whole processe second my rule with his example that so what might seeme obscure in the one may by the other be explained and the same steps he seeth me take in this he may accordingly tread in any other Theme CHAP. XVIII FIrst therefore it shall be expedient to consider seriously The practice of Meditation wherein First we begin with some description of that we meditate of what the thing is whereof we meditate What then O my soule is the life of the Saints whereof thou studiest Who are the Saints but those which hauing beene weakly holy vpon earth are perfectly holy aboue which euen on earth were perfectly holy in their Sauiour now are so in themselues which ouercomming on earth are truly canonized in Heauen What is their life but that blessed estate aboue wherein their glorified soule hath a full fruition of God CHAP. XIX THe nature whereof Secondly followes an easie and voluntary diuision of the matter meditated after we haue thus shadowed out to our selues by a description not curious alwaies and exactly framed according to the rules of Art but sufficient for our owne conceit the next is if it shall seeme needfull or if the matter will beare or offer it some easie and voluntary diuision whereby our thoughts shall haue more roome made for them and our proceeding shall be more distinct There is a life of nature wh n thou my soule dwellest in this body and informest thine earthly burthen There is a life of grace when the Spirit of God dwells in thee There is a life of glory when the body being vnited to thee both shall be vnited to God or when in the meane time being separated from thy companion thou inioyest God alone This life of thine therefore as the other hath his ages hath his statures for it entreth vpon his birth when thou passest out of thy body and changest this earthly house for an Heauenly It enters into his full vigour when at the day of the common resurrection thou resumest this thy companion vnlike to it selfe like to thee like to thy Sauiour immortall now and glorious In this life here may be degrees there can be no imperfection If some be like the skie others like the Starres yet all shine If some sit at their Sauiours right hand others at his left all are blessed If some vessels hold more all are full none complaineth of want none enuieth at him that hath more CHAP. XX. 3 A consideration of the causes thereof in all kinds of them WHich done it shall be requisit for our perfecter vnderstanding and for the laying grounds of matter for our affection to carry it thorow those other principall places and heads of reason which Nature hath taught euery man both for knowledge and amplification the first whereof are the Causes of all sorts Whence is this eternall life but from him which onely is eternall which onely is the fountaine of life yea life it selfe Who but the same God that giues our temporall life giueth also that eternall The Father bestoweth it the Sonne meriteth it the Holy Ghost seales and applieth it Expect it onely from him O my soule whose free election gaue thee the first title to it to be purchased by the bloud of thy Sauiour For thou shalt not therefore be happy because he saw that thou wouldst be good but therefore art thou good because he hath ordained thou shalt be happy Hee hath ordained thee to life he hath giuen thee a Sauiour to giue this life vnto thee faith whereby thou mightest attaine to this Sauiour his Word by which thou mightst attaine to this faith what is there in this not his And yet not his so simply as that it is without thee without thy merit indeed not without thine act Thou liuest here through his blessing but by bread thou shalt liue aboue through his mercy but by thy faith below apprehending the Author of thy life And yet as he will not saue thee without thy faith so thou canst neuer haue faith without his gift Looke vp to him therefore O my soule as the beginner and finisher of thy saluation and while thou magnifiest the Author be rauished with the glory of the worke which farre passeth both the tongue of Angels and the heart of man It can be no good thing that is not there How can they want water that haue the spring Where God is enioyed in whom only all things are good what good can bee wanting And what perfection of blisse is there where all goodnesse is met and vnited In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for euermore O blessed reflection of glory We see there as we are seene in that we are seene it is our glory in that we see it is Gods glory therefore doth be glorifie vs that our glory should be to his How worthy art thou O Lord that through vs thou shouldest looke at thy selfe CHAP. XXI 4 The Consideration of the Fruits and Effects THe next place shal be the fruits and effects following vpon their seuerall causes which also affoords very feeling and copious matter to our meditation wherein it shall be euer best not so much to seeke for all as to chuse out the chiefest No maruell then if from this glory proceed vnspeakable ioy and from this ioy the sweet songs of praise and thanksgiuing The Spirit bids vs when we are merry sing How much more then when we are merry without all mixture of sorrow beyond all measure of our earthly affections shall we sing ioyfull Hallelu-iahs and Hosannahs to him that dwelleth in the highest Heauens our hearts shall be so full that we cannot chuse but sing and wee cannot but sing melodiously There is no iar in this Musicke no end of this song O blessed change of the Saints They doe nothing but weepe below and now nothing but sing aboue We sowed in teares reape in ioy there was some comfort in those teares when they were at worst but there is no danger of complaint in this heauenly mirth If we cannot sing here with Angels On earth peace yet there wee shall sing with them Glory to God on high and ioyning our voices to theirs shall make vp that celestiall consort which none can either heare or beare part in and not be happy CHAP. XXII 5 Consideration of the Subiect wherein or whereabout it is AFter which comes to be considered the Subiect either wherein that is or whereabout that is imploied which we meditate of As And indeed what lesse happinesse doth the very place promise wherein this glory is exhibited which is no other than the Paradise of God Here below we dwell or rather we wander in a continued wildernes there we shall rest vs in the true Eden I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse Kings vse not to dwell in Cottages of Clay but in Royall Courts fit for their estate How much more shall the King of Heauen who hath
Redeemer If thou die not if not willingly thou goest contrary to him and shalt neuer meet him Si per singules diâ—s pro â—o moreremur qui nos dlexit non sic debitum exolueremus Chrys Though thou shouldest euery day die a death for him thou couldest neuer requite his one death and doest thou sticke at one Euery word hath his force both to him and thee he died which is Lord of life and commander of death thou art but a tenant of life a subiect of death and yet it was not a dying but a giuing vp not of a vanishing and airy breath but of a spirituall soule which after separation hath an entire life in it selfe Hee gaue vp the Ghost hee died that hath both ouercome and sanctified and sweetned death What fearest thou Hee hath pull'd out the sting and malignity of death If thou bee a Christian carry it in thy bosome it hurts thee not Darest thou not trust thy Redeemer If hee had not died Death had beene a Tyrant now hee is a slaue O Death where is thy sting O Graue where is thy victory Yet the Spirit of God saith not hee died but gaue vp the ghost The very Heathen Poet saith Hee durst not say that a good man dies It is worth the noting me thinkes that when Saint Luke would describe to vs the death of Annanias and Sapphirâ— hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee expired but when Saint Iohn would describe Christs death hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gaue vp the ghost How How gaue he it vp and whither So as after a sort he retained it his soule parted from his body his Godhead was neuer distracted either from soule or body this vnion is not in nature but in person If the natures of Christ could be diuided each would haue his subsistence so there should be more persons God forbid one of the natures thereof may haue a separation in it selfe the soule from the body one nature cannot bee separate from other or either nature from the person If you cannot conceiue wonder the Sonne of God hath wedded vnto himselfe our humanity without all possibility of diuorce the body hangs on the Crosse the soule is yeelded the Godhead is 〈◊〉 vnited to them both acknowledges sustaines them both The soule in his agony foules not the presence of the Godhead the body vpon the Crosse â—â—â—les not the presence of the soule Yet as the Fathers of Chalcedon say truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indiuisibly inseparably is the Godhead with both of these still and euer one and the same person The Passion of Christ as Augustine was the sleepe of his Diuinity so I may say The death of Christ was the sleepe of his humanitie If hee sleepe hee shall doe well said that Disciple of Lazarus Death was too weake to dissolue the eternall bonds of this heauenly coniunction Let not vs Christians goe too much by sense wee may bee firmely knit to God and not feele it thou canst not hope to be so neere thy God as Christ was vnited personally thou canst not feare that God should seeme more absent from thee Quantumcunque te dâ—ieceris haâ—iâ—ior non eris Christo Hieron than he did from his own Son yet was he still one with both body and soule when they were diuided from themselues when he was absent to sense he was present to faith when absent in vision yet in vnion one and the same so will he be to thy soule when hee is at worst Hee is thine and thou are his if thy hold seeme loosened his is not When temptations will not let thee see him he sees thee and possesses thee onely beleeue thou against sense aboue hope and though he kill thee yet trust in him Whither gaue he it vp Himselfe expresses Father into thy hands And This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise It is iustice to restore whence wee receiue Into thy hands Hee knew where it should be both safe and happy True he might bee bold thou sayest as the Sonne with the Father The seruants haue done so Dauid before him Stephen after him And lest we should not thinke it our common right Father saith hee I will that those thou hast giuen mee may bee with mee euen where I am he wils it therefore it must bee It is not presumption but faith to charge God with thy spirit neither can there euer be any beleeuing soule so meane that he should refuse it all the feare is in thy selfe how canst thou trust thy iewell with a stranger What sudden familiarity is this God hath beene with thee and gone by thee thou hast not saluted him and now in all the haste thou bequeathest thy soule to him On what acquaintance How desperate is this carelesnesse If thou haue but a little money whether thou keepe it thou layest it vp in thy Temple of trust or whether thou let it thou art sure of good assurance sound bonds If but a little land how carefully doest thou make firme conueiances to thy desired heires If goods thy Will hath taken secure order who shall enioy them Wee need not teach you Citizens to make sure worke for your estates If children thou disposest of them in trades with portions onely of thy soule which is thy selfe thou knowest not what shall become The world must haue it no more thy selfe wouldest keepe it but thou knowest thou canst not Sathan would haue it thou knowest not whether he shall thou wouldest haue God haue it and thou knowest not whether he will yea thy heart is now ready with Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord O the fearefull and miserable estate of that man that must part with his soule he knowes not whither which if thou wouldest auoid as this very warning shall iudge thee if thou doe not be acquainted with God in thy life that thou mayest make him the Guardian of thy soule in thy death Giuen vp it must needs be but to him that hath gouerned it if thou haue giuen it to Sathan in thy life how canst thou hope God will in thy death entertaine it Did you not hate me and expell mee out of my fathers house how then come yee to mee now in this time of your tribulation said Iephta to the men of Gilead No no either giue vp thy soule to God while he cals for it in his word in the prouocations of his loue in his afflictions in the holy motion of his spirit to thine or else when thou wouldest giue it he will none of it but as a Iudge to deliuer it to the Tormentor What should God doe with an vncleane drunken prophane proud couetous soule Without holinesse it is no seeing of God Depart from me ye wicked I know ye not Goe to the gods you haue serued See how God is euen with men they had in the time of the Gospell said to the holy name of Israel Depart from vs now in the time of iudgement he
that they are my fellowes in respect of creation whereas there is no proportion betwixt mee and my Maker 66 One said It is good to inure thy youth to speake well for good speech is many times drawne into the affection But I would feare that speaking well without feeling were the next way to procure an habituall hypocrisie Let my good words follow good affections not goe before them I will therefore speake as I thinke but withall I will labour to thinke well and then I know I cannot but speake well 67 When I consider my soule I could be proud to thinke of how diuine a nature and qualitie it is but when I cast downe mine eies to my body as the Swanne to her blacke legs and see what loathsome matter issues from the mouth nostrils cares pores and other passages and how most carrion-like of all other creatures it is after death I am iustly ashamed to thinke that so excellent a guest dwels but in a meere cleanly dunghill 68 Euery worldling is a mad man For besides that hee preferreth profit and pleasure to Vertue the World to God Earth to Heauen Time to Eternitie hee pampers the body and starues the soule He feedes one Fowle an hundred times that it may feed him but once and seekes all Lands and Seas for dainties not caring whether any or what repast he prouideth for his soule Hee cloathes the body with all rich ornaments that it may bee as faire without as it is filthie within whilest his soule goes bare and naked hauing not a tag of knowledge to couer it Yea hee cares not to destroy his soule to please the body when for the saluation of the soule he will not so much as hold the body short of the least pleasure What is if this be not a reasonable kinde of madnesse Let me enioy my soule no longer than I preferre it to my body Let mee haue a deformed leane crooked vnhealthfull neglected body so that I may finde my soule sound strong well furnished well disposed both for earth and heauen 69 Asa was sicke but of his feet farre from the heart yet because he sought to the Physicians not to God he escaped not Ezechiah was sicke to die yet because he trusted to God not to Physicians he was restored Meanes without God cannot helpe God without meanes can and often doth I will vse good meanes not rest in them 70 A mans best monument is his vertuous actions Foolish is the hope of immortality and future praise by the cost of senselesse stone when the Passenger shall onely say Here lies a faire stone and a filthy carkasse That only can report thee rich but for other praises thy selfe must build thy monument aliue and write thy owne Epitaph in honest and honourable actions Which are so much more noble than the other as liuing men are better than dead stones Nay I know not if the other be not the way to worke a perpetuall succession of infamy whiles the censorious Reader vpon occasion therof shall comment vpon thy bad life whereas in this euery mans heart is a Toombe and euery mans tongue writeth an Epitaph vpon the well-behaued Either I will procure me such a monument to be remembred by or else it is better to be inglorious than infamous 71 The basest things are euer most plentifull History and experience tell vs that some kinde of Mouse breedeth 120 young ones in one nest whereas the Lion or Elephant beareth but one at once I haue euer found The least wit yeeldeth the most words It is both the surest and wisest way to Speake little and Thinke more 72 An euill man is clay to God wax to the Deuill God may stamp him into powder or temper him anew but none of his meanes can melt him Contrariwise a good man is Gods wax and Satans clay he relents at euery looke of God but is not stirred at any tentation I had rather bow than breake to God but for Satan or the world I had rather be broken in peeces with their violence than suffer my selfe to be bowed vnto their obedience 73 It is an easie matter for a man to be carelesse of himselfe and yet much easier to be enamoured of himselfe For if he be a Christian whiles he contemneth the world perfectly it is hard for him to reserue a competent measure of loue to himselfe if a worldling it is not possible but he must ouer-loue himselfe I will striue for the meane of both and so hate the world that I may care for my selfe and so care for my selfe that I bee not in loue with the world 74 I will hate popularitie and ostentation as euer dangerous but most of all in Gods businesse which who so affect doe as ill spokesmen who when they are sent to wooe for God speake for themselues I know how dangerous it is to haue God my Riuall 75 Earth affords no sound contentment For what is there vnder Heauen not troublesome besides that which is called pleasure and that in the end I finde most irksome of all other My soule shall euer looke vpward for ioy and downeward for penitence 76 God is euer with me euer before me I know he cannot but ouer-see me alwaies though my eies be held that I see him not yea he is still within me though I feele him not neither is there any moment that I can liue without God Why doe I not therefore alwaies liue with him Why doe I not account all houres lost wherein I enioy him not 77 There is no man so happy as the Christian When he lookes vp vnto heauen hee thinkes That is my home the God that made it and owes it is my Father the Angels more glorious in nature than my selfe are my attendants mine enemies are my vassals Yea those things which are the terriblest of all to the wicked are most pleasant to him When he heares God thunder aboue his head he thinks This is the voice of my Father When he remembreth the Tribunall of the last Iudgement he thinkes It is my Sauiour that sits in it when death he esteemes it but as the Angell set before Paradise which with one blow admits him to eternall ioy And which is most of all nothing in earth or hell can make him miserable There is nothing in the world worth enuying but a Christian 78 As Man is a little world so euery Christian is a little Church within himselfe As the Church therefore is sometimes in the wane through persecution other times in her full glory and brightnesse so let mee expect my selfe sometimes drouping vnder Tentations and sadly hanging downe the head for the want of the feeling of Gods presence at other times caried with the full saile of a resolute assurance to heauen knowing that as it is a Church at the weakest stay so shall I in my greatest deiection hold the Childe of God 79 Tentations on the right hand are more perillous than those on the left and destroy a
