was a rod hee held it familiarly in his hand when once a Serpent he ran away from it 24 I haue seldome seene much ostentation and much learning met together The Sunne rising and declining makes long shadowes at mid-day when hee is at highest none at all Besides that skill when it is too much showne loseth the grace as fresh-coloured wares if they be often opened lose their brightnesse and are soiled with much handling I had rather applaud my selfe for hauing much that I shew not than that others should applaud me for shewing more than I haue 25 An ambitious man is the greatest enemie to himselfe of any in the world besides for he still torments himselfe with hopes and desires and cares which he might auoid if hee would remit of the height of his thoughts and liue quietly My onely ambition shall be to rest in Gods fauour on earth and to be a Saint in heauen 26 There was neuer good thing easily come by The Heathen man could say God sels knowledge for sweat and so hee doth honour for ieopardy Neuer any man hath got either wealth or learning with ease Therefore the greatest good must needs bee most difficult How shall I hope to get Christ if I take no paines for him And if in all other things the difficultie of obtaining whets the minde so much the more to seeke why should it in this alone daunt mee I will not care what I doe what I suffer so I may winne Christ If men can endure such cutting such lancing and searing of their bodies to protract a miserable life yet a while longer what paine should I refuse for eternitie 27 If I die the world shall misse me but a little I shall misse it lesse Not it mee because it hath such store of better men Not I it because it hath so much ill and I shall haue so much happinesse 28 Two things make a man set by Dignitie and Desert Amongst fooles the first without the second is sufficient amongst wise men the second without the first Let me deserue well though I bee not aduanced The conscience of my worth shall cheere me more in others contempt than the approbation of others can comfort me against the secret checke of my owne vnworthinesse 29 The best qualities doe so cleaue to their subiects that they cannot be communicated to others For whereas patrimony and vulgar account of honor follow the bloud in many generations Vertue is not traduced by propagation nor learning bequeathed by our Will to our heires lest the giuers should wax proud and the receiuers negligent I will account nothing my owne but what I haue gotten nor that mine owne because it is more of gift than desert 30 Then onely is the Church most happy when Truth and Peace kisse each other and then miserable when either of them balke the way or when they meet and kisse not For truth without peace is turbulent and peace without truth is secure iniustice Though I loue peace well yet I loue maine truths better And though I loue all truths well yet I had rather conceale a small truth than disturbe a common peace 31 An indiscreet good action is little better than a discreet mischiefe For in this the doer wrongs onely the Patient but in that other the wrong is done to the good action for both it makes a good thing odious as many good tales are marr'd in telling and besides it preiudices a future opportunitie I will rather let passe a good gale of wind and stay on the shore than lanch forth when I know the wind will be the contrary 32 The World teacheth me that it is madnesse to leaue behinde me those goods that I may carry with me Christianitie teacheth me that what I charitably giue aliue I carrie with me dead and experience teacheth me that what I leaue behinde I lose I will carrie that treasure with me by giuing it which the worldling loseth by keeping it so while his corps shall carrie nothing but a winding cloth to his graue I shall bee richer vnder the earth than I was aboue it 33 Euery worldling is an hypocrite for while his face naturally lookes vpward to heauen his heart grouels beneath on the earth yet if I would admit of any discord in the inward and outward parts I would haue an heart that should looke vp to heauen in an holy contemplation of the things aboue and a countenance cast downe to the earth in humiliation This onely dissimilitude is pleasing to God 34 The heart of man is a short word a small substance scarce enough to giue a Kite one meale yet great in capacitie yea so infinite in desire that the round Globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it When it desires more and cries Giue giue I will set it ouer to that infinite Good where the more it hath it may desire more and see more to be desired when it desires but what it needeth my hands shall soone satisfie it For if either of them may containe it when it is without the body much more may both of them fill it while it is within 35 With men it is a good rule To try first and then to trust with God it is contrary I will first trust him as most wise omnipotent mercifull and try him afterwards I know it is as impossible for him to deceiue me as not to be 36 As Christ was both a Lambe and a Lion so is euery Christian A Lambe for patience in suffering and innocencie of life A Lion for boldnesse in his innocencie I would so order my courage and mildnesse that I may bee neither Lion-like in my conuersation nor sheepish in the defence of a good cause 37 The godly sowe in teares and reape in ioy The seed-time is commonly waterish and lowring I will be content with a wet Spring so I may be sure of a cleere and ioyfull Haruest 38 Euery man hath an Heauen and an Hell Earth is the wicked mans Heauen his Hell is to come on the contrarie the godly haue their Hell vpon earth where they are vexed with tentations and afflictions by Satan and his complices their Heauen is aboue in endlesse happinesse If it be ill with me on earth it is well my torment is so short and so easie I will not be so couetous to hope for two heauens 39 Man on his Death-bed hath a double prospect which in his life-time the interposition of pleasure and miseries debarred him from The good man lookes vpward and sees heauen open with Steuen and the glorious Angels ready to carrie vp his soule The wicked man lookes downeward and sees three terrible spectacles Death Iudgement Hell one beyond another and all to be passed thorow by his soule I maruell not that the godly haue beene so cheerefull in death that those torments whose very sight hath ouercome the beholders haue seemed easie to them I maruell not that a wicked man is so loth to heare of
I call it the way or the gate of life Sure I am that by it onely wâ— passe into that blessednesse whereof we haue so thought that we haue found it cannot be thought of enough The Description What then is this death but the taking downe of these sticks whereof this earthly Tent is composed The separation of two great and old friends till they meet againe The Gaole-deliuerie of a long prisoner Our iourney into that other world for which wee and this thorow-fare were made Our paiment of our first debt to Nature the sleepe of the body and the awaking of the soule The Diuision But lest thou shouldest seeme to flatter him whose name and face hath euer seemed terrible to others remember that there are more deaths than one If the first death bee not so fearefull as hee is made his horrour lying more in the conceit of the beholder than in his owne aspect surely the second is not made so fearefull as hee is No liuing eye can behold the terrours thereof it is as impossible to see them as to feele them and liue Nothing but a name is common to both The first hath men casualties diseases for his executioners the second Deuils The power of the first is in the graue the second in hell The worst of the first is senslesnesse the easiest of the second is a perpetuall sense of all the paine that can make a man exquisitely miserable The Causes Thou shalt haue no businesse O my soule with the second death Thy first Resurrection hath secured thee Thanke him that hath redeemed thee for thy safetie And how can I thanke thee enough O my Sauiour which hast so mercifully bought off my torment with thy owne and hast drunke off that bitter potion of thy Fathers wrath whereof the very taste had beene our death Yea such is thy mercie O thou Redeemer of men that thou hast not onely subdued the second death but reconciled the first so as thy children taste not at all of the second and finde the first so sweetned to them by thee that they complaine of bitternesse It was not thou O God that madest death our hands are they that were guiltie of this euill Thou sawest all thy worke that it was good we brought forth sinne and sinne brought forth death To the discharge of thy Iustice and Mercie we acknowledge this miserable conception and needs must that childe be vgly that hath such parents Certainly if Being and Good be as they are of an equall extent then the dissolution of our Being must needs in it selfe be euill How ful of darkenesse and horrour then is the priuation of this vitall light especially since thy wisdome intended it to the reuenge of sinne which is no lesse than the violation of an infinite Iustice it was thy iust pleasure to plague vs with this brood of our owne begetting Behold that death which was not till then in the world is now in euery thing one great Conqueror findes it in a Slate another findes it in a Flie one findes it in the kernel of a Grape another in the pricke of a thorne one in the taste of an herbe another in the smell of a flower one in a bit of meat another in a mouthfull of aire one in the very sight of a danger another in the conceit of what might haue beene Nothing in all our life is too little to hide death vnder it There need no cords nor kniues nor swords nor Peeces we haue made our selues as many waies to death as there are helps of liuing But if we were the authors of our death it was thou that didst alter it our disobedience made it and thy mercie made it not to be euill It had beene all one to thee to haue taken away the very Being of death from thine owne but thou thoughtest it best to take away the sting of it onely as good Physicians when they would apply their Leeches scowre them with Salt and Nettles and when their corrupt bloud is voided imploy them to the health of the patient It is more glory to thee that thou hast remoued enmitie from this Esau that now he meets vs with kisses in stead of frownes and if wee receiue a blow from this rough hand yet that very stripe is healing Oh how much more powerfull is thy death than our sinne O my Sauiour how hast thou perfumed and softened this bed of my graue by dying How can it grieue mee to tread in thy steps to glory Our sinne made death our last enemie The Effects thy goodnesse hath made it the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world For as shee that receiues vs from the knees of our mother in our first entrance to the light washeth cleanseth dresseth vs and presents vs to the brest of our nurse or the armes of our mother challenges some interest in vs when we come to our growth so death which in our passage to that other life is the first that receiues and presents our naked soules to the hands of those Angels which carry it vp to her glorie cannot but thinke this office friendly and meritorious What if this guide leade my carcase through corruption and rottennesse when my soule in the very instant of her separation knowes it selfe happy What if my friends mourne about my bed and coffin when my soule sees the smiling face and louing embracements of him that was dead and is aliue What care I who shuts these earthen eyes when death opens the eye of my soule to see as I am seene What if my name be forgotten of men when I liue aboue with the God of Spirits If death would be still an enemie The Subiect it is the worst part of mee that he hath any thing to doe withall the best is aboue his reach and gaines more than the other can leese The worst peece of the horrour of death is the graue and set aside infidelitie what so great miserie is this That part which is corrupted feeles it not that which is free from corruption feeles an abundant recompence and foresees a ioyfull reparation What is here but a iust restitution We carry heauen and earth wrapt vp in our bosomes each part returnes homeward And if the exceeding glory of heauen cannot countetuaile the dolesomnesse of the graue what doe I beleeuing But if the beautie of that celestiall Sanctuarie doe more than equalize the horrour of the bottomlesse pit how can I shrinke at earth like my selfe when I know my glorie And if examples can moue thee any whit looke behinde thee O my soule and see which of the Worthies of that ancient latter world which of the Patriarchs Kings Prophets Apostles haue not trod in these red steps Where are those millions of generations which haue hitherto peopled the earth How many passing-bels hast thou heard for they knowne friends How many sicke beds hast thou visited How many eies hast thou seene closed
tune of that knowne song beginning Preserue vs Lord. THee and thy wondrous deeds O God Wiâ—h all my soule I sound abroad verse 2 My ioy my triumph is in thee Of thy dread name my song shall be verse 3 O highest God since put to flight And fal'ne and vanisht at thy sight verse 4 Are all my foes for thou hast past Iust sentence on my cause at last And sitting on thy throne aboue A rightfull Iudge thy selfe doest proue verse 5 The troupes profane thy checks haue stroid And made their name for euer void verse 6 Where 's now my foes your threatned wrack So well you did our Cities sacke And bring to dust while that ye say Their name shall die as well as they verse 7 Loe in eternall state God sits And his high Throne to iustice fits verse 8 Whose righteous hand the world shall weeld And to all folke iust doome shall yeeld verse 9 The poore from high finde his releefe The poore in needfull times of griefe verse 10 Who knowes the Lord to thee shall cleaue That neuer doest thy clients leaue verse 11 Oh! sing the God that doth abide On Sion mount and blazon wide verse 12 His worthy deeds For he pursues The guiltlesse bloud with vengeance due He mindes their cause nor can passe o're Sad clamors of the wronged poore verse 13 Oh! mercy Lord thou that dost saue My soule from gates of death and graue Oh! see the wrong my foes haue done verse 14 That I thy praise to all that gone Through daughter Sions beauteous gate With thankfull songs may loud relate And may reioyce in thy safe aide Behold the Gentiles whiles they made A deadly pit my soule to drowne Into their pit are sunken downe In that close snare they hid for mee Loe their owne feet intangled be verse 16 By this iust doome the Lord is knowne That th' ill are punisht with their owne verse 17 Downe shall the wicked backward fall To deepest hell and nations all verse 18 That God forget nor shall the poore Forgotten be for euermore The constant hope of soules opprest verse 19 Shall not aye die Rise from thy rest Oh Lord let not men base and rude Preuaile iudge thou the multitude verse 20 Of lawlesse Pagans strike pale feare Into those brests that stubborne were And let the Gentiles feele and finde They beene but men of mortall kinde PSALME 10. As the 51. Psalme O God Consider WHy stand'st thou Lord aloofe so long And hidst thee in due times of need verse 2 Whiles lewd men proudly offer wrong Vnto the poore In their owne deed And their deuice let them be caught verse 3 For loe the wicked braues and boasts In his vile and outragious thought And blesseth him that rauines most verse 4 On God he dares insult his pride Scornes to enquire of powers aboue But his stout thoughts haue still deni'd verse 5 There is a God His waies yet proue 〈◊〉 prosperous thy iudgements hye Doe farre surmount his dimmer fight verse 6 Therefore doth he all foes defie His heart saith I shall stand in spight Nor euer moue nor danger ' bide verse 7 His mouth is fill'd with curses foule And with close fraud His tongue doth hide verse 8 Mischiefe and ill he seekes the soule Of harmelesse men in secret waite And in the corners of the street Doth shead their bloud with scorne and hate His eies vpon the poore are set verse 9 As some fell Lyon in his den He closely lurkes the poore to spoyle He spoyles the poore and helplesse men When once he snares them in his toyle verse 10 He croucheth low in cunning wile And bowes his brest whereon whole throngs Of poore whom his faire showes beguile Fall to be subiect to his wrongs verse 11 God hath forgot in soule he saies He hides his face to