Resurrection strengthens feeble minds and all comfort in the greatest dangers is in the faith of the Resurrection let us set this faith against all the terrours and temptations wherewith the Devil endeavours to overthrow and weaken our minds and let us hope assuredly in him who is the Author unto us of so great advantage and liberty What Christ's Birth did The long expected birth of our Saviour did exceedingly raise the Souls of men to a high hope of salvation and confidence of it His conversation amongst men his upright life his doctrine and lastly his death which he suffered for us to free us from destruction did confer much thereunto What Christ's Resurrection did But the truth of his resurrection did effect this that when he had got the victory over death no man need to doubt of his salvation but ought to hold a firm hope that what hath been done already in Christ their head shall be perfected in them also Wherefore all our hope depends on our Saviours Resurrection whereby he vanquished death and thereby he pulled out the sting of death that is sin that bred the Enmity between God and us Wherefore since we have obtain'd so great felicity by the death and resurrection of Christ Peter 1. let us not be removed from the truth but let us endeavour to partake of the fruit of so much good works and look steadfastly upon him who by his singular favour and mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope by Christs rising from the dead and hath restored us to life that shall never end and hath assigned unto us an immortal Inheritance pardoning all our offences Colos 2. and blotting out the hand-writing that was against us The memory of this benefit should be alwaies before our eyes especially at our last conflict The Resurrection should still be in our minds when detesting all the wickednesse of our former life we must oppose against Satan sin death and hell the immense mercy of God the Father by out full assurance in Christ by whom there is provided certainly for us salvation and remission of all our sins and reconciliation by his blood By him we have admission and entrance unto the Father He is the propitiation for our sins Considence in Christ gives us courage For so God loved the world that he gave his onely Sonne to redeem us that every one that believes in him trusts in him and relyeth on his promises may not perish but have everlasting life Which confidence raiseth our minds to bring forth good fruits by works of charity whereby we love God above all things and our neighbour for his sake Matâ—h 25. What Faith dictates Charity performs For a working Faith begets charity and charity nourisheth faith Faith joyn'd to Love So in the foolish Virgins lamps the light of faith went out because there wanted oyl of charity Wherefore this faith and confidence of promised mercy that is infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost must be stirred up and nourished in us that by the merit of Christ our Mediatour we may cry Abba Father For the Spirit of Adoption Gal. 4. and the earnest of our Inheritance raiseth up our hearts and comforts us with the redemption and possession purchased for us and takes from our minds all fear and trembling and terrour of Conscience and makes us acknowledge Gods favour presence and mercy and that we may attain Redemption and Reconciliation by the help of Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be our peace-maker through faith in his blood Wherefore being justified by faith we have peace with God and a settled Conscience and a quiet mind so that all distrust and desperation is discussed and we apprehend certain hopes of the Resurrection and Immortality and doubt nothing of our salvation so that we depart from hence chearfully to our heavenly Country and place of rest to enjoy everlasting comfort with our Redeemer And that these things may never slip out of our minds and so great a benefit may never be forgot Christ instituted his holy Supper The Communion whereby we may remember and recollect what he hath done for us that our mind may be elevated and grow hot with the frequent meditation of the new Covenant to adore him and receiving his body and blood we may be united to him and may conceive certain hope and trust of his great love and mercy to us whereby he was willing to dye for us Which wonderful work we ought daily but especially to meditate on at our end when death approaches The Lords Supper that our minds may be settled and we may firmly believe in him and we may give him continual thanks for that inestimable gift of our salvation by the shedding of his blood whereby he wiped away all spots of sin from us and freed us from dear of death and from the cruel tyranny of our great Enemy the devil so setting us at liberty Therefore by this mystical Bread and holy Sacrament we are assured that Christ is in us and we in him and that we are joyned to him by the most firm bond of love Heb. 8. Whence it is that being born up with certain hope as with a staff we are confident to receive those things that faith infused into us by the Spirit prompts us with and perswades us unto for from faith as the root spring forth the branches of charity James 2. that yield plentifully the fruits of good works For works testifie that faith is alive and safe and sound in all parts of it There must be choice of works For saving faith is never without good works that are pleasing to God but as a good Tree brings forth both leaves and fruit Since therefore those heroick and divine vertues inspired by God which are so joyned together that they can never be asunder are so necessary to salvation the mind must be daily busied in them that after the troubles of this life are past after that we have approved the profession of our faith and shew'd it openly which God requires we should do Sinners are Justified by Faith in God and exerciseth us therein we may come to those riches that Inheritance those rewards that God hath appointed for them who in the conflict of this life have employ'd their Talent as they ought to do Ezek. 18. wherein if they have erred the next way to salvation is to lift up their souls to God and to commit themselves wholly to his great mercy Wherefore depending on his clemency in hopes of mercy which he denyeth to none that repent Heb. 4. Let us come with boldnesse to the Throne of Grace that we may find mercy in time of need And let us continually from our very heart speak in the ears of our merciful and placable Judge those words of the Prophet Psal 148. Enter not into Judgment with thy servant Psal 119. O Lord because in thy sight
marrow hath taken from them all sense thereof But at first when any strange quality seizeth on the body whereby it corrupts and is changed what parts soever receive sharp biting humours they feel pain But when the disease growes old and is grown up with Nature they feel not much pain because they agree together and the humours wax faint by commerce with the body and keeping company with it and by the mixture of other humours they are weakned as strong Wine is with Water Yet the footsteps of the old disease and reliques of it alwaies remain which if they fall down upon the Lungs they make the sick hoarse and short winded if it fall on the joynts it makes them subject to the Gowt in the feet hands hucklebone and it returns at certain times So all that have pocky sores are gowty But all that have the Gowt in their feet or hips All that have pocky sores have the Gowt but not contrarily have not the symptoms of the Pox. And if the flux of humours is sent to the outward skin their skin is made rugged and crusty their face is deformed with tetters scabs foul sores and scurf and their hair falls For it falls out with them as it doth with Trees and Twigs on which pisse A Simile from Trees that are corrupted or some salt water or filth is cast For when the root is hurt the leafs fall off and the branches wither yet the Tree dyeth not at the root but it decayes and is hardly restored CHAP. XV. How it is that Men dying though they have their mind and understanding firm yet they make a hoarse noise and a sound that returns back which the Low Dutch vulgarly call Den rotel IN the Low-Countries and in all the Countries toward the North those that are dying shew certain arguments of their departure by making a murmuring noise and none of them die but have this mark before How those that dye make a murmuring noise For as death is at hand they make a noise as the water doth when it falls through rough winding crooked places they will sound and murmur like to the noise that Pipes make in Conduits For when the vocal artery happens to be stoped the breath that would fain break forth at once finding a narrow passage and the pipe sunk down comes forth by a certain gargling and makes a hoarse sound in smooth places and springing forth forsakes the dry limbs Wherefore the breath being heaped together and mingled with swelling froth causeth a noise like the ebbing of the Sea which also comes so to passe in some by reason of their pannicles and membranes drawn into wrinkles so that the breath comes forth by a crooked and winding revolution But they that have a strong and great bodies and die of violent deaths sound more and strive longer with death by reason of plenty of humour and grosse and thick spirits But in those that are wasted in their bodies Who dye gently and who with great trouble and that die easily by degrees the breath runs not so violently nor with so great a noise so that they dye by little and little very gently and do even as it were fall asleep CHAP. XVI The death of man and destruction of things that are is against Nature and is very improperly called natural Yet the mind must be resolved not to fear death though not without cause all men are afraid of it THough it be so ordained by nature since that mans rebellion hath drawn this upon him deservedly that we must all tend to destruction and dye Yet I see that by reason this may be proved that death is not natural but contrary to nature In the beginning this was given by nature to all kinds of Creatures to defend themselves their life and body Cic. l. 1. offâ—â— and to decline that may seem to be hurtfull unto them and to be very carefull to look to their own preservation and safety For who doth not observe what great care and diligence men use by the light of reason and brute beasts by the light of nature to defend and keep themselves from danger All men fear death every one strives to keep himself from it for when death comes Nature is extinguished No man but trembles at the fear of death and ceaseth to be any longer So Christ who would shew the imbred weaknesse of mans nature who except sin and diseases was like to us in all things feared death and prayed against it John 21. Also in Peter is expressed the affect of nature and infirmity of the flesh when Christ thrice asked him if he loved him and that he should take great care to feed his flock showing unto him what should befall him and what death he should die When thou wer 't young saith he thou wandredst whither thou wouldest and didst gird thy self but when thou growest old another shall gird thee about and lead the whether thou wouldest not Whereby he shews the desire and weaknesse of man's nature that is stricken with the terrour of death and is very unwilling to come to it yet the mind is willing and ready John 22. Since therefore death is the deprivation and abolition of Nature how can it be said that it is natural and agreeing unto nature that is violent and wholly extinguisheth Nature I know that man by his fall deserved so much and in that he degenerated from the dignity he was created with being disobedient to his creatour to be punished with all pains and vexations diseases hunger and thirst and unquietnesse of mind and at last to undergo the punishment of death Sin brought in diseases and death But it was not the fault of nature that brought in these miseries but sin For since the fall of the first man all things are changed and become contrary so the stars diseases Elements Wild-beasts and Devils are become enemies to man And as Paul saith the whole creation is made subject to vanity and corruption for mans cause Rom. 8. and the whole series of Creatures the Angels not excepted desire an end of their labours But the certain hopes of a better life doth recreate our minds in so great miseries and our confidence in Christ who restores the decayed Nature of man to his former dignity takes away from us all terrour and fear of death also out of our souls Faith in Christ takes from man the fear of death For the remembrance of his death and resurrection doth wholly confirm and strengthen us for we believe that man shall not be annihilated but changed to a better condition and that death is not our ruine but the door and entrance to a more happy life 2 Cor. 5. A simise from the structure of houses For we know as Paul saith that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved as houses use to be taken down disjoynted that we have a building from God a house not