One makes a man wise the other good One serues that we may know our dutie the other that we may performe it I will labour in both but I know not in whether more Men cannot practise vnlesse they know and they know in vaine if they practise not 36 There be two things in euery good worke honour and profit The latter God bestowes vpon vs the former he keepes to himselfe The profit of our works redoundeth not to God My weldoing extendeth not to thee The honour of our worke may not be allowed vs. My glorie I will not giue to another I will not abridge God of his part that he may not bereaue me of mine 37 The proud man hath no God the enuious man hath no neighbour the angry man hath not himselfe What can that man haue that wants himselfe What is a man better if he haue himselfe and want all others What is he the neerer if hee haue himselfe and others and yet want God What good is it then to be a man if he be either wrathfull proud or enuious 38 Man that was once the soueraigne Lord of all creatures whom they seruiceably attended at all times is now sent to the very basest of all creatures to learne good qualities Goe to the Pismire c. and see the most contemptible creatures prefer'd before him The Asse knoweth his owner wherein we like the miserable heire of some great Peere whose house is decaied through the treason of our progenitors heare and see what Honours and Lord-ships wee should haue had but now finde our selues below many of the vulgar we haue not so much cause of exaltation that wee are men and not beasts as we haue of humiliation in thinking how much we were once better than we are and that now in many duties we are men inferiour to beasts so as those whom we contemne if they had our reason might more iustly contemne vs and as they are may teach vs by their examples and doe condemne vs by their practice 39 The idle man is the Deuils cushion on which hee taketh his free case who as hee is vncapable of any good so he is fitly disposed for all euill motions The standing water soone stinketh whereas the current euer keepes cleere and cleanly conueying downe all noisome matter that might infect it by the force of his streame If I doe but little good to others by my endeuours yet this is great good to me that by my labour I keepe my selfe from hurt 40 There can be no neerer coniunction in nature than is betwixt the body and the soule yet these two are of so contrarie disposition that as it falls out in an ill-marched man and wife those seruants which the one likes best are most dispraised of the other so here one still takes part against the other in their choice what benefits the one is the hurt of the other The glutting of the body pines the soule and the soule thriues best when the body is pinched Who can wonder that there is such faction amongst others that sees so much in his very selfe True wisdome is to take not with the stronger as the fashion of the world is but with the better following herein not vsurped power but iustice It is not hard to discerne whose the right is whether the seruant should rule or the mistresse I will labour to make and keepe the peace by giuing each part his owne indifferently but if more bee affected with an ambitious contention I will rather beat Hagar out of dores than she shall ouer-rule her mistresse 41 I see Iron first heated red hot in the fire and after beaten and hardened with cold water Thus will I deale with an offending friend first heat him with deserued praise of his vertue and then beat vpon him with reprehension so good nurses when their children are fallen first take them vp and speake them faire chide them afterwards Gentle speech is a good preparatiue for rigor He shall see that I loue him by my approbation and that I loue not his faults by my reproofe If he loue himselfe he will loue those that mislike his vices if he loue not himselfe it matters not whether he loue me 42 The liker we are to God which is the best and onely good the better and happier we must needs be All sinnes make vs vnlike him as being contrary to his perfect holinesse but some shew more direct contrarietie such is enuie For whereas God bringeth good out of euill the enuious man fetcheth euill out of good wherein also his sinne proues a kinde of punishment for whereas to good men euen euill things worke together to their good contrarily to the enuious good things worke together to their euill The euill in any man though neuer so prosperous I will not enuie but pittie The good graces I will not repine at but holily emulate reioicing that they are so good but grieuing that I am no better 43 The couetous man is like a Spider as in this that he doth nothing but lay his nets to catch euery Flie gaping onely for a bootie of gaine so yet more in that whiles hee makes nets for these Flies he consumeth his owne bowels so that which is his life is his death If there be any creature miserable it is he and yet hee is least to be pitied because he makes himselfe miserable such as he is I will acount him and will therefore sweepe downe his webs and hate his poyson 44 In heauen there is all life and no dying in hell is all death and no life In earth there is both liuing and dying which as it is betwixt both so it prepares for both So that he which here below dies to sinne doth after liue in heauen and contrarily hee that liues in sinne vpon earth dies in hell afterwards What if I haue no part of ioy here below but still succession of afflictions The wicked haue no part in heauen and yet they enioy the earth with pleasure I would not change portions with them I reioyce that seeing I cannot haue both yet I haue the better O Lord let me passe both my deaths here vpon earth I care not how I liue or die so I may haue nothing but life to looke for in another world 45 The conceit of proprietie hardens a man against many inconueniences and addeth much to our pleasure The mother abides many vnquiet nights many painfull throes and vnpleasant sauours of her childe vpon this thought It is my owne The indulgent father magnifies that in his owne sonne which he would scarce like in a stranger The want of this to God-ward makes vs so subiect to discontentment and cooleth our delight in him because we thinke of him aloofe as one in whom we are not interessed If we could thinke It is my God that cheereth me with his presence and blessings while I prosper that afflicteth me in loue when I am deiected my Sauiour is at Gods right hand my
good we refuse It is second folly in vs if we thanke him not The foolish babe cries for his fathers bright knife or gilded pilles The wiser father knowes that they can but hurt him and therefore with-holds them after all his teares The childe thinkes he is vsed but vnkindly Euery wise man and himselfe at more yeeres can say it was vsed but childish folly in desiring it in complaining that he missed it The losse of wealth friends health is sometimes gaine to vs. Thy body thy estate is worse thy soule is better why complainest thou SECT XIV The 4. and last part from their issue NAy it shall not be enough mee thinkes if onely wee be but contented and thankfull if not also chearefull in afflictions if that as we feele their paine so wee looke to their end although indeed this is not more requisite than rarely found as being proper onely to the good heart Euery bird can sing in a cleare heauen in a temperate spring that one as most familiar so is most commended that sings merrie notes in the middest of a showre or the dead of Winter Euery Epicure can enlarge his heart to mirth in the middest of his cups and dalliance onely the three children can sing in the furnace Paul and Silas in the stockes Martyrs at the stake It is from heauen that this ioy comes so contrary to all earthly occasions bred in the faithfull heart through a serious and feeling respect to the issue of what he feeles the quiet and vntroubled fruit of his righteousnesse glorie the crowne after his fight after his minute of paine eternity of ioy He neuer lookt ouer the threshold of heauen that cannot more reioyce that he shall be glorious than mourne in present that he is miserable SECT XV. Of the importunitie and terror of Death YEa this consideration is so powerfull that it alone is able to make a part against the feare or sense of the last and greatest of all terribles Death it selfe which in the conscience of his owne dreadfulnesse iustly laughs at all the vaine humane precepts of Tranquillitie appalling the most resolute and vexing the most cheerefull mindes Neither prophane Lucretius with all his Epicurean rules of confidence nor drunken Anacreon with all his wanton Odes can shift off the importunate and violent horrour of this Aduersarie Seest thou the Chaldean Tyrant beset with the sacred bowles of Ierusalem the late spoiles of Gods Temple and in contempt of their owner carowsing healths to his Queenes Concubines Peeres singing amids his cups triumphant carols of praise to his molten and carued gods Wouldest thou euer suspect that this high courage could be abated or that this sumptuous and presumptuous banquet after so royall and iocond continuance should haue any other conclusion but pleasure Stay but one houre longer and thou shalt see that face that now shines with a ruddie glosse according to the colour of his liquor looke pale and gastly stained with the colours of feare and death and that proud hand which now lifts vp her massie Goblets in defiance of God tremble like a leafe in a storme and those strong knees which neuer stooped to the burden of their laden body now not able to beare vp themselues but loosened with a sudden palsie of feare one knocking against the other and all this for that Death writes him a letter of summons to appeare that night before him and accordingly ere the next Sunne sent two Eunuches for his honorable conueiance into another world Where now are those delicate morsels those deep draughts those merry ditties wherewith the palate and eare so pleased themselues What is now become of all those cheerefull looks loose laughters stately port reuels triumphs of the feasting Court Why doth none of his gallant Nobles reuiue the fainted courage of their Lord with a new cup or with some stirring iest shake him out of this vnseasonable melancholy O death how imperious art thou to carnall mindes aggrauating their miserie not onely by expectation of future paine but by the remembrance of the wonted causes of their ioy and not suffering them to see ought but what may torment them Euen that monster of Cesars that had beene so well acquainted with bloud and neuer had sound better sport than in cutting of throats when now it came to his owne turne how effeminate how desperately cowardous did he shew himselfe to the wonder of all Readers that he which was euer so valiant in killing should be so womanishly heartlesse in dying SECT XVI THere are that feare not so much to be dead as to die The grounds of the feare of death the very act of dissolution frighting them with a tormenting expectation of a short but intolerable painfulnesse Which let if the wisdome of God had not interposed to timorous nature there would haue beene many more Lucreces Cleopatraes Achitophels and good lawes should haue found little opportunitie of execution through the wilfull funerals of malefactors For the soule that comes into the body without any at least sensible pleasure departs not from it without an extremitie of paine which varying according to the manner and meanes of separation yet in all violent deaths especially retaineth a violence not to be auoided hard to be endured And if diseases which are destin'd towards death as their end bee so painfull what must the end and perfection of diseases be Since as diseases are the maladies of the body so death is the malady of diseases There are that feare not so much to die as to be dead If the pang be bitter yet it is but short the comfortlesse state of the dead strikes some that could well resolue for the act of their passage Not the worst of the Heathen Emperours made that moanfull dittie on his death-bed wherein he bewraieth to all memory much feeling pittie of his soule for her doubtfull and impotent condition after her parture How doth Platoes worldling bewaile the misery of the graue besides all respect of paine Woe is mee that I shall lie alone rotting in the silent earth amongst the crawling Wormes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not seeing ought aboue not seene Very not-being is sufficiently abhorred of nature if death had no more to make it fearefull But those that haue liued vnder light enough to shew them the gates of hell after thâ—ir passage thorow the gates of death and haue learned that death is not onely horrible for our not-being here but for being infinitly eternally miserable in a future world nor so much for the dissolution of life as the beginning of torment those cannot without the certaine hope of their immunitie but carnally feare to die and hellishly feare to be dead For if it be such paine to die what is it to be euer dying And if the straining or luxation of one ioynt can so afflict vs what shall the racking of the whole body and the torturing of the soule whose animation alone makes the body
him Riches are but a liuelesse and senselesse metall the true God is a liuing God therefore trust in him Riches are but passiues in gift they cannot bestow so much as themselues much lesse ought besides themselues the true God giues you all things to enioy therefore Trust in him the two latter because they are more directly stood vpon and now fall into our way require a further discourse Elchai The liuing God is an ancient and vsuall title to the Almighty The liuing especially when he would disgrace an vnworthy riuall As S. Paul in his speech to the Lystrians opposes to their vaine Idols the liuing God Viuo ego As I liue is the oath of God for this purpose as Hierom noteth neither doe I remember any thing besides his hâ—linesse and his life that he sweares by When Moses askt Gods name he described himselfe by I AM. He is hee liues and nothing is nothing liues absolutely but hee all other things by participation from him In all other things their life and they are two but God is his owne life and the life of God is no other then the liuing God and because he is his owne life he is eternall for as Thomas argues truly against the Gentiles Nothing ceases to be but by a separation of life and nothing can bee separated from it selfe for euery separation is a diuision of one thing from another Most iustly therefore is he which is absolute simple eternall in his being called the liuing God Although not onely the life that he hath in himselfe but the life that he giues to his creatures challengeth a part in this title A glimpse whereof perhaps the Heathen saw when they called him Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to liue In him we liue saith S. Paul to his Athenians As light is from the Sunne so is life from God which is the true soule of the world more for without him it could not be so much as a carcasse and spreads it selfe into all the animate creatures Life we say is sweet and so it is indeed the most excellent and precious thing that is deriued from the common influence of God There is nothing before life but Being and Being makes no distinction of things for that can be nothing that hath no Being Life makes the first and greatest diuision Those creatures therefore which haue life we esteeme far beyond those that haue it not how noble soeuer otherwise Those things therefore which haue the perfitest life must needs be the best Needs then must it follow that he which is life it selfe who is absolute simple eternall the fountaine of all that life which is in the world is most worthy of all the adoration ioy loue and confidence of our hearts and of the best improuement of that life which he hath giuen vs. Trust therefore in the liuing God Couetousnesse the Spirit of God tels vs is Idolatry or as our old Translation turnes it worshipping of images Euery stampe or impression in his coyne is to the couetous man a very idoll And what madnesse is there in this idolatry to dote vpon a base creature and to bestow that life which wee haue from God vpon a creature that hath no life in it selfe and no price but from men Let me then perswade euery soule that heares me this day as Iacob did his houshold Gen. 35.2 Put away the strange gods that are among you and be cleane and as S. Paul did his Lystrians Oh turne away from these vanities vnto the liuing God The last attractiue of our trust to God is his mercy and liberality Who giues vs 〈◊〉 all things to enioy Who giues vs richly all things to enioy A theme wherein yee will grant it easie to leese our selues First God not onely hath all in himselfe but he giues to vs. He giues not somewhat though a crust is more then we are worthy of but all things And not a little of all but richly and all this not to looke on but to enioy Euery word would require not a seuerall houre but a life to meditate of it and the tongue not of men but of Angels to expresse it It is here with vs as in a throng we can get neither in nor out But as we vse to say of Cares so it shall be with our discourse that the greatnesse of it shall procure silence and the more we may say of this head the lesse wee will say It shall content vs onely to top these sheaues since we cannot stand to thresh them out Whither can ye turne your eyes to looke beside the bounty of God If yee looke vpward His mercy reacheth to the heauens If downeward The earth is full of his goodnesse and so is the broad sea If yee looke about you What is it that hee hath not giuen vs Ayre to breathe in fire to warme vs water to coole vs clothes to couer vs food to nourish vs fruits to refresh vs yea delicates to please vs beasts to serue vs Angels to attend vs heauen to receiue vs and which is aboue all his owne Sonne to redeeme vs. Lastly if ye looke into your selues Hath hee not giuen vs a soule to informe vs senses to informe our soule faculties to furnish that soule Vnderstanding the great surueyor of the secrets of Nature and Grace Fantasie and Inuention the master of the workes Memory the great keeper or Master of the rolles of the soule a power that can make amends for the speed of Time in causing him to leave behinde him those things which else he would so cary away as if they had not beene Will which is the Lord Paramount in the state of the soule the commander of our actions the elector of our resolutions Iudgement which is the great Councellor of the will Affections which are the seruants of them both a bodie fit to execute the charge of the soule so wondrously disposed as that euery part hath best opportunitie to his owne functions so qualified with health arising from proportion of humours that like a watch kept in good tune it goes right and is fit to serue the soule and maintaine it selfe an estate that yeelds all due conueniences for both soule and body seasonable times raine and sunshine peace in our borders competency if not plenty of all commodities good lawes religious wise iust Gouernours happy and flourishing dayes and aboue all the liberty of the Gospell Cast vp your bookes O yee Citizens and summe vp your receits I am deceiued if he that hath least shall not confesse his obligations infinit There are three things especially wherein yee are beyond others and must acknowledge your selues deeper in the Books of God then the rest of the world Let the first be the cleare deliuerance from that wofull iudgement of the pestilence Oh remember those sorrowfull times Aboue 30000. in one yeare when euer moneth swept away thousands from among you When a
as to giue vs all lookes for a returne of some offering from vs If we present him with nothing but our sins how can wee looke to bee accepted The sacrifices vnder the Gospell are spirituall with these must we come into the presence of God if we desire to carie away remission and fauour The Philistims knew well that it were bootlesse for them to offer what they listed their next suit is to be directed in the matter of their oblation Pagans can teach vs how vnsafe it is to walke in the wayes of Religion without a guide yet here their best teachers can but guesse at their duty and must deuise for the people that which the people durst not impose vpon themselues The golden Emerods and Mise were but coniecturall prescripts With what security may we consult with them which haue their directions from the mouth and hand of the Almighty God strucke the Philistims at once in their god in their bodies it their land In their god by his ruine and dismembering In their bodies by the Emerods In their land by the Mise That base vermine did God send among them on purpose to shame their Dagon and them that they might see how vnable their god was which they thought the Victor of the Arke to subdue the least Mouse which the true God did create and command to plague them This plague vpon the fields beganne together with that vpon their bodies it was mentioned not complained of till they think of dismissing the Arke Greater crosses doe commonly swallow vp the lesse At least lesser euils are either silent or vnheard while the eare is filled with the clamor of the greater Their very Princes were punished with the Mise as well as with the Emerods God knowes no persons in the execution of iudgements the least and meanest of all Gods creatures is sufficient to be the reuenger of his Creator GOD sent them Mise and Emerods of flesh and blood they returne him both these of gold to imply both that these iudgements came out from God and that they did gladly giue him the glory of that whereof hee gaue them paine and sorrow and that they would willingly buy off their paine with the best of their substance The proportion betwixt the complaint and satisfaction is more precious to him then the Metall There was a publike confession in this resemblance which is so pleasing vnto God that he rewards it euen in wicked men with a relaxation of outward punishment The number was no lesse significant then the forme Fiue golden Emerods and Mise for the fiue Princes and diuisions of Philistims As GOD made no difference in punishing so they make none in their oblation The people are comprised in them in whom they are vnited their seuerall Princes They were one with their Prince their Offering is one with his as they were Ring-leaders in the sinne so they must be in the satisfaction In a multitude it is euer seene as in a beast that the body followes the head Of all others great men had need to looke to their wayes it is in them as in figures one stands for a thousand One Offering serues not all there must bee fiue according to the fiue heads of the offence Generalities will not content God euery man must make his seuerall peace if not in himselfe yet in his head Nature taught them a shadow of that the substance and perfection whereof is taught vs by the grace of the Gospell euery soule must satisfie God if not in it selfe yet in him in whom we are both one and absolute we are the body whereof Christ is the head our sinne is in our selues our satisfaction must be in him Samuel himselfe could not haue spoken more diuinely then these Priests of Dagon they doe not onely talke of giuing glory to the God of Israel but fall into an holy and graue expostulation wherefore then should ye harden your hearts as the Aegyptians and Pharaoh hardned their hearts when hee wrought wonderfully amongst them c. They confesse a supereminent and reuenging hand of God ouer their gods they parallell their plagues with the Aegyptian they make vse of Pharaohs sin and iudgement What could be better said All Religions haue afforded them that could speake well These good words left them still both Philistims and superstitious How should men be hypocrites if they had not good tongues yet as wickednesse can hardly hide it selfe these holy speeches are not without a tincture of that Idolatry wherewith the heart was infected For they professe care not onely of the persons and lands of the Philistims but of their gods that hee may take his hand from you and from your gods Who would thinke that wisedome and folly could lodge so neere together that the same men should haue care both of the glory of the true God and preseruation of the false That they should bee so vaine as to take thought for those gods which they granted to be obnoxious vnto an higher Deitie Oft times euen one word bewrayeth a whole packe of falshood and though Superstition be a cleanly counterfeit yet some one slip of the tongue discouers it as we say of deuils which though they put on faire formes yet are they knowne by their clouen feet What other warrant these superstitious Priests had for the maine substance of their aduice I know not sure I am the probability of the euent was faire that two Kine neuer vsed to any yoake should runne from their Calues which were newly 〈◊〉 vp from them to draw the Arke home into a contrary way must needs argue an hand aboue Nature What else should ouer-rule bruite creatures to preferre a forced cariage vnto a naturall burden What should cary them from their owne home towards the home of the Arke What else should guide an vntamed and vntaught Teame in as right a path toward Israel as their Teachers could haue gone What else could make very beasts more wise then their Masters There is a speciall prouidence of God in the very motions of bruit creatures Neither Philistims nor Israelites saw ought that droue them yet they saw them so runne as those that were led by a Diuine Conduct The reasonlesse creatures also doe the will of their Maker euery act that is done either be them or to them makes vp the decree of the Almighty and if in extraordinary actions and euents his hand is more visible yet it is no lesse certainly present in the common Little did the Israelites of Bethshemesh looke for such a fight whiles they were reaping their Wheat in the Valley as to see the Arke of God come running to them without a Conuoy neither can it be said whether they were more affected with ioy or with astonishment with ioy at the presence of the Arke with astonishment at the Miracle of the transportation Downe went their Sickles and now euery man runs to reap the comfort of this better haruest to meet that Bread of Angels to
strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismayed with them if wee did not forget our condition Wee haue not receiued the spirit of bondage to feare againe but the spirit of Adoption whereby wee cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that wee are thine how can wee feare any of those spirituall wickednesses Giue vs assurance of thy fauour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinarie fauour that the Virgin found in Heauen No mortall Creature was euer thus graced that hee should take part of her nature that was the God of nature that hee which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her wombe should yeeld that flesh which was personally vnited to the Godhead that shee should beare him that vpholds the world Loe thou shalt conceiue and beare a Sonne and shalt call his name Iesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Iesus conceiued Both are maruellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders than the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a virgin is the reimprouement of that power which created the World but that God should bee incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Maiestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the Mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soule If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall That was here priuiledge the was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Sauiour art not formed againe Blessed bee thou that hast herein made vs blessed For what wombe can conceiue thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happie Doubtlesse the Virgin vnderstood the Angell as hee meant of a present Conception which made her so much more inquisitiue into the manner and meanes of this euent How shall this bee since I know not a man That shee should conceiue a Son by the knowledge of man after her Marriage consummate could haue bin no wonder But how then should that Sonne of hers bee the Sonne of God This demand was higher how her present Virginity should bee instantly fruitfull might bee well worthy of admiration of inquirie Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelitie yea rather this question argues Faith It takes for granted that which an vnbeleeuing heart would haue stuck at She sayes not who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it bee erected But smoothly supposing all those strang things would be done shee insists onely in that which did necessarily require a further intimation and doth not distrust but demand Neither doth shee say this cannot be nor how can this be but how shall this be so doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie curiositie but to informe iudgement and vphold faith Hee doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Author of this act The Holy Ghost shall come vpon thee and the power of the most High shall ouer-shaddow thee It is enough to know who is the vndertaker and what he will doe O God what doe wee seeke a cleere light where thou wilt haue a shaddow No Mother knowes the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and bloud to search how the Sonne of God tooke flesh and bloud of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those workes which hee doth immediatly concerning himselfe those that concerne vs hee hath reuealed Secrets to God things reuealed to vs. This answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message yet after the Angels Solution wee heare of no more Obiections no more Interrogations The faithfull heart when it once vnderstands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it selfe in a quiet exspectation Behold the Seruant of the Lord bee it to mee according to thy Word There is not a more noble proofe of our Faith than to captiuate all the powers of our vnderstanding and will to our Creator and without all sciscitations to goe blindfold whither he will leade vs All disputations with God after his will knowne arise from infidelitie Great is the Mysterie of godlinesse and if wee will giue Nature leaue to cauill we cannot bee Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it In the humilitie of our obedience wee resigne our selues ouer to thee Behold the Seruants of the Lord bee it vnto vs according to thy Word How fit was her wombe to conceiue the flesh of the Sonne of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose brest had so soone by the power of the same Spirit conceiued an assent to the will of God and now of an Hand-mayd of God shee is aduanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath shee said bee it done than it is done the Holy Ghost ouer-shaddowes her and formes her Sauiour in her owne bodie This very Angell that talkes with the blessed Virgin could scarce haue bin able to expresse the ioy of her heart in the sense of this diuine burden Neuer any mortall Creature had so much cause of exultation How could shee that was full of God bee other than full of ioy in that God Griefe growes greater by concealing Ioy by expression The Holy Virgin had vnderstood by the Angell how her Cousin Elizabeth was no lesse of kinne to her in condition the fruitfulnesse of whose age did somewhat suit the fruitfulnesse of her Virginitie Happinesse communicated doubles it selfe Here is no strayning of courtesie The blessed Maid whom vigor of age had more fitted for the way hastens her iourney into the Hill-countrey to visit that gracious Matron whom God had made a signe of her miraculous Conception Only the meeting of Saints in Heauen can paralell the meeting of these two Cosins The two Wonders of the World are met vnder one roofe and congratulate their mutuall happinesse When wee haue Christ spiritually conceiued in vs wee cannot bee quiet till wee haue imparted our ioy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner wel-come her blessed Cosin than her Babe wel-comes his Sauiour Both in the retyred Closets of their Mothers Wombe are sensible of each others presence the one by his omniscience the other by instinct He did not more fore-runne Christ than ouer-runne Nature How should our hearts leape within vs when the Sonne of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our soules not to visit vs but to dwell with vs to dwell in vs THe birth of CHRIST AS all the actions of men so especially the publike actions of publike men are ordered by God
of God sinne because grace hath abounded sinne that it may abound Thou art safe enough though thou offend bee not too much an aduersarie to thine owne liberty False spirit it is no libertie to sinne but seruitude rather there is no libertie but in the freedome from sinne Euery one of vs that hath the hope of Sonnes must purge himselfe euen as hee is pure that hath redeemed vs Wee are bought with a price therefore must wee glorifie God in our bodies and spirits for they are Gods Our Sonne-ship teaches vs awe and obedience and therefore because wee are Sonnes wee will not cast our selues downe into sinne How idlely doe Satan and wicked men measure God by the crooked line of their owne misconceit Ywis Christ cannot bee the Sonne of God vnlesse he cast himselfe downe from the Pinacle vnlesse hee come downe from the Crosse God is not mercifull vnlesse he honour them in all their desires not iust vnlesse hee take speedie vengeance where they require it But when they haue spent their folly vpon these vaine imaginations Christ is the Sonne of God though hee stay on the top of the Temple God will be mercifull though wee mis-carry and iust though sinners seeme lawlesse Neither will hee bee any other than hee is or measured by any rule but him selfe But what is this I see Satan himselfe with a Bible vnder his arme with a Text in his mouth It is written Hee shall giue his Angels charge ouer thee How still in that wicked One doth subtilty striue with Presumption Who could not but ouer-wonder at this if hee did not consider that since the Deuill dare to touch the sacred Body of Christ with his hand hee may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue Let no man henceforth maruell to heare Heretikes or Hypocrites quote Scriptures when Satan himselfe hath not spared to cite them what are they the worse for this more than that holy Body which is transported Some haue beene poysoned by their meates and drinks yet either these nourish vs or nothing It is not the Letter of the Scripture that can carry it but the Sence if wee diuide these two wee prophane and abuse that word wee alledge And wherefore doth this foule spirit vrge a Text but for imitation for preuention and for successe Christ had alledged a Scripture vnto him hee re-alledges Scripture vnto Christ At leastwise hee will counterfeit an imitation of the Sonne of God Neither is it in this alone what one act euer passed the Hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If wee follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions wee follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to maâ—e Christ hereby weary of this weapon As wee see fashions when they are taken vp of the Vnworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Deuill euen to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a flander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his tentation Hee gâ—ds ouer this false mettall with Scripture that it may passe current Euen now is Satan transformed into an Angell of light and will seeme godly for a mischiefe If Hypocrites make a faire shew to deceiue with a glorious lustre of holinesse wee see whence they borrowed it How many thousand soules are betrayed by the abuse of what word whose vse is soueraigne and sauing No Deuill is so dangerous as the religious Deuill If good meate turne to the nourishment not of nature but of the disease wee may not forbeare to feed but indeauour to purge the body of those euill humours which cause the stomach to worke against it selfe O God thou that hast giuen vs light giue vs cleare and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that light thou hast giuen vs Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and than shall they finde that Word not more true than cordiall Let not this diuine Table of thine bee made a snare to our soules What can bee a better act than to speake Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should doe a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maymed and peruerted One peece is left out all mis-applyed Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their owne turne it is easie to see from what Schoole they come Let vs take the word from the Authour not from the Vsurper Dauid would not doubt to eate that sheepe which hee pulled out of the mouth of the Beare or Lyon Hee shall giue his Angels charge ouer thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection Gods children neuer goe vnattended Like vnto great Princes wee walke euer in the midst of our guard though inuisible yet true carefull powerfull What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of heauen yet their Maker hath set them to serue vs Our adoption makes vs at once great and safe Wee may bee contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God obserue vs the while and scorne not to wait vpon vs in our homeliest occasions The Sunne or the light may wee keepe out of our houses the aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immateriall No walls no bolts can seuer them from our sides they accompany vs in dungeons they goe with vs into our exile How can wee either feare danger or complaine of solitarinesse whiles wee haue so vnseparable so glorious Companions Is our Sauiour distasted with Scripture because Satan misse-layes it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand and beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carryes an appearance of difficultie or inconuenience it needs no light to cleare it but that which it hath in it selfe All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and giuen this charge of his owne hee will haue them kept not in their sinnes they may trust him they may not tempt him here meant to incourage their faith not their presumption To cast our selues vpon an immediate prouidence when meanes faile not is to disobey in stead of beleeuing God we may challenge God on his Word wee may not straine him beyond 〈◊〉 wee may make account of what hee promised wee may not subiect his promises to vniust â—â—minations and where no need is make triall of his Power Iustice Mercy by deuises of our owne All the Deuils in hell could not elude the force of this diuine answer and now Satan sees how vainely hee tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet againe for all this doe I see him setting vpon the Sonne of God Satan is not foyled when he is resisted neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten vpon Christ he shall
desires It likes thee well that the Kingdome of heauen should suffer violence Our slacknesse doth euer displease thee neuer our vehemencie The throng of Auditors forced Christ to leaue the shore and to make Peters ship his pulpet Neuer were there such nets cast out of that fisher-boate before whiles hee was vpon the land hee healed the sicke bodies by his touch now that he was vpon the Sea hee cured the sicke soules by his doctrine and is purposely seuered from the multitude that he may vnite them to him Hee that made both Sea and land causeth both of them to conspire to the opportunities of doing good Simon was busie washing his nets Euen those nets that caught nothing must bee washed no lesse than if they had sped well The nights toyle doth not excuse his dayes worke Little did Simon thinke of leauing those nets which hee so carefully washed and now Christ interrupts him with the fauour and blessing of his gracious presence Labour in our calling how homely soeuer makes vs capable of diuine benediction The honest fisher-man when he saw the people flocke after Christ and heard him speake with such power could not but conceiue a generall and confuse apprehension of some excellent worth in such a Teacher and therefore is glad to honor his ship with such a guest and is first Christs host by sea ere he is his Disciple by land An humble and seruiceable entertainment of a Prophet of God was a good foundation of his future honour Hee that would so easily lend Christ his hand and his ship was likely soone after to bestow himselfe vpon his Sauiour SIMON hath no sooner done this seruice to Christ than Christ is preparing for his reward when the Sermon is ended the ship-roome shall be paide for abundantly Neither shall the Host expect any other pay-master than himselfe Lanch forth into the deepe and let downe your Nets to make a draught That ship which lent Christ an opportunitie of catching men vpon the shore shall be requited with a plentifull draught of fish in the deepe It had beene as easie for our Sauiour to haue brought the fish to Peters ship close to the shore yet as chusing rather to haue the ship carried to the shole of fish hee bids Lanch fort into the deepe In his miracles he loues euer to meete nature in her bounds and when shee hath done her best to supply the rest by his ouer-ruling power The same power therefore that could haue caused the fishes to leape vpon drie land or to leaue themselues forsaken of the waters vpon the sands of the Lake will rather finde them in a place naturall to their abiding Lanch out into the deepe Rather in a desire to gratifie and obey his guest than to pleasure himselfe will Simon bestow one cast of his net Had Christ enioyned him an harder taske he had not refused yet not without an allegation of the vnlikelyhood of successe Master we haue trauailed all night and caught nothing yet at thy word I will let downe the Net The night was the fittest time for the hopes of their trade not vniustly might Simon misdoubt his speed by day when he had worne out the night in vnprofitable labor Sometimes God crosseth the fairest of our exspectations and giues a blessing to those times and meanes whereof we despaire That paines cannot bee cast away which wee resolue to lose for Christ Oh God how many doe I see casting out their Nets in the great Lake of the world which in the whole night of their life haue caught nothing They conceiue mischiefe and bring forth iniquitie They hatch Cockatrices egges and weaue the Spiders web he that eateth of their egges dieth and that which is troden vpoh breaketh out into a Serpent Their webs shall be no garment neither shall they couer themselues with their labours Oh yee sonnes of men how long will yee loue vanitie and follow after lyes Yet if we haue thus vainely mispent the time of our darkenesse Let vs at the command of Christ cast out our new-washen nets our humble and penitent obedience shall come home laden with blessings And when they had so done they inclosed a great multitude of fishes so that their Net brake What a difference there is betwixt our owne voluntarie acts and those that are done vpon command not more in the grounds of them than in the issue those are oft-times fruitlesse these euer successefull Neuer man threw out his Net at the word of his Sauiour and drew it backe emptie who would not obey thee O Christ since thou dost so bountifully requite our weakest seruices It was not meere retribution that was intended in this euent but instruction also This act was not without a mysterie He that should be made a fisher of men shall in this draught foresee his successe the kingdome of heauen is like a draw-net cast into the Sea which when it is full men draw to land The very first draught that Peter made after the complement of his Apostleship inclosed no lesse than three thousand soules Oh powerfull Gospell that can fetch sinfull men from out of the depthes of naturall corruption Oh happie soules that from the blinde and muddie cels of our wicked nature are drawne forth to the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God! Simons Net breakes with the store aboundance is sometimes no lesse troublesome than want the Net should haue held if Christ had not meant to ouer-charge Simon both with blessing and admiration How happily is that Net broken whose rupture drawes the fisher to Christ Though the Net brake yet the fish escaped not He that brought them thither to be taken held them there till they were taken They beckned to their partners in the other ship that they should come and helpe them There are other ships in partnership with Peter hee doth not fish all the Lake alone There cannot be a better improuement of societie than to help vs gaine to relieue vs in our profitable labours to draw vp the spirituall draught into the vessell of Christ and his Church wherefore hath God giuen vs partners but that wee should becken to them for their aide in our necessarie occasions Neither doth Simon slacken his hand because he had assistants What shall wee say to those lazie fishers who can set others to the Drag whiles themselues looke on at ease caring onely to feede themselues with the fish not willing to wet their hands with the Net What shall we say to this excesse of gaine The Nets breake the ships sinke with their burden Oh happie complaint of too large a capture O Sauiour if those Apostolicall vessels of thy first rigging were thus ouer-laide ours flote and totter with a ballasted lightnesse Thou who art no lesse present in these bottomes of ours lade them with an equall fraight of conuerted soules and let vs praise thee for thus sinking SIMON was a skilfull Fisher and knew well the depth of his trade and now