neuer see verse 12 Lord God arise thine hand vp-raise Let not thy poore forgotten be verse 13 Shall these insulting wretches scorne Their God and say thou wilt not care verse 14 Thou see'st for all thou hast forborne Thou see'st what all their mischiefes are That to thine hand of vengeance iust Thou maist them take the poore distressed Rely on thee with constant trust The helpe of Orphans and oppressed verse 15 Oh! breake the wickeds arme of might And search out all their cursed traines And let them vanish out of sight verse 16 The Lord as King for euer raignes From forth his coasts the heathen sect verse 17 Are rooted quite thou Lord attendst To poore mens sutes thou deo'st direct Their hearts to them thine eare thou bendst verse 18 That thou maist rescue from despight The wofull fatherlesse and poore That so the vaine and earthen wight On vs may tyrannize no more FJNJS CHARACTERS OF VERTVES AND VICES JN TWO BOOKES By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY singular good Lords EDWARD LORD DENNY BARON of WALTHAM AND JAMES LORD HAY HIS RIGHT NOBLE AND WORTHY SONNE IN LAW I. H. HVMBLY DEDICATES HIS LABOVR DEVOTETH HIMSELFE Wisheth all Happinesse A PREMONITION OF THE TITLE AND VSE of Characters READER THe Diuines of the old Heathens were their Morall Philosophers These receiued the Acts of an inbred law in the Sinai of Nature and deliuered them with many expositions to the multitude These were the Ouerseers of manners Correctors of vices Directors of liues Doctors of vertue which yet taught their people the body of their naturall Diuinitie not after one manner while some spent themselues in deepe discourses of humane felicitie and the way to it in common others thought it best to apply the generall precepts of goodnesse or decency to particular conditions and persons A third sort in a meane course betwixt the two other and compounded of them both bestowed their time in drawing out the true lineaments of euerie vertue and vice so liuely that who saw the medals might know the face which Art they significantly tearmed Charactery Their papers were so many tables their writings so many speaking pictures or liuing images whereby the ruder multitude might euen by their sense learne to know vertue and discerne what to detest J am deceiued if any course could be more likely to preuaile for herein the grosse conceit is led on with pleasure and informed while it feeles nothing but delight And if pictures haue beene accounted the bookes of Jdiots behold here the benefit of an image without the offence It is no shame for vs to learne wit of Heathens neither is it materiall in whose Schoole we take out a good lesson yea it is more shame not to follow their good than not to lead them better As one therefore that in worthy examples hold imitation better than inuention J haue trod in their paths but with an higher and wider steppe and out of their Tablets haue drawne these larger portraitures of both sorts More
saith to them Depart from me They would not know God when they might now God will not know them when they would Now therefore beloued if thou wouldst not haue God scorne the offer of thy death-bed fit thy soule for him in thy health furnish it with grace iniure it to a sweet conuersation with the God of heauen then mayest thou boldly giue it vp and hee shall as gratiously receiue it yea fetch it by his Angels to his glory Hee gaue vp the ghost We must doe as he did not all with the same successe Giuing vp supposes a receiuing a returning This inmate that we haue in our bosome is sent to lodge here for a time may not dwell here alwayes The â—ight of this tenure is the Lords not ours As hee said of the hatcher It is but lent it must be restored It is ours to keepe his to dispose and require See and consider both our priuilege and charge It is not with vs as with bruit creatures wee haue a liuing ghost to informe vs which yet is not ours and alas what is ours if our soules be not but must be giuen vp to him that gaue it Why doe wee liue as those that tooke no keepe of so glorious a guest as those that should neuer part with it as those that thinke it giuen them to spend not to returne with a reckoning If thou hadst no soule if a mortall one if thine owne if neuer to bee required how couldst thou liue but sensually Oh remember but who thou art what thou hast and whither thou must and thou shalt liue like thy selfe while thou art and giue vp thy ghost confidently when thou shalt cease to be Neither is there here more certainty of our departure than comfort Carry this with thee to thy death-bed and see if it can refresh thee when all the world cannot giue thee one dram of comfort Our spirit is our dearest riches if wee should lose it here were iust cause of griefe Howle and lament if thou thinkest thy soule perisheth it is not forfeited but surrendered How safely doth our soule passe thorow the gates of death without any impeachment while it is in the hand of the Almighty Woe were vs if he did not keepe it while we haue it much more when wee restore it We giue it vp to the same hands that created infused redeemed renewed that doe protect preserue establish and will crowne it I know whom I haue beleeued and am perswaded that hee is able to keepe that which I haue committed to him against that day O secure and happy estate of the godly O blessed exchange of our condition while our soule dwels in our breast how is it subiect to infinite miseries distempered with passions charged with sinne vexed with tentations aboue none of these how should it be otherwise This is our pilgrimage that our home this our wildernesse that our land of promise this our bondage that our kingdome our impotency causeth this our sorrow When our soule is once giuen vp what euill shall reach vnto heauen and wrestle with the Almighty Our lothnesse to giue vp comes from our ignorance and infidelity No man goes vnwillingly to a certaine preferment I desire to bee dissolued saith Paul I haue serued thee I haue beleeued thee and now I come to thee saith Luther The voyce of Saints not of men If thine heart can say thus thou shalt not need to intreat with old Hilariâ—â— Egredere mea anima egredere quid times Goe thy wayes forth my soule goe forth what fearest thou but it shall flie vp alone cheerefully from thee and giue vp it selfe into the armes of God as a faithfull Creator and Redeemer This earth is not the element of thy soule it is not where it should be It shall be no lesse thine when it is more the owners Thinke now seriously of this point Gods Angell is abroad and strikes on all sides we know not which of our turnes shall be the next we are sure we carry deaths enow within vs. If we bee ready our day cannot come too soone Stirre vp thy soule to an heauenly cheerefulnesse like thy Sauiour Know but whither thou art going and thou canst not but with diuine Paul Vt contra Nullam animam recipio quae me â—olente separatur à corpâ—re HieroÌ„ say from our Sauiours mouth euen in this sense It is a more blessed thing to giue than to receiue God cannot abide an vnwilling guest giue vp that spirit to him which he hath giuen thee and he will both receiue what thou giuest and giue it thee againe with that glory and happinesse which can neuer be conceiued and shall neuer bee ended Euen so LORD IESVS come quickly Gloria in excelsis Deo THE IMPRESE OF GOD. IN TWO SERMONS PREACHED AT THE COVRT In the Yeeres 1611. 1612. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE FJRST PART ZACHAR 14.20 In that day shall be written vpon the bridles or bels of the Horses Holinesse vnto the Lord and the pots of the Lords house shall be like the bowles before the Altar IF any man wonder whither this discourse can tend of horses and bels and pots and bowles for the Altar Let him consider that of Tertullian Ratio diuina in medulla est non in superficie These Horses if they be well menaged will proue like those fiery horses of Elias to carry vs vp to our heauen 2 King 2.11 These Bels like those golden bels of Aarons robe Exod. 39.25 These Pots like that Olla pulmenti of the Prophets after Elisha's meale 2 King 4. and these Bowles like that blessed and fruitfull nauell of the CHVRCH Cant. 7.2 S. Paul askes Doth God take care for oxen so may I here Doth God take care for horses Surely to prouide for them not to prophesie of them much lesse of their bels the vnnecessarie ornaments of a necessary creature But hee that forbids vs to learne of the horse that lesson of stubbornnesse by the PSALMIST and checks vs oft by the oxe and asse for their good nature would haue vs learne here vnder this parable of the horse and the bels of the horse and the writing on those bels the estate of our owne peace and sanctification God doth both speake and worke in Parables as that Father saith well Of this then I may truly say as Hierome said of the Booke of IOB Singula verba plena sunt sensibus Suffer your selues with Abrahams Ram to bee perplexed a while in these bryars that you may be prepared for a fit sacrifice to God In that day What day is that All dayes are his who is the Ancient of dayes and yet he sayes Abraham saw my day and reioyced Hee that made all dayes sayes yet againe This is the day which the Lord hath made There is one day of the weeke Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
God and to Dauid Araunah is loth to bargaine Since it was for God Dauid wisheth to pay deare I will not offer burnt-offering to the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing Heroicall spirits doe well become eminent persons He that knew it was better to giue then receiue would not receiue but giue There can be no deuotion in a niggardly heart As vnto dainty palates so to the godly soule that tasts sweetest that costs most Nothing is deare enough for the Creator of all things It is an heartlesse piety of those base-minded Christians that care onely to serue God good cheape Contemplations THE SEVENTEENTH BOOKE Adonijah defeated Dauids end and Salomons beginning The execution of Ioab and Shimei Salomons choice with his Iudgement vpon the two Harlots The Temple Salomon with the Queene of Sheba Salomons defection BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO MY WORTHILY MVCH HONOVRED FRIEND SIR HENRY MILDMAY KNIGHT MASTER OF THE IEWELL-HOVSE ALL GRACE AND PEACE SIR Besides all priuate obligations your very name challengeth from mee all due seruices of loue and honour Jf I haue receiued mercy to beare any fruit next vnder heauen J may thanke the stocke wherein J was ymped which was set by no other then the happy hand of your Right Honorable Grandfather How haue J so long forborne the publike Testimonie of my iust gratulations and thankfull respects to so true an heire of his noble Vertues Pardon me that I pay this debt so late and accept of this parcell of my well-meant labours Wherein you shall see Salomon both in his rising and setting his rising hopefull and glorious his declination fearfull You shall see the proofes of his early graces of mercy in sparing Adonijah and Abiathar of iustice in punishing that riuall of his with Ioab and Shimei of wisedome in his award betwixt the two Harlots and the administration of his Court and State of pietie in building and hallowing the Temple all dashed in his fall repaired in his repentance J haue no cause to misdoubt either the acceptation or vse of these mine high pitched thoughts which together with your selfe and your worthy and vertuous Lady J humbly commend to the care and blessing of the highest who am bound by your worth and merits to be euer Your syncerely and thankfully deuoted in all obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations THE SEVENTEENTH BOOKE ADONIJAH Defeated DAVID had not so carefully husbanded his yeeres as to maintaine a vigorous age he was therfore what through warres what with sorrowes what with sicknesse decrepit betimes By that time hee was seuentie yeeres old his naturall heat was so wasted that his clothes could not warme him how many haue wee knowne of more strength at more age The holiest soule dwels not in an impregnable fort If the reuenging Angel spared Dauid yet age and death will not spare him Neither his new altar nor his costly sacrifice can be of force against decay of nature Nothing but death can preuent the weaknesses of age None can blame a people if when they haue a good King they are desirous to hold him Dauids seruants and subiects haue commended vnto his bed a faire yong Virgin not for the heat of lust but of life that by this meanes they might make an outward supply of fuell for that vitall fire which was well-neere extinguished with age As it is in the market or the stage so it is in our life One goes in another comes out when Dauid was withering Adonijah was in his blossome That sonne as he was next to Absalom both in the beautie of his body and the time of his birth so was he too like him in practice He also taking aduantage of his fathers infirmity will bee caruing himselfe of the Kingdome of Israel That he might no whit vary from his patterne he gets him also Chariots and Horsemen and fifty men to runne before him These two Absalom and Adonijah were the darlings of their father Their father had not displeased them from their childhood therefore they both displeased him in his age Those children had need to bee very gracious that are not marred with pampering It is more then God owes vs if we receiue comfort in those children whom wee haue ouer-loued The indulgence of parents at last paies them home in crosses It is true that Adonijah was Dauids eldest son now remaining and therefore might seeme to challenge the iustest title to the Crowne But the Kingdome of Israel in so late in erection had not yet knowne the right of succession God himselfe that had ordained the gouernment was as yet the immediate elector Hee fetcht Saul from among the stuffe and Dauid from the sheepfold and had now appointed Salomon from the ferule to the Scepter And if Adonijah which is vnlike had not knowne this yet it had been his part to haue taken his father with him in this claime of his succession and not so to preuent a brother that he should shoulder out a father and not so violently to preoccupate the throne that he should rather be a rebell then an heire As Absalom so Adonijah wants not furtherers in this vsurpation whether spirituall or temporall Ioab the Generall and Abiathar the Priest giue both counsell and aid to so vnseasonable a challenge These two had beene firme to Dauid in all his troubles in all insurrections yet now finding him fastned to the bed of age and death they shew themselues thus slipperie in the loose Outward happinesse and friendship are not knowne till our last act In the impotency of either our reuenge or recompence it will easily appeare who loued vs for our selues who for their owne ends Had not Adonijah knowne that Salomon was designed to the Kingdome both by God and Dauid he had neuer inuited all the rest of the Kings sonnes his brethren and left our Salomon who was otherwise the most vnlikely to haue beene his riuall in this honor all the rest were elder then hee and might therefore haue had more pretence for their competition Doubtlesse the Court of Israel could not but know that immediately vpon the birth of Salomon God sent him by Nathan the Prophet a name and message of loue neither was it for nothing that God called him Iedidiah and fore-promised him the honor of building an house to his Name and in returne of so glorious a seruice the establishment of the throne of his Kingdome ouer Israel for euer Notwithstanding all which Adonijah backed by the strength of a Ioab and the grauitie of an Abiathar will vnderworke Salomon and iustle into the not-yet-vacant seat of his father Dauid Vaine men whiles like proud and yet brittle clay they will be knoking their sides against the solid and eternall decree of God breake themselues in peeces I doe not finde that Adonijah sent any message of threats or vnkindnesse to Zadok the Priest or Nathan the prophet or Benaiah the sonne of Iehoiada and the other worthies onely he inuited
