yet is it not a prouerbe as poore as Iob. Besides Mathew and Zachaeus Ioseph of Arimathaea were all before rich men but as soone as they followed Christ their riches left theÌ„ and they became poore religious men together Again was it not Dauids coÌ„plaint in the 73. Psal That the wicked are not troubled like other men neither are they plagued like others but their eyes stand out with fatnesse they haue more thâ—n heart can wish And the prophet Ier. as he succeeded him in time so he followd him in his complaint Ier. 12. 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talke with thee of thy iudgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happy that deale very deceit fully That we may the better know then V. Why the godly are many times poore how the wicked are often rich in this world WE must learne to distinguish rightly of the times when the children of God are poore and of the persons of wicked men how they are rich There is a time of pouertie and a time of riches and to say true except Gods children were first poore how could Gods blessing enrich them after So Abraham and Dauid and Iacob had their times of pouertie they were poore at first but their end was rich and full of Gods blessing where contrary the wicked man is neuer rich in the conclusion So Dauid tells vs in the 37. and 73. Psalmes when he went into the Sanctuarie to see the end of these men hee saw the end of the vpright to be peace Marke the vpright man for the end of that man is peace sayes the Prophet but what sayes he of the wicked The end of the wicked shall be cut aff So was the end of Diues in the 12. of Luke Hee had no sooner sung the merry Carroll to his soule of Soule eate drinke and bee merry c. he had no sooner ended his Antheme but the same night his soule was begd from him and hee could not get a drop of drinke for it hee had prouided much for his soule but he had not prouided his soule a whit for God the therefore spirituall furies did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soone begd away his soule from al the pleasurns hee had loaded his new built Repositaries to banquet it with and in a moment ingulft it into perpetuall torment for as Iob speakes of the wicked Momento descendunt in infernum Pphylosophy teaches vs that there can bee no motion in an instant but sin lies so heauy vpon the soule of the wicked that it is no sooner out of his body but it is descended in a moment to hell and therefore though it be sayd of Lazarus and the Begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome yet it is no sooner sayd The rich man died also but as if there had bin no time betweene his dying and being in hell it streight followes And in hell lift vp hiss eyes c. O how sodainly sings the Psalmist doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Psal 73 18. The new translation turnes it how as in a moment and indeed the originall is Be-raga in momento So Dauids greene Bay-tree Psal 3. 35. a tree that euer beares leaues but neuer fruit therefore fit to shadow vnder the lawes of it a a fruitlesse professour though hee floorisht it for awhile yet suddainly Dauid did but turne him about and he could not finde so much as the place where he stood But let vs graunt Diues the happinesse to die a rich man which he shall neuer doe for as the heathen sings of death I â—uoluit humile pariter celsum caput Aequatque summis infirna Death and the Graue make euen all estates There high and low rich poor are mates Yet the riches they haue are not like Wisedomes durable riches but God blowes vpon them not only cutting off themselues and their remembrance as sparkes from the earth but scattering their estates and blasting their seede and posteritie so that he perisheth both sooner and oftner then other men He spends his daies in wealth Iob 21. 13. and in a moment descends into hell there how soon is his soule lost His bodie is as chaffe that the storme carries awey ver 17. 18. there he loseth his body as soone And what pleasure hath hee in his house after him when the number of his moneths is cut off in the middest ver 21. there perisheth his estate And to conclude God laies vp the punishment of his iniquitie for his children ver 19. there hee dies in his posteritie So that although he flatter himselfe with an opinion of his riches that it will keepe him aliue in his name and memorie and posteritie and houses and lands beyond the condition of other men as Dauid tels vs Psal 49. 11. that this is his very thought yet to speake soothly as the last of the best and the best of the last Poets saies of all morall helpes which Fabricius and Cato and Brutus three of the most famous of the Romane Worthies thought to eternize themselues by Cume sera vobis rapiet hoc etiam dies Iam vos secunda mors manet So may the vngodly rich more truly say of himselfe and all worldly meanes whereby he hoped to perpetrate his life and memorie The poor man dies but once but O that I Already dead haue yet three deaths to die For being dead in his bodie he still remaines aliue in his soule estate and posteritie to suffer death and therefore death is said to gnaw and feed vpon him Psal 49. 14. And it is worth the obseruing how soone his name rots which that it might flie into eternitie beyond the names of poorer men he so feathered himselfe with houses and lands and children and called them all by his owne name And therefore our Sauiour in the Storie of Lazarus and Diues keepes the poore mans name aliue to the worldes end but industriously leaues the rich mans name at vncertaintie with There was a certaine rich man This is the first and maine difference of the times but there is another For there are some times of persecution and some of peace When we therefore say that a religious man is a Thriuer we meane in the time of peace when God bleses the Land he liues in with quiet and lets the beames of his Gospell freely display themselues but in the times of persecution when clowds and storms arise when the Arke of God is tempested about and failes as it were in the bloud of his Children it is contrarie For as before the poore religious man growes rich with Abraham and Iacob and Dauid and Isaac so in the times of bloudy persecution the rich man that is truly religious voluntarily grows poore as Mathew and Barnabas and Zachaeus did But their riches then left not them for want of Gods blessing but they to get a blessing
