we haue it we must haue it from the blessed ordinances of God his Word and Sacraments which this place can afford vs. In vaine shall yee seeke for this deare Christians in a licentious Tauerne in a rich Counting-house in Chambers of dalliance in full Tables in Pompous Courts no not in thrones of earthly Maiesty Alas many of these are the make-bates betwixt Heauen and vs most of them can marre none of them can make our peace It is onely the despised Ministery of the Gospell the Word of reconciliation as it is called 2 Cor. 5.19 which sounds in Gods House that can doe it As yee loue your soules therefore as you would finde peace at the last and would looke with a comfortable assurance in the face of death and iudgement as yee would see a gracious Mercy-seate in the dreadfull Tribunall of God at the day of our last appearance frequent the House of God attend reuerently and conscionably vpon the sacred Institutions of God yeeld your selues ouer to be wrought vpon by the powerfull Gospell of Iesus Christ Oh be not you wanting vnto God he will not bee wanting vnto you but will make good this promise of his vnfaileable grace In this place will I giue peace It is a great word that is heere spoken Dabo pacem and therefore it is vndertaken by an omnipotent Agent I will giue peace If all the Angels of Heauen should haue said so wee should soone haue replied as Korah and his company did to Moses and Aaron Yee tooke too much vpon you Numbers 16.3 This worke is not for any finite power the stile of peace is the peace of God the stile of God the Mediator betwixt God and man is The Prince of Peace He is the true Salomon the other was but typicall It is hee onely that when the Disciples were tossed with contrary winds and threatning billowes could command the windes and waues to a calme It is hee onely that when his Church is tossed with the winds and waues of raging and impetuous enmitie can giue outward peace It is he onely that when the distressed soule is tossed with the winds and waues of strong temptation of weake diffidence can giue inward peace Iustly therefore doth he challenge this act as his owne I will giue peace We vse to say It is best treating of peace with a Sword in our hand Those who haue the aduantage of the warre may command peace vnderlings must stoope to such conditions as the victor will yeeld To shew vs therefore how easily he can giue peace God stiles himselfe the God of Hosts a title wherein he takes no small delight referring not to the being of the creature but to their marshaling not to their naturall estate but their militarie neither would God be lookt at in it as a Creator but as a Generall In but two of the Prophets Esay and Ieremy no lesse than an hundred and thirty times hath hee this stile giuen him Euery thing as it hath an existence from the Maker so an order from the Gouernour and that order is no other than warlike wherein it doth militare Deo serue vnder the colours of the Almighty All creatures are both mustred and trained and placed in Garrison and brought forth into the field in the seruice of their Creator they are all exercitus pugnatorum If yee looke into Heauen there is a company of heauenly Souldiers Luke 2. Neither was there onely the construction of Idolaters vniuersa militia coeli to which they burnt incense but of Moses himselfe Thus the Heauen and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them Gen. 2.1 If yee looke to the Earth not men only whom reason hath fitted for such designes but euen the brute yea the basest and indociblest of the brute creatures are ranged into arrayes euen the very Locusts though they haue no leader yet Egrediuntur per turmas They goe foorth by bands Prou. 30.27 And if ye looke into Egypt where for the time was Sedes belli you shall finde a band of Frogs that were appointed to march into the very bed-chamber the bed the ouens the dishes of Pharaoh you shall finde an host of Lice of Flies of Caterpillers sent against those Egyptian Tyrants Else-where ye shall finde troupes of Palmerwormes of Locusts of Cankerwormes of Caterpillers to set vpon Israel Ioel 1.4 Shortly where he meanes to preserue the fiery Charets and Horsemen of Heauen shall compasse Dothan Where hee meanes to destroy the most despicable of his creatures shall be armed to the ruine of the proudest Doth Goliah stalke forth to the defiance of the God of Israel A Pibble out of the brooke shall strew him on the ground Doth an Herod heare his flatterers gladly say Nec vox hominem sonat Stay but a while God sets his vermine vpon him all the Kings guard cannot master those Lice Hee hath Hornets for the Hiuites and Canaanites Exod 23. Mice for the Philistims 1. Sam. 6. Rats for the couetous Prelate A Flie for Pope Adrian A world of creatures for either defensiue or offensiue seruices Quare fremuerunt gentes Why doe the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vaine thing The Kings of the Earth set themselues and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his Annointed Presumptuous dust and ashes that dare rise vp against the God of hosts If a silly Ant out of a Mole-hill should march forth and proffer to wrestle a fall with a Gyant there were some proportion in this challenge there is none of a finite power to an infinite Should all the powers of Hell band themselues with those on earth Quis restitit What power haue they of being Who hath resisted his will of motion but from him whom they oppose How easily can he blow vpon their enterprises How easily can he command these to the dust those to their Chaines Bee confounded therefore O vaine men whose breath is in your nostrils and that not your owne neither when ye thinke of the power and Maiesty of the God of Hosts And why are we dismaid with the rumors or feares of the strongest oppositions Gebal and Ammon and Amelec the Philistims with them that dwell at Tyre Ashur also is ioyned to the incestuous children of Lot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou of little faith why fearest thou The Lord of hosts is with vs the God of Iacob is our refuge Psa 46. Come all ye Bands of wickednesse and conspire against the Scepter of the Kingdome that is the Gospell of Iesus Christ He hath his Armageddon He hath a feast for the fowles of the aire and the beasts of the field whom he hath inuited to the flesh of Captaines and the flesh of Kings Reuel 19.8 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that haue set themselues against me round about Dominus suscepit The Lord hath sustained me and he is the Lord of Hosts Yea why are we apalled when we see the measures
thou mightest neuer taste of it hee would bee in sense for a time as forsaken of his Father that thou mightest be receiued for euer Now bid thy soule returne to her rest and enioyne it Dauids taske Praise the Lord O my soule and What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits I will take the cup of saluation and call vpon the Name of the Lord. And as rauisht from thy selfe with the sweet apprehension of this mercy call all the other creatures to the fellowship of this ioy with that diuine Esay Reioyce O yee heauens for the Lord hath done it shout ye lower parts of the earth burst forth into praises yee mountaines for the Lord hath redeemed Iacob and will bee glorified in Israel And euen now begin that heauenly Song which shall neuer end with those glorified Saints Praise and honour and glory and power be to Him that sitteth vpon the Throne and to the Lambe for euermore Thus our speech of Christs last word is finished His last act accompanied his words our speech must follow it Let it not want your deuout and carefull attention He bowed and gaue vp the ghost The Crosse was a slow death and had more paine than speed whence a second violence must dispatch the crucified their bones must be broken that their hearts might breake Our Sauiour stayes not deaths leisure but willingly and couragiously meets him in the way and like a Champion that scornes to be ouercome yea knowes hee cannot be yeeldeth in the middest of his strength that he might by dying vanquish death Hee bowed and gaue vp Not bowing because he had giuen vp but because he would Hee cryed with a loud voyce saith Matthew Nature was strong he might haue liued but he gaue vp the ghost and would die to shew himselfe Lord of life and death Oh wondrous example hee that gaue life to his enemies gaue vp his owne he giues them to liue that persecute and hate him and himselfe will die the whiles for those that hate him Hee bowed and gaue vp not they they might crowne his head they could not bow it they might vex his spirit not take it away they could not doe that without leaue this they could not doe because they had no leaue Hee alone would bow his head and giue vp his ghost I haue power to lay downe my life Man gaue him not his life man could not bereaue it No man takes it from mee Alas who could The High Priests forces when they came against him armed he said but I am he they flee and fall backward How easie a breath disperst his enemies whom hee might as easily haue bidden the earth yea hell to swallow or fire from heauen to deuoure Who commanded the Deuils and they obeyed could not haue beene attached by men he must giue not onely leaue but power to apprehend himselfe else they had not liued to take him hee is laid hold of Peter fights Put vp saith Christ Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father and hee will giue me more than twelue Legions of Angels What an Army were here more then threescore and twelue thousand Angels and euery Angell able to subdue a world of men he could but would not be rescued he is led by his owne power not by his enemies and stands now before Pilate like the scorne of men crowned robbed scourged with an Ecce homo Yet thou couldst haue no power against me vnlesse it were giuen thee from aboue Behold he himselfe must giue Pilate power against himselfe Quod emittitur voluntarium est quod amâ—â—tur aecessarium Ambr. else he could not be condemned he will be condemned lifted vp nailed yet no death without himselfe Hee shall giue his soule an offering for sinne Esay 53.10 No action that sauours of constraint can be meritorious he would deserue therefore he would suffer and die Hee bowed his head and gaue vp the ghost O gracious and bountifull Sauiour hee might haue kept his soule within his teeth in spight of all the world the weaknesse of God is stronger than men and if he had but spoken the word the heauens and earth should haue vanisht away before him but hee would not Behold when hee saw that impotent man could not take away his soule he gaue it vp and would die that we might liue See here a Sauiour that can contemne his owne life for ours and cares not to be dissolued in himselfe that we might be vnited to his Father Skin for skin saith the Deuill and all that hee hath a man will giue for his life Loe here to proue Sathan a lyer skinne and life and all hath Christ Iesus giuen for vs. Wee are besotted with the earth and make base shifts to liue one with a maimed bodie another with a periured soule a third with a rotten name and how many had rather neglect their soule than their life and will rather renounce and curse God than die It is a shame to tell Many of vs Christians doat vpon life and tremble at death and shew our selues fooles in our excesse of loue cowards in our feare Peter denies Christ thrice and forsweares him Marcellinus twice casts graines of incense into the Idols fire Ecebolius turnes thrice Spira reuolts and despaires Oh let mee liue saith the fearefull soule Whither doest thou reserue thy selfe thou weake and timorous creature or what wouldest thou doe with thy selfe Thou hast not thus learned Christ he died voluntarily for thee thou wilt not be forced to die for him he gaue vp the ghost for thee thou wilt not let others take it from thee for him thou wilt not let him take it for himselfe When I looke backe to the first Christians and compare their zealous contempt of death with our backwardnesse I am at once amazed and ashamed I see there euen women the feebler sex running with their little ones in their armes for the preferment of Martyrdome and ambitiously striuing for the next blow I see holy and tender Virgins chusing rather a sore and shamefull death than honourable Espousals I heare the blessed Martyrs Quod si venire nolucrint ego vim faciam vt dâ—â—orer intreating their tyrants and tormentors for the honour of dying Ignatius amongst the rest fearing lest the beasts will not deuoure him and vowing the first violence to them that he might bee dispatched And what lesse courage was there in our memorable and glorious fore-fathers of the last of this age and doe we their cold and feeble off-spring looke pale at the face of a faire and naturall death abhorre the violent though for Christ Alas how haue we gathered rust with our long peace Our vnwillingnesse is from inconsideration from distrust Looke but vp to Christ Iesus vpon his Crosse and see him bowing his head and breathing out his soule and these feares shall vanish he died and wouldest thou liue hee gaue vp the ghost and wouldest thou keepe it whom wouldest thou follow if not thy
to see how wilfully godlesse men striue against the streame of their owne hearts hating that which they know good fighting against that which they know diuine What a grosse disagreement is in the message of this Israelitish Captaine Thou man of God the King hath said Come downe If hee were a man of God how hath hee offended and if he haue iustly offended the anointed of God how is hee a man of God And if he be a man of God and haue not offended why should he come down to punishment Here is a kinde confession with a false heart with bloody hands The world is full of these windy courtesies reall cruelties Deadly malice lurkes vnder faire complements and whiles it flatters killeth The Prophet hides not himselfe from the pursuit of Ahaziah rather hee sits where hee may bee most conspicuous on the top of an Hill this band knowes well where to finde him and climbes vp in the fight of Elijah for his arrest The steepnesse of the ascent when they drew neere to the highest reach yeelded a conuenience both of respiration and parle thence doth the Captaine imperiously call downe the Prophet Who would not tremble at the dreadfull answer of Elijah If I be a man of God then let fire come downe from heauen and consume thee and thy fifty What shall wee say That a Prophet is reuengefull that Souldiers suffer whiles a Prophet strikes that a Princes command is answered with imprecation words with fire that an vnarmed Seer should kill one and fiftie at a blow There are few tracks of Elijah that are ordinarie and fit for common feet His actions are more for wonder then for precedent Not in his own defence would the Prophet haue beene the death of so many if God had not by a peculiar instinct made him an instrument of this iust vengeance The diuine iustice finds it meet to doe this for the terrour of Israel that hee might teach them what it was to contemne to persecute a Prophet that they might learne to feare him whom they had forsaken and confesse that heauen was sensible of their insolencies and impieties If not as visibly yet as certainly doth God punish the violations of his ordinances the affronts offered to his messengers still and euer Not euer with the same speed sometimes the punishment ouertakes the act sometimes dogs it afarre off and seizeth vpon the offender when his crime is forgotten Here no sooner is the word out of Elijahs mouth then the fire is out of Heauen Oh the wonderfull power of a Prophet There sits Elijah in his coorse Mantle on the top of the Hill and commands the heauens and they obey him Let fire fall downe from heauen Hee needs no more but say what hee would haue done The fire fals down as before vpon the sacrifice in Carmel so now vpon the Souldiers of Ahaziah What is man in the hands of his Maker One flash of lightning hath confumed these one and fifty And if all the hosts of Israel yea of the world had beene in their roomes there had needed no other force What madnesse is it for him whose breath is in his nosthrils to contend with the Almightie The time was when two zealous Disciples would faine haue imitated this fierie reuenge of Elijah and were repelled with a checke The very place puts them in minde of the iudgement Not farre from Samaria was this done by Elijah and wisht to bee done by the Disciples So churlish a reiection of a Sauiour seemed no lesse hainous then the endeuour of apprehending a Prophet Lord wilt thou that wee command fire to come downe from heauen and consume them as Elias did The world yeelded but one Elias That which was zeale in him might be fury in another the least variation of circumstance may make an example dangerous presently therefore doe they heare Ye know not of what spirit yee are It is the calling that varies the spirit Elijah was Gods Minister for the execution of so seuere a iudgement they were but the Seruants of their owne impotent anger there was fire in their brests which God neuer kindled farre was it from the Sauiour of men to second their earthly fire with his heauenly Hee came indeed to send fire vpon earth but to warme not to burne and if to burne not the persons of men but their corruptions How much more safe is it for vs to follow the meeke Prophet of the New Testament then that feruent Prophet of the Old Let the matter of our prayers be the sweet dewes of mercy not the fires of vengeance Would not any man haue thought Ahaziah sufficiently warned by so terrible a iudgement Could he chuse but say It is no medling with a man that can speake lightening and death What hee hath said concerning mee is too well approued by what hee hath done to my Messengers Gods hand is with him mine shall not bee against him Yet now behold the rage of Ahaziah is so much the more kindled by this fire from heauen and a more resolute Captain with a second band is send to fetch Elijah to death This man is in haste and commands not onely his descent but his speed Come downe quickly The charge implyes a threat Elijah must looke for force if hee yeeld not There needs no other weapon for defence for offence then the same tongue the same breath God hath fire enough for all the troopes of Ahaziah Immediately doth a sudden flame breake out of heauen and consume this forward Leader and his bold followers It is a iust presage and desert of ruine not to be warned Worthily are they made examples that wil not take them What Marble or Flint is harder then a wicked heart As if Ahaziah would despightfully spit in the face of heauen and wrestle a fall with the Almighty hee will needs yet againe set a third Captaine vpon so desperate an imploiment How hot a seruice must this Commander needs thinke himselfe put vpon Who can but pity his straits There is death before him death behinde him If he goe not the Kings wrath is the messenger of death if he goe the Prophets tongue is the executioner of death Many an hard taske will follow the seruice of a Prince wedded to his passion diuorced from God Vnwillingly doubtlesse and fearfully doth this Captaine climbe vp the Hill to scale that impregnable Fort but now when hee comes neere to the assault the battery that hee layes to it is his prayers his surest fight is vpon his knees Hee went vp and came and fell vpon his knees before Elijah and besought him and said vnto him O man of God I pray thee let my life and the life of these fifty thy seruants bee precious in thy sight he confesses the iudgement that befell his Predecessors the monuments of their destruction were in his eye and the terrour of it in his heart of an enemy therefore he is become a suppliant and sues not so much for the
though not so blessed yet so shalt thou be separated that my very dust shall be vnited to thee still and to my Sauiour in thee Wert thou vnwilling at the command of thy Creator to ioine thy selfe at the first with this body of mine why art thou then loth to part with that which thou hast found The Testimonies though intire yet troublesome Doest thou not heare Salomon say The day of death is better than the day of thy birth dost thou not beleeue him or art thou in loue with the worse and displeased with the better If any man could haue found a life worthy to be preferred vnto death so great a King must needs haue done it now in his very Throne he commends his Coffin Yea what wilt thou say to those Heathens that mourned at the birth and feasted at the death of their children They knew the miseries of liuing as well as thou the happinesse of dying they could not know and if they reioiced out of a conceit of ceasing to be miserable how shouldest thou cheere thy selfe in an expectation yea an assurance of being happy He that is the Lord of life and tried what it was to die hath proclaimed them blessed that die in the Lord. Those are blessed I know that liue in him but they rest not from their labours Toyle and sorrow is betweene them and a perfect enioying of that blessednesse which they now possesse onely in hope and inchoation when death hath added rest their happinesse is finished O death how sweet is that rest The taste of our Meditation wherewith thou refreshest the weary Pilgrims of this vale of mortalitie How pleasant is thy face to those eies that haue acquainted themselues with the sight of it which to strangers is grim and gastly How worthy art thou to be welcome vnto those that know whence thou art and whither thou tendest who that knowes thee can feare thee who that is not all nature would rather hide himselfe amongst the baggage of this vile life than follow thee to a Crowne what indifferent Iudge that should see life painted ouer with vaine semblances of pleasures attended with troupes of sorrowes on the one side and on the other with vncertaintie of continuance and certaintie of dissolution and then should turne his eyes vnto death and see her blacke but comely attended on the one hand with a momentanie paine with eternitie of glorie on the other would not say out of choice that which the Prophet said out of passion It is better for me to die than to liue But O my Soule what ailes thee to bee thus suddenly backward and fearefull The Complaint No heart hath more freely discoursed of death in speculation no tongue hath more extolled it in absence And now that it is come to thy beds-side and hath drawne thy curtaines and takes thee by the hand and offers thee seruice thou shrinkest inward and by the palenesse of thy face and wildnesse of thine eye bewraiest an amazement at the presence of such a ghest That face which was so familiar to thy thoughts is now vnwelcome to thine eies I am ashamed of this weake irresolution Whitherto haue tended all thy serious meditations what hath Christianitie done to thee if thy feares bee still heathenish Is this thine imitation of so many worthy Saints of God whom thou hast seene entertaine the violentest deaths with smiles and songs Is this the fruit of thy long and frequent instruction Didst thou thinke death would haue beene content with words didst thou hope it would suffice thee to talke while all other suffer Where is thy faith Yea where art thou thy selfe O my soule Is heauen worthy of no more thankes no more ioy Shall Heretikes shall Pagans giue death a better welcome than thou Hath thy Maker thy Redemer sent for thee and art thou loth to goe hath hee sent for thee to put thee in possession of that glorious Inheritance which thy wardship hath cheerefully expected and art thou loth to goe Hath God with this Sergeant of his sent his Angels to fetch thee and art thou loth to goe Rouze vp thy selfe for shame O my soule and if euer thou hast truly beleeued shake off this vnchristian diffidence and addresse thy selfe ioyfully for thy glory The Wish Yea O my Lord it is thou that must raise vp this faint and drooping heart of mine thou onely canst rid me of this weake and cowardly distrust Thou that sendest for my soule canst prepare it for thy selfe thou onely canst make thy messenger welcome to me O that I could but see thy face through death Oh that I could see death not as it was but as thou hast made it Oh that I could heartily pledge thee my Sauiour in this cup that so I might drinke new wine with thee in thy Fathers Kingdome The Confession But alas O my God nature is strong and weake in mee at once I cannot wish to welcome death as it is worthy when I looke for most courage I finde strongest temptations I see and confesse that when I am my selfe thou hast no such coward as I Let me alone and I shall shame that name of thine which I haue professed euery secure worldling shall laugh at my feeblenesse O God were thy Martyrs thus haled to their stakes might they not haue beene loosed from their rackes and chose to die in those torments Let it be no shame for thy seruant to take vp that complaint which thou mad'st of thy better Attendants The spirit is willing but the flesh is weake The Petition and enforcement O thou God of spirits that hast coupled these two together vnite them in a desire of their dissolution weaken this flesh to receiue and encourage this spirit either to desire or to contemne death and now as I grow neerer to my home let me increase in the sense of my ioyes I am thine saue me O Lord It was thou that didst put such courage into thine ancient and late witnesses that they either inuited or challenged death and held their persecutors their best friends for letting them loose from these gieues of flesh I know thine hand is not shortned neither any of them hath receiued more proofes of thy former mercies Oh let thy goodnesse inable me to reach them in the comfortable steddinesse of my passage Doe but draw this vaile a little that I may see my glory and I cannot but be inflamed with the desire of it It was not I that either made this body for the earth or this soule for my body or this heauen for my soule or this glorie of heauen or this entrance into glory All is thine owne worke Oh perfect what thou hast begun that thy praise and my happinesse may be consummate at once The assurance or Confidence Yea O my soule what need'st thou wish the God of mercies to be tender of his owne honour Art thou not a member of that body whereof thy Sauiour