precept of the Philosopher who taught him that by sitting and resting the minde gathereth wisdome * * Guliel Paris Another leaning to some Rest towards the left side for the greater quieting of the heart * * Dâ—onys Carthus A third standing with the eies lift vp to Heauen but shut for feare of distractions But of all other me thinketh Isaacs choice the best who meditated walking In this let euery man be his owne master so be we vse that frame of body that may both testifie reuerence and in some cases helpe to stirre vp further deuotion which also must needs be varied according to the matter of our Meditation If we thinke of our sinnes Ahabs soft pase the Publicans deiected eies and his hand beating his brest are more seasonable If of the ioyes of heauen Steuens countenance fixed aboue and Dauids hands lift vp on high are most fitting In all which the body as it is the instrument and vassall of the soule so will easily follow the affections thereof and in truth then is our deuotion most kindly when the body is thus commanded his seruice by the Spirit and not suffered to goe before it and by his forwardnesse to prouoke his master to emulation CHAP. XII NOw time and order call vs from these circumstances Of the matter and subiect of our â—editation to the matter and subiect of Meditation which must be Diuine and Spirituall not euill nor worldly O the carnall and vnprofitable thoughts of men We all meditate one how to doe ill to others another how to doe some earthly good to himselfe another to hurt himselfe vnder a colour of good as how to accomplish his lewd desires the fulfilling whereof proueth the bane of the soule how he may sinne vnseene and goe to hell with the least noise of the world Or perhaps some better mindes bend their thoughts vpon the search of naturall things the motions of euery heauen and of euery starre the reason and course of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea the manifold kinds of simples that grow out of the earth and creatures that creepe vpon it with all their strange qualities and operations Or perhaps the seuerall formes of gouernment and rules of State take vp their busie heads so that while they would be acquainted with the whole world they are strangers at home and while they seeke to know all other things â—â—â—y remaine vnknowne of themselues The God that made them the vilenesse of their nature the danger of their sinnes the multitude of their imperfections the Sauiour that bought them the Heauen that he bought for them are in the meane time as vnknowne as vnregarded as if they were not Thus doe foolish children spend their time and labour in turning ouer leaues to looke for painted babes not at all respecting the solid matter vnder their hands We fooles when will we be wise and turning our eies from vanity with that sweet Singer of Israel make Gods statutes our song and meditation in the house of our pilgrimage Earthly things proffer themselues with importunity Heauenly things must with importunity be sued to Those if they were not so little worth would not be so forward being forward need not any Meditation to solicit them These by how much more hard they are to intreat by so much more precious they are being obtained and therefore worthier our endeuor As then we cannot goe amisse so long as we keep our selues in the tracke of Diuinitie while the soule is taken vp with the thoughts either of the Deitie in his essence and persons sparingly yet in this point and more in faith and admiration than inquiry or of his attributes his Iustice Power Wisdome Mercy Truth or of his workes in the creation preseruation gouernment of all things according to the Psalmist I will meditate of the beauty of thy glorious Maiesty and thy wonderfull workes so most directly in our way and best fitting our exercise of Meditation are those matters in Diuinitie which can most of all worke compunction in the heart and most stirre vs vp to deuotion Of which kinde are the Meditations concerning Christ Iesus our Mediator his Incarnation Miracles Life Passion Buriall Resurrection Ascension Intercession the benefit of our Redemption the certainty of our Election the graces and proceeding of our Sanctification our glorious estate in Paradise lost in our first Parents our present vilenesse our inclination to sinne our seuerall actuall offences the tentations and sleights of euill Angels the vse of the Sacraments nature and practice of Faith and Repentance the miseries of our life with the frailty of it the certainty and vncertainty of our death the glory of Gods Saints aboue the awfulnesse of iudgement the terrors of hell and the rest of this quality wherein both it is fit to haue variety for that euen the strongest stomacke doth not alwaies delight in one dish and yet so to change that our choice may be free from wildnesse and inconstancy CHAP. XIII The order of the worke it selfe NOw after that we haue thus orderly suited the person and his qualities with the due circumstances of time place disposition of body and substance of the matter discussed I know not what can remaine besides the maine businesse it selfe and the manner and degrees of our prosecution thereof which aboue all other calleth for an intentiue Reader and resolute practice Wherein that we may auoid all nicenesse and obscurity since wee striue to profit we will giue direction for the Entrance Proceeding Conclusion of this Diuine worke CHAP. XIIII The entrance into the worke A Goodly building must shew some magnificence in the gate and great personages haue seemely Vshers to goe before them who by their vncouered heads command reuerence and way Euen very Poets of old had wont before their Ballads to implore the aid of their gods And the heathen Romans entred not vpon any publike ciuill businesse without a solemne apprecation of good successe 1 The common entrance which is Prayer How much lesse should a Christian dare to vndertake a spirituall worke of such importance not hauing craued the assistance of his God which me thinkes is no lesse than to professe he could doe well without Gods leaue When we thinke euill it is from our selues when good from God As Prayer is our speech to God so is each good Meditation according to Bernard Gods speech to the heart The heart must speake to God that God may speake to it Prayer therefore and Meditation are as those famous twinnes in the story or as two louing Turtles whereof separate one the other languisheth Prayer maketh way for Meditation Meditation giueth matter strength and life to our prayers By which as all other things are sanctified to vs so we are sanctified to all holy things This is as some royall Eunuch to perfume and dresse our soules that they may be fit to conuerse with the King of Heauen But the prayer that leadeth in
How many vaine men hast thou seene that haue gone into the field to seeke death in hope to finde an honour as foolish as themselues How many poore creatures hast thou mulcted with death for thine owne pleasure And canst thou hope that that God will make a by-way and a Posterne for thee alone that thou maiest passe to the next world not by the gates of death not by the bottome of the graue What then doest thou feare O my soule There are but two stages of death The Adiunct the bed and the graue This latter if it haue senslesnesse yet it hath rest The former if it haue paine yet it hath speedinesse and when it lights vpon a faithfull heart meets with many and strong antidotes of comfort The euill that is euer in motion is not fearefull That which both time and eternitie finde standing where it was is worthy of terrour Well may those tremble at death which finde more distresse within than without whose consciences are more sicke and neerer to death than their bodies It was thy Fathers wrath that did so terrifie thy soule O my Sauiour that it put thy body into a bloudy sweat The mention and thought of thy death ended in a Psalme but this began in an agonie Then didst thou sweat out my feares The power of that agonie doth more comfort all thine than the Angels could comfort thee That very voice deserued an eternall separation of horrour from death where thou saidst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thou hadst not complained of being left if thou wouldest haue any of thine left destitute of comfort in their parting I know not whom I can feare while I know whom I haue beleeued how can I be discouraged with the sight of my losse when I see so cleere an aduantage The Contrary What discomfort is this to leaue a fraile body to bee ioyned vnto a glorious head To forsake vaine pleasures false honours bootlesse hopes vnsatisfying wealth stormie contentments sinfull men perillous tentations a sea of troubles a gallie of seruitude an euill world and a consuming life for Freedome Rest Happinesse Eternitie And if thou wert sentenced O my soule to liue a thousand yeeres in this body with these infirmities how wouldest thou be wearie not of being only but of complaining Whiles ere the first hundred I should bee a childe ere the second a beast a stone ere the third and therefore should be so farre from finding pleasure in my continuance that I should not haue sense enough left to feele my selfe miserable And when I am once gone what difference is there betwixt the agedst of the first Patriarchs and mee and the childe that did but liue to be borne saue onely in what was and that which was is not And if this body had no weaknesse to make my life tedious yet what a torment is it that while I liue I must sinne Alas my soule euery one of thy knowne sinnes is not a disease but a death What an enemie art thou to thy selfe if thou canst not bee content that one bodily death should excuse thee from many spirituall to cast off thy body that thou maiest be stripped of the ragges yea the fetters of thy sinne and cloathed with the Robes of glorie Yet these termes are too hard Thou shalt not bee cast off O my body rather thou shalt be put to making this change is no lesse happy for thee than for thy partner This very skinne of thine which is now tawnie and wrinkled shall once shine this earth shall bee heauen this dust shall bee glorious These eyes that are now wearie of being witnesses of thy sinnes and miseries shall then neuer be wearie of seeing the beautie of thy Sauiour and thine owne in his These eares that haue beene now tormented with the impious tongues of men shall first heare the voice of the Sonne of God and then the voices of Saints and Angels in their songs of Alleluia And this tongue that now complaines of miseries and feares shall then beare a part in that diuine harmonie The comparisons In the meane time thou shalt but sleepe in this bed of earth hee that hath tried the worst of death hath called it no worse very Heathens haue termed them cousins and it is no vnusuall thing for cousins of bloud to carrie both the same names and features Hast thou wont O my body when the day hath wearied thee to lie downe vnwillingly to thy rest Behold in this sleepe there is more quietnesse more pleasure of visions more certaintie of waking more cheerefulnesse in rising why then art thou loth to thinke of laying off thy ragges and reposing thy selfe Why art thou like a childe vnwilling to goe to bed Hast thou euer seene any bird which when the cage hath beene opened would rather sit still and sing within her grates than flie forth vnto her freedome in the woods Hast thou euer seene any prisoner in loue with his bolts and fetters Did the Chiefe of the Apostles when the Angell of God shined in his Iayle and strooke him on the side and loosed his two chaines and bade him Arise quickly and opened both the woodden and Iron gate say What so soone yet a little sleepe What madnesse had it beene rather to slumber betwixt his two Keepers than to follow the Angell of God into libertie Hast thou euer seene any Mariner that hath saluted the sea with songs and the Hauen with teares What shall I say to this diffidence O my soule that thou art vnwilling to thinke of rest after thy toile of freedome after thy durance of the Hauen after an vnquiet and tempestuous passage How many are there that seeke death and cannot finde it meerely out of the irksomenesse of life Hath it found thee and offered thee better conditions not of immunitie from euils but of possession of more good than thou canst thinke and wouldest thou now flie from happinesse to be rid of it What Is it a name that troubles thee what if men would call sleepe death The Names wouldst thou be afraid to close thine eies what hurt is it then if he that sent the first sleepe vpon man whilest hee made him an helper send this last and soundest sleepe vpon mee whiles he prepares my soule for a glorious Spouse to himselfe It is but a parting which we call death as two friends when they haue lead each other on the way shake hands till they returne from their iourney If either could miscarry there were cause of sorrow now they are more sure of a meeting than of a parture what folly is it not to be content to redeeme the vnspeakable gaine of so deare a friend with a little intermission of enioying him He will returne laden with the riches of heauen and will fetch his old partner to the participation of this glorious wealth Goe then my Soule to this sure and gainefull traffique and leaue my other halfe in an harbour as safe
lies open to sight and were it not for discretion hee neuer thinkes ought whereof he would auoid a witnesse his word is his parchment and his yea his oath which hee will not violate for feare or for losse The mis-haps of following euents may cause him to blame his prouidence can neuer cause him to eat his promise neither saith he This I saw not but This I said When hee is made his friends Executor he defrayes debts payes legacies and scorneth to gaine by Orphans or to ransacke graues and therefore will be true to a dead friend because he sees him not All his dealings are square and aboue the boord he bewraies the fault of what he sells and restores the ouerseene gaine of a false reckoning He esteemes a bribe venomous though it come guilded ouer with the colour of gratuitie His cheekes are neuer stained with the blushes of recantation neither doth his tongue falter to make good a lie with the secret gloses of double or reserued senses and when his name is traduced his innocencie beares him out with courage then loe hee goes on the plaine way of truth and will either triumph in his integritie or suffer with it His conscience ouer-rules his prouidence so as in all things good or ill he respects the nature of the actions nor the sequell If he see what he must doe let God see what shall follow He neuer loadeth himselfe with burdens aboue his strength beyond his will and once bound what he can he will doe neither doth he will but what he can doe His eare is the Sanctuarie of his absent friends name of his present friends secret neither of them can mis-carry in his trust Hee remembers the wrongs of his youth and repaies them with that vsurie which he himselfe would not take Hee would rather want than borrow and begge than not to pay his faire conditions are without dissembling and he loues actions aboue words Finally he hates falshood worse than death he is a faithfull client of truth no mans enemie and it is a question Whether more another mans friend or his owne and if there were no heauen yet he would be vertuous Of the Faithfull man HIs eies haue no other obiects but absent and inuisible which they see so cleerly as that to them sense is blinde that which is present they see not if I may not rather say that what is past or future is present to them Herein he exceeds all others that to him nothing is impossible nothing difficult whether to beare or vndertake He walkes euery day with his Maker and talkes with him familiarly and liues euer in heauen and sees all earthly things beneath him when he goes in to conuerse with God he weares not his owne clothes but takes them still out of the rich Wardrobe of his Redeemer and then dare boldly prease in and challenge a blessing The celestiall spirits doe not scorne his company yea his seruice He deales in these worldly affaires as a stranger and hath his heart euer at home without a written warrant he dare doe nothing and with it any thing His warre is perpetuall without truce without intermission and his victorie certaine he meets with the infernall powers and tramples them vnder feet The shield that he euer beares before him can neither be missed nor pierced if his hand be wounded yet his heart is safe he is often tripped seldome foyled and if sometimes foyled neuer vanquished He hath white hands and a cleane soule fit to lodge God in all the roomes whereof are set apart for his Holinesse Iniquitie hath oft called at the doore and craued entertainment but with a repulse or if sinne of force will be his tenant his Lord hee cannot His faults are few and those hee hath God will not see Hee is