Altar And what service of the King is so honourable as an Embassie And which attribute of God is more noble than his justice Now an Altar and an Embassage appertain to the occasion of this Text and the justice of God to the Exposition There was an Altar set up by Gad and Reuben and half Manasseh a great one to see to in the tenth verse a pattern of the Lords own Altar in the 28. which was as strange in those days when all the light of the Church moved but in one Sphere as to see a Parelius or a second Sun in the Firmament This new devotion of theirs kindled a jealousie in the Ten Tribes that possessed the Land of Canaan beyond the River Jordan and after some advice to reform the Church they stumble upon these two ways First to pluck down the Altar was the like done no where Never in our Land First pluck down the Churches and then reform the Religion Next that there might be hands enough to pluck it down all Israel meet at Shiloh to fight it out Another strange course I pray observe it to try the truth not in Moses chair but in the field and He should carry the day whose Sword was sharpest and brethren would sacrifice brethren upon their own Altar for Idolatry Yet this hath a fair shew and seems to be like the renouned justice of Timoleon that redeemed his Brother taken captive in his Country quarrel whom he slew soon after with his own hands for usurping tyranny But to be slow to wrath is to make haste to heaven and sometimes a soft word breaks not down Altars but the very bones says Solomon St. Peter cut off but one silly servants ear with Ecce duo gladii but when Jesus spake it overturned them to the ground every man and Miscreant So this holy Nation send Phinehas the Son of Eleazar and Ten Princes more the flower of the Nobility to play the Orators before it come to bloudshed and make this the close of the Message to leave the most moving affection behind it that the Idolatry of two Tribes and more would envenom all the children of Israel round about since the trespass of one man was the ruine of God knows how many Did not Achan the Son of Zerah trespass and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished c. Beloved now we know the man that bears the burden of the Text and that Altar which was blameless and innocent one poor distinction broke up all the Army it was an Altar of Witness and not of Sacrifice And you have seen the Embassie presenting and prevailing for Peace and true Religion A word or two to shew what is meant by non solus he perished not alone There are divers stories of Gods vengeance in that word built one above another as may easily be discerned if I resolve all the Text into Achans Funerals First here is a grave digged and that is iniquity So speaks the Kingly Prophet effodit puteum he digged a Pit that is says another Prophet he plowed iniquity Secondly see the corps of Achan first oppressed with stones and then consumed to ashes for he was both stoned and burnt the one representing a Sepulchre and the other the dismal fire of Hell this is that man perishing But not alone his Children were the sad mourners that followed their Father and died with him both root and branches Nor these only but thirty six Israelites slain and offered up to the vengeance of God inferiae Achanis as I may term them after the heathen phrase And give me leave to go on to make a miserable pomp his Cattel went along to be sacrificed bellator equus even all he had as if his Oxen had jogged the Ark of God they are consumed in fire Lastly you are here beloved to look on and judge of such a spectacle to decline the trespass that for your part and God grant it be so He may perish alone in his iniquity Lego historiam ne fiam historia Where could I alledge Scripture so wonderful to shew the mystery of Gods justice least we speak unadvisedly with our lips why art thou so wrath with the sheep of thy Pasture Non nostrum onus our shoulders were not made to bear our Fathers sins As Lipsius embraced the reproof of Scaliger saying Te judice placebit paenè ipsum damnari so we must not only kiss the Son lest he be angry but even kiss the very anger of the Son He was figured to be the Serpent that stung the Israelites but it was a brazen Serpent Serpens sine veneno no poison no rancor of malice in him Judicia Dei occulta esse possunt injusta esse non possunt says St. Austin Strike once upon this rock of justice and I dare promise a fountain will issue out from thence of fear and reverence not to provoke the Lord by sins and trespasses for if He threaten shall He seem as one that mocks Shall the Infant put his finger upon the hole of the Cockatrice Wherefore to make this our use and fruit of hearing at this time First to adore the flaming Sword of justice Secondly to shun the stroak the wages of ungodliness First that the Tombs of sinners may be Altars of Gods righteousness and then that the zeal of God may be dreadful unto man let these be the parts of this discourse First We must put the cause formost the cause of all the wrath that follows and that both general it is iniquity and with an instance his iniquity Then follows the subject not only answering to each part of the cause man and that man but a subject it is ex abundanti you would think as if mischief had been kindled like piles of wild-fire for it spreads about to strangers and home-born to the reasonable and to the dumb nay to the quick and dead that man not alone is a troop of them which were consumed Thirdly here is an affection brought in by the cause you wot of before into this plentiful subject alas let us not call it an Affection let us use no Art it is perishing The Cause Iniquity the Subject Achan but not alone the Affection that he perished you see I have made a demonstration of the Text. Now let not any man make it a fallacy to deceive his own soul doth not the cause deserve severe arraignment Then blaspheme not as the wicked do He seeketh an occasion to punish Cruda est cicatrix criminum oletque ut antrum Tartari says the Divine Prudentius in the subject Did one hair of an innocent person fall to the ground Then murmur not against God turn thy wrath upon the sinners and the heathen which have not known his name But is it too much to perish for all this Was the chastisement beyond measure Then let us say we are vexed and sore smitten then indignation lieth hard upon us like Rehoboams Scorpions Remember how the
and confer it upon our Saviour I will look back no farther upon that which I have deliver'd already but the other half of his gift to which now I must proceed smels more rank of boasting for if it please you he will turn all the Kingdoms of the world into one Monarchy and settle it upon Christ all this power will I give thee and the glory of them This will bring his ends to pass indeed or nothing he that will not be bought with honors no not with great advancements no not with Princely Royalties to swarve from righteousness you may turn him loose against all the enticements of Hell for a Christian that is unvanquishable But the Tempter hath sound out by long experience that such pure matter is rarely to be found in the dross of this world he sees that men do seldom deny him any thing if he can accomplish the desires of their aspiring thoughts He makes good bargains of his petty promotions how much more of his greatest There are enough and too many that for a little command a vulgar title for a mean remove will turn their backs to God and their faces to Satan There are undergrowing ambitions which shall not need to be carried to the top of a mountain and have Kingdoms shewn unto them let them be lifted but to the lowest Steeple in a Diocess and they will commit Simony and forswear it To be a Ruler over thousands will shake an ambitious mans honesty very far to compass it nay to be a Ruler over ten which is the lag end of all honor some will violate their conscience rather than go without it what if it were to be but Doeg the chief Heardsman of Saul to have