apparitions that shall go before his second coming to the end that when they come we may not be dismayed and affrighted at the sight but may entertain them as Angels which bring us good tidings of good things that we may look upon them as Objects of joy rather then of amazement that they may not dead our spirits or change our countenances or trouble our joynts or make us hold down our heads like a bullrush but rowse up our hearts and fill us with joy and make us to say This is the day which the Lord hath made a day of exaltation and redemption a day of jubilee and triumph and so look up and lift up our heads And here methinks I see in my Text a strange conjunction of Night and Day of Brightness and Darkness of Terror and Joy or a chain made up as it were of these three links Terror Exultation and Redemption Yet they will well hang together if Redemption be the middle link For in this they meet and are friends Redemption being that which turns the Night into Day maketh affliction joyful and puts a bright and lovely colour upon Horror it self When these things come to pass Why these things are terrible It is true yet lift up your heads But how can we lift up our heads in this day of terror in this day of vengeance in this day of gloominess and darkness Can we behold this sight and live Yes we may The next words are quick and operative of power to lift up our heads and to exalt our horn and strength as the horn of an Unicorne and make us stand strong against all these terrors Look up lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Not to detein you longer by way of Preface Four things there are which in these words that I have read are most remarkable 1. The Persons unto whom these words are uttered in the particle Your Lift up your heads 2. What things they are of which our Saviour here speaks in the first words of the Text Now when these things begin to come to pass 3. The Behaviour which our Saviour commends unto us in these words Look up lift up your heads 4. Last of all the Reason or Encouragement words of life and power to raise us from all faintness of heart and dullness of spirit For your redemption draweth nigh I have formerly upon another Text spoken of the two first points the Persons to whom and the Things whereof our Saviour here speaketh Before I come to the third point the Behaviour prescribed to be observed by them who see the signs foretold in this Chapter come to pass it will not be amiss a little to consider whence it comes to pass that in the late declining age of the world so great disorder distemper and confusion have their place And it shall yield us some lessons for our instruction And first of all it may seem to be Natural and that it cannot be otherwise For our common experience tells us that all things are apt to breed somewhat by which themselves are ruin'd How many Plants do we see which breed that worm which eats out their very heart We see the body of Man let it be never so carefully so precisely ordered yet at length it grows foul and every day gathers matter of weakness and disease which at first occasioning a general disproportion in the parts must at the last of necessity draw after it the ruin and dissolution of the whole It may then seem to fall out in this great body of the World as it doth in this lesser body of ours By its own distemper it is the cause of its own ruin For the things here mentioned by our Saviour are nothing else but the diseases of the old decaying World The failing of light in the Sun and Moon what is it but the blindness of the World an imperfection very incident to Age. Tumults in the Sea and Waters what are they but the distemper of superfluous humors which abound in Age Wars and rumors of wars are but the falling out of the prime qualities in the union and harmony of which the very being of the creature did consist It is observed by the Wise Libidinosa intemperans adolescentia effoetum corpus tradit senectuti Youth riotously and luxuriously and lewdly spent delivers up to old age an exhaust and juyceless and diseased body Do we not every day see many strong and able young men fade away upon the sudden even in the flower of their age and soon become subject to impotency and diseases and untimely death These commonly are the issues of riot luxury and intemperance Nor can it be otherwise Therefore we cannot but expect that the World should be exceedingly diseased in its old decaying age whose youthful dayes and not only those but all other parts of its age have been spent in so much intemperance and disorder Scarcely had the World come to any growth and ripeness but that it grew to that height of distemper that there was no way to purge it but by a general Floud purgati baptisma mundi as St. Hierome calls it in which as it were in the Baptism its former sins were done away And after that scarcely had three hundred years past but a general disease of Idolatry over-spread and seized on all well-near Abraham and his Family excepted Yet after this once more it pleased God to take the cure into his hands by sending his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ the great Physician and Bishop of our souls But what of all this After all this was done tantorum impensis operum by so much cost and so much care his Physick did not work as it should and little in comparison was gained upon the World For the Many of us we are still the sons of our fathers Therefore we have just cause of fear that God will not make many more tryals upon us or bestow his pains so oft in vain Christ is the last Priest and the last Physician that did stand upon the earth and if we will not hear him what remains there or what can remain but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the world Ephraim is turned unto Idols let him alone I will spend no more labor in Hos 4. vain upon him Thus as Physicians when they find the disease incurable let the diseased go on unto his end so God having now as it were tryed his skill in vain having invited all and seeing so few come having spoken to all and so few hear having poured out his Sons bloud to purge the World and seeing so few cleansed for ought we know and it is very probable hath now resolv'd the World shall go unto its end which in so great a body cannot be without the disorder and confusion our blessed Saviour here speaketh of But you may peradventure take this for a speculation and no more and I have urged it no further then as a
and there discourse with none but God and Angels Thus we may shame a Tyrant and puff at his Terrors For what I beseech you can the most subtle in curses invent against such who call Banishment a going to travel Imprisonment a getting out of a throng who say to dye is to lye down to sleep It is as impossible to torment these as to confine a Spirit or to lay shackles upon that thing which has no Body to bear them For you must not esteem these kind of expressions the heat only of a luxuriant wit because whatever happens in this life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one most excellently calls it whose whole being consists meerly in Relation seems good to such as like it and evil to such as think the contrary just like meat which though it nourish one may kill another His Brethren thought they had sold Joseph into a strange Country to destroy him but he says God sent him before to provide for their whole Family So this Apostle collects with himself that if he dy'd he should go to his Saviour and if he liv'd he should serve his Brethren If he were at liberty his tongue should preach but being in prison his sufferings did further the Gospel much more If he met with all friends they would receive the Truth chearfully and if he found enemies they would preach Christ for him though out of strife and envy With him to dye was gain and to live was gain He took every thing by the right ear and found some benefit in every condition whatsoever whether by good report or by disgrace whether by the left hand or by the right whether by hatred 2 Cor. 6. or out of good will