they suffer is in them sinne the sinne they doe is from God a punishment There is nothing more wretched then a wretched man recking his owne wretchednesse Eyther they do not feele as blockes or they will not feele as Stoickes You know a seared conscience is not sensible and vsuall whipping makes some carelesse of the rodde except it bee a stroke that shall fetch bloud of the soule Indeed we are all of one mould but some are more cloddy and hard others more soft and relenting The best in their sorrowes may be more then Conquerors not more then men And let the Stoicke bragge his tetricall conclusions to the world that no paine can bring sorrow to a Wise man c.. Let him being put into that torturous engine of burning brasse called the Horse bite in his anguish smother his grones sigh inwardly and cry to the Spectators non sentio I feele not The wicked may laugh out lighter punishments and like the surde deafe and dead rockes of the sea not regarde the waues of easier iudgements beating on them letting fall no teares of repentance for so many blowes But when God sees that thou digestest his Physicke as dyet and with a strange kinde of indulgencie wilt neither grieue that thou hast offended nor that thou art offended God will strike home and sharpen at once both his blow thy sense Now thou shalt feele euen thy seared heart shall bleed In a word the wicked may be senseles Stoicks they cannot be insensible stones There is in all men an impossibility of impassibility But these remorseles wretches so spiritually sicke not of the stone in the raines but in the heart at least regarde not to offend God whiles God forbeares to offend them They speake softly they set their mouth against the heauens The reason is They are not in trouble nor plagued as other men At first they liberally sinne and spare not God lets them alone loe now they sinne and care not Impiety impunity impenitency thus swiftly follow one at the heeles of another There are some sicke of this disease but not so far gone of whose recouery there is a little but a little more hope These haue by the chidings of their accusing conscience a notion a rellish a ghesse of the number and nature of their own sins which because they suspect to be monstrous they would by no means admit a sight of Hence they flie the temple the society of the good the voice of exhortation whence soeuer it soundeth lest it should call the Soules eye home to glance at the own estate and so leaue it amazed Hence he hath animum inscium inscitum an ill sight an ill-sighted mind So timorous is this Patient that because he knows his wound deepe he will not suffer the Chirurgion to search it willing rather to kill his soule then to â—isquiet it Such is the folly of his partiall indulgence to his conscience that whiles hee would softer it he doth fester it They write of the Elephant that as if guilty of his owne deformity and therfore not abiding to view his snowt in a cleare spring he seekes about for troubled and muddy waters to drinke in This sicke wretch without question induced by the like reason refuseth to looke into the glasse of the Law or to come to the cleare springs of the Gospell or any perspectiue that may represent his euill conscience to his eyes but seekes to muddy and polluted channels Tauerns Theaters societies of sinne to drowne the thought of former iniquities with floudes of new And if he be enforced to any such reflection hee spurnes and tramples that admonition as Apes breake the glasse that represents their deformity He runs himselfe prodigally into so deepe arrerages and debts that hee cannot endure to heare of a reckoning Whiles he despaires of sufficiency to pay the old hâ—e reckes not into what new desperate courses and curses he precipitates himselfe And as it was in the Fable with the blind woman and the Physitian the Physitian comming often to her house euer carried away a portion of her best goods so that at last recouered by that time her sight was come againe her goods were gone So this wretch will not see the ransacking of his soule and spoile of his graces till his conscience be left empty and then hee sees and cries too late as Esau for his blessing 2 That other spirituall sicknesse for sinne befalling a reprobate soule is finall and totall desperation This is that fearefull consequent which treades vpon the heeles of the former sicknesse Presumption goes before Despaire followes after Cains fratricide Iudas treacherie presumptuous aspiring heauen-daring sinnes find this desperate catastrophe to cut themselues off from the mercy of God This is insanabilis plaga when the Physitian promising helpe of the disease the patient shall thrust â—is nayles into it and cry Nay it shall not be healed As if the goodnes of God and the value of Christs-all sufficient ransom were below his iniquity As if the pardon of his sinnes would empty Gods storehouse of compassion and leaue his stocke of mercy poore This is that agony whose throbs and throwes restles turbulent implacable cogitations cannot be quieted Let riuers of those waters of comfort which glad the City of God run with full streames vnto it they are resisted and driuen backe This is that sinne which not onely offers iniury and indignity to the Lord of heauen and earth but euen breakes that league of kindnes which wee owe to our owne flesh To commit sinne is the killing of the soule to refuse hope of mercy is to cast it downe into hell Therefore Saint Ierom affirms that Iudas sinned more in despairing of his masters pardon then in betraying him Since nothing can bee more derogatory to the goodnesse of God which he hath granted by promise and oath two immutable witnesses to penitent sinners then to credite the Father of lies before him Ianuas aeternae foelicitatis spes aperit desperatio claudit Hope opens the dore of heauen desperation shuts it As faith is heauen before heauen so despaire is damnation before the time Shall the bloud and death of Christ put sense into rockes and stones and shall man tread it vnder his desperate feet eneruate his crossâ— annihilate his ransome and die past hope did he raise three dead men to life one newly departed an other on the Beare a third swelling in the graue to manifest that no dgree of death is so desperate that it is past his recouery And shall these men as if twice dead and pulled vp by the routes deny to the grace and glory of God a possibility of their reuiuing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and the vnfained repentance of their owne hearts forbidde it 3 Thus we haue heard the malignancy of spirituall sicknesses whetherin sinne or for sinne Now let vs take a short consideration how farre spirituall sicknesses are more dangerous then