the food of our soules then our earthy diet can bee the food of our bodies because hee is euery way both in respect of himselfe and vs more preseruatiue then to bodies any bodily sustenance can be For that makes vs continue by being destroyed it selfe and destroyes vs too if it be taken in excesse though it be neuer so often vsed yet soone after we shall hunger againe and thirst againe neither can it repaire our nature in the headlong ruines of age so fast but that we must euery day forfeite a little spoile to mortality which it can no way possibly recouer and in conclusion vnable to hold out any longer it must yeeld vp the whole body as a pray to death But we cannot drinke too much of our spirituall rocke nor eate too much of our heauenly Manna which after we haue feasted our hearts with we shall find noe more hunger or thirst feele noe more iniuries of age or time feare noe more spoiles of mortality or death Neither is the soule nourished by this diuine food as the body is by wasting that whereby it selfe is preserued and consuming that to maintaine it selfe whereby it selfe is kept from corruption but as the sight of al eyes is preserued and perfected by the light of the Sunne whose beames can neuer be exhaust so our spirituall life is nourished by the participation of the life of Christ which is indeede 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annona cali the flower of heauen neuer engrost by possessing nor lost by vsing nor wasted by nourishing nor spent by enioying but hath that heauenly and vnconsumable nature in it being to nourish immortall soules that it preserues all without decaying it selfe it diuides it selfe to al without losse or diminution of it selfe it is imparted to all and not impayred by any of those replenished soules that banquet vpon it Now if the quaere be made how our soules are thus by Christ preserued from their owne corruption and beyond their owne natural life to a life Celestiall diuine there can be no other answere giuen but by beeing implanted into the life of righteousnes which fontally is in him As if the branches of a wild oliue being cut off from the reall stocke where it grew naturally should be kept from withering and corruption by ingrassing it into the stocke of a sweet and flourishing Oliue-tree So our soules beeing created in naturall righteousnesse and holylinesse by God and being soone after by our fall cut off from that life and so remayning in the state of corruption and decay would soone wither and dye totally were they not eftsoons reymbark't and stock't againe into the Tree of life from whence they sucke a more diuine life of righteousnes then that they were created or now liue in For the natural righteousnes thogh it were in the kind of it perfect yet it was of a short continuance as nature left to it selfe alwayes is and our habituall righteousnesse though it continue for euer yet it is very imperfect like the twilight of an euening or the first breake of day in which the shadows of earth and the light of heauen are confused and therfore the soule of man vnable to liue perpetually by any of these liues which were defectiue could haue no way bene preseru'd from his owne corruption but by the participation of this diuine Righteousnesse of Christ which is infinitely more durable then Adams naturall and more perfect then our poore habituall righteousnes either is or euer could haue bin Neyther let it seeme strange to any that the Soule which dies by vnrighteousnes and sinne should be sayd by grace onely and righteousnesse to receyue againe life and preseruation Hence are those scripture phrases so frequent You are dead in your sinnes ye are strangers from the life of God of the wanton and sinfull widow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she was dead being aliue that is dead to God and the righteousnesse of Christ and aliue onely to nature and the corruption of it Hence againe on the contrary the Iust man is sayd to liue by the righteousnes of faith Hab. 2. 4. Heb. 10. 37. and therfore this life which we could not acquire by our nature because it is eternall God is said in he first Epistle of Sa. Iohn 5. 11. to haue giuen it to vs and least wee should trouble our selues to know where this life was found out for vs it is added in the same place And this life is in his Sonne Thus Saint Paul speakes Col. 3. 3. that â—ur life is hid in Christ and that it was no more he that liued but Christ that liued in him Galat. 2. 20. thus hee tells the Corinthians that wee were made the Righteousnesse of God in Christ 2. Cor. 5. 21. and 1 Cor. the 1. the 30. that Christ was made of God vnto vs Wisedome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and therefore twice the Prophet Ieremy tells vs that This is his name wherby he shall be called IEHOVAH tsidkenu THE LORD OVR RIGHTEOVSNESSE Ie. 23. 6. and 33. 16. For as verily as our sinnes tooke away his life so assuredly shall his righteousnesse preserue ours in which because wee haue a double state one in our apprehension of it by faith the other in our comprehension of it by vision and intuition therefore here the Saints of god are sayd to be blessed onely in their hunger but hereafter they shal be happy in their fulnes here God onely feeds them with a sufficiency of grace there he fills them with such a satietie of glory in which their soules with the greatest excesse without the least surfet shall bee feasted for euer For God is not like old Isaac that hath but one blessing for his sonnes and therefore as wee must learne of S. Paul with our sufficiency to bee content My grace is sufficient for thee so let vs with him striue at least in our most heauenly thoughts get awing and rauisht into the third heauen then to behold III. What is the fulnesse wherewith those Soules that hunger after Righteousnesse shal be satisfied THE fulnesse heere meant is nothing else but a perfect expletion of all the naturall desires of Soule Body and Person according to the vttermost receptiuity of them all which their owne proper and most agreeable obiects wherein euery desire rests it self wholly acquited and filled For instance nothing can arrest the vnderstanding of man but that which is absolutely true or rather Truth it selfe For that is the most proper and agreeable obiect to our vnderstanding and who is that but Christ our Lord I am the Truth saies our Sauiour Nothing can satisfie the reasonable will of man but onely that which is perfectly good or rather goodnesse it selfe and who is that but onely God For as our Sauior speakes there is none good but God nothing can fill the restlesse affections of man but onely those fountaines of pleasure that haue in them neither defect nor end such as can be
all were beholding to him for restoring him the tenth part of his owne To conclude long prayers and building the sepulchres of the prophets which of all other were their most colourable virtues were they not indeed crying sinnes in the sight of God when they were I say not onely vtterd arrogantly in euery corner of the street that they might bee seene of men and not closeted vp for GOD alone to see them but when vnder pretence of long prayers they deuour'd widowes houses and vnder colour of building the tombes of the Prophets which were dead they had no other intent but with the more safety and lesse suspition to slay the sonne of God who was then aliue among them the Prince of the Prophets Looke then as beautifull and fayre fruit to see too yet if it be rotten at the core when the outside is par'd off hath no such goodlynesse within as outwardly appear'd but very rottennesse at the heart or to vse a more proper similitude As a piece of smooth and rotten wood if it bee set in the darke and seene onely in the night makes a great blaze and showes to bee a very lightsome body but assoone as the day rises it forfeits the flame and the rottennes of it is plainely discouered so was it with these appearing truths which the Pharisees obtruded and thrust vpon the darke vnderstandings of the common people for most heauenly lights lamps full of glory they were all but vizards of truth rotten opinions lies with painted faces And as these were the false-lights that dazeled the eyes of the wiser sort of people so there were beside these certaine coÌ„mon errors which went abroad as most receiued and graunted positions verities which all men beleeu'd as That they had good cause to reioyce who had euery mans good word for them and many friends in the world whom they might trust to That rich men were happy For they liued at hearts ease That they liued the most comfortable liues in the world that were alwayes merry hearted and were euer laughing To name no more That it was a most wretched estate not to haue sufficient meate and drinke but to liue alwayes as in a famine in hunger and thirst But our Sauiour as before hee extinguisht their false and pharisaical lights so in these hee opposed himselfe against their popular and common errors And therefore he sayes not as they Reioyce because ye haue many and great friends in the world and because you haue euery mans good word for you but the playne contrary Reioyce and bee exceeding glad what when you haue many friends that speake well of you and do you good no but when you haue many enemies that shall reuile you and persecute you and say all manner of euill against you falsely for my names sake verses the 10. 