feet when thou oppressest or dost not relieve the poor thou givest him gall and vinegar to drink when thou dost or consentest to any thing which endomageth his children his Servants thou cryest out with the Jewes crucify him crucify him Qui in deum delinquit eum relinquit Hee that sins against God forsakes him Whosoever purchaseth any profit enjoyeth any pleasure giveth way unto any Passion satisfieth himself in any action which Gods word hath pronounced unlawfull it is he that contrary to the prudent serpent hazards the losse of his head putteth himself in danger to be separated from Christ to preserve his hands or his feet his hayr or his nayles or any thing that is of lower valew and is like unto the Jewes who cryed out not him but Barabbas Such are all covetous persons whose greedy affections are like Pharaoh's lean kin which when they had eaten up the fat it could not be perceived that they had eaten it but were still as evill-favoured as they were before so these men whatsoever they devour are never satisfied but have their desires as vast and empty as ever and are like Apprentises Christ-masse-boxes to take all in but to restore none till they be broken nor they till they bee dead Such are also the Receivers of bribes who like Gehazi when they receive a bribe believe they receive a Blessing for so he called it but as he found it so shall they that a bitter Curse is couched under it for whatsoever men get by bribery sacrilege oppression ufury cosenage forswearing lying or the like is like to prove as fatall to them as that peece of flesh which the Eagle stole from the altar that had a coal clave to it which set her nest on fire Such also are all those who doe spend their means as unlawfully as these get it who as S. Gregory saith when the poor members of Christ are pinched with hunger and want doe profusely spend their Estates on harlots on drink on dice on balls on plays on vain and soul-killing pleasures or else their time in idleness and impertinent visits like one Vatia on whom was made this Epitaph Here lyes Vatia who grew old in nothing but idleness Or else in vain obscene foolish fruitless discourses interlarding their speeches with lies to make them more plausible powdring them with oaths to make them as they think more gracefull O what a folly is it in those men and in whom almost is not that folly that when they may hold Christ and the consequent thereof their Salvation for denying of themselves unlawfull gains or pleasures such as perish like Jonas gourd as soon as they be sprung up and leave nothing behind them but repentance when they may keep the true faith and love of Christ with the loss of their lives by which loss they shall gain it of their honours of their estates of their friends for which they shall be recompenced even in this life an hundred fold will yet notwithstanding with Jeroboam for the politique respect of keeping of his kingdom with Peter for the declining of some bodily danger with Ananias and Saphira for with-holding back a little money with Saul for preserving the fattest of the Cattle with the man of Israel for the unchast embraces of a harlot with Baltazar for câ—rowsing in the cups of the Sanctuary yea with our first Parents for an apple or a piece of bread as Solomon saith will transgress and suffer themselves to be separated from the fountain of life Christ Iesus rather than say with holy Joseph Gen. 39. How can I doe this evill and sin against my God O let not let not the least shadow of such weakness fall upon our souls as shall make us prefer any thing before our union with Christ but let us as we ought witness the truth of the Apostles saying in our selves Mat. 19.27 We have forsaken all and followed thee Now that which must knit and glue us unto Christ is faith which while we hold we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts the temptations of the devill as saith the Apostle The devill and his instruments the wicked while they rob us of our externall felicities doe but as David did unto Saul cut off the lap of our garments but if they force us from the fortress of our faith as he did unto Goliah they cut off our heads Let us therefore keep faith and a good conscience and make no shipwrack of that precious merchandize like Hymeneus and Alexander reproved by S. Paul but in all the rough tempests of this lifes calamities let us anchor our faith and hope upon Christ who is the sure ground of our salvation In all the Syren enchantments of sinfull pleasures with Ulysses let us tie our selves to the main-mast of a strong immoveable godly resolution whereby whatsoever evill wee suffer or seeming good we may enjoy to rent us from the stedfastness of our faith we may ever with such a calm and constant indifferency give them entertainment that neither the one nor the other may remove us but that we may still remain like a man in an open field who to which part of the horizon soever he sends his eye he himself is alwaies in the center And let us not like the dirty-minded Gadarens banish Christ out of our Country for the loss of a few swine nor forsake our profession of him nor swerve one hayrs bredth from the line of his Commandements to inherit whatsoever either profit