found this to his cost for he was enforced to besiege it three years and he had never taken it Haec totius terrae imperium olim magna pompa maximisque viribus nulli postea regioni aequandum tenuit Ar. Mont. Scimus illam non modo similem fuisse magnis urbibus quales hodiè multae in Europa sunt sed superaste omnia quaecunque praecipuum nomen obtineret Calvin in 4. Jonae Cui par magnitudine neque fuisset antea neque esset futara Ribera in 3. Jonae but for the rising of the River Arias Montanus saith that the height of the walls was an hundred foot in height and the breadth of them so large that three Carts could go abreast upon them the Towers were a 1500 and two hundred foot high and that it was such a stately City that it commanded the Empire of the Earth to which none was yet equall either for Pomp or Force Calvin saith It was not like to our Cities in Europe but it did exceed them all which of them soever have had the greatest fame and renown So that now ye see what is spoken here by the Spirit of God concerning Nineveh is no hyperbole as when we say that a thing is whiter then snow sweeter then holly clearer then the Noon-day No man may have his nimieties of expression his diffluences redundances superjections and transiliences of speech but the Scripture doth not blandish over-phrase extra-fame any thing truth it self cannot falsify Nineveh here hath from God but her just commendation for it was singular and supreme a great City and That great City Should not I spare Nineveh that great City From hence observe that Eminency hath an eminent respect with God Almighty he is loth to pluck down that City which he hath suffered to rise up to the heighth of greatnesse Jerusalem was become a prime City the joy of the whole Earth the perfection of beauty how doth our Saviour weep when he looketh upon Jerusalem weep why weep what is he offended at such a delectable object do the Towers or the Bulwarks the Fort of Sion or the Temple grieve his eyes no he doth weep because he was to shed the first tears but Jerusalem ere long was to weep her self blind to weep her self dead it was an antient City and she was now crumbling away to her first dust it was a great City and she was now demolishing to her first stone yea Not one stone shall be left upon another the very thought of her misery makes our Saviour cry out Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou hast killed the Prophets and stoned them which were sent unto thee that blood wil fetch out all the blood in thy veines those stones will dash out thine own brains thou wouldst not be gathered therefore thou shalt be scattered thou wouldst not come under my wings therefore thou shalt fall under other Nation 's claws thou hadst an house but thy house shall be left desolate unto thee Thus ye see that though Jerusalem had been the Cutthroat and Executioner of his Prophets yet becaushe she had been a place of eminency it cannot but grieve him to see how shee hath brought this blood of Martyrdome upon her self to gush to death with the blood of revenge and how her stones of persecution will be the stoneheap that will crush the head of a whole City with direfull curses Christ cannot think of this accident without grones nor look upon this sad fate without tears Ephraim had been another famous City how is God pained to the heart to behold Ephraim in danger When Ephraim spake there was trembling sure I am when God doth speak against Ephraim there is trembling Ephraim is joined to Idols let her alone alone how long see how soon God doth renew his presence and pitty to Ephraim Thou hast gone saith God to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb and these could not heal thee But what shall Ephraim be without remedy these cannot heal thee shall none heal thee yes alas sick Ephraim if thou wilt thou shalt not yet fester to death in these wounds I saith God offer to be thy Physitian Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee Hos 6.4 He will teach Ephraim his own shame him in his exorbitances represent to him what a mixed piece and a clammy patch he is become a meer Time-server and Newter Ephraim is mixed amongst the people a cake not turned Hos 7.8 yea he will call him simple to his face Ephraim is a silly Dove without heart v. 11 yea and he will plead kindnesse to him ask Ephraim if this be the fruit of his affection instruction protection Oh Ephraim did I never do thee any courtesies was I never usefull and beneficiall to thee yes I taught Ephraim to go taking him by the armes I drew him with the cords of a man with the hands of love and I was as one that took off the yoak from his jaws and laid meat unto him Hos 11.3.4 Thus God will hint defection accuse of folly and intimate favour he will counsell and chide admonish and rebuke rather than he will repell and reject he will never leave till Ephraim leave old strayings and come to new tracks till Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with Idols I have heard and observed him I am like a green firr tree from me is thy fruit found Hos 14.8 yea when God is constrained to be rough against Ephraim how is it as if a Father should dishinherit or tear out the bowells of his own heir Is Ephraim my dear Son is he my pleasant child since I spake against him I earnestly remembred him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him Jer. 31.20 With such a heavinesse if ever God doth deliver up Ephraim to judgment shake down his walls bring the yoak of captivity into his streets Oh Ephraim how shall we part how shall I separate my heart from thee thou hast done much unto me yet Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee There is a saying in the sixth of Micah 9. That the Lords voyce cryeth unto the City What City What cry A City saith God that I have fetched the stones of it out of a far Country for I have brought you saith God out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of servants yea I appointed Master-workmen to go along with the materialls and advance the buidling I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam v. 4. and I yet further preserved the quarry-pieces whereof the City should be framed by might and miracle that they might not be seased upon scattered and dashed in pieces by the way for Oh my people remember what Balack the sonne of Moab consulted and what Baalam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal Thus farre I have gone for this City nay I never left it till in despight of all opposition and maugre all practisings against it I raised it up to
in his old puddle for this were but to hide sin a little out of sight and not to put away the evill of our workes from before his eyes to heat our cankred mettall but not purely to purge away our dross and our time It is to sorrow to shame and not to sorrow to repentance Any Euripus can have such a present flowing any Proteus can have such a momentary shape oh it is an heavy thing Nil citiùs lachryma arescit Adag Novit vias quibus effugiat Encrates when nothing doth dry sooner then a teare and that men do repent but not to stay with God that Eucrates doth know his creeping holes by which he may get out againe It is in vain ever to undertake the work of repentance if we doe not put away iniquity farre from our Tabernacle Job 22.23 and throughly amend our wayes and our doings Jer. 7.5 We must keep our selves as undefiled as morall diligence can preserve our purity we must abstain from all appearance of evill hate even the garment spotted by the flesh Puri simus prout moralis diligentia servet Toler Stow. Desti laborare oculis Philostrat in Sophistis our familiar sins we should cast off when we begin to repent as Henry the 5th cast off his old Comrades when he began to raigne if they present their selves with the greatest amiablenesse we should see no beauty in them as Isaeus when a rare Paragon was shewn him and was asked whether she was not faire and fit for his dalliance he answered I know not for I have given over to be guided by my eyes Isabella of Portugall Turquet Suidas Dominus meus Crucifixus felle aceto potatus est ego oleum edamâ— Murul l. 4. c. 2. after she was converted affected nothing which might please the senses Origen so abated the vigour of sensual desires that he seemed to carry but a withered body about him Palaemon was wont to tast nothing that was pleasant for my crucified Lord drank Gall and Vinegar and shall I eat oyl Oh that the Nazarites Rechabites and Essences could live with so much contempt towards worldly pleasures and that we cannot abdicate wonted jovisances Is this the dying wound of mortification is this the sacrificing knife of repentance What repent and keep the Concubine still in thy house bowse with Boon-fellows comply with Temporisers not loose one new fashion not abate one writ a prodigious hideous repentance Thy Covenant with the Devill remains uncancelled thy old elves suck thy paps and what art thou then but still possessed or haunted Wilt thou come leprous out of Jordan No repentance should heal up thy botches and bring a new skin upon thee reform thy manners transform thy affections make thee Saint all over Did the Ninivites repent only by sitting upon ash-heaps wearing of sackcloth or being pinched in their entralls were they as enormous flagitious detestable execrable sinners as ever No repentance had eaten out their corruptions cut out the coare of disobedience made them sound in their inwards Nineveh hath washed her face rinsed her conscience the filthy Channels are swept yea the whole City cleansed oh with delight and pleasure may a man look upon such a purified place it is able to ravish every eye There were sins but Repentance hath chased them out of the walls there were evill waies but what foot now doth follow the old tracks No let them turn every one from his evill way 18. A reformation of oppression For the Ninivites thought of the violence of their hands that whereas Nineveh had been a bloody City and the whip departed not from it they now begin to think of the cut veins and lashed sides they had caused in the City how many there were that were to accuse them for cruelty and to impeach them of tyranny And indeed that is a very formall superficiall repentance where men are not sensible of their damnifying injurious courses oppression is of a skarlet hew yea it is put amongst the number of crying sins Shall a man desire God to remove judgements when he doth remove Land-marks or to cast away his rod when he himself doth chastise with Scorpions or that he might have a tast of free mercy when he doth eat the fruits of others without mony shall a man repent with his Bears teeth in his head or his Lions skin upon his back No it is in vain for any man to sigh for compassion where the sighes of the poor do cry for vengeance Can a man think to pacifie God till he hath pacified the world Doth God look upon Oppressours with a pleasing eye no they are Monsters and Horrours to him How are they described in Scripture Oh that they had eyes clear enough to see their own Natures they are pricking briars Ezech. 28.24 threshing instruments Amos 1.3 mighty hunters Gen. 10.9 Wolves of the evening Zep. 3.3 which take up all with the Angle and gather all with the drag Hab. 1.15 which thrust with thigh and shoulder Ezech. 34.21 which smite with the fist of wickednesse Es 58.4 which swallow people alive as the grave Pro. 1.12 which groundsell their estates with damages roof them with detriments plaister them with the brains of widows and hang them with the skins of Orphans Ex rapto viâ—â—â— vunt Coel. Rodig l. 18. c. 1 Judaea latronibus repleta est Joseph Antiq l. 17. Praedatum expugnatum in nomine Dei tendite Azaur 34 Qui hoc potitur de finibus agri dicit legitimè Plut. in Lysandro which keep a shambles of butchers meat and have their Cauldrons boyling with the limbs and quarters of poor people chopt in pieces with their cleavers which like the Cardaces amongst the Persians live upon Pillage which fill a Nation full of nothing but thieves as Josephus said when the Prison dores were set open to condemned men which did mind nothing but free booty and plunder as if they lived under Mahomets Law which did determine all rights by power or as Lysander they settle all Titles by the sword Now can the just God endure such rapacious and savage creatures no he which is the Pleader for the poor will not be the Patron of Oppressours Till they have cured their blood-shotten eyes let them not look up to Heaven for pardon till they have quit their hands of violence let them not stretch out their hands for mercy Hath God given to every man his own Inclosure to own the Hedge-breaker or allowed every man the freedom of his own bark to justifie the Pirate No Wo be to him that buildeth a Town with blood and stablisheth a City by iniquity Is it not of the Lord of Hosts that the people shall labour in the Fire and weary themselves for very vanity Habbac 2.12 13. Hear this oh yee that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the Land to faile saying when will the new Mooon be gone that wee may sell Corn and the
is not this City able to do I wish it may be able to examine and to extricate her self I cannot but love your City for her brest that she proved such a kind Nourse to them which had neither milk nor maintenance when upon the death of their Mother they were as exposed children All the gratitude which I can expresse is to piety this Nourse upon her sick-Couch and if I can preserve her alive upon her bed of anguishing till there may be some signes of her recovery I shall not cease to visit her and if she will admit me he as a ghostly Father to her that she may confesse her inward disease and apply that spirituall remedy which will certainly and can onely work her proper cure I thought once to have called in all the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation to joyn in this work for the Heralds office is in the City and why should not they which are comparable to fine gold cast in their talent for the advance of this pious design Yes they are too high if they do not humble themselves to the earth for her which all this while with a trusty hand hath kept their Pedegrees I would have invited the Reverendest of the Clergy to have assisted in this religious service for Sancta Maria de Arcubus is in the City why should not they deprecate judgements from her which hath retained for them a place where they have received their first Consecration Aaron doth carry upon his brest plate the names of the Tribes of Israel the Priests must not be absent from the Sacrifiâ—e these must weep between the Porch and Altar I would have drawn in all the Civill and common Lawyers to plead in Heaven for this City for they having been so often retained in her Counsell and learned all their honoured skill here the Inns of Court being nigh to the body of the City and Doctours Commons within the bowells of the City why should not they sollicit the highest Court for a release from her extremities I would have summoned-in all the Physitians to administer a soveraign potion to this City for their Colledge being within her walles and they having raised vast estates out of their City practise why should not they prepare an Elixir for her out of their suppled eyes rent-heartstrings extracted consciences to preserve her at an exigent yea I thought once to have sent down to all the Cities in the Kingdome to have repaired hither their selves or to have sent their faithfull substitute Proxey their conversion to officiate for the City in her greatest perill For seeing this is the Metropolis why should not all the Daughters do their duty to their Mother and wait upon her with their prayers and tears and humiliation and mortification yes they here vending all their commodities and buying here all their principall wares it is convenient that they should blesse her with their repentance which hath blessed them with revenue But because the most proper cure is that which is personall people being able to prepare their Antidote therefore ye knowing both the malady and the medicine what need I trouble others when ye are able if ye will to do the work your selves and to be your own Physitians And now that I have left you in your own hands setting Life and Death before you oh that I could speak to the City in generall that as all Nineveh so all your City would be unaninous to unite their repentance to keep off a judgement But I see such a complicated disease of bad opinions and such a cakexy of evill life amongst you some onely magnfying the virtues of the City others going on in an insensibility of any thing that it is either sin or danger that I despair to find the generality apprehensive either of disease or cure Acron could onely paint the Cypresse tree so there are some amongst you Erasm which can only draw the picture of their own self-grounds and selfe-ends why then should these mens pensils be desired to delineate this piece no I remember that Calcedon was called The Town of the blind because they would not suffer an experienced Workman to build their houses Pliny l. 5. c. ult And so such a blind City shall I leave you if I set on work half-sighted Architects which can neither see errours nor foresee hazards Therefore I set by all the humourous and vicious amongst you and apply my selfe onely to those which are truly religious which have the most conscience to discover sin and the most remorse to reconcile an offended God It is a singular work and there must be singular Agents engaged in it It is that great City and it must be that Great or good Party which must invert the state and avert the judgement of the City All ye then which are of mine own Religion and repentance be ye my Patrones out of affection the Cities out of relation deny not your own City nor me for your Cities sake this shall be my engagement and I hope not the Cities envy that I should desire you to do that for the City which the City will not do for it selfe I cannot expect you to be absolute Saints I my selfe am not innocent but I desire to be penitent and I besceech you let us both center together in this qualification Make this subject if ye can your Altar where ye may work an attonement or your Sanctuary where ye may find refuge howsoever make it your Crucifix or Sepulchre even to dye in mortifying exercises to procure the Cities release and rescue Ye have been often at the Pulpit and learned much perhaps for information but one Sermon practised is better then a thousand heard if ye have any Christianity in you let the abridgement of it be found in repentance neither your soules nor your City can be blessed by you with a virtue more beneficiall If ye had the understanding of Joseph the knowledge of Daniel the wisdome of Solomon or the insight into all those secrets which were revealed unto St Paul in the third heavens ye these were but glimmering speculations without repentance To have the loyns girt up and the lamps burning is more then to divide the waters of Jordan to fetch water out of the Rock to command the Sun to stand still in the midst of heaven to remove mountaines or to raise the dead * The Lady Capell of Oxted lay speechless a long time by fervent prayer was restored to speech and dyed in a most ravishing manner Mr. Gale in S. Johns street distracted and despairing by prayer recovered his senses dyed calmly peaceablely Christianly A Gentleman in Bishops Court in Grayes-Inn-lane visited assaulted by the Devil by prayer within the space of three days was delivered from that Obsession Mr. Barmes in Fountain Alley in Holborn having for halfe a year almost starch sometime hot somtimes cold rained through his tiled house into his Kitchin and nothing seen in the
