Sermon XXVII.
      Preached to the LL. upon Easter-day, at the Communion,
       The King being then dangerously sick at New-Market.

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                           Psal. 89:47.
       What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?

At first, God gave the judgement of death upon man,  | 
when he should transgresse, absolutely, Morte        |
morieris, Thou shalt surely dye: The woman in her    |
Dialogue with the Serpent, she mollifies it, Ne      |
forte moriamur, perchance, if we eate, we may die;   |
and then the Devill is as peremptory on the other    |
side, Nequaquam moriemini, do what you will, surely  |
you shall not die; And now God in this Text comes to |
his reply, Quis est homo, shall they not die?  Give  |
me but one instance, but one exception to this rule, |
What man is hee that liveth, and shall not see       |
death?  Let no man, no woman, no devill offer a Ne   |
forte, (perchance we may dye) much lesse a           |
Nequaquam, (surely we shall not dye) except he be    |
provided of an answer to this question, except he    |
can give an instance against this generall, except   |
he can produce that mans name, and history, that     |
hath lived, and shall not see death.  Wee are all    |
conceived in close Prison; in our Mothers wombes, we |
are close Prisoners all; when we are borne, we are   |
borne but to the liberty of the house; Prisoners     |
still, though within larger walls; and then all our  |
life is but a going out to the place of Execution,   |
to death.  Now was there ever any man seen to sleep  |
in the Cart, between New-gate, and Tyborne? between  |
the Prison, and the place of Execution, does any man |
sleep?  And we sleep all the way; from the womb to   |
the grave we are never thoroughly awake; but passe   |
on with such dreames, and imaginations as these, I   |
may live as well, as another, and why should I dye,  |
rather then another? but awake, and tell me, sayes   |
this Text, Quis homo? who is that other that thou    |
talkest of?  What man is he that liveth, and shall   |
not see death?                                       |
                                                     |
  In these words, we shall first, for our generall   |
humiliation, consider the unanswerablenesse of this  |
question, There is no man that lives, and shall not  |
see death.  Secondly, we shall see, how that         |
modification of Eve may stand, forte moriemur, how   |
there may be a probable answer made to this          |
question, that it is like enough, that there are     |
some men that live, and shall not see death: And     |
thirdly, we shall finde that truly spoken, which the |
Devill spake deceitfully then, we shall finde the    |
Nequaquam verified, we shall finde a direct, and     |
full answer to this question; we shall finde a man   |
that lives, and shall not see death, our Lord, and   |
Saviour Christ Jesus, of whom both S. Augustine, and |
S. Hierome, doe take this question to be principally |
asked, and this Text to be principally intended.     |
Aske me this question then, of all the sons of men,  |
generally guilty of originall sin, Quis homo, and I  |
am speechlesse, I can make no answer; Aske me this   |
question of those men, which shall be alive upon     |
earth at the last day, when Christ comes to          |
judgement, Quis homo, and I can make a probable      |
answer; forte moriemur, perchance they shall die; It |
is a problematicall matter, and we say nothing too   |
peremptorily.  Aske me this question without         |
relation to originall sin, Quis homo, and then I     |
will answer directly, fully, confidently, Ecce homo, |
there was a man that lived, and was not subject to   |
death by the law, neither did he actually die so,    |
but that he fulfilled the rest of this verse; Eruit  |
animam de inferno, by his owne power, he delivered   |
his soule from the hand of the grave.  From the      |
first, this lesson rises, Generall doctrines must be |
generally delivered, All men must die: From the      |
second, this lesson, Collaterall and unrevealed      |
doctrines must be soberly delivered, How shall we be |
changed at the last day, we know not so clearly:     |
>From the third, this lesson arises, Conditionall     |
Doctrines must be conditionally delivered, If we be  |
dead with him, we shall be raised with him.          |
                                                     |
  First then, for the generality, Those other        | I. Part
degrees of punishment, which God inflicted upon      | Quis homo?
