestly; nor afraid to die, because he had a good Lord. Sweet is the felicity of that raan whose works are just, whose desires are innocent. VII. Plutarch writeth of Pericles, that he never caused raan to wear sorrowful attire, he was so harmless ; and of Lysander, that he was more honoured after his death, than ever he had been in his life, he was so virtuous. || But the Wise Man speaking of the servants of God, who passed through the darkness of this world with lamps in their lives, which both light themselves and others : " The righteous," saith he, " are had in perpetual remembrance, their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore."^ For such is the power of virtue, as it makes men not only honoured when they are alive, but also ' Acts XI. 26, 27. t Luke ii. 20. i Poss, de Amb. II Piatar. in vita Peri., et in vita Lysand. 4 Eccles, xliv, 14. (> O Q 142 DISCE MORI. when they are dead, and it is wont to take good raen out of their graves, and cause thera to live in the raention of long posterity, having their names registered and enrolled with the saints of heaven, and their fame canonized in the book of life. These stood evermore upon their departure, having that heavenly treasure of a good conscience, peace and tranquillity of mind. " When the evil are tossed," saith the Prophet Isaiah,* " as the raging waves of the sea," " their name perisheth," saith the Wise Man, " as if they never had been.'' VIII. Thus the innocent life, like the watchful servant, openeth the door gladly when his master knocketh, but the wretched seek corners, being ashamed to be seen ; nay saith one, " He is ashamed to see hira whom he remembers he hath contemned ;" the one is quit by a joyfid acclama tion, the other found guilty at the bar of his own conscience. He that will say with the apostle, " Death is to me advantage,"! raust live with the apostle, " with all good conscience." I read of one who a little before his departure from the world, spake these words to them about him, " My friends, I now find it true indeed, he that leaveth all to follow Christ, shall have in this world a hundredfold ; I have, I have, I have that peace of conscience with * Isaiah Ivii. 20. t Phil. i. 21. c i) LEARN TO DIE. 143 me at parting." Thus much in general of prepar ing ourselves for the time of our dissolution. To come nearer home, the applying of himself to faith, hope, and charity, is that Christian estate wherein the servant of God once settled, need not to fear •' to speak with his enemies at the gate. * Faith is the staff whereupon we stav both in life and death, which faith tells us, that God through Christ is become propitious unto us. " Bv faith we are blessed,"! saith St, Paul; by faith "we rejoice in tribulation ;"| bv faith '¦ we have ac cess unto God:" I This is the ¦• shield whereb)' we quench the fiery darts of Satan."§ This is the mean whereby we resist his power. X. Xahash the Ammonite, would make peace with the men of Jabesh Gilead, but upon condi tion that " he raight thrust out their riffht eves.'^ This old Ammonite, our enemy, would offer peace to God's children, but it is upon condition, for he would have their right eyes, or that blessed faith, that holds the soul-saving love of Christ crucified, put out : but will the true Gileadites yield to such a condition ? No, not for ten thousand worlds of riches. XI. Have we anything to do at the throne of God in heaven ? there we have but two pleas, the one of innocence, the other of mercy. Because ¦ Ps. cxxvii. 5. t GaL ui. 9, J Rom. v. 3. II Ephes. iiL 12. I) Ephes. xi 16. •'1 Sam. ii. 2, c— — o — p ) 144 DISCE MORI. we cannot plead the plea of innocence, faith bids us boldly plead the plea of mercy, and tells us the Judge is reconciled.* What shall separate us, being once confirmed in the faith, from the love of God in Christ Jesus ? " Shall powers, or principalities ? things present, or things to come ? No, neither life nor death." ! XII. What manner of faith Christ commendeth in the Gospel we read by that of Mary Magdalen, who after sorrowing and weeping for her sins, Christ tells her, " Thy faith hath raade thee whole ;"J as if he should have said, Mary, this weeping, this repenting faith, is faith indeed. When he had seen the religious duty of the Saraa- ritan, that carae back to give God praise, and fell down at Christ's feet, He saith vmto him also, "Thy faith hath made thee whole ;"|| as if He should have said, this humble faith, this religious faith, is a saving faith ; Go in peace. The blind raan cried, " Son of David, have raercy upon rae,"§ and being reproved, would not leave mercy until he obtained mercy ; Christ said to hira, as to the forraer, " Thy faith hath made thee whole ;'"![ as if he should have said, this praying faith of thine is a good faith, " Receive thy sight." What made many old saints " to endure bonds and imprison- raent, to be stoned, to be hewn asunder ?"** " It ? Horn. V. 1, t Rom. viii, 38, t Luke vji, 50, II Luke xvii, 19. I) Luke xviii, 39. 1 Luke xviU. 42. •* Heb, xi, 37. 0 o p- _ o LEARN TO DIE. 145 was faith," saith the apostle. This was no palsy faith, but firm and constant unto the end, that com forts the languishing mind, and says. If we live, we live unto the Lord, yea, " whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."* XIII. To this Faith is adjoined Hope, which is called by the Holy Ghost, " the anchor of the soul." The anchor lieth deep, and is not seen, and 5'et is the stay of all. So hope reacheth far, it is of things unseen, and yet holds all sure amidst the surging waves of a boisterous world ; " This hope maketh not asharaed, abideth with patience, rejoiceth in afflictions,"! and is, as St. Austin calleth it, the " very life of life.'' For why ? it bids us go corafortably to the throne of grace,! and not to refuse the changing of these mortal bodies ; " that we may receive them in a better resurrection." II XIV. In the third place, Charity, the insepara ble companion of Faith, may be considered. God in the creation did separate light from darkness; we raay not in the state of justification join the works of darkness, as envying, strife, and conten tions, § with the light of faith, which are weaved together, as was the coat of Christ, and therefore are not divisible. XV. When Jehonadab came towards Jehu, as o- ' Rom. xiv. 8. t Rom. v. 5. t Heb iv. 16. 1 Heb. xii. 35. t} Rom. xiii. 13. 10 I n 146 DISCE MORI. if he had sorae earnest intent to be his follower, "Jehu said. Is thy heart upright with raine?" He answered, " It is.'' " Then, quoth Jehu, Give rae thy hand."* Our noble Jehu, whora God hath set up to pull down the power of darkness, says to all that profess His narae. Is your faith upright to me ? then give rae the operation of your hands. XVI. The children of God, as they shall differ from the children of this world hereafter, so must they differ from them here by good works, which do manifest theraselves by Christian charity. Christ saith unto His, as the Lord of the vineyard said unto thera in the raarket-place, " Why stand ye idle ?"! Faith is like Rachel mourning for her children, lamenting the defect of good works ; and faith says as Sarah, " Give me fruit, or I die." Moses saith that every tree brought forth fruit ac cording to his kind ;! Faith is a good tree, it should therefore bring forth fruit according to his kind. Our Saviour Christ saith to his disciples, " By this shall all raen know you, whose you are, in that you love one another." || " If we have love," saith St. Austin, " we have God, for God is love : love was the way whereby God carae to us, and love is the way whereby we go to God.^ If this love of God decay, the love of thy neigh bour will soon come to nothing. David puts these » 2 Kings X, 15. t Matt. h. 18, t Gen, i, 12. || John xiu, 35. § Aug. de spirit, et anima. o — ^6 o p LEARN TO DIE. 147 together, when he saith, " The foolish said in his heart, there is no God," he by and by adds, " they are corrupt, and become abominable."* XVII. Cain offered bad offerings, which was a token that the love of God waxed cold in Cain ; it was not long after that he laid violent hands on Abel,! which shewed that he had lost withal the love of his neighbour. " But, 0 Cain," saith St. Jerorae, "what doest thou? What cause hast thou of this cruel hatred, and desire of shedding innocent blood? What hath thy brother deserved? What violence hath he offered ? Hath thy solitary brother displeased thee, because he pleased God? thou knowest not what a loss thou shalt have in the miss of so good a companion. But envy and venomous malice, where it once entereth, how doth it blind the understanding, nourish and in cense uncharitable minds to comrait most foul and unchristian atterapts ? Shall we lend envy our will ? shortly will it becorae our lord.":}: If you will hear how Laraech, that was an evil man, speaks : " If Cain were avenged sevenfold, I will be avenged seventy tiraes sevenfold."|| Here is nothing but a mind set upon revenge. But if you will hear how David the raan of God speaks : " Is there any of the house of Saul, that I may shew mercy unto them?"^ He speaks of love ¦Ps.xiv. 1. tGen. iv. 5, 8. t Hiero. de cons, m advers' 1 Gen. iv. 24. « 2 Sam. ix. 1 o —9 148 DISCE MORI. and kindness towards his very enemies, and so spake Joseph when he forgave his brethren : " Be cause," saith he, " I myself am under the hand of God."* XVIII. All that we can or do forgive our ene mies, are offences, or sorae small trespasses ; but those which God forgiveth, are debts of great im portance ; we release sorae few pence. He talents, and those ten thousand too.! XIX. Thrasibulus, a Heathen raan, to renew amity lost among men, made a law of amnesty, of forgetfulness of all wrongs and injuries that had been offered ; it is not a law of Thrasibulus, but of Christ Jesus, " forgive, and it shall be forgiven you." XX. What hath heaven more glorious than the union of the Trinity ? what hath the earth more heavenly, than consent and unity ? When one river runneth towards the ocean, it is a good course, and goes as it should ; but when it meeteth with another river, then they make a current indeed. When the love of God doth carry us along, we go well, but when this meeteth with the love of our neighbour, then we set forward with a main streara into a sea of all blessedness. XXI. A special mean to increase this double love in the hearts of all believers, is a frequent participation of the holy and blessed Eucharist, • Gen. xlv, 5. t Matt, vi. 12, 14, o 0 O g LEARN TO DIE. 149 which is called of some Ephodion, that is to say, a most necessary provision for our spiritual voy age, (of this I shall speak more at large in another place.) O blessed mystery, which, amongst other high and heavenly effects, is a mean to strengthen us in this great journey, and comfort us towards the end of the journey. XXII, Thus setting ourselves in order, we may accept of the time whensoever it shall please God, that brought us into the world, to take us frora this our continuance in the same. The condition of life, wherein we may stand prepared, requires our Christian practice ; the happiness of this con dition, we shall find, " when we come unto the state of all happiness.'' o- — O CHAPTER XII. How the Christian man should demean himself, when sickness begin- neth to grow upon him. The first and principal thing religiously to be remembered in the beginning of sickness, is that the soul do call herself to a serious account of sins passed, of the evil comraitted, and the good orait- ted ; reraembering that of the prophet; "I said, I will confess against myself ray own unrighteous ness."* Therefore by an ancient decreet in for mer time, the sick was enjoined, before sending for the physician, to make first a contrite confes sion and humble acknowledgment of his sins ; as if our sins were (as they often are) the cause of our sicknesses ; and surely, this decree was very respectively had in use. We will open our griefs and sores to the physician of the body, and when we hurable ourselves under the hand of God, we open our sins to the Physician of our souls, who can best apply the best medicine, " Thy raercies, O Christ Jesus." II. Our Saviour having restored to health, and * Ps. xxxii, 5, •f In Deere, xiv. o- -o o LEARN TO DIE. 1.51 cured the man that lay by the pool side, and had been sick so many years, he giveth hira absolution, who is the sole absolver, for all is in raerc}' : " Behold, thou art made whole;"* that was for the time past : next he added a caution, as a memorandum for the time to come ; " sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."! Made whole ; therefore sometime a diseased creature : made whole ; therefore not of thyself whole : made whole ; therefore now a sound man. " Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." He that afflicted thee for a time, could have held thee longer ; he that touched thee in part, could have stricken thee in whole. He that laid this upon thy bodv, hath power to lay a greater rod upon thee, in body and soul : " Sin no more." So by this we see, that bodily sicknesses may- move us to cry out with the Psalmist, " Lord, re raeraber not the sins and offences of our youth ;"| and to sav with the sarae prophet, '• O cleanse thou us frora our secret sins." III. When sickness beginneth sharply to touch us, we are careful, as I said, in seeking and send ing to procure the health of the body ; as Asa || sought to the physicians to heal his disease, when he should have rather sent to the prophet, to have given him some spiritual receipt for his sick soul. The woman in the Gospel spent all that ever she * John V. S. t Ver. 14. i Ps. xn-. 7. t 2 Chron. xvi. 12, -o c o 152 DISCE MORI. had upon the physicians, and in the end she was never the better ; but once coming to Christ, she came where she might have cure, and had indeed.'* IV. When the physician hath done, then we can be content the divine should begin ; as if some few words of ghostly counsel were enough, when we see there is but one way with us : no, no, the first and chiefest care in all extremities, should be a penitent imploring of the help of God, who in this case doth oftentiraes cure both body and soul, and lengthen the days of sorrowful suppliants, as he did the days of Hezekiah. For recovery, first therefore take a good quan tity of repentance, two handfulls of faith in the pas sion of Christ ; put both together, with a purpose, by the help of God, to walk upon it in holiness of life, and apply this as a good receipt for thy sickly soul, which hath taken a dangerous surfeit in sin. V. The lurap of dried figs,! (means ordained by God for the body's health,) have also their conve nient use. The physicians we honour, but it is for necessity's sake that unnecessary raanner of taking physio, which maketh health sick ; away with it in God's narae. The physic of the soul hath the best cordials for the penitent patient. That of the people in the Book of Numbers may be remerabered, who, being stung with the serpents j in the wilderness, had no better mean of succour * Matt, viii, 43, 44, t Isaiah xxxviii, 21. n _ — ^o c — o LEARX TO DIE. 153 than the lookinj up to the serpent, which ^Nloses caused to be set up,* as a mean ordained bv God for the procuring of their health. We have no further refuge in time of need, than the lifting up of the eves of our soul to behold Christ crucified. VI. The people cried unto !Moses and Aaron, but there was no help, until God in mercy appointed this miraculous mean. Xo relief could be found in the Law for the distressed soul, until God in his wonderful love raised up a mighty salvation in the state of grace. The serpent was lifted up on high, that all might behold him ; so was the Son of God, that all believers might receive saving health from him, and by him. In the curing of those who were stung by the serpent, it was look and live ; for Christ's curing, it is believe and live.! VII. This blessed mean in tiraes of areatest ex- tremitv, doth add no small comfort to the afflicted. And thus the principal care when sic'.iness begin neth, being a humble acknowledgment of our sins, which may move us to say, as Joseph's brethren ; " Therefore is this trouble come upon us,"!: A heartv confession of them all, a hum ble desire with bended hearts and knees for re mission thereof, by Him who is the hope of the distressed, the joy of the afflicted, the curer of the sick, and the resurrection of the dead ; a willing * Numb. xxi. S. + Xumb. ixi. 9 : John iii. 15, ± Gen. xiii. 21. ;. -6 o ¦ 0 154 DISOE MORI. mind to be delivered from the bands of sin, may make us cry with the Prophet David, " I ara so fast in prison, that I cannot get out." And last of all, a joyful lifting up of the heart to the throne of grace, may make us willingly renounce the world, and resign over ourselves unto his divine pleasure, to whose appointment we ought with patience raeekly to submit ourselves. First, God sent Jo nah to warn Nineveh, and seeing the repentance of the people, then comes a message of mercy ; these trials are as forewarners. VIII. We see we are in His hand, who alone hath power over all flesh ; when we are in want, we then know the benefit of plenty; when we are in bondage, we then best perceive the good of freedom ; when we are in sickness, we most thankfully acknowledge the blessing of health, (if we have any thankfulness,) and raay easily gather how God by lingering sickness, doth in mercy stay till we make us ready. If it shall please Hira to adjourn the tirae of this our pilgriraage, we ought to offer a determinate purpose, as a sacrifice upon the altar of our hearts, to bless Him who hath ever blessed us, to serve Hira truly all the days of our life. And thus having our trust in Christ crucified, we make this resolution ; " If we live, we shall do well ; if we die, we shall do better.'' O O CHAPTER XIII. How the sick shoiold dispose of "worldly goods and possessions. o His sins being by the sick person confessed, his soul religiously commended unto God, his desire either to live or die, given over to the divine dis posing Providence, To settle an orderly dispos ing of those temporal blessings which God hath here lent unto his servants, (as oars and sails to bring passengers to their long haven,) is very con venient for every Christian in the time of health, and nothing ominous, as sorae have timorously doubted. Experience doth shew, that wise men have afterward lived long, done full well, and served God raany years in the world ; wherefore, it is a laudable custora for men whilst they are theraselves, to raake their last will and testament in tirae, lest dying intestate, great troubles, or strifes and suits in law, do arise about their estates, being dead ; for this cause Isaiah willed Hezekiah " to set his house in order," Now, there is a fourfold house to be ordered by us : first, the house of every one's conscience, wherein they may take O- -6 o — — 0 156 DISCE MORI. their repose ; secondly, the house of the body, which is to be adorned with holiness ; for holiness becometh this house ; thirdly, the house of our family, which is wisely to be disposed ; fourthly, the house of eternity, which of all other is care fully to be thought upon. A great temptation in sickness is, the love of the world and worldly things ; for that most affect- eth a man towards his death, which he most loved in his life ; as riches, lands, wife, children. To provide a remedy against this, it is needful for a raan to have his last will and testament ready in his extremities, that so he be not troubled about the ordering of his worldly goods, when he should be ordering his soul. Thus the testator having comraended his soul to his Creator and his Redeeraer, and his body to Christian burial, we see that disposing of blessings temporal, maketh us not to die the more quickly, but the more quietly ; and therefore it was put in practice by Abraham, when he gave the principal part of his goods unto Isaac his son and unto others ; Abraham gave gifts of legacies ;* this did David,! Tobit,! and Hezekiah, || for the quiet of succeeding posterity they disposed of earthly possessions, going to possess heavenly. II. He must not expect in the last extrem ities of sickness, to dispose of things transitory. * Gen. xxv, 5, 6. 1 1 Kmgs i. 30, i Tobit iv, 20. || Isaiah ixxviii. 1. o 5 LEARN TO DIE. 157 In this disposing, to be advised by them, whose skill and knowledge is approved, doth much fur ther the well ordering of the sarae. We shew our thankfulness unto God, and charity to men, when we become beneficial to others, remembering whose saying it was ; " It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"'' III. In which giving, the maintenance of churches, colleges, schools, hospitals, and such like godly uses, should (where ability is answera ble) be chiefly remembered ; for by these deeds of mercy, we do not only ourselves acknowledge God's goodness, but raake many others, when we are long since dead and gone, bless Him in the participation of the same. IV. " Mercifid men," saith the Wise Man, " have honoured God by this means ;" and how? " The Lord hath gotten gxeat glory by them."! To give him unto the poor in time of sickness is good, but more acceptable were it to do it daily, and in the time of best health. This giving, is the ship that will never strike against the rock, but bring our merchandise home in safety. This giving is the most gainful inter est ; when the merciful shall receive a thousand for one, and find in another world the reward of lending unto God ; that is to say, of giving unto * Acts XX, 35, t Ecclus. xHv, 2, O— o ; Q 158 DISCE MORI. the poor ; for He is their surety, they shall not have losses by Him. " In hoarding up our riches," saith Gregory, " we lose them, but in dispersing thera abroad, we raost surely keep thera." To disperse them when we can hold thera no longer, is not so good, though coraraendable ; in this kind, with Job not to eat our raorsels alone, but to give our bread to the hungry, nay, to take frora our own plenty, to give unto Christ's little ones, is commendable indeed. " Blessed is he," saith David, that considereth the poor and needy ; the Lord shall visit him when he lieth sick upon his bed."* A cup of cold water shall one day not want a reward, not siraply as a reward, but as a reward in His name, by whora all things are acceptable. V. Where is become the large liberality of old benefactors towards the poor merabers of Christ ? Is not all scarce sufficient to maintain our excess es ? The pride of the world in attire, and the maintenance thereof in lavishing, the needless su perfluity in diet, hath eaten up hospitality and raercy towards raany hungry souls, and causeth that we have little to leave at our departure, for the good of others. Never raore at the table, but never less at the door ; never raore suraptuous in clothing ourselves, never less respect of others. •Psalm xli. 1.3. c o — — o LEARN TO DIE. 159 Nature is content with few things ; all will not serve excess. To be liberal in good uses, and sparing in un necessary expenses, is comraendable ; and so in orderly raanner to dispose of these teraporal bene fits at the last, is rightly to leave that which in dustry hath gathered, and frugality saved. In the disposing of earthly possessions, none ought to alienate ancient inheritance. God would that the right heirs should take place, and suc ceed in order.* Provided evermore, that debts ought first of all to be paid, and with Zaccheus we ought to make a conscience, " in raaking restitution if ought hath been taken frora any man by false accusation."! Then we are to proceed to bequeath our tempo ralities ; in the bequeathing, natural affections raay not be extinguished, or the next in kindred disin herited ; the custora of place and ancestry, from the fathers to the children, and the children's chil dren violated : fathers are but guardians for their time, and therefore to raake spoil, is an injury of fered to posterity. Old friends should be remem bered by some tokens of love in some small legacy. VI. The forgiving of our enemies, when we can hurt them no raore, is not so much ; restitution, where wrong hath been offered, should be remera bered, debts truly discharged ; all which Chris- * Numb, xxvii. II. t Luke xix. 8. o — o o 0 160 DISCE MORI. tian like dispositions are seemly, both before God and man. Charity at all limes, but principally at this tirae, becoraeth Christians. The example of Stephen, praying for his persecutors, may shew us a rairror of true charity towards all. These special respects observed, the sick raay in the name of God dispose of himself, and his as thus : — VII. First, with a free heart and willing raind, to yield and render his soul into the hands of Almighty God his Creator, who, of His endless goodness, gave him being ; of His infinite mercy vouchsafed to redeem him by the death and pas sion of His dear Son, and our Saviour Christ Jesus, in whose only merits is his last repose at parting ; then comraending his body to Christian burial, he raay proceed as God's grace and wise advertise ment shall direct; that so the sick laying aside all earthly prospects, as now having no more to do with the things under the sun, like the valorous captain, who, now about to take a great and weighty enterprise against foreign enemies, leaveth the remembrance of wife and children, only attending to his occasions in hand. Now may the sick commend with patience and contrition of heart, his soul into the hands of Al mighty God, humbly applying unto his faith the innumerable benefits of Christ's passion ; and of the three things he is then to dispose of, his body, goods, and soul: let principal care be had in — O o o LEAUN TO DIE. 101 comraending his soul with all devotion into tlie hands of Jesus Christ, that so, when tho time of death coinclh, he nmy sail forth out of the havc^ii of tho llcsh, with consolation. This done, let him take his loavo tif wife, chililron, friends, uci|U;iin- tance, and so in silonco meditate of tho joys of heaven. 