Glory to God Grace might Redound to all These are the Churches Rent which here do pay To our grand Landlord every Quarter day And that shall either here prolong our Lease Or House us where our Term shall never cease Vpon the Vigils or eves of Festivalls Mat. 24.42 Mar. 13.35 ARGUMENT 2. AS Lent is the Terra firma of Religious Abstinence and the Ember weeks as it were the four main Continents Thereof so are these Vigils and Eves of Festivals even as so many dispersed Ilands yet not without their native Treasures and because our sinfull memories are so bad that an Annuall Monitor of Lent or the Quarterly Remembrancer of Ember weeks is not a sufficient Bridle for our Loosnesse therefore our pious Mother did Recommend these monthly and weekly Admonitions to her Children Wednesdayes and Frydayes being Anciently taken in that so Abundance of caution might oppose Abundance of Temptation we indeed having need of Philips dayly Memento and each morning to be minded of our Frailty especially at Festivalls wherein the world hath and will ever deserve blame as Job was not ignorant that his Childrens Banquet though it intended Amity might need a sacrifice Job 1. and therefore these Fasts have been set as ushers unto Festivalls Job 1.5 to Caution and Prevent disorder in them and a very wholsome Method it is both as to soul and body Hierom. Episto ad Eustochium valdè absurdum est nimiâ saturitate velle Honorare Martyrem Quem scias Deo placuisse Jejuniis It were but a fond thing to think we honour the Memoriall of an Apostle Saint or Martyr with excesse whom we know to have pleased God with Prayer and Fasting and therefore these are added as frequent circumspections to oppose such intemperance and daily incursions that so often Payment might make our debts the lighter and such even Reckonings keep God and us long Friends even everlasting Friends in Heaven POEM 42. LEnt is the Mother-Fast grand-Daughters these Wait on Humiliation God to please That like the Body of an Army stands While these are but particular Train'd Bands That like the spacious and the brackish main These as Rils flowing Thence and home again That more like Faith high-flown strong Pinnioned While these as Charity Distributed Many in One Fast are contracted there While these dispersedly run through the year That Devout Abstinence not only might Season our Spring but all Times else aright That none Extravagate at any Feast Each is attended with an humble Guest And because both those few to Sin and Fear More Fasting Days of old too added were That so Austereness might Hunt out and seek That Fox our sin unkennell him each week Nay Sin and Danger 's grown so high in force That all need now become days of Remorse One more at least then let each seven impart As voluntary Sacrifice o' th' Heart To make our sorrows weight and fill our Measure Of Griefs in some proportion to Sins pleasure And who such unexpected Odours brings God most accepts as Free-will offerings Since other Fasts then as Sins Brine appear Be these our salt to sprinkle all the year Vpon the DOXOLOGIE to the Sacred TRINITIE Matt. 28.19 1 Tim. 1.17 1 John 5.7 Rev. 8.4,11 The ARGUMENT MY Book drawes to a close and I desire it may end as all things ought with the Glory of God Nor can I close my sacred Hymnes with a sweeter Rellish then that harmonious DOXOLOGIE wherewith the Church was ever wont to conclude her Psalms and sacred Anthems and wherein she did but joyn with Angels in her Gloria Patri c. Ascribing Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost as c. indeed so it was in the Beginning Epist 7.8 Nor for the Matter onely but for the Form also being an Hymn more then Ancient saith Saint Basil As wee have Received even so we baptize and as we baptize so we beleeve and as we beleeve even so we give Glory and all this we use in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Confessing at once Gods Excellencies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Persons offices and Distinctions and the very Integrity of the Christian Faith it being a token of a true and sound understanding for matter of Doctrine about the Trinity when in Ministring Baptism and making Confession of our Faith and giving of Glory there is a conjunction of all Three and no one severed from the other two in confutation of the Arians and their later Spawn enacted in that famous Councel of * Magd. Cent. 4. F. 617. Nice consisting of 318 Bishops under CONSTANTINE the Great Anno Christi 320. 'T is as 't were the Abridgment of the Creed the Epitome of the Gospel the businesse of both Worlds and the usual Posture of Defence becomes it and therefore as it hath been reverently used from the Beginning may it be so to the End as 't is here Glory be to the Father and to the Sonne and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the Beginning is Now and ever shall be World without End Amen POEM 43. THese Riv'lets after a Maeander's stray Have at length found their Fountain and repay Their grateful Streams here to the Deity That fed their Pipes with Baptiz'd Poetry Oh may the Channel where these waters flow Be cleans'd by them They thence not soyled go 1 That Man at first had an Immortall Frame Till he by Sin self-murderer became That then a Mercifull Invention Repair'd his Progeny by th' onely Son Of the Omnipotent who Him thus sent To change Grace Life for Sin and Punishment The Glory of all this is onely Thine Aeternall FATHER of the sacred TRINE 2 And next for all those high designes of Grace Perform'd by our deer Lord for humane Race Combats or Conquests o're Earth Heaven and Hell Whose Life and Death did Miracles excell Whose sugered Benefits to all extend Unlesse their own fault and both lives befriend The Glory of all this returns to Thee Coequall SON of the bless'd Trinity 3 Then for the Noble Army the Red List In this small Book of Martyrs following Christ Whose Cause and Courage was so strongly knit Nor Toyle nor Torture e're could sever it One making their Life far and neer Christ Preach While th' other by Death made them the same Teach Hastning unto their Graves as cheerfully As Bees unto their honyed hives do fly And in the midst even of their flames to sing With conquering Patience their Foes torturing The Glory of all This is justly paid To Thee bless'd SPIRIT for thy sacred Aid Each Parcel's honour to Each Person be And the whole Glory to the TRINITIE A te Principium Tibi desinet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS APPENDIX SACRA OR Serious Attendants ON THE Sacred Solemnities Alia per Eundem E. S. B. D. Mart. Epig. l. 1. Quem Recitas mcus est ô Fidentine Libellus Sed malè dum recitas incipit esse tuns The Book thou
man of fervent Prayer Humiltiy Reverence miraculous Patience and forgiveness all evidenced in his Christian Deportment First his Faith through his eye S. Stephen stedfastly looking up into heaven there saw blessed visions even before his death while here on earth saw Christ standing at the right hand of God Mark that posture of encouragement our Creed Article telleth us of Christ sitting at the right hand of God but our St. Stephen here sees him standing i. in a readinesse of assistance defence And if Christ thus stand with his suffering servants who shall withstand their happiness but that as the sufferings of Christ abound in us even so also shall our consolation abound through him 2 Cor. 1. Prayer is all his shield v. 59. Calling upon God He who is invited to the Fountaine needs not go to the streams nor using Lord alone a name of power but through Justice not of willingness and therefore adding Jesus Dulce salvatore nomen the saving name of Mercy The good Angels and blossed Saints in Heaven are willing but not able uncharitable men on Earth neither of them Onely Christ is both and therefore invocated here Able because Lord willing because Jesus Quem in coelis quem in terris Psal 73. Whom then have I in Heaven c. His Charity 's extensive yet wisely begins at home would all men would do so for spirituall charity He takes care to recommend his soul to the right owner Col. 3. Lord Jesu take thine own into thine own custody Souls then survive the bodies in spite of Atheists who think but what they wish and are immediatly determined in their state of Bliss or Misery in spite of other Hereticks St. Stephen here quite contrary to most is all for his soul and nothing for the body For alas Quid proderit mundus Matth. 16.26 as our blessed Lord saith Matth. 16. c. the soul being of more price then all were there as many worlds as Empedocles and Democritus imagined * Laertius in vita Democriti i. Thousands Save This and save all and so the contrary according to that Dutch Proverb one of the wholsomest things I ever heard of from them Goods lost nothing lost Credit lost much lost Soul lost all lost Next unto Faith in God he adjoyneth Love to Men the best evidence in Foro exteriori without which all the rest had been but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tinkling 1 Cor. 13.3 not a well-tuned Cymball But He a true Disciple of his great good Master Luke 23.34 Qui pendebat tamen petebat as Augustine sweetly who as he hung upon the Cross prayed Ignosce pater c. So this holy Saint forgives his enemies that is more then to give he that gives doth it Desuo of his goods but who so forgives gives De se something of himself yet more he prayes for them though enemies mortall enemies and in hot blood when he scarce had any time to think of his friends Lord lay nt c. more sorry for them Serm. 5. de Stepha then for his own ruine saith St. Augustine because eternall death followed their impiety but his Death eternall life And was not this the Apex the Height of Charity And 't is remarkable that he kneeled down when he prayed for his enemies that stood when for himselfe shewing the greatnesse of their sin that could not easily be forgiven and therefore the earnestnesse of his Piety Qui plus illorum dolebat peccata quam sua vulnera Cajetan in locum that did more lament their Sins then his own wounds Magnus clamor magnus amor his lowd voyce shewed his great affection and his kneeling down his reverend gesture in devotion the God of both parts challengeth both Exteriores actus demonstrent interiores affectus Dan. 6.10 Acts 9.40 cap. 26.36 Luke 22.41 In praying either stand as a servant before his master or kneel as a subject to his Prince Daniel prayed kneeling so St. Peter so St. Paul so Christ himself And the Centurists acknowledge this gesture the most ancient and most usefull in all sacred solemnities in all Ages among Christian Congregations Magdeburgenses centuria secunda And therefore not to kneel except in case of corporall infirmity argueth either Ignorance or Arrogance or some other worse infirmity of Mind And herein t is Saint Hierom so commends Asella for devotion Epist ad Marcellum that her knees were grown Brawny like the knees of Camels with her pious Geniculation Saint Stephen you see here used both postures and kneeling for his most earnest and last prayer Loco citato Wherein he was heard saith Augustine Si Stephanus non sic orasset Ecclesia Paulum non habuisset For if St. Stephen had not thus prayed the Church had never had St. Paul a Convert And Fulgentius saith whither St. Stephen went before being slain with stones thither St. Paul followed being holpen with his prayers And when he had thus spoken he fell asleep Such and so pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints asleep in respect both of Rest Resurrection Graves are grown but * Isa 57.2 Beds and Churchyards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. sleeping places so here like Jacob his pillow is of stone whereon lying down as well as if on Down Saith Damianus Serm. de Steph. he taketh rest and fell asleep Foelix somnus it was an happy sleep being joyned with such rest that rest with pleasure that pleasure with eternity Thus blest St. Stephen as Nissen observes Oratione de Stephan esteemed the Ring of his persecutors with which he was inclosed as his Crown and every stone flung at him as a pretious one as a pretious Diamond so that that of David might be applied to him Psal 21.3 Thou hast set a Crown upon my head I a Crown of Proto-martyrdom upon his Name and on his Soul a Crown of Glory Anno Christi 35. POEM 7. STtout Champion of the Truth who by Dispute First Rescu'dst it and didst her Foes confute By Dint of Argument irrefragable Which they to Answer or resist unable To harder motives do themselves betake Even Threats and Stones but vain thy Faith to shake Who So through Sphaeres transparent Christ doth Ey Begins blest visions here nor fears to dy Captain of Martyrs Thou didst lead the van Of that same Noble Army you began To seal with bloud the Christian Faith's defence Teaching us to take Heaven by violence Thy Soul breath'd forth in Charitable groans Return'd a showre of Prayers for one of Stones Therefore blest Saint 'T is but a due Renown Thy Name and Day wear the chief Martyrs Crown Vouchsafe us the like Heavenly Visions Lord That we to Thee may Tongues Hearts Lives afford And for thy sake in mean time while we live May those that stone us like this Saint forgive The COLLECT PRAYER The Epistle Acts 7. from verse 55. to the end The