â—oâ—le and full of corruption that there could no temptation be shot from vs to wound the breast of Christ with loue Sported wee were and nothing but nakednesse was left to couer vs sicke but without care of our own cure deformed and luxate with the persecution of vanities quadrupedated with an earthly stooping groping groucling couetousnes not onely spotted and speckled in concretâ— but spots and blemishes in abstracto pollution it selfe As Micah cals Ierusalem and Samaria not pecâ—antes but peccata What is the transgression of Iacob Is it not Samaria and what are the high places of Iudah are they not Ierusalem Or as Lucan speakes of the wounded body Totum est pro vulnere corpus The whole body is as one wound Bloud touched bloud and sore broke out into sore all vleers were coagulated into one by a generall rupture that euen our righteousnes was as filthy ragges Oh then how vgly were our sinnes If olde iniquities could prouoke or new ones reuoke his fauour we had store to tempt him If the raw and bleeding wounds of voluntary sinnes if the halting foote of neuterality the bleare eye of ignorance the eare deafe to his word the tongue dumbe in his praise if the sullen brow of auersenesse or the stinking breath of hypocrisie if these could inflame his loue â—oe our beautie What moued thee then Oh Sauiour to loue vs besides the incomprehensible delight and infinite content which God hath in himselfe thousands of Angels stand about him and ten thousands of those glorious spirits minister vnto him What then is man Lord that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest account of him the meditation of Saint Augustine is pertinent to this consideration and what sonne of man may not confesse it with him Neque enim equistime aut egotale bonumsum quo tu adiâ—veris nec minor sit potestas tun carens obsequio men Neither didst thou lacke me Oh Lord nor was there that good in me whereby thou mightest bee helped neyther is thy power lessened through the want of my seruice If wee had been good yet God needed vs not being bad whence ariseth his loue what a roughnesse of soule findest thou Oh Christ when thoâ— embracest vs what deformity when thou beholdest vs what stinch of sinne when thou kuâ—est when thou discoursest what rotten speeches drop from vs when thou takest vs into thy garden what contrariety of affection to thy expectation our embraces haue been rougher then thy crosses our persecutions like vineger hidden in the spunge of our sacrifices our words swordes our oathes as bitter as crucifige our kisses haue been treasonable to thee as Iudas his our contempts thy thornes our oppressions a speare to gore thy side and wound thy bowels Such was our kindenesse to thee Oh blessed Redeemer when thou offeredst thy selfe to vs and to the Father for vs The best thing in vs yea in the best man of vs had nothing of merite nothing neere it Our wages is death thy gift is life bona naturae melior gratiae optima gloriae Thou gauest vs a good life of nature thou gauest vs a better of grace thou wilt giue vs the best of glory Whether it bee pro via or pro vita for the way or the end it is thy gratuitall goodnesse who hast promised of thy mercy both donaere bonatua condonare mala nostra both to giue vs thy good things and to forgiue vs our euill things Wee had miserie from our parents and haue beene parents of our owne greater misery Miseri miserum in hanc lucis miseriam 〈◊〉 Miserable parents haue brought sorth a miserable offspring into the misery of this world And for our selues euen when we were young in yeares wee had an 〈◊〉 about vs Tantillus pâ—er tantus pecâ—â—tor A little child a great sinner Sic generant pater 〈…〉 regeneraâ—â—nt pâ—ter caâ—sstis So wretched our generation left vs so blessed our regeneration hath mad vs. So beggerly were wee till Christ enriched vs. If you aske still what moued Christ I answere his owne free mercy working on our great miserie A fit obiect for so infinite a goodnes to worke on He was not now to part a sea or bring water out of a Rocke or raine Bread from heauen but to conquer Death by death to breake the head of the Leuiathan to ransom captiues from the power of hel to satisfie his owne iustice for sinne and all this by giuing his owne Sonne to die for vs by making him man who was the maker of man This was dignus vindice nodus a worke worth the greatnesse and goodnesse of God Decet enâ—m magnum magna facere For it becommeth him that is Allmighty to doe mighty works Thus to make the Daughter of Ierusalem faire cost the Sonne of God the effusion of his bloud This giues vs strong consolation Qui dilexit pollutos non deseret politos He that loued vs when we were not when we were nought will not now loose vs whom he hath bought with his death interessed to his life Hauing loued his own which were in the world hee loued them vnto the end vsque ad finem nay absque fine vnto the end in the end without end Hee will not neglect Dauid in the Throne that did protect him in the folde He that visited Zacheus a sinner will not forsake him a Saint If he bore affection to vs in our ragges his loue will not leaue vs when highted with his righteousnesse and shining with his rewels If Ruth were louely in the eyes of Boâ—z gleaning after the Reapers what is shee made Mistresse of the Haruest Hee neuer meant to loose vs that laide out his bloud to purchase vs. Sathan hath no tricke to deceiue him of vs vs of him As hee had no power to preuent the first so none against the second Redemption Christ was Agnus in passione but Leo in Râ—surrectione a lambe suffering death but a Lion rising from death If he could saue vs being a Lambe hee will not suffer vs to bee lost being a Lion Feare not thou daughter of Sion he that chose thee sicke sinneful rebellious will preserue thee sound holy his friend his Spouse There is neyther death nor life nor principalâ—itie nor power nor hâ—â—ght nor depth that shall bee able to separate vs from his loue or plucke vs out of the armes of his mercy But tremble yee wicked if yee haue not fought in his Campe you shal neuer shine in his Court. To presse this point too farre 1. were but to write Iliades after the Homers of our Church 2. Besides there are many that offer to sit downe in this chayre before they come at it and presume of God that they shall not bee forsaken when they are not yet taken into his fauour Enow would bee saued by this priuiledge if there were no more matter in it then the