6 ^o c- <) CHAPTER XIV. How necessarj' it is for the sick, lea-ring all worldly thoughts, to apply his mind to prayer and godly meditations. The disposition of worldly goods, being well and wisely ordered, the raind is at raore quiet to con sider of heaven and heavenly things ; the sick is more fit to enter into the closet of his heart, to de scend into himself, there to comraune with hiraself. At these times we have no sweeter incense than our devotion, offered up by prayer. The lifting up of our hands we may raake our evening or latter sacrifice.* We have no better orators to plead our cause, no surer arabassadors to conclude our peace, than our humble supplications unto Him, who heal- eth our sicknesses, and forgiveth our sins ;! who sits ever in coraraission to hear our suits, and looks that we should send up our prayers, that He may send down His raercy. By which raeans we enter into a spiritual traffic with God himself; we give a cup of cold water, and He returns us a fountain of the water of life ;!: we give Him with the poor widow, two mites, || and •Ps.cili.2. tPs.ciii.3. tJohn'iv.l4. II Luke xxi. 2. o- ' LEA^IN TO DIE. 163 He gives us clgain the whole treasure of the tera ple. " The mercy of God," saith one, " is like a vessel full to the very brim ; if once His children, by the hand of faithful prayer, begin to take of it, it doth overflow unto them." II. Moreover, it is not with God as with men, araongst whom, those who are petitioners are wont to be troublesome unto thera ; but with God, the more we offer up our prayers unto Him, the more we are accepted of Him. The ediles amongst the Romans had ever their doors standing open, for all that had occasion of complaint to have free access unto them. With God the gates of mercy are wide open to all poor sinners that will raake their prayers unto Hira Come and welcome. III. Now as we shoidd at other times, and upon other occasions, with Abraham,* sometiraes leave our terrene affairs, as he left his servants be neath, when he went into the mount to sacrifice to God ; so principally in sickness, and times of dis tress, then should we fly unto our surest stay of repose, then should we ascend into the contempla tion of heavenly things, and have recourse to God's mercy, as to a city of refuge ; " Call upon me." saith the Lord, " in the time of trouble, and I will hear thee, and thou shalt praise me."! " In the time of trouble ;" there is a refuge for extremity. -• Gen. xxii. 5. t Ps, 1, 15, -Q c o 164 DISCE MORI. " And I will hear thee ;" there is the reward of mercy. " And thou shalt praise me ;'' and there is the reflex of thankful duty. Christ wills " all that are weary and heavy laden to come unto Him," and they shall not lose their labour, for He will refresh them. IV. " In the time of need no surer sanctuary than by hurable prayer to repair to God," saith St. Austin, " let us even endeavour to die in prayer ."* " I lifted raine eyes unto the hills," saith the pro phet, " from whence coraeth my help."! And in another place, " as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a raaiden unto the hand of her mistress," so our eyes wait upon the Lord our .God, until He have raercy upon us. Wherefore, with the same prophet, let us de voutly say, " In thee, O Lord, have I put ray trust, let me never be put to confusion ; but rid rae, and deliver me in thy righteousness ; correct me not in thine anger, O Lord, neither rebuke rae in thine indignation ; heal rae, for my bones are vexed. Be not far frora me, for trouble is hard at hand, and there is none to deliver me : reraeraber thy loving mercies, which have been ever of old : cast me not away when my strength faileth rae ; I acknow ledge ray faults, and my sin is ever against me : wash rae, and I shall be clean. Lord ; hear me, ' Aug de vera invoca. cap. 33, f Ps. cxxi. 1,2, | o — -d Q g LEARN TO DIE. 165 hide not thy face from me, for trouble is at hand : O let my cry enter into thy presence !" \ . To this, or like penitent complaint, that joy ful reply is not far off; " Because he hath put his trust in rae, I will deliver him ; I will set him up, because he hath known my name. I ara with him in his tribulation."* VI. The select prayers to be used in the visita tion of the sick, should be observed with many of the Psalms of David, which, when the afflicted read thera, instruct the conscience, and in tiraes of sickness, are wont more than ordinary to affect the soul ; " for these divine hymns," saith St. Basil, " are a part of holy Scripture ; high in mystery, profound in sense, comfortable in doctrine, and have in times of affliction a special and peculiar force to move devotion."! VII. Araongst these, the thirty-eighth Psalra, " Put me not to rebuke, O Lord !" The fifty-first, "Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord!" The seven tieth, " Haste thee to deliver me, 0 God !" The seventy-first, " In thee, O Lord, have I trusted !" The seventy-seventh, " I will cry unto the Lord with my voice !" The hundred and thirtieth, " Out of the deeps have I called unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear ray voice!" with many other like Psalms, proper and peculiar for the sick. VIII. Hereunto may be added a silent medita- • Ps. xci, 14, 15. t Basil, in Pi-.L-l.-it, in lib, Ps. 6 — -0 o 0 166 DISCE MORI. tion, wherein the soul doth enter a solitary talk with God, which is very convenient in this case; when the joys of heaven have leisure to present them selves to our religious thoughts, the pleasures of a sinful life and this world's vanities are then seen to be of small value, as they are indeed. IX. Then may we call to raind the unspeakable love of God towards man in general, and ourselves in particular ; how His mercy stept forth in tirae of need, before execution of justice, to save raan. That it was a tvork of corafort, when God said ; " Let there be light;"*' but that it was a work of counsel, and of the greatest corafort that ever could have corae into the world, when He said in the great work of raan's rederaption, " Let there be a Christ born," which shall save my people frora their sins. Now we have fit opportunity to raeditate upon the sufferings of the Son of God ; His passion, His descension into hell. His resurrection the third day. His ascension and glorious sitting at the right hand of God ; so that at the narae of Jesus, the sorrow ful sinner may say with Thomas, " My Lord and my God !"! X. We cannot in the world better employ our thoughts, than in calling to mind how God hath kept us from our youth up,J from how many dan gers we have been delivered, into which we have * Gen, i. 3. t John xx. 28. t Ps. xxii. 9. ; -. O Q- LEARN TO DIE. 167 seen not a few fall before our eyes, and ourselves by His only mercy unto this day freed from the same.* Can we otherwise do, but with all thank fulness call to mind the goodness of God towards us, for the time past, and put our whole trust and confidence in Him, even in these greatest extremi ties ; yea, both in life and death, for the time to come, seeing, " the Lord is nigh to all them that call upon hira, yea, to all such as call upon Hira faithfully."! * Ps. iivii. 5. Ps. cxlv. 18, o- -o o- -o CHAPTER XV. How the sick, when sickness more and more increaseth, may be moved to constancy and perseverance. When sickness more and more increaseth, we are more and raore put in mind of our mortality ; then are we as it were summoned to depart hence, and gently moved to renounce by little and little, all the repose we have, or can have, in this transi tory life ; and therefore ought we now to arm our selves to stand with constancy unto the end ; re membering evermore, as we had a time to be born, so have we a time to die and depart hence ;* and in the mean while to learn wisdom by the foolish ness of those who say in hell, " what good hath our pride brought us ?"! II. To elevate or raise our spirits when they are dejected with sorrow, we raay recount with our selves that Christ Hiraself went not up to glory, but first He suffered pain. Do we suffer ? He suf fered first. Have we pain and sorrow ? so had the most innocent Son of God before, who suffered as He who alone trod the wine press Himself, and * Eccles. iii. 2. f "Wisd. v, 9, o- -o o CJ LEARN TO DIE. 169 undertook the brunt of the battle, that we might be made conquerors. III. When Uriah was willed by David hiraself to take his ease at home. " Shall I see,'' quoth he, " my lord Joab, and the ark of God lie abroad in the field, and shall I go take my rest and ease ? No, I will not."* Shall we see the Son of God all in gore blood, suffering for the sins of the whole world, and shall we refuse all suffering, taking our ease in Sion, and our rest upon the raountains of Samaria, or loathe to endure any cross or calamity at all ? IV. Is that soldier worthy to triumph with the captain, that would never strike stroke to fight the battle with him ? Again, whatsoever we suffer, Christ suffered raore for us. And that which we may not forget, it is to be remerabered, that this our striving " is not beating the air, our labour is not in vain in the Lord,"! " for after we have fought a good fight, there is laid up for us a crown of glory."| " God," saith Tertul lian, is " Agonotheres, both he that proposeth the prize, andrewardeth the champion."|| V. " Consider the old generations of men," saith the Wise Man, " and mark them well ; Was there ever any confounded that put his trust in the Lord ? Who hath continued in His fear, and was forsaken ? Or whom did he ever despise that called upon ¦2Sam.xi,ll, -( 1 Cor, ix. 26, ;2Tim,iv,8, 1 Tertul, ad Mar, 0 _____ .; , g 170 DISCE MORI. Him?'"* Wherefore let the languishing person take unto him corafort in God's mercy. " Was ever the righteous forsaken ?" No, he was not. VI. God told Josias, that he should be gathered unto his fathers in peace, and yet Josias died in war ;! God gave hira a constant mind, whereby Josias died peaceably, and so in peace. The Lord told Jeremiah he should not be vanquished ; Jere miah was stoned, but not vanquished.:): God gave hira an invincible faith. The angel to the Church of Smyrna saith, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."|| Abraham was about to sacrifice, the birds came and troubled him ; did Abrahara desist ? No, Abra ham rose and drove them away ; we are about to offer ourselves a sacrifice to God, earthly thoughts trouble us, should we give over? No. VII. When he feeleth and findeth himself be ginning to decline, the sick may make a hearty confession of his Christian belief, saying, "0 Holy Trinity, I commend myself unto Thee, the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, which in unity of nature art one and the selfsame God ! I commend me unto Thee, O omnipotent Father, which hast created me, yea, heaven and earth, with all things visible and invisible. I commend me unto Thee, 0 Lord Jesus Christ, who, for me, and the salva tion of mankind, wert sent into the world, conceiv- * Ecclus. li. 10. t 2 Kings xxii. 20. t Jer. i. 19. II Rev. ii. 10. 3 — 0 9 Q LEARN TO DIE. 171 ed by the power of the Holy Ghost, born man of the blessed Virgin Mary, didst suffer, wast dead, buried, descendedst into hell, the third day didst rise again from the dead, ascendedst into heaven, where thou sittest at the right hand of the Father, from whence thou shalt come at the day of judg raent, to judge all ffesh. I coraraend me unto Thee, 0 Holy Spirit, which proceedest frora the Father and the Son, whom together I adore and glorify, which dost quicken one catholic and apos tolic Church ; to which Thou hast in raercy grant ed reraission of sins, the resurrection of these raor- tal bodies, and everlasting life after death." The same confession may be made of the sick in raanner of oblation ; as, " I offer myself unto Thee, 0 Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," &c. Also in a manner of a humble supplication, as, " I beseech Thee, O Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," &c. In whi<;h Christian confession, it is the part of God's servants to stand constant unto the end against all teraptations. VIII. Not unlike the people of Ciniensis, who, when the arabassadors of Brutus would have them deliver over their city and freedom into his hands, returned hira this answer : " Tell your captain, Brutus, our ancestors have left us weapons to de fend our rights with courage and constancy unto the end." O O o o 172 DISCE MORI. IX. The Holy Ghost, by the Apostle St. Paul, in the sixth to the Ephesians, sheweth what these weapons are : " as, the breastplate of righteous ness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel."* Where is spirit ual furniture for all parties, only the back or hin der part excepted; to signify that the Christian soldier should never turn his back before his ene raies. X. The eagle, to try her young, is said to carry thera up against the piercing bearas of the sun, which seeing them to endure, she acknowledgeth them as her own. Christ knows us to be His, by our constant suffering, and therefore soraetimes brings us to the conffict. XI. We read that " Sheba, a rebellious Jew, blew a trumpet, and many of the people followed after him ; but the men of Judah, who were of the blood royal, they, as good Israelites, would live and die with David their king."! The old Sheba, Satan, blows raany an enticing blast, to carry us away from our true allegiance to Christ Jesus our King. " All that are born of water and the Holy Ghost, will live and die in the faith of Christ Jesus." " A just man," saith St. Austin, " in a bitter life, may justly wish death ; if God grant not this, the just is yet to bear out with constancy * Ephes. vi. 14, 15. T 2 Sam.xx. 1. O i P Q LEARN TO DIE. 173 that bitter life allotted hira, which surely just raen do."* XII. Howsoever the world for a time frown upon them, vet are they not as the reed without pith or substance, and so wavering with every wind, but firm and constant, like John Baptist, that will hold his profession, though he lose his head for it. Wherefore, considering that there is no combat without an eneni}', and no crown without a con quest, no conquest without courage and perseve rance ; the faithful, like Job say, " Though the Lord kill us, yet will we put our trust in Him."* * Aug. contra Secund. Gaud. Epist. f Job xiu, 15, o o c- ¦ — — o CHAPTER XVI. How they may be advertised, who seem unwilling to depart the world. " If in this life only," saith the Apostle St. Paul, " we have hope in Christ, then are we of all raen raost raiserable ;"* to shew in effect, that we have not in this life the accomplishment of our hope. Not here, therefore, we should expect it elsewhere ; this is not our paradise, but a barren desert ; we may not look for our habitation here beneath, seeing the city is above, which we have to inhabit for ever.! II. To draw back, when we are comfortably to go on to take possession of our best desires ; to fail, when the hope so long hoped for, should most strengthen us in the way, is far from that Chris tian belief, whereof every one maketh daily profes sion, saying, I believe the resurrection of the flesh of the body. Often have we prayed, " Thy kingdom corae."! Now when God is leading us into the sarae, our unwillingness to be gone cannot but argue great • 1 Cor. IV. 19. t Heb. xiii, 14, } St. Matt, vi. 10, Q Q o p LEARN TO DIE. 175 weakness of faith; " What should we have done, if God," saith St. Jerorae, " had commanded us to die, without mentioning the resurrection ? His will ought to have sufficed, but now having this stay, why should we waver."* Oftentiines have we wished that we were once freed frora this world's captivity; now God is going about to free us indeed, our desire is to continue on our captivity still ; not unlike children who cry out of pain and grief, and when the surgeon comes that should ease them of all, they choose rather to re main as they are. " Oftentiraes," saith St. Austin, " we wish we were gone from all, yet, beginning to wax a little sick, we send with all haste for a physician, and proraise any thing to have a little longer life. We soraetiraes even call for death ; if death enter, and say, Here I am, we recall our word ; our days we say are evil, and for all that, as evil as they are, we would not leave them at all by our wills ; there is an inevitable necessity of death. We see none was ever exempted, no, not the very Son of God, when He had taken our nature."! III. There is no mariner, but after many sharp storms, desireth the haven ; and shall not we, after so many tempests of this troublesome world, accept of our deliverance, when the time is come ? We are given to love the v/orld too rauch, and a great 'Hieron. de non lugend. mort. t Aug, de Ver, Ap. o 6 r> P 176 DISCE MORI. deal more than we should, being only strangers in the same. IV. Had we no further expectation, but only to enjoy a state teraporal, where we raight set up our rest, as having here attained our chiefest good, then might our departure from this world be very griev ous indeed ; because our being and happiness should end together. But looking as we do for a further condition, so permanent, so blessed, and death being the passage or entry thereunto, there is no cause why raan, if he bethink himself, should unwillingly set forward when his time of departure is at hand. V. First, reraerabering it is the ordinance of God, and, as Joshua calleth it, the way of all the worid."* " Fear not," saith the Wise Man, " the judgraent of death ; remember thera that have been before thee, and that corae after."! This is the ordinance of the Lord over all flesh. Why wouldest thou be against the pleasure of the Most High ? whether it be ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years, there is no defence against the grave. " What man is he," saith the Prophet, " that liveth, and shall not see death 1":j: What man? that is to say, no man. It is not proper to any one, which is common to all ; kings, princes, strong, valiant, take part with them in this lot. There is no reason that any should look to be privileged in * Jos, xxiii, 14. t Ecclus, xli. 3, 4, J Ps, ixxxix. 48. 0 — O -o LEARN TO DIE. 177 that, wherin all, without exception must, will they, nill they, submit theraselves ; who would not die with Caesars, with kings, with Phocion, a good man ? Would he remain when all are gone ? VI. Secondly, death is a mean to bring us from a prison without ease, frora a pilgrimage without rest, we all see evidently. This made the Wise Man praise the dead above them which are yet alive ; and prefer the day of death before the day of birth ; surely for no other reason, than for that in the one, we come into a vale of misery ; in the other, we depart from it ; departing in the faith of Him, by whom we look for a better state to come. 0 death, how acceptable is thy judgment unto the needful ! unto him whose strength faileth, that is, now in his last age, and is vexed with all things ; and to him that despaireth, and hath lost his pa tience. VII. Thirdly, this being the way for obtaining so high a reward, we raay step forth with confi dence in His mercy, who now calleth us by death to the participation of the same. Why on God's blessing should any be loath that his soul should return to Him that gave it? VIII. When the loving mother sendeth forth her child to nurse, and the nurse hath kept it long enough, if the mother take her own child home again, hath the nurse any cause to grudge or com plain ? how much less cause have we to shew any O ' O 12 o . o 178 DISCE MORI. token of unwillingness, that God shonld take home His departing soul, the work of His own hands, the plant of His own grafting, who first gave it, and will, before all others, most lovingly keep and tender it? There is none knows the love of a mother, but a raother. There is none knows the love of God, but God, who is love. IX. Wherefore, we are very unnatural to our selves, if we should give testimony of discontent ment ; when our souls would be delivered into His hands, who is the best preserver of all. Again, where is our desire with St. Paul, " to be dissolv ed, and to be with Christ?"* Where is our com plaining, with the Prophet David, " that we are not yet come to appear in the presence of God?"! Where is the longing of St. Austin, " to see that head which was crowned, those hands which were pierced for our sins ?"! Had we the love and faith which these good men had, we should rather wish for the hour of rest, than shew any unwillingness to depart, when God is about to call us hence. X. Shall natural inclination overrule the force of Christian hope ? Can we forget the prayer of Christ in the garden ? " Father, not my will, but thy will be fulfilled." || " Would to God," saith St. Austin, " man had never sinned, then we should never need to fear death ; the cause standina as it doth, we must be content to undergo (though con- *PhU.i. 23, tPs. xiii, 2. t Aug. Med. 2. II Luke xxii. 42, )— ¦ P O Q LEARN TO DIE. 179 trary to nature) that which is laid as a punishraent for sin upon us all."* XI. The stars by their proper motion are carried from the west to the east, and yet by the motion of obedience to the first Mover, they pass along frora the east unto the west. The waters by their natu ral course follow the centre of the earth, yet yield ing unto the higher body, which is the moon, they are subject to her motions. The motion of obedi ence to the will of God, who is the first Mover, the higher body should draw us, and all our de sires, how contrary soever in nature ; for hereunto all should yield themselves, and obediently follow. XII. Those who by alchemy will turn worser metal into a more pure, raust first dissolve the worse ; if we will change our wills into the will of God, we raust clean dissolve thera, that His will only may take place. XIII. When Christ in the Revelations saith, " I corae quickly,"! '^^ saints reply, " Even so ; Amen, corae Lord Jesus." To shew, whatsoever doth please Christ, could not displease them, rauch less His coraing, which is raost joyful to all that fear and love His narae. XIV. And here we raay consider by this raeans of yielding ourselves raeekly unto God, we have occasion offered to shew our subjection to His di vine pleasure, as Abraham had, when God com- • Aug. de Agon. Christi. t Rev, xxii, 20, 0 ^ ¦ , — o c _____ 180 DISCS MORI. manded him to offer up Isaac his son, nay, Isaac his only son,* and Isaac whom he loved, and Isaac in whom rested all the hope of his blessed posterity . Here was a conflict, wherein God would see which was strongest in Abraham, either faith or fatherly affection. But Abrahara, who is called the Father of the Faithful, and so one that leaves his children an example for the time to come, in this strait resigned his will to the will of God, stood not weighing so high a precept in the light scales or balance of huraan reason ; " but in hope, believing against hope,'' did proceed to the accom plishraent thereof. XV. The apostles of our Saviour Christ, in the eighth of St. Matthew's Gospel, being willed to launch forth, and to pass unto the other side of the lake, stood not casting timorous doubts, as thus : this Genezereth is a dangerous passage, the even ing draweth on, we ourselves plain fishermen, none of the skilfuUest pilots ; but when Christ command ed thera, without more ado away they go. Now Christ bids us to put off from the shore of our earthly estate, what should we do but iramediately set forward ? at the other side is heaven, the haven of our hope. The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak ; but the motion of the spirit is best. XVI. Again, seeing we must needs awa)"^, " If I ' Gen, xxii. 2. o o i _ (_; LEARN TO DIE. 181 we must away, why not now ? If not now, when ? " " There is a tirae to be born," saith the Wise Man, " and there is a time to die;" we came into this world upon condition, yield up our lives we raust, with Codrus, that valiant Athenian, so that all raay be in safety. With the Theban captain,'* let us not care to change life with death, so the victory may be glorious. XVII. And to say the very truth, we have no great cause to covet long life in this iron age and stony-hearted world ; faithfulness is gone, charity is gone, devotion is gone, true joy is gone. Men should rejoice in God ; there is no such rejoicing now-a-days put in practice; we see some miseries, and wise men foresee more ; the righteous is taken away " from the evil to corae ; "! as God took Josias, because he should not see the calamities of sinful people. XVIII. For our own estate in particular, when decrepit age cometh, which we so much wish for before, is not this age a disease of itself, at those fourscore years, which is the furthest hope of our strength? are we not then cumbersome to others, and irksome to ourselves ? In the mean tirae so many snares and engines are laid by the professed enemy of man, to entrap men's souls, as we may with reverence and love wonder at the mercy of God in our delivery for the time past, and peace- * Epaminondas. t 2 Kmgs xxii, 20. — ¦- - --^- -¦¦ -- - — 0 0 182 DISCE MORI. ably accept of our passage into a place of true se curity, now consequently to ensue. XIX. Last of all, a remembrance of the place whither we are going, should take us away, as the angels took Lot from Sodora. It is unto a city of all continuance, " even that city where our souls shall live."