Adam, and Eve, and in them upon us, were as          |
absolutely, and illimitedly pronounced, as this of   |
death, and yet we see, they are many wayes extended, |
or contracted; To man it was said, In sudore vultus, |
In the sweat of thy browes, thou shalt eate thy      |
bread, and how many men never sweat, till they sweat |
with eating?  To the woman it was said, Thy desire   |
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over      |
thee: and how many women have no desire to their     |
husbands, how many over-rule them?  Hunger, and      |
thirst, and wearinesse, and sicknesse are denounced  |
upon all, and yet if you ask me Quis homo? What is   |
the man that hungers and thirsts not, that labours   |
not, that sickens not? I can tell you of many, that  |
never felt any of these; but contract the question   |
to that one of death, Quis homo?  What man is he     |
that shall not taste death? And I know none.         |
Whether we consider the Summer Solstice, when the    |
day is sixteen houres, and the night but eight, or   |
the Winter Solstice, when the night is sixteen       |
houres, and the day but eight, still all is but      |
twenty foure houres, and still the evening and the   |
morning make but a day: The Patriarchs in the old    |
Testament had their Summer day, long lives; we are   |
in the Winter, short lived; but Quis homo? Which of  |
them, or us come not to our night in death?  If we   |
consider violent deaths, casuall deaths, it is       |
almost a scornfull thing to see, with what           |
wantonnesse, and sportfulnesse, death playes with    |
us; We have seen a man Canon proofe in the time of   |
War, and slain with his own Pistoll in the time of   |
peace: We have seen a man recovered after his        |
drowning, and live to hang himselfe.  But for that   |
one kinde of death, which is generall, (though       |
nothing be in truth more against nature then         |
dissolution, and corruption, which is death) we are  |
come to call that death, naturall death, then which, |
indeed, nothing is more unnaturall; The generality   |
makes it naturall; Moses sayes, that Mans age is     | Psal.
seventy, and eighty is labour and pain; and yet      | 90:10
himselfe was more then eighty, and in a good state,  |
and habitude when he said so.  No length, no         |
strength enables us to answer this Quis homo? What   |
man? &c.                                             |
                                                     |
  Take a flat Map, a Globe in plano, and here is     |
East, and there is West, as far asunder as two       |
points can be put: but reduce this flat Map to       |
roundnesse, which is the true form, and then East    |
and West touch one another, and are all one: So      |
consider mans life aright, to be a Circle, Pulvis    |
es, & in pulverem reverteris, Dust thou art, and to  |
dust thou must return; Nudus egressus, Nudus         | Iob 1.
revertar, Naked I came, and naked I must go; In      |
this, the circle, the two points meet, the womb and  |
the grave are but one point, they make but one       |
station, there is but a step from that to this.      |
This brought in that custome amongst the Greek       |
Emperours, that ever at the day of their Coronation, |
they were presented with severall sorts of Marble,   |
that they might then bespeak their Tombe.  And this  |
brought in that Custome into the Primitive Church,   |
that they called the Martyrs dayes, wherein they     |
suffered, Natalitia Martyrum, their birth dayes;     |
birth, and death is all one.                         |
                                                     |
  Their death was a birth to them into another life, |
into the glory of God; It ended one Circle, and      |
created another; for immortality, and eternity is a  |
Circle too; not a Circle where two points meet, but  |
a Circle made at once; This life is a Circle, made   |
with a Compasse, that passes from point to point;    |
That life is a Circle stamped with a print, an       |
endlesse, and perfect Circle, as soone as it begins. | 
Of this Circle, the Mathematician is our great and   |
good God; The other Circle we make up our selves; we |
bring the Cradle, and Grave together by a course of  |
nature.  Every man does; Mi Gheber, sayes the        |
Originall; It is not Ishe, which is the first name   |
of man, in the Scriptures, and signifies nothing but |
a sound, a voyce, a word; a Musicall ayre dyes, and  |
evaporates, what wonder if man, that is but Ishe, a  |
sound, dye too?  It is not Adam, which is another    |
name of man, and signifies nothing but red earth;    |
Let it be earth red with blood, (with that murder    |
which we have done upon our selves) let it be earth  |
red with blushing, (so the word is used in the       |
Originall) with a conscience of our own infirmity,   |
what wonder if man, that is but Adam, guilty of this |
self-murder in himself, guilty of this in-borne      |
frailty in himself, dye too?  It is not Enos, which  |
is also a third name of man, and signifies nothing   |
but a wretched and miserable creature; what wonder   |
if man, that is but earth, that is a burden to his   |
Neighbours, to his friends, to his kindred, to       |
himselfe, to whom all others, and to whom himself    |
desires death, what wonder if he dye?  But this      |
question is framed upon none of these names; Not     |
Ishe, not Adam, not Enos; but it is Mi Gheber, Quis  |
vir; which is the word alwayes signifying a man      |
accomplished in all excellencies, a man accompanied  |
with all advantages; fame, and good opinion justly   |
conceived, keepes him from being Ishe, a meere       |
sound, standing onely upon popular acclamation;      |
Innocency and integrity keepes him from being Adam,  |
red earth, from bleeding, or blushing at any thing   |
hee hath done; That holy and Religious Art of Arts,  |
which S. Paul professed, That he knew how to want,   |
and how to abound, keepes him from being Enos,       |
miserable or wretched in any fortune; Hee is Gheber, |
a great Man, and a good Man, a happy Man, and a holy |
Man, and yet Mi Gheber, Quis homo, this man must     |
see death.                                           |
