more to the enemy of God of whom we say commonly As proud as the Devil For that once-glorious Angel looking upon his own excellency wherewith he was invested in his creation began to be lift up in himself made himself his own Alpha and Omega acknowledging no essential dependance upon God as his beginning no necessary reference to God as his end and therefore was tumbled down into that bottomless dungeon and reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day This is it which some think Saint Paul alludes to when he charges that a Bishop should not be a novice left he should be puffed up and fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. Now there are so many kinds of Pride as there are imaginary causes of self-exaltation and there are so many causes imagined hereof as there are things reputed more precious and excellent in the eyes of the world I might send you to Hugo's Chariot of Pride drawn with four horses that Age knew no more and the four wheels of it if I listed to mount Pride curiously but I will shew you her on foot To speak plainly therefore These five things are wont commonly to be the matter of our Pride Honour Riches Beauty Strength Knowledge Every of them shall have a word Those that are tainted with the first are State-proud Bladders puft up with the wind of Honour Thus Ninive Behold I sit as a Queen I am and there is none else Thus the insolent officer of Sennacherib Who art thou that thou despisest the least of my Masters servants Vicina potentibus superbia as that Father said Pride is an usual neighbour to greatness How hard is it for eminent Persons when they see all heads bare all knees bowed to them not to be raised up in their conceits not to applaud their own glory and to look overly upon the ignoble multitude as those which are Terrae filii mushroms worthy of nothing but contempt Hence it is that proud ones are incompatible with each other Look upon other Vices ye shall see one Drunkard hug another one debauch'd Wanton love another one Swearer one Profane beast delight in another but one Proud man cannot abide another as one twig cannot bear two Red-breasts Both would be best Caesar will not indure an equal nor Pompey a superiour The second are Purse-proud Vermis divitiarum superbia as St. Austin wittily Pride is in the Purse as the worm in the Apple Thus Nabal because he hath money in his bags and stock on his ground sends a scornful message to poor David though a better man then himself Many servants run away from their Masters now adaies How many examples meet us every where of this kind of them which having scrap'd together a little money more then their neighbours look big upon it and scorn the need of the better deserving and bluster like a tempest and think to bear down even good causes before them Secundas fortunas decent superbiae as the Comedian Pride becomes the wealthy Thus Solomon notes in his time that the rich speaks with commands the words weigh according to the Purse The third are the Skin-proud for Beauty goes no deeper such as with Jezebel lick themselves and with Narcissus dote upon their own Faces thinking it a wrong in any that sees them and admires them not spending all their thoughts and their time in fashions and complexion as if their Soul lay in their hide despising the ordinary forms of vulgar persons yea of the most beneficial nature Elatus erat animus tuus propter pulcritudinem Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty saith Ezekiel 28. 17. The fourth are the Sinew-proud which presume upon their own Strength and vigor Elatum cor robore saies the same Ezekiel 28. 5. As Goliah who dares in the confidence of his own arm challenge the whole hoast of God and scorns the dwarfs and shrimps of Israel The fifth is the Skill-proud puffed up with the conceit of Knowledge as Knowledge is indeed of a swelling nature There is much affinity betwixt Knowledge and Pride both came out of one Country for Pride is also natione coelestis as Hierom well and since she cannot climbe up thither again she will be mounting as high as she can towards it Every smatterer thinks all the Circle of Arts confined to the closet of his breast and as Job speaks of his haughty friends that all wisdome lives in him and dyes with him Hence is that curiosity of knowing vain querks of speculation hence singularity of opinion hating to go in the common track hence impatience of contradiction hence contempt of the mediocrity of others Out of this impatience Zidkijah could smite Michaiah on the eare and as buffeting him double say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to thee Out of this contempt the Scribes and Pharisees could say Turba haec this Laity that knows not the Law is accursed But besides these five a man may be proud of any thing yea of nothing yea of worse then nothing Evil. There may be as much Pride in rags as in tissues Diogenes tramples upon Plato's pride but with another pride And we commonly observe that none are so proud as the foulest In what kind soever it be the more a man reflects upon himself by seeking loving admiring the more proud he is the more damnable is his Pride But as in all other cases Pride is odious to God so most of all in point of Religion and in those matters wherein we have to doe with God A proud face or a proud back or a proud arm or a proud purse are hateful things but a proud Religion is so much worse as the subject should be better Let this then be the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of true or false Religion That which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depress our selves is the true that which doth most pranck up our selves and detract from God is the false It was the rule of Bonaventure whom the Romanists honour for a Saint Hoc piarum mentium est c. This is the part of pious Souls to ascribe nothing to themselves all to the Grace of God So as how much soever a man attributes to the Grace of God he shall not swerve from Piety in detracting from Nature but if he substract never so little from the Grace of God and give it to Nature he indangers himself and offends In the safety of this proof our Doctrine triumphs over the Romish in all those Points wherein it opposeth ours Ours stands ever on Gods side exalting his free Grace and mere Mercy as the causes of our Salvation theirs dividing this great work betwixt God and themselves Gods Grace and mans Free-will and ascribing that to Merit which we to Mercy Herein Popery is pure Pharisaisme and comes within the verge of Spiritual Pride Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insolent men
so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Hierusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the mother City of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first only general to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry they were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the worlds that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithful That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the head City of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisdome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spiritual matters For God uses still to goe a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly truths as the profound Doctors of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethleem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaiess the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviours nativity If the Star had caried them directly to Bethleem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those prophesies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a further advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of losse Little did the Sages think this question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivalty Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this 〈…〉 if it had falne upon Herod's own loyns the more grievous it was to light upon a stranger If Herod had not over-much affected greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumor of a successor and that not of his own Setled greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forrainers could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is netled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no lesse full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Soveraignty yea such a King as by whom Kings doe hold their Scepters not lose them If the wise-men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he is heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetnesse there is in all Divine truth it could receive nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits have been still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Hierusalem troubled with him Hierusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recovery of her liberty and right Hierusalem which now onely had cause to lift up her drooping head in the joy and happiness of a Redeemer Yet not Herod's Court but even Hierusalem was troubled so had this miserable City been overtoiled with change that now they were setled in a condition quietly evil they are troubled with the news of better They had now got a habit of servility and now they are so acquainted with the yoke that the very noise of liberty which they supposed would not come with ease began to be unwelcome To turn the causes of joy into sorrow argues extreme dejectednesse and a distemper of judgment no lesse then desperate Fear puts on a visor of devotion Herod calls his learned counsel and as not doubting whether the Messiah should be born he asks where he shall be born In the disparition of that other light there is a perpetually-fixed Star shining in the writings of the Prophets that guides the chief Priests and Scribes directly unto Bethleem As yet envy and prejudice had not blinded the eyes and perverted the hearts of the Jewish teachers so as now they clearly justifie that Christ whom they afterwards condemne and by thus justifying him condemn themselves in rejecting him The water that is untroubled yields the visage perfectly If God had no more witnesse but from his enemies we have ground enough of our faith Herod feared but dissembled his fear as thinking it a shame that strangers should see there could any power arise under him worthy of his respect or awe Out of an unwillingnesse therefore to discover the impotency of his passion he makes little adoe of the matter but onely after a privy inquisition into the Time imployes the informers in the search of the Person Goe and search diligently for the Babe c. It was no great journy from Hierusalem to Bethleem how easily might Herod's cruelty have secretly suborned some of his bloody Courtiers to this inquiry and execution If God had not meant to mock him before he found himself mocked of the wise-men he had rather sent before their journey then after their disappointment But that God in whose hands all hearts are did purposely besot him that he might not finde the way to so horrible a mischief There is no Villan◠〈◊〉 but it will mask it self under a shew of Piety Herod will also worship 〈◊〉 Babe The courtesie of a false Tyrant is death A crafty hypocrite never means so ill as when he
