I call it the way or the gate of life Sure I am that by it onely wâ— passe into that blessednesse whereof we haue so thought that we haue found it cannot be thought of enough The Description What then is this death but the taking downe of these sticks whereof this earthly Tent is composed The separation of two great and old friends till they meet againe The Gaole-deliuerie of a long prisoner Our iourney into that other world for which wee and this thorow-fare were made Our paiment of our first debt to Nature the sleepe of the body and the awaking of the soule The Diuision But lest thou shouldest seeme to flatter him whose name and face hath euer seemed terrible to others remember that there are more deaths than one If the first death bee not so fearefull as hee is made his horrour lying more in the conceit of the beholder than in his owne aspect surely the second is not made so fearefull as hee is No liuing eye can behold the terrours thereof it is as impossible to see them as to feele them and liue Nothing but a name is common to both The first hath men casualties diseases for his executioners the second Deuils The power of the first is in the graue the second in hell The worst of the first is senslesnesse the easiest of the second is a perpetuall sense of all the paine that can make a man exquisitely miserable The Causes Thou shalt haue no businesse O my soule with the second death Thy first Resurrection hath secured thee Thanke him that hath redeemed thee for thy safetie And how can I thanke thee enough O my Sauiour which hast so mercifully bought off my torment with thy owne and hast drunke off that bitter potion of thy Fathers wrath whereof the very taste had beene our death Yea such is thy mercie O thou Redeemer of men that thou hast not onely subdued the second death but reconciled the first so as thy children taste not at all of the second and finde the first so sweetned to them by thee that they complaine of bitternesse It was not thou O God that madest death our hands are they that were guiltie of this euill Thou sawest all thy worke that it was good we brought forth sinne and sinne brought forth death To the discharge of thy Iustice and Mercie we acknowledge this miserable conception and needs must that childe be vgly that hath such parents Certainly if Being and Good be as they are of an equall extent then the dissolution of our Being must needs in it selfe be euill How ful of darkenesse and horrour then is the priuation of this vitall light especially since thy wisdome intended it to the reuenge of sinne which is no lesse than the violation of an infinite Iustice it was thy iust pleasure to plague vs with this brood of our owne begetting Behold that death which was not till then in the world is now in euery thing one great Conqueror findes it in a Slate another findes it in a Flie one findes it in the kernel of a Grape another in the pricke of a thorne one in the taste of an herbe another in the smell of a flower one in a bit of meat another in a mouthfull of aire one in the very sight of a danger another in the conceit of what might haue beene Nothing in all our life is too little to hide death vnder it There need no cords nor kniues nor swords nor Peeces we haue made our selues as many waies to death as there are helps of liuing But if we were the authors of our death it was thou that didst alter it our disobedience made it and thy mercie made it not to be euill It had beene all one to thee to haue taken away the very Being of death from thine owne but thou thoughtest it best to take away the sting of it onely as good Physicians when they would apply their Leeches scowre them with Salt and Nettles and when their corrupt bloud is voided imploy them to the health of the patient It is more glory to thee that thou hast remoued enmitie from this Esau that now he meets vs with kisses in stead of frownes and if wee receiue a blow from this rough hand yet that very stripe is healing Oh how much more powerfull is thy death than our sinne O my Sauiour how hast thou perfumed and softened this bed of my graue by dying How can it grieue mee to tread in thy steps to glory Our sinne made death our last enemie The Effects thy goodnesse hath made it the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world For as shee that receiues vs from the knees of our mother in our first entrance to the light washeth cleanseth dresseth vs and presents vs to the brest of our nurse or the armes of our mother challenges some interest in vs when we come to our growth so death which in our passage to that other life is the first that receiues and presents our naked soules to the hands of those Angels which carry it vp to her glorie cannot but thinke this office friendly and meritorious What if this guide leade my carcase through corruption and rottennesse when my soule in the very instant of her separation knowes it selfe happy What if my friends mourne about my bed and coffin when my soule sees the smiling face and louing embracements of him that was dead and is aliue What care I who shuts these earthen eyes when death opens the eye of my soule to see as I am seene What if my name be forgotten of men when I liue aboue with the God of Spirits If death would be still an enemie The Subiect it is the worst part of mee that he hath any thing to doe withall the best is aboue his reach and gaines more than the other can leese The worst peece of the horrour of death is the graue and set aside infidelitie what so great miserie is this That part which is corrupted feeles it not that which is free from corruption feeles an abundant recompence and foresees a ioyfull reparation What is here but a iust restitution We carry heauen and earth wrapt vp in our bosomes each part returnes homeward And if the exceeding glory of heauen cannot countetuaile the dolesomnesse of the graue what doe I beleeuing But if the beautie of that celestiall Sanctuarie doe more than equalize the horrour of the bottomlesse pit how can I shrinke at earth like my selfe when I know my glorie And if examples can moue thee any whit looke behinde thee O my soule and see which of the Worthies of that ancient latter world which of the Patriarchs Kings Prophets Apostles haue not trod in these red steps Where are those millions of generations which haue hitherto peopled the earth How many passing-bels hast thou heard for they knowne friends How many sicke beds hast thou visited How many eies hast thou seene closed
salute those Cherubims to welcome that God whose absence had beene their death But as it is hard not to ouer-ioy in a sudden prosperity and to vse happinesse is no lesse difficult then to forbeare it These glad Israelites cannot see but they must gaze they cannot gaze on the glorious out-side but they must be whether out of rude iollity or curiositie or suspition of the purloining some of those sacred implements prying into the secrets of Gods Arke Nature is too subiect to extremities and is euer either too dull in want or wanton in fruition It is no easie matter to keepe a meane whether in good or euill Bethshemesh was a City of Priests they should haue knowne better how to demeane themselues towards the Arke this priuiledge doubled their offence There was no malice in this curious inquisition the same eyes that lookt into the Arke lookt also vp to heauen in their Offerings and the same hands that touched it offered sacrifice to the God that brought it Who could expect any thing now but acceptation who would suspect any danger It is not a following act of deuotion that can make amends for a former sinne There was a death owing them immediately vpon their offence God will take his owne time for the execution In the meane while they may sacrifice but they cannot satisfie they cannot escape The Kine are sacrificed the Cart burnes them that drew it Here was an offering of prayse when they had more need of a trespasse-offering many an heart is lifted vp in a conceit of ioy when it hath iust cause of humiliation God lets them alone with their Sacrifice but when that is done he comes ouer them with a backe reckoning for their sinne Fifty thousand and seuenty Israelites are strucke dead for this vnreuerence to the Arke A wofull welcome for the Arke of God into the borders of Israel It killed them for looking into it who thought it their life to see it It dealt blowes and death on both hands to Philistims to Israelites to both of them for prophaning it The one with their Idoll the other with their eyes It is a fearfull thing to vse the holy Ordinances of God with an vnreuerent boldnesse Feare and trembling becomes vs in our accesse to the Maiesty of the Almighty Neither was there more state then secresie in Gods Arke some things the wisedome of God desires to conceale The vnreuerence of the Israelites was no more faulty then their curiosity secret things to God things reuealed to vs and to our children The remoue of the Arke I Heare of the Bethshemites lamentation I heare not of their repentance they complaine of their smart they complaine not of their sinne and for ought I can perceiue speake as if God were curious rather then they faulty Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he goe from vs As if none could please that God which misliked them It is the fashion of naturall men to iustifie themselues in their owne courses if they cannot charge any earthly thing with the blame of their suffering they will cast it vpon Heauen That a man pleads himselfe guiltie of his owne wrong is no common worke of Gods Spirit Bethshemesh bordered too neere vpon the Philistims If these men thought the very presence of the Arke hurtfull why do they send to their neighbours of Kiriath-iearim that they might make themselues miserable Where there is a misconceit of God it is no maruell if there be a defect of Charity How cunningly doe they send their message to their neighbours They doe not say the Arke of God is come to vs of it owne accord lest the men of Kiriath-iearim should reply It is come to you let it stay with you They say onely the Philistims haue brought it they tell of the presence of the Arke they doe not tell of the successe lest the example of their iudgement should haue discouraged the forwardnesse of their reliefe And after all the offer was plausible Come ye downe and take it vp to you as if the honour had been too great for themselues as if their modestie had beene such that they would not forestall and engrosse happinesse from the rest of Israel It is no boot to teach Nature how to tell her owne tale smart and danger will make a man wittie He is rarely constant that will not dissemble for ease It is good to be suspitious of the euasions of those which would put off miserie Those of Bethshemesh were not more craftie then these of Kiriath-iearim which was the ground of their boldnesse faithfull So many thousand Bethshemites could not be dead and no part of the rumour flie to them They heard how thicke not onely the Philistims but the bordering Israelites fell downe dead before the Arke yet they durst aduenture to come and fetch it euen from amongst the carcasses of their brethren They had beene formerly acquainted with the Arke they knew it was holy it could not be changeable and therefore they well conceiued this slaughter to arise from the vnholinesse of men not from the rigour of God and thereupon can seeke comfort in that which others found deadly Gods children cannot by any meanes bee discouraged from their honour and loue to his Ordinances If they see thousands strucke downe to Hell by the Scepter of Gods Kingdome yet they will kisse it vpon their knees and if their Sauiour be a rocke of offence and the occasion of the fall of millions in Israel they can feed temperately of that whereof others haue surfeted to death c. Bethshemesh was a Citie of Priests and Leuits Kiriath-iearim a Citie of Iuda where wee heare but of one Leuit Abinabab yet this Citie was more zealous for God more reuerent and conscionable in the entertainment of the Arke then the other Wee heard of the taking downe of the Arke by the Bethshemites when it came miraculously to them we doe not heare of any man sanctified for the attendance of it as was done in this second lodging of the Arke Grace is not tied either to number or meanes It is in spirituall matters as in the estate Small helpes with good thrift enrich vs when great patrimonies lose themselues in the neglect Shiloh was wont to be the place which was honoured with the presence of the Arke Euer since the wickednesse of Elies Sonnes that was forlorne and desolate and now Kiriath-iearim succeeds into this priuiledge It did not stand with the royall liberty of God no not vnder the Law to tie himselfe vnto places and persons Vnworthinesse was euer a sufficient cause of exchange It was not yet his time to stirre from the Iewes yet he remoued from one Prouince to another Lesse reason haue we to thinke that so God will reside amongst vs that none of our prouocations can driue him from vs c. Israel which had found the misery of Gods absence is now resolued into teares of contrition and
riuers of Brimstone that feed this flame where there is no intermission of complaints no breathing from paine and after millions of yeeres no possibility of comfort And if the rod wherewith thou chastisest thy children O Lord euen in this life be so smart and galling that they haue beene brought downe to the brim of despaire and in the bitternesse of their soule haue intreated death to release them What shall I thinke of their plagues in whose righteous confusion thou insultest and saiest Aha I will auenge mee of mine enemies Euen that thou shalt not be thus miserable O my soule is some kinde of happinesse but that thou shalt be as happy as the reprobate are miserable how worthy is it of more estimation than thy selfe is capable of CHAP. XXV 8 Of comparisons and similitudes whereby it may be most fitly set forth AFter this opposition the minde shall make comparison of the matter meditated with what may neerest resemble it and shall illustrate it with fittest similitudes which giue no small light to the vnderstanding nor lesse force to the affection Wonder then O my soule as much as thou canst at this glory and in comparison thereof contemne this earth which now thou treadest vpon whose ioyes if they were perfect are but short and if they were long are imperfect One day when thou art aboue looking downe from the height of thy glory and seeing the sonnes of men creeping like so many Ants on this Mole-hill of earth thou shalt thinke Alas how basely I once liued Was yonder silly dungeon the place I so loued and was so loth to leaue Thinke so now before hand and since of heauen thou canst not yet account of thy earth as it is worthy How heartlesse and irkesome are yee O yee best earthly pleasures if ye be matched with the least of those aboue How vile are you O yee sumptuous buildings of Kings euen if all the entrailes of the earth had agreed to enrich you in comparison of this frame not made with hands It is not so high aboue the earth in distance of place as in worth and Maiesty Wee may see the face of Heauen from the heart of the earth but from the neerest part of the earth who can see the least glory of Heauen The three Disciples on Mount Tabor saw but a glimpse of this glory shining vpon the face of their Sauiour and yet being rauished with the sight cried out Master it is good being here and thinking of building of three Tabernacles for Christ Moses Elias could haue beene content themselues to haue lien without shâ—lter so they might alwaies haue enioyed that sight Alas how could earthly Tabernacles haue fitted those heauenly bodies They knew what they saw what they said they knew not Loe these three Disciples were not transfigured yet how deeply they were affected euen with the glory of others How happy shall we be when our selues shall be changed into glorious and shall haue Tabernacles not of our owne making but prepared for vs by God and yet not Tabernacles but eternall Mansions Moses saw God but a while and shined how shall we shine that shall behold his face for euer What greater honour is there than in Soueraignty What greater pleasure than in feasting This life is both a Kingdome and a feast A Kingdome Hee that ouercomes shall rule the Nations and shall sit with me in my Throne O blessed promotion Oh large dominion and royall seast to which Salomons Throne of Yuory was not worthy to become a foot-stoole A feast Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage-supper of the Lambe Feasts haue more than necessity of prouision more than ordinary diet but marriage-feasts yet more than common abundance but the Marriage-feast of the Sonne of God to his blessed Spoâ—fe the Church must so farre exceed in all heauenly munificence and variety as the persons are of the greater state and Maiesty There is new wine pure Manna and all manner of spirituall dainties and with the continuall cheere a sweet and answerable welcome while the Bridegroome louingly cheereth vs vp Eat O friends drinke and make you merry O welbeloued yea there shalt thou be my soule not a guest but how vnworthy soeuer the Bride her selfe whom he hath euerlastingly espoused to himselfe in truth and righteousnesse The contract is passed here below the marriage is consummate aboue and solemnized with a perpetuall feast so that now thou maist safety say My welbeloued is mine and I am his Wherefore hearken O my soule and consider and incline thine eare forget also thine owne people and thy fathers house thy supposed home of this world so shall the King haue pleasure in thy beauty for hee is the Lord and worship thou him CHAP. XXVI THe very Names and Titles of the matter considered 9 The Titles and Names of the thing considered yeeld no small store to our Meditation which being commonly so imposed that they secretly comprehend the nature of the thing which they represent are not vnworthy of our discourse What need I seeke those resemblances when the very name of life implieth sweetnesse to wâ—â—â— on earth euen to them which confesse to liue with some discontentment Surely the light is a pleasant thing and it is good to the eies to see the Sunne yet when Temporall is added to Life I know not how this addâ—tion detracteth something and doth greatly abate the pleasure of Life for those which â—oy to thinke of Life grieue to thinke it but Temporall so vexing is the end of that whose continuance was delightfull But now when there is an addition aboue Time of Eternity it maketh life so much more sweet as it is most lasting and lasting infinitely what can it giue lesse than an infinite contentment Oh dying and false life which wee enioy here and scarce a shadow and counterfeit of that other What is more esteemed than glory which is so precious to men of spirit that it makes them prodigall of their bloud proud of their wounds careblesse of themselues and yet alas how pent how fading is this glory affected with such dangers and death hardly after all Trophees and monuments either knowne to the next Sea or suruiuing him that dieth for it It is true glory to triumph in heauen where is neither enuy nor forgetfulnes What is more deare to vs than our Country which the worthy and faithfull Patriots of all times haue respected aboue their parents their Children their lines counting it only happy to liue in it and to die for it The banisht man pines for the want of it the traueller digesteth all the tediousnesse of his way all the sorrowes of an ill iourney in the onely hope of home forgetting all his forraine miseries when he feeleth his owne smoke Where is our Country but aboue Thence thou camest O my soule thither thou art going in a short but weary pilgrimage O miserable men if we account our selues at home in our pilgrimage if
a few should be the aduantage of many soules Tho why doe I speake of losse I speake that as your feare not my owne and your affection causeth that feare rather then the occasion The God of the Haruest shall send you a Labourer more able as carefull That is my prayer and hope and shall be my ioy I dare not leaue but in this expectation this assurance What-euer become of me it shall be my greatest comfort to heare you commend your change and to see your happy progresse in those waies I haue both shewed you and beaten So shall we meet in the end and neuer part Written to Mr. J. B. and Dedicated to my Father Mr. J. Hall EP. X. Against the feare of Death YOu complaine that you feare death He is no man that doth not Besides the paine Nature shrinks at the thought of parting If you would learn the remedy know the cause for that she is ignorant and faithlesse Shee would not be cowardly if she were not foolish Our feare is from doubt and our doubt is from vnbeleefe and whence is our vnbeleefe but chiefly frō ignorance She knowes not what good is elsewhere she beleeues not her part in it Get once true knowledge true faith your feare shal vanish alone Assurance of heauenly things makes vs willing to part with earthly He cannot contemn this life that knowes not the other If you would despise earth therfore think of heauen If you would haue death easie thinke of that glorious life that followes it Certainly if we can endure paine for health much more should we abide a few pangs for glory Thinke how fondly we feare a vanquisht enemy Loe Christ hath triumpht ouer Death he bleedeth and gaspeth vnder vs and yet we tremble It is enough to vs that Christ dyed neyther would he haue dyed but that we might dye with safety and pleasure Thinke that death is necessarily annexed to nature We are for a time on condition that we shall not be wee receiue life but vpon the termes of re-deliuery Necessity makes some things easie as it vsually makes easie things difficult It is a fond iniustice to imbrace the couenant and shrinke at the condition Thinke there is but one common rode to all flesh There are no by-paths of any fairer or nearer way no not for Princes Euen company abateth miseries and the commonnesse of an euill makes it lesse fearefull What worlds of men are gone before vs yea how many thousands out of one field How many Crownes and Scepters lye piled vp at the gates of Death which their owners haue left there as spoiles to the conqueror Haue we been at so many graues so oft seene our selues dye in our friends and doe we shrinke when our course commeth Imagine you alone were exempted from the common law of mankind or were condemned to Methusalahs age assure your selfe death is not now so fearefull as your life would then be wearisome Thinke not so much what Death is as from whom he comes and for what We receiue euen homely messengers from great persons not without respect to their masters And what matters it who he be so he bring vs good newes What newes can be better than this That God sends for you to take possession of a Kingdome Let them feare Death which know him but as a pursuiuant sent from hell whom their conscience accuseth of a life wilfully filthy and bindes-ouer secretly to condemnation We know whither we are going and whom we haue beleeued Let vs passe on cheerfully through these blacke gates vnto our glory Lastly know that our improuidence onely addes terror vnto death Thinke of death and you shall not feare it Doe you not see that euen Beares and Tygres seem not terrible to those that liue with them How haue we seene their keepers sport with them when the beholders durst scarce trust their chaine Be acquainted with Death though he looke grimme vpon you at first you shall finde him yea you shall make him a good companion Familiarity cannot stand with feare These are receits enow Too much store doth rather ouer-whelme than satisfie Take but these and I dare promise you security EPISTLES THE SECOND DECAD BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE SECOND DECAD To Sir ROBERT DARCY EP. I. The estate of a true but weake Christian IF you aske how I fare Sometimes no man better and if the fault were not mine owne Alwayes Not that I can command health and bid the world smile when I list How possible is it for a man to be happy without these yea in spight of them These things can neyther augment nor impaire those comforts that come from aboue What vse what sight is there of the starres when the Sunne shines Then onely can I finde my selfe happy when ouer-looking these earthly things I can fetch my ioy from heauen I tell him that knowes it the contentments that earth can afford her best Fauourites are weake imperfect changeable momentany and such as euer end in complaint Wee sorrow that wee had them and while wee haue them we dare not trust them Those from aboue are full and constant What an heauen doe I feele in my selfe when after many trauerses of meditation I find in my hart a feeling possession of my God! When I can walke and conuerse with the God of heauen not without an opennesse of heart and familiarity When my soule hath caught fast and sensible hold of my Sauiour and either pulls him downe to it selfe or rather lifts vp it selfe to him and can and dare secretly auouch I know whom I haue beleeued When I can looke vpon all this inferior creation with the eies of a stranger am transported to my home in my thoughts solacing my selfe in the view meditation of my future glory and that present of the Saints When I see wherefore I was made and my conscience tells me I haue done that for which I came done it not so as I can boast but so as it is accepted while my weaknesses are pardoned and my acts measured by my desires and my desires by their sincerity Lastly when I can finde my selfe vpon holy resolution made firme and square fit to entertaine all euents the good with moderate regard the euill with courage and patience both with thankes strongly setled to good purposes constant and cheerfull in deuotion and in a word ready for God yea full of God Sometimes I can be thus and pity the poore and miserable prosperity of the godlesse and laugh at their moneths of vanity and sorrow at my owne But then againe for why should I shame to confesse it the world thrusts it selfe betwixt me and heauen and by his darke and indigested parts eclipseth that light which shined to my soule Now a senslesse dulnesse ouertakes me and besots me my lust to deuotion is little my ioy none at all Gods face is hid and I am troubled Then I begin