                                                     |
  And therefore we will carry this question a little |
higher, from Quis homo, to Quis deorum, Which of the |
gods have not seene death?  Aske it of those, who    |
are Gods by participation of Gods power, of those of |
whom God saies, Ego dixi, dii estis, and God answers |
for them, and of them, and to them, You shall dye    |
like men; Aske it of those gods, who are gods by     |
imputation, whom Creatures have created, whom Men    |
have made gods, the gods of the Heathen, and do we   |
not know, where all these gods dyed?  Sometimes      |
divers places dispute, who hath their tombes; but do |
not they deny their godhead in confessing their      |
tombes? doe they not all answer, that they cannot    |
answer this text, Mi Gheber, Quis homo, What man,    |
Quis deorum, What god of mans making hath not seen   |
death?  As Iustin Martyr asks that question, Why     |
should I pray to Apollo or Esculapius for health,    |
Qui apud Chironem medicinam didicerunt, when I know  |
who taught them all that they knew? so why should I  |
looke for Immortality from such or such a god, whose |
grave I finde for a witnesse, that he himselfe is    |
dead?  Nay, carry this question higher then so, from |
this Quis homo, to quid homo, what is there in the   |
nature and essence of Man, free from death?  The     |
whole man is not, for the dissolution of body and    |
soule is death.  The body is not; I shall as soon    |
finde an immortall Rose, an eternall Flower, as an   |
immortall body.  And for the Immortality of the      |
Soule, It is safelier said to be immortall, by       |
preservation, then immortall by nature; That God     |
keepes it from dying, then, that it cannot dye.  We  |
magnifie God in an humble and faithfull              |
acknowledgment of the immortality of our soules, but |
if we aske, quid homo, what is there in the nature   |
of Man, that should keepe him from death, even in    |
that point, the question is not easily answered.     |
                                                     |
  It is every mans case then; every man dyes; and    | Videbit
though it may perchance be but a meere Hebraisme to  |
say, that every man shall see death, perchance it    |
amounts to no more, but to that phrase, Gustare      |
mortem, To taste death, yet thus much may be implied |
in it too, That as every man must dye, so every man  |
may see, that he must dye; as it cannot be avoided,  |
so it may be understood.  A beast dyes, but he does  |
not see death; S. Basil sayes, he saw an Oxe weepe   | Basil 
for the death of his yoke-fellow; but S. Basil might | orat. de
mistake the occasion of that Oxes teares.  Many men  | Morte
dye too, and yet doe not see death; The approaches   |
of death amaze them, and stupifie them; they feele   |
no colluctation with Powers, and Principalities,     |
upon their death bed; that is true; they feele no    |
terrors in their consciences, no apprehensions of    |
Judgement, upon their death bed; that is true; and   |
this we call going away like a Lambe.  But the Lambe |
of God had a sorrowfull sense of death; His soule    |
was heavy unto death, and he had an apprehension,    |
that his Father had forsaken him; And in this text,  |
the Chalde Paraphrase expresses it thus, Videbit     |
Angelum mortis, he shall see a Messenger, a          |
forerunner, a power of Death, an executioner of      |
Death, he shall see something with horror, though    |
not such as shall shake his morall, or his           |
Christian constancy.                                 |
                                                     |
  So that this Videbunt, They shall see, implies     |
also a Viderunt, they have seene, that is, they have |
used to see death, to observe a death in the decay   |
of themselves, and of every creature, and of the     |
whole Worlde.  Almost fourteene hundred yeares ago,  |
S. Cyprian writing against Demetrianus, who imputed  | Cyprian ad
all the warres, and deaths, and unseasonablenesses   | Demetri-
of that time, to the contempt, and irreligion of the | anum
Christians, that they were the cause of all those    |
ils, because they would not worship their Gods,      |
Cyprian imputes all those distempers to the age of   |
the whole World; Canos videmus in pueris, saies hee, |
Wee see children borne gray-headed; Capilli          |
deficiunt, antequam crescant, Their haire is         |
changed, before it be growne.  Nec aetas in          |
senectute desinit, sed incipit a senectute, Wee doe  |
not dye with age, but wee are borne old.  Many of us |
have seene Death in our particular selves; in many   |
of those steps, in which the morall Man expresses    |
it; Wee have seene Mortem infantiae, pueritiam, The  | Seneca
death of infancy in youth; and Pueritiae,            |
adolescentiam, and the death of youth in our middle  |
age; And at last we shall see Mortem senectutis,     |
mortem ipsam, the death of age in death it selfe.    |
But yet after that, a step farther then that Morall  |
man went, Mortem mortis in morte Iesu, We shall see  |
the death of Death it self in the death of Christ.   |
As we could not be cloathed at first, in Paradise,   |
till some Creatures were dead, (for we were cloathed |
in beasts skins) so we cannot be cloathed in Heaven, |
but in his garment who dyed for us.                  |
                                                     |
  This Videbunt, this future sight of Death implies  |
a viderunt, they have seene, they have studied Death |
in every Booke, in every Creature; and it implies a  |
Vident, they doe presently see death in every        |
object, They see the houre-glasse running to the     |
death of the houre; They see the death of some       |
prophane thoughts in themselves, by the entrance of  |
some Religious thought of compunction, and           |
conversion to God; and then they see the death of    |
that Religious thought, by an inundation of new      |
prophane thoughts, that overflow those.  As Christ   |
sayes, that as often as wee eate the Sacramentall    |
Bread, we should remember his Death, so as often, as |
we eate ordinary bread, we may remember our death;   | Bern.