allied so high that hee dare call God Father his Sauiour Brother heauen his patrimonie and thinkes it no presumption to trust to the attendance of Angels His vnderstanding is inlightened with the beames of diuine truth God hath acquainted him with his will and what he knowes hee dare confesse there is not more loue in his heart than libertie in his tongue If torments stand betwixt him and Christ if death he contemnes them and if his owne parents lie in his way to God his holy carelesnesse makes them his foot-steps His experiments haue drawne forth rules of confidence which he dares oppose against all the feares of distrust wherein he thinks it safe to charge God with what he hath done with what he hath promised Examples are his poofes and instances his demonstrations What hath God giuen which he cannot giue What haue others suffered which he may not bee enabled to endure Is hee threatened banishment There he sees the deare Euangelist in Pathmos Cutting in peeces he sees Esay vnder the saw Drowning he sees Ionas diuing into the liuing gulfe Burning he sees the three Children in the hot walke of the Furnace Deuouring he sees Daniel in the sealed denne amids his terrible companions Stoning hee sees the first Martyr vnder his heape of many graue-stones Heading loe there the Baptists necke bleeding in Herodias platter He emulates their paine their strength their glory He wearies not himselfe with cares for he knowes hee liues not of his owne cost not idlely omitting meanes but not vsing them with diffidence In the midst of ill rumors and amazements his countenance changeth not for he knowes both whom hee hath trusted and whither death can leade him He is not so sure he shall die as that he shall be restored and out-faceth his death with his resurrection Finally he is rich in workes busie in obedience cheerefull and vnmoued in expectation better with euils in common opinion miserable but in true iudgement more than a man Of the Humble-man HE is a friendly enemie to himselfe for though hee bee not out of his owne fauour no man sets so low a value of his worth as himselfe not out of ignorance or carelesnesse but of a voluntarie and meeke deiectednesse Hee admires euery thing in another whiles the same or better in himselfe hee thinkes not vnworthily contemned his eies are full of his owne wants and others perfections Hee loues rather to giue than take honour not in a fashion of complementall courtesie but in simplicitie of his iudgement neither doth hee fret at those on whom hee forceth precedencie as one that hoped their modestie would haue refused but holds his minde vnfainedly below his place and is ready to goe lower if need bee without discontent When he hath but his due he magnifieth courtesie and disclaimes his deserts He can be more ashamed of honour than grieued with contempt because hee thinkes that causelesse this deserued His face his cariage his habit fauour of lowlinesse without affectation and yet he is much vnder that he seemeth His words are few and soft neuer either peremptorie or censorious because hee thinkes both each man more wise and none more faultie than
from him neither makes he any other of dying than of walking home when he is abroad or of going to bed when he is weary of the day He is well prouided for both worlds and is sure of peace here of glory hereafter and therefore hath a light heart and a cheerefull face All his fellow-creatures reioyce to serue him his betters the Angels loue to obserue him God himselfe takes pleasure to conuerse with him and hath Sainted him afore his death and in his death crowned him THE SECOND BOOKE CHARACTERISMES OF VICES By IOS HALL By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE PROOEME I Haue shewed you many faire Vertues I speake not for them if their sight cannot command affection let them lose it They shall please yet better after you haue troubled your eies a little with the view of deformities and by how much more they please so much more odious and like themselues shall these deformities appeare This light contraries giue to each other in the midst of their enmitie that one makes the other seeme more good or ill Perhaps in some of these which thing I doe at once feare and hate my stile shall seeme to some lesse graue more Satyricall if you finde mee not without cause iealous let it please you to impute it to the nature of those Vices which will not bee otherwise handled The fashions of some euils are besides the odiousnesse ridiculous which to repeat is to seeme bitterly merry J abhorre to make sport with wickednesse and forbid any laughter here but of disdaine Hypocrisie shall leade this ring worthily I thinke because both she commeth neerest to Vertue and is the worst of Vices CHARACTER OF THE HYPOCRITE AN Hypocrite is the worst kinde of Plaier by so much as he acts the better part which hath alwaies two faces oft times two hearts That can compose his forehead to sadnesse and grauitie while he bids his heart bee wanton and carelesse within and in the meane time laughs within himselfe to thinke how smoothly he hath coozened the beholder In whose silent face are written the characters of Religion which his tongue and gestures pronounce but his hands recant That hath a cleane face and garment with a foule soule whose mouth belies his heart and his fingers belie his mouth Walking early vp into the Citie he turnes into the great Church and salutes one of the pillars on one knee worshipping that God which at home he cares not for while his eie is fixed on some window on some passenger and his heart knowes not whither his lips goe Hee rises and looking about with admiration complaines on our frozen charitie commends the ancient At Church he will euer sit where he may be seene best and in the middest of the Sermon puls out his Tables in haste as if he feared to leese that note when he writes either his forgotten errand or nothing then he turnes his Bible with a noyse to seeke an omitted quotation and folds the leafe as if he had found it and askes aloud the name of the Preacher and repeats it whom hee publikely salutes thankes praises inuites entertaines with tedious good counsell with good discourse if it had come from an honester mouth He can command teares when he speakes of his youth indeed because it is past not because it was sinfull himselfe is now better but the times are worse All other sinnes he reckons vp with detestation while he loues and hides his darling in his bosome All his speech returnes to himselfe and euery occurrent drawes in a storie to his owne praise When he should giue he lookes about him and saies Who sees me No almes no praiers fall from him without a witnesse belike lest God should denie that he hath receiued them and when he hath done lest the world should not know it his owne mouth is his Trumpet to proclaime it With the superfluitie of his vsurie he builds an Hospitall and harbours them whom his extortion hath spoiled so while he makes many beggers he keepes some He turneth all Gnats into Camels and cares not to vndoe the world for a circumstance Flesh on a Friday is more abomination to him than his neighbours bed He abhorres more not to vncouer at the name of Iesus than to sweare by the name of God When a Rimer reads his Poeme to him he begs a Copie and perswades the Presse there is nothing that hee dislikes in presence that in absence hee censures not Hee comes to the sicke bed of his stepmother and weepes when hee secretly feares her recouerie Hee greets his friend in the street with so cleere a countenance so fast a closure that the other thinkes hee reads his heart in his face and shakes hands with an indefinite inuitation of When will you come and when his backe is turned ioyes that he is so well rid of a guest yet if that guest visit him vnfeared he counterfets a smiling welcome and excuses his cheare when closely he frownes on his wife for too much Hee shewes well and saies well and himselfe is the worst thing he hath In briefe he is the strangers Saint the neighbours disease the blot of goodnesse a rotten sticke in a darke night a Poppie in a corne field an ill tempered candle with a great snuffe that in going out smells ill and an Angell abroad a Deuill at home and worse when an Angell than when a Deuill Of the Busie-body HIs estate is too narrow for his minde and therefore hee is faine to make himselfe roome in others affaires yet euer in pretence of loue No newes can stir but by his doore neither can hee know that which hee must not tell What euery man ventures in Guiana voyage and what they gained hee knowes to a haire Whether Holland will haue peace he knowes and on what conditions and with what successe is familiar to him ere it be concluded No Post can passe him without a question and rather than he will leese the newes hee rides backe with him to appose him of tidings and then to the next man he meets he supplies the wants of his hastie intelligence and makes vp a perfect tale wherewith he so haunteth the patient auditor that after many excuses he is faine to endure rather the censure of his manners in running away than the tediousnesse of an impertinent discourse His speech is oft broken off with a succession of long parenthesis which he euer vowes to fill vp ere the conclusion and perhaps would effect it if the others eare were as vnweariable as his tongue If he see but two men talke and reade a letter in the street he runnes to them and askes if he may not be partner of that secret relation and if they denie it hee offers to tell since he may not heare wonders and then falls vpon the report of the Scottish Mine or of the great Fish taken
I am glad of your sorrow and should weepe for you if you did not thus mourne Your sorrow is that you cannot enough grieue for your sinnes Let me tell you that the Angels themselues sing at this lamentation neither doth the earth afford any so sweet musicke in the cares of God This heauinesse is the way to ioy Worldly sorrow is worthy of pity because it leadeth to death but this deserues nothing but enuy and gratulation If those teares were common hell would not so enlarge it selfe Neuer sinne repented of was punished and neuer any thus mourned and repented not Loe you haue done that which you grieue you haue not done That good God whose act is his will accounts of our will as our deed If he required sorrow proportionable to the hainousnesse of our sins there were no end of mourning Now his mercy regards not so much the measure as the truth of it and accounts vs to haue that which wee complaine to want I neuer knew any truly penitēt which in the depth of his remorse was afraid of sorrowing too much nor any vnrepentant which wisht to sorrow more Yea let me tell you that this sorrow is better and more then that deepe heauinesse for sinne which you desire Many haue been vexed with an extreame remorse for some sinne from the gripes of a galled conscience which yet neuer came where true repentance grew in whom the conscience playes at once the accuser witnesse Iudge tormentor but an earnest griefe for the want of griefe was neuer found in any but a gracious heart You are happy and complaine Tell me I beseech you This sorrow which you mourne to want is it a grace of the spirit of God or not If not why doe you sorrow to want it If it be oh how happy is it to grieue for want of grace The God of all truth and blessednesse hath said Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and with the same breath Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted You say you mourne Christ saith you are blessed you say you mourne Christ saith you shall be comforted Either now distrust your Sauiour or else confesse your happinesse with patience expect his promised consolation What doe you feare You see others stand like strong Oakes vnshaken vnremoued you are but a reed a feeble plant tossed and bowed with euery wind and with much agitation bruised Loe you are in tender and fauourable hands that neuer brake any whom their sinnes bruised neuer bruised any whom temptations haue bowed You are but flax and your best is not a flame but an obscure smoake of grace Loe here his spirit is as a soft wind not as cold water he will kindle will neuer quench you The sorrow you want is his gift Take heed lest while you vex your selfe with dislike of the measure you grudge at the giuer Beggers may not chuse This portion he hath vouchsafed to giue you if you haue any it is more then he was bound to bestow yet you say What no more as if you tooke it vnkindly that hee is no more liberall Euen these holy discontentments are dangerous Desire more so much as you can but repine not when you doe not attaine Desire but so as you be free from impatience free from vnthankfulnesse Those that haue tryed can say how difficult it is to complaine with due reseruation of thankes Neither know I whether is worse To long for good things impatiently or not at all to desire them The fault of your sorrow is rather in your conceit then in it selfe And if indeed you mourne not enough stay but Gods leisure and your eyes shall runne ouer with teares How many doe you see sport with their sinnes yea brag of them How many that should die for want of pastime if they might not sin freely and more freely talke of it What a Saint are you to these that can droop vnder the memory of the frailty of youth and neuer thinke you haue spent enow teares Yet so I encourage you in what you haue as one that perswades you not to desist from suing for more It is good to be couetous of grace and to haue our desires herein enlarged with our receits Weepe still and still desire to weepe but let your teares be as the raine in a sunne-shine comfortable and hopefull and let not your longing sauour of murmur or distrust These teares are reserued this hunger shall be satisfied this sorrow shall bee comforted There is nothing betwixt God and you but time Prescribe not to his wisedome hasten not his mercy His grace is enough for you his glory shall be more then enough To M. HVGH CHOLMLEY EP. V. Concerning the Metaphrase of the Psalmes FEare not my immoderate studies I haue a body that controls me enough in these courses my friends need not There is nothing whereof I could sooner surfet if I durst neglect my body to satisfie my mind But whiles I affect knowledge my weaknesse checkes me and sayes Better a little learning then no health I yeeld and patiently abide my selfe debarred of my chosen felicity The little I can get I am no niggard of neither am I more desirous to gather then willing to impart The full handed are commonly most sparing We vessels that haue any empty roome answer the least knock with a hollow noyse you that are full sound not If we pardon your closenesse you may well bear with our profusiō If there be any wrong it is to our selues that we vtter what wee should lay vp It is a pardonable fault to do lesse good to our selues that wee may doe more to others Amongst other endeauours I haue boldly vndertaken the holy Metres of Dauid how happily iudge you by what you see There is none of all my labours so open to all censures none whereof I would so willingly heare the verdit of the wise and iudicious Perhaps some thinke the verse harsh whose nice eare regards roundnesse more then sense I embrace smoothnesse but affect it not This is the least good quality of a verse that intends any thing but musicall delight Others may blame the difficulty of the tunes whose humour cannot be pleased without a greater offence For to say truth I neuer could see good verse written in the wonted measures I euer thought them most easie and least Poeticall This fault if any will light vpon the negligence of our people which endure not to take paines for any fit variety The French and Dutch haue giuen vs worthy examples of diligence and exquisitnesse in this kind Neither our eares nor voyces are lesse tunable Here is nothing wanting but will to learne What is this but to eate the corne out of the eare because we will not abide the labour to grinde and knead it If the question bee whether our verse must descend to them or they ascend to it wise moderation I thinke would determine it most equall that each part should