the greatest superiority over beasts Why Doeg was both a promoter and a blood-sucker for that contemptible promotion The twelve Disciples Christ himself walking just before them fell out among themselves into hot words and contention quis esset major which of them should be the greater If one had been the greatest as in very good sense they were all equal what should he have got by it to be the chief over eleven that had left all and were worth nothing If the Tempter be aware of this as our infirmities are not hid from him that men will tread virtue under foot to crawle up to a petty advancement then he would easily think this provocation in my Text were irresistable all this power and glory will I give thee and all the Kingdoms of the world If Balaac will say to some I will promote you to great honor as he did to Balaam all the Angels of heaven should not hinder them from going to it ambitious persons will break through the hedg of all honesty for a title of high preeminence and when their indirect courses carry them down to the deep their fancie flatters them that they go up like Elias in a whirl-wind to heaven There was nothing hanging with Christ upon his Cross except a title over his head Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews And why a great title crucified with him though he deserved that Inscription and a far greater than Pilat or all the world could invent yet above all the sins of men ambition and great titles which too often are obtained by crooked courses they deserve to be crucified Mans thoughts fly upward like the sparks from the fire Core and Dathan cannot endure to be less than the greatest Every man would be a Moses in the Common-wealth every man an Aaron in the Church Brethren forget brethren in way of Soveraignty as Joseph's brethren did consent to kill him or sell him away rather than bow unto him Absolon a Son and Subject abjures his duty to his Father and his Prince Athaliah defrauds her own child to get the supreme authority in her own hand This strugling for greatness especially for a Crown and Scepter hath occasion'd more iniquity more flagrant sins than any one storm that ever was rais'd Si violandum est jus regni causâ violandum sayes C. Caesar he would do no body wrong for less than to gain a Kingdom but he thought it impossible for a man to temper himself in that tentation that had opportunity And why should the appetite of supreme honor bewitch a man sooner than any thing else from the fear of God and draw him from it because power and glory are two such specious and attractive things which are intrinsecal to the dignity of Princes and Satan I warrant you did not forget to cast those two words in Christs way All this power will I give thee and the glory of them There is power in Princes as well to advance where they like as to punish offendors and reason good they should be serv'd with all humble reverence and have the highest glory on earth ascrib'd unto them because they are set over us for our good to maintain publick peace and true religion The power which Pharaoh had oh how it pleaseth an hauty spirit he tels Joseph what he would do for him in this phrase without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all Egypt Gen. xli 44. or that majestical terror which Nebuchadonosor put upon all that were under him nothing more greedily sought for Says Daniel to Belsbazzar The most high God gave Nebuchadonosor thy Father a Kingdom and glory and honor whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down Dan. v. 19. Satan knew that to manage such power as this is a whetstone able to set akeen edg upon any mortal appetite But if any one love to govern with a soft hand and affect not the execution of that awful power to put terror upon inferiours yet the glory with which Soveraignty is bespangled will rob a man of his heart and steal it from him Who would refuse to be a Solomon his Palace was beyond all buildings his Throne so costly that there was not the like made in any Kingdom the Meat of his Table the Attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel the Queen of Sheba had never seen or heard of the like Such pomp as this would make a man believe he had built his nest in the stars Satan thought his tentation struck home when he promised such glory as this unto our Saviour How much more was this motion most perswasive when he beleaguer'd him with this offer to pluck the fairest feather out of every Monarchy and invest him with it where there was any power or any glory fit for his wish it should be cast upon him David had a Kingdom of much power yet of little glory for his reign was full of trouble and rebellion Hezekiah had a Kingdom of much glory great treasures great magnificence in his house yet it was of small power for he was an Homager and a Tributary to the King of Assyria and he sent him word that
minute or hour yet it was in a short space after for he tells them in his Message This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Gen. 18.17 much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand and loe the Angel of the Lord as who should say shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds to the Wisemen of the East to Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth to the Magi of the East as the most ancient do collect twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified The Shepherds were Jews and he was made known incontinently to them prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preacht before them at Jerusalem the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crums which fell under the Table Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense they were Gentiles and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews after forty days numerus certus pro incerto when the Gentiles have had their part Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them that is in the fulness of time and in an hour that we do not think of a remnant shall be collected God will gather together the out-casts of Israel and the dispersions of Sion Once it was ecce Angelus Gods Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger who then was in the City of David now after much attendance after many an ecce many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them So much for the time of this Apparition 3. Loe or behold an Angel soft a while and let us ask in the third circumstance quomodo how we should behold him a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen or bones to be felt in what fashion therefore did he alter himself surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus a note of Admiration for the manner was wonderful Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgins Womb those ministring Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth Yet thus we distinguish them from our selves our bodies are begotten theirs were created our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam their substance made extraordinarily not according to nature but by the finger of God our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth and makes it live their bodies which they assum'd had not vivification by the breath of life but only serv'd them for motion and representation our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy and so to the understanding they had eyes and ears and other sensible organs non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfecte representent says the great Schoolman not to exercise those senses but for an ornament and complement sake lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders Finally their bodies after they had appear'd to discharge their embassage vanisht into elements never to return again into that composition but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolv'd and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture as if they had not truly taken humane shapes the better to communicate their business