praise of him that made him styling the fabrick of mans body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the handy-work of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preserved by God For the Body is the Soul's Castle the mouth the entrance the Lipps a double leav'd door the Teeth a portcullis and Ivory gate the Tongue the porter trenchman and Soul's Oratour the Head an eminent Tower where four senses externall Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting three senses internall Common sense Fantasie Memory keep so many scout-watches The Brain the Armorie and Treasury fenced about with hair skin bone the pia Mater or golden Eure the Neck a Wheel to turn this Turret to every point in the Compasse The Tongue Teeth and Palate musicall Instruments for modulation of the voice the Chordae or silver cords stretched through the body the Liver is the Well the Pores the Conduits the Veines the Pitchers of blood the Heart is the Cistern and Fountain of Life the Systole and Diastole moves gales of winde to free from putrefaction For this cause Man is called a Microcosme or little World in that he resembles the greater World The Liver resembles the Ocean the Veines the lesser Rivers the Breath the Aire the naturall Heat the warmth of the Aire the radicall Moysture the fatnesse of the Earth the Hairs of our head the Grasse of the earth Knowledge Light our Eyes the Sun and Moon our Beauty of Youth the Flowers of the Spring the Thoughts of our Minds Motions of Angells our four Complexions resemble the four Elements seven Ages seven Planets Thus was Man created a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containing All till that by usurping All he lost All. Neither was this Beauty solely the Bodies but the Soul in beauty far surpassed the Body as far as the Soul is more active than the Body The Understanding clear without ignorance the Will holy without disobedience the Affections calme without distemperance Thoughts undistracted Heart untempted Conscience unwounded The wonderfull union of them both more wonderfull than both Earth and Heaven were espoused a Body from Earth a Soul from Heaven were united that nothing but Death could part nor Death neither if bodily concupiscence with Martha had not made choise of the worser part Knowledge of sicknesse and sorrowes was unknown No Paracelsus distracted about Extractions It would have been the Physitians Disease that there was no Disease the Grave's Death that there was no Death Envie 's Griefe that there was no Envy What Man was in Rule and Dominion after the Creation Emperour of the whole Earth Admirall of the whole Sea Heir of Eden peerlesse Peer of Paradise that with the Grand Sultan he might have insulted styling himselfe Ruler of the World and Shadow of God With the Pope have worn a triple Crown trampling upon Hell triumphing upon Earth trusting For Heaven All Creatures seeing the splendour of Majesty and God's Image resplendent in this new created Magistrate with reverence pointed at him with an Ecce Adam lo Adam The Stars that lately created were gazed upon as the world's wonder wonder at this new created Star with an Ecce Adam The Angells those ministring Spirits Heb. 1. 14. behold him to whom they must minister with an Ecce Adam God who after the Fall came with an Ecce exprobrandi or upbraiding comes now with an Ecce demonstrandi or declaring to all Creatures Ecce Adam lo this is Adam whom ye must all serve this Adam Lord of all was Man Lord what is Man Thus we have done with the first what what Man was in his Creation We come to the second what what man is in his Degeneration where we must distinguish of a three-fold what what degenerate Man is in his life what in his death what after death The Degenerate in life what in his Body what in his Soul In his Body the length of his time the strength of his time What Man is in the length of his time His life is a Mask his Prologue is acted in secret within the Curtains of the Womb the Protasis in his Birth and Cradle the Epitasis in his checker'd mirth and sorrow Death is the Catastrophe the Grave his Wardrobe His time is a gliding Shuttle a riding Post a flying Cloud a spying Eagle a floating Ship a fading Flower The Shuttle is through the Post is gone the Cloud dissolves the Eagle vanishes the Ship is out of ken the Flower fades His length is but a Span his strength Grasse his beauty but a Venice-Glasse a China's Dish his thoughts Dreams his body a Shadow his flesh but a Vapour his glory but a Taper which begins as a Bubble continues as a Blaze ends with a Blast Lord what is man Thus what Man his Body is in length of time the second what in strength of time what in his Infancy what in his Youth what in his Manage what in his Old age in all these Natures ridle unfolding Sphinx his ridle In his Infancy an Image hath hands and cannot handle right tongue and cannot speak feet and cannot go a soul and cannot understand an unreasonable Brute in the shape of reasonable Man conceived in lust imbrued in blood brought forth in sorrow with throbs and throws His