true Messias Let now all the Doctors of those obstinate Synagogues answer this doubt of their owne obiecting But how past all contradiction is the ancient witnesse of all the holy Prophets answered and confirmed by their euents whose foresayings verified in all particular issues are more then demonstratiue No Art can describe a thing past vvith more exactnesse then they did this Christ to come What circumstance is there that hath not his perâ—â—ction Haue they not fore-vvritteâ— who shoâ—â—â— be his mother A Virgin Of what Tribe of Iuda Of vvhat house of Dauid What place Bethleem vvhat time vvhen the scepter should be taken from Iuda Or after sixtie nine vveekes What name Iesus Immanuel What habitation Nazareth What harbinger Iohn the second Elias What his businesse to preach saue deliuer What entertainment reiection What death the Crosse What manner piercing the body not breaking the bones What company amidst two vvicked ones Where at Ierusalem Whereabouts vvithout the Gates With vvhat vvords of imploration What draught of Vineger and Gall vvho vvas his Traitor and vvith vvhat successe If all the Synagogues of the Circumcision all the gates of Hell can obscure these euidences let me be a proselyte My labour herein is so much lesse as there is lesse danger of Iudaisme Our Church is vvell rid of that accursed Nation vvhom yet Rome harbors and in a fashion graces vvhiles in stead of spitting at or that their Neapolitan correction vvhereof Gratian speaks the Pope solemnly receiues at their hands that Bible vvhich they at once approue and ouerthrow But vvould God there vvere no more Iewes then appeare Euen in this sense also hee is a Iew that is one vvithin plainely vvhose heart doth not sincerely confesse his Redeemer Tho a Christian Iew is no other then an Atheist and therfore must be scourged else-where The Iew thus answered The Turke stands out for his Mahomet that cozening Arabian vvhose Religion if it deserue that name stands vpon nothing but rude ignorance and palpable Imposture Yet loe here a subtill Diuell in a grosse religion For when he saw that he could not by single twists of Heresie pull downe the well built walls of the Church hee vvindes them all vp in one Cable to see if his cord of so many folds might happily preuaile raising vp vvicked Mahomet to deny vvith Sabellius the distinction of persons with Arrius Christs diuinity with Macedonius the Deity of the Holy Ghost with Sergius two wils in Christ with Marcion Christs suffering And these policies seconded vvith violence how haue they vvasted Christendome O damnable mixture miserably successefull vvhich yet could not haue beene but that it meets with sottish Clients and sooths vp nature and debars both all knowledge and contraction What is their Alcoran but a fardle of foolish impossibilities Whosoeuer shall heare me relate the stories of Angell Adriels death Seraphuels trumpet Gabriels bridge Horroth and Marroths hanging the Moones descending into Mahomets sleeue the Litter wherin he saw God caried by eight Angels their ridiculous and swinish Paradise and thousands of the same bran would say that Mahomet hoped to meet either vvith beasts or mad-men Besides these barbarous fictions behold their lawes full of licence full of impietie in which reuenge is incouraged multitude of vviues allowed theft tolerated and the frame of their opinions such as vvell bewrayes their whole religion to be but the mungrell issue of an Arrian Iew Nestorian and Arabian A monster of many seeds and all accursed In both vvhich regards Nature her selfe in vvhose breast God hath written his royall Law tho in part by her defaced hath light enough to condemne a Turke as the worst Pagan Let no man looke for further disproofe These follies a wise Christian will scorne to confute and fearce vouchsafe to laugh at The Greekish Church so the Russes tearme themselues put in the next claime but with no better successe whose infinite Clergy affords not a man that can giue either reason or account of their owne doctrine These are the basest dregs of all Christians so we fauourably terme them tho they perhaps in more simplicitie then wilfulnesse would admit none of all the other Christian world to their font but those who in a solemne renunciation spit at and abiure their former God Religion Baptisme yet peraduenture wee might more iustly terme them Nicolaitans for that obscure Saint if a Saint if honest by an vnequall diuision findes more homage from them then his master These are as ignorant as Turkes as idolatrous as Heathens as obstinate as Iewes and more superstitious then Papists To speake ingenuously from that I haue heard and read if the worst of the Romish religion and the best of the Moscouitish bee compared the choice will be hard whether should be lesse ill I labour the lesse in all these whose remotenesse and absurditie secure vs from infection and whose onely name is their confutation I descend to that maine riuall of Truth which creepes into her bosome and is not lesse neere then subtle the religion if not rather the faction of Papisme whose plea is importunate and so much more dangerous as it caries fairer probability Since then of all religions the Christian obtaineth let vs see of those that are called Christian which should command assent and profession Euery religion beares in her lineaments the image of her parent the true Religion therefore is spirituall and lookes like God in her puritie all false religions are carnall and carie the face of Nature their mother and of him whose illusion begot them Satan In summe Nature neuer conceiued any which did not fauour her nor the spirit any which did not oppugne her Let this then be the Lydian stone of this tryall we need no more Whether Religion soeuer doth more plausibly content Nature is false whether giues more sincere glory to God is his Truth Lay aside preiudice Whither I beseech you tendeth all Popery but to make Nature either vainly proud or carelessely wanton What can more aduance her pride then to tell her that she hath in her own hands freedome enough of will with a little preuention to prepare her selfe to her iustification that she hath whereof to reioyce some what which shee hath not receiued that if God please but to vnfetter her she can walke alone She is insolent enough of her selfe this flatterie is enough to make her mad of conceit After this That if God will but beare halfe the charges by his cooperation she may vndertake to merit her owne glory and braue God in the proofe of his most accurate iudgement to fulfill the whole royall law and that from the superfluitie of her owne satisfactions shee may bee abundantly beneficiall to her neighbours that naturally without faith a man may doe some good workes that we may repose confidence in our merits Neither is our good onely by this flatterie extolled but our ill also diminished our euils are our sinnes some of them they say are in their
confidence in appealing to the Fathers applauding his worthy offers and indeauors of discouering the falsifications and deprauations of antiquity SIR I know no man so like as you to make posterity his debter I doe heartily congratulate vnto you so worthy labours so noble a proiect Our aduersaries knowing of themselues that which Tertullian saith of all heresies that if appeale bee made to the sacred bench of Prophets and Apostles they cannot stand remoue the suit of religion craftily into the Court of the Fathers A reuerend triall as any vnder heauen where it cannot be spoken how confidently they triumph ere the conflict Giue vs the Fathers for our Iudges say Campian and Posseuine the day is ours And whence is this courage Is antiquity our enemy their aduocate Certainly it cannot bee truth that is new We would renounce our Religion if it could be ouer-lookt for time Let goe equity the older take both There bee two things then that giue them heart in this prouocation One the bastardy of false Fathers the other the corruption of the true What a flourish doe they make with vsurped names Whom would it not amaze to see the frequent citations of the Apostles owne Canons Constitutions Liturgies Masses of Clemens Dennys the Areopagite Linus Hippolitus Martiall of Burdeaux Egesippus Donations of Constantine the great and Lewis the godly Of 50 Canons of Nice of Dorotheus Damasus his Pontificall Epistles decretall of Clemens Euaristus Telesphorus and an hundred other Bishops holy and ancient of Euodius Anastasius Simeon Metaphrastes and moe yet then a number moe most whereof haue crept out of the Vatican or Cloisters and all cary in them manifest brands of falshood and supposition that I may say nothing of those infinite writings which either ignorance or wilfulnesse hath fathered vpon euery of the Fathers not without shamelesse importunity and grosse impossibilities all which as shee said of Peter their speech bewrayeth or as Austen said of Cyprians stile their face This fraud is more easily auoided For as in notorious burglaries oft-times there is either an hat or a gloue or a weapon left behind which descrieth the authors so the God of truth hath besotted these impostors to let fall some palpable error though but of false calculation whereby if not their names yet their ages might appeare to their conuiction Most danger is in the secret corruption of the true and acknowledged issue of those gracious parents whom through close and crafty handling they haue induced to belye those that begot them and to betray their Fathers either with silence or false euidence Plainly how are the honoured Volumes of faithfull antiquity blurred interlined altered depraued by subtle trechery and made to speake what they meant not Fie on this not so much iniustice as impiety to race the awefull monuments of the dead and partially to blot and change the originall Will of the deceased insert our owne Legacies This is done by our guilty aduersaries to the iniury not more of these Authors then of the present and succeeding times Hence those Fathers are some-where not ours What wonder while they are not themselues Your industry hath offered and that motion is liuely and heroicall to challenge all their learned and elegant pages from iniury of corruption to restore them to themselues and to vs that which all the learned of our times haue but desired to see done you proffer to effect your assay in Cyprian and Augustine is happy and iustly applauded All our Libraries whom your diligent hand hath ransackt offer their ayd in such abundance of manuscripts as all Europe would enuy to see met in one Iland After all this for that the most spightfull imputation to our Truth is nouelty you offer to deduce her pedegree from those primitiue times through the successions of all ages and to bring into the light of the world many as yet obscure but no lesse certaine and authenticall Patrons in a continued line of defence You haue giuen proofe enough that these are no glorious vaunts but the zealous challenges of an able Champion What wanteth then Let mee say for you Not an heart not an head not an hand but which I almost scorne to name in such a cause a purse If this continue your hinderance it will not be more our losse then shame Heare me a little yee great and wealthy Hath God loaded you with so much substance and will you not lend him a little of his owne Shall your riot bee fed with excesse while Gods cause shall starue for want Shall our aduersaries so insultingly out-bid vs and in the zeale of our profusion laugh at our heartlesse and cold niggardlinesse Shall heauenly truth lie in the dust for want of a little stamped earth to raise her How can you so much any way honor God yea your selues deserue of posterity pleasure the Church and make you so good friends of your Mammon Let not the next Age say that she had so vnkind predecessors Fetch forth of your superfluous store and cast in your rich gifts into this treasurie of the Temple The Lord and his Church haue need For you it angers me to see how that flattering Posseuinus smoothly intices you from vs with golden offers vpon the aduantage of our neglect as if he measuring your mind by his owne thought an Omnia dabo would bring you with himselfe on your knees to worship the deuill the beast the image of both as if we were not as able to incourage to reward desert Hath Vertue no Patrons on this side the Alpes Are those hils onely the thresholds of honour I plead not because I cannot feare you But who sees not how munificently our Church scattereth her bountifull fauours vpon lesse merit If your day be not yet come expect it God and the Church owe you a benefit if their payment be long it is sure Onely goe you on with courage in those your high endeauors and in the meane time thinke it great recompence to haue deserued To Mr E.A. EP. IX A Discourse of fleeing or stay in the time of pestilence whether lawfull for Minister or people HOw many hath a seduced conscience led vntimely to the graue I speake of this sad occasion of Pestilence The Angell of God followes you and you doubt whether you should flye If a Lyon out of the forest should pursue you you would make no question yet could he not doe it vnsent What is the difference Both instruments of diuine reuenge both threaten death one by spilling the blood the other by infecting it Who knowes whether he hath not appointed your Zoar out of the lists of this destruction You say it is Gods visitation What euill is not If warre haue wasted the confines of your Country you saue your throats by flight Why are you more fauourable to Gods immediate sword of pestilence Very leprosie by Gods law requires a separation yet no mortall sicknesse When you see a noted Leper proclaime his vncleannesse in the street
will you embrace him for his sake that hath stricken him or auoid him for his sake that hath forbidden you If you honour his rod much more will you regard his precept If you mislike not the affliction because he sends it then loue the life which you haue of his sending feare the iudgement which he will send if you loue it not He that bids vs flee when we are persecuted hath neither excepted Angell nor man whether soeuer I feare our guiltinesse if wilfully we flee not But whither shall we flee from God say you where shall he not both find and lead vs whither shall not our destiny follow vs Vaine men we may runne from our home not from our graue Death is subtle our time is set we cannot God will not alter it Alas how wise we are to wrong our selues Because Death will ouer-take vs shall we runne and meet him Because Gods decree is sure shall we be desperate Shall we presume because God changeth not Why doe we not trye euery knife and cord since our time is neither capable of preuention nor delay our end is set not without our meanes In matter of danger where the end is not knowne the meanes must be suspected in matter of hope where the end is not knowne meanes must be vsed Vse then freely the meanes of your flight suspect the danger of your stay and since there is no particular necessity of your presence know that God bids you depart and liue You vrge the instance of your Minister How vnequally There is not more lawfulnesse in your flight then sin in ours you are your owne wee our peoples you are charged with a body which you may not willingly leese not hazard by staying wee with all their soules which to hazard by absence is to lose our owne we must loue our liues but not when they are riuals with our soules or with others How much better is it to bee dead then negligent then faithlesse If some bodies be contagiously sicke shall all soules bee wilfully neglected There can be no time wherein good counsell is so seasonable so needfull Euery threatning finds impression where the mind is prepared by sensible iudgements When will the ironhearts of men bow if not when they are heat in the flame of Gods affliction now then to runne away from a necessary and publike good to auoid a doubtfull and priuate euill is to runne into a worse euill then wee would auoid He that will thus runne from Niniue to Tharsis shall find a tempest and a whale in his way Not that I dare be an author to any of the priuate visitation of infected beds I dare not without better warrant VVho euer said wee were bound to close vp the dying eyes of euery departing Christian and vpon what-euer conditions to heare their last grones If we had a word I would not debate of the successe Then that were cowardlinesse which now is wisedome Is it no seruice that wee publikely teach and exhort that we priuately prepare men for death and arme them against it that our comfortable letters and messages stir vp their fainting hearts that our loud voyces pierce their eares afarre vnlesse we feele their pulses and leane vpon their pillowes and whisper in their eares Daniel is in the Lyons den Is it nothing that Darius speakes comfort to him