and the like so vvhen the soule is taken from the body either of man or beast there remaineth but a carkas Therefore the Apostle calleth death the dissolution or pulling downe of our earthly house Peter the deposition or laying along of a tabernacle And our saviour bade the Iewes speaking of his bodilie death Destroie this temple and in three daies I vvill reare it vp againe There are many phrases throughout the scripture abroad wherby the terrour of death is lenified and tempered vnto vs and the very nature thereof wholy changed For whereas the nature of death is to kil and to spoile the being of living things by these we may gather that touching the elect death it selfe is slaine and deprived of it owne being God telleth Abraham Gen. 15. that his seed should be a stranger in a land that was not theirs but himselfe shoulde goe to his fathers in peace What is that shall hee travaile againe as hee did to Chanaan or Egypt no but hee shall bee buried in a good age not prevented by vmtimely death nor carried into captivity but laide in the graue amongst his auncient friendes and acquaintance A thing vvhich a man vvoulde desire with much suite if hee were held from it To Moses his servant hee altereth the phrase For Numb 27. hee shall bee gathered to his people as one that were scattered and straied from the rest of the flocke and Deut. 31. he must sleepe vvith his fathers and take a comfortable rest wiâ—h others that haue laboured in their times David beginning as it vvere vvhere Moses leaveth calleth it the rest of the flesh in hope Psalme the sixteenth Esay addeth the place and noteth where that rest shall bee They shall enter into their chambers and shutte the dores vnto them and hide themselues for a time But in the fifty and seventh of his prophecie more perfitely speaking of the deliverance of the righteous they rest in their beddes So first they go to their fathers as men left behinde to the company of strangers after their going they are gathered vnto them that as there vvas but one folde of the living so there may bee but one folde and condition of the deade after their gathering vnto them they sleepe and take their rest the visions of their heades not making them afraide nor breaking their quiet as in their life time not vpon a stone as Iacob did nor in the tent of an enemy as Sisera but in their chambers and vpon their beddes the dores beeing close about them and their bones delivered from former disturbances But all these concerne the bodie alone The sweetest and ioyfullest of them all I meane to the Lordes inheritance is the surrendring of the soule into the LORDES custodie and protection and the resigning vp of the spirit to him that is the LORDE of the spirite of all flesh Numbers the sixteenth So was the praier or rather bequest of David Psalme 31. leaving his crowne to Salomon his body to wormes and rottennesse or to their lodging in darkenesse as Iob called it Lorde into thy handes I lay downe or pavvne my spirite And CHRIST of the seede of David commended his spirite to none other keeper nor in other tearmes And that you may know how vniforme like it selfe the Spirit of God is the blessed Apostle keepeth the same stile 2. Tim. 1. These things I suffer but I am not ashamed for I know whom I haue trusted I am perswaded that he is able to keepe my pledge that I haue coÌ„mitted vnto him against that day To those that must die more surely than they liue for Iosuah calleth it the way custoÌ„e of the whole earth can there be a greater coÌ„fort than this that when the dust shall returne to the earth as it was yet in fulnesse of time to be formed into a new Adam as that first originall dust the spirit returneth to God that gaue it that we may as boldly go to our maker as ever Paul weÌ„t to Carpus at Troas to leaue his cloke bookes parchments in his handes so we to commend the richest iewels we haue vnto his fidelity to say with his holy martyr Lord Iesu receaue our spirtes But to cease from farther discussion of the phrase wee may a little enquire whither it were lawfulll for Ionas to wishe for death Many I graunt oppressed with misery and not able or willing to beare their crosse doe little lesâ—e than call to mountaines and rockes to fall vpon them and to end their wretched daies I am sure they complaine that light shoulde bee giuen vnto those men whome God hath hedged in and they reioyce for gladnes when they can finde the graue For then they say wee shoulde haue lien and beene in quiet vvee shoulde haue slept then and beene at rest As if they had beene borne with any other coÌ„dition theÌ„ to walke a pilgrimage of few evill daies or as if the evill day which the Apostle warneth vs of were not the whole course of our life partely through him who is principally evill breathing out his malice against vs partly through evill men infesting and disturbing our peace but rather through the evill of sinne procuring wrath and the evill of adversity ensuing thervpon In consideration of which troubles of life it was that Simonides being asked as Iacob was by Pharaoh how long he had lived made answere but a little though many yeares For if wee remember how much of our better and vitall life goeth away in agues and feeblenesse and other the like annoiances we may seeme perhappes olde men and are indeede but children It was a worthy aunswere that Artabanus gaue to Xerexes the mighty Emperour of Persia when viewing his huge army of at least a thousand thousand men drinking whole rivers dry as they vvent and commaundinge both hilles and seas to giue vvay vnto them hee vvepte because it came to his minde that vvithin the space of an hundreth yeares not one of that goodlye companye shoulde bee founde aliue I vvoulde that vvere the vvorst saith hee For vvee endure much more sorrowe by retayning life Neither is there any one of these nor of all men living besides so happye vpon the earth that hee doth not once and often cast in his minde how much more pleasure there were in dyinge than in living As our life is replenished with all kinde of misery so death by nature is an enemy to life which both man and beast flye from All thinges desire being And God never created death amongst his good workes It came partlye through the envye of the devill vvho lied vnto man saying yee shall not die partely through the transgression of Adam and partlye through the anger of God rendring the right stipend due to sinne VVherefore hee threatned it as a punishment Genesis the second The day vvherein thou shalt eate of the forbiedden fruite thou shalt dye the death Afterwardes vvhen
great wind c. Behold a pursivant dispatched from heaven to attach him vengeance is shipped in a whirle-wind and saileth alofte in the aire to overtake him There is no counsaile as Ierome here noteth against the Lord. In a calme commeth a tempest the ship is endangered which harboureth a daungerfull passenger there is nothing peaceable where the Lord is an enemy Whome the voice of the Lord could not moue a storme solliciteth him as when Absolom could not drawe Ioab vnto him by entreatie and faire meanes he fiâ—eth his barley fieldes to make him come and whome a still spirit could not charme the turbulent spirit of a raging wind Severior Magister a rougher instructour to deale withal enforceth to harkeÌ„ There be spirits saith the son of Syrach that are created for vengeance which in their rigour lay on sure strokes In the time of destruction they shew forth their power and accomplish the wrath of him that made them Fire and haile and famine and death all these are created for vengeance the teeth of wild beasts and the scorpions the serpents and the sword execute iudgement for the destruction of the wicked Nay the principall things for the whole vse of mans life as water fire and iron and salt and meale wheat and hony and milke and the bloud of the grape oile clothing all these thinges are for good to the godly but to the sinners they are turned to evill To these you may adde the wind which being a meteor wherby we liue in some sort for our life is a breath a fanne in the hands of God to purge the aire that it be not corrupted as the lunges lie by the heart to doe it good is heere converted to bee a plague vnto them that as David was afflicted by the sonne of his owne bowelles who should haue beene the staffe of his age Sampson by the wife of his bosome who should haue bene his helper the children of Israell by Manna stinking and full of wormes and by quailes comming out of their nostrelles and the children of the prophets by a bitter hearbe in the pottage which were appointed for their sustenance and foode so these marriners for the sinne of Ionas are scourged with a winde a principall furtherance and benefit at other times required to sailing Obedience hath her praise both with God and men the of-spring of the righteous is obedience loue The Rechabites shall never want a testimony of their obedience vnles the booke of Ieremy the Prophet be againe cut with a penknife burnt vpon an hearth as in the daies of Zedekias Ionadab their father commaunded them to drinke no wine and they would not drinke it for that commaundement sake they nor their wiues their sonnes nor their daughters Christ prophecieth of himselfe Esay 50. The Lord hath opened mine eare and it was not rebellious neither turned I backe It was written of him in the booke that he should doe the will of his father he was ready to do it The law was in the midst of his bowels and without protracting the time he offered himselfe Loe I come He was obedieÌ„t vnto death even the death of the crosse And though he were the sonne yet learned he obedience by the things he suffered qui ne perderet obedientiam perdidit vitam though he slept a wofull and heavy sleepe to flesh and bloud yet he slept in peace Disobedience on the other side hath never escaped the hands of almighty God It cast Ionas out of the ship and the angels before Ionas out of heaven Adam and Eue out of paradise Lots wife out of her life and nature to Saule out of his kingdome the children of Israell out of their natiue soile and further their naturall roote that bare them For no other reason is given but this Ieremy 35. I spake they would not heare I cried they would not answer To leaue forraine exaÌ„ples the iustice of God now presently manifesting it selfe against disobedience coÌ„meth in a storme the vehemency and fury whereof appeareth 1. By the author God sent it Who although he be the author of all windes weathers and bringeth them out of his treasures yet when it is singularly noted of God that he was the cause it carrieth a likelyhood not of his general providence alone but of some speciall and extraordinary purpose 2. By the instrument which is a winde and neither thunders nor raines to helpe it 3. By the epithet appositioÌ„ of the instrument a great winde 4. By the nature of the word here vsed it was sent nay rather throwne sent headloÌ„g as the lightning is shot from heaveÌ„ It was cast froÌ„ God as the marriners cast their ladings into the sea for the same word is originally vsed in both places A wind so sodain furious that they could gesse at other teÌ„pests before they fel they had no signes wherby to prognosticate this 5. By the place that receiveth it the sea a champian plaine channel an open flore where there was neither hill nor forrest nor any other impediment to breake the force of it 6. By the explication added there was a tempest vpon it eveÌ„ a mightie tempest 7. By the effects that ensued in 4. 5. verses marveilouslie described 1. The breaking of the ship a stroÌ„g an able ship by coÌ„iecture because so lately set forth to sea the danger is the more to be considered that it fel not vpon rockes or shelues but by the power of the onely winde was almost splitted the Hebrew phrase is very significant the ship thought to be broken as if it had soule and sense to feele the hazard it was in 2 The feare that followed vpon the whole companye of the passengers 3 The feare of the marriners men accustomed inured to the like adventures of whome it is truely spoken â—llis robur aes triplex c. their harts are of brasse and oke to encounter dangers 4 Their praiers nay their vociferations outcries vpon their Gods as the priests of Baal cried vpon their idoll 5 The casting out of their ladings the necessary instruments vtensiles for their intended voiage Al which whatsoever besides is set down to the end of the 5. ver may be reduced to 3. persons with their actions administratioÌ„s belonging vnto them the 1. is the Lord the 2. the marriners the 3. Ionas Of the first it is said that he sent out a great winde It was the error of the Paynims to devide the world amongst sundry Gods with every severall region city family almost chamber chimney therin with heaven hell land sea woodes rivers wine corne fruits of the ground al things whatsoever AmoÌ„gst the rest the winds in the aire they ascribed to Aeolus whoÌ„e they imagined to haue them closely mued vp housed in a lodge and to haue sent theÌ„ abroad either for calmes or teÌ„pests
author therof commendeth the fact of Razis who being beset by Nicanor â—ounde aboute and having no meanes to escape fell on his owne sword and missing his stroke ranne to a wall to breake his necke and yet his life being whole within him ranne through the people and gate to the top of a rocke and when his bloud was spent gushing out from him like a founteine hee tooke out his bowels with both his handes and threw them vpon the people calling vpon the Lord of life and spirit that hee woulde restore them againe vnto him and so he died This the story commendeth for a manfull and valiant act Aquinas thinketh otherwise There are some saith he that haue killed themselues to avoide troubles and vexations of which number was Razis thinking they doe manfully which notwithstanding is not true fortitude but rather a certaine effoâ—minatenesse of minde not able to endure their crosses I will pronounce nothing rashlye The mercy of God may come inter pontem fontem as the proverbe is betweene the bridge and the brooke inter gladium iugulum betweene the sworde and a mans throate and the laste wordes of Razis testifie his petion to the father of life and spirit that his bowelles might be restored him But excepting that conclusion what difference I pray you betweene him and Cato of whome Seneca writeth at large that the last night hee lived hee red Plato his bookes as Cleombrotus did and taking his sworde in his hand said fortune thou hast done nothing in withstanding all my endevours I haue not hitherto fought for mine owne liberty but for the liberty of my countrey neither haue I dealt so vnmoueably to liue free my selfe but that I might liue amongst free men now because the affaires of man-kinde are irrecoverable let Cato bee horne to rest so he stabbed his body and when his wound was bounde vp by the physitians having lesse bloud lesse strength than before yet the same courage and novve not angry againste Caesar alone but against his owne person hee tumbleth his handes in his wound and sendeth not forth by leasure so properly as by violence eiecteth his generous spirit skorning and disdeigning that any higher power should commaunde him Both these you heare betake themselues to a desperate refuge the pointe of the sworde Razis to avoide Nicanor Cato Caesar both alleadge the good of their countrey not their private estates both are impatient of the misery to come the reproach and disgrace that captivity might bring vpon them both misse their fatall strokes both are implacably bent to proceede in their voluntary homicides both tosse and embrue their handes in their owne bowelles and as the one reposeth himselfe vpon Gods goodnesse so the other was not without hope of rest when hee cried Cato deducatur in tutum let Cato goe to a quiet place both are commended for their valiant death But it is certaine that Cato died through impatience of minde Occîdit enim se ne diceretur Caesar me servavit For hee killed himselfe that it might not bee said Caesar hath saved me and Seneca affirmeth as much that it might not bee happy to any other man either to kill or to preserue Cato Valerius Maximus reporteth the wordes of Caesar when hee found him dead Cato I envie thy glory for thou enviedst mine It was a candle before the deade and as messes of meate set vpon a graue but a trueth which an other told him thou shouldest haue red and vnderstoode Plato otherwise If thou haddest well considered what Plato vvrote thou mightest haue founde reasons sufficient to haue staied so vnnaturall a fact 1. that God is angry with such as a Lorde with his bondmen that slay themselues 2. that the relinquisher of his owne life is more to be punished then a reneger of his service in warre And therefore there is no doubt but the fact of Razis also must haue very favourable interpretation if it bee any way excused Albeit Seneca in the place before alleadged commended the dying of Cato in some sorte yet it is not amisse to consider with what golden sentences hee endeth that Epistle It is a ridiculous thing through wearisomenesse of life to runne to death when by the kinde of life thou hast so handled the matter that thou art driven to runne vnto it Againe so greate is the folly or rather the madnesse of men that some for the feare of death are enforced to death Hee addeth singular preceptes A wise and a valiant man must not flie but goe from life and aboue all thinges that affection must bee shunned vvhich hath taken holde vpon many a longing and lustfulnesse of dying Hee vvoulde haue vs prepared both waies neither to loue nor to hate this life too much and some times to finish it when reason calleth vs foorth but not with a fease and impotent forwardnesse His counsell certainelye agreeth vvith divinitie For our Saviour exhorted his disciples If they persecute you in one citie flie into another Notvvithstanding hee had vvarned them vvhosoever will finde his life and not forsake it vvhen the time and cause require him to laye it dovvne that man should lose it Which lawe and precept of Christ by the iudgement of Gregory Nazianzene compelleth no man to offer himselfe vvilfullye to death or to yeelde his throate to him that seeketh it least through a desire vvee haue to please GOD in povvring foorth our bloude vvee either compell our neighbour to breake that commaundement Thou shalt not kill or seeke to purchase and procure our owne deathes but vvhen the time calleth vs to the combate then vvee must cheerefully stande foorth So saieth Ierome vpon these woordes of Ionas Non est nostrûm mortem arripere sed illatam ab alijs libenter excipere It is not for vs to catch after death but when it is offered by others then willingly to receiue it Seneca in his eighth booke of controversies setteth downe a lawe against fellones of themselues and debateth it both waies The lawe is vvhosoever murthereth himselfe let him bee cast forth without buriall The declaration on the one side in defence of the felon is made to say somthing for fashion sake Be angry with the murtherer but pittie him that is murthered I aske not that it may be honour for him thus to die but that no daunger They are as cruell that hinder those that are willing to die as others that kill them when they are willing to liue But on the other parte vvhat vehemency and eagernesse doth hee vse It is a shamefull parte that any handes shoulde bee founde to burie him whome his owne handes haue slaine Hee vvoulde haue attempted any thinge that coulde finde in his hearte to kill himselfe No doubte hee had greate crimes in his conscience that draue him so speedilie to his ende and this amongest the rest is one that vvee cannot proceede against him as against other malefactours by course