steps of death And doe we thinke much to follow him How many seruants haue vvee knowne that haue thrust themselues betwixt their Master and death vvhich haue dyed that their Master might not dye and shall vve repine to die vvith ours How truely may vve say of this our Dauid Thou art worth ten thousand of vs yea vvorth a world of Angels yet he died and dyed for vs. Who would liue that knowes his Sauiour died who can be a Christian and vvould not be like him Who can be like him that vvould not die after him Thinke of this and iudge whether all the vvorld can hire vs not to die I neede not aske you vvhether you loued those whom you haue lost Could you loue them and not wish they might be happy Could they be happy and not dye In truth nature knowes vvhat shee vvould haue Wee can neither abide our friends miserable in their stay nor happie in their departure We loue our selues so vvell that wee cannot be content they should gaine by our losse The excuse of our sorrow is that you mourne for your selfe True but compare these two and see whether your losse or their gaine be greater For if their aduantage exceed your losse take heed lest while you bewray your loue in mourning for them it appeare that you loue but your selfe in them They are gone to their preferment and you lament your loue is iniurious If they were vanished to nothing I could not blame you tho you tooke vp Rachels lamentation But now you know they are in surer hands then your owne you know that hee hath taken them which hath vndertaken to keepe them to bring them againe You know it is but a sleepe which is miscalled Death and that they shall they must awake as sure as they lie downe and wake more fresh more glorious then when you shut their eyes What doe we with Christianitie if we beleeue not this and if we doe beleeue it why doe we mourne as the hopelesse But the matter perhaps is not so heauy as the circumstance Your crosses came sudden and thicke You could not breathe from your first losse ere you felt a worse As if hee knew not this that sent both As if he did it not on purpose His proceedings seeme harsh are most wise most iust It is our fault that they seeme otherwise then they are Doe we thinke wee could carue better for our selues O the mad insolence of Nature that dares controll where shee should wonder Presumptuous clay that will be checking the Porter Is his wisdome himselfe Is he in himselfe infinite is his Decree out of his wisdome and doe we murmur Doe wee foolish wormes turne againe when he treads vpon vs What doe you repine at that which was good for you yea best That is best for vs which God seeth best and that he seeth best which he doth This is Gods doing Kisse his rod in silence and giue glory to the hand that rules it His will is the rule of his actions and his goodnesse of his will Things are good to vs because he wils them He wils them because they are good to himselfe It is your glory that he intends in your so great affliction It is no praise to wade ouer a shallow Ford but to cut the swelling waues of the Deepe commends both our strength and skill It is no victory to conquer an easie and weake crosse These maine euils haue crownes answerable to their difficultie Wrestle once and goe away with a blessing Bee patient in this losse and you shall once triumph in your gaine Let God haue them with cheerefulnesse and you shall enioy God with them in glory To Mr J.A. Merchant EP. X. Against sorrow for worldly losses IT is fitter for me to begin with chiding then with aduice what meanes this weake distrust Goe on I shal doubt vvhether I vvrite to a Christian You haue lost your heart together with your vvealth How can I but feare lest this Mammon was your God Hence vvas Gods iealousie in remouing it and hence your immoderate teares for losing it If thus God had not loued you if hee had not made you poore To some it is an aduantage to leese you could not haue been at once thus rich and good Now heauen is open to you which vvas shut before and could neuer haue giuen you entrance with that load of iniquitie If you be wise in menaging your affliction you haue changed the world for God a little drosse for heauen Let me euer lose thus and smart when I complaine But you might haue at once retained both The stomach that is purged must be content to part with some good nourishment that it may deliuer it selfe of more euill humors God saw that knowes it you could not hold him so strongly while one of your hands was so fastned vpon the world You see many make themselues wilfully poore vvhy cannot you be content God should impouerish you If God had willed their pouertie he vvould haue commanded it If he had not vvilled yours he vvould not haue effected it It is a shame for a Christian to see an Heathen Philosopher laugh at his owne shipwracke while himselfe howles out as if all his felicity vvere imbarked vvith his substance How should wee scorne to thinke that an Heathen man should laugh either at our ignorance or impotence ignorance if wee thought too highly of earthly things impotence if vve ouer-loued them The feare of some euils is vvorse then the sense To speake ingenuously I could neuer see vvherein pouertie deserued so hard a conceit It takes away the delicacie of fare softnesse of lodging gaynesse of attire and perhaps brings vvith it contempt this is the vvorst and all View it now on the better side Lo their quiet security sound sleepes sharpe appetite free merriment no feares no cares no suspition no distempers of excesse no discontentment If I were Iudge my tongue should be vniust if pouertie went away vveeping I cannot see how the euils it brings can compare with those which it remoues how the discommodities should match the blessings of a meane estate What are those you haue lost but false friends miserable comforters Else they had not left you Oh slight fickle stay that windes could bereaue you of If your care could goe with them here vvere no damage and if it goe not with them it is your fault Grieue more for your fault then for your losse If your negligence your riotous mis-spence had empaired your estate then Satan had impouerisht you now vvould I haue added to your griefe for your sinne not for your affliction But now since vvindes and vvaters haue done it as the officers of their Maker vvhy should you not say vvith mee as I with Iob The Lord hath taken Vse your losse well and you shall find that God hath crossed you with a blessing And if it were worse then the world esteemes it yet thinke not what you feele but what you
there is not lesse craft then violence For since they haue perceiued the blood of Martyrs to bee but the seede of the Church and that these perfumes are more dispersed with beating they haue now learned to murder without noise and to bring forth if at least they list sometimes to make the people priuy to some examples of terror not men but carcasses Behold the constant confessions of the dying Saints haue made them weary of publike executions none but bare walles shall now testifie the courage and faith of our happy Martyrs A disguised corpse is onely brought forth to the multitude either for laughter or feare Yet because the very dead speake for truth in a loud silence these spectacles are rate and the graues of heretikes are become as close as their death Yet lest since neither liuing mouthes nor faithfull pens may be suffered to insinuate any truth those speeches should perhaps be receiued from the Ancients which in vs were hereticall the monuments of vnpartiall antiquitie must be depraued all vvitnesses that might speake against them must be corrupted with a fraudulent violence and some of them purged to the death So whiles ours are debarred and the Ancients altered posteritie shall acknowledge no aduersarie What should I speake of those plausible deuices which they haue inuented to make superstitious and foolish Proselytes Their proud vaunts of antiquitie vniuersalitie succession and the name of their fore-fathers doe not onely perswade but amaze and besot an ignorant heart The glorious shewes of their processions the gaudy ornaments of their Altars the pompe and magnificence of the places and manner of their Seruices the triumphs of their great Festiuals are enough to bewitch any childish simple or vaine beholders Who knowes not that nature is most led by sense Sure children and fooles such are all meere naturall men cannot be of any other Religion Besides all these their personall vndertakings vvhat for cunning what for boldnesse could promise nothing but successe They can transforme themselues into all shapes and in these false formes thrust themselues into all Courts and companies not oftner changing their habit then their name They can take the best opportunities to worke vpon those vvhich are either most vnable to resist or most like to bestead them That I may not speake of the wrongs of vnseasonable trauell vvherein many vnsetled heads haue met dangers and sollicited errors who like fond and idle Dinahs going abroad to gaze haue been rauished ere their returne Neuer was any bird so laid for by the nets and calls of the fowler as the great heire of some noble family or some fiery vvit is by these impostors They know that greatnesse is both lawlesse and commanding if not by precept yet by example their very silence is perswasorie and imperious But alas for that other sex Still the Deuill begins with Eue still his assault is strongest where is weakest resistance Simon Magus had his Helena Nicolas the Deacon had his choros foemineos as Hierome calls them Marcion had his Factoresse at Rome Appelles his Philumena Montanus his Prisca and Maximilla Arrius his Constantines-sister Donatus his Lucilla Elpidius his Agape Priscillianus his Galla and our Iesuites haue their painted Ladies not dead but liuing both for obiects and instruments When they saw they could not blow vp religion with French powder into heauen they now try by this Moabitish plot to sinke it downe to Hell Those filly women which are laden with sinnes and diuers lusts must now be the stales of their spirituall fornications But for that these enterprises want not danger that both parts may securely succeed behold publique libertie of dispensations vvhether for dissembled religion or not vnprofitable filthinesse These meanes are like the Authors dishonest and godlesse Adde if you please hereto those which pretend more innocent policy their common dependances vpon one Commander their intelligences giuen their charges receiued their rewards and honours perhaps of the Calender perhaps of a red Hat duely conferred Neither may the least helpe be ascribed to the conference of studies the conioyned labours of whole Societies directed to one end and shrouded vnder the title of one Author to large maintenances raised from the death-beds of some guilty benefactors from whence flow both infinite numbers and incomparable helps of Students Vnder which head for the time past not a few are moued by the remembrance of the bounteous hospitalitie of the religious who hauing ingrossed the vvorld to themselues seemed liberall in giuing some thing like vnto some vaine-glorious theeues which hauing robbed wealthy Merchants bestow some pence vpon beggers Further the smothering if not composing of their frequent strifes and confining of brawles within their owne thresholds vvith the nice menaging of their knowne oppositions hath wonne many ignorant friends Lastly the excellent correspondence of their doctrines vnto nature hath been their best sollicitor We haue examined particulars in a former Epistle vvherein wee haue made it euident that Popery affects nothing but to make Nature either proud or vvanton it offers difficulties but carnall and such as the greatest louer of himselfe would easily embrace for an aduantage That we may therefore summe vp all I need not accuse our carelesnesse indifferencie idlenesse loose cariage in all vvhich would God wee had not aided them and wronged our selues nor yet their zeale and forwardnesse worse meanes are guilty of their gaine In short the faire outside which they set vpon Religion which sure is the best they haue if not all their pretended miracles vvilfull vntruths strait prohibitions bloody and secret inquisitions deprauations of ancient witnesses expurgation of their owne gay and garish sights glorious titles crafty changes of names shapes habits conditions insinuations to the great oppugnation of the vveaker sexe falshood of answers and oathes dispensations for sinnes vniting of forces concealing of differences largenesse of contributions multitude of actors and meanes accordances to mens naturall dispositions Where we on the contrarie care not to seeme but to be disclaime miracles dare not saue the life of Religion with a lye giue free scope to all pens to all tongues to all eyes shed no blood for Religion suffer all Writers to speake like themselues shew nothing but poore simplicitie in our deuotions goe euer and looke as we are reach the truth right-downe in an honest plainnesse take no vantage of imbecilitie sweare true though we die giue no hope of indulgence for euill study each retired to himselfe and the Muses publish our quarrels and aggrauate them anger nature and conquer it Such gaine shall be grauell in their throats such losses to vs in our not daring to sinne shall bee happy and victorious in all other regards are both blame-worthy and recouerable What dulnesse is this Haue wee such a King as in these lists of Controuersie may dare to grapple with that great infallible Vicar for his triple Crowne such Bishops as may iustly challenge the whole Consistorie of Rome so
the condition of our mortalitie are passed ouer It shall be fully when the first things of the world are passed Passed not by abolition but by immutation as that Father said well Not the frame of the world but the corruption of that frame must passe The Spirit of God is not curious he cals those things first which were onely former not in respect of the state which is but that which shall be For those things which were first of all were like their Maker good not capable of destruction Our sinnes tainted the whole creation and brought shame vpon all the frame of heauen and earth That which we did shall be disanulled that which God did shall stand for euer and this dissolution shall be our glory other dissolutions strike teares into our eyes as this day is witnesse it is our sorrow that the first things are passed our offices our pensions our hopes our fauours and which we esteemed most our seruices are gone Let this last dissolution comfort vs against the present Who can grieue to see a Familie dissolued that considers the world must bee dissolued This little world of ours first whereof this day giues vs an image for as our seruice so our life must away and then that great one whose dissolution is represented in these The difference is that whereas this dissolution brings teares to some eies that wipes them away from all For all our teares and sorrow and toile and crying and death are for our sinnes take away corruption and misery goes away with it and till then it will neuer be remoued No man puts new wine into old vessels much lesse will God put the new wine of glory into the old vessels of corruption They are our sinnes which as in particular they haue rob'd vs of our Prince changed our seasons swept away thousands with varieties of deaths so in generall they haue deformed the face of heauen and earth and made all the Creation sigh and groane and still make vs incapable of the perfection of our blessednes for while the first things continue there must needs be teares and sorrow and death Let vs therefore looke vpon heauen and earth as goodly creatures but as blemished as transitory as those which we shall once see more glorious Let vs looke vpon our selues with indignation which haue thus distained them and as those which after some terme of their cottage expired are assured they shall haue a marble palace built for them doe long after the time perfixed them and thinke the dayes and moneths pace slowly away till then so let vs earnestly desire the day of the dissolution of this great house of the world that wee may haue our consummation in the new heauen For so soone as euer the old is past Behold saith God I will make all things new Yea the passage of the one is the renewing of the other As the Snake is renewed not by putting on any new coat but by leauing his slough behind him the gold is purified by leauing his drosse in the fire Therefore hee addes not I will but I doe make all new and because this is a great worke behold a great Agent He that sate vpon the Throne said Behold I make all new A Throne signifies Maiestie and sitting permanence or perpetuity God sayes Heauen is my throne in the Psalme but as Salomons throne of iuory and gold was the best piece of his house So Gods throne is the most glorious heauen the heauen of heauens for you see that tho heauen and earth passe away yet Gods throne remain'd still and hee sitting on it neither sinne nor dissolution may reach to the Empyreall heauen the seat of God Here is a state worthy of the King of Kings All the thrones of earthly Monarchs are but pieces of his foot-stoole And as his throne is maiesticall and permanent so is his residence in it Hee sate in the throne S. Stephen saw him standing as it were ready for his defence and protection S. Iohn sees him sitting as our Creed also runnes in regard of his inalterable glory How brittle the thrones of earthly Princes are and how they doe rather stand than sit in them and how slippery they stand too wee feele this day and lament O Lord establish the throne of thy seruant our King and let his seed endure for euer Let his throne be as the Sunne before thee for euermore and as the Moone a faithfull witnesse in heauen But howsoeuer it be with our earthly Gods of his kingdome there is no end Here is a master for Kings whose glory it is to rise vp from their thrones and throw downe their Crownes at his feet and to worship before his foot-stoole Be wise therefore O ye Kings be learned ye Rulers of the earth serue this Lord in feare and reioyce in him with trembling Yea behold here since wee haue the honour to serue him whom Kings serue a royall Master for vs It was one of our sinnes I feare that wee made our Master our God I meane that we made flesh our arme and placed that confidence in him for our earthly stay which we should haue fixed in heauen Our too much hope hath left vs comfortlesse Oh that we could now make God our Master and trust him so much the more as we haue lesse in earth to trust to There is no seruice to the King of heauen for both his throne is euerlasting and vnchangeable and his promotions certaine and honourable He that sits on the throne hath said it To him that ouercomes will I giue to sit with mee in my throne euen as I ouercame and sit with my Father in his throne Behold yee ambitious spirits how yee may truly rise to more than euer the sonnes of Zebedee desired to aspire to seruing is the way to raigning serue him that sits vpon the Throne and ye shall sit yourselues vpon the Throne with him This is the Agent the act is fit for him I make all things new Euen the very Turkes in their Alcoran can subscribe to that of Tertullian Qui potuit facere potest reficere I feare to wrong the holy Maiesty with my rude comparison It is not so much to God to make a world as for vs to speake He spake the word and it was done There is no change which is not from him He makes new Princes new yeeres new gouernments and will make new heauens new earth new inhabitants how easie then is it for him to make new prouisions for vs If wee bee left destitute yet where is our faith Shall God make vs new bodies when they are gone to dust shall he make new heauens and new earth and shall not he whose the earth is and the fulnesse thereof prouide some new meanes and courses of life for vs while we are vpon earth Is the maintenance of one poore worme more than the renewing of heauen and earth Shall he be able to raise vs when we are not and shall he