Youth an untamed Tiger unsetled Quicksilver a Camelion of every colour a Polypus of every shape an Ape in all imitations beginning to swell with Pride boyl with Revenge burn with Lust gaspe for Honour gape for Riches Manhood is a Monster composed of many miseries a Sea of sorrowes a World of warrs where all fears affright him The Sea is full of Pirats the Land of Robbers Wealth is envied Poverty is contemned Wit distrusted Simplicity derided Religion suspected Vice advanced and Virtue disgraced Old age is a Creple blinde as Appius blear-eyed as Leah lame as Mephibosheth bald in the head wrinkled in the face rotten in the teeth stinking in the breath teasty with choller withered with drinesse overwhelmed with sicknesse bowed together with weaknesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking upon the earth which must be his grave till he lie down in the grave gasping for breath begins with crying continues with sighing and ends with a groan Lord what is man Thus is every Age of life a Stage of strife that well may we sing with Ausonius a Turtle-like Song 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every Time is a troublesome Tide no place or condition is secure in the world Fear of Enemies affright Suits in Law vex wrongs of Neighbours oppresse care for Wife and Children consume The house is full of cares the Field is full of toyl the Country of rudenesse the City of factions the Court of envy the Church of Sects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What course of life then shall a man take when every life is a curse What Art shall he study when he is the dolefull subject of every Art and studying it studies his own misery What does Grammer teach him but to speak the language of his owne confusion The first part whereof containes the
are stained with lying oppressing and cousenage the Taverns and Innes abound with filthy vomitings wickednesse raignes in every state every condition every place shall we still put far from us the evill day Thus you see we have angred God and that unlesse he be appeased the day of his anger is at hand The third Use is of Instruction how to prevent it and that is by repentance First taking a strict examination of our selves how often in what manner in what measure we have angred God A Physician must first know the disease before he can apply the cure Then we must be heartily sorry that we have offended God this godly sorrow must work like a strong potion work in the understanding in the will in the affections in the conscience bruise the bones twinge the spirit break the heart Thirdly we must aggravate it by remembring that we have not onely angered Men and Angells but Christ that dyed for us No heat of fire nor knock of hammers can break the Adamant but annoint it with the hot blood of a Goat it falls in splinters Not precepts not threatnings not judgments can make a stony heart contrite till God in Christ move it Fourthly we must forsake our sins whereby we have angered God The Scolapendra when she hath swallowed an hook vomits out her bowells with it and so is quit When we have swallowed iniquity that the guilt thereof stings us let us vomit and spew out our darling pleasures pluck out our eye of lust cut off our hand of revenge belch out our heart of pride and so in the rest Fiftly we must appease Gods anger with prayer come to the Altar bring Incense stanâ— before the Mercy-seat cry unto him that sits between the Cherubims have some Moses to hold up his hand for us and with us some Samuel to make intercession for us And if all this will not pacifie him let some Magistrate like Moses Phinehas or Ioshua execute judgment that so the plague may be stayed Hitherto the first point that if we continue in sin God will be angry The second followes That when God is angry none can stand in his sight or abide it or That the anger of God is a terrible unspeakable unsupportable intolerable burden Every word in the Text hath a speciall Emphasis to prove this Who may stand Who shall Angells they are but like refracted beams or raies if God should hide his face they would cease to shine Shall Man his glory and pomp like the colours in the Rainbow vanishes away when God puts forth in anger the brightnesse of his face Shall Devills If he speak the word they are tumbled down from Heaven like lightning Stand in thy sight Stand. What! a Reed against a Cedar a Thistle in Lebanon against a Cedar in Lebanon a Feather against a Flame a Grashopper against an Almighty a head of Glasse against a head of Brasse When once thou art angry Angry By sending out his wrath that it wounds like arrowes angry in pouring it out that it drownes like water angry in kindling of it that it burnes like fire nay a consuming fire but that may be quenched an unquenchable fire but that may cease to burn when it lacks matter an everlasting fire that never goes out That that 's it such anger as is never fully shown but in punishment of Reprobates in no punishment but that in Hell in none in Hell but that eternall First to prove that Gods anger is terrible we