or pleasure or ought else hath endeared to the eye of the world seeing their purchase is care their possession trouble their essence vanity and their end misery But rather in the midst of this worlds conflicts let us engrave that triumphant motto of S. Paul on the Ensign of our Faith Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or anguish or famine or nakedness or perill or persecution or sword I am certain that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor strength nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. CHAP. VI. A Fourth excercise of Prudence in the Serpent not unworthy our imitation is this The Serpent when hee swimmeth to avoid the danger of drowning keepeth his head alwaies lifted above the waters So wee while wee swim through the Sea of this lives actions must ever bear up the head of our reason that we be not drowned in pleasure and delight The world is a Sea and man a ship adversity is his ballast prosperity his sayls passions his Saylors and reason his Pilot who sits at the helm to steer his course aright adversity like ballast keeps us even and steddy but when our over-busie passions doe hoyse up more sayls of pleasure than our weak barks can bear we run our selves under water and over-whelm our reason
others posterity who like Jaacob and Esau struggle in the worlds womb the earth as if so little a room were too streight a dwelling for so great enemies Which enmity unveiled it self in the worlds infancy betwixt Cain and Abell who as the Poets feign like the serpents teeth sown by Cadmus were no sooner grown up but the one destroyed the other Ismael scoffed at his brother Jsaac Micol laughed at her husband David and king Ahab hated the Prophet Micaiah and the reason was because he told the truth It is the godlies goodnesse that purchaseth them hatred for as likenesse is the cause of liking so the contrariety of manners produceth contrary affections God is light the godly are enlightned God is truth the godly are true the devill is the Prince of darkness the wicked are darkned the devill is the Father of lyes the wicked are lyars what communion then betwixt light and darknesse truth and falshood Christ and Belial John 15.19 God and the devill Because yee are not of the world saith our Saviour therefore the world hateth you Now this hatred discovers it self either against our bodies or our souls either as the Scripture speaketh like the great Bulls of Bason they encompasse us on every side or like the little foxes they destroy Gods vineyard Thus in the dawning of the Churches day by the tyranny of the wicked did the Prophets and holy men of God fall like the morning dew and the seeds of grace which themselves had sown they watred with their own blood Thus the holy Christian Martyrs in the noontide of the Churches day when the sun of persecution reflected on them as hotly as the noon-sun on Jonas head did calmly bleed oyl to the Apostles lamps whose bright flames yet serve to light Posterity to heaven Thus also these latter ages in some places and at some times have paid as large a tribute of patience to heaven and sufferance in the world as any that went before them and have constantly kept the faith untill they lost themselves in keeping it like Naboth who kept his possession with the losse of his blood And thus in all ages have the diamonds of the world the godly who were made to be pretiously set in the esteem of men been brought to the extremest degree of calamity that witty cruelty could invent or unrelenting malice execute And thus also did the non-such of well-doing and evill suffering our Saviour Jesus Christ by the malice and cruelty of the Jews surrender up a life more spotless than innocence unto a death most shamefull and ignominious even to the death of the Cross the horror of whose torments left not where to adde unto it by the wishes of his enemies And if they doe these things in the green wood saith he himself Luke 23.31 what shall be done in the dry Nor doth the malice of the devill and wicked men stint it self here or satisfie it self with the suffering of our bodies then were their assaults little their victories less seeing that the vertuous like the palm tree spring up by pressing and like the Vine spread further by pruning The rod of persecution like Aarons rod that budded doth encrease the godly both for number and goodness making them both more and better Therefore doth the devill lay siege unto our souls by the temptations of prosperity and pleasure also hoping that as it is in the fable of the Wind and Sun striving who should make the wayfaring man put off his cloke what foul means cannot fair means may effect In which his two main engines are the flesh and the world the flesh within us the world without us The flesh he corrupteth with bliss-promising suggestions which like a treacherous Citizen betrayeth the fort of our will into the hand of him our enemy and thus a mans enemies are as our Saviour said they should be Mat. 10.36 those of a mans own house But with no better success then Tarpeia the Vestall Nun betrayed the Capitoll bargaining for the bracelets on the enemies hands who when they were entred did not cast their bracelets only but their