no man living shall be justified If thou Lord shouldst observe what is done amisse who might abide it but with thee there is mercy and plenteous redemption Despair must be cast away CHAP. XV. Whether there be a reasonable Soul infused into monstrous births and to abortives and whether they shall rise again to life And by the way from whence Monsters proceeed ALl those that are like men and according to the order of being born received from our first Parents by that way and means proceed from both Sexes though they are monstrous in shape and deformed in body Deformity unmans no man have notwithstanding a reasonable soul and when they have run the race of this short life they shall be made at last partakers of the Resurrection But those that are not from man but by mixing with other Creatures and exercise their Actions otherwise than men do shall neither be immortal nor rise again So the wood-gods Satyrs houshold gods Centaurs Fairies Tritons Sirens Harpies and if fabulous antiquity hath invented any other things of this nature they have neither rational souls nor enjoy the benefit of the Resurrection There are indeed amongst so many millions of men many that are deformed in body and are of an horrid aspect with hogs snowt and uncomely Jaws yet all these though they are far from the natural shape of Man are referred to the number of men For they speak discourse judge remember and perform other offices of the Soul and perfect their actions after the manner of men though they somewhat degenerate from mans dignity and his imbred force of Nature Whence monstrous shapes proceed Now a Monstrous habit of body is contracted divers wayes For fear frights influence of the Stars too much or too little seed Imagination of women with child and divers phantasms which the mind conceives deform the body and cause Children to be of a shape not proper to the Sex Sometimes the whole course of Nature is changed either when the seeds are vitiated or the Instruments be unfit so that the natural faculties to propagate and form the Child cannot perform their offices exactly A Simile from the Industry of an Artificer For as the most Industrious Artist cannot bring to perfection a work happily begun where the matter is naught or the Instruments are dull so Nature wanting the forces of her faculties or not having a fit matter doth all things ill and fails of her end Some there are that by their operation do make some parts of the body otherwise than Nature made them So in Asia as Hippocrates testifies Of Ayr and places there were great heads that the Nurses made their heads to be long figured for that they thought was a sign of a noble and generous spirit as a Hawk nose was amongst the Persians whereby at length it came to passe that though the Midwives ceased to presse the childrens heads yet nature whilest she was forming the child agreed with the ancient custome and what they did by great Industry Nature did of her own accord Also nutriments and the qualities of the outward Ayr make some parts deformed So they that dwell in cold moyst Countries have great heads great bellies fat bodies Countries change the conditions of Soul and Body babber lips swoln cheeks Many Countries produce Pigmies and little men very short Other Countreys produce people with great throats and scrophulous tumours with flat noses crooked legs Yet though many things be wanting in these people and the parts be either ill framed or wrested amisse yet because they are born of women and some force of reason shines in them and they are led by the same Laws of Nature Orthodox Divines say There is a rational soul in them and that they shall rise again The Resurrection will restore bodies deformed to their right shape And by rising again they shall lay aside all deformities of their bodies that were ill favoured to behold and be well formed like as men are and all lame crooked imperfect limbs shall be made perfect And though in some the force of reason shines lesse because of the unaptnesse of the organ as in children old men drunkards mad-men in whom the force of the Soul is hindred or oppressed Yet every one of them hath a reasonable soul and what is defective shall be made up at the resurrection But imperfect and abortive births and all mischances where the limbs are not fashion'd or very imperfectly because these want the reasonable soul they cannot be call'd men nor shall they rise again Difference between abortion and a mischance Physitians make a difference between abortion and a mischance For a running forth of a mischance is when the seeds were for some dayes joyn'd in the womb but by the slipperinesse and smoothnesse of it they run forth again before they come to make a perfect shape so that a rude unframed mass runs out that was the rudiments of a Child that should have been and a shadow of what was begun but it was cast out untimely as seeds and buds from trees that bear not fruit to maturity But Abortion oft-times shews the parts of the Infant perfectly made up which when it is 42 dayes old is endowed with a rational Soul and is alive Whence if it chance to be cast forth by some sudden accident it shall one day rise again For though many things be wanting in it and it is not come to its full magnitude yet in the Resurrection all shall be made up that time would have produced A Simile from children increasing And as children have many things in possibility that with progresse of time and increase of years do shew themselves as teeth nails hair and full stature of body which by faculty of the seed increases by degrees and come to perfection so in the Resurrection all things wanting in the body and parts that are imperfect shall be made perfect Whosoever therefore is born of the seed of man and not from some foul matter or vitious humours concurring though he be of a monstrous body and ill favoured shape yet shall he rise again from death to life all faults being repaired by vertue of the Resurrection and framed decently for that Omnipotent Work-master of all things Makes nothing weak Prudentius who doth the body raise For were there fault it were not for his praise What is by chance or sicknesse or by care Or otherwise decay'd he will repair Nothing is impossible to God For that is easie for him who made all things of nothing For as Augustine saith It is more easie to create men than to raise them when they are dead It is more to give that a being that never was than to repair what was before And the earthly matter never is perished in respect of God who can easily restore to its former nature what is vanished into the Ayr and other Elements or what leannesse or hunger hath consumed or
were encamped against me my heart should not fear I will not be afraid of thousands of people that shall compasse me about If war rise against me I will trust in him Though I walk in the middle of the shadow of death I will fear no evill because thou art with me Though he should kill me Job 13. I will trust in him that is if he should set before me the terrours of death and I were to lose my life yet will I trust in him who by his providence will find a way to preserve me Psalm 117. Heb. 13. Jeremiah 17. The Lord is my help I will not fear what flesh can do unto me And that of Jeremiah behold they say where is the word of the Lord let it come And I was not troubled following thee my Shepheard and I desired not the day of man Lord thou knowest The place of Jeremiah expounded That is I look for help from no other place but from thee alone so that I neither regard nor fear those who threaten my destruction Be not thou a cause of fear to me thou that art my hope in the day of my affliction let them fear and let not me be afraid Saint Paul inflamed with the same heat of faith and leaning on Gods protection confidently pronounceth that nothing any where is so formidable and horrible that can make godly minds afraid or divide them from their love and relyance upon God For saith he I am certainly perswaded Rom. ult that neither death nor life nor Angels or invisible substances nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor any other creature can be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Saint Pauls confidence doth make others more bold Psalm 30. So Saint Paul pronounceth constantly that he who is engrafted into God the Father by Christ will stand unmoved against all terrours from whence soevever they may arise against the incursions and fightings of enemies against the horrour of death which either the enemies purpose to bring or the law of nature or diseases do bring upon him What can take away the fear of death Wherefore since nothing is more effectual to take off fear of death from the minds of men than a firm confidence in God Christ being our Leader whereby we conceive a certain hope of a resurrection and expectation of eternity let all men make haste and strive to come to this let every one embrace and cherish this saving doctrine and fix it in their minds by this let them strengthen themselves when the greatest troubles are at hand by this let them pacify and quiet their conscience by meditatioâ— hereof let them wipe off all grief of mind and discusse all sadnesse and sorrow that may befall them for death of Parents or Children To this belongs that excellent consolation of Saint Paul 2 Thes 4. wherewith by a certain expectation of a Resurrection and of eternity he corroborates the Thessalonians We must not lament the dead as the Gentiles do and he will have them refrain from weeping not lament for their friends departed as the Gentiles do I will not have you ignorant brethren concerning those that are asleep not as dead but asleep that you grieve not as those who have no hopes of a Resurrection for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again Death is a sleep so those that are a sleep by Iesus shall God bring with him Again when he withdraws the Philippians from earthly things Phil. 3. and recalls them to solid things he saith Our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Lord Iesus Christ who shall transform our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he subdues all things unto himself Wherewith is the fear of death to be discussed By which words Saint Paul perswades them to comfort and support themselves in their afflictions by a love and desire of eternity and in the conflict of this life that they should fear nothing that might turn them away from a better life whereunto Christ hath opened the way for us by the power of his Resurrection Wherefore when we come to the last day of our life and death is near which is formidable to all men unlesse they rely upon Christ or when we think of any such thing in the time of health or if want calamity diseases or other miseries of life afflict us let us refer all our desires hope and wishes unto Christ who by his death hath endured the punishments due unto us who hath pardoned all our sins We must look upon Christ Colos 3. 2 John 2. 1 Tim. 2. Esay 50. and is become the propitiation for all our transgressions who is our advocate as Saint Iohn faith and Mediatour unto God the Father who is the reconciler of God to men and who as Saint Paul saith made himself a redemption and a sacrifice for all In him is appointed salvation â—ite and resurrection By him we have accesse and an entrance in one spirit unto the father Ephes 2. Colos 1. John 2. By the shedding of his bloud we have obtained redemption and remission of our sins Because it pleased the father that in him should all fullnesse dwell and to reconcile all things by him who hath made peace by his bloud Since therefore we have an high Priest Heb. 4. as he saith in the Hebrews who hath entred into heaven Jesus the Son of God who was in all points tempted as we are Christ is the peace-maker between God and man yet without sin who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities let us come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may find mercy to help in time of need We being supported by the defence of so great a Captain How the mind must be confirmed when death comes and compassed with his guard against all the monstrous designs of the devill which presently vanish when the light appears we subsist against sin death hell and are transported from the uncertain station of this life unto our desired harbour and blessed mansion And if any misfortune or inconvenience befall a man in the course of this life if any man chance to be cast upon any difficulty of his life to be pressed with poverty tortured with diseases to be vexed by his enemies if any destructions or calamities come on if wickednesse abound and the innocent are oppressed and murdered wholesome and true doctrine be contemned In Christ there is a consolation against calamities heresies and pernicious opinions do spring up and that perverse errours are sowed in all places in so great a confusion of things let every man look unto Christ let him seek for safety from him and rely wholly upon him Christ is our sacred Anchor in a tempest Psalm 25. and confirm himself by him as by