the peoples In another place speaking of their righteousnesse he limiteth it thus They were righteous after a probable and laudable conversation amongest men He often distinguisheth betweene these two Peccatum querela Peccatum criâ—â—en the one sinne in generall which no man is freed from for it is an absolute sentence and needeth no exposition if we say that we haue no sinne wee deceiue our selues wee are but blowne bladders the other some great offences as David calleth it malicious vvickednesse some hainous notorious scandalous sinne culpable in the eies of men and vvorthy of censure and crimination Wee saie in his Enchiridion to Laurentius that the life of holie men may bee founde though not vvithout faulte yet vvithout an offensiue faulte Againe in his bookes of the city of God It is not the speech of vulgar and common men but of those that are rightly Saintes If vvee say that vvee sinne not c. then shall this liberty and immunity from passions bee vvhen there shall bee no sinne in men nowe vvee liue vvell enough if vvithout scandall but hee that thinketh hee liueth vvithout sinne hee doeth not thereby free himselfe from sinninge but from receiving remission of sinnes In the first epistle of Iohn the thirde chapter the Apostle seemeth to favour the opinion of absolute righteousnesse in man Hee that is borne of GOD sinneth not Peradventure saieth Augustine hee meaneth some certaine sinne not all sinne Vnderstande heereby a definite speciall sinne which he that is borne of GOD cannot commit It maye bee the vvante of loue Dilectionis carentia It may bee the greate sinne of infidelitie vvhich our Saviour noteth in the Iewes Iohn the fifteenth If I had not come and spoken vnto them they shoulde not haue had sinne the sinne vvherein all other sinnes are helde the sinne vnto death the sinne not to bee repented of and therefore not to bee pardoned Against Parmenian he aunswereth it thus Although we sinne not so farre foorth as vvee are borne of GOD yet there remaineth in vs some parte of our birth from Adam Bernarde vpon the Canticles giueth the reason why hee sinneth not The heauenly generation preserveth him that is the euerlasting predestination VVhich reason the Apostle himselfe seemeth to accorde vnto for his â—eede remaineth in him Surely there is no man that sinneth not Salomon preciselie affirmeth it in the dedication of the temple GOD hath concluded all vnder sinne Omnes odit qui malos odit Hee that hateth evill men hateth all men because there is none that doeth good no not one Noah may be a righteous man in his time and generation compared vvith thoâ—e amongst whom he liued Thamar may bee more righteous than Iudâ—h yet Thamar sinnefull enough the Publican may goe to his house more iustified than the Pharisee yet not simply iustified thereby The spouse in the Canticles may bee faire amongest women yet her beautye not such but that shee iustlye complaineth of her blackenesse Though she exceedeth the soules of men whilst they liue in the body yet shee is shorte of angelicall perfection Iohn Baptist had not a greater amongest the sonnes of vvomen but vvhosoever vvas least in the kingdome of GOD and all the coelestiall spirites are farre beyonde him The best that liue vpon the earth have brevia leviaque peccata shorte and lighte sinnes yet sinnes quamvis pauca quamvis parva non tamen nulla Though fevve in number small in measure yet sinnes in nature Therefore vve may conclude with the same father whose shielde I haue hitherto vsed against the enemies to the grace of God Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse VVee must knovve our povertie and become suâ—ters and bâ—ggers for iustice if vve meane to speede Our righteousnesse in this life is such as â—ather consisteth in the remission of our sinnes than in the perfection of our vertues And to speake the trueth in the vvhole question of iustification betwixte the Papistes and vs our iustice is not iustice in proper and direct tearmes but mercy For that righteousnesse that we haue is meerely of mercy not actiue but passiue not that which wee worke our selues but GOD worketh it for vs. Abluta estis iustificati estis you haue washed or iustified your selues No you are vvashed and iustified And therefore it is called the righteousnesse of GOD because it commeth from abroad not inherent in our selues but from God deriued and by him imputed And 1. Corinthians 1. Christ is made vnto vs of God vvisedome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption First wisedome in preaching and instruction Secondly righteousnesse in the forgiuenesse of our sinnes Thirdly sanctification in the holinesse of our liues Fourthly redemption in his mighty deliueraunce from all our enemies that as it is vvritten hee that reioyceth may reioyce in the Lorde and knovve that neither of all these is of himselfe God obiected to the king of Tyrus in derision Ezechiell the twenty eighth Thou arte vviser then Daniell I aske of the children of Babylon what they thinke of themselues whether they goe beyonde Daniell in holinesse and integrity of life He in the ninth of his prophecie confesseth sinne and iniquitie and rebellion in all the men of Iudah and inhabitantes of Ierusalem and the vvhole people of Israell farre or neere kinges princes fathers and that righteousnesse is vvith GOD alone and vvith them confusion of face hee vtterly disclaimeth their owne iustice we come not to pray before thee for any righteousnesse in our selues and appealeth vnto the righteousnesse of the Lorde O Lorde according vnto all thy righteousnes let thine anger bee turned away ver 16. For the Lords sake that is thy Christ thine annointed verse 17. For thy greate tender mercies verse 18. Finallie for thine owne sake ver 19. This was the spirit of Daniell and they that come in the confidence of their owne pure spirites neither shall their owne praiers availe and the praiers of Daniel and Noah and all the righteous saintes in heaven which they hang vpon shall not helpe them You see our innocency iustice and perfection not that our sins are not but that they are remitted but that they are covered by the mercie of God but that they are not imputed which is the chiefe blessednes of man as wee reade in the 32. Psalme I coulde haue noted so much vnto you by a phrase which my text affordeth Lay not vpon vs innocent bloud For then are we cleere in the sight of God when the sins whereof we are guilty are not laide to our charges nor remembred Blessed are all those vvho are thus discharged of their vnsupportable soules burden that though they have many sinnes they are bound vp in a bundle and drawne into a narrowe roome though insolent climbing aspiring sinnes yet they are cast into the bottome of the sea though they are as red as crimson and scarlet yet their hue is changed they are made as white as wooll or snowe by the bloud
driue him to desperation the Sabaeans to store vp treasures of vvickednesse and to shew that stolne bread is sweet vnto them The envy and malignity of Sathan whence is it of God No. God borroweth and vseth his service I graunte but Sathan first profered it so the malice is his owne who was a murtherer from the beginning hee onely addâ—ng gouernement and moderation therevnto The furious and bloudy rapines of the other whence are they from God no. They lay in the cisternes of their owne heartes Sathan drew them forth by insâ—igation themselues let loose the streame and when it was once on flote the Lorde directed and disposed the course by his wisedome For this present I ende God is of pure eies and can beholde no vvickednesse hee hath 〈◊〉 righteousnesse to the rule and vveighed his iustice in a ballance his soule hateth and abhorreth sin I haue served with your iniquities It is a labour service thraldome vnto him more than Israell endured vnder their grievous task-masters his law to this day curseth and condemneth sin his hands haue smitten scrouged sin he hath throwne downe angels plagued men overturned cities ruinated nations and not spared his owne bowels whilst hee appeared in the similitude of sinfull flesh hee hath drowned the world vvith a floud of waters shall burne the world with a floud of fire because of sin The sentence shall stand vnmooueable as long as heaven and earth endureth tribulation anguish vpon every soule that doth evil Ievv or Gentile All adulterers murtherers idolaters sacrilegious blasphemous covetous wretches liers swearers forswearers whom the Apostle calleth dogges barking at the iustice of God making a causelesse complaint against him as if he were cause of their sins shall one day see the folly and feele the price of their vnrighteous inâ—ectation Let God therefore be true and let all men be liers let God be iust and all men sinners let God be iustified in al his iudgements and let all his accusers vanish and consume in the madnes of their heartes as the fome vpon the waters THE XIX LECTVRE Chap. 1. ver 14. For thou Lord hast done as it pleased thee THe Mariners in this reason of their petition acknowledge 2. things directly 1. the worke of God in the casting foorth of Ionas Thou Lord hast done it 2. the ground of his workes his owne will as it pleased thee A third thing is acknowledged by implication the equity iustice of that will as the warrant for their deed for thou Lord c. their meaning is not therein either to charge him with a tyraÌ„nous will quod libet licet as the manner of grievous princes is to thinke that lawfull whatsoever pleaseth them either to insimulate and accuse him of iniustice to make him actor or patrone of any their sins who dealeth in the actions of meÌ„ sometimes with open sometimes with secret but alwaies with a righteous iudgement Therefore I noted their corruption who thinke themselues excused in their most enormous and execrable sins because they fulfill the will of God in one sense not that open and revealed will which he hath given in tables published by sound of a trumpet specified by blessings cursings promises threatnings exhortations dehortations and such like wherevnto they stand strictly bound but a secret and hidden will written in another booke wrapt vp in the counsâ—iles of his owne breast which neither they intended when they did their misdeedes neither were they ever charged therewith from Gods lips Secreta Domino revelata nobis filijs nostris Secret thinges belong to the Lord revealed to vs our children 1. Quantum ad ipsos fecerunt quod Deus noluit touching their owne purpose and intendment they have done that which God would not they have transgressed his lawe with contentation of heart perhappes with gladnes it may be with greedinesse taking a solace and pleasure therein and not wishing to have done otherwise they have pursued it to the third and fourth generation from the first assault or motion of sin to consent from consent to delight from delight to custome and yet not giving over till they come to a spirit of slumber or rather a death in sin 2. Quantum ad omnipotentiam Dei nullo modo id efficere valuerunt touching the omnipotencie of God they were never abâ—e to doe it he sitteth in heaven that laugheth them to scorne he besiegeth them round about and his hand is vpon them They are not able to depart from his will more than if a ship were going from Ioppe to Tharsis as this ship was from West to East and one by walking vpon the hatches a contrary course as if he would goe from East to West from Tharsis towardes Ioppe againe might stay the motion or flight of the shippe he doth his endevour to hinder it by bending both his face and his pace backewarde but the ship is too well winged and of too huge a burthen to be resisted so those others shewe their will to frustrate and faile the will of God by committing sinne prohibited but yet they shall doe a will of his or rather his will shal be done vpon them maugre their malicious and sworne contradictions De hijs qui faciunt quae non vult facit ipse quae vult Of those that doe what he would not he doth what he would and as he commanded light to shine out of darknes so he can commaund good out of euill treasure from out the midst of drosse and commodity from the very heart of deepest wickednesse at least he will execute his iustice vpon offenders as he professeth Exod. 14. I will get me honour vpon Pharaoh and all his host for this cause he set him vp to shew his power in him and that his name might be declared to the whole earth Exod. 9. To reduce a diffused but a dangerous intricate question wherin as I then protested the warinesse of my proceeding so now I againe protest the subiection of my spirite to the spirites of prophets God forbid that I should not bee readier to learne than to teach I say to reduce it to heads I proposed vnto you the errors of some in 2. 〈◊〉 of extremities some going too far in that they make God the 〈◊〉 of sin others comming aâ— short that God doth only permit 〈◊〉 The former an error 〈◊〉 for devils than men the latter an error of humanity offending of simplicity rather then malice speaking truth of God when they acknowledge his permission of sinne but 〈…〉 who le truth because they thinke God only permitteth it both deny the godhead in effect the one destroying the goodnes and 〈◊〉 the other impairing the omnipotency providence government thereof in that they restraine it from some thinges The former of these two opinions that God is the author of sin most prodigious to coÌ„ceive though engendred in the braine I know not whether of men or devils yet is taken by
