most subtle their spirits more agile 4. The eye can best discern without a Perspective the Effigies of God in his own person and all other his mighty works for the service of man The ear quickest hear the sweet sounding musick of his word The hands have a greater dexterity to perfume God's Altars with the Odours of Alms-deeds and charitable actions The feet strongest and best able to support us to the hallowed Temple Thus imploying our vigorous and active abilities is a seeking the Lord while he is near to us The nature of Quick-silver is to tremble and be restless till it find something with which it may commix So these Mercurial parts if not set on work in God's service will be sure though to their own cost take imployment elsewhere Youth knows no Medium its lively Embers will be either blown into a flame of Devotion or Concupiscence Let us therefore tread that path figur'd out to us take that Clue in hand to lead us through the intricate Labyrinths of a perplexed life And for our better direction there are erected in holy Scripture Pyramids and Columns such store of lights as so many Pharo's that we may sail on with a prosperous gale to our haven of felicity 5. If the glorious Mansions of the Heaven with all its splendid Equipage be worth the purchasing Let us Remember our Creatour If at any time we Remember our Creatour let it be Juvenili aetate In our rosie-morn In the days of our Youth If we will bate our selves so much of our present enjoyments as to pay him Primitias the service of our Youth Let it not then be a lame or disjoynted one lest we be put by as those maimed persons in the Old Law from serving at the Sanctuary but such vivid such Heroick services as will not shame the giver nor cause God to withdraw his hands from deigning them a favourable acceptance 6. This will forward our Journey to the New Jerusalem a City that hath all peace all joy Where there is no leading into Captivity nor crying in her streets A City of pure Gold and the Walls of Jasper A City that hath no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth light it Where we shall not forget him for we shall sing Allelujahs to him Where we shall not forget him for we shall have such glorified bodies as to see him face to face without a flaming bush to interpose without meaner Objects than Saints Angels Cherubims and Seraphims ESSAY II. 7. De Humana fragilitate JOB 14.1 Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of Trouble QUod natum est poterit mori Every birth will have a burial And a greater Rhetorician than Seneca tells us There is a time to be born and a time to dye The hand of fate signs no Indulgences reprieves not any seeing all are doom'd and destin'd to the shades of death Nullâ prece mobilis Ordo No intreaties can reverse the Decretals of Heaven The world it self with its resplendent Luminaries Sun Moon and Stars plead no exemption 8. Those weaker fires must be burnt with a more powerful one from Heaven and every thing reduc'd to its primitive condition to a figur'd nothing God only that was without beginning knows no end All things else will have their calcination will to rubbidge That Microcosm man also though but an Epitome of the World yet of greater dignity than the whole Universe for Adam's disparadising himself must have this Dilapidation Though the hands of the Almighty have kneaded us Thy hands have made me and fashion'd me round about and baked these bodies when inorganical in the Oven of the Womb to a purity of ripeness to an animation yet our first sinning hath crackt these Vessels that we moulder to dust again 9. Though thou hast formed us so like unto thy glorious self as made David out of an extasie of admiration cry out I am fearfully and wonderfully made yet since we have blotted out the Inscription of Heaven which was so gloriously figur'd on us defac'd that noble Impress thou was pleas'd to stamp upon common clay 't is no injustice if we return to dirt again for this Lord Paramount to change our free tenure into Lease hold nay into Villenage Since we refus'd to live in the Sun-shine of his favour 't is of our own meriting that we are doom'd to a Land of darkness Though these earthly Tabernacles have the enoblement of being Ancient Demain Crown-lands yet have they no priviledge of immunity shall not be freed from the common Gabels nature imposes upon them but have their devastation too Though our bodies by divine Institution are the Temples of the Holy Ghost yet if we make them receptacles for sin we cannot expect loss than a dissolution of them For The wages of sin is death Every man as Tertullian hath it being Homicida sui a murderer of himself Man forges the weapon and sin is the sword that doth execution on us 10. Dari bonum quod potuit auferri potest The same power that cast these divided Elements into one entire Building can with the breath of his nostrils destruct them again and since we prove not Vessels of Honour will speedily take the matrials asunder and lay them in the dust And yet may we not with Holy Job say unto him What dost thou For 't is the Lord's doing and therefore marvellous in our eyes Seeing then we have pull'd this house upon our own heads which if sin had not undermin'd though but houses of Clay had outbraved times dilapidation Let us therefore be content our own consciences having already proved our Indictment to hear that irreversible sentence pass'd on us which hath long since sent many to the place of execution though reprieved for a few days yet wilt thou bring us also to death and to the house appointed for all living We must all back to the place whence we came the Earth there lie fetter'd in the prison of the Grave to be torn and mangled by her little Furies fierce executioner till our bones are pickt clean till they have their incineration too 11. In the sacred rolls of Heaven we find the same judgment denounced against the heritage of the Lord Thou Worm Jacob. No higher title doth the Lord bestow on the greatest of the Sons of men For they shall all lie down alike in the grave and the worms shall cover them Stoop here and see the polished Tomb-stone that 's laid over us the worm shall cover us And read what Epitaph Job hath writ on it Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble It had been enough to have said We are born of women without reading to us the destiny of a short continuance for by that we might have spell'd our fleeting condition and as in a mirrour viewed the forms and Idaea's of our present suffrings 'T is necessary to