more inquisitive into the manner and means of this event How shall this be since I know not a man That she should conceive a Son by the knowledge of man after her Marriage consummate could have been no wonder But how then should that Son of hers be the Son of God This demand was higher How her present Virginity should be instantly fruitfull might be well worthy of admiration of inquiry Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelitie yea rather this question argues Faith it takes for granted that which an unbelieving heart would have stuck at She sayes not Who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it be erected but smoothly supposing all those strange things would be done she insists onely on that which did necessarily require a further intimation and doth not distrust but demand Neither doth she say This cannot be nor How can this be but How shall this be So doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie curiositie but to informe judgement and uphold faith He doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Author of this act The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall over-shadow thee It is enough to know who is the undertaker and what he wil doe O God what doe we seek a clear light where thou wilt have a shadow No Mother knows the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and blood to search how the Son of God took flesh and blood of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those works which he doth immediatly concerning himself those that concern us he hath revealed Secrets to God things revealed to us The answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message yet after the Angels Solution we hear of no more Objections no more Interrogations The faithfull heart when it once understands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it self in a quiet expectation Behold the Servant of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word There is not a more noble proof of our Faith then to captivate all the powers of our understanding and will to our Creator and without all sciscitations to goe blind-fold whither he will lead us All disputations with God after his will known arise from infidelity Great is the Mysterie of godlinesse and if we will give Nature leave to cavil we cannot be Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it In the humilitie of our obedience we resign our selves over to thee Behold the Servants of the Lord be it unto us according to thy Word How fit was her womb to conceive the flesh of the Son of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose breast had so soon by the power of the same Spirit conceived an assent to the will of God and now of an Hand-maid of God she is advanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath she said be it done then it is done the Holy Ghost over-shadows her and forms her Saviour in her own body This very Angel that talks with the Blessed Virgin could scarce have been able to express the joy of her heart in the sense of this Divine burden Never any mortall creature had so much cause of exultation How could she that was full of God be other then full of joy in that God Grief grows greater by concealing Joy by expression The holy Virgin had understood by the Angel how her Cousin Elizabeth was no lesse of kin to her in condition the fruitfulnesse of whose age did somewhat suit the fruitfulnesse of her Virginitie Happinesse communicated doubles it self Here is no straining of courtesie The blessed Maid whom vigor of age had more fitted for the way hastens her journey into the Hill-country to visit that gracios Matron whom God had made a sign of her miraculous Conception Onely the meeting of Saints in Heaven can parallel the meeting of these two Cousins the two wonders of the World are met under one roof and congratulate their mutual happinesse When we have Christ spiritually conceived in us we cannot be quiet till we have imparted our joy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner welcome her blessed Cousin then her Babe welcomes his Saviour Both in the retired Closets of their Mothers Womb are sensible of each others presence the one by his omniscience the other by instinct He did not more fore-run Christ then over-run Nature How should our hearts leap within us when the Son of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our Souls not to visit us but to dwell with us to dwell in us The Birth of Christ AS all the actions of men so especially the publick actions of publick men are ordered by God to other ends then their own This Edict went not so much out from Augustus as from the Court of Heaven What did Caesar know Joseph and Mary His charge was universal to a world of subjects through all the Roman Empire God intended this Cension onely for the Blessed Virgin and her Son that Christ might be born where he should Caesar meant to fill his Coffers God meant to fulfil his Prophesies and so to fulfill them that those whom it concerned might not feel the accomplishment If God had directly commanded the Virgin to goe up to Bethleem she had seen the intention and expected the issue but that wise Moderatour of all things that works his will in us loves so to doe it as may be least with our fore-sight and acquaintance and would have us fall under his Decrees unawares that we may so much the more adore the depths of his Providence Every Creature walkes blind-fold onely he that dwels in light sees whither they goe Doubtless blessed Mary meant to have been delivered of her Divine burden at home and little thought of changing the place of Conception for another of her Birth That house was honoured by the Angel yea by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost none could equally satisfie her hopes or desires It was fit that he which made choice of the Womb wherein his Son should be conceived should make choice of the place where his Son should be born As the work is all his so will he alone contrive all the circumstances to his own ends Oh the infinite Wisedom of God in casting all his Designs There needs no other proof of Christ then Caesar and Bethleem and of Caesars then Augustus his Government his Edict pleads the truth of the Messias His Government now was the deep peace of all the world under that quiet Scepter which made way for him who was the Prince of Peace If Wars be a sign of the time of his second coming Peace was a signe of his first His Edict now was the Scepter departed from Juda. It was
Saviour was not without the intention of a tryal Had not the Ruler gone home satisfied with that intimation of his sons life and recovery neither of them had been blessed with success Now the news of performance meets him one half of the way and he that believed somewhat ere he came and more when he went grew to more faith in the way and when he came home inlarged his faith to all the skirts of his family A weak faith may be true but a true faith is growing He that boasts of a full stature in the first moment of his assent may presume but doth not believe Great men cannot want Clients their Example swaies some their Authority more they cannot goe to either of the other worlds alone In vain do they pretend power over others who labour not to draw their Families unto God The Dumb Devil ejected THat the Prince of our Peace might approve his victories perfect wheresoever he met with the Prince of Darkness he foiled him he ejected him He found him in Heaven thence did he throw him headlong and verified his Prophet I have cast thee out of mine holy mountain And if the Devils left their first habitation it was because being Devils they could not keep it Their estate indeed they might have kept and did not their habitation they would have kept and might not How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer He found him in the heart of man for in that closet of God did the evil spirit after his exile from Heaven shrowd himself Sin gave him possession which he kept with a willing violence thence he casts him by his Word and Spirit He found him tyrannizing in the bodies of some possessed men and with power commands the unclean spirits to depart This act is for no hand but his When a strong man keeps possession none but a stronger can remove him In voluntary things the strongest may yield to the weakest Sampson to a Dalilah but in violent ever the mightiest carries it A spiritual nature must needs be in rank above a bodily neither can any power be above a Spirit but the God of Spirits No otherwise is it in the mental possession Whereever sin is there Satan is as on the contrary whosoever is born of God the seed of God remains in him That Evil one not onely is but rules in the sons of disobedience in vain shall we try to eject him but by the Divine power of the Redeemer For this cause the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Do we finde our selves haunted with the familiar Devils of Pride Self-love Sensual desires Unbelief None but thou O Son of the ever-living God can free our bosoms of these hellish guests Oh clense thou me from my secret sins and keep me that presumptuous sins prevail not over me O Saviour it is no Paradox to say that thou castest out more Devils now then thou didst whiles thou wert upon earth It was thy word When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me Satan weighs down at the feet thou pullest at the head yea at the heart In every conversion which thou workest there is a dispossession Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted I know thy means are now no other then ordinary If we exspect to be dispossessed by miracle it would be a miracle if ever we were dispossessed Oh let thy Gospel have the perfect work in me so onely shall I be delivered from the powers of darkness Nothing can be said to be dumb but what naturally speaks nothing can speak naturally but what hath the instruments of speech which because spirits want they can no otherwise speak vocally then as they take voices to themselves in taking bodies This Devil was not therefore dumb in his nature but in his effect The man was dumb by the operation of that Devil which possessed him and now the action is attributed to the spirit which was subjectively in the man It is not you that speak faith our Saviour but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you As it is in bodily Diseases that they do not infect us alike some seize upon the humours others upon the spirits some assalt the brain others the heart or lungs so in bodily and spiritual possessions in some the evil spirit takes away their senses in some their lims in some their inward faculties like as spiritually they affect to move us unto several sins one to lust another to covetousness or ambition another to cruelty and their names have distinguished them according to these various effects This was a dumb Devil which yet had possessed not the tongue only of this man but his ear not that only but as it seems his eyes too O subtile and tyrannous spirit that obstructs all wayes to the Soul that keeps out all means of Grace both from the door and windows of the heart yea that stops up all passages whether of ingress