Ed. Campion our charitable countriman laid at the dores of our Church yea brought into the streetes of our Vniversities as if we were the fathers and patrons of it We never said it I say once againe to redeeme a thousand deathes if more were due to our sinnes we would not affirme it This we say whatsoever hath substance being perfection in the action of sin God is the author of it because it is good Ipsum quantumcunque esse bonum est the least essence in the world is good but not of the fault and defection therein I must once more repeate sin hath a positive privative part a subiect and the quality of the subiect nature corruption Prorsus ab illo est quicquid pertinet ad naturam prorsus ab illo non est quicquid est contrae naturam Whatsoever belongeth to nature is wholy from him whtsoeveâ— is against nature is in no respect from him Now death and whatsoever belongeth to the traine of death sin and the like are against nature In him we live and moove and have our being there is the piller of our truth a Poet of the Gentiles delivered it but an Apostle sanctified and ratified it and every creature in heaven in earth in the deepe crieth Amen to it And as that gentility and heathnishnesse of that vnbeleeving Poet coulde not marre Gods truth so the corruption depravation in the quality either of maÌ„ or action cannot hurt the substance Life is his whether we live to him as we ought to doe or to the lusts of our owne flesh or after the pleasure of the God of this world the prince of darknes MotioÌ„ is his whether we lift vp our handes to praier or whether to murther Essence is his the nature being substance of men of serpents of reprobate Angels are from him his good creatures He made not death he gave charge to the waters and earth to bring forth creatures that had the soule of life in them and when he made man hee breathed in his face the breath of life made him a living soule he made not darknesse he created the light neither was the authour of sterilitie and barrennesse hee made the bud of the earth which should seede seede the fruitfull tree And to speake a truth in proper tearmes these privations corruptions and defectes in nature as death darkenesse sterility blindnes silence and the like haue rather deficient than efficient causes For by the remooving of the things themselues vvhich these destroy they of their own accord succeede take their places Abandon the light of the sunne whereby our aire is brightened and illuminated you neede not carefully enquire or painefully labour how to come by darknesse the deficiencie and fayling of the light is a cause sufficient to bring in darknesse If the instrument of sighte bee decayed the stringes and spirites which serue for the eie inwardely wasted corrupted there is no more to be done to purchase blindnes to the eie the very orbity and want of seeing putteth blindnesse forth-with in possession If there were no speech or noise in this church what would there bee but silence and stilnesse wil you aske me the cause hereof It hath rightly none I can render the cause of speech there are instrumentes in man to forme it and there is an aire to receiue it from his mouth beare it to their eares that should partake it vpon the ceasing vvhereof silence hath a course to supplie without the service and aide of any creature in the worlde to produce it And these things we know and are acquainted with not by the vse of them for who can vse that which is nothing We know what light is by the vse thereof because we beholde it but who ever saw darkenesse if the apples of his eie were as broade as the circle of the sunne and the moone waking and wide open how could hee see darkenesse VVee know what speech is by the vse thereof because wee receiue it by the eare but who ever hearde silence Onelie vvee knovve them not by fruition of themselues but by want of their opposites which erst wee enioyâ—ed and now are deprived of I speake the more that I might speake plainely Wee were to enquire the efficient cause of sinne it hath none properly it hath a deficient cause Adam and Eue forsooke as it were the guide of their youth the word of God and his grace forsooke them Nature is now corrupted the soundnesse integrity of all the faculties therein diseased the image of God wholy defaced Vpon the decay and departure whereof sinne like a strong man entreth the house the bodie and soule are taken vp with a masse of iniustice the vnderstanding is filled with darkenesse the will with frowardnesse the senses with vanities and every part both of outwarde and inwarde man becommeth a servaunt to vnrighteousnesse Basill in a sermon vpon this argument now in hande vvilleth those that enquire of the author of sinne likewise to answere whence sicknesse and orbities in the bodie come for they are not saith hee the worke of God Living creatures were at the first well created having a proportion convenient to them but they fell into diseases and distemperatures vvhen they fell from healthinesse either by evill diet or by some other cause notwithstanding GOD made the bodie hee made not sicknesse and hee likewise made the soule but not the sinfulnesse thereof Ierome vppon the seconde of Abacuk giveth the like iudgemente Et si anima vitio suo efficitur hospitium Châ—ldaeorum naturâ tamen suà est tabernaculum Dei though the soule by her owne faulte is made an habitation or lodge for the Chaldaeans straungers to dwell in yet by hernature shee is the tabernacle of God Therefore hee should shew himselfe too ignorante that coulde not discerne betweene the corruption of nature and the author of nature And because we further were charged that we made the conversion of Paul the adulterie of David and the treason of Iudas the one the vprising of a sinner the other the falling downe of a saint the last finall revolt of a reprobate the workes and the proper workes of God all alike I prooved the contrary The first I acknowledged his proper and entire worke hee opened the vnderstanding changed the will did all therein In the other two hee tooke the wrll as hee founde it and without alteration thereof applied it to some endes which hee had secretly purposed and though neither the adultery of Dauid nor the improbity of Iudas were his proper workes yet God had his proper workes in them both for as he is a most holy creator of good natures so he is a most rightuous disposer of evill willes that whereas those evill willes doe ill vse good natures hee on the other side may well vse the evill willes themselves To conclude hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a
as neither counsell nor strength could deliver Ionas so neither counsel nor strēgth can deliver vs as it was the wil of God to drown Ionas so it is the will of God some way or other to dissolue vs whether the time is limited within 10. or 100. or 1000. yeares there is no defence against the hād of the grave the very remēbrance hereof would be as cōfortable and as fortunate a staffe vnto vs to walke the pilgrimage of our few evil daies as the staffe that Iacob had to go over Iordā with O looke vnto your end as the wise men looked vnto the star which stood over Bethlehē it shal happily guide you to heaven as that guided thē to Bethlehē where the king of the Iews now sitteth reigneth at his fathers right hād it shal lead you frō the East to the West as that led them frō the rising of the sun I meane the state and time where your life begā to the going down of the same But it is a death vnto vs to remēber death I will say with the son of Sirach whilst wee are able but to receive meat whilst ther is any strēgth livelihood in vs but appetite to our food it is a death to remēber death though we dwel in ruinous rottē houses built vpōn sand ashes which the wind raine of infinite daily casualties shake about our eares yet we walke in this brittle earthēhouse as Nabuchodonosor in his galleries and aske Is not this greate Babell Is not this my house a strong house is not my body in good plight haue I not bloud in my veines fatnesse in my bones health in my iointes am I not likelye to liue these many yeares and see the succession of my sonnes and nephewes what will bee the ende of all this Ducunt in bonis dies sues in puncto descendunt in infernum They passe their daies with pleasure and in an instant of time goe downe into hell Therefore they are deceived which thinke it an easie matter speedily to returne vnto God when they haue long beene straying from him that are gone with the prodigall childe in longin quam regionem into a farre countrey farre from the thought of death and consequently farre from the feare of God yet promise themselues a quicke returne againe Doe they not know that it will aske as long a time if not a longer to finde God as to loose God Ioseph and Mary left their sonne at Ierusalem and went but one daies iourney from him but they sought vp and down three whole daies before they coulde finde him these goinge from the wayes of the Lorde a iourney of fortie or fifty yeares hope in a moment of time to recover his mercies I woulde never wish so desperate an adventure to bee made by any man that the sinnes of his soule and the ende of his life shoulde come so neare togither as the trespasse of Ionas and his casting forth For thinke with your selues how feareful his thoughts were being at the best to be rockte tost to and fro in a dangerfull shippe the bones whereof aked with the violence of every surge that assayled it the anchors cables and rudders either throwne away or torne in pieces having more friendship profered him than he had happe to make vse of at length to bee cast into the sea a mercilesse and vnplacable sea roaring for the life and carkase of Ionas more than ever the lion roared for his pray the bottome whereof seemed as low vnto him as the bottomlesse destruction and no hope lefte to escape either by shippe boate or by a broken peece of boord or to bee cast to lande and besides all these the anger of GOD burning against his sinnes like a whole river of brimstone This is the case of vs all in any extreme and peremptorie sickenesse or to speake more largely in the whole course of our liues for our liues are nothinge but vncertainety as Ezechias sange in his songe From day to night thou wilt make an ende of mee We are tumbled and tossed in a vessell as fraile as the ship was which every streame of calamity is readie to breake in shivers where neither anchor nor rudder is lefte neither heade nor hande nor stomacke is in case to giue vs comforte where though wee haue the kindenesse of wife and friendes the duety of children the advise and paines of the Physitians to wish vs well vvee cannot vse their service where we haue a graue before our eies greedie inexorable reaching to the gates of hell opening her mouth to receiue vs and shutting her mouth when shee hath received vs never to returne vs backe againe till the wormes and creepers of the earth haue devoured vs. There is terrour enough in these thinges to the strongest man Aristippus feareth death as well as the common people But if the anger of God for our former iniquities accompanie them thrise woe vnto vs our heavy and melancholicke cogitations will exclude al thought of mercie and our soules shall sleepe in death clogged with a burthen of sinnes which were never repented of Therefore if we desire to die the death of the righteous as Balaam wished let vs first liue the life of the righteous and as wee girde our harnesse aboute vs before the battell is ioyned so let vs thinke of repentaunce before death commeth and the ordinance of God be fully accomplished that we must be cast forth And the sea ceased from her raging As the rising of the sea vvas miraculous so it is not a lesse miracle that her impatience was so suddainely pacified Heate but a pot with thornes and withdraw the fire from it can you appease the boyling thereof at your pleasure Here the huge bodie and heape of waters raised by a mightie winde in the aire or rather the winde and breath of Gods anger what shal I saie remitteth it the force of her rage by degrees falleth it by number and measure giveth it but tokens and hope of deliverance vnto them nay at the first sinking of Ionas it standeth as vnmooueable as a stone as dead as the dead sea having fretted it selfe before with the greatest indignation and wrath that might bee conceaved as if hee that bounded the sea at the first creation Hitherto shalt thou come and no further had spoken vnto it at this time Thus long shalt thou rage no longer Let me obserue vnto you thus much from the phrase If the commotion of the sea even in the greatest and vehementest pangues thereof as greater than these coulde not be by a translation of speech for likenesse of natures be tearmed her indignation and rage then by as good a reason on the contrary side the anger of man throughlie kindled may bee matched with the commotion of the most vnquiet sea And how vnseemely a thing it is that the heart of man should reake with anie passion as that vast
reioine to the sonne of GOD when hee instructed him in the greatest and the next commandements Well maister thou hast said the trueth that there is one God and there is none but he and to love him with all the heart c. and his neighbour as himselfe is more then all burnt offerings and sacrifices And so farre is it of that the slaying of vnreasonable beastes were they in number equall to those millions of bullocks and sheep which Salomon offered at the dedication of the temple and adding a millian of rivers of oile to glad the altars of GOD shall bee acceptable vnto him that the giving of our first-borne for our transgression and the fruit of our bodies for the sinne of our soules shal bee an vnfruitfull present without serious hearty obedience to his counselles Hee that shewed thee O man what is good and what he requireth of thee Surely to doe iustlie and to loue mercy to humble thy selfe and to walke with thy God The ends of the Iewish sacrifices if I mistake not were these First to acknowledge therein that death is the stipende of sinne which though it were due to him those that sacrificed yet was it translated laid vpon the beast that offended not Secondly to figure before hand the killing of the lambe of God which all the faithfull expected Thirdly to testifie the submissioÌ„ of the hart which in these visible samplers shone as a light before the whole world So spoiling the sacrifice of the last of these endes they make it in manner a lying signe leaue it as voide of life breath as the beastes which they immolate The Poet complaineth in his satyre of the costlines vsed in their churches asketh the priests what gold did there willing theÌ„ rather to bring that which Messalas vngratious son froÌ„ all his superfluities could not bring to wit iustice piety holy cogitations an honest hart Grant me but these saith he I will sacrifice with salt and meale only It agreeth with the answer which Iupiter HaÌ„mon gaue to the Athenians enquiring the cause of their often vnprosperous successes in battaile against the Lacedemonians seeing they offered the choicest thinges they could get which their enimies did not The Gods are better pleased with their inwarde supplication lacking ambition than with all your pompe Lactantius handling the true worship of God against the Gentiles giveth them their lesson in few sententious wordes that God desireth not the sacrifice either of a dumbe beast or of death bloudshead but the sacrifice of man and life wherein there is no neede either of garlandes of vervin or of fillets of beastes or of soddes of the earth but such thinges alone as proceede from the inwarde man The alter for such offeringes hee maketh the hearte whereon righteousnesse patience faith innocency chastity abstinence must bee laide and tendered to the Lorde For then is GOD truely worshiped by man when hee taketh the pledges of his hearte and putteth them vpon the altar of God The sacrifices evangelicall which the giver of the newe lawe requireth of vs are a broken spirite obedience to his vvorde love towardes God and man iudgement iustice mercy prayer and praise which are the calves of the lippes almes deedes to the poore for with such sacrifices is the Lord pleased our bodies and soules not to be slaine vpon the altar for it must be a quicke sacrifice not to be macerated and brought vnder even to death for it must be our reasonable service and finally our lives if neede be for the testimony of the trueth All which sacrifices of Christianity without a faithfull heart which is their Iosuah and captaine to goe in and out before them to speake but lightly with Origen in the like case are nutus tantùm opus mutum a bare ceremony and a dumbe shew but I may cal them sorceries of Simon Magus whose heart was not right in the sight of God and not sacrifices but sacrileges with Lactantâ—us robbing God of the better part and as Ieremie named those idle repetitions of the Iewes the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord this is the temple of the Lord verba mendacij lying wordes so these opera mendacij lying workes so fraudulently handled that if it were possible God himselfe should bee deceived O how hath Sathan filled their harts that they shoulde lie vnto the holy Ghost in making a shewe that they bring the whole price of their possession and lay it downe at the feete of God when they withhelde the dearer part from him They have not â—ied vnto men though that were fault enough but vnto God who will truely require the least vntruthes betweene man and man but falshoods and fallacies committed betweene the porch and the altar within the courtes of his owne house and in the professions of his proper service by casting vp the eies or handes bowing the knee knocking vpon the brest or thigh making sadde the countenaunce mooving the lippes vncovering or hanging dovvne the heade like a bul-rush groveling vpon the earth sighing sobbing praying fasting communicating distributing crying LORDE LORDE seeking to abuse the fleshly eies of men and the fiery eyes of omniscience it selfe hee will right sorely revenge as a dishonour immediately and directly done to his owne sacred person Galienus the Emperour gave this iudgement of one who solde his wife glasse for pearles imposturam fecit passus est hee couzened and was couzened But this for the good of the couzener For vvhen he vvas brought vpon the stage and a Lion expected by the people to have torne him peece-meale a capon was sent vp to assault him The same sentence standeth firme in heaven against the deceitfull marchandizers of true religion vvho offer to the highest emperour clothed vvith essentiall maistye as the other vvith purple and to his spouse the church glasse for pearles copper for golde coales for treasure shewes for substances seeming for being fansie for conscience Imposturam faciunt patientur They mocke and they shal be mocked but in an other kind than the former was for whereas they looke for the thanks and recompence of their forepassed labours loe they are like the dreamer in the Prophet vvho eateth by imagination in the night time and vvhen hee awaketh from sleepe his soule hath nothinge And made vowes The matter of their vowes is as vnceraine as of their sacrifices What it was they promised to the Lorde and by obligation bound themselues to perfourme neither ancient nor recent Iewish nor Christian expositour is able to determine By coniectural presumption they leaue vs to the choice of these foure specialties That either they vowed a voyage to Ierusalem where the latelie receaved Iehovah was best knowne or to beautifie the temple of the Lorde with some rich donaries or to giue almes to the poore or thenceforth to become proselites in the religion of the Iewes and as Ierome explaneth
