body to glorify his name All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Censuring Momus reliquorum omnium irrisor reprehensor qui cujusque vitia carpit turpitudinis infamiae dedecoris notas ut maculas accuratissime observat obâ—icit reprehendit hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedecus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reprehensibilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ridicule loquor Erat autem nocte matre somnopatre progenitus ut docet Hesiod Cui nihil placet quamvis exactum decies castigetur ad unquem What a rash thing it is when any thing dislikes us to blame the whole body for one blemish or wart Intemperate tongues cause God many times to take away the Word but wisdom is justified of her children Those that have a blemish in their eye think the sky to be ever cloudy and such as are troubled with the Jaundise see all things yellow so do those who are overgrown with malice and hypocrisy think all like themselves Curiosi ad cognoscendum vitam alienam desidiosi ad corrigendum suam Aug. Caligula did not believe there was any chast person upon earth The greatest censurers are commonly the greatest hypocrites Those that are most inquisitive about other mens manners are most carelesse of their own As any one is more wise he is more sparing of his censures And a gracious heart is alwayes ready to cast the first stone at it self Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye Mat. 7.5 Detrahere aut detrabentem audire auditâ— scilicâ—t placentiae quid horum damnabilius sit non facilè dixcrim Uterque diabolum habet iste in linguâ ille in aure and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye Reproach Plato commendeth the Law of the Lydians that punisheth detracters as they did murtherers And indeed there is a murther of the tongue as well as of the hand How many clip the reputation of others as coyn to make them weigh lighter in the ballance of mens esteem this is no better than to bury them while they are alive It is a marvellous great grace to be disgraced for Christ Tom. 2. p. 323. Quanto plùs contumeliarum pro Christo tulerimus tantò nos manet gloria major said Zwinglius To suffer for Christ saith Latimer is the greatest promotion in this world Speak not evil one of nother brethren James 4.11 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye c. 1 Pet. 4.14 Mocking There are tongue-smiters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à ladendo inquinando famam alterius probr is maledictis Haec â—ritur ex cordis irâ malitiâ Corenim felle livoris amarum per linguae instrumentum spargere nisi amara non potest as well as hand-smiters such as maligne and molest Gods dearest children as well with their virulent tongues as violent hands This is collateral blasphemy blasphemy in the second table and so it is often called in the New Testament God for the honour he beareth to his people is pleased to afford the name of blasphemy to their reproaches as importing that he taketh it as if himself were reproached Religion was long since grown as it is also at this day among many not more a matter of form than of scorn In our wretched dayes as the Turks count all fools to be Saints so many with us account all Saints to be fools He is a fool we say that would be laughed out of his coat but he were a double fool that would be laughed out of his skin that would hazard his soul because loth to be laught at A man that is mocked is under the meanest estimation and greatest contempt It is fundamentally opposite to the fundamental lawes of love It is an addition to affliction yea one of the greatest afflictions wounding not only the name but the Spirit It was one of the greatest afflictions amongst the sufferings and cruel persecutions that the Saints endured yea it was one great part of the sufferings of Christ he was mocked and used like a fool in a play they put a robe on his back a reed in his hand and crown upon his head And when he hung on the crosse finishing the work of our salvation they in highest scorn bid him save himself Haefamae leniter volant non lenitèr violant We have various examples of Gods hand upon mockers Ishmael mocking Isaac is punished with ejection Gen. 21. Reditus ecclesiis eripuit sacrasmis additis se Christianos expeditiores facere ad regnum caelorum quiâ— Galiâ—aeus magister ipsorum dix erit beatos esse pauperes c. Pezel in Sleid. Machiavel that scoffing Atheist rotted in the prison at Florence Jearing Julian had his payment from heaven he was in his time counted and stands upon record to this day among the greatest of sinners an Apostate from Christ Whose Apostacy brake out chiefly at his lips and the very spirit of his malignity against the Gospel of Christ appeared in mocking the Christians When we had taken away their estates he said it should not trouble you to be poor your Master was poor and he said Blessed are the poor And when he had caused them to be smitten your Master saith he hath taught you That whosoever shall smite you on the right cheek you must turn to him the other also Thus he turned the holy counsels of Christ into profane jests Sir Thomas Moor qui scopticè scabiose de Luthero religione reformata loquebatur lost his head One mocking at James Abbes Martyr as a mad man for that having no money he gave his apparel to the poor some to one some to another as he went to the stake he lost his wits for it Act. Mon. fol. 1904. What 's truth said Pilate to our Saviour in a scornful profane manner not long after which he became his own deaths-man And Appian that scoffed at Circumcision had an Ulcer at the same time and in the same place Surely God is the avenger of all such A scoffer saith Chrysostem is bomine pejor worse than a man as the scoffed that beareth it well is Angelis par saith he an Angels peer The favourablest persecution saith one of any good cause is the lash of lewd tongues whether by bitter taunts or scurrilous invectives which it is as impossible to avoid as necessary to contemn But let us bravely contemn saith another worthy all contumelies and contempts for conscience sake taking them as crowns and confirmations of our conformity to Christ If Demetrius hath testimony of the truth that 's enough let Diotrephes prate what he pleaseth And others had triall of cruel mockings Heb. 11.36 Resolution in Persecution A Spanish Cavalier who for some fault was whipped through the principal streets of Paris and keeping a sober pace was advised by a friend to make more hast
of such difficulty that if he withdraw the supporting assistance of his active Spirit from us we cannot hold out Do we preach 't is as the Spirits gives us utterance do we pray the Spirit helpeth our infirmities do we beleeve he increaseth our faith and helps our unbelief do we live the life of grace Christ liveth in us by his Spirit Are we constant in our profession and holy exercises of Religion that constancy cometh from above by the effectual working of the divine power In all these his grace is sufficient for us and in doing them his Spirit worketh with us Thus much concerning Gods good will towards men expressed in spiritual matters As for his good will in temporal it is as clear as the sun we need no demonstration But because the extraordinary favours of God may not slip out of our memories think upon our deliverance from that intended invasion in eighty eight how that part of the invaders became as weak as water and part were over whelmed in the depths of the sea alive like Pharaoh and his host Think upon that horrid work of darkness the Gunpowder plot how vain the conspiratours were in their imaginations The Lords stretched out arme overcame the one his all-seeing eye discovered the other See thy RegÃna Dierum and by his Providence were both brought to nothing Think upon the Stupendious works of Divine Providence in the wonderful safegarding and happy restoring of our gracious King to which I have abundantly spoken upon occasion Without doubt all these and infinite more are sensible tokens of Gods good will in Christ toward us Wherefore 1. We may with comfort confidently approach to the throne of grace where we may receive of the Father whatsoever we ask in his Sons name for for his sake he will deny us no good thing seeing that in him he beares good will toward us Thus much the occasion of this text may assure us of which is the incarnation and birth of our Saviour It being the foundation of all our joyes and all good things we enjoy By it God comforts Adam the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head Jacob is comforted by the vision of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth and the Angels ascending and descending by it the mystery whereof may be this The ladder is Christ the foot of it on earth noteth his humanity man of the substance of his mother born in the world the top reaching to heaven noteth his divinity Job 19.25 God of the substance of his Father begotten before all worlds perfect God and perfect man by which union of natures he hath joined earth and heaven together that is God and man The going up and down of Angels by the ladder sheweth how by Christ the service of Angels is purchased unto us all which accordeth with that in Joh. 1.51 Verily verily I say unto you faith our Saviour hereafter ye shall see the heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Job again comforts himself in this that his Redeemer of his own flesh as the word signifieth liveth In the Old Testament they which sought to God came to the Ark or Propitiatory and there were they heard and received Gods blessing Now Christ God and man is instead thereof his Godhead being the fountain of all good things and his flesh or Manhood a pipe or conduit to conveigh the fame unto us Wherefore let us rejoyce in God our Saviour and comfort our selves in his good will towards men Moreover 2. We may the better bear temptations and afflictions and slight the assaults of the world That which in Spaniards deserveth the greatest commendations is an unmoved patience in suffering adversity accompanied with a settled resolution of overcoming them This if we attain unto in Christianity will shield us from despair and distrust for we may be well assured that God to his distressed servants is the neerest when he seemeth furthest then sweetest when he seemeth sowrest and then up in wrath to revenge our wrongs when the world doth think he hath forgot us For still he beares goad will towards us Lastly we must acknowledge Gods good will through Christ to be the sole cause of all our happiness It is a true Maxime in Divinity Publisht in Austins time Vniversa salus nostra Aug. Ned. Cap. 34. magna miserecordia tua Our safety on earth our salvation in heaven proceed from thy abundant mercies O Lord. Thus the Father the Son and the holy Ghost do all join together in one immutable resolution to prove their good will towards men The issue whereof cannot be but exceeding good For as Astronomers do well observe that when three of the superiour lights do meet in conjunction it bringeth forth some admirable effects So now seeing that these three infinite lights of the world three persons of the Deity are met together in one good-will towards men this benevolous aspect produceth this admirable effect that all true beleevers shall be hereby exalted into glory For which with thankful hearts we ought ever to pay the tribute of obedience And in assurance whereof to rest in Gods promises which can never faile In his name I end as I did begin To whom as the Angels did before us and duty ever binds us be rendred all honour and glory both now and for ever Amen The Necessity of CHRISTS PASSION AND Resurrection ACTS 17.3 Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead I Am induced by these words to relate the greatest wonder of the world wherein is comprehended the profoundest Mystery of our salvation That the Son of God should become the Son of man that the Lord of glory should come in the forme of an humble and dejected servant that the Sun of righteousnesse should be deprived of light and then that the sole Author of our life should be put to death Weigh but the reason and the wonder is the greater It was for our redemption all this was effected and can there be a greater wonder then that he that knew no sin would putting on mortality suffer unutterable tortures both in soul and body and be content to die to save those that knew nothing but sin certainly there cannot be a greater wonder The most professed enemy to sinners herein did become to sinners the most professed friend He is ready to save who might be more ready to destroy But mercy binds the hands of justice and justice is overcome of mercy The eternal wisdome beholding from above with the gracious eye of pay the forlorne estate of mankind after their apostasy and treacherous violation of the sacred Covenant contrived a project not to be contrived by the Art of man whereby our Redemption should be wrought and liberty obtained Gods love to us did exceed our sins Our sins are not so great are not so many but his love can cover them and his mercy pardon them And where men come