or egress of ingress at the eye or eare of egress at the mouth that there might be no capacity of redress What holy use is there of our tongue but to praise our Maker to confess our sins to inform our brethren How rife is this Dumb Devil every where whiles he stops the mouths of Christians from these useful and necessary duties For what end hath man those two privileges above his fellow-creatures Reason and Speech but that as by the one he may conceive of the great works of his Maker which the rest cannot so by the other he may express what he conceives to the honour of the Creator both of them and himself And why are all other creatures said to praise God and bidden to praise him but because they do it by the apprehension by the expression of man If the Heavens declare the glory of God how doe they it but to the eyes and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made It is no small honour whereof the envious spirit shall rob his Maker if he can close up the mouth of his onely rational and vocal creature and turn the best of his workmanship into a dumb Idol that hath a mouth and speaks not Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Praise is not more necessary then complaint praise of God then complaint of our selves whether to God or men The onely amends we can make to God when we have not had the grace to avoid sinne is to confess the sinne we have not avoided This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our lives If we confess our sinnes he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness That cunning man-slayer knows there is no way to purge the sick soul but upward by casting out the vicious humour wherewith it is clogged and therefore holds the lips close that the heart may not disburden it self by so wholesome evacuation When
thy words never till now at thy silence A miserable suppliant cries and sues whiles the God of mercies is speechlesse He that comforts the afflicted addes affliction to the comfortlesse by a willing disrespect What shall we say then Is the fountain of Mercy dried up O Saviour couldst thou but hear she did not murmur not whisper but cry out couldst thou but pity but regard her that was as good as she was miserable If thy ears were open could thy bowels be shut Certainly it was thou that didst put it into the heart into the mouth of this woman to ask and to ask thus of thy self She could never have said O Lord thou son of David but from thee but by thee None calleth Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost Much more therefore didst thou hear the words of thine own making and well wert thou pleased to hear what thou thoughtest good to forbear to answer It was thine own grace that sealed up thy lips Whether for the triall of her patience and perseverance forâ— silence carried a semblance of neglect and a willing neglect laies strong siege to the best fort of the Soul Even calm tempers when they have been stirred have bewrayed impetuousness of Passion If there be any dregs in the bottom of the glasse when the water is shaken they will be soon seen Or whether for the more sharpning of her desires and raising of her zealous importunity Our holy longings are increased with delaies it whets our appetite to be held fasting Or whether for the more sweetning of the blessing by the difficulty or stay of obtaining The benefit that comes with ease is easily contemned Long and eager pursuit endears any favour Or whether for the ingaging of his Disciples in so charitable a suit Or whether for the wise avoidance of exception from the captious Jews or lastly for the drawing on of an holy and imitable pattern of faithfull perseverance and to teach us not to measure God's hearing of our suit by his present answer or his present answer by our own sense Whiles our weakness exspects thy words thy wisdome resolves upon thy silence Never wert thou better pleased to hear the acclamation of Angels then to hear this woman say O Lord thou son of David yet silence is thy answer When we have made our prayers it is an happy thing to hear the report of them back from Heaven but if we alwaies do not so it is not for us to be dejected and to accuse either our infidelity or thy neglect since we finde here a faithfull suitor met with a gracious Saviour and yet he answered her not a word If we be poor in spirit God is rich in mercy he cannot send us away empty yet he will not alwaies let us feel his condescent crossing us in our will that he may advance our benefit It was no small fruit of Christ's silence that the Disciples were hereupon moved to pray for her not for a mere dismission it had been no favour to have required this but a punishment for if to be held in suspense be miserable to be sent away with a repulse is more but for a mercifull grant They saw much passion in the woman much cause of passion they saw great discouragement on Christ's part great constancy on hers Upon all these they feel her misery and become suitors for her unrequested It is our duty in case of necessity to intercede for each other and by how much more familiar we are with Christ so much more to improve our interest for the relief of the distressed We are bidden to say Our Father not mine yea being members of one body we pray for our selves in others If the foot be prickt the back bends the head bows down the eyes look the hands stir the tongue calls for aide the whole man is in pain and labours for redresse He cannot pray or be heard for himself that is no mans friend but his own No prayer without faith no faith without charity no charity without mutual intercession That which urged them to speak for her is urged to Christ by them for her obtaining She cries after us Prayer is as an arrow if it be drawn up but a little it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierces deep If it be but dribbled forth of carelesse lips it falls down at our foot the strength of our ejaculation sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing The childe hath escaped many a stripe by his loud crying and the very unjust Judge cannot indure the widows clamour Heartless motions do but teach us to deny servent suits offer violence both to earth and Heaven Christ would not answer the woman but doth answer the Disciples Those that have a familiarity with God shall receive answers when strangers shall stand out Yea even of domesticks some are more intire He that lay in Jesus his bosome could receive that intelligence which was concealed from the rest But who can tell whether that silence or this answer be more grievous I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel What is this answer but a defence of that silence and seeming neglect Whiles he said nothing his forbearance might have been supposed to proceed from the necessity of some greater thoughts but now his answer professeth that silence to have proceeded from a willing resolution not to answer and therefore he doth not vouchsafe so much as to give to her the answer but to her solicitors that they might return his deniall from him to her who had undertaken to derive her suit to him I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Like a faithfull Embassadour Christ hath an eye to his commission That may not be violated though to an apparant advantage whither he is not sent he may not goe As he so all his have their fixed marks set at these they aime and think it not safe to shoot at rovers In matter of morality it is not for us to stand onely upon inhibitions avoiding what is forbidden but upon commands endeavouring only what is injoyned We need no other rule of our life then the intention of our several stations And if he that was God would take no further scope to himself then the limits of his commission how much doth it concern us frail men to keep within compass or what shall become of our lawlesness that live in a direct contrariety to the will of him that sent us Israel was Jacob's name from him derived to his posterity till the division of the Tribes under Jeroboam all that nation was Israel then the Father's name went to the most which were ten Tribes the name of the Son Juda to the best which were two Christ takes no notice of this unhappy division he remembers the antient name which he gave to that faithfull wrestler It was this Christ with whom Jacob strove it was he
do they foam and gnash whom he hath drawn to an impatient repining at God's afflictive hand How do they pine away who hourly decay and languish in Grace Oh the lamentable condition of sinfull Souls so much more dangerous by how much lesse felt But all this while what part hath the Moon in this mans misery How comes the name of that goodly Planet in question Certainly these diseases of the brain follow much the course of this queen of moisture That power which she hath in humors is drawn to the advantage of the malicious spirit her predominancy is abused to his despight whether it were for the better opportunity of his vexation or whether for the drawing of envy and discredit upon so noble a creature It is no news with that subtle enemie to fasten his effects upon those secondary causes which he usurps to his own purposes Whatever be the means he is the tormentor Much wisdome needs to disstinguish betwixt the evil spirit abusing the good creature and the good creature abused by the evil spirit He that knew all things asks questions How long hath he been so Not to inform himself That Devil could have done nothing without the knowledge without the leave of the God of Spirits but that by the confession of the Parent he might lay forth the wofull condition of the childe that the thank and glory of the Cure might be so much greater as the complaint was more grievous He answered From a childe O God how I adore the depth of thy wise and just and powerfull dispensation Thou that couldst say I have loved Jacob and Esau have I hated ere the children had done good or evil thoughtest also good ere this Childe could be capable of good or evil to yield him over to the power of that Evil one What need I ask for any other reason then that which is the rule of all Justice thy Will Yet even these weak eyes can see the just grounds of thine actions That childe though an Israelite was conceived and born in that sin which both could and did give Satan an interest in him Besides the actual sins of the Parents deserved this revenge upon that piece of themselves Rather O God let me magnific this Mercy that we and our s escape this Judgment then question thy Justice that some escape not How just might it have been with thee that we who have given way to Satan in our sins should have way and scope given to Satan over us in our punishments It is thy praise that any of us are free it is no quarrell that some suffer Do I wonder to see Satans bodily possession of this yong man from a childe when I see his spiritual possession of every son of Adam from a longer date not from a childe but from the womb yea in it Why should not Satan possesse his own we are all by nature the sons of wrath It is time for us to renounce him in Baptism whose we are till we be regenerate He hath right to us in our first birth our new birth acquits us from him and cuts off all his claim How miserable are they