shaken off till death shall at once deliuer that to death vs to life For though with the mind I delight in the law of God yet I see another law in my members rebelling against the law of my minde and bringing me vnto captiuity to the law of sinne His companie is wearisom his sollicitings tedious to the virgine-daughter of Sion Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee from the bodie of this death I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. So then with the minde we serue the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sinne He will perpetually vrge his sute and not after many reiections be said nay Thy soule cannot be rid of him so long as thou holdest him in any hope of successe And so long he will hope as thou giuest him a cold and timerous deniall Sutours are drawne on with an easie repulse take that as halfe granted that is but faintly opposed In whom this wooer preuailes least he wearles him with importunity till a peremptory answere hath put him out of hart The wauering and weakely-resisting spirit cannot sleepe in the Chamber of quiet whiles innumerable lusts which are the sollicitors and spokesmen of the flesh beate at the dore with their earely knockes pressing more impudently for audience then instruments of villany to Machianell or wronged Clients to an Aduocate Remisse answeres prouoke his fiercer attempts He is shamelesse when he meetes not with a bold heart He thinkes that though Pugnabit primò fortassis improbe dicet Pugnando vinci se tamen illa volet Though at the first the Soule refuse to yeelde Shee meanes on further strife to loose the field Onely resolution can make him giue backe giue ouer His insinuations are many 1. by promises Pollicitis diues He is neither a begger nor a niggard in promising They are the cheapest chaffer a man can part withall 2. By tedious and stintlesse sollicitations as if time could win thee Quid magis est durum saxo quid mollius vnda Dura tamen teneris saxa cauantur aquis The stone is very hard the water soft Yet doth this hollow that by dropping oft As if the strongest sort were not long able to holde out 3. By shadow by reall proffers of friendship Tut a frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen It is a safe and common way by name of friendship to shew false play It was not mine enemy sayth Dauid but my familiar friend that did mee the mischiefe 4. By tendring to the soule pleasing and contentfull obiects as if non vincere possit Flumina si contra quà m rapit vnda naâ—et The flouds would easily master him If he against the streame should swim Therefore he formes his insidious baites to our inclinations diuersifieth his lusts according to the varietie of our humours Hic Procus innumeris moribus aptus crit This Wooer can vary his Protean formes obserue all straines reserue and conceale his owne till hee bee sure that the pill he giues will worke This Sutour is dangerous and preuailes much with the soule a handsome fellow if you plucke off his skin for this saith Saint Iude is spotted all ouer A virgin well natur'd well nurtur'd that sets ought by herselfe will not fasten her loue on a lazar leper or vlcerous Moore Why then Oh why should the soule so heauenly generate thus become degenerate as to wed her affections to the polluted flesh God indeed once married the soule to the body the Celestial to a terrene nature but to the lusts of the body which Paul cals the flesh he neuer gaue his consent This clandestine match was made without the consent of Parents of God our Father of the church our mother therfore most sinnefull most intollerable Cashier then this sawey Sutour who like some riotous yonger brother with some great heire promiseth much both of estate and loue but once married and made Lord of all soone consumes all to our finall vndoing He breakes open the Cabinet of our heart and takes out all the Iewels of our graces and stintes not his lauisning till he hath beggerd vs. This is the third Sutour 4 The last and best and onely worthy to speed is Iesus Christ. What is thy beloued more then another beloued O thou fayrest among women Say forraine Congregations to the Church To whom she answeres My beloued is white and ruddy he hath an exact mixture of the best colours arguments of the purest and healthfullest complexion The chiefest among ten thousand Infinitely fayrer then all the sonnes of men who alone may beare the standerd of comely grace and personall goodlinesse among all His head is as the most fine gold the Deitie which dwelleth in him is most pure and glorious His lockes are curled and blacke as a Rauen his godhead deriuing to his humane nature such wondrous beauty as the blacke curled locks become a fresh and well fauoured countenance His eyes are like doues c. who will let him there reade and regarde his graces His name is as oyntment powred forth therefore doe the Virgins loue him He hath 1 a rich Wardrobe of righteousnesse to apparrell vs 2. a glorious house a City of golde to entertaine vs whose foundation is Iasper and Saphire and such precious stone the least of them richer then ten Escurials 3. His Ioynture is Glory Ioynture I may call it for so we are with him ioin'd heires though not ioyn'd purchasers If the house of this World be so esteem'd wherein God lets his enemies dwell what is the mansion hee hath prouided for himselfe and his Spouse the daughter of Sionâ— 4. His fruition is sweet and blessed ob eminentiam ob permanentiam for perfection for perpetuity a Kingdome and such a one as cannot be shaken which no sinne like a polliticke Papist shal blow vp no sorrow like a turbulent Atheist shal inuade This Sutour is onely beautifull onely bountiful let him possesse your soules which with his bloud he bought out and with his power brought out from Captiuitie for him am I deputed wooer at this time for as though God did beseech you through vs wee pray you in Christes stead bee yee reconciled to God who would faine â— present your soules pure Virgins to Iesus Christ Forbeare the prostitution of them to any rauisher to any sinne For peccare to sinne in the literall word is to commit adulterie quasipellicare id est cum pellice câ—ire Christ layes iust Title to you giue your selues from your selues to him you are not your own vnlesse you be his We haue heard the Daughter of Sion described qua sit let vs now heare cuâ—us sit the daughter of my people saith the Lord. God was pleased with that Title the God of Israel His owne Scriptures frequently giue it him Ierem. 32. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel c. The children are vsually called after the name of then