for even hunger and thirst, are diseases; they are   |
Mors quotidiana, a daily death, and if they lasted   | Aug.
long, would kill us.  In every object and subject,   |
we all have, and doe, and shall see death; not to    |
our comfort as an end of misery, not onely as such a |
misery in it selfe, as the Philosopher takes it to   |
be, Mors omnium miseriarum, That Death is the death  |
of all miserie, because it destroyes and dissolves   |
our beeing; but as it is Stipendium peccati, The     |
reward of sin; That as Solomon sayes, Indignatio     | Prov.
Regis nuncius mortis, The wrath of the King, is as a | 16:14
messenger of Death, so Mors nuncius indignationis    |
Regis, We see in Death a testimony, that our         |
Heavenly King is angry; for, but for his indignation |
against our sinnes, we should not dye.  And this     |
death, as it is Malum, ill, (for if ye weigh it in   |
the Philosophers balance, it is an annihilation of   |
our present beeing, and if ye weigh it in the Divine |
Balance, it is a seale of Gods anger against sin) so |
this death is generall; of this, this question there |
is no answer, Quis homo, What man, &c.               |
                                                     |
  We passe then from the Morte moriemini, to the     | 2 Part
forte moriemini, from the generality and the         |
unescapableness of death, from this question, as it  |
admits no answer, to the Forte moriemini, perchance  |
we shall dye; that is, to the question as it may     |
admit a probable answer.  Of which, we said at       |
first, that in such questions, nothing becomes a     |
Christian better than sobriety; to make a true       |
difference betweene problematicall, and dogmaticall  |
points, betweene upper buildings, and foundations,   |
betweene collaterall doctrines, and Doctrines in the |
right line: for fundamentall things, Sine            | Aug.
haesitatione credantur, They must be beleeved        |
without disputing; there is no more to be done for   |
them, but beleeving; for things that are not so, we  |
are to weigh them in two balances, in the balance of |
Analogy, and in the balance of scandall: we must     |
hold them so, as may be analogall, proportionable,   |
agreeable to the Articles of our Faith, and we must  |
hold them so, as our brother be not justly offended, |
nor scandalized by them; wee must weigh them with    |
faith, for our own strength, and we must weigh them  |
with charity, for others weaknesse.  Certainly       |
nothing endangers a Church more, then to draw        |
indifferent things to be necessary; I meane of a     |
primary necessity, of a necessity to be beleeved De  |
fide, not a secondary necessity, a necessity to be   |
performed and practised for obedience: Without       |
doubt, the Roman Church repents now, and sees now    |
that she should better have preserved her selfe, if  |
they had not denied so many particular things, which |
were indifferently and problematically disputed      |
before, to be had necessarily De fide, in the        |
Councell of Trent.                                   |
                                                     |
  Taking then this Text for a probleme, Quis homo,   |
What man lives, and shall not see Death? we answer,  |
It may be that those Men, whom Christ shal find upon |
the earth alive, at his returne to Judge the World,  |
shall dye then, and it may be they shall but be      |
changed, and not dye.  That Christ shall judge quick |
and dead, is a fundamentall thing; we heare it in    |
S. Peters Sermon, to Cornelius and his company, and  | Acts 10:42
we say it every day in the Creed, Hee shall judge    |
the quick and the dead.  But though we doe not take  |
the quick and the dead, as Augustine and Chrysostome | August.
doe, for the Righteous which lived in faith, and the | Chrys.
unrighteous, which were dead in sinne, Though wee    |
doe not take the quick and the dead, as Ruffinus and |
others doe, for the soule and the body, (He shall    |
judge the soule, which was alwaies alive, and he     |
shall the body, which was dead for a time) though we |
take the words (as becomes us best) literally, yet   |
the letter does not conclude, but that they, whom    |
Christ shall finde alive upon earth, shall have a    |
present and sudden dissolution, and a present and    |
sudden re-union of body and soul again.  Saint Paul  |
sayes, Behold I shew you a mystery; Therefore it is  | 1 Cor. 
not a cleare case, and presently, and peremptorily   | 15:51
determined; but what is it?  We shall not all sleep, |
but we shall all be changed.  But whether this       |
sleeping be spoke of death it self, and exclude      |
that, that we shall not die, or whether this sleep   |
be spoke of a rest in the grave, and exclude that,   |
we shall not be buried, and remain in death, that    |
may be a mystery still.  S. Paul sayes too, The dead | 1 Thes. 4.
in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive, |
and remain, shall be caught up together with them in |
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the ayre.  But       |
whether that may not still be true, that             |
S. Augustine sayes, that there shall be Mors in      | August.
raptu, An instant and sudden dis-union, and re-union |
of body and soul, which is death, who can tell?  So  |
on the other side, when it is said to him, in whom   |
all we were, to Adam, Pulvis es, Dust thou art, and  | Gen. 3:19
into dust thou shalt return, when it is said, In     | 1 Cor. 