is without witnesse Openly many sinister respects may draw from vs a forme of religious duties secretly nothing but the power of a good conscience It is to be feared God hath more true and deuout seruice in Closets than in Churches 54 Words and diseases grow vpon vs with yeeres In age we talke much because wee haue seene much and soone after shall cease talking for euer Wee are most diseased because nature is weakest and death which is neere must haue harbingers such is the old age of the World No maruell if this last time be full of writing and weake discourse full of sects and heresies which are the sicknesses of this great and decaied body 55 The best ground vntilled soonest runs out into ranke weeds Such are Gods Children Ouer-growne with securitie ere they are aware vnlesse they bee well exercised both with Gods plow of affliction and their owne industry in meditation A man of knowledge that is either negligent or vncorrected cannot but grow wilde and godlesse 56 With vs vilest things are most common But with God the best things are most frequently giuen Grace which is the noblest of all Gods fauours is vnpartially bestowed vpon all willing receiuers whereas Nobilitie of bloud and height of place blessings of an inferiour nature are reserued for few Herein the Christian followes his Father his praiers which are his richest portion he communicates to all his substance according to his abilitie to few 57 God therefore giues because he hath giuen making his former fauours arguments for more Man therefore shuts his hand because hee hath opened it There is no such way to procure more from God as to vrge him with what hee hath done All Gods blessings are profitable and excellent not so much in themselues as that they are inducements to greater 58 Gods immediate actions are best at first The frame of this creation how exquisite was it vnder his hand afterward blemished by our sinne mans indeuours are weake in their beginnings and perfecter by degrees No science no deuice hath euer beene perfect in his cradle or at once hath seene his birth and maturitie of the same nature are those actions which God worketh mediatly by vs according to our measure of receit The cause of both is on the one side the infinitenesse of his wisdome and power which cannot be corrected by any second assaies On the other our weaknesse helping it selfe by former grounds and trials Hee is an happy man that detracts nothing from Gods works and addes most to his owne 59 The old saying is more common than true that those which are in hell know no other heauen for this makes the damned perfectly miserable that out of their owne torment they see the felicitie of the Saints together with their impossibility of attaining it Sight without hope of fruition is a torment alone Those that here might see God and will not or doe see him obscurely and loue him not shall once see him with anguish of soule and not enioy him 60 Sometimes euill speeches come from good men in their vnaduisednesse and sometimes euen the good speeches of men may proceed from an ill spirit No confession could be better than Satan gaue of Christ It is not enough to consider what is spoken or by whom but whence and for what The spirit is oftentimes tried by the speech but other-times the speech must be examined by the spirit and the spirit by the rule of an higher word 61 Greatnesse puts high thoughts and bigge words into a man whereas the deiected minde takes carelesly what offers it selfe Euery worldling is base-minded and therefore his thoughts creepe still low vpon the earth The Christian both is and knowes himselfe truly great and thereupon mindeth and speaketh of spirituall immortall glorious heauenly things So much as the soule stoopeth vnto earthly thoughts so much is it vnregenerate 62 Long acquaintance as it maketh those things which are euill to seeme lesse euill so it makes good things which at first were vnpleasant delightfull There is no euill of paine not no morall good action which is not harsh at the first Continuance of euill which might seeme to weary vs is the remedy and abatement of wearinesse and the practice of good as it profiteth so it pleaseth He that is a stranger to good and euill findes both of them troublesome God therefore doth well for vs while he exerciseth vs with long afflictions and we doe well to our selues while we continually busie our selues in good exercises 63 Sometimes it is well taken by men that we humble our selues lower than there is cause Thy seruant IACOB saith that good Patriarch to his brother to his inferiour And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selues I am a worme and no man Surely I am more foolish than a man and haue not the vnderstanding of a man in me But I neuer finde that any man bragged to God although in a matter of truth and within the compasse of his desert and was accepted A man may be too lowly in his dealing with men euen vnto contempt with God he cannot but the lower he falleth the higher is his exaltation 64 The soule is fed as the body starued with hunger as the body requires proportionable diet and necessary varietie as the body All ages and statures of the soule beare not the same nourishment There is milke for spirituall Infants strong meat for the growne Christian The spoone is fit for one the knife for the other The best Christian is not so growne that he need to scorne the spoone but the weake Christian may finde a strong feed dangerous How many haue beene cast away with spirituall surfets because being but new-borne they haue swallowed downe bigge morsels of the highest mysteries of godlinesse which they neuer could digest but together with them haue cast vp their proper nourishment A man must first know the power of his stomacke ere he know how with safetie and profit to frequent Gods Ordinary 65 It is very hard for the best man in a sudden extremity of death to satisfie himselfe in apprehending his stay and reposing his heart vpon it for the soule is so oppressed with sudden terrour that it cannot well command it selfe till it haue digested an euill It were miserable for the best Christian if all his former praiers and meditations did not serue to aide him in his last straits and meet together in the center of his extremitie yeelding though not sensible releefe yet secret benefit to the soule whereas the worldly man in this case hauing not laid vp for this houre hath no comfort from God or from others or from himselfe 66 All externall good or euill is measured by sense neither can we account that either good or ill which doth neither actually auaile nor hurt vs spiritually this rule holds not All our best good is insensible For all our future which is the greatest good we hold onely in hope and
lies open to sight and were it not for discretion hee neuer thinkes ought whereof he would auoid a witnesse his word is his parchment and his yea his oath which hee will not violate for feare or for losse The mis-haps of following euents may cause him to blame his prouidence can neuer cause him to eat his promise neither saith he This I saw not but This I said When hee is made his friends Executor he defrayes debts payes legacies and scorneth to gaine by Orphans or to ransacke graues and therefore will be true to a dead friend because he sees him not All his dealings are square and aboue the boord he bewraies the fault of what he sells and restores the ouerseene gaine of a false reckoning He esteemes a bribe venomous though it come guilded ouer with the colour of gratuitie His cheekes are neuer stained with the blushes of recantation neither doth his tongue falter to make good a lie with the secret gloses of double or reserued senses and when his name is traduced his innocencie beares him out with courage then loe hee goes on the plaine way of truth and will either triumph in his integritie or suffer with it His conscience ouer-rules his prouidence so as in all things good or ill he respects the nature of the actions nor the sequell If he see what he must doe let God see what shall follow He neuer loadeth himselfe with burdens aboue his strength beyond his will and once bound what he can he will doe neither doth he will but what he can doe His eare is the Sanctuarie of his absent friends name of his present friends secret neither of them can mis-carry in his trust Hee remembers the wrongs of his youth and repaies them with that vsurie which he himselfe would not take Hee would rather want than borrow and begge than not to pay his faire conditions are without dissembling and he loues actions aboue words Finally he hates falshood worse than death he is a faithfull client of truth no mans enemie and it is a question Whether more another mans friend or his owne and if there were no heauen yet he would be vertuous Of the Faithfull man HIs eies haue no other obiects but absent and inuisible which they see so cleerly as that to them sense is blinde that which is present they see not if I may not rather say that what is past or future is present to them Herein he exceeds all others that to him nothing is impossible nothing difficult whether to beare or vndertake He walkes euery day with his Maker and talkes with him familiarly and liues euer in heauen and sees all earthly things beneath him when he goes in to conuerse with God he weares not his owne clothes but takes them still out of the rich Wardrobe of his Redeemer and then dare boldly prease in and challenge a blessing The celestiall spirits doe not scorne his company yea his seruice He deales in these worldly affaires as a stranger and hath his heart euer at home without a written warrant he dare doe nothing and with it any thing His warre is perpetuall without truce without intermission and his victorie certaine he meets with the infernall powers and tramples them vnder feet The shield that he euer beares before him can neither be missed nor pierced if his hand be wounded yet his heart is safe he is often tripped seldome foyled and if sometimes foyled neuer vanquished He hath white hands and a cleane soule fit to lodge God in all the roomes whereof are set apart for his Holinesse Iniquitie hath oft called at the doore and craued entertainment but with a repulse or if sinne of force will be his tenant his Lord hee cannot His faults are few and those hee hath God will not see Hee is allied so high that hee dare call God Father his Sauiour Brother heauen his patrimonie and thinkes it no presumption to trust to the attendance of Angels His vnderstanding is inlightened with the beames of diuine truth God hath acquainted him with his will and what he knowes hee dare confesse there is not more loue in his heart than libertie in his tongue If torments stand betwixt him and Christ if death he contemnes them and if his owne parents lie in his way to God his holy carelesnesse makes them his foot-steps His experiments haue drawne forth rules of confidence which he dares oppose against all the feares of distrust wherein he thinks it safe to charge God with what he hath done with what he hath promised Examples are his poofes and instances his demonstrations What hath God giuen which he cannot giue What haue others suffered which he may not bee enabled to endure Is hee threatened banishment There he sees the deare Euangelist in Pathmos Cutting in peeces he sees Esay vnder the saw Drowning he sees Ionas diuing into the liuing gulfe Burning he sees the three Children in the hot walke of the Furnace Deuouring he sees Daniel in the sealed denne amids his terrible companions Stoning hee sees the first Martyr vnder his heape of many graue-stones Heading loe there the Baptists necke bleeding in Herodias platter He emulates their paine their strength their glory He wearies not himselfe with cares for he knowes hee liues not of his owne cost not idlely omitting meanes but not vsing them with diffidence In the midst of ill rumors and amazements his countenance changeth not for he knowes both whom hee hath trusted and whither death can leade him He is not so sure he shall die as that he shall be restored and out-faceth his death with his resurrection Finally he is rich in workes busie in obedience cheerefull and vnmoued in expectation better with euils in common opinion miserable but in true iudgement more than a man Of the Humble-man HE is a friendly enemie to himselfe for though hee bee not out of his owne fauour no man sets so low a value of his worth as himselfe not out of ignorance or carelesnesse but of a voluntarie and meeke deiectednesse Hee admires euery thing in another whiles the same or better in himselfe hee thinkes not vnworthily contemned his eies are full of his owne wants and others perfections Hee loues rather to giue than take honour not in a fashion of complementall courtesie but in simplicitie of his iudgement neither doth hee fret at those on whom hee forceth precedencie as one that hoped their modestie would haue refused but holds his minde vnfainedly below his place and is ready to goe lower if need bee without discontent When he hath but his due he magnifieth courtesie and disclaimes his deserts He can be more ashamed of honour than grieued with contempt because hee thinkes that causelesse this deserued His face his cariage his habit fauour of lowlinesse without affectation and yet he is much vnder that he seemeth His words are few and soft neuer either peremptorie or censorious because hee thinkes both each man more wise and none more faultie than
himselfe and when he approcheth to the Throne of God he is so taken vp with the diuine greatnesse that in his owne eies he is either vile or nothing Places of publike charge are faine to sue to him and hale him out of his chosen obscuritie which he holds off not cunningly to cause importunitie but sincerely in the conscience of his defects He frequenteth not the stages of common resorts and then alone thinkes himselfe in his naturall element when hee is shrowded within his owne walls He is euer iealous ouer himselfe and still suspecteth that which others applaud There is no better obiect of beneficence for what he receiues he ascribes meerely to the bountie of the giuer nothing to merit He emulates no man in any thing but goodnesse and that with more desire than hope to ouertake No man is so contented with his little and so patient vnder miseries because he knowes the greatest euils are below his sinnes and the least fauours aboue his deseruings He walkes euer in awe and dare not but subiect euery word and action to an high and iust censure Hee is a lowly valley sweetly planted and well watered the proud mans earth whereon he trampleth but secretly full of wealthy Mines more worth than he that walkes ouer them a rich stone set in lead and lastly a true Temple of God built with a low roofe Of a Valiant man HE vndertakes without rashnesse and personnes without feare hee seekes not for dangers but when they finde him hee beares them ouer with courage with successe He hath oft-times lookt Death in the face and passed by it with a smile and when he sees he must yeeld doth at once welcome and contemne it Hee fore-casts the worst of all euents and encounters them before they come in a secret and mentall warre and if the suddennesse of an vnexpected euill haue surprized his thoughts and infected his cheekes with palenesse he hath no sooner digested it in his conceit than he gathers vp himselfe and insults ouer mischiefe Hee is the master of himselfe and subdues his passions to reason and by this inward victorie workes his owne peace He is afraid of nothing but the displeasure of the Highest and runnes away from nothing but sinne he lookes not on his hands but his cause not how strong he is but how innocent and where goodnesse is his warrant he may be ouer-mastered he cannot be foiled The sword is to him the last of all trials which he drawes forth still as Defendant not as Challenger with a willing kinde of vnwillingnesse no man can better manage it with more safetie with more fauour hee had rather haue his bloud seene than his backe and disdaines life vpon base conditions No man is more milde to a relenting or vanquisht aduersarie or more hates to set his foot on a carcase He had rather smother an iniurie than reuenge himselfe of the impotent and I know not whether more detests cowardlinesse or crueltie He talkes little and brags lesse and loues rather the silent language of the hand to be seene than heard He lies euer close within himselfe armed with wise resolution and will not be discouered but by death or danger He is neither prodigall of bloud to mis-spend it idlely nor niggardly to grudge it when either God calls for it or his Countrey neither is hee more liberall of his owne life than of others His power is limited by his will and he holds it the noblest reuenge that he might hurt and doth not He commands without tyrannie and imperiousnesse obeyes without seruilitie and changes not his minde with his estate The height of his spirits ouer-lookes all casualties and his boldnesse proceeds neither from ignorance nor senselesnesse but first he values euils and then despises them he is so ballaced with wisdome that he floats steddily in the midst of all tempests Deliberate in his purposes firme in resolution bold in enterprising vnwearied in atchieuing and howsoeuer happy in successe and if euer he be ouercome his heart yeelds last Of a Patient man THe patient man is made of a metall not so hard as flexible his shoulders are large fit for a load of iniuries which he beares not out of basenesse and cowardlinesse because he dare not reuenge but out of Christian fortitude because he may not he hath so conquered himselfe that wrongs cannot conquer him and herein alone findes that victory consists in yeelding He is aboue nature while he seemes below himselfe The vildest creature knowes how to turne againe but to command himselfe not to resist being vrged is more than heroicall His constructions are euer full of charity and fauour either this wrong was not done or not with intent of wrong or if that vpon mis-information or if none of these rashnesse though a fault shall serue for an excuse Himselfe craues the offenders pardon before his confession and a slight answer contents where the offended desires to forgiue He is Gods best witnesse when he stands before the barre for truth his tongue is calmely free his forehead firme and hee with erect and setled countenance heares his iust sentence and reioyces in it The Iaylors that attend him are to him his Pages of honour his dungeon the lower part of the vault of heauen his racke or wheele the staires of his ascent to glory he challengeth his executioners and encounters the fiercest paines with strength of resolution and while he suffers the beholders pity him the tormentors complaine of wearinesse and both of them wonder No anguish can master him whether by violence or by lingring He accounts expectation no punishment can abide to haue his hopes adiourned till a new day Good lawes serue for his protection not for his reuenge and his owne power to auoid indignities not to returne them His hopes are so strong that they can insult ouer the greatest discouragements and his apprehensions so deepe that when he hath once fastned he sooner leaueth his life than his hold Neither time nor peruersnesse can make him cast off his charitable endeuours and despaire of preuailing but in spight of all crosses and all denials he redoubleth his beneficiall offers of loue He trieth the sea after many ship-wracks beats still at that doore which he neuer saw opened Contrariety of euents doth but exercise not dismay him and when crosses afflict him he sees a diuine hand inuisibly striking with these sensible scourges against which hee dares not rebell nor murmure Hence all things befall him alike and he goes with the same minde to the shambles and to the fold His recreations are calme and gentle and not more full of relaxation than void of fury This man onely can turne necessity into vertue and put euill to good vse He is the surest friend the latest and easiest enemy the greatest conqueror and so much more happy than others by how much he could abide to be more miserable Of the true Friend HIs affections are both vnited and diuided
the wicked and he that despiseth his waies shall die §. 3. Fidelity in performances To God To man in faithfull reproofe OR whether to God and man 1. Fidelity both first in performing that wee haue vndertaken If thou haue vowed a vow to God deferre not to pay it for hee delighteth not in fooles Ec. 5.3 Ec. 5.4 pay therefore that thou hast vowed It is better that thou shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay it Suffer not thy mouth to make thy flesh to sin Ec. 5.5 Neither say before the Angell that this is ignorance Pr. 20.25 Pr. 12.22 Pr. 28.10 Pr. 28.20 Pr. 25.19 Wherefore shall God bee angry by thy voice and destroy the worke of thine hands For It is destruction to a man to deuoure that which is sanctified and after the vowes to enquire Neither this to God onely but to man They that deale truly are his delight and the vpright shall inherit good things yea The faithfull man shall abound in blessings whereas the perfidious man as he wrongs others for Confidence in an vnfaithfull man in time of trouble Pr. 17.13 is like a broken tooth and a sliding foot so he gaineth not in the end himselfe He that rewardeth euill for good euill shall not depart from his house 2. In a faithfull reproofe Open rebuke is better than secret loue The wounds of a louer are faithfull and the kisses of an enemie are pleasant but false Pr. Pr. 15.12 Pr. 25.12 so that he that reproueth shall finde more thanke at the last and how euer the scorner take it yet he that reproueth the wise and obedient eare is as a gold eare ring and an ornament of fine gold §. 4. Truth in words The qualitie The fruit to himselfe to others The opposites 1. Lies Slander 2. Dissimulation Flatterie HE that speaketh truth will shew righteousnesse Wherein Pr. 12.17 Pr. 14.25 A faithfull Witnesse deliuereth soules but a deceiuer speaketh lies A vertue of no small importance for Death and Life are in the hand of the tongue and as a man loues Pr. 18.21 hee shall eat the fruit thereof to good or euill to himselfe others Himselfe Pr. 15.4 Pr. 12.19 Pr. 10.20 Pr. 10.21 Pr. 23.23 A wholsome tongue is as a Tree of life and the lip of truth shall be stable for euer Others The tongue of the iust man is as fined siluer and the lips of the Righteous doe feed many therefore Buy the truth and sell it not as those doe which either 1. lye 2. slander 3. dissemble or 4. flatter §. 5. The lyer His fashions His manifestation His punishment A Faithfull witnesse will not lie but a false record will speake lies Of those six Pr. 14.5 Pr. 6.16 Pr. 6.17 Pr. 6.19 Pr. 19.28 Pr. 26.28 Pr. 12.19 Pr. 19.5 Pr. 12.22 Pr. 21.28 Pr. 25.18 Pr. 24.28 29. Pr. 30.7 Pr. 30.8 Pr. 19.22 yea seuen things that God hateth two are A lying tongue and a false witnesse that speaketh lies For such a one mocketh at iudgement and his mouth swallowes vp iniquitie yea a false tongue hateth the afflicted He is soone perceiued for a lying tongue varieth incontinently and when he is found A false witnesse shall not be vnpunished and he that speaketh lies shall not escape for the lying lips are abomination to the Lord therefore a false witnesse shall perish and who pitties him Such a one is an hammer a sword a sharpe arrow to his neighbour he deceiueth with his lips and saith I will doe to him as he hath done to me Two things then haue I required of thee denie me them not vntill I die c. Remoue farre from me vanitie and lyes Let me be a poore man rather than a lyer §. 6. The slanderer what his exercise in misreports in vnseasonable medling what his entertainment THis wicked man diggeth vp euill and in his lips is like burning fire Pr. 16.27 Pr. 16.30 Hee shutteth his eies to deuise wickednesse hee moueth his lips and bringeth euill to passe and either hee inuenteth ill rumors A righteous man hateth lying words Pr. 13.5 but the wicked causeth slander and shame Pr. 20.3 Pr. 11.13 Pr. 26.20 Pr. 18.8 or else in true reports he will be foolishly medling and goeth about discouering secrets where he that is of a faithfull heart concealeth matters and by this meanes raiseth discord Without wood the fire is quenched and without a tale-bearer strife ceaseth for the words of a tale-bearer are as flatterings Ec. 7.23 and goe downe into the bowels of the belly therefore as on the one side thou mayest not giue thine heart to all that men speake of thee Pr. 25.23 left thou heare thy seruant cursing thee so on the other no countenance must be giuen to such for As the North-wind driues away raine so doth an angry countenance the slandering tongue §. 7. The dissembler of foure kinds malicious vaine-glorious couetous impenitent The flatterer his successe to himselfe to his friend his remedie Pr. 10.18 THE slanderer and dissembler goe together Hee that dissembleth hatred with lying lips Pr. 26.24 and he that inuenteth slander is a foole There is then a malicious dissembler He that hateth will counterfeit with his lips and in his heart he layeth vp deceit Pr. 26.25 Pr. 26.26 such one though he speake fauourably beleeue him not for there are seuen abominations in his heart Hatred may be couered with deceit but the malice thereof shall at last bee discouered in the congregation There is a vaine-glorious dissembler that maketh himselfe rich Pr. 13.7 Pr. 13.7 Pr. 20.24 Pr. 23.6 Pr. 23.7 and is poore and 3. a couetous There is that makes himselfe poore hauing great riches and this both 1. in bargains It is naught it is naught faith the buyer but when he is gone apart he boasteth and 2. In his entertainment The man that hath an euill eie as though he thought in his heart so will he say to thee Eat and drinke Pr. 28.13 Pr. 27.14 but his heart is not with thee Lastly an impenitent Hee that hideth his sinnes shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall haue mercie The flatterer praiseth his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning but with what successe Pr. 29.5 To himselfe It shall be counted to him for a curse To his friend A man that flattereth his neighbour Pr. 26.28 Pr. 20.19 spreadeth a net for his steps he spreadeth and catcheth For a flattering mouth causeth ruine The onely remedie then is Meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips Ec. 7.7 for It is better to heare the rebuke of wise men than the song of fooles §. 8. Truth in dealings wherein is the true dealers Practices To doe right with ioy Reward Gods loue Good memoriall Pr. 11.3 Pr. 11.5 Pr. 15.19 Pr. 21.8 Pr. 21.3 Pr. 21.15 Pr. 10.16 Pr. 29.7 Pr. 29.10 Pr. 21.8 Pr. 3.29