that have nothing but Nature Better had it been to have been unborn then not to be born again And if this poor soul from an infant were thus miserably handled having done none actual evil how just cause have we to fear the like Judgments who by many foul offences have deserved to draw this executioner upon us O my Soul thou hast not room enough for thankfulnesse to that good God who hath not delivered thee up to that malignant Spirit The distressed Father sits not still neglects not means I brought him to thy Disciples Doubtlesse the man came first to seek for Christ himself finding him absent he makes suit to the Disciples To whom should we have recourse in all our spirituall complaints but to the agents and messengers of God The noise of the like cures had surely brought this man with much confidence to crave their succour and now how cold was he at the heart when he found that his hopes were frustrate They could not cast him out No doubt the Disciples tried their best they laid their wonted charge upon this dumb spirit but all in vain They that could come with joy and triumph to their Master and say The Devils are subject to us finde now themselves matched with a stubborn and refractory spirit Their way was hitherto smooth and fair they met with no rub till now And now surely the father of the Demoniack was not more troubled at this event then themselves How could they chuse but fear lest their Master had with himself withdrawn that spiritual power which they had formerly exercised Needs must their heart fail them with their successe The man complained not of their impotence it were fondly injurious to accuse them for that which they could not doe had the want been in their will they had well deserved a querulous language it was no fault to want power Only he complains of the stubbornnesse and laments the invinciblenesse of that evil spirit I should wrong you O ye blessed Followers of Christ if I should say that as Israel when Moses was gone up into the Mount lost their belief with their guide so that ye missing your Master who was now ascended up to his Tabor were to seek for your Faith Rather the Wisdome of God saw reason to check your over-assured forwardnesse and both to pull down your hearts by a just humiliation in the sense of your own weaknesse and to raise up your hearts to new acts of dependance upon that soveraign power from which your limited virtue was derived What was more familiar to the Disciples then ejecting of Devils In this only it is denied them Our good God sometimes findes it requisite to hold us short in those abilities whereof we make least doubt that we may feel whence we had them God will be no lesse glorified in what we cannot doe then in what we can doe If his Graces were alwaies at our command and ever alike they would seem natural and soon run into contempt now we are justly held in an awfull dependance upon that gracious hand which so gives as not to cloy us and so denies as not to discourage us Who could now but expect that our Saviour should have pitied and bemoned the condition of this sad father and miserable son and have let fall some words of comfort upon them In stead whereof I hear him chiding and complaining O faithlesse and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you Complaining not of that wofull father and more wofull son it was not his fashion to adde affliction to the distressed to break such bruised reeds but of those Scribes who upon the failing of the successe of this suit had insulted upon the disability of the Followers of Christ and depraved his power although perhaps this impatient father
desire rather to leave their children great then good that are more ambitious to have their sons Lords on earth then Kings in Heaven Yet I commend thee Salome that thy first plot was to have thy sons Disciples of Christ then after to prefer them to the best places of that attendance It is the true method of Divine prudence O God first to make our children happy with the honour of thy service and then to endeavour their meet advancement upon earth The mother is but put upon this suit by her sons their heart was in her lips They were not so mortified by their continual conversation with Christ hearing his Heavenly doctrine seeing his Divine carriage but that their mindes were yet roving after temporal Honours Pride is the inmost coat which we put off last and which we put on first Who can wonder to see some sparks of weak and worldly desires in their holiest teachers when the blessed Apostles were not free from some ambitious thoughts whiles they sate at the feet yea in the bosome of their Saviour The near kindred this woman could challenge of Christ might seem to give her just colour of more familiarity yet now that she comes upon a suit she submits her self to the lowest gesture of suppliants We need not be taught that it is fit for petitioners to the Great to present their humble supplications upon their knees O Saviour if this woman so nearly allied to thee according to the flesh coming but upon a temporal occasion to thee being as then compassed about with humane infirmities adored thee ere she durst sue to thee what reverence is enough for us that come to thee upon spiritual suits sitting now in the height of Heavenly Glory and Majesty Say then thou wife of Zebedee what is it that thou cravest of thine omnipotent kinsman A certain thing Speak out woman what is this certain thing that thou cravest How poor and weak is this supplicatory anticipation to him that knew thy thoughts ere thou utteredst them ere thou entertainedst them We are all in this tune every one would have something such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter The Proud man would have a certain thing Honour in the world the Covetous would have a certain thing too Wealth and abundance the Malicious would have a certain thing Revenge on his enemies the Epicure would have Pleasure and Long life the Barren Children the Wanton Beauty Each one would be humored in his own desire though in variety yea contradiction to other though in opposition not more to God's will then our own good How this suit sticks in her teeth and dare not freely come forth because it is guilty of its own faultinesse What a difference there is betwixt the prayers of Faith and the motions of Self-love and infidelity Those come forth with boldnesse as knowing their own welcome and being well assured both of their warrant and acceptation these stand blushing at the door not daring to appear like to some baffled suit conscious to its own unworthinesse and just repulse Our inordinate desires are worthy of a check when we know that our requests are holy we cannot come with too much confidence to the throne of Grace He that knew all their thoughts afar off yet as if he had been a stranger to their purposes asks What wouldest thou Our infirmities do then best shame us when they are fetcht out of our own mouths Like as our Prayers also serve not to acquaint God with our wants but to make us the more capable of his mercies The suit is drawn from her now she must speak Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand the other on thy left in thy Kingdome It is hard to say whether out of more pride or ignorance It was as received as erroneous a conceit among the very Disciples of Christ that he should raise up a Temporal Kingdom over the now-tributary and beslaved people of Israel The Romans were now their masters their fancy was that their Messias should shake off this yoke and reduce them to their former Liberty So grounded was this opinion that the two Disciples in their walk to Emmaus could say We trusted it had been he that should have delivered Israel and when after his Resurrection he was walking up mount Olivet towards Heaven his very Apostles could ask him if he would now restore that long-exspected Kingdome How should we mitigate our censures of our Christian brethren if either they mistake or know not some secondary truths of Religion when the domestick Attendants of Christ who heard him every day till the very point of his Ascension misapprehended the chief cause of his coming into the world and the state of his Kingdome If our Charity may not bear with small faults what doe we under his name that conniv'd at greater Truth is as the Sun bright in it self yet there are many close corners into which it never shined O God if thou open our hearts we shall take in those beams till thou doe so teach us to attend patiently for our selves charitably for others These Fishermen had so much Courtship to know that the right hand and the left of any Prince were the chief places of Honour Our Saviour had said that his twelve Followers should sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel This good woman would have her two sons next to his person the prime Peers of his Kingdome Every one is apt to wish the best to his own Worldly Honour is neither worth our suit nor unworthy our acceptance Yea Salome had thy mind been in Heaven hadst thou intended this desired preeminence of that celestial state of Glory yet I know not how to justifie thine ambition Wouldst thou have thy sons preferred to the Father of the faithfull to the blessed Mother of thy Saviour That very wish were presumptuous For me O God my ambition shall goe so high as to be a Saint in Heaven and to live as holily on earth as the best but for precedency of Heavenly honour I do not I dare not affect it It is enough for me if I may lift up my head amongst the heels of thy Blessed Ones The mother asks the sons have the answer She was but their tongue they shall be her eares God ever imputes the acts to the first mover rather then to the instrument It was a sore check Ye know not what ye ask In our ordinary communication to speak idly is sin but in our suits to Christ to be so inconsiderate as not to understand our own petitions must needs be a foul offence As Faith is the ground of our Prayers so Knowledge is the ground of our Faith If we come with indigested requests we prophane that Name we invoke To convince their unfitness for Glory they are sent to their impotency in Suffering Are ye able to drink of the cup whereof I shall drink and to be baptized with the Baptisme wherewith