must be proportionable Our abode here shorter than a peregrination Tho we pass by those Iliads of Dangers that obviate us and burn out to the bottom of the Wiek dye in our socketts yet deduct so many Years for our declination since those more durable ones and almost one half of that abbreviated time for Sleep the Hand-Maid of death how inconsiderable when cast up will the Summa totalis be that we have to live How short our continuance If they were but Sojourners when the World was in the Meridian of his Age in its greatest Stature what a hasty transition do we make in its setting in its decrepitness As if we came to give the World a visit and in scorn to its miserable shortness bid a farewel to it If Life was but a shadow when God darted on them the rayes of his glorious Countenance and held Dialogues with the Sons of Men how far distant are we that refuse to come into his presence from the substance 4. If our Life in those large striding times was but a Span long how short are we now of that Span And if God doth not alarm us to Judgment that a few Ages more succeed ours their being will be so fleeting so voluble a duration so short so inconsiderable that they will not know how to entile it Even now we attribute too much by calling it a continuance having already in the way to that general dissolution suffer'd so much change but that the precedent Words check the loudness of the phrase T is but short but a few Days Man that is born of a Woman is but of few Days He that lives longest hath but his Term his being here is but as a Thought presently shoulder'd out by another The Flower we know though more gorgeous in attire than Solomon in all his Glory in the morning is by the Suns vigor raised out of the Bed of Earth displays her Colours and in the evening sickens and dyes Yet Man is no other sometimes less considerable rising with the Sun and stays not his setting 5. How great a part of mankind from their Mothers lying in date their laying out deliverd by the Hands of the Midwife from the Mantles and bloody coverings of the Womb to be sealed up in a winding-Sheet post from one Grave to the other How many with the Babes of Bethlehem see the World without continuing so long as to understand what they see or if they know it in the best of content conclude it not to be worth the knowing if but for its short continuance How many before they arrive to that perfection Nature designs us the beauty and strength of Youth are often so debilitâ—â—ed that for want of Strength expire How few make their perambulations till they feel the decrepitness of old Age kicking up their Heels or if the Thread of their Life be drawn out to a more unusual length yet is it but a lassitude a Province of Labour and Sorrow every Minute expecting when Death strikes at the crazy Doors of their Bodys the Damps that they carry about them making their Taper all that time burn Blew ready to extinguish 6. That Death shall unbody our Souls take down these tapestry Hangings of Flesh strip us to the bones what 's more incinerate Calcine those very bones distracts not reason since there is a necessity for all men once to dye Mors necessitatem habet aequam et invictam But that we should untimely dye and which is more admirable Non admittere mortem sed attrahere Make our hands the Bodyes carefull Conservators our own Executioners is a wonder too transcendent When a healthfull composure intends us for a longer time precipitate our ruine dig our own graves as if we conceited a greater misery in living then Job or to lay violent hands on our selves were after the Roman garb to deck our heads with Garlands and Trophies for the conquest over our present sufferings 7. The two main Columns that support mans life are heat and moisture If there be an excess or deficiency in either this stately Colossus becomes irreparably ruinous But if we were such perfect Naturalists as to acquaint our selves with the right constitutions of our bodyes and had an observant will to act according to the dictates of our knowledge by measuring out such a temperament that the heat be not cooled by an exuberancy of moisture or too thrifty allowance for it to feed on our lamp might burn with a greater Nitor a more lasting Clarity But such things are we born of women either to know so little or which is worse make not practical what we do know that either with excessive ating cloy we that heat make it unfit for digestion or throw too much drink upon those glowing embers or else frying up our marrow emptying our veins to fill the exorbitant desires of our lusts we are hurry'd to our last sleep many decad's of dayes sooner then if we measur'd out every thing aequâ lance with the hand of Mediocrity No marvil our day is so soon clouded our tale so soon told our Pilgrimage so soon terminated for not only Nature intends us a quick dispatch but we must needs steal a Thief into our farthing candle mend the swift pac'd sand that measureth our time by shaking the glass of our life into quicker motion Like that exquisite Limner who cut a visible line through that small one coppied out to him by his competitor 8. We have but one passage that leads us into the world and that a strait one For we come like Rebeccha's twins strugling and striving for our admittance but death hath bands of Executioners in a readiness to give us our passport Though there is but one postern that leads us out of the land of the living Death yet many are the wayes trod out to it Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat Some foot it by those lesser paths of Agues and Colds Others ride the beaten and trodden wayes of Surfets and Feavers Others the common rodes and high ways of Pestilence and the Sword At this Centre Death all lines meet all rodes give up their passingers and when we have discharg'd our Bill of fare paid Nature her arrears for we have been dying even from our infancy vestigia nulla retrorsum We make no return The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more 9. Though we have our Magna Charta confirm'd to us by the king of Kings and Lord of Lords of a Sovereignty over the Creatures as is acknowledged by the Psalmist Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet Yet there is no creature so contemptible but may have a time to triumph with the spoyls of his Lord. Praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem Every thing menaces destruction hath an Invenom'd arrow ready to let fly at us The Fates could string their Bow with one single hair when they sent a death to Fabius a Roman A fly was
may do himself the more honour shew the excellency of his power by mounting us on a higher Throne drawing the Rays of our Glory to a brighter Lustre Historians every where shew us many brave men as well Heathens as Christians who had no other fault but too much merited of their Country that have been paid with scorn and ingratitude nay with Proscription and afterwards with the consent applause of those very Persecuters have thrown off the Mantles and Coverings of Darkness and Obscurity and like the Sun after an interposition appeared all Glorious 6. God seldom remunerates his Servants here with a temporary felicity Some indeed have been crown'd with Rose-Buds have let no Flower of the Spring pass by them Though Mordecai a Captive was invested with the Royal Robes and rode upon the King's Horse yet others have gone on foot and not a seeming Gourd to refresh them but so as he comforts and keeps vivid the Vitals with his Spirits and Extracts distilled through that glorious Limbeck Paul the Apostle We may be troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken God hath Balsom for every Wound a Plaister for every Sore and though he dress it not while it is green and fresh yet he will make his applications before it fester What though God suffer an Executioner to lay violent hands upon thee he cannot go a step beyond death he does but antidate the work of a Disease the difference only is a nefarious hand presently storms the body and a malady takes it in by a longer Siege few drop like a wasted Taper in the Socket but some violent wind puts it out some sharp Disease is the extinguisher and the Conflicts and Colluctations that such have with death adequate the throws of a more hasty Transition So that it matters not whether we die Sicca or humida morte whether we are burnt