with it faith St. Paul and good reason for the honour given to any member or the head is not so proper to it but that it is participated to the rest causing an effluction of joy in all So that what proportion of honour the woman is possessour of it is derived from the principal in man to whose superintendency the woman by divine institution is subject for the man was not created for the woman 1 Cor. 11.9 but the woman for the man The head differs from the body in regard of perfection There are more absolute endowments and perfections of greater excellency in the head than in the other subordinate parts None I presume but a brainsick man will impugne this assertion nor the consequence of it but a self-will'd woman Thus in man there is a confluence of more eminent qualities and rarer parts than are in the woman The temper and constitution of his body is generally and naturally more solid his ability in feates of activity more vigorous and substantial wherefore the more apt for industrious labour It is a Positive Principle in Aristotelical Philosophy Aristotâ—â— that faemina est mas tantum occasionatus seu imperfectus woman is an imperfect man whose generation or production is not intended by nature but contingent occasioned either by the debility of an impotent natural agent or the imperfection of an infirme Patient or the indisposition of the ill-affected matter or some transmutation thereof proceeding from eternal causes But let the naturalist yield me the like liberty of my thoughts as he for himself doth challenge to his own There is no great glory purchased to man by the undervaluing of woman questionless God having made woman as well as man intending thereby mans good nature the ordinance of God Aquinas doth really intend the generation of woman Aquinas moderates the matter thus That universal nature doth intend the production of woman because it looks to the main chance the preservation of the whole universe but theâ—e is no such intention in particular nature Durand but the contrary which Durand another Schoolman denies for the intention of particular nature is but subordinate not opposite to that of universal nature both aiming at tht same end For mine own part lest I be censured to be unnatural to my Mother I side with Durand for the woman howsoever the woman must yield to man that superiority generally in bodily perfection whereof she is not made capable Furthermore if you view mans soul you shall find sounder and more accurate intellectuals in him than in woman the vivacity both of his speculative and practical understanding is far more exquisite in comparison Those inorganical operations of mans spirit and abstract notions of his intellect that have no dependances upon material or corporal substances are more highly elevated and have most commonly a more noble object than woman can comprehend His invention is more various his judgment more fixt and setled than the invention than the judgment generally of woman is his resolutions are lesse subject to alteration and his will follows the undeceiveable direction of right reason more close at the heeles than hers doth Thus in regard of perfection man is the head of the woman who is term'd by the Apostle in this regard the weaker vessel The head differs from the body in respect of rule and authority Every part of the body is guided by the head in voluntary actions So is the man to govern his wife he shall rule over thee saith God to the woman of the man but neither making her his slave nor his servant but his bosome friend and close companion and she must be willing to submit her neck to the yoke of obedience in all matters of indifferency lest she deserve the infamous title of an unruly and disordered wife Head-strong fancies grounded but upon superficial appearances must not interpose themselves nor attempt to draw another way but at the appearing of sufficient reasons which proceeding from the man may be in a better interpretation term'd head-strong must vanish away Hence let the judicious man learn to rule his wife and the well-disposed woman learn to obey her husbands will that it may not be said what I oft heard men complaine of that the wife is the husbands master The head differs from the body in regard of influence From the head there is an influx of animal spirits into the parts of the body whereby they are capable of fence and motion So there is a power derived from the man to the woman for the dispatch of all domestick affairs and oeconomical employments towards the supportation of life and well-being Beside what powerful influence is derived unto her for the inlarging of their house with an off-spring generated out of their own loines And thus man is the head of the woman in respect of that sourfold discrepancy which is betwixt the head and the inferior parts As for the latter Man is the head of the woman in respect of congruity which is threefold The head hath a natural conformity with the members both have the same nature So man doth agree with woman in specie though he differ from her in sexu Adam said of Eve that he was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and therefore saith Moses shall a man leave his Father and his Mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh This is a great mystery saith Paul which is a resemblance of a greater the union of Christ and his Church The head and members do agree in ordination to the same end and joine their forces together for the attaining thereof So the husband and wife do mutually concurre in bending their endeavours to the same scope They are bound by a solemne promise and vow to uphold the Christian reputation and civil credit one of another The end in this Matrimonial contract where two are mystically contracted into one propounded and aimed at is threefold denoted in the form of Solemnization of Matrimony 1. The procreation of children to be educated in the fear and nature of the Lord and praise of God 2. The avoidance of fornication and preservation of chastity thereby to keep themselves undefiled members of Christs body for in this sacramental tye there is comprehended a firm restriction to curb in the insolent and violent extravagancies of our carnal appetites and lustful affections 3. The mutual succour and comfort that the one is to afford the other both in prosperity and adversity Vae soli saith the wise man there 's no comfort in being alone in which regard marriage is commended above a single life Woman was made for an help to man to ease him of part of his labours of his pain hence saith Solomon A good wife is the gift of God no earthly nor temporal blessing is like unto it Sweet is the harmony betwixt the united couple who admit no distractions for then will they aime at
consolat Abite malâ— cupiditates ego vos mergam ne ipse mergar à vobis But it was indeed for a name as Hierom rightly judgeth calling him therefore Gloria animal popular is aurae vile mancipium a vain-glorious fool However let us make God our chief treasure A friend of Cyrus being asked Where his treasure was Answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Cyrus is my friend Let us answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where God is my friend Whoever hath the Lord for his portion the lines are fallen unto him in pleasant places he hath a goodly heritage He will be all that heart can wish or need require Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for the gold Job 28.1 2. Psa 17.14 Job 22.25 where they find it Iron is taken out of the earth and brass is molten out of the stone Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure The Almighty shall be thy gold Fountains and Rivers Aristotle assigns this as the cause of the perennity of them â— of their Beginning and Original viz. That the Air thickned in the earth by reason of cold doth resolve and turn into water c. But a greater than Aristotle notwithstanding Averroes his excessive commendation of him Solom viz. That there was no errour in his Writings c. gives us his opinion as it was likewise the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers viz. That they come from the Sea through the Pores and passages of the earth where they leave their saliness behind them Thus God doth by certain issues or vents send forth the waters of the Sea which here and there break out in springs that men and other earthly creatures might have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pindarus stileth it for the satisfying of their thirst Rona à tergo formosissima and for other necessary uses A great mercy the want would more shew the worth All the Rivers run into the Sea Eccl. 1.7 yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again Ad locum unde excunt flumina Psa 104.10 11 revertuntur ut iterum fluant Vulg. He sendeth the springs into the Valleys Which run among the hills They give drink to every Beast of the Field the Wild Asses quench their thirst Fruits Alma Parens tell us Quaelibet herba Dâ—â—m affords all things necessary for man and beast Ad esum ad usum both for food and Physick and both these before either man or beast was created Sing we Hoc mihi pro certo quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Green herbs was a great dish with the Ancients Aristippus told his Fellowphilosopher who fed upon them If you can please Dionysius you need not eat green herbs He presently replied If you can eat green herbs you need not please Dionysius These are called precious fruits Deut. 33.14 and Jam. 5.7 both because they cost hard labour to the husbandman for that is required as well as rain and dew promised And because they are choyce blessings of God for the sustentation of life Diogenes justly taxed the folly of his Countreymen quòd res pretiosas minimo emerent venderentque vilissimas plurimo because they bought precious things as Corn very cheap but sold the basest things as pictures statues c. extream dear for the life of man had no need of the one but could not subsist without the other Let us take heed of undervaluing the food of life and spending money for that which is not bread Isa 55.2 And God said Gen. 1.11 12. Let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind Whose seed is in it self upon the earth Cap. 1.29 30. and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be given for meat And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat and it was so He causeth the grass to grow for the cattel Psa 104.14 and herb for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the earth Worms In the earth are worms housed A worm is one of the meanest creatures and therefore to shew what a poor thing man is he is twice in one place compared to a worm Job 25.6 Thus Christ also bespeaks himself when he took our nature Psal 22.6 Man may be said to be a worm in several respects Look upon him 1. In his original and constitution he is from the earth as the worm is 2. In his natural state and condition he liveth upon the earth and earthly things as worms do 3. Because subject to danger every foot may crush him 4. Because unable to resist or make defence unless the Lord be his shield and a defence to him round about 5. Because he must shortly return into the earth and when he comes to the grave it will be worm to worm Mihi experto credite saith Aug. Believe me who have made trial of it Open a grave and upon the dead mans head you shall find toads leaping begotten of his brains upon his loins serpents crawling begotten of his raynes in his belly worms abounding arising out of his entrails Behold what we now are and what we shortly shall be Behold the Original and filthiness of sin The best are but worms-meat the worms shall cover them who haply were once covered with costliest cloathing Mark 9.44 But take heed of that Worm which never dieth for as out of the corruption of our bodies worms breed which consume the flesh so out of the corruption of our souls this never-dying worm This worm say Divines is a continual remorse and furious reflection of the soul upon its own wilful folly and now woful misery Oh consider this before thy friends be scrambling for thy goods worms for thy body and Devils for thy soul Go not Dancing to Hell in thy Bolts rejoyce not in thy Bondage as many do to whom the preaching of Hell is but as the painting of a toad which men can look on and handle without affrightment I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother Job 17.14 and my sister Mandrakes Before I had passed plants I should have mentioned one strange one in Scripture called Mandrake of which here a word It is a kind of herb whose root hath the likeness of a man The fruit of the root called Mandrake Apples have
