Ultima, = the last things in reference to the first and middle things

But (O horror!) death is not all, see yet more Sergeants, Devils, and Dragons are about thy bed, and these are they that will hurry away thy soul to hell. How? Devils; O worldling stay thy soul, and never yield it! better to die a thousand ⟨p. 75⟩deaths, then to leave it in their hands; but alas, thou canst not choose, thy last hour is come, and here is neither hope, nor help, nor place of any longer tarrying. See but the misery of a miserable soul! what shall it do? whither shall it fly from these damned Furies? would they take it, and tear it into nothing, it were somewhat tolerable: but to tear it in pieces, and never to make end of tearing, to give it torments without all patience or resistance; this is that load which it cannot bear. and yet (O extremity!) it ever, ever must be born. Think on this, O my soul! and whilst thou hast a minutes stay in this body, call upon God to prevent this arrest of Devils: was it not (think ye) a terror to this rich man, when so many hell hounds waited for his soul? we read of one man, ¹who being took away with a Devil through the air, was said so to roar and yell, that many miles distant his noise was heard, to many a mans trembling. And if a soul had but the organs of a sound, what a shriek would it make, being seized on by a Devil? witness the cries of many desperate souls, when as yet they are safe in their beds, how do they roar and rage? how do they call and cry, Help, help us, save us, deliver us from these fiends about us! these are those evening wolves enraged with hellish hunger, these are those ramping Lyons ever ready to devour our souls, these are those walkers up and down the earth, which are now come and entered into this rich mans lodging.² Wheresoever the dead carcass is, thither (saith our Saviour) will the Eagles resort: and wheresoever a damned soul is, thither with a lacrity will these spirits come: O how they fly and flutter round about him, what fires do they breathe to enkindle them on his soul? what claws do they open, to receive her at the parting? and what astonishment is that poor soul in, that perceives these Sergeants even ready to clasp their in her burning arms? See (O Cosmopolite) what thy sin hath caused!

But (O horrour!) death is not all, see yet more Sergeants, Devils, and Dragons are about thy bed, and these are they that will hurrie away thy soul to hell. How? Devils; O worldling stay thy soul, and never yield it! better to die a thousand