to men but God deluded mens eyes and bred this thought in their fancy as if they had seen that which was not visible I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text when the fancy of certain Prophets was perswaded it saw that which it did not see it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings and wheels under their feet chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets no other eye could be partaker of it Now on the contrary that 's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary but substantial for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous not to Lot only who was a just man but equally to all the vicious Sodomites And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear not as a spirit but in the shape of a man and therefore Ecce Angelus loe an Angel of the Lord. 4. The next doubtful question is Quo situ after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them the Grammarians are at odds what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should mean whether he hover'd above their heads in the air or stood in the same level near unto them Beda prevented this quarrel and accepts of both interpretations Sunt juxta nos per amorem supra nos per authoritatem they stand near unto us by their love and they stand above us by their authority Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father we had not been worth the coming near we had been no company for those holy Seraphins but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood the nature of man came into respect and reverence the enemy shall not approach to hurt it but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it supra juxta planting themselves as a fortress for our head and as a buckler for our arm And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance knowledge and action head and hand Some are secret inventors of mischief plotters and contrivers of disturbance their brain is a mint of oppression where is Angelus superveniens the Angel above Some know their Masters will but they do not do it nay quite contrary fear or favour wrings ill effects from them where is Angelus astans they want a good Angel at their elbow Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui which standeth for the children of thy people Dan. 12.1 But whether
day or in that year he did not learn the Shepherds nay I speak it with modesty I do not think he could teach himself Therefore I recoil back from that nicety and lay down my doctrine in this large lesson it was expedient that many revolutions of years should run out from the promise of Christs Birth unto the actual accomplishment 1. So great a matter was worthy much expectation and many predictions of the Prophets So St. Austin Quanto major Judex veniebat tanto praeconum series longior praecedere debebat the greater the Judge that was to come the greater troop of Harbingers and Apparitors should go before him 2. His Incarnation is fitted to the fulness of time because it falls out equally to try their Faith that should believe in Christ to come and to try their Faith who ought to believe that he is come that he is dead and risen again and ascended into glory 3. Between the time of Adams disobedience and the Birth of the Lamb of God a long space of years doth interlope that man might have time enough to see and feel his misery before the medicine was made to apply unto his sore 4. God is pleas'd to confer great honour upon our humane nature at three extreme distances in the beginning of the world toward the midst of it and in the end of all things In the first creation God made man after his own Image so began our excellencies then he made his own Son in the similitude of man a long distance went between these two Hereafter at the period of all things we are sure to have a glorified body and that our mortal shall put on immortality Now Christs Incarnation comes in the midst because he is the center of all Gods mercies towards us 5. The Jews whom Christ above all others calls his own He came unto his own c. they did sustain at this time and for some years had sustain'd a bondage under the Roman Conquest perhaps it is our Saviours pleasure that a great part of the Church shall be under a Romish thraldom against his second coming But this bondage was bitter to the Jews even at this day when Christ was born Caesars taxes were very grievous for Mary being ready to lie down was compell'd to come to Bethlehem to be taxed now in this day of oppression when the Jews I believe thought the yoke of captivity to be more intolerable than their sins and that they wisht for a victorious champion to fight for them then did God send them a greater Saviour than they wisht or lookt for not to acquit them from the Roman Dominion but from the pit of Hell And this is all that can be modestly conjectured about the opportunity of time c. This day is born unto you and as near as we can observe the course of the year by Astronomical skill this was the very day yet it is not that hodie of which the Angel spake unto the Shepherds then is not this part of the Text utterly unappliable to us no beloved but appliable to us also in the nearest degree for as we say of the sin of Adam Actu transiit manet reatus the act past away at the first but the guilt remains upon his posterity so our Saviour was born upon one particular day which is past but the merit and virtue of it is never past but abides for ever Wherefore to them that make the right use of this blessing St. Paul says it is out of date at no time but now is the acceptable time now when you will your self now is the day of salvation The Prophet Isaiah says the joy of this birth it like the joy of men in harvest that 's for the universality of all those that belong unto the field but for the extension of time it is not for the season of harvest alone but for all the year not gaudium in annum but gaudium in sempiternum Not an harvest joy for the plenty of one year but this is the bread of life whose plenty rejoyceth the eartn unto all ages It is as good news upon any day as it was upon one day says Bernard that Christ is born That day comes always anew to them that are renewed in the spirit of their mind and he is born every day to them in whose hearts he lives by Faith I must here cut off the circumstance of time and because the Sacrament must have a time to be celebrated I will speak but a few words upon the place and conclude The Angel directs the Shepherds to the City of David and thither did all the Scribes and High Priests direct Herod with full consent Bethlehem of Judea was the place where Christ must be born for so it was spoken by the Prophet Now Bethlehem is that City of David I know in the Old Testament the Tower of Sion is sometimes called the City of David a strong fortress in Jerusalem which David built to curb the Jebusites but that famous Metropolis of Jerusalem had nothing to do with this birth Little Bethlehem is here called the City of David where David was born Take notice I pray you that the Angel could have call'd it Bethlehem to take away all mistaking but it makes more to the matter to shew that Christ came of the house and lineage of David which was foretold Psal cxxxi Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat And mark how it falls out agreeably that Joseph and Mary came to no other Town but this to pay Tribute unto Caesar Had they been only of the Tribe of Judah as David was no nearer allied unto him they might have gone up to many other Cities much more famous than this to be taxed but being of the stock of David and indeed the nearest living in blood unto him therefore they go up to no City but to Bethlehem the City of David And thus you see the Angel conferr'd with the Shepherds in such words as were very proper they knew the place it was the next at hand they knew it belong'd to him that should be the Saviour of his people who according to the Scriptures belong'd to David by blood and to the City of David for his Country A poor caskenet to contain so great a Jewel Thou Bethlehem says the Prophet Micaiah the least among the Princes of Judah yet big enough to contain the Prince of Heaven and Earth Little Zoar says Lot and yet Zoar was big enough to receive him and his Children safe out of the fire of Sodom Poor Bethlehem which had but one Inn for strangers in it all it seems and that of small capacity which had no room no by-corner for a woman to be delivered in but only the manger of the stable Mean Bethlehem unless the Angel had spoke it the Prophet foretold it and the Star had shewed it to the Wise men who would not have gainsaid that the Saviour of all men could be