to feele and complaine of smart And if men haue deuised such exquisite torments what can spirits more subtile more malicious And if our momentanie sufferings seeme long how long shall that be that is eternall And if the sorrowes indifferently incident to Gods deare ones vpon earth be so extreme as sometimes to driue them within sight of despairing what shall those be that are reserued onely for those that hate him and that he hateth None but those who haue heard the desperate complaints of some guiltie Spyra of whose soules haue beene a little scorched with these flames can enough conceiue of the horror of this estate it being the policy of our common enemy to conceale it so long that we may see and feele it at once lest we should feare it before it be too late to be auoided SECT XVII Remedy of the last and greatest breach of peace arising from death NOw when this great Aduersary like a proud Giant comes stalking out in his fearefull shape and insults ouer our fraile mortalitie daring the world to match him with an equall Champion whiles a whole host of worldlings shew him their backs for feare the true Christian armed onely with confidence and resolution of his future happinesse dares boldly encounter him and can wound him in the forehead the wonted seat of terror and trampling vpon him can cut off his head with his owne sword and victoriously returning can sing in triumph O death where is thy sting An happy victory Wee die and are not foiled yea we are conquerours in dying we could not ouercome death if we died not That dissolution is well bestowed that parts the soule from the body that it may vnite both to God All our life here as that heauenly Doctor well tearmes it is but a vitall death Augustine How aduantâ—gious is that death that determines this false and dying life and begins a true one aboue all the titles of happinesse The Epicure or Sadduce dare not die for feare of not being The guiltie and loose worldling dares not die for feare of being miserable The distrustfull and doubting semi-Christian dares not die because he knowes not whether hee shall be or be miserable or not be at all The resolued Christian dares and would die because he knowes he shall be happy and looking merrily towards heauen the place of his rest can vnfainedly say I desire to be dissolued I see thee my home I see thee a sweet and glorious home after a weary pilgrimage I see thee and now after many lingring hopes I aspire to thee How oft haue I looked vp at thee with admiration and rauishment of soule and by the goodly beames that I haue seene ghessed at the glory that is aboue them How oft haue I scorned these dead and vnpleasant pleasures of earth in comparison of thine I come now my ioyes I come to possesse you I come through paine and death yea if hell it selfe were in the way betwixt you and mee I would passe through hell it selfe to enioy you Tull. Tuscul Callimach Epigram And in truth if that Heathen Cleombrotus a follower of the ancient Academie but vpon onely reading of his Master Platoes discourses of the immortalitie of the soule could cast downe himselfe head-long from an high rocke and wilfully breake his necke that he might be possessed of that immortalitie which he beleeued to follow vpon death how contented should they be to die that knew they shall be more than immortall glorious Hee went not in an hate of the flesh August de Haeres as the Patrician Heretickes of old but in a blinde loue to his soule out of bare opinion We vpon an holy loue grounded vpon assured knowledge He vpon an opinion of future life we on knowledge of future glory He went vnsent for we called for by our Maker Why should his courage exceed ours since our ground our estate so farre exceeds his Euen this age within the reach of our memorie bred that peremptory Italian which in imitation of old Romane courage left in that degenerated Nation there should be no step left of the qualities of their Ancestors entring vpon his torment for killing a Tyrant cheered himselfe with this confidence My death is sharpe Mors acerba Fama perpetua my fame shall be euerlasting The voice of a Romane not of a Christian My fame shall be eternall an idle comfort My fame shall liue not my soule liue to see it What shall it auaile thee to be talkt of while thou art not Then fame onely is precious when a man liues to enioy it The fame that suruiues the soule is bootlesse Yet euen this hope cheered him against the violence of his death What should it doe vs that not our fame but our life our glory after death cannot die He that hath Stephens eies to looke into heauen cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints Come Lord How long That man seeing the glory of the end cannot but contemne the hardnesse the way But who wants those eies if he say and sweares that he feares not death beleeue him not if he protest this Tranquillitie and yet feare death beleeue him not beleeue him not if he say he is not miserable SECT XVIII THese are enemies on the left hand There want not some on the right The second ranke of the enemies of peace which with lesse profession of hostilitie hurt no lesse Not so easily perceiued because they distemper the minde not without some kinde of pleasure Surfet kils more than famine These are the ouer-desiring and ouer-ioying of these earthly things All immoderations are enemies as to health so to peace He that desires Hippocr Aphoris wants as much as he that hath nothing The drunken man is as thirstie as the sweating traueller Hence are the studies cares feares iealousies hopes griefes enuies wishes platformes of atchieuing alterations of purposes and a thousand like whereof each one is enough to make the life troublesome One is sicke of his neighbours field whose mis-shapen angles disfigure his and hinder his Lordship of entirenesse what he hath is not regarded for the want of what hee cannot haue Another feeds on crusts to purchase what he must leaue perhaps to a foole or which is not much better to a prodigall heire Another in the extremitie of couetous folly chuses to die an vnpitied death hanging himselfe for the fall of the market while the Commons laugh at that losse and in their speeches Epitaph vpon him as on that Pope He liued as a Wolfe and died as a Dogge One cares not what attendance hee dances at all houres on whose staires he sits what vices he soothes what deformities he imitates what seruile offices he doth in an hope to rise Another stomackes the couered head and stiffe knee of his inferiour angry that other men thinke him not so good as he thinkes himselfe Another eats his owne heart with enuy at the richer furniture and better
I call it the way or the gate of life Sure I am that by it onely wâ— passe into that blessednesse whereof we haue so thought that we haue found it cannot be thought of enough The Description What then is this death but the taking downe of these sticks whereof this earthly Tent is composed The separation of two great and old friends till they meet againe The Gaole-deliuerie of a long prisoner Our iourney into that other world for which wee and this thorow-fare were made Our paiment of our first debt to Nature the sleepe of the body and the awaking of the soule The Diuision But lest thou shouldest seeme to flatter him whose name and face hath euer seemed terrible to others remember that there are more deaths than one If the first death bee not so fearefull as hee is made his horrour lying more in the conceit of the beholder than in his owne aspect surely the second is not made so fearefull as hee is No liuing eye can behold the terrours thereof it is as impossible to see them as to feele them and liue Nothing but a name is common to both The first hath men casualties diseases for his executioners the second Deuils The power of the first is in the graue the second in hell The worst of the first is senslesnesse the easiest of the second is a perpetuall sense of all the paine that can make a man exquisitely miserable The Causes Thou shalt haue no businesse O my soule with the second death Thy first Resurrection hath secured thee Thanke him that hath redeemed thee for thy safetie And how can I thanke thee enough O my Sauiour which hast so mercifully bought off my torment with thy owne and hast drunke off that bitter potion of thy Fathers wrath whereof the very taste had beene our death Yea such is thy mercie O thou Redeemer of men that thou hast not onely subdued the second death but reconciled the first so as thy children taste not at all of the second and finde the first so sweetned to them by thee that they complaine of bitternesse It was not thou O God that madest death our hands are they that were guiltie of this euill Thou sawest all thy worke that it was good we brought forth sinne and sinne brought forth death To the discharge of thy Iustice and Mercie we acknowledge this miserable conception and needs must that childe be vgly that hath such parents Certainly if Being and Good be as they are of an equall extent then the dissolution of our Being must needs in it selfe be euill How ful of darkenesse and horrour then is the priuation of this vitall light especially since thy wisdome intended it to the reuenge of sinne which is no lesse than the violation of an infinite Iustice it was thy iust pleasure to plague vs with this brood of our owne begetting Behold that death which was not till then in the world is now in euery thing one great Conqueror findes it in a Slate another findes it in a Flie one findes it in the kernel of a Grape another in the pricke of a thorne one in the taste of an herbe another in the smell of a flower one in a bit of meat another in a mouthfull of aire one in the very sight of a danger another in the conceit of what might haue beene Nothing in all our life is too little to hide death vnder it There need no cords nor kniues nor swords nor Peeces we haue made our selues as many waies to death as there are helps of liuing But if we were the authors of our death it was thou that didst alter it our disobedience made it and thy mercie made it not to be euill It had beene all one to thee to haue taken away the very Being of death from thine owne but thou thoughtest it best to take away the sting of it onely as good Physicians when they would apply their Leeches scowre them with Salt and Nettles and when their corrupt bloud is voided imploy them to the health of the patient It is more glory to thee that thou hast remoued enmitie from this Esau that now he meets vs with kisses in stead of frownes and if wee receiue a blow from this rough hand yet that very stripe is healing Oh how much more powerfull is thy death than our sinne O my Sauiour how hast thou perfumed and softened this bed of my graue by dying How can it grieue mee to tread in thy steps to glory Our sinne made death our last enemie The Effects thy goodnesse hath made it the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world For as shee that receiues vs from the knees of our mother in our first entrance to the light washeth cleanseth dresseth vs and presents vs to the brest of our nurse or the armes of our mother challenges some interest in vs when we come to our growth so death which in our passage to that other life is the first that receiues and presents our naked soules to the hands of those Angels which carry it vp to her glorie cannot but thinke this office friendly and meritorious What if this guide leade my carcase through corruption and rottennesse when my soule in the very instant of her separation knowes it selfe happy What if my friends mourne about my bed and coffin when my soule sees the smiling face and louing embracements of him that was dead and is aliue What care I who shuts these earthen eyes when death opens the eye of my soule to see as I am seene What if my name be forgotten of men when I liue aboue with the God of Spirits If death would be still an enemie The Subiect it is the worst part of mee that he hath any thing to doe withall the best is aboue his reach and gaines more than the other can leese The worst peece of the horrour of death is the graue and set aside infidelitie what so great miserie is this That part which is corrupted feeles it not that which is free from corruption feeles an abundant recompence and foresees a ioyfull reparation What is here but a iust restitution We carry heauen and earth wrapt vp in our bosomes each part returnes homeward And if the exceeding glory of heauen cannot countetuaile the dolesomnesse of the graue what doe I beleeuing But if the beautie of that celestiall Sanctuarie doe more than equalize the horrour of the bottomlesse pit how can I shrinke at earth like my selfe when I know my glorie And if examples can moue thee any whit looke behinde thee O my soule and see which of the Worthies of that ancient latter world which of the Patriarchs Kings Prophets Apostles haue not trod in these red steps Where are those millions of generations which haue hitherto peopled the earth How many passing-bels hast thou heard for they knowne friends How many sicke beds hast thou visited How many eies hast thou seene closed
is without witnesse Openly many sinister respects may draw from vs a forme of religious duties secretly nothing but the power of a good conscience It is to be feared God hath more true and deuout seruice in Closets than in Churches 54 Words and diseases grow vpon vs with yeeres In age we talke much because wee haue seene much and soone after shall cease talking for euer Wee are most diseased because nature is weakest and death which is neere must haue harbingers such is the old age of the World No maruell if this last time be full of writing and weake discourse full of sects and heresies which are the sicknesses of this great and decaied body 55 The best ground vntilled soonest runs out into ranke weeds Such are Gods Children Ouer-growne with securitie ere they are aware vnlesse they bee well exercised both with Gods plow of affliction and their owne industry in meditation A man of knowledge that is either negligent or vncorrected cannot but grow wilde and godlesse 56 With vs vilest things are most common But with God the best things are most frequently giuen Grace which is the noblest of all Gods fauours is vnpartially bestowed vpon all willing receiuers whereas Nobilitie of bloud and height of place blessings of an inferiour nature are reserued for few Herein the Christian followes his Father his praiers which are his richest portion he communicates to all his substance according to his abilitie to few 57 God therefore giues because he hath giuen making his former fauours arguments for more Man therefore shuts his hand because hee hath opened it There is no such way to procure more from God as to vrge him with what hee hath done All Gods blessings are profitable and excellent not so much in themselues as that they are inducements to greater 58 Gods immediate actions are best at first The frame of this creation how exquisite was it vnder his hand afterward blemished by our sinne mans indeuours are weake in their beginnings and perfecter by degrees No science no deuice hath euer beene perfect in his cradle or at once hath seene his birth and maturitie of the same nature are those actions which God worketh mediatly by vs according to our measure of receit The cause of both is on the one side the infinitenesse of his wisdome and power which cannot be corrected by any second assaies On the other our weaknesse helping it selfe by former grounds and trials Hee is an happy man that detracts nothing from Gods works and addes most to his owne 59 The old saying is more common than true that those which are in hell know no other heauen for this makes the damned perfectly miserable that out of their owne torment they see the felicitie of the Saints together with their impossibility of attaining it Sight without hope of fruition is a torment alone Those that here might see God and will not or doe see him obscurely and loue him not shall once see him with anguish of soule and not enioy him 60 Sometimes euill speeches come from good men in their vnaduisednesse and sometimes euen the good speeches of men may proceed from an ill spirit No confession could be better than Satan gaue of Christ It is not enough to consider what is spoken or by whom but whence and for what The spirit is oftentimes tried by the speech but other-times the speech must be examined by the spirit and the spirit by the rule of an higher word 61 Greatnesse puts high thoughts and bigge words into a man whereas the deiected minde takes carelesly what offers it selfe Euery worldling is base-minded and therefore his thoughts creepe still low vpon the earth The Christian both is and knowes himselfe truly great and thereupon mindeth and speaketh of spirituall immortall glorious heauenly things So much as the soule stoopeth vnto earthly thoughts so much is it vnregenerate 62 Long acquaintance as it maketh those things which are euill to seeme lesse euill so it makes good things which at first were vnpleasant delightfull There is no euill of paine not no morall good action which is not harsh at the first Continuance of euill which might seeme to weary vs is the remedy and abatement of wearinesse and the practice of good as it profiteth so it pleaseth He that is a stranger to good and euill findes both of them troublesome God therefore doth well for vs while he exerciseth vs with long afflictions and we doe well to our selues while we continually busie our selues in good exercises 63 Sometimes it is well taken by men that we humble our selues lower than there is cause Thy seruant IACOB saith that good Patriarch to his brother to his inferiour And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selues I am a worme and no man Surely I am more foolish than a man and haue not the vnderstanding of a man in me But I neuer finde that any man bragged to God although in a matter of truth and within the compasse of his desert and was accepted A man may be too lowly in his dealing with men euen vnto contempt with God he cannot but the lower he falleth the higher is his exaltation 64 The soule is fed as the body starued with hunger as the body requires proportionable diet and necessary varietie as the body All ages and statures of the soule beare not the same nourishment There is milke for spirituall Infants strong meat for the growne Christian The spoone is fit for one the knife for the other The best Christian is not so growne that he need to scorne the spoone but the weake Christian may finde a strong feed dangerous How many haue beene cast away with spirituall surfets because being but new-borne they haue swallowed downe bigge morsels of the highest mysteries of godlinesse which they neuer could digest but together with them haue cast vp their proper nourishment A man must first know the power of his stomacke ere he know how with safetie and profit to frequent Gods Ordinary 65 It is very hard for the best man in a sudden extremity of death to satisfie himselfe in apprehending his stay and reposing his heart vpon it for the soule is so oppressed with sudden terrour that it cannot well command it selfe till it haue digested an euill It were miserable for the best Christian if all his former praiers and meditations did not serue to aide him in his last straits and meet together in the center of his extremitie yeelding though not sensible releefe yet secret benefit to the soule whereas the worldly man in this case hauing not laid vp for this houre hath no comfort from God or from others or from himselfe 66 All externall good or euill is measured by sense neither can we account that either good or ill which doth neither actually auaile nor hurt vs spiritually this rule holds not All our best good is insensible For all our future which is the greatest good we hold onely in hope and
tune of that knowne song beginning Preserue vs Lord. THee and thy wondrous deeds O God Wiâ—h all my soule I sound abroad verse 2 My ioy my triumph is in thee Of thy dread name my song shall be verse 3 O highest God since put to flight And fal'ne and vanisht at thy sight verse 4 Are all my foes for thou hast past Iust sentence on my cause at last And sitting on thy throne aboue A rightfull Iudge thy selfe doest proue verse 5 The troupes profane thy checks haue stroid And made their name for euer void verse 6 Where 's now my foes your threatned wrack So well you did our Cities sacke And bring to dust while that ye say Their name shall die as well as they verse 7 Loe in eternall state God sits And his high Throne to iustice fits verse 8 Whose righteous hand the world shall weeld And to all folke iust doome shall yeeld verse 9 The poore from high finde his releefe The poore in needfull times of griefe verse 10 Who knowes the Lord to thee shall cleaue That neuer doest thy clients leaue verse 11 Oh! sing the God that doth abide On Sion mount and blazon wide verse 12 His worthy deeds For he pursues The guiltlesse bloud with vengeance due He mindes their cause nor can passe o're Sad clamors of the wronged poore verse 13 Oh! mercy Lord thou that dost saue My soule from gates of death and graue Oh! see the wrong my foes haue done verse 14 That I thy praise to all that gone Through daughter Sions beauteous gate With thankfull songs may loud relate And may reioyce in thy safe aide Behold the Gentiles whiles they made A deadly pit my soule to drowne Into their pit are sunken downe In that close snare they hid for mee Loe their owne feet intangled be verse 16 By this iust doome the Lord is knowne That th' ill are punisht with their owne verse 17 Downe shall the wicked backward fall To deepest hell and nations all verse 18 That God forget nor shall the poore Forgotten be for euermore The constant hope of soules opprest verse 19 Shall not aye die Rise from thy rest Oh Lord let not men base and rude Preuaile iudge thou the multitude verse 20 Of lawlesse Pagans strike pale feare Into those brests that stubborne were And let the Gentiles feele and finde They beene but men of mortall kinde PSALME 10. As the 51. Psalme O God Consider WHy stand'st thou Lord aloofe so long And hidst thee in due times of need verse 2 Whiles lewd men proudly offer wrong Vnto the poore In their owne deed And their deuice let them be caught verse 3 For loe the wicked braues and boasts In his vile and outragious thought And blesseth him that rauines most verse 4 On God he dares insult his pride Scornes to enquire of powers aboue But his stout thoughts haue still deni'd verse 5 There is a God His waies yet proue 〈◊〉 prosperous thy iudgements hye Doe farre surmount his dimmer fight verse 6 Therefore doth he all foes defie His heart saith I shall stand in spight Nor euer moue nor danger ' bide verse 7 His mouth is fill'd with curses foule And with close fraud His tongue doth hide verse 8 Mischiefe and ill he seekes the soule Of harmelesse men in secret waite And in the corners of the street Doth shead their bloud with scorne and hate His eies vpon the poore are set verse 9 As some fell Lyon in his den He closely lurkes the poore to spoyle He spoyles the poore and helplesse men When once he snares them in his toyle verse 10 He croucheth low in cunning wile And bowes his brest whereon whole throngs Of poore whom his faire showes beguile Fall to be subiect to his wrongs verse 11 God hath forgot in soule he saies He hides his face to neuer see verse 12 Lord God arise thine hand vp-raise Let not thy poore forgotten be verse 13 Shall these insulting wretches scorne Their God and say thou wilt not care verse 14 Thou see'st for all thou hast forborne Thou see'st what all their mischiefes are That to thine hand of vengeance iust Thou maist them take the poore distressed Rely on thee with constant trust The helpe of Orphans and oppressed verse 15 Oh! breake the wickeds arme of might And search out all their cursed traines And let them vanish out of sight verse 16 The Lord as King for euer raignes From forth his coasts the heathen sect verse 17 Are rooted quite thou Lord attendst To poore mens sutes thou deo'st direct Their hearts to them thine eare thou bendst verse 18 That thou maist rescue from despight The wofull fatherlesse and poore That so the vaine and earthen wight On vs may tyrannize no more FJNJS CHARACTERS OF VERTVES AND VICES JN TWO BOOKES By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY singular good Lords EDWARD LORD DENNY BARON of WALTHAM AND JAMES LORD HAY HIS RIGHT NOBLE AND WORTHY SONNE IN LAW I. H. HVMBLY DEDICATES HIS LABOVR DEVOTETH HIMSELFE Wisheth all Happinesse A PREMONITION OF THE TITLE AND VSE of Characters READER THe Diuines of the old Heathens were their Morall Philosophers These receiued the Acts of an inbred law in the Sinai of Nature and deliuered them with many expositions to the multitude These were the Ouerseers of manners Correctors of vices Directors of liues Doctors of vertue which yet taught their people the body of their naturall Diuinitie not after one manner while some spent themselues in deepe discourses of humane felicitie and the way to it in common others thought it best to apply the generall precepts of goodnesse or decency to particular conditions and persons A third sort in a meane course betwixt the two other and compounded of them both bestowed their time in drawing out the true lineaments of euerie vertue and vice so liuely that who saw the medals might know the face which Art they significantly tearmed Charactery Their papers were so many tables their writings so many speaking pictures or liuing images whereby the ruder multitude might euen by their sense learne to know vertue and discerne what to detest J am deceiued if any course could be more likely to preuaile for herein the grosse conceit is led on with pleasure and informed while it feeles nothing but delight And if pictures haue beene accounted the bookes of Jdiots behold here the benefit of an image without the offence It is no shame for vs to learne wit of Heathens neither is it materiall in whose Schoole we take out a good lesson yea it is more shame not to follow their good than not to lead them better As one therefore that in worthy examples hold imitation better than inuention J haue trod in their paths but with an higher and wider steppe and out of their Tablets haue drawne these larger portraitures of both sorts More