and townes 〈◊〉 our gold and goods worldlings gods transporting our wiues children friends shrieking vnder the hand of slaughter we need not call for mourning women Ier. 9. to waile for vs our owne eyes would run downe with teares and our eye lids gush out with waters Let profanenesse lift vp his wicked hand against God to blaspheme his name despise his truth disallow his Saboaths abuse his patience deride his treatinges his threatnings his iudgements this we see and suffer without compassion without opposition But knowing the iudgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely doe the same but haue pleasure in them that do them These Sicknesses may afflict a Church inwardly Shee may be sicke outwardly 1. by the persecution of man 2. by the affliction of God By persecution of man I need not call your thoughts back to elder times weary you with antiquities to iustifie this assertion This Church of ours so well remembers this sicknes in Q. Maries dayes as if she were but newly recouered whence discended those euils but à culmine Pontifieio as one cals it from the top tower of the Pope yet the Romists stick not to answere this laid to their charge by auerring paradoxically that their persecution was in loue as Sara to Hagar In loue they tyranized slandered beat imprison'd manacled massacred burned vs all in loue As Philippides cudgelled his father pleaded it was in loue If this were charity then sure the very mercies of the wicked are cruell their loue is worse then others hatred Nunquid ouis lupum persequitur aliqnando non sed lupus oueÌ„ Quem videris in sanguine persecutionis gaudenteÌ„ lupus est saith Chrysost. doth the sheep euer persecute the wolfe no but the wolfe the sheep whom thou seest delighting in the bloud of persecution let him plead what he will he is a very wolfe Wee tell the Papists as Augustine told the Donatists notwithstanding their distinguishing by tenses and pretenses that their persecution exceeded in cruelty the very Iewes For the Iewes persecuted Christicarnem ambulantis interra these Christi evangelium sedentis in caelo the flesh of Christ walking on earth the Papists the Gospell of Christ sitting in heauen But their cruelty is our glory we haue sprung vp the thicker for their cutting vs downe Plures efficimur quoties matimur Contrary to the rules of Arithmeticke our substraction hath beene our multiplication The Church of God morte vinit vulnere nascitur receiueth birth by wounding life by dying Occidi possumus vinci non possumus as the ineuitable inuincible truth hath manifested Wee may be killed we cannot be conquered For thy sake we are killed all the day long as Paul saith from the Psalmist to shew that both the Church of the old Testament and of the new giue experimental testimony of the truth yet in althese thing we are more then conquerours through him that loued vs If our plant had not beene set vp by the all-prospering hand of God the malignancie of these enemies would haue soone rooted it vp They haue verefied in their persecutions against vs what one of their own writes of the Turkish Alcoran Omnium quae in Alchorano continentur vltima resolutio est gladius The last resolution propagation propugnation of althings contained in the AlchoraÌ„ in the Popes decretals is not the word but the sword But blessed be our God that hath limited this rage and sealed vs our Quietus est Though they will haue no peace with vs wee haue peace with him that can ouer-rule them But haue we no persecutors still Oh that no Israelite would euer strike his brother There are two sorts of Porsecutors remaining Esau's and Ismaels nourished with the same ayre borne on the same earth and caried in the indulgent bosome of the same Church But nobis ignominia non sit patià fratibus quod passius est Christus neque illis gloria facere quod fecit Iudas Let it be no more shame for vs to suffer of our brethren what our Sauiour suffered of his then it is glory for them to do the workes of Iudas Some persecute with the hand others with the tongue Exercent hi sapientiam illi patientiam Ecclesiae The latter exercise the wisdome the former the patience of the Church We are secured from Ahabs and Herods and Neroes the teeth of the dogges be broken and the iawes of the wolues pulled out the Bonners and butchers of the Church are husht in their graues Oh that the Serpents also which hisse and spet their venime at our peace when all the birds of our ayre sing acclamations to it were at quiet But as then be that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit euen so it is now Now so and will be so We cannot see an end of these things without the end of all things Our turne is still to suffer we returne not blow for blow but in stead of sounding a point of warre we cry one to another patiamur potius Let vs rather suffer Let the Romane affections like so many pestilent riuers runne all in mare rubrum or rather in mare mortuum into the red Sea into the dead sea and snatching the sword of vengeance out of his hand that owes it quit themselues on their imagin'd enemies with â—loud and death Let him that is stiled the Seruant of seruants shew himselfe the Tyrant of tyrants Philosophy teacheth that externall accidentes change inward quality â—s but without an absolute mutation ipsius speciei they change no substances A Church may indeed at one time be better or worse disposed then at another more hote or more cold more sicke or more whole But as it were a strange fitte that should transform Apuleius into an Alie so it were a strange variation of accidents in a Church that should turne patience into cruelty humiliâ—y into pride a Tutour into a tormentour Let their motto be ferio the terme whereon all their arguments râ—lf let ours be fero It is far better to suffer then to offer wrong Let sauage persecution sit vnder the Ensignes of wolues meekenes and patience be our armes and armours This outward malady of a Church Persecution discouers the malignity of it selfe in many extentions Especially 1. in martyring her professors 2. in treason against her Soueraignes 3. in seducing her Seers 1 Martyrdome God hath in all ages of his Church suffred som witnesses of his holy truth to be purified like gold in the fire Though they are blessed that haue so suffered the Church hath in conclusion gained by this losse yet during the turbulent working of these thunder exhalations in our ayre we haue lamented miseram regionis fâ—ciem the miserable state of our country whose face hath bin scratcht and torne by the bloudy nailes of these persecuting beares Needs must the land be sicke where