tarry in the suburbs Grant that these were as ill as an enemy can make them or can pretend them You are deceiued if you thinke the walles of Babylon stand vpon Ceremonies Substantiall errors are both her foundation and frame These rituall obseruations are not so much as Tile and Reede rather like to some Fane vpon the roofe for ornament more then vse Not parts of the building but not necessarie appeadances If you take them otherwise you wrong the Church if thus and yet depart you wrong it and your selfe As if you would haue perswaded righteous Lot not to stay is Zoar because it was so neere Sodome I feare if you had seene the money-changers in the Temple how euer you would haue prayed or taught there Christ did it not forsaking the place but scourging the offenders And this is the valour of Christian teachers To oppose abuses not to runne away from them Where shall you not thus finde Babylon Would you haue runne from Geneua because of her wafers Or from Corinth for her disordered loue-feasts Either runne out of the world or your flight is in vaine If experience of change teach you not that you shall finde your Babylon euery where returne not Compare the place you haue left with that you haue chosen let not feare of seeming to repent ouer-soone make you partiall Loe there a common harbour of all opinions of all heresies if not a mixture Here you drew in the free and cleare aire of the Gospel without that odious composition of Iudaisme Arrianisme Anabaptisme There you liue in the stench of these and more You are vnworthy of pitie if you will approue your misery Say if you can that the Church of England if shee were not yours is not an heauen to Amsterdam How is it then that our gnats are harder to swallow then their camels and that whiles all Christendome magnifies our happinesse and applauds it your handfull alone so detests our enormities that you despise our graces See whether in this you make not God a loser The thanke of all his fauours is lost because you want more and in the meane time who gaines by this sequestration but Rome and Hell How doe they insult in this aduantage that our mothers owne children condemne her for vncleane that we are dayly weakened by our diuisions that the rude multitude hath so palpable a motiue to distrust vs Sure you intended it not but if you had been their hired Agent you could not haue done our enemies greater seruice The God of heauen open your eyes that you may see the vniustice of that zeale which hath transported you and turne your heart to an endeuour of all Christian satisfaction Otherwise your soules shall finde too late that it had beene a thousand times better to swallow a Ceremonie then to rend a Church yea that euen wheredomes and murders shall abide an easier answer then separation I haue done if onely I haue aduised you of that fearfull threatning of the Wise-man The eye that mocketh his father and despiseth the gouernment of his mother the Rauens of the valley shall picke it out and the yong Eagles eate it To Sir ANDREW ASTELEY EP. II. A discourse of our due preparation for death and the meanes to sweeten it to vs. SInce I saw you I saw my father die How boldly and merrily did hee passe thorow the gates of death as if they had no terrour but much pleasure Oh that I could as easily imitate as not forget him We know wee must tread the same way how happy if with the same minde Our life as it giues way to death so must make way for it It will be though we will not it will not bee happy without our will without our preparation It is the best and longest lesson to learne how to die and of surest vse which alone if we take not out it were better not to haue liued Oh vaine studies of men how to walke thorough Rome streets al day in the shade how to square cirles how to salue vp the celestiall motions how to correct mis-written copies to fetch vp old words from forgetfulnesse and a thousand other like points of idle skill whiles the maine care of life and death is neglected There is an Art of this infallible eternall both in truth and vse for though the meanes bee diuers yet the last act is still the same and the disposition of the soule need not be other it is all one whether a feuer bring it or a sword wherein yet after long profession of other sciences I am still why should I shame to confesse a learner and shall be I hope whilest I am yet it shall not repent vs as diligēt schollers repeat their parts vnto each other to be more perfect so mutually to recall some of our rules of well-dying The first whereof is a conscionable life The next a right apprehension of life and death I tread in the beaten path doe you follow me To liue holily is the way to die safely happily If death be terrible yet innocence is bold and will neither feare it selfe nor let vs feare where contrariwise wickednesse is cowardly and cannot abide either any glimpse of light or shew of danger Hope doth not more draw our eyes forward then conscience turnes them backward and forces vs to looke behinde vs affrighting vs euen without past euils Besides the paine of death euery sinne is a new Fury to torment the soule and to make it loth to part How can it chuse when it sees on the one side what euill it hath done on the other vvhat euill it must suffer it vvas a cleare heart what else could doe it that gaue so bold a forehead to that holy Bishop who durst on his death-bed professe I haue so liued as I neither feare to die nor shame to liue What care we when be found if well-doing What care we how suddenly vvhen our preparation is perpetuall What care we how violently vvhen so many inward friends such are our good actions giue vs secret comfort There is no good Steward but is glad of his Audit his straight accounts desire nothing more then a discharge onely the doubtfull and vntrustie feares of his reckoning Neither onely doth the vvant of integritie make vs timorous but of wisedome in that our ignorance cannot equally value either the life which vve leaue or the death vve expect Wee haue long conuersed vvith this life and yet are vnacquainted how should wee then know that death we neuer saw or that life vvhich followes that death These cottages haue been ruinous and wee haue not thought of their fall our way hath beene deepe and we haue not looked for our rest Shew mee euer any man that knew vvhat life vvas and vvas loth to leaue it I vvill shew you a prisoner that would dwell in his Goale a slaue that likes to be chained to his Galley What is there here but darknesse of ignorance discomfort of euents impotency of
Gods ancient law would haue made a quicke dispatch and haue determined the case by the death of the offender and the liberty of the innocent and not it alone How many Heathen Law-giuers haue subscribed to Moses Arabians Grecians Romans yea very Gothes the dregs of Barbarisme haue thought this wrong not expiable but by blood With vs the easinesse of reuenge as it yeelds frequence of offences so multitude of doubts Whether the wronged husband should conceale or complaine complaining whether he should retaine or dismisse dismissing whether he may marry or must continue single not continuing single whether he may receiue his own or chuse another but your inquiries shall be my bounds The fact you say is too euident Let me aske you To your selfe or to the world This point alone must vary our proceedings Publike notice requires publike discharge Priuate wrongs are in our owne power publike in the hands of authority The thoughts of our owne brests while they smother themselues within vs are at our command whether for suppressing or expressing but if they once haue vented themselues by words vnto others eares now as common strayes they must stand to the hazard of censure such are our actions Neither the sword nor the keyes meddle within doores what but they vvithout If fame haue laid hold on the wrong prosecute it cleere your name cleere your house yea Gods Else you shall be reputed a Pandar to your owne bed and the second shame shall surpasse the first so much as your owne fault can more blemish you then anothers If there were no more he is cruelly mercifull that neglects his owne fame But what if the sinne were shrouded in secrecy The loathsomnesse of vice consists not in common knowledge It is no lesse hainous if lesse talked of Report giues but shame God and the good soule detest close euils Yet then I ask not of the offence but of the offender not of her crime but her repentance She hath sinned against heauen and you But hath she washed your polluted bed with her teares Hath her true sorrow beene no lesse apparant then her sinne Hath she peeced her old vow with new protestations of fidelity Do you find her at once humbled and changed Why should that eare be deafe to her prayers that was open to her accusation why is there not yet place for mercy Why doe we Christians liue as vnder Martiall law wherein we sinne but once Plead not authority Ciuilians haue beene too rigorous the mercifull sentence of Diuinity shal sweetly temper humane seuereness How many haue we known the better for their sinne That Magdalene her predecessor in filthinesse had neuer loued so much if she had not so much sinned How oft hath Gods Spouse deserued a diuorce which yet still her confessions her teares haue reuersed How oft hath that scroll beene written and signed and yet againe cancelled and torne vpon submission His actions not his words onely are our precepts Why is man cruell where God relents The wrong is ours onely for his sake without whose law were no sinne If the Creditor please to remit the debt doe standers-by complaine But if she be at once filthy and obstinate flie from her bed as contagious Now your beneuolence is adultery you impart your body to her she her sinne to you A dangerous exchange An honest body for an harlots sinne Herein you are in cause that she hath more then one adulterer I applaud the rigour of those ancient Canons which haue still roughly censured euen this cloake of vice As there is necessity of charity in the former so of iustice in this If you can so loue your wife that you detest not her sin you are a better husband then a Christian a better bawd then an husband I dare say no more vpon so generall a relation good Physitians in dangerous diseases dare not prescribe on bare sight of vrine or vncertaine report but will feele the pulse and see the symptomes ere they resolue on the receit You see how no niggard I am of my counsels would God I could as easily asswage your griefe as satisfie your doubts To M. ROBERT HAY. EPIST. VIII A Discourse of the continuall exercise of a Christian how he may keepe his heart from hardnesse and his wayes from error TO keepe the heart in vre with God is the highest taske of a Christian Good motions are not frequent but the constancy of good disposition is rare and hard This worke must be continuall or else speedeth not like as the body from a setled and habituall distemper must be recouered by long diets and so much the rather for that we cannot intermit here without relapses If this field be not tilled euery day it will runne out into thistles The euening is fittest for this worke when retyred into our selues we must cheerefully and constantly both looke vp to God and into our hearts as we haue to doe with both to God in thanksgiuing first then in request It shall be therefore expedient for the soule duly to recount to it selfe all the specialties of Gods fauours a confused thankes fauours of carelesnesse and neither doth affect vs nor win acceptance aboue Bethinke your selfe then of all these externall inferiour earthly graces that your being breathing life motion reason is from him that hee hath giuen you a more noble nature then the rest of the creatures excellent faculties of the mind perfection of senses soundnesse of body competency of estate seemlinesse of condition fitnesse of calling preseruation from dangers rescue out of miseries kindnesse of friends carefulnesse of education honesty of reputation liberty of recreations quietnesse of life opportunity of well-doing protection of Angels Then rise higher to his spirituall fauours tho here on earth and striue to raise your affections with your thoughts Blesse God that you were borne in the light of the Gospell for your profession of the truth for the honor of your vocation for your incorporating into the Church for the priuiledge of the Sacraments the free vse of the Scriptures the communion of Saints the benefit of their prayers the ayde of their counsels the pleasure of their conuersation for the beginnings of regeneration any foot-steps of faith hope loue zeale patience peace ioy conscionablenesse for any desire of more Then let your soule mount highest of all into her heauen and acknowledge those celestiall graces of her election to glory redemption from-shame and death of the intercession of her Sauiour of the preparation of her place and there let her stay a while vpon the meditation of her future ioyes This done the way is made for your request Sue now to your God as for grace to answer these mercies so to see wherein you haue not answered them From him therefore cast your eyes downe vpon your selfe and as some carefull Iusticer doth a suspected fellon so doe you strictly examine your heart of what you haue done that day of what you should haue done enquire whether
will you embrace him for his sake that hath stricken him or auoid him for his sake that hath forbidden you If you honour his rod much more will you regard his precept If you mislike not the affliction because he sends it then loue the life which you haue of his sending feare the iudgement which he will send if you loue it not He that bids vs flee when we are persecuted hath neither excepted Angell nor man whether soeuer I feare our guiltinesse if wilfully we flee not But whither shall we flee from God say you where shall he not both find and lead vs whither shall not our destiny follow vs Vaine men we may runne from our home not from our graue Death is subtle our time is set we cannot God will not alter it Alas how wise we are to wrong our selues Because Death will ouer-take vs shall we runne and meet him Because Gods decree is sure shall we be desperate Shall we presume because God changeth not Why doe we not trye euery knife and cord since our time is neither capable of preuention nor delay our end is set not without our meanes In matter of danger where the end is not knowne the meanes must be suspected in matter of hope where the end is not knowne meanes must be vsed Vse then freely the meanes of your flight suspect the danger of your stay and since there is no particular necessity of your presence know that God bids you depart and liue You vrge the instance of your Minister How vnequally There is not more lawfulnesse in your flight then sin in ours you are your owne wee our peoples you are charged with a body which you may not willingly leese not hazard by staying wee with all their soules which to hazard by absence is to lose our owne we must loue our liues but not when they are riuals with our soules or with others How much better is it to bee dead then negligent then faithlesse If some bodies be contagiously sicke shall all soules bee wilfully neglected There can be no time wherein good counsell is so seasonable so needfull Euery threatning finds impression where the mind is prepared by sensible iudgements When will the ironhearts of men bow if not when they are heat in the flame of Gods affliction now then to runne away from a necessary and publike good to auoid a doubtfull and priuate euill is to runne into a worse euill then wee would auoid He that will thus runne from Niniue to Tharsis shall find a tempest and a whale in his way Not that I dare be an author to any of the priuate visitation of infected beds I dare not without better warrant VVho euer said wee were bound to close vp the dying eyes of euery departing Christian and vpon what-euer conditions to heare their last grones If we had a word I would not debate of the successe Then that were cowardlinesse which now is wisedome Is it no seruice that wee publikely teach and exhort that we priuately prepare men for death and arme them against it that our comfortable letters and messages stir vp their fainting hearts that our loud voyces pierce their eares afarre vnlesse we feele their pulses and leane vpon their pillowes and whisper in their eares Daniel is in the Lyons den Is it nothing that Darius speakes comfort to him thorow the grate vnlesse he goe in to salute him among those fierce companions A good Minister is the common goods hee cannot make his life peculiar to one without iniury to many In the common cause of the Church he must be no niggard of his life in the priuate cause of a neighbours bodily sicknesse he may soone be prodigall A good father may not spend his substance on one child and leaue the rest beggers If any man be resolute in the contrary I had rather praise his courage then imitate his practice I confesse I feare not so much death as want of warrant for death To M. R. B. EP. X. A complaint of the iniquity of the Times with a prescription of the meanes to redresse it WHiles I accused the Times you vndertooke their patronage I commend your charity not your cause It is true There was neuer any Age not complained of neuer any that was not censured as worst VVhat is we see what was we neither inquire nor care That which is out of sight and vse is soone out of mind and ere long out of memory Yet the iniquity of others cannot excuse ours And if you will be but as iust as charitable you shall confesse that both some times exceed others in euill and these all This earthly Moone the Church hath her fuls and wainings and sometimes her eclypses whiles the shadow of this sinfull masse hides her beauty from the world So long as she wadeth in this planetary world it should be vaine to expect better it is enough when she is fixed aboue to be free from all change This you yeeld but nothing can perswade you that shee is not now in the full of her glory True or else she were not subiect to this darkning There was neuer more light of knowledge neuer more darknesse of impiety and there could not be such darknesse if there were not such light Goodnesse repulsed giues height to sin therefore are we worse then our predecessors because we might be better By how much our meanes are greater by so much are our defects Turne ouer all records and parallell such helps such care such cost such expectation with such fruit I yeeld We see but our owne times There was neuer but one Noah whom the Heathen celebrate vnder another name that with two faces saw both before and behind him But loe that Ancient of dayes to whom all times are present hath told vs that these last shal be worst Our experience iustifies him with all but the wilfull This censure lest you should condemne my rigour as vnnaturally partiall is not confined to our seas but free and common hath the same bounds with the earth I ioy not in this large society Would God we were euill alone How few are those whose cariage doth not say that profession of any conscience is pusillanimity How few that care so much as to shew well And yet of those few how many care onely to seeme whose words disagree from their actions and their hearts from their words Where shall a man mew vp himselfe that he may not be a witness of what he would not What can he see or heare and not bee either sad or guilty Oathes striue for number with words scoffes with oathes vaine speeches with both They are rare hands that are free either from aspersions of blood or spots of filthinesse Let mee bee at once as I vse bold and plaine VVanton excesse excessiue pride close Atheisme impudent profanenesse vnmercifull oppression ouer-mercifull conniuence greedy couetousnesse loose prodigality simoniacall sacriledge vnbrideled luxury beastly drunkennesse bloody treachery cunning fraud slanderous detraction
that may challenge and command our eares and hearts this is it for behold the sweetest word that euer Christ spake and the most meritorious act that euer he did are met together in this his last breath In the one yee shall see him triumphing yeelding in the other yet so as he ouercomes Imagine therefore that you saw Christ Iesus in this day of his passion who is euery day here crucified before your eyes aduanced vpon the Chariot of his Crosse and now after a weary conflict cheerefully ouer-looking the despight and shame of men the wrath of his Father the Law sinne death hell which all he gasping at his foot and then you shall conceiue with what spirit he saith Consummatum est It is finished What is finished Shortly All the prophesies that were of him All legall obseruations that prefigured him his owne sufferings our saluation The prophesies are accomplisht the ceremonies abolisht his sufferings ended our saluation wrought these foure heads shall limit this first part of my speech onely let them finde and leaue you attentiue Euen this very word is prophesied of All things that are written of mee haue an end saith Christ What end This it is finished This very end hath his end here What therefore is finished Not this prediction onely of his last draught as Augustine that were too particular Let our Sauiour himselfe say All things that are written of mee by the Prophets It is a sure and conuertible rule Nothing was done by Christ which was not foretold Nothing was euer foretold by the Prophets of Christ which was not done It would take vp a life to compare the Prophets and Euangelists ☜ ☞ Esay 7.14 Matth. 1.23 Michah 5.2 Matth. 2.6 Esay 11.1 Matth. 2.15 Ieremie 31.15 Matth. 2.18 Iudg. 13.5 Matth. 2. vlt. Esay 40.3 Matth. 3.2 Esay 9.1 Matth. 4.15 Leuit. 14.4 Matth. 8.4 Esay 53.4 Matth. 8.17 Esay 61.1 Matth. 11.4 Esay 42.1 Matth. 12.17 Ionah 1.17 Matth. 12.40 Esay 6.9 Matth. 13.14 Psalm 78.2 Matth. 13.35 Esay 35.5 6. Matth. 15.30 Esay 62.11 Matth. 21.5 Zach. 9.9 Matth. Ibidem Ieremie 7.11 Matth. 21.13 Psalm 8.2 Matth. 21.16 Esay 5.8 Matth. 21.33 Psal 118.22 Matth. 21.44 Psal 110.1 Matth. 22.44 Esay 3.14 Matth. 21.44 Psal 41.9 Matth. 26.31 Esay 53.10 Matth. 26.54 Zach. 13.7 Matth. 26.31 Lam. 4.20 Matth. 26.56 Esay 50.6 Matth. 26.67 Zach. 11.13 Matth. 27.9 Psalm 22.18 Matth. 27.35 Psalm 22.2 Matth. 27.46 Psalm 69.22 Matth. 27.48 the predictions and the history and largely to discourse how the one foretels and the other answers let it suffice to looke at them running Of all the Euangelists Saint Matthew hath beene most studious in making these references and correspondences with whom the burden or vndersong of euery euent is still vt impleretur That it might bee fulfilled Thus hath he noted if I haue reckoned them aright two and thirtie seuerall prophesies concerning Christ fulfilled in his birth life death To which S. Iohn adds many more Our speech must bee directed to his Passion Omitting the rest let vs insist in those He must be apprehended it was fore-prophesied The Anointed of the Lord was taken in their nets saith Ieremie but how he must be sold for what thirty siluer peeces and what must those doe buy a field all foretold And they tooke thirty siluer peeces the price of him that was valued and gaue them for the Potters field saith Zacharie miswritten Ieremie by one letter mistaken in the abbreuiation By whom That childe of perdition that the Scripture might bee fulfilled Which was hee It is foretold He that eateth bread with me saith the Psalmist And what shall his Disciples doe Runne away so saith the prophesie I will smite the shepherd and the sheepe shall bee scattered saith Zacharie What shall bee done to him Hee must be scourged and spet vpon behold not those filthy excrements could haue light vpon his sacred face without a prophesie I hid not my face from shame and spetting saith Esay What shall bee the issue In short he shall be led to death it is the prophesie The Messias shall bee slaine saith Daniel what death He must be lift vp Like as Moses lift vp the Serpent in the wildernesse so shall the Sonne of man bee lift vp Chrysostome saith well that some actions are parables so may I say some actions are prophesies such are all types of Christ and this with the formost Lift vp whither to the Crosse it is the prophesie hanging vpon a tree saith Moses how lift vp nailed to it so is the prophesie Foderunt manus They haue pierced my hands and my feet saith the Psalmist With what companie Two theeues With the wicked was hee numbred saith Esay Where Without the gates saith the prophesie What becomes of his garments They cannot so much as cast the dice for his coat but it is prophesied They diuided my garments and on my vestures cast lots saith the Psalmist Hee must die then on the Crosse but how voluntarily Not a bone of him shall be broken what hinders it loe there he hangs as it were neglected and at mercy yet all the raging Iewes no all the Deuils in hell cannot stir one bone in his blessed bodie It was prophesied in the Easter-Lamb and it must bee fulfilled in him that is the true Passeouer in spight of fiends and men how then hee must be thrust in the side behold not the very speare could touch his precious side being dead but it must be guided by a prophesie They shall see him whom they haue thrust thorow saith Zacharie what shall he say the while not his very words but are fore-spoken his complaint Eli Eli lammasabactani as the Chalde or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew Psalm 22.2 his resignation In manus tuas Into thy hands I commend my spirit Psal 31.5 his request Father forgiue them Hee prayed for the transgressors saith Esay And now when hee saw all these prophesies were fulfilled knowing that one remained he said I thirst Domine quid sitis saith one O Lord what thirstest thou for A strange hearing that a man yea that GOD and MAN dying should complaine of thirst Could hee endure the scorching flames of the wrath of his Father the curse of our sinnes those tortures of bodie those horrours of soule and doth he shrinke at his thirst No no he could haue borne his drought he could not beare the Scripture not fulfilled It was not necessitie of nature but the necessitie of his Fathers decree that drew forth this word I thirst They offered it before he refused it Whether it were an ordinarie potion for the condemned to hasten death as in the storie of M. Anthonie which is the most receiued construction or whether it were that Iewish potion whereof the Rabbines speake whose tradition was that the malefactor to be executed Sit mors mea in remissionâ—m omnium miquitatuÌ„ mearum Vt vsus rationis tollatur should after some good counsell from two