Luke 2. strength and power whereby he casts down his enemies and supports those which are godly is inexpugnable and invincible For there is nothing but must yeild to his omnipotence and no Towers Bulwarks or Forts be they never so strong that can resist his force His Judgments and Justice Gods Justice Ps 78.47.84 whereby he distributes to every one what belongs to him and rewards men according to their works and as they have deserved are right holy sincere lawfull and most equall so that no man whose judgement is not depraved can justly speak against them His Mercy Ps 16.22.149.84 Gods mercy is a refuge for sinners Clemency Placablenesse which every Prophet hath at large and magnificently set forth is immense and over all his works For all those that fear his Justice fly unto his mercy as a place of refuge and safeguard This removes distrust and desperation from fearfull minds Psal 32.56 Colos 1. With this the Holy Ghost the Comforter supports those that slip and fall and by putting into them hope and confidence to attain Salvation he drives them to the throne of Grace which mercy the Dutch call it Remis ende quiit schelding van misdaet that they may obtain it So that nothing can be imputed unto them Heb. 4. or make them guilty of death When Paul had made trial of this he became an Apostle from a persecutor So he supports the doubtfull and wavering minds of men and provokes them to seek for Gods mercy by his own notable example Whereas 1 Tim. 1. Paul magnifies Gods mercy Joh. 16. saith he I was first a persecutour blasphemous and injurious I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly through unbelief that is wanting faith and being ignorant of Gods counsel for he thought when he persecuted the Christians that he did God good service Saint Paul provokes all men to submit to Gods mercy Now that every man may take care of his Salvation and all may know that sins are purged by Christs bloud for so many as believe in him Paul pronounceth with an asseveration and firm assertion that this is a faithfull saying and worthy of all men to be accepted that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners whereof I am chief But I therefore obtained mercy that Jesus Christ might first shew in me all long suffering for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting that is in hope and expectation of his heavenly kingdome Which benefit since it must be onely referred unto our heavenly Father and it is not meet to deprive him of his due praise and glory he concludes thus To the King Immortal Invisible to the onely wise God be ascribed all Glory and Honour both now and forever Amen Peter also by reason of the Mystery of Redemption 2 Pet. 1. Saint Peter infinitely extols Gods mercy Tit. 3. gives the like praise unto God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who according to his abundant mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope by the rising of Iesus Christ from the dead unto an Inheritance Immortal Undefiled and Uncorruptible laid up for us in the heavens that is for the love of us For after that the gentlenesse and love of God our Saviour appeared unto us not by works of righteousnesse that we had done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life This is a faithfull saying and every man ought to fix it in his mind Since therefore the love and inclination of God is so great unto mankind so great is his favour and mercy that besides the use and commodity of all things he hath also given his onely beloved Son to Redeem us that by the death and Resurrection of Christ we might obtain favour and Reconciliation We must approve our life to God Faith is adorned by works It is but just and all equity and gratitude for so great a benefit requires it of us that every man should place his hope and confidence in God and extol him with the highest prayses and strive to approve his life unto him and to please him by faith not that which is vain and conceited but which is compassed about and garded by works of charity denying all ungodlinesse and carnal lusts to consecrate himself unto God Tit. 2. and to live soberly justly and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquities and to purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works For by this way of ordering our lives Rom. 5. by the assistance of the Spirit our Comforter peace and security shall be maintained in our minds and all trembling and fear of death being cast away we shall find an entrance into immortality and those blessed mansions Christ being our leader For death is not the destruction of our bodies but the renewing of them not the annihilation of Nature Death is the renewing of life but the passage to a better life and the gate and first entrance into the heavenly City and the way to eternity And of the certainty hereof no man ought to doubt or to distrust Gods promises since the truth it self that cannot lye will faithfully perform what he hath promised For God is truth but every man is a lyar God is faithfull in his promises Ps 62.115 Rom. 3. that is God deceives no man nor mocks him or frustrates him of his hope and expectation he is none of those vain boasters or idle promise-makers as men are who break their Covenants and rend asunder all bargains and agreements and that find out some subtile waies to elude and to free themselves from what they seriously promised but he is stable firm constant and will with the greatest assurance and fidelity make good all his promises and what he said he will do he will perform But every man is a Lyar that is false trivial idle light slippery inconstant What is meant by man is a liar unfaithfull changeable doubtfull wavering diverse fraudulent vain captious uncertain and who will say one thing sitting and another when he stands up so that no man can safely put any confidence in him But these crimes are far from the majesty of God for no humane passions fall upon him Wherefore we must chiefly depend upon him in full assurance all our wishes hopes and desires must be transported unto him whether dangers or calamities or death and our last conflict come upon us In danger of life we must fly unto God For all things grow more tolerable by reason of his favour and presence and be they never so bitter and sowre they are thereby made sweet The fear of death is shaken off by our trust in him and all trembling and fear is driven out of our minds For the love of him we despise and regard not the delights and flatterings of this World By his help and assistance we endure all such miseries and calamities that compasse us in every moment By a solid hope and expectation of eternity and being supported by him we joyfully leave the Prison of this world and we are carried on to those blessed habitations Christ being our Conductour But it will trouble us the lesse to forsake the society of our bodies here and to leave our station of this life Christs death purgeth our sins and our last conflict with death makes us lesse sorrowfull and doubtfull wherein almost distrust and desperation are ready to lay hold of us because we are certain that Christ by his merits hath obtained redemption and favour for us Christs Resurrection justifies For Jesus Christ who is the Mediatour between God and man hath reconciled us to his Father and washed away all our sins by his own bloud and by the power of his Resurrection hath justified us For Christ was delivered for our sins John 1. Rom. 4. as Saint Paul saith and was raised again for our Justification So that by Christs Resurrection as by a pledge we are confirmed and are confident that we shall be saved and be raised again by his power For he as the Apostle testifies shall transform our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body Philip. 3. according to his mighty power whereby he subdues all things unto himself For although according to Saint Paul his doctrine 2 Cor. 4 5. this earthly house of ours or this earthly Tabernacle be dissolved like to a ruinous building that is disjoynted and all the frame and contignation of it taken asunder yet we have a house with God not made with hands which is eternal in the heavens For God who hath raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by him and shall make us partakers of the same glory and this certain assurance effects thus much in us that we are not so refractory and unwilling to leave this World FINIS
minds and there is nothing more to be desired in the troublesome Ocean of this life To which that of Paul may be applyed than whom there was no man better skil'd in this School Every Scripture is inspired by God 2 Tim. 3. and is profitable for learning reproof correction Institution that will make a man perfect that the man of God may be compleat and fitted for all works of Piety CHAP. XIV Of the immortality of the Soul and certainty of the Resurrection Also how that may be done Lastly how much our minds are raysed toward God from so great a benefit and what great confidence we may have when we die that we shall be saved What the meditating of another life can do THere is nothing that can bring more profit to a Man in misery and subject to many diseases in this mortal life or give him more comfort against the fear of death than to contemplate of the felicity of a better life and to be certainly perswaded we shall enjoy it Which consists in the immortality of the Soul In what consists mans safety and resurrection of the body which is the sure ground and foundation of all our faith for all our labours and endeavours are in vain and all the course of our life Religion Devotion is idle and next to deceit if we should want so great a blessing as this and lose the hopes of a better life Some stupid people wonder at this The condition of Man is divers from the condition of beasts who think that men and beasts have but one breath and that the Soul dieth with the body and when man is dead all is ended But these men are blind in the very works of nature and know not Gods power by the â—hings he hath created hence it is that their minds cannot conceive how the Soul can be eternal and never die and that the body shall rise again and be restored to its integrity But God that would have man immortal Genes 1. created him after his own Image Man is Gods Image And if man be made after Gods Image and likenesse he must needs be of the same nature with his Maker and participate of eternity Other creatures have not obtained so great an honour from God â—rutes want reason and no prints of the divine nature appear in them they have no Mind Reason Memory Understanding Judgment Arts Sciences or cunning in the knowledg of things which God hath bestowed on Man abundantly Wherefore it is a wicked thing to say that is mortal and perishing that came forth of Gods substance and which the Divine mind breathed into Man As therefore God is eternal and free from decay so the soul of Man as partaking of the divine essence Mans soul partakes of the divine nature is eternal and free from all corruption But since God created all things for mans sake God created onely Man for himself and like unto him and therefore God loved man wonderfully from the beginning of the world and delighted to hold familiarity and to keep company with man so that for man's sake he was pleased to be united to the humane nature and the immortal God was inseparably joyn'd to mortall Man and thereby the Divine Nature is fast with the humane Nature God is wonderfully delighted with Man and the humane Nature with the Divine The truth of this is confirmed unto us by Christ who is the Wisdome of the Father Prover 3. who procured this blessing for us I was with God in the begining before any thing was made I was with him from eternity Gods love toward Man when he made the Heavens I was there when he compassed in the depths by a Law I was present when he fastned the Heavens above and the earth beneath I was with him ordering all things and was continually delighting before him recreating my self in the earth and my delight was with the sons of men Which Love and good will of God towards Man as St. Paul calls it 1 Tim. 3. hath effected so much that all things are communicated unto us by Christ that our condition is like to his and we are co-heirs with him whence it is that what is expressed in Christ Heb. 3. shall be expressed in Man He is eternal and subsists eternally and man by him obtains the same He first rose and conquer'd death he being the Author Prince and first fruits of so great a Triumph by the vertue of him all the rest are to be raised Wherefore let no man be so unjust to himself or so ungrateful to the giver of so great a gift that he should envy or cast off from himself the honour of this Name For who is so stupid that he would not desire to keep himself from destruction Let no man deny immortality of the Soul and desire to live alwayes rather than to sleep eternally and without hopes of ever coming forth to lye hid in eternal death I know some think this perswasion of the immortality of the Soul to be a very plausible doctrine but they wholly deny that the body shall ever be raised again or have any part in this happinesse But these men do not exactly seek into the Nature of Man Many grant the Souls immortality but few grant a resurrection and the reason of the making of the World nor do â—â—ey look upon him who is the Author of this gift unto Man and by whose vertue he hath obtain'd the benefits of life For since Soul and Body joyn'd together make a man it must needs be that the whole Man that is the Soul should have immortality and the Body should rise again to participate of the same felicity For the reason of framing Man will never suffer that one part shall enjoy the end it is design'd for without the other or that half a man or one part should be immortal and blessed wherefore it is necessary and the reason tâ—at man was made confirms it that the body should rise again at length and should be united again to the Soul to parâ—ake in the same condition with it For when God went about to make Man A strong Argument of the Resurrection Let us make saith he Man after our own Image In which words he did not mention one part onely but the whole Man Soul and Body for both these joyn'd together make a man for when these are divided a man dyes and is call'd a man no longer Wherefore Reason evinceth that both parts shall have the same end either blessednesse if they live well or misery if ill Nor were it reasonable that the body should fail of this hope of happinesse The Body is in danger for the Soul that partakes in the miseries of this life For sometimes for Conscience sake the body is scourg'd and tortur'd is griev'd and hazards its life so that at those faculties of the Soul that are common to man with beasts