that all this while stopped that Gracious mouth thou speakest to him that cannot fear those faces he hath made he that hath charged us to confesse him cannot but confesse himself Jesus saith unto him Thou hast said There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence He that is the Wisdome of his Father hath here given us a pattern of both We may not so speak as to give advantage to cavils we may not be so silent as to betray the Truth Thou shalt have no more cause proud and insulting Caiaphas to complain of a speechlesse prisoner now thou shalt hear more then thou demandedst Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven There spake my Saviour the voice of God and not of man Hear now insolent High Priest and be confounded That Son of man whom thou seest is the Son of God whom thou canst not see That Son of man that Son of God that God and man whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy Consistorial seat in a base dejectednesse him shalt thou once with horrour and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven attended with thousand thousands of Angels and coming in the clouds to that dreadfull Judgment wherein thy self amongst other damned malefactors shalt be presented before that glorious tribunal of his and adjudged to thy just torments Goe now wretched Hypocrite and rend thy garments whiles in the mean time thou art worthy to have thy Soul rent from thy body for thy spightfull Blasphemy against the Son of God Onwards thy pretence is fair and such as cannot but receive applause from thy compacted crue What need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye And they answered and said He is guilty of death What heed is to be taken of mens judgment So light are they upon the balance that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales Who were these but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem the Synod of the choice Rabbies of Israel yet these passe sentence against the Lord of Life sentence of that death of his whereby if ever they shall be redeemed from the murder of their sentence O Saviour this is not the last time wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them that professe Learning and Holiness What wonder is it if thy weak members suffer that which was indured by so perfect an head What care we to be judged by man's day when thou who art the Righteous Judge of the world wert thus misjudged by men Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee what measure can be too hard for him that is denounced worthy of death Now those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle the venemous froth of their malice now those cruell hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks now scorn and insultation triumphs over thine humble Patience Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee O dear Jesu what a beginning is here of a Passion There thou standst bound condemned spat upon buffetted derided by malicious sinners Thou art bound who camest to loose the bands of death thou art condemned whose sentence must acquit the world thou art spat upon that art fairer then the sons of men thou art buffeted in whose mouth was no guile thou art derided who art clothed with Glory and Majesty In the mean while how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy who in the midst of all these wofull indignities couldst finde a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ingratefull Disciple and in whose gracious eare Peter's Cock sounded louder then all these reproaches O Saviour thou who in thine apprehension couldst forget all thy danger to correct and heal his over-lashing now in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation canst forget thy own misery to reclaim his errour and by that seasonable glance of thine eye to strike his heart with a needfull remorse He that was lately so valiant to fight for thee now the next morning is so cowardly as to deny thee He shrinks at the voice of a Maid who was not daunted with the sight of a Band. O Peter had thy slip been sudden thy fall had been more easie Premonition aggravates thy offence that stone was foreshewed thee whereat thou stumbledst neither did thy warning more adde to thy guilt then thine own fore-resolution How didst thou vow though thou shouldst die with thy Master not to deny him Hadst thou said nothing but answered with a trembling silence thy shame had been the lesse Good purposes when they are not held do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them as that they help to double both his sin and punishment Yet a single denial had been but easie thine I fear to speak it was lined with swearing and execration Whence then oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendance One of thy fellows was known to the high-priest for a Follower of Jesus yet he not onely came himself into that open Hall in view of the Bench but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also She knew him what he was and could therefore speak to thee as brought in by his mediation Art not thou also one of this mans Disciples Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such yet what crime what danger was urged upon that noted Disciple What could have been more to thee Was it that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus It was no thank to thee that that eare was healed neither did there want those that would think how near that eare was to the head Doubtlesse that busie fellow himself was not far off and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee besides thy Discipleship upon a bloodshed a riot a rescue Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous and now to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray thou renouncest all knowledge of him in whose cause thou foughtest Howsoever the sin was hainous I tremble at such a Fall of so great an Apostle It was thou O Peter that buffetedst thy Master more then those Jews it was to thee that he turned the cheek from them as to view him by whom he most smarted he felt thee afar off and answered thee with a look such a look as was able to kill and revive at once Thou hast wounded me maiest thou now say O my Saviour thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart with a deep remorse for my grievous sin with an indignation at my unthankfulnesse that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition Oh that mine eyes were fountains and my cheeks channels that
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
power Here is then a direct and professed opposition betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form and the power and no less between the actions employed about them both the one having the other denying having the form denying the power As all sin is originally from the Devil so especially Hypocrisie he is the father of Lies and what is Hypocrisie but a real Lie that is his Darling and these two are well put together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 2. in Hypocrisie speaking Lies Now as all things are more eminent in their Causes and originals then in the Effects derived from them so it must needs be said that the greatest Hypocrite in the World is the Devil I know he hears what I say but we must speak truth and shame him For Satan is transformed into an Angel of light saith the Apostle not he was but he is so transformed that he never did never will put off that counterfeit And as all his Imps are partakers of the Satanical nature so in every Hypocrite there is both the Angel and the Devil the seeming Angel is the form of Godliness the real Devil is the denial of the power of Godliness It must be in another sense that that Father said Innocentis tempore posterior est quà m malitia I am sure the Angel of light was before the Satan and now because he is Satan he puts on the Angel of light Such shall be our method in this Hypocrite we treat of first we will begin with the Angel of Hypocrisie and then shew you the Devil in his true shape First then here is a form and but a form of Godliness A form does well but if it be but a form it is an immaterial shadow of Piety Such was this of these men for they were unnatural traitors heady high-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Surely if they were unnatural they must needs be unchristian if they were traitors to their King they could be no Subjects to God if heady and high-minded they had nothing to doe with him whose first Lesson was Learn of me for I am meek Nulla creatura humilior Deo as Laurentius well if they had Pleasure for their Idol they could not have the Lord for their God So as even without God they had yet a form of Godliness Godliness is a thing much talk'd of little understood Whiles the ancient School had wont to say that it is not practical not speculative but affective their meaning was that it is in all these in the heart in the brain in the hand but most in the heart It is Speculative in the knowledge of God Practical in the Service to God Affective in our fear of him love to him joy in him Shortly then to apprehend God as he hath revealed to serve him as he hath required to be affected to him as we ought is Godliness and the outward expression and counterfaisance of all these is the form of Godliness To this outside of Godliness then belongs all that glorious Pageant of fashionable profession which we see made in the World whether in words gesture carriage First here is a world of good Words whether to God or of him Here are words of sacred complement with God for the Hypocrite courts God in his Prayers no man speaks fairer no man louder then he Here is Saul's benedictus here is the Pharisees Lord I thank thee here is the colloguing Jews Domine Domine Lord Lord. And as to him so of him Here are words of religious protestation for God like to the Jews Templum Domini or Herod's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 2. 8. I will worship the Babe The mans secret fire of zeal smoaks forth into the holy breath of a good confession Here are words of fervent excitation to the frozen hearts of others yea if need be words of deep censure of the cold moderation which he apprehends in his wiser Brethren so as he is comptus in verbo if turpis in facto as Bernard Yet more here is a perfect Scene of pious Gestures knees bowed hands erected turn'd up eyes the breast beaten the head shaken the countenance dejected sighs ascending tears dropping the Bible hugged and kissed the ear nailed to the Pulpit what formality of devout Godliness is here unacted if the man were within as he is without there were no Saint but he Yet this is not all to make up a perfect form of Godliness here is a smooth face of holy carriage in Actions Devout Saul will be saving the fattest of the Amalekitish flocks and herds for sacrifice to the Lord his God Good man he will not have God take up with the worst Every man is not of this diet too many think any offall good enough for their Maker but here is one that holds the best fittest for those sacred Altars when in the mean time the Hypocrite had already sacrificed them to his own Mammon and God must take up with the reversion Shall I tell you of another as good as devout as he Do ye not remember that Absolom would go to pay his vow in Hebron The fair Prince of Israel was courteous before now he will be Godly too It was Pietie that he would make a Vow to God Our Gallants have somewhat else to doe then to make holy vows at every word they protest and vow and perhaps swear but all like themselves vainly and idly But Absolom makes a solemn and religious Vow It was more piety that he would perform it This is not every mans care too many care not how much they run upon God's score this man will pitch and pay Unnatural Parricide First he had stoln the subjects hearts and now he would steal his Fathers Crown and all this villany must stalk under a beasts hide a Sacrifice at Hebron Blood was in his thoughts whiles the Sacrifice was in his mouth The old word is Full of courtesie full of craft when ye see too glittering pretences in unapproved persons suspect the inside Had you but seen a Jews Fast you would say so Esa 58. 6. Here was nothing but drooping and ash-strawed heads torn garments bare feet starved cheeks scrubbed skins pined maws afflictive devotions yet a Jew still But had you seen Herod's formality you would have said it yet more mark a little and see Herod turn'd Disciple to John Baptist What Saul among the Prophets Herod among the Disciples Surely so for he hears him Tush hears him what 's that There are those that hear and would not forced to hear by compulsion of Laws who may say to Authority as the Psalmist says to God Aurem perforasti mihi Mine ear hast thou boared their ear is a Protestant while their heart is a Recusant There are those that hear and hear not that come fashionably and hear perfunctorily whose ears are like the Psalmists Idols for form onely not for use There are those that hear and care not who is