testimonii sufficientiam Two for a full and sufficient Testimony by the Jews own Law Witnesses of all sorts from Heaven and Earth too Angels tell the Women He is not here but c. Angels I they were alwayes ready attendants on our Saviour Et congruum fuit ut Rex Coelorum Satellitium haberet Angelorum Most fit it was that the King of Heaven should alwayes have such a Guard such a Retinue and had so at his Conception Luke 1. an Arch-Angell at his Birth Luke 2. a Multitude of the Heavenly Hoast In his Temptation Mark 1. in his Agony Luke 22. Angels ministred unto Him At his Apprehension had he so pleased could have easily prayed down more then twelve Legions i. innumerable company of Angels had he meant to countenance Religion propagated by the Sword and to come home here to his Resurrection And so likewise afterward to his Ascention miraculously proclaimed by Angels And if These to the Creature be appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How much more ought they to be alwayes Ministring spirits to their Maker Heb. 1.14 Pennati proceres induti vestibus albis Matribus hi Christum jam surrexisse reportant These winged Mercuries of Heaven here tell the seeking women to their joy and astonishment He is not here but is risen To women then Christ first was manifested to three women and to them doubly by the voyce of Angels and his own First appearance John 20. Three pious women Mary Magdalen Joanna and Mary mother of James v. 12. who to the glory of their Sex were led by their Devotion as the three wise Men by the Star unto their Saviour for they were seeking Christ Mark 28.5 'T is not here worth while to dispute whether or no Christ first appeared to his Mother as some contend since the Evangelists mention not his appearing unto her at all but sure we are 't was to her Sex I and to her Name also Mark 16. Mary Magdalen Apostolorum Apostola as Cajetan calleth her she was the first preacher of the Resurrection the Apostoless of the Apostles and various are the reasons of this Condescention I passe the phansie of some Misogynists as too light that it was because they are the more garrulous the more divulging Sex to spread a rumour sticking too rigidly on the 10. and 11. verses This might hold in secular affairs perhaps but here too contrary to Christs humble modesty Nemini dixeris still prefaced to all those Acts tending to his honour See thou tell no man more probable is that of Ludolphus In Lenim en doloris On Christs part as an Antidote and Cordiall to their Deeper sorrows First he appeared to them lest by his longer absence their griefs should prove too strong a Passion for those weaker vessels Woman why weepest thou v. 15. To asswage their sorrow and comfort them Then at other side saith Beda Quae prima ad culpam prima ad veniam Woman that first made hast to sinne now come first to Pardon She that first broke her Faith in Paradice Bedas Reasons in Locum first recovereth it at the Sepulcher Contendit de morte rapere vitam quae prius de vitâ rapuit mortem That Sex saith he which first snatcht Death as it were out of Life here contends as much to fetch Life even out of Death Aemulemur saltem Foeminas Though that Angelicall Attendance on our Saviour passe our dull Earths Imitation I our Souls and their most active Graces Yet let us at least aemulate these Womens piety Men for shame lest that feebler Sex prove the strongest in Devotion and Vertue appear so farre of the Foeminine Gender as not derived à viro Again let Women imitate them lest with the Foolish Virgins they Eclips the Glory of their vertuous kind and honour their Sex onely with that worst of Arguments Corruptio optimae est pessima The corruption of the best proves the worst Those that will accompany them must note how they came Early and not Empty Early Nec ubi mox abiit nec tamen orta dies In the Dawning saith Saint John while it was yet dark John 20.1 No deferring holy Duties Poenitentia sera raro seria Especially delay not Penitence Christ himself must he sought Early in the Day of Life Age and Sicknesse being Dies mortis days of Death in the morning of this day i.e. in times of strength and health Early in this Morning i.e. in the prime of youth with Samuel and Timothy nay in the very Dawning i.e. in the time of tender innocency as Saint Jerom of Eustochium Materno lacte That she sucked in Piety with her Mothers milk loving to hear Children Balbutire Christum Epist ad Eusiock Chanting Hosanna's er'e they wel could speak None ever came too soon to CHRIST or can make too much hast to Heaven Many Esau's with too late Teares to gain a Blessing And as early so these came not empty reflecting upon that Nemo vacuus Exod. 23.15 Exod 23.15 None shall appeare before me empty saith the giver of all things And minde it you cheap Auditors and Readers Quaelibet Aromata Vnguenta Each here brought her Oyntments and sweet Odours And such must be our addresses Odore virtutum suavitate Orationum With flowers of Vertue and Fragrancies of Prayer Revel 8. With the pretious Unguents of Alms and Hospitality Rev. 8. Psalm 141. All which indeed are like Mary Magdalens effused Oyntment Matth. 26. And to close this with St. Bernards sweeter Allegory Tres mulieres sunt Mens Lingua Manus The three good Women here bringing pretious Oyntments and sweet Odours must be saith he the Mind the Tongue the Hand Serm. in Loc. Those of the Mind are Zeal Compassion Patience Those of the Tongue are Prayers and good Exhortations Those of the Hand are Charity and Distributions Thus having saluted the Company Observe next the Person and his Motion He John 1.1 is not here but is risen He a word of the Person He that was the Word John 1. He that was born among Beasts lived among Publicans and died among Thieves He whom they attached bound reviled He whom they buffeted scourged thorned He whom they nailed pierced crucified whose Sepulcher they stoned sealed watched and that with the Garrison appointed to guard the Temple saith Josephus yet He so little the Plots of the impious prevaile against the Righteous He who sitteth in Heaven so laugheth them to scorn and Catastropeth all their wits into Dirisions The Person He. that Ipsissimus He the very selfe-same Christ awakeneth his Divinity which seemed before to sleep and at once conquereth those Fatall Enemies Sin Death and Hell even to a sensible Demonstration Luke 24. Videte palpate Handle me and see me Luke 24.35 When the Priests and Scribes those grand Councellors at Law expected from the Grave an Habeas Corpus the Body which they gave it they receive from Angels a non est inventus He
life-giving bread so that the Schools in Generall and many of the Fathers where opinioned from this John 6. that there is a kind of divine seed infused by the Eucharist not only into the souls but into the bodies also of faithfull Receivers whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vivifying Quality inclineth and as 't were fitteth them to a Reviviction non Disputo sed Credo ut Credo Edo how far the words may bear it I dispute not but believe him that said it John 6.54 whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day The Ascention of Christ. matt 28. mark 16. luk 24. * * 50. And he led them out as farre as Bethany and he lift up his hands and blessed them 51. And it came to passe while he blessed them he was parted from them and carryed upp into heauen Here the Plate POEM 16. Upon this day as the Sweet Prophet sings The Sun arose with healing in his wings The Sun of Righteousnesse which lately sate In a Cloud Red as Bloud yet now in state He reapproacheth with Refulgent Rayes Cheering our sadness Lengthning of our Days Our declinations of Mortality Into a Solstice of Eternity This day the Lord made and it sorrow marr'd Nay This day made the Lord that is declar'd His Mercy on others many wonders show'd But now his Power one on Himself bestow'd This stronger Samson breaks the cords and bands Of death and Hell with his Triumphant hands See honest Joseph here from Prison come In Christ Returning from deaths dungeon The Gates of Gaza Samson bare away But Christ the Gates of death unhing'd to Day Stout Daniel here from fierce companions free While Christ returns from vanquish'd Divels See Here is that Temple which Jews did destroy Yet as foretold repaired the third day Here Jonah too the whale doth cast on shore Now the devouring Grave doth Christ restore Which Morsell hath Death's stomack so sick made Hee 'l one day vomit all that 's therein laid Mean time the Grave 's well Metamorphosed Thus warm'd by Christ Fear not to go to bed For though what 's sown do dy yet see the Graine With gay advantages revives again In stead of mouldring Drought Green-Flourishing Each single vertue many Multiplying Christ thus our humane Nature did calcine Not Transubstantiate into divine But what was naturall Spiritualize By the exaltation of the Qualities More then Angelick Beuty Crowns that Face Where the Forme of a servant late took place That Body new Agility doth move Who 's Center 's not below now but above Enfranchis'd too from Earth's necessities And supports humane by Divine supplies Needs neither Rest Food Raiment as before As being to hunger thirst and tire no more And when Christ fed since 't was not Him to nourish But onely his Disciples Faith to cherish And in his Body rais'd those wounds and scars Became the brightest parts in their orb stars Such the Prerogative spiritual is Of bodies glorifi'd of Christ and His. First fruits imply the Later look what he Injoy'd we shall for act though not degree Each vessel full of true felicity According to its Receptivity If we mean while but rise from graves of sin And Transitories which most buried in If of such Bats we pitch an Eagles flight And to be where this Carcass is delight Then doubt not but who thus the first partake The second Resurrection bless'd shall make Thus by the resurrection of the dead The Living's Faith is chiefly comforted The COLLECT The Epistle Col. 3. ver 1. unto 8. The Gospel John 20. ver 1. to 11. Almighty God which thorow thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life we humbly beseech thee that as by thy speciall grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth c. Vpon Ascension Day or Holy Thursday DISQUISITION 14. WEe may well say of this Feast as the Jews of that same Sabbath John 19. John 19.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this is an High Day dies Solennis a day of Joy to all Generations both in respect of Christ our Lord and of all true Christian people as being the first day of Christs Ascension in the flesh for his Deity cannot be said either to ascend or descend this being the first day of his sitting in joy and glory rest and triumph The Proem at the right hand of God And as to our selves This the first day as it were of our right to Heaven the first day that our Nature entred there whence we have both a Priviledg and an Assurance to follow as this day the sentence of our corruption was changed and in stead of that curse in the beginning Earth thou art c. it was now said unto our Nature Ascend to Heaven and which never was to Angels Sit thou at my right hand c. Heb. 1. Sure Heb. 1.13 an inestimable happinesse was Christs personall Society his bodily Presence while he lived on earth could the hardened Jews have seen or seeing have perceived it but Light came into the world and darknesse comprehended it not They like the brutish Gadarens had rather have their swine then this pearle while the devout Saint Augustine made it you know the chiefest of his chiefe desires Romam in Flore Paulum in Cathredra Christam in Carne S. August 3 chief desires To have seen widowed Roome in her Virgin Foelicity to have heard that Divine Oracle Saint Paul out of the Pulpit but above all to have embraced his Redeemer in the flesh And could then have sung his Swann like Anthem the Nunc dimittis as cheerfully as old Simeon could willingly have closed his eyes with that blest object How full of joy needs must his presence be on earth in whose presence is fulnesse of joy in heaven I and who still carryed Heaven along with him And so fill'd with this joy of his presence were his Apostles he having oft miraculously sed them by Land saved them by Sea instructed them both by Sea and Land that they could not with patience endure once to think of his abscence or hear of his Departure and therefore one of them to enjoy him longer disswadeth him from his sufferings Mat. 16. though he be called Satan for his labour the rest in a sad copartnership of sorrow lament the death and losse of him Mat. 16.22 All his other actions were desiderabilia but this parting as another death here their affections cry out with the Pilgrims of Emmaus Mane nobiscum Domine we have now most need of thee Advesperascit For now the dark evening draweth on c. All of them at his Final valediction his telling them of his Ascending to Glory seem impatiently unwilling to stay behind him John 13.37 John 13.