it first it most be harrowed then it grows warm and by the vapours and fostering of the ground it grows up into a green blade which being fed by the fibres of the roots grows up by degrees and lifting up a knotted stalk begins to be shut up in the cods as growing nearer to be ripe and when it comes forth of them it sends forth corn in full ears which is defended from small birds with a fence of ears I passe over the force of all things that grow out of the earth for from a little kernel of a Fig Plants renewing shew a resurrection from a Grapestone and from the smallest seeds of other plants we see huge Trees and boughs and roots to grow Do not sprigs plants roots branches sciences buds do that which will make the Resurrection of mans body seem to be no absurdity Chrysostome after Tully doth wonderfully enlarge upon this admirable force of Nature and highly commends the Earth 1 Thes 4. Hom. 7. that is the Mother of all things The earth next after God the Parent of things For the life of all things is from the moysture of the Earth Herbs Trees all sorts of flowers admirable in their kinds for smell and sight proceed onely and are nourished by the fruitfulnesse of the ground Thick Ayre turns to water which falling upon the Earth from above waters the earth the Suns hear again rarifies it and turns it to Ayre and there are many mutations of that kind that will make a man admire as much as the resurrâ—ction doth For example Natures work the Vine out of the moysture of the Earth brings forth not onely branches and tendrels that are of sowre tast but also sweet juice and pleasant Grapes The Date tree is a rugged barky tree and produces sweet dates full of juyce and liquor like Wine An example from the structure of Man Also the seed from whence a man is made how comes it to produce and frame ears arms hands heart lungs nervs arteries flesh bones grisles membranes what man can understand this there are so many differences and varieties in mans body or qualities humours forces vertues functions all proceeding from the seed onely Do you not think it strange how a soft and moist humour should congeal to be a hard cold bone how meats should be changed into fresh red bloud and the food should turn into veins arteries nerves muscles ligaments tendons Since therefore nature daily doth so many things that the mind of man cannot comprehend who can deny but that the God of nature can do as much in raising dead bodies Nature Gods Instrument as nature that is but Gods instrument doth daily in fostering and preparing of the seed that is corruptible You may see the corn when it is moistned grow up again into a seemly plant and to bring forth thick leaves Examples of the Reâ—urrection out of Ciprian and will you not believe that a man buried in the earth may rise again and return to his former lustre Therefore Cyprian who is said to have made the Creed by Pauls example illustrates our Creed by the nature of seed For saith he if any man mingle divers kinds of seeds together and sows them unparted or casts them every where into the earth will not every seed after its kind spring up again in its proper season and have a stalk proper to its own form and kind So the substance of flesh though it be diversly scattered here and there when God pleaseth shall revive again in the same shape it was when it died and so it comes to passe that not any confused or strange body shall be restored to the several souls but to every soul the same body it had before that by consequent according as they lead their lives here a good body may be crowned or an ill body be tormented with its own soul Wherefore I think that Paul could not better set forth the type of the resurrection than by the similitude of seed sown in furrows of the earth A Simile from Seed sown For what it is in nature to hide seed in the earth the same it is in the resurrection to bury a dead body and what it is for seed to grow again and become a plant is same with mans rising again A body subject to corruption is committed to the ground but that shall revive all feeblenesse of nature being taken from it That is buried in the earth which was subject to many Infirmities calamities diseases it shall rise again lively An Example from a body wasted quick free from all infirmities and weaknesses An example will make it clearer A sick man that is spent with a strong disease grows pale and looks wan sad swart ill favour'd earthly and his whole body grows so lean and consumed that his lively juice being spent you cannot know him But this man by good Physick and wholesome diet recovers and grows fat and well liking and his skin grows so fine that you would think he were painted So in the resurrection the same body comes up again but more glorious and there will appear in it no marks of the old corruption An example of this was first begun in Christ who by nothing did more effectually declare his Divinity than by his triumphant Resurrection That example of his must be shew'd forth in all by his vertue who as Paul saith shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his power whereby he can subject all things unto himself Phil. 2. 1 Thess 4. Wherefore the Apostle would not have us to be tormented with fear of death or to grieve over-much for it For they that sleep in Christ shall be raised by the Word of God and shall live everlastingly with him Which our Saviour foretold that it should so come to passe John 5. The hour shall come that all that are in their graves shall hear his voyce and they that have done well shall come forth to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation By which words he comforts dejected minds Distrust and confidence what they can do that they should not faint under dangers but to wicked and unpenitent men they strike terrour and amazement who would never make an end of sinning unlesse they consider'd that after this life the rewards of sin and godlinesse shall be paid unto men Chap. 14. 19. Wherefore Job in his worst condition when nothing was wanting to make him miserable comforts himself with this certain hope I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall rise out of the Earth in the last day and I shall see God my Saviour in my flesh whom I shall behold my self and not another for me This hope is laid up in my brest that is no man shall take from me this confidence and assurance Since therefore all hopes of obtaining salvation The
of their Emrods and monthly terms or from some usual evacuation restrain'd who when as their brain is filled with a black and dark smoke their mind is vexed with absurd Imaginations and is so changed and forced that sometimes men of good lives and of great esteem have been brought to fearfull ends thereby That a man would wonder there should be such great force and violence in a melancholique humour that it should overwhelm reason and take away a mans understanding A simile from a dark Cloud But as a thick dark cloud shadows the Suns light so a melancholique humour darkneth the mind and drives it on to many mischiefs The evil spirits also mingle themselves with ill humours and especially with black choler Evill spirits mix with melancholy because that humour when it exceeds Natures bounds is most fit to move us to any wickednesse For men of this constitution conceive grievous and sharp passions and that last long for the contumacy of the humour that will hardly melt and be dissolved Whence it followes that evill thoughts and apprehensions stay long in their minds Whence melancholique people Imagine absurd things which sometimes break forth into action that they fall foul upon those they know and those they know not making no difference and do mischief both to others and sometimes to themselves So the humours do afford fire-brands to cholerick men but when they are angry they hurt others and not themselves But that the cause of these things consists in the humours and not in the wicked spirits though they help to trouble the humours may be collected from hence for that mad melancholique and frantique persons are wont to be cured by opening the emrods that are stopped and so are reduced to better minds those fuliginous smokes of the humours being removed that did vitiate the imagination and animal spirits L. 6. Aph. 21. as may appear by Hippocrates his Aphorism If the melancholique veins or emrods run in those that are mad they are thereby cured nature deriving the ill humours from the principal part to the parts more ignoble Again II. Aph. Ill vapours hurt the brain the Emrods are healthfull for mad people and such as are troubled with diseases of the kidneys For when that humour whether it be in the Hypochondres or the Spleen or be heaped up in the whole body or in any part fills the brain with an ill and filthy exhalation it causeth fear sadnesse sorrow heavy groans astriction of the heart ringings in the ears and reason being oppressed and the light of the mind extinguished they begin to despair sometimes desiring death sometimes fearing and abhorring it How Melancholy may be driven out Wherefore as Galen saith when the Spring and Autumn begin that humour must be gently and by degrees purged out by vomit belching purging downward breaking of wind by opening a vein and by causing the Emrods and courses to run And whosoever is subject to this disease he must earnestly and with great care resist it and must by no means entertain Imaginations that falsly creep into his mind at first pleasing and amiable but afterwards as they grow strong they can hardly be resisted A fault by hiding will the stronger grow Virg. 3. Georg. Physick can cure that onely which we know But if adversities and misfortunes have brought on this mischief you must oppose against it an undaunted courage of your mind and support your self with Gods Word and with confidence in him and so with the lesse labour you shall overthrow those terrible phantasms and representations that assault you The Mind must be underpropt by Gods Word For by these helps the most noble Heroes have stood firm who when all was come to be almost past recovery and they desired to put an end to their miseries by death yet the greatnesse of their griefs could not overcome them 3 Kings c. 19. So Helias in his afflictions desired to die So David so often assaulted by his enemies began to distrust So Job even in despair chose rather to die Ch. 7. and to end his life any way We must not do violence to our life than longer to endure so great miseries Lastly Christ like one in despair and taking our cause upon him complains that he was forsaken by his Father But all these by the hope and assurance of better things cast away all trembling and distrust looking unto God with a steadfast mind In Som. Scip. But this as Cicero saith all men should be perswaded of that the Soul must be kept in the custody and watchfulnesse of the body nor must it leave its station untill God command that gave it lest we should seem to reject so great a gift of God Bel Judaic l. 3. Wherefore Josephus seems to speak excellently that what evil soever comes to us we should bear it with a cheerfull and undaunted courage And let no man think it lawful for him to end his life basely beneath the worthy condition of Man appointment of nature Melancholique people worthy to be pitied But if any man by reason of a disease or alienation of his mind do come to an unhappy end let no man trample on men of such a condition or censure them too severely but let every one rather pity their case and grieve for their mishap for since they were not well in their wits and had lost their reason understanding their mind was turned upside down and they were deceived and blind in the choice of things For when the vertue of imagination is corrupted absurd things present themselves to our minds and we judge confusedly of things and discourse erroneously For the like happens to our minds as doth to our eyes A simile from Glasse where glasses are looked through that are of many colours for through them all things seem to be blew or green or red or yellow or of the same colour alwaies as the Glasse is so that the objects appear in their species otherwise then they are in themselves Why feavourish and drunken men dote Hence men that are drunk or angry think they see double objects when there is but one So those that are doting in Feavers think they see divers Hobgoblins and the corrupt Imagination and organs vitiated present strange fantasmes to the mind by reason of the agitation of ill humours and the spirits that passe here and there and wander up and down in the brain Corporeal spirits stir the mind wherefore the spirits and humours are of great efficacy in troubling the mind and moving the affections and wounding the conscience But if they be sincere and no way defiled men are of a pleasing disposition and not complaining and touchy But if they be once stain'd and troublesome many passions of the mind arise and turbulent affections Since therefore both Soul and body are affected together first care must be taken to sweeten and abate the troubles of