need go no further but to the godly to seek it How have the stout-hearted pulled in their horns and melted like Snailes Snailes as Naturalists observe put in salt dissolve into water How hath it grinded them to dust Hear David Psal 32. complaining that his bones waxed old and that his moysture was turned into the drought of summer Hear him houl and cry Psal 102. that his daies were consumed like smoak that his bones burned like hearth withered like grasse that he was become like a pelican in the wildernesse or a sparrow on the house top Hear Job complain Chap. 6. that his griefe was heavier then the sand of the sea that the arrowes of the Almighty were within him the poyson had drunk up his spirit the terrours of God had set themselves in array against him Secondly that Gods anger is unspeakable we can all tell how great none can tell it 's like God himselfe infinite in greatnesse and unlesse he in mercy put an end to it it 's like eternity infinite in time eternall therefore the Saints have thought no Rhetorick sufficient enough to expresse it in but sighes no tongue but scrikes and groans no inke would cast but tears no paper but a wounded heart no words of force but exclamations of despair and such as issue from a bleeding soul As Lines drawn from the Circumference meet in the Centre and pierce it through yet no part of them is comprehended in it so many arrowes of Gods anger may meet in us pierce us through but expresse them we cannot nay when we are in the greatest agonies As burning-glasses by reflection of the beams of the Sun cause heat and burning which is not in the Sun but presents not the least glory of the Sun So we can better expresse our passions than unfold the weight of that mighty arme that smites us Thirdly that the anger of God is unsupportable we need no other instance but of our blessed Saviour He that makes the Heavens roul without an axel-tree causes the Earth to hang in the Aire as a ball poysed without pillars puts bounds to the waves of the Sea staggering over the banks He sweat and bled and groaned under this burden We have heard tell of finite Creatures that have endured mangling of bodies ripping of bowells racking of joynts burning of flesh boyling in oyle but under this stroak he that was God and Man was in a sense compelled to cry out O God my God why hast thou forsaken me Fourthly that the anger of God is intolerable Judas Cain and Saul could tell before their deaths and it is to be feared better since and many reprobates in this life are so racked that it pierces the whole Man head heart side back all parts at once ake and sweat and tremble the eye sees no comfort the tongue tastes no comfort the ear hears no comfort and as there is no ease within so no comfort without no place nor bed nor board nor house nor Church no creature nor meat nor drink nor friend nor wife nor child will afford any comfort How many have found a weight beyond the weight of mountains lying upon their soules and wish that they had rather been famished or starved or burned or strangled long before and catch and call for death for hell leap out of the fire into the flame And if this be the arraignment of God's anger in this life what will be the terrible execution hereafter You may have this proved by examples
Banner Matth. 16. 24. If any man wil follow me let him forsake himself and take up his crosse and follow me Saint Paul saies to Timothy All that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution We are Christians and our lives begins baptismate fluminis consecrated in the waters of affliction goes on baptismate flaminis confirmed in the fire of affliction and oftentimes ends baptismate sanguinis waft on Rivers of blood covers our Hearse with a scarlet die towards Heaven and that for these causes First thereby God proves us whether we be constant and true and manifests to others our sincerity they are a touchstone of tryall to examine whether we be pure or reprobate gold The Eagle tries her young ones whether they be bastards by making them look at the Sun so God tries us by the heat of tribulation As Gideon's Souldiers were proved at the water so we at the waters of affliction Faith that before was but fained will then vanish into smoak like Sodom's apples guilded hypocrisie into vapours but true Faith set upon the file will be more resplendent Hope more certain Zeal more blazing Charity more perfect Secondly afflictions are a means to wean us from the world and win us unto God as Mirrhe and Aloes to lay on the paps of worldly pleasures to make us flie to Christ a Pharaoh to pursue us out of Egypt unto Canaan they are a rod of God to turn our Rivers of delight when we are bewitched with them into blood they are a worm to make our Manna stink when we lust after it This brought the prodigall Son to his Father the Israelites from Captivity the diseased unto Christ Is the Arke taken and the glory of Israel departed then the House of Ely will begin to think upon God Is David banished unto Gath then happy are they that are but dore-keepers in the house of God or