upper rooms or Planchers but onely in the lower rooms and that divers times under Pots and other Vessels where it was impossible in mans apprehension that any thing should come for the out-sides were untouched which caused an high affrightment in the Housholders that he and his family were ready to leave the house yet by prayer in a short time this strange and unheard of accident ceased I know a man which hath wrought some miracles in the world but yet his conscience doth more rejoyce in his repentance then in all the testimonies of Gods power yea then in the finger of divine Omnipotency lent unto him to make him instrumental in admired events Whatsoever your gifts and endownments characteristicall or charismaticall priviledges be yet feel it as your chief consolation and write it down as your prime prerogative that God hath caused the lips of them that were asleep to speak that the eyes of the blind do see out of obscurity that ye stand up from the dead and have sorrowed to repentance Rejoyce not in these things but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven Let others look to be Scient but look ye to be Penitent Lord who am I that I should go unto Pharoah and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt Exod. 3.11 So who am I that I should summon a whole City to repentance and bring such vast numbers out of the bondage of their corruptions and destruction yet God hath given the motion and he may by such a stammering tongue make his message effectuall Who knows but that this Cake of barley bread may overthrow the tent of the Midianites that this lump of dry figs may heal the sore that this clay and spittle by the blessing of God may open the eyes of the blind I venture therefore upon the work and call forth you as my Assistants in the enterprize Bring forth your repentance and what may not such an Hester appearing do to reverse a Decree God is not so offended with the City but Repentance can yet end the distast To assure you of this I set before you Nineveh not halfe so glorious in being a Potent as in being a poenitent people they are poenitent and God is instantly asswaged Will ye observe the sum of the passage if I do but lead you into the City there are very delectable things at the entrance even between the Prophet and God Do ye love a Prophet truly then here is Jonah active in his pertinent duty a weighty errand Do ye honour God faithfull then here is God busied about his proper work a work of mercy What more consonant to the Prophet then to impart his Masters mind What more congruous to God then to interpret his own meaning Jonah doth denounce a judgement God doth pronounce a pardon the Prophet must not spare and yet God doth spare The Prophet had threatned them into repentance then God doth not threaten but comfort not adjudge and accurse but accept and acquit Repentance hath renewed the people and revoked the sentence It is true the Prophet was very opposite to it but God doth bring in very apposite reasons to satisfie his contradicting spirit God doth plead for the City and doth plead against his own Prophet He doth shew him how the Prophet cannot be justified without menacing an overthrow and how God cannot be justified without hindring this overthrow This is the Dilemma how the Prophecie may stand and the City may stand The Prophecie is obeyed and therefore there could be no overthrow there was repentance and therefore there cannot be rejection and revenge this is the middle way which God doth make use of to answer the Dilemma God will not approve of his Prophets if they do not proclaim judgement God will not listen to his Prophets if they do declaim against repentance Though the Prophets must thunder yet God doth keep the thunder-bolt in his own hand A sinfull people must be warned a penitent people must not be destroyed No this is one of the Riddles of Gods mercy which Jonah not being able to unfold God doth expound it yea the whole debate is about the resolving of this difficult demur God doth shew to Jonah how he could prophesie no lesse and yet how he himself could spare no lesse Shouldst not thou thus cry Should not they thus reform Should not I thus spare God had taught Jonah many things and now he doth reveal to him the aenigma of his mercifull justice how justice and mercy can meet together in the same subject without violation to either The Prophet at first was in a great blindnesse concerning this secret and the City had like to have paid dearly for his want of understanding But God hath satisfied the doubt and saved the City Nineveh hath repented Pergameae jam fas est parcere genti It is requisite now that Nineveh should be spared So that I trust neither Jonahs cry nor Gods plea the courage of the one nor the compassion of the other the message nor the mercy the Prophets scruple or Gods scrutiny the Prophets dark eye or Gods bright mouth Nineveh's sacrifice or Nineveh's safety Nineveh's repentance or Nineveh's remedy the change of the City or the change of the sentence the compunction or compassion the threatning or the sparing shall be displeasing subjects to you No be ye Patrones to this Riddle the contestation of Jonah the replication of God the explication of the Problem Oh that we could see such a Riddle in your City and thus explained Jonah doth cry but is God believed the overthrow is proclaimed but do men fly from is the City is warned but is it humbled it is threatned buâ— shall it be spared Oh that the willfull impenitency of the City after millions of cryes should not be a greater riddle how it can be spared than Gods inclination to mercy after serious repentance is a Riddle fully expounded before and half expounded now that the City may be spared As intelligent as this City doth seem to be I wish it could answer one question Is it Nineveh Is there expression or almost expectation of such humbling and cleansing For this end is this cry sent forth and oh that the Prophet might onely cry or the Prophet so cry that he might cry up a Nineveh Be ye not deafe and open the cares of others that ye may not be my Patrones only but of the City not of her sinnes but of her repentance If ye fail in this work the City is past remedy Be ye your felves therefore as penitent as ye can and diffuse your repentance to others have ye burthened consciences and draw others to feel the weight of those guilts which may sink them into ruine The City is in perill what is the preservative Policy may invent many expedients for security but I doe know none but that of repentance To prevent a generall overthrow shall we ever see a generall conversion What will
men leave their seats of honour and apply their selves to sack-cloth ashes fasting mighty cryes turning from their evill waies and from the violence of their hands Oh that we could see such a beautifull City to honour our Nation and blesse it selfe But I am afraid that this is but a City of desires and that it is not harder to build up Jerusalem againe in her first glory than to raise up such a City amongst us every stone in this City may sooner be altered and new laid rather than mens mindes and consciences I doubt whether penitent duties were ever truly intended amongst us and I am very jealous whether ever or no we shall see them really expressed Men can rather shoot the gulfe climbe the Alpes go a pilgrimage over the whole earth than repent Well as it is my drift to propose impose and dispose so let it be yours to explore at homt and excite abroad Oh to incline God to plead with his judgements saying Should not I spare this great City wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons which cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattel That the Citizens could first plead with their consciences saying Should not we turn to that great God who hath invited us by more then sixscore thousand warnings which cannot discern between pitty and forgivenesse and also much forbearance Ye see now what a great task ye are to undertake and that ye had need to lay to your whole strength to bring forth a right City Is it an easie matter for your selves to speak this language and to feel these brest-motions howsoever is it so to open other mens lips and to set omens hearts on working All the difficulties which ye ever met withall upon earth are not like unto this streight Yet to what end do ye wait upon the Lord if ye will not do him this service Why are ye trees of righteousnesse if ye will not bring forth this fruit I hope ye are alive to God your selves yea that there are some of the regenerate race which doe stir quick in this City but how many dead carkasses doe ye walk amongst I trust that ye have brought iniquity to remembrance but are there not too too many that need their Monitours and Remembrancers as if they had forgotten their selves and their sins In what forwardnesse is the great work is not the first stone for the generality yet to be laid yes it would astonish a man that amongst so many celestiall shewes there should be so little heaven and that the Devill should be lurking under so many Angelicall transformations I confesse here doth appear to be much Religion in the City but what Repentance is there or if Repentance is it that of Nineveh No here are sins enough in the City to have it overthrown but is there repentance enough in it to have it spared What people are they may find out by examination what they should be they may find out by the Example The earth never saw greater provocations but when shall it be said that the heavens never saw greater propitiation People are much for patterns but not for imitation wise men may devise formes but where are the vertuous men which will conforme to them No as a beast neighed to Alexanders horse which was painted but the spectators expressed no such respect to Alexanders Image it self whereupon Apelles said That he had painted the Horse better then the Prince Equus oh Rex melius expressus est quà m Tu. Erasm in Apoph So Brutes will be more affectionate to those things which doe resemble their nature then we to those things which should direct our manners Xenophon wrote a rare Book called Cyrus but where was there ever such a prince Plato set forth a singular Treatise de Republica but when was there ever such a Common-wealth No it is an easie matter to describe but it is an hard matâ—erto exhibit the like Here is a choise Picture Nineveh limmed out with tears graces and a frame made for it even this record in holy Scripture but when shall we behold the parallel Oh Citizens and Religious though ye may have some skill in painting yet can ye draw Nineveh to the life in Orient colours amongst you No were it to preserve the City from fire and sword yet wil ye readily be thus abased and changed ye may be but it will be with a great difficulty For the present what signs are there of such prostration consternation renovation No they which have committed horrible sinnes may rather have formes of seeking God to confirme themselves in their wickednesse than many here which are liable to imminent dangers have any evident expressions to fall to the earth or to look up to heaven to avert vengeance Can these bones live O Lord thou knowest Ezech. 37.3 It were a miracle almost to see these dry and scattered pieces though prophesied upon to have a noise and a shaking amongst them and bone to come together to bone and flesh and sinewes and skin to grow upon them and the spirit of life to enter into them There is nothing impessible to God but this is almost incredible to the present view For I doe not see that men have learned Nineveh's initiating much lesse then her compleating graces They are not yet come to her dejections trepidations perculsions astonishments humi-cubations macerations syncopes of griefe paroxisms of conflicts gravitoned accents of prayer No people nourish the flesh catch at the world follow modes temporise with changes and leave perills to the venture and judgments to the chance Happen what wil they have not so much as a wrimpled brow or a trembling breast A Stork will flie faster from a cold Country or a beast from a naked sword then these from plagues and punishments Then if they be not come to the disfigured face of repentance how will they ever come to her transfigured spirit When shall we see the two essentiall parts of repentance amongst them The turning from their evill waids and from the violence of their hands First Their evill waies do seem to have a mist upon them they have not eyes clear enough to see them or hearts tender enough to lament them Though they have strayed far enough from the prescript rule of obedience they find never a precept warranting their lawlesse paths yet they do tread on and consider not whither their feet do carry them the Ignis erraticus hath led them aside and they do not lay to heart over what ditches rocks cliffs and precipices they do passe It is enough that they are in motion but whether in regular or erroneous courses they do not apprehend Oh that there should be such declinations under the directing Ordinances or such foot-prints amongst instructed Christians No man saith What have I done Many a man saith What may I not do but No man saith What have I done People do look upon their faces but seldome upon their
consciences this clasped book hath not been opened to view every leafe nor this deep well searched to the bottom these many years Oh! how much hypocrisie apostacy bribery flattery blood blasphemy south-saying sacrilege have been past over without the least check or fret Mens proper rights they can consider but not their proper sins no If any sins come under their discovery or disquisition they are the sins of the age or the sins which malignity have doomed sins or the sins of Rome or Turky but they have neither eyes nor tongues nor hearts to spie out speak out or reflect upon their proper sins though they be as bitter as gall as red as scarlet as venomous as the poyson of the Aspes as black as Sathan comming forth with a steam out of the smoak of the bottomlesse pit yet there is neither sensiblenesse nor conscientiousnesse of them they are their proper sins and as they have given them conception and birth so they will bestow upon them education and maintenance They may have a street-cry or a Pulpitnoise sometimes of them but the sound of them is gone so soon as it is received they deny them conceal them extenuate them and justifie them yea some are so impudent as to deride them Fooles make a mock of sin though it be to dance before a Cafe of their melting or to triumph over a captivated Sampson or to quaffe in the Bowles of the Sanctuary or to present John Baptist's head in a platter or to cry Hail to the King of the Jewes when he 〈◊〉 leading away to be crucified These and the like are the expressions which they do make to their sins rather then to look agast upon them loath them bleed under them How many sinners have ye yet seen that though they have done things contrary to the Torch-light of Nature the Sun-light of Scripture the tenour of their own oaths and the terrour of a Catholick Church condemning them that have yet blushed or sobbed or wrung an hand or bended a knee for them No they have done them and they stand up in the defence of them after production they do bestow upon them protection there is either silence or senslesnesse speechlessenesse or remorslesnesse Now if people will not discern their sins how will they ever disclaim them if they will not look upon their evill wayes how will they ever turn from their evill waies What little likelyhood what small hopes of conversion and reformation Secondly The turning from the violence of the hands is a thing as improhable for are there any gentler or juster times to be expected Will men pare their nails soften their harsh palms No I do not see so much as a sense of injury or a shame of oppression not so much as an Adonibezek's remorse for cruelty to confesse Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and toes cut off gathered meat under my table Judg. 1.7 Nor an Ahab's fright upon a bloody fact to be confounded so that persons should rend their clothes put on sackcloth and go softly 1 King 21.27 People do not so much as question their Estates which they have gotten by forged cavillation or ask forgivnesse for their wrongs or make restitution for their ill gotten goods much lesse will they then desist from their damnifying courses Tyranny doth flow in with an high rage The earth is covered with violence as it was in the daies of Noah Gen. 6. 9. A man would think that Aegypt's iron furnace or Babylon's iron yoak were amongst us Here is digging of pits taking up all with the Angle swallowing people alive as the grave eating fruits without mony breaking the armes of the fatherlesse afflicting God's heritage the Rulers being as roaring Lions as the Scripture saith and the Judges as the Woolves of the evening devouring with such fury that they leave not the bones tiil the morrow Some groping for bribes with Felix some requiring mens right eyes to condescend to a peace with Naash some pronounting sentence of death upon a framed information with Jezabel's Judges yea some not being ashamed to run greedily after the errour of Balaam for reward How many houses are built with crying stones and cemented with bloody morter The Times are full of much fraud and force invention and circumvention domination and conculcation Men enjoying preyes with as much inward satisfaction as birth-rights and possessing rifles with as quiet a conscience as just earnings Oh! when will the whip depart out of this City when will the wild beast's teeth fall out of their heads when will the hammers leave beating or the mill-stones leave grinding when will repentance so reduce the City to equity that there need neither Tribunall to rectifie injuries or Pulpit to touch conscience for extortion People in generall will scarce take notice of their cruelty much lesse will they take away the crime they will scarce feel their rough hands much lesse will they turn from the violence of their hands Thus then ye see how your City is in a dangerous deplorable state full of stupendious sins and yet full of stupid impenitency a professing City and yet far from Evangelicall purity a corrupt Citty and yet far from contrite Nineveh How then may your City walls shake and every Citisens heart be daunted expecting some unexemplified judgment for these enormous transgressions Will God ever be dared with challenging trespasses or mocked with phanatick formalities Will the noise of your Sermon-bells or the sound of your Gospellising tongues be able to pacifie an incensed God No he may seaze upon you in your streets where ye are defying him in your full strength or take you at Church where ye are deluding him perhaps with Templechedis Will a few superficiall specious pretences satisfie the strict Examiner the God of pure eyes No He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee not burn offerings or calves of a year old not thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyle not thy first-born for thy transgression or the fruit of thy body for the sin of thy soul all these are but outward they come no neerer to thee than thy cattel thy stock or thy progeny thou must therefore be the burnt offering the calf of a year old the ram the jar of oyl the first-born and the expiating fruit of the body God must have thy selfe thy selfe humbled or hated thy self renewed or rejected There is nothing will appease Joseph but the bringing of Benjamin there is nothing will attone God but repentance all by-contrivments are but sinister drifts and bents Ye see how Nineveh was spared and so must ye be freed Oh! that ye can think to stand an age in remorslesnesse or to be secure one year in impenitency No the twigs are gathering to make the sharper rod or the rasour whetting to shave with the keener edge Who ever resisted the Lord and prospered Shalt thou reigne because thou dwellest in Cedar Doth not the Lord remember thee