Adam all die, when it is said, Death passed upon all | 15:22
men, for all have sinned, Why may not all those      | Rom. 5:12
sentences of Scripture, which imply a necessity of   |
dying, admit that restriction, Nisi dies judicii     | Pet. Mar.
naturae cursum immutet, We shall all die, except     |
those, in whom the comming of Christ shall change    |
the course of Nature.                                |
                                                     |
  Consider the Scriptures then, and we shall be      |
absolutely concluded neither way; Consider           |
Authority, and we shall finde the Fathers for the    |
most part one way, and the Schoole for the most part |
another; Take later men, and all those in the Romane |
Church; Then Cajetan thinks, that they shall not     | Cajetan
die, and Catharin is so peremptory, that they shall, | Catherinus
as that he sayes of the other opinion, Falsam esse   |
confidenter asserimus, & contra Scripturas satis     |
manifestas, & omnino sine ratione; It is false, and  |
against Scriptures, and reason, saith he; Take later |
men, and all those in the reformed Church; and       |
Calvin sayes, Quia aboletur prior natura, censetur   | Calvin
species mortis, sed non migrabit anima a corpore:    |
S. Paul calls it death, because it is a destruction  |
of the former Beeing; but it is not truly death,     |
saith Calvin; and Luther saith, That S. Pauls        | Luther
purpose in that place is only to shew the            |
suddennesse of Christs comming to Judgement, Non     |
autem inficiatur omnes morituros; nam dormire, est   |
sepeliri: But S. Paul doth not deny, but that all    |
shall die; for that sleeping which he speaks of, is  |
buriall; and all shall die, though all shall not be  |
buried, saith Luther.                                |
                                                     |
  Take then that which is certain; It is certain, a  |
judgement thou must passe; If thy close and          |
cautelous proceeding have saved thee from all        |
informations in the Exchequer, thy clearnesse of thy |
title from all Courts at Common Law, thy moderation  |
from the Chancery, and Star-Chamber, If heighth of   |
thy place, and Authority, have saved thee, even from |
the tongues of men, so that ill men dare not slander |
thy actions, nor good men dare not discover thy      |
actions, no not to thy self, All those judgements,   |
and all the judgements of the world, are but         |
interlocutory judgements; There is a finall          |
judgement, In judicantes & judicatos, against        |
Prisoners and Judges too, where all shalbe judged    |
again; Datum est omne judicium, All judgement is     | John 5.
given to the Son of man, and upon all the sons of    |
men must his judgement passe.  A judgement is        |
certain, and the uncertainty of this judgement is    |
certain too; perchance God will put off thy          |
judgement; thou shalt not die yet; but who knows     |
whether God in his mercy, do put off this judgement, |
till these good motions which his blessed Spirit     |
inspires into thee now, may take roote, and receive  |
growth, and bring forth fruit, or whether he put it  |
off, for a heavier judgement, to let thee see, by    |
thy departing from these good motions, and returning |
to thy former sins, after a remorse conceived        |
against those sins, that thou art inexcusable even   |
to thy self, and thy condemnation is just, even to   |
thine own conscience.  So perchance God will bring   |
this judgement upon thee now; now thou maist die;    |
but whether God will bring that judgement upon thee  |
now, in mercy, whilest his Graces, in his Ordinance  |
of preaching, work some tendernesse in thee, and     |
give thee some preparation, some fitnesse, some      |
courage to say, Veni Domine Iesu, Come Lord Iesu,    |
come quickly, come now, or whether he will come now  |
in judgement, because all this can work no           |
tendernesse in thee, who can tell?                   |
                                                     |
  Thou hearest the word of God preached, as thou     |
hearest an Oration, with some gladnesse in thy self, |
if thou canst heare him, and never be moved by his   |
Oratory; thou thinkest it a degree of wisdome, to be |
above perswasion; and when thou art told, that he    |
that feares God, feares nothing else, thou thinkest  |
thy self more valiant then so, if thou feare not God |
neither; Whether or why God defers, or hastens the   |
judgement, we know not; This is certain, this all    |
S. Pauls places collineate to, this all the Fathers, |
and all the Schoole, all the Cajetans, and all the   |
Catharins, all the Luthers, and all the Calvins      |
agree in, A judgement must be, and it must be In     |
ictu oculi, In the twinkling of an eye, and Fur in   |
nocte, A thiefe in the night.  Make the question,    |
Quis homo?  What man is he that liveth, and shall    |
not passe this judgement? or, what man is he that    |
liveth, and knowes when this judgement shall be?  So |
it is a Nemo scit, A question without an answer; but |
as it, as in the text, Quis homo?  Who liveth, and   |
shall not die? so it is a problematicall matter; and |
in such things as are problematicall, if thou love   |
the peace of Sion, be not too inquisitive to know,   |
nor too vehement, when thou thinkest thou doest      |
know it.                                             |
                                                     |
  Come then to ask this question, not                | 3. Part
problematically, (as it is contracted to them that   |
shall live in the last dayes) nor peremptorily of    |
man, (as he is subject to originall sin) but at      |
large, so, as the question may include Christ        |
himself, and then to that Quis homo?  What man is    |
he?  We answer directly, here is the man that shall  |
not see death; And of him principally, and           |
literally, S. Augustine (as we said before) takes    | August.