altered his nature to haue boyled him into nourishmente and to haue incorporated his flesh into an other substaunce Yet Ionas liveth But if the LORDE had not beene on my side might Ionas nowe say if the LORDE had not beene on my side vvhen the beast rose vp against mee hee had swallowed mee vp quicke vvhen his vvrath vvas so sore enflamed But praysed bee the LORDE vvhich hath not given mee over a pray to his teeth My saule is escaped even as a birde out of the snare of the fowler The snare is broken and I am delivered Let all those whome the LORDE hath redeemed from the hande of the oppressour from fire or water or from the perill of death take that songue of thankesgiving into their lippes and singe it to his blessed name in remembraunce of his holinesse O thou the hope of all the endes of the earth sayeth that other Psalme and of them that are farre of in the sea shevve vs but the lighte of thy countenaunce and vvee shall bee safe giue vs but the comforte of thy mercies and wee will not feare though the earth bee mooved and the mountaines fall dovvne into the middes of the sea and the sea and the vvaters thereof rage fearefully though Leviathan open his mouth wee will not quake at it yea though the Leviathan of the bottomelesse pit open the throate of hell never so vvide to devoure vs wee vvill not bee disquieted VVee knowe that there is mercy vvith the LORDE and that vvith him there is plentifull redemption I meane redemption a thousande waies by nature and against nature by hope and against hope by thinges that are and thinges that are not Hee that hath saved his people by gathering the vvaters in heapes like vvalles and making a path in the redde sea hee that hath kept his children in the middest of a fiery oven when if arte coulde adde any thinge to the nature of fire they shoulde have beene burnt seven times for one because it was seven times hote and delivered his prophet in a denne of lyons though dieted and prepared for their pray before hand yet shuttinge their mouthes so close and restrayninge their appetite that they forbeare their appointed foode and committed this servaunt of his to the belly of a fishe as if he had committed him to his mothers vvombe to be kept from harme he is the same GOD both in mighte and mercye to preserue vs no time vnseasonable no place vnmeete no daunger vncouth and vnaccustomed to his stronge designementes Our onely helpe therefore standeth in the name of the LORDE that hath made heaven and earth blessed and thrice blessed bee that name of the Lorde from this time forth for evermore Amen THE XXIII LECTVRE Chap. 2. vers 1. Then Ionas praied vnto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly and saide THIS second section or division of the prophecie wherein the mercy of God towardes Ionas is expressed I parted before into three branches 1. That he was devoured 2. praied 3. was delivered The tearmes that Lyra giveth are these the place the manner the successe of his prayer The marvailes that I haue already noted vnto you were 1. that so huge a creature was suddeinely provided by the providence of God 2. that a whole man passed thorough his throate 3. that he lived in his bowels three daies three nightes Now whither he fulfilled that time exactly yea or no three naturall dayes complete consisting of twenty foure howres neither can I affirme neither is it materiall over-busily to examine Our Saviour you know in the gospell applyeth this figure of Ionas to his buriall As Ionas was in the belly of the whale three daies and three nights so shall the sonne of man bee in the heart of the narth But if you conferre the shadowe and the body togither you shall finde in all the evangelistes that the Lorde of life was crucified the 6. howre of the preparation of the sabbath and the ninth gaue vp the ghost that late in the eveninge his bodie vvas taken downe from the crosse and buried that hee rested in the graue the night that belongeth to the sabbath togither vvith the daie and night nexte ensuinge after it and that in the morning of the first day of the weeke he rose againe So as indeede the body of Christ was not in the heart of the earth more than 36. hovvers to weete two nightes and a daie vvhich is but the halfe space of 72. howers Some to supply this defect of time accompte the lighte before the passion of Christ and the darkenesse till the 9. howre one day and a night because they say there vvas both lighte and darknes And then the light that followed from the 9. howre and the succeeding night a secōd day night likewise the third til the time he rose againe Others expoūd it by a mistery thus 36. hours they say to 72. which is the absolute measure of 3. daies 3. nights is but simplum ad duplū one to two or the halfe of the whole Now ours was a double death both in soule by sin in body by paine Christes was but single only in the body because concerning his soule he was free frō sin therfore they infer that the moity of time might suffice him Hugo Cardin. hath an other conceite that from the creation of the worlde till the resurrection of Christ the day was evermore numbred before the night both in the literall and in the mysticall vnderstanding first there was light then darknes but from the resurrection of Christ forwardes the night is first reckoned for which cause he thought the vigiles were apointed for sabbathes other festivall daies that vvee might be prepared with more devotiō to solemnize them herehēce he cōcludeth that the night which followed the sabbath of the Iews was the angular night must twice be repeated as the corner of a square serveth indifferently for either side which it lyeth betwixte for both it belonged saith he to the sabbath praeceding must be ascribed againe vnto the Christian sabbath or Lords day whereon the son of God rose from death And he thinketh there is great reason of his invention because Christ by one night of his tooke away two of ours So they are not content to be sober interpretours of the minde of God but they wil ghesse and divine at that which he never meant They thinke their cunning abased if they go not beyond the moone to fetch an exposition What needeth such curious learning to apoint every egge to the right hen that laid it as some did in Delos so these to think their labor vnprofitable in the church of God vnlesse they can make the devises of their own heads reach home to the letter of the booke in al respects Our soundest divines agree that the triduan rest of Christ in the graue must be vnderstood by the figure synecdoche
thereof For what vse had he either of his hands to helpe himselfe withall more than Ieroboam had when his hande was withered or of his eies to beholde the light of heaven more than if the eagles of the valley had pickt them out or of his eares to heare any sentence of comforte more than if they had never beene planted The grinders within his head what did they for him vnlesse they ground and whetted themselues His tongue what tasted it excepte his owne spittle He might truly say with the prophet Esay that from the crowne of the heade to the sole of his foote there was no parte that did the duties of it But all those former defectes and impotencies are nothinge to that he nowe speaketh of VVhen my soule fainted within mee For as the soule is of more worth and excellencie than the body so the languishmentes of the soule more grievous and the death of the soule more remedilesse than those of the bodie and therefore as the hazarde exceedeth so the health of the soule is more dearely to bee tendered In the greatest distemperatures and disorders of the body vvhen the bones are smitten asunder and the loynes filled vvith a sore disease when the woundes are putrified and stinke the marrow and moysture quite dryed vp yea though it bee brought and dissolved into the dust of death yet the soule may bee safe and sounde notwithstanding and in farre better case than vvhen shee lived in her house of claie But if the soule bee sicke can the body have any comforte Maie vvee not then inferre vvith him in the comedie My hearte is sicke my raines sicke my splene sicke my liver sicke and all my other partes are out of frame Out of this comparison betweene the body and soule let mee make my perswasion vnto you The men of the world were wâ—nt to say saith Bernarde that hee that keepeth his bodie keepeth a good castell A castell how long to continue this is the errour of worldly men to call their tabernacle which was made to be removed and pulled downe vpon every light occasion a castell VVee say not so but hee that keepeth his bodie keepeth a base dunghill He that had seene the body of righteous Iob vlcerated botched and blained sitting vpon the dunghill woulde he not haue thought that a dunghill had sitten vpon a dunghill But hee that keepeth his soule hee keepeth a good castell indeede borne to eternity hee keepeth a heaven in comparison the sunne and moone and starres whereof are vnderstanding faith and hope with other Christian graces and the Lord of hostes himselfe hath his dwelling therein There is no man so simple no man so vile but taketh this to bee a castell of honor and strength because they beleeue it to be immortall Our saviour manifested this difference both by the ende of his comming in the flesh which was principally for our soules after for our bodies first to take away the sinnes of the worlde which are spirituall diseases then to remooue corporall infirmities and by the behaviour of his owne person amongst vs who though he suffered his body to bee tried with all kindes of ignominious and accursed vexations with spittings whippings buffetings and the bitterest death of the crosse yet was it ever his care to preserue his soule free from staines and corruptions It is not thus with the sonnes of men nowe a daies They neglect the care and culture of their soules but the lustes of the flesh they make provision for with all possible diligence They haue learned from the schoole of Hippocrates the physitian and Epicurus the swine to physicke and diet their bodies but the sicknesse and death of the soule which are their sinnes they never account of till they see they must bee punished O yee sonnes of men foolish and slowe of hearte to conceiue the rightest thinges howe long will yee loue such vanities and seeke after leasing These times are allotted to the soule not to the bodie Nowe is the time of salvation not of pleasure and pastime Let the flesh alone a while more then nature and necessity require let it not bee favoured either in food or rayment or any the like transitorye and fading benefite And vvhen it is vveary of walking vpon the face of the earth let it goe downe in peace and rest in hope till hee that came for your soules before shall also come to raise and reforme it In the fainting of our soules there is a grosse difference betwixte Ionas and vs. His soule fainted vvithin him through paine ours through pleasure and that pleasure the mother and nurse of a worser paine Our fleshe is too insolent against the spirite and keepeth it vnder with a stronge hande Hagar despiseth Sara the servaunt setteth her foote in the necke of her mistresse The flesh is cloathed like the raine-bowe with colours of all sortes wee goe into the bowels of the earth wee goe into the bowelles of the sea as farre and as lowe as ever Ionas went to seeke pearles and the riches of the sea to adorne it VVe forget our selues shamefully in such vnnecessary travaile It is the Queene that shoulde bee cloathed in a vesture of needle vvorke wroughte with diverse colours but the Queene is stripte of her iewels the soule robbed of her ornamentes and rich attire and the body is the theefe that deceiveth it The flesh is daintily fedde with the finest flowre of the wheate and the reddest bloud of the grape wee care not what it costeth the vnworthiest member we haue is deâ—fied and made our God a sinne beyonde the sinne of the Pagans shamefull and beastly idolatry they made them Gods of silver and golde and marble wee of our bellies what is done with the soule the meane time behold shee is pined and famished the breade of life is not bought nor sought for to strengthen her withall shee is kept from the gospell of peace and from the body and bloud that inconsumptible meate of her holy redeemer Shee that was borne from aboue to eate the hidden Manna the foode of Angels and to be nourished with the tree of life whose beginnings call her home againe is lesse regarded than a lumpe of earth O consider that hee vvho looseth the life of a bodie maie finde it againe The time shall come vvhen they that are in the graues shall heare the voice of the sonne of GOD. But the losse of a soule is vnrecoverable If it die in sinne it shall also die in perdition Rather it shall not die for it is not as the soule of the beast that endeth with the bodie O living and ever-living death Let them take heede that haue eares to heare with Their price hath beene once paide vvhich if the riches of Salomon treasures of Ezechias all the silver and golde within the globe of the earth coulde haue satisfied God would willingly haue spared his owne bloude Let them not looke for more Christs
committed vnto it but all kindes of deathes shal be swallowed vp into a general victory and in his name that hath wonne the field for vs we shall ioifully sing thankes be vnto God that hath given vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. And as Ionas was cast vp vpon the drie ground the land of the living where he might walke and breath and repose himselfe without danger of miscarying and Christ restored to life and immortality and exalted to a glorious estate at his fathers right hand so the Lord shall also shew vs the pathes of life fill vs with the ioy of his countenaunce for evermore Our corruptible shall put on incorruption our mortall immortality we shal liue with the lambe that was slaine in eternal glory Other shal rise to shame perpetual coÌ„tempt Dan. 12. And to the resurrectioÌ„ of coÌ„demnatioÌ„ Ioh. 5. Sadduâ—es Saturnians Basilidians Epicures Atheists which haue trodden this precious pearle of doctrine vnder their swinish feet haue not beleeved that they might be saved but we to the leÌ„gth of daies in the hands of God to the sight of his holy face which is most blessed blessednes Other particulars of stature age the like we cease to enquire of because God hath forborn to deliver them We will not loose that by our curiosity which Christ hath bought with his bloud and is gone to possesse in the body of his flesh that we may also possesse it I am sure there shal be al wel for else it shoulde not bee There shall bee a drie grounde for this valley of teares and sea of miseries A lande of the living for this desert of the dead A commodious and setled habitation for this tossing to and fro There shall be no monsters of land or sea to make vs afraid any more no sorrow to disquiet no sicknesse to distemper no death to dissolve vs no sin to obiect vs to the wrath of God and to bring vs in danger of loosing his grace THE XXXI LECTVRE Chap. 3. ver 2. And the worde of the Lorde came vnto Ionas the seconde time saying Arise goe vnto Niniveh that great citie c. THe summe of the whole prophecie and of every part therein I have often told you is in variety of examples the mercy of God towards his poore creatures The boundes whereof if any desire to learne how large they are let him coÌ„sider that in this present history it is exhibited both to Iewes GeÌ„tiles an example of the former was Ionas of the later the Mariners the Ninivites both to prophets and others of meaner and mechanicall callings both to Prince and people aged and infantes men and beastes that no man may thinke either himselfe or his seed or any the silliest worme that moveth vpon the earth excluded therehence Paul in his first to Timothy glorieth in the mercie of Iesus Christ which he had shewed vpon him to the ensample of such as shoulde beleeve in time to come But heere are fowre examples at once and as it were fowre gospels preaching to every countrey and language age and condition and sexe the hope of better thinges Blessed be the Lord God which hath written a whole booke of remembrances and filled it with argumentes to so good a purpose This third chapter which by the wil of God we are entred vpon treateth in generall of the mercy of God towards Niniveh and sheadeth it selfe orderly into foure parts 1. The calling or commission of Ionas renued 2. The perfourmance of his message 3. The repentance of Niniveh 4. Their delivery Ionas is