deliver thou my Soul from their crafty ambushes their poison is greater their webs both more strong and more insensibly woven Either teach me to avoid Tentation or make me to break through it by Repentance Oh let me not be a prey to those Fiends that lie in wait for my destruction XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine SUch is my best condition in this life If the Sun of Gods Countenance shine upon me I may well be content to be wet with some Rain of Affliction How oft have I seen the Heaven overcast with Clouds and Tempest no Sun appearing to comfort me yet even those gloomy and stormy seasons have I rid out patiently only with the help of the common light of the day at last those beams have broken forth happily and cheared my Soul It is well for my ordinary state if through the mists of mine own dulness and Satans Tentations I can descry some glimpse of Heavenly comfort let me never hope while I am in this Veile to see the clear face of that Sun without a showre such Happiness is reserved for above that upper Region of Glory is free from these doubtfull and miserable vicissitudes There O God we shall see as we are seen Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart XVII Upon the Length of the way HOW far off is yonder great mountain My very eye is weary with the foresight of so great a distance yet time and patience shall overcome it this night we shall hope to lodge beyond it Some things are more tedious in their exspectation then in their performance The comfort is that every step I take sets me nearer to my end When I once come there I shall both forget how long it now seems and please my self to look back upon the way that I have measured It is thus in our passage to Heaven My weak nature is ready to faint under the very conceit of the length and difficulty of this Journey my eye doth not more guide then discourage me Many steps of Grace and true Obedience shall bring me insensibly thither Only let me move and hope and God's good leisure shall perfect my Salvation O Lord give me to possesse my Soul with patience and not so much to regard speed as certainty When I come to the top of thine Holy hill all these weary paces and deep sloughs shall either be forgotten or contribute to my Happinesse in their remembrance XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters WHat a sensible interchange there is in Nature betwixt union and division Many Vapours rising from the Sea meet together in one Cloud that cloud falls down divided into several Drops those drops run together and in many rills of water meet in the same Chanels those chanels run into the Brook those brooks into the Rivers those rivers into the Sea one receptacle is for all though a large one and all make back to their first and main originall So it either is or should be with Spiritual Gifts O God thou distillest thy Graces upon us not for our reservation but conveyance those manifold Faculties thou lettest fall upon several men thou wouldst not have drenched up where they light but wouldst have derived through the chanels of their special vocations into the common streams of publick Use for Church or Common-wealth Take back O Lord those few drops thou hast rained upon my Soul and return them into that great Ocean of the Glory of thine own Bounty from whence they had their beginning XIX Upon the same Subject MAny Drops fill the Chanels and many chanels swell up the Brooks and many brooks raise the Rivers over the banks the Brooks are not out till the Chanels be empty the Rivers rise not whiles the small Brooks are full but when the little Rivulets have once voided themselves into the main streams then all is overflown Great matters arise from small beginnings many littles make up a large bulk Yea what is the World but a composition of atomes We have seen it thus in Civil Estates the empairing of the Commons hath oft been the raising of the Great their streams have run low till they have been heightned by the confluence of many private inlets Many a mean chanell hath been emptied to make up their inundation Neither is it otherwise in my whether outward or Spiritual condition O God thou hast multiplied my drops into streams As out of many Minutes thou hast made up my Age so out of many Lessons thou hast made up my competency of Knowledge thou hast drained many beneficient friends to make me competently Rich by many holy motions thou hast wrought me to some measure of Grace Oh teach me wisely and moderately to injoy thy Bounty and to reduce thy streams into thy drops and thy drops into thy clouds humbly and thankfully acknowledging whence and how I have all that I have all that I am XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in WHat a change there is in the room since the Light came in yea in our selves All things seem to have a new form a new life yea we are not the same we were How goodly a creature is Light how pleasing how agreeable to the spirits of man No visible thing comes so near to the resembling of the nature of the Soul yea of the God that made it As contrarily what an uncomfortable thing is Darknesse insomuch as we punish the greatest malefactors with obscurity of Dungeons as thinking they could not be miserable enough if they might have the priviledge of beholding the Light Yea Hell it self can be no more horribly described then by outward Darkness What is Darkness but absence of Light The pleasure or the horror of light or darkness is according to the quality and degree of the cause whence it ariseth And if the light of a poor Candle be so comfortable which is nothing but a little inflamed aire gathered about a moistened snuffe what is the light of the glorious Sun the great lamp of Heaven But much more what is the light of that infinitely-resplendent Sun of Righteousnesse who gave that light to the Sun that Sun to the world And if this partial and imperfect Darkness be so dolefull which is the privation of a natural or artificial Light how unconceivable dolorous and miserable shall that be which is caused through the utter absence of the all-glorious God who is the Father of lights O Lord how justly do we pity those wretched Souls that sit in darkness and the shadow of death shut up from the light of the saving knowledge of thee the only true God But how am I swallowed up with horror to think of the fearfull condition of those damned Souls that are for ever shut out from the presence of God and adjudged to exquisite everlasting darkness The Egyptians were weary of themselves in their three daies darkness yet we do not finde any pain that accompanied their continuing night What
cometh Usurpation of others Rights violation of Oaths and Contracts and lastly erroneous Zeal are guilty of all these publick Murders Private mens injuries are washt off with tears but wrongs done to Princes and publick States are hardly wip'd off but with blood Doubtlesse that fearfull Comet did not more certainly portend these Wars then these Wars presage the approach of the end of the World The earth was never without some broils since it was peopled but with three men but so universal a combustion was never in the Christian world since it was O Saviour what can I think of this but that as thou wouldst have a generall Peace upon thy first coming into the World so upon thy second coming thou meanest there shall be a no lesse generall War upon earth That Peace made way for thy meek appearance this War for thy dreadfull and terrible XCVIII Upon a Childe crying IT was upon great reason that the Apostle charges us not to be children in Understanding What fools we all once are Even at first we crie and smile we know not wherefore we have not wit enough to make signs what hurts us or where we complain we can wry the mouth but not seek the breast and if we want help we can only lament and sprawl and die After when some months have taught us to distinguish a little betwixt things and persons we crie for every toy even that which may most hurt us and when there is no other cause we crie only to hear our own noise and are straight stilled with a greater and if it be but upon the breeding of a tooth we are so wayward that nothing will please us and if some formerly-liked knack be given to quiet us we cast away that which we have if we have not what we would seem to like We fear neither fire nor water nothing scares us but either a rod or a feigned bug-bear we mis-know our Parents not acknowledging any friend but the Taylor that brings us a fine Coat or the Nurse that dresses us gay The more that our riper years resemble these dispositions the more childish we are and more worthy both of our own and others censure But again it was upon no lesse reason that the Apostle charges us to be children in Maliciousness Those little Innocents bear no grudge they are sooner pleased then angry and if any man have wronged them let them but have given a stroke unto the Nurse to beat the offender it is enough at the same instant they put forth their hand for reconcilement and offer themselves unto those arms that trespassed And when they are most froward they are stilled with a pleasant Song The old word is that An old man is twice a childe but I say happy is he that is thus a childe alwaies It is a great imperfection to want Knowledge but of the two it is better to be a childe in Understanding then a man in Maliciousness XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sickness IT was my own fault if I look'd not for this All things must undergoe their changes I have enjoyed many fair daies there was no reason I should not at last make account of clouds and storms Could I have done well without any mixtures of sin I might have hoped for entire Health But since I have interspersed my Obedience with many sinfull failings and enormities why do I think much to interchange Health with Sickness What I now feel I know I am not worthy to know what I must feel As my times so my measures are in the hands of a wise and good God My comfort is he that sends these evils proportions them If they be sharp I am sure they are just the most that I am capable to endure is the least part of what I have deserved to suffer Nature would fain be at ease but Lord whatever become of this carkasse thou hast reason to have respect to thine own Glory I have sinned and must smart It is the glory of thy Mercy to beat my Body for the safety of my Soul The worst of Sickness is Pain and the worst of pain is but Death As for Pain