* Let us send our faith in believing, our hope in expecting, as Joshua sent raessengers before, to view that country which God will give us. These raessengers will bring us word, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived the high excellence thereof; which, methinks, should move men to give the world a willing farewell. XX. To conclude with St. Cyprian, let pagans and infidels fear death, who never feared God in their life; but let Christians go as travellers unto their naked horae, as children unto their loving Father, willingly, joyfully ; " One thing,'' saith the prophet, " have I desired of the Lord, that I raay dwell in the house of my God all the days of my life."! Men naturally have a desire to be at home : the apostle tells us, " we are not at horae while we are clothed with these bodies, and therefore to be unclothed is best of all."! Death doth separate us from these earthly pleasures, but not from hea venly ; as it taketh us from friends, so doth it also * Heb. xiii. 14. t Ps. xxvii, 4. } 2 Cor, v. 4. o- 0- -o LEARN TO DIE. 183 take us frora secret and open enemies. It taketh us frora the affairs of the world, so doth it frora the griefs and sorrows of the world ; it pulleth us from our possessions, so doth it bring us to the posses sion of better things, and therefore consider we, not so rauch whence and from what, as whither and to what, by the grace of God, we are going. O- CHAPTER XVII. How they may be induced to depart meekly, that seem loath to leave worldly goods, wife, children, friends, or suchhke. While we set our affections upon earthly things only, no raarvel though we raust affect thera, and are loath to depart frora them ; but once taking a taste of heavenly, we begin to grow out of liking M'ith the baseness of our forraer desires, and bend all our affections to an earnest expectation of far better that are to corae. It is observed, that St. Paul, after he was once taken up into the third heaven, never cared for things on earth any more. II. If we do respect riches, Christ hath greater riches in another world- than all the erapire of Alexander can yield. If honour. He hath greater honour than all the thrones of earthly potentates can afford. " For one day in His house is better than a thousand." If friends, heaven hath the glorious company of saints and angels, who rejoice at our entrance into their coraraon joy ; what raore acceptable than good company, and joyful com- I pany too ? the company is good where the righte- O : .-^ : ^ c -o LEARX TO die. 185 OUS live together ; joyful, where is nothing but a cheerful singing of Hallelujah ;* " where there are so raany joys, as there are together," saith St. Austin, " partakers of joy." Qiiot sociifmlicitatis, tot gaudia ; " How many companions of felicity, so raany joys are there."! III. For worldly possessions, here we found them, and here we leave thera. The time of our enjoj-ing thera is uncertain, because we see thera ebbing and flowing like the sea, and we do not possess them as we ought, unless we are ready at times best beseeming unto God, to forego and leave them. IV. But to forsake friends, will sorae say, can not be but grievous unto flesh and blood ; to leave wife and children, cannot but go near the heart. Do we leave friends ? God is better than all friends, to whom we are soing : to take our last fareweU of goods, mansions, lands, revenues, plea sures of all sorts, is a pinching sorrow ; yea, but if we open the other eye, we shall see there are riches in heaven, which neither rust nor moth cor- rupteth, there are mansions that abide for ever. "^ , ^^ e leave pleasant delights, but receive more pleasant by infinite degrees ; we leave delights, which only seem to be, for delights which are indeed. Wherefore to unburden ourselves of all earthly Rev, xix. 3. t S. Auj. de Spkit. et Anima. o- 1 p— o 186 DISCE MORI. cares, we raay observe this course ; which is, to coraraend wife, children, friends, and suchlike, in our hurable prayers, unto His protection, who can better provide for them than ourselves ; " Who is a Father of the fatherless, and taketh into His own hand the cause of the widow and orphans."* Which the ancient patriarchs, well considering at their departure from the world, prayed for the blessing of God to corae upon their posterities, and so left thera ; knowing that they were but sent be fore them, who should themselves also, ere long, follow them. And here, did we rightly consider the raanifold grievances, which even our chiefest delights we are so loath to leave have often brought us, we should soon see our departure frora thera to be a departure from many cares. The sun, though it be cheerful and warra, yet is it sometimes less pleasing, by reason of scorching heat ; the air, though it be lightsome, yet it is soraetimes gloomy and overcast ; our worldly delights, and whatsoever is here pleasing unto us, hath had oftentimes rauch sour sauce. " Why then," saith Fulgentius, " do we not forsake this want, to obtain a future plenty."! VHI. Of all other, we need not so much respect the foregoing of worldly possessions, which are, saith one, for these causes, rather to be despised of * Ps, Ixviii, 5, t Pulg. ad Theod. O ( o ¦ P LEARN TO DIE. 187 US, than to be left with discontentraent. First, for that they are vanities, and so void and empty. Secondly, for that they are not only vanities, but also deceits, from their effect, for they deceive those that trust in them. Thirdly, because they are pricking thorns, for that they bring cares with them. Fourthly, for that they are even griefs them selves, there needs no proof, but experience. If we use them aright, we are only stewards ; when the owner himself will have it so, what should be else, but with all contentment of mind forsake and leave them ? When night comes, we willingly lay off our clothing, and then make ready to take our rest. We came all of us with Job " naked into the world, and with Job naked shall we return again ;"* only our good deeds and bad, as they say, bear us com pany. IX. A great conqueror of the world would have his ensign bearer carry forth a sorry cloth or shroud ing sheet, saying; "Lo here is all of his conquests, that a worthy captain doth carry with him."! Hither we came, as Jacob came to Laban ; only by God's providence we are that we are. " If God will give us food to eat, and clothing to put on, God shall be our God."! The herds and droves about us, they are from the raercy of God ; not plants growing in our own soil, not vapours that • Job, i. 21. t Saladinas, Asiae Dominator, t Gen, xxxi, 20. O 'J -o 188 DISCE MORI. did arise of us, but of the nature of influences, that frora heaven are corae down upon us. Every one sueth to God for things necessary. We are all publicans, receivers ; God only is the giver of all.* " We cannot call anything ours, but tirae," " while we have tirae," saith the apos tle : these teraporal things carae frora the store house of heaven ; we may not say as the terapter, " all is mine," but, " all is of God," who is the best landlord; He requires no more, but that we acknowledge to hold of Hira, to receive, that we enjoy frora Hira. Wherefore the Prophet David saith, " Lord, Thou giving, we gather ;" and are therefore called goods, because they are God's, His, and not our own ; whereby we learn with contentraent to leave them, when the giver thereof shall of His bounty call us away to receive better. St. John saith not, We raay have them, but, " we raust not be had of thera." We have had thera to live ; the end then ceasing, the raeans concurring unto the end raust cease. We raust not raake idols of them, as the Egyptians did of their treasures. X. But is it possible we should forget whither we are going? Where should the merabers be, but where the head reigneth ? Where should the heart be, but where our heavenly treasure is,! Christ, who is our treasure, is in heaven, whither • Ps. cxlv. 9. t Matt, vi, 21. O C) o- — ' : LEARN TO DIE. 189 our first afi'ections ascend, and then we follow after. XI. All these riches reraain not, help not in time of need ; " they take them wings often and fly from us,"* and are but straw and stubble, where upon we raay build no sure foundation. And there fore we need not so much care to forsake them. On the other side, we leave the society of men, and go to that celestial society of angels above in heaven, where also a multitude of our good friends expect us. Our separation each frora other here, is only for a time ; our continuance together in the life to come shall be for ever. Let us consider that when we die v^e depart frora this world, and therefore worldly affections should now depart frora us : let us betake ourselves wholly to a better habitation, to a better society, to better joys, desir ing with the apostle, " to be dissolved, and to be vvith Christ." * Prov. ixiii, 5. o o -c CHAPTER XVIII. How the impatient may be persuaxied to endure the pains of sickness, and die peaceably. The conflict once begun, the courage of the captain then, and never but then, is experienced. When God doth call His children to any cross or calamity, then begins the battle, then their blessed patience and meek contentment is made manifest, or never. Knowing that all goes by His ordering, in whom we " live, move and have our being,''* and that no physician can be more careful for the health of the body, than God is wont to be for the health of the soul ; how bitter soever the potion seera, receiving it frora Him who means us so well, we should not receive it but with patient suffering, whatsoever His merciful hand shall reach unto us. II. " My son," saith the Wise Man, " when thou comest unto the service of God, prepare thy soul unto temptation, and shrink not away when thou art tried; for whom the Lord loveth, him He chastiseth."! Gold and silver are tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. ' Acts xvii- S t Ecclus. ii. 1, 2, o -o _ o learn to die. 191 III. If God will have Moses to be a governor of His people, God will have Moses to be cast out, and laid in the bulrushes by the river's brink.* If God will have Daniel to be a ruler under Darius, Daniel must lie for a time in the lion's den.! If God will have thou as Lazarus to be in Abraham's bosom, thou raust endure blessed Lazarus' sores and sorrows for a season, but thy joys are ever lasting-! IV. He that hath seen Elias persecuted by Je zebel ;|| Susanna accused by two false elders ; § the holy raan Job afflicted from top to toe,^ would have thought God had little respected their sincere worship and reverence of His name. Flesh and blood would have imagined their state raost dis tressed ; but if we stay a little, and observe their patience, we shall see their deliverance not far behind. V. Should we not endure some bodily pains, remembering all chastisements are from God ? Should we not depart the world with a willing mind, God hiraself calling us to depart ? The faith we have or ought to have, of our changing, can tell us, " the grain of corn raust be cast into the earth, before we can have increase of fruit."** He that maketh the body of corn to grow again, can He not make the body of man to live again ? »Exod, ii. 3, tDan. -vi. 16. t Luke xvi. 20. || I Kings xix. 3. I 1) Sus. xxviii, IT Job, li, 7. ?* John xii 24- o 0 o 0 192 DISCE MORI. Although our dissolution be unto nature a pain ful travail, and therefore it is, as Rachel said, " Benoni, an eft'ect of sorrow ;"* yet is the same to grace an offspring of strength, and so counted Benjamin the son of her power. ^ I. To endure and suffer somewhat, seeing the reward of suffering is great, should be less griev ous unto us. If we look for our felicity here we are deceived. Elias must go to heaven in a whirl wind.! God will send Jacob an angel to corafort him in his journey, after all his trouble with Laban, and God will bring hira home with abundance of increase at last. VII. " God is faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able ;"! it is not said, God will not suffer us not to be tempted at all, but not to be tempted above that we are able ; tarry a little the Lord's leisure, deliverance will come, peace will come, joy will come. In the mean while to be patient in misery, it makes misery no misery. VIII. Should it so much grieve any in time of sickness ? Why Christ hiraself went not up to glory, but first He suffered pain, as is shewed in another place raore at large. Christ upon the cross, is as a doctor in his chair, where he reads to us all a lecture of patience. " He was," saith ? Gen. XXIV. IS. t 2 Kings iL 11 ; Gen. xxxii. 1. : 1 Cor. I 13. o 0 )— ' — o LEARN TO DIE. 193 the Prophet Isaiah, " a man full of griefs,"* and one that had good experience of our infirmities. Whatsoever we suffer. He patiently suffered more for us sinners, and hath called us to eternal glory; and after suffering a little. He will raake us per fect, confirra, strengthen, and establish us, which will be a happy refreshing after all.! IX. " That I raay," saith St. Augustin, " after this languishing life, see Christ in glory, and be partaker of so great a good, what, though sickness weaken me, labours oppress rae, watchings con surae me, cold benumb me, heat inflame me ; nay, though my whole life be spent in sighs and sor rows, what is all the rest that shall ensue in the life to corae 1 Why do we complain of want of rest, seeing we have undertaken a journej^, wearisorae and troublesorae.! X. The Apostle St. Paul counted these " mo- raentary afflictions not worthy of the glory that shall be shewed unto us :"|| raomentary, and there fore such whose continuance is not long. Where fore, seeing that after all these sorrows, we are going to so quiet a haven, we may with patience endure a time some fatherly corrections. Shall we look for a garland, and never set foot to run the race ? Shall we, with Job's wife, be content only to receive good at the hands of God, and no touch of trouble ? ' Isaiah liii, 3 t 1 Pet, v. 10. t S, Aug. manuale. H Rom. viii, 18- c . c 13 Q O 194 DISCE MORI. The people raurraured in the wilderness, and the prophet says, " They provoked God."* Da vid took it hot well when the Ammonites ill treated his ambassadors.! These afflictions are God's arabassadors : to repine or grudge against thera, is to entreat thera evil ; what should we but ac cept all thankfully, and in peaceable raanner de part this world, considering we are going to a place of rest ; it may raake this bitter cup have a sweet taste, and stir up in us a longing to be at our long horae; for life is lent us as a ship, to trans port us over to the port of rest ; frora the cradle to the grave, we are upon the storray sea, tossing up and down. XI. It is said of Plato, a heathen man, that at the point of death, amidst all his pains, he gave the gods thanks that he was born a man, and not a beast ; a Greek, and not a barbarian ; and so quiet ly left the world. " It is a comfort to a man," saith Seneca, " to call to mind, that so many be fore hira have suffered, and all that are to corae shall suffer."! Wouldest thou never die ? then shouldest thou have never been bora. It is said, only wise men die obediently ; fools either too grievously, or too willingly. Now is the time to exercise our pa tience, our faith, our assured trust and confidence in God. • Numb, ixi, 5. t 2 Sam. i. 4. t Sen. de. Consol. -o p . p LEARN TO DIE. 195 XII. How should the Christian man with all grateful remembrance of God's goodness towards hira, of blessings received, of dangers prevented, now patientl}' bequeath his departing soul into the hands of God, quietly suffering his transitory trial ! XIII. Sorrow raay endure for a night, but joy coraeth in the raorning. " Be patient," saith St. Jaraes ; " Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, until he receive the forraer and the latter rain."* Shall the husband man patiently wait for the fruits of the earth, and shall not we patiently tarry for the fruits of heaven ? " Take the prophets," saith St. James, " for an example of suffering ;" if we will rejoice, as they now rejoice, w« must live, as they sometimes lived, and suffer as they suffered. If we are grieved, in that we suffer ; as good, and better than ourselves have suffered before us. Christ our Saviour saith, " If any will follow me, let him take up his cross," I have taken up mine, and he raust take up his. XIV. If we look into the proceedings of God with all His servants, we shall see Him chastening them for a time, and leaving thera a little in the trial of their faith. The loving mother doth sorae tiraes leave the child for a little space, whilst she goes aside, and then, seeing the infant moaning after her, she runneth, and is wont to make the more of it. When God seemeth to withdraw a * James v, 7. O ^ 196 DISCE MORI. little His help from us, it is only to see whether we will moan after Him ;. which, when He per ceiveth we do, we are the more beloved and ac cepted of Him. XV. When the waters of the flood carae upon the face of the earth, down went stately turrets and towers ; but as the waters rose, so the ark rose, still higher and higher. In like sort, when the waters of afflictions arise, down goes the pride of life, the lust of the eyes ; in a word, all the vani ties of the world. But the ark of the soul riseth as these waters rise, and how too ? higher and higher, even nearer and nearer towards heaven ; wherefore, to endure the pains of sickness patient ly, is an exaraple taken frora all God's children, who did possess their souls in patience, and raay seem to have an approbation frora God hiraself, such a one as our Saviour gave of Nathaniel, " Be hold a true Israelite ;" as if a voice from heaven did testify of the patient, "These are my beloved sons." XVI. Now therefore we may not forget in time of need, so good a virtue as patience is, for which God hath a double crown, the one for our content here, the other hereafter for all continuance, re raembering evermore that of the prophet ; " The bones which the Lord hath broken, shall rejoice :'' Christ our Saviour saith, " Possess your souls with patience ;'' yea, living under the cross, you shall live peaceably. O 0 Q O CHAPTER XIX. How they are to be comforted, who in time of sickness seem to be troubled in mind, with remembrance of their sins, and fear of judg ment to come. When the servant of the man of God saw the city of Dothan to be compassed about with a raul titude of enemies, he cries out to the prophet, say ing, "Alas, Master, what shall we do!"* The prophet prays that the eyes of his servant might be opened, which petition granted, then he sees the mountain was full of horses and chariots and fire ; in effect, that they were more who stood for thera, than all the raultitude that compassed them. The application hereof, I leave unto a pious considera tion. Now may the sick, with the apostles pray, " Lord, increase our faith." By which faith they shall see that Christ with all His merits is for thera, which is more, and of more efficacy, than the whole power of darkness, that can oppose itself against them. * 2 Kings vi. 15. o o O Q 193 DISCE MORI. The sorrowful sinner at this tirae besieged with a reraerabrance of the justice of God, the severity of judgraent, the malice of the old serpent, all lay ing hot battery unto his fainting and departing soul ; the world forsaking him, his friends departing from him, or at least sometimes weeping by hira, can not but with complaint say. What shall I do ? Which way shall I return ? whereby we see that perilous cogitations offer themselves to a soul laden with sin, until the tempest be blown away, the clouds of discomfort dispersed, the joyful sun of grace arise in his heart, the night of misery passed, the morning of consolation do shew itself again. Are we upon our departure out of this our Egypt ? let us sprinkle our hearts with the blood of the Lamb, and the destroyer shall not enter, nor have power to hurt. Let us call to raind the love of God, in not sparing His own Son, which the apostle took as an argument of good consequence ; " If He gave us His own Son, how shall He not give us all things with hira ?"* and therefore mercy in time of need. What heart is able to con ceive the divine providence, from the beginning over man. II. One bringeth in the three Persons in the Trinity, after this raanner, consulting of His good ; God the Father saith, " Let us create raan," but being created, will he not fall away ? God the Son * Romans viii. 32. O :_.. : . HD 0 — Q LEAKN TO DIE. 199 answereth, "Though he fall away, I will redeem him ! " but being redeemed, will he walk worthy of his calling ? God the Holy Ghost replieth, " I will conserve hira, I will sanctify him ! " But amidst all assaults, the blessed object of Christ's merits is alone able to revive the fainting sinner, and raake hira argue his right against Sa tan, as thus : Where is thy force, thou roaring lion? Hath not Christ weakened it? Wilt thou know my strength or might wherein I overcome ? It is " the blood of the Lamb.''* III. Thus, when like David we corae to fight with Goliah, we cast away Saul's armour,! all trust and confidence in ourselves, and only set for ward in the narae of the God of Israel. Doth the Law indite us of transgression ? We raake our appeal to the court of conscience; nay, we have a supersedeas to stay that course, and we appeal to the throne of grace, " Frora the law of fear, to the law of love," as St. Austin speaketh. Doth the adversary bring forth our debt bill ? our answer is, the obligation is cancelled, the book crossed, and the whole debt fully discharged : Christ hath passed His word for us ; nay, he hath paid all that was due for us to the utterraost far thing:! now we can shew our general acquaintance under hand and seal, given us by Hira, with whom it is as proper to shew pity, as mercy to help ¦ Rev. Xli, II. t 1 Sam. xvii, 39. f Gal. iii, 13. 0 . — O 0 — Q 200 DISCE MORI. misery. " This is my beloved Son, in whora I ara well pleased."* Here is the Creditor's own word. His own handwriting under seal. It is a voice from heaven too, and therefore sufficient to corafort sinners on earth, in all their distresses : a quielus e.il, very good in law. Do the sins and offences of our youth now dis may us ? " If we acknowledge our sins," saith St. John, " God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous ness."! Yes, but do a multitude of sins environ us, and we see ourselves great sinners ? Why, Christ appeared first after His resurrection to Mary Magdalen,! but to shew that He brought comfort to the greatest sinners of all. The house builded upon the rock, when the storm carae and the wind blew. Christ is a most sure rock, let us, as wise builders, lay the foundation of our faith upon this rock; " another foundation can no man lay ; He is called a Rock ; that Rock was Christ." || " This is a true saying," saith the apostle, " That Christ came into the world to save sinners, where of I am the chief ;"§ as if St. Paul put himself in the number, as every one should, and say, " Where of I am one, nay, the chief." IV. And here we may call to raind that bottom less depth of God's raercy, who will be called in * Matt, m, 17. t 1 John i. 9. t Matt, xxviii. 9. I 1 Cor. I, 4. M Tim. i. 15. 6 o Q — _ a LEARN TO DIE. 201 the Gospel by the name of a Father, to intimate unto us His love, and to encourage us to come un to Him in time of need, whose goodness is difl'u- sive and communicable unto others, whose bounty is delighted in nothing more than doing good ; and is wont rather to give great than small things. God is not such a one as Adam took Him to be, from whom, when he had sinned, he should fly, or hide himself for fear; but God is such a one, to whom Adam, and all that have sinned, may have access with hope and love. V. The servants of Benhadad, when they saw and considered well their distressed case, began to advise their master Benhadad after this man ner : " We hear that the kings of Israel are mer ciful, wherefore let us clothe ourselves in sack cloth, that so we may go and find favour in their sight."* If this mercifulness were a thing proper unto the kings of Israel, what may we look for at the hands of the God of Israel, before whom they that hurable theraselves shall questionless find grace ! Jonas saith, " I know Thou wouldest shew mercy, and that Thou wert full of pity."! My sin is greater. No, Cain, thou errest. God's mercy js far greater, couldest thou ask mercy. Men cannot be raore sinful, than God is merciful, if with penitent hearts they will call upon Hira. VI. But come we to Christ the fountain of all • 1 Kings II. 31. t Jonah iv. 2, o o :. . ^. O 202 DISCE MORI. mercy, there shall we find God in his mediation, great without quantity, and good without quality, as St. Austin speaketh. To this effect the story of Themistocles is not unfitly applied, who, having offended Philip, king of Macedon, takes up his young son Alexander in his arras, and so comes to ask mercy, if not for his own sake, yet for his son's sake, whom he did present unto him. We corae to crave pardon for our sins, and beseech the God of mercy, who will hear us in time of need ; if not for our own sake, yet He will hear us for Jesus' s_ake. VII. Christ in the Gospel was called of the Pharisees by way of reproach, a friend of publi cans and sinners, and so was He in truth and veri ty. Never was there such a friend to poor sin ners, and such publicans as He was, who struck his breast, and said, " God be raerciful unto me a sinner ! " VIII. The parable of the lost sheep doth shew His love in seeking the lost sinner ; the joy of the angels of heaven over our repentance, raay rauch corafort us to call for grace : the Pharisees mur mured, when the angels rejoiced: the wandering son had consumed his father's substance, but yet returned sorrowful to acknowledge himself ; the father saith not. Whence comest thou ? or, Where is now all thy patrimony ? but, " Bring hither the new garment, kill the fat calf: let us now rejoice. o- o -.9 LEARN TO DIE. 203 ray son was dead, and is alive." Here was a wel come home that might amaze hira. Though we sometimes lose the nature of chil- dre.