Mount Tabor where he shall be transfigured for ever Give thy possession on earth for expectation in Heaven Not as that French Cardinal who said He would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise Man is to be considered in a four-fold estate In statu 1. Confectionis as he was created 2. Corruptionis as he was corrupted 3. Refectionis as he was renewed 4. Perfectionis as he shall be glorified In the first estate we give to man a liberty of nature Adamus habuit pâ—sse si vellet sed non habuit velle quod posset In the third we grant a liberty of grace for if the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed And in the fourth estate we confess a liberty in glory All the doubt betwixt us and the Papists is of the second estate how man corrupted is renewed how he cometh into regeneration after degeneration And yet herein we consent that the will of man is turning unto God and in doing good is not a stock or stone in all and every respect passive for every man is willingly converted and by Gods grace at the very time of his conversion he willeth his own conversion And so the will of man is in some sort co-worker with grace for this cause Paul exhorteth us not to receive the grace of God in vain And to this purpose that saying of Austin is very remarkable Qui fecit te sine te nen justificabit te sine te Fecit nescientem justificat volentem The difference then is this they write that our will is a co-worker with grace by the force of nature we say that it works with grace by grace we will indeed but God worketh in us both to will and to work Man is called earth thrice by the Prophet Jeremiah Cap. 22.29 O earth earth earth hear the Word of the Lord that is as Bernard expounds Earth by 1. Procreation 2. Sustentation 3. Corruption Alas what is man Nothing I had almost said Somewhat less than nothing embarqued nine months in a living vessel at last he arives in the world Lord of the Land yet weeps at his possession in infancy and age fourfooted in youth scarce drest makes not his Will till he lie a dying and then dyes to think he must make his Will O quà m contempta res est homo nisi supra humana se erexerit Tantus quisque est quantus est apud Deum And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul After the man is the woman made Gatak as a yoke-fellow standing on even ground with him though drawing on the left side Mulier quasi mollior the weaker vessel therefore to bo born withal Origen speaks somewhat contemptibly of women When Christ came into the Coasts of Tyrus and Sidon In Mat. 15.22 Behold a Woman Mira res Evangelista A strange thing O Evangelist that is the Author of transgression the mother o sin the weapon of the Devil the cause of our expulsion out of Paradise But Christ honoured women in lying in the womb of a woman He appeared first to women after his Resurrection and made them Apostolas apostolorum Apostles to preach his Resurrection to the Apostles There have been women of special note Sarah the Mother of the Faithful Hester the Nurse and preserver of the Faithful Women that ministred to Christ of their own substance c. There have been learned women Theano Crotoniatis was a Philosopher and a Poor too Pythagoras learned his natural Philosophy of his sister Themistocleas Clem. Alex. Olympia Fulvia Morata an Italian of the City of Ferrara taught the Greek and Latine tongues at Heidelberg Anno 1554. Aratha read openly in the Schools at Athens Leoptia wrote against Theophrastus c. Neverthelesse neither is the man without the woman 1 Cor. 11.11 neither the woman without the the man in the Lord. Mans Body PVulchrum corpus infirmis anima Isocrat est tanquam bonum navis malus gubernator The Philosophers say in respect of the substance of the body it consists most of earth and water but in respect of the vertue and efficacie it consists more of fire and ayre and so the body is kept in an equal temperature in the operation of the elementary qualities Omnia operatus est Dominus in pondere numero mensurâ that the humours may keep a proportionable harmony amongst themselves if this harmony be broken it bringeth destruction to the body As if the heat prevail then it bringeth Feavers if the cold prevail then it bringeth Lethargies if the moist prevail then it bringeth Hydropsies So that the extreme qualities heat and cold must be temperate by the middle qualities moist and dry For the body of man is like a Clock if one wheele be a misse all the rest are disordered the whole fabrick suffers Bodine observeth that there are three regions within mans body besides all that is seen without answerable to those three regions of the world Elementary Etherial and Caelestial His entrails and whatsoever is under his heart resemble the elementary region wherein only there is generation and corruption The heart and vitals that are divided from those entrails by the Diaphragma resemble the etherial religion As the brain doth the heavenly which consisteth of intelligible creatures Austin complaineth that men much wonder at the high mountains of the earth Hugo waves the sea deep falls of rivers the vastnesse of the Ocean the motion of the Starres Et relinquunt seipsos nec mirantur but wonder not at all at their wonderful selves And truly the greatest miracle in the world is that little world or rather Isle of man in whose very body how much more in his soul are miracles enow betwixt head and feet to fill a volume The body is not one member but many 1 Cor. 24.44 Head The head is the most excellent part of the body therefore the chief part of any thing is called the head Christ is called the Head of the Church and the Husband the head of the Wife And Israel is promised upon obedience to be made the head and not the taile Hence we uncover our head when we do homage to any man to signifie that our most excellent part reverenceth and acknowledgeth him In the head our reason and understanding dwells and all the senses are placed in the head except the touch which is spread thorow the whole body Besides the head is supereminent above the rest of the body and giveth influence to it There is also a conformity betwixt the head and the rest of the body And thus it is betwixt Christ and his Church he hath graces above the rest of his members he giveth influence and grace to them and he is like them The hair of the head as also the nails is an excrement 1 Cor. 11.14 and not to be
under correction Alexander forgave many sharp swords but never any sharp tongues Moreover God hath bedged in this unruly evil with a double hedge of lips and teeth And it is placed on purpose in the midst betwixt the brain and the heart that it might take the advice of both It is also tied fast by the root There is much need you see of reforming and polishing this member Death and life saith Solomon are in the power of the tongue Upon the right or ill using of it a mans safety doth depend And lest you should think the Scripture only intendeth temporal safety or ruine Our Saviour saith By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words condemned One of the prime things that shalt be brought forth to judgment are your words Again He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction The wise man intimateth a similitude of a City besieged to open the gates betrayeth the safety of it all watch and ward is about the gate So the tongue is the gate or door of the Soul by which it goeth out in converse and communication to keep it open and loose guarded letteth in an enemy which proveth the death of the Soul Face The Face is the table of beauty or comelinesse and when that is abused it is made the seat of shame hence spitting in the face is such an act of reproach And cocovering the face as in Haman the mark of a condemned man It is reported of Malcotius as also of Augustus that the majesty of his countenance Turk Hist fol. 415. with the resplendant beams issuing out of his eyes as it bad been the rayes of the Sun were of such piercing brightnesse that no man was able with immoved and fixed eye long to behold the same Likewise in the description of Tamerlane amongst the rest Fol. 235. in his eyes sate such a rare majesty as a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing of his own And many in talking with him and often beholding of him became dumb which caused him oftentimes with a comely modesty to abstain from looking too earnestly upon such as spake unto him or discoursed with him En quam difficile est animum non prodere vultu The face varieth as the mind varieth Index animi valâ—us That is seen in the face which is out of sight Four things are chiefly seen in the face 1. Pride Psal 10.4 2. Fear Dan. 5.6 3. Envie and Discontent Gen. 31.2 5. 4. Guilt and shame Gen. 4.7 Thus the evidences of the heart are read there and we may take the copy of a mans spirit in his countenance Dugge God hath placed the womans Dugge saith Weemse in her breast Duplex est causa Physica moralis and not in her belly as in beasts and that for two causes 1. Physical 2. Moral The Physical cause God hath placed them so near the liver that the milk might be the better concocted and the more wholesome for the child The Moral cause that the woman might impart her affection and love more to her child by giving it suck with hen dugge which is so near the heart Hence the giving of suck was one of the greatest obligations of old betwixt the mother and the children Hand Amongst the several outward members of the body the Hand is of great use Fox 1. By the Hand we promise and threaten Hence the right hand of fellowship Turk Hist fol. 1392. â—he left hand is the most honourable amongst the Turks 2. We reckon by it the Ancients reckoned upon their left hand untill they came to an hundred years Prev 3.16 and then they began to reckon upon their right hand Hence Solomon Wisdom cometh with length of dayes upon the right hand meaning that Wisdom should make a man to live a long age 3. We worship with the hand Idolaters used to kisse their Idols but because they could not reach to the Moon to Kisse her they kissed their hand in homage before her To this practice Job seems to bear reference when he saith My mouth hath not kissed my hand Cap. 31.27 The Ancients do understand all that which is from the shoulder to the fingers ends to be the hands subdivided into three parts bracbiums cubitum extremam manum purging himself of this kind of Idolatry as some conceive In a word it is the Organ of Action and the special Providence of God is to be marked that he hath made man to take his meat with his hand and hath not left him to gather it up with his lips as the Beasts do for if a man did so his lips would become so thick that he could not speak distinctly as we see by experience by those that have so Heart The Jewes compare the heart of Man for the excellency of it to three things 1. To the Holiest of all where the Lord gave his answers so the Lord gives his answers first out of the heart 2. To Solomons Throne as the stateliest place where the King sits so the Lord dwells in the heart of man as in his Throne 3. To Moses Tables in which he wrote the Law so God promiseth to write his Law in mans heart Three things God holdeth in his own hand 1. Revenge 2. Future Events 3. Searching of mens hearts Principale animae non secundùm Platonem in cerebro sed juxta Christum in corde 'T is not the eye that seeth but the heart not the ear that heareth but the heart not the tongue that speaketh but the heart Yea there is in the heart both 1. Talking Psal 14.1 and 2. Walking Ezek. 11.21 In Gods account Quicquid con non facit non fit The heart is the first mover of all the actions of man for as the first mover carrieth all the spheres of Heaven with it so doth the heart of man carry all the members of the body with it In natural Generation the heart is first framed and in supernatural Regeneration it is first reformed The heart is primum vivens ultimum moriens So the spiritual life of grace begins in the heart first and is last felt there Hence it is that Michael the Archangel and the Devil strove no faster about the body of Moses than they do about the heart of man Liver Next to the heart in man is the Liver and from hence it hath in latine the name jecur quasi juxta cor as it were placed near unto the heart This is the shop of sanguification or fountain of blood from whence by the channels of the * Especially vens sorta and vena cava veins it is carried over the several Provinces of mans body God hath fenced the noblest parts as the brain with Pia mater and Duramater the heart with Pericardia so the liver is enclosed by a Net called Roticulum Lungs The Lungs are the bellows of the voyce and are seated near the heart to
flax 3. Bountiful in Porrigendo giving all bread and breath and all things Elizabeth Yong Act. Mon. in the dayes of Queen Mary put in close prison for her Religion hearing that the Keeper was commanded to give her one day bread and another day water answered Sir if you take away my meat God I trust will take away my hunger It was B. Hooper's speech Nothing can hurt us that 's taken from us for Gods cause nor nothing can at length do us good that is preserved contrary to his will GOD is good 1. In himself none good but God 2. Towards others in his works of 1. Creation 2. Preservation 3. Redemption 4. Glorification Pareus coming out of his Study slipping many steps and receiving no harm thought on that promise He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes Psal 91 11 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone God rules by second causes Yet the creatures are instâ—umentum arbitrarium not necessarium Hence an argument against Atheists Let them but look and observe the dependance of causes and works of Providence And then according to the Poetical Allegory they will easily conclude and believe That the highest link of Natures chain must needs be tyed to the foot of Jupiters chair Multa sine voluntate Dei geruntur Orig. Hom. 3. in Genes nihil sine providentia Providentia namque est quâ procurat dispensat providet quae geruntur Voluntas verò est quà vult aliquid aut non vult hinc quid velit vel quid hominibus expediat indicat Si non indicet nec erit provisor hominis nec creditur curare mortalia Well spake a learned Divine We indeed pray to God Our Father in heaven Heaven is the throne of God but Heaven is not the prison of God Gods glory shines most in Heaven but God is never shut up in Heaven Therefore he that is every where Deut non minor est in minimis quà m in maximis can as well do all as any one thing Hence God acts in every thing that acts and there is not any motion in the creature but God is in it They who act against the revealed will of God are yet ordered by his secret will There is nothing done against the