health and he now stands surer by his first fall Such is the greatnesse and goodnesse of God such his power and mercy concurring that it workes health out of sicknesse good out of euill There is an infinite Good but not an infinite euill For the Good cannot by any meanes be diuerted into euill but the euill may be converted to good By the conspiracie of Iewes Gentiles Iudas Deuils against Christ is our saluation wrought From the horridst and most vnnaturall treasons God hath aduanced his owne glory aduantaged his childrens security We labour of three diseases birth life death all these are cured by those three answerable in Christ. Our vncleane birth is sanctified by His so pure from the least spot of sinne Our transgressing life is reformed by the vertue enformed by the example of His. That tyrannizing wounding Serpent Death hath the sting pulled out by His death that we may embrace him in our secured armes The Conquerour of vs all is conquered for vs all by Him that foiled the Gyant in his owne denne the Graue Thankes be to God which giueth vs the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. Oh death where is thy sting Oh graue where is thy victory This is our insultation and holy triumph Prouided euer that He be beleeued of vs that hath thus relieued vs. Beleeue and feare not A good conscience is neuer faild of a good confidence of a good consequence Hence ariseth the soules sanity What can indanger in dammage this health no losses to the estate no crosses to the flesh The spiritually-sounde man values all the fortunes of the world lesse then the freedome and health of the mind Hee that wants this armour is wounded by euery blow of affliction Other security is but a shield of waxe against a sword of power They cannot chuse but feare euen where no feare is and testifie their inward guilt and sicknesse by their pale and trembling lookes Timida nequitia dat testimonium condemnations semper praesumit saeua perturbata conscientia Fearefull wickednesse giues testimony of it owne damnation and the troubled conscience imposeth and presumes to itselfe terrible things but the health of faith is health indeed yea this health is life a life Angelical a life Euangelical whether for obedience or peace inspired spirited sealed assured by the word of Truth Which is life to all that find it and health to all their flesh No feare shall inuade him no troubles inuolue him so that he cannot be extricated For the feare of the Lord tendeth to life and he that hath it shall not be visited with euill His innocency may speed in the world as deserts in a lottery be rewarded with a blank But he in whom he affies shall put the marrow of health into his bones distill the sap of grace inio his spirit Low in the world lowly in himselfe in his estimation who sees not that the clambring goates get vpon rockes and promontory places whiles the humble sheepe feed in the bottomes and deiected vallies Onely one day the Sheepe shall bee aduanced aboue the Sunne and starres and set in heauen with Christ when the goates shall be cast downe to the depth of depthes Rich Diues was well enough knowne to the world yet nameles in the sacred Records So we brand our sheepe let the Goates goe vnmarked God sets his seale on his chosen Nouit qu◠sui sunt lets the wicked run without his cognisance Thus different is the state of Gods seruants and the worlds slaues They thinke none sicke but wee wee know none sicke but they If equall crosses befall vs both our estate is soone descried Wee differ as the Cammell and the Camomell the one is stunted the other thriues by his burthen Afflictions that so scatter them and loosen the ioyntes of their vaine hopes doe more knit and consolidate our healthes As soone as they take themselues it is as easie to proue as to reproue their diseases Though I confesse in the dayes of their Iouialty hee hath greate wisdom that can make them sensible of their sicknes Were Solon nay Salomon aliue to declare it they see t not ' they will not feele it If the want of health were perceiued how amiable admirable would the benefit appear Gratior est saint as redita quā retenta vix aliter quā perdendocognoscimus Returning health is more welcome then if it had not beene lost We scarse know what health is but by the want Let others spend their times wits treasures to procure health to their bodies which I embrace when it is offered and would not loose by my owne errors giue mee a sound and cleare conscience and let mee not want this health till I enuy theirs 2. Thus hauing enquired what health is leauing a while the consideration therof as it is in it selfe let vs descend into it as respectiuely casting an oblique eye vnto that which is diuers from it or aduerse to it There is a significant and lightfull demonstration or commentarie which one contrary nature giues to another when they are diametrally opposed The day would not seeme so cleare if the departing Sunne should not leaue night to follow it The foile addes grace to the Iewell It no lesse then glorifies learning that the malitious tong of ignorance barkes at it He knowes the benefite of heate that hath felt the sharpenes of a freezing colde If there were no sicknesse to trouble vs health it selfe would be thought sicknesse The very enmity of these repugnances helpe the beholders iudgement eyther to embrace or reiect them Euen their opposition is an exposition of their natures deformity darknes sicknesse sinne all those priuatiue corruptiue destructiue things which as they had no creation from God so giue no direction to the good yeeld by a sober meditation an vnwilling lustre to those vertues graces and happy habites against which they vaunt their contrariety That if any lewde vaine ill iudging worse affecting mind shall still loue the desolation of sinne rather then the consolation of spirituall health it may appeare to bee not because this obiect is not wretched but because hee is blind and bewitched There is a twofolde Sicknesse incident to man 1. in sinne 2. for sinne The former of these is only spiritual the latter is not onely corporall but sometimes spirituall also and of all the Vials of Gods wrath holden to the mouth of miserable men by the hand of iustice it is the forest when sinne shall bee punished with sinne and the destitution of grace shall permitte a lapse to impenitency 1 The Sicknesse in sinne is double according to the cause which is a defect either of right belieuing or straight liuing a debility of confidence a sterility of good works lacke of faith wracke of charity These effects or rather defects are produced by two errors in our Soules diet the one excessiue the other deficient 1. By Fasting too much from Christ 2. By feeding too much on