^n, yet God doth never lose the name, nay, the nature of a father, a narae of pri\'ilege to His chil dren ; we cry, " Abba Father,"* a narae of care and providence : your heavenly Father careth for you, a name of love, " If you give your children good things, how rauch more shall your Father in heaven give you, if you ask them of Him?"! and not only a Father, but our Father, and that which is raore, a Father in heaven, that howsoever we are distressed in earth, the corafort is, we have a Father in heaven. Which should wound our hearts, and kindle our affections in all distresses, with corafort to call upon hira. IX. It may be said also in this case, as before it was said- of the affection of a raother. There is none knows the love of a father, but a father ; nor any the love of God, but God Hiraself, who is love. The publican who smote his breast for sorrow of his sins, he stood afar off, and would not corae near unto God ; well, God in raercy came near unto him : was he not raore accepted than the Pharisee. The text saith, " He went home more righteous." X. That thou mightest be blessed, O raan, first God created thee ; that thou mightest be recovered, • Gal, iv. 6, t Matt vii. 11 ; Luke xi. 13. c o n Q 204 DISCE MORI. when thou wert lost, then He redeeraed thee. To be delivered, is properly the state of the innocent, but to be redeemed, is their condition for whom a price must be paid, and therefore have offended. Consider that Christ hath redeemed thee, which redeeming sheweth a price paid for thy ransom, which price was His dearest blood. XI. When Christ wept, and shed sorae few tears for Lazarus, the Jews reasoned, and said. See how he loved hira ! but when Christ shed his own blood for us, and that in great abundance too, " 0 see how He loved us !" 0 love without exaraple ! He was crowned with thorns, that we might be crowned with glory. If He bought us with so great a price, will He refuse His own pennyworth ? If He sought us flying from Him, shall He not much more receive us when we come unto Him ? " Can a mother," saith the Prophet Isaiah, forget the child of her womb ?"* yea, though she do, yet will not God forget his people. " When my father and raother forsook me," saith David, " the Lord took me up."! We have a good Samaritan, that when the priest and the Levite left us wounded, to wit, the cere monial and Judaical law passed by us. He bound up our wounds, and paid for our curing,! 'hat we might be recovered unto everlasting health. * Isaiah ilir. 15, t Ps. xxvii. 10. J Luke xi. 43. o u o ¦ ( LEARN TO DIE. 205 Hath not Christ said unto our nature, as unto Lazarus, when it lay, and still had lain, in the grave clothes of sin : " Come forth, mankind, come forth and live !"* our Joseph is gone before to pro vide for his brethren. Was there ever such love ? Look how wide the east is frora the west, so far hath He set our sins from us ; nay, like as the pil lar of the cloud was set between the host of their enemies, and the tents of the people of Israel, that no harm might befall thera,! so hath He set His providence between us and all casualties, that no hurt should oppress us. " Praise the Lord, 0 ray soul, and all that is within rae praise his holy name? Praise the Lord, O ray soul, and forget not all His benefits."! XII. We should be suitors unto Christ, and lest our raanifold sins might make us bashful. He call eth us unto Hira, and becomes a suitor to us, say ing, " Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you ;"|| not laden, as only sinful ; but weary, as desirous to be delivered from sin. Carae He to call sinners to repent, and shall He not shew mercy on the penitent? Did all the poor creatures come into the ark, to save them selves ? Did the angels carry Lot out of Sodom ? and shall we not come unto Him, who calls us so lovingly, and means no other, but to bring us unto His everlasting kingdom ? •Lukexi, 43, t Exod. xiv. 19, f Ps. cui. 1, 2, |1 Matt, xi, 28. ( (^ 0 ^ o 206 DISCE MORI. XIII. Wherefore, let neither the multitude of our sins, the terror of the Law, nor the fear of God's justice discourage us in time of distress. Christ hath put them all to flight, as David did the Philistines, by killing the killing letter of the Law.* No sooner was our Jonas cast into the sea, but the tempest ceased :! no sooner was the Paschal lamb slain, but the Israelites were delivered \\ no sooner was the high priest dead, but all banished men returned horae into their country?! What was this but a figure of Christ, by whose death we have all a return into our country? Who would not cast his burden upon Hira that doth desire to give ease ? " As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner."^ God would have the sins to die, but the sinner to live. His creatures have nourished us : His providence hath ever preserved us : His mercy hath carried us all along from our very cra dles until this day : His watchful eye hath deliver ed us from so many dangers, both of body and soul. XIV. Have we had such and so raany experi ments of love, and should we now doubt thereof? Is the Judge becorae our Advocate ? and shall we fear to go forwards towards the throne of grace ? " The Spirit and the bride say, Corae. And let *2Cor. iii. 6. t Jonah i. 15, t Eiod, xii. 31. Q Numb. xxxv. 25. ^ Ezek. xxxiii, 11, — o O" Q- LEARN TO DIE. 207 him that is athirst come, and let whosoever .will, drink of the water of life freely."* " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's chosen? It is God that justifieth: Who shall condemn? Christ at the right hand of God raaketh request for us,"! when He drew to His last gasp. * Rev. xxii. 17. t Rom. viii. 33. c- -o CHAPTER XX. How the sick in the agony of death may be prepared. All our life long have we lived in a departure and farewell from the world : since our very first entrance, we were ever drawing towards our end. Now, when our pilgrimage is almost over, when we approach towards the period of our course, what else reraaineth, but a hearty commending of ourselves to God, and a comfortable expectation of a better life to corae ? When weakness of huraan nature doth not afford ability to raanifest our soul's affections, God shall accept at our hands the send ing up of our sighs and desires to heaven. In these last extremities incident unto the state of man, we raay fly unto prayer, as unto a city of refuge ; which prayer, saith Thoraas Aquinas, is " the interpreter of our desire, and desiderium est actus charitatis."* God said unto Moses, " Why hast thou cried unto me for this people?"! And yet we find that Moses spake never a word, to shew that He heard the secret supplication of * Th. Aqu. ii. 20, Quest. 83, Art, 9. t Exod. xiv, 15, p p LEARN TO DIE. 209 Moses' heart. " Out of the deeps," saith the Prophet David, " have I called unto Thee, O Lord, out of the deeps," not as out of one deep, but deeps ; out of the greatest sorrows both of body and raind, " have I called unto Thee."* In an other place, " One deep," saith he, " calleth upon another."! What is that? there is a depth of raan's misery now at the gates of death, and there is a depth of God's mercy, which is ready to hear and help all that call upon Hira ; now misery call eth upon raercy. II. Jonas prayed in the belly of the whale, when he thought upon God ij Susanna in her dis tress, when she lifted up her eyes to heaven : || " Have not I remembered thee," saith David, " upon ray bed, and thought upon thee when I was waking ?"^ And in another place, " 0 Lord, my heart is ready,"Tr my heart is ready, as if his trust was, that God would accept the readiness of his heart. III. Now is the tirae that Timothy, a good sol dier, should fight by St. Paul's good exaraple, a good fight :** " Keep the faith,"!! and so finish his course ; for why ? after all, there is a crown of glory. IV. This is the last scene of all the coraedy, when a little brunt is once passed, troubles cease, •Ps.cxxx.l. tPs.x]ii,7- tJonasii.2, II Susan, v. 35, «Ps,lliii,a, T Ps. cviii. 1, ** 1 Tim. vi. 12, tt 2, Tim. iv. 8. 0 y -o 210 DISCE MORI. but joys never cease. And therefore a good remerabrance of the joys to corae, raay now tell us that we are going frora the darkness of this world, to the land of the living, " where is no night, no need of the candle, nor the light of the sun," for God giveth thera light, and they shall reign for evermore. " Hold thy peace, Babylon," saith Epiphanius, " and be mute, O Sodom, because, that article, I believe life everlasting, is clear and consequently bringeth corafort to God's children departing."* V. But let us hearken to Christ hiraself, " I ara the resurrection and the life," saith the Lord, " whosoever believeth in me, yea, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever."! O joy of joys ! we lay us down to sleep, and we rest, and God it is that maketh us to dwell in everlasting safety. VI. And here we may not omit to call to mind the manner how God's servants of old have shut up the day of their mortality. As first, that of Moses, who, after he beheld the land of promise, perceiving his life was not long, blessed God for all His benefits,! blesseth the people, and so dieth.|| That of Joshua, who ex horteth Israel to fear God, to stand steadfastly in all His ordinances,^ and so mildly goeth the way * Epiph. Ep, xxxiii. 3, t John xi. 25, t Deut. xxxiii. 1. tIDeut. xxxiv, 5. i) Joih. xxiii. 11. -o o- LEARN TO DIE. 211 of all the world.* That of David, who drawing towards his end, a little before his death enjoineth Solomon his son to walk in the ways of God, that so he might prosper in whatsoever he took in hand.! That of Tobit, who as he lay a dying, called his son and his son's sons, exhorting thera by a fatherly authority, to be merciful and just, that it might go well with them.! That of Simeon, who, taking up Christ in his arras, cheerfully prayed to depart in peace."|| That of St. Stephen, who praying for his persecutors, and calling upon the name of Jesus, fell asleep. § That of Jacob, " O Lord, I wait for thy salvation ; when he departed with blessing his posterity. If That of Serapion, " a good and faithful old man," saith Eusebius,** who after receiving the holy Eucharist, that joyful refec tion for our last passage, most meekly departed this mortal life, to live eternally. And thus have the godly taken their farewell of the world. Instead of all examples how the servants of God have shut up the day of their mortality, let us look to the example of our Saviour Christ, who was the Lord of these servants; who, when He was now to leave this world, and to return to Him that sent Him, we may consider, how He prayed for His enemies, comforted His friends ; how liberally He gave to him that required no more but to be remera- * Josh, xxiv. 29. t 1 Kings ii 2. t Tobit xiv. 9, II Luke ii. 29, i Acts vii. 59, 60. 1" Gen. xlix. 18. *'«Eus Hist. lib. v. cap.45. o o g 212 DISCE MORI. bered of Him in His kingdom, a sure proraise of the possession of His kingdom ; how He shewed the greatness of His suffering, when He cried, " My God, my God :" the greatness of His love to mankind, when He said, " I thirst ;'' the full accomplishing of God's glory, and man's good, when He said, " It is finished." And last of all, the blessed manner of His departure, by His last words, when He said, " Father, into thy hands I coraraend my spirit." And His last words, God grant they may be our last words, when the hour of our departure shall come. Amen. By this we have exaraple, that when we find ourselves near death, that taking our farewell of wife, children, friends, or servants, we give thera sorae good and godly exhortation in particular, at parting, and having them all about us by the hands, we coraraend thera to God. VII. As for things sublunary, they leave us, and we thera ; the soul only remaineth to be com mended unto God. Now may we cry. Help, Lord ; for besides Thee, we have no help : it is not the pieces of our own merits, that can make such a garment as can cover our sins ; it is the scarlet robe that took a deep purple dye in the passion of the Son of God himself, that must now stand us in stead. If when thou art going a journey, thou wouldest be glad to corarait thy teraporal goods to such a c- o 1 .Q LEARN TO DIB. 213 friend, by whom thou mayest be sure they shall be well and safely kept ; how rauch more may the Christian man comfort himself in committing his soul to the custody of Jesus Christ his Saviour, who will keep it sure and safe for ever. VIII. Reuben said of Benjarain, when Jacob was loath to let him go, " Deliver him unto me, and I will bring him safely home."* So of Christ may it be more rightly said, Coraraend thy depart ing soul unto Him, and He will bring her unto her long and blessed home safe and sound, which is the kingdoTn of heaven. * Gen, xiii, 37. O 'Q CHAPTER XXI. In what manner the sick should be duected by those to whom this weighty business doth specially appertam. Amongst men, those whom God hath set apart to help distressed consciences, and to whom He hath given power and comraandment to pronounce absolution and remission of sins in His mercy; they are especially to enter into this business of directing the sick, for they are to bless in God's name, to teach His people, and to do them good in time of need; partly by way of exhortation, and partly also by offering up in their behalf devout prayers towards the throne of grace, and to have all fatherly care of them. II. That care may be thought to be of the great est importance, which is employed in helping them who are now least able to help theraselves, and had never raore need, God knows, than now of ghostly direction. III. There is nothing which the sick in these extremities do more desire against the natural ter- Q- p o LEARN TO DIE. 215 rors of death, and raany troubles of conscience, which at this tirae are wont to assault them most, than direction and corafort ; for if he may be call ed a friend, that is diligent about a sick person, to minister things necessary for his body, which shall shortly be dissolved, much raore he is called a true and faithful friend, that is diligent about a sick person, to minister things necessary for his soul, which shall never die, but live eternally. It is therefore greatly to be wished, that like as the serpent, that old enemy of mankind,'* a man slay er, yea, soul slayer, from the beginning ; who, the shorter his time is, the fiercer his wrath is ; and chiefly intendeth ruin unto the heel, at the last part of man's life, is at this time busy, so those who in loving feed, and in feeding, love Christ's lambs,! should now be most careful to keep them from this devouring lion,! and endeavour to present thera sound in faith, joyful in hope, rooted in cha rity, unto the great Bishop and Shepherd of their souls. II IV. Notwithstanding, that the good grace of that Spirit which directeth our highest proceedings, can better direct a discreet and sober agent in this case, than all forras of direction from man whatso ever ; yet, as in other duties, so in this, sorae ad vertisements raay be observed by those, who are content also to hear the advice of others. Rev. Iii, 9. t John xxi. 15, 1 1 Pet. ii. 25. jflPet. v.8. i ) : O 216 DISCE MORI. V. First therefore, death being that which all are to suffer, but not all after one sort, care ought to be had answerable unto the disposition of the dying. Tediousness of discourse raay soon weary the weak party : few words, and those soraetiraes in private, well ordered, are wont for the most part to avail most. Impertinent speeches are very un fit, the presence oftentimes of those who have been associates ia folly ; yea, soraetiraes the presence of those who are nearest in alliance, removed, is thought by grave judgment to be the fittest oppor tunity for the giving of soul counsel, bearing a simple and honest intent to do good. VI. A premeditated exhortation, after informa tion taken of the disposition of the sick, is very behoveful :* this loose and slight huddling up of divine matters, and sometiraes of God's mysteries theraselves, doth often bring into contempt the high wisdom of holy Scripture, which, but with all reverence, watchfulness, and prayer, none should presume to search and open. This disposing then of the sick unto a Chris tian end, being a work of such raoraent, they may proceed, to whom it shall appertain, in this, or the like manner. * Chrys. hom. in secund. Matt; 0 o I 0 LEARN TO DIE. 217 First of all, let the sick be asked how he doth feel himself disposed to God, and whether he find himself pre. pared to depart thia world. Let him make a most sincere and humble con fession of all his sins. II. Let him be exhorted to be content with all his heart, either to live or die, as it shall seem good to God's divine pleasure. III. Let hira be moved to make a hearty recon ciliation with the world, desiring forgiveness, and forgiving all offences whatsoever araongst men. IV. That he take in good part this visitation sent unto him, to prepare hira to die leisurely God's servant. That he wholly commend him to God's raercy, in the only raediation of Christ Jesus his Saviour. V. Care is to be had that those who visit the sick, give them hope, but not over great hope of bodily health, for sweet words, and vain hopes often deceive the sick : let them be comforted in the narae of God, but in discreet sort. VI. That they be diligently moved to forsake the love of this wretched world. Secondly, he must he informed, I. That all, of what state or condition soever, must depart this transitory world. II. That God's children throughout the volume Q ^ Q Q . ^ . . O 218 DISCE MORI. of holy Scripture, and exaraples of ancient writers, have willingly yielded theraselves at the tirae of their visitation. III. That Christ hiraself went not up into glory, but first He passed through death. IV. That the death of the servants of God is precious in His sight, and that they rest from their labours. These demands may he proposed to the sick. I. Whether he acknowledge the faith of the holy Trinity, with the Articles of the Creed, and in this faith be resolved to live and die. II. Whether he be sorry for his sins, and ask God's forgiveness, with a penitent heart in the merits of Christ Jesus. To which confession of faith, God sendeth hira this message, " Go in peace." The sick should be willed to remember, I. That Christ carae not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance : he is a sinner, there fore him. II. That He was the very Lanib of God, that came to take away the offences of the world ; He hath many offences ; therefore to take away his. III. That He is a refuge for all them that be weary and heavy laden : he is weary, therefore a refuge to him. O- ^ .- — ~-p LEARN TO DIE. 219 IV. That He is our righteousness, and near to all that call upon Him : He calleth, therefore near unto him. V. That if He live, he liveth uuto the Lord, and if he die, he dieth unto the Lord : whether he live or die, he is the Lord's. Let the sick be put in mind of receiving the holy Sacrament, and that in tirae, and let them be coun selled thereunto. After the sick party hath received the Sacra ment, let him be coraforted against the fear of death. Let him say also with, I. The Prophet David, " Lord, reraeraber thy servant in all his troubles." II. The publican, " God be merciful unto me a sinner." III. The woraan of Canaan, " Jesus, thou son of David, have pity upon rae." IV. Job, " I know that my Redeeraer liveth, and that I shall rise again, and see God, not with other, but with the selfsame eyes." V. Saint Stephen, " Lord Jesus, receive ray spirit;" and to say, "I am that wounded raan, blessed Saraaritan, heal rae : I am that wandering child, that is not worthy to be called thy son ; Father, make rae thy meanest servant : I am the c- 5 . ¦ — -—o 220 DISCE MORI. lost sheep, O seek and save me ; bring me horae. Lord, unto thy heavenly fold." VI. To mention the words of Christ upon the cross, " Father, into thy hands I commit ray spirit." He may be advised to say, Jesus give me I. Patience in my trouble. II. Corafort in ray afflictions. III. Strength in thy mercies. IV. Deliverance at thy pleasure : " Jesus be ray Jesus." If the sick be I. Not able to pronounce them himself, let the Articles of the Creed be recited in his presence by some other; " I believe in God," &c. II. Distempered, as the best may be, in burning fevers, and otherwise, choler shooting up into the brain, and the malignant humours meeting with the vital powers, which may cause raving, let him in few words be moved to reraeraber God, and the asserably raay softly pray by hira. III. Troubled with strange visions, as good men have been, beseech hira in the narae of God, to call to mind the abundant love of Jesus Christ cru cified. IV. Seem to be tormented in conscience by reason of his forraer sins, lay before hira the abun- o^ — 1) P . . g LEARN TO DIE. 221 dant love of our Lord Jesus, and that where sins do abound, mercy doth superabound ; and that Christ looks for repentant sinners to come unto him. V. Pensive and sorrowful, mention unto him the joys of heaven, whither he shall go by God's grace, and the troubles of this sinful world, which he hath often felt, and may now very thankfully leave. Read by the sick. The history of the Passion, Luke twenty-second and twenty-third chapters. The twenty-eighth Psalra, " Unto Thee, 0 Lord !" The forty-second Psalra, " Like as the hart desireth the water streams," &c. The fifty-first Psalm, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord !" The one hundred and forty-third Psalm, " Hear my prayer, 0 Lord !" The fourteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. The seventh chapter of the Revelations. The fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. If the sick be painfully grieved, or strangely visited, I. Let not any censure hira, as Job's friends,* * Job. iv. 7. 6 — C ' ^ — — o 222 DISOE MORI. who thought Job a hypocrite, because of his af- fiictions.'*' II. Or as those that told our Saviour of the Ga lileans, who judged them greater sinners than the rest, because the tower of Siloa fell on them.! III. Or as the barbarians, who deemed St. Paul an evil raan, because the viper clave unto him.| IV. Let none be glad when his eneray faileth, lest the Lord see it, and it displease Hira.|| V. Let every one remember that of Joseph, " Am I not also under the hand of God ?"^ VI. That of the apostle in the Romans ; "Weep with them that weep."^ VII. That of the Wise Man ; " Be not slow to visit the sick."** VIII. That of St. Jaraes, " Pray one for an other."!! A form of leaving the sick to God's protection. "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble ; the narae of the God of Jacob defend thee, send thee help from His sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Sion, grant thee thy heart's desire, and fulfil all thy mind. Some put their trust in horses, and some in chariots, but we will remember the name of the Lord. Save Lord, and hear us, 0 King of * Job ixii. 5. t Luke xiii. 4. t Acts xxviii. 4, II Prov, xxiv. 17, I) Gen. 1. 