East to Judea these have many more reasons to eâ—ince that it was no natural Star As first that all other Stars appear unto the world by night this had a most bright complexion as well by day as by night Ignatius says or some in his name that it exceeded the Sun and Moon in splendor And Prudentius says as much for Poets will speak loftily Quâ—e solis rotam vincit splendore ac lumine it went beyond the body of the Sun in light and lustre Secondly It had not the motion of other Stars sometimes rising sometimes setting but guided the Magi in a straight line from Persia or Mesopotamia to Jerusalem Thirdly Other Stars finish their course that is whirle about the Orb in twenty four hours this pass'd but few degrees in many days from the East unto Judea Fourthly This Star disappeared at a moment as soon as ever they were received into Jerusalem and so long as they staid there I believe two or three days till they were just upon departing it shined not again Hoc non agit motus sideris sed virtus plena rationis It must not be the motion of a natural Creature but the vertue of a supernatural finger that was so punctual Yet Gregory Nyssen doth so maintain it to be an usual Star of the highest Orb that he prevents all these objections namely that it came out of the Sphere for a time and hung in the air to do homage to Christ and he that caused the Sun to stand still or go backward for Joshua's or Hezekiah's sake could make a Star to go what motion he pleased for his Sons sake Perhaps such as stick fast to the Peripatetick Philosophy would have the body of the heavens suffer no such violence as a Star to be missing in it for a time And therefore Aquinas against all exceptions concludes it to be a flame of light newly created for this purpose Fuit corpus densum multùm habens de lumine specialiter ad hoc opus ordinatum A solid body fit to receive much light ordained on purpose for this Ministry Whether it was made of some pure celestial matter or earthly concretion that they profess not to know but leave it to him that framed it Nor do they presume to deliver any certainty touching the Figure of it as whether it stream'd like a blazing Star or no yet of all things else they will not permit it to be called a blazing Star for those Meteors so they were wont to call them appear against the Death of Princes not against their Nativities But one Frier among others fell out with his wits that gives us his own fancy for an undeniable truth that this Star was cast out into the Figure of a child bearing a Cross and that it portended his blessed Mother should be called the Star of the Sea Thus he scarce modestly considering the heathen called their Venus the Star of the Sea but I am sure ridiculously What kind of created body it was fitly that 's certain formed for this purpose either we shall know hereafter in the Kingdom of heaven or at least have no curiosity to desire to know it that 's the best resolution Others stray further from the words of the Text and say that the Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the Wise-men who considering the Figure of it and the light it gave call it a Star but indeed it was no Star What then Why the Holy Ghost now appearing in the shape of a Star to manifest to Christ as once in the shape of a Dove when he revealed him at his baptism by Jordan As if nothing were worthy to make this Infant known unto the Gentiles but the Holy Ghost What share the holy Spirit had in this manifestation shall be toucht upon anon Others observing that an Angel told the Shepherds in the field the tidings of the Incarnation do most approve that this light which shew'd as if it were a Star was a very Angel of glory going before the Magi from the East to Jerusalem in a resplendent visible form For Angels are called Stars Rev. i. 20. And again Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire Psal civ This opinion hath St. Chrysostom to favour it that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an invisible heavenly vertue taking this shape and figure upon it And Theophylact more clearly in the same key 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine and Angelical vertue appearing in the fashion of a Star And one of our late Writers is more punctual how it should come to pass to be an Angel that when an Angel spake words about the Incarnation of Christ to the Shepherds the glory of the Lord shone round about him and these Wise-men of the East seeing that heavenly and Angelical glory shining afar off apprehended it to be some new Star and withal either by tradition or illumination at the present were taught that it call'd upon them to go and seek the Messias in Judea Yet this last opinion will hardly be made good for when they went out of Jerusalem that light appeared again very near unto them at that time and yet they call it a Star and not an Angel In one word had it been an Angel why should the Evangelist have concealed it that an heavenly Minister conducted the Gentiles to Christ whereas the Scripture tells it without all circumlocution that a multitude of the heavenly Host appeared unto the Shepherds watching over their Flocks by night I incline therefore to the letter that it was a Star or luminous body created for this purpose And marvel not if the Point be so ful of doubts and uncertainties for every circumstance about the calling of the Gentiles is the mighty mystery of God And so much for that Point In the next place we are left as much uncertain about the appearance of the Star as about the substance For the Question is propounded whether it made but one Apparition only to the Wise-men and being seen but once gave them sufficient notice to go into Judea or whether it guided them day by day night by night step by step till they came to Jerusalem The former opinion is not empty of reason the latter likewise stands upon reason and is much more countenanced by Antiquity The Scripture hath left it undecided and so both parts may enjoy their liberty and are fit to be heard They that incline to the first way that the Star at one shining taught the Magi to go into Judea are moved for these causes First because they say we have seen his Star in the East they do not add that it hath conducted us to you in the West and in all likelihood the Evangelist would have spoke of it if the Jews had seen it as well as they And in as great likelihood if such a flaming Meteor had appeared upon that Horizon all the way they went from Persia to Jerusalem the wonder would have been