and came it not into his minde Can two walk together except they be agreed Can a snare be taken from the earth and nothing be caught Is not destruction to the ungodly and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Who can dwell with the devouring fires Is there any hiding place from the Lords fury No though thou shouldst dig into hell thence would he take thee though thou shouldest climbe up into heaven thence would he fetch thee down though thou shouldest hide thy selfe in the top of Carmell he would search thee out there though thou shouldest lye in the bottom of the Sea yet there would he command the Serpent to bite thee God may send the flood when thou art in the midst of thy quaffings and dalliances fire may come down from heaven when the Sun is shining brightly in thy streets a great cry may be heard in the midst of the City at midnight when thou art suspecting neither the slaughter of the first or first-born the avenger of blood may pursue thee and pluck thee out of the Cities of refuge yea God may slay thee whilst thou art laying hold on the hornes of the Altar Hath not God destroyed as mighty a people as you Yes the Amorites were potent yet when their sins were full they were emptied out of their Nation Rabbah was a strong City the City of waters yet it was taken and the Citisens put under sawes and harrowes and axes of iron 2 Sam. 12.31 Hath not God ruined as religious places as yours Yes Go ye now to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people Israel Jer. 7.12 Yea go ye to Jerusalem how was that fortresse of the earth demolished yea that City of oblations made a sacrifice to the justice of a provoked God yea left such a relick of misery that a book of Lamentations was written to bewail the rufull desolations of it Oh therefore be not confident neither upon your prowesse nor profession for it is neither your formidable Chivaldry nor formall Religion which will priviledge you or protect you but it is your Repentance which must shield you and shelter you See then what must save you and what is your onely preservative There are a great company amongst you famed for parts and magnified for piety to you I write you I summon intreating you by all the worth that your names are embellished with adjuring you by all the Orthodox truth which ye seem to have reserved out of the defection and declension of the times that ye would first go a Circuit through your own consciences and then that ye would walk the streets and go from the one end of the City to the other and observe the face and face of the City that ye would take notice of the maladies and ulcers of the City and consider what prognosticating symptomes there are of an emigration and exanimation Oh feel the weak pulse of the City touch her cold lips and behold her grisly cheeks Look upon the present dangers and dysasters apprehend what a Flag of defiance is hung out upon earth and what a sword is bathed in heaven Can such sins and the Cities safety such impenitency and the Cities impunity long stand together Fear ye not some plague some generall massacre some coal blown with the breath of the Almighty that may sparkle and kindle and burn you to such cinders that not a wall or pillar may be left to testifie the remembrance of a City They whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk it off and shalt thou altogether go unpunished Jer. 49.12 May not the viall of red wine be reserved for the lips of this City Is here more sin and shall there be lesse justice Hath this City been often at her wits end and may not her braines at last be crased with an inevitable and an inextricable judgment Vengeance deserred is not recalled a forbearing-God may double his dismaying and confounding stroakes Oh therefore mark the bad Crasis and the sad Crisis of the City Help at an exigent repent when there is nothing but repentance lest for an antidote Repent truly lest your repentance prove a scandall and a curse repent throughly lest one unmortified sin frustrate the vertue of an humiliation repent timely lest not knowing the time of your visitation the blessings ye wish for be hid from your eyes 1. Repent for your selves For as the pure minds had need to be warned so the pure consciences have need to be clensed The best of you I fear have not past through the puddle without some filth sticking upon your skins Ye have not lived in such an age of Epidemicall diseases but ye have catched some contagion Therefore search out your own spots and leave not a stain to be an eye-fore to heaven Weep out all your contaminations pray away all your pollutions purge away all your defilements Have an hour in the day a day in the year for strict and solemn repentance 2. Repent to teach others repentance When thou art converted confirm thy brethren When ye are quickened your selves with Repentance unto life propagate it if it be possible unto midtitudes that it may be said Behold here am I and my children Let your believing God beget faith in others your standing up from your seats excite others to rise your empty bowells provoke others to fast your stript backs cloath others in sackcloth your squallid demeanours seat others upon the ash-heap your making your beasts partners in the pacifying act raise up a strange penance in the streets your moist eyes set others on weeping your confessing lips stir those tongues in mens heads which have been silent these many years your making reparation for errours cause others to deface the memory of foul facts with opposite vertues your mighty cries fill the City with ecchoes of devotion your turning from your evill waies change the steps of others from exorbitances your purging your hands from violence procure oppression to ake in the joynts of other mens fingers Do your closet work well and be exact in your street-work Repent and make a whole City propense to repentance To some I might say Have ye not heard of repentance Do ye not know how to repent Do ye not understand the effects of repentance Have ye not seen the fruits of repentance can ye not repent will ye not repent Where did ye ever yet repent when will ye at last repent Oh that there were repentance that ye were as eminent in repentance as Nineveh that in stead of your Buildings and Bulwarks Walles and Halls Works and Wonders Statues and State-houses Pillars and Pearls hoords of Provision and heaps of Treasure in the City that there were but Repentance yea that instead of your Scriptures and Scribes numerous Lectures and curious language Sanctuaries and Sacraments Priviledges and Prayers Meditations and Mysteries Revelations and
Raptures and the City that there were but Repentance that your Congregations were so purified and your Temples so sanctified that they might afford you such Professours which were such Saints that they might be able to blesse a Church and save a City by Repentance Some Penitents there are amongst you but how many Ninivites Well ye that have the highest opinions of your selves and in the greatest repute for Religion know that ye are but as the sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs without repentance Oh that ye could be rid of the libertines and hypocrites amongst you and that there were none but penitents in the City Oh that ye stood upon equall numbers that ye were but the third the twentieth the fiftieth the hundred part of the City that there were but a common Hall of you that ye did but equall the number of the Officers or Watches in the City that there were but enough to take the frownes out of God's forehead the menaces out of Gods cheeks to retard Gods feet to binde his hands to put audience into his ears compassion into his eyes reconciliation into his breast pardon into his lips to keep his Trumpeters from the gates of the City or his â—roopers out of the streets of the City Oh! religious Citizens try the compleatnesse of your numbers and the perfection of your gifts Be not blind under so many grievances deaf under so many warnings sleepy under so many judgments Believe not your Politicians if they tell you that your City is in no danger believe not your Pulpits if they preach you up to be pure enough against God's examining justice believe not your own Consciences if they perswade you that ye are prepared sufficiently against all accidents Consider in what a talking age ye do live how Religion is little more then argumentâ— and profession then discourse How many are wit-foundred with humours which stare upon themselves as if Heaven must look upon them with an enamour'd eye How hard a thing it is to get people to confesse that there is a guilty Nation or a sinfull City howsoever that they are the peccant people or that God should visit a place for their impieties Oh behold how many things there are to tempt you to security to cauterise you in sin and to slupifie you to repentance And as ever ye would seem to have rifled your own hearts to have dissected your own consciences to have sent the Intelligencer into the City to have heard the cries of your abhominations at Gods judgment-seat to have seen the Armies which are raised in heaven to assault you Oh think upon the City with dismaied hearts look down upon the City with weeping eyes turn aside to bemoan apparent perlils and fall upon your knees to mitigate deserved vengeance Oh! bring forth all the water in your heads to extinguish wrath kindle all the fire in your lips to put an heat into congealed pitty stretch out all the manacles in your hands to chain such an Adversary Think that ye have read Scriptures with recklesse eyes if ye have not found out curses against such sins that ye have frequented Sanctuaries like fruitlesse hearers if they have not taught you repentance for such sins that ye have searched your consciences with partiality if the sense of such trespasses do not drive you into passions that ye were never terrified with your own exigents if it doth not perplex you to see a City at such a dysaster Make an experiment of your own conâ—rition try how ye can humble your selves to keep your City from confusion and curse cut off your own fore-skins and do your best to circumcise others rend your own hearts and make a wound in your brethren's breasts till the blood come If there be but one remedy leave all other medicinall applications and fall to repentance or use all other exercises but as ingredients to be infused into that Catholicon Repent heartily repent eminently that Angells may rejoyce over your conversion and God himselfe may look out at his Court-gate and say Behold another Niniveh Oh! think not of the world think upon judgment minde not too much preferment minde attonement look not upon the splendour of the City look upon the horrour of the City eye not your Guardians eye your Enemy Carry the threatnings of God's Lawes in your ears and the perills of the City in your breasts let your hearts ake and your lips quiver The Lion hath roared who will not fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophecy So long as people are settled upon their lees think that there is some emptying of the vessell at hand When ye are laid in your beds suppose that a punishing God may awaken you when ye are at your feasts that vengeance may bring in the Voyder when ye are selling your wares that your last bargains are even making when ye are telling over your thousands that ye are but pursing up for the new Receiver when ye are looking out at your doors that ye are ready to be plucked over your thresholds when ye are comming from your Sermons that the time is at hand when your Temple doors shall be locked up Expect every hour when your Bells should ring awke when a shriek Trumpet should be blown in the streets when nothing should be heard amongst you but tumult distraction wailing and crying Alas alas Would ye shun this can ye prevent it then know that ye must not onely remember the City in the morning nor mention it at night but consider how low ye must stoop what abjects ye must turn what mediations ye must use what castigations ye must endure what strange backs and bowells loathings and lamentings debatings and debasings clensing of consciences and clensing of estates transformings and translatings there must be before the breach can be repaired This is your work act like expert Artists Master-workmen Religious Citisens flie from all pleasures contemn all honours be strangers for a time to your own Chaires Cook-rooms Wardrobes Cellers Porches Galleries Counting-houses and Cattle and converse rather with Ash-heaps then Thrones Sackcloth then Tissues biting Hunger then sumptuous Banquets bitter Cries then musicall Instruments dumb Beasts then reasonable Men till ye have dispatched that service which may secure your goods your blood your City Oh! they must be prime penitents which are to be employed in this peerlesse duty they must have Nineveh's plaister to heal this festring wound they must have Nineveh's Solicitour to procure peace in this Court they must polish their Diamond with Niniveh's File to make it give the true lustre They must write out their repentance in Niniveh's capiâ—all letters to have it legible in Gods eyes Some men may prescribe unto you severall formes of repentance and swell them with Scholasticall intricacies and lecturall disquisitions but at last there may be in them more anxiety than satisfaction or haesitation than resolution the clear and infallible pattern is to be setched from Nineveh for that repentance
die in distast against Nineveh in discontent against thy God Oh what will become of such a froward malicious Soul Thou hadst need to begge for life till thou beest better tempered for if thou dost thus take thy leave of the World wilt thou not be more unhappy then thou canst wish Niniveh to be I found thee unfaithful before and now I find thee impatient thou didst flee to Tharshish rather then thou wouldst go to Niniveh and now thou wouldst flee out of the World rather then thou wouldst have Niniveh looked upon Thou hast been brought up under the knowledge of God hast thou no more feeling of humanity Thou art a Prophet is it for thy honour to be thus unkind Jonah 4.4 Dost thou well to be angry What angry at an act of preservation angry because thy God is mercifull Is thine eye evill because mine is good Art thou angry because thou seest not such a stately City all in a bright flame Art angry because thou hearest not the gastly shrieks of so many perishing Souls thou art full of humour but dost thou well to be angry No then as before I called thee my fugitive Prophet so now I shall call thee my furious Prophet as before I punished thee for being faint-hearted so now I shall punish thee for being hard-hearted What thy God gentle and thou cruell thy God patient and thou passionate either I do ill to be gratious or thou dost ill to be angry Thou art a Prophet I am a God what shall there be improbitas muscae the waywardnesse of my servant to direct me correct me expostulate with me exprobrate me No abate in thy heat cool these rash flames Dost thou well to be angry was there ever Prophet before which would judge his God that would be angry with his God because he was pittifull Thou art in an errour be sensible of thy guilt thou art angry Dost thou well to be angry It is true I sent thee upon the message I wished thee to limit the time for the destruction of Niniveh but they have repented in the time and so have prevented the destruction I cannot fulfill the prophesie unlesse I should deny their humiliation I cannot destroy the City unlesse I should destroy their repentance For out of conditionall threatnings no Categoricall judgement can ensue the Pacification being wrought Justice hath no place no there is debitae poenae remissio Greg. a discharge from deserved Judgement Though God can fight with his Enemies yet can he with them that sue for peace No he hath no sword for the yielding but the obstinate Aug. de Eccles dog c. 48. paenitentiâ aboleri peccata indubitanter credimus Sins are utterly abolished by the vertue of repentance Why then should Jonah urge the destruction of them whose conversion he hath beheld No is it not honour for thee enough that thou hast seen them penitent and that in after-ages thou shalt be called that eminent Prophet that did draw such a famous City to such a matchlesse remorse shall not the renovation of so many thousand Souls be the everlasting Monument of thy never-dying praise Canst thou desire sweeter fruit of prophecying so short a time How many Prophets have not been so successefull in forty years as thou hast been in lesse then forty daies Wish not then the end of the City for I have mine end of the Prophesie If thou takest offence I have no grievance I am pracified and Dost thou well to be angry I never intended the ruine but the repentance of the City thou hadst my publique Prophecy but not my secret Reservation if Niniveh had not submitted it had been subverted but it hath been humbled and it cannot be hurt Would it not grieve thee to see that City in ashes which thou hast seen in sackeloth to see such a King and such a People murthered whom thou hast seen mortified to see them never eat and drink again whom thou hast seen imposing upon themselves such a rigorous fast to see the least living creature amongst them in hazard which have made their very Beasts do pennance that they should wallow in blood which have been drowned in a Flood of tears that they should cry rufully in a sad desolation which have cryed mightily unto their God that they should be separated unto evill which have turned every one from the evill of their way that they should feel the violence of avenging Justice which have forsaken the violence of their hands that they should suffer the utmost of my fierce anger and quite perish which have prostrated themselves to the Earth meerly upon this confidence that Reconciliation would redresse all sad exigents for Who can tell if the Lord will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce wrath that we perish not Art still bent upon spoil Ovid 9. Metam and wast Nullaque res potuit crudelis flectere mentis Consilium And is there nothing to mollifie that truculent spirit of thine then let thy skin be savage and thy name barbarous Consider who would ever lament sin seek God depend upon favour if so much compunction devotion reformation and faith should be despised I must raze my Covenant abrogate my promises deny my properties name and essence if I should not accept of such a City of Mourners Jonah look upon the qualifications of the people oh stir that propheticall eye of thine in thy head and if thou hast any of my inspiration left in thee let every heart-string in thy bosome tremble at the downfall of such a people behold them squallidos pulverulentos all bemired and besmeared in anguish for sin and let their conflicts trouble thee their contrition incline thee rather to be a Sollicitor a Petitioner for them than an Informer a Crime-urger a Vengeance-forcer Will Jonah leave them in tears scorne their plaints despise their sackcloth doom their reparation of guilts where is the Prophets mediation intercession his standing up in the gaps and lifting up a prayer for them what nothing but dismall plagues and direfull curses calling for the sharpe scourge to sting upon their backs and crying out for the Cup of astonishment to be thrust to their lips that the line of confusion might be drawn over the City that the stones of emptinesse might be found in the streets that they might be made as Admah and set as Zehoim that head and tail branch and rush might be cut off in one day that instead of living men to inhabit the City there might be none but wild beasts to dwell there or that it might be a possession for the Bittern Scritchowl Zijms and Jijms that they might be smote till none be left remaining that their name might be blotted out from under Heaven that not so much as a Palace Wall or the ruines of a Porch might be seen but breeding of nettles and saltpits and a perpetuall desolation that Nineveh might be made a burying place a Dunghill a Shambles yea that the
feignest them out of thine owne heart and as the last designe they had treated with his own party even corrupted the seeming Saints of the age yea hired the Prophets to take him off and terrifie him for Noadiah with the rest of the holy league and combination had put him in feare and Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel in shew devotion had shut up himselfe in the Temple and there upon his knees had sought God that by revelation he might state the businesse He even he disswaded him to leave the wall and to take Sanctuary for saith he Let us come together into the house of God and shut the doores of the Temple for they will come to slay thee yea in the night will they come to kill thee yet against all these frights and charmes Nehemiah doth stand resolute yea the propheticall lure cannot take him for he thinketh that these Altar-wights and Vision-men are not too much to be trusted snares and gins he thought might be laid in the Temple it selfe Therefore Nehemiah doth keep his ground and would not be strook blind by the Seers themselves nor drawn away from his charge by a revelation-string It is the wall that I have undertaken the defence of saith he and if I depart from it I betray the cause if I doe but turn my face all will desert the businesse farewell Wall and City Let Noadiah and Delaiah if they will shut up themselves when they ought to be animating the people or house themselves when they ought to be in Armies or strengthening the hand of them which are ready to fight but if I depart I turn Recreant if I leave the wall they will say There doth go the Corner creeper let us go after him for he is gone to save one to preserve his own head whosoever doth post away I must stay by it whosoever do secure themselves seek refuges speed away as fast as their legs will carry them yet it shall never be said that Nehemiah was a dastard a Renegade Retrogade heel-changer back-turner faulterer falsifier fortune-seeker fugitive I am Nehemiah and neither Noadiah nor Delaiah shall draw me after them no let them have their single trace their distinct vagary I am a leading man no following man I am a fixed man no fleeing man Should such a man as I flee who is he that being as I am would go into the Temple to live I will not go in Neh. 6.10 11. Epaminondas being accused because contrary to the Baeotarchicall Law he had stayed out above seven moneths in an Expedition and for this errour judgement of death was ready to be pronounced against him Indeed saith he my crime is great that making bold with this short time I have brought home to your State the conquest of all Lacedemonia and Messenia Plut. in praecep Politicis The valiant Captaine intimating that a glorious victory was far to be preferred before time or law Cato executing the Calphurnian Law that no man should come to offices by bribery the Candidates were so offended that they set upon him with violence and though he were Praetor at that time yet no man assisted him but even the Senators deserted him but afterwards escaping out of their hands he made such an Oration being gotten up into the Rostra that he both calmed and shamed his enemies then the flattering Senate highly magnified both his wisdome and courage At ego vos non laudo qui deseruistis Praetorem in discrimine nec ei succurristis Plut. in Catone Ay saith he you praise me but I doe not praise you who forsook your Pretour in danger and would not defend him The prudent man thinking it not fit that he should suffer the dignity of his place to be trampled under foot and his Pretor-ship contemned The Aegyptians had a custome that no man could set up his Image in publique but by the approbation of the chiefe Priests when Darius therefore would have his Statue placed at Memphis nigh to the statue of Sesostris the High-priest would by no meanes yeeld to it saying that Darius had not yet attained to the honour of Sesostris his attempts Se nondum opera Sesostris aequâsse Diodor l. 1. c. 4. The stout High priest thinking it a disparagement to him that he should be drawn to an unjust consent by the motion of a Prince but he thought it requisite to maintaine the credit of his place to give honour to them which had deserved it Severus the Emperour being sick of the Gout the Souldiers in an heady humour saluted his Son Bassianus afterwards called Caracalla Augustus Severus highly displeased at the passage cited them all to the Tribunall and there having humbled them he told them Nunctandem intelligitis non pedes sed caput imperare Fulgos l. 2. c. 2. At last they might perceive That not the feet but the head did raign over them The couragious old man seeing himselfe assaulted by his inferiours princely vindicated the honour of his place shewing them that a good Governour was not to be cast away for a lame legge and that it was the brain and not the feet which made the Emperour The Citizens of Argentine now called Strasbourgh coming to Henry the 7th to have their liberties confirmed they using a tedious Oration and immoderately extolling the power of their great Lords of the City Eâ—s derisit Imp. nullá responsione dignatus donec se submitterent ac se non Dominos sed cives Argentinenses testarentur Cuspin the Emperour thinking it unseemly that they which came to begge for favours should too much magnifie their own greatnesse told them they should have nothing from him till they knew how to speak more submissively and style themselves not Lords but Citizens Lewis the 11th of France desiring to thrust an Abbot injuriously out of his place commanding him Cedere to give up his Right and to yeeld the possession of it to one whom he should nominate Quadraginta annis vix priores duas literas alphabeti percepi A. B. Abbae nec nisi exactis alteris quadraginta sequentes duas C. D. Cede addiscere cogito Aegidius Corrozens de dictis memorab the Abbot thinking the King to have no absolute power to dispose of Church-rights without some high crime or the parties voluntary consent resolutely told him that he had been forty years learning the two first letters of the Alphaphet A. B. that is to know how to be made an Abbot and he should be forty yeares longer before he should learne the two next letters C. D. by which he meant Cede that is that he could not understand how to yield up an Abbotship When the Athenians sent the Thebans word that they had made an happy peace with Alexander Pheraeus because hee Promised them by the benefit of this league he would sell them a pound of flesh for an half farthing the Thebans taking this as a mock put upon them they wished Epaminondas to return them this