of their Teachers be taught to say Let my death be to the remission of all my sinnes and then that he should haue giuen him a boule of mixt wine with a graine of Frankincense to bereaue him both of reason and paine I durst be confident in this latter the rather for that S. Marke calls this draught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Myrrh-wine mingled as is like with other ingredients And Montanus agrees with me in the end Ad stuporem mentis alienationem A fashion which Galatine obserues out of the Sannedrim to bee grounded vpon Prou. 31.6 Giue strong drinke to him that is ready to perish I leaue it modestly in the middest let the learneder iudge Whatsoeuer it were he would not die till he had complained of thirst and in his thirst tasted it Neither would he haue thirsted for or tasted any but this bitter draught that the Scripture might be fulfilled They gaue mee vineger to drinke And loe now Consummatum est All is finished If there be any Iew amongst you that like one of Iohns vnseasonable Disciples shall aske Art thou he or shall we looke for another hee hath his answer Yee men of Israel why stand you gazing and gaping for another Messias In this alone all the Prophesies are finished and of him alone all was prophesied that was finished Pauls old rule holds still To the Iewes a stumbling blocke and that more ancient curse of Dauid Let their table bee made a snare And Steuens two brands sticke still in the flesh of these wretched men One in their necke stiffe-necked the other in their heart vncircumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one Obstinacie the other Vnbeleefe stiffe necks indeed that will not stoope and relent with the yoke of sixteene hundred yeeres iudgement and seruilitie vncircumcised hearts the filme of whose vnbeleefe would not be cut off with so infinite conuictions Oh mad and miserable Nation let them shew vs one prophesie that is not fulfilled let them shew vs one other in whom all the prophesies can be fulfilled and we will mix pittie with our hate If they cannot and yet resist their doome is past Those mine enemies that would not haue me to reigne ouer them bring them hither and slay them before me So let thine enemies perish O Lord. But what goe I so far Euen amongst vs to our shame this riotous age hath bred a monstrous generation I pray God I be not now in some of your bosomes Aug ad Hit Dâ—m volunt Iudaei esse Christiani nec Iudae sunt nec Christiani that heare me this day compounded much like to the Turkish religion of one part Christian another Iew a third worldling a fourth Atheist a Christians face a Iewes heart a worldlings life and therefore Atheous in the whole that acknowledge a God and know him not that professe a Christ but doubt of him yea beleeue him not The foole hath said in his heart There is no Christ What shall I say of these men They are worse than deuils that yeelding spirit could say Iesus I know and these miscreants are still in the old tune of that tempting deuill Situ es filius Dei If thou bee the Christ Oh God that after so cleare a Gospell so many miraculous confirmations so many thousand martyrdomes so many glorious victories of truth so many open confessions of Angels men deuils friends enemies such conspirations of heauen and earth such vniuersall contestations of all Ages and people there should be left any sparke of this damnable infidelitie in the false hearts of men Behold then yee despisers and wonder and vanish away Whom haue all the Prophets foretold or what haue the prophesies of so many hundreds yea thousands of yeeres foresaid that is not with this word finished who could foretell these things but the Spirit of God who could accomplish them but the Sonne of God Hee spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets saith Zacharie he hath spoken and he hath done one true God in both none other spirit could foresay these things should be done none other power could doe these things thus fore-shewed this word therefore can fit none but the mouth of God our Sauiour It is finished Wee know whom wee haue beleeued Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God Let him that loues not the Lord Iesus be accursed to the death Thus the prophesies are finished Of the legall obseruations with more breuitie Christ is the end of the Law What Law Ceremoniall Morall Of the Morall it was kept perfectly by himselfe satisfied fully for vs Of the Ceremoniall it was referred to him obserued of him fulfilled in him abolisht by him There were nothing more easie than to shew you how all those Iewish Ceremonies lookt at Christ how Circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passeouer the Tabernacle both outer and inner the Temple the Lauer both the Altars the Tables of Shew-bread the Candlesticks the Vaile the Holy of Holies the Arke the Propitiatorie the pot of Manna Aarons Rod the High Priest his Order Line his Habits his Inaugurations his Washings his Anointings his Sprinklings Offerings the sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what-euer Iewish Rite had their vertue from Christ relation to him and their end in him This was then their last gaspe for now straight they died with Christ now the vaile of the Temple rent As Austen well notes out of Matthewes order Ex quo apparet tunc scissiam esse cum Cirillus emisit spiritam It tore then when Christs last breath passed That conceit of Theophilact is wittie that as the Iewes were wont to rend their garments when they heard blasphemie so the Temple not enduring these execrable blasphemies against the Sonne of God tore his vaile in peeces But this is not all the vaile rent is the obligation of the rituall Law canceled the way into the heauenly Sanctuarie opened the shadow giuing roome to the substance in a word it doth that which Christ saith Consummatum est Euen now then the law of Ceremonies died It had a long and solemne buriall Ceremoniae ficut defancta corpora necessariorum efficijs deducenda erant ad sepulturaÌ„ non simulatè sed religiose nec descrenda continuò Augustin Ego è contrario loquaâ— reclamante mundo libâ—râ voce pronunciem ceremonas Iudaeorum perniciâ—saâ— essâ— mortiferas quicunque eas obsâ—ruauâ—râ—t siue ex Iudaeis siuâ— ex Gentibus in barathrum diaboli deuolutum Hier. Quisque is nunc ea celebrare voluerit tanquam sopitos cineres erucus non erit pius c. as Augustine saith well perhaps figured in Moses who died not lingeringly but was thirty dayes mourned for what meanes the Church of Rome to digge them vp now rotten in their graues and that not as they had beeene buried but sowen with a plenteous increase yea with the inuerted vsurie of too many of you Citizens ten for one It is a graue and deepe
censure of that resolute Hierome Ego è contrario loquar c. I say saith he and in spight of all the world dare maintaine that now the Iewish ceremonies are pernitious and deadly and whosoeuer shall obserue them whether hee be Iew or Gentile in barathrum Diaboli deuolutum Shall frie in Hell for it Still Altars still Priest sacrifices still still washings still vnctions sprinkling shauing purifying still all and more than all Let them heare but Augustines censure Quisquis nunc c. Whosoeuer shall now vse them as it were raking them vp out of their dust hee shall not bee Pius deductor corporis sed impius sepulturae violator an impious and sacrilegious wretch that ransacks the quiet tombes of the dead I say not that all Ceremonies are dead but the Law of Ceremonies and of Iewish It is a sound distinction of them that profound Peter Martyr hath in his Epistle to that worthy Martyr Father Bishop Hooper Some are typicall fore-signifying Christ to come some of order and decencie those are abrogated not these the Iewes had a fashion of prophesying in the Churches so the Christians from them as Ambrose the Iewes had an eminent pulpit of wood so wee they gaue names at their Circumcision so wee at Baptisme they sung Psalmes melodiously in Churches so doe we they paid and receiued tithes so doe wee they wrapt their dead in linnen with odors so wee the Iewes had sureties at their admission into the Church so wee these instances might be infinite the Spouse of Christ cannot bee without her laces and chaines and borders Christ came not to dissolue order But thou O Lord how long how long shall thy poore Church finde her ornaments her sorrowes and see the deare sonnes of her wombe bleeding about these apples of strife let mee so name them not for their value euen small things when they are commanded looke for no small respect but for their euent the enemie is at the gates of our Syracuse how long will wee suffer our selues taken vp with angles and circles in the dust yee Men Brethren and Fathers helpe for Gods sake put to your hands to the quenching of this common flame the one side by humilitie and obedience the other by compassion both by prayers and teares who am I that I should reuiue to you the sweet spirit of that diuine Augustine who when hee heard and saw the bitter contentions betwixt two graue and famous Diuines Ierome and Ruffine Heu mihi saith he qui vos alicubi fiâ—al inuenire non possum Alas that I should neuer finde you two together how I would fall at your feet how I would embrace them and weepe vpon them and beseech you either of you for other and each for himselfe both of you for the Church of God but especially for the weake for whom Christ died who not without their owne great danger see you two fighting in this Theatre of the world Yet let me doe what he said he would doe begge for peace as for life by your filiall pietie to the Church of God whose ruines follow vpon our diuisions by your loue of Gods truth by the graces of that one blessed Spirit whereby we are all informed and quickned by the precious bloud of that Sonne of God which this day and this houre was shed for our redemption bee inclined to peace and loue and though our braines be different yet let our hearts be one It was as I heard the dying speech of our late reuerend worthy and gratious Diocesan Modo me moriente viuat ac floreat Ecclesia Oh yet if when I am dead the Church may liue and flourish What a spirit was here what a speech how worthy neuer to die how worthy of a soule so neere to his heauen how worthy of so happy a succession Yee whom God hath made inheritors of this blessed care who doe no lesse long for the prosperitie of Sion liue you to effect what hee did but liue to wish all peace with our selues and warre with none but Rome and Hell And if there bee any wayward Separatist whose soule professeth to hate peace I feare to tell him Pauls message yet I must Si tu pacem sugis ego te ab Ecclesia fugere mando Would to God those were cut off that trouble you How cut off As good Theodosius said to Demophilus a contentious Prelate Si tu pacem fugis c. If thou flie peace I will make thee flie the Church Alas they doe flie it that which should be therir punishment they make their contentment how are they worthy of pittie As Optatus of his Donatists they are Brethren might be companions and will not Oh wilfull men whither doe they runne from one Christ to another Is Christ diuided we haue him thankes be to our good God and we heare him daily and whither shall we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life Thus the Ceremonies are finished now heare the end of his sufferings with like patience and deuotion his death is here included it was so neere that he spake of it as done and when it was done all was done How easie is it to lose our selues in this discourse how hard not to be ouerwhelmed with matter of wonder and to finde either beginning or end his sufferings found an end our thoughts cannot Lo with this word he is happily waded out of those deeps of sorrowes whereof our conceits can finde no bottome yet let vs with Peter gird our coat and cast our selues a little into this sea All his life was but a perpetuall Passion In that he became man he suffered more than wee can doe either while we are men or when we cease to be men he humbled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea he emptied himselfe We when we cease to be here are cloathed vpon 2 Cor. 5. Wee both winne by our being and gaine by our losse he lost by taking our more or lesse to himselfe that is manhood For though euer as God I and my Father are one yet as man My Father is greater than I. That man should be turned into a beast into a worme into dust into nothing is not so great a disparagement as that God should become man and yet it is not finished it is but begun But what man If as the absolute Monarch of the world hee had commanded the vassalage of all Emperors and Princes and had trod on nothing but Crownes and Scepters and the necks of Kings and bidden all the Potentates of the earth to attend his traine this had carried some port with it sutable to the heroicall Maiestie of Gods Sonne No such matter here is neither Forme nor Beautie vnlesse perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the forme of a seruant you haue made me to serue with your sinnes Behold hee is a man to God a seruant to man and be it spoken with holy reuerence a drudge to his seruants Hee is despised and reiected of men yea as
sinnes is a thorne and nayle and speare to him while thou powrest downe thy drunken carowses thou giuest thy Sauiour a potion of gall while thou despisest his poore seruants thou spettest on his face while thou puttest on thy proud dresses and liftest vp thy vaine heart with high conceits thou settest a Crowne of thornes on his head while thou wringest and oppressest his poore children thou whippest him and drawest bloud of his hands and feet Thou hypocrite how darest thou offer to receiue the Sacrament of God with that hand which is thus imbrued with the bloud of him whom thou receiuest In euery Ordinary thy prophane tongue walkes in the disgrace of the religious and conscionable Thou makest no scruple of thine owne sinnes and scornest those that doe Not to be wicked is crime enough Heare him that saith Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me Saul strikes at Damascus Christ suffers in Heauen Thou strikest Christ Iesus smarteth and will reuenge These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterings of Christs sufferings In himselfe it is finished in his members it is not till the world bee finished Wee must toile and groane and bleed that we may raigne if he had not done so It had not beene finished This is our warfare this is the region of our sorrow death Now are wee set vpon the sandy pauement of our Theatre and are marched with all sorts of euils euill men euill spirits euill accidents and which is worst our owne euill hearts temptations crosses persecutions sicknesses wants infamies death all these must in our courses bee encountred by the Law of our profession What should we doe but striue and suffer as our Generall hath done that we may raigne as he doth and once triumph in our Consummatum est God and his Angels sit vpon the scaffolds of heauen and behold vs our Crowne is ready our day of deliuerance shall come yea our redemption is neere when all teares shall be wip't from our eyes and we that haue sowne in teares shall reape in ioy In the meane time let vs possesse our soules not in patience only but in comfort let vs adore and magnifie our Sauiour in his sufferings and imitate him in our owne our sorrowes shall haue an end our ioyes shall not our paines shall soone be finished our glory shall be finished but neuer ended Thus his sufferings are finished now together with them mans saluation Who knowes not that man had made himselfe a deepe debter a bankrupt an outlaw to God Our sinnes are our debts and by sinnes death Now in this word and act our sinnes are discharged death endured and therefore we cleared the debt is paid the score is crossed the Creditor satisfied the debters acquitted and since there was no other quarrell saued we are all sicke and that mortally sinne is the disease of the soule Quot vitia tot febres saith Chrysostome so many sinnes so many feuers and those pestilent What wonder is it that we haue so much plague while wee haue so much sinne Our Sauiour is the Physician The whole need not the Physician but the sicke wherein He healeth all our infirmities hee healeth them after a miraculous manner not by giuing vs receits but by taking our receits for vs. A wonderfull Physician a wonderfull course of cure One while he would cure vs by abstinence our superfluitie by his fortie dayes emptinesse according to that old rule Hunger cures the diseases of gluttony Another while by exercise He went vp and downe from Citie to Citie and in the day was preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount Then by diet Take eat this is my body and Let this cup passe After that yet by sweat such a sweat as neuer was a bloudy one yet more by incision they pierced his hands feet side and yet againe by potion a bitter potion of vineger and gall And lastly which is both the strangest and strongest receit of all by dying Which died for vs that whether we wake or sleepe 1 Thâ—ff 5.10 we should liue together with him We need no more we can goe no further there can be no more physicke of this kinde there are cordials after these of his Resurrection and Ascension no more penall receits By this bloud wee haue redemption Ephes 1.7 Iustification Rom. 3.24 Reconciliation Colos 1.20 Sanctification 1 Pet. 1.2 Entrance into glory Heb. 10.19 Is it not now finished Woe were vs if he had left but one mite of satisfaction vpon our score to be discharged by our soules and woe be to them that derogate from Christ that they may charge themselues that botch vp these all-sufficiently meritorious sufferings of Christ as imperfect with the superfluities of flesh and bloud Maledictus homo qui spem ponit in homine We may not with patience see Christ wrong'd by his false friends As that heroicall Luther said in the like Maledictum silentium quod hic conninet Cursed be that silence that here forbeareth To be short here be two iniuries intolerable both giue Christ the lie vpon his Crosse It is finished No somewhat remaines the fault is discharged not the punishment Of punishments the eternall is quit not the temporall It is finished by Christ No there wants yet much the satisfaction of Saints applied by this Vicar adde mens sufferings vnto Christs then the treasure is full till then It is not finished Two qualities striue for the first place in these two opinions impiety and absurdity I know not whether to preferre For impiety here is God taxed of iniustice vnmercifulnesse insufficiency falshood Of iniustice that he forgiues a sinne and yet punishes for that which he hath forgiuen vnmercifulnesse that he forgiues not while he forgiues but doth it by halues insufficiency that his ransome must be supplied by men falshood in that hee saith It is finished when it is not For absurdity how grosse and monstrous are these positions that at once the same sinne should be remitted and retained that there should bee a punishment where there is no fault that what could strike off our eternall punishment did not wipe off the temporall that hee which paid our pounds stickes at our farthings that God will retaine what man may discharge that it is and it is not finished If there be any opinions whose mention confutes them these are they None can be more vaine none had more need of solidity for this prop beares vp alone the weight of all those millions of indulgences which Rom. creates and sels to the world That Strumpet would well-neere go naked if this were not These spirituall Treasures fetcht in the Temporall which yet our reuerend and learned Fulke iustly cals a most blasphemous and beggerly principle It brings in whole chests yea mines of gold like the Popes Indies and hath not so much as a ragge of proofe to couer it whether of Antiquitie of Reason of Scripture Not of Antiquity for these Iubily proclamations beganne but
Redeemer If thou die not if not willingly thou goest contrary to him and shalt neuer meet him Si per singules diâ—s pro â—o moreremur qui nos dlexit non sic debitum exolueremus Chrys Though thou shouldest euery day die a death for him thou couldest neuer requite his one death and doest thou sticke at one Euery word hath his force both to him and thee he died which is Lord of life and commander of death thou art but a tenant of life a subiect of death and yet it was not a dying but a giuing vp not of a vanishing and airy breath but of a spirituall soule which after separation hath an entire life in it selfe Hee gaue vp the Ghost hee died that hath both ouercome and sanctified and sweetned death What fearest thou Hee hath pull'd out the sting and malignity of death If thou bee a Christian carry it in thy bosome it hurts thee not Darest thou not trust thy Redeemer If hee had not died Death had beene a Tyrant now hee is a slaue O Death where is thy sting O Graue where is thy victory Yet the Spirit of God saith not hee died but gaue vp the ghost The very Heathen Poet saith Hee durst not say that a good man dies It is worth the noting me thinkes that when Saint Luke would describe to vs the death of Annanias and Sapphirâ— hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee expired but when Saint Iohn would describe Christs death hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gaue vp the ghost How How gaue he it vp and whither So as after a sort he retained it his soule parted from his body his Godhead was neuer distracted either from soule or body this vnion is not in nature but in person If the natures of Christ could be diuided each would haue his subsistence so there should be more persons God forbid one of the natures thereof may haue a separation in it selfe the soule from the body one nature cannot bee separate from other or either nature from the person If you cannot conceiue wonder the Sonne of God hath wedded vnto himselfe our humanity without all possibility of diuorce the body hangs on the Crosse the soule is yeelded the Godhead is 〈◊〉 vnited to them both acknowledges sustaines them both The soule in his agony foules not the presence of the Godhead the body vpon the Crosse â—â—â—les not the presence of the soule Yet as the Fathers of Chalcedon say truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indiuisibly inseparably is the Godhead with both of these still and euer one and the same person The Passion of Christ as Augustine was the sleepe of his Diuinity so I may say The death of Christ was the sleepe of his humanitie If hee sleepe hee shall doe well said that Disciple of Lazarus Death was too weake to dissolue the eternall bonds of this heauenly coniunction Let not vs Christians goe too much by sense wee may bee firmely knit to God and not feele it thou canst not hope to be so neere thy God as Christ was vnited personally thou canst not feare that God should seeme more absent from thee Quantumcunque te dâ—ieceris haâ—iâ—ior non eris Christo Hieron than he did from his own Son yet was he still one with both body and soule when they were diuided from themselues when he was absent to sense he was present to faith when absent in vision yet in vnion one and the same so will he be to thy soule when hee is at worst Hee is thine and thou are his if thy hold seeme loosened his is not When temptations will not let thee see him he sees thee and possesses thee onely beleeue thou against sense aboue hope and though he kill thee yet trust in him Whither gaue he it vp Himselfe expresses Father into thy hands And This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise It is iustice to restore whence wee receiue Into thy hands Hee knew where it should be both safe and happy True he might bee bold thou sayest as the Sonne with the Father The seruants haue done so Dauid before him Stephen after him And lest we should not thinke it our common right Father saith hee I will that those thou hast giuen mee may bee with mee euen where I am he wils it therefore it must bee It is not presumption but faith to charge God with thy spirit neither can there euer be any beleeuing soule so meane that he should refuse it all the feare is in thy selfe how canst thou trust thy iewell with a stranger What sudden familiarity is this God hath beene with thee and gone by thee thou hast not saluted him and now in all the haste thou bequeathest thy soule to him On what acquaintance How desperate is this carelesnesse If thou haue but a little money whether thou keepe it thou layest it vp in thy Temple of trust or whether thou let it thou art sure of good assurance sound bonds If but a little land how carefully doest thou make firme conueiances to thy desired heires If goods thy Will hath taken secure order who shall enioy them Wee need not teach you Citizens to make sure worke for your estates If children thou disposest of them in trades with portions onely of thy soule which is thy selfe thou knowest not what shall become The world must haue it no more thy selfe wouldest keepe it but thou knowest thou canst not Sathan would haue it thou knowest not whether he shall thou wouldest haue God haue it and thou knowest not whether he will yea thy heart is now ready with Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord O the fearefull and miserable estate of that man that must part with his soule he knowes not whither which if thou wouldest auoid as this very warning shall iudge thee if thou doe not be acquainted with God in thy life that thou mayest make him the Guardian of thy soule in thy death Giuen vp it must needs be but to him that hath gouerned it if thou haue giuen it to Sathan in thy life how canst thou hope God will in thy death entertaine it Did you not hate me and expell mee out of my fathers house how then come yee to mee now in this time of your tribulation said Iephta to the men of Gilead No no either giue vp thy soule to God while he cals for it in his word in the prouocations of his loue in his afflictions in the holy motion of his spirit to thine or else when thou wouldest giue it he will none of it but as a Iudge to deliuer it to the Tormentor What should God doe with an vncleane drunken prophane proud couetous soule Without holinesse it is no seeing of God Depart from me ye wicked I know ye not Goe to the gods you haue serued See how God is euen with men they had in the time of the Gospell said to the holy name of Israel Depart from vs now in the time of iudgement he