counsel and purpose of God though many things are done against the command and appointment of God The greatest confusions in the world are disposed of by the Lord and are the issues of his counsels That wherein we see no order receives order from the Lord. Hence many are as much puzzl'd to interpret what God doth as what he hath spoken In a word Gods Providence is punctual and particular extending even to the least and lightest circumstances of all our occurrences Deus sio curas universoâ— quasi singulos sic singulos quasi solos Aug. The Wheels Were full of eyes The eyes of the Lord are in every place Ezek. 1.18 Pro. 15.3 Mat. 10 2â—.30 beholding the evil and the good Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground Without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Humane or rather Christian Providence We are to frustrate the Mines made to blow us up by our own Countermines of Prevention and Diversion Sooner may one prevent than cure a deadly sickness and easilier keep out than thrust out our unwelcom guest True of Sin Aegriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hospes As they say in Schools of Art It is easier to oppose than answer So we find it true in Christianity It is easier and safer to obviate and meet danger in the way than to tarry till it come home to our doors There is ever more courage in the assailer and commonly better success A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself Pro. 22.3 but the simple pass on and are punished Original Sin ATque homines prodigia rerum maxima So said our Saviour to the people of the Jews Spuria soboles Ye are a bastardly brood because utterly degenerate from your forefathers faith and holiness The like also may be said of Mankind once made upright but they have sought out many inventions Once planted a noble Vine wholly a right seed but now turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine O man thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water As all those little ones that ever might have descended from Abel Omnes peccavimus in isto 〈◊〉 homine quid omnes cramus isle unus bomo Aug. In Adamo tanquam in radice totum genus humanum computruit Greg. their blood cryed in his so all that descended from Adam have sinned in him As good parents may beget bad children The parents of the Blind man could see Grace is not hereditary So bad parents may beget good children Dumb Zachariah begat a Cryer But how are they good Not by generation but regeneration Adam ate one soure grape and all his childrens teeth are set on edge Vitrà radicem nihil querere â—portet Chinks are not to be sought where a gate is set wide open By Adam sin entred into the world O durus casus Alas what did man lose what did he find Anselm de laâ—u hominà Original Sin is that old tenant that Peccatum inhabitans which Paul speaks of which like a leprosie hath bespread all the sons of Adam à capite ad calcem beginning when we have our being like the man that Valerius Maximus speaks of who had a Quart fever from the day of his birth to the hour of his death We may now say of Man Quantum mutatus ab illo Homo lasciviâ supcrat equum impudentiâ canem astu vulpem furore leonem Yea we may say of all men Numb 32.14 as Moses of Gad and Reuben Ye are risen up in your fathers stead an increase of sinful men In a word This sin like Pandora's box opened through her curiosity filled the world full of all manner of diseases Man that Was in honour Psal 49.20 Jer. 31.29 Rom. 5.12 Heb. 12.1 and understood not is become like the beasts that perish The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Actual Sin Austin defines sin to be factum aut dictum aut concupitum contra legem Dei. Contra Faustum l. 22. cap. 27. Holy Anselm said He had rather be thrust into Hell without than go into Heaven with sin The reason may be rendred Hell would be no Hell without sin and Heaven could be no Heaven with sin Sin is called in Scripture a Work of darkness for divers
The Law LEX à ligando vel ab eligendo dicta est Norma faciendorum Lex Naturae The Law of Nature is used in two senses 1. The one which springeth from reason sense induction and argument according to the Lawes of heaven and earth 2. The other imprinted on the spirit of man by an inward instinct according to the law of conscience herein man participates of some light touching the perfection of the Moral Law but how Sufficient to check the vice not to inform the duty Yet this Law of Nature imprinted in the soul may restrain the outward man and stir up in him a desire of vertue and moral honesty and prescribe and follow some things which God commands in his Law Valleius saith That Cato was homo virtuti similimus cui id solum visum est rationem habere quod haberet justitiam omnibus humanis vitiis immunis c. And much may be spoken of Aristides Phocion Socrates and others for their integrity Conscience say our Divines is nothing else but the correspondency of the spirit of man unto the Law to bind or loose him to accuse or excuse him to condemne or absolve him Therefore such as have a conscience must needs have a Law also yea the Thracians gloried that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Laws walking Statutes For when the Gentiles Which have nst the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Lex Civilis Legibus proposita sunt supplicia vitiis praemia virtutibus It is said that Philosophy Moral did spring from disorder and confusion Natural from learning the causes of things by effects Ciceâ—o for other teaching had they none that were removed far from the Hebrews and the law from evil manners cruelty and oppression Dracoes lawes were said to be written with blood and not with ink And it 's said of the Athenians that their lawes had need of a law to mend them Neither against the law of the Jewes Act. 25.8 nor yet against Caesar have I offended any thing at all Lex Ceremonialis Lex occultum Evangelium Evangelium revelata lex The Ceremonial law was the Jewes Gospel for it was Christ in figure and to him it led them Christus apellatur anima legis The Ceremonial law did obscruely and imperfectly represent Christ to the old Church and is now abolished by his coming in the flesh In the twelveth year of our Saviours age the same year wherein he taught in the Temple Luk. 2. the Sanctuary was polluted by casting about the bones of dead men thorow every part and Porch thereof at the very feast of the Passeover in the night time This Iosephus saith was done by the Samaritanes out of hatred to the Jewish services But God had surely a special hand in it to shew that people that those shadows were to vanish now that Christ the body was come and shewed himself All things have their time the Ceremonial law had her time and the Gospel hath his time We our selves have but our time some threescore years and ten and then we are gone Precessit lex Evangelium sicut umbra lucem virga Spiritum timor charitatem initium perfectionem Dominantis Praeceptum amantis concilium Innocent l. 2. de sacr Altar Myst When the Sun is behind the shadow is before when the Sun is before the shadow is behind So was it in Christ to them of old this Sun was behind and therefore the Law or shadow was before To us under the Gospel the Sun is before and so now the Ceremonies of the Law those shadows are behind yea vanished away Before the Passion of Christ wherein they all determined the Ceremonies of the Law were neither dead nor deadly Nec mortiferâ— nec mortuae Non mortiferae ut cunque mortuae et mortiferae after the Passion till such time as the Gospel was preached up and down by the Apostles though dead yet for the time they were not deadly But since that they are not only dead but deadly to them that use them as the Jewes to this day For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John Aquin. For the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Wherefore then serveth the Law Mat. 11.13 Joh. 1.17 Gal. 3.19 It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the Promise was made c. Lex Moralis Lex est Sanctio sancta jubens honesta prohibens contraria Legibus vivendum non exemplis Divinis regulis normis Aug. non humanis personis imitandum est The Antinomians cry down the Law calling Repentance a Legal grace and humiliation a Back-door to Heaven Istebius Agricola the first of that Sect and his followers held most unsound opinions That the Law and Works belong only to the Court of Rome That so soon as a man begins to think how to live godly and modestly he presently wandreth from the Gospel That a man was never truly mortified till he had put out all sense of conscience for sin That St. Peter understood not Christian liberty when he wrote these words Make your Calling and Election sure And that good works were perniciosa ad salutem This he once publickly revoked but afterwards relapsed into the same errour and hath at this day too many Disciples who amongst other places do most grievously wrest that Text 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law is not made for a righteous man c. Therefore good men are exempted from obedience to the Law To which we answer Juste lex non est posita neque ad condemnationem neque ad coactionem That a righteous man is freed from the coaction and malediction of the Law but not from the regulation of it To whom the commandments of God are not grievous but joyous The just man doth well not for fear of punishment as compell'd by the Law but of grace and meer love towards God and goodness virtutis amore Albeit there were no Law yet he would be a Law to himself Christ is legis finis Intâ—rficiens Aug. Perficiens The Ceremonial Law he hath slain and taken out of the way The Moral Law he hath fulfilled for us and we by him that is by faith in his name which maketh his obedience to become ours The Law is not impossible to be obeyed absolutè in se but ex accidenti in respect of us because of the corruptions of our hearts and natures Luther had three golden sayings concerning the Law 1. The first was Walk in the heaven of the Promise but in the earth of the Law That in respect of believing this of obeying 2. That in the justification of a sinner Christ and
covetous oppressors as Zacheus was to call us out of our oppression and make us new creatures in Christ Jesus Excellently saith a Divine of our time There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seemliness appertaining to each calling so here We must walk nobly and comfortably as becometh the heirs of God and Co-heirs of Christ Scipio when a Harlot was offered him answered Vellem si non essem Imperator I would if I were not General of the Army Antigonus being invited to a place where a notable Harlot was to be present asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do He bade him only remember that he was a Kings son So let men remember their high and heavenly calling and do nothing unworthy of it Luther counsels men to answer all temptations of Satan with this only Christianus sum I am a Christian They were wont to say of Cowards in Rome There is nothing Roman in them Luth. in Gen. Of many Christians we may say There is nothing Christian in them It is not amiss before we be serviceable for the world to put Alexanders question to his followers that perswaded him to run at the Olympick games Do Kings use to run at the Olympicks Every believer is Gods first-born and so higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 He must therefore carry himself accordingly and not stain his high blood Many be called but few chosen God hath saved us and called us with an holy yea heavenly calling Mat. 20.16 2 Tim. 1.9 Heb. 3.1 Eph. 4.1 I beseech you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Conviction It is said that Frogs will leave croaking if but a Light be hanged over the lake wherein they are A cleer discovery of the Truth is a powerful means to muzzle the mouths of Hereticks God smiteth the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips doth he slay the wicked By his word he telleth a man as he did the Samaritaness all that ever he did Yea the Word is a most curious Critick judging exactly and disclosing the words which he speaks in his very bed-chamber that is in the most secret retirements of his heart Conscience alone hath but a weak light and that light is partial but a serious application of the Word discovereth wickedness when our blind Consciences do not I was alive without the law once Rom. 7.5 but when the commandment came sin revived and I died Conversion This is the main end of the Gospels ministery to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God We our selves may challenge no more than S. Austin in his child Adeodatus Nihil agnosco meum nisi peccatum I own nothing in our Conversion but the faults and defects Bernard for a certain time after his conversion remained as it were deprived of his senses by the excessive consolations he had from God Cyprian confesseth to Donatus his friend that before his conversion he thought it was impossible for him to change his manners and to find such comfort as now he did in a Christian life Accipe quod sentitur antequam discitur And so he goes on Austin saith the like of himself And the Eunuch after conversion went on his way rejoycing Divines say The infallible evidence of conversion is when a man hath changed his first principles and his last ends Cyprian called Caecilius that converted him Novae vitae parentem And doubtless it 's an high honour to have any hand in such a work He which converteth a sinner from