thorow the grate vnlesse he goe in to salute him among those fierce companions A good Minister is the common goods hee cannot make his life peculiar to one without iniury to many In the common cause of the Church he must be no niggard of his life in the priuate cause of a neighbours bodily sicknesse he may soone be prodigall A good father may not spend his substance on one child and leaue the rest beggers If any man be resolute in the contrary I had rather praise his courage then imitate his practice I confesse I feare not so much death as want of warrant for death To M. R. B. EP. X. A complaint of the iniquity of the Times with a prescription of the meanes to redresse it WHiles I accused the Times you vndertooke their patronage I commend your charity not your cause It is true There was neuer any Age not complained of neuer any that was not censured as worst VVhat is we see what was we neither inquire nor care That which is out of sight and vse is soone out of mind and ere long out of memory Yet the iniquity of others cannot excuse ours And if you will be but as iust as charitable you shall confesse that both some times exceed others in euill and these all This earthly Moone the Church hath her fuls and wainings and sometimes her eclypses whiles the shadow of this sinfull masse hides her beauty from the world So long as she wadeth in this planetary world it should be vaine to expect better it is enough when she is fixed aboue to be free from all change This you yeeld but nothing can perswade you that shee is not now in the full of her glory True or else she were not subiect to this darkning There was neuer more light of knowledge neuer more darknesse of impiety and there could not be such darknesse if there were not such light Goodnesse repulsed giues height to sin therefore are we worse then our predecessors because we might be better By how much our meanes are greater by so much are our defects Turne ouer all records and parallell such helps such care such cost such expectation with such fruit I yeeld We see but our owne times There was neuer but one Noah whom the Heathen celebrate vnder another name that with two faces saw both before and behind him But loe that Ancient of dayes to whom all times are present hath told vs that these last shal be worst Our experience iustifies him with all but the wilfull This censure lest you should condemne my rigour as vnnaturally partiall is not confined to our seas but free and common hath the same bounds with the earth I ioy not in this large society Would God we were euill alone How few are those whose cariage doth not say that profession of any conscience is pusillanimity How few that care so much as to shew well And yet of those few how many care onely to seeme whose words disagree from their actions and their hearts from their words Where shall a man mew vp himselfe that he may not be a witness of what he would not What can he see or heare and not bee either sad or guilty Oathes striue for number with words scoffes with oathes vaine speeches with both They are rare hands that are free either from aspersions of blood or spots of filthinesse Let mee bee at once as I vse bold and plaine VVanton excesse excessiue pride close Atheisme impudent profanenesse vnmercifull oppression ouer-mercifull conniuence greedy couetousnesse loose prodigality simoniacall sacriledge vnbrideled luxury beastly drunkennesse bloody treachery cunning fraud slanderous detraction
touched of the purest Israelite Here the hem of his garment is touched by the woman that had the flux of blood yea his very face was touched with the lips of Iudas There the very earth vvas prohibited them on which he descended Here his very body and blood is profered to our touch and taste Oh the maruellous kindnesse of our God! How vnthankfull are we if we doe not acknowledge this mercy aboue his ancient people They were his owne yet strangers in comparison of our libertie It is our shame and sinne if in these meanes of intirenesse we be no better acquainted with God then they which in their greatest familiaritie vvere commanded aloofe God was euer wonderfull in his workes and fearfull in his iudgements but hee was neuer so terrible in the execution of his will as now in the promulgation of it Here was nothing but a maiesticall terrour in the eyes in the eares of the Israelites as if God meant to shew them by this how fearfull he could be Here was the lightning darted in their eyes the thunders roaring in their eares the Trumpet of God drowning the thunder claps the voice of God out-speaking the Trumpet of the Angell The Cloud enwrapping the smoake ascending the fire flaming the Mount trembling Moses climbing and quaking palenesse and death in the face of Israel vprore in the elements and all the glory of heauen turned into terrour In the destruction of the first World there were clouds without fire In the destruction of Sodom there was fire raining without clouds but here was fire smoake clouds thunder earthquakes and whatsoeuer might worke more astonishment then euer was in any vengeance inflicted And if the Law vvere thus giuen how shall it be required If such were the Proclamation of Gods Statutes what shall the Sessions bee I see and tremble at the resemblance The Trumpet of the Angell called vnto the one The voice of an Archangell the Trumpet of God shall summon vs to the other To the one Moses that climbed vp that Hill and alone saw it sayes God came with ten thousands of his Saints In the other thousand thousands shall minister to him and ten thousand thousands shal stand before him In the one Mount Sinai onely was on a flame all the World shall be so in the other In the one there was fire smoake thunder and lightning In the other a fiery streame shall issue from him wherewith the heauens shall be dissolued and the Elements shall melt away vvith a noise Oh God how powerfull art thou to inflict vengeance vpon sinners who didst thus forbid sinne and if thou vvert so terrible a Law-giuer vvhat a Iudge shalt thou appeare What shall become of the breakers of so fierie a Law Oh vvhere shall those appeare that are guilty of the transgressing that law vvhose very deliuery vvas little lesse then death If our God should exact his Law but in the same rigour wherein he gaue it sinne could not quite the cost But now the fire vvherein it was deliuered was but terrifying the fire wherein it shall bee required is consuming Happy are those that are from vnder the terrours of that Law which was giuen in fire and in fire shall be required God would haue Israel see that they had not to do with some impotent Commander that is faine to publish his Lawes without noyse in dead paper which can more easily enioyne then punish or descry then execute and therefore before hee giues them a Law he shewes them that he can command Heauen Earth Fire Ayre in reuenge of the breach of the Law That they could not but thinke it deadly to displease such a Law-giuer or violate such dreadfull statutes that they might see all the Elements examples of that obedience which they should yeeld vnto their Maker This fire wherein the Law was giuen is still in it and will neuer out Hence are those terrours which it flashes in euery conscience that hath felt remorse of sinne Euery mans heart is a Sinai and resembles to him both heauen and hell The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law That they might see he could finde out their closest sinnes hee deliuers his Law in the light of fire from out of the smoake That they might see what is due to their sinnes they see fire aboue to represent the fire that should be below them That they might know he could waken their securitie the Thunder and louder voice of GOD speakes to their hearts That they might see what their hearts should doe the Earth quakes vnder them That they might see they could not shift their appearance the Angels call them together Oh royall Law and mighty Law-giuer How could they think of hauing any other God that had such proofes of this How could they think of making any resemblance of him whom they saw could not be seene and whom they saw in not being seene infinite How could they thinke of daring to profane his Name vvhom they heard to name himselfe with that voice Iehoua How could they thinke of standing vvith him for a day whom they saw to command that heauen vvhich makes and measures day How could they thinke of disobeying his Deputies whom they saw so able to reuenge How could they thinke of killing when they were halfe dead with the feare of him that could kill both body and soule How could they think of the flames of lust that saw such fires of vengeance How could they thinke of stealing from others that saw whose the heauen and the earth was to dispose of at his pleasure How could they thinke of speaking falsely that heard God speake in so fearfull a tone How could they thinke of coueting others goods that saw how vveake and vncertaine right they had to their owne Yea to vs vvas this Law so deliuered to vs in them neither had there beene such state in the promulgation of it if God had not intended it for Eternity We men that so feare the breach of humane Lawes for some small mulcts of forfeiture how should vvee feare thee O Lord that canst cast body and soule into hell Of the Golden Calfe IT was not much aboue a moneth since Israel made their couenant with God since they trembled to heare him say Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me since they saw Moses part from them and climbe vp the Hill to God and now they say Make vs Gods we know not what is become of this Moses Oh ye mad Israelites haue ye so soon forgotten that fire and thunder which you heard and saw Is that smoake vanished out of your minde as soone as out of your sight Could your hearts cease to tremble with the earth Can yee in the very sight of Sinai call for other Gods And for Moses was it not for your sakes that he thrust himselfe into the midst of that smoake and fire which ye feared to see afar off Was he not now gone after so many sudden
time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church vpon earth like as the holy of holiest represented heauen Nothing can better resemble our faithfull prayers than sweet perfume These God lookes that wee should all his Church ouer send vp vnto him Morning and Euening The eleuations of our hearts should be perpetuall but if twise in the day we doe not present God with our solemne inuocations we make the Gospell lesse officious than the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends vp his incense within the Temple the people must send vp their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went vp to heauen The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer vp the incense of prayers vnto God than Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Iewes and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Iewes and themselues Now euery man is a Priest vnto God Euery man since the veile was rent prayes within the Temple What are wâ— the bâ—â—ter for our greater freedome of accesse to God vnder the Gospell if wee doe not make vse of our priuiledge Whiles they were praying to God hee sees an Angell of God as Gedeâ—â—s Angell went vp in the smoke of the sacrifice so did Zacharies Angell as it were come downe in the fragrant smoke of his incense It was euer great newes to see an Angell of God but now more because God had long with-drawne from them all the meaneâ— of his supernaturall reuelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conuersation so was God growne a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospell approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Sonne He sends his Angell to men in the forme of man before hee sends his Sonne to take humane forme The presence of Angels is no noueltie but their apparition they are alwayes with vs but rarely seene that wee may awfully respect their messages when they are seene In the meane time our faith may see them though our senses doe not their assumed shapes doe not make them more present but visible There is an order in that heauenly Hierarchie though wee know it not This Angell that appeared to Zacharie was not with him in the ordinarie course of his attendances but was purposely sent from God with this message Why was an Angell sent and why this Angell It had beene easie for him to haue raised vp the propheticall spirit of some Simeon to this prediction the same Holy Ghost which reuealed to that iust man that he should not see death ere hee had seene the Messias might haue as easily reuealed vnto him the birth of the fore-runner of Christ and by him to Zacharie But God would haue this voice which should goe before his Sonne come with a noyse Hee would haue it appeare to the world that the harbinger of the Messiah should bee conceiued by the maruellous power of that God whose comming hee proclaimed It was fit the first Herald of the Gospell begin in wonder The same Angell that came to the blessed Virgin with the newes of Christs conception came to Zacharie with the newes of Iohns for the honour of him that was the greatest of them which were borne of women and for his better resemblance to him which was the seede of the woman Both had the Gospell for their errand one as the messenger of it the other as the Author Both are foretold by the same mouth When could it bee more fit for the Angell to appeare vnto Zacharie than when prayers and incense were offered by him Where could hee more fitly appeare than in the Temple In what part of the Temple more fitly than at the Altar of Incense and where abouts rather than on the right side of the Altar Those glorious spirits as they are alwayes with vs so most in our deuotions and as in all places so most of all in Gods house They reioyce to be with vs whiles we are with God as contrarily they turne their faces from vs when we goe about our sinnes Hee that had wont to liue and serue in the presence of the master was now astonished at the presence of the seruant so much difference there is betwixt our faith and our senses that the apprehension of the presence of the God of spirits by faith goes downe sweetely with vs whereas the sensible apprehension of an Angell dismayes vs Holy Zacharie that had wont to liue by faith thought hee should die when his sense began to bee set on worke It was the weaknesse of him that serued at the Altar without horror to bee daunted with the face of his fellow seruant In vaine doe wee looke for such Ministers of God as are without infirmities when iust Zacharie was troubled in his deuotions with that wherewith hee should haue beene comforted It was partly the suddennesse and partly the glory of the apparition that affrighted him The good Angell was both apprehensiue and compassionate of Zacharies weaknesse and presently incourages him with a cheerefull excitation Feare not ZACHARIAS The blessed spirits though they doe not often vocally expresse it doe pittie our humane frailties and secretly suggest comfort vnto vs when we perceiue it not Good and euill Angels as they are contrarie in estate so also in disposition The good desire to take away feare the euill to bring it It is a fruit of that deadly enmitie which is betwixt Sathan and vs that hee would if hee might kill vs with terrour whereas the good spirits affecting our reliefe and happinesse take no pleasure in terrifying vs but labour altogether for our tranquilitie and cheerefulnesse There was not more feare in the face than comfort in the speech Thy prayer is heard No Angell could haue told him better newes Our desires are vttered in our prayers What can we wish but to haue what we would Many good suites had Zachary made and amongst the rest for a sonne Doubtlesse it was now some space of yeares since he made that request For he was now stricken in age and had ceased to hope yet had God laid it vp all the while and when hee thinkes not of it brings it forth to effect Thus doth the mercie of our God deale with his patient and faithfull suppliants In the â—â—â—uout of their exspectation he many times holds them off and when they leaâ—â— thinke of it and haue forgotten their owne suite hee graciously condescends Delay of effect may not discourage our faith It may bee God hath long granted ere wee shall know of his grant Many a father repents him of his fruitfulnesse and hath such sonnes as he wishes vnborne But to haue so gracious and happie a sonne as the Angell foretold could not bee lesse comfort than honour to the age of Zacharie The proofe of children makes