in the graine but in the heart If the hearts of men were not more blasted with couetousnesse and cruell selfe-loue than their graine with distemper of aire this needed not The Barnes and Granaries are full the Markets empty Authority knowes how to remedy this euill how to preuent a dearth in abundance that men may not affamish whom God hath fed and that when God hath giuen vs the staffe of bread it may not bee either hid or broken shortly that our store may not be iudged by the appearance Ciuill Wisemen and statesmen especially may not alwaies looke the same way they would goe like skilfull Sea-men they sometimes lauere and as the wind may stand fetch compasses of lawfull policies to their wished point That of Tiberius was fearefull of whom Xiphiline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he sayled euer against the wind of his words But sometimes a good Constantius or Anastasius will wisely pretend what hee intends not As our Sauiour made as if hee went further when hee meant to turne into Emaus The hearts of Kings are as deepe waters wee may not thinke to draine them in the hollow of our hand Secret things to them of whom God hath said Dixi Dij estis things reuealed to vs and our children Euen we meane ones would be loth to haue alwayes our hearts read in our faces Iudge not therefore according to the appearance Diuine In these our speech must dwell If we should iudge according to the appearance we should thinke basely of the Sauiour of the world Who that had seene him sprawling and wringing in the Cratch flitting to Aegypt chopping of chips at Nazareth famishing in the Desert transported by Satan attended by Fishermen persecuted by his Kinred betraied by one Seruant abiured by another forsaken of all apprehended arraigned condemned buffeted spat vpon scourged to bloud sceptred with the reede crowned with thornes nailed to the Crosse hanging naked betwixt two Theeues scorned of the beholders sealed vp in a borrowed graue could say other than Hee hath no forme nor beauty when wee shall see him there is nothing that wee should desire him Who that should haue seene his skinne all dewed with pearles of bloudy sweat his backe bleeding his face blubbered and besmeared his forehead harrowed his hands and feet pierced his side gushing out his head bowed downe in death and should withall haue heard his dying lips say My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee would not haue said Hee is despised and reiected of men yea in appearance of God himselfe Yet euen this while to the cutting of the sinewes of those stiffe-necked Iewes the Angels owned him for their Lord the Sages adored him the Starre designed him the Prophets foreshewed him the Deuils confest him his Miracles euinced him the earth shooke the Rocks rent the Dead lookt out the Sunne lookt in astonished at the sufferings of the God of nature Euen whiles he was despised of men he commanded the Deuils to their chaines whiles base men shot out their tongues at him Principalities and Powers bowed their knees to him whiles he hanged despicably vpon the tree of shame the powers of hell were dragged captiue after the triumphant chariot of his Crosse the appearance was not so contemptible as the truth of his estate glorious Iudge not therefore according to the appearance Should appearance bee the rule how scornfully would the carnall eye ouer-looke the poore ordinances of God What would it finde here but foolishnesse of preaching homelinesse of Sacraments an inky Letter a Priests lips a sauorlesse message a morsell of Bread a mouth full of Wine an handfull of Water a slander-beaten Crosse a crucified Sauiour a militant Church a despised profession When yet this foolishnesse of preaching is the power of God to saluation these mute Letters the liuely Oracles of God these vile Lips the Cabinets of heauen to preserue knowledge this vnplausible Message Magnalia Dei this Water the Water of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Bread the Manna of Angels thi Wine heauenly Nectar this Church the Kings Daughter all glorious within this dying Sacrifice the Lord of life this Crosse the Banner of Victory this Profession Heauen vpon earth Iudge not therefore according to appearance Should appearance be the rule woe were Gods children happy were his enemies Who that had seene Cain standing masterly ouer the bleeding carkasse of Abel Ioseph in his bonds his Mistresse in her dresse Moses in the Flags Pharaoh in the Palace Dauid sculking in the Wildernesse Saul commanding in the Court Elias fainting vnder his Iuniper tree Iezebel painting in her closet Michaiah in the prison Zidkijah in the presence Ieremy in the dungeon Zedekiah in the throne Daniel trembling among the Lions the Median Princes feasting in their Bowers Iohns head bleeding in the Platter Herods smiling at the Reuels Christ at the Barre Pilate on the Bench the Disciples scourged the Scribes and Elders insulting would not haue said O happy Caine Potiphars wife Pharaoh Saul Iezebel Zidkijah Zedekiah Median Princes Pilate Herod Elders miserable Abel Ioseph Moses Dauid Eliah Michaiah Ieremy Daniel Iohn Christ the Disciples Yet wee know Caines victory was as wofull as Abels martyrdome glorious Iosephs irons were more precious than the golden tires of his Mistresse Moses Reedes were more sure than Pharaohs Cedars Dauids Caâ—e in the Desart more safe than the Towers of Saul Eliahs Rauen a more comfortable purueyor than all the Officers of Iezebel Michaiahs prison was the gard-chamber of Angels when Ahabs presence was the counsell-chamber of euill spirits Ieremies Dungeon had more true light of comfort than the shining state of Zedekiah Daniel was better garded with the Lions than Darius and the Median Princes with their Ianisaries Iohns head was more rich with the Crowne of his martyrdome than Herods with the Diadem of his Tetrarchate Christ at the Barre gaue life and being to Pilate on the Bench gaue motion to those hands that strucke him to that tongue that condemned him and in the meane while gaue sentence on his Iudge The Disciples were better pleased with their stripes and wales than the Iewish Elders with their proud Phylacteries After this who that had seene the primitiue Christians some broyled on Gridirons others boyled in Lead some roasted others frozen to death some fleaed others torne with horses some crashed in peeces by the teeth of Lions others cast downe from the rocks to the stakes some smiling on the wheele others in the flame al werying their tormentors and shaming their Tyrants with their patience would not haue said Of all things I would not be a Christian Yet euen this while were these poore torturing-stocks higher as Marcus Arethusius bragged than their persecutors dying Victors yea Victors of death neuer so glorious as when they began not to be in gasping crowned in yeelding the ghost more than Conquerours Iudge not therefore according to appearance When thou lookest about and seest on
they may be found out Wee are not ignorant saith Saint Paul of Satans deuices much more then may we know our owne Were the hearts of men as Salomon speakes of Kings like vnto deepe waters they haue a bottome and may bee fathomed Were they as darke as hell it selfe and neuer so full of windings and blinde waies and obscure turnings doe but take the lanthorne of Gods law in your hand and you shall easily finde all the false and foule corners of them As Dauid saith of the Sun nothing is hid from the light thereof Proue your selues saith the Apostle It is hard if falshood be so constant to it selfe that by many questions it bee not tripped Where this duty is slackned it is no wonder if the heart bee ouer-run with spirituall fraud Often priuy searches scarre away vagrant and disorderly persons where no inquiry is made is a fit harbour for them If yee would not haue your hearts therefore become the lawlesse Ordinaries of vncleane spirits search them oft Leaue not a straw vnshaken to finde out these Labanish Teraphim that are stollen and hid within vs And when we haue searched our best if we feare there are yet some vnknowne euills lurking within vs as the man after Gods owne heart prayes against secret sinnes let vs call him in that cannot be deceiued and say to God with the Psalmist Search thou me ô Lord and trie mee Oh let vs yeeld our selues ouer to bee ransackt by that all-seeing eye and effectuall hand of the Almighty All our daubing and cogging and packing and shuffling lies open before him and he onely can make the heart ashamed of it selfe And when our hearts are once stript naked and carefully searcht let our eyes be euer fixedly bent vpon their conueyances and inclinations If we search and watch not we may be safe for the present long we cannot for our eye is no sooner off than the heart is busie in some practise of falshood It is well if it forbeare whiles we looke on for The thoughts of mans heart are only euill continually and many a heart is like some bold and cunning theefe that lookes a man in the face and cuts his purse But surely if there be any guardian of the soule it is the eye The wise mans eye saith Solomon is in his head doubtlesse on purpose to looke into his heart My sonne aboue all keepings keepe thy heart saith he If we doe not dogge our hearts then in all our wayes but suffer our selues to lose the sight of them they run wilde and we shall not recouer them till after many slippery tricks on their parts and much repentance on ours Alas how little is this regarded in the world wherein the most take no keepe of their soules but suffer themselues to run after the wayes of their owne hearts without obseruation without controlement What should I say of these men but that they would faine be deceiued and perish For after this loose licentiousnesse without the great mercy of God they neuer set eye more vpon their hearts till they see them either fearfully intoyled in the present iudgements of God or fast chained in the pit of hell in the torments of finall condemnation Thirdly If our searches and watches should faile vs we are sure our distrust cannot It is not possible our heart should deceiue vs if we trust it not Wee carry a remedie within vs of others fraud and why not of our owne The Italians not vnwisely pray God in their knowne prouerbe to deliuer them from whom they trust for wee are obnoxious to those we relie vpon but nothing can leese that which it had not Distrust therefore can neuer be disappointed If our hearts then shall promise vs ought as it hath learned to profer largely of him that said All these will I giue thee although with vowes and oathes aske for his assurances if he cannot fetch them from the euidences of God trust him not If he shall report ought to vs aske for his witnesses if hee cannot produce them from the records of God trust him not If he shall aduise vs ought aske for his warrant if he cannot fetch it from the Oracles of God trust him not And in all things so beare our selues to our heart as those that thinke they liue amongst theeues and cozeners euer iealously and suspiciously taking nothing of their word scarce daring to trust our owne senses making sure worke in all matters of their transactions I know I speake to wise men whose counsell is wont to be asked and followed in matter of the assurances of estates whose wisdome is frequently imployed in the triall euiction dooming of malefactors Alas what shall it auaile you that you can aduise for the preuention of others fraud if in the meane time you suffer your selues to be cozened at home What comfort can you finde in publike seruice to the state against offenders if you should carry a fraudulent and wicked heart in your owne bosomes There is one aboue whom we may trust whose word is more firme than heauen When heauen shall passe that shall stand It is no trusting ought besides any further than he giues his word for it Mans Epithet is Homo mendax and his best part the hearts deceitfull Alas what shall we thinke or say of the condition of those men which neuer follow any other aduice than what they take of their owne heart Such are the most that make not Gods Law of their counsell As Esay said of Israel Esa 57.17 Abijt vagus in via cordis sui Surely they are not more sure they haue an heart than that they shall be deceiued with it and betraied vnto death Of them may I say as Salomon doth of the wanton foole that followes an harlot Thus with her great craft she caused him to yeeld Pro. 7.21 and with her flattering lips she intised him And he followed her straight wayes as an Oxe that goes to the slaughter or as a foole to the stocks for correction Oh then deare Christians as euer yee desire to auoid that direfull slaughter-house of hell those wailings and gnashings and gnawings and euerlasting burnings looke carefully to your owne hearts and what euer suggestions they shall make vnto you trust them not till you haue tried them by that vnfaileable rule of righteousnesse the royall law of your Maker which can no more deceiue you than your hearts can free you from deceit Lastly that wee may auoid not onely the euents but the very enterprises of this deceit let vs countermine the subtill workings of the heart Our Sauiour hath bidden vs be wise as Serpents What should be wise but the heart And can the heart be wiser than it selfe Can the wisdome of the heart remedie the craft of the heart Certainly it may There are two men in euery regenerate brest the old and the new And of these as they are euer plotting against each other wee must take the better side and labour
death but the poore soules that when they are crushed yeeld the iuyce of teares exhibit bils of complaint throw open the new thornes maintaine the old mounds would these men be content to be quietly racked and spoiled there would be peace In the City not the impure Sodomitish brothels that sell themselues to worke wickednesse not the abominable Pandars not the iugling Cheater not the Counterfeit Vagrant but the Marshall that drawes these to correction Not the deceitfull Merchant that sophisticates his commodities inhanceth prices sels euery inch of what he cannot warrant Time Not the vnconscionable and fraudulent Artisan but the Promoter and the Bench. In the Common-wealth not the cruell robber by sea or land that lies in the way like a spider in a window for a booty for bloud Not the bold night-walker that keepes sauage houres fit for the guilty intentions of his burglaries but the watch that takes him Not the ranke adulterer that neighs after his neighbours wife and thirsts after onely stolne waters but the sworne men that present him Not the traiterous Coyner that in euery stampe reades his own conuiction whiles he still renewes that face against which he offends but the Sheriffe that attaches him Not the vnreformable drunkard that makes a God of his liquor a beast of himselfe and raues and swaggers in his cups but the Constable that punishes him would these Officers conniue at all these villanies there would be peace In the Church not the chaffering Patron or periured Chaplaine not the seducing heretike or seditious schismatike not the scandalous Leuite not the carelesse Questman not the corrupt Officiall but the clamorous Preacher or the rigorous High-Commission In the world lastly Not the ambitious incrochers vpon others dominions not violaters of leagues not vsurpers of mis-gotten titles and dignities not suborners or abettors of conspiracies and traitors but the vnkinde patients that will not recipere ferrum I wis the great Potentates of the world might see a ready way to peace Thus in family countrey city common-wealth Church world the greatest part seeke a licencious peace in a disordered lawlesnesse condemning true iustice of cruelty stripping her of the honour of peace branding her with the censure of troublesome Foolish men speake foolish things Oh noble and incomparable blessing of peace how iniuriously art thou ascribed to vniust neglect Oh diuine vertue of iustice how deseruedly haue the Ancients giuen thee wings and sent thee vp to heauen in a detestation of these earthly indignities whence thou comst not downe at all vnlesse it please that essentiall and infinite Iustice to communicate thee to some choise fauourites It is but a iust word that this Iland hath beene long approued the darling of heauen We haue enioyed peace to the admiration to the enuy of neighbourhood Would we continue it would we traduce it to ours Iustice must doe it for vs. Both Iustice and Peace are from the throne Peace is the Kings Peace and iustly descends from Soueraignty by coÌ„mission let me haue leaue to say with the princely Prophet a word that was too good for the frequent text of a Pope Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatis terram Still ô God giue thy Iudgment to the King and thy Iustice to the Kings son And if any shal offer wrong to the Lords anointed in his person in his seed the worke of that iniustice shall be war yea Bellum Domini the Lords war 2 Sam. 25.28 Then let him who is both the Lord of Hosts and the God of Peace rise vp mightily for his anointed the true King of peace that he who hath graciously said all this while Da pacem Domine Giue peace in our time O Lord may superscribe at the last his iust Trophees with Blessed be the Lord which teacheth my hands to warre and my fingers to fight Ye haue heard of the spirituall Iustice and Peace Ye haue heard of the Ciuill may it please you to mix both of them together My text alone doth it if you doe but with our most accurate Translation reade Righteousnesse for Iustice So shall you see the spirituall disposition of Righteousnes produce the ciuill effect of Peace What is righteousnesse but the sincere vprightnesse of the heart to God in all our wayes He is perfect with God that would be so What need I tell you that this is the way to true inward peace Nil conscire Not to be guilty of ill A cleare heart will be a quiet one There is no feast to a good conscience this is meat musicke welcome It seemes harder that time spirituall honesty should procure euen outward peace Heare wise Salomon By the blessing of the vpright the city is exalted Prou. 11.11 When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh euen his enemies to be at peace with him Pro. 16.7 Righteousnes exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people Pro. 14.24 It followes then as a iust corâ—llary That the honestest and conscionablest man is the best subiect He may perhaps be plaine perhaps poore perhaps weake but the state is more beholden to his integrity than to the ablest purse than to the strongest arme Whereas the graceles vicious person let him be neuer so plausible a talker neuer so careful an officer neuer so valiant a Leader neuer so officious a Courtier neuer so deepe in subsidies neuer so forward in actions is no other than an enemy to the state which he professes to adore Let no Philosopher tell me of maius vir boâ— usicâ—uis I say from better authority An il man a good subiect that a lewd man can no more be a good subiect than an ill subiect can be a good man Heare this then wheresoeuer ye are ye secret oppressors ye profane scoffers ye foule mouth'd swearers ye close adulterers ye kinde drunkards and who euer come within this blacke list of wickednesse how can ye be loiall whiles you lodge traitors in your bosomes Protest what ye will your sinnes breake the peace and conspire against the sacred Crowne and dignity of your Soueraigne What care we that you draw your sword and vow your bloud and drinke your healths to your Gouenours when in the meane while you prouoke God to anger and set quarrels betwixt your Country and Heauen That I may winde vp this clew It were folly to commend to you the worth of peace we know that the excellency of Princes is expressed by serenity what good hath the earth which God doth not couch vnder the name of Peace Blessed be God and his Annointed we haue long and comfortably tasted the sweetnesse of this blessing the Lillies and Lions of our Salomon haue beene iustly worded with Beati pacifici Would we haue this happinesse perpetuated to vs to posterity Oh let Prince and people meet in the ambition to be Gens iusta a righteous nation righteous euery way First let God haue his owne His owne dayes his owne seruices his feare his loue his all Let
it contemptuous to spend that day iâ— lawfull labour notwithstanding that liberty of the six dayes which God hath giuen Why shall that be lawfull in a case of deiection which may not in praise and exultation If you had not loued to cauill you would rather haue accepted the Apology or excuse of our sister Churches in this behalfe than aggrauated these uncharitable pleas of your owne yet euen in this your owne Synagogue at Amsterdam if we may beleeue your owne is not altogether guiltlesse your hands are still and your shops shut vpon festiuall dayes But we accuse you not would God this were your worst The Masters of our Courts would tell you they would not care so much for this dispossession as that it should be done by such coniurers as your selfe SEP If an ignorant and vnpreaching Ministery be approued amongst you and the people constrained by all kinde of violence to submit vnto it and therewith to rest as what a more vsuall throughout the whole kingdome then let no modest man once open his mouth to deny that ignorance is constrained and approued amongst you If the seruice said or sung in the Parish Church may be called deuotion then faâ—e there is good store of vnknowne deuotion the greatest part in most parishes neither knowing nor regarding what is said nor wherefore SECTION XLII Our approbation of an vnlearned Ministery disproued YOur want of quarrels makes you still runne ouer the same complaints which if you redouble a thousand times wil not become iust may become tedious God knowes how far we are from approuing an vnlearned Ministery The protestations of our gracious King our Bishops our greatest Patrons of conformity in their publike writings might make you ashamed of this bold assertion we doe not allow that it should be we bewaile that it will be our number of Parishes compared with our number of Diuines will soone shew that either many Parishes must haue none or some Diuines must haue many Congregations or too many Congregations must haue scarce Diuine-Incumbents Confer at Hampt Our deare Souereigne hath promised a medecine for this disease But withall tels you that Ierusalem was not built all on a day The violence you speake of is commonly in case of wilfull contempt not of honest and peaceable desired further instruction or in supposall of some tolerable ability in the Ministery forsaken we do heartily pray for labourers into this haruest we do wish that all Israel could prophesie we publish the Scriptures we Preach Catechise Write and Lord thou knowest how many of vs would doe more if wee knew what more could bee done for the information of thy people and remedy of this ignorance which this aduersary reproues vs to approue We doubt not but the seruice said in our Parish-Churches is as good a seruice to God as the extemporary deuotions in your Parlours But It is an vnknowne deuotion you say Through whose fault The Readers or the Hearers or the Matter Distinct reading you cannot deny â—o the most Parishes the matter is easie Prayers and English Scriptures if the hearers be regardlesse or in some things dull of conceit lay the fault from the Seruice to the men All yours are free from ignorance free from wandering conceits we enuy you not some knowledge is no better than some ignorance and carelesnesse is no worse than mis-regard SEP What are your sheet-penances for adultery and all your purse-penances for all other sinnes than which though some worse in Popery yet none more common SECTION XLIII Penances inioyned in the Church of England COmming now to the Vaults of Popery I aske for their Penances and Purgatory those Popish Penances which presumptuous Confessors enioyned as satisfactory and meritorious vpon their bold absolutions You send me to Sheeâ—-penances and Purse-penances the one ceremonious corrections of shame enioyned and adioyned to publike Confessions of vncleannesse Saccâ— cinâ—ri incubare corpâ—â— fordibus â—bscurareÌ„ presbyteris aduoluâ— aris Dei adgeniculari Tert. de penit for the abasing of the offender and hate of the sin such like as the ancient Church thought good to vse for this purpose Hence they were appointed as Tertullian speaketh in sackcloth and ashes to craue the prayers of the Church to besmeare their body with filthinesse to throw themselues down before Gods minister Altar not to mention other more hard perhaps no lesse ancient Rites and hence were those fiue stations of the Penitent whereby he was at last receiued into the body of his wonted Communion Canon Greg. Neocaesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the other a pecuniarie mulct imposed vpon some not all you foulely slander vs lesse hainous offences as a penalty not as a penance I hope you deny not Sodomy Murder Robbery and which you would not Theft it selfe is more deeply auenged But did euer any of ours vrge either sheet or puse as the remedy of Purgatory or enioyne them to auoid those infernall paines vnlesse we do so our Penances are not Popish our Answerer is idle SEP Touching Purgatory though you deny the doctrine of it and teach the contrary yet how well your practise sutes with it let it be considered in these particulars Your absoluing of men dying excommunicate after they be dead and before they may haue Christian buriall Your Christian buriall in holy ground if the party will be at the charges your ringing of hallowed bels for the soule your singing the Corps to the graue from the Church stile your praying ouer or for the dead especially in these words That God would hasten his Kingdome that wee with this our Brother though his life were neuer so wretched and death desperate and all other departed in the true faith of thy holy Name may haue our perfect consummation both in body and soule Your generall doctrines and your particular practises agree in this as in the most other things like Harpe and Harrow In word you professe many truths which in deed you deny These and many moe Popish deuices by others at large discouered to the world both for pompe and profit are not onely not raâ—ed and buried in the dust but are aduanced amongst you aboue all that is called God SECTION XLIV YOur next accusation is more ingeniously malicious The practises of the Church of England coÌ„cerning the funerals of the Dead our Doctrine you grant contrary to Purgatory but you will fetch it out of our practise that we may build that which we destroy Let vs therfore purge our selues from your Purgatory We absolue men dying excommunicate a rare practise and which yet I haue not liued to see but if Law-makers contemne rare occurrents surely accusers doe not Once is too much of an euill Marke then Doe we absolue his Soule after the departure No what hath the body to doe with Purgatory Yet for the body doe we by any absolution seeke to quit it from sinne Nothing lesse reason it selfe giues vs that