shut up the musicall Instruments cased and nothing but kneeling upon stones wallowing in the mine sitting upon dunghills sighing like distracted men groning like dying persons to be seen amongst them the City is now bright Nineveh doth now shine And indeed what more admirable then to see persons in the penitentiall garb men frayed with sins shivering under judgements their remorselesse hearts smarting their stupid spirits thrilling their dumb mouths opening their dry eyes streaming their deaf ears tingling their polluted conversations rinsing crying with Ezrah We are here before thee in our trespasses or with Daniel To us belongeth nothing but shame and confusion or with Manasses my transgressions oh Lord are multiplied my trespasses are exceeding many I am not worthy to see the height of the Heavens for the multitude of my unrighteousnesses when they have nothing to fly to but prayers nor depend upon but mercy when they count plagues their due doom and hell their just desert when they wring their hands that God might embrace them and lye at his feet that vengeance might not trample upon them Oh joyful day when a sinner doth begin to suspect and search himselfe when his wicked life doth lie like a burthen upon his Soul and the shame of his sin hath made him an horrour in his own eyes when he doth call himself culpable and pronounce himself wretch like Pelagia Pelagus omnium vitiâ—rum Fulgos l. 6. c. 9. who would no longer be called Pelagia but Pelagus or he doth take some revenge upon himself either like Amus the Aegyptian Monk who having taken some pleasure in his beauty would never after see his naked flesh or like Paulus sirnamed the Simple Marulus lib. 4. c. 3. who having offended with his tongue enjoyned himself three years silence or like Solomon a King of Hungary who caused himself to be five times dragged through the open streets in detestation of his sins or like Martin Jeranes who being reprehended for weeping too much Bern. said he had need to wash throughly that he might have a clean face for Gods pure eyes These these are the rare penitentiall spectacles and representations for what are capering feet swelling cheeks tempests in the brows lightning in the eyes thunderclaps in the lips pikes in the hand steel-bonnets upon the head to humble lowly self-denying courses no one souls check doth excell all the jollity upon Herods Birthday one tear all the pompe at Asuerosh's Feast A penitent creature is more amiable then Absolon a mortified person more glorious than the Prince of Tyrus Oh therefore prize repentance and never think thy self eminent till thy penitentiall day be dawned upon thee oh happy time when the sense of sin hath shaken thee out of all the glory of the world thrown thee down like a forlorn Abject made thee look pale under guilts dread divine justice prefer a motion for compassion and weep and wail till thou hast gotten an assurance of a pacified God Nothing made Nineveh so blessed as repentance her Ivory Walls shook her strong Foundations tottered her Palace roofes seemed ready to fly into splinters nothing but plaints and shrikes tears and blood hurling into rubbish burning unto Cinders was expected till repentance was visible and repentance hath no sooner entred the streets but all the City is joyous and secure not a stone is to be removed not a bone to be broken not an hair of the head to be touched no before sin had made it Nineveh to be wasted but repentance now hath made it Nineveh to be spared for Should not I spare Nineveh 6. This serves to put us upon triall whether we that would be the pardoned people are the penitent people shall all this discourse end in an Expresse or a Narrative No I would willingly not only make a relation but a collation not only set forth a representation but find an equiparation else I shall but tell a tale of Nineveh or shew you how repentance was Nineveh's Custos how that comming in before the forty daies were expired Nineveh did not expire how repentance kept every Pillar unshaken and every limb unshivered how it held the Crown upon the Kings head preserved the Nobles in their Courtly Equipage the Merchants in their Spleadid trassick how their Palaces and Banquetting-houses Castles and Theaters Statues and Sepulchres Exchequers and Wardrobes Courts and Arsenalls Magazines and Records Fishponds and Gardens Pearls and Perfumes Laws and Lives were all safe and secure by Repentance that not so much as a tree was blasted a spire cast down an Image defaced a fly skalt a worm burnt a dog brained or a beast slain throughout the whole City meerly through the benefit of repentance for the people had repented and here is their brestplate shield and headpiece Repentance doth prevent detriment they are not endamag'd in the least vengeancetook not a shoo-latchet from them Repentance doth ratifie their liberties confirm their immunities renew their Charter they are still Proprietaries in all their Fees Lords of all their royalties their authority and jurisdiction opulency and affluency celsitude and sublimity power and pomp principality and preheminence Procerage and Peerage Crown and Crown-land doth continue Oh Repentance how hast thou saved a flourishing City it is thou that wert the Cure and the covert the shadow and the shelter the Buttress and Buckler Nineveh had fallen if thou hadst not supported it and perished if thou hadst not protected it bâ—â— thou didst open Ninevehs ears to listen to a Prophet that it might not hear the thunders of a confounding God thou didst lend Nineveh faith that it might believe God that trembling at the threatnings they might not feel nor see the terrours of a perishing decree executed thou didst clad them in sackcloth that they might not be stript of their gorgeous rayment thou didst sprinkle them with ashes that the smell of fire might not be felt within their walls thou didst enjoin them the fast that ere long thou mightst set them down again at their spread Tables thou didst make them cry mightily that no other cries might be heard in the City but those of devotion thou didst make them turn from their evill waies and from the violence of their hands that their evill waies might not bring all manner of evills upon them and that the violence of their hands might not expose them to the violence of ruining justice it is thou that didst teach Nineveh the art and learn her the secret and mystery how to prevent an imminent danger and to preserve her self at an exigent that she stood still upon her old basis when her groundsell was sliding and cracking in pieces that her fabrick remained firm when the whole structure was dropping down and not one stone ready to be left upon another Oh Repentance how may wee honour thy succouring bowells and kisse thy securing hand Oh great is thy potency yea a kind of omnipotency is bestowed upon thee to rescue people Nations
taste not well home-bred Artisants have little employment Alexander liketh not long the Graecian habit Tiberius would wear no silks of his own Country Vitellius would eat no Mullets but such as were fetched from the Carpathian Sea So with us our own Teachers are men of no brain we have scarce a Preacher that can speak sense to this intelligent age this man is too deep and that man is too shallow this mans Arrowes do drop short and that man doth shoot beyond the mark this man hath no lungs and that man is too stridulent I see many a solid Divine cryed down such as learned men admire illiterate men deride We are so choise of our Pulpit-men that I think we would have Samuel raised out of his grave to Prophesie to this Nation or send for some Angel from heaven to be our Pastour and yet if either of these had continued awhile amongst us the one might be sent back to his Sepulchre at Ramath and the other returned to his upper loft We are not like to be Converts for we have none that can teach us the penitentiall art we cavill at our Prophets though we know their delegated power and conspicuous abilities whereas Nineveh was not so scrupulous about her Messenger but doth even accept of a stranger 3. Nineveh doth indure sharp Doctrine for though Jonah cryed Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown yet there was no offence taken but what Prophet without hazard could deliver such a message in our streets no we would be readier to brain the Prophet Innocentissimo viro oâ—ulos esso di jussit quod ei in illis que injustè appetchat obstitit Fulgos l. 9. c. 5. Cromer l. 4. than to lye at his feet and to clip out his tongue than to attend to his cryes as Beniface the 7th plucked out the eyes of Cardinall John because he opposed him in his unjust desires and Boleslaus the second King of Polonia killed Stanislaus Bishop of Cracovia because he severely reprehended him Prophets in these dayes must rather put a Flute in their mouthes then a Trumpet and come with a Paper filled with nothing but joy and glee and blisse rather then with a scrowl written within and without with nothing but lamentation mourning and woe How grim are our looks upon an increpating Teacher how tetricall are we to a challenging Messenger He that doth strike at corruptions had as good go and smite at the holes of Aspes he that doth threaten Malefactors had as good go and wrastle with Bears Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou which killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee We must have our praises sung out in the Temple and have the Pulpit for nothing but Panegyricks to be made the Non-pariles of Religion and to have all the Encomiasticks that belong to true virtue attributed to us as the Cities of Achaia sent all the conquering Crowns of Musitians to Nero as to the Prince of Musitians We keep so many Preacher but as so many Limbners or Heraulds Sueton. or Confectioners or Minstrels If they come to be Proposers and Opposers Restrainers and Rebukers to give a sanctuary-gripe or a Pulpit pinch to hold a Razour over our heads or to shake a scourge in our eyes to style us sinners or God a Judge Vae vobis they are fit for nothing then but Clinks and Gibbets Jonah may escape well enough in Nineveh but he would not come off with so much safety here Oh we would live at case in Sion and have our taste remaining in us without stirring we had rather be hung up with the silken halter of flattery then be put in mind of the hangmans Rope and go to destruction laughing then be frayed before hand with the noise of ruine Ye Preachers saith the Age dip your tongues in Oyl supple your doctrines apply gentle plaisters sow pillowes under every arm-hole cut out complying shreds or else ye will want the countenance and preferment of the times beye cautious or else ye are neither acceptable nor secure A resolute Prophet doth stand upon a precipice if he doth discharge his conscience he will not keep his ground How often hath truth here been jayled bondage at the heels of him which here doth denounce vengeance This Land cannot hear a menacing Messenger though the streets of Nineveh could heare Jonah threatning Yet sorty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown 4. Nineveh doth apprehend danger for Jonah hath no sooner pronounced the judgement but the people of Nineveh believed God that is they verily thought and resolved that the state of their City was upon the point of destruction at the brink of ruine But we have no such credulous brests nor believing hearts Tell us of dangers no we defie such seditious Preachers such tumultuous Prophets calamity is but your jealousie danger but your discord perill but your peevishnesse We are a righteous people and not to be punished we are a formidable people and not to be frighted they are a scandalous people which accuse us of sin they are an audacious people which terrifie us with judgements we have graces enough to make all the Devills in Hell recoil we have prayers enough to petition away all plagues wee have ships enough to shoot away all enemies from our coasts Knolls in his Turkish Hist we have speares enough as that French King said who went w th 200000. souldiers at his heels against the Turk to uphold the Heavens if they should fall We are quiet and secure after the manner of the Sidonians Judg. 18.7 Our houses are safe from fear Job 21.9 We are at ease from our youth Jer. 48.12 We can dwell in Cities without gates and bars Jer. 49.31 We stretch our selves upon our Couches Amos 6.4 Our walls our Targets our Magazeens our Capitol our Castle of Angels our Martiall blades whose faces are as Lions whose feet are as swift as Roes upon the Mountains our redoubted Captains which can sleep in their armour and rise up harnessed at the sound of the alarum whose musick is the beating of drums and can sing Ha Ha at the blowing of Trumpets men so resolved to fight that they do but expect an enemy and so valiant that one can chase a thousand which are used to marches musters casting up of Banks raising of Forts drawing of lines making of rowling Trenches digging of Mines battering of Walls drayning of ditches drying up Rivers framing Pall sadoes Sconses Redoubts Counterscarps tumbling of Garments in the blood filling places with dead bodies fishing sanning risting sacking Towns and Cities leaving fruitfull places more desolate then the Wildernesse towards Diblath levelling goodly Structures as Shalman destroyed Beth-Arbel yea soaking Lands and Nations with showres of tempests of blood all these shal settle the Land in firm peace look upon the Nation and see if it be not the quick corner of the Earth for living Souls the Worlds gendring place sown with the seed of man her children like the sand
to spare Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discerne between their right hand and their left hand and also much Cattel As I have for a while joyned both these parts together so now I must sever them and begin first with the nature of the place That great City Wherein there are three things considerable the subject City the attribute Great the eminency That That great City First For the subject City From hence observe That a City in it selfe is an attractive of pitty He which doth preserve a particular man or a particular family Bonum vult cennibus sed non idem bonum Aquin. will he readily destroy a City No Gods greatest providence is seen in the greatest things He willeth good to all but not to all the same good Where there is the chiefest perfection there God is chiefest in conservation What more beautiful then a City no Mountains Rivers and Cities are esteemed the great wonders of the world There is a great weight in the name of a City Est grande mâ—mentum in nomine urbis Tacit l. 1. Omnes homines feruntur ad civitatem quodam impetu naturae Cicer. 1. Offic. All men are carried to a City as to a place of the greatest honour by a certain instinct of nature Solomon doth compare the strength of affection to a strong City Prov. 18.19 And Esay saith that there are houses of joy in the joyous City Isai 32.13 Yea God doth animate Jeremy to deliver his message with confidence for he had made him like a fenced City Jer. 1.18 as if he could single out no better thing upon earth to shew the power of his providence or to put courage into his Prophet What offerings were there appointed to be at the building of a City Ezech. 48. and what solemnities were there used with Cymbals Psalteries and Harps at the dedication of a wall of a City Nehe. 12.27 A City then must needs be a thing of principall esteem yea Civitas vocatur quaedam perfecta congregatio Uar sil Patav. c. 4. de defensore pacis Nihil est principi illi Dequi omnem hunc mundum regit quod quidem in terris fiat acceptius quam concilia coeisuque hominum jure socioti quae civitates appellantur Cicero de somnio Scipion. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marsilius could say that a City is a kind of perfect Congregation and association Tully by the light of nature speaketh expresly That to that great prince God which doth govern the whole world there is nothing more acceptable upon earth then councils and companies lawfully met together which are called Cities God himselfe as he would not be without a Law an Ark a Tabernacle so he would not be without a City which is called the City of God yea how deare a City is to God may appear by the name of it in Hebrew which doth come from a word that signifieth to stir up as if God by the name of a City were stirred up to provide for it indeed he keepeth the City and his eyes are towards the City and it is graven upon the palms of his hands as if a City were precious in his account he will spare many things but especially a City Should not I spare Nineveh a City There are many things in a City which may take Gods eye and endeer it to him First it is a goodly resting-place Men had at first but mean sleeping-rooms Dâ—mus antra fuerunt their Houses were but hollow Caves or Dennes But now God hath allowed them nearer structures where they may house themselves and will God be ready to unlodge men from those Bedchambers where he hath suffered them so sweetly to take their rest and repose Secondly Cities are places of meeting for what is a City but a Community there people cluster together for the seed of a City is as the gravell Clvitas Communitas Esa 48.19 it doth multiply Merchants like the stars of Heaven Nahum 3.16 therefore He who is Bonum commune the Common good will he be hasty in destroying Generalities Thirdly they are places of Order for a City hath Government and Authority in it Non maenia sed leges civitatem servant they are not walls but Lawes which keep Cities Now God which is the Judge of the whole Earth will he destroy those places which excell in Government and Magistracy the very image of his supream Regiment Fourthly Cities are places of Arts and Sciences for in the Country there are none but Heardsmen and Tilthmen to be found but in the City is the Cunning Artificer a man which doth find out intricacies out of whose brain do come all the rare inventions upon earth now the Only wise God will he deface those places where so much pregnancy and acrimony of with doth abound Fifthly Cities are conspicuous for a City set upon an hill cannot be hid let them seated where men please they are the places of the greatest dignity Now God himself who is clothed with glory and Majesty will He ruine those places which do shine and carry in them the most radiant beams of his own excellency will he throw down those piles and Spires of worldly magnificence wound the face of beauty strike out the right eye out of the head of the whole world No for these reasons God will spare Cities It is true There is no evill in the City but the Lord hath done it but that evill doth not come in haste but with much protraction and delay to a City the City usually feeleth of it in the last place God doth land his judgements upon the Shores side and doth make them take a long march through the Country before they do pitch down their Tents dig Trenches lay streight sieges and set up scaling ladders against the City Indeed if a City doth live out of fear live in pleasure and dwell carelessly if the Harp the Viole the Tabret the Pipe the wine be in their Feasts if they deride and defy judgements then God may fray the City in the midst of her jovisance case up her musicall instruments bring in the voider to her sumptuous Banquets turn this dancing City into a sorrowfull Lady yea make this melodious City a Ramah wherein there shall be nothing but mourning and weeping and great lamentation instead of the mirth and the jollity of the City the cry of the City shall go up to Heaven 1 Sam. 5.12 For if a City wax proud and insolent daring and braving it shall know that they are neither gates nor bars walls Towers impregnable Castles millions of armed men that shall secure her Gods confounding judgements shall pull down the most potent and haughty City A City of perversenesse Ezech. 9.9 shall be a City of perplexity Then the City shall be smitten Ezech. 33.24 laid desolate Es 27.10 made a Den of Dragons Jer. 10.22 a defenced City shall be made an