accompany one untill Death that is it never ends till death put an end thereto Since therefore the cause of the Falling-sicknesse is so Evident The habit of Epileptick persons terrible I would perswade the ignorant people to think of no other cause of this disease than the motion of the humours that men may not fear so much when they see their mouths draw awry their cheeks swoln and strutting forth with a frothy humour and should not be dismaid to come near them and lend them their help For so are all those that stand by and are fearful amazed when they see them rending themselves and beating their heads and bodies against posts that they think there is no hopes of them and so cause them to be buried before their Souls are departed from them For I have found it in our own dayes and in former Ages also that some have broken the Coffin and lived again Wherefore it is fit a Law should be made that those who are to take care of the dead bodies should not presently put them into their coffins whom they think to be dead Apoplecticks are not to be presently buried especially those that are strangled by the Apoplex Epilepsie or rising of the Mother for oft-times their soul lies within them and they live again But when the Plague and pestilent Feavers rule Men dead of the Plague must be presently enterred I think it not necessary nor fit to observe this so strictly because the contagion will presently spread when they are dead and infect those that are near For there is lesse danger to stand by those that have the Plague and to attend upon them when they are alive than to stand by them when they are dead A fit Simile from Candles put out for then the contagion spreads and infects as it goes For it is with bodies newly dead as with Torches and Candles that whilest they are lighted they do not stink but when they are put out they fill the room with a stinking savour Wherefore the danger is greater to be present when a man dies of the plague than when he is yet alive or dead and grown cold and stiff But if you keep these bodies a little too long unburied they become stinking Carkasses and they do by little and little send forth filthy exhalations and corrupt filthy matter runs from them which happens but seldome in the Apoplex and other cold diseases of the brain The motion and revolution of humours in such as are dead unlesse it be very hot weather or the bodies be very fat And if there be no such matter to hinder they need not be buried till three dayes be over For when seventy two hours are over the humours cease to move and stir not because in that time the Moon hath passed one sign in the Zodiack by force whereof the humours run in the body which some say was the reason that Christ took occasion to raise Lazarus miraculously that was dead four dayes John 11. lest any man should say he was not dead but onely in a trance and come to himself again Why Christ raised Lazarus no sooner Also when he by his Death and Resurrection wrought mans salvation he took the same occasion For besider that he had a mortal wound on his side he lay three dayes in the Sepulchre to take away all objections from them who would speak irreverently and not as they ought concerning his Death and Resurrection but calumniate all he said or did In which errour and madnesse the Jews continue even to this day But since those diseases are so formidable that bereave a man of his understanding that all the standers by are frighted at it I shall do a considerable work to add some present remedies and those not ordinary whereby every one that is unskilful in Physick may preserve himself and his family from them And because all diseases of the brain especially such as proceed from a cold humour are near of kin these remedies may be used to them all indifferently as to losse of memory vertigo's panting of the heart trembling Epilepsies Lethargies Apoplexies and for the hag and night mare and other diseases of the night which disease is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst innumerable remedies against these diseases I have found four especially to be most effectuall Remedies for the Night-mare not so much approved by experience as by reason The round black Piony seed for the corner'd and red colour'd seed is uselesse herein the round bulbous root of Squils the shavings of mans skull and Misseltoe I should shew severally how they perform these effects The force of Pionie and by what reason they perform it Galen eryes up Pionie as much as Cato did Coleworts which not onely by an Elementary quality but from the whole substance of it and secret property resists this disease And it will raise children that fall because it is not so strong in them if it be but banged about their necks For it discusseth and consumes the flegmatique humour that is the seminary of this disease Also the seeds of this given inwardly will do it more effectually in such as are of years For it drinks up the windy venemous miosture and brings the body to a hotter and dryer temper Some say this seed is the best that comes from the first increase of the male Pionie For a long time it brings forth unprofitable shoots without seed But when it is of perfect growth the husks cleave and in one part you shall see berries very smooth and black in another kernels of a shining scarlet red colour The black seed must be kept for use Yet not so superstitiously as to hold that the seed of the next year is uneffectual for that seed that comes after ten years is a present remedy if it be not rotten and decay'd What sorce Squills have in the Epilepsie Squills are better than Pionie and have a wonderfull force and faculty not onely for the Epilepsie but also for all diseases that proceed of a clammy viscous humour in what part soever of the body For it hath an abstergent force to dissolve all clammy things For which use I use to give a spoonful of an oxymel that I make of it which because it is exceeding bitter I use to mingle it with syrup of French Lavender and I put in a little Nutmeg to it also I command them to wash their mouthes with vinegar of Squills so as to swallow it down by degrees Also I find that the shavings of mans skull are a present remedy to dry up those humours that cause those diseases if some part of a mans skull scraped off be given to a man or of a womans skull to a woman and that in wine or Oxymel of Squills not by any hidden quality but because it dryes exceedingly for which cause the runner and blood of a Hare stayes the bloody flux and other fluxes of
made with hands eternal in the heavens Which God provided for this end that by rising again we might enjoy the glory of immortality and God hath given us his spirit Gal. 4. as an earnest and pledge thereof who doth by his presence confirm to us our hope and highest confidence of things to come Colos 2. For by his spirit alone we are certified that he who raised the Lord Jesus from death will by the power of him raise us also and make us partakers of his glorious Resurrection CHAP. XVII The Inconveniencies of Tippling and drunkennesse and what things will resist and cure it THere is an old custome of force amongst the High and low Dutch that they care for no mans friendship or familiarity but such as can drink strongly with them In Curcul piss stoutly Wherefore I thought I should do something considerable to relate some things that will resist drunkennesse that every man in that contest may look to himself either not to be overcome with Wine or to be offended but little by it At first let no man drink too much and be too ready to take up his cups but let him civily refuse and draw back pretending that he is not very well Sometimes you must find out some stratagems to deceive those that aim at you to make you drunk and that most endeavour to prevail over you And you must take occasion cunningly to steal forth to make water or to take away the cup but you must be very crafty and subtill in doing it with great dexterity For if the company find your cunning they will ply you the more abundantly Yet every man may easily find out some shifts to avoid and wittily to cosen his fellow drinkers In the mean while let every man consider well the reward of this inveterate and unworthy custome and errour and he shall see as clear as day what hurt it doth to his body and soul and spirits to be given to much drinking For first it not onely hurts memory the most pretious faculty of the mind Intemperance in Wine hurts the memory and makes it weak but totally ruines it making the eyes dark and causing blindnesse the cheeks are blabber'd and the limbs tremble and reel and many other inconveniencies accompany immoderate drinking of wine and they are all cold distempers Nor as Galen saith De Temp. l. 3. doth it alwaies heat a man but when he drinks more than he can conquer it causes cold diseases For the natural heat is extinguished and choaked just as when you powre abundance of oyl at once upon a little flame I do premise this that no man should faslly judge that do give occasion or open the dore for such wickednesse For it is my chiefest desire that men would either drink moderately or if there fall out an extraordinary occasion to drink much for as the Proverb is A Proverb at bankets these solemnities cannot stand without it that they may not want helps to drive away drunkennesse amongst which I set down bitter things and as many such means as will purge away watry humours by urine For by this way the fumes are derived from the head and the Wine is hindred from going into the veins Bitter things hinder drunkennesse also by their bitternesse they dry up moisture So five or six bitter Almonds taken before supper will perform it effectually Peach kernels have the like quality with them and the juice of Peach-leaves pressed forth and a little taster full thereof drank fasting hath the same vertue also the infusion of Roman-Worm-wood and nutmeg For all these open the passages and make them wide and loose as also oyl pressed forth of Olives or two ounces of oyl pressed forth of the seeds of Sesamum drank in the morning before Sun-rising for it makes the belly slippery and extends the urinary passages so that drink staies not in the body but passeth away continually if so be a man do not burden his stomach too much with eating 'T is naught for drinkers to eat overmuch For he that is forced to drink must eat meat but sparingly but if he shall eat a morsel of bread dipt in honey he shall do well For honey takes away the force of wine and blunts the sharpnesse of the fumes Cabbage is better than them all Cabbage hinders Drunkennesse which Cato commended exceedingly it is vulgarly called Caulis because no plant hath a greater stalk But of this there are many kinds and the red cole is best to resist drunkennesse if you chew the leaves in your mouth and swallow down the juice or eat them boyl'd for the first dish at table Yet the sea-cole Sea-cole-worts and sea-purslane that grow plentifull by the sea in Zealand are far more effectual which we use in sallets and sauces to sharpen appetite For they make a man very hungry and thirsty by their imbred faculty Hence it comes that no fumes or vapours of the wine can rise to the head for they are purged out by siege and urine There are many other things of this kind that resist drunkennesse that a man may not be overcome but I cannot reckon all But if any man chance to be drunk that is not provided with these helps For wine as Habakkuk saith Ch. 1. Eccl. 31. deceives the wise he must be helped by vomit which the wise man also gave counsel for If thou art compelled to gorge thy self go forth and vomit Vomit is good After this the testicles and genitall parts must be soked in cold water and wrapped up in a wet napkin but womens breasts must be so wetted For presently the vapours being turned away all drunkennesse is discussed In the mean time sharp and sowrish things and good juicy Apples must be eaten As Oranges Citrons Cherries Peaches Barberries Verjuice Cornels and all things that are of a cooling and repercussive quality and have some cutting and abstergent faculty For though drunkennesse ceaseth either by sleep or vomiting Head-ache from yesterdays wine yet the head will ake the next day and is offended by vapours Festus Pompeius calls this effect Helucus which word signifies as much as half a sleep and a gaping from yesterdayes wine Helucus is the head-ache from drunkennesse Tertullian useth this word for that affection whereby men are made sleepy by the drinking much the day before when he saith The vertue of Ivy is to defend the head from this drowsinesse The force of Ivy in dispelling drunkennesse by its discussing and drying quality whereby also it is thought to keep men from being drunk if it be applyed outwardly to the head or by taking before-hand some of its berries that are yellow-colour'd CHAP. XVIII Intemperance of drink is worse than of meat SOme say that men are lesse hurt by drinking than eating if a man do take either immoderately and above the strength of Nature L. 2. Aph. 11. Moyst things soonest