own Land without drawing bloud from Judah So this ghostly enemy hath not prevailed so far as to win the out-works of your innocency Such a tentation is but an Antiperistasis that augments the heat of vertue As St. Ambrose gives Joseph this Encomiastick Nonne tentatio Joseph virtutis est consecratio Nonne injuria carceris corona est castitatis That unchaste offer which Josephs Mistris offered unto him it did consecrate it did deifie his chastity Jonathans Arrows were either on this side his Lad whom he sent out into the field or else shot beyond him So the darts of Lust were either wide of Joseph or shot over his head an impregnable chastity is not so much as scratcht with these shafts of love Bring the case of such a one before Bernard and he doth excuse him from all guiltiness Non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus imò quod resistentem fatigat vincentem coronat This would Satan have that is no blame of mine unless my consent yield and say this would I have But more of this by and by where I will shew that Satans sinful Propositions were no way sinful to Christ that rejected them But I speak of that which I confess is very unusual a tentation repulsed and no part of the Commandment broken he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled Few are like those three servants of God to be cast into the Furnace and not to have the smell of fire about them But what if it please the Lord to have us exercised with the assault of some infirmities so that our conscience doth witness against us it is taken in the snares of sin Far be it from us to think that the Lord doth permit it to our condemnation and not rather to better us in obedience As a little wedge is beaten in sometimes to drive out a greater so a little tentation is suffered to creep in that a bigger mischief may not enter The falling into some sins in the best of Gods Servants is an anticipation against pride that they may not be puft up with their own righteousness Animam oportet assiduis saliri tentationibus says St. Ambrose Some errors and offences do rub salt upon a good mans integrity that it may not putrifie with presumption And whosoever is molested in heart because the enemy doth not cease to pollute him with evil desires and bad cogitations let him hope that God doth sift him as he did his great Servant St. Paul 2 Cor. xii 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations there was given me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me To spend no time about the diversity of Interpretations what this Messenger of Satan should be I give my voice on their side that assign it to be carnal concupiscence for whose sake the Apostle says 1 Cor. ix 27. I bring under my body and keep it in subjection and against which he complains Rom. vii 23. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin This spawn of depravation whatsoever it was did produce a good effect that he who was dignified with many revelations might consider he was a frail man for all that because of his inward rebellion in the flesh and his often imperfections Stimuli carnis sunt stimuli orationis Those thorns in the flesh did prick him on to continual prayer O blessed fruits of regeneration when our very sins shall make us serve the Lord with the better appetite And now I conclude the first general part of the Text for I think all other reasons may be easily reduced to these six which I have run over why Christ was tempted of the Devil In the second general part of the Text this Tentation hath an Author whose name is derived from calumniation and reviling that evil Angel to be known of all men because he is to be shunned of all men one often to be remembred and ever to be detested of much fame in the Gospel as Pilate is in the Creed because his malice is outragious against the Church both in heaven and earth of many titles for he is a great Prince over the children of disobedience none worse than that which is his common denomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reviler or the Devil The first accusation which he invented was against God himself whom he traduced for interdicting the fruit of one tree to our first Parents although their allowance was all things beside which the earth brought forth in great abundance And if God himself were not free from his slanderous impeachments they that are devoted to Gods honour must needs be obnoxious to his manifold calumniations And because he doth commence new matter of reviling before the audience of God continually St. John calls him the accuser who doth accuse our brethren before God day and night Rev. xii 10. Let every sin reduce it self to the head and fountain and the slanderer will be more ashamed of his chief than any Gluttony is first known in Esau Drunkenness in Noah Tyranny in Nimrod Polygamy in Lamech Murder in Cain but reviling in the Devil Nor is reviling only the murdering of a mans good name but directly it is a sin that is guilty of more bloud than any other iniquity And therefore the Devil whose mouth is the great bellows that blows defamation abroad Christ gives him his due when he says he was Homicida ab initio A murderer from the beginning Joh. viii 44. All the miseries which did befall the Martyrs and holy men began in slander and ended in slaughter Naboth first accused wrongfully for blaspheming God and the King and so put to death The Elders stirred up false witnesses that said they heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and the holy place the next news you here he is cast out of the City and stoned Our blessed Saviour was first wrongfully cried out upon that he made himself a King then led away to Pilate to be Crucified Is not this the fruit then of this Divinity Beware of slandering and evil speaking it is Peccatum sanguinum peccatum daemonum The sin of bloudshed and the sin of Devils The very Prince of Devils is characterized by being an accuser not because a man may not sometimes accuse and yet be a charitable Christian but because the more he accuseth the Elect of God the more it tickleth and delights his envie says St. Austin To this of St. Austin Lactantius hath added another reason Nos criminatorem vocamus quod crimina in quae ipse illicit ad Deum deferat We call our great Adversary a Devil or Calumniator because he delates and reports our faults to God to which his own wiliness did entice us First he empoysons us with bad suggestions and makes us guilty and then discovers us The reason why he tempts is to gather proofs of accusation against
of the Serpent and nothing can be truer than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application that one sin is never hatcht alone especially if it be a great one but it hath a train to follow it God challeng'd his people that they had broken the bond of marriage between him and their soul not with one adultery and no more but the Prophet chargeth Jerusalem fornicata es cum multis amatoribus thou hast committed fornication with many lovers that is with many sensual pleasures Upon this consideration virtue is compared to salt have salt in our selves sayes Christ to his Disciples of which you cannot take up one corn alone upon your knifes point but many grains will cleave together and upon the same respect wickedness is compared to the sands of the sea one mote is very rarely severed by it self sand is a Noun Collective which supposeth many motes of dust for there is not any sin but respectively to divers parts of disobedience it may be call'd by divers names David emplung'd himself into many crimes what with Bathsheba what with Vriah what with Joab whom he made his evil instrument Peter fell into three denials one after another He that will praise the Lord as he ought in the uprightness of his life must honor him upon a ten-stringed Lute upon all the Commandments and he that wilfully fails in one instance will put every string out of tune for he that committeth one sin is guilty of the whole law These funiculi peccatorum cords of vanity sins entwisted one within another come into my mind from this third Tentation in my Text so that Tertullian is justified in his saying by this practice multiplicia spiritus incitamenta jaculantis the rebellious spirit hath more than one shaft for his bow a quiver full at least as it is Psal xi 2. For lo the ungodly bend their bow and make ready their arrows within their quiver For what sin hath not the Devil committed in these words All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me furtum perduellio mendacium blasphemia they are all here in the height of their offence Furtum the largest theft that ever was committed he would give all the substance in the world to Christ but then he must rob the right owners