and hell whom it is both dishonour and basenesse not to serue Non reputes magnum quod Deoserum sed maximum repata quod ipse dignatur te in se uuÌ„ assumere sibi Bernard Psal 1.6 Revel vlt. Eccles 10.7 The highest stile that King Dauid could deuise to giue himselfe not in the phrase of a friuolous French complement but in the plaine speech of a true Israelite was Behold I am thy seruant and he that is Lord of many seruants of the Deuill delights to call himselfe the seruant of the seruants of God The Angels of Heauen reioyce to bee our fellowes in this seruice But there cannot bee a greater shame than to see seruants ride on horse-backe and Princes walking as seruants on the ground I meane to see the God of heauen made a lacquey to our vile affections and in the liues of men to see God attend vpon the world Brethren there is seruice enough in the world but it is to a wrong master In mea patria Deus venter as Hierome said Euerie worldling is a Papist in this that hee giues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seruice In mea n. patria Deus venter est in diem viuitur sanctior est ilic qui diâ—ior est Hier. ad Chrematum to the creature which is the lowest respect that can bee Yea so much more humble than latria as it is more absolute and without respect of recompence Yea I would it were vncharitable to say that many besides the sauages of Calecut place Satan in the throne and God on the foot-stoole For as Witches and Sorcerers conuerse with euill spirits in plausible and familiar formes which in vgly shapes they would abhorre so many a man serues Satan vnder the formes of gold and siluer vnder the images of Saints and lightsome Angels vnder glittering coats or glorious titles or beauteous faces whom they would defie as himselfe And as the free-borne Israelite might become a seruant either by forfaiture vpon trespasse or by sale or by spoile in warre so this accursed seruitude is incurred the same wayes by them which should bee Christians By forfeiture for though the debt and trespasse bee to God yet tradet lictori hee shall deliuer the debtor to the Iaylor By sale Matth. 18.34 1 King 21.20 as Ahab sold himselfe to worke wickednesse sold vnder sinne saith the Apostle By spoyle beware lest any man make a spoyle of you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Paul to his Colossians Alas Col. 2.8 what a miserable change doe these men make to leaue the liuing God which is so bountifull that he rewards a cup of cold water with eternall glory to serue him that hath nothing to giue but his bate wages and what wages The wages of sinne is death And what death not the death of the bodie in the seuering of the soule but the death of the soule in the separation from God there is not so much difference betwixt life and death as there is betwixt the first death and the second Oh wofull wages of a desperate worke Well were these men if they might goe vnpaid and serue for nothing but as the mercy of God will not let any of our poore seruices to him goe vnrewarded so will not his iustice suffer the contrary seruice goe vnpaid 1 Thess 1.8 in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and those that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Beloued as that worthy Bishop said on his death-bed we are happy in this Ambrose that wee serue a good Master how happy shall it be for vs if we shall doe him good seruice that in the day of our account we may heare Euge serue bone well done good seruant enter into thy masters ioy Now he that prescribes the act seruice must also prescribe the manner Truly totally God cannot abide we should serue him with a double heart an heart an heart that is hypocritically Neither that we should serue him with a false heart that is niggardly and vnwillingly but against doubling he will be serued in truth and against haluing he will be serued with all the heart To serue God and not in truth is mockerie To serue him truly and not with the whole heart is a base dodging with God This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-seruice is a fault with men but let vs serue God but while hee sees vs it is enough Behold hee sees vs euery where If hee did not see our heart it were enough to serue him in the face and if the heart were not his Epist 108. QuidaÌ„ veniunt vt audiam non vt discant Aliqui cum pugillaribus veniunt non vt res excipiant sed verba it were too much to giue him a part of it but now that he made this whole heart of ours it is reason hee should be serued with it and now that he sees the inside of the heart it is madnesse not to serue him in truth Those serue God not in truth which as Seneca saies of some auditors come to heare not to learne which bring their tablets to write words not their hearts for the finger of God to write in Whose eyes are on their Bible whiles their heart is on their Count-booke which can play the Saints in the Church Ruffians in the tauerne Tyrants in their houses Cheators in their shops those Dames which vnder a cloke of modestie and deuotion hide nothing but pride and fiendishnesse Those serue God not with all their heart whose bosome is like Rachels tent that hath Teraphim Idols hid in the straw or rather like a Philistims Temple that hath the Arke and Dagon vnder one roofe That come in euer with Naamans exceptiues Onely in this Those that haue let downe the world like the spies into the bottome of the well of their heart and couer the mouth of it with wheat I meane that hide great oppressions with the shew of small beneficences Those which like Salomons false Curtizan crie Diuidatur and are willing to share themselues betwixt God and the world And certainly this is a noble policie of the Deuill because he knowes hee hath no right to the heart hee can be glad of any corner but withall he knowes that if he haue any he hath all for where he hath any part God will haue none This base-mindednesse is fit for that euill one God will haue all or nothing It was an heroicall answer Theod. l. 4. c. 4. that Theodoret reports of Valentinian whom when the souldiers had chosen to bee Emperour they were consulting to haue another ioyned with him No my souldiers said he it was in your power to giue me the Empire while I had it not but now when I haue it it is not in your power to giue me a partner We our selues say The bed and the throne can abide no riuals May wee not well say of the heart as Lot of Zoar Is it not a little one Alas
this day wherein religion is not onely warmed but locked in her seat so fast that the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile against it There haue beene Princes and that in this land which as the heathen Politician compared his Tyrant haue beene like to ill Physitians that haue purged away the good humors and left the bad behind them with whom any thing hath bin lawful but to be religious Some of your gray haires can be my witnesses Behold the euils we haue escaped shew vs our blessings Here hath bin no dragging out of houses no hiding of Bibles no creeping into woods no Bonnering or Butchering of Gods Saints no rotting in dungeons no casting of infants out of the mothers belly into the mothers flames nothing but Gods truth abundantly preached cheerefully professed incouraged rewarded What nation vnder heauen yeelds so many learned Diuines What times euer yeelded so many preaching Bishops When was this City the City of our ioy euer so happy this way as in these late successions Whither can we ascribe this health of the Church and life of the Gospell but next to God to His example His countenance His endeuours Wherein I may not omit how right he hath trod in the steps of that blessed Constantine in al his religious proceedings Let vs in one word parallel them Euseb de vita Const l. 4. c. 36. Constantine caused fifty Volumes of the Scriptures to bee faire written out in parchment for the vse of the Church Lib. 3.61.62 King Iames hath caused the Bookes of Scriptures to bee accurately translated and published by thousands Constantine made a zealous edict against Nouatians Valentinians Marcionites King Iames Lib. 3.63 besides his powerfull proclamations and soueraigne lawes hath effectually written against Popery and Vorstianisme Constantine tooke away the liberty of the meetings of Heretickes King Iames hath by wholesome lawes inhibited the assemblies of Papists and schismatickes Constantine sate in the middest of Bishops Lib. 1. c. 37. In media istorum frequentia ac congressu adesse vna considere non dedâ—gnatus Basil dor as if hee had beene one of them King Iames besides his solemne conferences vouchsafes not seldome to spend his meales in discourse with his Bishops and other worthy Diuines Constantine charged his sonnes vt planè sine fuco Christiani essent that they should be Christians in earnest King Iames hath done the like in learned and diuine precepts which shall liue till time bee no more Yea in their very coynes is a resemblance Constantine had his picture stampt vpon his mettals praying Lib. 4.15 King Iames hath his picture with prayer about it O Lord protect the kingdomes which thou hast vnited Lastly Constantine built Churches one in Ierusalem another in Nicomedia Lib. 3.43 King Iames hath founded one Colledge which shall helpe to build and confirme the whole Church of God vpon earth Yee wealthy Citizens that loue Ierusalem cast in your store after this royall example into the Sanctuary of God and whiles you make the Church of God happy make your selues so Brethren if wee haue any relish of Christ any sense of heauen let vs blesse God for the life of our soule the Gospell and for the spirit of this life his Anointed But where had beene our peace or this freedome of the Gospell without our deliuerance and where had our deliuerance beene without him As it was reported of the Oake of Mamre that all religions rendred their yeerely worship there Socr. l. 2. c. 3. The Iewes because of Abraham their Patriarch the Gentile because of the Angels that appeared there to Abraham The Christians because of Christ that was there seene of Abraham with the Angels So was there to King Iames in his first beginnings a confluence of all sects with papers in their hands and as it was best for them with a Rogamus Domine non pugnamus like the subiects of Theodosius Ribera in prophet min. ex Ioseph Antiq. lib. 9 vlt. â— mritam Iudaeos cognatos appellari soliti quamdiu illis bene erat At vbi contra c. 1 King 12. Flectâ—re si nequco c. But our cozens of Samaria when they saw that Salomons yoke would not bee lightned soone flew off in a rage What portion haue wee in Dauid And now those which had so oft looke vp to Heauen in vaine resolue to dig downe to Heli for aid Satan himselfe met them and offered for sauing of their labour to bring Hell vp to them What a world of sulphur had hee prouided against that day What a brewing of death was tunned vp in those vessels The murderous Pioners laught at the close felicity of their proiect and now before-hand seemed in conceit to haue heard the cracke of this hellish thunder and to see the mangled carcasses of the Heretickes flying vp so suddenly that their soules must needs goe vpward towards their perdition their streets strewed with legges and armes and the stones braining as many in their fall as they blew vp in their rise Remember the Children of Edom O Lord in the day of Ierusalem which said Psal 117.7 Downe with it downe with it euen to the ground O daughter of Babel worthy to bee destroyed blessed shall hee bee that serueth thee as thou wouldest haue serued vs. But hee that sits in Heauen laught as fast at them to see their presumption that would bee sending vp bodies to heauen before the resurrection and preferring companions to Elias in a fiery Chariot and said vt quid fremuerunt Consider now how great things the Lord hath done for vs The snare is broken and wee are deliuered But how As that learned Bishop well applied Salomon to this purpose Diuinatio in labijs Regis Pro. 16.10 B. Barlow p. 350 If there had not beene a diuination in the lips of the King wee had beene all in iawes of death Vnder his shadow wee are preserued aliue as Ieremie speaketh It is true God could haue done it by other meanes but hee would doe it by this that wee might owe the being of our liues to him of whom wee held our well-being before Oh praised be the God of heauen for our deliuerance Praised bee God for his anointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. by whom wee are deliuered Yea how should wee call to our fellow creatures the Angels Saints heauens elements meteors mountaines beasts trees to helpe vs praise the Lord for this mercy Addit neque me liberosque meos cariores habebo quam Caium eius sorores Clodoneus Otho Fris l. 4. c. 32. Clodoucus Otho Fris l. 4. c. 31. And as the oath of the Romane souldiers ranne how deare and precious should the life of Caesar bee to vs aboue all earthly things how should wee hate the base vnthankfulnesse of those men which can say of him as one said of his Saint Martin Martinus bonus in auxilio charus in negotio who whiles they
enmitie But there are some enmities more secret and which doe not outwardly bewray themselues but behold heere is publique resistance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not subiect But perhaps it will once yeeld of it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It cannot Xiphil Epist Dionis sayth the Spirit of God See in how rebellious an estate we are to God What pronenesse is heere to will good what abilitie to performe it Let the Papists if they will sacrifice to themselues as Seianus had wont of old or to their nets as the Prophet speaketh As for vs come what can come vpon our opposition wee neither can nor dare arrogate vnto our selues those things which by an holy reseruation incommunicablenesse are proper onely vnto the Highest It is safe indeed for the Papists when they will to come vp to vs but we cannot goe downe to them without a fearefull precipitation of our soules Consult Cass cit Bonauent in haec verba hoc piaruÌ„ mentium est vt nil sibi tribuunt c. Let Cassander witnesse this for vs Let Bonauenture himselfe witnes it for him This is the propertie of holy minds to attribute nothing to themselues but all to the grace of God So that how much soeuer a man ascribe to the grace of God hee swarueth not from true pietie though by giuing much to grace hee withdraw something from the power of nature or Free-will but when any thing is withdrawne from the grace of God and ought attributed to nature which is due to grace there may bee great danger to the soule Thus farre those two ingenuous Papists But to inferre wee giue all to grace the Papists something to nature and what they giue to nature we giue to God Therefore we doe and say that which is fit for holy minds they if Bonauenture may be witnesse that which swerues from piety and is ioyned with much danger of their soule SECTION IX Concerning Merits THe foundation of Popish Iustification is the freedome of our will and vpon the walls of Iustification is merit raised wee will haue no quarrell about the word Bucer cit à Cass Cypr. l. 3. ep 20. Prâ—â— Iud. The holy Fathers of old as wee all grant tooke the word in a good sense which the later Diuines haue miserably corrupted About the thing it selfe wee must striue eternally we promise a reward to good workes yea an euerlasting one It is a true word of the Iewes He that labours in the Euen shall eat on the Sabbath Qui laborauit in vespera comedet in Sabbatho Conc. Trident. Orthod expl l. 6. Caiet in Galat. for God hath promised it and will performe who yet crowneth vs in mercy and compassion as the Psalmist speaks not as the Papists in the rigour of iustice not as Andradius according to the due desert of our worke By the free gift of God and not our merits as Caietan wisely and worthily Or if any man like that word better God doth it in Iustice but in respect of his owne promise not the very dignity of our workes That a iust mans worke in the truth of the thing it selfe is of a value worthy of the reward of heauen which industrious and learned Morton cites out of the English Professor of Dowâ—y and hath a meet proportion both of equality and dignity Weston de Tripl hom off l. 2. Vid. protest Appeal lib. 2. c. 11. Tom. 1. in Th. 3. d. 11. to the recompence of eternall life as Pererius and that in it selfe without any respect of the merits and death of Christ which Suarez and Bajus shamed not to write seemes iustly to vs little lesse than blasphemie But say our moderate Papists CHRIST hath merited this merit of ours neither can any other workes challenge this to themselues but those which are done in GOD as Andradius speaks but those which are dipped and dyed in the bloud of CHRIST as our later Papists elegantly and emphatically speake But what is this but to coozen the world and to cast a mist before the eyes of the vnskilfull Our sinnes are dyed in the bloud of CHRIST not our merits Or if they also Hath CHRIST then deserued that our workes should bee perfect How comes it about that the workes of the best men are so lame and defectiue Hath he deserued that though they bee imperfect yet they might merit What iniurie is this to God what contradiction of termes Behold now so many Sauiours as good men what I doe is mine what I merit is mine whosoeuer giues me either to do or to merit Whosoeuer rides on a lame horse cannot but moue vn-euenly vneasily vncertainly what insolent ouer-weeners of their owne workes are these Papists which proclaime the actions which proceed from themselues worthy of no lesse than heauen To whom wee may iustly say as Constantine said to Acesius the Novatian Set vp ladders O yee Papists and clime vp to heauen alone Socr. l. 1. c. 7. Erigâ—â— vobis scalus c. Homo iustus 〈◊〉 c. Who can abide that noted speech of Bellarmine A iust man hath by a double title right to the same glory one by the merits of CHRIST imparted to him by grace another by his owne merits contrary to that of the Spirit of God The wages of sinne is death but The gift of God is eternall life vpon which words another Cardinall Caietan speakes in a holier fashion thus He doth not say that the wages of our righteousnesse is eternall life but The gift of God is eternall life that wee may vnderstand and learne that we attaine eternall life not by our owne merits but by the free gift of God for which cause also he addes By Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. fin Behold the merit behold the righteousnesse whose wages is eternall life but to vs in respect of IESVS CHRIST it is a free gift Thus Caietan Caiet Câ—â— in Rom. 6. What could either Luther or Caluin or any Protestant say more plainly How imperfect doth the Scripture euery where proclaime both Gods graces in vs and our workes to him and though the graces of God were absolutely perfect yet they are not ours if our workes were so yet they are formerly due And if they be due to God what recompence of transcendent glory is due to vs Behold wee are both seruants and vnprofitable Not worthy saith God worthy and more say the Papists Ephess 2. By grace yee are saued through faith and that not of your selues saith God By grace indeed but yet of our selues say the Papists What insolencie is this Let our Monkes now goe and professe wilfull pouertie whiles Ezekiah did neuer so boast of his heaps of treasure as these of their spirituall wealth Hier. Epitaph Fabiolae Hierome said truely It is more hard to bee stripped of our pride than of our Gold and Iewels for euen when those outward ornaments are gone many times these inward rags swell vp the soule
it is not wealth alone that is accessary to this pride there are some that with the Cynicke or that worse dogge the patcht Cistertian are proud of rags there are others that are rich of nothing but cloathes somewhat like to Naziavâ—cus country of Ozizala that abounded in flowers but was barren of come their cloaths are more worth then all the rest as wee vse to say of the Elder that the flower of it is more worth then all the tree besides but if there be any other causes of our hye-mindednesse wealth is one which doth ordinarily lift vp our heads aboue ourselues aboue others and if there be here any of these empty bladders that are puft vp with the wind of conceit giue me leaue to prick them a little and first let mee tell them they may haue much and be neuer the better The chimny ouer lookes all the rest of the house is it not for all that the very basest piece of the building The very heathen man could obserue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Arist That God giues many a man wealth for their greater mischiefe As the Israelites were rich in Quailes but their fawce was such that famine had beene better little cause had they to be proud that they were fed with meate of Princes with the bread of Angels whiles that which they put into their mouthes God fetcht out of their nostrels Haman was proud that he alone was called to the honour of Esters feast this aduancement raised him fifty cubits higher to a stately gibbet If your wealth be to any of you an occasion of fallingâ— if your gold be turned into fetters it had beene better for you to haue liued beggers Let me tell them next of the folly of this pride They are proud of that which is none of theirs That which law and case-diuinity speakes of life that man is not dominus vitae suae sed custos is as true of wealth Senec. Nature can tell him in the Philosopher that hee is not Dominus but Colonus not the Lord but the Farmer It is a iust obseruation of Philo that God onely by a propriety is stiled the possessor of heauen and earth by Melchisedech in his speech to Abraham Gen. 24. we are onely the tenants and that at the will of the Lord At the most if we will as Diuines we haue jus adrem not dominium in rem right to these earthly things not Lordship ouer them but right of fauour from their proprietary and Lord in heauen and that liable to an account Doe we not laugh at the groome that is proud of his masters horse or some vaine whiffler that is proud of a borrowed chaine So ridiculous are we to be puft vp with that whereof we must needs say with the poore man of the hatchet Alas master it is but borrowed and whereof our account shall be so much more great and difficult as our receit is more Hath God therefore laded you with these earthly riches be ye like vnto the full eare of corne hang downe your heads in true humility towards that earth from which you came And it your stalke be so stiffe that it beares vp aboue the rest of your ridge looke vp to heaueh not in the thoughts of pride but in the humble vowes of thankfulnesse and be not hie-minded but feare Hitherto of the hye-mindednesse that followes wealth Now where our pride is And that they trust not there will be our confidence As the wealthy therefore may not be proud of their riches so they may not trust in them What is this trust but the setting of our hearts vpon them the placing of our ioy and contentment in them in a word the making of them our best friend our patron our idoll our god This the true and ielous God cannot abide and yet nothing is more ordinary The rich mans wealth is his strong City saith Salomonâ— where should a man thinke himselfe safe but in his sort He sees Mammon can doe so much and heares him talke of doing so much more it is no maruell if hee yeeld to trust him Mammon is so proud a boaster that his clients which beleeue in him cannot chuse but be â—onfident of him For what doth he not brag to doe Siluer answers to all saith Salomon That we grant although we would be loath it could answer to truth to iustice to iudgement But yet more he vaunts to procure all to pacifie all to conquer all He saies he can procure all secular offices titles dignities yea I would I might not â—ay in some sacrilegious and periured wretches the sacred promotions of the Church and ye know that old song of the Pope and his Romane trafficke Claues Altariâ— Christum Yea foolish Magus makes full account Keyes Altars Christ the Holy Ghost himselfe may be had for money He sayes he can pacifie all A gift in the bosome appeases wrath yea he sayes looke to it ye that sit in the seats of iudicature hee can sometimes bribe off sinnes and peruert iudgement He sayes hee can ouercome all according to the old Greeke verse Fight with siluer launces and you cannot faile of victory yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he would make vs beleeue he thought this a bait to catch the Sonne of God himselfe withall All these will I giue thee briefly hee sayes according to the French Prouerbe Siluer does all And let me tell you indeed what Mammon can doe Hee can barre the gates of hell to the vnconscionable soule and helpe his followers to damnation This he can do but for other things howsoeuer with vs men the foolish Siluer-smiths may shout out Great is Mammon of the worldlings yet if we weigh his power aright we shall conclude of Mammon as Paracelsus doth of the Diuell that he is a base and beggerly spirit For what I beseech you can he doe Can he make a man honest can he make him wise can he make him healthfull Can he giue a man to liue more merily to feed more heartily to sleepe more quietly Can we buy off the gout cares death much lesse the paines of another vvorld nay doth he not bring all these Goe to then thou rich man God is offended with thee and meanes to plague thee with disease death Now try what thy bags can doe Begin first vvith God and see whether thou canst bribe him with thy gifts Micah 6. and buy off his displeasure Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord and bow thy selfe before the high God Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand riuers of oyle The siluer is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts Haggai 2. If that speed not goe to the fergeant of God death see if thou canst fee him not to arrest thee He lookes thee sternely in the face and tels thee vvith Ehud he hath a message to thee from God