the sparrowes that may build their nests there Is Israel led into captivity then will the daughters of Jerusalem hang up their Harps upon the willowes when they remember thee O Sion Is any afflicted then surely they will pray Thirdly afflictions are medicinall restoratives by which sinners may be awaked to recover their health by repentance they are the launcing knife in the Phlebotomie of the soul to wound us that neither the Plethora or ranknesse of blood honour riches preferment pleasure choak and stifle the spirit nor the Cacochymia or pestilent humours of sin as covetousnesse pride intemperance bring us into the Hectick feavour or incurable disease of hardnesse of heart rebellion or sin against the holy Ghost They are a rod to scourge us in a Lethargy As Physicians in a Lethargy use to burn the hair of the patient and smoak it into his nostrills so afflictions burn vanities and darling pleasures which are but as excrements and casts them as dung into our nostrills They are preparative potions to repentance pills of contrition purgations of naturall corruptions vomits of sin tents to search our wounds scarrifications to draw out ill humours And though no afflictions be pleasant for the present yet afterwards they are cordialls of comfort restauratives of grace Thus God taught Miriam by leprosy to leave her murmuring he awakened Jonah out of sleep by casting him into the Sea he cured Zacharie of his infidelity by striking him with dumbnesse delivered Saul from his evill course by blindnesse David from pride by the plague cured him of adultery by killing the child Blessed is the man whom the Lord thus correcteth Fourthly as afflictions are restauratives for maladies by-past so they are preservatives and antidores to prevent the evill to come As a man whose blood is consumed in a lingring feavour is not so apt to take the pestilence so neither a man afflicted to be puffed up with pride or burn with lust he need not fear the swelling of that Carbuncle They are salt to hinder us from putrefaction a stormie winde to save our standing pools from corruption a fiery Cherubim to keep us out of the forbidden paradise of sin As the golden hair was to Nisus a safeguard from his enemies so the crosse of affliction armes from the flesh the world and the devill As is said in the Fable of Achilles so far as he was dipped in the water so far he was unpiercible by any weapon so far as we are plunged in the waters of Marah our spirituall enemies have lesse power over us God sent an Angell of Satan to buffet Paul not so much for any evill he had done as to prevent sin for the time to come lest through the abundance of revelations he should be exalted above measure If God inflict upon us malum poenae the evill of punishment it is to prevent malum culpae the evill of sin Fiftly by afflictions we are prepared and polished for Heaven that as the one scale of tribulation presses us down the other of grace may mount us up Our Oyle of grace is a quintessence that must be extracted by fire our cordiall waters of comfort by distillation our Grapes squeazed in the Wine-presse of sorrow our Wheat flayled in the threshing-floor of tribulation our Flowre grinded between the milstones of pressure We are Gold that must be purified seven times in the Furnace before we be carryed into the Sanctuary Trees that must be pruned before they bring forth any fruit living Stones that must be polished and hammered before they be brought into the heavenly Ierusalem So that to a Christian all his whole life is as it were a threshing death is the fan to winnow the pure wheat from the chaffe that we may be gathered into the heavenly Granary where no unclean thing shall enter Well then if every Christian must feel the sting of these fiery Serpents before he come at Canaan learn we to make account of them not murmur mutter wonder at them In this vale of tears we must look to be fed with the bread of affliction to drink the bitter water gall wormwood and eat the soure grape of sorrow Shall the heavens mourn the clouds shed their tears the earth tremble the fruits be blasted the sea rage the creatures groan for our sins and we not sympathize with them Shall the Prophets and Apostles go through the fire the Martyrs have their robes dyed in scarlet our Saviour sweat water and blood conflict with hell Satan death and we go to heaven in a bed of roses tread on carpets ride still in triumph upon the wings of pleasure True it is in former times we enjoyed Halcyon daies of peace sitting under our own Vines and Fig-trees singing the song of Sion and tuning our own harps in a melodious harmony having no Townes but Salems no men but friends if we had gone into the fields we should have seen no spears but standing corn have heard no drums but tabrets no out-cries but harvest-homes had no years but of Jubilee no daies but of rejoycing But now of a long