Apud Anglos CUr duo stant Libri Clausi Anglis Regia in Aul◠Lumina Caeca duo Polubra sicca Duo Num sensum Cultumque dei tenet Anglia Clausum Lumine caesa suo sorde sepulta sua Responsio Authoris PEctore Qui retinet Claudat merit ò ille Libellos Et Christus Pietas ut sit operta monet Scotia dat Tenebras duplices Perfida sordes Hinc Anglis praestant Pollubra Lustra Libri Scotia Testatur Flagrans non lumina caeca Anglis nec penitùs Pollubra sicca nuper A Christian paraphrase upon those Verses Like Hermit poore c. LIke Christian well resolv'd in place obscure I meane to spend the Remnant of my Dayes In unfrequented Paths of Folk Impure To meditate on my Redeemers praise And at thy Gates ô Death I le Linger still To let out Life when God and Nature will A mourning Weed my Body shall attire My Staffe the Crosse of Christ whereon I le stay Of true Repentance Linkt with Chast desire The Couch is made whereon my Limbs I 'le lay And at thy Gates ô Death I 'le Linger still To let out Life when God and Nature will My Food shall be of Christian Manna made My Drink the Streames flow'd from my Saviours Side And for my Light through Earths erroneous Shade The Beames of Grace shall be my safest Guide And at thy Gates ô Death I 'le Linger still To let out Life when God and Nature will Teares and Flowers strew'd upon the Hearse of Mrs S. S. Dying Sept. 15. 1641. SInce it is Solomon that saies A virtuous woman shall have praise Do modest paper tell the Truth Of my deare Sarah's Aged Youth And when thy Inkie-moysture dries I will supply it from mine eyes So though of her we are bereft Her faire example may be left To th' Imitation of the best Wonder and Envy of the rest God the Beginning was and End Whence did her Acts flow whither tend The Scripture was her Booke of Books Nor only object of her Looks But the true Glass by which she drest Continually her Head and Breast Each day she hallow'd but that same Which to our Lord owes time and Name With knowing zeale and strictest care Observ'd and kept she every where Church-publike-exercises led Which Home-Devotions Ecchoed Strong Prayer was the Lock and Key To every Harmeless night and day Those Arrows wing'd and Headed flew With Sighs and Tears of Heavenly dew I although not for Sins nor years She was a Magdalen for Teares Remembring the great Bridegrooms cry I 'm wounded with thy melting eye An eye that cared not to looke In any unless Sacred Booke Wherin if she found Christ's name there Fix'd her delights and pleasures were Nor only Student Agent she And Practiser of Piety Devotions Handmaid did awaite Each Day 's approaching and retreate Thinking of all the time God lent That best was in his service spent That Calling Here Christ and she chose Which prophane worldlings most oppose And as she Mary hence appeares So Martha too for house-Affaires Who like th' Aegyptian Emblem right To we are her own house did delight Oh had she had that Snailes slow pace In parting from mine Armes Embrace No Planet she that lov'd to stray To see or to be seene so gay But kept Jobs Covenant with her eyes And turn'd them from such Vanities A well Tun'd Cymball was her Tongue And not a Loud one loosely rung Her Mind still gratefully content Envying none for what God lent Her Hand was open Evermore To Good but chiefly to such Poore Sweet unto all pure at the Heart Without the Zeale pretending Art Covering the Good Graine she did sow That so it might the better grow She was a Rose for Sent and Hiew No Garish Tulip but for view Neat without Niceness was her dress None of those Isai'h doth express No Phancy-follower was she But of th' Apostles D cency She was that Merchants ship well fraught Not that which Apes and Peacocks brought Her Needle did succeed her Booke And both by course the whole day tooke What rare doth Nature propagate That her Art could not Imitate Old subtle Time could ne'r steale by Her Active Hand or studious Eye But one Adorn'd her outward store While t'other Deck'd her Mind much more And all this ready to impart With Humble not Imperious Art Nay even her Recreations were For Body's so as Soul's welfare Not to be Infinite the rest You find in Solomon exprest What there he speakes Prov. 31.10 c. is here as true Of this as that Good-House wifes due Thus like the Sun in her own Sphaere Her House she mov'd and only there Through all whose parts she did dispence Her Motion Light or Influence And such a Sun at Noone to set Must needs a long sad Night beget To him indeed whose rest and light Was in his Faithfull Sarah's sight Faithfull as ever Abra'm's Dame For Grace and Love worthy Her Name She made a Competency wealth And oft Nurs'd Sickness into Health By joyning to her Skill and Cares The Cordiall of Prayer and Teares Oh could mine have as much prevail'd When her o're hasty Death assail'd So one as shade and Body They Did even together move or stay One will and nill one Joy and Feare One Comfort unto both one care While others Plough with Oxe and Ass Th' Apostles Yoake here equall was One Soule as in two Bodies dwelt And both the same Affections felt Nor could Death Altogether part Whom God united so in heart His soule with hers to Heaven ascends While to her Grave his body tends Nor long erect can be that Head Whose better part 's already dead Like Thee best halfe I mould away I dayly haste and only stay A while by God and Thee design'd To Care for one Thou left'st behind Earths Joyes for Thee Too narrow were More worthy of an Heavenly Sphere And too much Heaven 't was for me Here to Enjoy both Fruit and Tree As deare a Mother as a Wife Thou dy'dst to give Another life Delivered by Fates Controule At once almost of Child and Soule Those Twins of Innocence yet Thine The brighter of the two doth shine What not all vertues prevalent Such praemature Death to prevent No God too hath his early Fruit Which when he 'l plucke who shall dispute Grace made her Twenty Five as old As many that have Fivescore told Her yeares were few yet her life long God's lov'd Iosiahs oft dye young This Plant from out Earths Soyle of vice Hath God remov'd to Paradise Yet lest his lower Garden bee Bereft quite of so Good a Tree A Branch in Mercy he hath Given Which water'd with the dew of Heaven May it so sprout and shoot up here As one day to be planted where Now it s own Stem Grows ne'r to Dye But flourish to Eternity Where Tumults Sin and Sorrows cease Their roome supply'd with Ioy and Peace Where short-breath'd-Time Eternall grows And Health that no diseases knows Where
Day 49 Ashwednesday 56 The solemn Fast of Lent 62 Palm Sunday 75 Good Friday 80 Easter Day 106 Ascension Day 135 Whitsunday 155 Trinity Sunday 177 The Lords Day in Generall 186 Rogation Week 201 S. Andrews Day 208 S. Thomas Day 221 Conversion of S. Paul 231 The Purification 239 S. Matthias Day 247 The Annunciation 256 S. Marks Day 265 S. Philip and Jacob 270 S. Barnaby's Day 277 S. John Baptist 299 S. Peter's Day 319 S. James his Day 330 S. Bartholomew's Day 337 S. Matthew's Day 321 S. Michael the Arch-Angel 329 S. Luke's Day 339 S. Simon and Jude 346 All Saints Day 353 The four Ember Weeks 364 The Vigils or Eves of Festivals 368 The Doxologie 371 ERRATA In Votum Authoris line 5. r. accendat Ad Malignantes Poemata l. 3. r. if l. 6. r. texts To Rigid Humorists l. 22. r. ivgenuous P. 19. l. 26. for rupis r. rapis p. 136. l. 6. r. Christian p. 138. marg r. Enar. p. 354. l. 3. r. Assentation p. 155. l. 26. r. Candid p. 358. l. 8. r. Groat p. 362. marg r. Euthymius To his valued FRIEND the AUTHOR How much I love that Gallant civill man Who fears Gods Laws and does not mans offend Yet dares be active nay does all he can To vindicate the fame of his dead Friend How much more Dear Sparke must I Honor thee Who vindicat'st the Churches Piety I must acknowledg I with Reverence look Upon thy Parts and highly prize thy Merit For who impartially peruse thy Book Shall find thou hast an high seraphick Spirit Imagine Gold could be from Gold refin'd So is thy soul from others souls sublim'd Ad Malignantes Poemata I hear some Quarrell Authors that have writ In verse such strong and sublimated things As â—f such subjects for verse were not fit Let them know this God chose the Pens of Kings To wâ—…e in verse and Christ alledg'd them more Then all the Text he found in Moses store Let them know learned Moses and wise Job Writ both in verse before those glorious Kings And all the Prophets call'd the sons of God In verse have written high mysterous things Let them know who dares on such verse fall foul Hath but a squint-ey'd ill composed Soul Fran. Wortley To the Author in contemplation of his Primitive Devotion THe Churches Liturgy Her Discipline Her sweet indulgencies Her love divine Her Fasts Her Feasts Her Sacraments and all That Tongues of men and Angels Order cal By wholsome Precepts and choice presidents This Author with high Charity presents Instructing us the ready Way to know What to our God what to the Church we owe. All morall vertues stand in great esteem With grave Philosophers shall not we deem Diviner Graces much more to surmount Yes To this end SPARKE renders in Account The lives and deaths of most refined Saints Which he from Times records so lively Paints That we by their examples might become Such as they were in Life or Martyrdome Great Harmony did grace her Pristine State Till the red Dragon grew predominate In her Meridian thousand souls did bring At her Behests their free-will offering In her eclipse no Herbert not a Donne SPARKE only sings her Resurrection To shew my best Affection and my Zeal To this good Work I give Heart Hand and Seal Thomas Shirley In opus eruditum Authoris ingeniosissimi CRudeli lacerare manu pia viscera Matris Infoelix studuit Nequitiae soboles Omine foelici sanavit vulnera Sparkus Non passus tumulo saucia membra dari Hic petit Antiquos veris ornare Coronis Vates Angelicos celebrare Choros R. DUKESON D.D. To my worthy Kinsman M. Ed. SPARKE upon his Pious Reflection on Primitive Devotion I Were ingrate should I thy lines ore'-look And not repay some tribute to thy Book Amongst those virid wreaths of Poetry Then interweave one Lawrell branch from me Whil'st thou thy light dost through the world disperse Accept of this Reflection on thy Verse Methinks Th' hast here thy skil in Musick shewn Most fitly to a Land that 's out of tune A happy harmony of Sions Songs Variety yet no Divisions First a plain Note a Rellish then doth close Each Poem's grafted on a stock of Prose How sweetly both the Courteous Reader Greet When the Prose runs so on the Verses feet Cease Old Religion to lament thy fate Here 's yet a Prospect of thy Pristine state Though the old lights snuft out which clearly shone To other Lands But dazled this our own Our comfort is we are not quite bereft Here is a SPARKE of the old Lamp yet left Blown from above into a Holy fire Whose flames shal last when as this SPARKE flies higher RICH. BETENSON On the worthy work of my respected Friend M. Ed. SPARKE When Pious Asa with his Fathers Slept How solemnly his funerals were kept A curious bed's contriv'd by Arts devices Fild all with Indian gums Arabian Spices This bed the case wherein his corps the Jewel Are for the * 2 Chro. 16.14 BURNING made the precious fuel As if that Asa's body did aspire To meet his soul and mount up in that fire Dead Saints dead days now put into their Urne See here a sweeter brighter flame doth burn Kindled from holy SPARKES whence doth arise No smoak to hurt save only envious eyes Whilst my admiring Muse at distance stands Desiring at this flame to heat her hands Wherewith emboldned neerer she presumes To steal a Sent of these thy sweet Perfumes But I recant my words and pardon crave That I compar'd thy Book unto the Grave Or Vrne of Saints for by thy Pen's perfection Saints are not buried but have Resurrection The cozning witch in counterfeit disguise Made but a seeming Samuel to rise Whom cunningly she did with mantle hide To cloak her cheat which else might be espide But who will not thy worthy Work applaud No falshood here no forgery or fraud Thou really dost from the dust retrive And make not one but All-Saints to revive Yea by the pains which thou on them expends Easter doth rise Ascension day ascends Thy Poetry is pleasant Pictures fine Thy Prose profound but oh the prayers divine Thus hast thou pleased us in every part Our fancies judgments with our eyes and heart THO. FULLER To the Author upon the sight of the first sheet of his Book My worthy friend I am much pleas'd to know You have begun to pay the debt you owe By promise to so many pious friends In printing your choice Poems it commends Both them and you that they have been desir'd By persons of such Judgment and admir'd They must be most by those that best shal know What praise to holy Poetry we owe. So shall your Disquisitions too for there Choice learning and blest piety appear All usefull to poor Christians where they may Learne Primitive Devotion Each Saints day Stands as a Land-mark in an erring age to guide fraile mortals in their pilgrimage To the Coelestiall