called and put in charge againe in the two former verses Wherein besides the authour and other particulars heretofore extracted from the same words we will rest our selues especially vpon these three points 1. The repitition of his warraÌ„t The word of the Lord came the second time 2. Whither he is vvilled to goe To Niniveh 3. What he is to doe there 1. touching the matter he must preach the preaching that God shall bid them 2. touching the manner he must doe it by proclamation And the word of the Lord came vnto Ionas the second time saying Arise go vnto Niniveh that great cittie Ionas being become a new man after his baptisme regeneration in the water of the sea receiveth a new commission his former being forfeited by disobedience First it is not lawfull we know for any man to take that honour vnto him without calling nor to set himselfe vpon a candlesticke who hath no power to burne vnlesse God kindle him I haue not thrust in my selfe for a pastour after thee neither haue I desired the day of miserie Then because Ionas had disanulled his first commission it stood as voide vnto him and of none effect till it was repeated the second time Peter denying his maister three times and not lesse then loosing thereby his legatine Apostolicke authority repaireth his broken credit by three confessions and is newly invested into his former office If I fall now and then into the same points which I haue already handled in the first chapter you may easily pardoÌ„ me For first the words are the same or not much altered happily as the first commission of Ionas took shipwracke in the Syriacke sea so the first notes I gaue are perished in your memories and therefore there may be neede or repetition of such doctrines no lesse than of his charge There is no materiall difference betvveene the tvvo verses vvherein the mandate is given vnto him but in the addition of one particle The second time Which carrieth a double force first of propension in the nature of a man to fall away from God vnlesse it be daily and continually renued The Apostle was faine to travaile in birth and to doe it againe with his little children the Galathians till Christ were formed in them for as the ripening and perfiting of a childe in his mothers wombe asketh the time of nine moneths at least so the breeding of Christ in the consciences of men and begetting or preserving of children to God cannot be done without often and carefull endevour bestowed therein Secondly of the mercifull clememcie of God towardes Ionas in restoring him to his former dignity For he not onely gaue him his life vvhich vvas despaired but the honour and place of a prophet He might haue lived still and seene long life and many daies a straunger to his owne home an alien to his mothers sonnes an exile from the Israelites a by-worde of reproach for leesing his wonted preheminence and as they wondered when they heard that Saul prophecied What is Saul become one of the prophets so it might have given as iust a cause of admiration that Ionas was become none of the prophetes But Ionas abideth a prophet still and is as highly credited as if hee had not broken his former faith I knovve the patience of GOD is verie abundante Hee is mercifull and
gracious long suffering and of great goodnesse He crieth vnto the fooles and such vvee are all Proveâ—bes 1. O yee foolish howe long will yee loâ—â— foolishnesse hee dealeth vvith sinners as David dealte vvith Saul vvho tooke avvay his speare and his vvaterpot and sometimes a peece of his cloake as it were snatches and remembraunces to let vs vnderstande that vvee are in his handes and if wee take not vvarning hee will further punish vs. He dresseth his vineyarde Esay the fifth vvith the best and kindliest husbandrie that his heart coulde invente aftervvardes hee looked required not the first howre but tarrying the full time hee looked that it shoulde bring foorth grapes in the autumne and vintage season Hee vvaiteth for the fruite of his figge tree three yeares Luke the thirteenth and is content to bee entreated that digging and dounging and expectation a fourth yeare may be bestowed vpon it They saie that moralize the parable that hee stayed for the synagogue of the Iewes the first yeare of the patriarches the seconde of the Iudges the thirde of the kinges and that the fourth of the prophets it was cut dovvne Likewise that hee hath waited for the church of Christianity three yeares that is three revolutions and periodes of ages thrice five hundreth yeares from the passion of Christ or if we furtheâ— repeate it that hee hath tarried the leasure of the whole world one yeare vnder nature an other vnder the lawe a thirde vnder grace The fourth is nowe in passing vverein it is not vnlikely that both these fiâ—ge-trees shall bee cut dovvne VVhatsoever iudgementes are pronounced Amos the first and second against Damascus and Iudah and the rest are for three transgressions for foure so long he endured their iniquities Hee was able to chardge them in the fourteenth of Numbers that they had seene his glorye and yet provoked him ten times Ierusalems prouocation in the gospell and such care in her loving Saviour to have gathered her children vnder his winges of salvation as the henne her chickens seemeth to bee without number as appeareth by this interrogation O Ierusalem Ierusalem howe often Notwithstanding these presidents and presumptions of his mercy the safest way shall bee to rise at his first call and not to differre our obedience till the second for feare of prevention least the Lorde haue iust cause given by vs to excuse himselfe I called and you haue not aunswered And albeit at some times and to some sinners the Lorde bee pleased to iterate his sufferance yet farre be it of that we take incitement thereat to iterate our misdeedes He punished his angels in heaven for one breach Achan for one sacriledge Miriam for one slaunder Moses for one vnbeliefe Ananias and Saphira for one lie he maie be as speedy and quicke in avendging himselfe vpon our offences But if we neglect the first and second time also then let vs know that daunger is not farre of Iude had some reason meaning in noting the corrupt trees that were twice dead For if they twice die it is likely enough that custome vvill prevaile against them and that they vvill die the thirde time and not giue over death till they bee finally rooted vp There are tvvo reasons that maie iustly deterre vs from this carelesnesse and security in offending vvhich I labour to disvvade 1. the strength that sinne gathereth by growing and going forwardes It creepeth like a canker or some other contagious disease in the body of man and because it is not timely espied and medicined threatneth no small hazarde vnto it It fareth therevvith as vvith a tempest vpon the seas in vvhich there are first Leves vndae little waues afterwardes maiora volumiâ—a greater volumes of waters then perhapps ignei globi balles of fire fluctus ad coelum and surges mounting vp as high as heaven Esay describeth in some such manner the breedes of serpents first an egge next a cockatrice then a serpent afterwards a fierie flying serpent Custome they hold is an other nature and a nature fashioned and wrought by art And as men that are well invred are ashamed to giue over so others of an ill habite are as loth to depart from it The curse that the men of Creete vsed against their enemies vvas not a svvorde at their heartes nor fire vpon their houses but that vvhich vvoulde bring on these in time and much worse that they might take pleasure in an evill custome Hugo the Cardinall noteth the proceeding of sinne vpon the vvordes of the seventh Psalme If I haue done this thing if there bee any wickednesse in my handes c. then let mine enemie persecute my soule by suggestion and take it by consent let him tread my life vpon the earth by action and lay mine honour in the duste by custome and pleasure therein For custome in sinning is not onely a grave to bury the soule in but a great stone rolled to the mouth of it to keepe it downe And as there is one kinde of drunkennesse in excesse of wine an other of forgetfulnesse so there is a thirde that commeth by lust and desire of sinning 2. Nowe if the custome of sinne bee seconded vvith the iudgement of God adding an other vveight vnto it blinding our eies and hardening our heartes that vvee may neither see nor vnderstande least vvee should bee saved and because wee doe not those good thinges which wee knowe therefore wee shall not knowe those evill thinges which wee doe but as men bereft of heart runne on a senselesse and endlesse race of iniquity till the daies of gracious visitation bee out of date it vvill not be hard to determine vvhat the end vvill bee Peter saieth vvorse than the first beginning Matthew shevveth by hovve many degrees vvorse For vvhereas at the first vvee vvere possessed but by one devill novve hee commeth associated vvith seven others all vvorse than himselfe and there they intende for ever to inhabite Therefore it shall not be amisse for vs to breake of vvickednesse betimes and to followe the counsaile that Chrysostome giveth alluding to the pollicy of the vvise men in returning to their countrie an other waie Hast thou come saith hee by the waie of adultery goe backe by the waie of chastity Camest thou by the way of covetousnesse Goe backe by the waie of mercy But if thou returne the same vvaie thou camest thou art still vnder the kingdome of Herode For as the sickenesses of the body so of the soule there are criticall daies secret to our selves but well knowne to God whereby hee doth ghesse whether wee be in likelihode to recover health and to harken to the holesome counsailes of his law or not If then hee take his time to give vs over to our selves and the malignity of our diseases wee may say too late as sometime Christ of Ierusalem O that wee had knowne the thinges that belong to our peace but nowe they are
vvisedome of the king of Babylon to take the young children of Israell whom they might teach the learning and tongue of Chaldaea rather then their olde men so it is the wisedome of the Devill to season these greene vesselles vvith the liâ—our of his corruption that they maie keepe the taste thereof while life remaineth But their bones are filled with the sinne of their youth and it lyeth downe with them in the dust and when their bodies shall arise then shall also their sinne to receiue iudgement So sayeth the wise preacher giving them the raines in some sort but knowing that the end of their race vvill be bitternesse Reioice O young man and let thy hearte cheare thee in the daies of thy youth walke in the waies of thine hearte and in the sight of thine eies but knowe that for all these thinges God will bring thee to iudgement Let the examples of Elie his sonnes whome hee tenderly brought vp to bring downe his house and whole stocke to the ground and the boies that mockt Elizaeus be a warning to this vnguided age that the LORDE will not pardon iniquitie neither in young nor old and that not only the bulles and kine of Basan but the wanton and vntamed heighfers and the calues that play in the grasse shall beare their transgressions It is the song of the young men Wisedome the seconde Let not the flowre of our life passe from vs c. and it is the cry of the young men in the fifth of the same booke vvhat hath pride profited vs For whilst they take their pleasures vpon earth the Lord writeth bitter thinges against them in heaven Iob. 13. and shall make them possesse the iniquities of their youth And hee cryed His manner of preaching was by proclamation lowde and audible that it mighte reach to the eares of the people hee hid not the iudgementes of God in his heart as Mary the words of her Saviour to make them his proper and private meditations but as ever the manner of God was that his prophets should denounce his minde least they might say wee never hearde of it so did Ionas accordingly fulfill it Thus Esaye was willed to cry and to lifte vp his voice like a trumpet Ieremye to crye in the eares of Ierusalem to declare amongst the nations and even to set vp a standarde and proclaime the fall of Babylon And Ezechiell had a like commaundement Clama vlula fili hominis Crie and hovvle sonne of man for this shall come vnto my people and it shall lighte vpon all the princes of Israell Our Saviour likewise bad the Apostles vvhat they heard in the eare that to preach vpon the house toppes They did so For being rebuked for their message and forbidden to speake anie more in the name of Iesus they aunswered boldly in the face of that vvicked consistory vvhether it bee fitte to obey God or man iudge yee Wisdome her selfe Proverbs the first crieth not in her closet and the secret chambers of her house but vvithout in the streetes neither in the vvildernesse and infrequent places but in the heighth of the streetes and among the prease and in the entrings of the gates that the sounde of her voice may be blovvne into all partes If Iohn Baptist vvere the voice of a crier in the vvildernesse then vvas Christ the crier and Iohn Baptist but the voice Surely it wanted not much that the very stones in the streetes shoulde haue cried the honour and povver of God for even stones vvoulde haue founde their tongues if men had helde theirs The commaundement then and practise of God himselfe is to crie to leaue the vvorlde vvithout excuse the nature of the vvord biddeth vs crie for it is a fire and if it flame not forth it vvil burne his bovvels harts that smothereth it I thought I woulde haue kept my mouth bridled saith the prophet Whilst the wicked was in my sight I was dumbe and spake nothing I kept silence even from good but my sorrowe vvas the more encreased My heart vvas hot within mee and while I was musing the fire kindled and I spake with my tongue lastly the nature of the people vvith vvhome vvee haue to deale requireth crying Deafe adders vvill not bee charmed with whispering nor deafe and dumbe spirits which neither hear nor answere God cast forth without much praier and fasting nor sleepie and carelesse sinners possessed with a spirite of slumber and cast into a heavy sleepe as Adam vvas vvhen he lost his ribbe so these not feeling the maines that are made in their soules by Sathan awaked without crying Sleepers and sinners must be cried vnto againe and againe for sinne is a sleepe What can you not watch one houre And dead men and sinners must be cried vnto for sinne is a death and asketh as manie groanings and out-cries as ever Christ bestowed vpon Lazarus Exiforas Lazare Lazarus come forth and leaue thy rotten and stinking sinnes vvherein thou hast lien too manye daies Happy were this age of ours if all the cryings in the daie time could awake vs. For I am sure that the cry at midnight shall fetch vs vp but if the meane time vvee shall refuse to hearken and pull awaie the shoulder and stoppe our eares that they shoulde not heare and make our heartes as an adamant stone that the vvordes of the Lorde cannot sinke into them it shall come to passe that as hee hath cried vnto vs and vvee vvoulde not heare so wee shall crie vnto him againe and hee vvill not answere And saide yet fortie daies and Niniveh shall bee overthrowne The matter of the prophets sermon is altogither of iudgement For the execution whereof 1. the time prefined is but forty daies 2. the measure or quantity of the iudgement an overthrow 3. the subiect of the overthrow Niniveh togither with an implication of the longe sufferance of almighty God specified in a particle of remainder and longer adiourment in the fourth place yet forty daies asmuch as to say I have spared you long enough before but I will spare you thus much longer The onely matter of question herein is how it may stande vvith the constancie and truth of the aeternall God to pronounce a iudgement against a place which taketh not effect within an hundred yeares For either he was ignorant of his owne time which we cannot imagine of an omniscient God or his minde vvas altered vvhich is vnprobable to suspect For is the strength of Israell as man that hee shoulde lie or as the sonne of man that hee shoulde repent is hee not yesterday and to day and the same for ever that vvas that is and that is to come I meane not onelye in substance but in vvill and intention doeth hee vse lightnes are the wordes that hee speaketh yea and nay Doth hee both affirme and deny to are not all his promises are not all his threatnings