which are two the one young Samuel revealing who by this occasion received primam tonsuram his first unction to prophecy the other is old Eli who like Sexagenarius de ponte as his bodily so his spirituall eyes grew dim for 1 Sam. 3. 1. The word of the Lord was pretious in those daies there was no open vision Secondly we have the thing revealed which is either the sin or the punishment of sin sin either the father Eli's for not correcting and chastising his sons or the sin of his sons Hophni and Phinehas who being Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 12. were sons of Beliall knew not the Lord by their rapine made men abhor the daily sacrifice 17. lay with the women that assembled at the dore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation 22. The punishment of sin either threatned first by a man of God not otherwise named 1 Sam. 2. 27. secondly by Samuel himselfe that the Lord would cut off the whole family of Eli from the priesthood and that the iniquity of his house should not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever 1 Sam. 3. 14. Or executed in the fourth Chapter for thirty thousand of the Israelites were put to the sword the whole Camp scattered Hophni and Phinehas the Priests slain the Ark of God taken captive by the Philistims the Wife of Phinehas hearing of it fell into the pangs of childbirth and was delivered of a Son calling his name Ichobod the glory is departed from Israel and so expired and at the relation of the messenger Eli being ninty eight years old fell back from his chair and brake his neck Thus the whole Family was dysastered rarò antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede poena claudo Seneca Punishment and shame like a blood-hound alwaies pursues sin at the heeles the Ark was taken the Army routed the Priests slain Phinehas his Wife perished in the after-pangs Eli brake his neck Hence observe that sin is the deserving cause procuring the ruine and calamity of Church and State Cities and Families Sin it is that infects our purest aire that damps our richest mines that poysons our sweetest dainties that laies thornes in our softest beds of down that undermines Palaces pulls down Crowns shakes Thrones and ruinates Kingdomes that sets all mortall Wights at opposition heat against cold cold against heat winter and summer light and darknesse moysture and drought in arms one against another That the whole world is become a boyling furnace of contradictions where man is the mettall the body is the drosse which must first be burned by the refining fire of death before the soul can become pure gold fit for the heavenly Sanctuary For the proof of this hear Jeremie's lamentation Lam. 3. 39. Wherefore is the living man sorrowfull Heaven and earth answers his Interrogatory with a soul 's sad Eccho Man suffereth for his sins Come on further and see all Creatures Angells Men Beasts Plants Elements Heavens in sorrowes discord sighing out the sad Epitaphium of mans mortality 42. We have sinned and rebelled therefore thou hast not spared thou hast covered us with wrath and persecuted us thou hast slain and not spared Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death As tooth for tooth eye for eye hand for hand one talent for another so death is a deserved reward for sin death first seizing upon the body while we live by the canker of corruption and mortality bringing at the length death of the body by dissolution and all this hatched and brooded under the Cocatrice sin Come on and travail with St. Paul to Corinth 1 Cor. 11. 3. For this cause saies he many are weak amongst you and sick and many sleep For this cause that is for the poyson of sin the canker of corruption in generall for spilling of our Saviour's blood piercing his side nailing his feet unworthy receiving of the holy Sacrament in particular Are sick that is feavours boyle you consumptions waste you plague and pestilence devour you And many sleep sleep in an everlasting Lethargy and apoplexie of death never to be awaked before the last doom Many that Biers are become restlesse Peripateticks the Spade and Mattock tyred the Sextons still digging the Graves still gaping passing-Bells without any stop or period confounding the language one of another the Church-yards more peopled then the Theaters Mista senum ac juvenum densantur funera no sex nor age nor young nor old are spared but are made a subject for death to read mortalitie's lecture upon This made David complain that his bones waxed old and that his moysture was turned into the drought of summer Psal 32. made him houle and cry that his daies were consumed like smoak his bones were burned as hearth withered like grasse he was become like a Pelican in the wildernesse or a sparrow on the house top Ps 102. This made Job complain that his griefe was heavier then the sand of the sea that the arrowes of the Almighty were within him that the poyson had drunk up his spirit the terrours of God had set themselves in array against him Job 6. This makes all Mankinde rot as a Pomgranate shiver as a Potsheard splinter as a Venice Glasse corrupt as a standing Pool and vanish into ashes like Sodom's Apples And the reason of all this is because the justice of God requires it sin is daily in