fallen how to strike a remorslesse The other in a distinct iudgement and a rare dexterity in clearing the obscure subtleties of the Schoole and easie explication of the most perplex discourses Doctor Reynolds is the last not in worth but in the time of his losse Hee alone was a well furnisht library full of all faculties of all studies of all learning the memory the reading of that man were neer to a miracle These are gone amongst many more whom the Church mournes for in secret would God her losse could be as easily supplied as lamented Her sorrow is for those that are past her remainder of ioy in those that remaine her hope in the next age I pray God the causes of her hope and ioy may be equivalent to those of her griefe What should this worke in vs but an imitation yea that word is not too bigge for you an emulation of their worthinesse It is no pride for a man to wish himselfe spiritually better then he dare hope to reach nay I am deceiued if it be not true humility For what doth this argue him but low in his conceit high in his desires only Or if so happy is the ambition of grace and power of sincere seruiceablenesse to God Let vs wish and affect this while the world layes plots for greatnesse Let me not prosper if I bestow enuy on them He is great that is good and no man me-thinkes is happy on earth to him that hath grace for substance and learning for ornament If you know it not the Church our mother lookes for much at your hands she knowes how rich our common father hath left you she notes your graces your opportunities your imployments she thinks you are gone so farre like a good Merchant for no small gaine and lookes you shall come home well laded And for vent of your present commodities tho our chiefe hope of successe be cut off with that vnhoped peace yet what can hinder your priuate trafficke for God I hope and who doth not that this blow will leaue in your noble Venetians a perpetuall scarre and that their late irresolution shall make them euer capable of all better counsell and haue his worke like some great Eclipse many yeares after How happy were it for Venice if as she is euery yeare maried to the Sea so she were once throughly espoused to Christ In the meane time let me perswade you to gratifie vs at home with the publication of that your exquisit Polemicall discourse whereto our conference with M. Alablaster gaue so happy an occasion You shall hereby cleare many truths and satisfie all Readers yea I doubt not but an aduersary not too peruerse shall acknowledge the Truths victory and yours It was wholsome counsell of a Father that in the time of an heresie euery man should write Perhaps you complain of the inundations of Francford How many haue been discouraged from benefiting the world be this conceit of multitude Indeed we all write and while we write cry out of number How well might many be spared euen of those that complaine of too many whose importunate babling cloyes the world without vse To my Lord the Earle of Essex EP. VIII Aduice for his Trauels MY Lord both my dutie and promise make my Letters your debt and if neither of these my thirst of your good You shall neuer but need good counsell most in trauell Then are both our dangers greater and our hopes I need not to tell you the eyes of the world are much vpon you for your owne sake for your fathers onely let your eyes be vpon it againe to obserue it to satisfie it and in some cases to contemn it As your graces so your weaknesses will be the sooner spied by how much you are more noted The higher any building is the more it requires exquisit proportion which in some low and rude piles is needlesse If your vertues shall be eminent like your fathers you cannot so hide your selfe but the world will see you and force vpon you applause admiration in spight of modesty but if you shall come short in these your fathers perfection shall be your blemish Thinke now that more eyes are vpon you then at home of forrainers of your owne theirs to obserue ours to expect For now we account you in the Schoole of wisedome whence if you returne not better you shall worse with the losse of your time of our hopes For I know not how naturall it is to vs to looke for alteration in trauell and with the change of aire and land to presuppose a change in the person Now you are through both your yeeres and trauell in the forge of your hopes We all looke not without desire and apprecation in what shape you will come forth Thinke it not enough that you see or can say you haue seene strange things of nature or euent it is a vaine and dead trauell that rests in the eye or the tongue All is but lost vnlesse your busie mind shall from the body that it sees draw forth some quintessence of obseruation wherewith to informe inrich it selfe There is nothing can quite the cost and labour of trauell but the gaine of wisedome How many haue we seene and pittied which haue brought nothing from forrain countries but mishapen clothes or exoticall gestures or new games or affected lispings or the diseases of the place or which is worst the vices These men haue at once wandred from their countrie and from themselues and some of them too easie to instance haue left God behind them or perhaps instead of him haue after a loose and filthy life brought home some idle Puppet in a box whereon to spend their deuotion Let their wracke warne you and let their follies be entertained by you with more detestation then pittie I know your Honour too well to feare you your young yeares haue beene so graciously preuented with soueraigne antidotes of truth and holy instruction that this infection despaires of preuailing Your very blood giues you argument of safety yet good counsell is not vnseasonable euen where danger is not suspected For Gods sake my Lord whatsoeuer you gaine lose nothing of the truth remit nothing of your loue and pietie to God of your fauour and zeale to religion As sure as there is a God you were trained vp in the true knowledge of him If either Angell or Deuill or Iesuit should suggest the contrary send him away with defiance There you see and heare euery day the true mother and the fained striuing and pleading for the liuing child The true Prince of peace hath past sentence from heauen on our side Doe not you stoope so much as to a doubt or motion of irresolution Abandon those from your table and salt whom your owne and others experience shall descry dangerous Those Serpents are full of insinuations But of all those of your owne country which are so much the more pernicious by how much they haue more colour
Gods ancient law would haue made a quicke dispatch and haue determined the case by the death of the offender and the liberty of the innocent and not it alone How many Heathen Law-giuers haue subscribed to Moses Arabians Grecians Romans yea very Gothes the dregs of Barbarisme haue thought this wrong not expiable but by blood With vs the easinesse of reuenge as it yeelds frequence of offences so multitude of doubts Whether the wronged husband should conceale or complaine complaining whether he should retaine or dismisse dismissing whether he may marry or must continue single not continuing single whether he may receiue his own or chuse another but your inquiries shall be my bounds The fact you say is too euident Let me aske you To your selfe or to the world This point alone must vary our proceedings Publike notice requires publike discharge Priuate wrongs are in our owne power publike in the hands of authority The thoughts of our owne brests while they smother themselues within vs are at our command whether for suppressing or expressing but if they once haue vented themselues by words vnto others eares now as common strayes they must stand to the hazard of censure such are our actions Neither the sword nor the keyes meddle within doores what but they vvithout If fame haue laid hold on the wrong prosecute it cleere your name cleere your house yea Gods Else you shall be reputed a Pandar to your owne bed and the second shame shall surpasse the first so much as your owne fault can more blemish you then anothers If there were no more he is cruelly mercifull that neglects his owne fame But what if the sinne were shrouded in secrecy The loathsomnesse of vice consists not in common knowledge It is no lesse hainous if lesse talked of Report giues but shame God and the good soule detest close euils Yet then I ask not of the offence but of the offender not of her crime but her repentance She hath sinned against heauen and you But hath she washed your polluted bed with her teares Hath her true sorrow beene no lesse apparant then her sinne Hath she peeced her old vow with new protestations of fidelity Do you find her at once humbled and changed Why should that eare be deafe to her prayers that was open to her accusation why is there not yet place for mercy Why doe we Christians liue as vnder Martiall law wherein we sinne but once Plead not authority Ciuilians haue beene too rigorous the mercifull sentence of Diuinity shal sweetly temper humane seuereness How many haue we known the better for their sinne That Magdalene her predecessor in filthinesse had neuer loued so much if she had not so much sinned How oft hath Gods Spouse deserued a diuorce which yet still her confessions her teares haue reuersed How oft hath that scroll beene written and signed and yet againe cancelled and torne vpon submission His actions not his words onely are our precepts Why is man cruell where God relents The wrong is ours onely for his sake without whose law were no sinne If the Creditor please to remit the debt doe standers-by complaine But if she be at once filthy and obstinate flie from her bed as contagious Now your beneuolence is adultery you impart your body to her she her sinne to you A dangerous exchange An honest body for an harlots sinne Herein you are in cause that she hath more then one adulterer I applaud the rigour of those ancient Canons which haue still roughly censured euen this cloake of vice As there is necessity of charity in the former so of iustice in this If you can so loue your wife that you detest not her sin you are a better husband then a Christian a better bawd then an husband I dare say no more vpon so generall a relation good Physitians in dangerous diseases dare not prescribe on bare sight of vrine or vncertaine report but will feele the pulse and see the symptomes ere they resolue on the receit You see how no niggard I am of my counsels would God I could as easily asswage your griefe as satisfie your doubts To M. ROBERT HAY. EPIST. VIII A Discourse of the continuall exercise of a Christian how he may keepe his heart from hardnesse and his wayes from error TO keepe the heart in vre with God is the highest taske of a Christian Good motions are not frequent but the constancy of good disposition is rare and hard This worke must be continuall or else speedeth not like as the body from a setled and habituall distemper must be recouered by long diets and so much the rather for that we cannot intermit here without relapses If this field be not tilled euery day it will runne out into thistles The euening is fittest for this worke when retyred into our selues we must cheerefully and constantly both looke vp to God and into our hearts as we haue to doe with both to God in thanksgiuing first then in request It shall be therefore expedient for the soule duly to recount to it selfe all the specialties of Gods fauours a confused thankes fauours of carelesnesse and neither doth affect vs nor win acceptance aboue Bethinke your selfe then of all these externall inferiour earthly graces that your being breathing life motion reason is from him that hee hath giuen you a more noble nature then the rest of the creatures excellent faculties of the mind perfection of senses soundnesse of body competency of estate seemlinesse of condition fitnesse of calling preseruation from dangers rescue out of miseries kindnesse of friends carefulnesse of education honesty of reputation liberty of recreations quietnesse of life opportunity of well-doing protection of Angels Then rise higher to his spirituall fauours tho here on earth and striue to raise your affections with your thoughts Blesse God that you were borne in the light of the Gospell for your profession of the truth for the honor of your vocation for your incorporating into the Church for the priuiledge of the Sacraments the free vse of the Scriptures the communion of Saints the benefit of their prayers the ayde of their counsels the pleasure of their conuersation for the beginnings of regeneration any foot-steps of faith hope loue zeale patience peace ioy conscionablenesse for any desire of more Then let your soule mount highest of all into her heauen and acknowledge those celestiall graces of her election to glory redemption from-shame and death of the intercession of her Sauiour of the preparation of her place and there let her stay a while vpon the meditation of her future ioyes This done the way is made for your request Sue now to your God as for grace to answer these mercies so to see wherein you haue not answered them From him therefore cast your eyes downe vpon your selfe and as some carefull Iusticer doth a suspected fellon so doe you strictly examine your heart of what you haue done that day of what you should haue done enquire whether
nor dishonour to grant not suffering priuate affections to ouer-weigh publique equity or conuenience and better brooking a friends want then an ill precedent and those which he yeeldeth to accept hee loues not to linger in an afflicting hope a present answer shall dispatch the feares or desires of his expecting client His brest is not a cisterne to retaine but as a conduit-pipe to vent the reasonable and honest petitions of his friend Finally he so liues as one that accounts not Princes fauours hereditary as one that wil deserue their perpetuity but doubt their change as one that knowes there is a wide world beside the Court and aboue this world an Heauen EPISTLES THE FOVRTH DECAD BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE FOVRTH DECAD To Mr WALTER FITzWILLIAMS EP. I. A discourse of the true and lawfull vse of pleasures how we may moderate them how we may enioy them with safety INdeed wherein stands the vse of wisedome if not in tempering our pleasures and sorrowes and so disposing our selues in spight of all occurrents that the world may not blow vpon vs with an vnequall gale neither tearing our sailes nor slackning them Euents will varie if we continue the same it matters not nothing can ouerturne him that hath power ouer himselfe Of these two I confesse it harder to manage prosperity and to auoid hurt from good strong and cold winds do but make vs gather vp our cloake more round more close but to keepe it about vs in a hot Sunne-shine to runne and not sweat to sweat and not faint how difficult it is I see some that auoid pleasures for their danger and which dare not but abandon lawfull delights for feare of sinne who seeme to mee like some ignorant Matallists which cast away the precious Ore because they cannot separate the gold from the drosse or some simple Iew that condemnes the pure streames of Iordan because it falls into the dead sea Why do not these men refuse to eate because meat hath made many gluttons Or how dare they couer themselues that know there is pride in ragges These hard Tutors if not Tyrants to themselues whiles they pretend a mortified strictnesse are iniurious to their owne libertie to the liberalitie of their Maker wherefore hath he created and giuen the choice commodities of this earth if not for vse or why placed he Man in a Paradise not in a Desert How can we more displease a liberall friend then to depart from his delicate feast wilfully hungry They are deceiued that call this holinesse it is the disease of a mind sullen distrustfull impotent There is nothing but euill which is not from heauen and he is none of Gods friends that reiects his gifts for his owne abuse Heare me therefore and true Philosophy There is a nearer way then this and a fairer if you will be a wise Christian tread in it Learne first by a iust suruey to know the due and lawfull bounds of pleasure and then beware either to go beyond a knowne Mere or in the licence of your owne desires to remoue it That God that hath curb'd in the fury of that vnquiet and foaming element and said of old Here shalt thou stay thy proud waues hath done no lesse for the rage of our appetite Behold our limits are not obscure which if wee once passe our inundation is perilous and sinfull No iust delight wanteth either his warrant or his tearmes More plainely be acquainted both with the qualitie of pleasures and the measure Many a soule hath lost it selfe in a lawfull delight through excesse and not fewer haue perished in those whose nature is vicious without respect of immoderation Your care must auoid both The taste of the one is deadly of the other a full carouse and in truth it is easier for a Christian not to taste of that then not to be drunk with this The ill is more easily auoided then the indifferent moderated Pleasure is of a winding and serpentine nature admit the head the body will aske no leaue and sooner may you stop the entrance then stay the proceeding Withall her insinuations are so cunning that you shal not perceiue your excesse till you be sicke of a surfet A little honie is sweet much fulsome For the attaining of this temper then settle in your selfe a right estimation of that wherein you delight resolue euery thing into his first matter and there will bee more danger of contempt then ouer-ioying What are the goodly sumptuous buildings we admire but a little burnt and hardned earth What is the stately wondrous building of this humane bodie whose beauty we doat vpon but the same earth wee tread on better tempred but worse when it wants his guest What are those precious metals whom we worship but veines of earth better coloured What are costly robes but such as are giuen of worms and consumed of moths Then from their beginning looke to their end and see laughter conclude in teares see death in this sweet pot Thy conscience scourges thee with a long smart for a short libertie and for an imperfect delight giues thee perfect torment Alas what an hard peny-worth so little pleasure for so much repentance Enioy it if thou canst but if while the sword hangs ouer thee in an horses haire still threatning his fall and thine thou canst bee securely iocund I wonder but enuie not Now I heare you recall mee and after all my discourse as no vvhit yet wiser inquire by vvhat rule our pleasures shal be iudged immoderate Wee are all friends to our selues and our indulgence will hardly call any fauour too much I send you not tho I might to your bodie to your calling for this tryall while your delights exclude not the presence the fruition of God you are safe the loue of the medicine is no hinderance to the loue of health let all your pleasures haue reference to the highest Good and you cannot exceed You see the Angels sent aboue Gods messages to this earth yet neuer out of their heauen neuer without the vision of their Maker These earthly things cause not distraction if we rest not in them if we can looke thorow them to their giuer The minde that desires them for their owne sakes and suffers it selfe taken vp with their sweetnesse as his maine end is already drunken It is not the vse of pleasure that offends but the affectation How many great Kings haue beene Saints they could not haue beene Kings without choice of earthly delights they could not haue been Saints with earthly affections If God haue mixed you a sweet cup drinke it cheerefully commend the taste and be thankefull but reioyce in it as his Vse pleasures without dotage as in God from God to God you are as free from error as miserie Written to W.F. and dedicated to Mr Robert Jermin EP. II. A discourse of the bloody vse of single combats the iniustice of all pretences of