bloud The Sun in the heauen passeth through the 12. Signes of the Zodiacke Christ is our Sun the 12. Articles of our Creed the 12. Signes Faith is our Zodiacke do you wonder why in this day of the Gospell the Sunne beames of grace liu'd in so few hearts They haue lost their Zodiacke Their faith is forme and the cloudes of infidelity haue ecclipsed those Signes They beliue not beyond the extension of sense they haue a sensuall a senseles faith It is the forest shipwracke which the vast sea of this world and the Pyrates of sinne can put men to the sinking of their faith It was Pauls happy triumph that he had kept the faith though he bore about in his body the market of our Lord Iesus Needes must the soule bee sicke whose faith is not sound 2 The other degree of our spirituall sicknesse is in conuersation Our liues are diseased the ill beating of those pulses shew wee are not well The fruites manifest the tree Vbicaro est regnant peccatum est praegnans Sinnes are rife where the flesh raignes plentifull effects will arise from such a working cause In vaine and not without the more hazard doe we plead our soundnesse when the infallible symptomes of our disobedience euince the contrary Saul stands vpon his obseruation of Gods charge What then saith Samuel meaneth the bleating of the sheepe in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I heare Whence flow those streames of impiety mercilesse oppressions Church-deuouring sacriledges bestiall luxuries cunning circumuentions detracting slaunders heauen-threatning blasphemies malicious fires of rage hatred monstrous treacheries behauiours compounded of scorne and pride close Atheisme open profanenesse guilded hypocrisie Whence if these vitious corruptions if not from our vlcerous conuersations Shame wee not to call sicknesse health and to maintaine that Atheisticall Paradox Adoxe Pseudodox which iudgeth euill good and darknes light If thy life be so vnsound suspect thy selfe thou art not well 2 Now not vnfitly after the sicknes in sinne followes the sicknes for sinne which distributes it selfe into a double passion corporall and spirituall 1 All corporall sickenesse is for sinne The sicke man heard it from his heauenly Physitian Goe thy wayes sinne no more least a worse thing come vnto thee So sung Dauid in the Psalme Fooles because of their iniquities are afflicted their soule abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw neer to the gates of death This Elihu grounds against Iob that sinne causeth sicknesse So that his life abhorreth bread and his soule dainty meat His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seene and his bones that were not seene sticke out Weakenes proceedeth from wickednesse if the Soule had not sinned his body should not haue smarted Indeede this blow is easie if wee respect the cause that drew it on vs. For if the Wages of sinne be death Sicknes is a gentle payment Sicknesse is the maladie of the body Death is the malady of sicknesse But such is Gods mercy that hee is content to punish sometimes corporaliter non mortaliter and to put into our hearts a sense of our sinnes by casting vs downe not by casting vs out But whether the affliction be quoad introitum or quoad interitum a more gentle entrance or more piercing to death all is produced by our sinne You will say that many afflictions wherewith God scourgeth his children are the Fatherly corrections of loue yet they are corrections and their intention is to better vs. Now what need the bestowing such paines on vs to make vs good if sinne had not made vs euill Still Sinne is the cause whether it be sickenesse therefore I will make thee sicke in smiting thee because of thy sinnes Or whether more despairefull calamity I will waile and howle I will make a wailing like the Dragons mournings as the owles for her wound is incurable Still the reason is verse 5. For the transgression of Iacob is all this and for the sinnes of the house of Israel Oh that our sicke bodies when the hand of Visitation hath cast them down would conuey this lesson to our soules All is for our wickednesse Our stomackes loath meate because we haue ouerburdened them with Gods abused blessings Wee haue made the Creatures ordained for our comforts an occasion of our falling And now loe wee abhorre to be cheered by those things wherewith we haue earst oppressed our selues That delicates powred vpon a mouth shut vp are as messes of meate set vpon a graue Our sinnes that remaine vnpurged by repentance in our bosomes are not only diseases themselues to our consciences but vigorous and rigorous enough to engender diseases in our carcases Wee are framed and composed of foure Elements Fire Ayre Water Earth and haue the kindly concurrence of those foure originall and principal qualities heate and colde moysture and drinesse to our making vp Their harmony and peacefull content preserue our little world in health but if those brethren of one house fal at variance with themselues their strife will vndoevâ— So easie is it for God to take roddes from our owne bodies wherewith to whip vs. Though those outward Elements fire water and the rest forbeare to lay on vs the strokes of vengeance yet wee haue those primordial humours within vs whose redundance defect or distemperature are meanes able enough to take our breath from vs. How euident is this when Some haue beene burned in the pestilent flames of their hote diseases the violence whereof hath set their bloud on fire wasted their bowels scorched their veines withered away their vitall spirites and left the whole body flagrantem rogum as it were a burning pyle Some haue beene choked vp with the fumes and vapours ascending from their owne crude and corrupted stomackes and poysoned their spirites no lesse then with the contagion of infected ayres How many obstructed lungs sucke in farre better ayre then they breath out Others haue beene drowned with a deluge of waters in their owne bodies a â—â—oud running betwixt their skin and bowels glutting and ouercharging nature so violently that the life hath not been able to hold vp her head and the soule like Noahs Doue returnes vnto God the Arke of her strength as not able to set her foote drie in her former habitation And yet others haue buried themselues aliue in the graue of their owne earthly melancholy which casteth such a thicke fogge and darke obscurity ouer the braine that it not onely chokes vp the spirits of life like the damp in a vault that extinguisheth the lightes but euen offers offensiue violence to the Soule Melancholy men are as it were buried before they be dead and as not staying for a graue in the ground make their owne heauy dull cloudy cloddy earthen cogitations their owne Sepulchres From what sinke arise all these corrupt steames but from the sinnes in our owneselues as