the view of his all-piercing eye sends up cries aloud into his holy ear piercing through the clouds for revenge importuning his vindicative hand to whet his glittering sword to feather his arrowes to make sharp the point of his spear to wash his footsteps in blood And then shall not he that hath called his footstool the Earth and his throne the Heavens to witnesse and hath sworn by himselfe the greatest that sin shall not passe without revenge shall not he be just Besides this consider all Creatures as daily Oratours that miserably complaining put up their petitions to him The higher House the suburbs of Heaven sits drooping the Sun is turned into blood and eclipsed the Stars unsnuffed burn dim within the socket of their sphears their naturall force abated their influence impaired all waxes old as does a garment and saies that sin is the cause The aire is stifled with the poysoned breath of meteors and insteed of comforting the inhabitants of the earth is become a stage of prodigies and terrours flying Dragons amaze blazing Stars as Beacons of astonishment affright Thunder with her loud Canon-shot makes roaring the impetuous fury of the Bolts brings death the Clouds in time of need are barren in time of harvest intoxicate the earth with deluges no dew sometimes but mildew no light but lightning no blast nor gale of winde but blasting and saies that sin is the cause The sea roules the windes blow unmercifully the waves rage impetuously all things are troubled unnaturally which makes the Leviathans roar and the fishes die and saies that sin is the cause The earth quakes
and trembles like a recoyling Canoâ— and mourns as with a sympathie while the heavens weep the flowers droop and closes up their heads within the lap of their mother earth the grasse withers the corn is blasted the fruits are thunderstroke and in stead of pagles daizes and roses of paradise bryars brambles nettles thistles spring out of her wombe and saies that sin is the cause All Nations all States all Kingdomes are troubled and saies that sin is the cause The Pagans against Turks Turks against Christendom one Province against another as whirlewindes in a strait move tumults Victorious Sweden hath long sit in Sable as a Matron mourning under the Myrtle trees deploring the dismall fate of her deceased Worthy which occasion'd so many alterations in government since and fluctuations in State and saies that sin is the cause Poland lies sick licking the scars of her lately received wounds and saies that sin is the cause Denmark bewailes her ill â—ccesse abroad and feeles the smart of her losses and intestine jarrs at home and saies that sin is the cause Whole Italy is distracted with convulsions and the State of Venice can scarce finde a pillow to sleep securely upon and saies that sin is the cause France before she could recover her bloodshed at the great Massacre hath begun to bleed afresh with civill jarrs and saies that sin is the cause Whole Germany hath been for many years in a combustion burning of Cities is no greater wonder then the sparkling of a Smith's forge slaying of men of as small account as of sheep in a slaughter-house to die in Troops as familiar as to live in Trenches such overflowing of blood that Rivers were dyed with the crimson tincture old grey heads mourning yoâ—ng infants crying women like Leah blear-eyed with weeping like Rachel lamenting the death of their children and cannot be comforted because they are not and all conclude that sin is the cause We of these Nations once styled fortunate Ilands garded like Goshen in the midst of Aegypt with turelar Angells have for these many years layne under the stroke of the destroying Angell and the stage of War hath been set up in our Territories making all places Aceldama's fields of blood the Common-weal distracted with factions the Church rent with schisms and as if these intestine broyles at home were not sufficient engagements with the Hollanders abroad to the losse of life and treasury with whom no sooner was a Peace if lasting made but Spain that had fed us with her blandishments proclaimes her selfe an enemy preparing hostility against us as if the Armado in eighty eight were but an earnest of what they intended to pay us Thus this poor Church and State lies bleeding and is not sin the cause Well then to sum up all shall not the petitions of the Heavens darkned of the Stars bedimn'd of the Aire poysoned of the Sea troubled of the Earth cursed of Kingdomes ruinated of the unreasonable Creatures groaning under the burden and looking up towards heaven as if the Stars that fought in order for Sisera would pitty and rescue them shall not these I say awake the Lord out of sleep as a Gyant refreshed with wine to put on his Brigandine and to gird on his Sword If souls for this deserve to die then how much more the body And shall not these that were petitioners become also executioners Lo the heavens as if it were their task to kill and slay hath for her armes hung up in the Zodiack man's anatomy the Planet Mars as though he were still the god of