Perduellio a most foul attempt of treason he would give him all Kingdoms and honour but then he must depose all just and lawful Princes Mendacium not a plain lie but a very monster of untruth as St. Luke hath it in large for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Lastly Blasphemia a blasphemy that vies beyond all the rest if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I have added to make up my Text at this time how easily God doth cut off all these heads of Hydra at once with his revenge and justice for this short rebuke of Christ is enough to controul the Devil with all his sins about him Get thee hence Satan or as St. Luke Get thee behind me Satan The words then which I have read amount to four parts the Gift which I have entirely dispatcht the Giver the Condition the Repulse The Gift furtum both to rob private men of their peculiar and Kings of their Royalty The Giver mendacium a lye without all shame that all the honors of the world were at his dispose The Condition blasphemia he bargains that Christ should earn all this by falling down to worship him But the Repulse is justitia Gods vindicative justice Get thee hence Satan words of anger and revenge as I will shew anon but first I will disclose what a great giver Satan would make himself All these things will I c. Twice as it appears in the two former Tentations the Devil used all his cunning to discover if Christ were the Son of God and since our Saviour would not reveal what He was Satan is the more bold to make himself the Son of God as if he were that holy one to whom the Father had committed all power in Heaven and in Earth All these things will I give thee This will be the easiest way to sift this saying wherein the wicked one usurps to himself that he advanceth to all honors to consider what likelihood of truth there is in those words by accident and secondly what great unlikelihood Marvel not that I give it for a conclusion granted that there is some colour and likelihood for Satan to say this is deliver'd to me and to whomsoever I will give it for he is the Prince of the power of the air that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience and whosoever is successful in promotion by iniquity the Devil did sway the event so far that he calls himself their Benefactor Abimelech and Zimri got Kingdoms by treachery Joab wrought himself into Abners honor to be Captain of King Davids Host by murder Jason and Menelaus in the book of Machabees strived one against another for the High Priest-hood by Simony there are not so many names of honour as there are sins crying sins sins died in scarlet that have purchast them The infelicity of it is so general of such long continuance and so desperate against all hope of redress that Satan speaks as if he had forgot that this power was ever out of his hand For upon the event we may lament it but cannot deny it he brings the basest instruments into private favour with mighty men he bestows offices he presents to Churches Difficile est Satyram non scribere no abuse in the world will provoke a suffering spirit sooner than this to be satyrical nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es we may be asham'd and our ambition blush for it that the most hateful of all Gods creatures should have cause to boast that all manner of dignities and titles depend on his beneficence yet the world is not so bad but that he is a shameless slanderer in that saying far be it from us to number the righteous with the wicked to bestain all dignified persons with an evil reproach as he doth to condemn all the worthies of David that wickedness was their original because sometimes Satan hath a predominant faction among them He was a great Prince indeed in the Emperor Tiberius his Court scarce any advancement escapt him but went through his hands ad Consulatum non nisi per Sejanum aditus neque Sejani voluntas nisi scelere quaerebatur Every one that would be Consul us'd Sejanus for his preferment and every one that would have preferment Sejanus us'd him for some criminous villany Thus the eloquence of the Historian exaggerates the naughtiness of the times yet a little after when things grew much worse rather than mended in the reign of Nero Paul had many friends and Christ had many faithful servants even in Caesars Houshold The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture doth but very rarely amplifie
I would confess it impossible but to instance in the principal parts I will divide them into four quarters that you may see how the punishment of the Jews is proportionable to the injuries which they did unto out Lord 1. He was bound like a Malefactor and are not the Jews made Bond-slaves and Captives for ever 2. He was blinded that he might be buffeted and what is so blind as the heart of that Nation 3. He was spat upon and reviled they hated him without a cause And no people under the Sun every where more hated and disaffected Lastly He was murdered with the death of the Cross the death of malediction And according to their stubbornness and infidelity we can scarce say less in charity than that the death of malediction is faln upon them As the Prophet Amos said For three transgressions and for four I will not turn away my punishments from Israel because they sold the righteous for Silver and the poor for a pair of Shooes To be enthralled without Liberty to be blind without Light to be hated without Love to be condemned without Mercy thus I have quartered out the dismal sorrows of that Nation which spilt his bloud and speaking a word briefly of each part I will conclude this exercise First They bound the Messias and they themselves are Captives That Caesar whom they stood so much for before Pilate even he did pervert the Nation and destroy the Temple In Mount Olivet they did first lay hands upon Christ in Mount Olivet says Josephus the Roman Souldiers did first entrench themselves to besiege Hierusalem The unutterable misery of their City how it was taken and defaced is so common a story that I will not spend the time to rehearse it As the punishment of the Deluge was fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains of the earth so the punishment of that City was fifteen times greater than that mighty City Within the Walls the Famine was so great that it parched their bodies and dried up their living moisture that Children had not tears to weep over their dead Parents Nay the living had not strength enough to dig a grave to bury the dead Without the Walls their Prisoners were so paid with the same coin which they dealt unto our Saviour Ut spatium crucibus deesset corporibus cruces That the field did not afford room enough to set up so many Crosses or had there been space in the field there was not wood in the Mountains to make so many And do they not think the Cross of Christ did work in this affliction As Tertullian said to the Heathen you have sent offerings heretofore to the Temple you have bestowed gifts upon Jerusalem Nunquam nunc dominaturi nisi Deo in Christum deliquissent Nay says Josephus if the Sword of Titus had not cut them short their crimes were so unnatural and so desperate that the wrath of Sodom and Gomorrha had rained down upon them When that desolation shall come says the great Prophet whom they hanged on a tree you will call upon the Hills to cover you and the Mountains to fall upon you Sic in cavernis collibus se abscondiderunt says Beda they did lurk in Groats and Caves of the Rocks to avoid the Romans and so fulfilled the Prophesie ever since that black day O populus natus ad servitutem They have lost the remembrance of liberty They cannot say of any parcel of ground in the earth this is our field and our possession Of all the men upon the earth they are the only Nation under heaven that have neither portion in earth nor in heaven When the City was lost Adrian would never suffer them to return to see it unless it were to mourn and sorrow and then they must pay for it