11. And blessed are who the rich in estate no but the poore in spirit ver the 3. And not they who were merry hearted alwaies laughing had the most comfortable liues but blessed are they that mourne verse the 4. For they shal be comforted In a word to land my self at home vpon the present words That not they which abounded with all things and could say to their soule as Diues did Luke the 12. Soule eate drinke aud bee merry for thou hast much goods layed vp for many yeares were blessed but blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnes For they shall bee satisfied For the truth is It was a most absurd improper soloecisme of speech when the riche foole so our Sauiour cals him and therefore I doe him no wrong bid his soule eate and drinke those goods that hee had layed vp for his body to eat drinke For the soule with such food could neuer haue beene satisfied but those soules onely shal be replenished and filled that hunger after the kingdome of Heauen and the righteousnesse thereof For as righteousnes here so the Kingdome of God hereafter as grace here so glory hereafter are the onely repaste to banquet a Soule with First therfore let vs see II. How Righteousnesse and Grace are the food of our Soules THat is properly called the food of any thing whereby it is inwardly preserued from consumption corruption and death And therfore as the Body hath something to preserue it for a time which is bodily food so must the Soule haue some spirituall repast to perpetuat and preserue it for euer For nothing beside a diuine nature can bee of it selfe aye during Let vs therfore because this paradox to a naturall man will seeme strange goe with him to his owne arte the arte of nature There we shall find these two Sanctions publisht as receiued trueths of all first â—isdem alimur ex quibus constamus Euery nature is nourished by that whereof it is first made and the second is Simile nutritur a simile Like is nourisht of like Now it is a speech of our Sauiour which it may bee euery man remembers but few men marke when after fourty dayes fast in the wildernesse he was tempted to satisfie his hunger by making bread of stones he answered That Man liu'd not by bread onely but by euery word that proceeded out of the mouth of God Which speech though a prophane Ignorant will perhaps derisonly scoffe at as thinking it impossible to liue by words yet such words as proceed out of the mouth of God haue more vitall sweetenesse and nourishable sap in them than all his corne and oyle and wine haue Was not the whole world made by the word of God Was not the soule of euery reasonable creature made by the same word and so imbreathed into the body of the first father of our humane nature and is now still infused into euery one of our bodies when they are perfectly instrumented and made fit for the soule to dwell â— This a naturall man cannot deny in reason because they of his owne â—ribe Socrates Plato Aristoâ—le and all wise men euer confest it not only to vse â—heir owne words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as some of â—hem speakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foris ingredi â—aelitus aduenire But proue it by necessary demonstration I will vse â—ut one argument beâ—ore I proceed to euidence it because religion shall not be beholding to a naturall man for her ground worke which Iustin Martyr one of the first penmen of God after the time of the blessed Apostles who was called by all men for his depth of Learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vses to euiâ—ce the opposers of this truth in his time All things sayes he arose first eyther out of the power of nature or fortune of God Out of a power of nature they could not For tell mee sayes the father whom could nature by her power first bring forth Could the fruits of the earth or the foules of heauen or the trees of the forrest or the beasts of the field or the Cittizen of the world man issue
found no where heere And where are they but at the right hand of God only Psalm 16. 11. In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for euermore the first takes away all defect In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and the second admits of no end at thy right hand are pleasures for euer And this is the first fulnesse or saturity of the soule the second is of the body And the naturall desires of the body are life health and beautie Now where can we finde life but in that Country which is the land of the liuing whether no death is suffered to approach or whether should we go to meet with indeflowrishing and vnattainted health but where there is no sorrow no paine no sicknesse at all And that is no where but onely in the Holy City which S. Iohn calls the new Hierusalem Reuel 21. 4. There shall be no more death neyther sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine but as the two glories of the Old and New Testaments Dauid and S. Paul speake God shall deck his Saints with health and wee shall put on incorruption and immortality in those Courts of Honour And thus as the soule and body haue their natural desires so the whole person of man desires naturally as close an vnion with the Diuine being as it is possibly capable of secondly it desires glorie and honour being one of the beames of GODS countenance which hee casts vpon his most noble creatures For there is a sparke of Diuinity in Glory which makes all men I had almost said all creatures naturally appetent of it according to the size they haue measured them out by God to vessell it vp in Cupido gloriae nouissimè exuitur etiam a sapiente sayes the wise Historian many to giue life to their Honor hauing lost their owne And this holy Ambition as it deriues it selfe to another world so it is in man both a naturall and lawfull desire within the expectation of which the whole creature stretching out the neck of it as S. Paul most significantly speakes waites for and sighes for and like a woman is in a dolorous trauaile for to be deliuered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the free libertie of glory granted to the sonnes of God The last hunger both of soule and body as they are vnited is of diuine societie and friendship and therefore as the Philosopher calls man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable Creature so the Apostle would haue vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to associate our selues at least in our trauelling thoughts with the Citizens of Heauen who as for number they are infinitely more so for nature are farre more illustrious and blessed then our vnder companions that liue here below centred with our selfs in this little point of earth are For God himselfe being a Diuine Spirit and those Palaces of glory being farre more extensiue and spacious then our narrow regions how can there but be as Dauid and Daniel both witnesse ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand thousands of ministring Spirits to wait vpon their high and transcendent Soueraigne the King of Spirits Royal and therefore S. Paul reckoning vp our heauenly companions Hebr. 12. 