Havens we can walk then no further than the Sea-shore or to the Lands end and there upon our own cliffes bid adiew to all our neighbour-Nations and proclaime our selves strangers to all the world it were to put an end to the difference between free-trade and Companies trade and to unty one of the strongest twists that ever was in the world namely that of humane and Nationall society for Merchandise is by the Law of Nations as the Civilians hold Did I say by the Law of Nations I might say by the Law of God For wherefore doth the Scripture say That God hath made a path in the Sea and that men may go downe to the Sea in ships and do their businesse in great wateâ—s and that the wise woman is like a Merchans ship that bringeth her food from afar and that the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a Merchant man seeking goodly Pearls If Merchandise by Gods Law were not justifiable and honourable yes this calling is requisite and exquisite it is the Nations Head-servant High-steward sent out to all the earth as to a generall Market and fairstead to buy her provisions and things of the highest price to furnish her and adorn her And what she meeteth withal for her use she transmitteth home nay brings in her own hand to her dear City that the City might be a Spring within her selfe and a Conduit to the whole Country Merchant and Citizen therefore still stand thy ground with reputation for thou maist be looked upon as a person of same Fourthly a City is a place of honour because multitudes live there with an unanimous expression yea many hundred thousands linked like persons of one Tabernacle yea many a family not so combined as a City therefore it is called a Society or a Corporation A City is a communion of men alike in desires Communio quaedam funilium Aristot l. 3. Polit. c. 1. Vinculo quodam societatis in unum coeunt Cognationem quandam natura constitutit I. lorentinus l. 3. co l. 45. sect fin leg Aquil. P. Civitas quasi civium unitas Petrus Giegor l. 1. c. 3. d. 1. Citizens are knit together in a certain bond of society in one Nature there hath constituted a kind of kindred that they should act and agree together like men of the same linage and consanguinity Therefore a City doth signifie no more nor lesse than the unity of Citizens And indeed if it want unity it is but a tumult a wrestling-place a pitched field and not a City the Towers are then undermining and the walls shaking and falling For If a City be divided how shall it stand a miserable thing it is when their tongues are divided and there is strise in the City Psal 55.9 Scornfull men that is turbulent and sactious men bring a City into a snare Prov. 29.8 These are some of the breaches of the city of David Isai 22.9 Breaches indeed that will bring the whole building into ruine for the City is then becoming a City of destruction Isai 19.18 Yea like a Potters vessel that shall be broken in pieces and cannot be made whole again Jer. 19.11 Epidetus said well That discord is the wit-foundring of a City Nun neque ebrius sobrium cocere potest neque sobrius abebrio persuaderi In enchir just like a quarrel between sober and drunken men Athenaeus out of Aristotle telleth a sad story of one Telegoras who being a man of great fame and so dearly beloved of the people that if they could not get a just price for their commodities they were wont to say Athen. l. 8. They would go and freely give them away to Telegoras which they often did a company of rich Citizens which did equall him in estate but not in worth spightfully envied this reputation of his amongst the people and fell into such heart-grudges that upon a time a great fish being to be sold and no man coming up to the price of it it was carried away to Telegoras which the wealthy maligning Citizens seeing they were so enraged at it that they raised up the City into an uproar violently assaulted his house and person and most inhumanely deflowred his Daughters whereupon there grew afterwards such a deadly fewd betwixt the two discontented parties that it could not be quieted till Ligdamis the Ring-leader of the dissention made pure slaves of them all and insulted over them like a true Tyrant and this was the fare of the Naxian Citizens Diodor l. 15. Diodorus doth make a sadder relation concerning the Citizens of Argos who falling into mutuall diffentions and distractions about superiority there was such a wofull face of misery and desolation seen in the City that no man lived in safety for many were tortured to death and others cut their own throats that they might not be tortured yea certaine Orators arising stirred up the people so against the rich men that no man of wealth was secure thirty of them were questioned and tortured and slaughtered at once and after that two thousand and two hundred And afterwards the Orators themselves being ashamed of their bloody practices that they had been instruments and instigators in such diresull passages out of a kind of remorse giving over their wonted pleading and refusing to accuse any more the rage fell upon them and they were murthered and perished with the rest the effects of this dissention were so horrid that by way of detestation it was afterwards called the Scythalism The Palentocia that is Plut. in quest Graecis the bringing in of Usury again what combustions did it raise amongst the Megarensians The Citizens of Constantinople falling into contention in the seventh year of Justinian Euagrius l. 4. c. 13. Niceph. l. 17.10 their popular pledge to raise parties what troubles did there break forth Citizens were banished Houses burnt the Temple of Sancta Sophia defaced and the uproare did not cease till three thousand were slain Plut. Joh. Mag. l. 21. Hist when Carthage was divided into the factions of Hanno and Haniball how soon did it come to be an enslaved City Did not contention quite overthrow the Teutonick Order which for so many yeares had been famous Did not the seditious carriages of John Shimeon and Eleazar destroy Jerusalem faster then the sword of Vespasian or Titus yes discords of Citizens have ever been ominous and divers times fatal The happinesse of a City then is when the waters of Shiloah runne softly when Citizens delight themselves in an abundance of peace when there are no alterations in their meetings nor litigations in their counsails but they are built like a City at unity in it selfe Psal 122.3 Oh this unity doth carry in it an universality of felicity it is the basis and battle ax to a City it feareth no gusts when it doth stand upon this sure pinning nor enemy abroad when there is no enemy within Oh it is a rare thing to see a due crasis in the
substracting her wonted payments Vectigalia quaecunque quaelibet civitates sibi ac suis curiis firma atque perpetua manere pracipimus ut in l. Vectigal 10. Aelian l. 8. Var. Hist Instituit vectigal braccariorum linteonum citrariorum 1. pellionum plaustrariorum argentariorum aurificum ali arum artium Alex. ab Alex. l. 4 c. 10. Et Herodian l. 3. Zenoph de rep Laced In all great impositions laid upon the people the Citizens are chiefly called forth ad census to taxes Honortus and Arcadius as if they knew where their Crown stock lay they wrote only unto Cities to see that there should be no diminution of the accustomed payments Aelian saith That Demetrius Polycrates got a thousand two hundred talents from Cities Severus Alexander who was one of the best Emperors drew his vast sums with which he built his baths and left such an incredible treasure to his Children from Handicraft-men which lived in Cities Zenophon doth report That if the Lacedemonians went to war the Cities chiefly maintained the Souldiers In the great Wars that Augustus the Emperour had before the Empire was settled all Nations being almost beggered through the charge of three and twenty Armies that he was enforced at one time as Dion saith to maintaine in the field when he was at his last cast and knew not where to get money it was the City of Rome which by giving him the five and twentieth part of their Estates and setting a great Tax upon the sides of every City-house Dion in Augusto and by large voluntary Contributions supplyed all his wants so that whatsoever the extremity be the City still must bring the remedy it is the Purse-bearer of the Nation or the trusty surety to engage for all exigents If this Cloud doth not drop a grievous drought may afflict the Country if these Milch-kine do not give down their milk there may be nothing to seeth for the hungry family if this Physitian doth not administer the sick patient may give up the ghost the City is the Domininical Letter by which we reckon how the year will go about or the golden number by which we must cast up the accounts for all accidents Alas the Citizen and the Merchant doth get more if he hath free trade in a short time by traffique and commerce than the Country-man doth in an age by tillage and the profit of his ground here are the vast gaines and here must be the grand and vast disbursments the greatest Princes upon earth are enforced to fly to the banks of their Cities as their last refuge whensoever treasure doth fail they must go dig in these God-mines A City was wont to be called the Kings-Chamber for the safety of his person and it may be called the Kings Coffer to fill his empty hand with ready coyn in specie whatsoever be demanded here is the Cashiere or Paymaster Oh then shall a Citizen be reckoned amongst the Sporades which are Stars so obscure that their asterisms cannot be taken no let him go for one of the Stars of the greatest magnitude in a Nation Even for payments sake the Citizen ought not to be looked on or spoken of but as a person of honour All that hath been said then being duly considered let no man lift up the Robe of a Citizen with disdain nor belch out contempt and ignominy in the face of a Citizen no the churle is base the Epicure is base the Oppressor is base the Boaster is base the Sycophant is base but the Citizen is honourable there were Citizens before there were Heraulds Heaven it selfe is compared to a City or the City of the new Jerusalem yea there needeth no more to set out the honor of a City then that God would spare Nineveh because a City Should not I spare Nineveh a City 3. This shews That as a City is chiefe so it should be chiefe in commendable demeanour A City should be a place of example the great Idea from which all round about it should be effigiated the Prototype by which all adjacent places should be stamped for that being principall why should it not formalize all those members that depend upon it for actuating When thou art the head why dost thou beneath thy selfe to be the feet Caput cum sis cur pes existas Naz. Doth not a Cities vertue diffuse vertue yes when it was askt why Peloponesus was so good it was presently answered that Aegina the head-City nourished up none but good children Aegina bonos filios nutrit Erasm When Syracusa the prime City of Sicily came to resort to Plato which instructed Dionysius there followed such throngs out of the Country Tyrannidis sedem pulvis occuparet Plut. de dignos adulator Swabo l. 11. that the dust of their feet filled the Kings Court When Echatane in Media came to addict it selfe to worthy things it presently instructed Armenia and at last it came to be the Persian School for from that place they learned their archery the worshipping of their Gods their grave attires their doing honour to Princes and the adorning of them with the Tiara and Cydaris Royall Ornaments When the lex Fannia Vt universa Italia non sola urhs lege sumptuaria teneretur Macrob. l. 3. Saturn c. 17. a law to restrain excess in diet came by the Consuls to be constituted in Rome presently the lex Didia and Licinia other lawes of the same nature came to be enjoyned in the Country that all Italy as well as the City might conforme to this law of Moderation See how much good one City-example will do for vertue and may not one City-example do as much evill for vice Yes the City doth sell her examples as well as her commodities and her sinnes as well as her wares yea the quick trade doth runne in Crimes she doth send down these by whole-sale into the Country this plague in the City doth infect the whole Nation a whole Land may curse a City for bad presidents If the City be full of perversnesse Ezech. 9.9 the disobedience will spread to all parts If the City be bloody Nahum 3.1 it is enough to sell Chopping knives to their Customers elsewhere What pure worship will be left in the Land if according to the number of the Cities be the number of the Gods Jer. 11.13 If the chiefe Cities of the ten tribes set up the golden Calves the whole Region will seem to be nothing but a bleating Crib to the honour of those new Deities people far and nigh will swear by the sinne of Samaria and will say thy God oh Dan liveth Erasm in Adag Cael. Rhodigin Pol. Virgil. l. 3. c. 6. de inv rerum Sabellic l. 3. and the manner of Beershebah liveth Amos 8.14 The lust of Corinth made all Greece a Brothel-house the intemperance of Plintine turned all Egypt into a Tippling-booth Stâ—oâ— first finding out fine silk it hath corrupted all Nations with garish attires Guarde Jesdi
and Hispaa the chiefe Cities of the Arsacidans being accustomed to lye with their sisters and mothers it taught all Parthia incest A City of Phoenicia having stolen Io the daughter of Inacus from the Graecians Herod l. 1. it soon set the Cretians on work to steal Europa from the Phoenicians and the Grecians to steal Medea from Colchis and Troy to steal Helena from Menelaus the Prince of Lacedemenia So that ye see that a Cities bad example is like a Gangrene it will not rest where it first began but convey a contagion to all the members and at last to the vitall parts Thus much in generall for your selves in particular as God hath made you a City so do ye principle out goodnesse to the Land for a shame it were for the sowrest fruit to grow upon the top-branch or the worst Schollars to be in the upper form Shall ye be taught duty from abroad or learn conscience of the Country shall the man in russet direct thee in thy furrs the leathern girdle instruct the gold Chain Shall there be more noble motions and pious resolutions in the rurall Swain then the Citisen Shalt thou mind nothing but the vent of thy ware and the fale of thy merchandise yes thou hast another trade to look after A Citisen should shew to his Customers the best Patterns of holy life and open the packs of religious presidents A City should be the Burse and Magazine of vertuous demeanours or else it wil be said that the Citizen doth study nothing but himselfe and that his Counting-house is his conscience and his penny his God Oh therefore God hath given you honour maintain your honour let the great wheel of vertue stir here and the morning star of grace shine here Let not the mirery waies be cleaner then your paved streets and the thatched shuds be nearer built then your tiled houses Let not the Country man when he commeth amongst you be lothed with the smell of your intemperance or recoyl at the sight of your fraud or blush at your neutralizing or be ready to deride your pride or to hisse at your malice or to freeze with your indevotion or to drop down dead with seeing the blood of oppression sprinkled upon the stones of your streets but prepare choise sights for the Country mans eye that he may go home and say I have seen the Phoenix of religion the Paradise of Piety the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Suburbs of Heaven I have learned grace out of every Citizens mouth and bought bargains of sanctity at every shop enough to stock my self and supply all my neighbours Thus shall ye shew your selves to be a flourishing City when ye are as full of Professours as Traders and of Saints as Merchants when ye have trafficked for godlinesse at every Port and fetched home the true Pearl further then the Indies Well remember that To whom much is given of them much will be required Ye should have a priority of duty because ye have a priority of dignity A City should serve God before others because God would spare a City before others Should not I spare Nineveh a City 4. This sheweth that if God would spare a City because a City that the City should spare it self not suffer her immunities to be infringed when she can preserve them nor her rights to be injured when she can vindicate them What were this but for a Citizen to dig down the walls of his own City or to unbody his own Incorporation It was a famous saying 2 Sam. 10.12 Be of good courage let us play the men for our people and for the Cities of our Gods Doubtlesse every one ought to expresse much fidelitity and prowesse for these Cities or else he doth conspire against his own Society and the open enemy is not worse then such a secret Traitor Sceva would not deliver up Epidamnum to the enemy Plut. though he had received 220 darts in his shield and lost one of his eyes but held it out till Caesar came in to his rescue Livius The Citizens of Saguntum burnt themselves rather then they would submit to Hanibal The Citizens of Bizantium held out a siege of two years against Severus Herodian and when their weapons were spent they threw their imagery and brasen statues at the faces of their enemies The Citizens of Numantia held out a siege of forteen years against Scipio Florus and after that they gathered all their goods mony and armour and laying them all upon an heap they fired them and their selves that they might leave nothing to the Conquerour but the name of Numantia Bonfin The women of Aquilegia made bowstrings of their hair that their souldiers might shoot against their enemies Vincent The women of the Vindelici for want of military preparation threw their own children instead of darts against their besiegers rather then they would yield to Drusus the Father of Germanicus Such resolute spirits have men expressed in former ages in defence of their Cities and they which were wanting in relieving or assisting them how are they branded with infamy It is Pompeyes shame to this day that he would not come in to the relief of his faithfull City Laurea but suffered it to be taken and burnt though he were so nigh that he might have warmed his hands with the heat of the devouring flames The timerousnesse of those perfidious souldiers who seeing a great army of the Turks besieging them at Alba Graeca as Bonfinius calleth it capitulated with their enemies to deliver it up was so hatefull to Paulus Knisius Kinisius he calleth him that taking them alive he caused them to be roasted and by degrees to eat one another Cities then are vigorously and valiantly to be defended yea if many men have fought so stoutly for the walls of the Cities how ought others to strive as earnestly for the freedom of their Cities Ignominy to them that do desert them or basely betray them Rights Liberties and honours go at a low rate amongst such heartlesse and faithlesse Factours Citizens should spare them for God hath set them a Copy Should not I spare Nineveh a City 5. This reproveth them which in stead of sparing take delight in nothing more then demolishing of Cities It was a searching question which the wise woman from the wall put to Joab concerning Abel Why seekest thou to destroy a City a Mother in Israel 2 Sam. 20.19 It was a blemishing objection that Hezekiah propounded to Rabshakeh that like a man of a brutish spirit he held himself appointed to lay waste senced Cities into ruinous heaps Furius Camillus doth hear ill to this day Sabell l. 9 Aenead 3. Bern. Saccus lib. 8. Hist Ticinens Nich. Olaus in Atila Guliel Paradinus de statat Burg. c. 8. that he destroyed the famous City Veii because it was so pleasantly seated that men were ready to leave Rome it selfe to go live at Veij and so doth Antonius