this question to be framed; Vt quaeras, dictum, non  |
ut desperes, saith he, this question is moved, to    |
move thee to seek out, and to have thy recourse to   |
that man which is the Lord of Life, not to make thee |
despaire, that there is no such man, in whose self,  |
and in whom, for all us, there is Redemption from    |
death; For, sayes he, this question is an exception  |
to that which was said before the text; which is,    |
Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?  Consider  |
it better, sayes the Holy Ghost, here, and it will   |
not prove so; Man is not made in vain at first,      |
though he doe die now; for, Perditio tua ex te, This |
death proceeds from man himself; and Quare moriemini |
domus Israel?  Why will ye die, O house of Israel?   |
God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the  | Sap. 1:13
destruction of the living; The Wise man sayes it,    |
and the true God sweares it, As I live saith the     |
Lord, I would not the death of a sinner.  God did    |
not create man in vain then, though he die; not in   |
vain, for since he will needs die, God receives      |
glory even by his death, in the execution of his     |
justice; not in vaine neither, because though he be  |
dead, God hath provided him a Redeemer from death,   |
in his mercy; Man is not created in vain at all; nor |
all men, so neare vanity as to die; for here is one  |
man, God and Man Christ Jesus, which liveth, and     |
shall not see death.  And conformable to             |
S. Augustines purpose, speaks S. Hierome too, Scio   | Hieron.
quod nullus homo carneus evadet, sed novi Deum sub   |
velamento carnis latentem; I know there is no man    |
but shall die; but I know where there is a God       |
clothed in mans flesh, and that person cannot die.   |
                                                     |
  But did not Christ die then?  Shall we joyne with  |
any of those Heretiques, which brought Christ upon   |
the stage to play a part, and say he was born, or    |
lived, or dyed, In phantasmate, In apparance only,   |
and representation; God forbid; so all men were      |
created in vain indeed, if we had not in him a       |
regeneration in his true death.  Where is the        |
contract between him, and his Father, that Oportuit  |
pati, All this Christ ought to suffer, and so enter  |
into glory: Is that contract void, and of none       |
effect?  Must he not die?  Where is the ratification |
of that contract in all the Prophets?  Where is      |
Esays Vere languores nostros tulit, Surely he hath   | Esay 53:4,
born our sorrows; and, he made his grave with the    | 9
wicked in his death; Is the ratification of the      |
Prophets cancelled?  Shall he not, must he not die?  |
Where is the consummation, and the testification of  |
all this?  Where is the Gospell, Consummatum est?    |
And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost?  Is    |
that fabulous?  Did he not die?  How stands the      |
validity of that contract, Christ must die; the      |
dignity of those Prophecies, Christ will die; the    |
truth of the Gospell, Christ did die, with this      |
answer to this question, Here is a man that liveth   |
and shall not see death?  Very well; For though      |
Christ Jesus did truly die, so as was contracted, so |
as was prophecied, so as was related, yet hee did    |
not die so, as was intended in this question, so as  |
other naturall men do die.                           |
                                                     |
  For first, Christ dyed because he would dye; other |
men admitted to the dignity of Martyrdome, are       |
willing to dye; but they dye by the torments of the  |
Executioners, they cannot bid their soules goe out,  |
and say, now I will dye.  And this was Christs case: |
It was not only, I lay down my life for my sheep,    | John 10:15
but he sayes also, No man can take away my soule;    |
And, I have power to lay it down; And De facto, he   |
did lay it down, he did dye, before the torments     |
could have extorted his soule from him; Many         |
crucified men lived many dayes upon the Crosse; The  |
thieves were alive, long after Christ was dead; and  |
therefore Pilate wondred, that he was already dead.  | Mar. 15:44
His soule did not leave his body by force, but       | August.