22. begins with an innumerable cōpany of Angels so that this desire shall aboundantly be satiated and content But of heauen we that are on earth cannot say much For though Satan took our Sauiour vp into a high mountaine and thence shewed him all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them in a moment of time Luk. 4. 5. which shewes of how small moment they are that in one short instant and article of time could sodainelie giue a blaze and so vanish yet there is no mountaine high enough nor any time long enough but eternity to vnuaile the glory of the Kingdome of Heauen which God purposely no doubt hath concealed that he might know who would loue him for himselfe because all men could not but loue him for his glory if he should let it fall vpon our eyes and display it selfe in the diuine beames of it Yet as farre as the eye of right reason guided like the wise men in the search of our Sauiour by the heauenly starres of light that shine euery where in Gods word may discouer this holy land let vs not wrong our sacred hunger of knowledge as blindely to wrap vp all in a cloud and to denye it this iust satisfaction which especially consists in a threefold glorious vnion wherewith God hath promised in his Word to vnite the persons of the Elect to himselfe which close with the Diuine Being I mentioned before to be the most ardent and naturall desire of our whole person and that wherwith the whole man is most delighted satisfied and filled First therefore wee are vnited vnto Christ as vnto our Head and so wee make but one body with him and this is a closer vnion then eyther children can be vnited to Parents for they are diuided parts from their Father but wee are vnited parts to Christ our Lord or married couples can be vnited each to other For they being diuerse bodies are vnited but into one flesh but wee to Christ are vnited into one body and one flesh as the Apostle speaks we are all set into his body and are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee with a most significant elegancy speakes in the 4. and 6. to the Ephesians And this is the first vnion of our persons with God by his Son Iesus Christ which makes vs way and entrance to the two remanent The second vnion is whereby our persons are spiritually vnited to God by the very Diuine and Holy Spirit of God him selfe so that this infinite and glorious and euer-liuing Spirit diffusing it selfe through euery member of Christs mysticall body makes vs of one spirit and one soule as it were with the Diuine being not by the vnion of essence and information but of inhabitance and participation The last vnion is that whereby the Diuinity of God dwelling in vs after an vnspeakeable gracious manner vnites himselfe whole although not wholly to vs far beyond the possibility of any other creature in the World For other creatures haue no power of vniting themselues so as God hath The reason is cause they are of so grosse and if not corporeall yet materiall being that it is impossible for them to make vs partakers of their Essences which haue all of them certaine Characteristicall and indiuiduall differences whereby they are incommunicable in their Natures to any other beside themselues But wee are made as S. Peter tells vs partakers of the Diuine Nature after an eminent manner which though it cannot be plenarily exprest yet it may bee shadowed by some weak resemblances The Rule whereby we may conceiue of this vnion is that Euery thing the more subtill and pure and immateriall it is the more closelie it may vnite it selfe
And there is a Spirituall Vnion whereby all th' Elect soules and bodies are not onely inspired and I may so speake Spirited with the Holy Ghost who rules and swayes all the thoughts and actions of the soule as the soule doth all the parts and affections of the body And last of all there is a gracious and admirable Vnion of similitude whereby wee are made whollie conformable and alike to the Diuine being which is the most desireable accumulate blessednesse of our Nature So that looke as you see the very bright image of the Sunne so reflected vpō the water somtimes that the dull Element seemes to haue caught downe the very glorious body it selfe to paint her watry face with and lookes more like a part of heauen then like it selfe who in the absence of the Sunne is all fabled with blacknesse and darknesse and sad obscurity but vpon the first beames of the heauenly body is glazed with a most noble illustrious brightnesse so is it with our whole man For when God shall thus imprint and strike himselfe into our darke being O how beautifull shall the feet of Gods Saints bee Esay 52. 7. What a Diadem of stars shall crowne their glorious heads Reuelat. 12. How shall their amiable bodies shine in Sun-like Maiesty Mat. 13. 4. Neither let it bee thought a vaine audacity of speech to say that the countenance and face of Gods children shall break forth into beames of more celestiall glory then the mid-day sunne euer yet sent abroad into the World For as S. Paule tells vs they shall be conform'd to the Image of his glorious body so he tels Agrippa Acts 26. 13. At mid-day O King I saw in the way a light from heauen aboue the brightnes of the Sunne shining round about me which was no other then the Light of the countenance of our Lord Iesus which sight as it struck blindnesse into the face and thicke scales into the eies of persecuting Saul so it dressed the whole countenance of suffering Stephen with a most Diuine and Angelical glory and had not the Light in reason beene greater then the Suns it would haue beene like the Moon and Starres at mid-day wholly extinguisht and inuisible Neyther let any man amaze his vnderstanding with the manner how a Spirituall substance can so sparkle and be as it were visible in the body Saint Austins comparison hath life in it in the expression of that point Life in it selfe is inuisible and cannot be seene yet it so freshes the countenance and beautifies the eyes that when the body wants it and is dead nothing lookes more dreary and ghastly then a Corps doth We see not life in it selfe sayes the Father but wee see it shining in the brightnesse of the eyes and smiling in the liuelihood and cheerefulnesse of the countenance And so it is with a glorious body God is Life and like Life cannot bee seene in himselfe by any ocular aspect but as Life in a Naturall so God in a glorious body is most apparant and plainely visible and conspicuous euen vnto our eyes But some perhaps will thinke this discourse of spirituall satiety I call it spirituall not excluding the Body but because our Bodies themselues shall be then spirituall as now our very spirits are in a manner carnall to be fetch'd rather out of the schooles of Reason then of Gods Word and to haue more ground in Philosophy then Faith For where in Scripture shall we read of any such image of God to satisfie our Natures with If we turne to the 17. Psalme and the 15. verse we shal there finde the portion of the righteous excellently described by Dauid who hauing before set out the men of this world who haue their portion in this life their dimensum which is their belly full of Treasures abundance of Children and their happinesse to leaue their substance to their Babes verse 14. hee reflects his thoughts into his owne brest and sings As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall bee satisfied when I awake with thy Image This made Dauids heart pant after the sight of Gods face for so the words originally signifie Psalm 42. 