at least These headlong euils as they are the forest so they must be most prouided for as on the contrary a sudden aduancement from a low condition to the height of Honour is most hard to manage No man can maruell how that Tyrant blinded his Captiues when he heares that he brought them immediately out of a darke dungeon into Roomes that vvere made bright and glorious Wee are not worthy to know for what wee are reserued no euill can amate vs if we can ouercome sudden extremities The long deferring of a good though tedious yet makes it the better when it comes Well did the Israelites hope that the Waters which were so long inifinding would be precious when they were found Yet behold they are crossed not onely in their desires but in their hopes for after three dayes trauell the first Fountaines they finde are bitter Waters If these Wels had not runne pure Gall they could not haue so much complained Long thirst will make bitter Waters sweet yet such were these Springs that the Israelites did not so much like their moisture as abhorre their relish I see the first handsell that God giues them in their voyage to the Land of Promise Thirst and bitternesse Satan giues vs pleasant entrances into his wayes and reserues the bitternesse for the end God inuites vs to our worst at first and sweetens our conclusion with pleasure The same God that would not lead Israel through the Philistims Land lest they should shrinke at the sight of Warre now leads them through the Wildernesse and feares not to try their patience with bitter potions If hee had not loued them the Aegyptian Furnace or Sword had preuented their thirst or that Sea whereof their Enemies drunke dead and yet see how hee dyets them Neuer any haue had so bitter draughts vpon Earth as those be loues best The palate is an ill iudge of the fauours of God O my Sauiour thou didst drinke a more bitter Cup from the hands of thy Father then that which thou refusedst of the Iewes or then that which I can drinke from thee Before they could not drinke if they would now they might and would not God can giue vs blessings with such a tang that the fruition shall not much differ from the want So many a one hath riches not grace to vse them many haue children but such as they prefer barrennesse They had said before Oh that wee had water now Oh that we had good water It is good so to desire blessings from God that we may be the better for inioying them so to craue water that it may not be sawced with bitternesse Now these fond Israelites in stead of praying murmur in stead of praying to God murmur against Moses What hath the righteous done Hee made not either the Wildernesse dry or the Waters bitter Yea if his conduct were the matter what one foot went he before them without God The Pillar led them and not he yet Moses is murmured at It is the hard condition of authoritie that when the multitude fare well they applaud themselues when ill they repine against their Gouernours Who can hope to be free if Moses escape not Neuer any Prince so merited of a people Hee thrust himselfe vpon the Pikes of Pharaohs tyrannie Hee brought them from a bondage worse then death His Rod diuided the Sea and shared life to them death to their Pursuers Who would not haue thought these men so obliged to Moses that no death could haue opened their mouthes or raised their hands against him Yet now the first occasion of want makes them rebell No benefit can stop the mouth of Impatience If our turne be not serued for the present former fauours are either forgotten or contemned No maruell if we deale so with men when God receiues this measure from vs. One yeere of Famine One Summer of Pestilence One Moone of vnseasonable weather makes vs ouer-looke all the blessings of God and more to mutine at the sense of our euill then to praise him for our varieties of good whereas fauours well bestowed leaue vs both mindfull and confident and will not suffer vs either to forget or distrust O God I haue made an ill vse of thy mercies if I haue not learned to be content with thy corrections Moses was in the same want of water with them in the same distaste of bitternesse and yet they say to Moses What shall we drinke If they had seene him furnished with full vessels of sweet water and themselues put ouer to this vnsauoury liquor enuie might haue giuen some colour to this mutiny but now their Leaders common miserie might haue freed him from their murmurs They held it one piece of the late Egyptian tyrannie that a taske was required of them which the Imposers knew they could not performe to make Bricke when they had no Straw Yet they say to Moses What shall we drinke Themselues are growne Exactors and are ready to menace more then stripes if they haue not their ends without meanes Moses tooke not vpon him their prouision but their deliuerance and yet as if he had been the common Victualer of the Campe they aske What shall wee drinke When want meets with impatient minds it transports them to fury Euery thing disquiets and nothing satisfies them What course doth Moses now take That which they should haue done and did not They cryed not more feruently to him then he to God If he were their Leader God was his That which they vniustly required of him he iustly requires of God that could doe it He knew whence to looke for redresse of all complaints this was not his charge but his Makers which was able to maintaine his owne act I see and acknowledge the harbour that wee must put into in all our ill vveather It is to thee O God that wee must powre out our hearts which onely canst make our bitter waters sweet Might not that Rod which tooke away the liquid nature from the waters and made them solid haue also taken away the bitter qualitie from these waters and made them sweet since to flow is naturall vnto the water to bee bitter is but accidentall Moses durst not imploy his Rod without a Precept he knew the power came from the Commandement We may not presume on likelihoods but depend vpon warrants therefore Moses doth not lift vp his Rod to the Waters but his hand and voice to God The hand of faith neuer knocked at heauen in vaine No sooner hath Moses shewed his grieuance then God shewes him the remedie yet an vnlikely one that it might be miraculous He that made the waters could haue giuen them any sauour How easie is it for him that made the matter to alter the qualitie It is not more hard to take away then to giue Who doubts but the same hand that created them might haue immediately changed them Yet that Almightie power will doe it by meanes A piece of wood must sweeten the waters
counsell of so wise and mercifull a God hath drawne vs into his want and shall not he as easily find the way out It is the Lord let him doe what he will There can be no more forceable motiue to patience then the acknowledgment of a diuine hand that strikes vs. It is fearefull to be in the hand of an aduersarie but who would not be confident of a Father Yet in our fraile humanity choler may transport a man from remembrance of nature but when wee feele our selues vnder the discipline of a wise God that can temper our afflictions to our strength to our benefit who would not rather murmur at himselfe that hee should swerue towards impatience Yet these sturdy Israelites wilfully murmur and will not haue their thirst quenched with faith but with water Giue vs water Nooked to heare when they would haue entreated Moses to pray for them but in stead of entreating they contend and in stead of prayers I find commands Giue vs water If they had gone to God without Moses I should haue praised their faith but now they goe to Moses without God I hate their stubborne faithlesnesse To seeke to the second meanes vvith neglect of the first is the fruit of a false faith The answer of Moses is like himselfe milde and sweet Why contend ye with mee Why tempt ye the Lord In the first expostulation condemning them of iniustice since not he but the Lord had afflicted them In the second of presumption that since it was God that tempted them by want they should tempt him by murmuring In the one hee would haue them see their wrong in the other their danger As the act came not from him but from God so he puts it off to God from himselfe Why tempt yee the Lord The opposition which is made to the instruments of God redounds euer to his person He holds himselfe smitten through the sides of his Ministers So hath God incorporated these respects that our subtilty cannot diuide them But what temptation is this Is the Lord among vs or no Infidelitie is crafty and yet foolish Craftie in her insinuations foolish in her conceits They imply If we were sure the Lord were with vs we would not distrust They conceiue doubts of his pr sence after such confirmations What could God doe more to make them know hiâ— present vnlesse euery moment should haue renued miracles The plagues of Aegypt and the diuision of the Sea were so famous that the very Innes of Iericho rang of them Their waters were lately sweetned the Quailes were yet in their teeth their Manna was yet in their eye yea they saw God in the Pillar of the Cloud and yet they say Is the Lord amongst vs No argument is enough to an incredulous heart not sense not experience How much better was that faith of Thomas that would beleeue his eyes and hands though his care he would not Oh the deepe infidelitie of these Israelites that saw and beleeued not And how will they know if God be amongst them As if hee could not bee with them and they be a thirst either God must humour carnall minds or be distrusted If they prosper though it be with wickednesse God is with them If they be thwarted in their owne designes straight Is God with vs It was the way to put God from them to distrust and murmure If he had not been with them they had not liued If he had been in them they had not mutined They can thinke him absent in their want and cannot see him absent in their sinne and yet wickednesse not affliction argues him gone Yea then is he most present when he most chastises Who would not haue looked that this answer of Moses should haue appeased their fury As what can still him that will not be quiet to thinke he hath God for his Aduersarie But as if they would wilfully warre against Heauen they proceed yet with no lesse craft then violence bending their exception to one part of the answer and smoothly omitting what they could not except against They will not heare of tempting God they maintaine their strife with Moses both with words and stones How malicious how headdy is impatience The act was Gods they cast it vpon Moses Wherefore hast thou brought vs The act of God was mercifull they make it cruell To kill vs and our children As if God and Moses meant nothing but their ruine who intended nothing but their life and libertie Foolish men What needed this iourney to death Were they not as obnoxious to God in Aegypt Could not God by Moses as easily haue killed them in Aegypt or in the Sea as their enemies Impatience is full of misconstruction If it be possible to find out any glosse to corrupt the Text of Gods actions they shall be sure not to scape vntainted It was no expostulating with an vnreasonable multitude Moses runs straight to him that was able at once to quench their thirst and their fury What shall I do to this people It is the best way to trust God with his owne causes when men will bee intermedling with his affaires they vndoe themselues in vaine We shall finde difficulties in all great enterprises if wee be sure we haue begun them from God wee may securely cast all euents vpon his prouidence which knowes how to dispose and how to end them Moses perceiued rage not in the tongues only but in the hands of the Israelites Yet a while longer and they will stone me Euen the Leader of Gods people feared death and sinned not in fearing Life is worthy to be deare to all especially to him whom publike charge hath made necessary Meere feare is not sinfull It is impotence and distrust that accompany it which make it euill How well is that feare bestowed that sends vs the more importunately to God Some man would haue thought of flight Moses flyes to his Prayers and that not for reuenge but for helpe Who but Moses would not haue said This twice they haue mutined and beene pardoned and now againe thou seest O Lord how madly they rebell and how bloodily they intend against me preserue me I beseech thee and plague them I heare none of this but imitating the long suffering of his God he seekes to God for them which sought to kill him for the quarrell of God Neither is God sooner sought then found All Israel might see Moses goe towards the Rocke None but the Elders might see him strike it Their vnbeleefe made them vnworthy of this priuiledge It is no small fauor of God to make vs witnesses of his great Workes That he crucifies his Sonne before vs that he fetches the water of Life out of the true Rocke in our sight is an high prerogatiue If his rigour would haue taken it our infidelity had equally excluded vs whom now his mercy hath receiued Moses must take his Rod God could haue done it by his will without a word or by his word without the
looked to Gods hand for right Our fâ—ines exclude vs from Gods protection whereas vprightnesse challenges and findes his patronage An Affe taken had made him vncapable of fauour Corrupt Gouernors lose the comfort of their owne brest and the tuition of God The same tongue that prayed against the Conspirators prayes for the people As lewd men thinke to carie it with number Corah had so farre preuailed that hee had drawne the multitude to his side God the auenger of treasons would haue consumed them all at once Moses and Aaron pray for their Rebels Although they were worthy of death and nothing but death could stop their mouths yet their mercifull Leaders will not buy their owne peace with the losse of such enemies Oh rare and imitable mercy The people rise vp against their Gouernors Their Gouernors fall on their faces to God for the people so farre are they from plotting reuenge that they will not endure God should reuenge for them Moses knew well enough that all those Israelites must perish in the Wildernesse God had vowed it for their former insurrection yet how earnestly doth hee sue to God not to consume them at once The very respit of euils is a fauour next to the remouall Corah kindled the fire the two hundred and fifty Captaines brought sticks to it All Israel warmed themselues by it onely the incendiaries perish Now doe the Israelites owe their life to them whose death they intended God and Moses knew to distinguish betwixt the heads of a faction and the traine though neither be faultlesse yet the one is plagued the other forgiuen Gods vengeance when it is at the hotest makes differences of men Get you away from about the Tabernacles of Corah Euer before common iudgements there is a separation In the vniuersall iudgement of all the earth the Iudge himselfe will separate in these particular executions we must separate our selues The societie of wicked men especially in their sinnes is mortally dangerous whiles we will not be parted how can wee complaine if we be enwrapped in their condemnation Our very company sinnes with them why should wee not smart with them also Moses had well hoped that when these Rebels should see all the Israelites run from them as from monsters and looking affrightedly vpon their Tents and should heare that fearfull Proclamation of vengeance against them howsoeuer they did before set a face on their conspiracie yet now their hearts would haue misgiuen But lo these bold Traitors stand impudently staring in the doore of their Tents as if they would outface the reuenge of God As if Moses had neuer wrought miracle before them As if no one Israelite had euer bled for rebelling Those that shall perish are blinded Pride and infidelitie obdures the heart and makes euen cowards fearlesse So soone as the innocent are seuered the guilty perish the earth cleaues and swallowes vp the Rebels This element was not vsed to such morsels It deuoures the carkasses of men but bodies informed with liuing soules neuer before To haue seene them struck dead vpon the earth had been fearfull but to see the earth at once their executioner and graue was more horrible Neither the Sea nor the Earth are fit to giue passage The Sea is moist and flowing and will not be diuided for the continuitie of it The earth is dry and massie and will neither yeeld naturally not meet againe when it hath yeelded yet the waters did cleaue to giue way vnto Israel for their preseruation the earth did cleaue to giue way to the Conspirators in iudgement Both Sea and Earth did shut their iawes againe vpon the aduersaries of God There was more wonder in this latter It was a maruell that the waters opened it was no wonder that they shut againe for the retiring and flowing was naturall It was no lesse maruell that the earth opened but more maruell that it did shut againe because it had no naturall disposition to meet when it was diuided Now might Israel see they had to doe with a God that could reuenge with ease There were two sorts of Traitors the Earth swallowed vp the one the Fire the other All the elements agree to serue the vengeance of their Maker Nadab and Abihu brought fit persons but vnfit fire to God these Leuites bring the right fire but vnwarranted persons before him Fire from God consumes both It is a dangerous thing to vsurpe sacred functions The ministerie will not grace the man The man may disgrace the ministerie The common people were not so fast gathered to Corahs flattering perswasion before as now they ranne from the sight and feare of his iudgement I maruell not if they could not trust that earth whereon they stood whiles they knew their hearts had been false It is a madnesse to run away from punishment and not from sinne Contemplations THE SEVENTH BOOKE Aarons Censer and Rod. The Brazen Serpent Balaam Phinehas The death of Moses BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO MY RIGHT HONOVRABLE RELIGIOVS AND BOVNTIFVLL PATRONE EDWARD LORD DENNY BARON OF WALTHAM THE CHIEFE COMFORT OF MY LABOVRS J. H. WISHETH ALL TRVE HAPPINESSE AND DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS Contemplations THE SEVENTH BOOKE AARONS Censer and Rod. WHen shall wee see an end of these murmurings and these iudgements Because these men rose vp against Moses and Aaron therefore God consumed them and because God consumed them therefore the people rise vp against Moses and Aaron and now because the people thus murmure God hath againe begun to consume them What a circle is here of sinnes and iudgements Wrath is gone out from God Moses is quick-sighted and spies it at the setting out By how much more faithfull and familiar wee are with God so much earlier doe we discerne his iudgements as those which are well acquainted with men know by their lookes and gestures that which strangers vnderstand but by their actions As finer tempers are more sensible of the changes of weather Hence the Seers of God haue euer from their Watch-tower descried the iudgements of God afarre off If another man had seene from Carmel a cloud of a hand-breadth he could not haue told Ahab he should be wet It is enough for Gods Messengers out of their acquaintance with their Masters proceedings to fore-see punishment No maruell if those see it not which are wilfully sinfull we men reueale not our secret purposes either to enemies or strangers all their fauour is to feele the plague ere they can espy it Moses though he were great with God yet hee takes not vpon him this reconciliation he may aduise Aaron what to do himselfe vndertakes not to act it It is the worke of the Priesthood to make an atonement for the people Aaron was first his brothers tongue to Pharaoh now he is the peoples tongue to God he onely must offer vp the incense of the publike prayers to God Who would not thinke it a small thing to hold a Censer in his
greatest Citie Ioshua himselfe was full of Gods Spirit and had the Oracle of God ready for his direction yet now he goes not to the Propitiatorie for consultation but to the Spyes Except where ordinary means faile vs it is no appealing the immediate helpe of GOD we may not seeke to the posterne but where the common gate is shut It was promised Ioshua that he should leade Israel into the promised Land yet he knew it was vnsafe to presume The condition of his prouident care was included in that assurance of successe Heauen is promised to vs but not to our carelesnesse infidelitie disobedience He that hath set this blessed Inheritance before vs presupposes our wisdome faith holinesse Either force or policy are fit to be vsed vnto Canaanites He that would be happy in this spirituall warfare must know where the strength of his enemy lyeth and must frame his guard according to the others assault It is a great aduantage to a Christian to know the fashion of Satans onsets that he may the more easily compose himselfe to resist Many a soule hath miscaried through the ignorance of his enemy which had not perished if it had well knowne that the weaknesse of Satan stands in our faith The Spyes can finde no other lodging but Rahabs house Shee was a victualler by profession and as those persons and trades by reason of the commonnesse of entertainment were amongst the Iewes infamous by name and note shee was Rahab the Harlot I will not thinke she professed filthinesse onely her publike trade through the corruption of those times hath cast vpon her this name of reproach yea rather will I admire her faith then make excuses for her calling How many women in Israel now Miriam was dead haue giuen such proofes of their knowledge and faith How noble is that confession which she makes of the power and truth of God Yea I see here not onely a Disciple of God but a Prophetesse Or if she had once been publike as her house was now 〈…〉 worthy Coâ—â—t and so approued her selfe for honest and wise behauiour that she is â—â—ought wâ—â—hy to bee the great Grandmother of Dauids Father and â—e holy Line of the Messias is not ashamed to admit her into 〈◊〉 happy Pedegreeâ—â—he mercy of our God doth not measure vs by what wâ— were It would be wide with the best of vs if the eye of God should looke backward to our former estate there â—e should see Abraham an Idolater Paul a Persecuâ—â— Manasses a Necromancer Mary Magdalen a Curtizan and the best vile enough to be ashamed of himselfe Who can despaire of mercy that sees euen Rahab fetcht into the blood of Israel and line of Christ If Rahab had not receiued these Spies but as vnknowne passengers with respect to their money and not to their errand it had been no praise for in such cases the thanke is rather to the ghest then to the Oast but now she knew their purpose she knew that the harbor of them was the danger of her owne life and yet shee hazards this entertainment Either faith or friendship are neuer tried but in extremities To shew countenance to the messengers of God whiles the publike face of the State smiles vpon them is but a courtesie of course but to hide out owne liues in theirs when they are persecuted is an act that lookes for a reward These times need not fauour wee know not what may come Alas how likely is it they would shelter them in danger which respect them not in prosperity All intelligences of State come first to the Court It most concernes Princes to harken after the affaires of each other If this poore Inholder knew of the Sea dried vp before Israel and of the discomfiture of Og and Sehon Surely this rumour was stale with the King of Iericho he had heard it and feared and yet in stead of sending Ambassadors for peace hee sends Pursuiâ—nts for the Spyes The spirit of Rahab 〈◊〉 with that same report wherewith the King of Iericho was hardâ—ed all make not and vse of the messages of the proceedings of God The King sends to tell her what she knew shee had not hid them if shee had not knowne their errand I know not whether first to wonder at the gracious prouision of God for the Spies or at the strong faith which hee hath wrought in the heart of a weake woman two strangers Israelites Spies and noted for all these in a foraine in an hostile Land haue a safe harbour prouided them euen amongst their enemies In Iericho at the very Court gate against the Proclamation of a King against the indeuours of the people Where cannot the God of heauen either find or raise vp friends to his owne cause and seruants Who could haue hoped for such faith in Rahab which contemned her life for the present that she might saue it for the future neglected her owne King and Country for strangers which she neuer saw and more feared the destruction of that Citie before it knew that it had an aduersarie then the displeasure of her King in the mortall reuenge of that which he would haue accounted treacherie She brings them vp to the roofe of her house and hides them with stalkes of Flax That plant which was made to hide the body from nakednesse and shame now is vsed to hide the Spies from death Neuer could these stalkes haue been improued so well with all her houswifery after they were bruised as now before they were fitted to her wheele Of these shee hath wouen an euerlasting web both of life and propagation And now her tongue hides them no lesse then her hand her charitie was good her excuse was not good Euill may not be done that good may come of it we may doe any thing but sinne for promoting a good cause And if not in so maine occasions how shall God take it that weare not dainty of falshoods in trifles No man will looke that these Spies could take any sound sleepe in these beds of stalkes It is enough for them that they liue though they rest not And now when they heard Rahab comming vp the staires doubtlesse they looked for an executioner but behold she comes vp with a message better then their sleepe adding to their protection aduice for their future safety whereto she makes way by a faithfull report of Gods former wonders and the present disposition of her people and by wise capitulations for the life and security of her Family The newes of Gods miraculous proceedings for Israel haue made her resolue of their successe and the ruines of Iericho Then only doe we make a right vse of the workes of God when by his iudgements vpon others weare warned to auoid our owne He intends his acts for presidents of iustice The parents and brethren of Rahab take their rest They are not troubled with the feare and care of the successe of Israel but securely goe with the current of the present