3970. Nor need this variety cause any scruple or distraction no more then in the Dominical day so it be solemnized as neer as may be though the punctual hours in some cases cannot be retained and if our very Clocks accord not twenty fours hours some striking most when others fewest or scarce three Neighbors meet in the relation of a story done among them how easily may the most faithful Chronologers discent a little about the motion of the wheels of time that have been so long so long a running besides that speech of our blessed Lord Acts 1.7 to his Apostles Acts 1. It is not for you to know the times and the seasons c. Omnes calculatorum digitos St. Augustine saith Saint Augustine puts all Arithmeticians out of their numbers shuffling their Counters into a Bag of Ignorance The time when Christ born and indeed Pia est ignorantia Dei Arcana non scrutari Where the Scripture hath not a tongue it is Piety for us to have neither Eie nor Ear and therefore not to follow the wanton Postillers to the very year nay moneth and day and hour of Christs Nativity we may with more modesty and certainty collect it to have been about the two and fortieth year of the reign of Peaceful Octavianus commonly called Augustus Josephus telling us Josep Antiq. that that was the year of the general taxing and the Scripture telling us that that was the time of the Birth of Christ Luke 2. And therefore then was the time for Shiloh's coming Herod the son of Antipater an Idumaean being King of Judea and so the Scepter departing from Juda Gen. 49. then Gen. 49.10 when all the prophesies were accomplished all types and shadows substanced then was the fulness of time for Christs Nativity and then more particularly shortly after the Winter Solstice when night grows shorter and days longer to shew that now shadows were shortning dark ignorance diminishing and the glorious light of divine knowledge increasing John 3.30 John 3.30 And here let us borrow time to glance on the place where the Lord was laid and that was Bethlem as the Pharisees could tell Herod out of the Prophet Micah And thou Bethlem Micah 6.2 c. out of thee shall he come c. But why there Is it not a little one Yes therefore he chose it that chose all the circumstances of his Life and Death Vt nos doceret humilia eligere To teach us to choose the lowest rooms at Feasts or Synagogues and to be contented with our meanest accommodations as all exceeding his whose whole life was a continual Passion as one saith others Die Martyrs but he was born a Martyr Christ found a kinde of Golgotha even in Bethlem his birth and death as it were but one protracted act his Christmas day and his Good Friday Dr. Donne in Festo Nativit but the Evening and the Morning of his Passion Born among Beasts lived among worse died among theeves Born in the meanest Town the meanest House the meanest Room the prophets may wel call it his coming down the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his emptying of himself c. Bethlem an Inn a Stable and yet these not without their intimations In Bethlem where Boaz the Jew and Ruth the Gentile were married Ruth 4.13 There was he born i. God and Flesh married who married Jew and Gentile into one Flock together The Inn domus populi Entertains him that was to entertain all comers salvator populi The House of the people receives the Saviour of the people and the Stable still more extends his Grace unto the foulest sinner so repentant Again Bethlem was the City of David and Nursery of Kings of whose linage he was and though born in Bethlem by occasion of the taxing yet conceived a Nazarite thence came this good in spight of all ill Proverbs Luke 1. Luke 1.55 That Town of Ephrata which as it signifies fruitfulness is a Region not onely of Wood but of Wine saith Adricomius Adricom Delphius f. 41. and Bethlem signifying an House of Bread Affords us this comfortable extract That the Word made Flesh in the House of Bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Region of Wine leads us to the Arms of Christ in the blessed Sacrament worthily received And now to avoid tediousness let me knit the Person and the End together which indeed as the Apostle saith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Pet. 9.12 a Great Mystery God manifested in the flesh c The Riddle which the very Angels as well as men desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. To pry into as through the Hangings of which we may say Deut. 4.32 as Moses Deut. 4. Was there ever such a thing as this For this Mystery as well as the Virgin Mary the Holy Ghost hath overshadowed yet may we also say of it as the Lepers in another case 2 King 7.9 2 Kings 7. This is a day of good tydings Maximum miraculorum beneficiorum as it is the greatest of Miracles so it is the highest of Benefits bestowed upon mankinde This wherein the Deity and Humane Nature were mutually espoused without either present confusion or future separation by an incomprehensible Hypostasis and ineffable union * Quis enarrabit generationem ejus Isai 13.8 for which then let curiosity be turned into gratitude and That be expressed in Hospitality and Devotion joyned least like Israel we proclaim an Holy day to Jehovah and worship a Calf Exod. 32.8 that so this eminent Festival may make up those three wonders * Bernard in Festo Nativi of the World viz. God and Man Mother and Virgin Faith and our Heart united POEM 6. Of Heaven and Earth This the bright Wedding-day God spoused Flesh and thence begot our Joy As Light from light yet in its Fount resides So Christ from God yet with him God abides Strange Mystery as the Eternall Son Who shall declare his Generation That Eagle in the Clouds what Angels Pen Can reach We trace him but as worm with men In whom when Sin and Misery at strife To end it well Christ took and laid down Life Of spotlesse and perpetuall Virgin-Mother Made in all sinless sympathies our Brother ' Tmust be a Virgin-heart Christ's presence wins Where Satan hath begot no crying sins While other 's stately hous'd an Inn's the best Room Earth affords unto this Heavenly Guest Whose universall Goodnesse will again Unlesse through their own fault All entertain And though rejected of his own this stranger Be sordidly thus cradled in a Manger Yet know and mourn it irrelenting heart Thou an Augaean fouler stable art Here he that made the Angels with Beasts lies Prophesy'ng him our bleeding Sacrifice Yet happy if like them we own our Lord Give him our Crib that is our All-afford Who so descended from his high renown To beat our Pride and haughty Passions down And all this did
his own free gracious act On our part undeserv'd oppos'd effect Light on us therefore O Celestial Dove So with thy Fanning Wings inflame our Love That Earth with grateful Harmony may sing With those Aetherial Spirits to Heavens King That both in compleat Consort so aspire Till all one Hallelujah singing Quire Then they 're ill Shepherds sure will not always Together with their Flocks Christ this day praise The COLLECT PRAYER The Epistle Heb. 1. from vers 1. to 13. The Gospel John 1. from vers 1. to 15. Almighty God which hast given us thy onely begotten Son to take our nature upon him and this day to be born of a pure Virgin Grant that we being regenerate and made thy children by Adoption and Grace may daily be renewed by thy holy Spirit through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth c. The stoning of Steuen Act 7* 58 And cast him out of the Citie and stoned him the witnesses layd downe there clothes at a voung mans feete named Saul 59 And they Stoned Steuen who called on God and said Lord Jesus receiue my spirit 60 And he kneeled downe cried with a loud voyce Lord laye not this sinne to there charge etc The Plate here Saint Stephens Day DISQUISITION 4. YEsterday presented a Nativity and this a Martyrdome like a Deaths-head served up at a Festivall the Church thereby first tacitly intimating human Condition both our natural accidental frailty how neer our End bordereth on our Birth Finisque ab origine pendet And yet how many outward dangers equalling inward diseases hasten the pace of precipitating Nature Vitae unicus introitus mille exitus Our life for one sole ingress having many thousand out-lets And secondly expressly desirous by joyning these two Festivals that we should all learn to live well as Christ and to die well as St. Stephen Ideo natus est Dominus ut moreretur pro servo In a Sermon on St. Stephen ne servus deficeret mora pro Domino saith holy Austin yesterday we celebrated the Birth of that heavenly King of Martyrs born into the World and to day the first fruits of Martyrs going out of the world It behoved the Immortall saith he First to take Flesh for Mortals that so mortall man might the better contemn Death for the Immortall Therefore was the Lord born to die for his servant that the servant might not fear to die for his Lord. Christ was born in Earth that Saint Stephen and his other followers might be born in Heaven Christus pro nobis induit hominem Stephanus pro Christo hominem exuit Christ for us put on human Flesh and Saint Stephen here for Christ put it off The story is so obvious that I shall need only glance on it out of the Scriptures for the Day Acts 7. it consisting of two remarkables Acts 7. viz. the Jews cruelty and his Piety their bloody and his godly behaviour in his Martyrdome First here Mat. 23. They retaining their old Title of Killers and stoners of the Prophets put him to death who endeavoured to bring them to everlasting life by his large Sermon to them Acts 7. that sweet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 7. or Recapitulation of the whole sacred Scripture Law Prophets and Evangelists even from Abraham to Christ whom he would have applied home to them had not their fury withstood their conversion even that they should have seen him as he did at the right hand of God but that they stopt him there with a Constructive Blaspphemy becomming Accusers Judges and Executioners all at once presently beginning their persecution with their tongues and teeth v. 54. gnashing on him with c. beside the malice of their tongues that they could even tear his Flesh but that their hands beguiled their mouthes with as ready and more mortall instruments The Jews had among them Quatuor magna supplicia foure speciall sorts of torments besides their bonds and scourgings and other lighter punishments which they had borrow'd from Scythians the Masters of those Arts and other cruell Heathens as the first was Burning Gen. 38.24 Dan. 3.22 The second Casting to wild Beasts Dan. 6. and St. Pauls Case supposed by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.32 Thirdly Stoning Exod. 19 13. And lastly Crucifying Luke 23.21 as all are frequently to be seen elsewhere in Scripture but of all this of stoning was most ordinary among them as the onely Deucalion-race of mankind Vnde homines nati durum genus ad lapides currebunt saith * Loco citat St. Augustine Duri ad duros Presently they run to stones hard hearts unto hard instruments of mischief whether for their readiness cheapness fatalness I argue not or as the best Emblems of their flinty nature Sed Petris lapidabatur qui pro Petra i. Christo moriebatur but with stones destroyed they the servant of him who was the chiefe Corner stone and Rock of his Church Jesus Christ an harsh and an hard act of a right stony people whose obduratnesse to God and man hath turn'd their memory into a Niobean monument of shame not sorrow while Arator hath inscribed this due Epitaph Lapides Judaea rebellis In Stephanū lymphata rupis qua crimine duro Saxea semper eris Arator lib. Carm. in Act. Rebellious Judah that did Stephen stone For that hard act shall pittied be of none Till at length their Punishment so ecchoed their Sin that for their killing of the Prophets and stoning them who were sent unto them Non lapis super lapidem inter Lapidatores Their House was left to them so desolate that not a stone was left upon a stone Matth. 24.2 O let all their Successors consider this not onely in Judea but in England or where ever that still make the Prophets cry and sigh and that as lowd as in most times heard heretofore Psal 44.22 onely with a little cruell variation For sheep appointed to be slain Pastors appointed to be starv'd Think of stony Jerusalem avoid her sins and so her Plagues lest likewise the same judgement follow and overtake you Temporall your house be left unto you desolate Spiritual Christ saying You shall not see me henceforth Matth. 23. And eternall that upon you come not all the righteous blood both of Abel and Zechariah i. both of Laicks and Clergy So Cajet in locum Sanguine fundata est Ecclesia sanguine crevit Sanguine decrescit sanguine finis erit Christs bloud did found his Church and Saints increase Which wains in storms yet in 's Foes bloud shall cease But now to take a glimpse of that which more particularly concerns us observe St. Stephens behaviour in his suffering an excellent Patern to reflect on at our deaths made up of Piety and Charity a man of an high Character and and that by the pencill of the Highest * Acts 6.55 Full of faith and power of the Holy Ghost v. 55. a
boared head his smeared face and furrowed body and see whether he be not likelier for a Grave then a Throne Ecce homo Behold the man Yet all this is not enough for Jews or Jewish spirits And therefore Venerable Bede and others are for the later Beda in locum and that these words were a Belch of Envy whether from fear of Caesar or to please the Jews not much materiall and they prove it by the close Nam quem absolvit Judicio crucifigit ministerio For whom he cleareth in word he doth condemne in action I find no fauls in Him take ye Him and crucifie him Ecce homo Behold the man so that all the washing of his hands though he rubbed neyer so hard would hardly ever fetch out the steins of this Bloud from his Heart Behold the man But here not to build a Mindus sorrow loving no descant and being but an ill Methodist I shall briefly resolve this subject into these 3 circumstances reserving the Ecce toattend the Application if not rather carrying it along with us all the way viz. The Quis the Quid the Quare and consider the Person the Act and the Reason of it Who it was What it was and why it was Christ suffered All wrapped up in this Ecce homo Behold the man First for the Quis. Who as to his being the Son of God is answered with another Quis another Question Isai 53. Quis enarrabit Isa 53 8. Who shall declare his generation Not the Tongues or Quils of Men or Angels as he is Aquila in Nubibus St. Johns Eagle in the clouds Yet may we look upon him as Vermis in pulvere Davids worm in the dust and outcast of the people Though we cannot reach his Deity yet as this Text inviteth we may behold the man And so indeed was he too plainly seen by the eye of an oppressive world Vir dolorum no sooner man then center of calamities one acquainted with Griefs His only Intimates and Familiars his inseparable companions Thus as in relation to his sufferings our businesse here this word most particularly answereth the Quis with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold the man Man and Son of Man our Saviours usual compellation John 8. and frequently elsewhere the Son of Man and that for weighty Reasons John 8.28 As first to strengthen his Disciples Faith Whom say you that I the Son of Man am Secondly to demonstrate his Humanity as his Miracles did his Divinity And here most properly Man as being Passive only in his Human Nature Thirdly called Man to shew Christ was not ashamed of our Infirmities but as the Prophet speaks hath born them and our sorrows meaning all those infirmities that are painfull without sin but none of those that are sinfull without pain as Lombard well distinguisheth Lombard 4. Distinct And yet withall he is Man with an Article that imports an Emphasis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. among men as Demosthenes among Greek Orators or as Tully among the Latins or Homer among the Graecian Poets or Virgil amongst other The Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Figure of Excellency Behold the Man a Dicier Hic est Christ here Emphatically stiled Man and by a transcendent singularity above all others Not like ordinary men propagated in sin originall and by a double Parentage This spotlesse Lamb having in Heaven no Mother and on Earth no Father No nor like Adam in his best state with a Posse labi with any possibility of falling into actuall But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.17 the Man in all things like us but that which is nothing sin excepted Heb. 2. 