1. This made him pray Lighten mine eyes that I sleepe not in death and needes must the eyes of the righteous be lightened and then awaken when the wicked shall haue theirs shut vp in eternall darkenesse when they shall behold the face of God and shall satisfie with his Image their euigilant soules Wee shall finde in Scripture besides this Image of God that for aye blesses the soules of the righteous two other Images of the wicked world and of wicked men wherewith the wicked striue to satisfie their soules but as S. Paul 〈◊〉 vs the image of the world does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loose continually his forme and fashion so Dauid tells vs Psalme the 73. the 20. that when God awakes he shal despise their image The image of God satisfies the righteous when they awake to their reward because there is substance and truth and goodnesse in it but when God awakes to the punishment of the wicked their image is so far from bringing with it any satisfaction of glory that in the iudgment of God himselfe who cannot but iudge most vprightly it is full of shame most ignoble and worthy to be despised hauing no substance but onely shadow no truth but onely appearance no ground but onely opinion to paint it selfe with and therefore looke what difference of things there is in the sound iudgment of one waking and the skipping and dauncing phansies of a dreaming braine so much more is there betweene the swelling images of secular glory and the diuine image of God when wee shall awaken from those dreams which the world as long as shee can keepe vs in the cradle of our flesh rocks and pleasantly sings vs a-sleep in And therefore Dauid hauing spoken of the death of the wicked in the former verse of the fore-cited Psalme O how suddenly doe they consume and perish and come to a fearefull end presently annexes As a dreame when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image But let vs leaue this golden Image with all the dreaming World with Nebuchadnezar is troubled with in their sleepe and is angry with all that will not fall down to worship it and returne to that Image that deludes not dreaming but satisfies our awaking spirits As Dauid speaks of his owne so S. Paul speakes of all the Elect soules of God Rom. 8. 29. that they were predestinated to be conform'd to this Diuine image and therefore in the 2. to the Corinthians the 3. 13. 14. c. he makes his difference betweene the obstinate Iew and the beleeuing Christian that their hearts was stil veild and blinded with their olde Mosaicall shadows and ceremonies but wee all saies the Apostle hauing the veyle done away in Christ with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory
of the Lord or changed into the same Image from glory to glory euen as of the spirit of the Lord. So that as the Moon and the Starres that hauing no in-borne or inherent Light streaming from themselues and yet gathering together into their burning faces the beames of the Sun freely sent abroad and bestowed amongst them appear like so many little images of the great Lampe of day So all the Holy Lamps of Heauen made for Gods seruice haue onely the Light of Gods countenance to kindle themselues with which he out of his bounty casts abroad amongst them and they according to their seuerall capacities to fill vp their measures of glory most ambitiously vessell vp This being the Royalty of the Diuine Nature who is the spiritual sonne of eternall Essences that he beyond all other is most emissiue and communicatiue of himselfe For as Light is more visible then any colour and sends out in the eradition of it a more full and luminous species of it selfe then any other thing because it is as the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the colour of all colours so God who is the Light of all Lights must needs in himselfe bee most visible though neither it to the eye of an Owle nor God to the sight of our vnderstanding yet beetle-browed can so appeare But when as Dauid sings our soules shall awaken and the youth of our bodies shall be renewed as the Eagles both they with the Diuinity and these with the Diuine humanity shall be transformed into the same image of glory which they shall behold in him And though now they blinke at Sunne-shine yet then where the body of glory is thither shall the spirituall Eagles be all gathered together and there feede and fill the righteous hunger and thirst of theirs And this is the fulnesse of glory our Sauiour meanes to satisfie them in heauen with who on earth nourish in themselues the righteous hunger after Grace When the vnderstanding shall be filled with truth in which is no shadow of error the will with goodnesse in which is no mixture of euill the affections with ioy and delight in which shall be neyther defect nor end when the body shall be satisfied with Life that knowes no dying shall be quickned with health that feares no sickenesse shall be imbrightned with beautie that can neyther bee impayred with disease nor impalled by death when the whole person shall be crowned with honour glory shall be leagued in friendship with Angells and Saints shall bee vnited to Christ in body to the holy Ghost in Spirit to God in a bright similitude and likenesse of his Diuine nature in a word when they shall enioy which this world is out of hope of honor without ambition beauty without pollution glory without pride power without iniury riches without oppression all good without any end of possessing feare of losing or sinne in spending Let vs therefore quicken our drowsie spirits with IIII. A short incitement to the heauenly ambition of Gods Saints IT was a speech of the most ambitious Spirit in the world in the excuse of his high swelling thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a man would do iniurie it should bee for a Kingdome piety was to be obserued in lesse matters as hee thought but the truth is hee needed not haue supposed it to bee such a difficult thing to be perswaded to doe iniury For as the Philosopher speakes Nothing is more easie then to doe another man wrong and he giueth the Reason why Iustice although it be so beautifull a Light in the world that as he sayes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the morning nor the euening starre is halfe so Oriently beautiful yet so few men are in loue with it because it is the good of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee are all naturally engrossers of goods for our selues but wee are loth though iustly to diuide or part them with any other and therefore with more reason the religious man who is the most ambitious creature vnder heauen may whet and edge his flaming desires to goe through all the sweat and labour of righteousnesse with the same speech