bee no lesse Controuersie defacto than of the possibility of errour Besides there are other Popish opinions of the same stampe but more pragmaticall which are not more pernicious to the Church than to common-weales as those of the power of both Swords of the deposition of Princes disposing of Kingdomes absoluing of Subiects frustration of Oathes sufficiently canuased of late both by the Venetian Diuines and French and ours which are so palpably opposite to the libertie of Christian Gouernment that those Princes and Peeple which can stoope to such a yoke are well worthy of their seruitude and can they hope that the great Commanders of the World will come to this bent we all as the Comick Poet said truly had rather be free than serue but much more Princes or on the contrary can wee hope that the Tyrants of the Church will be content to leaue this hold What a fopperie were this For both those Princes are growne more wise and these Tyrants more arrogant and as Ruffinus speakes of George Ruff. l. 1. c. 23. Procaciter vt raptum Episcopatum gerunt c. the Arrian Gallant they insolently gouerne an vsurped Bishopricke as if they thought they had the managing of a proud Empire and not of a Religious Priesthood SECTION VI. That the other Opinions of the Romish Church will not admit Reconciliation BVt let vs bee so liberall as to grant this to our selues which certainely they will neuer grant vs for this olde Grandame of Cities thinkes her selfe borne to command and will either fall or rule Neyther doth that Mitred Moderator of the World affect any other Embleme than that which Iulian iestingly ascribes to Iulius Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rule all Iulian. Caesares or to Alexander the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to conquer all It was a degenerating spirit of Adrian the Sixt which caused to bee written vpon his Tombe Binius in vita Adrian in the Church of Saint Peter That nothing in all his life fell out so vnhappily to him Socrat. l. 5. c. 20. c. 14. as that he gouerned Let this I say be granted vs There want not I know some milder spirits Theodosians that can play with both hands which thinke if these busie points were by the moderation of both parts quietly composed it might bee safe for any man so it be without noyse to thinke what hee list concerning the other differences of Religion These are the Ghosts of that Heretike Appelles whose speech it was Euseb l. 5. c. 13. ex Roâ—nâ— That it is sufficient to beleeue in Christ crucified and that there should bee no discussing of the particular warrants and reason of our faith Or the brood of Leonas one of the courtiers of Constantius Socrat. l. 2. c. 32. and his Deputie in the Seleucian Councell which when the Fathers hotely contended as there was good cause for the Consubstantialitie of the Sonne Get you home said hee and trouble not the Church still with these trifles Saint Basil was of another minde from these men who as Theodoret reports when the Lieutenant of Valens the Emperor Theodor. lâ— c. 27. perswaded him to remit but one letter for peace sake answered Those that are nursed with the sincere Milke of Gods Word may not abide one sillable of his sacred Truth to be corrupted but rather than they will indure it are ready to receiue any kinde of torment or death Elâ—â—sius and Syluanus which were Orthodox Bishops and those other worthy Gardians and as Athanasius his title was Champions of the truth were of another minde from these coole and indifferent Mediators Epiph. l. 1. Initio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cypr. de simplic praelat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So farre as the Sacred truth will allow vs wee will accompany them gladly but if they vrge vs further wee stand still or start backe and those two courses which Epiphanius aduised as the remedies of Heresie Heed and Auoydance both those doe we carefully vse and performe Great is the offence of discord and vnexpiable and such in the graue iudgement of Cyprian as is not purged with the bloud of our passion and iustly doe we thinke that Fiend of Homer worthy of no place but Hell But yet wee cannot thinke concord a meete price of truth which it is lawfull for vs to buy at any rate but to sell vpon any termes is no lesse than pâ—cular Let vs therefore a little discusse the seuerall differences and as it vses to bee done when the house is too little for the stuffe Let vs pile vp all close together It shall bee enough in this large Haruest of matter to gather some few Eares out of euery Shocke and to make a compendious dispatch of so long a taske 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grossest of the Popish Heresies and as HIEROME obiects to ORIGEN the most venomous opinions of Rome which haue bred so much trouble and danger at this day to the Church of God are either such as doe concerne our selues not without some â—â—spect to God or such as concerne God not without some respect to vs Of the former sort are those which in a certaine order such as it is of discourse are conuersant about Iustification Free-will the merit of our workes humane satisfaction Indulgences Purgatory and the differences of mortall and Veniall sinnes These therefore first offer themselues to our examination SECTION VII The Romish Heresie concerning Iustification THat point of Iustification of all other is exceeding important Caluin De vera Pacific contra Interim insomuch as CALVIN was faine to perswade that if this one head might bee yeelded safe and intire it would not quite the cost to make any great quarrell for the rest Would to God that word of CASSANDER might bee made good Consultat de Iustific which doubted not to say That which is affirmed that men cannot bee iustified before God by their owne strength merits or workes but that they are freely iustified by faith was alwaies allowed and receiued in the Church of God and is at this day approued by all Ecclesiasticall Writers Yea I would they would bee ruled by their Thomas Aquinas in this In Galat. in Iâ—c 2. who attributes Iustification to workes not as Iustification is taken for an infusion of grace but as it is taken for an exercise or manifestation or consummation of Iustice If this were all in this point all would be peace Concil Trid. sess 6. c. 7. si quis dixerit sola fide c. Com. 9. But whilst the Tridentine Fathers take vpon them to forge the formall cause of our Iustification to be our owne inherent Iustice and thrust Faith out of Office what good man can choose but presently addresse himselfe to an opposition Who would not rather dye than suffer the ancient Faith of the Church to be depraued with these idle Dreames Goe now ye great Trent Diuines and bragge of your selues as
there should bee granted by Iohn 22. a Pardon for no lesse than a million of yeeres Who can endure since by their owne confession this fire must last but till the conflagration of the world that yet in one little Booke there should be tendred vnto credulous poore soules Pardons of but eleuen thousand thousands of yeeres What should we make many words of this There is now lying by me a worme-eaten Manu-script with faire Rubrickes in which besides other absurd and blasphemous promises there is power giuen to one little prayer to change the paines of hell due perhaps to him that sayes it into Purgatory and after that againe the paines of Purgatory into the ioyes of Heauen Lib. de Indulg Bellarmine had wisely respected his owne reputation if hee had giuen his voice according to that which he confesseth to haue beene the iudgement of some others That these like Bills were not giuen by the Popes but lewdly deuised by some of his base Questuaries for an aduantage But that which he should excuse hee defends What ingenuity of shame is to be expected of Iesuites and how cleane hath an old Parrot as he said of old forgotten the wand Who may abide this vniust and inhumane acceptation of persons that the wealthier sort may by their purses redeeme this holy treasure of the Church and by money deliuer the soules of themselues and their friends from this horrible Prison while the needy Soule must be stall frying in this flame without all hope of pardon or mature relaxation vntill the very last Iudgement day Lastly who can endure that whiles it is in the power of Christs Vicar to call miserable soules out of this tormenting fire which hell it selfe is said to exceed onely in the continuance yet that he should suffer them to lie howling there and most cruelly broyling still and not mercifully bestow on them all the heapes of his treasure as the spirituall ransome of so many distressed spirits Ambr. de Nabâ—th A wretched man is he as Ambrose said of the rich man which hath the power to deliuer so many soules from death and wants the will Why hath God giuen him this faculty of Indulgences if hee would not haue it beneficiall to Mankinde Auth. operis imperfect and where the Owner of the house will bee bountifull it is not for the Steward to bee niggardly Let that Circè of Rome keepe these huskes for her hogges SECTION XIII Concerning the distinction of Veniall and Mortall sinnes PArdons doe both imply and presuppose that knowne distinction of Mortall and Veniall sinne which neither hath God euer allowed neither whiles he gaine-sayes it will euer the Protestants That there are certaine degrees of euill we both acknowledge and teach so as we may here iustly tax the dishonesty and shamelesnesse of Campion Durcus Coccius and the Monkes of Burdeaux who haue vpbraided vs with the opinion of a certaine Stoicall and Iouinianish parity of sinnes yea Bellarmine himselfe hath already done this kinde office for vs. Some offences are more hainous than other yet all in the malignitie of their nature deadly As of poysons some kill more gently and lingringly others more violently and speedily yet both kill Moreouer if wee haue respect vnto the infinite mercy of God and to the obiect of this mercy the penitent and faithfull heart there is no sinne which to borrow the word of Prudentius is not veniall but in respect of the Anomy or disorder there is no sinne which is not worthy of eternall death Euery sinne is a Viper there is no Viper if we regard the nature of the best but kils whom she bites but if one of them shall haply light vpon the hand of Paul she is shaked into the fire without harme done Let no man feare that harmefull creature euer the lesse because he sees the Apostle safe from that poyson So is sinne to a faithfull man Saint Iohns word is All sinne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transgression of the Law 1 Ioh. 3.4 Rom. 6. Saint Pauls word is The wages of sinne is death Put these two together and this conceit of the naturall pardon ablenesse of sin vanishes alone Our Rhemists subtill men can no more abide this proposition conuerted than themselues All sinne indeed say they is anomia a transgression of the Law but euery transgression of the Law is not sinne The Apostle therefore himselfe turnes it for vs All vnrighteousnesse saith he is sin But euery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is vnrighteousnesse saith Austen vpon the place For the Law is the rule of righteousnesse therefore the preuarication of the Law is vnrighteousnesse Yea their very owne word shall stop their owne mouth for how is sinne vniuocally distinguished into Veniall and Mortall if the Veniall be no sinne and the wages of euery sinne is death That therefore which the Papists presume to say that this kinde of sinne deserues pardon in it selfe vnlesse they will take the word merit catachrestically with Stapleton And that which Bellarmine and Nauarus adde that Veniall sinnes are not against but beside the Law and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Fr. à Vict. summa sacr Poenitentiae nu 100. p. 63. That which Franciscus à Victoria writes that a Bishops blessing or a Lords Prayer or a knocke on the breast or a little holy water or any such like slight receipt without any other good motion of the heart is sufficient to remit Veniall sinne is so shamefully abhorring from all piety and iustice that these open bands both of nature and sinne must be eternally defied of vs. It is an old and as true a ride Decr. 23.4.4 est iniusta c. Petr. Alagâ—â—nae Comp. Manual Nauarri p. 91. p. 267. p. 140. p. 191. p. 352. p. 100. Socr. l. 5.21 â—asinesse of pardon giues incouragement to sinne And beside what maner of sinnes doe they put in the ranke of Venials Drunkennesse adultery angry curses or blasphemies couetousnesse yea stealing lying cursing of parents horrible offences shroud themselues with them vnder this plausible title of veniall He must needs be shamelesly wicked that abhorres not this licentiousnesse Surely Socrates the Historian prophecied I thinke of these men There are some saith he that let goe whoredome as an indifferent matter which yet striue for an holy-day as for their life The ordinarie and not slight Controuersie as Cassander thinketh of the name nature condition punishment of the first sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Originall as Chrysostome calls it I willingly omit Neither doe I meddle with their Euangelicall perfection of vowes nor the dangerous seruitude of their rash and impotent Votaries nor the incoueniences of their Monkerie which yet are so great and many that the elect Cardinals of Paul the third doubted not with ioynt consent to affirme All the Orders of Couents we thinke fit to be abolished but for the condition of that single and solitary life let that be done which Cassander and
with these that it could not stay the time of the common deliuerie Needs must they be notorious falshoods that are thus singled out from the rest Let them appeare in their owne shapes vgly doubtlesse and prodigious The first is Ex Decad. Ep. 3. Epist 5. Reckoned out of Pappus his Enumeration My peace of Rome makes vp 103. That most shamelesse assertion that Bellarmine vnder his owne hand acknowledges 237. Contrarieties of Doctrine amongst his Catholikes Could the man but haue patience he should finde aboue three hundred What sayes my Detector to this He hath not seene the seuerals yet like a braue man at Armes he professes to kill his enemie ere he can appeare and tels vs those 237 Contrarieties are nothing but 237 lyes in one assertion That there are in them so many vntruths I easily grant for in Contradictions one part must needs be false And Truth is but single They are vntruths then lyes are too broad a word but their owne My assertion shall onely iustifie that they are told let him take care for the rest Obiect But they are not in points belonging to Faith and Religion only in matters vndecided and disputable The sequell shall try that shift Why doe wee forestall our Reader Sol. Who knowes not that there cannot be so many points fundamentall Let him take them as they are I aggrauate nothing It is but onely in such light chaffe as this In the number and extent of Bookes Canonicall wherein Driedo Erasmus Genebrard Caietan Sixtus Senensis are acknowledged to oppose the rest In the Popes infallibilitie of iudgement wherein Gerson Almayne Pope Adrian Eckius Hosius Pichius Waldensis are at quarrell In the reach and originall of spirituall iurisdiction wherein Abulensis Turrecremata Fran. à Victoria Alphonsus de Castro c. proclaime to differ what should I instance in more It is but in the Popes power in Temporalities in the inerrablenesse of Councels whether particular confirmed by the Pope or Generall in the authoritie of Councels aboue Popes in the force of Vowes in the worship due to Images and the like These and such other are the slight Trifles since all cannot be weightie impertinent to faith wherein the Romish Doctors varie Neither doth my assertion of their discord gall him more then of our Vnity O the forehead of Heretikes I said that we in our Church differ onely in Ceremonies they in substance Let him giue leaue to the contra-diuision of these two and I will take leaue to maintaine the indiuision of the Church of England in the dogmaticall points of Faith This boldnesse together with my eminent ignorance makes him admire the scarcitie of learned men in our Countrey that could finde no better Doctors to send to Dort-Conference then Master HALL To your griefe Sir it was a Synode and that noble and celebrious Neither was it out of want that your silly Aduersarie was sent thither This happy Iland which hath no blemish but that it yeelds such Vipers as your selfe abounds as you too well know with store of incomparable Diuines such as may set your Rome to schoole So as the Messenger of Pyrrhus long since called your Italy a Countrey of Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Egypt was wont to be called the Countrey of Physicians so may this blessed Iland of ours iustly merit the title of The Region of DIVINES For me I can bee content to bee base enough in mine owne eyes but if my disparagement shall redound to my betters I dare tell him it is my comfort that I was sent thither by a iudgement no lesse infallible then of Paul the Fift Let himselfe or any of his Eaues-dropping companions to whom that place stood open say wherein I shamed those that sent me It was my iust griefe that the necessitie of my health Necessitate propellente proditie est ea tacere quae quis fluâ—â—â—e perfecerit Chrysost in ill vtinam toter assetis c. yea of my life called me off immaturely but since either death or departure must be yeelded to others shall iudge whether I went away more laden with infirmitie then how-euer vnworthy with approbation But that second lye of mine is so loud that all my Brethren of Dort must heare it and they which were lately the Witnesses of my sinceritie gracing mee with the deare Testimonie of their approofe are now made the Iudges of my impudencie What monster of falshood will come forth In my censure of Trauell glancing at the Iesuiticall bragge of their Indian Miracles whereat their very friends make sport I charge Cardinall Bellarmine for an auoucher of these Cozenages who dares auerre that his fellow Xauier not onely healed the Deafe Dumbe and Blinde but raised the Dead to which I adde whiles his Brother Acosta after many yeares spent in those parts can pull him by the sleeue and tell him in his eare so loud that all the World may heare Prodigia nulla producimus This is my Indictment Let me come to my Tryall Cast me if ye can ye reuerend heads I craue no fauour Where lyes this so lewd lye and malicious abuse That Bellarmine sayes thus of the Iesuite Xauier is not denyed That Acosta sayes thus of himselfe and his fellow Iesuites is granted The first lye yet is Acosta was neuer in the East-Indies at all nor Xauier in the West and how then could Acosta spend many yeares in those parts A perilous Plea Who euer I beseech you mentioned either East or West I spake of the Indies in common Bell de notis Eccles l. 4. c. 14. so did his Bellarmine from whom I cited this Claruit etiam in Indiis omni genere miraculorum c. Here is not one of the Indies mentioned but both or either If both liued in the Indies though not in one Towne in one Country in one Indie wherein haue I offended whiles speaking of the Indies in generall I said that Xauier and Acosta liued there Yet this is one lye he saith and that so long a one as that it reacheth as farre as it is from the East to the West from the Artick to the Antarctick Pole wherein I doubt not but your reuerences wil easily marke the skill of this learned Cosmographer Some parts of those instanced Indies differ not so farre not to speake of the small strait of Anian the mentioned Region of Mexico is not aboue fourescore degrees from Iapan Either your construction must fauour him or else this must goe into the Booke of ouer-sights The second lye is that Acosta pulled Bellarmine by the sleeue in this assertion as if hee denyed those Easterne Miracles which he elsewhere confesseth Indeed this sawcinesse were dangerous The red Hat you say is fellow to a Crowne But shall I confesse where I erred My dull head could not conceiue that God should be the God of the Mountains and not of the Valleys Of the East Indies not of the West and yet be the Iesuites God in both
honor cannot be innocent Well might Ioshua haue proceeded to the execution of him whom God and his owne mouth accused but as one that thought no euidence could be too strong in a case that was capitall he sends to see whether there was as much truth in the confession as there was falshood in the stealth Magistrates and Iudges must pace slowly and sure in the punishment of offenders Presumptions are not ground enough for the sentence of death no not in some cases the confessions of the guilty It is no warrant for the Law to wrong a man that he hath before wronged himselfe There is lesse ill in sparing an offender then in punishing the innocent Who would not haue expected since the confession of Achan was ingenuous and his pillage still found entire that his life should haue beene pardoned But here was Confesse and die he had beene too long sicke of this disease to be recouered Had his confession beene speedy and free it had saued him How dangerous it is to suffer sin to lye fretting into the soule which if it were washt off betimes with our repentance could not kill vs. In mortall offences the course of humane iustice is not stayd by our penitence It is well for our soules that we haue repented but the lawes of men take not notice of our sorrow I know not whether the death or the teares of a malefactor be a better sight The censures of the Church are wip't off with weeping not the penalties of lawes Neither is Achan alone called forth to death but all his family all his substance The actor alone doth not smart with sacriledge all that concernes him is enwrapped in the iudgement Those that defile their hands with holy goods are enemies to their owne flesh and blood Gods first reuenges are so much the more fearefull because they must be exemplary Of the Gibeonites THe newes of Israels victory had flowne ouer all the Mountaines Valleys of Canaan and yet those Heathenish Kings and people are mustered together against them They might haue seene themselues in Iericho and Ai and haue well perceiued it was not an arme of flesh that they must resist yet they gather their forces and say Tush we shall speed better It is madnesse in a man not to be warned but to run vpon the point of those iudgments wherewith he sees others miscary and not to beleeue till he cannot recouer Our assent is purchased too late when we haue ouerstayed preuention and trust to that experience which wee cannot liue to redeeme Onely the Hiuites are wiser then their fellowes and will rather yeeld liue Their intelligence was not diuerse from the rest all had equally heard of the miraculous conduct and successe of Israel but their resolution was diuerse As Rahab saued her Family in the midst of Iericho so these foure cities preserued themselues in the midst of Canaan and both of them by beleeuing what God would doe The efficacy of Gods maruellous workes is not in the acts themselues but in our apprehension some are ouer come with those motiues which others haue contemned for weake Had these Gibeonites ioyned with the forces of all their neighbours they had perished in their common slaughter If they had not gone away by themselues death had met them It may haue more pleasure it cannot haue so much safety to follow the multitude If examples may lead vs the greatest part shuts out God vpon earth and is excluded from God else where Some few poore â—iuites yeeld to the Church of God and escape the condemnation of the world It is very like their neighbors flouted at this base submission of the Gibeonites and out of their termes of honour scorned to beg life of an enemy whiles they were out of the compasse of mercy but when the bodies of these proud Iebusites and Perizzites lay strewed vpon the earth and the Gibeonites suruiued whether was more worthy of scorne and insultation If the Gibeonites had stayed till Israel had besieged their Cities their yeeldance had been fruitlesse now they make an early peace and are preserued There is no wisdome in staying till a iudgement come home to vs the only way to auoid it is to meet it halfe way There is the same remedy of warre and of danger To prouoke an enemy in his owne borders is the best stay of inuasion and to sollicit God betimes in a manifest danger is the best antidote for death I commend their wisdome in seeking peace I doe not commend their falshood in the manner of seeking it who can looke for any better of Pagans But as the faith of Rahab is so rewarded that her lye is not punished so the fraud of these Gibeonites is not an equal match of their beliefe since the name of the Lord God of Israel brought them to this suit of peace Nothing is found fitter to deceiue Gods people then a counterfeit copy of age Here are old sacks old bottles old shooes old garments old bread The Israelites that had worne one suit forty yeares seemed new clad in comparison of them It is no new policie that Satan would beguile vs with a vaine colour of antiquity clothing falshood in rags Errors are neuer the elder for their patching Corruption can doe the same that time would doe we may make age as well as suffer it These Gibeonites did teare their bottles and shooes and clothes and made them naught that they might seeme old so doe the false patrons of new errors If we be caught with this Gibeonitish stratagem it is a signe we haue not consulted with God The sentence of death was gone out against all the inhabitants of Canaan These Hiuites acknowledge the truth and iudgements of God and yet seeke to escape by a league with Israel The generall denunciations of the vengeance of God enwrap all sinners Yet may we not despaire of mercy If the secret counsell of the Almightie had not designed these men to life Ioshua could not haue beene deceiued with their league In the generality there is no hope Let vs come in old rags of our vilenesse to the true Ioshua and make our truce with him we may liue yea we shall liue Some of the Israelites suspect the fraud and notwithstanding all their old garments and prouisions can say It may be thou dwellest amongst vs. If Ioshua had continued this doubt the Gibeonites had torne their bottles in vaine In cases and persons vnknowne it is safe not to be too credulous Charity it selfe will allow suspition where wee haue seene no cause to trust If these Hiuites had not put on new faces with their old clothes they had surely changed countenance when they heard this argument of the Israelites It may bee thou dwellest amongst vs how then can I make a league with thee They had perhaps hoped their submission would not haue been refused wheresoeuer they had dwelt but lest their neighbourhood might be a preiudice they come disguised