'T is remarkable that none is called Sonne of man in Scripture except Daniel once But the Prophet Ezekiel and He so Dan. 8.17 neer an hundred times as being more conversant with Angels and Diviner Revelations How much more Christ in that regard here stiled emphatically Behold the man Nor yet is this all his Excellency He was Innocens Benefaciens Rex Dei Filius c. all easie to dilate on I can but name them He was innocent and declared so by his Judge Insons ante Reum the Dove of Innocence the Lamb without blemish the true Nathaniel He was the Vniversall Benefactor of the world to all parts doing good according to their severall Receptivities He was a King acknowledged not only by the Scriptures but also by his enemies at his Crucisixion by his Title on the Crosse c. He was the Son of God testified by miracles on earth and thrice at least by a voyce from heaven and the Devill himself was tormented to this Truth Matth 8.29 Behold the man that was the summe of the whole world both God and Man And all this Excellency of Person doth in finitly highten the indignity of his Sufferings which are the next Considerable the Quid What this person underwent But soft let me not promise more then I can perform alas more then can be performed This being Infandum scelus infandique dolores on the Jews part a wickednesse unutterable on Christs part sorrows inexpressible and therefore fitter here to be Effigiesed like sacrified Ipbigenia with Agamemnon's veil of silence How hard the holy Penmen labour here for Metaphors Psal 129.3 Isai 53.7 Rom. 4.25 Luke 22.47 Phil. 2.8 He was ploughed upon saith David Dumb before the shearers and Butchers saith Isaiah given up saith St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Given up of God betrayed of man Traditus mundo John 3.16 Delivered to the world that Scoen of miseries and vale of tears Traditus dolori Delivered up to sorrows Traditus Populo Luke 22. Delivered up to the people and no wild beast or Sea so raging Traditus morti traditus Cruci Delivered to Death even to the death of the Crosse as the Complement of all Tortures And this is the generall Prospect of Christs innumerable sufferings which come on so thick and fast upon us that they will not permit us here to glance upon his Prior passio as the Fathers call Christs life from his first Birth to the institution ot his last Supper his former passion Cujus tota vita continuata passio whose whole life indeed was but one Crimson Thred spun to make us a Garment But his later Passion now calleth us into the Gardâ—n Joh 18. John 13.1 Where think not of a place of Recreation but of Passion Dream not of Beds of Roses and delicious Flowers but think of bitter Herbs of Rue and Wormwood There Ecce homo Behold the man there weeping sweating bleeding for us Till he becometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even a Circle of Calamity made an Island in his own inundation of Tears of Sweat of Bloud a treble Island as Bernard passionatly Non tantum oculis Serm. 3. de Ram. Palmar sed membris singulis Christ wept saith he not only with his eyes but with all the members of his blessed body to wash away our
specialiter tamen filio yet is it notwithstanding principally attributed to the Son the work of our Redemption Matth. 1.25 because as his Word witnesseth t was his person that became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is God with us Mat. 1.23 in whom we have redemption through his bloud according to the Riches of his Grace I that onely was the Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the leading and impulsive cause of all Christs woes and sufferings the sole Quare why this good Shepheard left the 99. in the Wildernesse i. the fallen Angels in their sin and punishment and died to ransom this one lost sheep mankind Well therefore may the vulgar Latin read that John 15.13 Nimia Charitas Greater love hath no man so great too great a love too great on both sides The Quare on our part being the expiating of sin Rom. 4.24 Rom. 4. and conferring of Grace 1 Cor. 1. Being hereby made unto us Wisdome 1 Cor. 1.30 and Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption The Riches of his Grace paid our Talents and much more will our Pence we doing our Duty in mean time and giving but all diligence 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Pet. 1. satisfied both our Eternall and our Temporall Debts to God cancelled Satans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that black Scrowle against us and is to us as the Angel to St. Peter bound in Prison as the indulgent Father to the returning Prodigall and the very good Samaritan unto the wounded Traveller For by his stripes we are healed Isai 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 53.5 1 Tim. 2.6 His we are by Ransome his by Purchase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his by Conquest John 16.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be of good cheer John 16.33 I have overcome the world Thus Christs sufferings were proportioned to his Person suffered in to the sins suffered for to the Good will he suffered with and for the End he suffered to all Universals and Superlatives all inexpressibles our businesse is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conformed in some measure Phil. 3. to his Life and Death that being partakers of his sufferings we may be also of the consolation and that 's done two wayes chiefly St. Gregory Cum per abstinentiam affligitur corpus per compassionem animus We will mend it somewhat in the rendring When we beat down the body with Abstinence and Devotion and the Mind with Penitence and Compassion Sit thee down then my Soul this day and make it thy Good Friday by application that was so bad to Christ by bloudy passion Cheer up to think with how many Priviledges this day was honored viz. Sin cancelled Death subdued Hell spoyled Heaven opened Scriptures verified Man redeemed and all this by thy Saviour crucified This Meditation would allay all out Extravagancies and moderate the excesses of our former pleasures 'T would sweeten all our bitter draughts and fit us in some measure to pledge Christ in this bitter Cup if he should please to call us to that Honour as we have comfortably seen in Others This would fortifie us against the worst could happen Then let not Ignorance for shame be more busie with superstitious Figures of the Cross then true Devotion with this frequent Meditation and the more lively representations of it in the Word and Sacraments For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Motto of every true Christian as well as Constantine Under this Banner shalt thou overcome From the QUIS the person of this glorious subject we may gather First Obedience and Compassion among many other Fruits on the Tree of the Cross Obedience to God Heb. 10.9 Psa 40. to his legitimate Vicegerents Rom. 13. And never was there such compassion Indeed 't is storied of Trajan that was stiled the Good that he tore off his own Robes all to pieces to bind up the wounds of his Loyall Souldiers and 't was a noble pitty But our great Captain here though Monarch of the World throws off his Robes of Glory and imparts them Suffereth not his Garments onely but his skin his Flesh his very Heart to be all ren and torn that through his Death we might have life though so great love hath no man yet each may gain somewhat from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This boundlesse love of Christ with all its Distances may teach men how to stand affectioned to each other Men I say 'twixt whom unlesse in some few Transitories there is no difference as after a few years whoso looks into their Graves will find but little difference between their bones John 15.35 Love is the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ear-mark of Christs Sheep John 15. And therefore the Apostle presseth it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.8 Above all things have fervent love c. 1 Pet. 4. and he gives a good Reason For love covereth a multitude of sins in utroque foro by preventing by excusing by forgiving From the QUID what our Saviour suffered we must learn Mortification and Submission Phil. 3. Crucifying the Old Man with his corrupt Affections Phil 3.10 There is a story of St. Francis that by austere meditation of the Passion he had Christs five main wounds imprinted on him and so plain that many since scarce know the one from the other and that Ignatius by the like mortification had the Holy Name of Jesus written visibly in his Heart However these may stand in credit I am sure the Apostle cannot faile who maketh Fellowship of his sufferings the best assimulation unto Christ Phil. 3. Nay Rev. 2.17 even incorporates us into his Body and writes that new Name on us Rev. 2. And for Submission remember the demeanour of this Sheep before the Shearers and let not each Triviall injury incense thee into such an usuall Fury Look on Him here who lost all but Patience and be not so crucified with a few worldly losses What ever is thy Distresse it cometh far short of His Let some of His Patience bear thee company and He that gave Himself will not deny thee succour mean time accept of his own Legacy Luke 19. without which no man is Compos animae Luke 19.21 possessor of his own Soul and we should look to that especially living in an Age wherin none knoweth how long he may possesse any thing else And now the last Circumstance the QUARE Why all this Hints us to Gratitude Emendation Comfort Magnes Amoris Amor Love is the Loadstone of Love St. Bernard Quanto pro me vilior tanto mihi charior Let not Christ ask again Where are the Nine Nor forgetfull Israel be the Type of us Disobedient at the Sea even the Red Sea Psal 106. Let us not pledge Josephs Butler in his Cup of Oblivion but David rather in his Cup of Salvation praising the Lord for his Goodnesse and declaring the wonders that he doth for the children of men
is not here but is risen Hence then our Faith and Hope are quickened sufficiently both confirmed and fortified Now what though Afflictions and Diseases torture and even crucifie our Body What though our burdenous Tombstone stop up the mouth of our Grave and forbid Re-entry into the world what though the inviolable course of Nature seal up our Sepulcher for Time ner'e to open what though Corruption set worms and other noysom creatures as 't were to watch our carcasses yet shall they maugre all these the very same I say shall one day likewise find themselves redintegrated by this powerfull Resurrection we shall not be stoln away either by Mortality or Time then feare no more to trust thy Body then the Sower doth his Grain unto the Earth The Grave must come to Restitution and give account of each Dust and Atome committed to her trust and not so much as an hair of our head shall perish Luke 21. Luke 21.18 While the head is above water no fear of drowning Mirum esset si caput per unum corpus per aliud intraret 'T were strange indeed that the Head should enter Heaven at one door and the Body at another Socinus therefore was but sottish to deny the consequent of ours from Christs Resurrection Decet quemadmodum praecessit caput Bernard Serm. in Resurrect sequantur membra It is but naturall proportion that as the Head is gone before we all the other members should follow after Thus being acquainted with the Person observe next his Motion His progressive or Egressive motion Wherein are also those two poynts of locall motion Terminus à quo He is not here and Terminus ad quem He is risen The first is whence he rose and that was à statu mortuorum not from any Poeticall Limbus but from the state of the Dead à Sepulchro From the Grave From triumphing over Hell it selfe as Davids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Septuagints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will bear it all Psal 116.10 He is not here Where our Meditations have overtaken the Disciples and are entring the Sepulcher where we find nothing but the Linnen left and Watchmen stupified But that Agnus occisus jam Leo vincens That Lamb which was slain Terminus à Quo. is now the Triumphing Lion of the Tribe of Judah too holy an One to see corruption He is not here in Earth or earthly Elements that is every where according to his Deity and Spirituall Influences Accedas Saducaee Sepulchrum inspice Come hither then Atheisticall Saduce and let thine Eye tutor thine Infidell Heart to a belief of the Resurrection Mark but the method of the Linnen Bern. in Fest Lineamina posita bene disposita That not onely remaining but keeping the severall postures of the parts that wore it And would a Thiefe have left it thinkest thou or left it so distinguished Or if the World had had a Thiefe so Honest Quam opportunitatem habuisset What time could he have had of stripping off those cleaving Sear-Clothes and bearing forth the Body so many Souldiers so many Watchmen present No no 't was that same Power onely which loosned formerly Saint Peters Fetters made this Winding sheet fall off the Deity it selfe so kept this Citie that the Watchmen watched but in vain In vain indeed for the sight of an Angell countenanced like lightning so terrified and amazed them that as though they had been struck with Lightning they became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 28.4 Even as dead men Fitter to be buried in the Sepulcher then to watch it So that the envious Sanedrim endeavour to revive them with money that usuall Aqua vitae of ill fainting Causes hiring the Souldiers to say That His Disciples came by night and stole him away The Jewes strong delusion to this day O stulta insania dormientes testes adhibent Rhemigius in locum Alas fond dream of sleeping Watchmen saith Rhemigius if they slept how could they perceive the Theft If not perceiv'd how could they witnesse it Not taken away and therefore risen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For He is not here And this is the strangest Epitaph that er'e was read on Sepulcher Non est hic Turn over all the leaves of Story and Antiquity become Companions of the Sunne like Drake and Cavendish travell the whole Circle of the Earth view all the Monuments Pyramids and Tombs of Mortals and you shall still meet with there a Trophae of Deaths Conquest a Stone ingraven with an Hic jacet Here lieth such Christs Epitaph or such an one Here he lieth be he a Nebuchadnezzar a Nimrod or Baltshassar Here the bright Hellen and great Alexander Here the wise Cato and learned Aristotle or what ever other Grandees of the world Here lie their Bodies bound in Fetters of Corruption chambred up in Dust prisoners to the Grave and Captives unto Death Hic jacet But in an holy Pilgrimage come we to our Saviours Sepulcher and to our equall joy and wonder we meet with Ensignes of Death's overthrow the stone removed from off his Grave and there an Angel penning this his Epitaph No his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Song of victory Non est hic He is not Here. Hee who is Life it selfe could not be detained of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 'T was impossible he should be holden of it But like his Type Samson Ruptis Laethi vinculis He breaketh the bonds of Death and casteth his Cords from him Nor from himselfe alone but from his Servants also 1 Corinth 15. 