bucklers also into her lap which with their weight prest her to death Even so the devill many times over-satisfying mens unlawfull fleshly desires with their sinfull weight presseth their souls into the pit of destruction The world also I mean the wicked men thereof he sets like so many lime-twigs and snares to entrap our souls and as fisher-men doe make one fish a bait to catch another so the devill doth make a bad man a bait to catch a good Wicked men are most pernicious creatures and easily pull down vengeance upon others either by the desert of their sin or by the infection who like men that have the plague out of a malignity of disposition which attends upon their disease desire to infect others and to draw them as the scripture saith to the same confusion of luxury 1 Pet. 4.4 with themselves Vicia ad vicinos serpunt contactu nocent saith Seneca Sin amongst men is like the rot amongst Sheep of a catching and infectious quality and he that thinks to partake the company of wicked men and not participate of their vices multiplies the miracles where walkers on the water with Peter are not drowned and in the fire with the three children are not burnt The nature of things is such saith S. Chrisostome that where a good man is joyned with a bad the bad is not bettered by the good but the good corrupted by the bad As sickness by accompanying the sick is derived to the healthy but not so health unto the sick And as the Salamander extinguisheth the fire and is not burnt therein so the wicked amongst the godly are ready to quench the heat of their vertue and not to be enflamed thereby Therefore saith the Apostle S. Paul Be not companions with them Joseph by living in the Court learned to swear by the life of Pharoah and Peter when he was amongst the high Priests servants denyed his master The warmer hee was by the high Priests fire the colder he grew in love towards God Psal 105.35 They were mingled among the Heathens saith the Prophet David of the children of Israel and what was the issue They learned their works Therefore as our Saviour adviseth us Beware of men First of men whose cruelty no meekness can asswage of men whose blood-thirstiness no lives can quench of men from whose persecutions no place is secure and if they persecute you in one City fly into another let a discreet fear give wings unto your feet and a godly confidence steel unto your hearts If opportunity open a way unto your flight refuse it not if not let an unrebated resolution arm you for sufferance Beware also of the company of wicked men who like bemyred dogs defile with fawning For howsoever fishes living in the salt water retain a fresh tast and savour not of the brinish quality of
they were like unto that flower which Pliny speaks of which springs in the morning is full blown at noon and fades at night Heb. 11.25 and therefore chose rather to bee afflicted with the children of God than to enjoy the temporall pleasure of Sin counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the Egiptians The world for the frailty and inconstancy thereof is by S. John compared to a sea as he saith in the Apocalips Before the thron there was a sea of glasse Apoc. 4.6 like unto crystall by which sea is meant the world which for it's frailty is glasse for it's unconstancy a sea A sea swelling with pride blew with envie boyling with anger deep with averise frothy with luxury It is a Sea tempestuous with controversies stormy with afflâ—ctions tumultuous with disorders The sea yealds an obedient conformity to the motions of the moon and swels highest in a joyfull imitation when shee is in the spring-tide of her light either towards the heavens as in the change or towards the earth as in the full and as shee doth wax or wain so doth he either flow into a pleurisy or ebbe into a consumption of his waters and even thus is the world the page of fortune whose unconstant and ever-changing motions doe hurry about like spokes in a wheel the condition of all mortalls as the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away An hour-glasse doth change it's posture every hour and that part which was even now above is now below that which was even now full is now empty nor can one side be filled but by emptying the other such is the world every moment turn'd upside down and men are now full now empty Nor can they often fill themselves without the ruin or prejudice of others yea many times as Laban did to Jaacob when men have toyled in it's service many years it rewards them with loathed Leah insteed of loved Rachel Like Jael it carrieth milk in one hand to nourish and a hammer and a nayl in the other to destroy and as Joab did to Amasa while it kisseth us it killeth us And although like the moon it be sometimes at at the full of glory yet is it even then like her also mingled with the spots of adversity and subject to the change of every moment And therefore as they say at the consecration of the Popes the Master of the ceremonies goeing before carrieth in one hand a burning taper in the other a stick with some flax tyed on the top thereof which he setting on fire cryeth with a lowd voyce Pater sancte sic transit gloria mundi Holy Father so passeth away the glory of the world