Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 15
18. —At inde Mortuus es, Sonitu celeri, pulsuque agitato. The bell rings out, and tells me in him, that I am dead.
18. MEDITATION.
THe Bell rings out; the pulse thereof is changed; the tolling was a faint, and intermitting pulse, vponupon one side; this stronger, and argues more and better life. Hi… soule is gone out; and as a Man who had a lease of 1000. yeeres after the expiration of a short one, or an inheritance after the life of a Man in a Consumption, he is now entred into the possession of his better estate. His soule is gone; whither? Who saw it come in, or who saw it goe out? No body; yet eueryevery body is sure, he had one, and hath none. If I will aske meere Philosophers, what the soule is, I shall finde amongst them, that will tell me, it is nothing, but the temperament and harmony, and iust and equall composition of the Elements in the body, which produces all those faculties which we ascribe to the soule; and so, in it selfe is nothing, no seperable substance, that ouerliues the body. They see the soule is nothing else in other Creatures, and they affect an impious humilitie, to think as low of Man. But if my soule were no more than the soule of a beast, I could not thinke so; that soule that can reflect vponupon it selfe, consider it selfe, is more than so. If I will aske, not meere Philosophers, but mixt Men, Philosophicall Diuines, how the soule, being a separate substance, enters into Man, I shall finde some that will tell me, that it is by generation, & procreation from parents, because they thinke it hard, to charge th… soule with the guiltinesse of Originall sinne, if the soule were infused into a body, in which it must necessarily grow foule, and contract originall sinne, whether it will or no; and I shall finde some that will tell mee, that it is by immediate infusion from God, because they think it hard, to maintaine an immortality in such a soule, as should be begotten, and deriued with the body frō Mortall parents. If I will aske, not a few men, but almost whole bodies, whole Churches, what becomes of the soules of the righteous, at the departing thereof from the body, I shall bee told by some, That they attend an expiation, a purification in a place of torment; By some, that they attend the fruition of the sight of God, in a place of rest; but yet, but of expectation; By some, that they passe to an immediate possession of the presence of God. S. Augustine studied the Nature of the soule, as much as any thing, but the saluation of the soule; and he sent an expresse Messenger to Saint Hierome, to consult of some things concerning the soule: But he satisfies himselfe with this: Let the departure of my soule to saluation be euident to my faith, and I care the lesse, how darke the entrance of my soule, into my body, bee to my reason. It is the going out, more than the comming in, that concernes vsus. This soule, this Bell tells me is gone out; Whither? Who shall tell mee that? I know not who it is; much lesse what he was; The condition of the Man, and the course of his life, which should tell mee whither hee is gone, I know not. I was not there, in his sicknesse, nor at his death; I saw not his way, nor his end, nor can a…ke them… who did, thereby to conclude, or argue, whither he is gone. But yet I hauehave one neerer mee than all these; mine owne Charity; I aske that; & that tels me, He is gone to euerlasting rest, and ioy, and glory: I owe him a good opinion; it is but thankfull charity in mee, because I receiued benefit and instruction from him when his Bell told: and I, being made the fitter to pray, by that disposition, wherein I was assisted by his occasion, did pray for him; and I pray not without faith; so I doe charitably, so I do faithfully beleeue, that that soule is gone to euerlasting rest, and ioy, and glory. But for the body, How poore a wretched thing is that? wee cannot expresse it so fast, as it growes worse and worse. That body which scarce three minutes since was such a house, as that that soule, which made but one step from thence to Heauen, was scarse thorowly content, to leaue that for Heauen: that body hath lost the name of a dwelling house, because none dwels in it, and is making haste to lose the name of a body, and dissolue to putrefaction. Who would not bee affected to see a cleere & sweet Riuer in the Morning, grow a kennell of muddy land water by noone, and condemned to the saltnesse of the Sea by night? And how lame a Picture, how faint a representation, is that, of the precipitatiō of mans body to dissolution? Now all the parts built vp, and knit by a louely soule, now but a statue of clay, and now, these limbs melted off, as if that clay were but snow … and now, the whole house is but a handfull of sand, so much dust, and but a pecke of Rubbidge, so much bone. If he, who, as this Bell tells mee, is gone now, were some excellent Arti…icer, who comes to him for a clocke, or for a garment now? or for counsaile, if hee were a Lawyer? If a Magistrate, for iustice? Man before hee hath his immortall soule, hath a soule of sense, and a soule of vegitation before that: This immortall soule did not forbid other soules, to be in vsus before, but when this soule departs, it carries all with it; no more vegetation, no more sense: such a Mother in law is the Earth … in respect of our naturall Mother; in her wombe we grew; and when she was deliuered of vsus, wee were planted in some place, in some calling in the world; In the wombe of the Earth, wee diminish, and when shee is deliuered of vsus, our graue opened for another, wee are not transplanted, but transported, our dust blowne away with prophane dust, with eueryevery wind.
18. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, my God, if Expostulation bee too bold a word, doe thou mollifie it with another; le… it be wonder in my selfe; let it bee but probleme to others; but let me aske, why wouldest thou not suffer those, that serue thee in holy seruices, Leuit. 21 1.to doe any office about the dead, nor assist at their funerall? Thou hadst no Counsellor, thou needest none; thou hast no Controller, thou admittest none Why doe I aske? in Ceremoniall things (as that was) any conuenient reason is enough; who can bee sure to propose that reason, that moued thee in the institution thereof? I satisfie my selfe with this; that in those times, the Gentiles were ouerfull, of an ouer-reuerent respect to the memory of the dead: a great part of the Idolatry of the Nations, flowed from that; an ouer-amorous deuotion, an ouer-zealous celebrating, and ouer-studious preseruing of the memories, and the Pictures of some dead persons: Sap. 14.14.And by the vaine glory of men, they entred into the world; and their statues, and pictures contracted an opinion of diuinity, by age: that which was at first, but a picture of a friend, grew a God in time, as the wise man notes,Sap. 13.9. They called them Gods, which were the worke of an ancient hand. And some hauehave assigned a certaine time, when a picture should come out of Minority, and bee at age, to bee a God, in 60. yeeres after it is made. Those Images of Men, that had life, and some Idols of other things, which neuer had any being, are by one common name, called promiscuously, dead, and for that the wise man reprehends the Idolatrer; for health he praies to that which is weake, Sap. 13.18.and for life he praies to that which is dead. Should we doe so, saies thy Prophet; Esay 8.14.should we goe from the liuing to the dead? So much ill then, being occasioned, by so much religious cō plement exhibited to the dead; thou ô God, (I think) wouldest therefore inhibit thy principall holy seruants, from contributing any thing at all to this dangerous intimation of Idolatry; and that the people might say, surely those dead men, are not so much to bee magnified, as men mistake, since God will not suffer his holy officers, so much as to touch them, not to see them. But those dangers being remoued, thou, O my God, dost certainly allow, that we should doe offices of piety to the dead, and that we should draw instructions to piety, from the dead. Is not this, O my God, a holy kinde of raising vp …eed to my dead brother, if I, by the meditation of his death, produce a better life in my selfe? It is the blessing vponupon Reuben, Let Reuben liue, Deu. 33.6.& not die, and let not his men be few; let him propagate many. And it is a Malediction, That that dieth, let it die;Zechar. 11.9. let it doe no good in dying: for Trees without fruit, Iud. 12.thou by thy Apostle callst, twice dead. It is a second death, if none liue the better, by me, after my death, by the manner of my death. Therefore may I iustly thinke, that thou madest that a way to conuay to the Aegyptians, a feare of thee, and a feare of death, Exo. 12.30.that there was not a house, where there was not one dead; for therupon the Aegyptians said, we are all dea… men; the death of others, should catechise vsus… to death. Apo. 1.5.Thy Sonne Christ Iesus is the first begotten of the dead; he rises first, the eldest brother, and he is my Master in this science of death: but yet, for mee, I am a younger brother too, to this Man, who died now, and to eueryevery man whom I see, or heare to die before mee, and all they are vshers to mee in this schoole of death. I take therefore that which thy seruant Dauids wife said to him, to bee said to me; 1 Sam. 19.11.If thou saue not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt bee slaine. If the death of this man worke not vponupon mee now, I shall die worse, than if thou hadst not afforded me this helpe: for thou hast sent him in this bell to mee, as tho… didst send to the Angel… of Sardis, Apoc. 3.2…with commission to strengthen the things that remaine, and that are ready to die; that in this weaknes of body, I migh… receiue spiritual streng…h, by these occasions. This is my strength, that whether thou say to mee, as thine Angell said to Gedeon; Iud. 6.23Peace bee vntounto thee, feare not, thou shalt not die, or whether thou say, as vntounto Aaron, Thou shalt die there;Num. 20.26. yet thou wil… preserue that which is ready to die, my soule, from the worst death, that of sinne. 