stay to thanke the Hoast Either bee lesse curious or more charitable Would God both you and all other vvhich either fauour the Separation or professe it could but reade ouer the ancient stories of the Church to see the true state of things and times the beginnings proceedings increases encounters yeeldings restaurations of the Gospell what the holy Fathers of those first times were glad to swallow for peace what they held practised found left whosoeuer knowes but these things cannot separate and shal not be contented only but thankfull God shall giue you still more light in the meane time vpon the perill of my soule stay and take the blessed offers of your God in peace And since Christ saith by my hand will you also goe away Answer him with that worthy Disciple Master whither shall I goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life To Mr J. B. EP. VI. A complaint of the mis-education of our Gentry I Confesse I cannot honour blood without good qualities not spare it with ill There is nothing that I more desire to be taught then what is true Nobilitie What thanke is it to you that you are borne well If you could haue lost this priuiledge of Nature I feare you had not beene thus farre Noble that you may not plead desert you had this before you vvere long ere you could either know or preuent it you are deceiued if you thinke this any other then the bodie of Gentilitie the life and soule of it is in noble and vertuous disposition in gallantnesse of spirit vvithout haughtinesse vvithout insolence vvithout scornfull ouerlinesse shortly in generous qualities cariage actions See your errour and know that this demeanor doth not answer an honest birth If you can follow all fashions drink all healths weare fauours good cloathes consort vvith Ruffianly companions sweare the biggest oathes quarrell easily fight desperately game in euery inordinate Ordinarie spend your patrimonie ere it fall looke on euery man betwixt scorne and anger vse gracefully some gestures of apish complement talke irreligiously dallie vvith a Mistris or which terme is plainer hunt after Harlots take smoake at a Play-house and liue as if you vvere made all for sport you thinke you haue done enough to merit both of your blood and others opinions Certainly the vvorld hath no basenesse if this be generositie well-fare the honest and ciuill rudenesse of the obscure sonnes of the earth if such be the graces of the eminent The shame whereof me thinkes is not so proper to the wildnesse of youth as to the carelesnesse or vanity of Parents I speake it boldly our Land hath no blemish comparable to the mis-education of our Gentry Infancie and youth are the seed-times of all hopes if those passe vnseasonably no fruit can be expected from our age but shame and sorrow vvho should improue these but they vvhich may command them I cannot altogether complaine of our first yeares How like are wee to children in the training vp of our children Giue a childe some painted Babe hee ioyes in it at first sight and for some dayes vvill not abide it out of his hand or bosome but when he hath sated himselfe with the new pleasure of that guest he now after a while casts it into corners forgets it and can looke vpon it vvith no care Thus doe we by ours Their first times findes vs not more fond then carefull vve doe not more follow them vvith our loue then ply them with instruction When this delight begins to grow stale we begin to grow negligent Nothing that I know can bee faulted in the ordering of Childhood but indulgence Foolish Mothers admit of Tutors but debar rods These while they desire their children may learne but not smart as is said of Apes kill their yong ones vvith loue for vvhat can worke vpon that age but feare And what feare without correction Now at last vvith what measure of Learning their owne vvill would vouchsafe to receiue they are too early sent to the common Nurseries of Knowledge There vnlesse they fall vnder carefull tuition they study in jest and play in earnest In such vniuersall meanes of Learning all cannot fall besides them vvhat their company what their recreation vvould either instill or permit they bring home to their glad Parents Thence are they transplanted to the Collegiate Innes of our common Lawes and there too many learne to be lawlesse and to forget their former little Pauls is their Westminster their Studie an Ordinarie or Play-house or Dancing-schoole and some Lambert their Ploydon And now after they haue not without much expence learned fashions and licentiousnesse they returne home full of welcomes and gratulations By this time some blossomes of youth appearing in their face admonish their Parents to seeke them some seasonable match Wherein the Father inquires for wealth the sonne for beauty perhaps the mother for Parentage scarce any for Vertue for Religion Thus setled What is their care their discourse yea their Trade but either an Hound or an Hawke And it is vvell if no worse And now they so liue as if they had forgotten that there were bookes Learning is for Priests and Pedants for Gentlemen pleasure Oh! that either wealth or vvit should be cast away thus basely That euer reason should grow so debauched as to thinke any thing more worthy then knowledge With what shame and emulation may wee looke vpon other Nations whose apish fashions we can take vp in the channels neglecting their imitable examples and with what scorne doe they looke vpon vs They haue their solemne Academies for all those qualities which may accomplish Gentility from which they returne richly furnished both for action and speculation They account knowledge and abilitie of discourse as essentiall to greatnesse as blood neither are they more aboue the vulgar in birth then in vnderstanding They trauell with iudgement and returne with experience so doe they follow the exercises of the body that they neglect not the culture of the minde From hence growes ciuilitie and power to manage affaires either of Iustice or State From hence incouragement to learning and reuerence from inferiors For those onely can esteeme knowledge which haue it and the common sort frame either obseruance or contempt out of the example of their Leaders Amongst them the sonnes of Nobles scorne not either Merchandize or learned professions and hate nothing so much as to doe nothing I shame and hate to thinke that our Gallants hold there can bee no disparagement but in honest callings Thus perhaps I haue abated the enuy of this reproofe by communicating it to more which I had not done but that the generalitie of euill importunes redresse I well see that either good or euill descends In vaine shall we hope for the reformation of the many while the better are disordered Whom to solicite herein I know not but all How glad should I be to spend my light to the snuffe for the effecting of this I can but
Of gifts ministeries operations From the spirit are deriued gifts ministeries from the Sonne operations from the Father There are diuersities of gifts but the same spirit of ministeries but the same Lord of operations but the same God Away with all niceties of Pythagorean calculations All numbers are alike to me saue those which God himselfe hath chalked out vnto vs as here he hath manifestly done In one word An Vnity and a Trinity make vp this golden sentence There is a Trinity in this Vnity There is an Vnity in this Trinity First here is a perfect that is a Triple Trinity A Trinity of diuersities a Trinity of faculties a Trinity of giuers For there are so many diuersities as faculties and so many faculties as giuers The faculties are three gifts ministeries operations The giuers three The Father the Sonne the Spirit which all are included in one Vnity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same God And yet euen that Vnity hath his distinction whiles gifts are as it were by a specialty ascribed to the Spirit ministeries to the Sonne to the Father operations That our discourse may not seeme too perplexed wee will follow the foot-steps of our Apostle and with all possible perspicuity will apply the diuersities to the faculties the faculties to the giuers These Trinities to their Vnity and this done draw to a briefe conclusion A threefold Diuersity argues multiplicity What meant the Ancients to dreame but of three Graces here are a thousand graces gifts infinite Looke vpon all the grand-children of Adam that euer were amongst so many thousand millions of faces ye shall easily obserue some variety of fauours It is a wonder to see what diuersity of formes there is in that which wee call beauty No twins are so like as not to bewray some dissimilitude Certainly there is not so great variety of faces as of mindes As features are to the countenance so are gifts to the minde Each one hath some all haue many none haue all There are diuersities of gifts Salmeron with Caietan vnderstands here those gifts which wee call Gratias gratis datas Graces freely giuen wherein he saies true but not enough For as the old word is Fauours must be inlarged and â—hose gifts which make vs gracious are best worthy of this name It is not amisse that Hugo reckons vp three sorts of Gods gifts to man Gifts of nature of grace of glory By the gifts of nature wee are men by the gifts of grace we are holy by the gifts of glory we shall be blessed The gifts of nature are memory reason will wherein we excell the brute creatures The gifts of grace are faith hope charitie wherein we go beyond the Deuils The gifts of glory eternall and true blessednesse blessed and eternall truth true and blessed eternity wherein wee are equall to the Angels Amongst the gifts of nature the same Author reckons some to be of the lowest ranke some of the meane some of the highest In the lowest he accounts beauty and health of body In the meane hee accounts the faculties of the minde In the highest the vertues of the soule Thus there are diuersities of gifts There are some gifts of Regeneration there are some gifts of our calling by the former we are borne againe for our owne good with the latter we are furnished for the good of others These latter are peculiarly bestowed vpon seuerall men the former â—e by a certaine common propriety bestowed vpon all the Saints of God For as in the most wise disposition of this vniuerse the best things and those which are necessary for the sustentation of life as ayre light fire water are abundantly giuen to all but those things which serue onely for ornament and pleasure as Gold Pearle Precious stones are more sparingly bestowed vpon some few So euery sauing grace is abundantly dispensed to all Saints by the liberall hand of God Whereas tongues prophesie power of miracles as also eloquence skill honour and the rest of this kinde are reserued onely for some few receiuers And in all these what strange diuersity there is They differ in respect of themselues being in nature diuers from each other They differ in respect of the Subiect as being diuersly giuen to one and other for as the blinde Bard saw truly God doth not giue all to all They differ in respect of degree as they are more giuen to one than to other Thus euery way there are diuersities of gifts It is the common voice of nature that the same remaining the same cannot produce but the same but when we speake of the God of Nature that word of Bonauenture is more true Ab vnissimo Deo mananâ— multiforma ab aeterno temporalia From that most one God flowes multiformity of effects and from that eternall God temporall effects Hugo said well In te variatur qui in se non mutatur he is varied in thee who is not changed in himselfe If the diuine power had made onely one creature that alonely worke of his had beene worthy of a God and such as could proceed from no lesse than an omnipotent hand But now he hath created many things yea innumerable If God had made these many creatures altogether vniforme and like themselues onely distinguished in number not in forme the worke had beene more excellent and admirable than the frame of any one creature alone But now that he hath made these many these innumerable creatures no lesse different from themselues and so as that the difference of their formes striues with the praise of their number O the depth of diuine wisdome O the stupendious workmanship of omnipotencie And yet there is no Subiect wherein the power and prouidence of the Almighty doth so much magnifie it selfe as in the diuers Oeconomie of man In so much as in this little world there is a world of diuersities Maruell at your selues brethren and bee astonished at your owne prospects Whether we looke at the fashion of the face or the proportion of parts or the colour of the skin or the stature of the body or the indowments of the minde the degrees of faculties the disposition of nature the measure of graces the opportunities of stations or lastly the outward condition of our life O good God what wondrous diuersity is here how impossible is it for the eye to meet twise with the like obiect whithersoeuer it roueth Thus there are diuersities of gifts Away now from hence with all haughtinesse of pride all mutinies of enuie These two dangers will bee sure to haunt the most iust inequality The needy is enuious the rich is proud Poore I am contemned others are set vp others shine in scarlet and purple whiles I am patching of nasty raggs Others wallow in their wealth and excesse I fâ—â—â—sh for hunger Others Lord it in lofty seats I am trod vnder their foot-stooles Others are eloquent I am a stammerer Others excell in the skill of Arts and Tongues I am a silly ignorant And why
the one hand a poore conscionable Christian drouping vnder the remorse for his sinne austerely checking his wanton appetite and curbing his rebellious desires wearing out his daies in a rough penitentiall seuerity cooling his infrequent pleasures with sighs and sawcing them with teares on the other hand ruffling Gallants made all of pleasure and Iouiall delights bathing themselues in a sea of all sensuall satieties denying their pampered nature nothing vnder heauen not wine in bowles not strange flesh and beastly dalliance not vnnaturall titillations not violent filthinesse that feast without feare and drinke without measure and sweare without feeling and liue without God their bodies are vigorous their coffers full their state prosperous their hearts cheerefull O how thou blessest such men Lo these thou saist these are the dearlings of heauen and earth Sic ô ficiuvat vinere Whiles those other sullen mopish creatures are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 off-scouring and recrements of the world Thou foole giue me thy hand let mee lead thee with Dauid into the sanctuary of God Now what seest thou The end the end of these men is not peace Surely ô God thou hast set them in slippery places and castest them downe into desolation how suddenly are they perished and horribly consumed Woe is mee they doe but dance a Galliard ouer the mouth of hell that seemes now couered ouer with the greene sods of pleasure The higher they leape the more desperate is their lighting Oh wofull wofull condition of those godlesse men yea those Epicurean Pockets whose belly is their God whose heauen is their pleasure whose cursed iollity is but a feeding vp to an eternall slaughter the day is comming wherein euery minute of their sinfull vnsatisfying ioyes shall be answered with a thousand thousand millions of yeeres frying in that vnquenchable fire And when those damned Ghosts shall forth of their incessant flames see the glorious remuneration of the penitent and pensiue soules which they haue despised they shall then gnash and yell out that late recantation Wee fooles thought their life madnesse and their end without honour now they are counted among the children of God and the portion is among the Saints our amongst Deuils Iudge not therefore according to appearance Should we iudge according to appearance all would be Gold that glistereth all drosse that glistereth not Hypocrites haue neuer shewed more faire than some Saints foule Saul weepes Ahab walkes softly Tobias and Sanballat will bee building Gods walles Herod heares Iohn gladly Balaam prophesies Christ Iudas preaches him Satan confesses him When euen an Abraham dissembles a Dauid clokes adultery with murder a Salomon giues at least a toleration to idolatry a Peter forsweares his Master brieffly the prime disciple is a Satan Satan an Angell of light For you How gladly are we deceiued in thinking you all such as you seeme None but the Court of Heauen hath a fairer face Prayers Sermons Sacraments geniculation silence attention reuerence applause knees eyes eares mouthes full of God Oh that ye were thus alwaies Oh that this were your worst side But if wee follow you from the Church and finde cursing and bitternesse vnder your tongues licentious disorder in your liues bribery and oppression in your hands If God looke into the windowes of your hearts and finde there be intus vapina we cannot iudge you by the appearance or if we could What comfort were it to you to haue deceiued our charity with the appearance of Saints when the righteous Iudge shall giue you your portion with Hypocrites What euer wee doe he will be sure not to iudge according to the appearance If appearance should bee the rule false religion should be true true false Quaedam falsa probabiliora quibusdam veris is the old word Some falshoods are more likely than some truths Natiue beauty scornes Art Truth is as a matron Error a curtizan The matron cares onely to concile loue by a graue and gracefull modesty the curtizan with philtres and farding Wee haue no hierarchy mounted aboue Kings no pompous ostentation of magnificence no garish processions no gaudy altars no fine images clad with Taffates in summer with veluets in winter no flourishes of vniuersality no rumors of miracles no sumptuous canonizations wee haue nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincerity of Scriptures simplicity of Sacraments decency of rare ceremonies Christ crucified We are gone if yee goe by appearance Gone alas who can but blush and weepe and bleed to see that Christian soules should after such beames of knowledge suffer themselues to bee thus palpably cozened with the gilded slips of error that after so many yeeres pious gouernment of such an incomparable succession of religious Princes authority should haue cause to complaine of our defection Deare Christians I must be sharpe are we children or fooles that wee should bee better pleased with the glittering tinsel of a painted baby from a Pedlers shop than with the secretly-rich and inualuable Iewell of diuine Truth Haue we thus learned Christ Is this the fruit of so cleere a Gospell of so blessed scepters For Gods sake bee wise and honest and yee cannot be Apostates Shortly for it were easie to bee endlesse If appearance might bee the rule good should bee euill euill good there is no vertue that cannot bee counterfetted no vice that cannot bee blanched wee should haue no such friend as our enemy a flatterer no such enemie as our friend that reproues vs. It were a wonder if yee great ones should not haue some such burs hanging vpon your sleeues As soone shall corne grow without chaffe as greatnesse shall bee free from adulation These seruile spirits shall sooth vp all your purposes and magnifie all your actions and applaud your words and adore your persons Sin what yee will they will not checke you Proiect what you will they will not thwart you say what ye will they will not faile to second you bee what yee will they will not faile to admire you Oh how these men are all for you all yours all you They loue you as the Rauens doe your eyes How deare was Sisera to Iael when she smoothed him vp and gaue him milke in a lordly dish Samson to Dalilah when she lulled him in her lap Christ to Iudas when he kissed him See how he loued him would some foole haue said that had iudged by appearance In the meane time an honest plaine dealing friend is like those sauces which a man praises with teares in his eyes like a chesnut which pricks the fingers but pleases our taste or like some wholsome medicinall potion than distastes and purges vs perhaps makes vs sicke that it may heale vs. Oh let the righteous smite mee for that is a benefit let him reproue mee and it shall bee a precious oyle that shall not breake my head Breake it no it shall heale it when it is mortally wounded by my owne sinne by others assentation Oh how happy were it if we could loue