1 Cor 15.15 Where you may see one of them out-braving Death and Hell Where is thy sting where thy victory To which S. Bernard sweetly alluding Vbi opprobria Judaee Vbi fabulae Vbi vasa Captivitatis Where now thou stony Jew are all thy cruelties Alas Where are now the sports the Reed and Purple of your injured King and all those other Instruments of his Captivity Vbi mors victoria tua Bern. in Fest Nay Death it selfe Where 's now thy conquest Then alluding to the Answer as well as to the Question Confusus Calumniator raptor spoliatus The Mocker is mocked He that sitteth in Heaven hath laughed them to scorn and Death is swallowed up in Victory by CHRISTS glorious Resurrection Non est hic He is not here Mark Christian Reader Christus non quaerendus in Terrenis CHRIST is not to be sought for in these earthly Transitories I am sure not to be found there Not in the Avaritious man his Coffer Achan found a Non est hic in the Golden Wedge He is not here Not on the Ambitious Pinacle Haman found a Non est hic Hest 4. In the Chair of the scorner He is not here Not in the voluptuous mans bed Cant. 6. The Spouse her selfe found a Non est hic In Ease Idlenesse or worse He is not here And therefore
transiit Natura non defecit The body was adorned with refined qualities but not devested of its former Nature His corruptible here put on incorruption The Condition of glorified bodies his mortall immortality Totus surrexit gloriosus He is risen altogether a Body glorified Whose eminencies the Schoolmen are very busie with I confesse and write more of then even Saint Paul himselfe durst that had bin in the third Heaven I shall mention onely the most probable Claritas agilitas subtilitas impossibilitas The first Brightnesse and Angelick Beauty which was prefigured by shining Moses Exod. 34. and acknowledged in Christ by S. Jerom Stellatum splendorem Even a starry luster And if in his Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his very rayment as the light Mat. 17.3 Matth. 17. How bright think you how much more radiant was his Resurrection Nay if as himselfe telleth us The just shall shine like the Sun Chap. 83.43 c. Matth. 13. with what resplendent Rayes think you arose this Sunne of Righteousnesse this Sun of Glory himself whereof all other lights whatsoever are but beams Agility Answerable to this the second is Agility and lightsomness of motion such a supernaturall Activity of Body as if we may beleeve the Schools giveth it an equal facility of either motion of Ascending or Descending such an imperceptible quicknesse as made Christ sometime seem invisible when he pleased to passe through or to appear in the midst of the company John 20.26 John 20. But for that which they term subtillity cui aliud non resistit as to which they say materiall things make no Resistance that seemeth so destructive to the properties of a naturall body that I passe it as a meer subtilty indeed Subtilty but ushering the way to a double Heresie both in Philosophy and Religion viz. penetration of bodies and transubstantion The last condition of a body Glorified is Impassibilitas that is an incapacity of any further sufferings Aquinas in locum or indigence of Natures sustenance after the Resurrection mans body shall not need the staffe of Bread to walk with nor any other Antidotes of humane frailty but did not Christ after his Arise Eat Luke 24. yes but non in Nutritionem sui sed discipulorum Fidei that was not to nourish himself but his Disciples Faith non ex Egestate sed ex potestate not out of want but power it not turning to Aliment but like drops of water sprinkled on fire evaporated vanished such bodies Hunger no more and thirst no more Rev. 21. Rev. 21. neither They need Sun or sheild for the Lamb to them is all in all These are some of the Transcendencies of a glorious body and to satisfie some other scruples of flesh and bloud How arise the dead and with what bodies shall they come whether of the same Age Sex forme or deformity they died in though these are rather Niceties then necessaries yet know it shall bee of the whole Compositum the whole person like Christ here both parts Re-united both have shared here in Good or Evill so shall they in the Retribution And for Deformity Tertullian telleth us All imperfections shall be done away Tertul. Rev. 21 from Rev. 21. There shal then be no more sorrow no more death and the lamenesse or deformity of any part is the grief as 't were and death thereof So that if death shall then be totally expelled then by fair consequence from each particular member To this some add that of S. Peter Act. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 3.21 till the Times of Restitution i.e. according to the perfection of Adam in his Innocence whereupon Saint Augustine saith of monsters that all defects shall be amended in that second moulding of the great Artificer Usual scruples answered And for the scars and wounds of Martyrs that those shall make more for their glory and then be in their bodies like stars in the Firmament the brighter parts of all about them there then so much more glorious as they here have been more dolorous Non sic impiis but as for the wicked 't is not so with them they shall arise with all their blemishes with all their imperfections whatsoever whatsoever may conduce to the improvement of their shame and punishment For the Sex Tertullian again biddeth us remember that the same bodies we lay down we shall take up Mat. 22.8 from that Matth. 22. where Christ answers the Pharisees not that there should be no women but no wives at the Resurrection no marrying or giving in marriage but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels natural relations cease there Sexes do not Lastly for the Age that all shall rise in St. Augustin and from him the whole Cry of the Schools proportion it unto the age of Christ that is as about 33 yeers asserting it from S. Paul's oracle Eph. 4.13 Eph. 4. and likewise from that forementioned Reduction Acts 3. that so as in Adam all die so by Christ say they even for the same age also shall all be made alive Yet S. John telleth us of a great multitude he saw before the throne both of small and great whether for stature or degrees of glory is not manifest and therefore these things I intrude not into the Articles of any ones Beleef but only present them modestly as Scholastick probabilities fully contented for mine own part gratefully to read That Christ will change our vile bodies 1 Cor. 19. and make them like unto His c. And therefore to turn Searches into Exhortations Let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be wise unto sobriety and possess our vessels in holiness as those that are you see and shall be the Temples of the holy Ghost Each one therefore now rowse up his sluggish soul Surge mea anima surrexit Christus Awake arise O my slumbring soul for thy Saviour is already up Stand up from the dead for sin is the grave of the soul and that dead in trespasses and sins buryed in the customs of it yet Christ shall give thee life Ephes 2. Yea Eph. 2.1 he lendeth the same hand unto us as unto Lazarus reviving raising sweetning of us with his fragrant graces And this may be our confidence of the second Resurrection if we give but all diligence to be partakers of the first that is from sin then no fear of the second death Rev. 20.6 Beleeve Christs reason of it Joh 6.54 John 6. Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day This is the true Nectar and Ambrosia the Poets did but feign such Fare for their Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use Homers phrase the immortall bloud the true Nepenthe that shall make us forget worldly sorrows that will Renew our Age better then an Aesons Bath this the heavenly Manna the Living the
cull them out out of all the heaps of men For the work whereunto I have called them And having with Prayer and Fasting as such business should be done received enlarged Commissions with cheerfulness they commence their journey neither with distances or dangers any whit discouraged Verse 4. Acts 13.4 c. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia from thence sailed unto Cyprus c. As your leisure may read the numerous stages of their successful travels or see the perils of them in a glass of Saint Pauls own making 2 Cor. 11.26 2 Cor. 11. Thus Tanquam jugati boves These two as it were Gods chief yoke of Oxen ploughed over much ground and so manured the Field of Christianity that the laborers was not so few as the Harvest of the Church was great Acts 13.48 49. Verse 48. The Gentiles glorified the Word of the Lord and it was published throughout all the Region These were not like Saint Judes Clouds without water but like two plenteous Bottles of Heaven showred their fruitful dews upon all places where they came with their streams making glad each City of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An excellent Spirit being in them as was said of Daniel St. Paul of eminent knowledge and compliant nature Omnia factus omnibus Becoming all to all that he might gain some i. e. Dispencing sometimes with things less material not serving the times but observing them to the advantages of Christianity while our Saint Barnaby at other side carrieth both ability and sweetness in his very name The Syriack derivation speaking him Filium consolationis the Son of Consolation Fit to binde up the broken souls of Gentile-Penitents and pour Christs blood into their gaping wounds the Hebrew Etymology naming him the Son of Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. A man of knowledge fitted for Instruction Thus unanimously and profitably did these two pass over many Countreys and some years together and how willingly could I here pass over the difference that fell afterward between them Acts 15.37 Acts 15. as the best Gold must have its grains and lest they should have hence been puft up as we see daily what success can do This was one of those Messengers of Satan and Contention sure one of the worst of them This still is one of the Envious mans constant engines the like difference between Saint Jerome and Ruffinus and many other holy Fathers of the Primitive Church and now adays more of these fire balls are thrown then ever God grant they be but as soon quenched and do as little hurt as this did here between Saint Paul and Barnaby which though sharp was but short and casual Onely about Saint Barnaby's desire to take his Cozen Mark along with him whom St. Paul fearing would desert them again as from Pamphylia he chose Silas and departed This nothing hindering the sacred progress of the work nor any more heard of in the Scripture till both at last participated as of the Labors so of the Sufferings though not at the same time and place yet both for the same cause induring Martyrdom Alsted Chron. on c. 27. wherewith Saint Barnaby was crowned about the Nine and fortieth or fiftieth year of Christ his Master and our Common Saviour POEM 30. Thy name and nature sweetly do agree A Son of Consolation speaking thee And such indeed thou art to groaners under Pressures of sin but else a Son of Thunder Instructing Teachers with Physitians skill To act in order to their Patient still A Son of Lightning too sometimes in jar Flashing with Paul thy Fellow Traveller Yet where the fault determine dare not I But in the best lament infirmity The currant'st Gold hath lowance the best Grain Its Chaff and Sâ—alk yet fruitful so these twain Christs choicest yoke of Oxen which his field So plough'd that it a plenteous crop did yield And as Saint Paul a chosen vessel was So separated too was Barnabas Since therefore in the Christian Horizon Sin 's Night 's so shortned by thy Doctrine's Sun Lengthning Spiritual day we stile thee right For Grace and Glory Barnaby the bright The COLLECT The Epistle Acts 11. vers 22. to the end The Gospel John 15. vers 12. to vers 17. Lord Almighty which hast endured thy holy Apostle Barnabas with singular gifts of the Holy Ghost Let us not be destitute of thy manifold Gifts nor yet of Grace to use them alway to thine honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. S. IOANNES The Plate here Vpon the Feast of St. John Baptist DISQUISITION 28. Sol approprians praemittit Radios THe glorious Charriot of the Sun approaching you know fore-sends a Lucifer to chase the shadows and glad benighted mortals with the news of day so here the brighter Sun of Righteousness the Father of Lights Christ Jesus being now about to rise on the sin-darkned world Praemittit suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here sendeth his illuminated Messenger before him viz. Saint John the Baptist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shining Lamp indeed by Christs own testimony John 5.35 John 5. As that same King of Stars I say so this same Light of Lights lest sudden luster should offend weak eyes dawneth first inpreparative remisser beams Praeco Judicis Tuba Regis Angeius Dei Vox Clamantis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi Chrysolog St. John Baptist is the stella matutina the morning Star of that day Spring which from on high hath visited us I that so high a Birth as a descent from Heaven might not want an Herauld that the Monarch of Kings might not travel without an Harbinger nor the Lord of Hosts without his Marshal nor so mighty a Conqueror without his Trumpeter nor the greatest of all Judges without his Cryer The voice of one crying in the Wilderness That no Prophesie might want accomplishment or any State its decent dignity In those days came John the Baptist c. Matth. 3. Matth. 3.1 2 c. So that Ambrose * Sermon 63. Preaching upon this day was not a little troubled where he should either begin or end the praises of Saint John the Baptist Inopem me copia fecit Abundance suffocates expression as over-much Corn choaks the Mill from grinding for whatsoever was eminent almost in all other is found in this one Saint as being an Angel in Malachi's phrase Mal. 3.1 Luke 1.76 John 1.6 Mark 17. Matth. 3.5 a Prophet in St. Lukes an Apostle in St. John an Evangelist in St. Marks a Preacher of Repentance in St. Matthews a Confessor in Ecclesiastical History constantly teaching the Truth and patiently suffering for the same I shall contract all into an Abridgment of his life and death being in his life a Miracle in his death a Martyr In the first glance on his Descent his Birth his Name his Office in his Death reflect upon the Motives Agents and Fortitude thereof In