with a quick fire at the stake or a lingring one of a Fever whether we are thrown into the Tiber or drowned at home with a Dropsie whether starved in a Prison or shrivelled in our Chamber with a Consumption 7. Since God hath a Statute upon our Bodies It being appointed for all men once to die and that we cannot be removed from our Troubles of Life but by death then the shortest way must needs be the best 'T is a poor thrift to put a Save-all into our Farthing Candle to be angry because the thred of nature is broken before she has time to wind off the whole bottom Though the eye of Moses was not dim nor his natural force abated yet when God bade him Go up and die he readily quitted his own command went up to the top of Pisgah and died The Primitive Christians set so great an estimate upon the days of their death that they called them Natales Then they only began their Epocha of living the world was but before in labour with them and death was the Midwife to give them a Nativity 8. Certainly could we but hear the Transports of a refined Soul singing an Obiit to the world preparing her Heavenly Viaticum it would have a strange charm awake our Poppy Souls and infuse into them raptures of joy and exultation unexpressive or if fabricated according to the Model of that Philosopher who would have a Window in the Breast of every man we might see a strange Festivity within him not a Cloud in that Hemisphere What more lovely than the wounds of Sebastian though drawn with a rugged Pencil Those feathered Arrowswinged him for an Heavenly Flight Does not a Martyr amidst his Flames shew like the Sun encircled with Rays of Glory And S. Stephen when brought before the Council appeared not with pallor dejection like a Malefactor that looks half executed before the doom be past but so Seraphical that the Judges saw his face as though it had been the face of an Angel When a Saint hath been mounting a Scaffold have we not been big with conceit by those few Stairs he was ascending a Throne that it was his Jacobs Ladder that railed him up to Heaven 9. He must needs make a boon Voyage that in so little a time is set on the shore of eternity with so few steps is carried from earth to Heaven Let not then any thing startle us though vizarded with loathsomness and deformity nor be terrified though we change life for death with that brave Theban Epaminondas so the Victory may be glorious It is God's care and who would not almost love his Disease for such a Physician many times to use Corrosives to the Body that the Soul may have her Lenitives punish the worser part that the better may be preserved To a mortal man there can be no immortality of evil man himself hath but a short period his life compared to things of the least duration And yet they that acted the most tragical parts no doubt had some Interludes and Recesses It was not long that Joseph lay in prison nor Job on the Dunghil nor Jeremy in the Dungeon Others have put on Mourning for a longer term but they also had a time to shift their Sables Dabit Deus bis quoque sinem 10. It is against the Rules of a Tragedy to have every Scene filled with Blood shed and Slaughter A strange distempered Season if the Heavens should continually be hung with black as strange if we always sate in darkness that the Sun did not sometimes peep through our cloud of Adversity Though it enlighten not the whole Body yet it may guild the Fringes and Borders of it gives us though not a glorious light yet sufficient to keep our dying spark alive But against all partiality it must appear strangely short if compared to the never terminating pains of the Fiends below where the Worm never dieth nor the Fire ever goeth out It is observed by Boetius That a punctum of time and ten thousand years hold better proportion than so many years and that endless thing Eternity Aeternum aeternum quanta haec duratio quanta How much horrour and amazement should the consideration of it bring to them that barter for a present felicity a few transient Glimmerings so much horrour and confusion where they shall spend morientem vitam be always dying and yet never die not one drop of Water shall be cast into the Furnace to slack their Flames not one spark of Fire shall warm these refrigerating Waters and to heighten the wonder contraries shall dwell together without any destructive clashing Lamentable is the cry of the Prophet Esay Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting Burnings 11. Is it not then better to be cast down with sorrow for sin than to be sunk so low that we never rise again to be clouded for a while than over-cast for ever Melior est modica amaritudo in faucibus quà m aeternum tormentum in visceribus It is better
of death thanked the Gods That he was born a man and not a beast a Greek and not a Barbarian But that insensate man that stops his ears against such heavenly Charmers shuts out the Almighty draws a Curtain betwixt God and his poor soul least the thoughts of Heaven damp his pleasures the reverence due to so great a Majesty strike him into an awful obedience when the untunable summons of death alarum him Plato's joy shall be his sorrow wish that his ashes might never be kneaded into the same lump but go to a Land of forgetfulness Improvident soul the clear sky of thy felicity shall be soon overcast thy short day will have a long night For thy Heaven here thou must have an Hell hereafter Cleombrotus was so far transported with reading a Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul that he presently slew himself 14. And it is recorded by Caesar in his Gallick War that the bare opinion of the Druides who taught that the Soul was out of the reach of Death and that it out-lived the Bodies dissolution made their Followers magnanimous in warlike Atchievements and pull'd that frightful vizard from off the face of death which otherwise would have stopt the carier of their prowess and gallantry But that that made them valiant makes thee cowardly and if made thy case but faintly exprest when the Philosopher calls it Terribilium terribilissimum the terrible of terribles when the Doors shall be shut the Windows darkned and the Curtains drawn about thee the Mourners attending thy departure and nothing but Emblems of sorrow and sadness and thy evil Angel like Brutus spectre facing thee in this thy dismal solitude and thou cry out to him Habe me excusatum and he will answer thee in the Negative Thou must be stript of all thy Glories of all thou accountest dear to thee thou must to the shades below and after that to Judgment 15. Then will the body after that it feels the throws and pangs of Death fly out upon the soul for her inbred contagion and sentiments of impurity and the soul accuse the body for giving fuel to all intemperance for its officiousness in acting the dictates of a corrupt mind and only agree in that they are alike miserable How grievous will it be when thou shalt consider thou hast barter'd away thy God for a trifle sold eternity for a moments pleasure for that which Pindarus calls The dream of a shaddow And now every one of these Phantasma's attend the Exit and sad Catastrophe of thy soul carry a fagot to her funeral pile Now canst thou discern to thy immense sorrow that Ixion like thou hast embrac'd a Cloud for Juno That those Virgin faces have been Harpies ravenous Birds and that they had their Dragon Tayls under their deceitful wings Jael-like they have brought thee butter in a Lordly dish but born a hammer in their deadly hands 16. 