if it be extreme it cannot be long and if it be long such is the difference of earthly and Hellish torments it cannot be extreme As for Death it is both unavoidable and beneficial there ends my Misery and begins my Glory a few groans are well bestowed for a preface to an immortal joy Howsoever O God thy messenger is worthy to be welcome It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will C. Upon the challenge of a Promise IT is true an Honest mans word must be his master when I have promised I am indebted and debts may be claimed must be payed but yet there is a great deal of difference in our ingagements some things we promise because they are due some things are onely due because they are promised These latter which are but the mere ingagements of Curtesie cannot so absolutely binde us that notwithstanding any intervention of unworthiness or misbehaviour in the person exspectant we are tied to make our word good though to the cutting of our own throats All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver where that palpably faileth common Equity sets us free I promised to send a fair Sword to my friend he is since that time turn'd frantick must I send it or be charged with unfaithfulness if I send it not O God thy Title is the God of Truth thou canst no more cease to be faithfull then to be How oft hast thou promised that no good thing shall be wanting to thine and yet we know thy dearest children have complained of want Is thy word therefore challengeable Far far be this wicked presumption from our thoughts No These thy promises of outward Favours are never but with a subintelligence of a condition of our capableness of our expedience Thou seest that Plenty or Ease would be our bane thy Love forbears to satisfie us with an harmfull Blessing We are worthy to be plagued with prejudicial kindnesses if we do not acknowledge thy Wisdome and care in our want It is enough for us that thy best Mercies are our dues because thy Promises we cannot too much claim that which thou hast absolutely ingaged thy self to give and in giving shalt make us eternally happy CI. Upon the sight of Flies WHen I look upon these Flies and gnats and worms I have reason to think What am I to my infinite Creator more then these And if these had my Reason why might they not expostulate with their Maker why they are but such why they live to so little purpose and die without either notice or use And if I had no more Reason then they I should be as they content with any condition That Reason which I have is not of my owne giving he that hath given me Reason might as well have given it to them or have made me as reason-lesse as
they there is no cause why his greater gift should make me mutinous and malecontent I will thank my God for what I am for what I have and never quarrell with him for what I want CII Upon the sight of a fantasticall Zelot IT is not the intent of Grace to mould our Bodies anew but to make use of them as it findes us The Disposition of men much follows the temper of their bodily Humors This mixture of Humors wrought upon by Grace causeth that strange variety which we see in professions pretendedly Religious When Grace lights upon a sad Melancholick Spirit nothing is affected but Sullennesse and extreme Mortification and dislike even of lawfull Freedome nothing but Positions and Practices of severe Austerity when contrarily upon the Chearefull and lively all draws towards Liberty and Joy those thoughts do now please best which enlarge the heart to Mirth and contentation It is the greatest improvement of Christian wisdome to distinguish in all professions betwixt Grace and Humour to give God his own Glory and men their own Infirmities CIII Upon the sight of a Scavenger working in the Canell THE wise Providence of God hath fitted men with spirits answerable to their condition If mean men should bear the minds of great Lords no servile works would be done all would be Commanders and none could live If contrarily Great persons had the low spirits of drudges there could be no order no obedience because there should be none to command Now out of this discord of dispositions God hath contrived an excellent harmony of Government and Peace since the use which each sort must needs have of other bindes them to maintain the quality of their own ranks and to doe those offices which are requisite for the preservation of themselves and the publick As Inferiours then must blesse God for the Graces and Authority of their betters so must Superiours no lesse blesse him for the Humility and Serviceablenesse of the meaner and those which are of the mid rank must blesse him for both CIV Upon a pair of Spectacles I Look upon these not as Objects but as Helps as not meaning that my Sight should rest in them but passe through them and by their aide discern some other things which I desire to see Many such glasses my Soul hath and useth I look through the glasse of the Creatures at the power and wisdome of their Maker I look through the glasse of the Scriptures at the great Mystery of Redemption and the glory of an Heavenly inheritance I look through Gods Favours at his infinite Mercy through his Judgements at his incomprehensible Justice But as these Spectacles of mine presuppose a faculty in the Eye and cannot give me Sight when I want it but only clear that sight which I have no more can these glasses of the Creatures of Scriptures of Favours and Judgements inable me to apprehend those blessed Objects except I have an eye of Faith whereto they may be presented These helps to an unbelieving man are but as Spectacles to the blinde As the Natural Eyes so the Spirituall have their degrees of dimnesse But I have ill improved my Age if as my Naturall eyes decay my Spirituall eye be not cleared and confirmed but at my best I shall never but need Spectacles till I come to see as I am seen CV Upon Moats in the Sun HOW these little Moats move up and down in the Sun and never rest whereas the great Mountains stand ever still and move not but with an Earthquake Even so light and busie spirits are in continuall agitation to little purpose whiles great deep wits sit still and stir not but upon extreme occasions Were the motion of these little Atomes as usefull as it is restlesse I had rather be a Moat then a Mountain CVI. Upon the sight of a Bladder EVery thing must be taken in his meet time let this Bladder alone till it be dry and all the winde in the world cannot raise it up whereas now it is new and moist the least breath fills and enlarges it It is no otherwise in Ages and Dispositions inform the Childe in Precepts of Learning and Vertue whiles years make him capable how pliably he yieldeth how happily is he replenished with Knowledge and Goodnesse let him alone till time and ill example have hardned him till he be setled in an Habit of Evil and contracted and clung together with Sensuall delights now he becomes utterly indocible Sooner may that Bladder be broken then distended CVII Upon a man Sleeping I Do not more wonder at any mans Art then at his who professes to think of nothing to doe nothing And I do not a little marvell at that man who sayes he can sleep without a Dream for the Mind of man is a restlesse thing and though it give the Body leave to repose it self as knowing it is a mortal and earthly piece yet it self being a Spirit and therefore active and indefatigable is ever in motion Give me a Sea that moves not a Sun that shines not an open Eye that sees not and I shall yield there may be a Reasonable Soul that works not It is possible that through a naturall or accidentall stupidity a man may not perceive his owne Thoughts as sometimes the Eye or Eare may be distracted not to discern his own Objects but in the mean time he thinks that whereof he cannot give an account like as we many times dream when we cannot report our fancy I should more easily put my self to school unto that man who undertakes the profession of thinking many things at once Instantany motions are more proper for a Spirit then a dull rest Since my Minde will needs be ever working it shall be my care that it may alwaies be well imploy'd CVIII Upon the sight of a Deaths-head I Wonder at the practice of the ancient both Greeks and Romans whose use was to bring up a Deaths-head in the mids of their Feasts on purpose to stir up their Guests to drink harder and to frolick more the sight whereof one would think should have rather abated their courage and have tempered their jollity But however it was with them who believed there was nothing after death that the consideration of the short time of their pleasures and being spurred them on to a free and full fruition of that mirth and excesse which they should not long live to enjoy yet to us that are Christians and therefore know that this short life doth but make way for an eternity of Joy or Torment afterwards and that after the Feast we must account of a Reckoning there cannot be a greater cooler for the heat of our intemperate desires and rage of our Appetites then the meditation of the Shortness of Life and the Certainty of Death Who would over-pamper a body for the worms Who would be so mad as to let himself loose to that momentany pleasure of Sin which ere long must cost him everlasting pain and misery
Drunkenness we must fly in the face of it with so much more fierceness as the eminence of the sin may make it more dangerously-exemplary quò grandius nomen eò grandius scandalum as Bernard Let the clearest water mix with the best earth it makes but mire If we be the true Sons of Thunder even the tallest Cedar-sins must be blasted with our Lightning and riven with our bolts Cato would not they say have a dumb souldier I am sure Christ will not Wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel yea wo be to us if we preach not the Law too if we do not lash the guilt of the Great with the scorpions of Judgement What stand we upon bulk if the Sin be an Elephant harnessed and carrying Castles upon his back we must with Eleazar creep under his belly and wound that vast enemy with the hazard of our own crushing It is the charge of God Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Es 58. 1. The words are Emphatical whereof the first signifies a straining of the throat with crying and the next the trumpet implies a sound of war This same belluÌ„ cum vitiis war with sins must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncapable of so much as a truce yea as a respiratió As that undaunted souldier therefore held first with his right hand and when that was cut off with his left and when both were cut off with his teeth so must we resolve to doe That which is the praise of the Mastives of our Nation must be ours to leave our life with our hold Profectò stabimus pugnabimus usque ad mortem We will stand and fight it out to the very death as Bernard speaks The manner of the Fight follows and that must needs vary according to the divers fashions of the onset For all beasts assail not alike one fights with his tusks another with his paws another with his horn another with his heel another with his sting one rampeth upon us another leaps in to us a third either rusheth us down or casts us upward a fourth galls us afarre a fifth wounds us unseen one kils by biting another by striking another by piercing another by envenoming According to these manifold changes of assaults must the expert champion dispose of himself To speak morally as these Men-beasts are either Beasts of Opinion or beasts of Practice and both of them maintain the fight either by close subtilty or by open violence so did S. Paul's opposition suit them so must ours whether for defence or for offence The beasts of Opinion were either Idolatrous Ethnicks or refractary Jews the one worshipping Diana for their Goddess the other refusing the true Messias for their Saviour The one he beats with the down-right blows of right Reason the other he hews with the two-edged sword of the Spirit the Word of God The beasts of Practice he smites through with the darts of the Law whereof Exod. 19. 