Vespasians Generall who going into the Baths of Cremona and finding them cold said he would soon have them hotter for he presently set the City on fire and consumed it and so doth Atila who ruined Tongres and in it an hundred Churches and so doth Frederick sirnamed Aenobarbe who for an abuse offered to his Empress Beatrice caused the City of Millaine to be razed Diod. S. l. 14. and the platform of the City at that time to be plowed up and so doth Himilco for destroying Messana in Sicily and leaving them neither wall tile stick nor stone Strobo l. 13. and so doth Craesus for laying waste Sidena and cursing any man that should reedifie it and so doth Alexander for laying in the dust the two famous Cities of the east Cyropolis and Persepolis Q. Curtius and so doth P. Aemilius for levelling to the ground 70 Cities in Aepiras Oh what thunder-claps do there come out of many mens mouths to shake down such glorious Ornaments what Furnaces do there burn in many mens breasts to consume such ensigns of Art and Architecture Can they not walk freely in the world unlesse they stamp down Cities under their feet Can they not see the way to their ambitious designes but by the light of flaming Castles Temples Palaces and Houses of state Did Vulcan beget them were they born under mount Aetna do they desire to shine in the world like blazing Comets or to scorch all before them like brands taken out of the infernall Pit why else are the scattered stones of a City such a pleasing spectacle to them or the ashes of a City such a glorious triumph How justly might they crouch for a peece of silver which care not in an humour to melt away the riches of so many ages how ill do they deserve an house to hide their heads in which care not in a fury to expose so many Citizens to the bleak air Well if such there have been in the yeares of old Pagans and Infidels which have been thus barbarous yet let every Christian heart tremble to work such desolations for these things are like the Destroyer not like the Creator Let us spare Cities therefore for God doth spare them even because they are Cities Should not I spare Nineveh a City 6. This further doth shew That a City is at the height of impiety when the time of her fate and fall be come Such people wilfully destroy the City for God would spare it even for that it is a City Would God spare Then have not these rejected all warnings which have brought their selves into a condition on not to be spared yes God is highly incensed if he doth let loose those judgements which he hath restrained and doth open those flood-gates which for a time he did scluseup If God hath made thee a vessel of honour how hast thou trespassed Fecit te vas in honorem cur te in contumeliam facere praesumpsisti Bern. de 7. grad Confes An semeâ—est panam commeruisse parum Ovio l. 2. de Trâ—st confiderans hujus miseri miserabilem conditionem misereor quidem sed vereor ne frustra Bern. p. 70. which hast turned thy selse into a vessel of wrath We are a very urging people if we have lost the benefit of a sparing God Seemeth it a small thing unto you to deserve punishment No we have done evill to purpose if vengeance doth lye at the door I pitty this state of wretchednesse saith Bern. but God knoweth whether I shall prevent it Doth judgment threaten this Nation oh then that I could shake men into an apprehensioâ— of their manifest and monstrous guilts there are deep spots if this Nitre must be used there are high affronts when God must dash mens contempts upon their haughty faces Do ye dread any charging plagues then why do ye not find out your challenging sinnes Do your ears glow and do ye suspect no bad news do ye seem to see nothing but rods and rasours and yoaks and fetters and yet are ye so blind that ye cannot see your violating of Gods laws Must God lock up your doors before ye will consider what bad Tenants ye have been must He pluck away all your Wares before ye will consider the sinnes of your trading must he spew you out of the City before ye will take notice what a surfeit ye are upon his stomack doth every Mechanick talk of the danger of the times and yet can neither Citizen nor Senator cry out of those execrable things which are ready to make the City an execration have ye lost your cares your eyes your tongues your wits your consciences do ye praunce in the City when ye are ready to stamp upon the stones of your streets do ye dance upon your thresholds when ye are ready to stagger with amazement do ye walk with stretched out necks when your necks are ready to stoop down with the weight of judgements do ye add thirst to your drunkennesse when the cup of astonishment is ready to be put-to your lips do ye scorn the menaces of scripture when all the curses which are written in this book and those which are not written are ready to fly in your faces do ye abuse Sermons when your Pulpits shake before their dropping do ye lye in the lap of Dalilah till the Philistins come and bind you do ye eat and drink marry and give in marriage till the floud break in and sweep you all away Can ye never hear your errours but in generall shrieks nor see your provocations but when vengeance doth open your eyes Ye have often said that this City must suffer and that the end of all will be dismall do ye say it and not fear it or fear it and not flee from it Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day those things which belong to thy peace that thou hadst but as much prevention as thou hadst judgement or as much conscience as thou hast a presaging spirit that thou wert but as true a Saint as thou wouldst seem to be a Prophet but ye can only foresee and foretell but remedy nothing If we may live but a short time merrily we care not if the rest of our dayes be spent in misery as that desperate person who being told he should not live seven moneths said Sex menses satis sunt vitae septimum Orco relin quo Victor Varia â—â—ct 1. 11. Osotius 〈◊〉 rerum 〈◊〉 nuelâ— Six moneths are enough for my life the seventh let death take We cannot forsake those courses by which we are certain to perish no more then Garzias Sousa at the siege of Aden could be perswaded by Albuquerke to come down from a Tower where by arrows and stones he was sure to be either shot to death or to have his brains dashed out How many perills do we see that we put to the venture whether we shall escape them or be ensnared with them we dread vengeance with impenitency and reflect upon ruine with
stony hearts we feel malignant humours rising without taking a purge and fear sinking at Sea without pumping out the water We are rather Inquisitors of dangers then Interpretors of them we are the fearfullest people in the world and yet the recklessest Our own predictions or convictions will not make us look inward If we suffer we cannot cry out of Gods justice but of our own insensibility and obstinacy If our house be left desolate to us we are justly guilty of the dilapidation of it We bury our selves in our own ruines and lye down in our own confusion In the midst of the most grievous terrours there is no crying out of the heynousnesse of sinne Oh secure Laish oh Jerusalem frozen in her dregs The very putting of the sickle into the corn do not make us see how we are grown ripe for judgement the noise of thunder cannot awaken us out of our deep sleep If brimstone be cast upon our habitation we think fire shall never be put to it if the Lord set his face against the City we out-face all hazards It was miserable to the Germans to fear an enemy in the Country Bonsin l. 8. Decad 2. and yet to give their selves to banquetting till Cadan the Tartarian Prince came upon them and slew them It was fatall to the Marriners of Polychostus to quake at the thought of Antigenus and yet to be drunk and fast asleep when he set upon their Navy Polyaen l. 4. and destroyed it So as ominons it is for us to be appalled at Gods judgements and yet to quaffe and snort them away as if the angry and arming God would never strike He is the patient God but if we challenge him into the field he will shew himselfe to be the Lord of Hosts He is a sparing God but if we out-sin his mercy he will declare himself to be the judging God Our reformation might bind his hands but our remorselessnesse and contumacy will urge him to lay on confounding stroakes For why should hee spare us when wee wil not spare our selves if threatnings cannot humble the Sinner God hath judgments enough to break his heart Oh therefore deal truly do ye fear the state of the City then know that the City hath highly provoked the eyes of Gods glory that it must be punished consider that there are briars and thorns in it that God doth come to hew in the City and that strange Creatures have been in the nest that God doth step forth to break Cockatrices eggs and that the Pot is full of filth that it must be set upon the coals and God must take out the scum of it Oh then that the City could search her walls and see what Delinquents do lodge in it yea go from house to house and find out all the suspected dangerous persons which haunt this Corporation to work the utter ruine of it that conscience would bring to open view more Malefactours then all the privy searches or lowd cries of the Temple have yet discoverd It is high time to settle upon the work for if the City be in any hazard there are grievous sins in it that do jeopard the welfare and safety of it God is irritated beyond measure when he is driven to visit and doth spy in it transgressions wonderfull when he is ready to inflict plagues that are wonderfull Shalt thou reign because thou art closed in Cedar shalt thou be secure because thou art closed about with so many propugnacles no God may judge this City and judge it because it is a City and what an urging people then are ye which have turned favour into fury would God willingly be severe no vengeance doth never approach till impiety is at the height till Job Noah and Daniel can save but their own souls and not the places where they dwell and for which they sacrifice their averting and reconciling prayers Oh think how often ye have smitten at Gods face and wounded his honour when he is enforced to strike and such Petitioners cannot bind his hand Oh ye are Sinners before the Lord exeeedingly when ye have transnatured God changed him from a gracious to an avenging God for ye see he doth take no delight in wastes and desolations No this is contrary to his inclination and propension his tender mercy and ingenerate indeified compassion for if your sins did not turn away his pittifull eye harden his soft bowels and make him weary with repenting he would spare the City and that because it is a City Should not I spare Nineveh a City Great Now let us come to the attribute Great From hence observe serve that Greatnesse in it self is pretious in Gods account How can the great God but affect that which is great Yes as immensity is one of his properties so greatnesse hath a bright reflex in it Magnitude doth carry a commensuration with it and excellency doth arise out of magnitude for where a thing is attained to this extensive proportion Differentia inter facere efficere there is in it a visible distinction from other things because it is not in the doing but it is done and so hath efficacy and eminency in it The Hebrew words which are put for Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do significantly expresse this for the one doth come of a root that doth declare that the thing hath encreased or magnified it self and the other of a root which doth intimate that the thing is copious or it hath multiplyed it self so that to be great is no more then a thing grown up or come to a kind of fulnesse and gracefulnesse I do not say it hath no further to go but it is gone to a fair distance or waxen so wel in the parts that it is fit to be admired for how hath the ey a kind of marvelling enter into it at the beholding of that which is great what should I say if a thing be good it cannot be to great no the more great the more perfect Ab Epirotis Pyrrhus Aquila nominabatur per vos inquit Aquila sum Quid ni enim sim vestris armis velut alis evectus Plut. in Pyeâ—ho Phocion Chrestus appellatur Alex. ab Alex. l. 2. c. 11. Graecorum ultimus appellatur quia Oraecia jam effaeta nullum se dignum virum ab illo protulerit Plut. in Philop. Augustus dictus est ab auctu Cuspinian Mans wit can ascribe nothing more to her Worthies who she is enamoured upon than to proclaim them Great For to what end else were all those equivalent Titles devised Pyrrhus after the defeat given to Pentauchus the Captain of Demetrius was called the Eagle Phocion for his rare parts called the Excellent Philopaemenes called the Last of the Grecians because there never came any after him Greece being past childbirth which did match him Octavianus Caesar after the Battle at Actium and the Conquest of Egypt and the Empire setled in peace was named Augustus as if he were
greatnesse I accuse not riches Divitias non accuso sed illum qui male utitur Chrys Hom. de divite paup usus horum bonus â—abusio mala Bern. de consid ad Eugen. l. 2. c. 6. but him who uses them ill The use is good the abuse is only evil Is prosperity an execration or greatnesse a curse no I find it styled the Lords dowry Gen. 30 20. and Gods candle Job 29.3 and Gods cup Psal 23.5 and Gods crown Prov. 14.24 Greatnesse is oftentimes the pledge of Gods goodnesse yea the seal of his favour so far from being a smile from Mammons brow that it is the shining of Gods face Numb 6.25 so far from being the amiable complexion that the Devil should lend us that it is the beauty of the Lord our God upon us Psal 90.17 We seem to live upon Gods bread for God which fed me all my life long Gen. 48 15. and to dwell in his Tenements for He made them houses Exod. 1.21 and to mount the hill of preferment upon the back of his saddle horse for I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth Esa 58.14 and to king it amongst our brethren by his inauguration for He set them amongst the Princes and made them inherit the Throne of glory 1 Sam. 2.8 The various flowers that spring from prosperity are they not styled Gods garden Ezech. 28.13 The diversity of comforts and benefits which we enjoy in this world are they not sanctifications as it were of the divine providence blessings of the heavens above blessings of the deep beneath blessings of the breast and the womb Gen. 49.25 I know there is a Mammon of unrighteousnesse but that is when it is in the hand of an evill Possessor Talibus bonis non fiunt homines boni Aug. ad Ripar Paulinam ep 45. Quae hic honorant ibi onerant Id. ad Maximum ep 203. I know our riches may eat our flesh like fire but that is when usurpation or injustice hath turned these into sire-brands It is true by such goods men are not made good and the honours of this life may be the burthens of the next life but that is when unregenerate men are entitled to them sinne doth damn every thing to us grace doth make every thing a blessing make good thy tenure therefore and fear not thy freehold a Saint may enjoy a great Mansion a great Castle a great City Terrenae civitatis temporalis gloria non destruit caelestia bona sed astruit Bern. in ser ad mil. Temp. c. 3. Temporall glory doth not destroy eternall felicity Conversion is a just Owner Repentance hath the lawfull demise of all copious Revenue Be penitent therefore and be potent be a Ninevite and fear not thy great City forget not thy sackeloth and in time convenient I forbid thee not scarlet lye upon thy ash-heap and lye afterwards upon thy bed of down neglect not fasting and taste of delicacies enjoyn penance to thy beasts and ride upon thy Palfrey cry mightily and sing joyfully turn from thy evill wayes and walk if thou wilt in a paved Court forbear the violence of thy hands and let thy hands if thou canst be filled with abundance be but rich in God and let there be no end of thy riches seek the Pearl and wear Jewels For are piety and prosperity religion and revenue grace and greatnesse opposites Is wealth a larges onely for sinners must every Professor be a Beggar and live in an Almes-house Hath the Devill the whole world in fee-farme doth he grant Leases of all the possessions upon earth must all rich men needs be damned this were to justifie Julians rage who took away all the goods from the Christians telling them that their Saviour commanded them to be poor We must be content under our poverty if God send it not make hast to be rich or make riches our principall lively-hood but otherwise we may enjoy riches as well as others Jacob was vertuous and yet he had his two bands Gen. 32.10 Boaz was pious and yet a mighty man of wealth Ruth 2.1 Job righteous and yet the great man of the East Job 4.1 Jehosaphat religious and yet he had riches and honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17.5 It is a distemper to make a Saint an Hermite or a Fryer Mendicant as if whosoever hath sufficiency Hoc attendite ne passim divites reprehendatis Aug. in Ps 5. Injustae dicuntur divitiae non quia aurum argentum injustum fit sed quia injustum est eas putare divitias quae avaritiae non auferunt egestatem Amb. in Psal 118. Nec diviti obsunt opes si ijs bene utatur Jer. ad Salv. Sufficientiam vitae non indecenter quisquis eam vult Aug. ad Probam ep 121. Ne putenmala dantur bonis ne putentur magna summe bona dantur malis Aug. ad Bonifac. ep 70. this man must have no fulnesse or whosoever be mighty he must not be great But oh be carefull in this that ye do not generally reprehend rich men Riches are not unjust but it is unjust to think those riches which do not take away covetousnesse Riches do not hurt the wealthy man if he use them well Sufficiency of estate whosoever doth desire he doth lawfully desire it Riches that they might not be thought evill they are given to the good that they might not be thought the chiefe good they are given to the evill So then a righteous man may challenge his earthly possessions as well as the greatest worldling yea it were no solaecism to say That the Saint is the true Land-holder upon earth The wicked have riches by permission but the godly by commission the one by possession the other by promise for is not Gods covenant past and his patent sealed to the righteous Yes there God commanded the blessing Levit. 25.21 there shall be showres of blessing Ezech. 34.26 and blessings powred out in such an abundant measure that there shall be no room to receive them Mar. 3.10 Saint then rise as fast as thou canst so long as fraud doth not promote thee let thy house be stately and thy chambers large so long as thou dost not build thy house by unrighteousnesse and thy chambers by wrong Jer. 22.13 Serve God and thrive under so good a Master let not thy obedience runne at low water and then let thy prosperity rise as the flood God will not be offended at thy greatnesse for he doth plead for greatnesse Should not I spare Nineveh a great City 2. This doth shew that there will ever be degrees of states and conditions Zoar was but a little City Bethlehem was the least amongst the thousands of Judah and yet Nineveh here is a great City Oh then that some people would weigh men in the ballance without allowance of their graines or prepare the same last for every foot without granting a larger size which justle with their