Iericho will be won with looking at Or doe they onely come to count how many paces it is about our City If this be their manner of siege we shall haue no great cause to feare the sword of Israel Wicked men thinke God in iest when he is preparing for their iudgement The Almighty hath vvayes and counsels of his owne vtterly vnlike to ours vvhich because our reason cannot reach we are ready to condemne of foolishnesse and impossibilitie With vs there is no way to victory but fighting and the strongest caries the spoyle God can giue victory to the feet as well as to the hands and when he will makes weaknesse no disaduantage What should we doe but follow God through by-wayes and know that he will in spight of nature lead vs to our end All the men of warre must compasse the Citie yet it was not the presence of the great warriours of Israel that threw down the wals of Iericho Those foundations were not so slightly laid as that they could not endure either a looke or a march or a battery It was the Arke of God whose presence demolished the wals of that wicked City The same power that draue backe the waters of Iordan before and afterwards laid Dagon on the floore cast down all those forts The Priests beare on their shoulders that mighty engine of God before which those wals if they had beene of molten brasse could not stand Those spirituall wickednesses yea those gates of hell which to nature are vtterly inuincible by the power of the Word of God which he hath committed to the cariage of his weake seruants are ouerthrowne and triumphed ouer Thy Arke O God hath beene long amongst vs how is it that the wals of our corruptions stand still vnruined It hath gone before vs his Priests haue caried it wee haue not followed it our hearts haue not attended vpon it and therefore how mighty soeuer it is in it selfe yet to vs it hath not been so powerfull as it would Seuen dayes together they walkt this round They made this therefore their Sabbath-dayes iourney and who knowes whether the last and longest walke which brought victory to Israel were not on this day Not long before an Israelite is stoned to death for but gathering a few sticks that day Now all the host of Israel must walke about the wals of a large and populous City and yet doe not violate the day Gods precept is the rule of the iustice and holinesse of all our actions Or was it for that reuenge vpon Gods enemies is an holy worke and such as God vouchsafes to priuiledge with his owne day Or because when we haue vndertaken the exploits of God he will abide no intermission till we haue fulfilled them Hee allowes vs to breathe not to breake off till we haue finished It had been as easie for God to haue giuen this successe to their first dayes walke yea to their first pace or their first sight of Iericho yet he will not giue it vntill the end of their seuen dayes toyle It is the pleasure of God to hold vs both in worke and in expectation And though hee require our continuall indeuours for the subduing of our corruptions during the sixe dayes of our life yet we shall neuer find it perfectly effected till the very euening of our last day In the meane time it must content vs that we are in our walke and that these wals cannot stand when wee come to the measure and number of our perfection A good heart grones vnder the sense of his infirmities faine would be rid of them and striues and prayes but when hee hath all done vntill the end of the seuenth day it cannot be If a stone or two moulder off from these wals in the meane time that is all but the foundations will not be remoued till then When we heare of so great a designe as the miraculous winning of a mighty City who would not looke for some glorious meanes to worke it when we heare that the Arke of God must besiege Iericho who would not looke for some royall equipage But behold â—here seuen Priests must go before it with seuen Trumpets of Rams horns The Israelites had trumpets of siluer which God had appointed for the vse of assembling and dissoluing the Congregation for warre and for peace Now I doe not heare them called for but in stead thereof Trumpets of Rams hornes base for the matter and not loud for sound the shortnesse and equall measure of those instruments could not afford either shrilnesse of noise or variety How meane and homely are those meanes which God commonly vses in the most glorious workes No doubt the Citizens of Iericho answered this dull alarum of theirs from their wals with other instruments of lowder report and more martiall ostentation and the vulgar Israelites thought We haue as cleare and as costly trumpets as theirs yet no man dares offer to sound the better when the worse are commanded If we finde the ordinances of God poore and weake let it content vs that they are of his owne choosing and such as whereby he will so much more honour himselfe as they in themselues are more inglorious Not the outside but the efficacie is it that God cares for No Ramme of iron could haue been so forceable for battery as these Rams horns For when they sounded long and were seconded with the shout of the Israelites all the walls of Iericho fell downe at once They made the Heauen ring with their shout but the ruine of those wals drowned their voice and gaue a pleasant kinde of horrour to the Israelites The earth shooke vnder them with the fall but the hearts of the Inhabitants shooke yet more many of them doubtlesse were slaine with those walles wherein they had trusted A man might see death in the faces of all the rest that remained who now being halfe dead with astonishment expected the other halfe from the sword of their enemies They had now neither meanes nor will to resist for if onely one breach had beene made as it vses in other sieges for the entrance of the enemy perhaps new supplyes of defendants might haue made it vp with their carkasses but now that at once Iericho is turned to a plaine field euery Israelite without resistance might runne to the next booty and the throats of their enemies seemed to inuite their swords to a dispatch If but one Israelite had knockt at the gates of Iericho it might haue been thought their hand had helped to the victory Now that God may haue all the glory without the show of any riuall yea of any meanes they doe but walke and shout and the walls giue way He cannot abide to part with any honour from himselfe As hee doth all things so he would be acknowledged They shout all at once It is the presence of Gods Arke and our conioyned prayers that are effectuall to the beating downe of wickednesse They may not shout till they be
longest intermission they haue now the sorest bondage None of their Tyrants were so potent as Iabin with his nine hundred Chariots of yron The longer the reckoning is deferred the greater is the summe God prouides on purpose mighty Aduersaries for his Church that their humiliation may be the greater in sustayning and his glory may be greater in deliuerance I do not finde any Prophet in Israel during their sinne but so soone as I heare newes of their repentance mention is made of a Prophetesse and Iudge of Israel There is no better signe of Gods reconciliation then the sending of his holy messengers to any people He is not vtterly faln out with those whom he blesses with prophecy Whom yet doe I see raised to this honour Not any of the Princes of Israel not Barac the Captaine not Lapidoth the husband but a woman for the honour of her sex a wife for the honour of wedlocke Debora the wife of Lapidoth He that had choyce of all the millions of Israel culs out two weake women to deliuer his people Deborah shall iudge Iael shall execute All the Palaces of Israel must yeeld to the Palme-tree of Deborah The weaknesse of the instruments redounds to the greater honour of the Workman Who shall aske God any reason of his elections but his own pleasure Deborah was to sentence not to strike to command not to execute This act is masculine fit for some Captaine of Israel She was the Head of Israel it was meet some other should be the hand it is an imperfect and titular gouernment where there is a coÌ„manding power without correction without execution The message of Deborah findes out Barac the sonne of Abinoam in his obscure secrecy and cals him from a corner of Nepthali to the honour of this exploit He is sent for not to get the victory but to take it not to ouercome but to kill to pursue not to beat Sisera Who could not haue done this worke whereto not much courage no skill belonged Yet euen for this will God haue an instrument of his owne choice It is most fit that God should serue himselfe where he list of his owne neither is it to be inquired whom we thinke meet for any employment but whom God hath called Deborah had been no Prophetesse if she durst haue sent in her owne name Her message is from him that sent her selfe Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded Baracs answere is faithfull though conditionate and doth not so much intend a refusall to goe without her as a necessary bond of her presence with him Who can blame him that he would haue a Prophetesse in his company If the man had not been as holy as valiant he would not haue wished such society How many think it a perpetuall bondage to haue a Prophet of God at their elbow God had neuer sent for him so farre if he could haue bin content to goe vp without Deborah He knew that there was both a blessing and incouragement in that presence It is not putting any trust in the successe of those men that neglect the messengers of God To prescribe that to others which we draw backe from doing our selues is an argument of hollownesse and falsity Barac shall see that Deborah doth not offer him that cup whereof she dare not begin without regard of her sex she marches with him to Mount Tabor and reioyces to be seene of the tenne thousand of Israel With what scorne did Sisera looke at the gleanings of Israel How vnequall did this match seene of ten thousand Israelites against his three hundred thousand foot ten thousand horse nine hundred charets of yron And now in a brauery he cals for his troupes and meanes to kill this handfull of Israel with the very sight of his picked chariots and only feared it would be no victory to cut the throats of so few The faith of 〈◊〉 and Barac was not appalled with this world of Aduersaries which from mount Tâ—oâ— they saw hiding all the Valley below them they knew whom they had beleeued and how little an arme of flesh could doe against the God of Hosts Barac went downe against Sisera but it was God that destroyed him The Israelites did not this day wield their owne swords lest they should arrogate any thing God told them before-hand it should be his owne act I heare not of one stroke that any Canaanite gaue in his fight as if they were called hither onely to suffer And nâ—w proud Sisera after many curses of the heauinesse of that yron carriage is glad to quit his Chariot and betake himselfe to his heeles Who euer yet knew any earthly thing trusted in without disappointment It is wonder if God make vs not at last as weary of whatsoeuer hath stolne our hearts from him as euer we were fond Yet Sisera hopes to haue sped better then his followers in so seasonable an harbour of Iael If Heber and Iael had not been great persons there had been no note taken of their Tents There had been no league betwixt King Iabin and them now their greatnesse makes them knowne their league makes them trusted The distresse of Sisera might haue made him importunate but Iael begins the courtesie and exceeds the desire of her guest He askes water to drinke she giues him milke he wishes but shelter she makes him a bed he desires the protection of her Tent she couers him with a mantle And now Sisera pleases himselfe with this happy change and thinkes how much better it is to be here then in that whirling of chariots in that horror of flight amongst those shriekes those wounds those carcasses Whiles he is in these thoughts his wearinesse and easie reposall hath brought him asleepe Who would haue looked that in this tumult and danger euen betwixt the very iawes of death Sisera should find time to sleepe How many wordly hearts doe so in the mids of their spirituall perils Now whiles he was dreaming doubtlesse of the clashing of armours ratling of chariots neighing of horses the clamor of the coÌ„quered the furious pursuit of Israel Iael seeing his temples lye so faire as if they inuited the naile and hammer entred into the thought of this noble execution certainly not without some checks of doubt and pleas of feare What if I strike him And yet who am I that I should dare to thinke of such an act Is not this Sisera the famousest Captaine of the world whose name hath wont be fearefull to whole Nations What if my hand should swarue in the stroke What if he should awake whiles I am lifting vp this instrument of death What if I should be surprized by some of his followers while the fact is greene and yet bleeding Can the murder of so great a Leader be hid or vnreuenged Or if I might hope so yet can my heart allow to be secretly trecherous Is there not peace betwixt my house and him Did not I inuite him to my Tent Doth he
not trust to my friendship and hospitality But what doe these weake feares these idle fancies of ciuility If Sisera be in league with vs yet is he not at defiance with God Is he not a Tyrant to Israel Is it for nothing that God hath brought him into my Tent May I not now find meanes to repay vnto Israel all their kindnes to my Grand-father Iethro Doth not God offer mee this day the honour to be the Rescuer of his people Hath God forbidden me strike and shall I hold my hand No Sisera sleepe now thy last and take here this fatall reward of all thy cruelty and oppression He that put this instinct into her heart did put also strength into her hand He that guided Sisera to her Tent guided the naile thorow his temples which hath made a speedy way for his soule thorow those parts and now hath fastned his eare so close to the earth as if the body had been listening what was become of the soule There lyes now the great terror of Israel at the foote of a woman He that brought so many hundred thousands into the Field hath not now one Page left either to auert his death or to accompany it or bewaile it He that had vaunted of his yron chariots is slaine by one naile of yron wanting onely this one point of his infelicity that he knowes not by whose hand he perished GIDEONS Calling THe iudgements of God still the further they goe the forer they are the bondage of Israel vnder Iabin was great but it was freedome in comparison of the yoke of the Midianites During the former tyranny Deborah was permitted to iudge Israel vnder a Palme-tree Vnder this not so much as priuate habitations will be allowed to Israel Then the seat of iudgement was in sight of the Sun now their very dwellings must be secret vnder the earth They that reiected the protection of God are glad to seeke to the mountaines for shelter and as they had sauagely abused themselues so they are faine to creepe into dens and caues of the rocks like wilde creatures for safegard God had sowen spirituall seede amongst them and they suffered their heathenish neighbors to pull it vp by the rootes and now no sooner can they sowe their materiall seede but Midianites and Amalckites are ready by force to destroy it As they inwardly dealt with God so God deales outwardly by them Their eyes may tell them what their souls haue done yet that God whose mercy is aboue the worst of our sinnes sends first his Prophet with a message of reproofe and then this Angell with a message of deliuerance The Israelites had smarted enough with their seruitude yet God sends them a sharpe rebuke It is a good signe wheÌ„ God chides vs his round reprehensions are euer gracious fore-runners of mercy whereas his silent conniuence at the wicked argues deepe and secret displeasure The Prophet made way for the Angell reproofe for deliuerance humiliation for comfort Gideon was threshing Wheat by the Wine-presse Yet Israel hath both Wheat and Wine for all the incursions of their enemies The worst estate out of hell hath either some comfort or at least some mittigation in spight of all the malice of the world God makes secret prouision for his owne How should it be but hee that ownes the earth and all creatures should reserue euer a sufficiency from forrainers such the wicked are for his houshold In the worst of the Medianitish tyranny Gideons field barne are priueledged as his fleece was afterwards from the showre Why did Gideon thrâ—sh his corne To hide it Not from his neighbours but his enemies his Granary might easily be more close then his barne As then Israelites threshed out their come to hide it from the Midianites but now Midianites thresh out come to hide it from the Israelites These rurall Tyrants of our time doe not more lay vp come then curses he that withdraweth come the people will curse him yea God will curse him with them and for them What shifts nature will make to liue Oh that we could be so carefull to lay vp spirituall food for our soules out of the reach of those spirituall Midianites we could not but liue in despight of all aduersaries The Angels that haue euer God in their face and in their thoughts haue him also in the mouthes The Lord is with thee But this which appeared vnto Gideon was the Angell of the Couenant the Lord of Angels Whiles he was with Gideon he might well fall The Lord is with thee He that sent the comforter was also the true Comforter of his Church he well knew how to lay a sure ground of consolation and that the onely remedy of sorrow and beginning of true ioy is The presence of God The griefe of the Apostles for the expected losse of their Master could neuer be cured by any receit but this of the same Angel Behold I am with you to the end of the World What is our glory but the fruition of Gods presence The punishment of the damned is a separation from the beatificall face of God needs must therefore his absence in this life be a great torment to a good heart and no crosse can be equiualent to this beginning of heauen in the Elect The Lord is with thee Who can complaine either of solitarinesse or opposition that hath God with him With him not onely as a witnesse but as a party Euen wicked men and diuels cannot exclude God not the barres of hell can shut him out He is with them perforce but to iudge to punish them yea God will be euer with them to their cost but to protect comfort saue he is with none but his Whiles he calls Gideon valiant he makes him so How could he be but valiant that had God with him The godlesse man may be carelesse but cannot be other then cowardly It pleases God to acknowledge his own graces in men that he may interchange his owne glory with their comfort how much more should we confesse the graces of one another An enuious nature is preiudiciall to God he is a strange man in whom there is not some visible good yea in the Diuels themselues we may easily note some commendable parts of knowledge strength agility Let God haue his owne in the worst creature yea let the worst creature haue that praise which God would put vpon it Gideon cannot passe ouer this salutation as some fashionable complement but layes hold on that part which was most important the tenure of all his comfort and as not regarding the praise of his valour inquires after that which should be the ground of his valour the presence of God God had spoken particularly to him he expostulates for all It had beene possible God should be present with him not with the rest as hee promised to haue been with Moses not Israel and yet when God sayes The Lord is with thee he answeres Alasse Lord if the Lord be with
he hath corrected so can ease them Folly is neuer Ieparated from wickednesse Their heart told them that they had no right to the Arke A Councell is called of their Princes and Priests If they had resolued to send it home they had done wisely Now they doe not carry it away but they carry it about from Ebenezer to Ashdod from Ashdod to Gath from Gath to Ekron Their stomacke was greater then their conscience The Arke was too sore for them yet it was too good for Israel and they will rather dye then make Israel happy Their conceit that the change of ayre could appease the Arke God vseth to his owne aduantage for by this meanes his power is knowne and his iudgement spred ouer all the country of the Philistims What doe these men now but send the plague of God to their fellowes The iustice of God can make the sinnes of men their mutuall executioners It is the fashion of wicked men to draw their neighbours into the partnership of their condemnation Wheresoeuer the Arke goes there is destruction The best of Gods Ordinances if they bee not proper to vs are deadly The Israelites did not more shout for ioy when they saw the Arke come to them then the Ekronites cry out for griefe to see it brought amongst them Spirituall things are either soueraigne or hurtfull according to the disposition of the receiuers The Arke doth either saue or kill as it is entertained At last when the Philistims are well wearie of paine and death they are glad to bee quit of their sinne The voyce of the Princes and people is changed to the better Send away the Arke of the God of Israel and let it returne to his owne place God knowes how to bring the stubbornest enemy vpon his knees and makes him doe that out of feare which his best child would doe out of loue and duty How miserable was the estate of these Philistims Euery man was either dead or sicke those that were left liuing through their extremity of paine enuied the dead and the cry of their whole Cities went vp to heauen It is happy that God hath such store of plagues and thunderbolts for the wicked If he had not a fire of iudgement wherewith the yron hearts of men might bee made flexible hee would want obedience and the world peace The Arkes reuenge and returne IT had wont to bee a sure rule Wheresoeuer God is among men there is the Church Here onely it failed The testimony of Gods presence was many moneths amongst the Philistims for a punishment to his owne people whom hee left for a curse to those forrainers which entertained it Israel was seuen moneths without GOD How doe wee thinke faithfull Samuel tooke this absence How desolate and forlorne did the Tabernacle of GOD looke without the Arke There were still the Altars of GOD his Priests Leuites Tables Veiles Censers with all their legall accoustrements These without the Arke were as the Sunne without light in the midst of an Eclipse If all these had beene taken away and onely the Arke had beene remaining the losse had beene nothing to this that the Arke should be gone and they left For what are all these without God and how all-sufficient is GOD without these There are times wherein GOD withdrawes himselfe from his Church and seemes to leaue her without comfort without protection Sometimes wee shall finde Israel taken from the Arke otherwhiles the Arke is taken from Israel In either there is a separation betwixt the Arke and Israel Heauy times to euery true Israelite yet such as whose example may relieue vs in our desertions Still was this people Israel the seed of him that would not bee left of God without a blessing and therefore without the testimony of his presence was God present with them It were wide with the faithfull if God were not ofttentimes with them when there is no witnesse of his presence One act was a mutuall penance to the Israelites and Philistims I know not to whether more Israel grieued for the losse of that whose presence grieued the Philistims their paine was therefore no other then voluntary It is strange that the Philistims would endure seuen moneths smart with the Arke since they saw that the presence of that Prisoner would not requite no nor mitigate to them one houres misery Foolish men will be struggling with God till they be vtterly either breathlesse or impotent Their hope was that time might abate displeasure euen whiles they persisted to offend The false hopes of worldly men cost them deare they could not be so miserable if their owne hearts did not deceiue them with mis-expectations of impossible fauour In matters that concerne a God who is so fit to be consulted with as the Priests The Princes of the Philistims had before giuen their voyces yet nothing is determined nothing is done without the direction and assent of those whom they accounted sacred Nature it selfe sends vs in diuine things to those persons whose calling is diuine It is either distrust or presumption or contempt that caries vs our owne waies in spirituall matters without aduising with them whose lips God hath appointed to preserue knowledge There cannot but arise many difficulties in vs about the Arke of God whom should wee consult with but those which haue the Tongue of the Learned Doubtlesse this question of the Arke did abide much debating There wanted not faire probabilities on both sides A wise Philistim might well plead If God had either so great care of the Arke or power to retaine it how is it become ours A wiser then he would reply If the God of Israel had wanted either care or power Dagon and we had beene still whole why doe we thus grone and dye all that are but within the Aire of the Arke if a diuine hand doe not attend it Their smart pleads enough for the dismission of the Arke The next demand of their Priests and Soothsayers is how it should be sent home Affliction had made them so wise as to know that euery fashion of parting with the Arke would not satisfie the owner oftentimes the circumstance of an action marres the substance In diuine matters wee must not onely looke that the body of our seruice be sound but that the clothes be fit Nothing hinders but that sometimes good aduice may fall from the mouth of wicked men These superstitious Priests can counsell them not to send away the Arke of God emptie but to giue it a sinne-offering They had not liued so farre from the smoake of the Iewish Altars but that they knew God was accustomed to manifold oblations and chiefly to those of expiation No Israelite could haue said better Superstition is the Ape of true deuotion and if we looke not to the ground of both many times it is hard by the very outward acts to distinguish them Nature it selfe teacheth vs that God loues a full hand He that hath beene so bountifull to vs
