feeds on honour, as 'tis said Camelions do on air; a disgrace kill him; amamus mortem, we love death, which implies a kind of union, and connaturality and complacency in death. Again, exulta∣mus rebus pessimis Prov. 2.14. we rejoyce and delight in evil; Ecstasim patimur, so some render it, we are transported beyond our selves, we talk of it, we dream of it, we sweat for it, we fight for it, we travel for it, we triumph in it, we have a kind of traunce, and transformation, we have a Jubile in sin, and we are carried delicately, and with triumph to our death; Nay, further yet, we are said to make a covenant with Death, Isai. 29.15. we joyn with it, and help it, to destroy our selves; as Iehoshaphat said to Ahab, I am as thou art, and my people; as thy people, we have the same friends, and the same enemies, we love that, that upholds its do∣minion, and we fight against that, that would destroy it, we strengthen and harden our selves against the light of Nature, and the light of grace, against Gods, whispers, and against his loud calls, against his exhortations, and obtestations, and expostulations, which are strength enough to discern death, and pull him from his pale horse; and all these will make it a volumus at least, not a velleity as to good; but an absolute vehement will: after we have weighed the circumstances, pondered the danger, considered and consulted, we give sentence on deaths side, and though we are un∣willing to think so, yet we are willing to die; to love death, to rejoyce in death, to make a Covenant with death will make the volumus full; to the question, why will ye die? no other answer can be given, but, we will; For if we should ask further; yea, but why will ye? here we are at a stand, horror and amazement, and confusion shuts up our mouth in silence, as in the 22 of Matth. when the Guest was questioned, quomodo huc? how he came thither? the Text saies 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, capistratus est, he was muzled, he was silent, he could not speak a word.
For conclusion then: Let us as the Wise-man counsels, keep our heart, our will, with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life, and out of it are the issues of death; let us take it from death, and consine and binde it to its proper object, binde it with those bonds which were made to binde Kings and Nobles, the most stout and stubborn, and imperious heart, binde it with the fear of death, with the fear of that God which here doth ask the question, and not seek to ease our selves, by an indiscreet and ill applied consideration of our natural weaknesse; For how many make themselves wicked, because they were made weak? how many never make any assay to go, upon this thought, that they were born lame? Original weaknesse is an Article of our Creed, and it is our Apologie, but 'tis the Apologie of the worst; of the covetous, of the ambitious, of the wanton, when 'tis the lust of the eyes, that buries the covetous in the earth, the lusts of the flesh,