parum All the four Elements are scarce able to content our wanton Prodigals who if they come not here unto their Husks without many penitent drops may want the cooling drop hereafter But least I loose intended Brevity in this Wilderness of matter I hasten to the sad Catastrophe of the Baptists Death wherein I am inforced so far to imitate Herod as to make but short work with him the Motives that first betrayed him unto Malice was his Integrity and reproving Incest as it was with Christ Yee hate me because I tell you the truth His death whence contrived This was the old quarrel Mark 6.16 Else Herod reverenced him and in many things heard him gladly Matth. 11.28 But Saint John being as couragious toward Herod as his Type Eliah was to Ahab is first imprisoned and afterwards destroyed Herodes Antipas having put off Areta the Arabian Princess his own lawful Wife and in spight of all Law and Honesty married his double Neice viz. Herodias the Relict of his Brother Philip and Daughter of his Brother Aristobulus Saint John serving a Writ of Non Licet out of Levit. 18. Levit. 18.16 It is not lawful for thee to have thy Brothers wife is designed for Execution from which the Master whom he served could many ways have delivered him but that in Death as well as Life He was to be Christs Fore-runner And as there was a Necessity of his being such in Life besides that of Type and Prophesies by Malachi and Isaiah Mal. 31. Isai 40.3 almost three hundred years before considering the calumnious Jews John 8.13 to bear witness of Christ and of his Doctrine which elss had been abominated by them as frequently he doth Matth. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Fathers call him a true Friend of the Bridegroom preparing of his Spouse So also was there a necessity that this Star now should disappear when as the Sun was risen That he should now quit the worlds Theater by Death his Master entring and be no longer taken for the Messiah as he was by some but make good his own Prophesie I must decrease but he must increase and that both spiritually and corporally of both Saint John must be Capite minutus i. e. Shorter by the Head Before Christ In cruce extentus Stretched and wracked on the Cross And to effect this God permits wicked Agents Herodias and her Daughter to prevail with Herod as all such while they think they act but their own wills yet perform Gods So that all on a sudden Saint Johns Head must be a Dish at Herods Banquet on his Birth-day being danced off his Shoulders Anno Christi 30. In vovendo stultus impius in soluendo as said of Jephta Herod seems tender of a rash Oath yet thinks to wash away Incest and Adultery with Blood Herods Birth-day much like Pharaohs the onely two in Scripture celebrated and both bloody Banquets Pharaoh then hung his Baker Genesis Chapter 40. Verse 22. And Herod here beheads his Preacher as Prudentius sweetly Praemia saltatrix poscit funebria virgo Prud. Enchinid Johannis caput abscissum quod lance reportet Incestae ad gremium Matris fert Regia donum Psaltria respersis manubus de sanguine justo The Dancing Girl doth of fond Herod crave The Baptist's Head as a Reward to have Which t' her incestuous Dam she doth present With Hands deep Dy'd in Blood o' th' Innocent Such Tyrants stick not to reward the dance of an Antique with the Head of a Prophet Josephus Antiq L. 18. c. 8. de Bel. Juda. l. 9. c. 7. But Sequitur ultor à tergo Deus Their Vengeance slumbereth not for Josephus tell us That the same Herod Antipas was soon after overthrown in Battel by the Arabian and that well attributed by the Jews to the same cause i.e. His murdering of Saint John the Baptist and at last fined and banished he and his incestuous Herodias both Euseb l. 2. c. 4. by Caius the Roman Emperor And Tradition tells us also of that Virago how a while after dancing on the Ice a Mettal as nimble and brittle as her self she suddenly fell in and was her self beheaded by the breach thereof Nec Lex est justior ulla So just is God and so recoyling is the sin of Blood That oftentimes we see the Bullets of Judgement are cast in the very Mould of Sin POEM 31. Sweet Phosphorus of Christ whose Beams fore-run The healing Rise of that same Glorious Sun Thou art that fair and humble Lucifer That usherest the true bright Morning Star Thou art the Royal Harbinger that Sings The glad approach of that same King of Kings Thou art in Isai's phrase the Trumpetter Of that same Vniversal Conqueror The Cryer in the Wilderness whose Voice And Life commends Austerity to choice The strict Eliah's Antitype whose Skins And Locusts damn the Epidemick sins Of Garb and Diet both the Antick Dress And the Luxurious Epicure's excess By thine own Steps leading us as by Stairs The nearest way to Bliss Fasting and Prayers Together with our Penitence for that Best Jordan is to be Baptized at May he that wash'd thy Waters and Pray'r hears Make us all Anabaptists in such tears And then how ever powerful Envy seise Us Prisoners for Tell-troths or to please Some dancing Dalilah so Justice strain As to take off a Baptist's Head again Yet rest secure in Christ he is our Head Shall speak us better life our Murderers dead The COLLECT The Epistle Isaiah 40. v. 3. unto vers 12. The Gospel Luk. 1. ver 57. to the end Almighty God by whose providence thy Servant John Baptist was wonderfully born and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour by Preaching of Penance Make us so to follow his Doctrine and holy Life that we may truly repent according to his Preaching and after his example constantly speak the truth boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the Truths sake through Jesus Christ c. S. PETRVS The Plate here Vpon the Feast of St. PETER DISQUISITION 29. SAint Peter was one of the Eldest and principal Apostles and for Order perhaps I might inoffensively call him the Primate of them who after some experience of humane Frailty becometh in a sense A Rock of Christianity both as it were Contemperating the gladness and sadness of each other That in himself he neither might be puft up or discouraged nor by others either disparaged or over boasted of He was in a divided sense both a Reed and a Rock as I shall reflect a little on him under both those notions to acquaint you with some of the chief actions and passions of him He was one of the first that came to the Discipleship Matth. 4. Christ there inviting four of them together Matth. 4.18 Peter and Andrew James and John like whom in some measure all Ministers should be that is Either Fishing or mending their Nets Luther observes out of Saint Hierom
est hoc nomen non Hebraeum This a Syrian and no Hebrew name hinting him to have been some great mans son of that name and Country usual in Scripture to denominate men sons of their Fathers without other addition Neither is that Objection enough against it 1 Cor. 1.16 for it says not that many Noble but that many Noble are not called and one in Twelve is not many And this seems to me the more probable as wiping off that scandal of Julian the Apostata That mean Fishermen and such were easily seduced and therefore Christ did receive persons eminent in Learning Saul was so and of Authority in the State Nicodemus was so of Wealth and Ability Zacheus was so and so was Joseph of Arimathea and then why not so this Bartholomeus From whose deep silence in the Scripture even in the midst of all the Apostles contentions misprisions or other infirmities for which most of them were at sometime or other reprehended by their gracious Master I cannot but commend his prudence meekness unity modesty and taciturnity that let fall nothing to the breach of either and recommend them to your imitation For as silent and reserved as he appears in Scripture yet Ecclesiastick story rendreth him loud and eloquent in the advancing of his Masters Gospel First unto the Lycaonians and afterwards to the remoter Indians and lastly to the barbarous Armenians whereby their King Astyages for converting his Brother Palemon that after became Bishop of the place he was put to death or rather many deaths in one One so complicated as passed all parallel but the Barbarity of that place and Tyrant being first stoned and afterward excoriated Flayed alive Giving his kin and all that he had Job 1. not as Job saith for his life but for the Faith and Truth of Christ his Master nor is there yet an end of him For some write that they let him hang on the Cross till the day following still preaching Christ till they beheaded him and then indeed that was mercy An. Dom. 51. And hence it is called Duplex Festum A double Feastival some keeping the Five and twentieth of August to his memory others with us the Four and twentieth POEM 34. Fair Elims Wells and Palms did prerecord Th'Apostles and Disciples of our Lord Number and Nature both did signifie Their Doctrines pleasant Fruit and Victory Let us too pitch our Tents here rather dwell That each may have his Palm and Sacred Well May these Palms flourish to the day of Doom i th' hearts of men and all their sins o'ercome Scriptures are justly call'd Salvations Wells In draught whereof Saint Bartholomew excels His Name well suiting sure th' Original Hence doth him Son of Water-drawer call What Springs to Fields to Souls is Bartholomew Who to cool heats of sin brings a cold Dew Some think this was Nathaniel then his stile Runs high a man in whom was found no guile Some think him Princely born and that his Name the Son of Ptolomy imports the same Whose ere he was he for his Master gave His skin Christs truth not his own life to save Being such a fruitful Saint then 't is but Reason His Feast be kept in such a fruitful Season The COLLECT The Gospel Luk. 22. v. 16. unto v. 25. The Epistle Acts 3. ver 12 unto vers 17. O almighty and everlasting God which hast given grace to thine Apostle Bartholomew truly to beleeve and preach thy Word Grant we beseech thee unto thy Church both to love that he beleeved and to preach that he taught through Christ our Lord Amen S. MATHEVS For God to become man a Virgin soule for to conceaue bring forth yet not foule are Miracles yet these good Mathew brings as tidings fittest for an Anaclls wings Are to be sould by 〈…〉 The Plate here Vpon the Festivall of S. MATTHEVV DISQUISITION 32. OBserving Ecclesiastick order the first is here become one of the last scil Saint Matthew the first Pen-man of all the New Testament one of the last among these glorious worthies but so among the last as some choise Dish is at a Feastivall so of the last as none of the least remarkable conversions Mat. 9.9 and though under his own hand yet that of the Holy Spirits Guiding cannot be suspected of immodesty and as Jesus passed by from thence he saw a man sitting at the Receipt of custome named Matthew and said unto him Follow me and he Arose and followed him Wherein you have Christs Invitation and Saint Matthews resignation Our Saviours voice and his Saints Eccho Psal 27.8 somewhat like Davids Psalm 27. Seek yee my Face Thy Face Lord will I seek First the Invitation Mat. 9.9 as Jesus passed He saw c. where are the circumstances and substance of the call circumstances first of Person Jesus and Matthew Matthew a rich man a covetous rich man a covetous rich man in a corrupt office stiling himself the Publican in an Emphatical acknowledgment while the other Evangelists call him Levi and so needing a Jesus Mar. 2.14 Luke 5.27 c. 9.56 Salutare Nomen the saving name of Him who to that end came into the world Luke 9. and here passing forth from curing the Palsied mans body he healed Matthews soul it was his businesse thus to be doing Good even his meat and drink to do the will of his Father who would not the death of a sinner c. his Goodnesse still more amplified from the place and time for that he called Matthew sitting at the Receipt of custome Other Disciples Christ called as they were doing good Mat. 4.18 as Peter and Andrew from Fishing James and John mending their Nets c. But O the Miracle of Mercy he called Matthew when doing hurt and injury executing his hatefull office Sitting at the Receipt of custome and sitting the worst posture of evill the worst of all those three degrees of sinne Psal 1.1 observed out of Psalm 1.1 Now Matthew was a Graduated Publican seated in the chair of the scornful Genebrard in Psa 1. which is worse then either walking in the Counsell of the ungodly or standing in the way of sinners insomuch that Publicans and most hated persons were grown convertibles the Jewes paying no Custome before their Captivity that being indeed alwayes the leader of oppressions so that Publicans we find sometimes joyned with Heathens Mat. 18. sometimes with Harlots Mat. 18.17 c. 21.31 Luk. 15.1 chap. 21. but alwayes with sinners But now to the substance of the Call He saw and said c. he saw not only with Corporall eyes as hee saw many so but with eyes of compassion with eyes of Dilection Vbi Oculus ibi Amor. Here Christ's eye and Affection went together he saw him as a Pearl on a Dunghil as a chosen vessell for a better office He saw him with such eyes as looked on Israel in Egypt Exod. c. Exod. 3. as looked on Saint Peter weeping or on