made to bee seene he ouerlookes all Israel in height of stature for presage of the eminence of his estate from the shoulders vpward was he higher then any of the people Israel sees their lots are falne vpon a noted man one whose person shewed he was borne to be a King and now all the people shout for ioy they haue their longing and applaud their owne happinesse and their Kings honour How easie is it for vs to mistake our owne estates to reioyce in that which we shall find the iust cause of our humiliation The end of a thing is better then the beginning the safest way is to reserue our ioy till wee haue good proofe of the worthinesse and fitnesse of the obiect What are wee the better for hauing a blessing if we know not how to vse it The office and obseruance of a King was vncowth to Israel Samuel therefore informes the people of their mutuall duties and writes them in a booke and layes it vp before the Lord otherwise nouelty might haue beene a warrant for their ignorance and ignorance for neglect There are reciprocall respects of Princes and people which if they be not obserued gouernment languisheth into confusion these Samuel faithfully teacheth them Though he may not be their iudge yet he will be their Prophet he will instruct if he may not rule yea he will instruct him that shall rule There is no King absolute but he that is the King of all gods Earthly Monarchs must walke by a rule which if they transgresse they shall be accountable to him that is higher then the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of ciuility so much as conscience must euery Samuel labour to keepe eauen termes betwixt Kings and Subiects prescribing iust moderation to the one to the other obedience and loyalty which who euer endeauors to trouble is none of the friends of God or his Church The most and best applaud their new King some wicked ones despised him and said How shall he saue vs It was not the might of his Parents the goodlinesse of his person the priuiledge of his lot the fame of his prophesying the Panegyricke of Samuel that could shield him from contempt or winne him the hearts of all There was neuer yet any man to whom some tooke not exceptions It is not possible either to please or displease all men while some men are in loue with vice as deeply as others with vertue and some as ill dislike vertue if not for it selfe yet for contradiction They well saw Saul chose not himselfe they saw him worthy to haue beene chosen if the Election should haue beene carried by voices and those voyces by their eyes they saw him vnwilling to hold or yeeld when hee was chosen yet they will enuy him What fault could they find in him whom God had chosen His parentage was equall his person aboue them his inward parts more aboue them then the outward Malecontents will rather deuise then want causes of flying out and rather then faile the vniuersall approbation of others is ground enough of their dislike It is a vaine ambition of those that would be loued of all The Spirit of God when he enioynes vs peace with all he addes if it be possible and fauour is more then peace A mans comfort must be in himselfe the conscience of deseruing well The neighbouring Ammonites could not but haue heard of Gods fearfull vengeance vpon the Philistims and yet they will be taking vp the quarrell against Israel Nahash comes vp against Iabesh Gilead Nothing but grace can teach vs to make vse of others iudgements wicked men are not moued with ought that fals beside them they trust nothing but their owne smart What fearfull iudgements doth God execute euery day resolute sinners take no notice of them and are growne so peremptorie as if God had neuer shewed dislike of their wayes The Gileadites were not more base then Nahash the Ammonite was cruell The Gileadites would buy their peace with seruility Nahash would sell them a seruile peace for their right eyes Iephtha the Gileadite did yet sticke in the stomacke of Ammon and now they thinke their reuenge cannot be too bloody It is a wonder that hee which would offer so mercilesse a condition to Israel would yeeld to the motion of any delay Hee meant nothing but shame and death to the Israelites yet hee condescends to a seuen dayes respit Perhaps his confidence made him thus carelesse Howsoeuer it was the restraint of God that gaue this breath to Israel and this opportunity to Sauls courage and victory The enemies of Gods Church cannot bee so malicious as they would cannot approue themselues so malicious as they are God so holds them in sometimes that a stander-by would thinke them fauourable The newes of Gileads distresse had soone filled and afflicted Israel the people thinke of no remedie but their pittie and teares Euils are easily grieued for not easily redressed Onely Saul is more stirred with indignation then sorrow That GOD which put into him a spirit of prophesie now puts into him a spirit of fortitude Hee was before appointed to the Throne not setled in the Throne he followed the beasts in the field when he should haue commanded men Now as one that would be a King no lesse by merit then election he takes vpon him and performes the rescue of Gilead he assembles Israel he leads them he raiseth the siege breakes the troops cuts the throats of the Ammonites When God hath any exploit to performe he raiseth vp the heart of some chosen Instrument with heroicall motions for the atchieuement When all hearts are cold and dead it is a a signe of intended destruction This day hath made Saul a compleat King and now the thankfull Israelites begin to enquire after those discontented Mutiners which had refused allegeance vnto so worthy a Commander Bring those men that we may slay them This sedition had deserued death though Saul had beene foiled at Gilead but now his happy victorie whets the people much more to a desire of this iust execution Saul to whom the iniurie was done hinders the reuenge There shall no man dye this day for to day the Lord hath saued Israel that his fortitude might not goe beyond his mercy How noble were these beginnings of Saul His Prophesie shewed him miraculously wise his Battell and Victory no lesse valiant his pardon of his Rebels as mercifull There was not more power shewed in ouercomming the Ammonites then in ouercomming himselfe and the impotent malice of these mutinous Israelites Now Israel sees they haue a King that can both shed blood and spare it that can shed the Ammonites blood and spare theirs His mercy winnes those hearts whom his valour could not As in God so in his Deputies Mercy and Iustice should be inseparable wheresoeuer these two goe asunder gouernment followes them into distraction and ends in ruine If it had beene a wrong offered to Samuel the
against this Philistim to fight with him for thou art a boy and hee is a man of warre from his youth Euen Saul seconds Eliab in the conceit of this disparitie and if Eliab speake out of enuy Saul speakes out of iudgement both iudge as they were iudged of by the stature All this cannot weaken that heart which receiues his strength from faith Dauids greatest conflict is with his friends The ouercomming of their disswasions that he might fight was more worke then to ouercome his enemy in fighting Hee must first iustifie his strength to Saul ere he may proue it vpon Goliah Valour is neuer made good but by tryall He pleads the tryall of his puissance vpon the Beare and the Lyon that hee may haue leaue to proue it vpon a worse beast then they Thy seruant slew both the Lyon and the Beare therefore this vncircumcised Philistim shall be as one of them Experience of good successe is no small comfort to the heart this giues possibilitie and hope but no certainty Two things there were on which Dauid built his confidence on Goliahs sinne and Gods deliuerance Seeing he hath railed on the host of the liuing God The Lord that deliuered me out of the pawes of the Lion and the Beare he wil deliuer me out of the hand of this Philistim Well did Dauid know that if this Philistims skin had beene as hard as the brasse of his shield his sinne would make it penetrable by euery stroke After all brags of manhood hee is impotent that hath prouoked God Whiles other labour for outward fortification happy and safe were wee if we could labour for innocence Hee that hath found God present in one extremitie may trust him in the next Euery sensible fauour of the Almightie inuites both his gifts and our trust Resolution thus grounded makes euen Saul himselfe confident Dauid shall haue both his leaue and his blessing If Dauid came to Saul as a Shepheard hee shall goe toward Goliah as a Warriour The attire of the King is not too rich for him that shall fight for his King and Country Little did Saul thinke that his helmet was now on that head which should once weare his crowne Now that Dauid was arrayed in the warlike habit of a King and girded with his sword hee lookt vpon himselfe and thought this outside glorious but when he offred to walke and found that the attire was not so strong as vnweeldy and that it might be more for show then vse hee layes downe these accoustrements of honor and as caring rather to bee an homely victor then a glorious spoile he craues pardon to goe in no clothes but his owne he takes his staffe in stead of the speare his shepherds scrip in stead of his brigandine and in stead of his sword hee takes his sling and in stead of darts and iauelins hee takes fiue smooth stones out of the brooke Let Sauls coate bee neuer rich and his armour neuer so strong what is Dauid the better if they fit him not It is not to bee enquired how excellent any thing is but how proper Those things which are helpes to some may be encombrances to others An vnmeet good may be as inconuenient as an accustomed euill If we could wish another mans honor when wee feele the weight of his cares we should be glad to be in our owne cote Those that depend vpon the strength of Faith though they neglect not meanes yet they are not curious in the proportion of outward meanes to the effect desired Where the heart is armed with an assured confidence a sling and a stone are weapons enow to the vnbeleeuing no helps are sufficient Goliah though he were presumptuous enough yet had one shield caried before him another hee caried on his shoulder neither will his sword alone content him but he takes his speare too Dauids armour is his plaine shepheards russet and the brooke yeelds him his artillery and he knowes there is more safety in his cloth then in the others brasse and more danger in his peebles then the others speare Faith giues both heart and armes The inward munition is so much more noble because it is of proofe for both soule and body If we be furnished with this how boldly shall wee meet with the powers of darknesse and goe away more then conquerors Neither did the quality of Dauids weapons bewray more confidence then the number If he will put his life and victory vpon the stones of the brooke why doth he not fill his scrip full of them why will he content himselfe with fiue Had he been furnished with store the aduantage of his nimblenesse might haue giuen him hope If one faile that yet another might speed But now this paucity puts the dispatch to a sudden hazard and he hath but fiue stones cast either to death or victory still the fewer helps the stronger faith Dauid had an instinct from God that he should ouercome he had not a particular direction how he should ouercome For had he beene at first resolued vpon the sling and stone he had saued the labor of girding his sword It seemes whiles they were addressing him to the combat he made account of hand-blowes now he is purposed rather to send then bring death to his aduersarie In either or both he durst trust God with the successe and before-hand through the conflict saw the victorie It is sufficient that wee know the issue of our fight If our weapons and wards vary according to the occasion giuen by God that is nothing to the euent sure we are that if we resist we shall ouercome and if wee ouercome wee shall be crowned When Dauid appeared in the lists to so vnequall an aduersarie as many eyes were vpon him so in those eyes diuers affections The Israelites lookt vpon him with pitty and feare and each man thought Alas why is this comely stripling suffred to cast away himselfe vpon such a monster why will they let him goe vnarmed to such an affray Why will Saul hazard the honour of Israel on so vnlikely an head The Philistims especially their great Champion lookt vpon him with scorne disdayning so base a combitant Am I a dog that thou com'st to me with staues What could be said more fitly Hadst thou beene any other then a dog O Goliah thou hadst neuer opened thy foule mouth to barke against the host of God and the God of hosts If Dauid had thought thee any other then a very dogge hee had neuer come to thee with a staffe and a stone The last words that euer the Philistim shall speak are curses brags Come to me and I will giue thy flesh vnto the Fowles of the heauen and the beasts of the field Seldome euer was there a good end of ostentation Presumption is at once the presage and cause of ruine He is a weake aduersary that can bee killed with words That man which could not feare the Gyants hand cannot feare his tongue If words shall
abasement Heroicall and that the onely way to true glory is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation vnto God Well might he promise himselfe honour from those whose contempt she had threatned The hearts of men are not their owne he that made them ouer-rules them and inclines them to an honourable conceit of those that honour their Maker So as holy men haue oft times inward reuerence euen where they haue outward indignities Dauid came to blesse his house Mical brings a curse vpon her selfe Her scornes shall make her childlesse to the day of her death Barrennesse was held in those times none of the least iudgements God doth so reuenge Dauids quarrell vpon Mical that her sudden disgrace shall be recompenced with perpetuall She shall not be held worthy to beare a sonne to him whom she vniustly contemned How iust is it with God to prouide whips for the backe of scorners It is no maruell if those that mocke at goodnesse be plagued with continuall fruitlesnesse MEPHIBOSHETH and ZIBA SO soone as euer Dauid can but breathe himselfe from the publike cares hee casts backe his thoughts to the deare remembrance of his Ionathan Sauls seruant is likely to giue him the best intelligence of Sauls sonnes The question is therefore moued to Ziba Remaineth there yet none of the house of Saul and lest suspition might conceale the remainders of an emulous liue in feare of reuenge intended he addes On whom I may shew the mercy of God for Ionathans sake O friendship worthy of the Monuments of Eternity fit only to requite him whose loue was more than the loue of women Hee doth not say Is there any of the house of Ionathan but of Saul that for his friends sake hee may shew fauour to the Posterity of his Persecutor Ionathans loue could not bee greater than Sauls malice which also suruiued long in his issue from whom Dauid found a busie and stubborne riualitie for the Crowne of Israel yet as one that gladly buried all the hostilitie of Sauls house in Ionathans graue hee askes Is there any man left of Sauls house that I may shew him mercie for Ionathans sake It is true loue that ouerliuing the person of a friend will bee inherited of his seed but to loue the posteritie of an enemie in a friend it is the miracle of friendship The formall amitie of the World is confined to a face or to the possibility of recompence languishing in the disabilitie and dying in the decease of the party affected That loue was euer false that is not euer constant and then most operatiue when it cannot be either knowne or requited To cut off all vnquiet competition for the Kingdome of Israel the prouidence of God had so ordered that there is none left of the house of Saul besides the sonnes of his Concubines saue only young and lame Mephihosheth so young that hee was but fiue yeeres of age when Dauid entred vpon the Gouernment of Israel so lame that if his age had fitted his impotence had made him vnfit for the Throne Mephibosheth was not borne a Cripple it was an heedlesse Nurse that made him so She hearing of the death of Saul and Ionathan made such haste to flee that her young Master was lamed with the fall Yw is there needed no such speed to runne away from Dauid whose loue pursues the hidden sonne of his brother Ionathan How often doth our ignorant mistaking cause vs to runne from our bestfriends and to catch knockes and maimes of them that professe our protection MEPHIBOSHETH could not come otherwise than fearefully into the presence of Dauid whom hee knew so long so spitefully opposed by the house of Saul hee could not bee ignorant that the fashion of the World is to build their owne security vpon the bloud of the opposite faction neither to thinke themselues safe whiles any branch remaines springing out of that root of their emulation Seasonably doth Dauid therefore first expell all those vniust doubts ere hee administer his further cordials Feare not for I will surely shew thee kindnesse for Ionathan thy fathers sake and will restore thee all the fields of Saul thy father and thou shalt eate bread at my table continually Dauid can see neither Sauls bloud nor lame legs in Mephibosheth whiles he sees in him the features of his friend Ionathan how much lesse shall the God of mercies regard our infirmities or the corrupt bloud of our sinfull Progenitors whiles he beholds vs in the face of his Sonne in whom he is well pleased Fauours are wont so much more to affect vs as they are lesse expected by vs Mephibosheth as ouer-ioyed with so comfortable a word and confounded in himselfe at the remembrance of the contrary-deseruings of his Family bowes himselfe to the earth and sayes What is thy seruant that thou shouldst looke vpon such a dead Dog as I am I find no defect of wit though of limmes in Mepihbesheth hee knew himselfe the Grand-childe of the King of Israel the sonne of Ionathan the lawfull heire of both yet in regard of his owne impotencie and the trespasse and reiection of his house hee thus abaseth himselfe vnto Dauid Humiliation is a right vse of Gods affliction What if hee were borne great If the sinne of his Grandfather hath lost his estate and the hand of his Nurse hath deformed and disabled his person hee now forgets what hee was and cals himselfe worse than hee is A Dogge Yet a liuing Dogge is better than a dead Lion there is dignity and comfort in life Mephibosheth is therefore a dead Dogge vnto Dauid It is not for vs to nourish the same spirits in our aduerse estate that wee found in our highest prosperitie What vse haue wee made of Gods hand if wee bee not the lower with ourfall God intends wee should carry our crosse not make a fire of it to warme vs It is no bearing vp our sayles in a tempest Good Dauid cannot dis-esteeme Mephibosheth euer the more for disparaging himselfe hee loues and honours this humilitie in the Sonne of Ionathan There is no more certaine way to glory and aduancement than a lowly deiection of our selues Hee that made himselfe a Dogge and therefore fit onely to lye vnder the table yea a dead Dogge and therefore fit onely for the ditch is raised vp to the table of a King his seat shall bee honourable yea royall his fare delicious his attendance noble How much more will our gracious God lift vp our heads vnto true honour before men and Angels if wee can bee sincerely humbled in his sight If wee miscall our selues in the meanenesse of our conceits to him hee giues vs a new name and sets vs at the Table of his glorie It is contrary with GOD and men if they reckon of vs as wee set our selues hee values vs according to our abasements Like a Prince truely munificent and faithfull Dauid promises and performes at once Ziba Sauls seruant hath the charge giuen him of