whether by life or death if Christ were preached he lookt no farther he had his end that unum necessarium the advancement of the Gospel and whatsoever happened besides this he esteemed as an additional complement which he might very well spare and yet remain an Apostle still But now on the other side what a continued torment is a mans life without this spiritual carelesness this holy neglect of our earthly Being Then are we born to misery indeed if a moth rust or canker can make us wretched If the trouble which as our Saviour says belongs to every single day can sully our mirth and cast us down If every wind and breath of an insulting Tyrant can twirl us about to all points of the Compass If we make our selves the shadow of the times and take both form and figure only as men do Rise and Set like some flowers if we shut and open just as they shine or not upon us 't were better a Mill-stone were tyed about our neck and we were cast into the midst of the Sea for that would keep us steddy Thus to halt to be divided as the word imports between Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness God and Mammon It breeds the same deformity in the Soul as would appear in the Body If you fancied a man lookt with one ey directly up to the skie and at the same time pitched the other ey streight down upon the ground how ugly would such a one seem unto you This this is the carefulness or rather this denying of Gods Providence which makes so many desire a gift desire it Nay most impudently make it their whole design and business of their lives to get it mounting the Pulpit as they would do a Bank and there sell of their Drugs for Medicines when in truth they poyson the very Soul Whence is it else that they preach their dreams calling that the word of God which hits in their heads when they cannot sleep Who bite with their teeth as Micha says eat on and talk as the company will have it and as it follows in the same verse who puts not into their mouths and gives not what they expect they even prepare a war against him Micha 3. 5. nay blot him out of their book of life Doggs 't is St. Pauls word to them or else I durst not use it Phil. 3. 2. that divine for money who will be rich whose greatest triumph is to lead captive silly women Men that will help up a sin into your bosome which otherwise perhaps a tender Conscience would keep down and set a whole City a fire and then like Nero stand by and play to it Men without whom no mischief ever had a beginning nor by whom shall ever any have an end Give me leave I beseech you to bend this crooked bough as much the other way and call such to St. Pauls example who when he was to preach a new Law preach'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel without charge 1 Cor. 9. who put his hands to work night and day that they might not receive any thing but from himself And I heartily wish what the Apostle did here of choice the Civil Magistrate would whip them to for they are a scandal to their beautiful Profession to preach Providence and at the same time scrape together as if God who provides for all things would have more care of a crow or the grass of the field then of man whom he created after his own Image as if he who sent forth his Disciples without scrip or penny did it only to destroy them and how shall the people credit those who preach the contempt of the world to their Congregations when they see these Foxes would only have their Auditors leave the world that they may enjoy it wholly to themselves calling that the Kingdom of Christ when they themselves raign or rather when Lust raigns in them Whereas St. Paul often urg'd this as an Argument to confirm his Doctrine that he took nothing for it Thirdly St. Paul did not desire a Gift because their Benevolence kept him still alive heartned his body up and prolong'd his days which considering St. Pauls condition was cruel mercy the greatest injury they could possibly do him to hold him thus from his Saviour with whom he long'd to be For the Apostle had fully weigh'd the poizes both of life and death concluded the most beneficial thing to him if he lookt only after his own advantage was Death having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is the better Phil. 1. 23. For pray resolve me what kindness is it to fetch a wretch devoted and given up to affliction necessity and distresses to stripes imprisonment tumults to fasting watching and all kind of labours 2 Cor. 6. to make much of a man only that he may last out to torment to set his joynts that he may go on upon the rack again to strengthen and enable him that he may suffer yet more to bind up his wounds as they did the Slaves in Rome meerly that he might fight with more beasts This is the same pity simply so considered as if you should give strong Cordials to one irrecoverably sick to lengthen and draw out his pain least he
binding then a debt surely you would think that due from them to him who had begotten them nay who was sacrificed for them and saved them for these glorious terms the Apostle gives himself saved them I say not their Bodies from the Grave but their Souls from Death O my Brethren there was a time when men sold all they had and laid it down at the Apostles feet there was a time even in our memory when Sacriledg was thought a sin and men conceived the maintenance of a lawful Clergy as sacred as their own Revenues in the time when axes and hammers were lifted up to build not to break down the carved works of the Sanctuary yet something is due still at least to give a cup of cold water in the name of a Prophet to hold up their weak hands and to support their feeble knees with your staff of Bread For though St. Paul would have worked with his hands now had they not been lock't up with manicles rather then prove burdensome to them for then was not a time to receive Gifts in the infancy of the Church yet he always says he might claim it as a recompence that he had power to challenge it and proves it by all kind of Arguments 1 Cor. 9. from Custom Reason and Scripture and least you should pretend the abrogation of this Law by Christ the Apostle adds v. 14. That the Lord hath ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel he hath ordained it enacted it and made it a Law for ever he hath tied and bound you up to it for ever it is not left to your choice and discretion And our Saviour when he sends out his Apostles calls their maintenance their Hire Mat. 10. 10. as if there did pass a tacite contract and bargain between the Preacher and the Audience that if he feeds their souls they should feed his body if he gives them the water of life he may claim a draught from out of their well as due and that he who deals the bread of life about should have in return the bread that perishes a fair exchange you 'l say on your parts Carnal for Spiritual things and a Birth-right that gives you title to become the heirs of God for a small mess of porridge The second advantage we have by Charity is the Exercise of our Patience before the day of Tryal come upon us Who pray among you would leave at this very instant his whole Estate to preserve his Conscience if violence should offer to take it from him or who would go immediately from this very place to the stake if God should call him thither but Charity leads us to this perfection for whosoever gives away of his own willingly may come in time to endure quietly if it be forced from him and who can chearfully part with some to relieve his Brethren will at last arrive so far as contentedly to loose all so he may preserve his Conscience My Brethren 't is all the business of our Time Diligence and Experience to be a Christian for though God did sometimes extraordinarily pour forth as much of his Spirit into some Vessels of Mercy as enabled them at once to become Christians and Martyrs both together ready to lay down their lives for the Faith as soon as ever they did believe Yet 't is said of Christ that notwithstanding he was a Son yet learnt he obedience by the things which he suffered Heb. 5. 8. He learnt it Let others learn to measure the Earth do you learn to despise it and let Philosophers dispute the causes of lightnings storms and thunder but do you Christians learn the way to Mount Sion where you may stand above them all The last and highest benefit we receive by our Charity is that as God will most severely punish the neglect of this duty so if we do perform it he will account himself in debt to us for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will 1 Pet. 3. thank you for this for this God will in a manner acknowledge himself beholding to you You lend to the Lord lend to him who possesses all already as if God would willingly part with his whole right and title to this world so we in compassion to our poor Brethren would give him the least return of it again God owes you a blessing which you shall be sure to have not only hereafter but here also if we can believe God for whom it is impossible to lye For as God did certainly punish some with temporal punishments for offending against the Gospel as he did the Corinthians with diseases and sudden death for their prophaning the Lords Supper So 1 Cor 11. 30. likewise may not we doubt but God under the Gospel also rewards those who obey even with temporal blessings and if you observe it nothing prospers here better then this vertue of Charity For the very Politian himself advises us to help our very enemies if we mistrust they can get out of themselves because thus we shall make them our friends Beasts have so much reason and civility to return a courtesie Nature is still calling upon us for this duty so earnestly as some have wished their very friends to whom they stand most obliged in misery for no other reason but that they might relieve them and be quit of this debt On the contrary 't is remarkable what great advantages some have missed meerly because they knew not how to give in season For there is he saith Solomon that withholds what is meet but it tends to poverty Prov. 11. 24. But suppose men do turn inhumane and ungrateful yet still he that gives to the poor shall not lack Prov. 28. 27. For God in your extremities will either afford you an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a place to slip out of or else give you strength to suffer which in effect is all one No great matter whether the three Children be in the Furnace or out of it so the flame does not so much as singe them and then you will without all question receive an ample reward in the world to come For if Heaven do stand open to such as have their sins forgiven then you for your Charity shall be sure to enter in for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins If your luxury did make your Saviour faste the feeding of his afflicted members that will feed him again and if your wantonness in apparel stript him in covering their nakedness you shall cloath him again in short if your sins crucified him in relieving them you revive him and make him alive again upon the earth This Sacrifice will expiate all Give to the poor what thou hast and all shall be clean unto you says our Saviour Luke 11. 41. Again do you think such as do all the whole will of God shall inherit eternal life then your Charity must of necessity let you in for Charity is the fulfilling both of the Law and the Prophets
God as he did we should rather as he did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him for our Brethren then smite them with our tongues then tell of the misery of these wounded ones that is speak vauntingly and Psal 69. 26. preach thereof as the word signifies then thus rain down upon them their own snares halestones and coals of fire I confess prudent and discreet reprehension is as a gracious and seasonable rain as precious balm but rash and inconsiderate censure is as a Tempest or Hurrican to waste a soul to carry all before it and to digg up a good name by the roots And as it is truly said that most men speak against Riches not out of hatred but love unto them so do many declaim against Sin not out of hatred to sin but out of love to themselves which may be as great a crime as that they speak against Signum putant bonae conscientiae aliis malè dicere They think it a sign of a good conscience in themselves to speak evil of others and conceit themselves good if they can say others are evil For as true Righteousness speaks alwaies in compassion but that which is false and counterfeit breaths forth nothing but wrath and reviling and indignation Remember those that are in bonds as if you were bound with them and as being your selves in the Hebr. 13. 3. body as being in the body obnoxious to the same evils in a mortal body Rom. 8. 11. an earthly body and a corruptible body And remember those who are 1 Cor. 15. 40. 53. in their sins which are the bonds I am sure and fetters of the soul as being also in that body of death as being under that burden that presseth Rom. 7. 24. down and under sin that hangeth so fast on that we shall never fling it Hebr. 12. 1. off till we cast off our bodies being in the same polluted garments which will stick close to us till we be uncloathed and cloathed upon 2 Cor. 5. 4. and mortality be swallowed up of life Look not upon thy Brethren as Grashoppers and upon thy felf as a strong and perfect man in Christ as if thou wert spiritual heavenly impeccable and as far removed from Sin as God himself But rather as St. Paul was made a Jew to the Jew so be thou as a sick man ministring to the sick handling another 1 Cor. 9. 20. with the same compassion thou wouldst have extended to thy self if thou thy self should be in his case If thou despise and reproach him I am sure thou art in a far worse For be he what the frailty of the Flesh the subtilty of Satan and the flattery of a vain World can make him yet he is thy Brother be he sick well-near unto death yet he is thy Brother be he the lost sheep yet he is thy Brother and Christ may fetch him back again even upon thy shoulders that is by thy compassion and thy care be he amongst the swine with the Prodigal yet he is thy Brother for within a while he may come back again to his Father and thy Fathers house If he be to thee as an heathen or publican yet he must also be Brother And further we press not this Use So then neither Error nor Sin can unty this knot can dissolve and break this relation of Brethren I named a third but I am well-near ashamed to name it again or bring it in competition with Error or Sin because an offense against God should more provoke us then any injury done to our selves Which our Apostle here sets so light by that although the Galatians had even questioned his Apostleship and preferred Peter and James and John before him yet he passeth it by as not worth the taking notice of Like Socrates who being overcome in judgment profest he had no reason to be angry with his enemies unless it were for this that they conceived and believed they had hurt him And here St. Paul saith Ye have not hurt me at all And indeed no injury can be done by a brother to a brother For the injury is properly done to God who made them Brethren and fellow-servants and who reserves all power of revenge unto himself who is their common Master and the God of revenge If a brother strike us we should saith Chrysostom kiss his hand if he would destroy us our revenge should be to save him Ignoscat tibi Christus saith Nazianzene to a young man that was suborn'd to kill him Christ forgive thee who hath also forgiven me and dyed to save me Ille idoneus patientiae sequester He is the best Advocate for our patience the best Decider of all our controversies and debates If you gage and lay down your injury with him he is the Revenger if your loss he is the Restorer if your grief he is the Physician if your death he will raise you up again But we shall no further prosecute this because it will fall in with our last part We will rather having as ye have read secured and fortified the Brethren walk about yet a while longer and tell the towers and bulwarks which the God of Love hath raised and set up to uphold them And they are 1. Pleasure excessive Pleasure 2. Profit great Profit 3. Necessity extream Necessity All these serve to maintain and uphold this Brotherhood For Brotherly Love is 1. pleasant and delightful 2. profitable and advantageous 3. so necessary that it had been better for us never to have been then not to love the Brethren For the first hear what the Psalmist saith Behold how good and joyful Psalm 133. 1. a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity Not only it is so but it is worth our observing and we are called to behold and consider it Which if we did with a serious eye we should not so slight and undervalue it as we do For Pleasure is winning and attractive It is a motive above all eloquence more persuasive then the words of the wise Oh that we could be once brought to be well perswaded of this Pleasure and did not so dote on that which hath no true pleasure at all in it The Hills saith the Prophet David are girded with gladness Psalm 65. 12. Things are figuratively said to be glad when they attain unto and abide in their natural perfection So the Light is said to rejoyce when it shineth clear and continually because then it is in its highest and fullest splendor Now there can be no higher perfection for a Christian then to love the Brethren He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God 1 John 4. 16. in him and By this men shall know you are my Disciples if ye have John 13. 35. love one to another saith Christ by the same John in his Gospel What perfection greater then for a man to dwell in God and to have God dwell in
unto us and make it not Gods gift but our own conquest What suckling in Religion knows not to distinguish between perfection of Parts and perfection of Degrees We know our Sanctification is universal not total in every part but in part Our Understanding is enlightned yet there remains some darkness our Will rectified yet some perversness our Affections ordered and subdued yet prone to disobedience our whole man sanctified but not wholly We propose to our selves not this or that but every commandment to observe We compose and order our life to the rule and shun whatsoever is repugnant to it but we do but begin not finish We make Perfection our prayer not our boast and expect it not here but in heaven One while we have need of the cords of love to lead us another while of the thunderbolts of Gods judgments to terrifie us One while the thought of hell must beat us from sin another while the love of heaven must lead us in the paths of righteousness Now his promises now his threatnings must excite us Let Fulgentius conclude this point Perfecti sumus spe futurae glorificationis imperfectionere corruptionis It is in his Book ad Monimum We are perfect in respect of the hope of future Glory imperfect if we consider this body of death this burden of corruption perfect in expectation of the reward the crown of glory imperfect as we are in the battel in the race fighting and running to obtain this Crown And this was St. Pauls Perfection Let as many as be perfect that is in some degree and Phil. 3. 15. in respect of others For v. 12. he accounts not himself to have obtained or to be already perfect And v. 13. he professeth Brethren I account not my self that I have attained one thing I do I forget that which is behind and endeavour my self to that which is before Now then let not Frailty and Infirmity dispute with its Creator He that once was taken up into the third heaven had so much earth about him as to feel the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit He that was a chosen vessel had some cracks in him and had fallen to pieces and lost that heavenly treasure had not God preserved it Job's answer best fits a Christian's mouth Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee Job 40. 4. I will lay my hand upon my mouth Yet look up too Let not Desperation keep thee down but let the power of godly Sorrow lift thee up again Know that to confess thy sin and to repent is as it were to make the Angels a banquet and to send more joy to heaven Let Repentance reconcile thee with God then though the Devil strive to cover thee over in the grave of sin yet thou shalt come forth though thy bones be broken yet they shall rejoyce and to thee now as to David then the joy of thy salvation shall be restored The last part the Object Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Davids request is for Peace of conscience the joy of Gods salvation that which St. Paul calls joy in the holy Ghost The Septuagint render it by the Rom. 14. 17. Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies more then joy even exultation and rejoycing and triumphing for joy like that of the Church Psal 126. When the Lord brought again the captivity of Sion we were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with joy It is the highest degree almost excess and surfet of Joy God may let me feel it but express it I never can Tell me Christian or indeed canst thou tell me what joy thou conceivest at this spiritual banquet Doth doubt arise within thee because Christ is not present See here he hath left a pledge and pawn behind him his blessed Sacrament Take eat this is his body Thou shalt never hunger Take drink this is his bloud Thou shalt never thirst Dost thou believe Believe then he is nearer to thee in these outward elements then the Papists would make him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation When the Priest delivers to thee the sanctified Bread let thy meditation lead thy Saviour from his Cradle to his Cross His whole life was to lead thy captivity captive And now with the eyes of faith behold him stretcht out upon the Cross and think thy self unburdened and that heavy weight laid upon thy Saviours shoulders and then thou canst not chuse but suppose thou heardst him groan It was a heavy burden that fetcht that groan from him A strange thing thy sins which were not yet committed pierced him Yet let not despair take thee Anon thou shalt hear that triumphant and victorious noise It is finished A voice which rent the vail of the Temple in twain clove the stones made the earth to quake and was able to have changed not that place alone to what once it was if we may believe some Geographers but the whole world into a Paradise When the Priest offers thee the Cup think then thou seest Christ bleeding and pouring out non guttam sed undam sanguinis not drops but streams of bloud Think thou seest per vulnera viscera through his wounded side the bowels of Compassion And then think thou art partaker of his promise already and that now thou drinkest with him in his Fathers kingdome Tell me now Where art thou Is not this to be rapt into the third heaven Now thou canst call God Father now thou art sure of thy perseverance now thou canst think of hell without fear and horror Thou canst make thy bed of sickness look sorrowful only to thy friends and whilst they stand weeping and howling by thy bed side thou shalt have no other cause of lamentation but that they lament thee And then in the midst of shreeks and outcryes when with trembling hands they close up thy eyes as if they close up their hopes thy soul shall pass away and settle it self in Abrahams bosome If this be not joy indeed and exultation and triumphing for joy if this be not above an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tell me What Paradise shall we search for it where shall we find it When my cogitations settle upon this blessed object methinks I see a Christian in his white and triumphant robes walking upon the pavement of heaven laughing at and scorning the vanities of the world looking upon them as an aged man would on childrens toyes beginning with Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a fellow-citizen with the Angels and with Cyprian miserere saeculi to look down upon the world with pity and compassion being even now a type of a glorified Saint and the resemblance of an Angel I could loose my self in this Paradise I could build a Tabernacle upon this Mount Tabor for even but to speak of it is delight My Conclusion shall be in Prayer O thou who art the Father of this joy and God of all consolation whose
his cross that we might lift up our Hearts and so lift him up again and present him to his Father Who for his sake when he sees him as the Ark lifted up will bring mighty things to pass will scatter our Sins which are our greatest enemies and separate them from us as far as the East is from the West And though they be as the Smoke of the bottomless pit he will drive them away and though they be complicated and bound together as wax into a kind of body he will melt them and deliver us from this body of Death For what Sin of ours dares shew it self when this Captaine of ours shall arise Let God arise that is the first verse of this Psalm that is our Prayer And let us conclude with the Psalm in Thanksgiving and ascribe the strength unto God saying His excellency is over his Israel to deliver them from their Enemies and to deliver them from their Sins and his Strength is in the clouds O God thou art terrible in thy holy places The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people against the machinations of Men and against the wills of the Devil against sinful Men and against Sin it self Blessed be God And let all the people say AMEN The Fifteenth SERMON Gen. III. 12. And the man said The Woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eat WE have here the antiquity of Apologies we find them almost as ancient as the World it self For no sooner had Adam sinned but he runneth behind the bush No sooner had our first parents broken that primor dial Law as Tertullian calleth it which was the womb and matrix of all after-laws but they hide themselves Vers 8. amongst the trees of the Garden and as if they had made a covenant and agreement they joyntly frame excuses The Man casteth it off upon the Woman and in effect upon God himself The Woman gave it me and Thou gavest me the Woman and thus he lyeth down and sleepeth and is at rest The Woman removeth it from herself upon the Serpent The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat So that now Vers 13. God having made inquisition for the fact neither Adam nor Eve are returned but the Serpent nay indeed God himself who maketh the Inquiry is charged as a party and accessory The Man did eat because the Woman gave and God gave the Woman and Adam thinketh himself safe behind this bush And therefore as Adam hideth himself from God so doth God return his folly upon his own head and seemeth to seek him as if he were hid indeed Adam where art thou in a kind of ironie he acteth the part of an ignorant person he calleth as at a distance and seemeth not to know him who was so unwilling to be known Or if we take Tertullian's interpretation Adv. Marcion l. 2. we must not read it simplici modo id est interrogatorio sono UBI ES ADAM as a plain and easy and kind interrogation WHERE ART THOU ADAM sed impresso incusso imputativo ADAM UBI ES but as a sharp and smart demand as a demand with an imputation ADAM WHERE ART THOU that is jam non hic es Thou art not here not where thou wast not in paradise not in a state of immortality but in a state of perdition in a state of corruption never more open and naked then in the thicket and behind the bush This was not quaestio but vagulatio as it is called in the XII Tables All the thick trees in the Garden could not conceal Adam and keep him from the eyes of his God but thus God was pleased to question his folly with some bitterness and scorn It is the first question that was ever put to Man And we may be sure all is not well when God asketh questions His Laws his Precepts his Counsels yea his Comminations are all delivered per rectam orationem by a plain and positive declaration of his mind HOC FAC ET VIVES Do this and live Luk. 10. 23 If thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt dic the death What he commandeth Gen. 2. 17. to be done he supposeth will be done and never beginneth to ask questions till our Disobedience questioneth his Law Then he proceedeth against us ex formula in a kind of legal and judiciarie way When the Angels fall he calleth after them How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer Isa 14. 12. son of the morning and when Adam is in the thicket he seeketh him Adam where art thou A question one would think of force to plow up his heart and to rend it in pieces that so his sin might evaporate and let it self out by an humble confession a question sufficient one would think to fill his soul with sorrow horrour and amazement But though Adam were now out of the thicket he was behind the bush still He striveth to hide himself from God when he is most naked and speaketh of his Fear and of his Nakedness but not at all of his Sin I heard thy voice saith he in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self He Gen. 3. 10. was sensible not of the breach of the Law but of his nakedness It was the voice of God that frighted him not his transgression We commonly say Suam quisque homo rem bene meminit that every man hath a good memorie for that which concerneth him Only Sin which is properly ours and whereof we are the proprietaries to which we can entitleneither God nor the Devil nor any other creature but our selves we are unwilling to own and to call ours Ours it is whilst it is in committing on it we spend and exhaust ourselves we prostitute our wills we give up our affections we sell our selves all the faculties of our souls and all the parts of our bodies we woe it we wait for it we purchase it But when it is committed we cast it from us we look upon it as upon a bastard issue we strive to raize it out of our memories we are afraid when we are deprehended we deny when we are accused when we are questioned our to answer is an excuse Nolumns esse nostrum quia malum agnoscimus Ours we will not call it because we know it to be evil One would think that Excuse were the natural offspring of Sin or rather that Sin and Excuse were twins Omne malum pudore natura suffundit No sooner hath Sin stained the soul but shame dieth the face with a blush The Philosopher will tell us that shame is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear of just reprehension which to avoid we seek out many inventions We run behind the bush and when the voice of God calleth us from thence we make a thicket of our own a multitude of excuses where we think our selves more safe then amongst all
his works which beholds Omnipotencie in the creation of the world which sees a world of miracles in Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great world in a little one which hears God in his thunder considers who is Father of the Rain and who begets the drops of the Dew out Job 38. of whose womb the Ice came Meditation is that spiritual rumination that chewing of the cudd which brings and calls back all the works of God ab intestino memoriae ad os cogitationis from the bowels and stomach of the Memory as St. Augustine speaks to the mouth of the Thoughts that there we may feed upon them with fresh delight and make them comfortable and wholsome to our souls which prepareth us contrà omnia fidei excidia as Hilary speaketh against all those temptations which are dangerous and deleterial to our Faith We cannot doubt but that he who delights in what God hath done hath also surrendred his will to God and said from his very heart Let the will of God be done Nazianzene in Orat. 39. yet adds another and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy emulation to work great works to be Gods unto our selves Not to create a new world but the help of Gods grace to create new hearts in our selves to bind and fetter the common enemy of mankind to open the windows of goals and wash our sins with the tears of our repentance to strike those rocks our stony hearts that the waters of contrition may gush forth in a holy consideration of Gods Immensity and Power to gain to our selves with St. Paul a kind of Omnisciency to have all knowledge and a kind of Omnipotency 1 Cor. 13. 2. through Christ who strengthneth us to be able to do all things And by Phil. 4. 13. these by falling down in a reverent Admiration of what God hath wrought by our continual Praises and Gratulations and Hallelujahs by walking every day about the gallery of our souls and viewing with delight those many pictures and various representations of his wonderful works by a holy Aemulation to work something in our own souls which may resemble what he hath wrought in the world by recounting with our selves that that great God did not make us thus wonderfully to be his miracles and to do trifles by these as by so many faithful interpreters we best acknowledge and express our conformity to Gods Absolute Will We pass now to shew what conformity we owe to the Natural Will of God which we call voluntatem desiderii inclinationis his Will of Desire and Inclination his Prime and Antecedent Will by which he desires the happiness of all mankind and administers all the means to bring them to it And here I can conceive no difficulty at all but if Gods Natural Will be to have all men saved then certainly the same mind should be in us 1 Tim. 2. 4. which is in God and we should pray that all men may be saved Shall God will it and we not pray for it Shall the cataracts of Gods Mercy and Goodness stand wide open and we quite shut up the passage of our Devotion Is it impossible that God naturally should will the damnation of any man and is it possible that we should think there be some men for whom we ought not to pray I have read the Catalogues of old Heresies written by St. Augustine and Philastrius and I find some of them to be such ridiculous phansies such intellectual meteors that I have much wondred those Worthies would once stain their papers with them or take such pains to deliver them to posterity Methinks they should have destroyed those monsters in their birth and not have graced them so much as to have told after-ages that they ever were or had so much as being in the Church But I do not remember that there is any one of them of so monstrous a shape as this That it is not lawful to pray for the salvation of all men This sure was reserved for these after-ages to attend upon its mis-shapen damm that ill-begotten phansie of the absolute Decree of Reprobation I could not once conceive that any should delight in so killing a phansie which quite cutteth off all hope of salvation from some men and leaves them in a far worse case than the Gadarenes Hoggs For the Devils entring into Luke 8. them presently carried them into the sea and drowned them and so left them but according to this doctrine some men are prepared on purpose by God to be an habitation of devils and to dwell with devils for ever But these severe men who cut off all hope of life from some and with it the prayers of the Church are all Sheep themselves pure and innocent so sure of their salvation that I can find small reason they have to pray for it but that they may neglect this duty as well as they do others as necessary upon this presumptuous ground But why may not we pray for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. men as well as Christ give himself a price for all And is it not commanded that prayers and intercessions should be made for all men Which if we 1 Tim. 2. 1. neglect that judgment which we have laid at other mens doors will be brought home at last unto our own Besides Gods Will they say of damning men is secret and if it be unlawful to pray for that which he is resolved not to do a great part of our devotion must needs expire and the incense of those many prayers of the Saints cannot send up any pleasant savour who begg those things at his hands which his will was never to reach forth and give To Faith the number of the elect appears but small but to Charity the Church is large and copious and she sees none which is not or may not be a member thereof It may be said perhaps that I erre when I pray that all may be saved Be it so but it is an error of my Charity and therefore a most necessary error For it is the very property of Charity thus to erre And it is not a lye but a commendable office and acceptable in Gods sight in my prayers to wish the eternal happiness of him who perhaps shall be for ever miserable These holy mistakes of Charity shall never be imputed nor be numbred amongst my sins of Ignorance For he that errs not thus he that hopes not the best he can of every man he sees wants something yet and comes short of a good Christian Christianum est errare It is the part of every Christian and a singular duty thus to erre The reason is manifest For there is no heart so much stone which God cannot malleate and out of which he cannot raise a child unto Abraham Sin may reign in our mortal bodies ad mortem to make us lyable to death and it may reign ad difficultatem that it will be very difficult to shake
regulate our devotion by the will of God whatsoever we ask we shall receive Nor doth the Goodness of God consider so much the gloss and interpretation which we make as the affection which we bring Yet I rather admit of that signification which the word BREAD doth first propose unto us Our discourse would be too much enlarged if we should follow and examine metaphors which are feracissimae controversiarum very fruitful to engender both discourse and controversie Chrysostome doth very seldom refer the word Bread to the Sacrament But in his Homily upon the Lords Prayer deriving the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls it our daily bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that BREAD which is turned into the very substance of our bodies And Abulensis upon Matth. 6. hath proved by many reasons that that interpretation by which the Fathers referred it to the Sacrament is far fetched and forced and not so solid And it is most probable that our Saviour by Bread in this Petition meaneth both food and ravment and all other things whatsoever that tend to the sustentation and support of this temporal life Both Food and Rayment I say For though Bread be a staff yet without Clothes it will not uphold us and though Lev. 26. 26. Isa 3. 1. Clothes be domus corporis as Tertullian calleth them the house wherein the Body dwells yet without Bread the Body will sink to the ground and pull the house down with it If we be either naked or hungry long we know Psal 107. 5. what follows our soul will faint within us The end therefore which moves us to pray for Bread must be as a light to shew us what that Bread is Nec verba tantùm defendenda sed ratio verborum constituenda Nor must we so cleave to the letter as to admit of no sense of larger compass than it is but look forward upon the end which we may make gubernaculum interpretationis as it were a rudder to guide us and to carry our interpretation streight and even The end of Bread is to nourish us and preserve life but without Apparel it will not have this operation therefore we must necessarily here understand both With Bread our Garments are a shelter and with Raiment Bread is a staff But this Bread here is not of compass large enough to take in the riotous fare of the glutton and the full cups of the drunkard and it is much too narrow to admit of excess and pride in apparel Primùm tegendo homini necessitas praecessit dehinc ornando imò inflando ambitio successit c. saith the Father If the Fathers lived now how would they declaim against the luxury of these our dayes Shall I invite your eyes to look back upon the face of Antiquity and shew you what commentary their Practice made upon their Pater Noster and what they esteemed Bread And behold instead of our soft beds they had only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and usually lodged themselves upon the cold earth Instead of our full tables they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ate dry'd and parcht meats Shall I set before you a Monks feast out of Cassian It is quictly done The cates were Liquamen cum oleo some Lard with Oyl Olives every one three Cicer frictum partch-Pease every one five and dried Figs every one one And these they called trogalia Junkets All which might keep their stomach a work but sure not over-cloy the body Vesci cocto erat luxuria saith St. Hierom To tast of any thing that was boyled was accounted great luxury This was to them for Bread And for that other help of Garments instead of our Silks and Gold and fine Linnens they had melôtas cilicia their sheep-skins and hair-cloth in which they wandred in Dens and Caverns of the earth Tertullian went so far and it may be too far that he thought it was not fit to supplicate God for our sins in costly apparel Num ergò in coccino tyrio supplicare nos condecet saith he Is it fitting think you to pray to God in silk and scarlet Cedo acum crinibus distinguendis Why then bring your crisping-pins and your pomanders wash your bodies in costly baths fill your selves with pleasant meats and luscious Wines and if any man ask you why you do so Deliqui dicito in Deum You must needs make this answer I have offended God and am in danger of eternal death and therefore I thus afflict and torment my self that I may be reconciled to that God whom I have thus offended Thus did that holy Father whip the Luxurie and Looseness of his time For my self I have no power to enact leges sumptuarias laws to restrain any either in their meat or apparel But methinks we cannot take our pattern better than from the purest times from the primitive Christians who contented themselves with those meats quae mortem arcerent delicias non ministrarent which were antidotes against death but no philtra no inticements to wantonness Whose feasts were not only chast but sober Who received their bread with that modesty ut non tam coenam coenarent quà m disciplinam that they seemed rather to have exercised a part of their Christian discipline than to have met together at their refection And as I do not exact from every Christian that Monkish strictness and severity which notwithstanding I am not overhasty to condemn yet the least I can require at your hands is Nyssen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frugality and moderation both in meats and apparel And 1. bespeak you in St. Paul's words that having food and raiment you will be therewith content and 1 Tim. 6. 8. count these as your daily bread For if we regard our bodies and the sustentation of life Bread is enough and to repair this our tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a very small care is sufficient Our Bread is a kind of debt we owe it but we must not pay more then the creditor will take and when we owe it but Bread we must not take our Debt-book and set down Superfluities when we owe it but one measure of wheat take the bill and set down fifty If we would abate our Superfluities in diet and apparel we might have enough for our selves and something to spare for others after we have fed and clad our own bodies sufficiently we might fill the bellies and clothe the backs of our poor brethren and so relieve Christ our Head by supplying the wants of our fellow-members Yea by our sobriety and moderation in the use of these things we shall keep both soul and body in good plight free from those distempers that naturally flow from Excess and Luxurie Munditia vestitûs animae immunditia saith Hierome They who are all for a gay out-side must needs be all foul and nastie within For Nimia corporis cura nimia animi incuria saith another
the mouth he makes it become a cordial in the stomach that so we may say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted And he puts gall and wormwood on Pleasure that we may seek it where it is in his Law and Testimonies that neither Sorrow dismay nor Pleasure deceive us We may truly say The very finger of God is here For it is the work of God to create Good out of Evil and Light out of Darkness which are heterogeneous and of a quite contrary nature For as the Apostle tells us that every creature of God is good being sanctified by the word of God so when God speaks the word even the worst Evil is Good and not to be refused because by this word it is sanctified and set apart and consecrated as a holy thing to holy uses The word of God is as the words of consecration And when he speaks the word then the things of this world receive another nature and new names and have their denomination not from what they appear but from what they do not from their smart but from their end Then that which I call Poverty shall make me rich and that which I esteem Disgrace shall stile me honourable Then the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Then this Affliction this light and momentany affliction shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory And therefore we may behold the blessed Saints of God triumphing in their misery and counting those blows which the wicked roar under as favours and expressions of Gods love John and Peter esteemed it an honour and high preferment and rejoyced as they who are raised from the dunghil to the throne that they were thought worthy to suffer shame And so doth Paul For after he had Act. 5. 41. besought the Lord thrice to be freed from that buffeting of Satan and had 2 Cor. 12. recoverd that answer My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is perfected is made open and manifest in weakness he presently breaksforth into these high triumphant expressions Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me So rest upon me that no evil may rest upon me to hurt me that I may have a feeling and a comfortable experimental knowledge of it For this I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong My opinion is alterd my thoughts are not the same my judgment is divers from what it was That which was terrible to my Sense is pleasing to my Reason That which was Persecution is a Blessing That which was a Serpent is a Rod to work wonders and forward my deliverance Nova rerum facies There appears a new face and shape of things as there doth to a man who is removed out of a dungeon into the light And as Plato tells us that when the Soul is delivered from the Body for we may call even Death it self a deliverance it doth find a strange alteration and things in the next world divers from what they were in this so when the Soul is delivered from Sin every thing appears to us in another shape Pleasure without its paint and Sorrow without its smart The Devil is not an Angel of light but a Devil a Lion a Serpent a Destroyer in what shape soever he puts-on Oppidum mihi carcer solitudo paradisus saith St. Hierom A City is a prison and the Wilderness a paradise The waters of Affliction break-in but the bloud of Christ is mingled with them Here is the gall of bitterness but the power of Christ works with it and it is sweeter than hony or the hony-comb For this cause I am wel pleased in infirmities I am saith St. Paul so far from desiring to be freed from them that I take Christs word as a kiss and think it best with me when it is worst Let him handle me how he will so he fling me not out of his hands For if I be in his hands though the World frown and the Devil rage yet his hand will be exalted and his mighty power will be eminent in my weakness If God be with us no Evil can be against us Therefore the Apostle calleth Affliction a gift To you saith he it is given not onely to believe on him but also to suffer for his Phil. 1. 29. sake not forced upon you as a punishment but vouchsafed you as a gift We mistake when we call it evil It is a donative and a largess from a royal Prince to his Souldiers who have stood it out manfully and quit themselves well in the day of battel When men have been careful in their waies and have been upright and sincere towards God in all their conversation then God doth grace and honour them by making them champions for his truth and putting them upon the brunt He doth not lend or sell them to calamities but appoints it to them as an office as a high place of dignity as a Captains place a Witnesses place a Helpers place And how great an honour is it to fight and die for the Truth How great an honour is it to be a Witness for God and to help the Lord First God crowneth us with his grace and favour and then by the Grace of God we are what we are holy and just and innocent before him and then he crowns our Innocency with another crown the crown of Martyrdom Quarta perennis erit And at last he crowns us with that everlasting crown of Glory This is truly to be delivered from all evil to be delivered that it may not hurt us and to be delivered that it may help us But we have run too long in generalities we must be more particular For I fear we do not thus understand it nor pray to be delivered in this manner or if we do quod voto volumus affectu nolumus our affections do not follow our prayers When we think of Smart and Sorrow we are all for Gods Preventing grace to step in between us and the Evil that it come not near us not for his Assisting grace by which we may change its nature and make it good unto us for his Effective providence which may remove it out of sight not for his Permissive by which he suffers it to approach near unto us to set upon us and fight against us and put us to the tryal of our strength But beloved we must joyn them both together or else we do not put up our petitions aright We must desire Health for it self but be content with Physick for Healths sake We must look upon Evil and present it before our eyes as our Saviour in that fearful hour did Gods Wrath towards mankind not yet appeased and Death in its full strength and Hell not yet mastered by any and then on the other side a World to be saved
and a Conquest to be gotten troubled at the one and yet upon the sight of the other concluding Not my will but thine be done And though the powers of our soul be shaken at the sight of these dreadful objects yet submit we our Desires and Fears to Gods most holy Will that as Christ so we may have some Angel some message of joy to comfort us in this our Agony But to descend to particulars First when we pray to be delivered from evil we acknowledge that God hath jus pleni dominii such a full power over us that he may if he please without any injustice deliver us up unto Satan as he did Job to be smitten from the sole of the foot unto the crown that he may withdraw his blessings and make us smart under the cross Peradventure we cannot see any thing in our selves to raise this storm For Affliction is not alwayes poena criminis a punishment for sin but sometimes examen virtutis a tryal of our virtue and patience I must not take every Calamity that comes towards me as a Sergeant to arrest me or as an Executioner to torment me but sometimes as a Schoolmaster to teach me as a Friend to admonish me as an Adversary indeed but sent only to me to try my skill Therefore as St. Augustine tells us that we do not pray NE TENTEMUR That we may not be tempted but NE INDUCAMUR that we be not led into tentation so led that we be shut up in it and swallowed up in victory so neither do we pray that no evil may befall us but that nothing may befall us which may make us evil which being evil to our Sense may be evil to our Souls that God would deliver us from them that they prove not unto us occasions of our destruction We are all to pray to God that he would take from us the occasion of Sin whether it be convenient or repugnant to our nature and constitution whether it be that which our Sense esteemeth good or evil For the Devil lurketh in both and he works upon us according to our tempers and complexions Some he overthrows with Sickness others with Health some with Liberty others with Imprisonment some with Honour others with Disgrace some with Pleasure others with Grief And that may be poyson to one which is physick to another That may distract the Melancholick man which may instruct the Wanton that Musick may bring an evil spirit on the one which may make it depart from the other He that is the worse for Health may be the better for Sickness For the Devil makes all of these occasions of sin and sends them forth as the Historian sayes your Mariners do their Scaphae or ship-boats to view the strength of the enemy or as Moses did the Spies into the land of Canaan and where he finds us weakest there he goes-up at once to possess and overcome it In us are the seeds of Good and Evil and he strives to choke-up the one that they shoot not up into the blade and ear and he waters the other with these occasions that they may grow-up and multiply He presents sad and lothsome objects to the Melancholick to make him mad and every day he renews his pleasures to the Wanton to make him licentious Miserable men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Certainly the best means of deliverance is to be restrained from that which will hurt us to be placed in such a station and state of life as is best for us to have those objects presented oftnest unto our eyes which are contrary not so much to our disease as to the cause of it That the Wanton may be delivered he must have his Eye put-out And to scatter that darkness which hath clouded the Melancholick person there must be light The Licentious person must be put in chains and the Covetous person must be robbed of his wealth Turn away my eyes saith the Prophet Psal 119. 37. David that they behold not vanity And why from beholding it Doth the very sight of Vanity make us guilty of it Or am I strait an adulterer but for a sight of a strumpet or an Achan if I but see a wedge of Gold Not so but yet turn away mine eyes for Vanity may pass from the Eye into the Heart I may look and like and at last be in love with Vanity For the Eye is as a burning-glass and if you hold it stedy betwixt the splendor of Beauty or any other shining temptation and the combustible matter of your Heart the rayes will unite and grow strong and a fire will be struck into your soul which will not so easily be quencht as it might have been avoided The same operation hath every occasion to that Sense it works upon An evil Word is first heard and then clothed and warmed in our thoughts and then it spreads its poyson and corrupts our manners The lip of the Harlot pleases at first but being tasted bites like a cockatrice Nay further yet the frequent presentment of objects may work upon those natures which are not as yet inclinable to them Tully tells us that the many spectacles of cruelty which every day shewed themselves did work upon the dispositions of the meekest men and made them cruel So increase of Riches may make a prodigal man covetous Too much Sorrow may distract a Philosopher The sight of Pleasure may corrupt a Saint Liberty may undo us and a power to do what we list may make us do what otherwise we had never thought on When Locusta at the command of Nero had tempered poyson and it had not wrought so suddenly as he expected upon Britannicus the Emperour beat her with his own hand And when she told him it was her art to conceal it and take off the envy from the fact he scornfully replyes SANE LEGEM JULIAM TIMEO What do you think I am afraid of the Julian Law against murderers Certainly Nero had not been such a miscreant had he feared that Law and would have been a better Subject than he was a King How happy had it been for the rich man in the Gospel had he been a begger How many might have been beholding to a Fever to Poverty to Disgrace who lost themselves in their health in plenty in honor Therefore St. Augustine commends that saying of Tully concerning Cinna O miserum cui peccare licebat Unhappy man who had a protection from punishment and a licence to do what he list Here then there is need of Gods Restraining Grace and we have reason to pray that God would remove from us whatsoever may prove an occasion of evil whether it flatter in a pleasant or threaten in a dreadful object But in the next place because we are Men not Angels and converse on earth where is officina tentationum a shop where the Devil forgeth his terrors and his allurements his fearful and his pleasing tentations we send