to distinguish himself from Judas the Traytor though Iscariotes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Vir Marsupii The man of the purse c. help well yet both of a Name shadoweth out unto us that in the visible Church there will be alwaies some bad as well as good Professors Judas a Devil John 6. aswell as Judas the Saint the Church in an Ark and that had a Raven aswel as a Dove 'T is a Flock like Jacob's all Ring-streaked c 'T is a Net there will be Fish in it of all sorts A Garden will have Weeds aswel as Herbs and Flowers And 't is an Army wherin are spirits of all tempers 't is a Field wherin are Tares as well as Wheat and so shall grow together till the Harvest So that good men may distinguish themselves from ill and again may own their best Alliance for the more credit and advantage of the Truth and Gospel as S. Jude doth his brother James being a man of such repute as that he was surnamed the Just c. as is expressed in his commemoration The substance of St. Epistle of Jue 1. Judes Epistle consisting of a Salutation v. 2. an Exhortation v. 3. and a Caution Vers 2. v. 4. The first is mercy unto you and Peace and love be multiplied i.e. Mercy from God the father in pardoning your sins peace frō God the Son that Prince of peace applying it and Love from God the H. Ghost being the Spirit of love Or Mercy in pardoning your sins Peace in calming your Consciences and Love joyning you to God and one another The Exhortation is Vers 3. to continue stedfast in the Faith once given to the Saints Nay 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. earnestly to contend for it pro aris focis with might and main with all the wisdom of the Serpent that may consist with the Doves innocence to act like naturall agents ex extremum virium to the utmost of ability all little enough to countervail the malice and subtilty of the Supplanter as the caution intimates Vers 4. v. 4. Because certain ungodly men are craftily crept in c. of whose both fin punishment you may read in the sequell of that Epistle Against all which we must as S. Jude did give all diligence v. 3. to write of the common salvation Indeed giving all diligence not only in his writing but in his Travels and preaching the common salvation viz. first in Greece Pontus and Mesopotamia and afterward say Writers with his brother Simon into Persia where besides spiritual cures having restored Abgarus King of the Edesseni Unto whom he was sent Ambassad our saith Alstaed infra unto health is ill requited by the Heathenish Priests of that same Countrey being put to death and sacrificed anno Christi 51. propagating the Gospel both by Life and Death Now for his brother Simon Alstaed in Chronol c. 27. he was surnamed Zelotes from his pious heat and prudent zeal also from his Countrey the Canaanite Simon the Cananite Mat 10.3 who like a showring cloud one of those compassionate Bottels of heaven watered with the Gospel many dry and Desart places sc Aegypt Libya Persia Cyrene many parts of scorching Africa and divers other Regions towards the Western Ocean Simon the last Martyr of the Apostles besides his visiting of some Islands and among others if Historians deceive us not this of our Britain also though others attribute that to Joseph of Arimathaea Anno Christi 63. at length returning home unto Jerusalem Vide Alsted in loc cit that Carnificina Prophetarnm that Shambles of the Prophets having a while succeeded his brother James the Just in that See Episcopall is fastned to the Crosse in the 120 year of his age and so made the last Sacrifice of all the Apostles POEM 38. IN Holy Writ 't is a Divine command That by two witnesses each word should stand And here they are to make the Gospel good This pair of Martyrs seal'd it with their Blood These stood in first relation each to other Yet neerer kin by their Spiritual Mother St. Jude with golden Pencil doth indite A Catholick Epistle and doth write Unto the Jewes dispers'd and Gentilss both To weed up Errors in their early growth And were his Cautions fixed in Each Breast Nor Sin nor Faction would be in request That Love-Letter to Christ's Spouse his Heart mus'd His Hand wrot his Blood seal'd the Church perus'd And as he sent his brother Simon ran Bearing Christ's Name to th' Remote Ocean Adventuring to savage Affricans ' Mongst whom the worst of Monsters Sin he tames Turning their Black Religion to pure Grace Till Sin and Turk rebarbariz'd the place Thence sprinkling Lybian Deserts Egypt's Plains Cyrene and Persia tasting of his pains Nay on our British Isles too story some This Cananite bestowed first Christendom And after all this return'd home and dy'd Last Martyr of th' Apostlee crucify'd Well then is Simon here Zelotes term'd Whose Zealous life and death Christ's word confirm'd And that nor Sin nor Heresy obtrude ' Gainst Christian Faith both wrot and dy'd St. Jude THE COLECT PRAYER The Epistle of St. Jude v. 1 to v. 9. The Gospel Jo. 15. v. 17. to the end ALmighty God which hast builded thy Congregation upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Head corner stone grant us so to be joyned together in unity of Spirit by their Doctrine that we may be made an holy Temple acceptable unto thee through Jesus Christ our Lord. Vpon the Festivall of all SAINTS DISQUISITION 36. THe former Festivals presented us with Singularities but this is Festum Catholicum 'T is or should be an universall Holy-Day Whereas Each of the former like a Jacobs-staff gave us the Hight But of particular Stars This like a fair naturall Day shews us the whole Heavens rich varieties Those as Contracted Perspectives Measuring Them one by one but This like a large Glass Ptesenting as 't were a Land-skip of All-Saints together Each of them a Flower this a Posie or if they Posies this a Garden Somtimes those shew'd the Leader somtime the Wings or Officers or peculiar Regiments of the Churches Army but This presents us here with her Camp-Royall her Generall Muster the Maine Battalia of that Noble Army the Army both of Saints and Martyrs I say This is the Catholick Solemnity and not a little mistaken by Some who mistake Themselves to bee the only Catholicks for the most part conceiving this Feast instituted in Contemplation onely of the Saints Triumphant so carrying on their manner of devotion Dr. Donne S 45. in Festum in consideration of them onely this misprision being grounded saith a learned Gamaliel of ours upon Boniface his dedicating that Pantheon given by Phocas to the Honour of Saints and Martyrs but of that kind only yet was there a better consecration afterward both of that Temple and
sent To every Part it 's Nourishment Not like Those whom Fond Appetite More then Concoction doth invite Having through ill Digestion The Rickets of Religion Her Head with Pious Notions Fraught Which Her mild Tongue discours'd and taught To all about her with an Eye Full of sweet humble Modesty To Good She ' had still an open Eare But most where the wise Charmers were Not like Some we now live Among Being Christians but in Ear and Tongue 'T was Her Great Care Reall to be And Uniforme in Piety Spotlesse from the Time-Vices Taint Whom God not Her self made a Saint Her Palate of such Temperance As was the Schoole of Abstinence Of Lovely Aspect sweet to all Candid Serene and Liberall Her Hands Compos'd of Charity And all Exacter Houswifery Her Book and Needle shar'd the Day And sweetly stole the Time away Yet for Her better Speed to Heaven She gave God two whole Dayes of seaven Besides his part of Each this She Which Crowned all did Constantly Her Foot no Novell Paths did Trace But in the good Old way kept Pace Untir'd Therein still finding rest Till of Eternity Possest This Gold-Finch of Her Family Scorning Earths Chaffe thus Soard on high Vertue and Beauty were at strife Which should most set Her out to Life Not Galba-Like where a faire Soule A Deform'd Body did enroule Nor yet like Specious Absolon Whose inside was Corruption But Her faire Structure and pure Mind Like those bright Golden Apples shin'd In Silver Pictures hung upon The Tents of Royall Solomon All Changes Stoutly She 'd partake And Welcome for the Senders sake So fixt that Full or Ebbing state Could nor depresse Her nor Elate Nor through all Turn's of Mortalls Wheele Did any more Contentment feele Thus did our Sublimated Friend In Christianity transcend And by faire consequence as Wife Was of a Correspondent life A Sarah Srongly Affectionate And as Respectfull to her Mate Right Hannah that did vow her Sonne To Heaven er'e Him thence Prayers wonne Wise Abigail which could controule All Passions with Her Prudent Soule And yet stout Hester like She proud To defend Truths or Persons Lov'd Like Happy Jacobs Lovely Mate Too-like her in her Teeming Fate One of th' Apostle's-Matron-Dresse Above Phantastick Garishnesse A very Dorcas for both Parts Of Pious Alms and Prudent Arts Therefore bewail'd like-her and Prais'd O could She too like Her be rais'd All these Examples to the Life Make up her Character as Wife But as a Step-Dame who can tell Me where to find a Paralell Prophaner Story yeildeth none And Sacred afford's only one One Naomi whose Worth and Fame Is Treasur'd in Her Comely Name Who indeed well deserv'd of Ruth For so advertising Her Youth Yet She propounded once to Part And 't was the Daughter would not start But this Indulgentest of Mothers Exceeded Her as She did Others Acting that speech where er'e Thou goe Or mak'st Abode I will doe so Thy God too shall be mine and I Desire with Thee to Live and Dye So that ' mongst most Affectionate Of Native Mothers seek Her Mate Such whose soft Nature Consort beares Both in their Childrens Smiles and Teares Whose Tenderlings are still well fed Yet better Taught and better Bred Who to their wholesome Nourishment Adde Educations Complement Who both in Health and Sicknesse can Act Tutresse and Physitian Not trusting Hyr'd or Borrow'd Care But their own Selves the Burthen Share And all this Constant to the Death Seald up with Prayers of latest Breath And such Diviner Counsell given As still guides Her dear Charge to Heaven When er'e Thou canst find such Another She She comes neerest to This Mother As Spanish Children they say Quake At mention of the Name of Drake English me thinks should Still'd and Tam'd Be when They hear this Mother nam'd who thus hath Purchased a mild Retaliation for her Child And sure They 'l under Curses dwell That with her Off-spring deale not well Whole Nature blushing as it were To see own Mother 's pass'd by Her Who Christneth that same Barbarous Name Of Step-Mother and mends their Fame And therefore justly so Admir'd Belov'd in Life in Death desir'd Lest all Relaps and Step-Dames prove As bad as er'e by Her Remove Remove alas a word of Paine To us of Loss to her of Gaine For from such Premises we know Can none but Good Conclusions Flow Her Sickness was but an Expresse Of Her Religious Healthinesse The Pious Groanes of Her Death Bed But Eccho's of a Life well Led The Grave an Embleme too may be Of Her Retyred Piety And Heaven it selfe the Church wherein She triumphs over Death and Sin She here Lying in a while did stay But in Heaven kept her Churching Day Now if Love Ground of Sorrow be Oh who to be so mourn'd as She If comfort yet Arise from Bliss Whose change to be so Joy'd in is Whose Life and Death did both Conspire Her speed to Saints and Angels Quire Where we shall once Re-meet and Sing Aeternall Hymns to Mercies King Meane time Deare Martha I shall pray And strive to follow the same way What in Caesar and Pompey were Great vices are great vertues here As Wife or Christian none Excel'd As step-mother none parallel'd And who Conceives not all This true Or Her or Vertue never Knew An Acrostick Epitaph M ary and Martha both were met in Thee As Act and Contemplation testifie Right Mary thy Soule Sought what did excell T hy Body still the Martha Busied well Having a while prov'd both with upright Heart A ll Mary now Th' hast chose the Better Part. Sprung from that Ancient Generous Finches Nest Pursu'dst with wings of vertue Heavenly rest And like a true Sparke of the Glorious Sphere Right upward tendedst untill fixed There Kind as in life to wonder so in Death Expiring but to Give an Other Breath The Recommendation of the Booke to himselfe multiplied Ed. and Sa. Sparke DEare pledges of my Love and hopes to you 'Bove all this Muse should be of welcome view As most ally'd and sprung from the same Head Surviving Monitors when Author dead Partners enough your losse of Mother mourne In their spirituall Teeming Rachels urne Who so many Benoni's hath left here That ever shall her Memory be deare Then though your Fate 's so cruell to deprive You doubly thus at once yet to revive Both in a sense againe here fixe your eyes And you may see their constant Pieties And though in this sense borne out of due time May here reflect on either in their Prime The Churches structure of Devotion To persons squar'd and Times proportion Her Feasts and Fasts freed from all just Complaints Commemorating not Adoring Saints And Piety I thinke 't is not a Crime As place and person To give dues to Time But sure Religion then must needs decay When as it's Christian Landmark's ta'ne away To you therefore that I might Propogate Something above fraile Natures brittle state A Christian Map o' th' world I somtime drew Where of both Globes you have an usefull view And for your further Guidance too you may Sarah and Hagar's History Survey But Chiefly This Peruse as Goshen Light To guide your steps in an Aegyptian Night Perhaps some others too as well as you May Deigne to take a profitable view And as some use by Jewels value more These Glories lost then while Injoy'd before Reflecting from your Duty naturall On their Matriculation spirituall And like the Method on 't or Matter told The one because 't is New the t'other Old And for all Sorts compos'd at least excuse My though no soaring yet high fixed Muse Then while the Age Reeles in false firing zeale This Book shall sober steady Truths Reveale At one side Scour'd from Rusty Heresies And Purg'd at other from wild Novelties Retaining Doctrine Primitve and cleane Reflecting on that Churches Golden meane Which like things Eminent had hardest Fate All Envying what they cannot Imitate Read then and Act this beaten Church way Tread And Sure to Heaven 't will you one day Lead FINIS