Sic qui sanguinem Christi vendunt jam suas lachrymas emunt They bargained for Christs bloud and they pay for their own tears Non est tutus Judaeus ad Ecclesiam confugiens says the Canon Law They only have no safety though they betake them to the protection of a Church Other men are Lords of that wealth which God hath bestowed upon them but they are Tributaries ad placitum spung'd every year as the necessity of the Prince requires Money can never prosper with them since they bought our Lord. Indeed Judas sold him the Jews did buy him and they gave him to Pilate and so the Gentile hath purchased him Other men can be avenged of the insolencies of their Adversaries and so every man lives in peace under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree but they are never quiet for violence and outrages committed against their person Ideo Judaei pacem habere non possunt quia seditionum principem eligere maluerunt says Isidor How can they hope for rest who refused the Prince of peace and chose Barrabas the Prince of seditions The next Viol of vengeance is the gross darkness of their heart ever since they blinded our Saviour If Samson be blinded and put to scorn shall he not pluck down the Theater upon the Princes and upon the People If Elisha be scoft at shall he not call for Bears to devour the Children The Disciples forsook Christ and ran away at midnight this night you shall be offended at me In nocte scandalizantur says Origen and Peter plunged himself into that fearful denial ante gallicinium before the crowing of the Cock this betokened that they sinned out of ignorance and therefore were received into favour upon repentance But for the High Priests and Elders Mane facto consilium capiunt when it was morning they took counsel against Jesus Hoc est scientes peccant in lumine says that Author They sinned by broad day-light as it were against their own conscience and they that did so much abuse the light are cast into a long darkness for ever The miraculous Eclipse of the Sun says St. Hierom an Emblem of that blindness which should possess them was not over the whole Hemisphere of the world but only in Jury For neither Graecian Astronomer nor Arabian do speak of it Wanderers they were in the Wilderness about forty years wanderers they have been in their vain imaginations almost two thousand Then they were directed as the clouds went before them now they are guided by Vapours and Pillars of smoak After our Saviours Ascension eight years were spent when St. Matthew wrote his Gospel and yet even to that day they did report and believe that his Disciples stole him away by night What when the Souldiers slept If they were broad awake says St. Austin why would they suffer the body to be so conveyed If they were fast asleep which way came they to know the conveyance Beda takes this to be not a story but a Prophesie in the Gospel that the Jews shall be so hardened in unbelief that they shall give credence to that report for ever This it is to curse themselves with such an
together enough to purchase a good Fee-simple in Canaan if the Lord had not given him his Portion Men think themselves now adays past the Law and penalties of death when they have sinned so much that they are grown wealthy in iniquity because if need be they can buy the favour of the Judg and he that has Achan's wealth a Wedg of gold and two hundred Shekels of silver legit ut Clericus I warrant him he is a learned Clerk and deserves his pardon But this man when he began to say deliciare anima when he was furnished to live sumptuously then he is cut off that as Solomon says the remembrance of death may be bitter to that man who thought it pleasant to live This was St. Austins rule when he was old and had learnt the World Mundus ille periculosior est cum se illicit diligi quà m cum se cogit contemni I fear no hurt from the World when it goes against me and casts a froward look upon my fortunes but my danger is near at hand when it smiles and flatters me as if all were happy When St. Basil observed how carefully Kings and Princes gathered up Pearls into their Treasury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the wise God to shew the contempt of them had put into Oister-shells and scattered about the Sea-shore as vile and unprofitable You do not well says he to make a Treasury of that which is so mutable in the Generation and will ebb and flow from you like the Sea which begot them Fortune never stood long upon a Pinacle summo stare loeo nescia The Sponges that swell with liquors are most likely to be pressed and emptied You do all remember how Cesar gloried in his Victory among the cowardly Asiatiques veni vidi vici he did but set his feet upon their Soil and looked them in the face and so dismaied and vanquished them 'T is no more than King David tells of himself Psal xxxvii Vidi veni non inveni vidi I saw the ungodly flourish like a green Bay-tree veni I passed by and sought him non inveni he was quite gone in the twinkling of an eye I could not find him Now recollect these three qualities of Achan who was more likely to prosper than a Souldier in the flower of his age a joyful man at his journies end in the Land of his peace a wealthy man in the plenty of his riches Take it to thought all you that have the World tied unto you with a threefold Cord of health and peace and prosperity which men dream as if it could not be broken for it broke like Tow among the sparks and iste periit c. But as Demades said when news was brought that King Philip was dead and there was no other talk among the people Peace says Demades if he be dead to day he will be dead to morrow and the next day following so I will end my discourse how Achan perished it is the way of all sinners and not much to be lamented But for an innocent to be cast away it deserves pity wherefore St. Hierom reads my Text thus utinam solus periisset it makes not much for Achans death but I would he had perished alone in his iniquity There is no word of wonder beside this in the Text and here we must stay a while as all the Hoste of Israel did when they found the dead Corps of Amasa bleeding what the Spirit of God means by this vengeance non solus that he perished not alone in his iniquity It is St. Austins rule Relevatio mali non fit per communionem cladis sed solatium charitatis To perish together with more than our selves is no comfort at all but more anxiety So it made the Scene of Achan's Tragedy full and very bitter to see 36 Israelites that drew swords for the same Victory to be slain about him On the right hand there is more misery nati cruentâ caede confecti jacent the Sons ask for bread and their Father gives them stones to stone them Two things stand before us to be observed as the Angel did in Balaams way first what Companions Achan had in his punishment and secondly how it will stand with Gods justice that every man should not perish single by himself for his own iniquity First his fellow Souldiers turn their backs and are cut down at the Siege of Ai a sort of men that I presume are prepared alwayes to die but seldom provided to die well men that engender great love together as I think David and Jonathan did at first by entring their bodies into the same dangers Wherefore St. Paul did express his love to Epaphroditus in that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my fellow Souldier and so to Archippus my fellow Souldier In the Roman Discipline it was held so honourable to save another of the same company that he carried for his reward civicam coronam a Crown upon his head made of the grass of that earth whereupon he saved anothers life The infamy of Achan was as notorious on the other side that caused six and thirty to be slain of the Camp of Israel To see that bad things are sure to do us hurt and the best things are not sure to help us The Ark of God was sent into the Camp at Shilob Arca fortitudinis Domini the Ark of Gods strength Psal 132. and yet the Philistins prevailed