inuerted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Kingdome be the reward of Piety who would not be religious But it is a myracle in reason to see that when there are three sorts of ambitious in the world Sinfull Naturall and Religious how many and those of the choicest wits offer their harts and sacrifice themselues as whole burnt offerings to the ambition of sinne and how few set their thoughts on fire with the holy ambition of Gods Saints And yet there is no difference betweene sinfull and sainâ—ly ambition for both would be like God but that the first would be like him without dependance and would be proud in being so affecting a diuine similitude beside the right meanes and beyond the due measure and the other is content to climbe by the valley of Christs humility to this mountaine of holinesse The sinfully ambitious would haue Gods glory but not his goodnes his power but not his iustice the Maiesty of his Kingdome but not the manner of his gouernment And therefore all those Angelicall stars of Light whom God in the Morning of his Works made Heauen shine with are now become through this sinfull ambition wandring Starres to whom is reserued the blackenesse of darkenesse for euer And this was it that smote not onely so many stars out of heauen but would haue struck into hel the whole posterity of Adam had not our Sauiour snatch'd vp some few of vs into heauen with him and yet how many soules still scorche themselues in these flames It was the imperious speech of the Assyrian Tyrian and Romane Princes I will be like the most high I will ascend into Heauen I will exalt my throne aboue the starres of God Esay 14. I am God Ezech 28. I sit a Queen mening as the Lady and Commandresse of the whole World and shall see no sorrow c. Alas how high this sinfull ambition would climbe in thought and indeed how low doth it fall It aspires to the sides of the North Esay 14. 13. verse And verse the 15. it is cast downe into the sides of the pit It would ascend into Heauen verse the 14. and in the next it is brought downe to hell It fancies to it selfe a high flight among the starres and Angells of God And loe the shadows of darknesse are moued from beneath to meet it and the dead ghosts are stirred vp to salute it with this derisory taunt Art thou become like vnto vs How art thou fallen from Heauen O Lucifer sonne of the Morning And these perhaps great princely and honourable Diuels of Ambition may seeme in comparison of the lesser to delude their followers with a kinde of bâ—aue and royall misery But in very truth it is a sight full of wonder to obserue the children of this generation at how small game
with reproch and slander whether to such ground as is good and naturally opens her bosome to drinke in the dewes of heauen that fall vpon her and gladly receiues the Sunne beames shed from God to warm and make fruitfull the seede credited to her wombe or such ground as neuer thirsts after the watering of Apollos though as Moses speakes Deut. 32. 2. his words drop as the raine and his speech distill as the dew neuer can indure the light of heauen to shine vpon it but lies alwayes in darkenesse and in the shadowes of death yet such ground stones I should haue sayd did the diuine courage of Stephen meet with in Ierusalem Act. 7. 59. such S. Paul wrought on at Lystra Act. 14. 19. such Moses and Aaron and Iosua toyled vpon in the wildernes Num. 14. 10. such the Prophets Matt. 21 25. such the Prince of the Prophets found in his owne inheritance though he had before as we see in Esay 5. 2. pickt all the stones himselfe out of it Iohn 8. 59 What one difficultie or danger is the roughest calling assaulted with that his is not Does the plowmans labour know no end but is it as the Poet speakes of it Labor actus in orbem Quique in se sua per vestigia voluitur So is his Does the Shepheard the sun-burnt and frosted shepheard watch ouer his flockes by night strengthen the diseased set apart the sound binde vp the bruised seek out the lost rescue those that are preyed vpon so does he Marches the soldier before the face of death liues hee among the pikes of a thousand dangers walks he throgh his owne wounds and blood So does he but as the ground this spirituall plowman tils is harder so the wolues Lyons this Shepheard watches against are fiercer and the Armies he graples with of another temper then such as are made like himselfe of flesh and blood being Powers and Principalities spirituall wickednesses worldly gouernors one of whom could in a nights space strikes dead the liues of a hundred fourescore and fiue thousand souldiers at once all armed and embattayld together Isay 37. 36. Let all the Princes of valour that euer liued bring into the field their most tried and signall warriour whose face and brest stand thickest with the hononourable starres of braue aduentures if I doe not single out to encounter him one souldier that beares in his body the markes of the Lord Iesus who shall haue broken through an Iliad of more dangers and perils then he let Gath and Ascalon triumph ouer Sion once againe let it be said that a second and more noble Saul is falne vpon his high places then euer yet fell before For wee shall finde him all the world ouer in labours more abundant in iourneys more often in more perils in the city in the wildernesse in the sea more often in watchings and fastings in hunger and thirst in cold nakednesse in prison more frequent and ofter in wearinesse and death 2. Cor. 11. 23. c. Let not him therefore that sowes the earth with his labor slander the spirituall tilth of our soules with lazie thoghts alas in the times of peace contempt is the greatest haruest we reape and in the tempests of persecution our blood is the first seed is sowne in the Church But enough of this generall theame of labour Let vs now go on to III. The seueral parts of Isaacs Labour and Reward SOwing then is the matter or substance of his labour and the circumstances are three First of person Isaac a religious person sowes the next of Time hee sowes in a time of famin and dearth the last of place it is the ground of strangers the the land of the Philistims he sowes in His Reward followes his labour wherein we looke first vpon Isaac in the manner of the benefite which is by Receipt hee does not take it as a due but receiues it as a reward he makes not himselfe the Lord but the Steward of Gods gift and then we cast our eyes vpon God as the eyes of all things looke vpon thee O Lord who commends the benefit by his celeritie in giuing which was in the same yeare Secondly by Isaacs necessitie of receiuing it being now a needfull time of Famine and last by the measure and size of returning his seede which was not thirty nor sixtie but a hundred fold Now if we regard either the substance or the circumstances of the words a man would thinke as the world now goes that Isaack had neither reason or neede to sowe in such a Land and at such a time as he did For that hee was exceeding rich is confest of all both by the gifts of Abimelech the King of the Philistims which he gaue him and by the inheritance of his Father Abraham which he left him and therefore what neede had he to labour We know it is the order of many men if they haue liued long in the Countrey and by their labours haue enriched themselues they forsake the fields and betake themselues to the delights and ease of the Citie and againe Citizens when they are well feathered by their trades they flye