for vs to striue in our prayers to striue with him not against him when once wee know them it is our dutie to sit downe in a silent contentation Whiles the Childe was yet aliue I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the Childe may liue but now he is dead Wherfore should I fast Can-I bring him backe againe The griefe that goes before an euill for remedie can hardly bee too much but that which followes an euill past remedie cannot bee too little Euen in the saddest accident Death wee may yeeld something to nature nothing to impatience immoderation of sorrow for losses past hope of recouery is more fullen than vse-full our stomacke may be bewrayed by it not our wisdome AMNON and TAMAR IT is not possible that any word of God should fall to the ground Dauid is not more sure of forgiuenesse than smart Three maine sins passed him in this businesse of Vriah Adultery Murder Dissimulation for all which he receiues present payment for Adultery in the deflowring of his Daughter Thamar for Murder in the killing of his Sonne Amnon for Dissimulation in the contriuing of both Yet all this was but the beginning of euils Where the Father of the Family brings sinne home to the house it is not easily swept our Vnlawfull Lust propagates it selfe by example How iustly is Dauid scourged by the sinne of his Sonnes whome his Act taught to offend Maacha was the Daughter of an Heathenish King By her had Dauid that beautifull but vnhappy Issue Absalom and his no lesse faire Sister Thamar Perhaps thus late doth Dauid feele the punishment of that vnfit choice I should haue maruelled if so holy a man had not found crosses in so vnequall a match either in his person or at least in his feed Beauty if it be not well disciplin'd proues not a Friend but a Traytour three of Dauids Children are vndone by it at once What else was guilty of Amnons incestuous loue Tamars rauishment Absoloms pride It is a blessing to be faire yet such a blessing as if the soule answer not to the face may leade to a curse How commonly haue we seene the foâ—â—lest soule dwell fairest It was no fault of Tamars that shee was beautifull the Candle offends not in burning the foolish flie offends in scorching it selfe in the flame yet it is no small misery to become a tentation vnto another and to be made but the occasion of others ruine Amnon is loue-sicke of his sister Tamar and languishes of that vnnaturall heat Whither will not wanton lust carry the inordinate mindes of pampered and vngouerned youth None but his halfe sister will please the eyes of the young Prince of Israel Ordinary pleasures will not content those whom the conceit of greatnesse youth and ease haue let loose to their appetite Perhaps yet this vnkindly flame might in time haue gone out alone had not there beene a Ionadab to blow these coales with ill counsell It were strange if great Princes should want some Parasiticall Followers that are ready to feed their ill humors Why art thou the Kings Sonne so leane from day to day As if it were vnworthy the Heire of a King to suffer either Law or Conscience to stand in the way of his desires Whereas wise Princes know well that their places giue them no priuiledge of sinning but call them in rather to so much more strictnesse as their example may be more preiudiciall Ionadab was the Cousin German of Amnon Ill aduice is so much more dangegerous as the interest of the giuer is more Had he beene a true friend hee had bent all the forces of his disswasion against the wicked motions of that sinfull lust and had shewed the Prince of Israel how much those lewd desires prouoked God and blemished himselfe and had lent his hand to strangle them in their first Conception There cannot be a more worthy improuement of friendship than in a feruent opposition to the sinnes of them whom we professe to loue No enemy can be so mortall to great Princes as those officious Clients whose flattery soothes them vp in wickednesse These are Traytors to the Soule and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally How ready at hand is an euill suggestion Good counsell is like vnto Wel-water that must be drawne vp with a Pumpe or Bucket Ill counsell is like to Conduit-water which if the cocke be but turned runnes out alone Ionadab hath soone proiected how Amnon shall accomplish his lawlesse purpose The way must be to faine himselfe sicke in body whose minde was sicke of lust and vnder this pretence to procure the presence of her who had wounded and only might cure him The daily increasing languor and leanenesse and palenesse of loue-sicke Amnon might well giue colour to a Kerchiefe and a pallet Now is it soone told Dauid that his eldest Sonne is cast vpon his sicke bed there needs no suite for his visitation The carefull Father hastenâ— to his Bed-side not without doubts and feates He that was lately so afflicted with the sicknesse of a Childe that scarce liued to see the light how sensible must we needs thinke hee would bee of the indisposition of his first borne Soone in the prime of his age and hopes It is not giuen to any Prophet to fore-see all things Happie had it beene for Dauid if Amnon had beene truly sicke and sicke vnto death yet who could haue perswaded this passionate Father to haue beene content with this succession of losses this early losse of his Successour How glad is he to heare that his Daughter Tamars skill might bee likely to fit the dyet of so deareâ— patient Conceit is word to rule much both in sicknesse and the cure Tamar is sent by her Father to the house of Amnon Her hand only must dresse that Dish which may please the nice Palace of her sicke Brother Euen the Children of Kings in those homelyâ—r Tymes did not scorne to put their fingers to some workes of huswifrie Shee tooke floure and did knead it and did make Cakes in his sight and did bake the Cakes and tooke a Pan and powred them out before him Had shee not beene sometimes vsed to such domestique imployments shee had beene now to seeke neither had this beene required of her but vpon the knowledge of her skill Shee doth not plead the impayring of her beauty by the scorching of the fire nor thinkes her hand too dainty for such meane Services but settles to the worke as one that had rather regard the necessities of her Brother than her owne state Only pride and idlenesse haue banisht honest and thrifty diligence out of the houses of the great This was not yet the Dish that Amnon longed for It was the Cooke and not the Cates which that wanton eye affected Vnlawfull Acts seeke for secrecie The companie is dismissed Tamar onely staies Good meaning suspects nothing Whiles she presents the meat
call for the blood of the Gibeonites though drudges of Israel and a remnant of Amorites Why this There was a periury attending vpon this slaughter It was an ancient Oath wherein the Princes of the congregation had bound themselues vpon Ioshua's league to the Gibeonites that they would suffer them to liue an oath extorted by fraud but solemne by no lesse â—â—me then the Lord God of Israel Saul will now thus late either not acknowledge it or not keepe it out of his zeale therefore to the children of Israel and Iudah he roots â—ut some of the Gibeonites whether in a zeale of reuenge of their first imposture or in a zeale of inlarging the possessions of Israel or in a zeale of executing Gods charge vpon the brood of Canaanites he that spared Agag whom he should haue smitten smites the Gibeonites whom he should haue spared Zeale and good intention is no excuse much lesse a warrant for euill God holds it an high indignitie that his name should be sworne by and violated Length of time cannot dispense with our oathes with our vowes The vowes and oathes of others may binde vs how much more our owne There was a famine in Israel a naturall man would haue ascribed it vnto the drought and that drought perhaps to some constellations Dauid knowes to looke higher and sees a diuine hand scourging Israel for some great offence and ouer-ruling those second causes to his most iust executions Euen the most quick-sighted worldling is pore-blind to 〈◊〉 all obiects and the weakest eyes of the regenerate pierce the heauens and espy God in all earthly occurrences So well was Dauid acquainted with Gods proceedings that he knew the remouall of the iudgement must begin at the satisfaction of the wronged At once therefore doth he pray vnto God and treat with the Gibeonites What shall I doe for you and wherewith shall I make the atonement that I may blesse the inheritance of the Lord In vaine should Dauid though a Prophet blesse Israel at the Gibeonites did not 〈…〉 lesse them Iniuries done vs on earth giue vs power in heauen The oppressor is in no mans mercy but his whom he hath trampled vpon Little did the Gibeonites thinke that God had so taken to heart their wrongs that for their sakes all Israel should suffer Euen when we thinke not of it is the righteous Iudge auenging our vnrighteous vexations Our hard measures cannot bee hid from him his returnes are hid from vs It is sufficient for vs that God can bee no more neglectiue then ignorant of our sufferings It is now in the power of these despised Hiuites to make their owne termes with Israel Neither Siluer nor Gold will sauour with them towards their satisfaction Nothing can expiate the blood of their fathers but the blood of seuen sonnes of their deceased persecutor Here was no other then a iust retaliation Saul had punished in them the offence of their predecessors they will now reuenge Sauls sinne in his children The measure we mete vnto others is with much equity re-measured vnto our selues Euery death would not content them of Sauls sonnes but a cursed and ignominious hanging on the Tree Neither would that death content them vnlesse their owne hands might bee the executioners Neither would any place serue for the execution but Gibeah the Court of Saul neither would they doe any of this for the wreaking of their own fury but for the appeasing of Gods wrath We will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul Dauid might not refuse the condition Hee must deliuer they must execute Hee chooses out seuen of the sonnes and grand-children of Saul That house had raised long an vniust persecution against Dauid now God payes it vpon anothers score Dauids loue and oath to Ionathan preserues lame Mephibosheth How much more shall the Father of all mercies doe good vnto the children of the faithfull for the couenant made with their Parents The fiue sonnes of Adriel the Meholathite Dauids ancient riuall in his first loue which were borne to him by Merab Sauls Daughter and brought vp by her barren sister Michol the wife of Dauid are yeelded vp to death Merab was after a promise of mariage to Dauid vniustly giuen away by Saul to Adriel Michol seemes to abet the match in breeding the children now in one act nor of Dauids seeking the wrong is thus late auenged vpon Saul Adriel Merab Michol the children It is a dangerous matter to offer iniury to any of Gods faithfull ones If their meeknesse haue easily remitted it their God will not passe it ouer without a seuere retribution These fiue together with two sonnes of Rizpah Sauls Concubine are hanged vp at once before the Lord yea and before the eyes of the World No place but an Hill wil serue for this execution The acts of iustice as they are intended for example so they should be done in that eminent fashion that may make them both most instructiue and most terrifying Vnwarrantable courses of priuate reuenge seeke to hide their heads in secresie The beautifull face of iustice both affects the light and becomes it It was the generall charge of Gods Law that no corps should remaine all night vpon the gibbet The Almighty hath power to dispense with his owne command so doubtlesse he did in this extraordinary case these carkasses did not defile but expiate Sorrowfull Rizpah spreads her a Tent of Sackcloth vpon the Rocke for a sad attendance vpon those sonnes of her wombe Death might bereaue her of them not them of her loue This spectacle was not more grieuous to her then pleasing to God and happy to Israel Now the clouds drop â—â—messe and the earth runs forth into plenty The Gibeonites are satisfied God reconciled Israel relieued How blessed a thing it is for any Nation that iustice is vnpartially executed euen vpon the mighty A few drops of blood haue procured large showres from Heauen A few carkasses are a rich compost to the earth The drought and dearth remoue away with the breath of those pledges of the offender Iudgements cannot tyrannize where iustice raignes as contrarily there can be no peace where blood cryes vnheard vnregarded The numbring of the people ISrael was growne wanton and mutinous God puls them downe first by the sword then by famine now by pestilence Oh the wondrous yet iust wayes of the Almightie Because Israel hath sinned therefore Dauid shall sinne that Israel may be punished Because God is angry with Israel therefore Dauid shall anger him more and strike himselfe in Israel and Israel through himselfe The spirit of God elsewhere ascribes this motion to Satan which here it attributes to God Both had their hand in the worke God by permission Satan by suggestion God as a Iudge Satan as an enemy God as in a iust punishment for sinne Satan as in an act of sinne God in a wise ordination of it to good Satan in a malicious intent of confusion Thus at once
people that knowes not the Law is accursed Yet the mercie of God makes an aduantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore lesse subiect to cauillation and incredulitie as contrarily his iustice causes the proud knowledge of the other to lie as a blocke in their way to the ready assent vnto the diuine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious aduersaries disdaine the pouerty of the clients of the Gospell it shall not repent vs to goe to heauen with the vulgar whiles their great ones goe in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the diuinity of the Iewes What Scribes but those of Ierusalem the most eminent Academie of Iudea These were the men who out of their deepe reputed iudgment cast these foule aspersions vpon Christ Great wits oft-times mis-lead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had beene borne dullards yea idiots when they shal find their wit to haue barred them out of heauen Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishnesse Say the world what it will a dram of holinesse is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse Hee casteth out Deuills through Beelzebub the Prince of Deuils The Iewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Deuills Amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his ayde implored against the infestation of those swarmes was held the chiefe therefore they stile him The Prince of Deuills There is a subordination of spirits some hier in degree some inferiour to others Our Sauiour himselfe tells vs of the Deuill and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seuen Deuills that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Gouernours and Princes of the darkenesse of this World designe other then seuerall rankes of euill Angels There can be no beeing without some kinde of order there can bee no order in paritie If wee looke vp into heauen there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords hier then the hiest If to the earth There are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If wee looke downe to hell There is the Prince of Deuills They labour for confusion that call for parity What should the Church doe with such a forme as is not exemplified in heauen in earth in hell One deuill according to their supposition may be vsed to cast out another How far the command of one spirit ouer another may extend it is a sector of internall state too deepe for the inquiry of men The thing it selfe is apparent vpon compact and precontracted composition one giues way to other for the common aduantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Gut-purses one doth the fact another is seed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the reuealer but diuides with him that cunning spoile One malicious miscreant sets the Deuill on worke to the inflicting of disease or death another vpon agreement for a further spirituall gaine takes him off There is a Deuill in both And if there seeme more bodily fauour there is no lesse spirituall danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will bee no cause of discord in hell that one deuill giues ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gaine of a soule O God that any creature which beares thine Image should not abhorre to bee beholden to the powers of hell for aid for aduice Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men bee so sottish to thinke that the vowed enemie of their soules can offer them a bait without an hooke What euill is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redresse He wounds he heales againe And if he will not it is the Lord let him doe what seemes good in his eies If he doe not deliuer vs he will crowne our faithfulnesse in a patient perseuerance The wounds of a God no better then the salues of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Enuy could deuise so hie a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Deuill to the Iewes therefore they accuse him for a coniurer Beelzebub was the chiefe of Deuils therefore they accuse him for an Archexorcist for the worst kind of Magician Some professors of this blacke Art though their worke be deuillish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Iesus and will presumptuously seeme to do that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement the Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Deuill and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the law of Moses in the very hand of Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deepe doth this wound reach that our Sauiour searching it to the bottome findes no lesse in it then the sinne against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadfull sentence of the irremissiblenesse of that sinne vnto death And if this horrible crimination were cast vpon thee O Sauiour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if wee thy sinfull seruants bee branded on all sides with euill tongues Yea which is yet more how plaine is it that these men forced their tongue to speake this slander against their owne heart Else this blasphemie had beene onely against the sonne of man not against the holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts finds it to bee no lesse then against the blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully crosse their conscience Enuie neuer regards how true but how mischieuous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For vs Blessed are we when men reuile vs and say all manner of euill of vs for the name of Christ For them What reward shall be giuen to thee thou false tongue Euen sharpe arrowes with hot burning coles Yea those very coles of hell from which thou wert enkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanicall operation they confesse it good but not enough and therefore vrge Christ to a further proofe Though thou hast cast out this dumbe Deuill yet this is no sufficient argument of thy diuine power We haue yet seene nothing from thee like those ancient miracles of the times of our
the opportunity of Ahabs presence when he might be sure Iezebel was away Obadiah meets the Prophet knowes him and as if he had seene God in him fals on his face to him vvhom he knew his master persecuted Though a great Peere hee had learned to honor a prophet No respect was too much for the president of that sacred colledge To the poore boarder of the Sareptan here was no lesse then a prostration and My Lord Elijah from the great High Steward of Israel Those that are truely gracious cannot be niggardly of their obseruances to the messengers of God Elijah receiues the reuerence returnes a charge Goe tell thy Lord Behold Elijah is here Obadiah finds this lode too heauy neither is he more striken with the boldnes then with the vnkindnesse of this command boldnesse in respect of Elijah vnkindnesse in respect of himselfe For thus he thinkes If Elijah do come to Ahab he dies If he doe not come I die If it bee knowne that I met him and brought him not it is death If I say that he will come voluntarily and God shall alter his intentions it is death How vnhappy a man am I that must be either Elijahs executioner or my own were Ahabs displeasure but smoking I might hope to quēch it but now that the flame of it hath broken forth to the notice to the search of all the Kingdomes and Nations round about it may consume me I cannot extinguish it This message were for an enemy of Elijah for a client of Baal As for me I haue well approued my true deuotion to God my loue to his Prophets What haue I done that I should be singled out either to kill Elijah or to be killed for him Many an hard plunge must that man needs be driuen to who would hold his conscience together with the seruice and fauor of a Tyrant It is an happy thing to serue a iust master there is no danger no straine in such obedience But when the Prophet bindes his resolution with an oath and cleares the heart of Obadiah from all feares from all suspicions the good man dares bee the messenger of that which he saw was decreed in heauen Doubtlesse Ahab startled to heare of Elijah comming to meet him as one that did not more hate then feare the Prophet Well might he thinke thus long thus far haue I sought Elijah Elijah would not come to seeke me but vnder a sure guard and with some strange commission His course mantle hath the aduantage of my robe and Scepter If I can command a peece of the earth I see hee can command heauen The edge of his reuenge is taken off with a doubtfull expectation of the issue and now when Elijah offers himselfe to the eies of Ahab He who durst not strike yet durst challenge the Prophet Art thou hee that troubleth Israel Ieroboams hand was still in Ahabs thoughts he holds it not so safe to smite as to expostulate He that was the head of Israel speakes out that which was in the heart of all his people that Elijah was the cause of all their sorrow Alas what hath the righteous Prophet done He taxed their sin he foretold the iudgement he deserued it not he inflicted it not yet he smarts and they are guilty As if some fond people should accuse the Herald or the Trumpet as the cause of their warre or as if some ignorant peasant when he sees his fowles bathing in his pond should cry out of them as the causes of soule weather Oh the heroicall Spirit of Elijah he stand alone amids all the traine of Ahab and dares not onely repell this charge but retort it I haue not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that yee haue forsaken the Commandements of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim No earthly glory can daunt him who hath the cleere and heartning visions of God This holy Seer discernes the true cause of our sufferings to bee our sinnes Foolish men are plagued for their offences and it is no small part of their plague that they see it not The onely common disturber of men Families Cities Kingdomes worlds is sinne There is no such traitor to any state as the wilfully wicked The quietest and most plausible offender is secretly seditious and stirreth quarrels in heauen The true messengers of God cary authority euen where they are maligned Elijah doth at once reproue the King and require of him the improuement of his power in gathering all Israel to Carmel in fetching thither all the Prophets of Baal Baal was rich in Israel whiles God was poore Whiles God hath but one hundred Prophets hid closely in Obadiahs caues Baal hath eight hundred and fifty foure hundred and fifty dispersed ouen the villages and townes of Israel foure hundred at the Court Gods Prophets are glad of bread and water whiles the foure hundred Trencher Prophets of Iezebel feed on her dainties They lurke in caues whiles these Lord it in the pleasantest groues Outward prosperity is a false note of truth All these with all Israel doth Elijah require Ahab to summon vnto Carmel It is in the power of Kings to command the Assembly of the Prophets the Prophet sues to the Prince for the indiction of this Synode They are iniurious to Soueraignty who arrogate this power to none but spirituall hands How is it that Ahab is as ready to performe this charge as Elijah to moue it I dare answer for his heart that it was not drawne with loue Was it out of the sense of one iudgement and feare of another hee smarted with the dearth and drought and well thinkes Elijah would not be so round with him for nothing Was it out of an expectation of some miraculous exploit which the Prophet would doe in the sight of all Israel Or was it out of the ouer-ruling power of the Almighty The heart of Kings is in the hand of God and he turnes it which way soeuer he pleaseth Israel is met together Elijah rates them not so much for their superstition as for their vnsetlednesse and irresolution One Israelite serues God another Baal yea the same Israelite perhaps serues both God and Baal How long halt yee betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Nothing is more odious to God then a prophane neutrality in maine oppositions of religion To go vpright in a wrong way is a lesse eie-sore to God then to halt betwixt right wrong The Spirit wisheth that the Laodicean were either hot or cold either temper would be better borne then neither then both In reconcileable differences nothing is more safe then indifferency both of practice and opinion but in cases of so necessary hostility as betwixt God and Baal hee that is on neither side is the deadlyest enemy to both Lesse hatefull are they to God that serue him not at all then they that serue him with a riuall Whether out of guiltinesse or feare or