War the Dog-star and Saturn murders their children the Ayer poysons with infections feavours plagues the Sea is become a devouring gulph and contrary to Nature's intent is made a Goigotha or place of sculls the Earth that with her fruites should have nourished and with her conserves cherished is become an Aceldama or Theatre of blood one Nation one City one Kingdome one Family one Brother rises up against another as if man were born with those that arose of the Dragon's teeth in the Poet mutuis periâ—e gladiis bleed to death on one anothers sword And then shall not Gods just wrath our just desert so many executioners in heaven in earth by sea by land bring ruine and calamity of Church and State Cities and Families Hence as the case stands we are blame-worthy in a four-fold respect 1. Of Satan 2. Of security 3. Of pride 4. Of intemperance First of Satan who by his subtle sleights as he hath killed the body would murder also the soul and yet we sleight it as though we should die neither body nor soul Satan is that Panther that with his sweet odours allures us till he have gotten us within the reach of his talants that he may tear us that Crocodile that commiserates us till he have murdered us that Hyena that flatters us till he have killed us that Syren that sings till she hath drowned us that with Jael allures in with milk and murders with a nail with Joab embraces with one hand and stabs with another that whore of Babylon that gives poysoned drink in golden cups that cunning fisher that baits his hooks with the pleasures of sin that lies as a Snake in thy greenest grasse as an Enemy to assault thee in thy securest travails as a Ruffian to cut thy throat in thy sweerest sleep Art thou banquetting like Job's children with thy friends take heed Satan's there Art thou with Job praying take heed Satan's there Art thou with Iudas and the Apostles receiving the Communion take heed Satan's there In thy eating in thy drinking in thy hearing in thy praying in thy meditating beware Satan is busie about thee take heed he that hath wrought thy bodily death would also of thy soul O man of God beware mors in ollâ death is in the pot Secondly this discovers the security of carnall secure men that mind death no more hanging over their heads then Ierusalem did the blazing Star and Army in the aire then Damocles did the glittering sword perpendicular over his head then Ionah did the swelling of the waves over the Ship while he was under the hatches sleeping but they lie snorting in a lethargy of sin till a deluge of death overwhelme them as the flood did the old World as fire and brimstone did Sodom and Gomorrah as the house of Dagon did the Philistims that then death and grave and worms and hell and destruction seazes upon them Thirdly this discovers the vanity of pride many while their life is consuming as a candle burning within the socket as a coal taken out of the fire growing black studies only to varnish and paint over that rotten stock the body robbing all creatures to adorn it from one takes his wool from another his skin from another his fur from another their excrements as silk from worms beggs pearles of the fishes diggs into the ground for gold and silver turnes up the sands of the sea for
de nuptiis Concil de Toledo caus 4 quest 21. dispose And this with approbation is quoted by St. Ambrose and is further confirmed by the civill Lawes Canons of severall Oecumeniall Councells the pith and marrow whereof Gratian epitomises saying In contracting of Marriage the consent of parents is alwaies to be required And as the consent of parties and parents is requisite for marriage as it is the seed-plat of Families so the complyance of civill or municipall constitutions and Magistrates which are patres patriae fathers of the Country is to be taken in for the further consummation of it as Families are integrall parts of Provinces Nations or Kingdomes And this is clear from prescription since Adam Gen. 6. 2. which was first violated when the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose and that questionlesse maugre the advice of Enoch Noah and other godly Patriarchs whom God had set Princes over them In conformity to this Gen. 24. 3. Abraham made his servant swear that he should not take a wife to his son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites Rebecca Gen. 27. 46. was weary of her life for the daughters of Heth lest Jacob should take a wife of them Gen. 28. 8. Esau saw the daughters of Canaan pleased not his father Isaac And when the Jewes after their departure out of Egypt were incorporated into a body politick God who is Lord Paramount as well of judiciall as cerimoniall and morall Lawes gave a Directory for marriage Levit. 18. which being sleighted by Solomon he was deserted of God and lapsed into Idolatry The Jewes were hurried into captivity for taking strange wives which crime after their reducement Shechaniah and Ezra endeavoured to expiate by a generall Ezr. cap. 9. 10. 〈◊〉 Aristotl polit 1. Gellius noct Attic. lib. 12. cap. 18. Florus Plutarch in vitâ Solonis Lycurgâ— Ad Odyss â— divorce and deposition of their illegitimate budds Ezr. 9. 