because he would, and when he would, and how he      |
would; Thus far then first, this is an answer to     |
this question, Quis homo?  Christ did not die        |
naturally, nor violently, as all others doe, but     |
only voluntarily.                                    |
                                                     |
  Again, the penalty of death appertaining only to   |
them, who were derived from Adam by carnall, and     |
sinfull generation, Christ Jesus being conceived     |
miraculously of a Virgin, by the over-shadowing of   |
the Holy Ghost, was not subject to the Law of death; |
and therefore in his person, it is a true answer to  |
this Quis homo?  Here is a man, that shall not see   |
death, that is, he need not see death, he hath not   |
incurred Gods displeasure, he is not involved in a   |
general rebellion, and therfore is not involved in   |
the generall mortality, not included in the generall |
penalty.  He needed not have dyed by the rigour of   |
any Law, all we must; he could not dye by the        |
malice, or force of any Executioner, all we must; at |
least by natures generall Executioners, Age, and     |
Sicknesse; And then, when out of his own pleasure,   |
and to advance our salvation, he would dye, yet he   |
dyed so, as that though there were a dis-union of    |
body and soule, (which is truly death) yet there     |
remained a Nobler, and faster union, then that of    |
body and soule, the Hypostaticall Union of the       |
God-head, not onely to his soule, but to his body    |
too; so that even in his death, both parts were      |
still, not onely inhabited by, but united to the     |
Godhead it selfe; and in respect of that inseparable |
Union, we may answer to this question, Quis homo?    |
Here is a man that shall not see death, that is, he  |
shall see no separation of that, which is            |
incomparably, and incomprehensibly, a better soul    |
then his soule, the God-head shall not be separated  |
from his body.                                       |
                                                     |
  But, that which is indeed the most direct, and     |
literall answer, to this question, is, That whereas  |
the death in this Text, is intended of such a death, |
as hath Dominion over us, and from which we have no  |
power to raise our selves, we may truly, and fully   |
answer to his Quis homo? here is a man, that shall   |
never see death so, but that he shall even in the    |
jawes, and teeth of death, and in the bowels and     |
wombe of the grave, and in the sink, and furnace of  |
hell it selfe, retaine an Almighty power, and an     |
effectuall purpose, to deliver his soule from death, |
by a glorious, a victorious, and a Triumphant        |
Resurrection: So it is true, Christ Jesus dyed, else |
none of us could live; but yet hee dyed not so, as   |
is intended in this question; Not by the necessity   |
of any Law, not by the violence of any Executioner,  |
not by the separation of his best soule, (if we may  |
so call it) the God-head, nor by such a separation   |
of his naturall, and humane soule, as that he would  |
not, or could not, or did not resume it againe.      |
                                                     |
  If then this question had beene asked of Angels at |
first, Quis Angelus? what Angel is that, that        |
stands, and shall not fall? though as many of those  |
Angels, as were disposed to that answer, Erimus      |
similes Altissimo, We will be like God, and stand of |
our selves, without any dependance upon him, did     |
fall, yet otherwise they might have answered the     |
question fairly, All we may stand, if we will; If    |
this question had been asked of Adam in Paradise,    |
Quis homo? though when he harkned to her, who had    |
harkned to that voyce, Eritis sicut Dii, You shall   |
be as Gods, he fell too, yet otherwise, he might     |
have answered the question fairly so, I may live,    |
and not dye, if I will; so, if this question be      |
asked of us now, as the question implies the         |
generall penalty, as it considers us onely as the    |
sons of Adam, we have no other answer, but that by   |
Adam sin entred upon all, and death by sin upon all; |
as it implies the state of them onely, whom Christ   |
at his second comming shall finde upon earth, wee    |
have no other answer but a modest, non liquet, we    |
are not sure, whether we shall dye then, or no; wee  |
are onely sure, it shall be so, as most conduces to  |
our good, and Gods glory; but as the question        |
implies us to be members of our Head, Christ Jesus,  |
as it was a true answer in him, it is true in every  |
one of us, adopted in him, Here is a man that        |
liveth, and shall not see death.                     |
                                                     |
  Death and life are in the power of the tongue,     | Prov. 
sayes Solomon, in another sense; and in this sense   | 18:21
too, If my tongue, suggested by my heart, and by my  |
heart rooted in faith, can say, Non moriar, non      |
moriar; If I can say, (and my conscience doe not     |
tell me, that I belye mine owne state) if I can say, |
That the blood of my Saviour runs in my veines, That |
the breath of his Spirit quickens all my purposes,   |
that all my deaths have their Resurrection, all my   |
sins their remorses, all my rebellions their         |
reconciliations, I will harken no more after this    |
question, as it is intended de morte naturali, of a  |
naturall death, I know I must die that death, what   |
care I? nor de morte spirituali, the death of sin, I |
know I doe, and shall die so; why despaire I? but I  |
will finde out another death, mortem raptus, a death | 2 Cor. 12.