'T is the Prophet Esay's call to the regenerate man lodged in the Chambers of the Earth Awake and sing ye that lie in the dust because the dawning of your rejoycing is at hand that you shall wear Crowns on your heads and carry Palms in your hands But to the unregenerate man will the call be Awake and howl ye that lie in the dust because the day-break of your for sorrowing draweth nigh Then will yee cry out to the Mountains and Rocks to fall upon you and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb. Let therefore these expressions which have put on mournful Robes these Scutchions and Ensigns for lost souls broach our eyes and sosten our petrified hearts sting and quicken our remembrance for the works of a devout life That we put not the consideration of our eternal welfare like Joram's Messengers behind us No trusting to an after game when we have but one cast one throw whether we have Heaven or Hell 'T is odds against us we draw a blank when we have but time to pull one chance out of this great Lottery but few hours to redeem thousands of their Predecessours D. 1. It might have been Ornamental to a Christian what dropt from Seneca Ante senectutem curavi ut benè vivcrem ut in senectute bene morerer 'T is no good trusting to that we can make to our selves no certain assurance of It was therefore Saint Augustine's care not to venture his salvation a thing so precious on an Evening Repentance We can promise to our selves no boon voyage putting to Sea when our Vessel is leaky and weather beaten fitter to be careen'd than ventur'd forth upon the tempestuous Main 2. What can we say for our selves or who shall plead our cause when the soul and all her fortunes are properly Gods by title of Creation and we change the property of them and make them instruments for sin and Satan when we prostrate our beauties to our lust and make courtship and caresses to vile affections to rottenness and putrefaction whose deformity lies hid under a lilly'd skin spread over it and serve God when our zeal is as cold as our bodies when we cannot bend the knees to reverence our Maker lest we stumble to the Earth the Tomb which must presently enshrine those few dusts of ours Though we are then free from some sins but thanks to our age for such abstinence Temperantia in senectute non est temperantia sed impotentia temporantiae 'T is not that our affections are surfetted that we nauseate those Cates we have so deliciously fed on Or Saint Hierom's Surgite à . mortuis venite ad Judicium knocks at the doors of our hearts and tells us For all this we must come to Judgment but that our bodies are not able to go an even pace with our desires that they are too much enfeebled to follow the pursuit of their former vanities Why wait we not for the twilight to hunt the quarry of our goatish affections but that our stock of fuel is burnt up by too freely blowing the coals of our lust or that Rheums and Dropsies have drown'd those scintils and sparks that were left 3. Why Epicurize we not so much but that there is a deficiency of heat for its digestion Why rise we not so early to inebriate our selves 'T is because we have so many issues and botches the plague sores of a debauched life that makes our bodies Plena rimarum Sieves like they cannot hold full draughts As the Prophet Elisha said to his servant Gehazi Is this a time to be taking rewards So Is this a time to begin our Heavenly Pilgrimage when all is dark about us To begin to live when a diseased body a distracted mind and unsetled estate call for reparation When like the devout women we might have presented to God in the morning of our Age gums and sweet spices of prayers and supplications Adolescens tibi dico surge Now is the time that salvation is offered to us when every faculty is in its most admirable perfection the senses
love but an Embrio If so many Martyrs hugg'd and kist their stakes laid them down in their flames as in their Marital beds to conserve this love to secure themselves for immortality How bright and glorious will the flame be when it shall have the fervour of a Seraphim the purity of an Angel When we shall see the Object of our love God with whom there is no change or variableness and still desire to see him To meditate on him here is to see him hereafter ESSAY ESSAY III. G. De Passione Christi in Corpore proprio LAMENT 1.12 Have ye no regard all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce Anger HEre 's black tinctured in the deepest die words of such transcendent Prevalency that would make stubborn Rocks relent and exact a fluency of Tears from the sealed up Fontanels of our Eyes Can any Heart though petrified to a wonder not break that brittle Mansion 't is inclosed in when it shall hear one sing his own sad Elegy ring his funeral Peals with such mournful Bells 2. Had that Tyrant Nero who sung the Ruines of Troy when inviron'd with the Flames of his Imperial City bin a spectator of this Tragedy of Tragedies heard these doleful Notes clad in so sad a Livery so attracting Sorrow and Compassion Pity would at an instant have Triumpht over cruelty and made him turn convert to the highest Commiseration For who could stifle a tributary Groan when he heard this dying Swan sluctuating on the bitter Waters of Affliction without being ever after deafe Who could with a supercilious look without suffering an absolute Ecclipse behold such innovated Punishments too grievous to answer the foulest Treason undergone by him who had not the meanest trespass to account for Or yet in this Iron-hearted Age of ours look on this sad Lamentation though superannuated and not set his sorrow to a louder Key then the doleful mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo Quis talia fando Temperet a Lachrimis 3. But if these attendants here these words that wait upon this mournful piece of Scripture move us not or the deplorableness of our condition beget no emotion yet hear his own complaint sounded by that golden Trumpet Jeremiah we know not what an unexpected reformation it may work in us For he that out of Stones could raise up Children unto Abraham and squeeze the hardest Rocks into flowing Rivers can with the Breath of his Nostrills mould our Hearts into the softest temper and raise a right and unfeigned Lamentation for never Words were spoken more emphatically or with a truer accent of Sorrow Have ye no regard all ye that pass by c. 4 As petty Punishments become petty Offenders so an abyss of sinning calls for an abyss of Suffering 'T is no meritorious act in an Homicide to bow down his Head to the stroke of Justice for he shall but sacrifice it to the Blood of another There the Law makes it compulsory fashions the Punishment to the Offence But for the Son of God the second Person in the glorious Trinity one so free from Spot or Blemish that durst say to his critical Enemies which of you can rebuke me of Sin to bow the Heavens and come down from his Imperial Throne where he sate surrounded with Saints and Angels to approach this vile World which was before his Foot-Stool to put on the rags of human Flesh which before was cloathed with light as with a Garment and from a King of Kings to be enrolled a subject and pay Tribute to Caesar that rid on the Wings of Cherubins here in his greatest Triumph to bestride a silly Asse that thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father to make