constantly taught and defended But how is this not by any bodily touch as Cyrill and Ambrose say well but by our faith That it should be Corporally Carnally Orally present and torne in pieces with our teeth as good Pope Nicholas caused Berenganius to say and our Allen had followed him vnbidden hath euen seemed impious to vs and as Austen iudges it no lesse 〈◊〉 â—agitious We 〈◊〉 well yet the ingenuitie of Arius Montanus in this point who vpon Luk. 22. This is my body saith he that is My Body is Sacramentally contained in this Sacrament of Bread and straight hee addes like another Nicodemus Christs nightly Disciple The secret and most mysticall manner whereof God will once vouchsafe more cleerely to vnfold to his Christian Church Thus he In the meane time for vs this prodigious conceit of Transubstantiation which alone containes in it as many absurd errours as there haue bin minutes of time from the first forming of it that is from the Councell of Lateran vntill this houre can looke to be entertained no otherwise at our hand than as such a Deuillish fancie deserueth with hatred and execration SECTION XVIII Concerning the Multi-presence of Christs body BVt this sleeuelesse tale of Transubstantiation was surely brought both into the world and vpon the Stage by that other Fable of the Multi-presence of Christs body neither know I whether I should preferre for madnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sophisticall coozenage That the same body of Christ should be in a thousand places at once of this sublunary World whiles yet it is in the meane time intire in Heauen That the whole body of Christ should lie hid in a little thinne Wafer yet so that the parts and members thereof should not one run into another but continue distinct and seuerally disposed among themselues and haue a shape and order agreeable to a mans body which are Bellarmines owne words it doth not onely exceed reason but faith Neither doe they say now as of old Behold here in Christ or there but which is much worse Behold Christ is both here and there Iul. Scal. exercit in Card. That receiued Axiom of the Schooles is of an eternall Truth The numericall vnity of a finite thing cannot stand without continuity Who can choose but be ashamed of the Iesuites here The very places in which Christs body is saith Bellarmine are discontinued yea and the body of Christ it selfe is diuided from it selfe in respect of place but not in respect of his proper substance or quantity As if there could be any diuision of a materiall substance but by bounds of place As if quantity were not both bounded and measured by place alone Aug. Epist 57. Spatia locarum tolle corparibus nusquam erioti Cited also by D. Sutcliffe cont Bell. de Euchar. Plau. Amphi. Tun dicere audes verbero quod nemo vnquam homo vidit nec potest ficriâ— Tempore vno homo idem duobus vt locis simul sit Tho. in Mag. l. 1. d. 32. q. 1. art 1. Bell. de Euchar. l. 3. c. 4. p. 297. in 8. As if there were not an vndoubted relation of the place to the thing placed But now this doth not belong to Christ onely S. Xauier in our Age one of Loyalaes brood was seene at once both in the Ship and in the Boat Tursellian reports it vnto this fabulous Saint and his Fellow-fabuler the Reporter I cannot deuise to set a better match than that Plantine Amphitrio Darest thou say thou fond Slaue that which neuer man yet saw nor indeed can be done that one man should at the same time be in two places at once How farre wide is Aquinas the honour of the Schooles which saith By the same ground or reason that an Angell might bee in two places he might be in as many as you will See now either Xauier is euery where or else the carcasse of a Frier is more subtle than the nature of an Angell To conclude either Aquinas is falfe or the Papists Vbiquitaries How ouer-bold are the Iesuites the Patrones of this Multi-presence Bellarmine scorning the modesty of Thomas Egidius Carthosian Capetolus Because saith he we thinke that the body of Christ may be in many places at once locally and visibly therefore we say and hold that the same body may be circumscriptiuely and definitiuely in more places at once For that a body may bee circumscriptiuely in any place nothing is required but that it be fitly mesured vnto that place So as the bounds of the place and the thing placed be both together but it is not required that it should not be else-where as in another place Thus he What an absurd opposition is this To be circumscribed in one place and yet to be other-where That the bounds of the place and the thing placed a would 〈…〉 he and the places a thousand that a thing should be fitly 〈◊〉 measuredly 〈◊〉 placed and yet be in almost infinite That another remoâ—e place should 〈◊〉 hinder circumscription than a part of the next place Sapientem stultitiam Iraen li. 1. cap. 9. What is to be 〈◊〉 if this 〈…〉 be wise who 〈…〉 at the wisefolly of these men as Iraeneus said of the Valentinians But I willingly 〈◊〉 that of Chrysostome To conceiue of diuine things by Philosophy is another than to take our bred-hot Iron with our fingers and not with tongs And that of Augustine Yeeld God able to doe something which thou art not able to vnderstand Socrat. l. 2. 28. Tert. l. de Praes It is reported that Aristotle mis-led Aetius the Heretike into that filthy error of Arrius and Tertullian hath taught vs that all Heresies are suborned by Philosophy What hath Athens to doe with Hierusalem the Academy with the Church Away with Arguments where faith is in question as Thomas ingenuously sayes out of Ambrose But what is all this to vs It is well yet and I doe heartily congratulate it to our men that the idle Tale of Surius concerning Melancton and Carolostadius and other Protestants Binius in vita Adrian 6. abandoning of all Philosophie wherewith yet Binius pleased himselfe of late is thus hissed out of countenance and vanished Be like now the reformed Doctors are Philosophers but too much For vs wee doe easily grant that many things are done which we cannot vnderstand but these things we grant not because wee vnderstand they cannot be done Petr. Mart. dial de Omni praes God hath absolute power as Thomas speakes truly ouer the whole nature of the creature but not so as that he should cause it to be and not to be at once This as Sadeel sayes wittily Deus potenter non potest The obiect of Gods power as the Iesuites Schoole willingly confesses is whatsoeuer implies not a contradiction in it selfe Now that the selfe same body should sit downe and not sit downe should be visible and inuisible diuisible and continued and yet discontinued and
is in a charitable abdication hearken to the Duties which God layes vpon you The remoueall of euill must make roome for good First therefore our Apostle would haue our hearts cleared of euill dispositions then setled in good The euill dispositions that do commonly attend wealth are Pride and Misconfidence Against these our Apostle bendeth his charge That they be not hye-minded That they trust not in vncertaine riches For the first It is strange to see how this earthly drosse which is of it selfe heauy That they be not hye minded and therefore naturally sinkes downward should raise vp the heart of man and yet it commonly caries a man vp euen to a double pitch of pride one aboue others the other aboue himselfe Aboue others in contempt aboue himselfe in ouer-weening The poore and proud is the Wisemans monster but the proud and rich are no newes It is against all reason that metals should make difference of reasonable men of Christians for as that wise Law-giuer said A freeman can be valued at no price Yet Salomon noted in his time The rich rules the poore not the wise and Siracides in his The rich speakes proudly and what fellow is this and Saint Iames in his The man with the gold ring lookes to fit highest And not to cast backe our eyes doe ye not see it thus in our times If a man be but worth a foot-cloth how big hee lookes on the inferiour passengers and if he haue purchased a little more land or title then his neighbours you shall see it in his garbe If he command it is imperiously with sirrah and fellow If he salute it is ouerly with a surly and silent nod if hee speake it is oracles if hee walke it is with a grace if hee controll it is in the killing accent if he entertaine it is with insolence and whatsoeuer he doth he is not as he was not as the Pharise sayes like other men He lookes vpon vulgar men as if they were made to serue him and should thinke themselues happy to be commanded and if he bee crossed a little hee swels like the sea in a storme Let it be by his equall he cares more for an affront then for death or hell Let it be by his inferiour although in a iust cause that man shall be sure to be crusht to death for his presumption And alaâ— when all is done after these hye tearmes all this is but a man and God knowes a foolish one too whom a little earthly trash can affect so deeply Neither doth this pride raise a man more aboue others then aboue himselfe And what wonder is it if hee will not know his poore neighbours which hath forgotten himselfe As Saul was changed to another man presently vpon his anointing so are men vpon their aduancement and according to our ordinary Prouerb Their good and their blood rises together Now it may not be taken as it hath beene Other cariage other fashions are fit for them Their attire fare retinue houses furniture displease them new must be had together with coaches and lacquies and all the equipage of greatnesse These things that no man mistake me I mislike not they are fit for those that are fit for them Charity is not strait-laced but yeelds much latitude to the lawfull vse of indifferent things although it is one of Salomons vanities that seruants should ride on horse-backe and hee tels vs it becomes not a swine to bee ring'd with gold but it is the heart that makes all these euill when that is puft vp with these windy vanities hath learned to borrow that part of the deuils speech All these things are mine and can say with him that was turned into a beast Is not this great Babel that I haue built or with that other patterne of pride I sit as a Queene I am and there is none beside me Now all these turne into sinne The bush that hangs out shewes what wee may looke for within Whither doth the conceit of a little inheritance transport the Gallants of our time O God what a world of vanity hast thou reseru'd vs to I am asham'd to thinke that the Gospell of Christ should be disgraced with such disguised clients Are they Christians or Antickes in some Carnevale or childrens puppets that are thus dressed Pardon I beseech you men brethren and fathers this my iust and holy impatience that could neuer expresse it selfe in a more solemne assembly although I perceiue those whom it most concernes are not so deuout as to be present Who can without indignation look vpon the prodigies which this mis-imagination produces in that other sex to the shame of their husbands the scorne of Religion the damnation of their owne soules Imagine one of our fore-fathers were aliue againe and should see one of these his gâ—y daughters walke in Cheape-side before him what doe you thinke he would thinke it were Here is nothing to be seene but a verdingale a yellow ruffe and a periwig with perhaps some feather wauing in the top three things for which he could not tell how to find a name Sure he could not but stand amazed to thinke what new creature the times had yeelded since he was a maÌ„ if then he should run before her to see if by the fore-side he might ghesse what it were when his eyes should meet with a poudred frizle a painted hide shadowed with a fan not more painted brests displayd and a loose locke erring wantonly ouer her shoulders betwixt a painted cloth and skinne how would he yet more blesse himselfe to thinke what mixture in nature could bee guilty of such a monster Is this thinkes he the flesh and blood is this the hayre is this the shape of a woman or hath nature repented of her worke since my dayes and begunne a new frame It is no maruell if their forefathers could not know them God himselfe that made them will neuer acknowledge that face he neuer made the hayre that hee neuer made theirs the body that is asham'd of the Maker the soule that thus disguises the body Let me therefore say to these dames as Benet said to Totilaes seruant Depone filia quod portas quia non est tuum Lay downe that ye weare it is none of your owne Let me perswade them for that can worke most that they doe all this in their owne wrong All the world knowes that no man will rough-cast a marble wall but mud or vnpolisht ragge That beauty is like truth neuer so glorious as when it goes plainest that false art in stead of mending nature marres it But if none of our perswasions can preuaile Heare this ye garish Popingayes of our time if you will not be ashamed to cloath your selues in this shamelesse fashion God shall cloath you with shame and confusion heare this yee plaister-faced Iezabels if you will not leaue your dawbing and your high washes GOD will one day wash them off with fire and brimstone I grant
and simple to confound the wise and mighty Yet God did this worke by Moses Moses hewed and God wrote Our true Moses repaires that Law of God which we in our nature had broken He reuiues it for vs and it is accepted of God no lesse then iâ— the first Characters of his Law had been still entyre We can giue nothing but the Table it is God that must write in it Our hearts are but a bare boord till God by his finger ingraue his Law in them Yea Lord we are a rough Quarry hew thou vs out and square vs fit for thee to write vpon Well may wee maruell to see Moses after this ouersight admitted to this charge againe Who of vs would not haue said Your care indeed deserues trust you did so carefully keepe the first Tables that it would doe well to trust you with such another burden It was good for Moses that hee had to doe with God not with men The God of mercy will not impute the slips of our infirmitie to the preiudice of our faithfulnesse He that after the misse-answer of the one Talent would not trust the euill seruant with a second because he saw a wilfull neglect will trust Moses with his second Law because he saw fidelitie in the worst error of his zeale Our charity must learne as to forgiue so to beleeue where we haue beene deceiued Not that wee should wilfully beguile our selues in an vniust credulitie but that we should search diligently into the disposition of persons and grounds of their actions perhaps none may bee so sure as they that haue once disappointed vs. Yea Moses brake the first therefore hee must hew the second If God had broken them he would haue repayred them The amends must be where the fault was Both God and his Church looke for a satisfaction in that wherein we haue offended It was not long since Moses his former fast of forty dayes When hee then came downe from the hill his first question was not for meat and now going vp againe to Sinai he takes not any repast with him That God which sent the Quailes to the Host of Israel and Manna from Heauen could haue fed him with dainties He goes vp confidently in a secure trust of Gods prouision There is no life to that of faith Man liues not by bread onely The Vision of God did not onely satiate but feast him What a blessed satiety shall there be when we shall see him as he is and he shall be all in all to vs since this very fraile mortality of Moses was sustained and comforted but with representations of his presence I see Moses the Receiuer of the Law Elias the Restorer of the Law Christ the fulfiller of the old Law and Author of the new all fasting forty daies and these three great fasters I find together glorious in mount Tabor Abstinence merits not For Religion consists not in the belly either full or empty What are meates or drinkes to the Kingdome of God which is like himselfe spirituall But it prepares best for good duties Full bellies are fitter for rest not the body so much as the soule is more actiue with emptinesse Hence solemne prayer takes euer fasting to attend it and so much the rather speeds in Heauen when it is so accompanied It is good so to dyet the body that the soule may be fatned When Moses came downe before his eyes sparkled with anger and his face was both interchangeably pale and red with indignation now it is bright with glory Before there were the flames of fury in it now the beames of Maiesty Moses had before spoken with God why did not his face shine before I cannot lay the cause vpon the inward trouble of his passions for this brightnesse was externall Whither shall wee impute it but to his more intyrenesse with God The more familiar acquaintance wee haue with God the more doe wee partake of him He that passes by the fire may haue some gleames of heat but he that stands by it hath his colour changed It is not possible a man should haue any long conference with God and be no whit affected Wee are strangers from God it is no wonder if our faces be earthly but he that sets himselfe apart to God shall finde a kind of Maiestie and awfull respect put vpon him in the mindes of others How did the heart of Moses shine with illumination when his face was thus lightsome And if the flesh of Moses in this base composition so shined by conuersing with God forty dayes in Sinai What shall our glory bee when clothed with incorruptible bodies we shall conuerse with him in the highest Heauens Now his face onely shone afterwards the three Disciples saw all his body shining The nature of a glorified body the clearer Vision the immediate presence of that fountaine of glory challenge a far greater resplendence to our faces then his O God we are content that our faces bee blemished a while with contempt and blubred with teares how can wee but shine with Moses when wee shall see thee more then Moses The brightnesse of Moseses face reflected not vpon his owne eyes He shone bright and knew not of it He saw Gods face glorious he did not thinke others had so seene his How many haue excellent graces and perceiue them not Our owne sense is an ill iudge of Gods fauours to vs Those that stand by can conuince vs in that which we deny to ourselues Here below it is enough if we can shine in the eies of others aboue we shall shine and know it At this instant Moses sees himselfe shine then he needed not God meant not that hee should more esteeme himselfe but that he should bee more honoured of the Israelites That other glory shall bee for our owne happinesse and therefore requires our knowledge They that did but stand still to see anger in his face ranne away to see glory in it Before they had desired that God would not speake to them any more but by Moses and now that God doth but looke vpon them in Moses they are afraid and yet there was not more difference betwixt the voyces then the faces of God and Moses This should haue drawne Israel to Moses so much the more to haue seene this impression of Diuinity in his face That which should haue comforted affrights them Yea Aaron himselfe that before went vp into the Mount to see and speake with God now is afraid to see him that had seene God Such a feare there is in guiltinesse such confidence in innocencie When the soule is once cleared from sin it shall run to that glory with ioy the least glimpse whereof now appales it and sends it away in terror How could the Israelites now chuse but thinke How shall wee abide to looke God in the face since our eyes are dazeled with the face of Moses And well may we still argue If the Image of God which he hath set in the
enemies vpon himselfe True Christian fortitude teaches vs not to regard the number or quality of the opponents but the equity of the cause and cares not to stand alone and challenge all commers and if it could be opposed by as many worlds as men it may be ouerborn but it cannot be daunted Whereas popularity caries weake minds and teaches them the safety of erring with a multitude Caleb saw the giantly Anakims and the walled Cities as well as the rest and yet he sayes Let vs go vp and possesse it As if it were no more but to go and see and conquer Faith is couragious makes nothing of those dangers wherwith others are quailed It is very materiall with what eyes we looke vpon all obiects Feare doth not more multiply euils then faith diminisheth them which is therefore bold because either it sees not or contemnes that terror which feare represents to the weake There is none so valiant as the beleeuer It had beene happy for Israel if Calebs counsell had beene as effectuall as good But how easily haue these Rulers discouraged a faint-hearted people In stead of lifting vp their ensignes and marching towards Canaan they sit them downe and lift vp their voice and cry The rods of their AEgyptian Task-masters had neuer beene so fit for them as now for crying They had cause indeed to weepe for the sinne of their infidelity but now they weepe for feare of those enemies they saw not I feare if there had beene ten Calebs to perswade and but two faint spies to discourage them those two cowards would haue preuailed against those tenne sollicitors How much more now ten oppose and but two incourage An easie Rhetoricke drawes vs to the worse part yea it is hard not to run downe the hill The faction of Euill is so much stronger in our nature then that of Good that euery least motion preuailes for the one scarce any sure for the other Now is Moses in danger of losing all the cost and care that euer he bestowed vpon Israel His people are already gone backe to AEgypt in their hearts and their bodies are returning Oh ye rebellious Hebrewes where shall God haue you at last Did euer Moses promise to bring you to a fruitfull Land without Inhabitants To giue you a rich Country without resistance Are not the graues of Canaan as good as those of Aegypt What can ye but dye at the hands of the Anakims Can ye hope for lesse from the Aegyptians What madnesse is this to wish to dye for feare of death Is there lesse hope from your enemies that shall be when ye goe vnder strong and expert Leaders then from the enemies that were when yee shall returne masterlesse Can those cruell Egyptians so soone haue forgotten the blood of their fathers children brothers husbands which perished in pursuing you Had yee rather trust the mercy of knowne enemies then the promise of a faithfull God Which way will ye returne Who shall diuide the Sea for you Who shall fetch you water out of the Rocke Or can ye hope that the Manna of God will follow you while yee runne from him Feeble minds when they meet with crosses they lookt not for repent of their good beginnings and wish any difficulty rather then that they finde How many haue pulled backe their foot from the narrow way for the troubles of a good profession It had been time for the Israelites to haue falne downe on their faces before Moses and Aaron and to haue said Ye led vs thorow the Sea make way for vs into Canaan Those Giants are strong but not so strong as the Rocke of Rephidim ye stroke that and it yeelded If they be tall the Pillar of God is higher then they when we looke on our selues we see cause of fear but when we consider the miraculous power of you our leaders we cannot but contemne those men of measures Leaue vs not therfore but go before vs in your directiōs go to God for vs in your praiers But now contrarily Moses and Aaron fall on their faces to them and sue to them that they would be content to be conducted Had they beene suffered to depart they had perished Moses and his few had beene victorious And yet as if he could not be happy without them be falls on his face to them that they would stay We haue neuer so much need to bee importuned as in those things whose benefit should make vs most importunate The sweetnesse of Gods Law and our promised glory is such as should draw all hearts after it And yet if we did not sue to men as for life that they would bee reconciled to God and be saued I doubt whether they would obtaine yea it were well if our sute were sufficient to preuaile Though Moses and Aaron intreat vpon their faces and Ioshua and Caleb perswade and rend their garments yet they moue nothing The obstinate multitude growne more violent with opposing is ready to returne them stones for their prayers Such hath been euer the thankes of fidelity and truth Crossed wickednesse proues desperate and in stead of yeelding seekes for reuenge Nothing is so hatefull to a resolute sinner as good counsell We are become enemies to the world because we tell them truth That God which was inuisibly present whiles they sinned when they haue sinned shewes himselfe glorious They might haue seene him before that they should not sinne Now they cannot choose but see him in the height of their sinne They saw before the Pillar of his ordinary presence now they see him vnusually terrible that they may with shame and horror confesse him able to defend able to reuenge The helpe of God vses to shew it selfe in extremitie He that can preuent euils conceales his aide till danger be ripe And then he is fearfull as before he seemed conniuent Of CORAH'S Conspiracie THe teares of Israel were scarce drie since the smart of their last mutiny and now they begin another The multitude is like a raging Sea full of vnquiet billowes of discontentment whereof one rises in the fall of another They saw God did but threaten and therefore are they bold to sinne It was now high time they should know what it is for God to bee angry There was neuer such a reuenge taken of Israel neuer any better deserued When lesser warnings will not serue God lookes into his Quiuer for deadly arrowes In the meane time what a weary life did Moses lead in these continuall successions of conspiracies What did hee gaine by his troublesome gouernment but danger and despight Who but he would not haue wisht himselfe rather with the sheepe of Iethro then with these wolues of Israel But as he durst not quit his hooke without the calling of God so now he dare not his Scepter except he be dismissed by him that called him no troubles no oppositions can driue him from his place we are too weake if we suffer men to chase vs from that