picture in it because by her meanes they recovered their City again Athen. l. 13. c. 11. Pyrrhias redeeming an old man out of the hands of Pirates and he telling him where he might find a great deale of gold covered over with pitch he getting the treasure and growing infinitely rich upon it offered a Bullock to testifie his thankfulnesse Nemo bene merito bovem immolavit praeter Pyrrhiam Plut in quaest Graecanicis Diodor. Sic l. 20. for the old mans kindnesse insomuch that it went for a Proverb That no man was more thankfull then Pyrrhias Demetrius Polyorcetes freeing the Sicyonians from the yoke of Prolemy they took it so thankfully that they called their chief City after his name Demetrias and kept an annuall feast as long as the City stood to commemorate such a deliverance These and thousand the like examples might be produced to declare how apprehensive people are of mens favours but where is there the like gratitude expressed towards God Let him pleasure us in never so many things yet he doth get neither pillar nor bullock nor any thing called after his name as noble hearts as we seem to have to others we are base towards our God we think it inhumanity to forget courtesies but here we forget blessings man can heare of his Civilities but not God of his respects Here all obligations and engagements dye with the participation of the favours as if we had neither sight speech nor affection so that we are strict Courtiers but very formall Christians we are mens very humble servants and thrice bounden but we are Gods very insolent servants and scarce one twisted oh what are the ties and bands of blessings We do not render again according to the benefits done unto us 2 Chron. 32.25 Ingratitude is branded upon our brows brests eyes ears lips and lives where is there promotion and devotion favour and zeal met together No oh ye great men ye are the great dis-esteemers and disparagers of mercies a non-magnifying and unglorifying generation Ye cannot see favours at Noontide nor speak of mercies when every corner of your houses is a Pulpit where ye have domesticall Chaplains to preach out unto you Gods blessings Why are ye thus blind and deaf would ye weep for the want of blessings and do they congeal you with their warmth is it your high ambition to be great and doth greatnesse dwarf you by raising you many Cubits above your brethren 〈◊〉 constrain not Heaven to defy you as if ye were detestations Force not God to cry out Hear oh Heavens and hearken oh Earth as if ye were Monsters Set your eyes therefore if it be possible right in your heads and seek up mercies turn the keyes in those rusty lips of yours that that bed-rid duty of thankfulnesse may walk sorth and sing hymnes to the honour of blessings if ye be great know who hath given you these dimensions if ye be great be not too great for your Maker Cogitâ— quo cultu transieris Histriam quibus nunc utaris vestibus Eâ—asm in vitâ Chrys as Chrysoâ—lom said to Gaynas the Arian Captain Bethink thy self in what poor attire thou diost once posse through Histria and how richly thou art now apparelled So consider ye the simple weed perhaps that was once upon your backs and how God hath given you change of apparell Had ye alwaies such shops such Counting-houses such wardrobes such cupbords of plate such chains such jewels such habitations such honours have ye forgotten your beginnings can ye not tell how many pieces ye were worth when ye were first sworn Freemen or ye sealed the first leaf to have a standplace for trading oh swollen cheeks staring eyes infatuated brains look backward search out your selves to the first year and quarter nay the first change of the Moon when your prosperity crept out of the nest and first cast the shell from her spoonfeathered head and set down every penny that ye have received out of Gods privy purle remember how many thousand pounds ye are indebted to Gods blessing Ye are ignorant men to imagine that the Original of your welfare began at your selves yea arrogant and Mad men to think that your own prudence or diligence hath advanced you Ireturned and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battell to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding Eccles 9.11 are ye high ye are lifted up are ye great ye are made great Consider therefore what a small stock ye had once to begin with and how God hath conveyed unto you hidden Treasure what Minums ye were once in the world and what Grandees ye are now become and let every man of you like a person rapt and transported with a traunce and exstasy that ye are made Heavens Favourites say with David Who am Ioh Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 2 Sam. 7.18 Oh if ye will not confesse the kindnesse of your Creditour he may well call back what he hath lent you if ye will not acknowledge what webs ye have spun out of his providence he may justly recocover his Weoll and his Flax Let them be fired out of their estates or shipwracked in their means or turn Bankrupt in trading who so long as they abound know not the benefit of fulnesse or so long as they are advanced see not who hath advanced them Oh therefore if your mouths be satisfied with good things know who it is that hath given you such a taste of bounty if ye have treasures by the heap consider who it is that hath filled your coffers if ye be great blesse the Author of your greatnesse When ye eat in plenty and are satisfied praise the name of the Lord your God which hath done wonderfully with you Joel 2.28 say with David All that we enjoy commeth of thine hand and all is thine own 1 Chron. 29.16 I know it is an hard thing to fetch praise out of preferment or gratitude out of greatnesse to get a rich man to speak or a great man to magnify but know your duty lay to heart the office of prosperity and see Gods Image stamped upon your coin and him written Founder upon the groundsells pillars tarasses roofs and lanthorns of your houses oh therefore perfume an estate with devotion make Gods providence the crest of your escutcheon If ye flourish upon earth look up to heaven if your boughs be laden with fruit let God taste the first ripe apples of the tree if ye be rich celebrate divine favour if ye be mighty remember your best Friend if ye be great be not unthankfull why should Gods eye be fixed upon thee why should his rain fall upon thy ground why shouldst thou see the Rivers and floods and brooks of honey and butter why should he take thee by the hand why should he lift up thy head is there no reason for thy weal then there
Adversary for an alms out of his own fulnesse And happy were ye if I could here make an end and the last Post were arrived which could bring evill tidings of the miseries upon taking of Cities but I must bring in Jobs fourth Messenger of sad news for after all other extremities conscience at last comes to her punishment this also must be made a Captive and wear the slaves-chain the walls are not only broken but the Altars digged down men are not only locked out of their houses but their Temples their goods are not only forced from them but they are deprived of the Pearl their liberties are not only lost but their freedome of the Ordinances pure doctrine and worship and faith are in bondage and the soul is enthralled Cincta obsidient civitas sucâ—ensa cum omni â—opuâ—â— conflagravit Ens l. 8. c. 11. A whole City in Phrygia because it would not yield to Dioclesians decree to change religion was compassed about with armed men and the City withall the Citisens in it burnt to ashes In the City of Alexandria Julian comming to take possession of it because the Christians would not turn Heathens but shewed up and down the skulls of them which they found were remaining of such as had been sacrificed in the worship of Mythra Amicus amicum frater fratrem parentes liberos percutiunt in mutuam caedem corruunt Socrat. l. 3. c. 2 Victor de persec Vandal the enraged Heathens wounded most stoned some strangled others some were slain with a sword and others were crucifyed friend spared not friend nor brother his brother nor Parents their own Children Hunerick was no sooner Conquerour but in all the Cities which he had subdued he commanded alteration of religion and not being obeyed in it he instantly killed or banished five thousand of Bishops Priests and men of all orders Yea it were infinite to relate the several cruelties and tortures that Cities have undergone in point of conscience when they have been enforced to come under the yoak of the Conquerour But this is a thing so evident that there need no OEdipus to expound the riddle nor Antiquity searched into to find out the Annals of forepast miseries Conscience hath been an old slave upon such accidents men that will not permute a God and suffer their faith to be new-stamped must either run or dye for it Oh then if ever your sins bring in Gods Judgements into your City marching rank and file see the variety of sorrows ye must weep under as happily as ye now seem to live ye must have another face of wretchednesse amongst you whatsoever present comforts ye now enjoy yet then nothing but exigents and dysasters your looking-glasse will be snatcht away your Mirrour cracked your bright Diamond shivered in pieces this goodly City of yours all in sherds ye may seek for a threshold of your antient dwellings for a Pillar of your pleasant habitations and not find them all your specious Mansions and sumptuous Monuments are then gone not a Porch Pavement Seeling Tarrasse Staircase Gallery Turret Lanthorn Balcony Bench piece of a Skreen pane of a window post nail stone or dust of your former houses to be seen No with wringing hands ye may ask Where are those sweet places where we traded feasted slept where we lived like Masters and shone like Morning-stars no the houses are fallen and the Housholders dropt with them we have nothing but the naked streets or naked fields for shelters not so much as a Chamber where to lodge a Friend or to couch down our Children or repose our own members when we are spent with weariness or afflicted with sicknesse Wo unto us our sins have pulled down our houses shaken down our City we are the most harbourlesse seatlesse people in the world we live rather like Forraigners than Natives yea rather like beasts then men Foxes have holes and the fowls of the air have nests but we have neither holes nor nests our sins have deprived us both of couch and covert we would be glad if any Hospitall or Spittle would receive us Dens and Caves the bleak Air or cold ground are now left unto us as our only Shades and Refuges But this is but the misery of stonework of Arches Dormans Roofs but what will ye say when it doth come to skin work arms necks and bowels may not your dear persons come to be joined in the hazard and your tender persons touched yes ye which have walked the streets in state may then run the streets in distraction ye which have searched out others with severity may then be plucked out of corners by others with rigour ye which have been bowed unto with reverence may tâ—en bend your knees for mercy with one leg or half an arm ye may beg the preservation of the rest of your members what inventions shall ye then be put to to secure your selves yea perhaps what would ye not give to save your lives and your tears it may be will not rescue you nor your gold redeem you but your veynes must weep as well as your eyes and your sides be watered as well as your cheeks when your sinns shall shut up all the Conduits of the City and suffer only the Liver Conduit to run when they allow you no showres of rain but showres of blood to wash your streets when ye shall see no men of your Incorporation but the mangld Citisen nor hear no noise in your streets but the crys the shrieks the yells and pants of gasping dying men when amongst the throngs of Associates and Confederates not a man will own you or come near you when your Customers will slip from you your Friends hide head and your servants flee out of your fight when ye shall see your kindred slain in one place your wives in another your children in a third and your selves at last it may be cut in two to encrease the number of dead Carkasses When as populous as yeare ye shall be but numbred to the sword as puissant as ye are the valiant shall be swept away as sine fed as ye are ye shall be fed with your own flesh and made drunk with your own blood when your trespasses have been so outragious that vengeance doth deny you a being that ye are thought fit for nothing but to be killed in the place where ye have committed the crimes and to suffer the pains of death within those walls which you have cursed with your Sodoms faces and Aegyptian hard heartednesse when your Politicians can no longer help you but must have their subtle brains dashed in pieces with yours nor your Lecturers can no longer save you but ye must meet together at the Congregation near the Shambles when this great City shall be but a great Chopping-board to quarter out the limbs of sinners or the great Altar wherein a whole City is to be sacrificed Oh dolefull day of new-painting your walls new-paving your streets new-summoning of
compleatly to a businesse it being said of Plato that he had a stored brest and of Curio that he was ample in giving informaâ—ioâ— and of â—yctamus the Schollar of Aristotle who was afterwards called Theophrastus he Divine speaker that with all manner of suavity he could speak fully to the subjects which he did handle So repentance is copious in setting out a Penitent with all his adjuncts and appurtenances inferences and references to make him acceptable Polycrates when he presented the mother of a Souldier which dyed in the Wars to a rich Citisen of Samos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eras in Adg. he delivered her with these termes I give this Mother to thee to maintain and all the good services of the Souldier were rehearsed Plato undertaking to bring AEschynes into favour who had been a long time neglected in the Court of Dionysius he used all his Rhetorick to ingratiate him telling the Prince that he was a man of profound judgement Plut. de discâ—n adult one of strict life and that he had travelled a great way to wait upon him yea nothing was omitted to endeere him Fabius Maximus that he might be set out with his due honour being brought into the City by the greatest Concourse of Senatours and people he was desired to make a stand in the open Marketstead where by the invention of Aretius there was a stately Monument set up for the people to gaze upon and every thing related that was praise worthy in him as that he had been Aedile Censor Valer. Maxim Tribune of the Souldiers Pontifex Augur five times Consul and twise Diclatour and that in his time he had taken Tarentum subdued the Ligurians so restored the battail when Minucius was flying that he was called the Father of the Army so vanquished Hannibal that he might be styled the Deliverer of the Roman Empire Pompey at his triumph which was the greatest that ever I read had every thing brought in that might expresse the glory of it there was represented to the people his Victories over Pontus Armenia Cappadocia Paphlagonia Media Dâ— universo orbis unbitu triumphasse visas est quod memini profeâ—â—o pisum est usquam Plut. in Pompeio Plut. in Antonio Cholers Iberia Albania Syria Cilicia Mesopotamia Phoenicia Palestina Arabia and that he had conquered a 1000 Castles 900 Cities 800 Piratical ships that in Africk Asia and Europe he had done such wonders that he seemed to triumph over all the World Cleopatra when she prepared her self to go meet Mark Authony that the Majesty of such a glorious appearance might be fully known there is described every thing that might witnesse her Princely Pomp namely that she sailed down the River Cydnus in a bark overlaid with gold the Oares being of pure silver the Cables of silk the sailes of purple the odours so costly that they perfumed the banks sides with sweet smells her maids of honour attired all like Nymphs and her self sitting under a Tent of gold did seem to be the very Deâ—ty of beauty But never any Narration Triumph or Spectacle did ever so decipher and delineate a thing as Repentance doth all thy motions affections prepararations passages and perfections God hath an observing eye over a Penitent and doth exarate and can enumerate all his manifestations he hath bottles for thy tears files for thy Petitions witnesses for thy vows baggs for thine almes and books for thy actions He that made the ear doth he not hear Doth he not see my waies and count all my steps are not these things written in thy book doth he not search the heart and reines Scientia relativè dicitur ad scibile Tho. Aq. p. 1. q. 14. art 15. Alternante conceptu Aug. de Trim. l. 15. c. 14. Can there any thing be concealed from him flee his notice or be undiscernable to his all seeing eye No Knowledge is relative to that which is sciâ—ile a thing is no sooner perceptible but God doth apply his understanding to it not by a variable conception but by present insight he which doth know infinite things must needs know in thee such things as have both initiation termination Oh penitent then see how God doth look upon thee look thee through search thee and mark thee that every thing thou dost doth come to his notice and is under his eye If thou wouldst be seen with comfort and seen compleatly turn Penitent for repentance is an object that is never out of Gods clear distinct and district view here Gods eye is piercing and fixed Josiah doth no sooner humble himself but every melting in his brest and slash in his garments is considered the Publican doth no sooner approach to God but his distance his dejection his blushing his knocking and his humble tone is taken notice of Hezekiah doth no sooner apprehend judgement but his turning his face to the wall his pious gales and calling upon God for an approbatory remembrance are called to mind Mary Magdalen doth no sooner seek reconciliation but her modest gesture her torrent of tears her head-spun napkin and her passionate kisses are spoken of yea Ahab is but an Actour upon this Stage and his personating of repentance is called upon to be discerned for Seest thou not how Ahab is humbled Oh then that thou couldst repent that thou dist repent shouldst thou not be apprehended yes though before thou wert never looked upon or seen with delight yet then thou shouldst have Gods eye of grace his eye of inspection his bright and his broad eye fastned upon thee Return return oh ye Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee Cant. 6.13 the returning Shulamite is a creature sit for the heavenly gaze God will look upon her and not passe the least thing that is remarkable in her six his eyes and feed his eies upon her consider her beauty and admire her new-acquired greatness speak like one affected and ravished with her Who is she that looketh forth as the morning fair as the Moon clear as the Suâ— terrible as an army with banners Cant. 6.10 Oh then so soon as thou hast but cast thy self at Gods feet God doth stoop down to take thee up so soon as thy sacrifice is laid upon the coals of the Altar the smoak of it doth ascend to Heaven so soon as thou dost but lay hold on thy Saviour be it but upon the hem of his Garment yet he is sensible of thy first feeling of him though with some remotenesse Who is this that hath touched me for vertue is gone out of me God is privy to the least addresse and the smallest expression that ever thou didst make when thou didst desire an union with him He knoweth the first turning up the flag when thou didst break up thy fallow ground and the first gash that was made when the circumcising knife did cut off thy uncircumcised foreskin he can tell thee thy conception thy quickning thy birth the first drawing at the
liberty be so much tendered how much more life Oh there is not a more crimson sinne then when blood toucheth blood Hos 4.2 That is That there is no end in blood-shed when blood is powred out as dust and flesh as dung Zeph. 2.17 When widows are increased like the sands of the Sea Jer. 15.8 When a Land is soaked with blood Isai 34.7 Oh that men to men should be such Tigers and Furies as if it were a mirth to open the Conduits of life to gush forth till the last drop and to water fields with tempests of blood What dreadfull examples of cruelty do we meet withall in ages Pericles as Plut. reporteth exterminating the Calcidenses and Estienses The French after the defeat at Thermopylae as Pausanias saith destroying the Callienses to a man plucking the Children from their Mothers brests and killing them tearing in pieces the marriagable virgins so that happy were they which could get a Frenchmans sword to dye upon without further torture Totila as Gregorius Turon reporteth flaying quick Herculanus the Bishop of Perusium and cutting off the heads of all the Citizens Sylla slaying twelve thousand in one City of Preneste Attila 30000 at the sacking of Rome Abderamen an hundred thousand at one battell in Gallicia Marius so busie in killing his Country-men that he wished himselfe the onely Roman to be left alone Hanibal so eager in destroying Flaminius and his Souldiers that he felt not an earth quake which happened in the time of the battel Don Pedro the cruell making Spain in his time a Charnel house full of nothing but dead mens bones Mahomet the great causing the streets and Temples of Constantinople to swim with blood Selim the Turk killing the Persians so with without mercy that he built a Tower barely of their dead heads Oh these men if it were in their power how would they exanimate nature dispeople the earth and leave the world a wildernesse Wounds are their feats of activity blood their cordiall crying groans their musick gastly faces their looking-glasses shivered bones the reliques of their puissance and dead carkasses the emblems of their glorious triumphs But wo and alass to such harsh Encomiasticks I which never slew man nor have yet seen a man slain do account such praises which have blood for the ground of the ditty but sad honours These things may be famous amongst Pagans but they are but dolefull accidents amongst Christians For we which are commanded so keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and to be courteous and tender-hearted one towards another and to love one another with a pure heart fervently are so unsainted that if we speak with the tongue of men and Angels and have not charity we are but as the sounding brass and the tinkling Cymballs doubtlesse the thought of these things should make us oftentimes either to sheath up the sword in affection or to go to War in tears Whence come Wars whence come contentions are they not from hence even from the lusts that are in your members And are lusts justifiable pleaders at Gods Throne Is there a judge is the reckoning hastening on will blood be one of the most criminall guilts at that Tribunal then how ought we to skreen and riddle our soules concerning the steyn of blood-shed He which hath slayn his brother how shall he shew his face before that Father he which hath a bloody hand how shall he lift it up with innocency at the white Throne How will the lives of men go at an high rate at that day when here God doth prize the chiefe Treasures of a City to be these Persons Wherein are Persons Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are Persons Sixscore thousand 4. Now let us come to the quantity of the Treasures Sixscore thousand So many there were in the minority of yeares how many then were there of riper age From hence observe That a great blessing to a Citty is to abound in people Numerosa multitudo isocrates Civitas est societas ex multis viciniis constans Pet. Greg. Stante Coronâ Ovid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eâ—rip in Phrixo for a true City is a numerous multitude yea an happy City is a society consisting of many neighbourhoods When a Crown of living souls seemeth to stand together and a whole Country is met in a Ring for Cities are a confluence of men and not desolate wildernesses That as it is said Who can tell the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel Num. 23.10 So who can tell the multitudes of a populous City Oh it is a glorious thing when a City doth passe Arithmetick when the totall sum can scarce be cyphered up Who can tell Who can number when such a loud peal is rung within the walls that a City is full of noise Isai 22.2 when there is such a crowd for room that the place is too narrow for men to dwell in Isai 49.19 when new hangings must be bought for such a large family or new Bedsteads set up for the plenty of guests that come to lodge there that a City doth spread out the Curtains of her habitations and increase on the right hand and on the left Es 54.2 3. When such a flood of Inhabitants doth seem to stream in the streets that the Citizens are like many waters Rev. 17.1 when such swarms of living souls do skip up and down in the streets that they are as the grashoppers for multitude Judg. 6.5 When the sand-heaps do scarce exceed the number of their lovely issues the fruitfull Mothers seeming to have gotten shoals and shores of progenies into their wombs the ofspring of their bowels being as the gravell Esai 48.19 Is not this glory is not this honour yes this is to be a City with an excellency as Ninevehs fame and felicity is here described to be great that she can reckon by her many thousands even sixscore thousand Application 1. This doth serve first to present to you your Life-Blessing are ye not peopled Vnd undique circum Fundimur Virg. 3. Aeneid Quôque capit latis immensum moenibus orbem Ovid. 2. de Ponto turba vias impleverat agmine denso Lucan ad Cal. Pl. Veteri exhausta habitatore H. Boeth Pudendus ex ercitus ex maneipiis Plut. yes the City of Numbers every street and lane stored with dwellers yea a City so plenished with Inhabitants that it doth seem to contain a world within her walls the waies seem to be too streight for frequency of passengers If it should be said to you as it is Num. 1.40 Take the sum of the people or give in the full tale 1 Sam. 18.27 what troops might here march forth what armies might be drawn out Armorica Bretaigne in France was so thinned of men after the wars of Maximian that it was afraid that the Country should be drained of the old Inhabitant after the battle of Cannae Rome was so desolate that