our pride and false confidence in earthly things then with a fleshly criâ—â— though hainously seconded It was an hard and wofull choise of three yeares famine added to three fore-past or of three moneths flight from the sword of an enemie or three dayes pestilence The Almighty that had fore-determined his iudgement referres it to Dauids will as fully as if it were vtterly vndetermined God hath resolued yet Dauid may choose That infinite wisdome hath foreseene the very will of his creature which whiles it freely inclines it selfe to what it had rather vnwittingly wils that which was fore appointed in heauen We doe well beleeue thee O Dauid that thou wert in a wonderfull strait this very liberty is no other then fetters Thou needst not haue famine thou needst not haue the sword thou needst not haue pestilence one of them thou must haue There is misery in all there is misery in any thou and thy people can die but once and once they must dye either by famine warre or pestilence Oh God how vainely doe we hope to passe ouer our sinnes with impunitie when all the fauour that Dauid and Israel can receiue is to choose their bane Yet behold neither sinnes nor threats nor feares can bereaue a true penitent of his faith Let vs fall now into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great There can bee no euill of punishment wherein God haue not an hand there could be no famine no sword without him but some euils are more immediate from a diuine stroke such was that plague into which Dauid is vnwillingly willing to fall He had his choyce of dayes moneths yeares in the same number and though the shortnesse of time prefixed to the threatned pestilence might seeme to offer some aduantage for the leading of his election yet God meant and Dauid knew it herein to proportion the difference of time to the violence of the plague neither should any fewer perish by so few dayes pestilence then by so many yeares famine The wealthiest might auoid the dearth the swiftest might runne away from the sword no man could promise himselfe safety from that pestilence In likelihood Gods Angell would rather strike the most guilty Howeuer therefore Dauid might well looke to be inwrapped in the common destruction yet he rather chooseth to fall into that mercy which hee had abused and to suffer from that iustice which he had prouoked Let vs now fall into the hands of the Lord. Humble confessions and deuout penance cannot alwayes auert temporall iudgements Gods Angell is abroad and within that short compasse of time sweepes away seuenty thousand Israelites Dauid was proud of the number of his subiects now they are abated that he may see cause of humiliation in the matter of his glory In what we haue offended we commonly smart These thousands of Israel were not so innocent that they should onely perish for Dauids sinne Their sinnes were the motiues both of this sinne and punishment besides the respect of Dauids offence they die for themselues It was no ordinarie pestilence that was thus suddenly and vniuersally mortall Common eyes saw the botch and the markes saw not the Angell Dauids clearer sight hath espyed him after that killing peragration through the Tribes of Israel shaking his sword ouer Ierusalem and houering ouer Mount Sion and now hee who doubtlesse had spent those three dismall dayes in the saddest contrition humbly casts himselfe downe at the feet of the auenger and layes himselfe ready for the fatall stroke of iustice It was more terrour that God intended in the visible shape of his Angell and deepeâ— humiliation and what he meant he wrought Neuer soule could be more deiected more anguished with the sense of a iudgement in the bitternesse whereof hee cryes out Behold I haue sinned yea I haue done wickedly But these Sheepe what haue they done Let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house The better any man is the more sensible he is of his owne wretchednesse Many of those Sheepe were Wolues to Dauid What had they done They had done that which was the occasion of Dauids sinne and the cause of their owne punishment But that gracious penitent knew his owne sinne he knew not theirs and therefore can say I haue sinned What haue they done It is safe accusing where wee may be boldest and are best acquainted our selues Oh the admirable charitie of Dauid that would haue ingrossed the plague to himselfe and his house from the rest of Israel and sues to interpose himselfe betwixt his people and the vengeance He that had put himselfe vpon the pawes of the Beare and Lyon for the rescue of his Sheepe will now cast himselfe vpon the sword of the Angell for the preseruation of Israel There was hope in those conflicts in this yeeldance there could be nothing but death Thus didst thou O sonne of Dauid the true and great Shepheard of thy Church offer thy selfe to death for them who had their hands in thy blood who both procured thy death and deserued their owne Here he offered himselfe that had sinned for those whom he professed to haue not done euill thou that didst no sinne vouchsauest to offer thy selfe for vs that were all sinne Hee offered and escaped thou offeredst and diedst and by thy death we liue and are freed from euerlasting destruction But O Father of all mercies how little pleasure doest thou take in the blood of sinners it was thine owne pitie that inhibited the Destroyer Ere Dauid could see the Angell thou hadst restrained him It is sufficient hold now thy hand If thy compassion did not both with-hold and abridge thy iudgements what place were there for vs out of hell How easie and iust had it beene for God to haue made the shutting vp of that third euening red with blood his goodnes repents of the slaughter and cals for that Sacrifice wherewith he will be appeased An Altar must be built in the threshing floore of Araunah the Iebusite Lo in that very Hill where the Angell held the sword of Abraham from killing his Sonne doth God now hold the Sword of the Angel from killing his people Vpon this very ground shall the Temple after stand heere shall be the holy Altar which shall send vp the acceptable oblations of Gods people in succeeding generations O God what was the threshing-floore of a Iebusite to thee aboue all other soyles What vertue what merit was in this earth As in places so in persons it is not to bee heeded what they are but what thou wilt That is worthiest which thou pleasest to accept Rich and bountifull Araunah is ready to meet Dauid in so holy a motion and munificently offers his Sion for the place his Oxen for the Sacrifice his Carts Ploughs and other Vtensils of his Husbandry for the wood Two franke hearts are well met Dauid would buy Araunah would giue The Iebusite would not sell Dauid will not take Since it was for
for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to haue as little to doe with that euill one as wee may and if hee shall offer to maintaine conference with vs by his secret tentations to turne our speech vnto our God with the Archangell The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not only men but spirits haue names This then he askes not out of an ignorance or curiositie nothing could bee hid from him who calleth the starres and all the hosts of heauen by their names but out of a iust respect to the glory of the miracle hee was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little auaile For if without inquirie or confession our Sauiour had erected this euill spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Deuill whereas now it appeares there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darknesse which were all forced to vaile vnto that almighty command Before the Deuill had spoken singularly of himselfe What haue I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not Our Sauiour yet knowing that there was a multitude of Deuils lurking in that brest who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselues He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The author of discord hath borrowed a name of warre from that military order of discipline by which the Iewes were subdued doth the Deuill fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speake as one they act as one in this possession There is a maruellous accordance euen betwixt euill spirits that Kingdome is not diuided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men doe so conspire in euill that there is such vnanimitie in the broachers and abettors of errours when I see those Deuils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can bragge too much of vnitie when it is incident into wicked spirits All the praise of concord is in the subiect if that be holy the consent is Angelicall if sinfull deuillish What a fearfull aduantage haue our spirituall enemies against vs If armed troopes come against single straglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concerne vs to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come vpon vs like a torrent Oh let not vs runne asunder like drops in the dust All our vnited forces will bee little enough to make head against this league of destruction Legion imports Order number conflict Order in that there is a distinction of regiment a subordination of Officers Though in hell there be confusion of faces yet not confusion of degrees Number Those that haue reckoned a Legion at the lowest haue counted it six thousand others haue more then doubled it though here it is not strict but figuratiue yet the letter of it implyes multitude How fearfull is the consideration of the number of Apostate Angels And if a Legion can attend one man how many must we needs thinke are they who all the world ouer are at hand to the punishment of the wicked the exercise of the good the tentation of both It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies Be sure ye lewd men ye shall want no furtherance to euill no torment for euill Be sure yee godly yee shall not want combatants to try your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stirâ—e vp your hearts make sure the meanes of your safety There are more with vs then against vs The God of heauen is with vs if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If euery deuill were a Legion we are safe Though wee walke through the valley of the shadow of death we shall feare no euill Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall saue vs. Conflict All this number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there euer houre since the first blow giuen to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these aduersaries As therefore strong frontier Townes when there is a peace concluded on both parts breake vp their garison open their gates neglect their Bulwarkes but when they heare of the enemy mustering his forces in great and vnequall numbers then they double their guard keepe Sentinell repaire their Sconces so must we vpon the certaine knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continuall aray against vs addresse our selues alwayes to a wary and strong resistance I doe not obserue the most to thinke of this ghostly hostilitie Either they doe not finde there are tentations or those tentations hurtfull they see no worse then themselues and if they feele motions of euill arising in them they impute it to fancy or vnreasonable appetite to no power but natures and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harme it is to finne Is it any maruell that carnall eyes cannot discerne spirituall obiects That the world who is the friend the vassall of Satan is in no warre with him Elisha's seruant when his eyes were opened saw troops of spirituall souldiers which before hee discerned not If the eyes of our soules bee once enlightened by supernaturall knowledge and the cleare beames of faith wee shall as plainely descry the inuisible powers of wickednesse as now our bodily eyes see heauen and earth They are though wee see them not we cannot be safe from them if wee doe not acknowledge not oppose them The Deuils are now become great suitors to Christ That hee would not command them into the deepe that hee would permit their entrance into the swine What is this deepe but hell both for the vtter separation from the face of God and for the impossibilitie of passage to the region of rest and glory The very euill spirits then feare and expect a further degree of torment they know themselues reserued in those chaines of darknesse for the iudgement of the great day There is the same wages due to their sinnes and to ours neither are the wages paid till the worke bee done they tempting men to sinne must needs sinne grieuously in tempting as with vs men those that mislead into sinne offend more then the actors not till the vpshot therefore of their wickednesse shall they receiue the full measure of their condemnation This day this deepe they tremble at what shall I say of those men that feare it not It is hard for men to beleeue their owne vnbeliefe If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomlesse deepe wherein euery sinne shall receiue an horrible portion with the damned durst they stretch
to send me a gracious release of that strict charge Why should I thinke that Gods reuelations are not as free to others as to me and if this Prophet haue receiued a countermand from an Angell of God how shall I not disobey God if I doe not follow him Vpon this ground he returnes with this deceitfull host when the meat was now in his mouth receiues the true message of death from the same lips that brought him the false message of his inuitation Thus saith the Lord for as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord hast not kept the commandement of the Lord thy God but camest back and hast eaten bread and drunke water in the place forbidden thee thy carkasse shal not come to the Sepulcher of thy fathers Oh wofull Prophet when hee lookes on his host he sees his executioner whiles he is feeding of his body he heares of his carkasse at the table he heares of his denied Sepulcher and all this for eating and drinking where he was forbidden by God though bidden as from God The violation of the least charge of a God is mortall No pretences can warrant the transgression of a diuine command A word from God is pleaded on both sides The one was receiued immediately from God the other related mediately by man One the Prophet was sure of the other was questionable A sure word of God may not bee left for an vncertaine An expresse charge of the Almighty admitteth not of any checke His will is but one as himselfe is and therefore it is out of the danger of contradiction Me thinks I see the man of God change countenance at this sharpe sauce of his pleasing morsels his face before-hand is died with the palenesse of death me thinkes I heare him vrging many vnkind expostulations with his iniurious host who yet dismisses him better prouided for the ease of his iourny then he found him Perhaps this officiousnesse was our of desire to make some amends for his late seducement It is a poore recompence when he hath betrayed his life and wronged the soule to cast some courtesies vpon the body This old Bethelite that had taken paines to come and fetch the man of God into sin will not now goe backe with him to accompany his departure Doubtlesse hee was afraid to be in wrapped in the iudgement which hee saw hanged ouer that obnoxious head Thus the mischieuous guides of wickednesse leaue a man when they haue led him to his bane as familiar Deuils forsake their Witches when they haue brought them once into fetters The man of God returnes alone carefull no doubt and pensiue for his offence when a Lion out of the wood meets him assaults him kils him Oh the iust and seuere iudgements of the Almighty who hath brought this fierce beast out of his wild ranges into the high way to be the executioner of his offending seruant Doubtlesse this Prophet was a man of great holinesse of singular fidelity else he durst not haue been Gods Herald to carie a message of defiance to Ieroboam King of Israel in the midst of all his royall magnificence yet now for varying from but a circumstance of Gods command though vpon the suggestion of a diuine warrant is giuen for a prey to the Lion Our interest in God is so farre from excusing our sinne that it aggrauates it Of all others the sinne of a Prophet shall not passe vnreuenged The very wilde beasts are led by a prouidence Their wise and powerfull Creator knowes how to serue