abroad straight to purchase something in the Countrey that they may there summer themselues in their bowers and arbours of pleasure they are all soone wearie of their labour euen as soone as they are enricht by it Which though it be allowable in men ancient as the Poet aduises Solue senescentem mature sanus equum Especially if not only Age but some disease and weakenesse of their bodies requires it for so God dismist the Leuites at 50. yeares old from their seruice at his Altar yet it is not so in men either able to labour or without labour vnable to liue For here wee see Isaac a rich man and now past threescore yeares old as wee may gather from the 25. verse of the former Chapter yet still labours and sowes his ground Againe let a man be but indifferently left by his Friends though hee doe liue in the Countrey yet he will as he out of his young gentilitie will please to boast scorne to follow the Plow he will keepe perhaps a Cast of Hawkes or a Kennell of Hounds and he will call them and follow them day by day but that 's all the calling he will follow Questionlesse Hawking and Hunting are both lawfull but only to make recreations of not to make callings of For he that makes the following of such sports his only calling inuerts and turns the order of God vpside downe For whereas God made all beasts naturally to serue man he spends his life in seruing and following of beasts and so makes himselfe the seruant of those creatures of which God hath made him the Lord weakely esteeming that the priuiledge of his estate and his blessing aboue others which Noah wisely laied vpon Canaan as of all other the greatest curse A seruant of seruants shall he be but Isaack thinkes it no
of God left their riches to supply the wants of others There is a time of Warre and a time of Peace saith the Preacher Eccl. 3. a time to get and a time to cast away Now it pleased God Isaac should liue in a time of peace and so should haue a time to get but Mathew and Zachaeus c. were to liue in a time when the whole world was at war with God and that was a time to cast away And as God gets himselfe honour in enriching his Children in the times of peace so it is his good pleasure that his Children by being poore sometime for his sake should get themselues glory from him I but will a poore Christian say Now are peaceable times and yet there are still many rich wicked men and more godly that are poore So questionlesse there are many rich godly men and more poore that are wicked But to satisfie this doubt also I told you there is a second distinction to be vsed of the persons of rich poore men It may be thou art godly and poore T is well but canst thou tell whether if thou wert not poore thou wouldst be godly Sure God knows vs better then wee our selues doe and therefore can best fit the estate to the person Why shouldest thou thinke much to see Lazarus by Diues his gates God knowes that was the way he was to ascend to heauen by and it may be hee had neuer been comforted in Abrahams bosome if God had not brought him thither by affection and by Diues his gate Rest therefore thy selfe content with that estate God hath set thee in that is best for thee if thou beest a childe of God and it is not Gods order to giue thee his blessings to hurt thee with If I should see my childe dissolutely affected to gaming should I giue him a patrimonie to dice away or thinke it a kindnesse in me to nourish a vice in him If I had an vngratious brother whose heart I should perceiue so leagued with some harlot that hee would lose his honestie and spend his estate vpon her should I not rather keep him honestly poore then send him to perish with my benefit and make my purse his bane What if he should wearie me with intreatie and for the time thinke vnnaturally of me as foolish children that haue kniues denied them will cry and a man in a burning feauer thinke much when he is denied cold drinke Might hee not thinke more hardly of me after when he comes to iudge rightly If I should haue helpt him then to haue destroied himselfe Exorari in perniciem rogantium saeua bonitas est It is vnkinde mercie to be intreated of any man to his vndoing And although this benefit of God be something more obscure to the by-cause thou seest not thine owne future wickednesse yet it is no whit the lesse benefit in it selfe except thou thinkest it a lesse benefit for a man sleeping to be saued from a wilde Beast that would deuoure him in the darke then it is to be so rescued in the day and when he now sees it and is awake Certainly God sees something more then thou dost either for thy glorie or his owne or for the example of others why he denies thee riches which if thou shouldest enioy thou mightst haue cause after to complaine of his goodnesse For what a Heathen man in the like case saies of himselfe and his Friend may be more truely said of God and his children Non committam vt possit quandoque dicere Ille amando me occidit I will neuer giue him cause to say one day of me Hee killed me with kindnesse But yet though I be poore wilt thou say why should a wicked man be rich why it may be for ought wee know God may make him a good man before his death as he did Mathew and Zachaeus the two rich Publicans and great sinners And wilt thou childe with Gods Prouidence for giuing him his temporall blessings vpon whom he meanes to bestow his eternall but if not wee know not whether by riot or mispence he may become poore before he die and so God will punish his sinnes with the losse of his goods But say he be not a rich man only but a couetous man and liues thriuingly all his life and dies in as great plenty as the most religious thriuer why should God suffer him to be rich by raking to himselfe other mens goods Why doest not thou yet being a Christian knowne that a couetous man is the poorest man aliue For must not he needs be poore whom God himselfe doth not satisfie doe not enuie him he punishes himselfe with his riches sufficiently in thinking himselfe to be still and still in want Yes but wee thou wilt say that iudge rightly of him by his estate thinke him all a rich man I but thou doest him the more wrong For that which God makes his iust punishment his riches thou thinkest to be his happinesse and Gods blessing vpon him Heare not therefore what we or the world talke of him but what the Wiseman and the Wisdome of God himselfe speakes Eccles 6. 1. for our iudgement is many times out of weaknesse and the Worlds alwaies out of opinion but God iudges euer out of truth and that when all mens shall faile and heauen and earth must passe away shall and must stand for euer There is an euill which I haue seene vnder the Sunne and it is common among men A man to whom God hath giuen riches wealth and honour so that he wanteth nothing for his soule of all that he desireth yet God giueth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it Does not God now most grieuosly punish this man with riches were it not a lamentable sight and almost a cruell part of a Prince if he should make a couetous rich Miser spread a large Table for others and should there make him sit at it till he were pined to death himselfe This is the very state of euery couetous soule But indeed to say true A couetous man that rauines and snatches at other mens goods is no more properly in Gods sight a rich man then we would call him that had stollen a great summe of mony from another man rich We shall doe him no wrong if we call him a rich theefe For yee know wee neuer reckon the goods of theeues their owne goods because as soone as they are taken notice of their goods are all seiz'd vpon to the Kings vse And so many times as soone as God sends out his pale Pursiuant to attach this couetous wretch the goods presently are disposed of all God will haue them some times it may be to his honest heire or perhaps to the destruction of such as inherit with his sinne his substance as the rich Epuloes Brothers but many times to the building of Hospitals or the erecting of Grammar Schooles or putting out of Prentises or redeeming of Prisoners or founding