it was enforced to raise up a shamefull Army of slaves but these fears are not yet come upon you for the Lord your God hath blessed you and ye are as the stars of Heaven for multitude Deut. 1.10 yea we might almost say to you that ye are a great people which cannot be numbred or counted 1 Kings 3.8 ye know the bounds of your City but which of you all do know the vastnesse of your Inhabitants oh your Vine doth hang full of clusters your ricks stand thick with corn ye have a rich Banquet served up with variety of services your quarry is large your book in solio hath so many pages in it that there want figures to number them how much liquor is there in this spacious Winepresse how many sockets with bright lights shining in them are there in this mighty Branch Oh ye are a great City and a great People If blossoming and budding and filling a place with fruit be a blessing how high ought the tone of your Magnificat to be the sound of your hymn ought to be little inferiour to the noise of the Hallelujah in Heaven It is a blessing when God doth fill the face of the world with Cities Esay 14.21 but it is a greater blessing when God doth fill the face of a City with the amiablenesse of Inhabitants and is not this your happinesse yes oh that ye could see it that ye could sing to the honour of it that ye had learned some speciall Antheme or some Psalme of degrees for it that ye would make it not your boast but your exultation not your pride but your praise not your glory but your glorifying Sure I am few Cities upon earth have a greater incentive of celebrating for as Cyprus was called Macaria the Happy Island for fruitfulnesse of ground so may ye the Happy City for fruitfulnesse of people Knowls in his Turkish Hist Your sons grow up as the young Plants and your daughters as the polished corners of the Sanctuary hither the Tribes go up even the Tribes in their Order ye are sown with the seed of man yea your seed is as the dust of the Earth ye have enough to answer all Nations in traffick ye have enough to answer your enemies in the gates ye have planted whole Countries beyond the Seas and ye have a Noursery yet left to make wast plains and wild wildernesses Orch-yards and Gardens Ye have the double blessing amongst you the blessing of the backet and store Deut. 28.5 and the blessing of the breast and womb Gen. 49.25 What a large Ordinary is this City how many Tables are there here every day spread to satisfie hunger what a spacious Bedehamber is this City how many Couches are there every night here prepared to refresh weary souls What a spring of people is there here the breath of life never stirred quicker in such a quantity of ground Nature here doth shew her organizing art this is one of her gendring Receptacles The Myrmidons were so many that they were said to be begotten of Pismires and this City doth so abowâ—â—d with people that it may be called one of the Ant-heaps of the earth the Curetes are reported to be begotten by a stroke upon a Mountain and living persons do here so abound that they seem rather to be strook out then brought forth their encrease is so plentifull and speedy that a man would think that they came up like spring-flowers to garnish the City or that they were rained down from Heaven by the vertue of the sweet Influences of the Pleiades Oh look about and see that if these Persons be your treasures how fast your mint do go and what incredible heaps ye have in banks ye are the skinned and fleshed City the true Corporation indeed for here are enow to make up not only a body Politique but a Republique of bodies if all your bodies should appear at once ye would scarse have streetroom enough for them they would adorn your City more than your hangings of Arras at the most publique shew Every place is so thronged with them that people can scarceget passage every dwelling so stored that there is scarce an empty house to be found your births do so exceed that ye can scarce build fast enough to house them the branches have almost as much timber as the stock of the tree the land without the inclosure is almost as fruitfull as the ground within the hedge your Suburbs do almost vye multitudes with the City These slifts which have been taken from you are grown up to a wonderfull height The daughters which have come out of your womb do equall the Mother in pedigree and progeny But are the people treasures are ye affected with these treasures have ye done honour to the Lord of the Mine that your City is sprinkled scattered heaped and wedged with these treasure that yee are filled with these pretious and pleasant riches as Solomon saith that these glistering pieces are in every corner that your wealth cannot be told that there is no end of your riches did ye ever open your Coffers look upon your riches blesse your selves and blesse your God in this abundance oh if a multitude in the Hebrew doth come of a verb that signifies to make a noise Strepuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. in Hecuba Populus civitatis robur Dionys Halic l. 3. and to congregate in Greek doth intimate as much as the sand if a multitude be a weighty thing and the people be the vigour and strength of the City if there be no greater happinesse than to see a people led like a flock Psalm 77.20 and to have the noise of a multitude in the mountains as of a great people Esa 13.4 and to have people to flow to the mountain of the Lord. Micah 4.1 and to have them encrease as they have increased and to be sown amongst the people Zach. 10.8 9. yea if the glory of a City be to be full of people Lam. 1.1 and the honour of a King be in the multitude of his people Prov. 14.28 then how are ye bound to magnifie God for this lowd sound in the City for the quick sand which run up and down by heaps in the City for the City weight and the City strength the huge bone and the backbone as it were of the City to see people flock and flow increase and fill and grow up to the number of multitudes Did ye ever look upon the goodly house that God hath given you and see how richly he hath furnished it for you Did ye ever mark your golden Cup and consider how God hath fillled it brim full with people people shining amongst you like the Sun beams or lying as thick as the dew upon the grasse Did all the bells in the City ever ring the trumpets blow and the wind-instruments play I mean your thankfull lips make melody to the Lord for
the People No I doubt ye have forgotten your people that though they daily face you and their clappers strike in your ears yet that ye are both blind and dumb in extolling God for this high speeched favour What Hecatomb have ye ever offered for this numerous blessing Have ye ever sung Hosannah in the highest for this high mercy I question whether ye have an Altar in the City for this service or whether the smoak of the sacrifice hath bin seen ascending Have ye told over your people in heaven and sent up a bill to God Almighty of your multitudes and wrot in the bottom Sit nomen Domint benedidum Let the name of he Lord be praised for this populous City No I am afraid ye have too much silence closing up your lips and too much ingratitude sticking upon your heart strings that God hath not heard from you a great while concerning the state welfare prosperity innumerability of the City that ye have not sent him word how the people do how this City is stocked with people and what quantity of these treasures there are Would ye have a City with bare walls or these gorgeous buildings stand without Inhabitants ye deserve it if God hath given you houses and housholders and hath breathed the breath of life into every living person amongst you and ye will not so much as give him thanks for this quickning mercy Therefore as ye cannot shew to the world a greater Ornament of your City then your people so present this people to God as your City-Benediction let it be the cry of your streets and the charme of your Pulpits an extasie for the people a Rhapsody for the multitudes Oh for this keep your solemn triumphs and hang up your banners for Tokens Study the flesh-song the womb-streynes as ye have the people-blessing so learn the People-ditty let young Men and Maydens old men and Babes Bride grooms and Brides Masters and Servants Liverymen and Senators Princes and Judges Closets and Galleries Chambers and Chappels Towers and Temples City and Suburbs Heaven and earth eccho and rebound with varied notes of a Canticle upon the Persons For that Persons in great multitudes are a great blessing ye may see it here by Nineveh who hath it mentioned as her high felicity to reckon Persons by thousands Wherein are sixscore thousand persons Secondly This serves to eye your present blessing that ye are yet preserved in your thousands Ye are yet a populous City and the Lord God if it be his blessed will make you a thousand times so many more as ye are Deut. 1.11 But if the Arrow that flyeth at noon day Psal 91.5 should glide amongst you how many wounded brests would there be If God should send the Pestilence amongst you after the manner of Egypt Amos 4.10 with as consident a foot as ye now walk yet then with the Magitians of Egypt ye would not be able to stand because of the boyles Exod. 9.11 If Hippocrates were then amongst you with his precious odours and sweet oyntments to persume places If Miadererus were shooting of Guns in every corner of your streets Quercit in Diet Polyhist Sect. 2. c. 8. Avicen l. 1. Fen. 3. Doct. 2. c. 7. Gal. l. 1 de dâ—sser Feb. c. 4. Paulus Aegin de re medica l. 1. c. 32. because the forceable noyse dissipates the ayr and sulphur and salt-peter with strong sinells purge it If Quercitanus and Avicen were preseribing the strictest rules of dyet if Galen and Paulus Aegineta were giving cautions against Plethorick bodies If Aetius Aretaeus Rasis Rondeletius Albucasis Azaramias Baria Papillia Chelmetius Fernelius Fallopius Georgius Pistorius Georgius Cusnerus Guido de Canliato Gulielmus de Saliceto with the most expert Physitians that ever lived were then teaching you the art how to make Confections Electuaries Pilles Pomanders Cordials Epithymes Frontals Funtanels and to make new sires and fumigations of Storax Calamint Labdanum Ireos Nemphar Dragagant Withy-cole and a thousand other materials for pure smoaks to expell ill sents yet they might be all ineffectuall to prevent that irresistible stroak For I am not yet resolved with some Astrologers that if Saturn and Mars be in dominion under Aries Sagittarius and Capricorn and in opposition to Jupiter that the plague doth infallibly follow nor that it doth arise alwaies from hot and moist ayr Hippoer l. 2. Epidem Galen l. 1. de Temp. c. 4. Avenzoar l. 3. Tract 3. c. 1. as Hippocrates and Galen do hold nor from hot and dry air as Avenzoar conceiveth nor that kindred do take the infection sooner one from another than strangers because of the assimilation of blood as Vido Vidio affirmeth and that Virgins are more subject to it than married women because the spirits are fluid and reteyned and so apt to putrisie as Mindererus holdeth Cels l. 8. de re Med. c. 27. neither do I think that wine is an Antidote against all poysons nor that if a man be well dyeted he may escape any infection Lacrt. l. 2. because Socrates if it be true lived in Athens in many plagues and yet was never touched with it being a man of high temperance But I hold that a Pestilence is the Hand of God as David calleth it 2 Sam. 24.14 and the sword of the Lord as it is styled 1 Chron. 21.12 So that when God will strike or where or by what means is uncertain onely this is certain that whensoever God doth lift up his hand he will strike home Is there a more terrible and dismall blow then that of the Pestilence No it is the noysome pestilence Psa 91.3 and if this stinche come up into your nostrils ye are gone God will make you then smite with the hand stamp with the foot and cry alas Ezech. 6.21 Yea it is a weapon so sharp that it is able to leave a Nation without an heir for I will smite them with the Pestilence and disinherit them Num. 14.12 There is nothing but a burying-place to be seen where a Pestilence doth cleave to a place Deut. 28.21 Behold a pale horse and he that sat upon it was death Rev. 6.8 If this pale horse come to neigh in your streets and death be the Rider such an Horse and such a Rider are able to dash asunder and to dash into the grave many thousands I read of fourteen thousand seven hundred that dyed in one plague Num. 16.49 of twenty four thousand which dyed in another plague Num. 25.9 of seventy thousand in a third plague 2 Sam. 24.15 Paus in Baeoticis C. Rhod. ant lect l. 8. c. 12. Dion Ziphilinus liabell l. 9. Aencad 1. Ensebius lib. 7. c. 21. The Ectenae a people of Baeotia with their first King Ogyges were wholly destroyed with the plague so that the Hyantes and Aeones came in their stead to people the Land A golden Coffer in the Temple of Apollo at Babylon being opened it infected the whole Country with the Pestilence and spread
bosom and that the Lambe may feed them which have given Christ here meat when he was hungry and drinke when he was thirsty Oh then why do ye not horse the needy that they may carry newes to Heaven how ye have relieved them why do ye not dresse your Oxen and your Sheep for them that they may send word to your best friends what Banquets ye have bestowed upon them for his sake ye may make use of your Cattell your selves but where there is much Cattle the distressed should get a taste out of your abundance They are strange persons which seem to be born to themselves and to live to themselves these are fit to dye in a Stable or to breath out their last gaspe among their heards of Cattle to have nothing but an Oxe or a Ramme for their ghostly Father or to be buried in a Beasts skin for a winding-sheet I esteeme thee no rich man if I do not heare thou dost scatter abroad talents out of thy vast means Thou which dost hoard up an estate for thine own secret ends or dost lock it up onely for posterity and the indigent get no sight of it let the old Fox and the young Cubs if they will talke of the warm burrough that they are earthed together in for my part I hold them to be but wretched Beggars Should people lay their foundations here below No with Gnodophur King of India newly converted by St. Thomas they should give over building a royal Palace by princely expenses Marulus and go build a Palace for themselves in Heaven by Almsdeeds they should not desire to have Troops of Horses attending upon them whithersoever they go Munster in Cosmog but with Henry the 4th Emperour of Germany they should desire to have throngs of the poor waiting upon them in the streets Fields Tents and Chambers yea they should so excell in works of Charity till they get a sirname by them Metaphrastes in ejus vita as John Patriarke of Alexandria was so abundantly liberall that he was called Almoner Oh how am I ashamed that when I find amongst the Heathens so much Charity as Tullus Hâ—stilius would not take the rents of his Crown-land which his predecessours did but divided them amongst the poor Fulgos l. 3. c. 8. Joseph l. 15. c. 12. Plut. in Arato Athen. l. 12. c. 15. and Herod the great gave fourscore thousand Cores of Corne at one time and that Ptolomee K. of Egypt gave unto Aratus the Sicyonian upon one particular accident an hundred and fifty Talents to distribute amongst the poor the Noblemen of Cimon the Athenian carried out whole sacks full of money to share amongst the distressed Cuspinian and Nerva who most princelike gave away far above an hundred thousand pieces of good money to sustaine poore Citizens and that we have a company of Christians whose eyes are sunk in their heads for they hide their eyes from their own flesh which have the twisting of the guts for their bowels of compassion never work they live only by the Creed or the first Table they have not learned their duty to their neighbour That they should love their neighbour as their selves I doubt Pater-noster hath not come this good while into their lippes because Frater-noster is such an eye-sore in their sight they are good for nothing but to be Scavengers to carry away the dung of the City they never open their purses or unlock except it be for a bargain or a purchase they have much Cattel but not a beast for their neighbours they had rather their herds should dye of a rot then that they should be put to the charge of a banquet that their silver and gold should be cankered then that it should be kept bright by Alms-deeds they are wealthy but they send no Tokens to God Almighty nor write any gratulatory Epistles to be delivered to him by the hands of his distressed Members God hath filled every corner of their houses with abundance but they distribute not a sackfull of silver or a true talent of gold in their whole life-time they believe in Christ and the Heathens in Idols but the Idol can make the more moral the more charitable man It is as hard for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle as for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven Gold is their hope and therefore they will not weaken their confidence by diminishing their estates by Alms-deeds their eyes cannot be satisfied with riches and they will not abate the desire of their eyes for a souls satisfaction they seek great things to their selves and they will not lose their great designs for the name of Worthies or the title of Benefactors no they have much Cattel and they will keep up the honour of the pasture rather then expect that the blessing of charity should encrease the gendring But oh why hath God trusted you with such plentifull Estates that he should not call any thing back againe when he hath use of it Was the Lease sealed onely to your selves no read it over advisedly and ye shall find that the poor were joynt Tenants with you oh therefore deal justly with them which have a proper interest with you least God bring a â—oris factum a plain forfeiture against you take home all again into his own hands ye deserve no more then your brethren why then will ye keep the entire possession to your selves and not pay the out-rents therefore look to your conditions observe Articles for bounties sake neglect not works of charity for the sake of providence be strict in Alms-deeds when Gods Receivers come send them not away empty when he doth make demand by his authorized Officers pay what he hath covenanted with you for Know that he hath been willing to promote you that ye might be willing to communicate and that he hath made you rich that ye might be rich in good works therefore conclude that charity is requisite where welfare is eminent and that there must be much commiseration where there are much cattel And also much cattel Fourthly This serves to exhort you To be very circumspect in the ordering of a great estate Grande patrimonium temptatio grandis Cyp. for where there are much cattel there is much danger A great patrimony is a great temptation The desire of money is the root of all evill they which would be rich fall into snares and into divers foolish and noysome lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction Those same covetous practises 2 Pet. 2.14 are usually the hazards of conscience and the precipices of the soul Nihil laboriosius quà m terrenis desideriis aestuare Bern. There is nothing more troublesome then the surges of earthly desires Here are much cattel in this City are all rightly ordered No whereas thou shouldst have a scape Goat to take away the sinnes of the Congregation or a Lambe to send to the Ruler of the people