The plenty of histories in this kind exceedeth our Arithmetique every particular mans condition almost being a volume of the worlds frailty and a constant witnesse of it's inconstancy Adonibezec in the first of the book of Judges who had been the triumphant Victor over seventy Kings and in his wanton cruelty cutting off the thumbs of their hands and feet made them pick up crums under his table enforcing the act yet depriving them of the power making them doe that which hee had disabled them to doe was ere long returned with an equall measure which made him cry out Judg. 1.7 As I have done so God hath rewarded me Nabuchadonozor's unparallel'd mâ—tamorphosis who knoweth not Who in the despite of Philosophy prov'd in himself the transmigration of Species and from a man fell into a beast in nature now as was in practise before to shew that when men sinne against the light of nature they may suffer against the law of nature It is reported of Demetrius one of Alexander the great his Captains that in the whole circle of his life being threescore years and four after the measure of his age had stil'd him man never continued three years in one condition Of Julius Caesar also that great awer of the world and tyrant over the Common-wealth it is doubted whether in the whole course of his life Fortune were an indifferent arbitrer unto him of good and evill successe but in the misery of his death no doubt all his lives happinesse was exceedingly overballanc'd who in the Zenith and highest erection of his glory with three and twenty wounds the deepest whereof given by his dearest Brutus and that in the Court of his deadly enemy Pompey yeelded up his life a sacrifice to the peoples liberty The like unhappy change pursued the ever-renowned and once highly advanced Captain Belisarius who after he had triumphed over the Persians and reduced to the Roman obedience all Africa and Italy which had been long possessed by the Gothes and Vandalls and after he had brought one of the Kings of the Vandalls to such a passe that hee begged three things a loaf of bread a spunge to wipe his eyes and a harp to tune his sorrow to his wife who was given him for a help became the only help to his destruction whose insolent behaviour against the Empresse like winds thrown upon the Seas raised such billows of indignation in the Emperour that they put this good mans fortune to an utter shipwrack who did not only lose all his goods but the means wherby he might get more his sight and was forced to beg his bread with Da obolo Belisario Viator and thus though blind did most cleerly see the frailty of this worlds felicity Therefore Dionisius the King of Syracusa represented the brittle felicity of his kingdome unto his Parasite Damocles which Damocles had made to seem exceeding great through the multiplying glasse of his flattery by seating him in a royall throne at a sumptuous Banquet with all the state and glory of the kingdome about him but withall causing a naked sword to be hung over his head which was only held up by a horses hair which every minute threatned his destruction It was likewise the custome of the Romans in their triumphs for a slave to ride behind in the Chariot with the triumpher who did often whisper unto him to look behind him there was likewise a whip and a bell tyed to the Charyot to admonish him that notwithstanding the present exaltation of his honour he might be brought to such a degree of calamity as to be scourged or put to death of which the bell was the signe it being the custome of the old Romans to ring a bell before a dead Corps lest any by approaching too neer should defile themselves thereby Now if we would allow these and the like images of the worlds frailty a place in our considerations and remember that all the glory beauty and pleasures thereof are as truly short as they are seeming sweet and that though they bee sweet in the enjoying yet they are bitter in the end surely it would so steel our resolutions against the devils temptations it would so stop our ears against the voyce of his charms
the long tract of mens lives can wear out Thus did the private hatred betwixt Caesar and Pompey pull down ruine on the Roman Empire Thus Arius disdaining at his repulse in aspyring to a Bishoprick broacht such an heresie as overspread the whole Christian world yea death it self on the one party in some cannot destroy the hatred of the survivor witnesse the Story of Pope Stephen the sixt who caused the body of his Predecessor Formosus to be taken up and beheaded in the market place and afterwards cast into Tyber Yea death in both parties which hath killed the men yet hath not kild their malice if the story of Eteocles and Polynices be true which saith that when they had by mutuall wounds made windows for each others soul to fly out at their bodies being burnt together their very flames divided themselves as hating to be united in their dead bodies who were so divided in their living affections Thus homo homini Lupus one man is a Wolf unto another in whose hearts and hands and mouths are the instruments of mischief as the Prophet David saith Psal 13.3 Their throat is an open Sepulcher they delt deceitfully with