19. IT Rom. iii, 15, " Ecclus. vii. 35. ft James v. 17. o 0 o— ^ o LEARN TO DIE. 223 heaven, when we call upon thee." Jesus the Son of the living God, put His Passion between thy sins and judgment to come. Araen. A form of confession to be used to the sick by way of demand, saying : — 1. Do you acknowledge unto Almighty God, your great and grievous offences done in all your life? II. Do you acknowledge that you have sinned in pride of heart, not thanking the giver of all good for His gifts ? III. Do you acknowledge that you have sinned in pride of clothing, in pride of strength, of beauty, of eloquence, of riches, and that you thereof cry God mercy? IV. That you have sinned in envy, hearing any praised or better beloved than yourself, whereof do you cry God raercy ? V. That you have sinned in wrath, and seeking revenge, being moved upon light occasion, where of do you cry God mercy ? VI. That you have sinned in sloth, by heaviness of mind, in idle thoughts and imaginations, neg lected prayer and meditation, whereof do you cry God mercy? VII. That you have sinned in covetousness, by unlawful desires of riches and worldly wealth, and o i P Q 224 DISCE MORI. not pitied the state of the miserable, as you ought to have done, whereof do you cry God mercy ? VIII. That you have sinned in unsatiable eat ing and drinking, by often excess, whereof do you cry God mercy ? IX. That you have sinned by nncleanness of life, unchaste thoughts, and the like, whereof do you cry God mercy ? X. That you have not given counsel to them that had need, taught the ignorant, forgiven them that offended you, whereof do you cry God mercy ? XI. That you have sinned in breaking the Ten Coramandments, and not loved God above afl, nor sincerely worshipped Him, nor honoured His sacred name, but used the same in idle oaths. That you have not sanctified his sabbaths, nor done due reve rence to your parents and governors. That you have borne deadly hatred. That you have lived unchastely. That you have taken your neighbours' goods. That you have depraved his good name, coveted that which was contrary to the laws of God, for all these do you cry God raercy ? That you have not used the gifts of the Holy Ghost to the honour of God, the gift of under standing, the gift of counsel, the gift of science, the gift of strength, the gift of knowledge, the gift of dread, whereof do you cry God mercy ? -O o ¦ -o LEARN TO DIE. 225 Then let the sick say after him. For all these, or any other, known or unknown, that ever I did since I was born, to this day, I ask God mercy with a penitent heart, beseeching Hira to free me from my ghostly enemy, and to pardon me all in the merits of His Son Christ Jesus, my only Saviour and Redeemer, in whose name, I pray as He hath taught us : " Our Father," &c. Prayers for the sick. God, upon whose pleasure relieth all our hope in health and sickness ; accept, we beseech Thee, our humble prayers which we offer unto Thee, in in the behalf of this. Thy sick servant : Visit hira, O Saviour, as thou didst visit Peter's wife's raoth er and the captain's servant; assuage his pain, as shall seem to Thee raost expedient, and grant him deliverance to Thy good pleasure, in the mercy and merits of Thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Another. God, the only refuge in all needs and neces sities, the only help in tiraes of weakness ; look down we beseech Thee, with the eye of mercy, upon Thy sick servant, as Thou didst upon Hezekiah : restore him to his former health, if it be Thy good will and pleasure ; or give him grace P _ , Q 0 226 DISCE MORI. to take with faith and patience this Thy visitation, that after this painful life ended, he may rest with Thee in life everiasting, through Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all power, glory and dominion, now and for ever more. Amen. Another, God, who despisest not the sighing of contrite and sorrowful hearts, receive our prayers which we now offer unto Thy divine Majesty, look down we beseech Thee, upon this Thy servant now afflicted with sickness ; be unto him a tower of defence, against all assaults of his enemies ; Thy property. Lord, is to have mercy, and to heal those that are broken in heart. Lord, we beseech Thee, send him the comfort of Thy help in these extremities, that, living or dying, he may rejoice in Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. Another prayer to be said for the sick. 0 Lord Jesus Christ, who art the help of all men living, and the everlasting life of them which die in thy faith ; we, Thy hurable servants here asserabled, being sure the thing cannot perish which is comraitted to Thy charge : we corarait and coraraend unto Thee, O heavenly Father, this Thy servant grieved with sickness, beseechino- O o LEARN TO DIE. 227 Thee to make strong his soul against all tempta tions, and to cover and defend hira against all the assaults of the devil : there are no merits in hira, or any other to be alleged, but only Thy mercies ; Thou, merciful Lord, wast born for his sake ; Thou didst preach and teach for his sake ; Thou didst pray and fast for his sake ; Thou didst hunger and thirst for his sake ; Thou didst all good works and deeds for his sake; Thou sufferedst most griev ous pains and torments for his sake ; and finally ga vest Thy most precious body to die, and Thy blood to be shed on the cross for his sake. Now most merciful Saviour, let all these things profit hira, which Thou most freely hast given him, that hast even given Thyself for hira. Let Thy blood wash and cleanse the spots and foulness of his sins ; let Thy righteousness hide and cover his unrighteousness ; let the raerits of Thy bitter passion, be the satisfaction for his sins ; give him grace, that faith and salvation in Thy precious blood never waver in him, but be ever firm and constant ; the hope of mercy and life everlasting never decay in him ; that charity wax not cold in him. And finally, that the weakness of the flesh be not overcome with the fear of death. Grant, mer ciful Saviour, that when death hath shut up the eyes of the body, yet that the eyes of the soul raay still behold and look upon Thee, that when death 6 -o I — o 228 DISCE MORI. hath taken away the use of tongue and speech, yet that the heart may cry and say, " Lord, into Thy hands I commend my soul." And again, " Lord Jesus, receive ray spirit. Amen." Consolatory speeches to comfort the sick. Let the sick now send for his nearest friends, as the husband for his wife, his children; the mas ter for his servants, or the lilte, &c. ; and let hira take his leave of thera, giving every one some good instruction in loving manner at parting ; taking them by the hands, let him bid them all heartily fare well. We owe God a death ; all our life have we been gathering manna to corafort us in our last agony : What hurt is it in soinsr to Paradise ? after a while we shall have greater joys than now we do feel pain : we shall go to one of those mansions which Christ is gone to prepare for us : our Head is in heaven already, to assure us we shall, before it be long, follow after ; we cannot have our happiness unless we go to it. Christ went not up to glory, but first He suffer ed : our way to life, is to die with Christ. Let not pains dismay us, for we are passing frora death to life, frora sorrow to joy ; from a vale of misery to a Paradise of all comfort and consola tion. " I^et not our sins dismay us," Christ hath c o o— o LEARN TO DIE. 229 died for them, who is your advocate with the Father. God is our Father, let Him do what beseeraeth him good ; let us say, " Father, not my will, but Thy will be fulfilled." You cannot think upon God but with joy. Know you, that He is the author of life and death, and of all things that appertain unto them. O O -0 CHAPTER XXII. The manner of commending the sick into the hands of God at the hour of death. God the Father, who hath created thee, God the Son, who hath redeemed thee, God the Holy Ghost, who hath infused B[is grace into thee, assist thee in all thy trial, and lead thee the way to everlast ing peace. Araen. Christ that died for thee, keep thee from all evil. Araen. Christ that redeemed thee, strengthen thee in all temptations. Amen. Christ that loved thee so dearly, have mercy upon thee. Amen. Christ Jesus that rose froiii the dead the third day, raise thee body and soul, in the resurrection of the just. Amen. Christ that sitteth at the right hand of God in heaven, bring thee unto everlasting joy. Amen. God the Father preserve and keep thee. God the Son assist and strengthen thee. The blessed Spirit of the Lord God, the Holy Ghost be with thee. The Holy Trinity aid thee in life and death. Amen. — ¦ . : ^O g— ^ o LEARN TO DIE. 231 God grant thy place may be " Abraham's bosom." Amen. God grant thou mayest behold thy blessed Sa viour in the state of glory. Amen. God grant thy death may be precious iu His sight, in whom thou art to rest for ever. Amen. A brief form of prayer. Most merciful Father, we coraraend unto Thee this Thy servant, the work of Thine own hands ; we commend unto Thee his soul, in the merits of Christ Jesus his Redeemer. Accept, O Lord, Th ine own creature ; forgive, we beseech Thee, whatsoever hath been committed by human frailty, and command Thy angels to conduct him to the land of everlasting peace. Amen. Preserve, 0 Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as Thou didst Noah in the flood. Amen. Preserve, 0 Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as Thou didst Lot from the fire of Sodom. Amen. Preserve, 0 Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as Thou didst Job in all his adversities. Araen. Preserve, 0 Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as Thou didst the Israelites from the power of Pha raoh, and the oppression of Egypt. Amen. Preserve, 0 Lord, the soul of Thy servant, from the malice of Satan, as Thou didst David from all his enemies. Amen. Preserve, 0 Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as O -.- o o — — o 232 DISCE MORI. Thou didst Daniel from the mouth of the lions. Araen. Preserve, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as Thou didst the three children frora the fiery flaraes. Amen. Preserve, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant, as Thou didst Elias from the false prophets that sought his overthrow. Amen. Preserve, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant, and deliver him, as Thou didst the apostles, Paul and Barnabas, out of prison at midnight. Amen. Frora that rueful darkness. Deliver him, O Lord. From the pains of hell. Deliver him, O Lord. Frora everlasting malediction, Deliver him, O Lord. By Thy nativity, O Lord, deliver him. By Thy fasting and prayer, O Lord, deliver him. By Thy hunger and thirst, O Lord, deliver him. By Thy cross and passion, O Lord, deliver him. By Thy descension into hell, O Lord, deliver him. c a o p LEARN TO DIE. 233 By Thy resurrection from the dead the third day, 0 Lord, deliver him. By Thy ascension into heaven, 0 Lord, deliver him. By Thy sitting at the right hand of the Father in glory, O Lord, deliver him. Amen. Into Thy raerciful hands, 0 heavenly Father, we commend the soul of Thy servant now departing : acknowledge, we beseech thee, a sheep of Thine own fold, a lamb of Thine own flock. Receive him into the arms of Thy mercy, knowing the thing cannot perish which is committed to thy charge. 0 most merciful Jesu, receive, we beseech Thee, his spirit in peace. Amen. The blessing of the sick, when he is now giving up the Ghost. Jesus Christ absolve thee from all sins. Amen. Jesus Christ remit all the evil which thou hast committed by thy hearing, by thy seeing, by thy touching, by thy tasting howsoever. Amen. Jesus Christ that died for thee, put out all thy offences. Amen. Jesus Christ that called thee, receive thee into His heavenly kingdom. Araen. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make His face to shine upon thee. The Lord lifj o- ^ 6 O- . Q 234 DISCE MORI. up His countenance over thee, and give thee a joyful resurrection to life everlasting. Amen. Depart, O Christian soul, in the name of God the Father, who created thee : of God the Son, who redeemed thee : of God the Holy Ghost, who sanctified thee : one living and imraortal God ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. These, or such like prayers ended, let the as sembly pray every one in silence to himself, and then taking their leave of the sick, commending them to God, they raay depart. A prayer to be used by the asserably at tho time of the Christian man's departure, or when he is now departed. LET VS PRAV. O Almighty and everlasting God, seeing it hath pleased Thee to take this Thy servant out of the raiseries of this sinful world, unto Thy heavenly kingdom: Lord, Thy name be blessed now and evermore. Make us, we beseech Thee, that yet reraain, raindful of our mortality, that we raay walk before Thee in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life ; and when the time of our de parture shall corae, we may rest in Thee, as our hope is, this Thy servant doth ; that we, with him, and all other departed in the faith of Thy holy name, raay rejoice together in Thy eternal and everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 0- CHAPTER XXIII. A consolation to aU those that lament and mourn for the departure of others. To use mourning for the dead, both decency amongst men, and Christianity araongst Christian men doth allow as much : examples of holy Scrip ture do approve the same. What more seemly than the performance of a duty, whereby we give testimony of natural affection, in this solemn de parture each frora other ? God hath neither raade us stocks nor stones, nor given us hearts which should have no feeling, when occasions are offered, or times beseeming do require sorrowful affections. II. On the contrary, what more uncomely, than to use mirth in the house of mourning? A very heathenish raanner was it thought to be, by the decree of an ancient council, to sport at these mo tives of mourning.* III. For examples in Holy Scripture, we find that Abraham mourned for Sarah his wife :! all Israel for Samuel their prophet,! the people in the wilderness for Aaron their high priest ;|| the inhab- ' ConcU, Arelatense 3, sub Leo. 1 1 Sam. xxv, 1. t Gen. xxiii. 2. II Numb, XX. 29. c- 236 DISCE MORI. itants of Bethuliafor Judith that honourable widow:* the Maccabees for Judas their noble captain :! Martha and Mary for Lazarus their brother :! the women of Jury for their children, those young in fants : II the twelve patriarchs for Jacob their aged father : David for Jonathan his trusty and faithful friend. § " Nay, Christ Himself," saith St. Je rome, " went not to His sepulchre without weep ing eyes." Neither hath this mourning been a light passion only. Great was the lamentation that Jacob raade at the supposed death of his beloved son Joseph, when he said, " I will go unto the grave to my son sorrowing."*ir Great was the lamentation that David made, when news was brought him of Ab salom's end : " O my son Absalora, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son !"** It was do doubt a sorrow to his heart. Great was the lamentation which the widows made for Dorcas, so good a wo raan, full of good works and alras, when they con sidered her goodness and bounty towards them.!! " And thus we see the laudable custora and prac tice in mourning for the dead." IV. When the apostle forbad the Thessalonians to sorrow, he did not absolutely forbid all sorrow- ? Judith xvi, 24, 1 1 Mace, ix. 20, 21. J .Iohn, li. 31. 11 Matt, ii, 18, i 2 Sam, I 17. IT Gen. xxxvii. 35. "2 Sam, iviii, 33. ft Acts. ix. 39, O -¦ ! o p LEARN TO DIE. 237 ing, but sorrowing after tho manner of the Gen tiles,''' So St, .-Vuslin, ¦¦ Indeed wo arc sorrow I'ul, but not as oiliors, without hope."| St, Benard saiih, " Wo blaino not tho alVocliou itself, but the e.xooss or want of inodoralion,"! Wo may uot only use uuhIoi';iIo sonow in the dopiirturo of othors, but ovou in tho departure of the godly and woU-disposod thoiusolves. Now, as oood uumi often are, and, in regard of tlu'ir great miss iu tho world, have boon manv ways helpful uuto othors ; so is it a sign of some ill dealing amongst men, when the poor and dis tressed let thom go away without any lameulation at all. It was said by tho Prophet Jeremiah to Jehoia- kiiii, " So long as thy falhor did help tlie oppressed, did ho not prosper .'"H .Vud atior he addt^th this, as a great pmiishnient to bo laid upon hira ; " Well, thou shalt dio in grief of mind, and there shall be none to make Inmentation for thee.'' V. The apostle conl'essolh in phiin words, that God had morcy ou him in sparing Epaphroditus, lest he should have had sorrow upon sorrow ;^ to shew that he was not so stoical, but himself should have had fooling in sneh a ease. " .My son," saith the Wise Man, •• pour forth tliy • 1 TlU'S!.. iv- K!. t S. Aug. do. v,>r. Ap. Sor. 93. 1 Uum. in i.\m. Si'i\ , 'iti II .K-r. iMi. 10. . u. ,. . o- C _ ¦ — 0 238 DISCE MORI. tears over the dead, and neglect not his burial."* Whence we raay also gather, that funeral rites, de cent interring of the corpse, obsequies and seemly mourning, which St. Austin calleth " our last duties of love in this world araongst friends,"! are not unfittinor the practice of those, amongst whom all things should be done in order.J VI. The Israelites in burying so honourably their fathers and governors, did shew theraselves a people of good and orderly carriage in the world. " Surely David did shew mercy," saith the same father, " to Saul and Jonathan, in burying their bones in that decent manner he did."|| " My son," saith Tobit, " when I die, bury me honestly."^ The new sepulchre, the clean linen clothes, the sweet ointments, the asserably of men of reputa tion, shewed how our Saviour was respectively re garded ; yea, and entombed with solemnity. Sure it is, that these bodies which have been the temples of the Holy Ghost, and shall be changed at the day of doom, into- a condition of glory, should have a decency performed unto them at their farewell from the world. It was the desire of the old patriarchs, that their bones might be orderly laid in the sepulchres of their fathers. In the Second of Samuel, and the second chapter, David sent messengers to the men * Ecclus, ixxviii. 16. t S. August, de verb, Apo, t 1 Cor, xiv. 40. D S. August, de cura gerenda pro mortuis. if Tobit xiv. 10. o 0 LEARN TO DIE. 239 of Jabesh Gilead, and said unto thera, " Blessed are ye of the Lord, that you have shewed such kindness to your master Saul, and buried hira." It was the praise of heathen conquerors to per mit the burial of the dead. Wherefore not to yield them, after a Cynic's manner, comely burials, or Christian mourning, with moderation, is raost in human ; nay, it is a conceit, to say the truth, very barbarous.* VII. Notwithstanding, to sorrow as raen without hope, is far distant from the rule of faith ; which tells us, " that the death of the saints is precious in God's sight."! They are at peace, and their hope is full of immortality. He that said, " My son, pour forth thy tears over the dead,"! said also, " Comfort thyself." And surely Christians, of all others, who believe the re surrection unto a better life, should raise up thera selves by faith, from too doleful passions. For, as in all other things, so in this, a moderation should be had. VIII. Have we lost a good father, a friend, a husband, wife, or children ? we may say with Job, " the Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord."|| Neither are they clean taken from us, but only gone a little before us in the way, wherein we must * Zenoph. lib. Just. CyrU. t Ps. cxvi. 15. t Ecclus. xxxviii. 16. 11 Jobi. 21. o 6 c — — — — I 240 DISCE MORI. all follow. We shall one day meet again by the grace of God, " at which time," saith Cyprian, " there will be no mean joy, when good friends come to live together, and to rejoice together. '* Our knowledge is now but in part, then shall we know, as we are known. " Where Peter shall be Peter, and Paul shall be Paul,'' saith .St. Cyril :t and many Icuh since departed, shal], as some of the ancient fatherst say, be known of us, that have lived ior.j after; as Peter knew Moses and Elias upon the mount. If it will be a comfort to see one aiiOther, above all, O good God, what a joy shall . :t be to see Christ the .Saviour of the world : j IX. Amongst other means of comfort, that happy j hope of the resurrection shonld raise ns up from j our rrjQst pensive thoushts. Tertullian saith, '-Ti-e I resurrection of the dead, is the confidence of Chris- ', tians." Christ our .Saviour before His passion, I when He saw His disciples sorrowitil for His de- ' parture, which was so shortly to ensue, saith tmto them. " If you loved me, yoij would rejoice, be- ! cause I said, I go unto the Father, 'j .So it rnav I be said to those who mocm for the miss of others : ; Let not your minds be too much pivmged in sor- 1 row, because you loved those for whom you thus lament ; thev are gone unto their eteriial Re- I , ' • " , ceemer. \' Crpr- dfi IT Drte. t CT-ifl in Ji^aiL. z S. A.tis. S. C^rjsist. 1 J-.iitT. 2^. c o C> _ . . ; LEARN TO DIE. 241 God saith, " I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac ;" God is the God of the faithful departed. X. It is said of Enoch, because his soul pleased God, God took him away.* It was spoken as a blessing to Josias, that he should be gathered unto his fathers, before the captivity of the people came.! St. Jerome, of sinful tiraes saith, " Nepotian is a happy m^an, that lives not to see this wicked world."! " Surely," saith St. Austin, " as good raen are gone frora us, so are they gone from a place full of raany assaults." || And St. Ambrose of one, " he was not so much taken from us, as frora dangers."^ XI. When God ships his Noahs, it is a sign there is a flood not far behind. T^ When God sends angels to fetch His Lots out of Sodora, it is a sign there is punishraent for the sinful cities shortly to ensue.** When God takes Lazarus into Abraham's bosora, there is then no more penury to endure.!! XII. Wherefore, seeing we are all to pass down the stream of mortality, we may not think it so strange to have experience thereof in the departure of others, which we shall one day experience in ourselves. If we complain of the death of friends, we complain in effect that they were born mortal. ' * Gen. V. 24. t 2 Kings ixii. 20, t Hiero. ad Helio. U S. Aug. de pr^dest. in Sanct. t) Ambros. dc excess. Satyr. TTGen. vii. 1. " Gen. xix. 1. It Luke xvi. 22. IS ^ 0 — —9 242 DISCE MORI. We should remember, death is as the lines drawn frora the centre unto the circumference, even on every part; or as the upright magistrate, equal to all ; which raay the rather move us to be content in cases so resolute as death; we must take all as well as we may, seeing there is no remedy to re cover our losses, let us comfort ourselves. The good meaning borrower, the sooner his debt is dis charged, the sooner he is at quiet. He that makes but a short voyage, and is the soonest at the haven, is the sooner also frora danger of shipwreck : he that is to finish a journey, better it is to do it quickly than slowly : happy is that raan that hath life in patience, and death in desire. XIII. It was not without cause that the Wise Man praised the dead above the living ; for sure they are in a better case by far, departing in the Lord. And St. John heard a voice from heaven saying, " Blessed are the dead."* " A voice from heaven," and therefore from a place where is bless edness indeed, and could best testify of it, and those that possess it. Again, saith St. Austin, " There is none dead, which must not needs die ere long,"! no ransom can redeem from death. They now rest from their labours, and therefore their good estate now ob- * Rev. xiv. 13. t Nome mortuus, qui non fuit aliquando moritu- rus, S. Aug, c 0 o — — g LEARN TO DIE. 243 tained, should the rather move us (reraerabering their good) to be content. At our entrance into the world, we brought with us a subjection unto death, all sinned, and therefore " death goeth over all,"* and return we must to the place frora whence we carae, sooner or later ; this world being but our banishment for a tirae, from which these blessed souls now freed,! would tell us, (were they to return into these earthly regions, which without controversy they do not,) that they with " Mary, have chosen the better part."! We here with " Martha are careful about many things ;" they have that one thing which is neces sary, that shall never be taken frora thera. 0 speech of comfort I Christ saith, " Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be ever where I ara, that they raay behold my glory." || XIV. How to accept of, and take in good part, as we may, the loss as we count it, or rather raiss for a time, of friends departed : the behaviour of David in this case raay be considered, who, when the child was sick, fasteth, prayeth, prostrateth himself upon the earth: hut hearing that God's will was accoraplished in the death of the child, David rose up, ate bread, received comfort, as it seemed, after all his sorrow ; being demanded the cause of this diversity of behaviour, answered, " While the * Rom. V. 12, t S. Aug. de Spiritu et Anima. De cura gerenda pro mortuis, X Luke x, 42, D Jolm xvii, 24. o- Q- -u 244 DISCE MORI. child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said ; Who can tell whether God will have mercy on rae, that the child may live ? but being dead, wherefore should I now fast ? can I bring him again any more ? I shall go unto hira, but he shall not return unto me.'"" In the like case St. Bernard, being not a little moved for the death of one, " I turned me," saith he, " to prayer and weeping, at last I considered that God had done what seemed best in His divine providence, what should more sorrowing avail? Lord, thou hast taken thine, none of mine, tears forbad me to speak further."! And so the good father resolved to rest content with the will of God. ' 2 Sam. lii. 22, 23. t Md' O -o -n CHAPTER XXV. How those that undertalte any dangerous attempts, either by sea or land, (wherein they are in peril of death,) should specially before hand make themselves ready for God, If those men, who live in tiraes and places of raost safety, should, respecting the uncertainty of huraan condition, think every day of their last day, which by little and little will corae upon thera ; then how much raore ought those who enter into places of apparent peril, and undertake attempts of greatest danger, stand upon their guard, and be evermore well provided to be ready for God But here we must seriously consider, that the undertaking of atterapts wherein life is endanger ed, is only warrantable when the cause is just, and the authority lawful. The desperate enterprises of those, who in private quarrels go forth with murdering hearts, and in their hands the instru ments of death, are raost insufferable ; in this case to be taken frora the world is very dangerous : how should he think God would receive his soul, that died with a raind desirous to shed that blood, for which Christ shed his blood ? There is in these 0" -o C o 246 DISCE MORI. attempts, more murdering malice than Christian manhood. Let the public magistrate use the sword, let the private man surcease : just occasion so requiring, let him then prepare in the name of God. II. Heathen men could tell Jonas, that in a case of imrainent danger, there was no other refuge, but to fly unto the assistance of some superior power, by calling upon God.