himself of no Reputation and to take upon him the form of a Servant that had so many glorious Mansions in Heaven so wholly to dethrone himself of all Pomp and State as not to have a hole to hide his Head in to be hunted like a Partridge in the Wilderness betray'd by one Servant abjurd by another forsaken by the rest and generally scorn'd and scofft at by the Multitude spat at scourg'd and delivered to a Death the most ignominious Death the most torturing Death the most prolonging Death All which summ'd up could not be endur'd by any but one that participated of the Deity or ransom less than the Sins of the whole World 5. Now our Messias could not have writ our Names in the Book of Life if he had not descended to the susception of our Infirmities So that he was made Man to suffer God that he might be able to suffer Not that the God-Head was Co-partner with the Humanity or any way attenuated his sufferings for that was invulnerable impassible But the All sufficiency of the Deity sustained and strengthened the insufficiency and weakness of the humanity Else could he not have trod the Wine-press of his Fathers Wrath drunk so deep of the Cup of his indignation That which would have torn and shatter'd the best built edifice of Flesh Christ is enabled to undergo that he might not give up the Ghost till he hath gone through what a wrackt invention of exquisite Tyrants could inflict 6. But before we go up to Mount Calvary the Scene of his Tragedy let us walk to the Mount of Olives that from that Ascendant we may take the better prospect of his doleful Passion There shall we find him labouring under such an Agony as should make him so exceedingly sweat sweat Blood drops of Blood and that trickling down Ibat purpureus niveo de pectore sanguis 7. No wonder there was such Distemper in his Body such an Ebullition of that most precious liquor when God had sent fire into all his bones If our astonishment hath not already overset our reason benighted our senses look on him in the Judgment-Hall though but with Peter afar off yet may we be neer enough to see him run the Gantlope his virgin body enduring so many stripes as some affirm wearied a whole band of souldiers Viscera mortiferis tandem contusa flagellis The Scribes and Elders had reason of state to hasten his death But that Mercenary souldiers whose short winged souls seldom soar so high as Court-Politicks and whose Commission we sind not so extensive should contrary to the nobleness of their Profession act the ignominious parts of abominated Hangmen especially when the meekness of his phrase would like softning oyl rather Mollifie their stony hearts than confirm their obduratness illustrates Gods heightned fury to sin and so consequently to Christ then the greatest sinner in the world He should not sip in the cup of his fathers wrath being now to drink a Health to the whole world but quaff off the very lees of his indignation 8 He shall not have the liberty of Job with a pot-sheard to wipe off the
excressency of Blood for those holy hands that had been so often extended to give comfort to his afflicted people lifted up to his father to reach down mercies from Heaven for his persecuting enemies so Charitably dispos'd to deal Almes to so many Thousands are now fast bound and they who should have guarded him as Prince of Jury not Prisoner in Jerusalem are already voting his destruction in their hasty leading him away to Pontius Pilate the Governor O hard hearted Jewes not only cruel to your Saviour but pittiless to your selves in refusing to be washed in the laver of regeneration spill so much Nepenthe and not cool the tip of your Tongue with one drop make of it no cherishing Cordials to strengthen your enfeebled souls wound this Balsom tree lance this Wing Palm and hang no bottles to gather the distilling liquor but let it fall like a box of rich Spicknard on a parched hearth not to be gather'd up 9. The morning being now come too bright to look upon such black deeds they set the great Judge of Heaven and Earth to receive his Condemnation from men Little hopes to receive the benefit of Clergy when the High Priests and whole Sanhedrim are his Prosecutors Pilate might have sayed the pains of denouncing sentence against him who in his present sufferings represented the truest figure of death O quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore 10. But 't is decreed this Holocaust must be off'red up to attone the incensed Majesty of Heaven Caiaphas the High-Priest prophesieth the same Womens assaults many times batter down mens strongest resolutions Strange then if Pilates wifes Petition carry not a prevailing Sed oportet Christum pati The sentence of Heaven is irrevocable no appealing to a higher Tribunal Her Petition then for this time shall be rejected and though she suffer many things in a dream by reason of him Nevertheless like the neglected Prophesies of the Trojan Cassandra it shall pass but for a dream to cleer a small scruple of Conscience He will not enter the Lists alone with the Jewish Nation and so run into a Premunire against Caesar And now no sooner had Pilate made clean the outside of the Platter the inside still streaked and purpled with the Blood of Christ washed his hands in token of Innocency but they presently cry out for his Crucifying as if nothing could rebate the edge of their craving Appetites unless they carous'd full Draughts of his Blood O miseri quae tanta insania cives 11. They must needs go whom the Devil drives some whose Feet are swiftest to shed Blood are already run to the place of execution and there proclaimed him coming Others thrust him out of the Old and accompany him as far as Golgotha to the New Jerusalem and instead of sable Vestments a decent attire for a departed Friend or the Romans sacred Velles and Infules mention'd by Livy signs of submission and humble demanding of Mercy put on Crimson Robes dyed in the Blood of Christ instead of solemn Dirges ring loud Peals of Acclamation And they that not long before ushered him with Triumph into the Holy City singing Hosanna to the Son of David presently change Note crying Crucifige eum crucifige eum Though he lie weltring in his own Blood yet is he forc'd to try the strength of his bruised Limbs and he that to the admiration of Beholders reanimated the dead and enabled them to take up their Beds and walk must take up his Cross and walk his last Peregrination For Holy Writ informs us that Malefactors among the Jews carried the Cross whereon they were to be crucified to the place of Execution Christ for the first Stage carried his own which afterward with a cruel requital bore him 12. Would not so nefarious a death expiate so small a crime so slenderly proved have fed their meager Appetites even to Satiety but there must be added to it a Ceremonious Mockery Bellerophon like bear the Warrant signed for his own Destruction embrace that Altar on which he presently shall be offered up a Victim Isaac carried his own Funeral Pile to the Mountain where he was to be sacrificed but had a timely Reprieve by an Exchange from Heaven It fared not so with Christ He was so far from escaping that sharp potion the Hand of God had imbittered that before he came to receive his grand Tortures his whole Body was one main Wound without the least Parenthesis of Soundness Never such Indications of Love Cernitur in toto corpore sculptus amor 13. Every where Engravements and Sculptures the indelible