the error of his way Jam. 5.20 shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins I cannot here omit a passage of a very grave Divine Mr. Ley his Pattern of Piety 145. I have known saith he a person who neither by education or affection was disposed to Popery who having the ill hap when his Conscience was perplext to fall into the hands of a Popish Priest upon this reason because as the Priest suggested that Religion afforded more comfort because it had and exercised a power to pardon sin which our Ministers neither did nor durst assume unto themselves he became a Papist Job 33.24 But it is honour enough to Ministers and may be comfort enough to their hearers that God gives them commission to deliver a Penitent man from Hell not as the means for that is Christ alone but as instruments 1. To apply Christ crucified or rather risen again unto him 2. To pronounce his safety and salvation upon the due use of that means And this is the greatest honour that ever was done to any meer creature Angels had never such a commission They indeed are Ministers for the good of those that shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 But Ministers are called Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obad. 21. Take heed unto thy self 1 Tim. 4.16 and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Regeneration There are two parts in this work of grace 1. The one is Qua regeneramur by which we are begotten 2. The other is Qua renascimur by which we are born again The one is Gods act purely the other implieth the manifestation of life in our selves A distinction that serveth to clear some controversies in Religion The Word of God is the instrument of our Regeneration being made prolifical and generative by the Spirit The Father is the original cause Jam. 1.18 The Son is the meritorious and effective And the Holy Ghost consummates and applies it 1 Pet. 1.3 through faith wrought and increased in us by the Word and Sacraments So that here is God the Father's will God the Son's merit and God the Spirit 's efficacy Tit. 3.5 6. By his overshadowing the soul is the new creature hatched and brought forth When the Donatists upbraided Austin with the impurity of his former life he answered How much more they blame my former fault by so much the more I praise and commend my Physitian Miratúrque novas frondes non sua poma saith the Poet Virg. Georg. 2◠speaking of a graffed tree So may Regenerate persons themselves and all that behold them wonder at the change which is wrought in them Every man by his first birth is still-born dead in sin by his new birth he becometh alive to God As the Father said of the Prodigal This my son was dead and is alive And surely what difference was between Lazary lying dead in the grave and Lazarus standing alive on his feet the same is between a natural and a regenerate man Yea look what alteration there is in the same Air by the arising of the Sun the like is in the same person by the infusion of holiness Paracelsus in his second book De vita longa saith that Lepra curatur per regenerationem Chymically it is to be
revenge but out of Christian fortitude because he may not he hath so conquered himself that wrongs cannot conquer him and here he finds that victory consists in yielding he is above nature whiles he frames below himself not to resist being urged is more than heroical he is Gods best witnesse and when he stands before the barre for truth he heares his unjust sentence and rejoyceth the Jaylors that attend him are to him his Pages of honour his Dungeon the Vault of Heaven his Rack or Wheel the stairs of his ascent to glory good Laws serve for his protection not for his revenge he trieth the Sea after many shipracks and beats still at the dore he never saw opened when crosses afflict him he sees a Divine hand invisibly striking with these sensible scourges against which he dares not rebel nor murmure This man only can turn necessity into vertue and put evil to good use he is the surest friend the easiest enemy the greatest conqueror in a word he is so much more happy than others by how much he could abide to be more miserable Patientia est honestatis ac utilitatis causâ Cicer. voluntaria ac diuturna perpessio rerum arduarum In Christian Patience there must be not a stoical Apathy or senselesness Non sentire mala non est hominis non fâ—rre non est vire that it should be as pleasant a thing to us to be in Equuleo as in lecto Christians as Christ did feel pain but they patiently endure it there can be no patience when there is no sense of evil Neither is it as your Moralists a meer yielding to necessity But it supposeth a sence of evil and then in the formality of it is a submission of the whole soul to the will of God If we suffer any misery it must be in a good cause Thieves by land Miranda est duâ—itia sed neganda patientia and Pyrats by sea suffer much hardship Catiline did patiently abide cold and other extremities Baal Priests endured cutting and slashing And covetous misers and earchworms will endure much to get money yet that is no patience There must be a good affection and a good end Saul was patient when men despised him he gave them not a word but it was in Policy Some have patience perforce because they cannot be avenged they have no power to do it that is dissimulation Others suffer much for vain-glory as hereticks have done But we must suffer for Gods glory c. Our Patience must be continual as our crosses are perpetual while we are in this world so our Patience must be perpetual Philosophers have discoursed of Patience and commended it but Christians themselves have staggered when they have been exercised with a sharp sense of evils Which shews us that its easier in a calme and sedate condition to discourse of patience than to exercise in time of trial Patience is a noble vertue Nobile vincendi genus est Patientia 1. Sapientem demonstrat David shewed himselfe a wise man when he bare patiently the railing of Shemei So did Hezekiah when he answered not Rabshakeh The world counts them fools that put up reviling speeches yet they be the true wise men 2. Forttiudinem superet He that is slow to anger saith Solomon is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag It is counted cowardlinesse not to resist yet it is the best valour in the world 3. Sine ictu de hoste triumphat Non feriendâ— fed ferendo We give our enemy never a blow and yet we overcome him It is a victory gotten not onely without blood-shed but without the striking of a stroak 4. In marte vitam conservat As the Salamander is said to live in the fire So Patience makes us to live in the fire of afflictions 5. De regno securitatem praestat Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Therefore let this excellent vertue be imbraced by us all As faith inlayed with charity is Regina virtutum So Patience is one of the chief Maidens of honour that wait upon her By faith we live and patience we possesse our souls after we begin to live in Christ By faith we have an interest in the Kingdome of Heaven and by patience we sail through the tempestuous sea of this world till we come to the haven of rest By faith we apprehend the promises And Patience is an iron pillar for the just to lean upon to uphold them against all crosses and afflictions Ye have need of Patience Heb. 10.36 that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise In your patience possesse your souls Luk. 21.19 But let patience have her perfect work Jam 1.4 that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Murmuring The Hebrewes in their Talmud say that the Moon complained in the day of her creation Buxto fâ— that she was not appointed for so good a use as the Sun to shine in the day time but in the night because of her grudging they say that God appointed she should not shine from the day of her creation till the sixth day It s a dangerous thing to sit sick of the sullens or be discontented at any of Gods dispensations To complain more than we have cause is sinful and therefore much more to complain when we have no cause at all Yet some are ready to complain when they are encompassed about with many mercies Mr. Caryl and are not satisfied when they are filled they complain because they have not what they would or because others have more than they though themselves have enough if they knew what is enough Some complain when they have meat enough because they have not sauce yea some complain when they have enough of both Fortuna multis dat nimis nulli satis the affluence of all things not onely for necessity but delight These are never well neither full nor fasting being so far from having learned the Apostle's lesson to be content in all estates that they are content in none The people of Israel murmured not only when they wanted bread but when they had it when they had Manna they murmured for Quailes and at last they murmured at their very Mannah their souls loathed that light bread Consider how great their sin is who complain upon such termes as these who complain before they are hurt yea when they have cause to be very thankful We live in complaining times nothing pleaseth many among us because every thing is not as they please The Lord hath healed all our stroakes in great degree but our complainings are not healed If we be found complaining when we have no cause we may quickly provoke God to give us cause enough of complaining When children cry for nothing they are usually made to feel something This
manu Herculis extorqueas But when a man gives an alms being drawn to it with many and violent intreaties he loseth the grace of his gift both with God and man Nemo libentur debet quod non accepit sed expressit Among men he accounts not himself a debter who hath not freely received but wrung out a penny from a rich man That which is extorted from a man he properly giveth not Necessity in this kind and liberty cannot well stand together Pliny writeth that it was observed among the Romans Senec. Râ—nitentem trabentem se ab aris that never any good came to a man by offering a beast in sacrifice that violently drew back from the Altar and could not be brought to it but with much force And most certain it is that God esteemeth of no offering of ours which is not as free as liberal Give Alms of such things as you have Luke 11.41 Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased He that sheweth mercy Rom. 12.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with chearfulnesse Hospitality Nihil interest habere estium apertum vultum clausum Cicero It is nothing worth to admit man with an open door and to receive them with a shut and reserved countenance Saith the Oratour Hospitality is an excellent duty and we have many spurs to prick us to it 1. God requires it 2. We have many examples of it 3. We our selves may be strangers therefore do as we would be done to In it these things are required that it be done 1. Frequentur one swallow makes not a spring It was the continual practice of Lot and Abraham as may appear by their behaviour 2. â—eleriter we must not tarry till strangers offer themselves we must pull them in as Abraham and Lot we must constrain them as Lydia did Paul and Silas 3. Hilaritur without grudging we must not repine at it speak hardly of them when they be gone 4. Humiliter after a meek manner as if we were rather beholden to them than they to us 5. Abundantur according to that ability wherewith God hath blessed us 6. Perseverantur be not weary of well doing But alas most men are too much wedded to the world Where are our Abrahams to entertain Gods messengers Our Lots to compel his Ministers to come in but many a rich glutton to barr the door and deny the very fragments of his table The Prophet Elias lacketh his host of Sarepta the Prophet Elisha his hostess the Shunamite Paul cannot find the Purpurisse nor Peter the Tanner Job we find not Captain Cornelius is a black swan in this generation No Philip to feast the poor nor Martha to give the courteous entertainment nor Mary to pour oyntment on their heads Christ is a beggar in his membeâ—s Lazarus lyes still at the door and cannot by long craving and crying obtain some crummes his pillow is the Pavement stones the rich mans horses chew and spew upon gold and silver and his Mules go under rich velvet Dogges are deer and feed more daintily Foolish Nabal who like Sodom and Gomorrah was full of bread yet he denies distressed David of the superfluity of his house Yea they that make a great shew of Christianity are ready to say with that very churle shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be Habet semper unde det Aug. cui plenum est pectus charitatis Coronat Deus voluntatem ubi non invenit facultatem Idem Given to hospitality 1 Tim. 