their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood Sorrow and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace they have not known the fear of God is not before their eyes I have read that a string made of Wolfs guts laid amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of Sheep corrupts and spoyls them all it is a strange secret in nature and serves to insinuate the malice of these Lycant hropi these Wolf-turn'd men against the Sheep of Christs flock for which cause our Saviour gave us this commandement saying Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore prudent as Serpents and simple as Doves Simple as Doves 1 Pet. 3.9 not returning evill for evill nor curse for curse but on the contrary bless because you are called to this to be heirs of blessing as saith S. Peter S. Paul also saith Rom. 12.17.18.19 Render evill for evill to no man If it be possible as much as in you is have peace with all men Avenge not your selves but give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith our Lord. And as it is reported of the wals of Bizantium that they were so smoothly and closely wrought that they seemed to be but one stone and of the building of Salomons temple that there was not so much as the noyse of a hammer to bee heard therein So should wee have all our thoughts our words our deeds so even so smooth so polisht that they should not send forth the least noyse of injury to our neighbour or sound of disaffection CHAP. IIII. YEt this is not enough to doe no evill but we must also doe good Christ cursed the fig-tree not for any hurt it did but because it did no good it brought forth no fruit And this exercise of good must not be centred in those only which either prevent or return us with an equall measure like the Scribes and Pharisees the Publicans and sinners but it must expatiate and diffuse it self like the impartiall Sun to all even to our enemies And so we shall be simple as Doves who besides that they doe no hurt to any living creature doe also indifferently nourish both their own and others young ones Now this practice of good must receive its form from the former prohibitions of evill to wit in thought word and deed First then in thought wee must have our hearts suppled and entendred with charity meekness gentleness humility and patience It was the greatest commendation of Moyses that he was stiled Num. 12.3 the meekest man upon earth for which cause God conversed with him more familiarly than ever he did with any as the Scripture saith Exod. 33.11 God talked with him face to face as a man talketh to his friend and our Saviour saith Math. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls The valleys are more fruitfull than the mountains and the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest towards the ground such are the riches of humility disposing men like figures in arithmetique where the last in place is greatest in accompt Our charity likewise expecteth of us that we should breath forth nothing but desires of bliss unto our brethren not suspecting evill without great ground not beleeving evill without strong proof 1 Cor. 13.5 for charity thinketh no evill as saith the Apostle And God hath propounded himself for an example unto us to prevent our too easy taking up upon trust a prejudiciall report against our brethren in the eighteenth of Genesis where he saith speaking of Sodom and Gomorrha those wicked Cities Gen. 18.21 I will goe down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up unto me and if not so that I may know not as if God were ignorant of the truth of any thing but for our instruction it is thus written to teach us as Solomon saith that wee should not apply our hearts to all words that are spoken Eccles 7.22 nor by too hasty beleef doe that which must be undone again Our patience likewise in which our Saviour commandeth us to possess our souls Luke 21.19 claimeth of us an unresisting sufferance of evill though there be whole vollies of injuries discharged against us yet must our hearts be in ury-proof and our patience preserve us un-hurt unprovoked to anger hatred desire of revenge and their dangerous effects for as Salomon saith Eccles 7.10 anger resteth in the bosome of a fool And although the Apostle bids us be angry and sin not Ephes 4.26 yet it is but a permission not a command and I suppose it is easier not to be angry at all than to be angry and not sin at all For anger in mans brest is like fire in an Oven which if it be quite damd up is extinguished but having but a little vent is apt to rage too fiercely Wherefore the Apostle saith Ephes 4.32 Be ye courteous one to another and mercifull forgiviâ—g one another even as God for Christs sake forgave you Yea so far must our patience in injuries and our charitable return to those that have injured us proceed that we must not only cancell the debt of all their injuries so that not so much as in a thought may we wish them any evill as it is evill but also if any adverse accident doe befall them wee must be inwardly moved with a compassionate sorrow for the same As Job declaring his own innocence testifieth of himself Job 31.29 If I have rejoyced in the ruin of him that hated me or have exulted that evill found