and the Ark was taken but if one Achan come down into the Battail there is plain treachery in that mans conscience and his Wedg of gold shall fight more against Israel than all the swords of the men of Ai. Good qualities stick close to them which have them as Virtue and Learning and we cannot part or bequeath them to any man Gifts of fortune as Honours and Riches may be removed to others as you like it But it is a hard case our vices are sure to fall down upon the head of such only as are dearest to us Beloved is it so Was the hand of the Lord in the battel of Israel and doth God direct the Sword of Simeon as well as the books of Levi Those that spend their bodies so courageously for our peace deserve to have their souls well instructed Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra frequentant I trust it is but a slander that Souldiers have small Religion where the Angel of God did draw his Sword at the threshing flore of Araunah the Jebusite David built an Altar So in every just quarrel it is the Lord himself and his anointed King that draws the Sword Wherefore do not defile the Camp with oaths and lust and drunkenness for the ground is fit for Davids Altar and the place is holy I have told you what it was to Achan to lose his fellow Souldiers yet the loss was not Achans so much as Joshuahs and he like a loving Prince did fall upon the ground and shewed much bitterness for the death
of his people You shall rather find Achan distracted in sorrow between the heaviness of his sins and the death of his children It was much that a Mother in the Maccabees could exhort seven Sons one after another to despise King Antiochus and to suffer death for the name of the Lord. It is much that Prudentius reports of a woman that carried her infant in her own arms to Martyrdom Nec tantum osculum impressit unum vale inquit ô dulcissime Nature can hardly stoop to part with those children unto God in a good cause but to lose a Son in the anger of God in the guiltiness of a trespass O my son Absolon c. then we are afraid least they be lost for ever Give me Children says Rachel or else I die and alas she was but a dead woman in the birth of Benjamin Elisha strived to be thankful to his good Hostess the Shunamite he would do any courtesie for her O says Gehazi give her children before any thing and then you please her The greatest cruelty that moved St. Ambrose against the Emperour Theodosius for the Massacre committed at Thessalonica was on this wise A Father came to redeem two Sons taken captive and appointed to be slain He was allowed but the life of one for his money take which he would His kind heart equally earning after both could not say this rather than him the elder before the younger and for want of speedy resolution both were made away before his face This says Sozomen cost the poor Father his wits for ever to think he might have saved one Son and did not No colours could paint the face of Agamemnon where his Daughter was to be offered for a Sacrifice Par nulla figura dolori As it was said to Tully when Antony perswaded him to burn his invective Orations Commentus est Antonius eripere quemadmodum vixeras Fie said his friends unto him die rather for Antony would strip you of that glory which will give you life for ever So all the Pedigree of Achan being erased out Eripuit Dominus quemadmodum viveret God took that from him wherein he might hope to survive this was not only to put out the right eye of the men of Jabesh Gilead but for a Jew to die without succession Christ being theirs after the flesh is to go down with sorrow to the grave where all things are forgotten Whatsoever else is tumbled into the fire before Achans face it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it moved not his eyes to pity nor his ears to the cries of lamentation As his body was burnt wherein a soul so covetous did inhabit so his Tent was consumed with fire the habitation of so vile a body that Tent under which he was wont to sleep is cast over him the last time at his death where he must sleep for ever And as if every man were afraid to inherit Aurum Tolosanum his unlucky Gold it is made away for company Et pallium quod debuit cremari crematum est the Babylonish Garment which was appointed to be burnt in Jericho is now fired about his ears in the Valley of Achor Lastly The Cattel that should have laid down their lives honourably before the Altar under the Priests hand for a trespass offering even those innocent beasts are not suffered to live how many yellings were about his ears to resemble the very horrors of hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth A good man says Solomon is merciful to his beast as if the beasts fared the better for a good mans sake And jure Dominii the Lordship of man doth extend so far upon the Creatures that they are consortes paenae partakers of the punishment of evil men The Cattle of Egypt were slain with hail stones for the Egyptians Idolatry the beasts of Nineveh fasted for the Ninevites Luxury nay says the Prophet Jeremy the Herbs of the field wither and the Birds of the Air are consumed for the wickedness of them that dwell in the Land Dearly beloved the beasts are but Figures of God fierce indignation they are our brutish sins our cruelties more unnatural than the rage of beasts which God aims at it was not worth the praise to Achan that the beasts perished in his iniquity they will and must die with us Quicquid antea debebam nolle nunc non possum The only Sacrifice which God requires is to have them die before us And so I have done with every thing that partaked in the punishment of Achan I must now commit my self to a Problem of great perplexity how it stands with the righteousness of God that every man should not perish alone in proprio peccato in his own iniquity I am no Advocate against Gods Justice but against the ignorance of man Phaedon speaks thus to Socrates in Plato I pray you are you not displeased with these unrighteous Judges that have condemned you O not I says Socrates and if I were I would refer the case until I were dead and then meet Ajax and Palamedes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would ask them how they could endure a wrongful judgment and so put up my injury A reverend opinion of a Heathen concerning the judgment of sinners how contented would this man have stood before any sentence of Gods Tribunal But to the purpose this shall be my method to follow the cause in hand First That it is self love to our own person which perswades us other men sin and we pay the ransom Secondly Heathen men and not Christians did first fill the world with that opinion Thirdly That the melancholy distinctions of some School Divines have abused the truth But lastly our Conclusion shall be that the hair of an innocent never fell to the earth but that every man dies propter peccatum suum for his own iniquity For the first Nature as it is good and perfect taught us to love our selves fond and corrupt nature taught us to love our selves too much Out of this vanity those excuses spring up which make us absolve our selves and bind others Let us tell our own tale and we will say our Fathers eat the sowre grape when we may be discovered with the bunches in our own hands Rather than confess our own complection we will bely the Heavens and say the Sun hath scorched us Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane To pluck in immeritus no desert of ours we will lay the Child at their door that never begot it The very Pharisees thought themselves so holy and our Saviour so bad that for no fault of theirs but for his blasphemies the Romans would come and carry away their Nation Wherefore says Socrates it were well with some men instead of travelling Si a seipsis aberrarent if they could wander from themselves No man says Plutarch doth know his own blemishes because he doth always carry himself about A Painter brings his work to good perfection when he leaves it for a time