brethren Craftily yet and vnder pretence of a false title had they acknowledged the victory of Gideon with what forehead could they haue denied him bread Now I know not whether their faithlesnesse or enuy lie in their way Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna in thy hands There were none of these Princes of Succoth and Penuel but thought themselues better men then Gideon That he therefore alone should doe that which all the Princes of Israel durst not attempt they hated and scorned to heare It is neuer safe to measure euents by the power of the instrument nor in the causes of God whose calling makes the difference to measure others by our selues There is nothing more dangerous then in holy businesses to stand vpon comparisons and our owne reputation sith it is reason God should both chuse and blesse where he lists To haue questioned so sudden a victory had been pardonable but to deny it scornfully was vnworthy of Israelites Carnall men thinke that impossible to others which themselues cannot doe From hence are their censures hence their exclamations Gideon hath vowed a fearefull reuenge and now performes it the taunts of his brethren may not stay him from the pursuit of the Midianites Common enmities must first be opposed domesticall at more leysure The Princes of Succoth feared the tyranny of the Midianitish Kings but they more feared Gideons victory What a condition hath their enuy drawne them into that they are sorry to see Gods enemies captiue that Israels freedome must be their death that the Midianites and they must tremble at one and the same Reuenger To see themselues prisoners to Zeba and Zalmunna had not been so fearefull as to see Zeba and Zalmunna prisoners to Gideon Nothing is more terrible to euill mindes then to reade their owne condemnation in the happy successe of others hell it selfe would want one piece of his torment if the wicked did not know those whom they contemned glorious I know not whether more to commend Gideons wisedome and moderation in the proceedings then his resolution and iustice in the execution of this businesse I doe not see him run furiously into the City and kill the next His sword had not been so drunken with bloud that it should know no difference But he writes down the names of the Princes and singles them forth for reuenge When the Leaders of God come to a Iericho or Ai their slaughter was vnpartiall not a woman or child might liue to tell newes but now that Gideon comes to a Succoth a City of Israelites the rulers are called forth to death the people are frighted with the example not hurt with the iudgement To enwrappe the innocent in any vengeance is a murderous iniustice Indeed where all ioyne in the sin all are worthy to meet in the punishment It is like the Citizens of Succoth could haue been glad to succour Gideon if their rulers had not forbidden they must therefore escape whiles their Princes perish I cannot thinke of Gideons reuenge without horror That the Rulers of Succoth should haue their flesh torne from their backs with thornes and briers that they should bee at once beaten and scratcht to death What a spectacle it was to see their bare bones looking some-where thorow the bloudy ragges of their flesh and skinne and euery stroke worse then the last death multiplied by torment Iustice is sometimes so seuere that a tender beholder can scarce discerne it from cruelty I see the Midianites fare lesse ill the edge of the sword makes a speedy and easie passage for their liues whiles these rebellious Israelites dye lingringly vnder thornes and bryers enuying those in their death whom their life abhorred Howsoeuer men liue or dye without the pale of the Church a wicked Israelite shall be sure of plagues How many shall vnwish themselues Christians when Gods reuenges haue found them out The place where Iacob wrestled with God and preuailed now hath wrestled against God and takes a fall they see God auenging which would not beleeue him deliuering It was now time for Zeba and Zalmunna to follow those their troops to the graue whom they had led in the field Those which the day before were attended with an hundred thirty fiue thousand followers haue not so much as a Page now left to weep for their death and haue liued onely to see all their friends and some enemies dye for their sakes Who can regard earthly greatnesse that sees one night change two of the greatest Kings of the World into captiues It had been both pitty and sinne that the Heads of that Midianitish tyranny into which they had drawn so many thousands should haue escaped that death And yet if priuate reuenge had not made Gideon iust I doubt whether they had died The bloud of his brothers cals for theirs and awakes his sword to their execution He both knew and complained of the Midianitish oppression vnder which Israel groned yet the cruelty offered to all the thousands of his Fathers sonnes had not drawne the bloud of Zeba and Zalmunna if his owne mothers sonnes had not bled by their hands He that slew the Rulers of Succoth and Penuel spared the people now hath slain the people of Midian and would haue spared their Rulers but that God which will finde occasions to winde wicked men into iudgement will haue them slaine in a priuate quarrel which had more deserued it for the publike If we may not rather say that Gideon reuenged these as a Magistrate not as a brother For Gouernours to respect their owne ends in publike actions and to weare the sword of iustice in their owne sheath it is a wrongfull abuse of authority The slaughter of Gideons brethren was not the greatest sinne of the Midianitish Kings this alone shall kill them when the rest expected an vniust remission How many lewd men hath God payd with some one sinne for all the rest Some that haue gone away with vnnuturally filthinesse and capitall thefts haue clipped off their owne dayes with their coyne Others whose bloudy murders haue been punished in a mutinous word Others whose suspected felony hath payd the price of their vnknowne rape O God thy iudgements are iust euen when mens are vniust Gideons young soone is bidden to reuenge the death of his Vncles His sword had not yet learned the way to bloud especially of Kings though in yrons Deadly executions require strength both of heart and face How are those aged in euill that can draw their swords vpon the lawfuly Anointed of God These Tyrants plead not now for coutinuance of life but for the haste of their death Fall thou vpon vs. Death is euer accompanied with paine which it is no maruell if we wish short We doe not more affect protraction of an easefull life then speed in our dissolution for here euery pang that tends toward death renewes it To lye an houre vnder death is tedious but to be dying a whole day we thinke aboue the
but lust most of all Neuer man that had drunke flagons of wine had lesse reason then this Nazarite Many a one loses his life but this casts it away not in hatred of himselfe but in loue to a strumpet Wee wonder that a man could possibly be so sottish and yet wee our selues by tentation become no lesse insensate Sinfull pleasures like a common Dalilah lodge in our bosomes we know they aime at nothing but the death of our soule wee will yeeld to them and die Euery willing sinner is a Samson let vs not inueigh against his senslesnesse but our own Nothing is so grosse and vnreasonable to a well-disposed minde which tentation will not represent fit and plausible No soule can out of his owne strength secure himselfe from that sinne which he most detesteth As an hood-winkt man sees some little glimmering of light but not enough to guide him so did Samson who had reason enough left him to make triall of Dalilah by a crafty mis-information but not enough vpon that triall to distrust and hate her he had not wit enough to deceiue her thrice not enough to keepe himselfe from being deceiued by her It is not so great wisedome to proue them whom we distrust as it is folly to trust them whom we haue found trecherous Thrice had he seen the Philistims in her chamber ready to surprize him vpon her bonds and yet will needs be a slaue to his Traytor Warning not taken is a certaine presage of destruction and if once neglected it receiue pardon yet thrice is desperate What man would euer play thus with his owne ruine His harlot bindes him and calls in her executioners to cut his throat he rises to saue his own life and suffers them to carry away theirs in peace Where is the courage of Samson Where his zeale He that killed the Philistims for their clothes He that slew a thousand of them in the field at once in this quarrel now suffers them in his chamber vnreuenged Whence is this His hands were strong but his heart was effeminate his harlot had diuerted his affection Whosoeuer slackens the reines to his sensuall appetite shall soone grow vnfit for the calling of God Samson hath broke the green withies the new ropes the woofe of his haire and yet still suffers himselfe fettered with those inuisible bonds of an harlots loue and can indure her to say How canst thou say I loue thee when thy heart is not with me thou hast mocked me these three times Whereas he should rather haue said to her How canst thou challenge any loue from me that hast thus thice sought my life O canst thou thinke my mockes a sufficient reuenge of this trechery But contraily he melts at this fire and by her importunate insinuations is wrought against himselfe Wearinesse of sollicitation hath won some to those actions which at the first motion they despised like as we see some suters are dispatcht not for the equity of the cause but the trouble of the prosecution because it is more easie to yeeld not more reasonable It is more safe to keepe our selues out of the noyâ—e of suggestions then to stand vpon our power of deniall Who can pitty the losse of that strength which was so abused who can pitty him the losse of his locks which after so many warnings can sleepe in the lappe of Dalilah It is but iust that he should rise vp from thence shauen and feeble not a Nazarite scarce a man If his strength had lyen in his haire it had been out of himselfe it was not therefore in his locks it was in his consecration whereof that haire was a signe If the razor had come sooner vpon his head he had ceased to be a Nazarite and the gift of God had at once ceased with the calling of God not for the want of that excretioÌ„ but for the want of obedience If God withdraw his graces when he is too much prouoked who can complain of his mercy He that sleeps in sinne must looke to wake in losse and weaknesse Could Samson thinke Though I tell her my strength lies in my haire yet she will not cut it or though she doe cut my haire yet shall I not lose my strength that now he rises and shakes himselfe in hope of his former vigor Custome of successe makes men confident in their sinnes and causes them to mistake an arbitrary tenure for a perpetuity His eyes were the first offenders which betrayed him to lust and now they are first pulled out and he is ledde a blinde captiue to Azzah where he was first captiued to his lust The Azzahites which lately saw him not without terror running lightly away with their gates at midnight see him now in his own perpetuall night strugling with his chaines and that he may not want paine together with his bondage he must grind in his prison As he passed the street euery boy among the Philistims could not throw stons at him euery woman could laugh and shout at him and what one Philistim doth not say whiles he lashes him vnto bloud There is for my brothers or my kinsman whom thou slewest Who can looke to run away with a sin when Samson a Nazarite is thus plagued This great heart could not but haue broken with indignation if it had not pacified it selfe with the conscience of the iust desert of all this vengeance It is better for Samson to be blinde in prison then to abuse his eyes in Soreâ— yea I may safely say he was more blind when he saw licentiously then now that he sees not He was a greater slaue when he serued his affections then now in grinding for the Philistims The losse of his eyes shewes him his sinne neither could he see how ill he had done till he saw not Euen yet still the God of mercy lookt vpon the blindnesse of Samson and in these fetters enlargeth his heart from the worse prison of his sinne his haire grew together with his repentance and his strength with his haire Gods mercifull humiliations of his owne are sometimes so seuere that they seeme to differ little from desertions yet at the worst hee loues vs bleeding and when we haue smarted enough we shall feele it What thankfull Idolaters were these Philistims They could not but know that their bribes and their Delilah had deliuered Samson to them and yet they sacrifice to their Dagon and as those that would be liberall in casting fauours vpon a senselesse Idoll of whom they could receiue none they cry out Our god hath deliuered our enemie into our hands Where was their Dagon when a thousand of his clyents were slain with an Asses iaw There was more strength in that bone then in all the makers of this god and yet these vaine Pagans say Our god It is the quality of superstition to misinterpret all euents and so feede it selfe with the conceit of those fauours which are so farre from being done that their authors neuer
posteritie Happy is that childe whose progenitors are in heauen hee is left an inheritor of blessing together with estate whereas wicked ancestors lose the thanke of a rich patrimonie by the curse that attends it He that thinkes because punishment is deferd that God hath forgiuen or forgot his offence is vnacquainted with iustice and knowes not that time makes no difference in eternity The Amalekites were wicked Idolaters and therefore could not want many present sinnes which deserued their extirpation That God which had taken notice of all their offences picks out this one noted sinne of their forefathers for reuenge Amongst all their indignities this shall beare the name of their iudgement As in legall proceedings with malefactors one inditement found giues the stile of their condemnation In the liues of those which are notoriously wicked God cannot looke besides a sinne yet when he drawes to an execution he fastens his sentence vpon one euill as principall others as accessaries so as at the last one sinne which perhaps wee make no account of shall pay for all The paganish Idolatries of the Amalekites could not but bee greater sinnes to God then their hard measure to Israel yet God sets this vpon the file whiles the rest are not recorded Their superstitions might bee of ignorance this sinne was of malice Malicious wickednesses of all other as they are in greatest opposition to the goodnesse and mercy of God shall be sure of the paiment of greatest vengeance The detestation of God may be measured by his reuenge slay both man and woman both infant and suckling both Oxe and Sheepe Camell and Asse not themselues onely but euery thing that drew life either from them or for their vse must dye When the God of mercy speakes such bloody words the prouocation must needs be vehement sinnes of infirmitie doe but mutter spightfull sinnes cry loud for iudgement in the cares of God Prepensed malice in courts of humane iustice aggrauates the murther and sharpens the sentence of death What then was this sinne of Amalek that is called vnto this late reckoning What but their enuious and vnprouoked onsets vpon the backe of Israel this was it that God tooke so to heart as that hee not onely remembers it now by Samuel but hee bids Israel euer to remember it by Moses Remember how Amalek met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of you all that were feeble behinde thee when thou wast faint and weary Besides this did Amalek meet Israel in a pitcht battell openly in Rephidim for that God payed them in the present The hand of Moses lifted vp on the Hill slew them in the Valley He therefore repeats not that quarrell but the cowardly and cruell attempts vpon an impotent enemy sticke still in the stomacke of the Almighty Oppression and wrong vpon euen termes are not so hainous vnto God as those that are vpon manifest disaduantage In the one there is an hazard of returne In the other there is euer a tyrannous insultation God takes still the weaker part and will be sure therefore to plague them which seeke to put iniuries on the vnable to resist This sinne of Amalek slept all the time of the Iudges those gouernors were onely for rescue and defence now so soone as Israel hath a King and that King is setled in peace God giues charge to call them to account It was that which God had both threatned and sworne and now he chooses out a fit season for the execution As wee vse to say of winter the iudgements of God doe neuer rot in the skie but shall fall if late yet surely yet seasonably There is small comfort in the delay of vengeance whiles we are sure it shall lose nothing in the way by length of protraction The Kenites were the off-springs of Hobad or Iethro father in law to Moses the affinitie of him to whom Israel owed their deliuerance and being was worthy of respect but it was the mercy of that good and wise Midianite shewed vnto Israel in the wildernesse by his graue aduice cheerefull gratulation and aide which wonne this gratefull forbearance of his posterity He that is not lesse in mercy then in iustice as hee challenged Amaleks sinne of their succeeding generations so he deriues the recompence of Iethro's kindnesse vnto his far descended issue Those that were vnborne many ages after Iethro's death receiue life from his dust and fauour from his hospitalitie The name of their dead grandfather saues them from the common destruction of their neighbours The seruices of our loue to Gods children are neuer thanklesse when we are dead and rotten they shall liue and procure blessings to those which neuer knew perhaps not heard of their progenitors If we sow good workes succession shall reape them and we shall be happy in making them so The Kenites dwelt in the borders of Amalek but in tents as did their issue the Rechabites so as they might remoue with ease They are warned to shift their habitations lest they should perish with ill neighbours It is the manner of God first to separate before he iudge as a good husband weeds his come ere it bee ripe for the sickle and goes to the fanne ere he goe to the fire When the Kenites packe vp their fardels it is time to expect iudgement Why should not wee imitate God and separate our selues that we may not be iudged separate not one Kenite from another but euery Kenite from among the Amalekites else if we will needs liue with Amalek we cannot thinke much to dye with him The Kenites are no sooner remoued then Saul fals vpon the Amalekites Hee destroyes all the people but spares their King The charge of God was vniuersall for man and beast In the corruption of partialitie lightly the greatest escape Couetousnesse or mis-affection are commonly guiltie of the impunitie of those which are at once most eminent in dignitie and in offence It is a shamefull hypocrisie to make our commoditie the measure and rule of our execution of Gods command and vnder pretence of godlinesse to pretend gaine The vnprofitable vulgar must die Agag may yeelda rich ransome The leane and feeble cattle that would but spend stouer and die alone shall perish by the sword of Israel the best may stocke the grounds and furnish the markets O hypocrites did God send you for gaine or for reuenge Went you to be purueyors or executioners If you plead that all those wealthy herds had been but lost in a speedy death thinke yee that hee knew not this which commanded it Can that be lost which is deuoted to the will of the owner and Creator Or can ye thinke to gaine any thing by disobedience That man can neuer either do well or farewell which thinkes there can be more profit in any thing then in his obedience to his Maker Because Saul spared the best of the men the people spared the best of the cattle each is willing to fauour other in the
Philistims may be against him The purpose of any fauour is more then the value of it Euen the greatest honours may be giuen with an intent of destruction Many a man is raised vp for a fall So forward is Saul in the match that hee sends spokes men to sollicit Dauid vnto that honour which he hopes will proue the high-way to death The dowry is set An hundred fore-skins of the Philistims not their heads but their fore-skins that this victory might bee more ignominious still thinking why may not one Dauid miscary as well as an hundred Philistims And what doth Sauls enuy all this while but enhance Dauids zeale and valour and glorie That good Captaine little imagining that himselfe was the Philistim whom Saul maligned supererogates of his Master and brings two hundred for one and returnes home safe and renowned neither can Saul now fly for shame There is no remedy but Dauid must be a sonne where he was a riuall and Saul must feed vpon his owne heart since he cannot see Dauids Gods blessing graces equally together with mans malice neither can they deuise which way to make vs more happy then by wishing vs euill MICHALS wyle THis aduantage can Saul yet make of Dauids promotion that as his Aduersarie is raised higher so hee is drawne nearer to the opportunity of death Now hath his enuy cast off all shame and since those craftie plots succeed not hee directly subornes Murtherers of his riuall There is none in all the Court that is not set on to bee an Executioner Ionathan himselfe is sollicited to imbrue his hand in the blood of his friend of his Brother Saul could not but see Ionathans cloathes on Dauids backe he could not but know the league of their loue yet because he knew withall how much the prosperitie of Dauid would preiudice Ionathan he hoped to haue found him his sonne in malice Those that haue the Iaundis see all things yellow those which are ouergrowne with malicious passions thinke all men like themselues I doe not heare of any reply that Ionathan made to his father when he gaue him that bloody charge but he waits for a fit time to disswade him from so cruell an iniustice Wisdome had taught him to giue way to rage and in so hard an aduenture to craue aide of opportunitie If we be not carefull to obserue good moodes when wee deale with the passionate we may exasperate in stead of reforming Thus did Ionathan who knowing how much better it is to be a good friend then an ill sonne had not onely disclosed that ill counsell but when be found his father in the fields in a calmes temper laboured to diuert it And so farre doth the seasonable and pithy Oratory of Ionathan preuaile that Saul is conuinced of his wrong and sweares As God liues Dauid shall not die Indeed how could it be otherwise vpon the plea of Dauids innocence and well-deseruings How could Saul say he should dye whom hee could accuse of nothing but faithfulnesse Why should he designe him to death which had giuen life to all Israel Oft-times wicked mens iudgements are forced to yeeld vnto that truth against which their affections maintaine a rebellion Euen the foulest hearts doe sometimes entertaine good motions like as on the contrary the holiest soules giue way sometimes to the suggestions of euill The flashes of lightning may be discerned in the darkest Prisons But if good thoughts looke into a wicked heart they stay not there as those that like not their lodging they are soone gone Hardly any thing distinguishes betwixt good and euill but continuance The light that shines into an holy heart is constant like that of the Sunne which keepes due times and varies not his course for any of these sublunary occasions The Philistim Warres renue Dauids victories and Dauids victory renues Sauls enuy and Sauls enuy renues the plots of Dauids death Vowes and Oaths are forgotten That euill spirit which vexes Saul hath found so much fauour with him as to winne him to these bloody machinations against an innocent His owne hands shall first bee imployed in this execution The speare which hath twice before threatned death to Dauid shall now once againe goe vpon that message Wise Dauid that knew the danger of an hollow friend and reconciled enemy and that found more cause to mind Sauls earnest then his owne play giues way by his nimblenesse to that deadly weapon and resigning that stroke vnto the wall flies for his life No man knowes how to be sure of an vnconscionable man If either goodnesse or merit or affinitie or reasons or oaths could secure a man Dauid had been safe now if his heeles doe not more befriend him then all these hee is a dead man No sooner is hee gone then messengers are sped after him It hath been seldome seene that wickednesse wanted Executioners Dauids house is beset with Murderers which watch at all his doores for the opportunitie of blood Who can but wonder to see how God hath fetch from the loines of Saul a remedy for the malice of Sauls heart His owne children are the onely meanes to crosse him in the sinne and to preserue his guiltlesse Aduersarie Michal hath more then notice of the plot and with her subtill with countermines her father for the rescue of an Husband Shee taking the benefit of the night lets Dauid downe through a window Hee is gone and disappoints the ambushes of Saul The messengers begin to be impatient of this delay and now thinke it time to inquire after their Prisoner She whiles them off with the excuse of Dauids sicknes so as now her Husband had good leisure for his escape and layes a Statue in his bed Saul likes the newes of any euill befalne to Dauid but fearing he is not sicke enough sends to aide his disease The messengers returne and rushing into the house with their Swords drawne after some harsh words to their imagined charge surprize a sicke Statue lying with a Pillow vnder his head and now blush to see they haue spent all their threats vpon a senselesse stocke and made themselues ridiculous whiles they would be seruiceable But how shall Michal answer this mockage vnto her furious father Hitherto shot hath done like Dauid wife now she begins to be Sauls Daughter He said to me Let me goe or else I will kill thee Shee whose wit had deliuered her Husband from the Sword of her Father now turnes the edge of her Fathers wrath from her selfe to her Husband His absence made her presume of his safety If Michal had not bin of Sauls plot he had neuer expostulated with her in those termes Why hast thou let mine enemy escapeâ— neither had she framed that answer He said Let me goe I doe not find any great store of religion in Michal for both she had an Image in the house afterward mocked Dauid for his deuotion yet Nature hath taught her to prefer an Husband to a Father to chide a