13. If a beast touch the Mount he shall be shot through Their subtilty he declined by a wise evasion their violence he repelled with an irresistible force The particularities would be infinite neither do any of you exspect that I should turn the Pulpit into a Fence-school or a Paris-garden Onely let me reduce S. Paul's practice herein to some few useful rules as to express his beast-combat so to direct our own Whereof the first to begin with the beasts of Opinion was and shall be To fight still at the head When he comes to the Theatre of Ephesus he deals not with collateral matters of a secondary nature but flies upon the main heads of the highest contradiction whether one true God onely should be worshipped whether Christ should be acknowledged for the Messiah No doubt Ephesus was full of curious and nice scruples the wise Apostle waves all these and as some magnanimous Mastive that scorns to set upon every Curre that barks at him in the way he reserves himself for these Lions and Tigers of Errour Oh how happy were it for Christendome if we that profess to sit at S. Paul's feet as he at Gamaliel's could learn this wit of him It is true which Chromatius hath Non sunt parva quae Dei sunt None of Gods matters are slight but yet there is a difference and that would be observed The working brains of subtile man have been apt to mince Divinity into infinite Atomes of speculation and every one of those speculations breeds many questions and every question breeds troubles in the Church like as every corn of powder flies off and fires his fellow Hence are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. foolish and unlearned disquisitions 2 Tim. 2. 23. that have set the whole Christian world together by the ears Ex utraque parte sunt qui pugnare cupiunt as Tully said of his time There are enough on both sides that would fight The main Fort of Religion is worth not our sweat but our blood thus must we strive pro aris so even Heresie shall be found as Chrysostome observes not more dangerous then profitable But if it be onely matter of rite or of unimporting consequence de venis capillaribus as he said Oh what â—adness is it in us to draw the world into sides and to pour out the souls of Gods people like water what is this but as if some generous Bandog should leave the Bear or Lion primae formae feram which he comes to bait and run after a Mouse Melanchthon cites and approves that saying of Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius that Schisme is no less sin then idolatry And if the Fish be the better where the seas are most unquiet I am sure the Souls are worse where the Church is tumultuous I cannot skill of these Swans eggs that are never hatcht without thunder nor of that unnatural brood that eats through the dam to make passage into the light of reputation Oh for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Justly did Agesilaus lament the state of Greece that had lost as many souldiers in domestick wars as might have made them Masters of the world Let me say Had all our swords and pens been happily bent against the common enemy of Christendome long agoe had that Mahumetan Moon waned to nothing and given way to the glorious Sun of the Gospel Our second rule must be When we do smite to strike home It is S. Paul's I so fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not beating the aire 1 Cor. 9. 26. Here is not a blow lost non verberat ictibus auras How doth he cut the throat of the Ephesian beast Idolatry whiles he argues They are not Gods that are made with hands All the Silver-smiths of Diana cannot hammer out a reply to this charge It is no flourishing when we come to this combat Weak proofs betray good causes Demonstrations must have
place here not Probabilities How powerfully doth he convince the unbelieving Jews of Ephesus and Rome out of Moses and the Prophets Act. 28. 23. This this is the weapon whereby our grand Captain vanquished the great challenger of the bottomless pit Scriptum est All other blades are but Lead to this Steel Councils Fathers Histories are good helps but ad pompam rather then ad pugnam These Scriptures are they whereof S. Augustin justly Hac fundamenta haec firmamenta What do we multiply volumes and endlesly go about the bush That of Tertullian is most certain Aufer ab haereticis quaecunque Ethnici sapiunt ut de Scripturis solis questiones suas sistant stare non poterunt Take from Hereticks what they borrow of Pagans and hold them close to the trial by the Scriptures alone they cannot stand Bring but this fire to the wildest beast his eye will not indure it he must run away from it for these kind of creatures are all as that Father Lucifugae Scripturarum What worlds of volumes had been spared how infinite distractions of weak and wavering souls had been prevented if we had confined our selves to S. Paul's fence Our third rule must be To redouble our strokes uncessantly unweariably not giving breath to the beast not fainting for want of our own S. Paul laid on three months together in the Synagogue of Ephesus two years more in the school of Tyrannus Act. 19. 8 9. and accordingly gives us our charge State ergo Stand close to it Eph. 6. 14. If when we have dealt some few unsuccessful blows we throw up the bucklers or lean upon our pummels we lose our life with the day I could as the case might stand easily be of the minde of that souldier who when he heard Xenophantus by his musick stirring up Alexander to the fight wisht rather to hear a Musician that could take him off but since we have to doe with an enemy which nec victor nec victus novit quiescere as Annibal said of Marcellus there is no way but to fight it out Ye have not yet resisted unto blood faith the Apostle If need be we must do so Serpens sit is ardor arena Dulcia virtuti as he said Oh be constant to your own holy resolutions if ever ye look for an happy victory Well did the dying Prophet chide the King of Israel that he struck but thrice Thou shouldst have smitten often then thou shouldst have smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it 2 Kings 13. 19. Let neither buggs of fear nor suppalpations of favour weaken your hands from laying load upon the beast of Errour Fight zealously fight indefatigably and prevail In the battails of Christ as S. Chrysostome observes the issue is so assured that the crown goes before the victory but when ye once have it hold fast that you have that no man take your crown Revel 3. 11. Our last rule is To know our distance and where we find invincible resistance to come off fairly So did S. Paul in the Theatre of the Ephesian Synagogue when after three months disputation some were hardened and in stead of believing blasphemed the way of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he departed and separated Act. 19. 9. Those beasts we cannot master we must give up If Babylon will not be cur'd she must be left to her self To apply this to the Theatre of the times There is no challenge either more frequent or more heavy then that we have left that Church which they miscal our Mother Had we gone from her that is gone from her self we had but followed her in leaving her had we left her that hath blasphemed her forsaken truth we had but followed S. Paul but now let the world know we have not left her she hath abandon'd us Non fugimus sed fugamur as Casaubon cites from our late Learned Soveraign It is her violence not our choice that hath excluded us Because we could not but leave her errors she hath ejected our persons This schism shall one day before that great Tribunal of Heaven fall heavily upon those perverse spirits that had rather rend the Church then want their will and can be content to sacrifice both Truth and Peace together with millions of Souls to their own ambition Let this suffice for the beasts of Opinion which are Errours Turn your eyes now if you please to S. Paul's fight with the beast of Practice Vices And in the first place see how the Ephesian beasts fought with S. Paul Act. 19. 28 29. Ye find them as so many enraged Bulls scraping the earth with their feet and digging it with their horns snuffing up the aire with their raised nostrils rushing furiously into the Theatre tossing up Gaius and Paul's companions into the aire and with an impetuous violence carrying all before them This hath been ever the manner of wickedness to be headstrong in the pursuit of it's own courses impatient of opposition cruel in revenge of the opposers Doth Eliah cry out against the murders and Idolatries of Ahab the beast hath him in chace for his life and earths him in his cave Doth Michaiah cross the designes of the false Prophets in the expedition of Ramoth the beast with the iron-horns pusheth him in the face and beats him down into the dungeon Doth John Baptist bend his Non licet against Herodias's incest the beast flies in his throat and with one grasp tears his head from his shoulders So it ever was so it ever will be Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth saith S. Paul Stetisse lego judicandos Apostolos saith Bernard If still therefore heart-burnings and malicious censures attend the faithful delivery of Gods sacred errand the Beast is like it self Sagittant in obscura luna rectos corde as St. Chrysostome reads that in the Psalm In the mean time what doth S. Paul Doth he give in doth he give out No here was still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 6. 20. He traverses his ground indeed for his advantage from Ephesus to Macedonia but still he galls the beast where-ever he is as Idolaters so all sorts of flagitious sinners felt the weight of his hand the dint of his stroke all which wheresoever he finds them he impartially pierces through with the darts of denounced Judgement that is the verbum asperum and sagitta volans in Psal 91. the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. See how he wouuds those other beasts of Ephesus No whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man which is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of God Ephes 5. 5. and For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience verse 6. Tribulation and anguish to every soul that doth evil In flaming fire rendring vengeance to those that know not God and obey him not And why do not we in imitation of this noble champion of God strike through the loyns of wickedness whereever we finde it that if