of the climactericall year Wherefore we must do all we can to evacuate the peccant matter that abounds which alwaies in the Spring or Autumn is to be done either by opening a Vein or Purging For thus you shall not need to fear any disease after 7 years or any other year that the climactericall year falls upon or to be endanger'd by any mutation arising thence From this observation of years there hath been a long custome in many Countries that the Lord of the Manor makes new Agreements with his Tenant every 7 year A simile from lopping of Trees For the same cause woods of Willow Birch Alder white and Black Poplar and all Trees that are of soft moist wood are wont to be cut down every fourth year but such as are of hard wood as Oaks Holm Timber Elms Ash are to be lopt and cut every 7 or 9 years Judiciall days In like manner Physitians observe criticall days which if a man shall exactly observe the accompt as Hippocrates hath set it down he shall seldome misse or fail in his praedictions The Crisis or judgement of diseases A Crisis is a sudden change in the disease either to Life or Death which is wont to be terminated either on the 4th or 7th or 9th or 11th or 14th day Some referr the decretory days to the operation of the Moon so Astrologers judge of diseases When the Moon is in the degrees that are remote a quarter or halfe a great Circle that she was in when the disease first began But she comes to these Radii Starrs do conferr to the judgment of diseases somtimes sooner somtimes later as her course is swifter or flower The Crisis is not to all men alike because mens Natures are different and their ages and the constitutions of their bodies and the Aspects of the other Stars to the Moon If on the judiciall day the Moon be in her House or Exaltation with Jupiter and Venus that are gentle and heathfull Planets it foreshews a good Crisis If the disease consists in plenty of humours it is good if the Moon decrease in a quartile or opposite Aspect But if at the same times the Moon be in Conjunction with the Sun or Saturn it is no good omen and shews the disease will be dangerous or Chronicall But if the Moon decreasing accompany Saturn when the disease begins it shews it will be Chronicall or Mortall But if that happen when the Moon increaseth it is a sign the disease will soon begon and is not dangerous But as I would not have the healthfull and hurtfull signes of the Stars to be neglected so I think it not good to be superstitiously tied unto them but rather to build on Hippocrates his observations which seemed to me to be alwaies more certaine and not so doubtfull and deceitfull if so be a man exactly consider all things Therefore I referr this reason of criticall days not so much to the Starrs as to the nature of the diseases and bodies with the qualities and plenty of humours For Nature wrestles with the disease and labours to cast it off And if she be dull or weak in resisting the fury of it the conflict ends the first time either on the 7th or 9th or at the utmost on the 14th day For the like hapneth to those bodies A simile from a City besieged as doth to a City that is most straightly besieged which being not well provided with all things needfull and such things as should serve to keep off the Enemies cannot endure the least opposition but after one or two batterings fails and is taken by the adversary And as somtimes the battering of it is staid by a parley or time to breathe in and then the enemy comes on again with greater force so it falls out commonly in acute diseases wherein we observe the force of the disease like tempests and great winds to be still a while A simile from Tempests but it comes again with such violence that Nature can hardly endure nor life continue untill 7 days be expired But since the force of the 7th number is observed in many naturall things and Divines are perswaded of the great vertue of it Physitians have principall cause accurately to observe it for daily experience shews that in health and sicknesse in the revolution of days The 7th number Sacred months and yeares and for the judgment of diseases it is of great concernment So that such as dye of hunger dye the 7th day or if they do lick or swallow down somthing they can hardly hold out till the 9th day their Spirits their heat and moisture being extinguished and put out CHAP. XXXIII How a Looking-glasse represents objects and what good the polished smoothnesse of a Looking-glasse can do to Students and such as tire their eyes in reading and how it may restore a dull sight Women very carefull to dresse themselves LOoking-glasses that in our dayes are abused for luxury und by which some women strive to make themselves beautifull when they kemb and dresse themselves by them and paint their cheeks and eyes with Stibium and other paints the industry of wise nature invented for better uses namely that we might deligently contemplate the dignity of the form of Man Drnnkards and angry people should look into Looking glasses and the excellency of the Divine workmanship wherefore Plato gave good Counsel that Drunkards and angry-people should look upon the glasse for when they saw their ill favour there they would the soner leave off their solace And Socrates was wont to advise young men to do the like that if they were of a beautifull and noble countenance they should not defile it with vices but if they were ugly and not so comely of stature they should recompence that with good Ornaments of witt and honest behaviour Wherefore Seneca saith that Glasses were invented Natur. quaest l. 1. that by them a man might know himselfe For many from these came to know themselves and how to lead an excellent course of Life A beautifull Man The chiefe use of a Looking glasse to avoid infamy an ill favoured man to learn to recompence the defects of his body by virtues A yong man to know that by age his beauty will decay and therefore he should provide himself with such things that old age cannot wast but augment An old man and wrinkled woman to leave off the allurements of the flesh and remember that death is neere Wherefore from a Glasse Nature hath obtained a faculty to see and to contemplate her selfe and that by looking on a Mans face and countenance in a Glasse which are the signes of many things a man might contemplate himselfe and consider his own inclinations We discern our own condition in a Glasse For so we become Physiognomers and lookers into our own conditions and to see what vices we are given to by what we discern on our bodies lineaments
wives openly and they let none passe without some scoffs jeers nipping and biting speeches and fall upon all they meet with great obloquies using what liberty they please and abuse them with words at pleasure as they were wont to do at Ceres Solemnities of old times For from the Greeks or Gentiles vanities many errours were left or crept into the Christian Religion So the Lords of the Courts and as many as are addicted to hunting adore and worship St. Hubert The Preposterous worship of the Gods with loud hollowing because he loved hunting so that you would think they were mad whil'st they imitate the barkings of Dogs and their mad cryes whilst the cup walks about filled with wine or a polished horn that will hold a Pint borrowed from an old heathenish custome used by Germans as Caesar testifies L. 6. Belli Gallici Thus superstitious men by a preposterous worship to flatter the Saints and hope to win their favours whereas they neither imitate their holy lives or strive to be of such manners as they were of nor do they in any thing walk in their steps which kind of worship is the most acceptable to God and to his Saints St. Martins Feastivals Martin hath some that adore him who are as ridiculous as the former whose liberality to poor and indigent people invites some not to frugality and munificence but to Luxury and Prodigal banquets and foolish songs But that John Baptists solemnities are performed with such noise and tumults and superstition I think came from hence because the Evangelicall History describes the joyfull day of this Mans birth Luke 3. and that it should be happy fortunate for many People whereby he doth not mean the external motions of the mind when the mind vainly and prodigally rejoyceth and is full of idle mirth but the internal solid and true joy that is conceived from so saving a promise in the Gospel whereby the Angel declareth the comming of the Messias and Saviour on whom the salvation of every man depends Math. 3. and that John should be his fore-runner who first began the office of baptizing which Christ afterwards did bring to perfection and fulfill who Baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire by vertue of whom men come to be transformed and brought to heavenly duties and by apprehending a firm confidence of salvation to be united and engrafted into him by the mystery of his death and resurrection Which matter by reason of the light that is given Solid joy and salvation restored doth affect all men not with ordinary joy but gives great cause to make men leap for joy not so as the ignorant multitude and common people use to do who every where shew forth foolish and ridiculous pastimes and playes yet this superstition which hath hitherto seized upon many mens minds begins to grow stale and out of date For now the wiser sort of men begin to perceive and such as are better educated to understand that God must be adored and pleased to whom we have accesse by Christ with piety true Religion and holy prayers not with foul superstition nor with the vanities of the Gentiles Esay 11. or with killing of sactifices and other ceremonies that God requires not and are not commanded by him What is superstition For superstition is the Ape that imitates true Religion and a doting affection from a faulty imitation that proceeds from lack of knowledge and weaknesse of understanding what the will of God is Whence it comes to passe that when the mind slotes and is unstable unconstant various and doubtfull and wants knowledge and confidence in God it is wholly ignorant whom it should chiefly call upon for help whither to turn to whom it should addict it self and commit its salvation and from whom it should expect successe deliverance and a peaceable mind The reason is because it is wandred from the mark and men do not follow him who can and will abundantly perform all these things that is God the Father and Jesus Christ Math. 28. to whom all power is given and unto whom God will have all our thoughts to be directed all our hope faith and charity And God will not suffer as Esaias saith Esay 42. 48. that his glory and praise due to him should be given to another or to any one whatsoever not that any worship of Religion should be set up except in those things that Christ hath taught us from his Fathers mouth of which matter there are many examples in the Bible and no fewer both amongst the Greeks and Latine Writers that are Orthodox men that clearly shew how God ought to be adored and worshipped and how the Saints and those that stood for the Christian Religion and asserted it manfully should be honoured who endured all manner of contumelies and wrongs for Christ's sake CHAP. IX Of a singular new way how to make Salt and of the Nature effects force use and differences of it By the way a consideration of some hearbs growing by the Sea that are full of Salt juice and out of which Salt is made THough a little before I treated of the Nature and necessary use of Salt yet it will be worth the while to speak something more largely of this wholesome sauce without which all meats are unsavoury and without taste First of all I testify to every one that hath care of a Family to provide for and to all that have the charge and keeping of Cities Castles Forts and Garrisons exposed to dangers and incursions Choice of Salt must be had and must victual and store up for them with provision that Sea Salt new boyled and but lately purged from its foulnesse is not so convenient to Salt flesh or fish It is boyled and prepared at Zirizea and many other places in Zealand in Summer when the Sun is very hot by force whereof the Sea grows exceeding Salt The Seamore salt in Summâ— and the Salt grows extream white in the larger vessels that are to make it in which are filled with Sea-water Bituminous clots of Earth being put under and set on fire we call it Turf whereby by degrees all things are done somewhat better in the Salt pits than by heaping up wood under the kettle by reason of the flame that dangerously breaks forth from the mouth of the Furnace But if it be presently or after some dayes whil'st it is yet warm of the fire taken for use it will quickly melt and dissolve into a salt water so that it will leave a muddy kind of moisture on things that are salted with it So Salt that is first taken out of the hot vessel or Iron Cauldron and is not hardned by age or grown fast together whereas it sooner melts into brine than it is fit it should New Salt soon melts but old lasts longer otherwise than old Salt doth I hold not so good to salt or season meats with Wherefore they that