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coaction It is a received Axiom Quod ex necessitate bonum est non est bonum that which is good of necessity is not good yet it is to be understood de necessitate coactâ of a coacted necessity not of a voluntary God is necessarily good yet willingly good Death comes necessarily upon all yet some dy willingly I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ But the good which is done upon a constrained necessity loseth the name of good Patience perforce is no patience A willing mind in a good action is all in all If Solomon had not willingly built the Temple it had not been pleasing to God If the Centurion had not willingly set up the Synagogue God would not have respected it If the woman of Shunem had not willingly entertained the Prophet it had been no good work in the sight of God If Dorcas had not made the coates willingly they had not been acceptable unto God Not by constraint 1 Pet. 5.2 but willingly Beginning or Original Dimidium facti qui benè Caepit habet First actions make deepest impressions either of fear or courage Great lakes are made from small rivers Great matters from small beginnings Small matters saith a Divine art not to be neglected Mr. Mâ—ntâ—n in nature Art Religion or Providence In nature matters of moment grow up from small beginnings Nature loveth to have her cause and seed of every thing small A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Thin exhalations end in great showers Small breaches in a Sea bank let in great inundations We must therefore not consider matters in their beginning only but progress and ultimate issue A little sin doth a great deal of mischief and a little grace is of great efficacy Penes Râ—ges est inferre bellum penes antem Deum terminare Contention at first is but as a spark but afterward it being fomented and blown up by unsober spirits putteth whole Kingdomes into combustion Heresy at first is inconsiderable but it creepeth like a Gangrene from one place to another till it have destroyed the whole body Men begin to quarrel one with another about trifles and God inferreth great mutations and changes of States and Kingdoms Learn we then not to neglect evils that are small in their rise and original Resist sinnes betimes give no place to Sathan Principiis â—bsta we know not the issue of his tyranny and encroachment And learn we also not to despise the day of small things the low beginning of grace Providence and deliverance God useth to go on when he hath begun a good work Behold Jam. 3.5 how great a matter a little fire kindleth Progresse in Sanctification Non progredi est regredi The cessasion or sleep of grace makes such a confusion in the whole man as Christ sleeping in the ship did to it Christians like waters of the Sanctuary should rise higher and higher As the morning Sun they should shine more and more unto the perfect day The blessing on man in the first creation was increase and multiply in the second grow in grace A Christian how perfect soever hath still his Plùs ultra Runners in a race look not how much they have run but how much remaineth A Christian hath his degrees of growth and his several ages of
c. Loe these are the inseperable markes of Popery and the brands of their Divellish religion And these do but hasten their incurable destruction rendring them odious to all Christian States Princes and people yea to Turks and Infidels How is the faithful City become an harlot Isaâ— 1. â—1 22. it was full of judgment righteousnesse lodged in it but now murderers Thy silver is become drosse thy wine mixt with water Come hither Rev. 17.1 and I will shew thee the judgment of the great where c. Babylon the great is fallen is fallen c. Cap. 18.2 Come out her my people Vers 4. that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Pope If the servant of servants be above the King of Kings and Lord of Lords then where is Christs Prerogative Ye take too much upon you O ye sons of Levi. St. Peter had a priority but not superiority or if a Primacy yet not a supremacy over the rest â—â—lv Inst l. 4. c. 6. he had as our Divines acknowledge a precedency in place named for the most part first as the foreman of the quest and aâ—preheminency in grace reputed for his excellent Knowledge and Zeal he was the first Confessour Mat. 16.16 The first preacher Act. 2. The first baptizer Act. 10. The first worker of miracles Act. 3. Austin saith Epist 28. Deus docuit Petrum per posteriorem Paulum yet another addes Etsi ille primus iste praecipuus It was Frederick the Emperor his saying In capite orbis Deus per imperium exaltavit Ecclesiam in capite orbis Ecclesia nunc demolitur imperium Cyprian speakes much against Pope Stephen Epist ad Pomp. assuring Pompeius upon the reading of the Epistle Pope Stephen sent to Cyprian he should Magis ac magis ejus errorem denctare qui causam hâ—reticorum contra Christianos contra Ecclesiam Dei asserâ—re conatâ—r He taxeth him also of impertinencies and contradictions to himself that he did imperitè improvidè scribere Liber erat Mant. Eccl. 2. servile jugum sibi condidit ipse Pondus idem legum vidi ipse volumina quas 〈◊〉 Antiqui potuere patres nec possumus ipsi Neâ— servare atas poterit ventura nepotum Thomas Holland of Exet. Col. Oxf. When he was to take his journey said to the fellowes Commendo vos dilectioni Dei odio papatus superstitionis The Pope imitates Peter to whom he pretends succession in the worst things he cuts off not onely the ear but head he denies Christ but weeps not for it Vzziah though a King must not meddle with the Priests office and Azariah the High-Priest must not intrude himself into the Kings office yet the High-Priest of Rome will have both swords he will be a Priest and a King too he will be for matters of the world as well as for matters of God Boniface the eight shewed himself one day in the attire of a Priest another day in the attyre of a Prince affirming that he was both Bellarmine of late hath somewhat minced the matter that the Pope hath no power in temporal matters directè yet indirectè quoad bonum spirituale he may play Rex Excellent So as a man get into an house it makes no great matter whether directly or indirectly And so as the Pope may depose Princes and dispose of their Kingdoms and butcher them at his pleasure what availeth it whether directly or indirectly I am sure this is indirect dealing by an indirect distinction to break down the wall of partition that God himself hath set up between the Priest and the Magistrate That the Pope exalts himself above all that is called God I prove 1. In that he is not onely in equipage with God in remitting of sins but is made more mighty for God in the creation made but creatures but he can make as many gods as he lust 2. More merciful than Christ which is concluded for this reason It is not read in all the Scripture that Jesus Christ drew any soul out of purgatory but the Pope of his great piety and mercy doth every day an infinite number nay Credat Judaeuâ— Appella Pope Gregory did bring Trajans soul out of hell 3. More wise then God for he can institute a sacrifice alsufficient to save those that Christs sacrifice cannot save 4. Of more authority than God whose word is not authentical without his allowance But what he saith though never so crosse to the Text is Ipsissimum Dei verbum Besides all the names and titles of Christ given him in the Scripture to shew him Lord of the Church are attributed to the Pope the head of Antichristian heresies Bellarmine saith that he is universal Pastour Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium De concâ—â— anâ—ho l. 2. c. 17. Admirabilis Leo de tribu Judae Radix David And those which Antichrist would onely rob him of are Head of the whole body of the Church Bridegroom of the Spouse Foundation of the Church as if one body might have two heads one spouse two husbands at once Moreover mind his horrible pride claiming authority above Kings Emperours Lawes Scriptures yea over men and Angels Their doctrine is that Papa babet imperium in Angelos Daemonas And their practise the like For Clement the sixt in his Bull upon the Jubile 1350. Prorsus mandamus Angelis Paradisi quatenuâ— animam in Purgatorio penitus absolutam in Paradisi gloriam introducant And is not this to make himself a god is not this that beast full of the names of Blasphemie I might adde much I will onely conclude with that saying of Pope Marcellus the second wherein he seemes to be prety ingenious Onâ—ph in vitâ for striking his hand upon the table he uttered these words Non video quo modo qui hunc locum altissimum tenant salvari possunt I see not how any Pope can be saved And that of Pius Quintus Cornel. à Lap. iâ— Num. 11.11 recited by A lapide When I was first in orders I had some good hopes of salvation when I was made a Cardinal I doubted but now that I am Pope I do almost despair 2 Thes 2.3 4. That man of sin The son of Perdition c. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as god sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is god Papists The Pope hath given liberty to some to have all their own rites onely acknowledging his Supremacy but the ground being laid for point of Doctrine it matters not there 's enough gained to make him that had sworn obedience to accept of all the rest They that bear witnesse to themselves as Papists do are not to be heard in their own cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless they compass such a decree as Stratocles did for Demetrius Whatsoever Demetrius will command
Marterii sanguine ablui passion gâ—rgari non potest Discordiam neque si sanguinâ—m fundemus expiabiabimus Sâ—enâ—c than to break the peace of the Church It is an inexpiable blemish saith Cypr. lib. de unitat Eccles such as cannot be washt off with the blood of Martyrdom The errour of it may be pardoned saith Oecolampadius in Epist ad frat in svevia so there be faith in Christ Jesus but the discord we cannot expiate though we should lay down our lives and blood to do it De verbo controversia est de re quidem convenit This is very much verified amongst Christians in these dayes A Doctore glorioso Pastore contentioso inutilibus questionibus liberet Ecclesiam suam Dominus said Luther From a vain-glorious Doctor from a contentious Pastor and from endlesse and needlesse controversies the good Lord deliver his Church Quisquis ille est qualiscunque est christianus non est qui in Christi Ecclesia non est Cypr. Q. Are not all those Schismaticks who have dissented and seperated from the Church of Rome We indeed have seperated our selves A. but they of the Church of Rome are Schismaticks because the cause of our seperation is in them viz. their Idolatry and manifold Heresies The case is the like A man threatens death to his wife hereupon she seperates yet not she but he makes the reperation because the cause of the seperation and the fault is in him And therefore for the avoiding of Schisme remember this rule So long as a Church or people do not seperate from Christ we may not seperate from them Divisions are Sathans Powder-plots to blow up Religion All other sins destroy the Church consequentially but division and seperation demolish it directly The Church suffereth by dissentions whereof we ought to be as tender as of treading upon our parents that begat us Christi tunica est unica they that rent it by schismes are worse than the rude souldiers To break unity in the Church is to cut asunder the very veins and sinews of the mystical body of Christ Schismes for the most part do degenerate into Heresies as an old Serpent into a Dragon Now I beseech you Rom. 16.17 brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Read Joh. 19.23 1 Cor. 1.13 Cap. 3.3 4. Gal. 5.20 c. Concord In primitivâ Ecclesiâ saith one Christiani animo animaque inter se miscebantur omnia praeter uxores indiscreta habebant Sed fraternitas omnis â—odie extincta est unanimitas Primitiva non tantum diminuta de quo Cyprianus suis temporibus quâ—ritur sed è medio penitus sublata esse videtur Presently after the Primitive times an Heathen could say Nullae infestae hominibus bestiae ut sunt sibi ferales plerique Christiani No beasts are so mischievous to men as Christians are one to another Sad And the Turk can say he shall sooner see his fingers all of a length than Christian Princes all of a mind Of the ancient Britanis Dum singuli pugnant universi vincunâ—â—â— Tacitus tels us that nothing was so destructive to them as their dissentions And Cyprian said of those persecutions in his dayes Non venissent fratribus haec mala si in unum fraternitas fuisset animata Alexander the great his men passing the river Tigris which for the swiftnesse is also called Arraw by clasping themselves together made so strong a body that the stream could not bear them down Methinks it is high time for us now to set aside all private emulations and exceptions As the creatures in the Ark laid by their Antipathies within because of the common danger of an inundation without The number of two hath by the Heathens been accounted accursed because it was the first that departed from unity Concordiâres parvae crescunt Yea Communion of Saints is the next happinesse upon earth to communion with God Keep the unity of the spirit Ephes 4.3 in the bond of peace Behold Psal 133.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devincientiam Trem. how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity This staffe of binders ought to be kept unbroken See Zech. 11.7.14 Church-Ordinances Prophets THe word Propheta is diversly taken for the writings of the Prophets They have Moses and the Prophets or the Law and the Prophets For a Preacher a Divine an Interpreter a Watch-man a Pastor a man of God an Angel of God a fore-seer a fore-teller as Isaiah Jeremie c. They were called Seers because the eye is surer than the care and seeing more certain than report Tanta est profunditas Christianarum literarum saith Austin so great is the depth of Divine learning that there is no fathoming of it Prophets are pictured like a Matron with her eyes covered for the difficulty For which cause some learned men as Paulinus Nolanus Psellus in Theodoret any others would not be drawn to write Commentatries Yet difficulty doth but whet desire in gallant spirits The more harder the vision the more earnest was the Prophets inquisition Searching with greatest sagacity and industry as hunters seek for game 1 Pet. 1.10 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as men seek for gold in the very mines of the earth so much the word imports What or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify There are three sorts of false Prophets set down by Hierom 1. Qui nimium instahant somniis vanis 2. Qui ad dirimendum veros Prophâ—tas dixerunt se habere visiones Dei 3. Qui ut â— Populo nobiles haberensur dixerunt se Prophetas The first in a Phantastical humour imagined every dream to be a prophesie Thesecond like foxes to destroy Gods vineyard in envie of the Lords Prophets arrogated to themselves the spirit of Prophesie The third drunk with vain-glory for their better credit among the people assumed the name of Prophets The three marks in a word are Falsity Impiety Ignorance Both the old Church and new were ever pestered with publique deceivers boldly obtruding upon them erroneous opinions for Divine Oracles and seeking to drag disciples after them Such as of late times were Servetus Socinus Vâ—rstius Pelargus the first Anabaptist c. Compelling people by their perswasions to embrace those distorted Doctrines that produce convulsions of conscience The Manichees derived their name of Manna because they held that whatsoever they taught was to be received as food from heaven Monâ—anus said he was the Comforter c Novatus called himself Moses and a brother that he had Aaron The family of love set out their Evangelium râ—gni The Swenkfeldians Luther called them Stinkfeldians from the ill favour of their opinions entituled themselves with the glorious name The confessors of the Glory of Christ They have their Pithanology their good words and fair speeches Daemon mentitur ut