proper and fit to ingender these sicknesses as these sickenesses are to bring desolution It is our owne worke to make death better then a better life or continuall sicknesse that our meate giues no more sent nor sauour then an offering doth to an Idoll He that sinneth before his maker let him fall into the hands of the Physitian 6 Spirituall sicknesse for sinne is yet farre more perilous and mortall nay well were it for some thus sicke if it were mortall If the disease would decease the soule might reuiue and liue It varies as some diseases doe in the body according to the constitution of the sicke thereafter as the soule is that hath it whether regenerate or reprobate The malignancie is great in both but with far lesse danger in the former 1 In the Elect this spirituall sicknes is an afflicted conscience when God wil suffer vs to take a deepe sense of our sinnes and bring vs to the life of grace through the valley â—f death as it were by hell gates vnto heauen There is no anguish to that in the conscience a wounded spirite who can beare They that haue been valiant in bearing wrongs in forbearing delights haue yet had womannish and cowherd spirits in sustaining the terrors of a tumultuous conscience If our strength were as an army and our landes not limitted saue with East and west if our meat were manâ—a and our garments as the Ephod of Aaron yet the afflicted conscience would refuse to be cheared with all these comforts When God shall raise vp our sinnes like dust and smoake in the eyes of our soules and the arrowes of his displeasure drinke vp our bloud and his terrors seeme to fight against vs when he buffets vs from his presence and eyther hides his countenance from vs or beholds vs with an angry looke loe then if any sicknes be like this sicknes any calamity like the fainting soule Many offences touch the body which extende not to the soule but if the soule be grieued the sympathizing flesh suffers deepely with it The bloud is dried vp the marrow wasted the flesh pined as if the powers and pores of the body opened themselues like so many windowes to discouer the passions of the distressed Prisoner within It was not the sense of outward sufferings for meere men haue borne the agonies of death vndaunted but the wrastling of Gods wrath with his spirite that drew from Christ that complaint able to make heauen and earth stand agast My soule is heauy vnto the death There is comfort euen in death when the clocke of our life runs vpon her last minutes but is there any disease during the torments of a racked conscience This wearisome guest doth God often lodge with his owne children suffring the eye of faith to be shut and the eyes of flesh and bloud open that sorrow is their bread and teares their drinke and the still perplexed mind knows not where to refuse it selfe Alwayes reseruing and and preseruing his Children but neuer dâ—ing grace of his Spirite in their hearts a substance of blâ—ssing 〈◊〉 the oke though it hath cast the leaues though the barrennes of the boughes drines of the barke giue it for dead and withered Faith being in a swoune may draw the breath inwardly not perceiued but destroy it not for there is a blâ—ssing in it Neyther is this sicknesse and trouble of conscience properly good in it selfe nor any grace of God but vsed by God as an instrument of good to his as when by the spirite of bondage he brings vs to adoption So the Needle that drawes the thread through the cloth is some meanes to ioyne it together This is the godly soules sicknesse for sin full of sharpe and bitter ingredients but neuer destitute of a glorious euent and victorious triumph I may say of it as Physitians speake of agues which make a man sicke for a while that hee may bee the sounder a long time after This sickenesse is physicke to procure better health 2 Spirituall sickenesse for sinne in the reprobate hath other effects To restraine their number they principall appeare in two diseases or disasters rather Impenitency and Despaire 1. Impenitencie the symptome of an obdurate and remorselesse heart Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lasciuiousnes to worke all vncleannesse with gredinesse Saint Paul cals it a reprobate minde a death rather then a sickenesse He that labours hereof is rather deceased then diseased This is a heart so hard and impenetrable that all the holy dewes of instructions cannot soften it all the blowes of Gods striking rod put no sense into it It is inuulnerable to any stroke saue that which makes a fatall and finall end with it Thou hast stricken them but they haue not grieued c. It is iust with God but fearefull on whom soeuer this iuâ—gement lights to plague sin with sinne that peccatum sit paena peccantis For there is euermore some precedent impietie in those vngratious persons procuring God to deale thus with them For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue a lie That they all might be damned that beleeued not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse First Pharaoh hardens his owne heart c. God all this while holds his peace giues him the hearing and looking on In the end he saith I will harden Pharaohs heart and then puts yron to yron adamant to adamant and there is perfected a relentlesse repentlesse obduracy This is that retaliation of sinne which God returnes into their bosomes that foster it that since they loued cursing it shall be vnto them So Dauid in the Psalme Though indeed it was not in him Precantis votum but Prophetantis vaticinium he did not desire it should be so but he knew it would be so Adde iniquitieto their iniquitie Neither doth God this by infusion of wickednesse but by substraction of his spirit He is causa deficiens not efficiens as the reuoking of the sunne from vs causeth darkenesse the priuation of grace the position of all vngodlines It is in him not peccatum sed iudicium not sinne but iudgement When he leaues vs to our selues it is no wonder if we fall into horrid and prodigious sinnes Peccatum est malum in se effectum prioris mali causa subsequentis est supplicium causa supplicij Sinne is euill in it selfe the effect of former euill the cause of future It is both punishment it selfe and the cause of punishment In all the store house of Gods plagues there is not a greater vengance With other punishments the body smarteth the soule groneth vnder this Hence sinnes multiply without limits that the plagues may be without end Euery affliction is sore that offends vs but that is direfull which withall offends God Such do at once act and suffer it is both an actiue and a passiue sinne The punishment