of rapture, and of extasie, that death which S. Paul | Acts 9
died more then once, The death which S. Gregory      | Greg.
speaks of, Divina contemplatio quoddam sepulchrum    |
animae, The contemplation of God, and heaven, is a   |
kinde of buriall, and Sepulchre, and rest of the     |
soule; and in this death of rapture, and extasie, in |
this death of the Contemplation of my interest in my |
Saviour, I shall finde my self, and all my sins      |
enterred, and entombed in his wounds, and like a     |
Lily in Paradise, out of red earth, I shall see my   |
soule rise out of his blade, in a candor, and in an  |
innocence, contracted there, acceptable in the sight |
of his Father.                                       |
                                                     |
  Though I have been dead, in the delight of sin, so |
that that of S. Paul, That a Widow that liveth in    | 1 Tim. 5:6
pleasure, is dead while she liveth, be true of my    |
soule, that so, viduatur, gratia mortua, when Christ |
is dead, not for the soule, but in the soule, that   |
the soule hath no sense of Christ, Viduatur anima,   |
the soul is a Widow, and no Dowager, she hath lost   |
her husband, and hath nothing from him; yea though I | Esay 28:15
have made a Covenant with death, and have been at an |
agreement with hell, and in a vain confidence have   |
said to my self, that when the overflowing scourge   |
shall passe through, it shall not come to me, yet    |
God shall annull that covenant; he shall bring that  |
scourge, that is, some medicinall correction upon    |
me, and so give me a participation of all the        |
stripes of his son; he shall give me a sweat, that   |
is, some horrour, and religious feare, and so give   |
me a participation of his Agony; he shall give me a  |
diet, perchance want, and penury, and so a           |
participation of his fasting; and if he draw blood,  |
if he kill me, all this shall be but Mors raptus, a  |
death of rapture towards him, into a heavenly, and   |
assured Contemplation, that I have a part in all his |
passion, yea such an intire interest in his whole    |
passion, as though all that he did, or suffered, had |
been done, and suffered for my soule alone; Quasi    | 2 Cor. 6:9
moriens, & ecce vivo: some shew of death I shall     |
have, for I shall sin; and some shew of death again, |
for I shall have a dissolution of this Tabernacle;   |
Sed ecce vivo, still the Lord of life will keep me   |
alive, and that with an Ecce, Behold, I live; that   |
is, he will declare, and manifest my blessed state   |
to me; I shall not sit in the shadow of death; no    |
nor shall I not sit in darknesse; his gracious       |
purpose shall evermore be upon me, and I shall ever  |
discerne that gracious purpose of his; I shall not   |
die, nor I shall not doubt that I shall; If I be     |
dead within doores, (If I have sinned in my heart)   |
why, Suscitavit in domo, Christ gave a Resurrection  | Mat. 9:23
to the Rulers daughter within doores, in the house;  |
If I be dead in the gate, (If I have sinned in the   |
gates of my soul) in mine Eies, or Eares, or Hands,  |
in actuall sins, why, Suscitavit in porta, Christ    | Luke 7:11
gave a Resurrection to the young man at the gate of  |
Naim.  If I be dead in the grave, (in customary, and |
habituall sins) why, Suscitavit in Sepulchro, Christ | John 11
gave a Resurrection to Lazarus in the grave too.  If |
God give me mortem raptus, a death of rapture, of    |
extasie, of fervent Contemplation of Christ Jesus, a |
Transfusion, a Transplantation, a Transmigration, a  |
Transmutation into him, (for good digestion brings   |
alwaies assimilation, certainly, if I come to a true |
meditation upon Christ, I come to a conformity with  |
Christ) this is principally that Pretiosa mors       | Psal.
Sanctorum, Pretious in the sight of the Lord, is the | 116:15
death of his Saints, by which they are dead and      |
buryed, and risen again in Christ Jesus; pretious is |
that death, by which we apply that pretious blood to |
our selves, and grow strong enough by it, to meet    |
Davids question, Quis homo? what man? with Christs   |
answer, Ego homo, I am the man, in whom whosoever    |
abideth, shall not see death.                        |

_________________________________________________________________

  _____________________________________________________________

John Donne
preached March 28, 1619
published as Sermon XXVII in _LXXX Sermons_, 1630

Typed in by Elizabeth T. Knuth, 5 October 1997, from:

John Donne, _LXXX Sermons preached by that learned and reverend 
divine John Donne, Dr. in divinity, late Deane of the Cathedrall, 
Church of S. Pauls London_ (London: Printed for Richard Royston, 
in Ivie-Lane, and Richard Marriot, 1640) 267-274.

This text is in the public domain.  Copying is encouraged.

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