* Pharaoh hiraself could en treat Moses to pray for him ; how much more then should those, whose hope reacheth further than the saving or losing of a life mortal, entering into any attempt, wherein they are in hazard : first, with Judith, to worship God in all devotion ; and then she went forth for the deliverance of Bethulia.! III. Faith and trust in God, doth not make men cowards, but rather addeth spirit and corafort in great assaults of eneraies. " By faith," saith the apostle, " Gideon, Barak, Sarason, Jepthae, and also David, of weak were made strong, waxed valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of aliens,"! who came against God's people with great force and multitudes. While their enemies were arming themselves with sword and shield, the raanner of God's people was to arra thera with devotion, as fasting and prayer, and a religious coramending themselves, either in life or death, to His protection. ? Jonas i. 6. t Judith ix. 1. t Heb. xi. 32, 33, 34. C~ 6 o o LEARN TO DIE. 247 IV. When Balak saw the people of Israel pros per more by their praying than he could by his lighting, he would needs have Balaam to curse thera.* " Moses," saith St. Jerome,! " fought as well as Joshua against Amalek," for while Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed, and vfhen he let his hands down, Amalek prevailed, but Moses' hands were steady until the going down of the sun.^ Rufinusll and Socrates write that Theodosius the Christian emperor, in a great battle against Euge- nius, when he saw the huge raultitude that was coraing against hira, and so, in the sight of raan, there was an apparent overthrow at hand, he gets him up into a place eminent, or in the sight of all the army, falls down prostrate upon the earth, be seeching God, if ever He would look upon a sinful creature, to help him at this time of greatest need : suddenly there rose a mighty wind which blew the darts of the enemies back upon theraselves, in such a wonderful raanner, that Eugenius with all his host was clean discomfited, who saw that the power of Christ fought for his people, and there fore cried in effect as the Egyptians did : " O God is in the cloud, or fighteth for thera !" V. Thus with faith and constancy have the ser vants of God gone forth against their eneraies, ? Numb, xxii, 6, t Hieron, ad Heliod. } Exod. xvii, 11, 12. B Ruf, Socrat. Eccl. lust. 0 o c . ¦ <) 248 DISCE MORI. with all devotion thoroughly preparing themselves, either for life or death, as it should best stand with the good pleasure of His divine providence. For these therefore that undertake and attempt, either by sea or by land, wherein life raore than ordinary is endangered, let thera in the narae of God go forth with souls prepared ; for in so doing, they remember themselves to have a further ex pectation, than either the gaining or losing of a life teraporal. Eusebius saith, " Let extreme neces sity find them ready, which is wont to oppress men unready."* In worldly affairs we oftentimes forget heavenly, and therefore good reason, that in heavenly we should also go aside frora all earthly cogitations, and presenting ourselves before God, coraraend in soleran raanner our souls into His hands : which done, with Esther we may say ; " If we perish, we perish, now the will of God is fulfilled." So therefore, for men attempting dangers by sea and land, or upon what occasion soever, either ordinary or extraordinary ; when they adventure to under take any action, wherein life is put in hazard ; for all these or any of them to prepare themselves for their departure, it may be said with St. John in the Apocalypse, " Here is wisdom."! * Euseb. Emiss. hom. 1. ad Man. t Rev. xiii. 18. -o c- -0 CHAPTER XXVI. A brief direction for sucli as are suddenly called to depart this -world. Concerning prayer for our deliverance from sudden or unprovided death, how raeet it is that we do not give the least occasion to uncharitable censures to speak of us when we are gone. And how well the Church useth this among other com raendable kinds of prayer, somewhat hath been be fore mentioned : and their hardest c . . - 0 278 DISCE MORI. that lav four days began to savour.* If we lie long in our sins, we shall wax unsavory too. But with the women that came betimes with sweet odours unto the sepulchre, we should bring our prayers and supplications early, which is accepta ble to the Most Highest. VI. Though we do not yet hear the shriU trump or voice of the archangel summoning all to judgment, yet we shall hear with these ears at the day of doom that doleful voice, but unto them that take heed in time joyful ; " Arise from the dead, and come to judgment." If it made FelLs to tremble to hear of judgment, a remembrance whereof shonld sometimes sound in our ears : then to hear of the pains that shall follow judgment, it may pnt careless men into a fit of shakin? ague. Let lis not offer the first of onr vintage to the delights of sin, and serve God with the lees and drejs of our age. Let us not yield the flower of OUT life unto the foul affections of corrupt nature, and reserve for God the very refuse of our time. It is no conquest to overcome a weak and feeble enemy, to resist the pleasrures of the flesh, when nature itself is decayed. Again, canst thou look for a conquest when tiou art weak, and thine en eray is strong? when Samsons strength was gone, his enemies prevailed: our stiengrth is * .J-j;-j;iL39. 9 __ Q LEARN TO DIE. 279 grace in Christ, which this Delilah or security of life would deprive us of. VII. We should consider, that our care is not so much now what to do, as what one day we may wish we had done ; wherefore, let men pass through this world, as the people did by the land of Edora, who only required to go through it, but would raake no stay at all.* What, should we set our delights in this Edom ? our passage through it is all we should require. The chiefest matter that we are to attend, is to serve God, and prepare for the good of our departure. We see by experience, that the longer we defer the curing of wounds, the harder is their recovery at the last. The loss of time is very precious, seeing we have no warrant for the least continu ance thereof: " make no tarrying, therefore," saith the Wise Man, " to turn unto the Lord."! Lose not any longer the good hours ; this common case of all flesh passeth so often by us, that at the last it taketh us too, as well as others. We raay not defer a work of such iraportance, but with all ex pedition proceed we in the performance of the same. It is the reply of the Holy Ghost, " I have heard thee in an acceptable time." VIII. The Apostle St. Paul saith, " Give your bodies a lively sacrifice unto God, your reasonable serving of Him."! When we repent only in our * Numb. n. 17. t Ecclus. v. 7. X Rom. xii. 1. O 0 o- -o 280 DISCE MORI. last extremities, we give not a lively, but a dead sacrifice ; not our reasonable, but our unreasona ble serving of God : wherefore, as Christ said ; " Walk while ye have light ; "* so it may be said unto all, for the love of God, Repent while ye have time. O- -o CHAPTER XXX. The great fcdly of men in neglecting this opportunity of time offered to learn to die. Did many in the world as much abhor the prac tice and course in the common life of Sadducees and Epicures, as they are wont to do their profes sion and narae ; then would God be raore sincere ly worshipped than He is, then would the time allotted us to prepare ourselves for the kingdora of heaven, be better employed than ordinarily it is wont. We wonder at the old world, which for all Noah's forewarning of the flood to come, yet re pented not.* We raarvel at the Jews, who had Christ araongst thera, and did not accept Him ;t but we clean forget ourselves, and our own stu pidity, having as rauch warning as they. We have Christ araongst us. Jacob said : " Surely the Lord was in this place, and I was not aware of it."! We have tirae, and health, and grace, the light of His truth ; surely God's goodness is upon » Luke x\Ti. 26, 27. t Luke ill. 14. t Gen, xxviii, 16. O : O o o 2S2 DISCE MORI. us, and we are not aware of it ; we neglect all, which neglect is dangerous. II. " Despisest thou," saith the apostle, " the riches of His bountifulness, and patience, and long suffering, not knowing that the bountifulness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? " " God is not slack, as sorae men count slackness, but is patient towards us, and would have no man to perish, but would have all men to come to repentance :"* of whose visitation the Prophet Habakkuk saith ; " Though it tarry, wait, for it will surely come and not stay."! Wherefore, as Soloraon sendeth the sluggard, so may we send the careless sinner to school to the emmet, for she laboureth in the suraraer, and provideth for the tirae to corae. '¦ I passed," saith he, " by the field of the slothful man, and found it full of briers and brambles ;"j such is the life of negligent people, untilled, all out of order, they keep revel rout. Either they care not at all, or surely veri.- little, for the time to come. III. They roist and riot out tirae, moving God to sue them upon an action of waste. Thev never call to mind, either that death, like a bailiff at large, will summon them to the fatal banquet, or God himself will one day amerce them in such dam ages, as they shall see how wilfully they have for- • 2 Pet. iii. 9. ' Hai. ii. 3. i Pro- ii;v. 30, 31, o LEAR.N TO DIE. 283 felted the happy hold they had of an eternal inheri tance. They never consider that age or sickness will corae, and that it is a part of providence in youth to have somewhat in store against these times ; wherefore they spend their golden days of pros perity, as ill husbands waste and spend their sub stance they know not how, and are in a manner so careless, as if God were bound to bring them to heaven whether they will or no. IV. We may wonder, and not without cause, at these men's folly : such is their negligence, they will not consider; such is their ignorance, they will not know ; such is their forgetfulness, they will not reraeraber, either what they are or what they shall be ; but run on headlong into all wickedness, as men in a frantic fit, and so bring theraselves to apparent ruin. That they need not fear judgment to come, if there be none to flatter them, (as soraetimes there are,) they will for a need flatter themselves ; thus, they follow for virtue, vice ; for light, darkness ; for truth, error ; for wisdom, folly ; never thinking of their winding-sheet, or any mean moving to mortification : " Thou shalt die the death." So they raay take their pastirae awhile, or solace themselves in a few sinful delights, passing over their youthful days in sensual pleasures, which will be a corrosive at their hearts, when they are O O O ¦ Q 284 DISCE MORI. panting for breath, and have taken their ultimum vale of the world. They respect not what hangs over their heads, as if the mentioning of a world to come were but a matter of discourse, to keep men frora sleeping, or that God had proposed that ines timable crown of glory at so mean a rate, as raen might care for doing nothing. These consider not that the way to the harlot's house leadeth to hell. The Wise Man telleth them it is so, and therefore let thera fear God in tirae, lest they find it so when it will be too late to amend what is amiss ; these are as non proficientes in this lesson of" learning to die ;" for why, they become strangers in their own souls. "There is," saith the Wise Man, " a time to plant, a tirae to pluck up, a tirae to seek, a time to find ;"* nay, there is to all things an appointed time ; but he mentioneth no tirae to be careless, as if God had not appointed men any time to live securely in. It is a great sign that He is desirous to do sin ners good, in that He gives thera in mercy, space and opportunity to repent ; they think all is so sure, as if there were no more care at all to be had. Can these men assure theraselves of two heavens ? No, no ; St. Paul, who knew better than all the de visers in the world can tell raen, how to dispose theraselves to heaven, willeth every one that * Ecclus. iii, 2. ;. 0 Q O LEARN TO DIE. 285 " thinketh he stands, to take heed lest he fall."* " Those that are high-minded, let thera fear," saith St. Austin, " those that fear, are not high-rainded." The fall of the angels, the loss of Adara, the re jection of Saul.! If we consider what hath be come of the tallest cedars in Lebanon, we cannot but with trembling think of our own frail condi tion. But what speak we of any one in particu lar ? The Jews, that ancient people of God, the Churches of Asia, which sometirae flourished, to consider how they are now defaced and brought to ruin, raay make all fear to live in sinful security. What ! not possible to err ? St. Paul taught the Romans themselves long since another lesson ; " Be not high-minded, but fear :"! O " fear, it is the beginning of wisdora," || saith David, and this wisdom is the beginning of a religious life ; fear, it is the continuance of the same life; it is the conclusion of all, saith the Preacher, " Fear God, and keep His coraraandraents."^ Of all nations, he that feareth God is accepted with Hira ;ir and therefore, if with the men of Nineveh, by fearing God, we will not repent us of our sins, then with the old world we may fear to be destroyed for our sins : " Blessed is the raan that feareth." Our " sins raay raake a separation between God and us."** The Jews have not only erred, but * 1 Cor, X. 13. 1 1 Sam, xvi, 1, t Rom xi. 20, I Ps. cii. ID, i Eccles. xii, 13. IT Acts I, 35. •' Isaiah lix, 2. c 6 ^^^ DISCE MORI. — Q fallen away frora that God, whose love and care they so long enjoyed. V. " Make your election sure," saith St, Peter, " and give your diligence hereunto ; for if you do these things, you shall never fall;"* thereby showing, that our perseverance in the faith and fear of God, is that duty after free justification in mercy, which He expecteth at our hands. VI. Folly therefore it is to flatter ourselves in a fruitless course of life, and to defer the time until it be too late; " If God offer grace to-day," saith St. Austin, " thou knowest not whether He will ofler the sarae to-raorrow, and therefore now use it, if thou wilt use it at all."! VII. The light will shine, when we shall not see the closing in of the day ; the evening will come, when we shall not see again the breaking forth of the morrow light. Lazarus after his want, Dives for all his wealth, " and of the children of the Most Highest," saith the prophet, " ye shall die like men."! VIII. Neither is that all, but as St. Peter saith, " Who shall give account unto Him," which is ready to judge both the quick and dead, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, when the foolish virgins shall cry, " Lord, Lord, open unto us ;'' but it shall be answered and said unto them, " I know you not." It was not now a time to con- * 2 Pet, i. 10. t Tract. 33 in Joann. X Ps. Ixxxii. 6, 7. O- 6 Q Q LEARN TO DIE. 287 suit of providing oil. But as for the wise virgins which have provided "their laraps with oil,"* they shall lift up their heads, find the benefit of taking heed in time, and pass unto that joyful marriage of the Lamb. IX, Now therefore, to conclude with St. Peter, " Seeing we look for such things, what manner of persons ought we to be in holv conversation and godliness ?"! Of careless raen, if the souls did end in their separation frora the body, or vanish into the air, the danger were not rauch ; there is more, and that is, " after that coraes judgraent ;"! when the nations shall raourn, when voluptuous raen shall raourn, who preferred raomentary plea sure before eternal ; when covetous raen shall mourn, II who preferred gain and riches before hea ven ; when proud men shall raourn, which did despise the humility of God's children. This considered, it behoves every one, not so much with Hezekiah to set his household in order, for that he must die ; as to set his soul in order ; his doings in order ; his conversation in order ; for that after death, there is soraewhat more behind, and that is called a time of judgment; for the better observing whereof, we should sometimes call to mind our lesson of "learning to die." But it is a hard saying, " Learn ye ;" but it will * Matt, xxv. 11, 12. t 2 Pet. iii. 11. } Rev, xiv, 7. D Rev, xviii, 11, -o o— • 288 DISCE MORI. one day be a harder, if men take not heed in time, " Get ye hence," " Depart ye." -Dispatch therefore about this business of "learn ing to die." Our going to such and such a city, is upon condition, " If God will.'' If we live, to set forward in time is best; these after-wits are not so good. St. John saith, " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord;"* not who die irreligiously in their sins, but those who lived in Christ, and Christ in them ; these die in the Lord, to live for ever ; these are blessed in life and death, these die in the Lord, and rest in the Lord to live for ever. X. It were to be wished that raen at last would see their folly, and seeing it, endeavour to reform the same. A vain thing it is for any to flatter him self with hope of continuance. We go to our beds, Christ knoweth if ever we shall arise. For all this, one sin draweth on another, and we never think that secret sins shall come to open judgment. God is merciful. " He threateneth hell, that He punish not by the same," saith St. Chrysostom. The careless guests made light of their calling,! to corae to the raarriage of the king's son. Did they not find at last, when they were shut out, there was no jesting with so great a personage that sent for them ? Christ offereth raercy, which is our last refuge, freely, willingly unto all; " now is the accepted time," the flower of our age will * Rev. xiv, 13. t Matt ixii. 5, 6 o o o LEARN TO DIE. 289 away apace ; we raay be prevented, we know not how soon death and judgment hasteth ; shall we know these things, and neglect opportunity ? God forbid ! XI. Elisha said, " Is this a time to be taking rewards ?"* Amidst the pangs of death, is this a time to think of amendment of life ? It is not, it is not. XII. That which was said by Christ to Jerusa lem, "Jerusalera, Jerusalera,"! is in effect said unto every one ; " O soul, soul, if thou didst know the things that do belong unto thy peace, thou wouldest take heed."! St. Peter saith, " Be sober and watch, for your adversary the devil seeketh whora he may devour," || As if he should have said ; Watch, for you iave a watchful adversary; if you respect his continuance, he was in paradise ; if his nature, he is a lion ; if his cruelty, a roaring lion ; if his diligence, he seeketh ; if his intent, it is to devour : we had need watch, we have, we see, a watchful enemy. ¦ 2 Kings V. 26. t Matt, xiiii. 37, t Luke xix. 42. || 1 Pet, v. 8. 0 o -n CHAPTER XXXI. That amongst other reasons, this learning to die, may justly move us to lead a Christian life, in holy conversation and godliness, SuNDRy are the reasons which may stir up and quicken our backward dispositions to the dutiful performance of that religious worship we all owe unto God. To omit the promises, and those in mercy ; the threatenings, and those in justice ; which the volnrae of holy Scripture doth often mention to this end. Moses, to move all the world to acknowledge God, he concluded with no other argument but this, " These are the works of God ; which the apostle also in effect expoundeth, saying ; " the in visible things of Hira," to wit, " His power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world."* Eliphaz, to express God's majesty, saith, " Behold the stars !"! II. David calleth all the creatures of God to praise God,! ^® indeed they do by their wonderful * Rom, i. 20. t Job ixii, 12, t Ps, cil-viii. 2, 3. C 0 Q O LEAR.N TO DIE. 291 order and decency of raotion. If all creatures serve God, then rauch more should man, for whom they were all created ; and he onlv for the honourable service of the Creator Hiraself. For should not man bless God, who hath so blessed him ? of whom the Prophet David hath said; " No good things will He withhold from them that lead a godly life." HI. Come we unto raan his new birth, there he taketh his covenant penny to serve his Redeeraer in holiness and righteousness all the days of his life. Consider we his justification and sanctification ; there we find hira drawn by the cords of love unto this sweet yoke of Christ. Doth raan serve God for nought ? No, certainly. It is a maxim in moral philosophy, every benefit doth require a duty. In nature, where the sun doth extend the beams of light, there the solid body hath a reflex of heat. But that which doth often move us, we reraeraber, as we should never forget, the author of our health, our wealth, our peace, our prosperity and all. If these raove us not, we are inferior to the insensible creatures. IV. If the promises of grace and mercy in Christ Jesus, if the greatness of the reward laid up for thera that walk in the way of God's command ments, and keep thera with their whole hearts ; for if there were not a reward for the righteous, then raight they well say with the prophet, " In vain Q c- — o 292 DISCE MORI. have we washed otir hands among the innocents: * bnt if the promises, I say, and those in mercy, can not win us to a just remembrance of our estate to come, yet at least to bethink ourselves of a reckon ing day at hand, should somewhat prevail in this ca5e, "' He that planteth the ear, shall he not hear / or He that made the eye, shall he not see ? or he ti'it nurtureth the heathen, shall not He punish i t A . The rich man in his scalding torments hath a " Learn of me V't take heed in ti.Tie , for all that swim in worldly pleasures, and bathe themselves in sensual delights, the conclusion whereof is sor row and pain, when they shall say ; Would to God we had never offended so gracious a Lord; wotild to God we had never neglected so favourable a time of grace : would to God we hid never followed the follies of a sinful life ; the banquet is pleasant, but the shot wUl prove deep and chargeable, Ar.d therefore, if there be any consolation in Chris: Jesus, anv comibrt of love, any hope of mercv: if there be any fear or dread of judrraent to come : pray we with the Man of God, '¦ Lord, teach us to number onr divs, that we may apply our hearts unto wisio.Ti. VI. Consider we a fcttrre condition : prepare we ourselves for a life j:er.iiai:erit, lor an estate of all tPi.jrtz.13. - Ps. icir. 9, 10. : l^e rri. K, I ; ___ — Q LEARN TO DIE. 293 continuance ; and God of His infinite mercy grant us all grace so to do, Araen. VII. In the mean tirae, " let us walk worthy of the vocation whereunto we are called in Christ Jesus."* " A good conversation," saith an ancient Father, " it confounds the adversary, it edifieth the neighbour, it glorifieth God our Father in heaven." " Because we love life," saith St. Austin, " God hath promised life ; and because we fear death. He hath promised life eternal to all them that love His coraing."! VIII. The children of Jonadab abstained from wine, because their father commanded them ;! and should not the children of God abstain from sin, because God commandeth them ? IX. The apostle saith, "This is the will of God, even your holiness ;" || we obey this His will, not to merit, but to shew our duty, wliich also causeth in us a filial fear to offend. X. And were there nothing else but this will of God, this were sufficient to move us to walk soberly, nay, to apply ourselves to live in all holiness of con versation ; for the reverence we bear to Him who hath called us unto the state of grace, cannot but work in us, even that obedience and love which becometh those who expect in mercy a state of glory. ? Eph. iv. 1. t S. August, de verb. Dei, 64. } Jer. xirv. 14. II 1 Thess, iv, 3. o — — 0 c o 294 DISCE MORI. XI. But will teraporal benefits move us ? then, as God's bounty doth abound, so should our love and duty abound also. All things we see keep their natural course, whereunto they were ordain ed ; and shall man differ frora insensible creatures ? every effect hath recourse unto the cause; the rivers that come from the sea, return themselves into the sea again. " If you do good unto thera that do good unto you," saith Christ our Saviour, " it is not so much, heathen raen will do it ;"* the very instinct of nature doth raove all to return love for love, and therefore rauch raore should we afford God all love and duty, who giveth all, and forgiveth all. XII. In trial of the holy raan Job, Satan saith, " Hast thou not hedged hira?"! Here are droves of caraels, and herds of cattle, and these many chil dren. Job is so blessed, that if Job should not bless God again. Job were worse than a stock or stone. We see amongst raen the raaster requireth service, and the captain fight. He that said, " Give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" said also, " Give unto God that which is God's ;" which is, reverence and worship of His Holy name. XIII. To all this, a principal effect, sorae re raerabrance of our end ought to work in us, mov ing to mortification, which doth not consist in some little outward show, or bare speculation of purity and sincerity of life, nor in a talkative flourish of * Matt, iv, 46. t Job. 10. o o O p LEARN TO DIE. 295 a mortified profession, unless we think to go to heaven only in speculation. The prophet Isaiah, exhorting to the true fruits of contrition, doth not say. Learn to speak well ; but " Learn to do well, apply yourselves to equity, deliver the oppressed, help the fatherless to his right, let the widow's complaint come before you."* It was our Saviour's own rule ; " The works that I do, testify of me."! It is true of faith, which was seen in Anna of Samuel ;! she did not only conceive him, but she brought him forth ; yea, she nursed him, and consecrated him to God's service • so must we do by faith. XIV. We raust not have the voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau, or do as boatraen are wont, who row one way, but look another ; talk this way, but live the contrary ; like those who are curious in other raen's lives, but careless in their own ; or as foolish merchants, who make a little show out ward, but have bare storehouses beneath ; our re ligious actions are those that must shortly stand by us, the penny is ready for the end of the day,|| which is drawing on apace. The sun is long since past the meridian line, and we know death will not be answered with an " I pray thee have us excused."