Characters of his superabounding Mercies In horribili stat cruce nostra salus And now is this our immolation laid on the Altar of the Cross and that Man should not surfeit to damnation by eating the fruit of Eden Christ climbed that accursed Tree which bears nothing but bitter and deadly Fruit so inexpressive as Cicero undertook not lest he should spill colours to decipher the Tortures of the Cross else would not his exuberant Style have quitted a Subject so abounding with so few words Quid dicam in crucem tollere A bloody Tragedy must needs ensue where the Devil digests the Plot and the High-Priests Scribes and Elders are the chief Actors in it the avenging God letting loose and unmuzzling the whole powers of Hell 14. Certainly those Fiends could not so soon forget the many Affronts put on their Delegates by our Saviour as being thrown out of their possession of Men and glad to be humble Petitioners to have admittance into a Herd of Swine too good a dwelling for such unruly Guests Where we may observe that though they at present could not disgorge their full swollen malice yet to shew how ill they resented this disgraceful expulsion threw a whole Herd of Swine into the bottom of the Sea to provoke the greedy Gadarens to defire our Saviour as the Author of that Loss to depart out of their Coasts No marvel the Prince of Darkness endeavoured to cloud this bright Star of the East proclaimed open War against the Prince of Peace But that his Companions in the flesh what 's more the terrours of his Father should set them in array against him 'T will not then misbecome this man of sorrows in the height of his dolorous passion to break forth into this bitter Complaint to upbraid those unrelenting Passengers with this though too mild exprobation Have ye no regard all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me c. 15. Our Saviour's naked Body hanging now on the Cross modesty for a while bids me draw the Curtain and if you look back you will see greater things than these for we have as yet but walked the round and at a distance taken a slight survey of the out-lines of this great Peice of sorrow but if we make a nearer approach we shall find the inmost and more sensitive parts sending forth deeper
Groans louder Outcryes There was Poena animi as well as Poena corporis And a wounded spirit who can bear Else would he not have cryed out and that with so loud a voice before his remorsless Enemies whose proud rejoycings were the eccho's of his Sighs and Groans My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The repetition of God shewed the vehemency of his Passion as if he felt himself wounded with God's wrath and abandon'd of his own Father for our sins our impieties carved greater wounds in his disconsolate soul than those of his Body his Feet and Hands were but once nailed to the Cross but his Soul-piercing Wounds forced a tontinued Distillation for every levity he paid a Groan and the least sentiment of sin cost him a sob a tear 16. If Christ paid so costly a rate for our Peccadillo's our Venial Sins it must be keener than a two edged Sword more loathsome than the baneful juice of Aconite to see the Borish Gergasites prefer the saving of their Swine before the imparadising their souls the Buyers and Sellers in the Temple pollute so sacred a place rather than lose a convenient Exchange for their Merchandise Could any sorrow be like unto his sorrow to find Unbelief a Disease so Epidemical and in his own Country where so near a Relation should have at least paid him equal respect with remoter parts there to have his Pedigree scornfully rip'd up Is not this the Carpenter's Son As if God who measureth not as man doth in deceitful Ballances were a respecter of persons or he that fabricked this admired Machine without matter could not Royalize with a Commission the abjects of the people to act his high Commands or to use the Apostles Phrase make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of his Mercy H. 1. Could any sorrow be like unto his sorrow to hear Peter that great Corner-stone who had so solemnly promised to wear his Master's Cognizance even to death to discard him when his greatest extremity challenged his best and stoutest observance not once but thrice heightened with direful Oaths and horrid Execrations and that to a silly Maid in the presence of his Lord Master and obstinately persist in it till the Warning-piece went off the third time and shot remorse into him Could any sorrow be like unto his sorrow to see the Holy City Jerusalem the Metropolis of Jewry with its Glorious Temple now the beauty of Nations ere long to suffer such a Dilapidation as not to have one Stone stand upon another making good what was sung at the Funerals of another Sceptred City Ruit Ilium ingens gloria Teucrorum 2. When Hector Captain of Troy Was despoiled of his life the Trojans and their City became a Prey to the Neighbouring Nations so soon as those Regicâ—des destroyed their Native Prince the Roman General both conquered and crucified them In verticem ipsius recurrit pernicies Our just God making the hands of Heathens instrumental to vindicate the cause of Heaven Could any sorrow be like unto his sorrow to see himself every where bespattered with bitter Sarcasms who should have been Deliciae generis humani the Honour of the Emperor Titus and a Murderer reprieved one that destroyed the living before their Christ who had raised the dead 3. Could any sorrow be like unto his sorrow to see the seduced Populacy who should have been so bold in the cause of their salvation as to have vyed tears with the drops of his most precious Blood tun'd their Sighs and Groans to the loud tenor of his Out-cryes and rivings of his Soul carelesly pass by shaking their Heads To see those Rabbies the Scribes and Doctors so far from applying a Sovereign Cure to their tainted Souls that unless he would shew them another Miracle by an immediate descending from the Cross they would not believe As if all those mighty Works he had already shown and same had brought home from remoter parts were clean forgot Could any sorrow be like unto his sorrow to see his Kinsfolks and Familiars stand afar off and made so unfit to pay a full Tribute of Commiseration as that they could not with safety own a clouded Countenance 4. If he eat with Zachens he is accounted a Friend to Publicans and Sinners there they unawares speak truth for he seeks their Conversion I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance If on the Sabbath he cures the diseased and gives them a Reprieve to complete their Calcule for that great and general Audit 't is a breach of the Law of Moses If he speaks mystically to them by wresting it to their own sense form it into matter of Accusation When the Tyrians and Sydonians heard the Harangue of Herod the King they raised their Notes to the highest Acclamations styling it The voice of God and not of man But if Christ embroider his Speech with Tropes and Figures though never man spake as he spake his Friends say He is mad his Enemies cry out He hath a Devil O quae mentis acerbae moestitudo But why should we wade farther in this since we are no more able to fathom the depth of his sufferings either of Soul or Body than S. Austin's Child could lave out the immense Ocean with a little Spoon 5. Some will say much may be undergone in good company but for Christ who before he assumed this Body of Flesh was a companion to the