himselfe of them The Lions guard one Prophet kill another according to the commission receiued from their Maker What sinner can hope to escape vnpunished when euery creature of God is ready to be an auenger of euill The beasts of the field were made to serue vs we to serue our Creator When we forsake our homage to bim that made vs it is no maruell if the beasts forget their duty to vs and deale with vs not as Masters but as rebels When an holy man abuyes so dearely such a sleight frailty of a credulous mistaking what shall become of our hainous and presumptuous sinnes I cannot thinke but this Prophet died in the fauour of God though by the teeth of the Lion His life was forfeited for example his foule was safe Yea his very carkasse was left though torne yet faire after those deadly graspes as if God had said I will onely take thy breath from thee as the penalty of thy disobedience a Lion shall doe that which an apoplexie or feuer might doe I owe thee no further reuenge then may be satisfied with thy blood Violent euents doe not alwaies argue the anger of God Euen death it selfe is to his seruants a fatherly castigation But oh the vnsearchable wayes of the Almighty The man of God sinnes and dies speedily the lying Prophet that seduced him suruiues Yea wicked Ieroboam enioyes his Idolatry and treads vpon the graue of his reprouer There is neither fauour in the delay of stripes nor displeasure in the haste Rather whom God loues he chastises as sharply so speedily whiles the rest prosper to condemnation Euen the rod of a louing father may draw blood How much happier is it for vs that wee die now to liue for euer then that we liue a while to die euer Had this Lion set vpon the Prophet for hunger why did hee not deuoure as well as kill him Why did he not rather kill the beast then the man since we know the nature of the Lion such that he is not wont to assaile man saue in the extreme want of other prey Certainly the same power that imployed those fangs restrained them that the world might see it was not appetite that prouoked the beast to this violence but the ouer-ruling command of God Euen so O Lord thy powerfull hand is ouer that roaring Lion that goes about continually seeking whom hee may deuoure thine hand with-holds him that though he may shed the blood of thine elect yet he cannot hurt their soules and whiles he doth those things which thou permittest and orderest to thy iust ends yet he cannot doe lesser things which he desireth and thou permittest not The fierce beast stands by the carkasse as to auow his owne act and to tell who sent him so to preserue that body which he hath slaine Oh wonderfull worke of God the Executioner is turned Guardian and as the Officer of the highest commands all other creatures to stand aloofe from his chaâ—ge and commands the fearfull Asse that brought this burthen thither not to stirre thence but stand ready prest to recarie it to the Sepulcher and now when he hath sufficiently witnessed to all passengers that this act was not done vpon his own hunger but vpon the quarrell of his Maker he deliuers vp his charge to that old Prophet who was no lesse guilty of this blood then himselfe This old Seducer hath so much truth as both to giue a
as to giue vs all lookes for a returne of some offering from vs If we present him with nothing but our sins how can wee looke to bee accepted The sacrifices vnder the Gospell are spirituall with these must we come into the presence of God if we desire to carie away remission and fauour The Philistims knew well that it were bootlesse for them to offer what they listed their next suit is to be directed in the matter of their oblation Pagans can teach vs how vnsafe it is to walke in the wayes of Religion without a guide yet here their best teachers can but guesse at their duty and must deuise for the people that which the people durst not impose vpon themselues The golden Emerods and Mise were but coniecturall prescripts With what security may we consult with them which haue their directions from the mouth and hand of the Almighty God strucke the Philistims at once in their god in their bodies it their land In their god by his ruine and dismembering In their bodies by the Emerods In their land by the Mise That base vermine did God send among them on purpose to shame their Dagon and them that they might see how vnable their god was which they thought the Victor of the Arke to subdue the least Mouse which the true God did create and command to plague them This plague vpon the fields beganne together with that vpon their bodies it was mentioned not complained of till they think of dismissing the Arke Greater crosses doe commonly swallow vp the lesse At least lesser euils are either silent or vnheard while the eare is filled with the clamor of the greater Their very Princes were punished with the Mise as well as with the Emerods God knowes no persons in the execution of iudgements the least and meanest of all Gods creatures is sufficient to be the reuenger of his Creator GOD sent them Mise and Emerods of flesh and blood they returne him both these of gold to imply both that these iudgements came out from God and that they did gladly giue him the glory of that whereof hee gaue them paine and sorrow and that they would willingly buy off their paine with the best of their substance The proportion betwixt the complaint and satisfaction is more precious to him then the Metall There was a publike confession in this resemblance which is so pleasing vnto God that he rewards it euen in wicked men with a relaxation of outward punishment The number was no lesse significant then the forme Fiue golden Emerods and Mise for the fiue Princes and diuisions of Philistims As GOD made no difference in punishing so they make none in their oblation The people are comprised in them in whom they are vnited their seuerall Princes They were one with their Prince their Offering is one with his as they were Ring-leaders in the sinne so they must be in the satisfaction In a multitude it is euer seene as in a beast that the body followes the head Of all others great men had need to looke to their wayes it is in them as in figures one stands for a thousand One Offering serues not all there must bee fiue according to the fiue heads of the offence Generalities will not content God euery man must make his seuerall peace if not in himselfe yet in his head Nature taught them a shadow of that the substance and perfection whereof is taught vs by the grace of the Gospell euery soule must satisfie God if not in it selfe yet in him in whom we are both one and absolute we are the body whereof Christ is the head our sinne is in our selues our satisfaction must be in him Samuel himselfe could not haue spoken more diuinely then these Priests of Dagon they doe not onely talke of giuing glory to the God of Israel but fall into an holy and graue expostulation wherefore then should ye harden your hearts as the Aegyptians and Pharaoh hardned their hearts when hee wrought wonderfully amongst them c. They confesse a supereminent and reuenging hand of God ouer their gods they parallell their plagues with the Aegyptian they make vse of Pharaohs sin and iudgement What could be better said All Religions haue afforded them that could speake well These good words left them still both Philistims and superstitious How should men be hypocrites if they had not good tongues yet as wickednesse can hardly hide it selfe these holy speeches are not without a tincture of that Idolatry wherewith the heart was infected For they professe care not onely of the persons and lands of the Philistims but of their gods that hee may take his hand from you and from your gods Who would thinke that wisedome and folly could lodge so neere together that the same men should haue care both of the glory of the true God and preseruation of the false That they should bee so vaine as to take thought for those gods which they granted to be obnoxious vnto an higher Deitie Oft times euen one word bewrayeth a whole packe of falshood and though Superstition be a cleanly counterfeit yet some one slip of the tongue discouers it as we say of deuils which though they put on faire formes yet are they knowne by their clouen feet What other warrant these superstitious Priests had for the maine substance of their aduice I know not sure I am the probability of the euent was faire that two Kine neuer vsed to any yoake should runne from their Calues which were newly 〈◊〉 vp from them to draw the Arke home into a contrary way must needs argue an hand aboue Nature What else should ouer-rule bruite creatures to preferre a forced cariage vnto a naturall burden What should cary them from their owne home towards the home of the Arke What else should guide an vntamed and vntaught Teame in as right a path toward Israel as their Teachers could haue gone What else could make very beasts more wise then their Masters There is a speciall prouidence of God in the very motions of bruit creatures Neither Philistims nor Israelites saw ought that droue them yet they saw them so runne as those that were led by a Diuine Conduct The reasonlesse creatures also doe the will of their Maker euery act that is done either be them or to them makes vp the decree of the Almighty and if in extraordinary actions and euents his hand is more visible yet it is no lesse certainly present in the common Little did the Israelites of Bethshemesh looke for such a fight whiles they were reaping their Wheat in the Valley as to see the Arke of God come running to them without a Conuoy neither can it be said whether they were more affected with ioy or with astonishment with ioy at the presence of the Arke with astonishment at the Miracle of the transportation Downe went their Sickles and now euery man runs to reap the comfort of this better haruest to meet that Bread of Angels to
salute those Cherubims to welcome that God whose absence had beene their death But as it is hard not to ouer-ioy in a sudden prosperity and to vse happinesse is no lesse difficult then to forbeare it These glad Israelites cannot see but they must gaze they cannot gaze on the glorious out-side but they must be whether out of rude iollity or curiositie or suspition of the purloining some of those sacred implements prying into the secrets of Gods Arke Nature is too subiect to extremities and is euer either too dull in want or wanton in fruition It is no easie matter to keepe a meane whether in good or euill Bethshemesh was a City of Priests they should haue knowne better how to demeane themselues towards the Arke this priuiledge doubled their offence There was no malice in this curious inquisition the same eyes that lookt into the Arke lookt also vp to heauen in their Offerings and the same hands that touched it offered sacrifice to the God that brought it Who could expect any thing now but acceptation who would suspect any danger It is not a following act of deuotion that can make amends for a former sinne There was a death owing them immediately vpon their offence God will take his owne time for the execution In the meane while they may sacrifice but they cannot satisfie they cannot escape The Kine are sacrificed the Cart burnes them that drew it Here was an offering of prayse when they had more need of a trespasse-offering many an heart is lifted vp in a conceit of ioy when it hath iust cause of humiliation God lets them alone with their Sacrifice but when that is done he comes ouer them with a backe reckoning for their sinne Fifty thousand and seuenty Israelites are strucke dead for this vnreuerence to the Arke A wofull welcome for the Arke of God into the borders of Israel It killed them for looking into it who thought it their life to see it It dealt blowes and death on both hands to Philistims to Israelites to both of them for prophaning it The one with their Idoll the other with their eyes It is a fearfull thing to vse the holy Ordinances of God with an vnreuerent boldnesse Feare and trembling becomes vs in our accesse to the Maiesty of the Almighty Neither was there more state then secresie in Gods Arke some things the wisedome of God desires to conceale The vnreuerence of the Israelites was no more faulty then their curiosity secret things to God things reuealed to vs and to our children The remoue of the Arke I Heare of the Bethshemites lamentation I heare not of their repentance they complaine of their smart they complaine not of their sinne and for ought I can perceiue speake as if God were curious rather then they faulty Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he goe from vs As if none could please that God which misliked them It is the fashion of naturall men to iustifie themselues in their owne courses if they cannot charge any earthly thing with the blame of their suffering they will cast it vpon Heauen That a man pleads himselfe guiltie of his owne wrong is no common worke of Gods Spirit Bethshemesh bordered too neere vpon the Philistims If these men thought the very presence of the Arke hurtfull why do they send to their neighbours of Kiriath-iearim that they might make themselues miserable Where there is a misconceit of God it is no maruell if there be a defect of Charity How cunningly doe they send their message to their neighbours They doe not say the Arke of God is come to vs of it owne accord lest the men of Kiriath-iearim should reply It is come to you let it stay with you They say onely the Philistims haue brought it they tell of the presence of the Arke they doe not tell of the successe lest the example of their iudgement should haue discouraged the forwardnesse of their reliefe And after all the offer was plausible Come ye downe and take it vp to you as if the honour had been too great for themselues as if their modestie had beene such that they would not forestall and engrosse happinesse from the rest of Israel It is no boot to teach Nature how to tell her owne tale smart and danger will make a man wittie He is rarely constant that will not dissemble for ease It is good to be suspitious of the euasions of those which would put off miserie Those of Bethshemesh were not more craftie then these of Kiriath-iearim which was the ground of their boldnesse faithfull So many thousand Bethshemites could not be dead and no part of the rumour flie to them They heard how thicke not onely the Philistims but the bordering Israelites fell downe dead before the Arke yet they durst aduenture to come and fetch it euen from amongst the carcasses of their brethren They had beene formerly acquainted with the Arke they knew it was holy it could not be changeable and therefore they well conceiued this slaughter to arise from the vnholinesse of men not from the rigour of God and thereupon can seeke comfort in that which others found deadly Gods children cannot by any meanes bee discouraged from their honour and loue to his Ordinances If they see thousands strucke downe to Hell by the Scepter of Gods Kingdome yet they will kisse it vpon their knees and if their Sauiour be a rocke of offence and the occasion of the fall of millions in Israel they can feed temperately of that whereof others haue surfeted to death c. Bethshemesh was a Citie of Priests and Leuits Kiriath-iearim a Citie of Iuda where wee heare but of one Leuit Abinabab yet this Citie was more zealous for God more reuerent and conscionable in the entertainment of the Arke then the other Wee heard of the taking downe of the Arke by the Bethshemites when it came miraculously to them we doe not heare of any man sanctified for the attendance of it as was done in this second lodging of the Arke Grace is not tied either to number or meanes It is in spirituall matters as in the estate Small helpes with good thrift enrich vs when great patrimonies lose themselues in the neglect Shiloh was wont to be the place which was honoured with the presence of the Arke Euer since the wickednesse of Elies Sonnes that was forlorne and desolate and now Kiriath-iearim succeeds into this priuiledge It did not stand with the royall liberty of God no not vnder the Law to tie himselfe vnto places and persons Vnworthinesse was euer a sufficient cause of exchange It was not yet his time to stirre from the Iewes yet he remoued from one Prouince to another Lesse reason haue we to thinke that so God will reside amongst vs that none of our prouocations can driue him from vs c. Israel which had found the misery of Gods absence is now resolued into teares of contrition and