^ We had need bestir ourselves, the * Isaiah i. 17- t John x. 25. } I Sam. ii. 19. II Matt. II. 8, i Luke xiv, 19, 0 O c 0 296 DISCS MORI. tirae is not long, and we may remember whither we are going. XV. Foolish virgins think their oil will never be spent. Christ says, " The children of this world are wiser in their generation."* Are we so careful for the time to come, as coraraonly we are for the time present ? I would to God we were 1 " Considering the season, it is now time to arise from sleep, the day is passed, the night is corae near."! Last of all, our continuance in this world being only a passage unto a better state to corae, should it not raove us to meditate of the end wherefore God sent us hither, and the condition we expect, when we are departed hence ; the meditation of which departure may daily put us in mind to eschew evil and do good, to " fear God, and keep His commandments,"! which is the conclusion of all : " for this is the duty of every man, yea, without this he is no raan." Wherefore, that which is the stern to the ship, the eye to the body, the corapass to the pilot, the sarae is to a wise Christian man the consideration of his end, which consideration hath also a like sovereign medicine, these two virtues ; first, it al- layeth our swelling humours when we consider we must die; secondly, itraiseth up our sorrowful hearts, when we call to mind we shall rise from death. * Luke xvi, 8. t Rom. liii. 11, 12. t Eccles, xii. 13. c- o- -o CHAPTER XXXII. Tliat the consideration of Christ's second coming to judgment, ought to move every one to live reUgiously, and to apply himself to this lesson of " leammg to die," The manifold reasons before alleged, may in duce the careful Christian to live religiously, and in part apply himself at the last to this lesson of " learning to die." The inevitable necessity of death, is in itself sufficient to raove him hereunto ; for what Esculapius or physician, how skilful so ever, can make mortal immortal ? The radical moisture by little and little, will flash so long with the flashing lamp, until the light goeth out : the lamp is spent, and so an end. God Himself doth teach us a consideration of our mor tal state, both by testimonies of His sacred Word, as also by many spectacles before our eyes ; so that we do not only hear with our ears, but also behold often with our eyes, both what we are, and what we shall be. Many are the events which we may read to have befallen raany in this case. The sudden end O -o ;— p 298 DISCE MORI. I of Ananias and Sapphira," and of Anastatius, whom | the Church stories do mention to have been struck suddenly with lightning from heaven, may move the most reckless to remember themselves. II. The prophet David, mentioning the sudden destruction of those who murmured against God in the wilderness, saith, " While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them. T Of which very instance the apostle saith, " These things came upon them for our example, and are written to admonish us, upon whora the ends of the world are corae."! III. If all this be not sufficient, yet a considera tion of Christ's second coming to judgment, should, above aU other, move everv raan to a most serious remembrance of the time to come. That which the Holy Ghost doth set down so often, and is in Scripture so forcibly expressed, and that too in so many places ; God doth thereby shew how dili gently the same should be considered. Now what is more forcibly expressed in sacred Scriptures, than is the second coming of Christ unto judgment; which is called, " a great day," and such a day as never was from the beginning of the world ? " When the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, when the stars shall fall from heaven ; when the voice of a trum pet shall sound ; when they shall see the Son of * Acts v. 10. 1 Ps. IxrriiL 30, 31. t 2 Cor. 1. 11. O- Cp ¦ _ Q LEARN TO DIB. 299 Man corae in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory ; when the sepulchres shall open, when the sea and the earth shall give up their dead :"* when all worldly kings, princes, and po tentates of the earth, shall appear before the tribu nal-seat of Christ. Blessed Lord, what an ap pearance shall this be ! IV. " I know not," saith St. Chrysostora, " what others do think of it ; for myself, it makes me often tremble to consider it."! O that we had hearts to meditate of this great coraing of Christ to judgraent ! then would we soon, for a sinful life past, be avenged upon our eyes, and wish with Jeremiah, " that our heads were a fountain of water ;"{ then would we with Demosthenes, yea, every one would soon answer the first provocation to evil, I will not buy repent ance so dear. V. To flatter ourselves with hopes of deferring this time is aU in vain : " Look how the last day of thy life doth leave thee, so shall the day of judg raent find thee. Take heed ye unwise among the people. Oh, when will ye understand!" saith the prophet. VI. Who would not but accept of the fatherly forewarning of Christ our Saviour, by those raany • Joel ii, 11 ; iii, 15. Dan. -vii. 13. Mark xiii. 19, 24. Luke xxi, 25. Matt. xxiv. 29. Isaiah xiii. 10. Ezekiel xxxii. 7. John v. 28. Eev, IX, 13. Matt, iivi, 64, 2 Cor, v. 10. Rom, xiv, 10. t Chrysost. Hom. 77, in Matt. % Jer, ix. 1. O) o c P 300 DISCE MORI. precedent tokens, as forerunners of this His cora ing ! These are both sayings and signs ; the sayings amongst other, " That for His elect's sake the days shall be shortened i"* and, " Behold, I come quickly."! For signs, the waxing cold of charity,! the rising of nation against nation, the abounding of iniquity ;|| without further application, these may be left unto our silent thoughts. Was there ever less love ? Is not that little love amongst men, cold and hollow love ? Christ said, " O ye of little faith," and it may be said, O ye of little love. Where is that Jona than that loves David as his own soul ? Where is that uprightness of conscience, when raen rather for sharae of the world, than otherwise for the love of God and goodness, abstain frora extreme impiety ? How many with Joab erabrace friendly, but carry a malicious heart to Abner ?^ VII. The apostle saith, " that the latter days shall be perilous days, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, cursed speakers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy."! VIII. The philosophers can tell us, " that no motion violent is wont to be permanent." The rainbow, as it hath a watery colour, which may * Mark liii. 20. t Rev. xxii. 12. t Matt. xxiv. 12. II Luke xvii. 27. « 2 Sam. iii. 27. T 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2. o o 9 • Q LEARN TO DIE. 301 shew us what hath been past ; so hath it also a fiery, to signify what is to come. When sin Was multiplied upon the earth, God sent a flood to wash the earth; now sin is grown so huge, washing will not serve, and therefore fire shall consurae it. Satan's fierce rage raay argue the shortness of his time ; the coldness and bar renness of the earth and trees, shew the qualities of aged bodies, or in effect tell us, there will come a time when we shall not have any longer the use of them. IX. The decay of ancient families and houses, the defect of strength and nature, do raake us daily see the world is wearing away. X. That which is the flash of lightning before the hideous clap of thunder ; that which is the mustering of a host of raen before the said battle ; the same are these signs before Christ's second coming to judgment. XI. To be curious with the Bethshemites,* in prying into God's ark, hath been the folly of some men ; to be calculating and scanning the day and year, which is unknown unto the angels in heaven, is needless. For seasons or tiraes, "it is not for us to know ;" for our appearance at the time, be fore Christ, to give our account, " it is for all to know." XII. That then the secrets of all hearts shall be * 1 Sam. vi. 19. b o o o 302 DISCE MORI. revealed, that a general audit shall be kept, Christ Himself sheweth in the parable, where " the king dom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, that will take account of his servants.'"* God will re quire a reckoning at our hands of the tirae He hath left us, of the graces he hath given us, of the bless ings in this world bestowed upon us. At which time favour shall not excuse, riches shall not excuse, friends shall not excuse ; but against the faulty, Christ shall give testimony, the angels shall give testimony, God's benefits shall give testiraony, their own conscience shall give testiraony. When the rich man's steward in the sixteenth of St. Luke's Gospel, saw how the world was likely to go with him, to wit, that he must " give an account,"! and be put from his stewardship, it was tirae for hira to call his wits together; and so it is for us all, if we have any care of the account which will be required at our hands. XIII. An account for ourselves; " Adam, Where art thou? How hast thou walked in the comraand ment I gave thee?"! An account for our brethren, " Cain, Where is thy brother Abeli^"i| How hast thou used him ? An account for our bodies, have they been kept as the temples of the Holy Ghost ?§ -In account for our souls, whether they be fit to appear in the sight of " that great Shepherd. "fl An o- * Matt, xviii, 23. t Lake sri. 3. t Gen. iii. 9. B Gen. iv. 9, ft 1 Cor. Ti. 19. ¦: 1 Pet. iL 25. -o I c- LEARN TO DIE. 303 account for our works ;* an account for our words ;! an account for our very thoughts.! It is most true, God is merciful, but we cannot tell whether our sins will raake separation between God and us, if we be not careful in time ; a consid eration hereof may be the square to frame our building, the guide to direct our passage to heaven. XIV, Great are the agonies of death, when the sick shall see earthly things forsaking hira. But far greater is the horror of judgment, to consider he is now going to answer for all he hath done in the body. X'V . Let us a little call to m.ind what raanner of day the day of the Lord shall be; "Behold, the day of the Lord coraeth," saith the prophet Malachi, " as a flaming fire ;"|| and the prophet Joel saith, " a great day, a terrible day."§ XA I. When an earthly king goes in person to battle, the whole realm is raoved, the noise of the arraour and armed men is heard, the trumpets sound, the hearts of all on every side are moved. Much more shall this be, when the King of heaven and earth shall call together the whole host of heaven to this battle. Blessed Lord, how shall the inhabitants of the earth shake and tremble hereat ! XVII. There shall be a day, saith the prophet • Rev. xxii. 12. t Matt. xii. 36. t Wisd. i. 9. IMal. iv. 1. Moelii. II. o o 304 DISCE MORI. Zachariah, which is known unto the Lord, the day of the Lord, so properly called.* First, because known only unto the Lord. Se condly, because in that day the Lord only shall shew his power openly. Thirdly, because other days were given unto the sons of men, to prepare for a time to come, but this is the day wherein God will require an account for all. XVIII. If the powers of heaven themselves shall be moved, what shall flesh and blood, the sons of men, do ? If there be such fear at the things present, what will there be at the sentence to come? what sighs, what sorrows, what moau'i, what mourning wiU there be heard in this day of mournings ? How shall the e^il be confounded, with the countenance of Christ whom they have neglected, and cry unto the mountains to hide them from His presence ? XIX. And here we may also consider with what power the Son of God shall come to judge the world. He came once in humility. He shall now- come in glory ; He came once in poverty, He shall now come with majest}-: "they who once saw Him dying, shall now see Him reigning." XX. Call to mind how the sheep shall be sepa rated from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the wise from the foolish virgins, some received in, others excluded, and for ever shut' out. * Zacha.-:al. i:v. 7. O D p — — .-o LEARN TO DIE. 305 XXI. Consider that the secrets of all hearts at this day shall be opened, in that infinite asserably of men and angels, when all sins, with all their circumstances, the tirae, the place, the manner, shall be laid forth and published. XXII. Consider that if the countenance of an earthly judge be fearful to the guilty prisoner, how rauch more shall the beholding of the eternal Judge amaze those who shall be brought to the bar of His judgment, and find a thousand witnesses in theraselves to give in evidence against them. Last of all, let a remerabrance of hell fire, that fearful fire, which never goeth out ; that grievous fire pre pared for the devil and his angels ; let the reraera brance of that fire quench in men the heat of un lawful desires. O that we would watch and pray, that we may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall corae to pass, and that we may stand be fore the Son of Man* in that day, and that we raay go upon His right hand and hear that joyful voice, " Come ye blessed of my Father, receive the king dom prepared for you from the foundations of the worid."! XXIII. And here let us exercise awhile with all devotion, the three faculties of the mind : first, ¦f Luke iii. 36. t Matt. ixv. 34. Q f) 20 o o 306 DISCE MORI. our memory, to call to mind what hath been told us concerning the state of blessedness ; secondly, our understanding, that we may conceive of it so far as our capacity is able to reach ; and last of all, our love to affect it, and desire it with all our hearts. Let us, not for a day, nor a year, but all the days and years of our lives, think of that city where all is peace, all is quiet, all is joy ; all peace without jars, all quiet without trouble, all joy with out sorrow ; where all the citizens know without error ; praise without weariness ; love without changeableness ; they love, and ever desire to love ; they see, and ever desire to see. XXIV. 0 thou city of God above ! thou Church triumphant ! very excellent things are spoken of thee. In thee there is no yesterday nor to-day ; in thee is no birth, nor burying day ; no lead ing into captivity, nor crying in the streets ; if we desire fairness, in Thee is pulchritude, as the sun ; if music, in Thee is the melody of angels ; if we desire pleasure, in Thee is fulness of pleasure for evermore ; if we desire security, in Thee is no alteration ; if concord, in Thee is all consent ; if continuance of joy, in Thee is all eternity. Come again yet a while, and let us behold a lit tle in our conteraplation, the choirs of angels and archangels praising God, and seeing that Holy One that makes all holy, and singing with tunes O 0 o — -i LEARN TO DIE. 307 comfortable, and voices indefatigable, day and night that sweet song: '' Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."* Let us behold how they enjoy that tran quillity which hath no disturbance ; how they have that knowledge which hath no error ; how they practice that love, which hath no offence ; the more they love, the raore they desire to love. He that hath tasted a bitter potion, and afterward tast- eth honey, the taste thereof raust needs be sweet unto him far above the forraer taste. Will not then this blessedness be acceptable, sweet and comfort able, after aU the sorrows of a transitory life ? XXIV. Again, the Holy Ghost resembleth the glory of the life to corae, to the actions of eating and drinking, saying, " That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom."! Now this eating and drinking, which indeed is a feast or great sup per,! i^ '^o* *^® feast of Ahasuerus,|| which was raade only for the nobles and princes of the pro vinces, but this is made for all, rich and poor, young and old, raale and feraale, that believe on Hira. And it may be resembled by the feast which Joseph, being joyful at the meeting with his brethren, made unto thera. Where, first, they were his brethren which he feasted ; secondly, he * Rev. iv. 8, t Luke xxii. 30. t Luke xiv. 16. II Esther i, 3. o — 0 D c 308 DISCE MORI. washed his face after his weeping, and went to thera ; thirdly, he appointed meat to be set on the table, and they drank and were merry with hira.* Oh great, and rauch greater is the feast that shall be made to faithful raen and women, when they shall eat bread as said the guest in St. Luke's Gospel in the kingdora of God ! ! in most things it shall be like the feast of Joseph, in one of the three it exceedeth that feast. For first, we are brethren to Christ Jesus, to whose table we corae, as testifieth His answer which He raade to hira that brought Hira word that His mother and His brethren stayed at the door to speak with Hira,! and so the apostle tell eth the Hebrews, saying, " He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one ; for which cause He is not asharaed to call thera His brethren."! But in the second, our benefit is greater than that in the feast of Joseph ; " for He that in mercy washed His disciples' feet,"§ shall wash all our faces at that day, after our tears of sorrow, lamen tation, and woe in this world ; for so saith the Lord of the great day. " He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off" all faces."1T Then shall be joy and glad ness, because " salvation, and strength, and the * Gen. xliii. 31-34, t Luke liv, 15, t Matt, iii, 49, 50. 1 Heb. ii, 11, § John xiii, 5. 1 Isaiah xxv. 8. O 0 o . — LEARN TO DIE. 309 kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ is corae."* As for the third, it shall be a feast of the best things, " of fat things, and of wines ; of fat things full of raarrow, and of wines on the lees, well re fined :"! and the cheering up of the guests shall be, " Eat, O friends, drink, and raake merry, O well-beloved !"J XXV. Now, who would not willingly "learn to die," and that with comfort, when he doth but think upon and call these things to remembrance 1 And if the very remembrance thereof bring com fort, what will the enjoying do ? If we are sorae what moved when we call to mind that all know God, all see God, all love God ; then what will it be one day to be joined with that celestial society, to know with them, to see with them, to love with them, to be with Hira ? Now, what a joy is it, to consider the joy of this most joyful day to all faith ful believers in Christ Jesus, who shall be quit by proclamation, " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's chosen?" || How shall their hearts exult ? saying. Lord, we are not worthy to be ser vants, and Thou makest us sons ; nay, heirs or co heirs with Thee of everlasting glory. A remem brance hereof should even take us from ourselves ; " Raise up thyself, O soul," saith St. Austin, " and think of that good which containeth all good !" • Rev. xii. 10. t Isaiah xxv. 6, t Cant. v. i. 1 Rom, -viii, 33. -u o- 310 DISCE MORI. 0 sweet voice of the Son of God I Receive, but receive to possess the kingdora prepared for you ; unto which kingdom, Jesus Christ bring us all for His infinite mercies' sake. Amen. o O WORKS PUBLISHED IN APPLETON'S DEVOTIONAL LIBRARY. The greatest care is taken in selecting the works of which this col- lectionis composed. Each volume is printed on the finest paper, ele gantly ornamented, and -bound in a superior manner, and uniform in size. Bishop Doane says of tliis collection, " I write to express my thanks to you for reprints of the Oxford Books ; first, for such books, and secondly, in such a style. I sincerely hope you may be encour aged to go on, and give them all to us. You will dignify the art of printing, and you will do great service to the best interest of the coun try." In a letter received from Bishop AVhittingham, he says, " T had forgotten to express my very great sat isf action a.t your commencement of a series of Devotional "Works, lately repubhshed in Oxford." The pubhshers beg to state while in so short a time this library has in creased to so raany volumes, they are encouraged to make yet larger additions, and earnestly hope it may receive all the encouragement it deserves. MEDITATIONS ON THE SACRAMENT. Godly Meditations upon the most Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Sup per. By Christopher Sutton, D,D., late Prebend of Westminster. 1 vol. royal 16mo., elegantly ornamented. " This very handsome volume forms oue and a highly favoorable specimen of thai valuable series of religioas works with which MeEsre. Applelon & Co- of this city liave favoured the pablic Of uie work it^lf it is dif&culi to speak too highly, and of tbe publishers' part, it is only necessary to say that il is got up in '.he same fine style that characterizes, almost wilhout exception, every publication thaicomes from their tiands." — N. Y. Couner If Enquirer. " We annoanced in otw last number the republication in this country, of Sutton's ' Medi tations on tlie Lord's Supper,' and having smce read the work, are prepared to recommend il ¦warmly and without qualification to the perusal of onr readers. It is purely practical ; the doctrine of the Eacharisl being; touched upon only in so far as was necessary to guard against error. Its standard of piety is verv high, and the helps which it affords to a ifevoul participation of the holy sacrament of which it treats, should make it the inseparable com panion of every communicanL We know iudeed of no work on the subject that can in all re spects be compared with it ; and for its agency in promoting that advancement in holmess after which every Christian shonld strive, have no hesitation in classing it with the Treatise on ' Holy Living and Dying,' of Bishop Taylor, and the ' Sacra Privata,' of Bishop Wilson. The period at which the book was wniien will account for, and excuse, what in the present agewould be regarded as defects of style; but these are fewer than might have been expected, and are soon losi sigfat of in the contemplauon of the many and great excellencies with which it aboDoda. The publishers have done good service lo tlie country in the publication of tins work, which is a beautiful r^rint of the Oxford edition, and we are glad to learn that it will be speedily followed by the ' Disce Vivere' and ' Diece Mori' of the same author." — Banjier of the Croae. SACRA PRIVATA: THB Private Meditations, Devotions, and Prayers Of the Right Rev. T. Wilson, D.D., Lord Bishop of Soder and Man. First complete edition. 1vol. royal 16mo., elegantly ornamented. " Tbe MeffiTs. Appleton have brought cat, in elegant stvle, Wilson's ' Sacra Privata' en tire. The reprint is an honour to the American press. The work itself is, perhaps, on ihe whole, the best devotional treatise in the language, and it now appears in a dress worthy of its character. It has never before in this country been printed entire. We shall say more an other Ume, but for the present will only urge upon every reader, from motives of duty and interest, (m private benefit and pubUc good , to go to App eton's and buy the book. Buy good books, shun the doubtful, and bum the ha^"— New-York Churchman. O— — O HEART'S EASE ; Or a Remedy against all Trou"bles, WITH A CONSOLATORY DISCOURSE, Particularly addressed to those who have lost their friends and dear relations. By Symon Patkick, D.D., sometime Lord Bishop of Ely, 1 vol. royal 16mo., elegantly ornamented. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING PRAYER And the Frequenting Daily Public Prayers. By Symon Patrick, D.D., sometime Lord Bishop of Ely. Edited by Fbancis E. Paget, M.A., Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. 1 vol. royal 16mo., elegant ly ornamented. " I would suggest, whether there can be a more useful present than a good book 7 And to those who think witn me in this matter, I would recommend two very pretty volumes in ex ternal appearance, whilst they are most excellent in their contents. They are botli by the same author, Biahop Patrick, the one ' On Prayer,' and the other entitled ' Heart's £aBe : or a Remedy against all Troubles. " It was observed by the distinguished Cecil that he had a shelf in tkis book-case upon which he was accustomed to place ' tried authors :' that ia, au thors whose opinions he nad ejoimined and judged to be worthy of confidence. 1 hese volumes are of such a character ; and if this article shall be read by one who is witling lo give bis friends some useful instruction with regard Lo the nature, duty, and advantages of prayer, in all its branches, he will find it in the first named volume ; or if ilie reader has a friend in af fliction, he may perhaps relieve the sorrows of the opening year by placing in Ihe handa of tliat friend the volume enliQed 'Heart's Ease.'" — New- York American. THOUGHTS IN PAST YEARS. A beautiful collection of Poetry, chiefly Devotional. By the author of " The Cathedral." 1 vol. royal 16mo., elegantly printed. The public willbe glad to learn that the Right Rev. Bishop Ives has kindly consented to edit an edition of THB EARI^Y ENGIilSH CHURCH; Or Christian History of England in early British, Saxon, and Norman Times. By the Rev. Edward Churton, M.A. To be printed uniform in size and binding with this library. inr Recently Published, j^ HARE'S PAROCHIAI. SERMONS. Sermons to a Country Congregation. By Augustus William Hare, A-M , late Fellow of New College and Rector of Alton Barnes. 