had rotted in dung their soules beene drowned in perdition without repentance The ground and provocation of this their repentance is in the ninth verse Who knoweth if God will turne and repent c Faith in the mercies of God this is the star that goeth before the face of repentance the pillar of fire that guideth it in the night of her sorrowes and giveth her light and telleth her how to walke that shee stumble not For who would ever repent indeede if he had not hope that his sinnes might bee pardoned and therefore Ambrose noteth alluding vnto Peters denâ—alâ—es that men doe never truely repent but when Christ looketh backe vpon them For Peter denied the first time and vvept not because Christ lookt not backe denied a seconde time and vvept not because Christ lookt not backt but denied a thirde time and vvept bitterly because his master lookt backe vpon him And he lookt not backe so much with his outwarde and bodily eie as with the eie of his clemency The substantiall partes of repentance are in the latter parte of the eigth verse turning from their evill waies and from the wickednesse that was in their hands their diet and preparation to repentance fasting the habite and livery weerein they come sackcloath the libel or petition which they offer praier and strong cry You see the members of their decree first the ground of repentance faith secondly the substance of repentance newnes of life thirdly the body or couÌ„tenâ—nce of repentance spare thin fourthly the garments of repentance penetentiall and base fiftly the voice of repentance supplâ—â—nt lamentable More generally it hath two parts the one by negation denying something to the people of Niniveh in this 7. verse the other by affirmation prescribing enioining what they should doe in the eigth The negatiue and former part containeth only a fast let neither man nor beast bullocke nor sheepe taste any thing the antiquitie whereof maketh it venerable and the perpetuity vnto this day and to the ende of the vvorlde highly graceth it it is no new invention some haue derived it from paradise and made it as ancient as the first man for the forbidding of the tree of knovveledge they say was a lawe of abstinence The exercise of nature the lawe the gospell of Christ the practise of gentility it selfe if I name but Niniveh alone it vvere sufficient to prooue it but the storyes of gentility make it nore plaine Ceres had her fast Iupiter his and Priamus in Homer bewaileth the death of Hector with fasting in dust Patriarckes vsed it prophets forsooke it not Christ his disciples departed not from it the true childreÌ„ of the bride-chamber continue it at this day they mourne because the bridegroome is taken from them til his returne in the clouds of the aire they shall ever mourne But there are fasts of diverse kindes 1. there is a spiritual fast from sinne vnproper an translated but that which especially pleaseth God It is mentioned Esay 58. and Zach. 7. This is the great generall fast and a Lent of abstinence which we must all keepe consisting in the holines of our liues Niniveh fasted this fast but it fasted also otherwise There is a corporal fast from eating and drinking and such other refections as nature taketh pleasure in and this is either naturall prescribed by phisicke for healthes sake or aboue nature and miraculous such as the fast of Moses and Elias and the sonne of God for forty daies or civill and politique as the prohibition of Saule mentioned befor vvhich Ionathan vvas angrye vvith because the people vwaxed faint and Saule had no religious respect therein but an earnest purpose of heart of sparing no time from chasing the Philistines It is sometimes a fast of necessitie which we cannot avoid as in the time of dearth Aquinas calleth it â—eiuniuÌ„ ieâ—unii a fast of a fast because the earth forbeareth her fruits we forbear our food and vvoulde eate if vve had it and in this sense Basill calleth fasting the companion to poore men the other is â—eiunium ieiunantis the fast of him that fasteth that is a voluntary and free fast Lastly there is a christian and religious fast either common and ordinary vsing frugality in meates and drinkes at all times according to the warning of our Saviour See that your heartes bee not overcome at any time vvith surfetting and drunkennesse Or speciall and extraordinary aboue the custome but not beyond the nature of man for then the lavv of fastes is broken let the flesh bee tamed saith Ierome and not killed For he offereth an offering of robbery and bereaveth both GOD and man of his due vvho afflicteth his bodie overmuch with immoderate subtraction either of foode or rest Now the latter of these two is either private to one or few as to David and the friendes of Iob or publique as this of the people of Niniveh for it is said first to haue bin proclaimed secondly through out Niniveh In this fast of the Ninivites there are many thinges to be considered first it was timely secondly orderly thirdly vniversall fourthly exact fiftly not hypocriticall 1 The time which they tooke for fasting I meane not time in the common acception and sence thereof consisting of space and motion as when they beganne to fast and how long they endured vvhat daies of the moneth or weeke they made choise of this my text expresseth not I meane the season of the time the fitnes and oppertunity for such an action was in a suddaine terrouâ— of vtâ—er destruction Austin in an Epistle to Hesychius distinguisheth these two times and seasons so doth the Apostle in the first to the Thesâ—alonians and fift which the Latines have rendred tempora momenta times and momentes of times wherein there is waight and worth not to be omitted The former signifieth but space or leasure alone which passeth to fooles and wisemen alike the latter convenience or inconvenience for the doing of any thing So long as there shall be a sunne in the firmament which hath his course there shall bee a time for the handling of our actions but perhappes not a season As a man that gathereth his grapes at the first knotting thereof gathereth them in time but if he tarry the vintage then he gathereth them in season Now the fittest and convenientest time for a fast if you consider the fact of the Ninivites and peruse all the examples that are written in the booke of God is ever some extremity when the anger of God is thoroughly kindled and threatneth a wound to the whole body Me thinketh it should be in these publique fasts as the schoole-men write of their solemne penaunce which is seldome granted by Origen and by the Canonistes but once The reason is given by the maister of the sentences Ne medicina vilesceret least the medicine should grow in contempt by the common
them redounde to their maisters and doe they not loose themselues by vveakening the bodies of their cattell through lacke of foode vvhereby not onelye their labour but also their fruite and encrease is hindered Lastly some tooke a pride in some kinde of beastes namely their horses vvhich I mentioned before and not onely fedde them with the best to keepe them fat and shining but cloathed them with the richest We read of Nero the Emperour of Rome that he shodde his mules with silver and of Poppaea Sabina that shee her horses with gold Bernard telleth Eugenius the Pope that Peter rode not vpon a white warre-like horse clad in trappings of golde And it is not vnlikelie but the kings of Niniveh did offende in the sumptuousnesse of their horses asmuch as the Emperours or Popes of Rome In these it was not amisse that their glorie and pompe should be abated howsoever it fared with the rest and that their bellies should be pinched with hunger which were pampered before and their backes cloathed with sack-cloath which were wont to be magnified with such costlie furniture These and such other reasons of their act as might be alleadged I let passe and come to the handling of the wordes themselues But let man and beast put on sacke-cloath The first member commaundeth the habite that their repentance must be cloathed with It was the manner of those times especially in the East partes if either they lost a friend or childe by death as Iacob his son Gen. 37. but rather for the losse of the favor of God and commonly when they repented their sinnes and sometimes when they praied not only to refuse their best garments as the children of Israell Exod. 33. When the Lorde tolde them that he would not goe himselfe but send an angell with them they sorrowed exceedingly and no man put on his best raiment sometimes to cut their cloathes as Iosu. 7. sometimes to rend them from their backs as Ioel. 2. but insteed thereof to take vnto themselues the vncomfortablest weedes and fashions that might be devised For besides their wearing of sacke-cloath they would sit vpon the ground and in ashes as the friendes of Iob and not only sit but wallow in dust and ashes as the daughter of Ierusalem is willed to doe Ierem. 6. and claspe the handes vpon the heade and sprinkle ashes vpon it as Tamar did 2. Sam. 12. and their haire as their mannes is described Amos 8. and finally take vppe an howling and make an exquisite lamentation as one that shoulde mourne for her onelie sonne In all which and such like outwarde observaunces I like the iudgemente of a learned Divine that they are neither commaunded by God nor by GOD forbidden and are not so properly workes as passions not sought or affected or studied for but such as in sorrowe or feare or the like perturbations offerre themselues and are consequent of their owne accordes as helpes to expresse vnto the world our inwarde dispositions So when we pray vnto God wee bowe the knees of our bodies lie vpon our faces cast vp our eies to heaven smite vpon our breasts with the like ceremonies In all which praier is the substance and worke intended and these though we thinke not of them come as a kinde of furniture and formality if I may so speake to set it foorth The â—â—â—nesse of the spirite draweth the whole body into participation of the griefe making it carelesse of the foode and negligent in the attire that belongeth vnto it And if ever they be alone these shaddowes and dumbe shewes I meane of sacke-cloath and mourning without their body of toward contrition as they fasted in Esay from meate and were prowde of their fast Why haue wee fasted and thou regardest it not but not from strife and oppression and the prophetes in Zachary ware a rough garment but it was to deceiue with then is our thankes with God the same that he gaue to Israel in the place before mentioned Is this the fast that I haue chosen that a man should afflict his soule for a daie and â—owe downe his heade like a bull-rush and lie in sack-cloath and ashes wilt thou call this a fasting or an acceptable daie vnto the Lorde or is not this rather the fasting that I haue chosen insteede of forsaking thy meate to deale thy breade to the hungrie and for sacke-cloath about thy loines to cover thy naked brethren and not to hide thine eies from thine owne flesh And as of sacke-cloath and fasting so wee may like wise say of crying which was the voice of repentaunce For was it the neying of horses lowing of oxen and bullockes lamentation of men eiulation of women and children mingling heaven and earth togither with a confusion of out-cries that could enforce the LORDE aboue to giue them aâ—dience doubtlesse no. For the praier of this people a shielde against the iudgement of GOD which nature it selfe thrust into the handes of the marriners before and heere of the Ninivites yea that obstinate king of Egypt which sette his face against heaven and confronted the GOD thereof vvas glad to flie vnto it Pray vnto the LORD for me and my people that this plague maie departe and Simon the sorcerer who deceived the worlde with his enchauntmentes thought it the onelie charme vvhereby the mercy of God mighte be procured though it bee reported of by as speciall notes as praier may bee honoured with 1. for the manner of it that it was vehemente and forcible They cryed 2. for the grounde invvarde and intentionall They cryed mightilie and from the bottome of their heartes 3. for the obiect right and substantiall They cryed vpon GOD yet if their words and works purpose and performance had not kissed each other if with their lips alone they had honoured God without their heartes or with their heartes alone without their handes as we haue to consider in the nexte wordes they had soone beene aunswered as a people better favoured than themselues were Esay the first Though you stretch out your handes I vvill hide mine eies from you and though you make many praiers I vvill not heare you The Gentiles Matthew the sixte vsed longe speech and much babling and thought to bee hearde for that cause but they lived as Gentiles The Scribes and the Pharisees in the same place praied also not as the Gentiles to vnknowne GODS but to the God of the Hebrews they cryed Lorde Lorde with often inclamation yea they stood and praied not onely in their houses but in the synagogues and corners of the streetes to appeare to men and no doubt to be hearde of men and they vsed likewise longe praiers Luke the twentieth as the Gentiles did yet they were but hypocrites and the portion of hypocrites was reserved for them And this is your meede looke for it hypocrites as you looke for summer vvhen you see the blooming of the figge-tree when you pray as if
you dreamed vvithout your senses your lippes walking and your eies aspiring into heaven without devotion you whose hearte lyeth within your bosome as a secret thiefe calling to your tongue and handes and bodily members and saying giue mee credite in the eies of men make some shew of piety at the least recite the praiers of the Church though you pray not and vse the gestures of the Saintes of CHRIST though you meane them not your parte is with those hypocrites and vvith Simon Magus your lying tongues the LORD shall roote out of their tabernacles your deceitfull eies shall sinke into the holes of your heades the sacrifices of your forged and faithlesse consciences stinke in his nostrelles your prayers are an abhomination vnto him and that ever you haue taken his fearefull name vvithin your lips shall turne to your sorer condemnation The complement and perfection of all that went before the soule of their corporall fasting sackcloath crying which is their spiritual fast from sinne and insteede of putting on sackcloath putting on the new man followeth to be examined in the next part of the mandate wherein the substantiall parts of repentance are contained Yea let everie man turne from his evill vvay c. For what is repentance in effecte but a returning to that integrity and vprightnesse of life from whence thou art departed Therefore sayth the edict let everie man returne There is terminus à quo and terminus ad quem in this sanctified motion somewhat which we must forsake and relinquish somewhat which we must recover and procure againe There must be a death to sinne and a resurrection to iustice for as Eusebius calleth repentance a type of the resurrection so may we the resurrection a type of repentance There must bee an aversion from sinne and a conversion to God a mortification of olde Adam with all his concupiscences and a vivification of the newe man Ioell expresseth both these partes First rende your heartes VVhat shall we smooth them annointe them flatter them binde them vp No. Wee must pull them in pieces racke them vpon tenter-hookes teare them vvith gripes and convulsions we must not suffer sinne to hide it selfe in any corner thereof which is not produced to lighte and thoroughly examined and then turne vnto the Lorde your God c. GOD by his prophet Esay giveth likewise his people a chardge concerning both these vvash you make you cleane take away the evill of your workes from before mine eies cease to doe evill afterwarde followeth the seconde learne to doe well seeke iudgement relieue the oppressed with other effects of a new life And who was ever a better expounder of repentance than he who went before the face of the Lorde and both preached the doctrine vvith his lippes and with his handes administred the baptisme of repentance Albeit the texte that he vsed vnto them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a chaunge of the minde and the inwarde powers thereof yet hee added by way explication Bring foorth fruites vvorthie of amendment of life And when the people asked him Luke the thirde What shall vvee doe then hee aunswered them hee that hath tvvo coates let him parte vvith him that hath none and hee that hath meate let him doe likewise Thus much in effect The repentaunce that I preach vnto you doeth not onely forbidde crueltie in pulling cloathes from the backe and meate from the teeth of others but it also enioyneth the vvorkes of mercy Chrysostome in his thirde Homily to the people of Antioche demaunding vvhat it was that preserved the Ninivites from the inevitable wrath of GOD thus reasoneth with himselfe vvas it their fasting and sacke-cloath alone vvee cannot say it but the chandge of their vvhole life How knovv wee by the very wordes of the prophet And God saw their workes What kinde of workes That they fasted and vvare sacke-cloath neither of both For the Prophet suppressing all this inferreth that they returned from their evill vvaies I speake not this saith he to bring fasting into contempt but rather to honour it for the honour of a fast is not abstinence from meates but avoidaunce of sinne And hee that defineth a fast by the onely forbearing of foode is the man that most disgraceth it Doest thou fast shew mee thy fasting by thy vvoorkes Thou vvilt aske vvhat kinde of workes if thou seest a poore man take mercie on him If thine enemie reconcile thy selfe If thy friende deserving praise envie him not If a beautifull vvoman make a covenaunte vvith thine eies not to bee taken in her beautie and let not onely thy mouth and thy bowels fast but thine eies thine eares thy feete thy handes and all thy bodily members Let thy handes fast from robbery thy feete from bearing thee to vnlawfull spectacles thine eares from sucking in slaunderous tales thine eies from receiving in wantonnes For what availeth it to abstaine from eating and drinking if meane time we eate and devour vp our brethren The matter of this edict is very notable and in so fewe wordes asmuch as wisedome and religion mighte containe first it requireth of every man a chandge of life For the worde is a particle of distribution and excepteth neither the age sexe nor estate of any person Maximilian the Emperour comparing himselfe and the kinges of Spaine and Fraunce togither had a witty and pleasaunt saying that there vvere but three kinges in the time vvherein hee lived The Spanish a king of men because he vsed them ingenuouslie and liberallie as men The French of asses for the immoderate exactions which hee tooke of them Himselfe a king of kinges for they vvoulde doe no more then their owne pleasure was But the king of Niniveh is a king of subiectes Beholde a generall decree enacted for repentance and there is not one soule in Niniveh that starteth backe Secondly it requireth of every man not onelye to goe from his vvickednesse but to returne to that iustice from vvhence hee vvas fallen and to renew the image of holinesse decayed in him It is a good degree of repentaunce to bevvaile those sinnes vvhich vvee haue committed and not to committe those sinnes which wee haue bewailed But it is not enough in repentance for hee that is not a gatherer with Christ is a scatterer and as great displeasure we reape in the omission of duety as in commission of iniquity Iohn Baptist did not tell them in his sermon of repentance that everie tree which brought foorth evill fruite shoulde bee hewen downe though that were implyed but if it broughte not foorth good fruite it was in danger of the same iudgement Neither did our saviour tell his disciples that excepte their iniustice vvere lesse then the iniustice of the Scribes and Pharises they shoulde not enter into the kingdome of heaven but excepte their iustice vvere more Hee that buried his talent in the grounde had a purpose not to offende But he had