should not import enough since others haue beene honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Sonne of the most High God The good Syrophenecian and blind Bartemeus could say The Sonne of Dauid It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall spirit lookes aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest heauens The Sonne of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortalitie was no other then Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God and what other doe I heare from the lips of a fiend None more diuine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Deuill in Hell may speake holily It is no passing of iudgement vpon loose sentences So Peter should haue been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Deuill should haue beene set vp for a Saint in confessing Iesus the Sonne of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy selfe in talking well heare this Deuil and when thou canst speake better then he looke to fare better but in the meane time know that a smooth tongue and a foule heart caries away double iudgements Let curious heads dispute whether the Deuill knew Christ to bee God In this I dare beleeue himselfe though in nothing else he knew what hee beleeued what hee beleeued what he confessed Iesus the Sonne of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that haue either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-knowne or blasphemously denied what the very Deuils haue professed How little can a bare speculation auaile vs in these cases of Diuinitie So farre this Deuill hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe vp it is our loue that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in this Iesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no wâ—â—t the safer no whit the better onely we are so much the wiser to vnderstand who shall condemne vs. The piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Iesus the Sonne of the most high God the other piece like a Deuill What haue I to doe with thee If the disclamation were vniuersall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles hee confesses Iesus to be the Sonne of the most high God hee withall confesses his owne ineuitable subiection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot hee dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What haue I to doe with thee Others indeed I haue vexed thee I feare in respect then of any violence of any personall prouocation What haue I to doe with thee And doest thou aske O thou euill spirit what thou hast to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a seruant of Christ Hast thou thy name from knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concernes his owne person Heare that great and iust Iudge sentencing vpon his dreadfull Tribunall In as much as thou didst it vnto one of these little ones thou didst it vnto me It is an idle misprision to seuer the sense of an iniury done to any of the members from the head Hee that had humilitie enough to kneele to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment vs before our time Whether it were that Satan who vseth to enioy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to heare our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to bee restrained in the exercise of his tyrannie Or whether the very presence of Christ were his racke For the guilty spirit proiecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Iudge or the executioner without a renouation of horror Or whether that as himselfe professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded downe into the deepe for a further degree of actuall torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spirituall natures of euill Angels Men that are led by sense haue easily granted the body subiect to torment who yet haue not so readily conceiued this incident to a spirituall substance The holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint vs with the particular manner of these inuisible acts rather willing that wee should herein feare then enquire but as all matters of faith though they cannot be proued by reason for that they are in an higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of al reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it selfe so this of the sufferings of spirits There is therefore both an intentionall torment incident to spirits and a reall For as in blessednes the good spirits find themselues ioined vnto the chiefe good and herevpon feele a perfect loue of God and vnspeakable ioy in him and rest in themselues so contrarily the euill spirits perceiue themselues eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselues setled in a wofull darknesse and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceiued How many men haue wee knowne to torment themselues with their owne thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their owne heart and if some paines begin at the body and from thence afflict the soule in a copartnership of griefe yet others arise immediately from the soule and draw the body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceiue meere and separate spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I heare the Iudge of men and Angels say Goe yee cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Deuill and his Angels I heare the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with feare and without curiositie wee may looke vpon those flames Why may we not attribute a spirituall nature to that more then naturall fire In the end of the world the elements shall be dissolued by fire and if the pure quintessentiall matter of the skie and the element of fire it selfe shall be dissolued by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth what hinders then but that the omnipotent God hath from eternitie created a fire of another nature proportionable euen to spirituall essences Or why may wee not distinguish of fire as it is it selfe a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods iustice so working not by any materiall vertue or power of it owne but by a certain height of supernaturall efficacie to which it is exalted by the omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Iudge Or lastly why may wee not conceiue that though spirits haue nothing materiall in their nature which that fire should worke vpon yet by the iudgement of the almightie Arbiter of the world iustly
willing their torment they may be made most sensible of paine and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought vpon immediately by their appointed tortures Besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are euerlastingly confined For if the incorporeall spirits of liuing men may bee held in a loathed or painfull body and conceiue sorrow to bee so imprisoned Why may wee not as easily yeeld that the euill spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhorre therein to continue for euer Tremble rather O my soule at the thought of this wofull condition of the euill Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Maiestie of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy seueritie of iustice to the reuolted Angels so graciously forbeares our hainous iniquities and both suffers vs to be free for the time from these hellish torments and giues vs opportunitie of a perfect freedome from them for euer Praise the Lord O my soule and all that is within me praise his holy Name who for giueth all thy sinnes and healeth all thine infirmities Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the euill spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they expect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment vs before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also vnderstood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Iudgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of heauen yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Euen the very euill spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set day of vniuersall Sessions They beleeue lesse then Deuils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the vtmost of their torment He might vpon the first instant of the fall of Angels haue inflicted on them the highest extremitie of his vengeance Hee might vpon the first sinnes of our youth yea of our nature haue swept vs away and giuen vs our portion in that fierie lake he stayes a time for both Though with this difference of mercy to vs men that here not onely is a delay but may be an vtter preuention of punishment which to the euill spirits is altogether impossible They doe suffer they must suffer and though they haue now deserued to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they doe Yet so doth this euill spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment mee not The world is well changed since Satans first onset vpon Christ Then hee could say If thou be the Sonne of God now Iesus the Sonne of the most high God then All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me now I beseech thee torment mee not The same power when hee lists can change the note of the Tempter to vs How happy are wee that haue such a Redeemer as can command the Deuils to their chaines Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that haue said Let vs breake his bonds and cast his cords from vs How euer the Almighty suffers you for a iudgement to haue free scope to euill and ye can now impotently resist the reuealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when yee shall see the very masters whom ye haue serued the powers of darknesse vnable to auoid the reuenges of God How much lesse shall man striue with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches euery creature to wish a freedome from paine the foulest spirits cannot but loue themselues and this loue must needs produce a deprecation of euill Yet what a thing is this to heare the deuill at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Deuotion is not guilty of this but feare There is no grace in the suit of Deuils but nature no respect of glory to their Creator but their owne ease They cannot pray against sinne but against torment for sinne What newes is it now to heare the profanest mouth in extremitie imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Deuils doe so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into paine onely the good heart can say Leade mee not into temptation If wee can as heartily pray against sinne for the auoiding of displeasure as against punishment when wee haue displeased there is true grace in the soule Indeed if wee could feruently pray against sinne we should not need to pray against punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that bodie but if we haue not laboured against our sins in vaine doe wee pray against punishment God must be iust and the wages of sinne is death It pleased our holy Sauiour not onely to let fall words of command vpon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christs actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grand-mother to hold chat with Satan That God who knowes the craft of that old Serpent and our weake simplicitie hath charged vs not to enquire of an euill spirit surely if the Disciples returning to Iacobs Well wondred to see Christ talke with a woman well may wee wonder to see him talking with an vncleane Spirit Let it be no presumption O Sauiour to aske vpon what grounds thou didst this wherein wee may not follow thee Wee know that sinne was excepted in thy conformitie of thy selfe to vs wee know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibilitie of taint in thy nature in thine actions Neither is it hard to conceiue how the same thing may bee done by thee without sinne which wee cannot but sinne in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not aske the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learne by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischiefe which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the cure might bee the more conspicuous the more glorious so on the other God and man might doe that safely which meere man cannot doe without danger thou mightest touch the leprosie and not be legally vncleane because thou touchedst it to heale it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy diuine nature wert vncapable of any staine by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parle may not meddle with without sinne because not without perill It is
without cruelty though in the hot chases of warre executions may be iustifiable yet in the coolenesse of deliberation it can bee no other then inhumane to take those liues which haue beene yeelded to mercy But here thy bow and thy sword are guiltlesse of the successe onely a strange prouidence of the Almighty hath cast them into thine hands whom neither thy force nor thy fraud could haue compassed If it bee victory thou aimest at ouercome them with kindnesse Set bread and water before them that they may eate and drinke Oh noble reuenge of Elisha to feast his persecutors To prouide a Table for those who had prouided a graue for him These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha he sends them from Samaria full of good cheare and iollity Thus thus should a Prophet punish his pursuers No vengeance but this is heroicall and fit for Christian imitation If thine enemy hunger giue him bread to eate if hee thirst giue him water to drinke For thou shalt heape coales of fire vpon his head and the Lord shall reward thee Be not ouercome with euill but ouercome euill with good The King of Israel hath done that by his feast which hee could not haue done by his sword The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel Neuer did a charitable act goe away without the retribution of a blessing In doing some good to our enemies wee doe most good to our selues God cannot but loue in vs this imitation of his mercy who bids his Sunne shine and his raine fall where he is most prouoked and that loue is neuer fruitlesse The Famine of Samaria releeued NOt many good turnes are written in Marble soone haue these Syrians forgotten the mercifull beneficence of Israel After the forbearance of some hostile inroade all the forces of Syria are mustered against Iehoram That very Samaria which had releeued the distressed Aramites is by the Aramites besieged and is affamished by those whom it had fed The famine within the walles was more terrible then the sword without Their worst enemy was shut within and could not be dislodged of their owne bowels Whither hath the Idolatry of Israel brought them Before they had beene scourged with warre with drought with dearth as with single cords they remaine incorrigible and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together and galls them euen to death there needs no other executioners then their owne mawes Those things which in their nature were not edible at least to an Israelite were now both deare and dainty The Asse was besides the vntoothsomnesse an impure creature that which the law of Ceremonies had made vncleane the law of necessitie had made delicate and precious the bones of so carrion an head could not bee picked for lesse then foure hundred pieces of siluer neither was this scarcitie of victuals only but of all other necessaries for humane vse that the belly might not complaine alone the whole man was equally pinched The King of Israel is neither exempted from the iudgement nor yet yeelds vnder it He walkes vpon the walls of his Samaria to ouersee the Watches set the Engines ready the Guards changed together with the posture of the enemy when a woman cries to him out of the Citie Help my Lord O King Next to God what refuge haue we in all our necessities but his Anointed Earthly Soueraigntie can aide vs in the case of the iniustice of men but what can it doe against the iudgements of God If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the wine-presse Euen the greatest powers must stoope to afflictions in themselues how should they be able to preuent them in others To sue for aide where is an vtter impotence of redresse is but to vpbraid the weaknesse and aggrauate the misery of those whom we implore Iehoram mistakes the suit The suppliant cals to him for a wofull peece of Iustice Two mothers haue agreed to eate their sonnes The one hath yeelded hers to be boiled and eaten the other after shee hath taken her part of so prodigious a banquet withdrawes her child and hides him from the knife Hunger and enuy make the Plaintiffe importunate and now shee craues the benefit of royall iustice Shee that made the first motion with-holds her part of the bargain and flyes from that promise whose trust had made this mother childlesse Oh the direfull effects of famine that turnes off all respects of nature and giues no place to horror causing the tender mother to lay her hands yea her teeth vpon the fruit of her owne body and to receiue that into her stomacke which shee hath brought forth of her wombe What should Iehoram doe The match was monstrous The challenge was iust yet vnnaturall This complainant had purchased one halfe of the liuing child by the one halfe of hers dead The mother of the suruiuing Infant is pressed by couenant by hunger restrained by nature To force a mother to deliuer vp her child to voluntarie slaughter had been cruell To force a Debtor to pay a confessed arerage seemed but equall If the remaining child be not dressed for food this mother of the deuoured child is both robbed and affamished If he be innocent blood is shed by authoritie It is no maruell if the questiō astonished the Iudge not so much for the difficulty of the demand as the horror of the occasion to what lamentable distresse did Iehoram find his people driuen Not without cause did the King of Israel rend his garments and shew his sackcloth wel might he see his people branded with that ancient curse which God had denounced against the rebellious The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee of a fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old nor shew fauour to the yong And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine owne body the flesh of thy sonnes and of thy daughters The tender and delicate woman her eyes shall bee euill towards her yong one that commeth out from betweene her feet and toward◠the children which shee shall beare for she shall eate them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitnesse He mournes for the plague he mournes not for the cause of this plague his sinne and theirs I finde his sorrow I find not his repentance The worst man may grieue for his smart onely the good heart grieues for his offence In stead of being penitent Iehoram is furious and turnes his rage from his sinnes against the Prophet God doe so to me and more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day Alas what hath the righteous done Perhaps Elisha that wee may imagine some colours of this displeasure fore-threatned this iudgement but they deserued it perhaps hee might haue auerted it by his prayers their