upper parts which by their pleasing vapours may recreate the spirits decayed But if these things be used otherwise and preposterously it falls out that the disease is exasperated and women are grievously affected if they do not copulate with men so that besides the great pains they endure they faint and swound away CHAP. XIII Of the nature condition and manners of women and why that sex being angry is more violent than men are and will scold more outragiously and is overborn by many other affections and passions and by the way what is the meaning of that saying of the wise Hebrew The iniquity of a man is better than a woman that doth well THe wickednesse of some women is the cause that not onely Stage-Players Eccle. 25. and Poets Orators and Philosophers who knew not the true Religion but also Wise men Jews and Prophets who had abundance of the knowledge of God do in many places speak against and condemn women Women are spoken against by all Writers and that deservedly though they are not all of them of the same strain nor are they alike bitter and unsavoury For there are some Matrons who by the benefit of education are so adorned with many great virtues that they are not short of the best men nor are they inferiour unto them Esdr 3. c. 4. though the promiscuous multitude and the multiplicity of women be shamelesse foolish fierce and imperious even toward Kings slippery various mutable and as for lust of the flesh and pleasure they are insatiable and can never have enough though they be tired out with it yet some of these are more prone and addicted to these affections But since so many vices of this sex are wont to be observed every where and many that are marryed complain of the nature and condition of their Wives and make their pitifull relations unto others of the indignities they suffer by them which gives occasion to some to abhor this kind of life The inconveniences of Marriage and they rather withdraw themselves from the intimate company and society of women which others are forced to endure being tedious irksome querulous bitter fierce and must bear their threatnings and imperious behaviour Why God ordain'd Marriage But since the order of nature and necessity of living and the love a man hath and propension to propagate his like to succeed him that he may provide for posterity that he may procure a companion and fellow-helper they do wisely that marry that they may plesantly and with delight passe over this transitory life in an undivided society and mutual consent of souls and bodies For the condition of mans life requires it unlesse nature be clean against it and the constitution and state of the body cannot away with it Gel. l. 1. c. 6. To this belongs the speech of Metellus of Numidia which the Romans commended Metellus his speech of Marrying a Wife wherewith he exhorted the Citizens lest the Commonwealth should decay that every man should presently take him a Wife For saith he if we could lead our lives without a Wife all men would willingly desire to be freed of that trouble and inconvenience but since Nature hath so ordained it that we cannot live so happily with them nor can we live by any means without them we must take care for the perpetual safety whereby the Common-wealth may subsist than for our own short-during pleasure And if the office of a woman in houshold affairs affords great use and profit for such as are well and strong truly the use of a woman is very necessary and more requisite for such as are sick For as the Wise man saith Eccle. 36. Where there is no hedge the possession is taken away and where there is no woman the sick man laments who wants the help of another and must be supported by the Office of one to attend him A faithfull Wife will be very diligent to take care for him and for her family and her whole thoughts are fastned upon her husband so that if he sustain any inconvenience if any calamity fall upon him if he be sick or sad Profits of Matrimony she will desire to take the greatest part of the calamity upon her selfe for she grieves no less for her losses or crosses than she doth for her own Gen. 2. which proceeds from the mutuall consent and agreement of their souls and bodies whereby of two they come to be as it were but one body Horace writes knowingly of it Lib. Carm. 2. Ode 13. Thrice happy they and more Who being wedded hold Whose love ne're ends before Death nor do brawl and scold Womans anger like a tempest But daily examples testify that women are subject to all passions and perturbations and that they will be cruelly angry and mad when there is little or no cause for it and that the distemper and rage of a woman is no lesse than is the distemper of the Ayre and the Clowds when they are exasperated with Thunder and Lightning which besides others that were desirous of wisdome the Hebrews found true by their daily use and course of life as we find it abundantly set down in their writings For I think that by their daily familiarity and conversation in the house with them they had found and learned what a wicked and malitious woman will do if at any time she be angry or provoked what Tragedies she will cause and how violently she will rage and storme For so one of them amongst the rest continues his speech Lecles 25. A Woman what living Creature she is taking a similitude from venemous and pernicious beasts Give me any Plague but the Plague of the heart and any wickednesse but the wickednesse of a woman there is no head above the head of a Serpent no anger exceeds the anger of a woman I had rather dwell with a Lyon and a dragon than to keep house with a wicked woman But since a woman came forth and was made out of man a pleasing gentle tame meek tender smooth beardlesse soft skinned creature and that desires to be handled by man and to be subject to him Whence Women become so frail one would wonder whence it is that she is become so cruel and alwaies scolding and brawling and is so unbridled in her affections But I conjecture that all this proceeds from weaknesse of mind and lack of judgement in women whence it happens that a woman enraged is besides her selfe and hath not power over her selfe so that she cannot rule her passions or bridle her disturbed affections or stand against them with force of reason and judgement like to Children and such as are weak and feeble for age that want reason and discretion Delights to play with fellows Horat in Art Poctic and t is strange Angry soon pleased still consists in change For a womans mind is not so strong as a mans nor is she so full of
17. and a wicked and counterfeit dissembler For he freely and gravely will tell a man of his duty to whom he wisheth well which Solomon placeth in the chiefest seat of friendship but this will cunningly flatter and daub you over with gallant words approves all you do and applauds you in your errours and fits all things for your Ears so that his words are not onely agreeing to your will but he observes even your looks and countenance Gnatho in Terence doth accurately describe men of this condition Esaiah 30. Eunuch Act. 2. Scen. 2. and by these Verses he shews the manner how they use to endear men unto them The Condition of a Parasite There is a sort of men that fain the chief would be And yet they are not so they shall not laugh at me But I do please them still and wonder at their wit What they affirm I praise and if they deny it I praise that also I say and unsay again What ere they say or unsay now the greatest gain Is flattering which I use all other arts are vain Wherefore since flattery is detestable to all men though thy estate be very mean never become a flatterer or Parasite to any man It is true that to tickle the Ears procures the favour of some men The friendship of flatterers is unfaithfull but it is unconstant and will not last Sometimes men get great gain by it but it is base and infamous and when the craft is detected it proves hurtfull to the Author of it so that no ingenious man who is free bred would endure this character to be fastned upon him Next of kin to flatterers are deceivers and crafty beguilers The Art of deceiving who are as subtile as Foxes to circumvent and deceive simple men by many cunning wiles and deluding wayes and they like to Hyenaes Civility that is deceitfull and Crocodiles lye in wait to entrap mens estates and wives also these are at first sight and appearance very fair in words and deeds but afterwards they will do a man hurt and work his destruction These are very cunning and crafty but wonderfull officious and ready at every beck who for that end and purpose insinuate themselves into mens familiarity and acquaintance that they may cheat and defraud them of something For so soon as they can catch any opportunity to defraud you of any thing they have both their eyes and hands ready for it Wherefore a man must not easily and lightly trust to any man unlesse he hath first well known him by his Just actions and Integrity of life CHAP. XLIII Some commodious Precepts to teach a Man how to live well and happily In what things consists happiness of life SInce there are many rules laid down by learned men how a Man may live well and happily amongst the rest Martial hath writ some Verses wherein he comprehends things that agree with honesty and points at as it were with his finger the way whereby a Man may lead a commodious life and enjoy the health of his body and tranquillity of mind also He prosecutes the matter thus These are the things that made a happy life L. â—0 Goods by Inheritance not got by strife Ground that is fruitfull and a constant fire No suits few visits and a set desire Free born a body from diseases free Friends that are equal prudent honesty An easie diet a Table where is no Art The night not drunk but free from cares of heart A bed not sad but chaste a fixed mind Content with what thou art in every kind Neither to fear nor yet desire death If thou canst not wholly obtain all these commodities of life according to thy will and desire The providence of God moderates all things Psalm 30. thou must not torment and vex thy self but thou must refer all things to Gods providence and will which is the moderatour of all humane affairs for so David did in all things that befell him whether they were prosperous or unfortunate for he submitted all to the power of God not regarding chance or fortune The Godly acknowledg no fortune So when he ascribes to God the whole course of his life he saith My time is in thy hands that is all our affairs run according to thy will and pleasure CHAP. XLIV Of Exercise wherewith the forces wearied are restored both of the Mind and of the Body SInce the Nature of man cannot subsist unlesse it take some time of refreshment and be released from labour for a while We must indulge some relaxation to our selves least the forces of our bodies and souls grow feeble and be overcome with immoderate businesse For as pleasing and seasonable sleep restores and refreshes the weary lims after labour To rest from labour is good so also remission or intention repairs and raiseth up the tired mind and spirits that are exhausted with constant studies and lucubrations The delight of Husbandry The Antients when they had their Vacation from businesse of the Common-wealth and Courts of Law took their pleasure in the Country and reaped as much profit in husbandry as they took delight in it For besides the Woods and green fields that were most pleasant to look upon and besides places set with Trees and adorned with Osiers besides the commodities of their Farms and country houses and sweet retreats they reaped a most lawfull and plentiful profit from their well-tilled land and large harvest and yearly revennues For profit joyned with honesty and Justice can be discommended by no man For as Cicero saith of all things that men get profit by there is nothing better than husbandry L. 1. Offâ—â— or more profitable or more becomming a free-born man So Hesiod thought that nothing was so magnificent and becomming Kings than to till the ground and to be employed in Country affairs of Husbandry A Husbandman is never idle Wherefore the old Romans hating the City went into the country as if they came out of captivity For here you shall find many things to offer themselves that you may take pleasure in by course for sometimes it is time to prune and lop Trees then the pleasant spring invites us to inoculate and to graft Trees again Horat. in od it is time to dresse Vines and when the Vine branches are sprung up to plant the high growing popular Trees Sometimes to catch wild beasts in snares and then Birds with lime twigs Virg. 1. Georg. and after that again To compasse round Woods with Dogs and by turn To entrap Birds and bushes for to burn Many kinds of exercise Hunting and Hawking is healthfull for young people and such as are of ripe age and is a fit exercise for them and is not to be discommended so a man be not over-addicted to it and do not spend all his time in following and destroying wild beasts neglecting serious matters and his houshold affairs But it wonderfully refresheth a