great and mighty Jehovah and well might be so when there was an equality of Greatness waited on by Myriads of Saints and Angels now to be placed between two Thieves two notorious Delinquents could not but mount his thoughts to the summit of sorrow That Virtue is seated betwixt two Evils is a Maxim undeniable since 't is so notably verified by our Saviour's hanging on the Cross between two Malefactors likely companions are these then for extenuating miseries when their natures admit of such perfect contrarieties as good and evil in their several Abstracts who there instead of an ingenious Confession revile their Fellow-Sufferer Christ Jesus with this tart Satyr If thou beest the Son of God save thy self and us 6. A strange Object had they found out for their scorn and derision who was wholly composed of Meekness and Gentleness but a stranger time had they made use of to vent it in when death had them on his Shoulders but the one of them to the wonderful demonstration of the readiness and prevalency of his Mercies presently turn'd Convert reproving his Companion Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And in the nick of time while the Iron of Contrition was hot hammered on t a well form'd Petition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom Words fitly spoken hanging like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 7. They needed not have made so curious a scrutiny for new fashion'd punishments to afflict him Qui poenis occurrit atrocibus ultrò For when
interest of our Engagements no not expiate the crimes of one days offending Let us not therefore think we are hardly dealt withal because God would not remit any thing of a due debt but forbear giving up our Verdict till we sweeten our censures with the ensuing Mercies which is that that next presents it self 15. As the Mercies of God are above all his Works so is this Mercy of his in sacrificing his only Son Paramount above all his other Mercies For since Hecatombs of Beasts could not appease the wrath of God but that we must enjoy the blackness of Hell for our demerit he freely bestowed on us his beloved Son to live miserably among those which gave him such untoward welcome to pass through such an agony as should make him sweat Blood Tears of Blood to die a cursed death such a death such a sorrow that none but himself could endure no Tongue but an Angels can relate 16. Friendship is never so truly beautified at no time so gorgeously set forth as when like a ready Handmaid it waits upon the greatest indigency God was and is that true Friend to us He saw how near we sate to the Margent of Hell how the Devil stood in Ambuscado with dilated Arms ready upon our first tripping to lay hold on us our own imbecillity to resist the Attack then sent he one that would not be foiled should rescue us out of the Regions of Darkness though with the unavoidable loss of his own most precious Blood Ungrateful Man though he hath defaced the Image of his Maker disrobed himself of all his Glories yet would not God that he should die eternally as is most eminently seen in this his one mercy As it was a mercy in God in being this way satisfied for oui Oftences so was it as great a mercy in Christ to lay down his life for he did it spontaneously and without compulsion his Passion being wholly in compassion to those Qui mortem insonti possent imponere Christo I. 1. No man taketh my life from me but I have power to lay down my life I have power to take it up again That he that was God and is God should die is man's wonder but that he who could draw forth more than twelve Legions of Angels in warlike Equipage to his Rescue when one single Angle proved sufficient to slay one hundred and eighty five thousand armed Men in one night would die most readily lay down his life rears that wonder a degree higher But that this Son of God whose Soul was so Crystalline whose whole life more innocent than the Seraphical thoughts of expiring Saints would prodigally pour forth his most precious Blood to bath and cleanse our Leprosie is an exaltation of that 2. It shall be upon record as an high peice of merit if one man lay down the Treasures of his own life to cancel the exacted debt of of his Friend Subeuntem fata mariti Alcesten Alcestes reprieved her Husband Admetus with the loss of her own life Maecenas a noble Theban embraced death to restore life to his Captive Country Calphurnia the Daughter of Marius was by him sacrificed in the Cimbrick War History is replete with blazoning Graecian and Roman Worthies who have disvalued their own lives when in competition with the safety and honour of their Country This had a limitation to their Friends to their distressed Country yet it entitled them to be seated in the hallowed Pantheon enrolled among the Gods to have Tombs and Statues built to perpetuate their memory to futurity But Christ's love was universal it had the essential property of good it was sui diffusivum it extended to the whole Universe to those that despitefully used him In the Abyss of his Passion in the throws of his most compungent sufferings Lord lay not this sin to their charge There could be no ends in Christ no accumulating of Glories in whom dwelt the Fulness of the God-head bodily 3. The insuperable and transcendent love of Christ is every where legible and conspicuous Let us fashion returns of Gratitude in the greater Odium to our Deviations that cost him so many pains so many sorrows making that pious resolution of S. Bernard our own Nolo vivere sine vulnere cùm te video vulneratum As long as we hear thy Wounds as so many Mouths crying out upon the cruelty of our Aberrations we will not live without a throbbing Soul a wounded Spirit He had days of Humiliation for our Festivals sorrowing for our rejoycing drank Vinegar mingled with Gall for our Carousing for our Purple and fine Linnen he wore a Robe of Mockery and that spat on and defiled was scourged for our wantonizing macerated his own Body to pull down the excressency of ours over-grown with a repletion of Luxury crowned with Thorns to obtain for us a Crown of Righteousness that he might throw to us the Donatives of Everlasting Life And after all this as if his Endearedness to us had been hitherto unexpressive ascended the Cross that by that Ladder we may scale Heaven and for our prize have the Fellowship of Saints and Angels for ever 4. Thus we have seen God's Justice and Mercy run parallel His justice must keep us to that severe awe and perfect Obedience that presumption get no footing in our hearts not so much as an Out-work whereby it may at any time surprise the main Fort. His mercy must teach us not to despair of his seasonable relieving us though our Sins are the black Curtain drawn between the light of his glorious Countenance and us so that we are almost dried up and withered yet at the least appearance of our Humiliation he will shed some Gleams dart a Ray of Favour upon our drooping Souls 5. An abused patience amongst most men transforms it self into a fiery indignation What greater motives for God to destroy the interest we have in his favour than our disdain and ingratitude The Israelites after they had once received from the hand of God Livery and Seizin of the Land of Canaan and by that had a confirmation of the validity of his Promises they so soon forgot the exuberant mercies of the Lord that he presently seised on their large Charter of Liberty and gave them into the hands of Tyrants Christ when he had once peiced the rich Robes of the Deity to the rags of flesh soon found us sick even to death our wounds gangreen'd and nothing could restore them but his own Blood Medicabile Nardum rich Spikenard precious Ointment he searched into our sores wiped off those venemous pollutions we had attracted from the Loins of our first Parents made us sound men left us his Antidotes Instructions to continue sound Christians But we must not like an over-confident Prodigal who hath his first Debts strook off from his Friends hopeful amendment continue his unthriftiness presuming to find their favour as prolifical as at first Debet amor laesus irasci Love once abused
best how to deal with his Patient Emollient Medicines will not remove a Chronical Disease 'T is well if we can save the Body by cutting off one gangreen'd Joynt by letting out a little discolored Blood preserve the rest sanguine sound Sure those Laws of the Romans like Draco's should have been writ in bloody Characters where they invested the Parents with the power of life and death of their Wives and Children Fulvius had not the denomination of cruel in doing execution upon his Son for confederating with Catiline And Titus Manlius was thought rather favourable than a severe Justicer when he went no higher than to make his Son Syllanus a perpetual exile 3. This rigorous piece of Justic and unbiassed affection built Trophies to their name but no way improved the condition of the Patient for it was Physick of a strange nature a sublimate never ripened in Loves Limbeck Our Heavenly Father that fashioned us may impose what Laws his divine wisdom thinketh best but if he wounds his Servants 't is to heal them if he takes away a temporary life 't is to hasten them to an eternal one Magni beneficii est indicium When God seems to disfavour us then are we in highest favour and we make the nearest approaches to him when in the eyes of the world we seem to be at the greatest distance Holy David acknowledged a Cure done upon him by an Heavenly Chastisement It was good for me that I was afflicted The Prison was the best School for Manasses for in that solitude he could have no Divertisement but leisure wholly to contemplate his great Deliverer and figure to himself Ideas of a more Glorious Kingdom Vexatio dabit intellectumi Punishment is Sins Looking-glass there it beholds its ugliness and deformity the Stains and Morphews which make the Soul look squalid 4. When Absolom was under a Cloud and putting his Designment of a Rebellion into the Forge to amass a greater strength he sent an invitation to Joab to embark in the same design but Joab whether in detestation of such unnaturalness or unwilling to hoise Sail till he saw to which point of the Compass the Wind would settle rejected the Summons Absolom sends again and again and still Joab refuses but when he gave command to burn his Corn-Fields and ravage all that Neighbourhood to him he made no dispute but came apace So in our prosperity we draw a partition betwixt God and us will not cloud our thoughts with the contemplation of Judgment and another World let his invitations be never so luscious presented by Prophets Saints and Angels but when he lays waste our Possessions dismantles our Dwellings throws us upon the Dunghil then we look with averseness on out sins the evil Spirits that raised this Tempestâ— then do our visive Beams pierce through Heaven it self and in this foul Weather seek to cast Anchorage in the Arms of our Saviour 5. The Philosopher observes that if we will see the Stars and highest part of the Sphere at Mid-day we must descend to some Cavern or low place in the Earth where we are freest from the light and coruscations of the Horizon we live in So we must be removed from the glaring lustre of the World before we can truly discern Heaven and the radiancy of its Glory The Figure and Global part of the Sun is clearer discerned in a Dish of Water than in his Fiery Chariot The Astronomers best posture is to lie prostrate on the Ground When we are thrown on our Back humbled and brought low then we best behold God's Immensity and our own impotency The Earth that hath endured the Summers Heat and Winters cold cut with the Plow and crumbled with the Harrow is best cultivated to receive her Seed and make a grateful return to her Benefactor Some Fruits are best fermented with nipping Cold and biting Frosts Our stony Hearts are soonest ripened and mellowed by affliction After we have been thrust into the Forge of Persecution we are then malleable easiest to be hammered out God sets his stamp coins us for Glory when melted in the Crusible of Adversity Prosperity like the Sun doth too much harden us Thunder scatters and disparkles ill boding exhalations cleers the Air of all pestilent and malevolent humours God thunders by affliction breaks the racks of sin and scatters those foul Meteors that are engendring in the regions of our Souls Spikenard precious Ointment and sweet Waters savours more that the hand scatters and throws about than when sealed up in their Inclosures of Crystal Spices for pounding and bruising send forth exhalations more redolent How Sun-burnt what Aethiops appear we when blacked with sin But as soon as God hath burnished and like the Diamond cut and pointed us we appear like the King's Daughter all glorious Affliction is the Mercury Water that clears our sallow complexion the best Beauty Spot we can put on 7. Elkanah said to the Mother of Samuel Am not I better to thee than ten sons So it may be said is not affliction better than a thousand pleasures Here every vanity doth way-lay us as Jael did Sisera Turn thou in my Lord till it smite us through the Temples If we saw but this foul Body dissected it would appear like a Mandrake Apple comly to the eye but poisonous in taste or like the glorious Tombs of our Ancestors that enshrine nothing but dirt and putrefaction 'T is not all Comical we act the Scene will presently change like Jonas's Gourd it springs up to day and canopies us from the Sun's intrusions but anon an envious worm withers it Pleasure was never so absolutely enjoyed but that it had some Gall some Worm wood thrown into the Cup. The smoothest face cannot laugh without contracting Wrinkles and the extremity of it bedews our Cheeks with Tears Like a Rainbow it hath half Sun and half Cloud Like a Meteor it gives a glaring light but portends mischief fits us for Plagues and Pestilencies If they were really good and profitable they would improve those that enjoy them but the contrary effect is most apparent 8. When Nebuchadnezzar stalked on the Roof of his stately Palace and there beheld the Majesty of Babylon did he not then begin to wax proud and vaunt the Workmanship of his own Hands Is not this great Babel which I have built But when God had humbled him with Chastisement plumed his Eagle Wings then could he pierce through those Clouds and Vizards that inveloped his understanding see more of his Maker from that lowness of Fortune than when he towered on the Pinnacle of all his Glories When David had his Beams displayed in a Royal Horizon sitting on the House top soon pryed into the Retirements of Uriah's Garden and there fed his eyes with the unlawful love of Bathsheba but when Nathan the Prophet had trumpeted God's Judgments and with a black Pencil drawn a Scheme of his succeeding miseries it soon fetched him down from that height and made him