which is a breach of the ninth Commandment Thou shalt not bear false witnesse 2. Doctrinal when a false Position is averred to be the truth of God and stamped with Divine authority Any erroneous doctrine is branded with this title For this cause saith Paul namely because they received not the love of the truth God shall send them strong delusion that they shall believe a lie 2 Thes 2.11 3. Practical this is a lie not spoken but done when a mans actions contradict his profession of which the Apostle He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him 1 John 2.4 There is equivocation now set forth of a later impression Arch-Priest Blackwel and Provincial Garnet a Pest which the Jesuites have alaâ—â— called back from hell for the comfort of afflicted Catholicks as some have not been ashamed to profess But it is plain the Devil did onely equivocate with our first parents and yet is called a liar Every sin the more congenial it is to the Devil the more sinful and abominable it is Now every sin is of the devil both by temptation and approbation but onely some sins are of the devil by way of practice and the sin which is chiefly of him by practice is lying Remove from me the way of lying Psalm 119.29 Jesting Quid nobis cum fabulis cum risu Non solùm profusos Bern. sed atiam omnes jocos declinandos Tertullian saith he was Nullâ— rei naim nisi poenitentiae borne for nothing else but for repentance Sir Thomas Moore being brought to the Tower a malefactor Act. and Mon. fol. 970. and one of the Officers demanding his upper garment for a fee meaning his gown he said he should have it and took him his cap saying that it was the uppermost garment that he had So when he was to be beheaded he said to the Executioner I Pray you let me lay my beard over the block lest you should cut it It seeme he thought it no glory unlesse he might die with a Jest in his mouth Surely it was very unseasonable The Chronicler seemeth to doubt Edw. Hallâ— Chron. whether to call him a foolish-wise-man or a wise-foolish-man Crede mihi râ—â— sâ—vern est gandium verum True mirth is a severe Businesse Seneca Scurrility consists not with piety and Christian gravity Nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient Ephes â— 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather giving of thanks Obscaenity Idle and wasâ— words are to be accounted for how much more then evil and wicked Plato and Xenophâ—n thought it fit and profitable that mens speeches at meetings should be written Evil words are not winde saith a late Writer as most men imagine but the Devils drivel that leaves a soul staâ—â— upon the speaker and oft sets the like upon the hearer Shunne obscene borborologie saith another and unâ—avoury speeches thou losest so much of thine honesty and piety as thou admittest evil in thy tongue Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth Eph. 4.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers Voice Christs not lifting up his voice in the street Isa 42.2 is vox jactantis non docentis There are many voices saith one all the Prophets are voices Preachers are voices Non vox hominis sed Dei certè but there are some voces ad placitum temporizing voices crying for their own profit others which are voces aequivecae as an hatchet that will not cut a fire that will not burn But John Baptist was the properest voice of them all Reverend Mr. Samuel Crook was wont to say to his friends rejoycing with him and blessing God for him I am nothing but a voice So John he professeth himself to be no more but a voice And indeed he was totus vox all voice his apparel his diet his conversation did preach holinesse as well as his doctrine John 1.23 Every faithful Minister is ordained to be a cryer and so had we need we have to do with deaf men dead men living carcases walking Sepulchres of themselves Now therefore as our Saviour lifted up his voice Isa 58.1 Clamâ—s etiam ut stentora vincas when he said Lazarus come forth So must Christs Ministers when they speak to such as lie rotting and stinking in the grave of their corruptions cry aloud Awake thou that sleepest Eph. 5.14 and arise from the dead Loquacity We read of it He that hath an ear to hear let him hear but never he that hath a tongue to speak let him speak Empty vessels are full of sound wisest men are most silent for as some gravel and mud passeth away with much water so in many words there wanteth no sin In multi loquio stulti loquium Many words are hardly well managed It is seldome seen that a man of many words miscarries not The silence of Swans may for a time be overcome with the noise of Swallows Vir linguae nequaquam crit stabilis but when the Swallows are hoarse the Swans will sing Epaminondas is worthily praised by Plutarch for this Quòd nemo plura nosset pauciora loqueretur That no man knew more and spake lesse than he did Talkativenesse is a sign of worthlesnesse taciturnity of solidity He that hath knowledge Prov. 17.27 spareth his words Silence It is a privative at least a negative A dumbnesse is a total so silence is a temporal privation of speech It is a good rule that one gives either keep silence or speak that that is better than silence Well said Hierom Discamus priùs non loqui ut postmodum ad loquendum ora reseramus In Eccl. 3.7 nihil nobis rectum esse vidâ—atur nisi quod discimus ut post multum silentium ex discipulis efficiamur magistri Seneca saith summa summarum haec est tardiloquum te esse jubeo Epist 40. And Ambrose In Psal 38. Ovalidum scutum circumspect a munitionis silentium O fidissimum stabilitatis fundamentum Multi enim etiam stabili corde firmati incauti tamen sermonis fluctuantis errore ceciderunt But here 's a misery saepè non possumus loqui quum volumus saepè non volumus quum possumus saepius autem utrumque non debemus quum facimus There are three sorts of silent persons 1. Some and it is their cunning 2. Others and it is their weakness 3. But there are and it is their wisdom To these I may adde a fourth There is a superstitious silence such as were those old Monks of Egypt who saith Cassian were Vmbrarum more silentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as speechlesse as Ghosts So the Carthusian Monks who speak together but once a week Some kindes of Sectaries also at this day will not speak a word to any but those of their own Sect and that but at
out of their bellies For which cause also the Hebrews called them Oboth or bottles because the bellies of those women that were thus made use of by the Devil were swelled as big as bottles In the year of Grace 1536. a certain Damsel at Frankfort in Germany being possessed with a Devil and stark mad swallowed down pieces of money with much gnashing of her teeth which monies were presently wrung out of her hands and kept by divers Bucholc Chr. Luther's advice being requested it was this To pray hard for her Vrbanus Regius in a Sermon of his at Wittenberg made mention of a certain Maid possessed by the Devil and when she should have been prayed for in the Congregation the Devil made as if he had been departed out of her But before the next publike meeting Satan returned and drove the Maid into a deep water where she presently perished Melanchton tells a story of an Aunt of his that had her hand burnt to a coal by the Devil appearing to her in the likeness of her deceased husband And Pareus relates an example of a Bakers daughter in their countrey possest and pent up in a Cave she had digg'd as in a grave to her dying day Much like unto that poor creature mentioned Mat. 8.28 It is to be feared the Devil that was cast out of the Demoniacks bodies is got into many mens hearts oft casting them into the fire of Lust and water of Drunkenuess Athanasius had a conceit that the Devil may be driven out of a body by repeating the 68. Psalm Possessed with Devils Mat. 4.24 and lunatick Sorrow Secundum Deum 2 Cor. 7.10 Mundum 2 Cor. 7.10 For the first Sin bred sorrow and sorrow being right destroyeth sin as the worm that breeds in the wood eats into it and devours it So that of this sorrow according to God we may say as the Romans did of Pompey the Great Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother But the sorrow of the world is that which carnal men conceive Act. Mon. fol. 1901. either for the want or loss of good or for the sense or fear of evil Thus Queen Mary who died as some supposed by her much sighing before her death of thought and sorrow either for the departure of King Philip or the loss of Calice or both Thus Nabal sorrowed To these may be added a third An hellish sorrow a desperate grief for sin Virtus nolentium nulla est as was that of Judas Fained or forced grief is nothing worth He grieved and yet miscarried It was squeezed out of him as verjuice out of crabs But Peter went forth to weep bitterly Gods people are commanded to afflict themselves with voluntary sorrow Some shadow of it we have in Epaminondas the Theban General who the next day after the Victory and Triumph went drooping and hanging down his head And being asked why he did so He answered Blur. Yesterday I found my self too much tickled with vainglory therefore I correst my self for it to day But we have a better example in holy David whose heart smote him and made him smart inwardly saith the text 2 Sam. 24.10 after he had numbred the people The soundness and sincerity of sorrow is shewed by the secrecy of it Ille dolet verâ— qui sine teste dolet He grieves with a witness that grieves without a witness Zech. 12.12 Sorrow is a breaker It breaks no bones but it breaks the heart Worldly sorrow breaks the heart to death Godly sorrow breaks the heart to life Sorrow shortneth the spirit of man that is Sorrow over-acted weakens the whole man and leaves him unable to put himself forth in action Joy is the dilatation or widening of the heart much joy makes the spirit free to act So sorrow is a straitner of it it makes a man narrow-hearted and narrow-handed it stops him in his actings or stays him from acting We commonly say Sorrow is dry 'T is so because it is a drier A broken spirit drieth the bones Pro. 17.22 Aristotle in his book of Long and short Life assignes Grief for a chief cause of death All immoderations saith Hippocrates are great enemies to health We have heard of some whose hearts being filled with vexing cares Quia spiritus tristis exiceat â—ssa have filled their heads with gray hairs in a very short time As some have an art to ripen fruits before nature ripens them so the Lord hath a power to hasten old age before nature makes us old Many troubles in one year may make a man as old as many years Grief is like Lead to the soul heavy and cold It sinks downward and carries the soul with it Mans Mind is like the stone Tyrrhenus which so long as it is whole swimmeth but being once broke sinketh David was decrepit with much grief at seventy years of age Jacob attained not to the days of the years of the life of his fathers as being a man of many sorrows And this some think was the reason our Saviour Christ at little past thirty was reckoned to be towards fifty Lam. 3.1 Joh. 8.57 He was the man that had seen affliction Mention is made of a German Captain at the Siege of Buda Anno 1541. Turk Hist. who seeing the dead body of his unfortunate but valiant Son presented to him a sudden and inward grief did so surprise him and strike to his heart that after he had stood a while speechless with his eyes set in his head he suddenly fell down dead The Casuists and Schoolmen affirm sorrow for sin to be the greatest of all sorrows In 1. Conatu 2. Extensione 3. Appreciatione 4. Intensione Though other Mourning coming down hill having Nature to work with it and nothing to hinder it make more noise Mine eye is consumed because of grief Psal 6.7 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12.25 When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me c. Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am in trouble Mine eye is consumed with grief Psal 42.4 yea my soul and my belly For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing My strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed Psal 31.9 10. Desire It is a passion which we have to attain to a good thing which we enjoy not Est voluntarius affectus ut res quae bona existimatur deâ—st vel existat vel possideatur that we may imagine is fitting for us There is a threefold desire 1. Natural 2. Reasonable 3. Spiritual And every one of these by their order are subordinate to another and there is no repugnancie amongst them In Fevers we desire to drink and yet we will not And so in Apoplexies to sleep and yet we will not A mans hand is gangren'd a Chyrurgeon comes to cut it off The