can preiudice the bounty of our GOD and those rich benefites of his grace which his beloved sonne hath purchased for vs. I nowe conclude GOD saw the workes of the Ninivites and in those vvoorkes not onely their outwarde countenance but their inwarde and vnfeined affection and faith the roote from whence they sprang and as the fruites of their faith so he accepted them not for the worth and accounte of the workes which they dare not themselues rely vpon but through the riches and abundance of his owne loving kindnesse This is the plea that Daniell helde in the ninth of his Prophecie a man of as righteous a spirite as ever the Lateran pallace of Rome helde according to all thy righteousnesse for the LORDES sake for thy greate tender mercies for thine owne sake and vvith direct exception to their inherente iustice for wee doe not present our supplications before thee for our owne righteousnesse This plea we must all sticke vnto Gods mercy in his owne gracious disposition Gods righteousnesse in his promises Gods goodnesse in the Lorde his anointed his Christ his Messias And this shal be a blessed testimony vnto vs at the last day that wee haue stood and fought for the seede of the woman and for the preciousnesse of his bloud and passion against the seede of the serpent that we never gaue place no not for an instant to Pharisee Iew Pelagian Papist Libertine to diminish or discredite the power thereof Giue mee that soule that breatheth vpon the earth in plight as the soules of these Ninivites were nowe called to a reckoning of their fore passed liues their consciences accusing them of hydeous and monstrous iniquities the law pleading the anger of GOD flaming against them the throate of hell gaping wide and ready to swallow them downe when they were to take their leaue of one worlde and to enter another of endlesse punishment vnlesse they coulde finde the meanes to appease the fury of their maker and iudge Giue me the soule that dareth for the price of a soule stande in contention with the iustice of GOD vpon the triall of good workes either to bee iustified the meane-time or heereafter to be glorified and liue by them O sweete and comfortable name nature operation of grace grace and onely grace blessed bee the wombe that bare thee and the bowels that ingendered thee When it commeth to this question iustificemur simul Let vs bee iudged togither if thou haste ought to saie for thy selfe bring it forth O happy heavenly and only grace that bearest thy children safe in thy bosome and settest them with confidence and ioy before the seat of God when the clients followers of their owne righteousnes be it what it may bee with the least flash of lightning that fleeth from the face of God shal tremble and quake as the popler in the forrest O the Ocean maine sea of over-flowing grace and we drinke at puddles We sit in our cels and comment we come into the schooles and dispute about the merit of good workes without trouble But lie we vpon out beds of sicknes feele we a troubled perplexed conscience wee shal be glad to cry grace and grace alone Christ and Christ alone the bloud of Abell and Peter and Thomas and Paul shall be forgotten and the bloud of the Lambe shal be had in price as for the merits of our vnprofitable service we shal be best at ease when we talke least of them The only one fiftith Psalme Haue mercie vpon me O Lorde c. his memory bee blessed that gaue the note hath saved many distressed soules and opened the kingdome of heaven vnto them who if they had stood vpon riches and sufficiencie in themselues as the church of Laodicea did they had lost the kingdome It is vsually given to our seloâ—s for their necke-verse when the lawe is disposed to favour them Wee are all felons and transgressors against the law of God let it bee our soules-verse and God will seclude the rigour of his law and take mercy vpon vs. Some of the wordes of that Psalme were the last that Bernarde vttered even in the panges of death Let them also be the last of ours a brokeÌ„ contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Finally the choise is briefely proposed and as quickely made if grace not workes if workes not grace if this be the choise let vs humbly beseech God to illighten our eies to open our vnderstandings to direct our affections and to reach forth our handes to the better part which shall never be taken from vs that leaving our workes to his favourable interpretation either to follow vs or to stay behinde and either to bee something or nothing in his sight his mercy may only triumph and his covenant in the bloud of Christ Iesus may ever be advanced that we may sing in our Ierusalem as they sing in the courtes of heaven worthy is the Lambe that was killed to receive the glory and honour and praise and to beare the name of our whole salvation THE XL. LECTVRE Chap. 4. vers 1. Therefore it displeased Ionas exceedingly he was angry THE whole prophecy of Ionas againe to repeat that which ought not to be forgotten is the preaching of mercy An history written to the world and as a publique evidence instrument from God delivered vnto vs in every page line wherof his goodnes towardes mankind is mervailously expressed And as the 4. beastes in Ezechiel were ioyned one to the other by their winges so the 4. Chapters of this booke hang togither by a continuation and succession of Gods loving kindnes Open this booke as our Saviour opened the booke of the prophecie of Esaias by chance and read at your pleasure from the first of it to the last you shall never vvant a text or example of comforte whereby a distressed conscience may be relieved The marriners are delivered from the fury of the elements Ionas both from those and from the belly of a cruell fishe the Ninivites God knoweth from what whither from fire and brimstone or from sinkinge into the grounde or any such like weapons of wrath which in his armoury of iustice in heaven are stored vp and reserved for the day of the wicked but all are delivered Notwithstandinge which rare examples of mercy as Christ spake in the gospell beholde more than Ionas is heere so though the prophet did his parte before in penninge those discourses yet in handlinge this last he is more than himselfe though the mercy of God abounded before yet here it excelleth Then was mercy practised I confesse but heere it is pleaded maintained prooved by argumeÌ„ts apologies parables the equity and reasonablenes thereof vpheld and means made vnto Ionas in some sort that if God be gracious to Niniveh hee will bee pleased favourably to interpret it The distribution of the Chapter is into three partes 1. The affection of Ionas vpon the
the Lawe had beene given Moses in the name of GOD protesteth vnto them by heaven and earth that hee had set before them life and death and wisheth them to choose life that they might liue they and their seede Death is called an enimy in open tearmes 1. Cor. 15 The last enimie that shall bee subdued is death But who loveth an enimy simply and for his owne sake And amongst orher blessings betrothed to the elect of God one is that Death shal be no more Revelation 21. And to reason with Augustine Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non esset magna matyrum fortitudo If there vvere no bitternesse and discontentment in death the constancy of martyrs were not great Therefore when Elias heard the worde of Iezabell The Gods doe so and much more vnto mee if to morrowe by this time I make not thy life as the life of one of those vvhome thou hast slaine it is saide that he arose and went for his life to Beer-sheba Howe did David pleade for his life Psalm 30. What profit is there in my bloude when I goe downe into the pit shall the dust giue thankes vnto thee or shall it declare thy truth as if hee vvoulde mooue the Lorde for his owne good and glorye sake not to cut him of but aftervvardes vvith respecte to himselfe Staye thine anger a vvhile that I may recover my strength before I goe hence and am no more seene And being assured elswhere of that request graunted him hee sange ioyfullye to his soule vvithin Returne vnto thy rest O my soule the LORDE hath beene mercifull or beneficiall vnto thee Because thou hast delivered my soule from death mine eies from teares and my feete from falling and I shall walke before the Lord in the land of the living I speake not of the moane that Ezechias made howe hee turned his face to the vvaâ— after the Prophet gaue him vvarninge of his death and prayed vnto the Lorde and wept sore and like a crane or a svvallovv so did hee chatter and mourne like a doue and lifting his eyes vp on high said O Lorde it hath oppressed mee comfort mee and after his life was freed from the pit of corruption as it were leapt for ioy the living the living hee shall confesse thee as I doe this day when the beloved and blessed sonne of God hee that had power to lay downe his life and to take it vp againe against that time began to bee verye sad and grievously vexed and in the presence of Peter and the two sonnes of Zebedee let not to disclose his passion My soule is vvonderfullye heavy vnto death And but that the will of his father was in the midst of his bowelles and his obedience stronger than death hee vvould haue begged three times more that the cup might haue passed from his lippes Likewise Ioh. 12. vvhen Andrew and Philip tolde him of certaine Greekes that were desirous to see him hee seeing an image of his death before his eies witnessed vnto them saying Now is my soule troubled And what shall I say father saue mee from this howre and but that an other respect called him backe therefore I came and father glorifie thy name hee would still haue continued in that praier· Quis enim vult mori prorsus nemo ita memo c. For who is willing simply to die surely no man And so vndoubtedly no man that it vvas said to blessed Peter An other shall guide thee and leade thee to the place whither thou wouldest not goe Peter would not vnlesse he were carried But what then was the reason that the Apostle desired to bee dissolved and to be with Christ which hee said was best of all Philip 1. that the Saintes which were racked Heb. 11. cared not to be delivered that they might obtaine a beetter resurrection that Peter and Andrew welcommed their crosses as they were wont their dearest friendes embraced theÌ„ in their armes saluted them with kisses of peace that Ignatius called for fire sworde and the teeth of wilde beasts and other martyrs of Christ went to their deathes with cheerefullnes reioycing and singing and not lesse than ran to the stake as if they had run for a garland Wee may easily answere partly from the former authorities that they might bee with christ and that they might obtaine a better resurrection But the Apostle in excellent tearms decideth the question in the 2. to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVee will not be vnclothed and stripte of our liues we take no pleasure or ioy therein but wee woulde bee clothed vppon wee haue no other meanes to get that better clothing than by putting of this or that vpon this that mortality may bee svvâ—llowed vp of life and corruption of incorruption So that their thoughts subsist not in death but haue a further reach because they know it to bee the high way which must bring them to felicitie And it is no small perswasion vnto them when they thinke that by the ending of their liues they make an end of sinning For whilest they are in the flesh they see a law in their members striving against the lawe of their minde and subiecting them to the lawe of sinne Therefore they cry as hee did VVretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death In which postulations not witstandinge they evermore submit themselues to the straigtest and equallest rule of the will of God desiring no otherwise to haue their wishes acomplished than with that safe and wary condition Si dominus volet If the Lorde bee pleased with them And as they regarde their owne good therein so because the bloud of Martyrs is the seede of the Church and that which is fire to their flesh bones is water to the gospell to make it florish a good â—onfession witnessed before the vvicked tyrants of the world doth good service to the truth in this respect also they are not sparing of themselues that Christ may be magnified in their bodies whither it bee by their life or death Now Ionas hath more of all these fore-named endes to alleage for himselfe why hee desireth to die neither the glory of God nor the good of his brethren nor profit of his owne soule but in a peevish and froward moode because his minde is not satisfied and to avoide some little shame or to rid himselfe from the grievances of life which are not reasons sufficient hee will needes die and followe the streame of his foolish appetite with some such like affection as Dido at her departure expresseth Sic sic iuvat ire sub vmbras Thus I am disposed to dye not otherwise But to leaue generalities let vs looke a while into the partes of his wishe 1. It is his greate fault as Ioab offered his trechery to Abner vnder the pretence of a friendly and peaceable parle and Iudas his treason