them Others bestow their time in Legall and Callings vsefull to the Common-wealth but as they abuse them neyther honest nor iustifiable before God Such are our Tap-houses Gaming Innes I meane not harbouring and viatory Innes which questionless in fit places and where Iustice is neere at hand if rightly vsed are not onely lawfull and profitable but necessarie and honest for to lodge weary Trauellers as Rahab did the Spies of Israel or to let the poore labouring man to haue iust allowance of bread and drinke for his money can bee accounted no other then necessary reliefe but for our Tipling Innes in small vntract Hamlets without which our Country-Diuels of drunkenesse Blasphemy Gaming Lying and Queaning could amongst vs finde no harbor though perhaps in places of more resort they haue credit enough to be entertained in fairer lodgings they are eyther the Diuels vncleane Ware-houses for his spirituall wickednesses to trade in or in our plaine world hee hath no traffique at all The last sort of offendors against the vertue of honest Labour are our Out-of-Calling Gentlemen who in husbanding their Lands and ouerseeing their seruants and gouerning their families and in relieuing aduising and quieting their neighbours in giuing good and religious examples themselues may finde imployment enough for Gods many talents hee hath trusted them with But they neuer thinking why they came into the world when they should warme their bodies with wholesome labour take thought onely how they shall boyle them in vncleane lusts when they should wash them with the sweat of some honest Calling they with vnwash'd and durty affections swinishly wallow themselues in vnchaste intemperate vices making their Lands giuen them to set them a-work the maintainers of their idlenesse their bodies as Seneca speaks of them Cribra tantum Ciboruâ— poâ—uum Sâ—â—es onely to straine meates drinkes thorough and their seruants for want of skill to command them Lords to dispose all their Lands as they please themselues Such the Romane Common-wealth was full of in the declining periods of it as all the stories tell vs such the pride of Israel nourished iust before the captiuity of the tenne Tribes Amos the 6. the 4. 5. 6. verses such the kingdome of Iudah vnhappily swarmed with immediately before Hierusalem was set downe weeping by the waters of Babylon Ierem. 5. the 7. 8. Such alwaies the body of euery Common-wealth like ill-humours is surcharged with for the Diuine patience commonly waites for his size till sin hath fil'd vp her measure before hee giueth it a purge either by water as when hee baptized the whole world from their lasciuious running after strange flesh or by fire as when hee sent hell out of heauen against Sodom and Gomorrha or before hee lets out the inflamed bloud to quench the malignant heat of it as wee see in the Tribe of Beniamin Iudg. 20. and after in both the Lands of Israel and Iudah in the forementioned Prophets A rugged fellow and vnmannerly would our Gallants I dare say think him that with the angry Romane writing in commendation of these country labours should chide them as he does to their worke and vpbraiding their luxurious paines to wait vpon sinne after the vomit of much indignation tell them that they would when they had suckt out all health and vitall sappe from their languish'd bodies bring themselues to that passe vt in ijs nihil mors mutatura videatur That they had need to be embalm'd as well before as after their deaths or should with the Taske-masters of Pharaoh say to them as they did to stragling Israel coasting about to gather straw and stubble for their Egyptian works Ye are idle idle are ye goe now therefore and worke Exod. 5. 17. Indeed they would thinke hee knew good fashion and ciuill carriage that would aduise them to trauell with the Prodigall into some farre Countrey there to spend riotously all their goods vpon Harlots Luk. 15. 13. or if he would counsaile them to liue in the City and frequent Maskes and Tauernes Theaters or if he encouraged them to the sports of hawking and hunting and if the weather were churlish and lowring to carding and dicing or if he would wish them to follow the Court in the delights and reuells of it not in the honourable seruice and studies of one that meanes to fit himselfe for worthy imployments and actions whether in Warre or Peace But thou O maÌ„ of God flie these things in thy Christian Calling follow after righteousnesse and holinesse in thy particular vocation exercise thy self in such things as may be not only lawfull in the Common-wealth wherein thou liuest but profitable both to thy selfe others and especially in the sight of God and his Church iust and honest so that thou maist as it becommeth a Noble Christian both reproue with thy coÌ„trary practise the rich and honourable lasiness which such Lords of Idlenesse that keepe their Christmasse all the yeere count the priuiledge of their gentilitie and delight thy selfe with Isaac to sowe the seeds of thine owne labour for the obtaining of Gods blessings And the God of Peace if thou water the ground with thine owne sweat shall blesse thy labours heere a hundred fold and hereafter shal end thy labours in Rest Eternall Amen ACTS 10. 43. To him giue all the Prophets witnes I. The wisest of the heathen and all creatures are good witnesses WHen the heauens and the earth are so farre distant a sunder who would euer suppose al things on earth should draw to themselues a vitall efficacy and heauenly fertilitie from those as the Scripture cals them kind influences so farre sent except the whole world were campus dicendi a large field wherein euery plant with so many sweet flowers of naturall eloquence lessoned our reason by sence and experience to beleeue it vpon the departure of whose Summer beames all the fruite againe and comly flowishes of earthly profit and pleasure in re-interring themselues eftsoones faint and die away But this Annual resurrection of Nature we therfore see in this world which wee should neuer otherwise haue beleeued that wee might beleeue that which in this world we shall neuer see that God is to receiue vs what heauen is to earth For thogh he say of himselfe Esay 55. the 9. As the heauens are higher then the earth so are my thoghts higher then your thoughts Yet it pleases him to descend from that height in the 57. and 13. of the same Prophesie Thus saith the High and loftie One that inhabits eternitie I dwell in the high and holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to reuiue the spirit of the coÌ„trite ones Earth hath no power to mooue vpwards it is beyond the sphere of her actiuitie Heauen therefore virtually descends man hath no power so much as to send a good thought vp to God God therefore bowes the heauens and comes downe in two speciall beames one of