Particularly This will best appeare if wee single out some speciall disease and conferre the perplexity it can offer to the body with the sickenesse of the soule Take for instance the plague of the Leprosie It was a fearefull and vnsupportable sicknesse euery way miserable as you may finde it described Leuit. 13. c. ver 45.46 His cloathes shall bee rent and his head bare and hee shall put a couering vpon his vpper lippe and shall cry Vncleane vncleane Hee shall dwell alone without the Campe shall his habitation be The Leprosie infected their very garments and houses sticking contagion in the very wooll and wals But our Leprosie of sinne hath with a more vast extention infected the Elements Ayre Earth beasts plants c. sticking scarres on the brow of nature and making the whole Creature groane vnder the burthen of corruption 2 The Leaprosie was violent in spreading running eftsoones ouer all the body as in Gehizi and making it all as one vlcer yet could it not penetrate and enter the soule the minde might be cleane in this generall defiling of the carcase Behold the Laeprosie of sinne hath not content it seâ—fe to insult pollute and tyrannize ouer the body but it defiles the Soule also and turnes that purer parte of Man into a Lazar. Our righteousnesse is become filthy ragges our heart is poisoned our Consciences defiled 3 The Leaprosie was an accidentall disease casuall to some whiles other escaped it It was Gods Pursuiuant to single out and arrest some for their sinnes his mercy spaâ—ing the rest But the Leaprosie of sinne is haereáitarius morbus an hereditary sicknesse Wee deriue it from our great Sire Adam with more infallible conueyance then euer sonne inherited his fathers lands It is originall to vs borne with vs borne before vs. So that natalis would bee fatalis the birth day would bee the death day if the bloud of that immaculate Lambe should not clense vs. 4 The Leaprosie was a dangerous disease yet curable by naturall meanes but ours is by so much the worse as it admits not man as Physitian nor nature it seâ—fe as Physicke sufficient to cure it The medicine is supernaturall the Bloud and Water of that man who is God Faith must lay hold on mercy Mercy alone can heale vs. 5 The Leaprosie is a sore disease so entring and eating that it is euen incorporate to the flesh yet still cum carne exuitur it is put off with the flesh Death is a Phisitian able to cure it Mors vna interâ—â—t leprosum Lepram Death the best Empericke kilâ— at once the Leaper and his Leprosie But the Leprosie of sinne cleanes so fast not onely to the flesh but to the Soule that if spirituall death to sinne doe not slay it Corporall death shall neither mende it nor end it It shall not flie the Soule when the soule doth flie the body but as it accompanies the one to the iudgement feare of God so it shall meet the other in hell if they both cannot be rid of it through Christ on earth 6 The Leaprosie makes man loathsome to man that seorsim habitaturus sit hee must dwell alone So was the Law Hee is vncleane hee shall dwell alone without the Campe shall his habitation bee Yea though hee were a King he must content himselfe with an vnvisited and remoued lodging yet what is it to be secluded from mans and not to bee destitute of the Lords company God forsakes not the cleane heart though man abhorres the leaprous flesh God alone is a thousand companions God alone is a world of friends He neuer knew what it was to be familiar with heauen that complains the lacke of friends whiles God is with him Were thy Chamber a prison thy prison a Dungeon yet what Walles can keepe out that infinite Spirite Euen there the good soule findes the Sunne of heauen to enlighten his darkenesse in comparison of whom all the starres in the skie are the snuffe of a dimme candle Euery cloude darkens our Sunne nothing can ecclipse that But the Leprosie of sin separates a soule from Gods fellowship from the company of Angels We lie if we say wee haue fellowship with him and walke in darkenesse Your sinnes haue separated betwixt mee and you saith the Lord of hostes They vnhouse our hearts of Gods spirite and expell him from the temple of our soules who will no longer stay there when the Dagon of sinne is aduanced adored It is customable with men to eschew the society of their poore maimed afflicted diseased Brethren and to shew some disdainâ— by their auersenes but to keepe company with drunkardes adulterers swearers vsurers c. of whom alone wee haue a charge de non tangendo they recke not Eâ—te not with them Turne away from them saith the Apostle from those so diseased in Soule not in body But now d melior est conditio vitij quam morbi the estate of sinne is better then of sickenesse But God looks vnto and is with Lazarus liuing and takes him into his bosome dying though he was full of sores and lets healthy wealthy flourishing Diues go by vnnamed vnaccepted 7. The Leaprosie kept men but from the fading citie terrestriall Ierusalem This Leaprosie vnpurged by repentance restraines men from that Ierusalem which is aboue a city built vpon Iaspers and Saphyres and pretious stones flowing in stead of milke and hony with blisse and glory For into f it shall enter nothing that defileth nor whatsoeuer worketh abhomination or lies Now as the pleasures and treasures of this City are more so much worse is the cause hindring our entrance You may iudge by this taste how farre spirituall sickenesse is more bitter then corporall Euerie circumstance before hath reflected on this but nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis addiscitur it is neuer taught enough that is not enough learned 4 I should now lastly inquire who are the sicke wherein as the Philosopher said of men Non vhi sunt sed vhi non sunt faoilè demonstratur I can easily shew you where they are not not where they are It is a small matter to finde out the sicke the difficulty is to finde any sound I know g there are a few names in our Sardis that haue not desiled their garments but they are so few that it is harde to find them Runne to and fro through the streetes and seeke in the broad places of our Cities if you can finde a man if there bee any that executes iudgement and seeketh the truth The whole World is very old and sicke giuen ouer as man in his dotage to couetousnesse Huius aedest aet as extremae ferre a mundi Alget amor dandi praeceps amor ardet habendi Needs must the world be sicke and old When lust growes hote and charity cold Wonder you at this â—nder is the daughter of ignorance ignorance of nature God hath