made me to cry out and complain but it made me not confesse my faults But forthwith he intends to open his sins unto God whom he certainly knows to be ready and easy to forgive his sins when he or any man repents heartily and hates his sins Wherefore trusting in God I said I will confesse unto God against my self my own iniquity and thou forgavest the wickednesse of my sin God is facil to pardon For such is the love and good will of God toward men such is his mercy and easinesse to be intreated that so soon as men purpose to repent he remits their transgressions Which he makes plain by Esaiah thus Chap. 65. And it shall be that I will hear them before they call and whilst they yet speak I will listen unto them Whereby he shews that his favour and loving kindnesse is ready that if a man onely purpose to lead a better life God presently forgives him the wickednesse he hath done So we read in Ezechiel Chap. 18. at what time soever a sinner shall repent of his wickednesse I will remember his iniquities no more CHAP. LII We must refer unto God all the good â—hat befalls us All the good that befals a man he must refer unto God IF in this frail and mortal body and momentary and vanishing life any thing befalls thee that is royal splendid magnificent If a man have large possessions and revenues if he have abundance of wealth and richâ—â— and he live in honour and renown dignity glory If his mind be endued with the knowledge of many things and he hath prudence and Wisedome if his body be in health and lively or if any thing more happen unto him you must acknowledge that you have received all this from God who is a most mercifull and munificent father from whom commeth every good gift Saint Paul recals unto this thankfullnesse the proud person who is swoln with an empty conceit of himself 2 Cor. â— and he takes away from him all his confidence in these words what hast thou which thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why boastest thou as though thou haddest not received it God urgeth the same Chap. 9. and speaks it to every man in Ieremiah Let not the Wiseman glory in his Wisedome Let not the Strong man glory in his strength nor the rich man in his riches but let every man glory in this that he knoweth me He that glorieth saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 1. 1 Cor. 10. All our good comes from God let him glory in the Lord from whom we have abundantly obtained all good things by Jesus Christ who is made by God unto us Wisdome Justice Sanctification Salvation and Redemption But that no man may applaud or flatter himself or vaunt himself too insolently of his external or internal gifts Saint Paul admonisheth us that we carry this treasure in earthen vessels that is in frail and dying bodies whereby every man may understand that this must be ascribed to the vertue and power of God and not to mans strength For as all the Light Wisdome Vertue and Justice that is in a man must be referred to God and to the Father of Lights from whom all good and perfect gifts descend as St. Iames the Apostle testifies Chap. 1. So all the fault and wickednesse that is in mans mind what blindnesse and ignorance there is what corruption and depravednesse must all be ascribed to our pernicious will and no fault can be imputed unto God For sin and the transgression of Gods Law brought upon us all miseries All sin proceeds from our mind Wisd 1. calamities diseases of body and mind and lastly death it self and this sowed in our minds all readinesse to do what is evil CHAP. LIII There must be consideration had in making choice of what course of life we are determined to lead Deliberation in choosing our course of life IN choosing the course of life you mean to lead and wherein you purpose to rest and continue unto your old age this first of all must be thought upon to enter upon all things with consideration and not rashly to addict your self to any Calling from whence afterwards if you should repent your self you may not lawfully return and depart from it For they who in their younger years enter upon any course of life before they understand what they do and to what they are by nature prone unto and yet bind themselves unto it for ever they lead an uncomfortable life and full of trouble and sorrow if at any time as commonly it fals out they prove to be weary of that condition or they find themselves not able to undergo the burden of it Wherefore let no man inconsiderately tye himself in chains but before he enters upon any course of life let him take time to deliberate what Calling he hath most mind unto and what Trade he liketh best In which deliberation as Cicero perswades L. 1. Offic. every man must consider his own inclination and so using all care in regulating his life he may persevere in the purpose he hath undertaken Some err by errour not by will For many who strive for the best things are deceived not so much by their will as by the errour of the way they light upon and they wander from the mark that Christ hath set before us to superstition and a false shew of Religion But from Christ chiefly must we fetch our helps of salvation who alone being our Pilot John 10. we sail in this Sea of the world unto our desired harbour He is the dore that makes an entrance for us to the Father He is the way the truth and the life We must seek for salvation from Christ from which Satan attempts to turn us who changing himself into an Angels of light by wicked Teachers thrusts into mens minds falshood for truth doubtfull things for certain things counterfeit things for what is sincere and for safe things such as are hurtfull unto us Adam was deceived by a shew of truth This was the first imposture of our enemy whereby he set upon Adam and he cast a mist and darknesse upon his mind and he defrauded him who was simple and overcredulous by a shew of truth and he forbears not to do the same to all his posterity and by abolishing the sincere worship of God and saving Religion to bring in superstition idolatry false doctrine and doubtfull and dangerous courses of life and lastly to use all devices to draw mankind from the true knowledge of God by extinguishing the light of truth and putting out the brightnesse of faith and so to bring upon the mind an Egyptian and utter darknesse CHAP. LIV. Of lawfull society in Matrimony Definition of Matrimony MAtrimony is an undivided and lawfull conjunction of Male and Female which was appointed by God partly to bridle our â—usts and to shun unlawfull and wandring copulation
the law to be carefully observed by the Jews that the more authority and adoration might be given to them I am saith he Exod. 20. Deut. 19. Johovah is a singular name of God Jehovah thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage Thou shalt have no other Gods but me By so most sacred and wonderfull Name he challengeth to himself the Empire and dominion over all things For since that he is the Fountain and original of all the world and is onely independent he gives force to all things that have their dependance upon him God hath a name given him from the effect Wherefore it is fitting that all mortall men should obey his Empire and commands and be subject to his Laws and are to seek for no help from any other but from him or turn to any creature from him who alone subsists from eternity Whom the Hebrews call Jehovah the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Existentem the Lower Dutch Een eeuwich goddelick wesen therefore the appellation of the divine Essence is denominated from many things From his first force and power of existing from his eternity magnificence majesty rule Empire to which all are subject and whereby he governs all things created and rules them by his supream providence Also God hath a name given him from his placable goodnesse mercy clemency Hoseah 3. Joel 2. Nahum 2. which he useth towards men who when they are afflicted and past hopes seek for his help For the Hebrew word El signifies Gods mercy joyned with his Justice whereby he supports and defends the godly and punisheth the wicked and by putting them in fear recalls them from their wickednesse From light whereby he dispells darknesse and mists of errours from our minds Nahum 2. Hosea 12. John 1. and illustrates dark understandings with the light and knowledge of himself and his truth So Christ said I am the light of the world he that follows me walks not in darknesse From fire whereby he inflames the Godly and makes them burn with the love of his divine nature and instructs their mind with saving and lively doctrine But he consumes the adversaries and such as have no reverence nor fear toward God and he brings them to nothing as the fire doth stubble and dry fuel Wherefore Moses and Paul perswade men that God is to be worshipped religiously Deut. 4. Heb. 13. Mich. 6. Hosea 2. The Dutch call him Godt from hu goodnesse that he may accept our service For saith he our God is a consuming fire wherefore let every man carry himself humbly toward God Also God hath his name from his goodnesse and munificence that he useth toward his which he will not suffer to be oppressed with the want of any thing or to faint for necessity but he doth bountifully provide them with all things and gives them abundantly all things necessary for their use both external goods with tranquillity and peace of mind From his piety and Fatherly affection with which he embraceth his and provides for their safety and welfare is he called a Father So saith God in Ieremiah Jerem. 3. Malachi 1. Jerem. 1. Esay 63. thou shalt call me father and shalt not leave off to follow me Again I am become a father to Israel and Ephraim is my first born and I will lead them by the Rivers of waters into the right way and they shall not stumble that is they shall tread in my steps they shall accompany me and they shall rest in my pleasure and I will keep them safe in all their wayes that no evill may happen unto them and no injury misfortune or calamity may befall them But Esay mentions specious and glorious titles Esay 9. which God the Father attributes to Christ whereby every man may know what our Saviour Christ hath done for us by his Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven For so the Prophet explains Christs magnificency splendour glory honour power greatnesse none of which but redounds to our benefit and commodity What signifies Emanuel Jerem. 5. A Son is born to us and to us a Son is given and the government shall he put upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Innumerable and infinite are the names that may be given to this immense Majesty and which God attributes also to himself So he calls himself a Physitian because he heals Soul and body Hosea 7. Esay 5. Math. 9. Esay 40. John 10. Psal 78. 1 Pet. 2. John 15. and cutes all vices in man be they outward or inward A Shep-heard because with the greatest care and vigilancy he sees to his flock and gathers together his scattered sheep and he feeds and refresheth them with the wholesome food of his Word So Christ calls himself a fruitfull Vine and his Father a husbandman and us branches engrafted into this Vine which he cleanseth and lops off all unfruitful boughs that is all superfluous desires that they bring forth more fruit but those that he finds to be barren A simile from a Vine bearing no yearly fruit by which metaphor he points at those who bring forth no fruits of faith he condemns to the fire as unprofitable branches that are dry and without any sap in them Saint Paul also useth the like metaphor taken from care and industry used in husbandry and architecture 1 Cor. 3. For the jars and contests being extinguished and ended whereby the Corinthians disagreed amongst themselves A simile from architecture and were puffed up by reason of their teachers one against another as we see it falls out even in our dayes he admonisheth them all that if they had learned any saving knowledge they should not attribute that to their ministers but unto God who is the Authour of every good gift We The Apostles were Gods Ministers saith he are fellow-helpers and as it were hired labourers we do Gods businesse and we approve our industry unto him and we labour for him You are Gods husbandry and as it were the ground which we make the more fruitfull by sowing it with wholesome doctrine You are the building and structure that riseth to Gods glory God is an absolute example of vertue Moreover what concerns the Majesty and greatnesse of God nothing can be thought on to be so sublime Magnificent illustrious excellent to be desired and singular that may not justly be refered to the divine essence and be accommodated thereunto Gods Wisdome Ps 31.32.109.146 Ephes 2. His Wisdome whereby he governs all things whereby he defends this world and preserves it by his inscrutable counsel and providence cannot be comprehended is inexplicable infinite so that the order and series of so great matters must needs draw all men to admire the Artificer and to love Him His fortitude Gods fortitude power Ps 27.62 Esay 25. Proverbs 8.