10. The Pagans had a glimmering sight of this which Minos expressed in his Lawes at Crete Rhadamanthus at Lycia Aeacus in Aenopia Draco in blood at Areopagus Numa Pompilius at Rome Lycurgus at Sparta Solon at Athens rearing his superstructure upon Cecrops his basis who there first instituted the contract of matrimony and for that cause was saluted by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eustathius as if he were an Hermophrodite or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 participating of both sexes or according to the Scholiast upon Aristophanes quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 3. Scen. 3. Because with much ado the coalition of the two natures of father and mother into one was his inventory This the Egyptians received from the Hebrewes the Phoenicians from the Egyptians the Ionians from the Phoenicians the Romans their Justin. Hist Carion Chron. duodecâ—m tabulas from the Ionians or Grecians which twelve Tables were the root whence the Arbor of the civill Lawes consisting of the Code Digestes Constitutions Pandectes Extravagants hath spread its branches over the western world and all treates of Marriage This Nation as far as the Torch of History Vxores habent deni duodenique inter se communes sed si qui sunt ex his nati eorum habentur liberi à quibus primum virgines quaeque ductae sunt Caesar de Bello Gallic l. 5 Libro constitutionum Londinensium pertaining to the Guild hall yields us light had alwaies their Nuptialls regulated by Lawes even the antient Britaines while uncivilized as Caesar their enemy confesses had their conjugall knot But when the Sun of Righteousnesse arose with healing in his wings Lucius the first Christian Monarch by Elutherius his direction gave Scripture-grounded rules for Marriage as well as other perquisites how this was inviolably observed through the Saxon's Heptarchy till Ina's Monarchy from thence till Alfrid and Edward the Confessor from them till Magna Charta and so successively till our times I leave it to the recognition of the learned Sages of our Lawes onely observing this That what provisoes as preparatory to Marriage were formerly executed by the Officers of civill Constitutions are now defalked and the power wholly transmitted to the Magistrate or Ministers of the common Law the legality whereof far be it from me to dispute or question which obliquely all this while I have been proving But the scope I aime at is this to which I doubt not every unbiassed judgment will subscribe that as the first step of matrimoniall solemnity takes in the consent of parties and parents the second of Magistrates and municipall Lawes and both of these but in a domestick and politicall capacity common to us with Turks and Pagans so there is a further graduall perfection which requires the consent and benediction of the Church as the parties contracting are members thereof and so pleads for the expediency of the solemnization thereof by a Lawfull Minister in the publick Assembly This I 'le endeavour to evidence founding the structure of my whole fabrick upon a three-fold bottom first the Law of Nations secondly praescription of the Church thirdly deductions from Scripture These single may seem weak but in conjunction will make a threefold cord not easily broken First the Law of Nations though barbarous some of them concenters in this that Marriage is but rough cast till polished by the sacred hand of a Priest and this Tradition doubtlesse they had hereditary from Noah Noah from Methusalem Methusalem from Adam Adam from God who consecrated the yoke of our first Parents not abstractly as man and woman but as his servants and in covenant with him gave a benediction not onely as they were to replenish the earth but as their Seed was to bruise the Serpents head And that act was managed by the Creator rather as he was the prototype of Priestly than Kingly office leaving a president to posterity which all future ages observed till Moses acknowledging the first-born in this sense as consecrated to God which selling Esau heard profane because the Priesthood a thing holy was an appendix of his birth-right And that the nuptialls of all their children were to be celebrated by the Patriarcks or heads of their respective Families is as transparent from Scripture-light as if writ with the Sun-beams This other Nations whether civilized or barbarians religiously observed Let the Grecians be mustered in the van who for the consummation of their marriages usually repaired to the Temple where in the presence of the Priest they engaged themselves Achil. Tat. libr. 5. mutually by Oath as appears by the practice of Clitiphon and Leucippe where the man in the Temple of Isis swore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love sincerely and the woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she would accept him for her Husband and Lord of all And as preparative Cael. Rhod. lib. 7. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip