made themselues by Apostacie the children of Beliall The third is blessed and neuer to bee forfeited This is a happy aduancement that the daughter of Sion is made the daughter of God whom his equall and eternal sonne hath vouchsafed to marry It was no smal preferment in Dauids oÌ„pinion by wedding Saules daughter to bee made sonne in Law to a King how farre higher doth the Churches honour transcend that by marrying the sonne of God is made daughter in Law to the King of Kinges Specially when this bond is indissoluble by the hand of death vncancellable by the sentence of man vndiuorceable by any defect or default in the Spouse for hee that chose her to himselfe will preserue her from all cause why hee may not take pleasure in her beauty And as Christ now in heauen dwels with his Church on earth by grace so shee though partly now on earth dwels with him in heauen all her members being Burgesses of that celestiall Corporation Since animus est vbâ—amat non vbâ—animat Our conuersation is in heauen whence also wee looke for the Sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ. Thus Augustine Et ille adhuc deorsum est noâ— iam sâ—â—sum His mercies are still descending to vs our affections ascending to him The desires of the faithfull Spouse are with her Beloued Such is the insolubility of that misticall vnion which no eloquence of man can expresse no violence of diuels shal suppresse Therefore ascendamus interim corde vt sequamur corpore let vs send vp our affections before that our persons may follow after As Christ hath sent thee downe his spirit as a pawne and pledge of this assurance so doe thou send him vp thy heart for a token of thy acceptance yea of thy hopefull expectation and desire to bee with him Minus anima promisit se Christo quae non praemisit se Christo that soule hath nothing lesse then vowed it selfe to Christ that houers and hankers about the world and is loath to come at him This is ineffable inestimable happines Hence the daughter of Israel vnderstand me not topically but typically not Israel in the flesh but the Israel of God children of that Ierusalem which is aboue or at least from aboue doth apportion all the riches of her Husband If it be vox amici Tuus sum totus the voyce of a friend I am wholy thine it is more liuingly more louingly vox mariti the speech of a husband The Bride among the heathen on the first day of her marriage challenged of the Bridegroome vbi tu Caius ego Câ—â—â— where you are Master I must be mistresse Mariage is a strong bond by Gods ordinance and knowes no other methode but composition God that increation made two of one by marriage made one of two Hence the Daughter of Israell is made one with the sonne of God by an vnion which the heart may feele but no art describe Those gracious and glorious riches which the master of all the world is proprietarie of are in some sort communicate toys His righteousnes holinesse obedience satisfaction expiation inheritance is made ours as our sinne sorrow suffrings death and damnation were made his not by transfusion but by imputation His sorrow paine passion for vs was so heauy so grieuous so pearcing such a Sic that all the world could not match it with a Sicâ—t Our ioy by him is so gracious shall be so glorious that pro qualitate pro aequalitate nihil in comparationem admâ—titur for quality for quantity it refuseth all comparison Oh blessed mutation blessed mutuation â— what wee had ill and what had wee but ill wee changed it away for his good what he hath good and what other nature can come from goodnesse it selfe we happily enioy vel in esse vel in posse either in possession or assurance Our Sauiour died our death that we might liue his life He suffered our hell to bring vs to his heauen It is somewhat not vnworthy the noting that Filia dicitur non filiae Israel is called by the name of daughter not of daughters Sion hath but one daughter The whole people is vnica quia vnita As she is one shee must be at one not â—arring not repugnant to her selfe Confusion belongs to Babel Let peace dwell in the Pallaces of Ierusalem They are refractary spirits vnworthy to dwell in the Daughter of Sions house that are euer in preparation for separation from her The Church consists of a Communion of Saints an vnited Flocke vnder one sheepheard not a company of stragling sheepe getting schisme forgetting their chrisme the vnity of the spirit that makes men bee of one mind in one house But as the spirits in man cease to quicken any member sundred from the body and the scattered bones in Ezechiels vision receiued no life till they were incorporate into a body So the spirit of God which is anima corporis the soule of his mysticall body forbeares the derivation of grace and comfort to those that cut off themselues from it Shee is one vna vnica that is mother of vs all Though there bee threescore Queenes and fourescore Concubines and virgines without number yet my doue my vndefiled is but one shee is the onely one of her mother the choice one of her that bare her There is one body many members 1. Cor. 12. The eye must not quarrell with the hand nor the head with the foot If we be one against another let vs beware least God be against all We haue one Lord whose Liuery is Loue Iohn 15. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if yee haue loue one to another whose doctrine is peace Ephes. 2. He preached peace to you that were farre off and to them that were nigh Let vs then serue him professing one truth with one heart It is wretched when sects vie number with Cities and there are so many creedes as heads Qui conaÌ„tur vel corrumpere fidem vel disrumpere charitatem who striue either to corrupt faith or dissolue charitie none performing his function without faction It is testified of those pure and primitiue times that the multitude of them that beleeued were of one heart and of one soule One mind in many bodies Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in vnitie sayth the Psalmist when inter multa corpora non multa corda as August-sweetly when among diuers men there are not diuers minds Sic viuentes in vnum vt vnum bominem faciant so louing and liuing together in one that they all make but as it were one man There is no knot of loue so sure as that which Religion ties It is able to draw together East and West sea and land and make one of two of ten of thousands of all This is that which gathereth the saints together not to a locall but misticall vnion whereby they are
â—oâ—le and full of corruption that there could no temptation be shot from vs to wound the breast of Christ with loue Sported wee were and nothing but nakednesse was left to couer vs sicke but without care of our own cure deformed and luxate with the persecution of vanities quadrupedated with an earthly stooping groping groucling couetousnes not onely spotted and speckled in concretâ— but spots and blemishes in abstracto pollution it selfe As Micah cals Ierusalem and Samaria not pecâ—antes but peccata What is the transgression of Iacob Is it not Samaria and what are the high places of Iudah are they not Ierusalem Or as Lucan speakes of the wounded body Totum est pro vulnere corpus The whole body is as one wound Bloud touched bloud and sore broke out into sore all vleers were coagulated into one by a generall rupture that euen our righteousnes was as filthy ragges Oh then how vgly were our sinnes If olde iniquities could prouoke or new ones reuoke his fauour we had store to tempt him If the raw and bleeding wounds of voluntary sinnes if the halting foote of neuterality the bleare eye of ignorance the eare deafe to his word the tongue dumbe in his praise if the sullen brow of auersenesse or the stinking breath of hypocrisie if these could inflame his loue â—oe our beautie What moued thee then Oh Sauiour to loue vs besides the incomprehensible delight and infinite content which God hath in himselfe thousands of Angels stand about him and ten thousands of those glorious spirits minister vnto him What then is man Lord that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest account of him the meditation of Saint Augustine is pertinent to this consideration and what sonne of man may not confesse it with him Neque enim equistime aut egotale bonumsum quo tu adiâ—veris nec minor sit potestas tun carens obsequio men Neither didst thou lacke me Oh Lord nor was there that good in me whereby thou mightest bee helped neyther is thy power lessened through the want of my seruice If wee had been good yet God needed vs not being bad whence ariseth his loue what a roughnesse of soule findest thou Oh Christ when thoâ— embracest vs what deformity when thou beholdest vs what stinch of sinne when thou kuâ—est when thou discoursest what rotten speeches drop from vs when thou takest vs into thy garden what contrariety of affection to thy expectation our embraces haue been rougher then thy crosses our persecutions like vineger hidden in the spunge of our sacrifices our words swordes our oathes as bitter as crucifige our kisses haue been treasonable to thee as Iudas his our contempts thy thornes our oppressions a speare to gore thy side and wound thy bowels Such was our kindenesse to thee Oh blessed Redeemer when thou offeredst thy selfe to vs and to the Father for vs The best thing in vs yea in the best man of vs had nothing of merite nothing neere it Our wages is death thy gift is life bona naturae melior gratiae optima gloriae Thou gauest vs a good life of nature thou gauest vs a better of grace thou wilt giue vs the best of glory Whether it bee pro via or pro vita for the way or the end it is thy gratuitall goodnesse who hast promised of thy mercy both donaere bonatua condonare mala nostra both to giue vs thy good things and to forgiue vs our euill things Wee had miserie from our parents and haue beene parents of our owne greater misery Miseri miserum in hanc lucis miseriam 〈◊〉 Miserable parents haue brought sorth a miserable offspring into the misery of this world And for our selues euen when we were young in yeares wee had an 〈◊〉 about vs Tantillus pâ—er tantus pecâ—â—tor A little child a great sinner Sic generant pater 〈…〉 regeneraâ—â—nt pâ—ter caâ—sstis So wretched our generation left vs so blessed our regeneration hath mad vs. So beggerly were wee till Christ enriched vs. If you aske still what moued Christ I answere his owne free mercy working on our great miserie A fit obiect for so infinite a goodnes to worke on He was not now to part a sea or bring water out of a Rocke or raine Bread from heauen but to conquer Death by death to breake the head of the Leuiathan to ransom captiues from the power of hel to satisfie his owne iustice for sinne and all this by giuing his owne Sonne to die for vs by making him man who was the maker of man This was dignus vindice nodus a worke worth the greatnesse and goodnesse of God Decet enâ—m magnum magna facere For it becommeth him that is Allmighty to doe mighty works Thus to make the Daughter of Ierusalem faire cost the Sonne of God the effusion of his bloud This giues vs strong consolation Qui dilexit pollutos non deseret politos He that loued vs when we were not when we were nought will not now loose vs whom he hath bought with his death interessed to his life Hauing loued his own which were in the world hee loued them vnto the end vsque ad finem nay absque fine vnto the end in the end without end Hee will not neglect Dauid in the Throne that did protect him in the folde He that visited Zacheus a sinner will not forsake him a Saint If he bore affection to vs in our ragges his loue will not leaue vs when highted with his righteousnesse and shining with his rewels If Ruth were louely in the eyes of Boâ—z gleaning after the Reapers what is shee made Mistresse of the Haruest Hee neuer meant to loose vs that laide out his bloud to purchase vs. Sathan hath no tricke to deceiue him of vs vs of him As hee had no power to preuent the first so none against the second Redemption Christ was Agnus in passione but Leo in Râ—surrectione a lambe suffering death but a Lion rising from death If he could saue vs being a Lambe hee will not suffer vs to bee lost being a Lion Feare not thou daughter of Sion he that chose thee sicke sinneful rebellious will preserue thee sound holy his friend his Spouse There is neyther death nor life nor principalâ—itie nor power nor hâ—â—ght nor depth that shall bee able to separate vs from his loue or plucke vs out of the armes of his mercy But tremble yee wicked if yee haue not fought in his Campe you shal neuer shine in his Court. To presse this point too farre 1. were but to write Iliades after the Homers of our Church 2. Besides there are many that offer to sit downe in this chayre before they come at it and presume of God that they shall not bee forsaken when they are not yet taken into his fauour Enow would bee saued by this priuiledge if there were no more matter in it then the
shaken off till death shall at once deliuer that to death vs to life For though with the mind I delight in the law of God yet I see another law in my members rebelling against the law of my minde and bringing me vnto captiuity to the law of sinne His companie is wearisom his sollicitings tedious to the virgine-daughter of Sion Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee from the bodie of this death I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. So then with the minde we serue the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sinne He will perpetually vrge his sute and not after many reiections be said nay Thy soule cannot be rid of him so long as thou holdest him in any hope of successe And so long he will hope as thou giuest him a cold and timerous deniall Sutours are drawne on with an easie repulse take that as halfe granted that is but faintly opposed In whom this wooer preuailes least he wearles him with importunity till a peremptory answere hath put him out of hart The wauering and weakely-resisting spirit cannot sleepe in the Chamber of quiet whiles innumerable lusts which are the sollicitors and spokesmen of the flesh beate at the dore with their earely knockes pressing more impudently for audience then instruments of villany to Machianell or wronged Clients to an Aduocate Remisse answeres prouoke his fiercer attempts He is shamelesse when he meetes not with a bold heart He thinkes that though Pugnabit primò fortassis improbe dicet Pugnando vinci se tamen illa volet Though at the first the Soule refuse to yeelde Shee meanes on further strife to loose the field Onely resolution can make him giue backe giue ouer His insinuations are many 1. by promises Pollicitis diues He is neither a begger nor a niggard in promising They are the cheapest chaffer a man can part withall 2. By tedious and stintlesse sollicitations as if time could win thee Quid magis est durum saxo quid mollius vnda Dura tamen teneris saxa cauantur aquis The stone is very hard the water soft Yet doth this hollow that by dropping oft As if the strongest sort were not long able to holde out 3. By shadow by reall proffers of friendship Tut a frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen It is a safe and common way by name of friendship to shew false play It was not mine enemy sayth Dauid but my familiar friend that did mee the mischiefe 4. By tendring to the soule pleasing and contentfull obiects as if non vincere possit Flumina si contra quà m rapit vnda naâ—et The flouds would easily master him If he against the streame should swim Therefore he formes his insidious baites to our inclinations diuersifieth his lusts according to the varietie of our humours Hic Procus innumeris moribus aptus crit This Wooer can vary his Protean formes obserue all straines reserue and conceale his owne till hee bee sure that the pill he giues will worke This Sutour is dangerous and preuailes much with the soule a handsome fellow if you plucke off his skin for this saith Saint Iude is spotted all ouer A virgin well natur'd well nurtur'd that sets ought by herselfe will not fasten her loue on a lazar leper or vlcerous Moore Why then Oh why should the soule so heauenly generate thus become degenerate as to wed her affections to the polluted flesh God indeed once married the soule to the body the Celestial to a terrene nature but to the lusts of the body which Paul cals the flesh he neuer gaue his consent This clandestine match was made without the consent of Parents of God our Father of the church our mother therfore most sinnefull most intollerable Cashier then this sawey Sutour who like some riotous yonger brother with some great heire promiseth much both of estate and loue but once married and made Lord of all soone consumes all to our finall vndoing He breakes open the Cabinet of our heart and takes out all the Iewels of our graces and stintes not his lauisning till he hath beggerd vs. This is the third Sutour 4 The last and best and onely worthy to speed is Iesus Christ. What is thy beloued more then another beloued O thou fayrest among women Say forraine Congregations to the Church To whom she answeres My beloued is white and ruddy he hath an exact mixture of the best colours arguments of the purest and healthfullest complexion The chiefest among ten thousand Infinitely fayrer then all the sonnes of men who alone may beare the standerd of comely grace and personall goodlinesse among all His head is as the most fine gold the Deitie which dwelleth in him is most pure and glorious His lockes are curled and blacke as a Rauen his godhead deriuing to his humane nature such wondrous beauty as the blacke curled locks become a fresh and well fauoured countenance His eyes are like doues c. who will let him there reade and regarde his graces His name is as oyntment powred forth therefore doe the Virgins loue him He hath 1 a rich Wardrobe of righteousnesse to apparrell vs 2. a glorious house a City of golde to entertaine vs whose foundation is Iasper and Saphire and such precious stone the least of them richer then ten Escurials 3. His Ioynture is Glory Ioynture I may call it for so we are with him ioin'd heires though not ioyn'd purchasers If the house of this World be so esteem'd wherein God lets his enemies dwell what is the mansion hee hath prouided for himselfe and his Spouse the daughter of Sionâ— 4. His fruition is sweet and blessed ob eminentiam ob permanentiam for perfection for perpetuity a Kingdome and such a one as cannot be shaken which no sinne like a polliticke Papist shal blow vp no sorrow like a turbulent Atheist shal inuade This Sutour is onely beautifull onely bountiful let him possesse your soules which with his bloud he bought out and with his power brought out from Captiuitie for him am I deputed wooer at this time for as though God did beseech you through vs wee pray you in Christes stead bee yee reconciled to God who would faine â— present your soules pure Virgins to Iesus Christ Forbeare the prostitution of them to any rauisher to any sinne For peccare to sinne in the literall word is to commit adulterie quasipellicare id est cum pellice câ—ire Christ layes iust Title to you giue your selues from your selues to him you are not your own vnlesse you be his We haue heard the Daughter of Sion described qua sit let vs now heare cuâ—us sit the daughter of my people saith the Lord. God was pleased with that Title the God of Israel His owne Scriptures frequently giue it him Ierem. 32. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel c. The children are vsually called after the name of then
proper and fit to ingender these sicknesses as these sickenesses are to bring desolution It is our owne worke to make death better then a better life or continuall sicknesse that our meate giues no more sent nor sauour then an offering doth to an Idoll He that sinneth before his maker let him fall into the hands of the Physitian 6 Spirituall sicknesse for sinne is yet farre more perilous and mortall nay well were it for some thus sicke if it were mortall If the disease would decease the soule might reuiue and liue It varies as some diseases doe in the body according to the constitution of the sicke thereafter as the soule is that hath it whether regenerate or reprobate The malignancie is great in both but with far lesse danger in the former 1 In the Elect this spirituall sicknes is an afflicted conscience when God wil suffer vs to take a deepe sense of our sinnes and bring vs to the life of grace through the valley â—f death as it were by hell gates vnto heauen There is no anguish to that in the conscience a wounded spirite who can beare They that haue been valiant in bearing wrongs in forbearing delights haue yet had womannish and cowherd spirits in sustaining the terrors of a tumultuous conscience If our strength were as an army and our landes not limitted saue with East and west if our meat were manâ—a and our garments as the Ephod of Aaron yet the afflicted conscience would refuse to be cheared with all these comforts When God shall raise vp our sinnes like dust and smoake in the eyes of our soules and the arrowes of his displeasure drinke vp our bloud and his terrors seeme to fight against vs when he buffets vs from his presence and eyther hides his countenance from vs or beholds vs with an angry looke loe then if any sicknes be like this sicknes any calamity like the fainting soule Many offences touch the body which extende not to the soule but if the soule be grieued the sympathizing flesh suffers deepely with it The bloud is dried vp the marrow wasted the flesh pined as if the powers and pores of the body opened themselues like so many windowes to discouer the passions of the distressed Prisoner within It was not the sense of outward sufferings for meere men haue borne the agonies of death vndaunted but the wrastling of Gods wrath with his spirite that drew from Christ that complaint able to make heauen and earth stand agast My soule is heauy vnto the death There is comfort euen in death when the clocke of our life runs vpon her last minutes but is there any disease during the torments of a racked conscience This wearisome guest doth God often lodge with his owne children suffring the eye of faith to be shut and the eyes of flesh and bloud open that sorrow is their bread and teares their drinke and the still perplexed mind knows not where to refuse it selfe Alwayes reseruing and and preseruing his Children but neuer dâ—ing grace of his Spirite in their hearts a substance of blâ—ssing 〈◊〉 the oke though it hath cast the leaues though the barrennes of the boughes drines of the barke giue it for dead and withered Faith being in a swoune may draw the breath inwardly not perceiued but destroy it not for there is a blâ—ssing in it Neyther is this sicknesse and trouble of conscience properly good in it selfe nor any grace of God but vsed by God as an instrument of good to his as when by the spirite of bondage he brings vs to adoption So the Needle that drawes the thread through the cloth is some meanes to ioyne it together This is the godly soules sicknesse for sin full of sharpe and bitter ingredients but neuer destitute of a glorious euent and victorious triumph I may say of it as Physitians speake of agues which make a man sicke for a while that hee may bee the sounder a long time after This sickenesse is physicke to procure better health 2 Spirituall sickenesse for sinne in the reprobate hath other effects To restraine their number they principall appeare in two diseases or disasters rather Impenitency and Despaire 1. Impenitencie the symptome of an obdurate and remorselesse heart Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lasciuiousnes to worke all vncleannesse with gredinesse Saint Paul cals it a reprobate minde a death rather then a sickenesse He that labours hereof is rather deceased then diseased This is a heart so hard and impenetrable that all the holy dewes of instructions cannot soften it all the blowes of Gods striking rod put no sense into it It is inuulnerable to any stroke saue that which makes a fatall and finall end with it Thou hast stricken them but they haue not grieued c. It is iust with God but fearefull on whom soeuer this iuâ—gement lights to plague sin with sinne that peccatum sit paena peccantis For there is euermore some precedent impietie in those vngratious persons procuring God to deale thus with them For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue a lie That they all might be damned that beleeued not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse First Pharaoh hardens his owne heart c. God all this while holds his peace giues him the hearing and looking on In the end he saith I will harden Pharaohs heart and then puts yron to yron adamant to adamant and there is perfected a relentlesse repentlesse obduracy This is that retaliation of sinne which God returnes into their bosomes that foster it that since they loued cursing it shall be vnto them So Dauid in the Psalme Though indeed it was not in him Precantis votum but Prophetantis vaticinium he did not desire it should be so but he knew it would be so Adde iniquitieto their iniquitie Neither doth God this by infusion of wickednesse but by substraction of his spirit He is causa deficiens not efficiens as the reuoking of the sunne from vs causeth darkenesse the priuation of grace the position of all vngodlines It is in him not peccatum sed iudicium not sinne but iudgement When he leaues vs to our selues it is no wonder if we fall into horrid and prodigious sinnes Peccatum est malum in se effectum prioris mali causa subsequentis est supplicium causa supplicij Sinne is euill in it selfe the effect of former euill the cause of future It is both punishment it selfe and the cause of punishment In all the store house of Gods plagues there is not a greater vengance With other punishments the body smarteth the soule groneth vnder this Hence sinnes multiply without limits that the plagues may be without end Euery affliction is sore that offends vs but that is direfull which withall offends God Such do at once act and suffer it is both an actiue and a passiue sinne The punishment