precious than either bushes or fire or water therefore he hath spoken vnto him by flesh it was he that spake in Esaias in Elias and in all the prophetes and at length though he were equall to the Father in maiesty yet he was founde in the shape of a servaunt and spake vvith his owne lippes This gracious instrument of almighty God to shew the chandges of his notes both pittieth and chasteneth entreateth and threatneth and by threatning best admonisheth and by speaking roughly soonest converteth He that called Adam out of the thicker which was the first elementes of this learning whereof I speake he hath produced the same through all the ages of the world hee sent Angels to Sodome Noah to the old world Nathan to David Samuell to Saul Elias to Ahab prophets to Iudah and Ierusalem Iohn Baptist to the Scribes and Pharisees he reprooved the elders and Princes with many taunting parables corrected Peter with looking backe retracted Paule with a vision from heaven advertised the seaven Churches with epistles sent vnto them Leprosie vnto Miryam was a vvriting and skrolle vpon her flesh engraven in her skinne to teach her obedience dumbnesse vnto Zachary was not a dumbe instructour it taughte him faith against another time blindnesse sent vpon Paule tooke away his blindnesse and opened the eies of his minde making him to see more in the vvaies of life than all his learning gathered at the feete of Gamaliell could haue revealed vnto him Such are the admonitions that God sometimes vseth to mollifie our hard heartes least we shoulde freeze too long in the dregges of our sinnes and because wee proceede with impunity and freedome claime them for inheritance Beholde therefore as Eliphaz comforted Iob Blessed is the man vvhome the Lorde correcteth therefore refuse not the chastising of the Almightie for hee maketh the vvounde and bindeth it vp hee smiteth and his hande maketh it vvhole hee shall deliver thee in sixe troubles and in the seventh the evill shall not touch thee Nay he findeth a wound and bindeth it vp he espieth a blow and his hands heale it he letteth thee alone in sixe iniquities but in the seventh he will pull thee by the garment thou shalt no more offend On the other side wretched is the man whom the Lord correcteth not whos 's first messenger and monitioner is the first borne of death that is his life is taken from him before hee seeth his sins This were as Augustine calleth it lenâ—ty full of horrour and sparinge cruelty such precious balmes breake the head nay wound the conscience when bitter and biting corrosiues were more holesome for vs. This is also one parte of our duety who are to gather the sheepe into the sheepe fold of Christ we must not only teach but reprooue for otherwise as Origen noteth vpon Exodus we offerred but not scarlet the colour and die of our preaching goeth not deepe enough our fire giveth light and shining but kindleth not we lead men the righte vvay vnto knowledge but wee bring them not to the practicke and better part of divinity to feele a pricking in their consciences and to be driven to say men and brethren what shall we doe In the reprehension which God heere vseth 2. thinges come to be handled The manner thereof which is milde curteous and peaceable and the matter which altogither concerneth his anger The manner is as kinde and familiar and with asmuch indulgence as if Eli or the kindest father in the world were to deale with his childe whom hee most favoured no anger or gall vttered in the reprooving of his anger no vnpleasant expostulation and neither bitternesse nor length of speâ—ch but as fewe and as friendlye wordes as lenitye it selfe mighte devise Doest thou vvill to be angry I should haue looked for burning from his lippes and coales of fire from his nostrels that one who dwelt at his foote-stoole should dare to assault heaven with his indignation and crosse the doings of his dreadfull iudge but that the thoughtes of the LORDE are peace and of an other disposition than the thoughtes of man Doubtlesse if one of his brethren the prophetes of Israell out of his owne tribe and family had taken the cause in hande I cannot conceiue how he should haue vsed him with so favourable and sparing an increpation Doest thou wel to be angry If there bee any amongst you that taketh advauntage heere-at to say in your harts what meane our prophets and preachers to make such bitter invectiues declamations out-cries against the sinnes of our age their salte is too quicke and we are over-much seasoned with it our eares are not able to beare their vvordes we cannot offende in the wearinge of a garment in the vse of our money in eating our bread and drinking our drinke but the pulpits must presently ring our ears tingle and the world wonder at it God never taught them such roughnesse of speach it had beene an happier thing for vs to haue lived and sinned in former times and then to haue beene an adulterer then a drunkard or extortioner when God spake himselfe who knew how to temper his wordes and to shape his reprehensions in milder sort He would haue said but thus Dost thou wel to be angry well to be prowd well to be covetous well to giue thy mony vpoÌ„ vsury he would not haue threatned stormed as the maÌ„ner of our preachers is Surely my brethren God is the maister of his owne both speaches actions his wisdome is as the great deepe I cannot finde it out it may be he saw amendmeÌ„t in the hart reines of Ionas which we cannot do or he was able by his power to create his spirit a new to chaÌ„dge his hart that it should be rectified in an instante as well by one worde as if he had tyred and torne his eares with tenne thousand and hee dealt with a prophet an anointed servaunt of his one that was deare in his eies or he kept him for another time when his anger should be past and his heart more capable of discipline and correction or hee qualified his speach to schoole and scourdge him the more with actions Behold then and rest satisfied with vs our tongues should be still enough if we had wormes to coÌ„maund to eate vp your plantes and fruites or if we could chardge the sun in the sky or the east winde in the aire to beate vpon your heades and to grieue your soules as God grieved Ionas he spareth him in words but he paieth him in fact and though he vexe not his eares as wee doe hee vexeth his heade by taking away his shelter the onelye temporall comforte which he then enioyed I would we might see those daies wherein our speach might never exceede this compasse Doe you well to doe thus It is no pleasure to vs to sharpen our tongues like razors against you to speake by the pounde or talent mightye and fearefull vvordes if
to take them to his mercy in peace let them agree with their adversarie in the vvaie much more bee at one vvith God that neither their heartes nor tongues murmure at his iudgementes Death I confesse is an advantage to some men but such as with an obstinate heart and sinewes in their forehead striue against the Lorde their maker and goe to lavve vvith one mightier than themselues not caring to make an ende in time of the controversies betweene them their death is a death indeede and litle profit or ease to bee founde in it The purpose of this verse in hand vvas none other than to set forth vnto vs the afflictions of Ionas and vndoubtedlye they are very great For as Nahomi aunsvvered her people in the first of Ruth vvhen they asked is not this Nahomi call me not Nahomi that is beawtifull or pleasaunt but call mee Marah for the Almightie hath given mee much bitternesse I went out full and the Lord hath caused me to returne empty why then cal ye me Nahomi seeing the Lord hath humbled mee and the Almightie hath brought mee to adversitie So Ionas might have aunswered to those that had asked is not this Ionas call me not Ionas a doue but call mee a Pellican or owle in the desarte I vvas full of pleasure and amaenity and my heart replenished vvith exceeding ioy but the Lorde hath emptied me Many things there are in our liues for which vve may change our names as Nahomi did from beawty or pleasure to bitternesse But if we remember withall that it is the worke of the Lord to humble vs and the hand of the Almighty that bringeth vs to adversitie that one cogitation will suffice to teach vs patience For to whome doe we rather owe the quietnes and subiection of our spirites than vnto him who as Theodorite somevvhere excellently spake both giveth his benefites vnto vs to teach vs how easily hee can bestow them and taketh them away that we may know how litle we deserue theÌ„ Thus haue the childreÌ„ of God evermore begunne their consultations in their daies of tempation and as it were beckoned to themselues for silence Dominus est it is the Lorde take heede of repining at his iudgementes it is not mine enimie for then I vvoulde haue hid my selfe it is not the sonne of man for then I vvoulde haue resisted him it is not any creature of God I vvoulde then haue devised some meanes to redresse my griefe it is the Lorde himselfe vvho hath more right to my soule than that he may be contraried for both he hath beene beneficial vnto me here-tofore may againe hereafter Patience was the shielde vvherewith that notable atchiever of the victories of God repelled all those venemous dartes which either in the death of his children or in the losse of his substance or in the runnings sores of his bodie or in the cursed perswasions of his wife miserable comfortes of his friends malicious importunate accusations of Satan were throwen against him O what a glorious banner set he vp against the enemy both of God and man when for every calamity that was cast vpon him there came nothing from his mouth but thankes bee vnto God Sathan expected that he should haue accursed God and his vvife another Satan in his bosome so perswaded him but the witnes is true which is there given non peccavit labijs suis he offended not with his lippes I conclude therefore with Tertullian totum licet seculum pereat dum patientiam lucrifaciam I care not though all the world perish vnto me so I maie gaine patience And God said to Ionas doest thou well to be angrie for the gourd c. The gourd prepared by God had a double vse the one natural and open to cast a shadow over the head of Ionas the other typicall and secret to demonstrate the iniquity of his iudgement which vse we are nowe comming vnto In this actual reprehension which God is framing against him there were many antecedents I told you which made the way thervnto al which we haue already examined Now we are descended to that end wherevnto God disposed them The words here spoken by God Doest thou well to be angry are the same which were vsed in the former insimulation and the same provocation of the words to weete the anger of Ionas Who would not haue thought but one repreheÌ„sioÌ„ might haue served one kind of sin but so is sin to the soule of man in some part of comparison as Iacob was vnto Esau Gen. 27. of whom Esau complained was he not rightlie called Iacob For he hath deceived me these two times first he tooke my birth-right from me and loe now hath he taken my blessing And surely sinne will supplant vs twise and tenne times togither vnlesse God preserue vs. Ionas offendeth once more in the same perturbation and the Lorde reproveth him once more in the same forme of reprehension What else shall I say heereof but as Ioseph said to Pharaoh touching his two dreames the one of the kine the other of the eares of corne both Pharaohs dreames are one therefore the dreame is doubled to Pharaoh the second time because the thing is established by God and God hasteth to perfourme it So both Gods reprehensions are one and therefore is the reprehension doubled vnto Ionas the second time that Ionas mighte beware to offende in the like transgression Nehemias tolde the merchants that abode about the walles of the citty vvhy do you stay here all night si iterâ—m feceritis inijciam in vos manus if you shall doe it againe I I will lay hands vpon you It is marvaile that God laid not hands vpon Ionas nor at leastwise corrected him with some sharper castigation whoÌ„ he had taken and warned before for the same offence To that which heretofore I haue said of repreheÌ„sion I wil adde no more than the rule practise of Bernard as I finde it meÌ„tioned in his life His rule or observation is this Where there resouÌ„deth on both sides betweene the reprover him that is reproved modesty mildnes of speech it is a sweet coÌ„fereÌ„ce where it is held on the one side only it is profitable where both partes lay it aside it is pernicious but where there is hardnes bitternes froÌ„ theÌ„ both iurgiuÌ„ est non correctio nec disciplina sedrixa it is not correction instruction but chiding brawling to adioine the wordes of Anselme tunc noÌ„ veritas quaeritur sed animositas fatigatur theÌ„ is not the truth sought for but men exercise weary their stouts harts Therfore the maner of S. Bernard because he would be sure to retaine this modesty on the one side was to be very vrgent vpon him that yeelded as yeelding another time to him that resisted Albeit Ionas behaue himselfe very vnmodestly vndutifully towardes God yet God is otherwise affected towardes Ionas rather than the
consepta the lamentable pinfoldes of the deathes of men O pray that the flight departure of this spirit which must depart be not vpon the sabbath day in the rest and tranquility of your sinnes nor in the winter and frost of your hard hearts nor in the midnight of your security when you least looke for it VVoe worth the man whome the Lorde when hee commeth shall finde sleeping I say the vntimely fruite is better than that man it had bin good for that man if he had never bin borne the theeues shall break through his house the daungerous theeues of the soule SataÌ„ his Angels spirituall wickednesse shal rob not his coffers but his conscience of a treasure which he had but lost with carelesnes The bride-grome shal come by with a noise but behold his light is out his oile speÌ„t that is both his matter oportunity of wel-doing is gone he cannot supply either by borrowing or by by buying though he woulde giue his heart bloud for it What shall become of him but that he shall knocke at the gates of heaven while those gates are standing cry vpon the Lord while he hath his being to no purpose The instruction serveth vs all For the prophet was willed to crye that those which were farthest of from hearing the sound and beleeving the report of the voice might be made partakers of it All flesh is grasse and all the goodlines thereof as the flower of the field And to shevve how strange it seemed vnto him that any should bee ignorant of their mortall condition and strangers in Ierusalem as the disciple spake to Christ Luke 24. or rather in the world not knowing the things vvhich ordinarily come to passe from the first creation till time shall bee no more he continueth his crie Know yee nothing haue yee not heard it hath it not beene tolde you from the beginning Haue yee not learned it from the foundations of the earth That it is hee that sitteth vpon the circle of the earth and the inhabitantes in comparison of him are but grashoppers That hee maketh the Princes of the earth as nothinge and the iudges as vanitie as though they were never planted never sowen and their stocke had taken no roote vpon the earth For he doth but blow vpon them and they wither and the whirle-winde taketh them away like strawe Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is apointed vnto all men once to die nay twise to die Moriendo morter is God threatned Adam that he shoulde die the the death so the Apostle here saieth first death and aftervvardes iudgement If we looke into it But the statute touching the former branch shall never be repealed till destruction be throwne into the lake of fire and it be fulfilled which the Apostle hath revealed vnto him Mors non erit vltra death shall be no more Let vs take heed therefore least whilest we are carefull to doe al other things in time to set our trees â—ow our fieldes gather our fruites wee loose or lay vp in the napkin of security and bury in the earth of forgetfulnesse the most precious talent of time committed vnto vs in the ordering and framing of our liues to salvation as if nothing were viler vnto vs than our selues Let vs beware to offer the dregs of our life to him that inspired it least we drinke the dregs of his anger If wee wish with Balaam that our latter endes may be like the endes of the righteous let vs not be negligent to fashion our beginnings middles like theirs Let vs know that life is short and the art of salvation requireth a long time of learning and the way into heaven is long and cannot be troden in a short time Astronomers say that the space betweene heaven earth if one should climbe vnto it by ladders is nine hundreth thousand miles but the distance whereof I speake betweene corruption and incorruption mortality and immortality wretchednes and glory can by no measure be comprehended Let the prowde by name remember that they must turne to the earth which now they set their feete vpon Rather those tender and dainty vvomen that never adventure to set the soule of their foote vpon the grounde but as if the face of the earth vvere not provided for the daughters of men they must be alwaies carried like the fowles of the aire betweene heaven and earth Let them remember that the earth shall set her foote vpon their heades and their lippes shall kisse the dust of the grounde and the very gravell and slime of the grave shall dwell betweene their hawty eye-liddes Why doe they kill the prophets â—nd builde vp tombes kill their soules and garnish their bodies Doe they fore-thinke vvhat shall become of them wheÌ„ after al their labour cost bestowed in whiting painting the outward wals there remaineth nothing but putiduÌ„ putriduÌ„ cadaver â— stinking and rotten carkas when though now they say to their sisters in the flesh Touch me not I am of purer mould thaÌ„ thou art yet the bones of Agamemnon and Thersites shal be mingled togither of Vashti the most beautifull Queene and the blackest Egyptian bond-woman shall not be found asunder I haue not leasure to say much vnto our prowde dust and ashes But if purple and fine linnen vvere an opprobrious note for lacke of an inwarde cloathing to the rich man in the gospell if that parable were to be written in these daies purple fine linnen were nothing And what the burtheÌ„s cariages of pride in the age of Clemens Alexandrinus were I know not but if it were a wonder to him that they killed not themselues vnder those burthens I am sure if the measure were then full it is now heaped vpon the highest and shaken togither and pressed downe againe We are mad to forget nature Adam hath wisdome to call all the beasts of the fielde by their proper names but he forgetteth his owne name that he was called Adam that there is an affinity betweene the earth and him For hee shall returne to the earth his earth He was not made of that substance vvhereof the Angelles and starres no not of that matter vvhereof the aire and the vvater inferiour creatures The earth was the wombe that bredde him and the earth the wombe that must receiue him againe For let him play the Alchymist while he will and striue to turne earth into silver and golde and pearles by making shew to the world vnder his glorious adornations that he is of some better substance yet the time is not farre of that the earth shall challendge him for her naturall childe and say he is my bowelles Neither can his rich apparrell so disguise him in his life time nor fear-clothes spices and balmes so preserue him after his death nor immuring stone or lead hide him so close but that his originall mother will both know him againe and