Our creation our preservation do both plead for and challenge it at our hands a regular conformity to his will for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture but much more our redemption the end whereof is that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Luke 1.74 75. in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This obedience is 1. Internal wrought and seated in the heart 2. External profest and made conspicuous by outward expressions For the former it is internal wrought in the heart for the outward motions of our service and observance to God have their proper dependance upon the good operations of the heart as it is affected moved and ruled by the Spirit of grace In nature the heart is primum vivens the first part in man that lives and communicates natural life and motion to the rest So in grace the heart is the very first that receives new life from above according unto which all the other parts become instruments of righteousness and Gods glory from being instruments of sin and Gods dishonour The heart then once subdued to the obedience of God the rebellion of our nature being suppressed and the love of God shed abroad in them by the holy Ghost which is given unto us there is by the effectual working of the power of the most High begotten in us an ardent love of God which is that spiritual flame of pure heavenly fire that makes us zealous of good works that actuates the whole man in piety putting us awork in the serious disquisition of the affairs of heaven and making us fiery hot in the Christian pursuit of Gods glory and our eternal quiet The Apostle defines it to be the fulfilling of the Law so that upon it depends our obedience there being no obedience without it Wherefore to conclude this with S. Bernard on the Canticles Dilexit nos Deus dulciter sapienter fortiter dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter Bern. quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit Sic nos diligamus Deum dulciter ne illecti sapienter ne decepti fortiter ne compressi deficiamus God loved us sweetly wisely sirmly Sweetly because he assumed our nature wisely because he eschewed and declined our sin firmly because he sustained death for us In like manner let us love God sweetly lest allured wisely left intrapped and firmly lest constrained and fore urged we revolt and apostatize from him Let our affections then be once heartily endeared unto him as they ought to be and the whole world shall not remove our standing nor make us forsake our obedience due to God For the latter This honour consisting in obedience as it is internal wrought in the heart and seated there by love so it is external profest by outward expressions It must not be lockt up in perpetual silence nor buried in endless obscurity but our lips must be open to shew forth his praises and our light must so shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven This honorable obedience is exprest two ways 1. By good language 2. By good actions First it is exprest by good language The heavenly host of Angels be assembled together to give the good time of the early day to the Son of God now made the Son of Man Sing and rejoice not only because the vacant places of Apostate Angels were to be filled up and supplied with the redeemed Israel of God but also because we are by his most happy Incarnation made most happily the sons of God of the sons of wrath and partakers of their happiness of being partakers of great misery Wherefore joy was proclaimed from Heaven in the sweetest dialects by the Divine Heralds of Honor because the Author and Giver of Joy was come then into the world which was the best day that eâ—er than beheld made more glorious by the glorious rising of the Sun of Righteousness Joy again is commanded because enmity betwixt God and man the just cause of sorrow is removed Questionless Glory in the highest degree and largest extent is to be rendred unto God which our first Parents by their unlawful transgression would have taken away And if the Angels thus sing and rejoice how much more are we engaged in the performance of the like since he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of Man since unto us that Child was born and for us that Son was given Sing and fear not then as the Angels said because he was born who hath taken away all cause of fear The Israelites did lift up their voices with Jubile 2 Sam. 〈◊〉 when the Ark of the Covenant was brought unto them which was but a shadow or figure of the Lords Incarnation how much more ought we to rejoice unto whom the Lord himself is come and hath honored us with the assumption of our flesh unto him Abraham rejoiced when he saw by faith the day of the Lord afar off how much greater ought our rejoicing to be now that he was Immanuel God with us He rejoiced when he saw the Lord in an humane shape assumed for a time appearing unto him what should we do now that Christ hath coupied unto himself our nature by an everlasting covenant and inviolable union Our souls ought to magnifie the Lord our God and our spirits to rejoice in God our Saviour A new song is expected of us being the old things are passed and all things become new With the Heavens ought we in a more special manner to declare the glory of the God of Heaven and sound forth in the choifest language and with most chearful heart from generation to generation the everlasting praises of our God for the wondrous work of our Redemption God commands us Good Angels invite us all things prompt us to make our tongues as pens of ready writers to set forth that good matter is indited in and by our hearts concerning the King of Kings Psal 45. whereby we may make his name to be remembred in all ages and the people to praise him for ever and ever Secondly This honorable obedience is exprest by good actions To speak well and do ill is simulata sanctitas counterfeit sanctity deliverâ—d by some to be duplex iniquitas a double iniquity Being that the true Light is gone into the world from the Father of Lights who dwelleth in that Light which is unaccessible We who are the Children of Light by profession ought not to be imployed in the works of Darkness by dissimulation Our behaviour and conversation must be candid and unstain'd if our souls have received the true stamp and character of goodness For this purpose God gave Christ and Christ gave himself that he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Enoch walked with God and Abraham pleased
die so was it necessary he should live again 1. In regard of Gods Decree Isa 53.10 revealed in his Word promising that He should see his seed that is the Just and that He would prolong his days Peter in his Sermon on the day of Pentecost averrs That David in the 16. Psalm spake of Christ's Rising by way of prediction the knowledge whereof came unto him by Divine infusion Act. 2.31 2. It was necessary for the instruction and settlement of our Faith we being naturally prone to infidelity And that 1. Concerning the Divinity of our Saviour Christ the glory and truth whereof had not been made sufficiently apparent had he not used his power in rising again But in that he is risen he hath mightily declared himself to be the Son of God i.e. Ex afflicto ejus statu as Gal. 4.14 very God of very God Who although he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 If Christ be not risen saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 15. then our preaching is in vain and in vain our faith By his Resurrection therefore we obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidei a full measure of faith in this that there is no place of doubting left us but that we firmly may believe that Jesus Christ is true God for whom to be held bound in the strict chains of a powerful death is a matter of the greatest impossibility Again it was necessary for the settlement of our Faith 2. Concerning the victory Christ hath gotten over death The weaker is overcome of the stronger so that if Christ had not risen he had been weaker than Death had not been a sufficient Redeemer we had been still in our sins we could not have been perswaded God had received perfect satisfaction But being that he is revived by the same Power that giveth life unto all Death hath no longer dominion over him Gods justice is satisfied and we remain no longer in our sins Wherefore we may well in the language of triumph proclaim O death where is thy sling O grave where is thy victory And we continuing the same note may adde by the vertue of a lively faith Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 3. It was necessary for the comforting assistance of our Hope lest it should be converted into a Desperate humour Our propensity to Desperation is by woful experience too well known But inasmuch as our Saviour our Head Clarissima fidei confâ—ssio Brentius Brevis longa totaque aurea est haec Apologia saith another had a glorious Exit out of the grave and an absolute conquest over death it is forcible enough to make us hope that we his members united unto him by the indissoluble bond of the Spirit shall also rise again after death Upon this hope was that speech of Job grounded I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me Job 19. Were it not for Christ's Resurrection hope herein might have failed both him and us for his is the cause of ours therefore is he stiled Primitiae dormientium The first-fruits of them that sleep 4. It was necessary for the compleat and perfect consummation of our eternal happiness For in that he was humbled to sustain great evils by dying for our freedom from all evil so was he glorified by his Resurrection for our promotion to all â—ood He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. â— ult And as it is Heb. 7.25 He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them 5. It was necessary in regard of the compleat discharge of his office of Priesthood to which he was from all eternity anointed of the Father If he had not risen again he had not performed the full duty of that calling which required that he should make satisfaction for the sins of people which he did by offering up himself an Offering and a Sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling favour upon the Cross And further that calling required also that he should apply the vertue of this Sacrifice the merit of his death to every true Believer which could not be performed without his Resurrection So that as he died to satisfie the justice of God so was it requisite he should rise from death to make to us a particular application of the vertue of his Passion by his effectual Intercession unto his Father in heaven for us upon earth Whereupon comes the Apostles Quaere and Answer Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Thus much of the Necessity of Christ's Resurrection The second point is concerning the Ends of his Resurrection which are divers Viz. 1. In regard of himself 2. In regard of the Law 3. In regard of us In regard of himself the end of his Rising was twofold 1. To declare that he himself that Holy and Just one whom the Jews had by wicked hands crucified and slain was the Prince of life Who at his pleasure as he could give life to others so unto himself Act. 3.15 though he were brought to the lowest step of an humbled state though death held him in its hands For if at his Crucifying the shaking of the earth the rising of some dead bodies the obscuration of the Sun not hap'ning within the compass of the course of nature because not at the usual time of the conjunction of those two Planets the Sun and Moon wrested a confession out of the spectators that He was the Son of God much more may his Resurrection evict thus much that He is the Prince of life who might lay down and take up his life when he pleased And 2. That having finished and perfected the great work of our Redemption he might reign thenceforth for ever in glory â—â—n 7.14 Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and whose Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed Albeit he seemed for a time to be deposed from his Royalty whilst he submitted himself to death yet it was but a short cessation that he might come off with the greater honour and so to enter into his greatest glory In regard of the Law the end of his Rising was to ratifie the truth of that Promise of life which was pass d unto man upon the performance of that Covenant passed betwixt God and man Do this and thou shalt live It could not be but that in equity Christ should live again being that he did fulfill exactly and precisely