1 Reg. 16 18.Zimrie died for his sinnes, saies thy Spirit, which he sinned in doing euill; and in his sinne, which he did to make Israel sinne. For his sinnes, his many sinnes; and then in his sinne, his particular sinne: for my sinnes I shall die, whensoeuer I die, for death is the wages of sinne; but I shall die in my sinne, in that particular sinne of resisting thy spirit, if I apply not thy assistances. Doth it not call vsus to a particular consideration, That thy blessed Sonne varies his forme of Commination, and aggrauates it in the variation, when hee saies to the Iewes, (because they refused the light offered) you shall die in your sinne;Ioh. 8.21 And then when they proceeded to farther disputations, and vexations, and tentations, hee addes,Vers. 24. you shall die in your sinnes; he multiplies the former expressing, …o a plurall. In this sinne … and in all your sinnes; doth not the resisting of thy particular helps at last, draw vponupon vsus the guiltinesse of all our former sinnes? May not the neglecting of this sound ministred to mee in this mans death, bring mee to that miserie, as that I, whom the Lord of life loued so, as to die for me, shall die, and a Creature of mine owne shall be immortall … that I shall die,Esay 66.14. and the worme of mine owne conscience shall neuer die?
18. PRAYER.
O Eternall and most gracious God, I hauehave a new occasion of thanks, and a new occasion of prayer to thee, from the ringing of this bell. Thou toldst me in the other voice, that I was mortall, and approaching to death; In this I may heare thee say, that I am dead, in an irremediable, in an irrecouerable state for bodily health. If that bee thy language in this voice, how infinitely am I bound to thy heauenly Maiestie, for speaking so plainly vntounto mee? for euen that voice, that I must die now, is not the voice of a Iudge, that speaks by way of condemnation, but of a Physitian, that presents health in that: Thou presentest mee death as the cure of my disease, not as the exaltation of it; if I mistake thy voice herein, if I ouer-runne thy pace, and preuent thy hand, and imagine death more instant vponupon mee than thou hast bid him bee, yet the voice belongs to me; I am dead, I was borne dead, and from the first laying of these mud-walls in my conception, they hauehave moldred away, and the whole course of life is but an actiue death. Whether this voice instruct mee, that I am a dead man now, or remember me, that I hauehave been a dead man all this while, I humbly thanke thee for speaking in this voice to my soule, and I hum…ly beseech thee also, to …ccept my prayers in his behalfe, by whose occasion this voice, this sound is come to mee. …or though hee bee by death transplanted to thee, and so in possession of inexpressible happinesse there, yet here vponupon earth thou hast giuen vsus such a portion of heauen, as that though men dispute, whether thy Saints in heauen doe know what we in earth in particular doe stand in need of, yet without all disputation, wee vponupon earth doe know what thy Saints in heauen lacke yet, for the consummation of their happinesse; and therefore thou hast affoorded vsus the dignitie, that wee may pray for them. That therefore this soule now newly departed to thy Kingdome, may quickly returne to a io… full reunion to that body which it hath left, and that wee with it, may soone enioy the full consummation of all, in body and soule, I humbly beg at thy hand, O our most mercifull God, for thy Sonne Christ Iesus sake. That that blessed Sonne of thine, may hauehave the comsummation of his dignitie, by entring into his last office, the office of a Iudge, and may hauehave societie of humane bodies in heauen, as well as hee hath had euer of soules… And that as thou hatest sinne it selfe, thy hate to sinne may bee expressed in the abolishing of all instruments of sinne, The allurements of this world, and the world it selfe; and all the temporarie r…uenges of sinne, the stings of sicknesse and of death; and all the castles, and prisons, and monuments of sinne, in the graue. That time may bee swallowed vp in Eternitie, and hope swallowed in possession, and ends swallowed in infinitenesse, and all men ordained to saluation, in body and soule, b… one intire and euerlasting sacrifice to thee, where thou mayest receiue delight from them, and they glorie from thee, for euermore. Amen.