preponderate light falshood in a thousand Euen King Ahab as bad as hee was kept tale of his Prophets and could giue account of one that was missing There is yet one man Michaiah the sonne of Iudah by whom we may inquire of the Lord but I hate him for hee doth not prophecy good concerning me but euill It is very probable that Michaiah was that disguised Prophet who brought to Ahab the fearefull message of displeasure and death for dismissing Benhadad for which he was euer since fast in prison deepe in disgrace Oh corrupt heart of selfe condemned Ahab If Micaiah spake true to thee how was it euill If others said false how was it good and if Micaiah spake from the Lord why dost thou hate him This hath wont to bee the ancient lot of Truth censure and hatred Censure of the message hatred of the bearer To carnall eares the message is euill if vnpleasing and if plausible good If it be sweet it cannot be poison if bitter it cannot be wholsome The distemper of the receiuer is guilty of this mis-conceit In it selfe euery truth as it is good so amiable euery falshood loathsome as euill A sicke palate cries out of the taste of those liquors which are well allowed of the heathfull It is a signe of a good state of the soule when euery verdure can receiue his proper iudgement Wise and good Iehosaphat disswades Ahab from so hard an opinion and sees cause so much more to vrge the consultation of Michaiah by how much hee findes him more vnpleasing The King of Israel to satisfie the importunitie of so great and deare an allie sends an Officer for Michaiah He knew well belike where to finde him within those foure walls where vniust cruelty had disposed of that innocent Seer Out of the obscuritie of the prison is the poore Prophet fetcht in the light of so glorious a Confession of two Kings who thought this Conuocation of Prophets not vnworthy of their greatest representation of State ad Maiestie There he finds Zedekiah the leader of that false crue not speaking only but acting his prediction Signes were no lesse vsed by the Prophets then words this arch-flatterer hath made him bornes of iron the horne is forceable the iron irresistible by an irresistible force shall Ahab push the Syrians as if there were more certaintie in this mans hands then in his tongue If this son of Chenaanah had not had a forehead of brasse for impudency and a heart of Lead for flexiblenesse to humors and times he had neuer deuised these horns of iron wherewith his King was goared vnto blood Howsoeuer it is enough for him that he is beleeued that he is seconded All the great Inquest of these Prophets gaue vp their verdict by this foreman not one of foure hundred dissented Vnanimitie of opinion in the greatest Ecclesiasticall assemblies is not euer an argument of truth There may be as common and as firme agreement in error The messenger that came from Michaiah like a carnall friend sets him in a way of fauour tels him what the rest said how they pleased how vnsafe it would bee for him to varie how beneficiall to assent Those that adore earthly greatnesse thinke euery man should dote vpon their Idols and hold no termes too high their ambitious purchases Faithfull Micaiah scornes the motion he knows the price of the word and contemnes it As the Lord liueth what the Lord saith vnto me that will I speake Neither feares nor fauours can tempt the holily resolute They can trample vpon dangers or honors with a carelesse foot and whether they be smiled or frowned on by the great dare not either alter or conceale their errand The question is moued to Micaiah He at first so yeelds that he contradicts yeelds in words contradicts in pronunciation The syllables are for them the sound against them Ironies deny strongest in affirming and now being pressed home he tels them that God had shewed him those sheepe of Israel should ere long by this meanes want their Shepheard The very resemblance to a good Prince had beene affectiue The sheepe is an helplesse creature not able either to guard or guide it selfe all the safety all the direction of it is from the keeper without vvhom euery curre chases and werries it euery tracke seduceth it Such shall Israel soone bee if Ahab bee ruled by his Prophets The King of Israel doth not beleeue but quarrell not at himselfe who had deserued euill but at the Prophet who foresignified it and is more carefull that the King of Iuda should marke how true he had fore-told concerning the Prophet then how the Prophet had fore-told concerning him Bold Micaiah as no whit discouraged with the vniust checks of greatnesse doubles his prediction and by a second vision particularizeth the meanes of this dangerous errour Whiles the two Kings sate maiestically in their Thrones hee tels them of a more glorious Throne then theirs whereon he saw the King of Gods sitting Whiles they were compassed with some hundreds of Prophets thousands of Subiects and Souldiers he tels them of all the host of heauen attending that other Throne Whiles they were deliberating of a war he tels them of a God of heauen iustly decreeing the iudgement of a deadly deception to Ahab This decree of the highest is not more plainly reuealed then expressed parabolically The wise and holy God is represented after the manner of men consulting of that ruine which hee intended to the wicked King of Israel That increated and infinite wisdome needs not the aduice of any finite and created powers to direct him needs not the assent and aid of any spirit for his execution much lesse of an euill one yet here an euill spirit is brought in by way of vision mixt with parable profeting the seruice of his lie accepted imployed successefull These figures are not void of truth The action and euent is reduced to a decree the decree is shadowed out by the resemblance of humane proceedings All euill motions and counsells are originally from that malignant Spirit That euill spirit could haue no power ouer men but by the permission by the decree of the Almighty That Almighty as he is no Author of sin so he ordinates all euill to good It is good that is iust it is iust that one sinne should be punished by another Satan is herein no other then the executioner of that God who is as far from infusing euill as from not reuenging it Now Ahab sees the ground of that applauded consent of his rabble of Prophets one euil spirit hath no lesse deceiued them then they their master he is one therefore he agrees with himselfe he is euill therefore both he they agree in deceit Oh the noble and vndanted spirit of Micaiah neither the Thrones of the Kings nor the number of the Prophets could abate one word of his true though displeasing message The King of Israel shall heare that he is mis-led by lyers they
without cruelty though in the hot chases of warre executions may be iustifiable yet in the coolenesse of deliberation it can bee no other then inhumane to take those liues which haue beene yeelded to mercy But here thy bow and thy sword are guiltlesse of the successe onely a strange prouidence of the Almighty hath cast them into thine hands whom neither thy force nor thy fraud could haue compassed If it bee victory thou aimest at ouercome them with kindnesse Set bread and water before them that they may eate and drinke Oh noble reuenge of Elisha to feast his persecutors To prouide a Table for those who had prouided a graue for him These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha he sends them from Samaria full of good cheare and iollity Thus thus should a Prophet punish his pursuers No vengeance but this is heroicall and fit for Christian imitation If thine enemy hunger giue him bread to eate if hee thirst giue him water to drinke For thou shalt heape coales of fire vpon his head and the Lord shall reward thee Be not ouercome with euill but ouercome euill with good The King of Israel hath done that by his feast which hee could not haue done by his sword The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel Neuer did a charitable act goe away without the retribution of a blessing In doing some good to our enemies wee doe most good to our selues God cannot but loue in vs this imitation of his mercy who bids his Sunne shine and his raine fall where he is most prouoked and that loue is neuer fruitlesse The Famine of Samaria releeued NOt many good turnes are written in Marble soone haue these Syrians forgotten the mercifull beneficence of Israel After the forbearance of some hostile inroade all the forces of Syria are mustered against Iehoram That very Samaria which had releeued the distressed Aramites is by the Aramites besieged and is affamished by those whom it had fed The famine within the walles was more terrible then the sword without Their worst enemy was shut within and could not be dislodged of their owne bowels Whither hath the Idolatry of Israel brought them Before they had beene scourged with warre with drought with dearth as with single cords they remaine incorrigible and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together and galls them euen to death there needs no other executioners then their owne mawes Those things which in their nature were not edible at least to an Israelite were now both deare and dainty The Asse was besides the vntoothsomnesse an impure creature that which the law of Ceremonies had made vncleane the law of necessitie had made delicate and precious the bones of so carrion an head could not bee picked for lesse then foure hundred pieces of siluer neither was this scarcitie of victuals only but of all other necessaries for humane vse that the belly might not complaine alone the whole man was equally pinched The King of Israel is neither exempted from the iudgement nor yet yeelds vnder it He walkes vpon the walls of his Samaria to ouersee the Watches set the Engines ready the Guards changed together with the posture of the enemy when a woman cries to him out of the Citie Help my Lord O King Next to God what refuge haue we in all our necessities but his Anointed Earthly Soueraigntie can aide vs in the case of the iniustice of men but what can it doe against the iudgements of God If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the wine-presse Euen the greatest powers must stoope to afflictions in themselues how should they be able to preuent them in others To sue for aide where is an vtter impotence of redresse is but to vpbraid the weaknesse and aggrauate the misery of those whom we implore Iehoram mistakes the suit The suppliant cals to him for a wofull peece of Iustice Two mothers haue agreed to eate their sonnes The one hath yeelded hers to be boiled and eaten the other after shee hath taken her part of so prodigious a banquet withdrawes her child and hides him from the knife Hunger and enuy make the Plaintiffe importunate and now shee craues the benefit of royall iustice Shee that made the first motion with-holds her part of the bargain and flyes from that promise whose trust had made this mother childlesse Oh the direfull effects of famine that turnes off all respects of nature and giues no place to horror causing the tender mother to lay her hands yea her teeth vpon the fruit of her owne body and to receiue that into her stomacke which shee hath brought forth of her wombe What should Iehoram doe The match was monstrous The challenge was iust yet vnnaturall This complainant had purchased one halfe of the liuing child by the one halfe of hers dead The mother of the suruiuing Infant is pressed by couenant by hunger restrained by nature To force a mother to deliuer vp her child to voluntarie slaughter had been cruell To force a Debtor to pay a confessed arerage seemed but equall If the remaining child be not dressed for food this mother of the deuoured child is both robbed and affamished If he be innocent blood is shed by authoritie It is no maruell if the questiō astonished the Iudge not so much for the difficulty of the demand as the horror of the occasion to what lamentable distresse did Iehoram find his people driuen Not without cause did the King of Israel rend his garments and shew his sackcloth wel might he see his people branded with that ancient curse which God had denounced against the rebellious The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee of a fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old nor shew fauour to the yong And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine owne body the flesh of thy sonnes and of thy daughters The tender and delicate woman her eyes shall bee euill towards her yong one that commeth out from betweene her feet and toward◠the children which shee shall beare for she shall eate them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitnesse He mournes for the plague he mournes not for the cause of this plague his sinne and theirs I finde his sorrow I find not his repentance The worst man may grieue for his smart onely the good heart grieues for his offence In stead of being penitent Iehoram is furious and turnes his rage from his sinnes against the Prophet God doe so to me and more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day Alas what hath the righteous done Perhaps Elisha that wee may imagine some colours of this displeasure fore-threatned this iudgement but they deserued it perhaps hee might haue auerted it by his prayers their
in at the eye 1198 F FAction How to quell it drawne from an order in the body and soule 55 Falshood where that is in any it makes vs to suspect others 1134 Fame the vanity of being caried away with the affectation of fame 66 Fame is alwaies a blabbe oftentimes a lyar 1270 Fashion an excellent description of a man of fashion 700 immodesty of outward fashion bewrayes ill desires 851 Of the fashions out-running modesty 1135 Fasting it merits not but it prepares for good 908 Fathers what they owe to their children 242 Fauour it makes vertues of vices 67 Extraordinary fauours to the wicked make way for iudgments and are forerunners of their ruine 876 The purpose of any fauour is more then the value 1088 Fauour not vsed aright doth iustly breake out into Indignation 1135 Faith sudden extremity is a notable tryall of faith 15 The bond of faith is the strongest bond 29 A discourse of the proofes and signes of true faith 348 Of sense and faith 437 Of the power of faith 704 A notable meanes to hearten our faith 894 No life to that of faith 908 A pretty obseruation of the difference of sense faith 916 1162 All our actions done in faith and charity shall bee sure of pay 953 Faith euer ouerlooks the difficulties in the way and hath eye to the end 972 The strongest faith hath euer some touch of infidelity 977 1106 Faith giues both heart and armes in Warre 1084 The weake apprehensions of our imperfect faith are not to be so much censured as pitied 1162 Where our faith is not wanting to God his care cannot be wanting to vs. 1331 Faithfulnesse a faithfull man hath three eyes Of sense of Reason of Faith 34 The Character of a faithfull man 174 175 Faithfulnesse in reproofe 216 None so valiant as the beleeuer 918 It is no smal happinesse to be interessed in the faithfull 1052 Faithlesse no charity binds vs to trust those whom we haue found faithlesse 1102 Feare Feare and seruice must goe together 474 Feare distinguished 474 It fits the minde for Loue. ibid. Loue and feare neuer goe asunder where they are true 475 Feare what it signifies in the originall ibid. Distinguished ibid. Defined ibid. Our feare must bee reduced to seruice 476 A notable encouragement against feare of all oppositions 531 Meere feare is not sinfull 892 Feare and familiaritie God loues in the vse of his Ordinances 897 The most secure heart hath its flashes of feares 951 A fearfull man can neuer be a true friend 1004 Boldnesse and feare are commonly mis-placed in the best hearts 1052 Where there is no place for holy feare there will be place for the seruile 1109 Feasts A checke for our new-found feastings 476 Fight How all the creatures fight for God 531 Fishing Of the Ministers being compared to Fisher-men 1201 Flatterer or flatterie Its character 192 His successe remedy 218 Fatterie what it doth 280 Flattery a sure token of a false teacher 920 A iust doome for false flatterers fully described in the Amalekite that brought tydings to Dauid of Sauls death 1117 1118 A flatterer most notably discouered 1132 1133 Flesh in the matters of God we must not consult with flesh and blood 835 Flight whether wee may fly in time of danger 1177 Follow neuer was seene so bad course but had some followers or applauders 138 Food the soule is fed as the body with milk strong meat 145. 146 Fooles three sorts 213 The successe of their follie ibid. All sinne hath power to befoole a man 1006 Force a pretty Embleme of force and wylinesse ioyned together to worke mischiefe 1002 Fortitude in generall and speciall 226 True ChristiaÌ„ fortitude what it teacheth 918 True Christian fortitude wades through all euills 1023. A note of true fortitude 1027 Forwardnesse It argues insufficience 871 Foâ—ce a pretty Embleme of the Foâ—ces tayes tyed together 1002 Freedome none free but Gods seruants 9 Freewill That errour foysted on the Church of England by the Parlour of Amsterdam 583 The Romish errour of free-will 645 Friend how to vse him 5 When knowne 25 Friendship Three grounds of friendship 29 What only should part frieÌ„ds 30 True friendship necessarily requireth patience ibid. No time lost that is bestowed on a true friend 31 The right behauiour of a true friend ibid. Of the losse of a friend 31 32 How to make men our frieÌ„ds perforce that will not be so in loue 47 A true friend the sweetest contentment in the world 53 How to deale with an offending friend 55 What we must doe in medling with friends faults 57 Rich men can hardly know their friends 59 The character of a true friend 177 A fearfull man can neuer be a true friend 1004 The fruition of friends a great comfort 1016 The purpose of any friendship is more then the value 1088 Fulke Doctor Fulke commended 287 Funerals Our Churches practice in them commendable 591 G GAderens Christ among their herds 1293 Why they besought Christs departure 1303 Gaine How many in feare of pouerty seâ—k to gaine vnconscionably and dye beggers 1003 No gaine so sweet as that of a robbed altar 1054 Gallant His description in his iollitie 493 Gamester hee is prettily deciphered 1001 Gergesens Christ among them 1293 Gesture vid. body Gibeonites Their wisdome but not falshood commended 958 Their smooth tale told for themselues ibid. The rescue of Gibeon 965 The Gibeonites reuenged 1243 Gideon His calling 957 His preparation victories 981 There is no greater example of modestie then in Gideon 985 Gifts or giuing God loues not either grudged or necessary gifts 39 Gods former gifts arguments of more 144 Speed in giuing how acceptable 966 In gifts intention is the fauour not the substance 972 God will find a time to make vse of any of his gifts bestowed on any man 991 We measure the loue of God by his gifts 1027 God loues not to haue his gifts lie dead where hee hath conferred them 1265 Glory Gods glory must bee the chiefe of all our actions and desires 902 God The vse of his presence p. 12 13 The absurd impiety of Israels desire of hauing other gods 899 A miserable god that wants helping 1044 With what securitie they walke that take their directions from God 1047 Godlinesse Neuer was any man a loser by true godlinesse 1129 Goliah Of him and Dauid 1080 How fitly he termes himselfe a dogge 1084 His end is a picture of the end of insolency and presumption 1085 Good Of doing good with an ill meaning 63 64 Of good ill vsed 64 All our best good is insensible 146 A good man wil euer be doing good 868 Good done but not out of conscience what they meet with 1090 Goodnesse Its power 7 No good man that mends not 8 It is of a winning qualitie 1023 Those men are worse then deuils that hate any for goodnesse ibid. Gospell The enioyment of it what a fauour it is 907 Its sweetnesse 929 Gouernours
subordinate rules of tranquillitie 92 R RAhab Of her 945 The Authors censure of her whether an harlot in respect of filthinesse ibid. Her house a token of the true Church 947 Her deliuery with the vse of it 953 Rarenesse It causeth wonder with the application of it 49 50 Rebels Vengeance against theÌ„ may sleepe but cannot dye 1263 Regeneration it must make way for our glorification 466 Rehoboam 1311 His taking counsell with the yong ones 1313 Reioyce How easily we can reioyce in that which we shall find the iust cause of our humiliation 1057 Relapse vide reuolting It is desperate 888 Religion Of the feeling of the power of it in our selues 37 Who is the greatest enemie to Religion 141 A discourse of the tryall and choyce of true religion 319 Dissentions in religion an insufficient motiue of vnsetlednesse in it What both a priuate publike person is compared vnto that is vnsetled in his religion 481 Nothing reputed so superfluous as religious duties 865 A reproofe of our not being willing to be at cost with religion 901 The pompous shewes of the false religion 936 The care of religioÌ„ must haue the first place 968 Religion gone humanity wil hardly stay long after 986 Where no respect is giuen to Gods Ministers there is no religion 1017 No measuring of religion by outward glory 1044 It is no small priuiledge to dwell where religion is 1054 Nothing worse then to make policy a stalking horse for religion 1121 The Princes first care to aduance religion 1127 If Ministers be meal-mouth'd in the scornes of religion they may not bee counted patient but zealelesse 1130 Religion makes not men vnciuill 1134 Want of religion is the way to disobedience 1314 Religion and policy how they must meet 1335 God hates nothing more then a neutrality in religion 1337 Remembrance the remembrance of former fauors how it heartens our faith 894 Reprehension that there must not be one vniforme in reprehension 24 Reprehension better then flattery ibid. Corruption checked growes mad with rage 865 A galled heart impatient of reprehension 868 What a wicked man lookes to in hearing reprehension ibid. Where sinne is not ashamed of light God loues not that reprehension should bee smothered 915 Reprehension makes way for consolation 975 It is signe of a horse galled that stirres too much when he is touched 1030 In vaine doe wee reprehend those sinnes abroad which we tolerate at home 1033 An easie reproofe doth but encourage wickednesse 1034 Of the choice of seasons for reproofe 1060 Reproouers should striue to be innocent ibid. Resolute wickednesse is impatient of reprehension 1318 Repentance an excellent inducement to it 68 The character of a true penitent 180 A vniuersall Antidote for all the iudgements of God 916 In vaine to professe repentance whilst wee continue in Idolatry 1051 Oâ— the maruellous power of repentance 1143 Repentance cannot alwaies turne a temporall iudgement 1248 Rephidim Its rocke 891 Reproaches Such as are cast vpon vs in the causes of God may safely be repayed 1130 Reubenites Of their Altar 967 Reprobation a fearfull signe of it 1110 Reuenge vide vengeance God alwaies takes his part that seekes not to reuenge himselfe 914 God can reuenge with ease 922 Euery creature reioyceth to execute Gods vengeance 929 There is no euasion where God intends reuenge 966 Reuolter vide Relapse much difference betweene him and a man trained vp in error 143 An Epistle to new reuolter a Minister 275 Reynolds commended 287 Riches vide Wealth Rich men are not Gods treasurers but his Stewards 26 How a vertuous man esteemes of riches 28 Hard to bee rich and righteous 33 A notable argument to draw yea dâ—iue men froÌ„ the desire of riches 35 The way to bee rich indeed 36 Rich mens misery in this that they cannot know their friends 59 A rich maÌ„ may go to heauen but hardly a couetous 137 The rich that speake with command must also be commanded 694 How rich man was in his innocency 695 Who is rich indeed 696 What wee should doe to bee rich 697 The strangenesse of a rich mans being proud and that in two respects 699 A rich man prettily descrybed ibid. The confidence that some put in riches 701 What riches cannot doe 702 A pretty rule how to vse riches ibid. Riches vncertaine ibid. c. What should bee the rich mans stay 704 A strait charge to rich men 707 Righteous righteousnesse of our iealosie of a mans being suddenly righteous 3 Rome vide Popery the state of the now Romane Church 633 The obstinate and auerse opposition of the Romanists 636 The impossibility of being reconciled with Rome 639 663 The Romish errour concerning Iustification 643 Freewill 645 Merits 647 Satisfaction 648 Purgatorie 650 Pardons 651 Mortall veniall sins 652 The Canon of the Scripture 653 The insufficiency of the Scripture 655 Transubstantion 656 The MultipreseÌ„ce of Christs body 657 The sacrifice of the Masse 658 The number of Mediators 659 Their ridiculous worship of Rome 661 Ruth and Naomi 1022 S SAcraments when they haue their true effect 954 Sacrifice A three-fold sacrifice acceptable to God First Poenitentiae Secondly Iustitiae Thirdly Laudis 456 Hearty sacrifices are the Angels feast 997 We must not dare to sacrifice vnsanctified 1078 Sacriledge The largenesse of its punishment 957 Saints of innouation of Saints 659 Salomon Of his beginning 1258 His dutifull cariage to his mother 1260 His choice and iudgement on the two harlots 1264 The experiment of Salomons wisedome in saying Diuide the child 1266 His building the Temple 1266 His defection 1273 Samaria Its famine 1394 Sampson Conceiued 994 His mariage 998 His victory 1002 His end 1005 A pretty passage about Sampsons leauing his wife 1002 Sampsons victory with the Iawbone of an Asse applied to a weake Christian 1005 Samuel vid. Saul His contestation 1059 Of Samuels harbouring Dauid 1090 Satisfaction The Papists errour concerning it 648 Saul and Samuel their meeting 1052 Samuels kinde entertainment of Saul 1055 Sauls faire beginnings 1056 Sauls Vnction ibid. Sauls inauguration 1057 Sauls sacrifice 1061 Hee reiected of God is no more a King but a Tyrant ibid. Sauls sacrifice prettily set out 1063 Sauls oath 1064 Saul and Agag 1073 An excellent expostulation on Sauls doings with the Amalekites 1075 Sauls reiection and Dauids choice 1076 Saul the very character of hypocrisie 1076 Sauls madnesse had not bereaued him of his craft 1087 Saul in Dauids caue 1099 Of him and the Witch of Endor 1109 Sauls hardinesse at the raising of Samuel prettily described 1111 Sauls death 1116 A pretty description of the messenger that brought tydings to Dauid of Sauls death 1117 1118 Scandall A good heart is no lesse afraid of scandall then of sinne 1027 Scribes Their name and sorts vid. Pharisees 408 Schismes how bred fostered and confirmed 29 30 Scriptures whether the Apocryphall bookes are to be receiued as scripture 614 Which of the translations are most to be adhered to 615 Whether