1 vol. royal 8vo. "Any one who can be pleased with delicacy of thought expressed in the most simple lao- gnage any one who can feel the charm of finding practical duties elucidated and enforced By apt and varied illustrations— will be delighted with this volume, which presents ub with the workings of a pious and highly gifted mind. "—Quar£CT-Zy Review. [nr Preparing for Publication, j^ PALMER'S TREATISE ON THE CHURCH, A TREATISE OK THE OBTTROH OF CHRIST, Designed chiefly for the use of Students in Theology. By the Rev. William Palmer, M.A., of Worcester College, Oxford. Edited, with Notes, by the Right Rev. W. R- Whittingham, D.D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of Maryland. 2 vols. 8vo., handsomely printed on fine paper. LYRA APOSTOLICI, From the fourth Oxford edition. (J ^o NEW WORKS & NEW EDITIONS, The undersigned have the pleasure of pre.sentlng to you a copy of tlieir Catalogue of important Publications in the several departments of Literature. They would particularly diu-ct your attention to that admirable senes of devotional works by Bishop Patrick. Btshop Wilson, Doctor Sutton and others, which have received the un qualified comniendatiou of the Church. In n letter received rem Bishop W'hittingham, he says, ' I had forgotten to express my vert/ great saris/actiim at your commencemtut of a series of devo tional works, lately re published in Oxford and London." Again, Bishop DoiNE says of this," I write to express my thanks to you for reprints ot the Oxford books ; first, for reprinting such books, and se condly, in such a style I sincerely hope you may be encouraged to go on, and give them all to us. You will dignify the art of print ing, and you will do great service to the best interests ol the coun try." The undersigned also beg to refer to* their beautiful edition of the Poedcai Works of Sotjthet, ^so to that excellent series of "Tales for the People and their Children," by Mary IIowitt and ohters, and to that extensive series of popular works for general readiug, uniting an interesting style with soundness of Christian principle, such as the works of ARonBisHOP Magbis, Guizot, John Anoell James, Miss Sinclair, Rev. Robert Philip, Rev. AuGDSTiTS Wu. Hare, Jnq, Pye Smith, Frederick Augustus Schlegel, Isaac Taylor, Dr. W C Taylor, Rev. Dr. Sprague, &c. &c. , They also publish those very popular Voyages and Travels by Rev. H. Southgate, of the Episcopal Mission, and Fitch W. Taylor, together with the Memoirs of General Alexander Hamilton by his son; and will continue to publish standard and popular works, and trust to merit a con tinuance of public favour. D. APPLETON & Co. Emporium far Standard Literature^ 200 Broadway, New-YoRK. 95" D. A. & Co.'s Catal >gue of English Books (critical and explanatory) will shortly be ready for delivery. o Q : Q 2 New Works and New Editions SCHLEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, The Philosophy of History, in a course of Lectures delivered at Vienna, by Frederick Von Scbleqel, translated from the Ger- man^ with a Memoir of the author, by J. B. Robertson. Hand somely prihted ou fine paper. 2 vols. 12mo. " To do a mere reviewer's jualice to sttch a work wonid require many nambers of our journal. Il is quite unnecesaary to do more than direct attention to a produLtinn which, beyond all others, has contrihuted to exalt and purify modern Bcieoce and liierature-~a wOrk. to which, in the eloquent woods of a great man, ' we owe the attempts at least to turn philosopliy'B eye inward on the soul, and to compound the mnsi^acred elements of its epintual powers with the ingredjenlB - of human knowledge,' "—liiferary Gazette. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SOCIETY, IN THB BARBAROUS AND CIVILISED HTATB, An Essay tpwards discovering the Origin and Course of Huraan Improvement. By W. Cooke Taylor, LL.D., fitc, of Trinity 'College, Dublin. Handsomely printed on fine paper. 2 vols. 12 mo. *' A most able work, the design of which is to determine from an examination of the various forma in which society has been formed, what was the origin of civdization, and under what circumstances those attributes of humanity, which in one country become the foundation of *ociai happiness, and in another perverted to the production of general misery. For this purpose the author baa separately examined the principal elements by which society, under all its aspects, is held together, and traced each to its source m human nature. He has then directed attention to the development of these principles, and pointed out tlie circum stances by which they were perfected on the one hand, or corrupted on the other." " We perceive by the preface that the work has had throughout, tbe superin tendence ofthe very learned Archbishop WhaCely." —JSewYork American. CARL 1 IE ON HISTORY AND HEROES. HERO, HERO-WORSHIP, AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY. Six Lectures, reported, -with, emendations and additions. - By Thomas Carlyle, author of the " French Revolution,"' " Sar- lor Resartus," &c. Contents — The Hero as Divinity, Odin, Paganism, Scandinavian Mytholngy , The Hero as Pri'jihet, iVlahomct, Islam; The Hero as Poet, I'anle, Shakapeare; The Hero aa rncst, Luther, Relormation, Knox, Puritanism ; The Hero as Wan ofheiters, Johnson, Rosscau, Burns; The Hero as King, Cromwell, Mapoleon, Modem Revolut on ism. 1 vol. 12mo., beautifully printed on fine whitc_paper. THOUGHTS IN PAST YEARS : A beautiful collection of Poetry, chiefly Devotional. By the Au thor of the Cathedral. 1 vol. royal lOmo. elegantly printed. 6 ^ ; c O ; Published hy D. Appleton Sf Co. 3 MEDITATIONS ON THE SACRAMENT. Godly Meditations upon the most Holy Sacrament of tlie Lor.l'fi Supper. By Christopher Sutton, D O., late Prebend of, West minster. 1 vol. royal 16mo., elegantly ornamented. LEARN TO DIE. Disce Mori, Learn to Die, a Religious Discourse, moving every Christian man to enter into a serious remembrance of his end,' By Christopher Hitton, D D., sometime Prebend of West minster. 1 vol. 16mo, elegantly ornamented. SAfRA PRIYATA: THS Private Heditations, Devotions and Prayers Ofthe Right Rev. T. Wilson, D. D., Loid Bishop of Soder and filan. First compkne ediiinti. 1 vol. royal 16mo., elegantly or namented. First complete edition. 1 Discourse Concerning Prayer And the Frequenting Daily Pubhc Prayers. By Simon Patrick, D.I)., sometime Lord Bishop of Ely. Edited by Francis E. Paget, M A , Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. 1 vol. royal IGmo.^ eltganily ornameiit<--d. ' HE.1RT'S EASE : Or a Eiemedy against all Troubles ; ¦n-iiH A Consolatory Disconrse, Particularly addressed to those who tiave lost their friends and dear relations. By Simon Patrick, D D., sometime Lord Bishop of Ely. 1vol. royal Ibmo., elegantly ornamented. SCRIPTURE and GEOLOGY. On the Relation between the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science. By John I've Smitu, D.D , author of the Scripture Testimony of the Mesaiali, &.c. 4tc. 1 vol. 12mo. O 0 o —^ 4 Nea Works and New Editions TOUR THROUGH TURKEY and PERSIA. Narrative of a Tour through A rmf-nia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Meso potamia, with an Introduction and Occasional Obser^'-atiins upon the Condiiitm of .Mohaiiimedaiiit,[n and Christianity in those countries. By the Rnv. Horatio Southgate, Missionary of the American Episcopal Church, ii vols. l2mo. plates. Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice. Discour-es and Di-sertations on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atone ment and Sacrifice, and on the Print ipal Arguments advanced, and thi; Mode of Rea^^onitis; employed, by the Opponents of those Doctrines, as held by the E>tablislied Church. By the late Most Rev. William Maqee, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin. 2 vols. royal 8vo., beautifully piinti d. _^ SOUTHEY'S POETICAL WORKS. The complete collected edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D . edited by himself. Printed verbatim iroin the ten volume London edition. Illustrated with a fine por trait and vignette. I vol. royal 8vo. " The beanties of Mr. Southey's Poetry are auch that (his collected edition cao hardly fail lo find a place ia the Library of every person fond ol elegant I'tera- luae. " —Eclectic Reciew. " Soulliey's principal Poemn have been long before the world, exteneively read, and highly appreciated. Their appearing in a uniform edition, with the aulbor's final corrections, will afford unfeigned pleasure tu those who are married to im mortal verse." — lAlerary Gazette. " Tbi£i edition ofthe workb of Southey is a credit to the press of our coantry." — N. A. Keview. GUIZOT'S HISTORY of CiyiLKATION. General History of (Civilization in Europe, from the Fall of the Ro man Empire to the French Revolution. Translated from the l-'rench of M. GUIZOT. Profeesor of History to la Faculte des Lettres of Paris, and Minister of Public Instruction. 2d Ameri can, from the last London edition. I vol, 12nio. BICEIRSTETH'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works oi the Rev. Edwaro Bickersteth, Rector of Man- ton, Ht Tifordshire, containing Scripture, Help, Treatise on Pray er, the Christian Hearer, the Chief concerns of Man forTiine and Eternity, Treatise on the Lord's Supper, and the Chrisuan Stu dent. 1 vol. 8vo. 9 O Published by D. Appleton St Co. 5 THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER HA}IILT().\. Edited by his son, John C. Ha.milton. 2 vols. ro>al 8vo. " We cordially recommeod Ihe perusal and diligent study of these volumes, ex hibiting, as they do, much valuable matter relHli\e to the Revolution, Uie estab lishment ofthe Ke^ieral dmsutution, and Other important events in the annala of ourcounlry," — Ncw-Yori; Jteuiew. SCOTLAND and tlie SCOTCH; OR. THE WESTERN CIRCITIT. By Catherine Sinclair, author of Modern Accomplishments, Modern Society, a^c. &c.* 1 vol. ]2mo. SHETLAND and the SHETLINDERS; OR, THE XORTHEBN CIRCUIT. By Catherine Sinclair, auth ^r of Scotland and the Scotch, Ho liday House, Sec. -Sic. 1 vol. 12mo. THE METROPOLITAN PULPIT; Or Sketches of the rflost Popular Preachers in London. By the author of Random Recollections, The Great Metropolis, &-c. &c. 1 vol. 12mo. HARE'S PAROCHIAL SERMONS. Sermons to a Country Cimgreeation, By Augustfs William Hare, A.M , laie Fellow of New College and Rector of Alton Barnes. 1 vol. royal 8vo. " Any one who can be pleased with delicacy of thought expressed in the most simple language — any one who can feel the charm of finding practical duties elu cidated and enforced by apt and varied illustrations — will be delighted wiih this volume, which presents us with the workings of a pioud and highly gifted mind." — Quarterly Revieto. Williams's Missionary Enterprises. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises and Triumphs in the South Seas, with Remarks upon the ^atural History ofthe Islands, Origin, Language. Tradition and Usages of the Inhabitants. By the Rev. John Williams, of the London Missiuuary Society. Numerous plates. 1 vol. large 12mo. o— — — 6 O—™ o 6 New Works and New Editions THE FLAG SHIP ! Or, a Voyage Round th.e World, In the ITniteil Staffs Frignte Columbia attended by her consort, the Sloop of War John Adam-, and heanno the broad pennant of ComnioHore George C. Beail. By Fitch W. Taylor, Chaplain to the Squadron. 2 vols. 12iiio. plates. ELLA V i Or the July Tour. By one of the Party. 1 vol, 12mo. " He can form a moral on a glass of champagne." — Le Iloy. Missionary's farewell. By the Rev. John Williams, author of Missionary Enterprises, &:c. 1 vol. 18mo. -¦'^ A Collection of Church Music. Edited by George Kinqsley, author of Social Choir, &c. " This collenlion is pronounced by the i^ost eminent .professors to be superior to any published ia the country." '; Physical Theory of Another Life. By Isaac Taylor, author of Natural History of Enthusiasm. Third edition. 1 vol. 12mo. By Isaac Taylor, author of Natural History of Enthusiasm, &c. &c. Second Edition. 1 vol. 12]uo. •timitations of Human Responsibility. By Francis Wayland, D.D. Second edition. 1 vol. ISmo. The Principles of Diagnosis. ,h Hall, M.D. P.R.S., &c. Second editii 3ntB, byDR. JOHH A. SwKTT. 1 vol. 8v o ^ — — — ¦- — ~ ' 0 By Marshall Hall, M.D. P.R.S., &c. Second edition, with many improvements, by Dr. Johh A. Swett. 1 vol. 8vo. O 0 Publislied hy D. Appleton !\- Co. 7 WORKS BY THE REV. ROBERT PHILIP. THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF DR. MILNE, MISSIO>^AKT TO CHINA. Illustrated by Biographical Annals of Asaiic Missions from Primi tive to ProiesiHhi Times, intended as a Guide to Missionary Spirit. By Robert Philip. 1 vol. l'2mo. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN BUNYAN, Author of ihePiliiriin's Progress. By Robert Philip. With a fine portrait. 1 vol. lOiuo, LADY'S CLOSET LIBRARY, AS follows: THE MARYS; Or Beauty of Female Holiness. By Robert Phiup. 1vol. ISmo, THE MARTHAS; Or Varieties of Female Piety. By Robert Philtp. 1 vol. l8mo. THE LYDIAS; Or Development of Female Character. By Robert Philip. 1 vol. iSmo. DEVOTIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL GUIDES. By Robert PntLtP. With an Iniroduciory Essay by Rbv. Albert Barkes. 2 vo.s. 12mo. Containing Guide to the Perplexed. Do do Devotional. Do do Thoughtful. Do do Doubting. Do do Conscientious, Do do Redemption. YOUNG MAN'S CLOSET LIBRARY. By Robert Philip With an Inuoductory Essay by Kev. Albert Barnes. 1 vol. I2mo. LOVE OF THE SPIRIT, Traced in his Work : a Companion to the Experimental Goidee. By Robert Philip. 1 vol. l8mo. Shortly will he Published^ THE HANNAHS. Being a continuation of the Lady's Closet Library, forming the Maternal portion of the series. I — ¦ 0 O- ; o S New Works and JNVir Editions WORKS BY THE REV. JOHN A. JAMES. Pastoral Addresses: By Rev. JofllH Angell James. With an Introduction by the Rev. 'U'^M. Adams. I vol. ISmo. Conl«t-L— The increased Holiness c-ftbe Chnrch. ?f irHaaliiy of Slind. H«i- veoly .Mmdedne".^. .^-su ranee of Hope. Praciical Religion w,~.?>i in everything. How lo spend a ProfitabieSabbUh. Cbrtstlvi OblifalJona. Life of l.i.-h ' Infla- eoce of Older Climiians. The Sj .rit of Prayer. Private Prayer. ^eji-EiaEL.Q- atioo. THE YOUNG MAN FROM HOME. In a series of Letters, especially directed for the Moral Advancement of Youth By Ihe Rev. John Angell Jame=-. Fifth edition. 1 voL 18mo. The Aniions Enquirer after Salvation Directed and Encouraged. By Rev. John Angell James. 1 vol. ISmo. The Christian Professor. Addressed in a series of Counsels and Cautions to the Members of CJmsiian Churches. By Rev. John Angell James. 1 vol. 18mo. Happiness, its Satnre and Sonrees. By Rev. John Angell James. THE WIDOW DIRECTED To the Widow's God. By Rev. John Anoell Jaxes. DISCOURSES ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. Select Discourses nn the Functions of tlje Nervous System, in oppo* sition to Phrenology, Materialism and Atheism ; lo which is pre- fiied a Lecture on the Diversities ofthe Human Cliaracter, aris ing from Physiological Peculiarities. By Jobs .¦iuocsTiNK SuiTH, M.D. 1 vol. 12mo. Thoughts in Affliction. By the Rev. A. S. Thelwall A.M. To which is added Bereaved Parents Consoled, by Johh Thorstos, with Sacred Poetrv. 1 vol. ^fflO. ' o 6 -? Q Published hy D. Appleton iS" Co. WORKS BY THE REV. DR, SPRAGUE, True and False Religion. Lectures iUustratina: the Contrast between True Christianity and various other systems. By William B Sprague, D.D. 1 vol. l^mo. Lectures on Eeiivals In Religion. By W. B. Sprabfe, D.D. With an Introductory Essay by Leonard Woods, D.U. lvoI.12mo. letters to a Daughter, On Practical Subjects. By W. B. Spraouk, D.D. Fourth edi tion, re\ised and enlai^ed. 1 vol, ]2mo. lectures to Young People. ByW.B. Sprague, D.D. With an Introduciory Address by Sam uel -Miller, D.D. Fourth edition. I vol. 12mo. MY SON'S MANUAL. I Comprising a Summary View ofthe Studies, Accomplishments, and j Princiiiles of Coiidurt, best suited for P-oinoting Respectability ' and Success in Life. Elegantly engraved frontispiece. I vol. ISnio. I MY DAUGHTER'S MANUAL. I Comprising a.^utrimary View of Female Studies, Accomplishments j and Principles of Conduct. Beautiful frontispiece. 1 vol. 18mo. j GRIFFINS REMAINS. Remains ofthe Rev, Edmund D. Griffin, Compiled by Francis Griffin. Wiih a Memoir by Rev. Dr. McVicar. 2 vols. 8vq. HODGE ON THE STEAM-ENGINE. The Steam Engine, its Origin and Gradual Improvement from the time of Hero to the present day, as adapted to Manuf;icmres, Lo comotion and Navigation. Illustrated with luriy-ei^ht plates in full detail, numerous woiid cuts, &c. By Paul R. Hodge, C. E. 1 vol. folio of p ates and letter-press in 8vo. "In this work Ibe best Western and Eaelem machinery, as applied to navijra- tion, togetfaer wiih the most approved locomotive engines in thjs country and Europe, are given in detail, forming the moat valuable work for the practical man ever published." O 0 •9 ^ Q 10 New Works and New Editions APPLETON' S. TALES FOR THE PEOPLE And tlieir CHildreu. The greatest care is taken in selecting the works of which the collection is composed, so thatnothingeithermediocre in talent, or momoral in tendency, is admitted. Each volume is printed in the finest paper, is illustrated with an elegant frontispiece, and is bound in a superior manner, tastefully ornamented. The following have already appeared uniform in size and style : WHO SHALL BE GREATEST P A Tale : by Mary How- ITT. 1 vol. 18mo., plates. "Thegrent moral lesson incnlcated by this book iaindicaled by ila title; and while il la prominent enbugh throngh the whole volume, it comes out at the close with most impressive eflect. Wc need not say it is a lesson which every human being is the wiser and the belter for learning. We cordially recom mend the work (o all who would desire to form a sober and ralioual estimate of the world's enjoyments. "—jlUiany Evening Journal. SOWING AND REAPING : or What WiU Come of It' by Mary Howitt. 1 vol. 18mo., plates. " We ccmraenccd it with the intention of just looking it over for Ihe pnr- pose of writing a cursory notice ; Ijul we began to read, and so we went on lo ihe finis. Il is very interesting; the characters ajefullot individuamy." — New-Bedford Mercury. STRIVE AND THRIVE : a Tale by Mary Howitt. 1 vol. 18mo., plates. "The mere announcement of the name of tlie aulhoreaa, will doubtless bring any of her productions lo the immediate notice of the public; but Strive and Thrive ia not a book for children only, but can oe read with pleasure and advantage by ihose of a more mature age. It fully sustains the reputation of its predecessors. The style is easy and Sowing, the language chaste and beanliful, and the incidents of the tale calculated lo keep up Uie interest to the end.— New-York Courier If Enquirer. HOPE ON, HOPE EVER: or the Boyhoodof Felix Law; by Mary Howitt. 1 vol. ISmo. " A very neat volume with Ihe above title, and Ihe fd/lher annunciation laL it may be called Tales for Ihe People and their Children, has been written by Mary Howitt, whose name is so favourably known to ihe reading cora- tremely interesling; the characlers are naturally drawn, while the feeling and passion displayed, give the work a higher rank than is usually ollotiedto Nursery Tales." — Commercial Advertiser. THE LOOKING GLASS FOR THE M I N D : or Intellectu al Mirror, being an elegant collection of the most delightful little stones and interesting tales : chiefly translated from that much admired workL'ami des Enfans ; with numerous wood cuts— the twentieth edition. 1 vol. 18mo. The Blories here collected arc of a most interesting character, since virtue is constantly represenled aslhe fountain of happiness, and vice as the source of every evil — as a useful and instructive Looking Glass, we recommend il for the instruction of every youth, whether Miss or Master ; it is a mirror that will not flatter Ihem or lead ihem into error ; il displays the follies and improper pursuits of youthful hearts, points out the daogcroos paths they sometimes tread, and clears the way to the temple of honour and fame. o ^ o Puhlished by D, Appleton Js* Co. 11 THE SETTLERS AT HOME: by Harriet Martineatj. 1 vol. l^mo. "The circumsLmces under which this little volume, for the amusement of children, h.is been produced, 5)vc an additional cluirm to its irutli, simplicHy, and feeling. The tale^ ilioush in one passage Storowful enough to moisien many a pair of eyes, is fuU of interest and character. The latter, we may ,xi3ii, is as Diuch appreciated by children as the former; aiid ihey will take as luely an imerea m Aihvin's ignorant and uiiselti^ fidelity and her stalwart anus, ajid m Roger Redfurit the gipsy boy s gleams of belter nature, as in ihe dcveIop<;nieni of the main iucid^ii of iIk- l>ook, a dia.iiiirous tlood which spread de^¦as^alioo over the Isle of Axholme two haitdn I ye.irs ago." — Alhe- nattm. " The early tales of Miss Manioeau, written lo inculuite and illuslrale, by pracucal examples, Oie inuhs ot poliiical economy, will survive her later and more coniroveraal worn>. So m diis little story of the History and ill- treaimeni of some Dutch seulcrs, in the kii= of Liiicolnahire— during the wars of the Parliament because they were stranger?, and because, moreover^ they ini^iered with the wild and a^ae-shaken ^nuiersand fishermen of the lens,— we sei> .isjlii the same ^rewdnessot' ol'A^r^.u^ou — the same real iulercsl in the weliareoi lb e h amble classes — the same sagacity, and occasional natural pa- tlio£, which rendered ilie loliuco-econom^cal tracts soattracuve, ii) despiieoT ibeir name and subject."— .St'ir-ybri 44f7i«ricafi. EARLY FRIENDSHIP: aTalebyMrs.CopLEY. Ivol.lSmc, plates. In introducins: the name of a new writer to this series of popular work<;. the pubhshers cannot but express their desire that all who have purchased previous volumes, will buy tliis, bemg assured it will ornmeud itself to the reader so that the name of Mrs. Copley will soon, like the name of Howitt^ be a passport to the notice and favour of the whole reading commxinity. FAMILY SECRETS : or Hints to those who would make Home Happy, by Mrs. Ellis, author of " The Women of England," " Poetry of Life," etc. " The tendency of this book i^ one of the best and noblest. The scenes and characieis are, it i^ believed, portraits. Aimmg as il does at the correc tion of a too prevalent vice — it is expected that the Family Secreis will com- mood amongst ihe serious aitd thinking part of the community as extensive a popularity as Nicholas Nicklebydoea in iis peculiar circle-" PAST DAYS ; a Story for Children. By Esther Whitlock. Square 18mo. "It is a delightful, instmctive Uttle book ; and if the child, when she closes the volume, tiud her ' eyes red with weeping,* let ber not be ashamed ; one old euoii^ to be ber grandfather, caught the same disease tirom the same source." —I^aladdphia Oniied Slater Gazetu. HAZEN'S SiMEOLICAL SPELLING-BOOK. The Symbolical Spelling Book, in two parts. By Edward Ha- ZEN. Containing 288 engravings, printed on goud paper. " This work is already introduced into upwards of one thousand different schools, and pronounced lo be one of the best works published. O- t):— ^ O 12 . 1^1 New Works and New Editions ¦!. lafever's Modern Architecture. Beauties of Modem Arrbiteeture; coosistiog of Forty- eight Plates of Original D« signs, with PlanSi Elevations and Sectton^i, also a Dictionary of Technical Terms, the whole forming a complete Uanual for the Practical Business Man. By M. Lafevur, Archi tect. 1 voL large Svo. half Iwund. lafeier's Stair-Case and Hand-Rail Constrnction. The Modem Practirp of Stair-Case and Hand-Rail Construction, practically explained in a serie^ of Designs. P>y M. Lafever, Architect. With Plans and Elevations for Ornamental Villas. Fifteen plates. 1 vol large 8vo. KeigMly's }Iytholo^ for Schools. Th^MythoIoay of Ancient Greeceandltaly, designed for the use of StJiools- By Thomas Keightlt. ^Numerous wood cut ilhistra- uons. 1 vol. l^rmo. half bound. POLYMICRIAN NEW TESTAMENT, Numerous References, Maps, &.c. 1 vol. 18mo. By J. K. Pauldlvg, Esq. Illustraied witli one hundred unique original plates b,\ Chapman. Elegantly bound. 1 vol. 12mo, E?' Preparing for Publication. LEARN TO LIVE. Disce Vivere, Learn to Live; wherein is shown that the Life of Christ is, and ought to be, an express Hatiern for imitation unto thalife of a Christian. By Christoiher Sctton, D D., some time Prebend of Westminster. 1 vol. 16mo. eltganily printed. The Early English Clmrcli J By the Rev. Edward Churtos, A.M. 1 vol. 16mo. With a Pre face by the Right Rev. Bishop Ives. -o 0 o Preparing for Publication. 13 PADIER'S TREATISE on the CHURCH. A treatiss on the chttroh of CHSIST. Designed chielly for the use of Students in Thr«>Io^y. By the JRkv. William Palmer, M A., of Wotcester College, 0.\ford. EdittMl, witli Xntes, bytlie Right Uav. W. R. Whittingium, D.D., Bishop of tlie Protestant Epi*^copal Cl.urch in the diocese of Maryland. "2 vols. 6vo. Hanusomely printed ou fine paper. The Beauties of the Country ; By Thomas Miller; author o( "Rural Sketches," "Day in the Woods," &.C HISTORY OF i\APOLEON, From the French of M. Laurent db L'Ardeche. With Five Hundred Llustratious, after Desii:iis by Horace Vermet. 2 vols. Svo. The Selected Beauties of British Poetry, With Biographical and Criiical Notices, and an Essay on English Poetry. By Thomas Campbell. One handsome volume, royal 8vo. From the last London edition. 1 vol. l6mo. elegantly printed. life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. By Daniel Defoe. WithTnree Hundred lUusirations; after De signs by Grasdville. 1 vol. Svo. THE PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY OF MANKIND. From the German of Herder. The History of the Reformation in Germany, By Leopold vo.s Rankb, author uf the History of tlie Popts, Translated by Sa rah Austen. I -o -o Recently Published. The Saered Choir: c:L^z:ri:z: of ckduch inrsic. 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