issue can distinguish betwixt a Dauid and a Doeg when they are both in the Tabernacle Honest Ahimelech could little suspect that he now offered a Sacrifice for his Executioner yea for the Murtherer of all his Family Oh the wise and deepe iudgements of the Almighty God owed a reuenge to the House of Eli and now by the delation of Doeg he takes occasion to pay it It was iust in God which in Doeg was most vniust Sauls cruelty and the trecherie of Doeg doe not lose one dram of their guilt by the Counsell of God neither doth the holy Counsell of God gather any blemish by their wickednesse If it had pleased God to inflict death vpon them sooner without any pretence of occasion his Iustice had beene cleere from all imputations now if Saul and Doeg be in stead of a pestilence or feuer who can cauill The iudgements of God are not open but are alwaies iust He knowes how by one mans sinne to punish the sinne of another and by both their sinnes and punishments to glorifie himselfe If his word sleepe it shall not dye but after long intermissions breakes forth in those effects which wee had forgotten to looke for and ceased to feare O Lord thou art sure when thou threatnest and iust when thou iudgest Keepe thou vs from the sentence of death else in vaine shall we labour to keepe our selues from the execution Contemplations THE FOVRTEENTH BOOKE Containing SAVL in DAVIDS Caue NABAL and ABIGAIL DAVID and ACHISH SAVL and the Witch of Endor ZIKLAG spoyled and reuenged The death of SAVL ABNER and IOAB By IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND MY SINGVLAR GOOD LORD PHILIP EARLE OF MONGOMERY ONE OF THE GENTLEMEN OF HIS MAIESTIES Bed-chamber and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the GARTER RIGHT HONOVRABLE AFter some vnpleasing intermissions Ireturne to that taske of Contemplation wherin onely my soule findeth rest Jf in other imployments I haue indeuoured to serue God and his Church yet in none I must confesse with equall contentment Me thinkes Controuersie is not right in my way to Heauen how euer the importunitie of an Aduersary may force me to fetch it in If Truth oppressed by an erroneous Teacher cry like a rauisht Virgin for my aid J betray it if J releeue it not when J haue done J returne gladly to these paths of Peace The fauour which my late Polemicall labour hath found beyond merit from the Learned cannot diuert my loue to those wrangling Studies How earnestly doth my heart rather wish an vniuersall cessation of these Armes that all the Professors of the deare Name of Christ might bee taken vp with nothing but holy and peaceable thoughts of Deuotion the sweetnesse whereof hath so farre affected mee that if I might doe it without danger of mis-construction I could beg euen of an Enemie this leaue to bee happy I haue already giuen account to the World of some expences of my houres this way and heere I bring more which if some Reader may censure as poore none can censure as vnprofitable J am bold to write them vnder your Honorable Name whereto I am deeply obliged that I may leaue behinde me this meane but faithfull Testimony of mine humble thankfulnesse to your Lordship and your most honoured and vertuous Ladie The noble respects J haue had from you both deserue my Prayers and best seruices which shall neuer be wanting to you and yours From your Honours sincerely deuoted in all true duty IOS HALL Contemplations SAVL IN DAVIDS CAVE IT was the strange lot of Dauid that those whom he pursued preserued him from those whom he had preserued The Philistims whom Dauid had newly smitten in Keilah call off Saul from smiting Dauid in the wildernesse when there was but an hillocke betwixt him and death Wicked purposes are easily checked not easily broken off Sauls Sword is scarce dry from the bloud of the Philistims when it thirsts anew for the bloud of Dauid and now in a renewed chase hunts him dry-foot thorow euery wildernesse The very Desart is too faire a refuge for innocence The hils and rockes are searched in an angry iealousie the very wilde Goats of the mountaines were not allowed to be companions for him which had no fault but his vertue Oh the seemingly-vnequall distribution of these earthly things Cruelty and oppression reignes in a Palace whiles goodnesse lurkes among the Rockes and Caues and thinkes it happinesse enough to steale a life Like a dead man Dauid is faine to be hid vnder the earth and seekes the comfort of protection in darknesse and now the wise prouidence of God leades Saul to his enemy without bloud He which before brought them within an hils dâ—stance without interuiew brings them now both within one roofe so as that whiles Saul seekes Dauid and finds him not he is found of Dauid vnsought If Saul had known his own opportunities how Dauid and his men had interred themselues he had saued a treble labour of chase of execution and buriall for had he but stopt the mouth of that Caue his enemies had laid themselues downe in their owne Graues The Wisdome of God thinkes fit to hide from euill men and spirits those meanes and seasons which might be if they had beene taken most preiudiciall to his owne we had beene oft foiled if Satan could but haue knowne our hearts sometimes we lie open to euils and happy it is for vs that he only knowes it which pitâ—ies in stead of tempting vs. It is not long since Saul said of Dauid lodged then in Keilah God hath deliuered him into mine hands for he is shut in seeing he is come into a city that hath gates and bars but now contrarily God deliuers Saul ere he was aware into the hands of Dauid and without the helpe of gates and barres hath inclosed him within the Valley of death How iust is it with God that those who seeke mischiefe to others finde it to themselues and euen whiles they are spreading nets are insnared Their deliberate plotting of euill is surprized with a sudden iudgement How amazedly must Dauid needs looke when hee saw Saul enter into the Caue where himselfe was what is this thinkes he which God hath done Is this presence purposed or casuall is Saul here to pursue or to tempt me Where suddenly the action bewrayes the intent and tels Dauid that Saul sought secrecy and not him The superfluity of his maliciousnesse brought him into the Wildernesse the necessity of nature led him into the Caue Euen those actions wherein wee place shame are not exempted from a prouidence The fingers of Dauids followers itched to sease on their Masters enemy and that they might not seeme led so much by faction as by faith they vrge Dauid with a promise from God The day is come whereof the Lord said vnto thee Behold I will deliuer thine enemy into thine hand and thou shalt do to him as it shall seeme
a Traytor to his friend the host of God must shamefully turne their backes vpon the Ammonites all that Israelitish bloud must bee shed that murder must be seconded with dissimulation and all this to hide one adultery O God thou hadst neuer suffered so deare a Fauourite of thine to fall so fearefully if thou hadst not meant to make him an vniuersall example to Mankind of not presuming of not despairing How can wee presume of not sinning or despayre for sinning when wee finde so great a Saint thus fallen thus risen NATHAN and DAVID YEt Bathsheba mourned for the death of that Husband whom she had beene drawne to dishonour How could shee bestow teares enow vpon that Funerall whereof her sinne was the cause If shee had but a suspicion of the plot of his death the Fountaines of her eyes could not yeeld water enough to wash off her Husbands bloud Her sin was more worthy of sorrow than her losse If this griefe had beene right placed the hope of hiding her shame and the ambition to bee a Queene had not so soone mittigated it neyther had shee vpon any termes beene drawne into the Bed of her husbands murtherer Euery gleame of earthly comfort can dry vp the teares of worldly sorrow Bathsheba hath soone lost her griefe at the Court The remembrance of an Husband is buried in the ioyliltie and state of a Princesse Dauid securely enioyes his ill-purchased loue and is content to exchange the conscience of his sinne for the sense of his pleasure But the iust and holy God will not put it vp so hee that hates sinne so much the more as the offender is more deare to him will let Dauid feele the bruise of his fall If Gods best Children haue beene sometimes suffered to sleepe in a sinne at last he hath awakened them in a fright Dauid was a Prophet of God yet hee hath not only stept into these foule sinnes but soiournes with them If any profession or state of life could haue priuiledged from sinne the Angels had not sinned in Heauen nor man in Paradise Nathan the Prophet is sent to the Prophet Dauid for reproofe for conuiction Had it beene any other mans case none could haue beene more quick sighted than the Princely Prophet in his owne hee is so blinde that God is faine to lend him others eyes Euen the Phisician himself when hee is sick sends for the counsell of those whom his health did mutually aid with aduice Let no man thinke himselfe too good to learne Teachers themselues may bee taught that in their owne particular which in a generalitie they haue often taught others It is not only ignorance that is to be remoued but mis-affection Who can prescribe a iust period to the best mans repentance About tenne moneths are passed since Dauids sinne in all which time I finde no newes of any serious compunction It could not bee but some glances of remorse must needs haue passed thorough his Soule long ere this but a due and solemne contrition was not heard of till Nathans message and perhaps had beene further adiourned if that Monitor had beene longer deferred Alas what long and dead sleepes may the holyest Soule take in fearefull sinnes Were it not for thy mercie O God the best of vs should end our spirituall Lethargie in sleepe of death It might haue pleased God as easily to haue sent Nathan to checke Dauid in his first purpose of sinning So had his eyes beene restrayned Bathsheba honest Vriah aliue with honour now the wisdome of the Almightie knew how to winne more glorie by the permission of so foule an euill than by the preuention yea he knew how by the permission of one sinne to preuent millions how many thousand had sinned in a vaine presumption on their owne strength if Dauid had not thus offended how many thousand had despiared in the conscience of their owne weaknesses if these horrible sinnes had not receiued forgiuenesse It is happy for all times that we haue so holy a Sinner so sinfull a penitent It matters not how bitter the Pill is but how well wrapped so cunningly hath Nathan conueyed this dose that it begins to worke ere it be tasted there is no one thing wherein is more vse of wisdome than the due contriuing of a reprehension which in a discreet deliuerie helps the disâ—â—se in an vnwise destroyes Nature Had not Nathan beene vsed to the possession of Dauids care this complaint had beene suspected It well beseemes a King to take information by a Prophet Whiles wise Nathan was querulously discoursing of the cruell rich man that had forceably taken away the only Lambe of his poore Neighbour how willingly doth Dauid listen to the Storie and how sharply euen aboue Law doth he censure the fact As the Lord liueth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye Full little did he thinke that he had pronounced sentence against himselfe It had not beene so heauie if he had not knowne on whom it should haue light Wee haue open eares and quick tongues to the vices of others How seuere Iusticers wee can bee to our very owne crimes in others persons How flattering Parasites to anothers crime in our selues The life of doctrine is in application Nathan might haue bin long enough in his narration in his inuectiue ere Dauid would haue bin touched with his owne guiltinesse but now that the Prophet brings the Word home to his bosome hee cannot but be affected Wee may take pleasure to heare men speake in the Cloudes we neuer take profit till wee finde a proprietie in the exhortation or reproofe There was not more cunning in the Parable than courage in the application Thou art the man If Dauid be a King he may not looke not to heare of his faults Gods messages may be no other than vnpartiall It is a trecherous flattery in diuine errands to regard greatnesse If Prophets must bee mannerly in the forme yet in the matter of reproofe resolute The words are not their owne They are but the Heralds of the King of Heauen Thus saith the Lord God of Israel How thunder-stricken doe we thinke Dauid did now stand How did the change of his colour bewray the confusion in his Soule whiles his conscience said the same within which the Prophet sounded in his eare And now least ought should be wanting to his humiliation all Gods former fauours shall be laid before his eyes by way of exprobration He is worthy to be vpbrayded with mercies that hath abused mercies vnto wantonnesse whiles we doe well God giues and sayes nothing when we doe ill hee layes his benefits in our dish and casts them in our teeth that our shame may be so much the more by how much our obligations haue bin greater The blessings of God in our vnworthy carriage proue but the aggrauations of sinne and additions to iudgement I see all Gods Children falling into sinne some of them lying in sinne none of them maintayning their sinne Dauid
for vs to striue in our prayers to striue with him not against him when once wee know them it is our dutie to sit downe in a silent contentation Whiles the Childe was yet aliue I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the Childe may liue but now he is dead Wherfore should I fast Can-I bring him backe againe The griefe that goes before an euill for remedie can hardly bee too much but that which followes an euill past remedie cannot bee too little Euen in the saddest accident Death wee may yeeld something to nature nothing to impatience immoderation of sorrow for losses past hope of recouery is more fullen than vse-full our stomacke may be bewrayed by it not our wisdome AMNON and TAMAR IT is not possible that any word of God should fall to the ground Dauid is not more sure of forgiuenesse than smart Three maine sins passed him in this businesse of Vriah Adultery Murder Dissimulation for all which he receiues present payment for Adultery in the deflowring of his Daughter Thamar for Murder in the killing of his Sonne Amnon for Dissimulation in the contriuing of both Yet all this was but the beginning of euils Where the Father of the Family brings sinne home to the house it is not easily swept our Vnlawfull Lust propagates it selfe by example How iustly is Dauid scourged by the sinne of his Sonnes whome his Act taught to offend Maacha was the Daughter of an Heathenish King By her had Dauid that beautifull but vnhappy Issue Absalom and his no lesse faire Sister Thamar Perhaps thus late doth Dauid feele the punishment of that vnfit choice I should haue maruelled if so holy a man had not found crosses in so vnequall a match either in his person or at least in his feed Beauty if it be not well disciplin'd proues not a Friend but a Traytour three of Dauids Children are vndone by it at once What else was guilty of Amnons incestuous loue Tamars rauishment Absoloms pride It is a blessing to be faire yet such a blessing as if the soule answer not to the face may leade to a curse How commonly haue we seene the foâ—â—lest soule dwell fairest It was no fault of Tamars that shee was beautifull the Candle offends not in burning the foolish flie offends in scorching it selfe in the flame yet it is no small misery to become a tentation vnto another and to be made but the occasion of others ruine Amnon is loue-sicke of his sister Tamar and languishes of that vnnaturall heat Whither will not wanton lust carry the inordinate mindes of pampered and vngouerned youth None but his halfe sister will please the eyes of the young Prince of Israel Ordinary pleasures will not content those whom the conceit of greatnesse youth and ease haue let loose to their appetite Perhaps yet this vnkindly flame might in time haue gone out alone had not there beene a Ionadab to blow these coales with ill counsell It were strange if great Princes should want some Parasiticall Followers that are ready to feed their ill humors Why art thou the Kings Sonne so leane from day to day As if it were vnworthy the Heire of a King to suffer either Law or Conscience to stand in the way of his desires Whereas wise Princes know well that their places giue them no priuiledge of sinning but call them in rather to so much more strictnesse as their example may be more preiudiciall Ionadab was the Cousin German of Amnon Ill aduice is so much more dangegerous as the interest of the giuer is more Had he beene a true friend hee had bent all the forces of his disswasion against the wicked motions of that sinfull lust and had shewed the Prince of Israel how much those lewd desires prouoked God and blemished himselfe and had lent his hand to strangle them in their first Conception There cannot be a more worthy improuement of friendship than in a feruent opposition to the sinnes of them whom we professe to loue No enemy can be so mortall to great Princes as those officious Clients whose flattery soothes them vp in wickednesse These are Traytors to the Soule and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally How ready at hand is an euill suggestion Good counsell is like vnto Wel-water that must be drawne vp with a Pumpe or Bucket Ill counsell is like to Conduit-water which if the cocke be but turned runnes out alone Ionadab hath soone proiected how Amnon shall accomplish his lawlesse purpose The way must be to faine himselfe sicke in body whose minde was sicke of lust and vnder this pretence to procure the presence of her who had wounded and only might cure him The daily increasing languor and leanenesse and palenesse of loue-sicke Amnon might well giue colour to a Kerchiefe and a pallet Now is it soone told Dauid that his eldest Sonne is cast vpon his sicke bed there needs no suite for his visitation The carefull Father hastenâ— to his Bed-side not without doubts and feates He that was lately so afflicted with the sicknesse of a Childe that scarce liued to see the light how sensible must we needs thinke hee would bee of the indisposition of his first borne Soone in the prime of his age and hopes It is not giuen to any Prophet to fore-see all things Happie had it beene for Dauid if Amnon had beene truly sicke and sicke vnto death yet who could haue perswaded this passionate Father to haue beene content with this succession of losses this early losse of his Successour How glad is he to heare that his Daughter Tamars skill might bee likely to fit the dyet of so deareâ— patient Conceit is word to rule much both in sicknesse and the cure Tamar is sent by her Father to the house of Amnon Her hand only must dresse that Dish which may please the nice Palace of her sicke Brother Euen the Children of Kings in those homelyâ—r Tymes did not scorne to put their fingers to some workes of huswifrie Shee tooke floure and did knead it and did make Cakes in his sight and did bake the Cakes and tooke a Pan and powred them out before him Had shee not beene sometimes vsed to such domestique imployments shee had beene now to seeke neither had this beene required of her but vpon the knowledge of her skill Shee doth not plead the impayring of her beauty by the scorching of the fire nor thinkes her hand too dainty for such meane Services but settles to the worke as one that had rather regard the necessities of her Brother than her owne state Only pride and idlenesse haue banisht honest and thrifty diligence out of the houses of the great This was not yet the Dish that Amnon longed for It was the Cooke and not the Cates which that wanton eye affected Vnlawfull Acts seeke for secrecie The companie is dismissed Tamar onely staies Good meaning suspects nothing Whiles she presents the meat
from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to faile My Couenant will I not breake nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth Behold the fauour of God doth not depend vpon Salomons obedience If Salomon shall suffer his faithfulnesse to faile towards his God God will not requite him with the failing of his faithfulnesse to Salomon If Salomon breake his Couenant with God God will not breake his Couenant with the father of Salomon with the sonne of Dauid He shall smart hee shall not perish Oh gracious word of the God of all mercies able to giue strength to the languishing comfort to the despairing to the dying life Whatsoeuer wee are thou wilt be still thy selfe O holy One of Israel true to thy Couenant constant to thy Decree The sinnes of thy chosen can neither frustrate thy counsell nor out-strip thy mercies Now I see Salomon of a wanton louer a graue Preacher of mortification I see him quenching those inordinate flames with the teares of his repentance Me thinks I heare him sighing deepely betwixt euery word of that his solemne penance which he would need enioyne himselfe before all the world I haue applyed my heart to know the wickednesse of folly euen the foolishnesse of madnesse and I finde more bitter then death the woman whose heart is as nets and snares and her hands as bands Who so pleaseth God shall be deliuered from her but the sinner shall be taken by her Salomon was taken as a sinner deliuered as a penitent His soule escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare was broken and he deliuered It is good for vs that he was both taken and deliuered Taken that wee might not presume and that we might not despaire deliuered He sinned that we might not sinne hee recouered that we may not sinke vnder our sinne But oh the iustice of God inseparable from his mercy Salomons sinne shall not escape the rod of men Rather then so wise an offender shall want enemies God shall raise vp three aduersaries vnto Salomon Hadad the Edomite Rezon the King of Aram Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat whereof two were foraine one domesticall Nothing but loue and peace sounded in the name of Salomon nothing else was found in his raigne whiles he held in good termes with his God But when once hee fell foule with his Maker all things began to be troubled There are whips laid vp against the time of Salomons fore-seene offence which are now brought forth for his correction On purpose was Hadad the sonne of the King of Edom hid in a corner of Egypt from the sword of Dauid and Ioab that he might be reserued for a scourge to the exorbitant sonne of Dauid God would haue vs make account that our peace ends with our innocence The same sinne that sets debate betwixt God and vs armes the creatures against vs It were pitie wee should be at any quiet whiles wee are falne out with the God of peace Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL HISTORIES OF THE NEVV TESTAMENT THE THIRD BOOKE Containing The Widowes sonne raised The Rulers sonne healed The dumbe Deuill eiected MATTHEW called Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gaderene Herd By IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO MY RIGHT VVORTHY AND WORSHIPFVLL FRIEND MASTER IOHN GIFFORD of Lancrasse in Deuon Esquire All Grace and Peace SIR J hold it as I ought one of the rich mercies of GOD that he hath giuen me fauour in some eies which haue not seene me but none that J know hath so much demerited me vnknowne as your worthy Familie Ere therefore you see my face see my hand willingly professing my thankefull Obligations Wherewith may it please you to accept of this parcell of thoughts not vnlike those fellowes of theirs whom you haue entertained aboue their desert These shall present vnto you our bountifull SAVIOVR magnifying his mercies to men in a sweet varietie healing the diseased raising the dead casting out the Deuill calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodnesse Euery helpe to our deuotion deserues to bee precious So much more as the decrepit age of the World declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of Pietie That GOD to whose honour these poore labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his protection J heartily commend you and the right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy wife with all the pledges of your happy affection as whom you haue deserued to be Your truly thankfull and officious friend IOS HALL The Widowes Sonne raised THE fauours of our beneficent Sauiour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurions seruant from his bed then he raises the Widowes Sea from his Beere The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sunne were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospell whose errand is vniuersall This immortall seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood vnder the hill of Hermon neere vnto Tabor but now it is watered with better dewes from aboue the doctrine miracles of a Sauiour Not for state but for the more euidence of the worke is our Sauior attended with a large traine so entring into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their faith by his power and to take it His prouidence hath so contriued his iourney that he meets with the sad pompe of a funerall A wofull widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely sonne to the graue There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A yong man in the flowre in the strength of his age swallowed vp by death Our decrepit age both expects death and sollicites it but vigorous youth lookes strangely vpon that grim sergeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather vp with contentment wee chide to haue the vnripe vnseasonably beaten downe with cudgells But more a yong man the onely sonne the onely childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grieuous for a well natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of losse Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still wee hope the suruiuing may supply the comforts of the dead but when all our hopes and ioyes must either liue or die in one the losse of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable hee can but say Oh daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy selfe in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely sonne Such was the losse such was the sorrow of this disconsolate
mother neither words nor teares can suffice to discouer it Yet more had she beene ayded by the counsell and supportation of a louing yoke-fellow this burden might haue seemed lesse intolerable A good husband may make amends for the losse of a sonne had the root beene left to her intire she might better haue spared the branch now both are cut vp all the stay of her life is gone and shee seemes abandoned to a perfect misery And now when shee gaue herselfe vp for a forlorne mourner past all capacity of redresse the God of comfort meets her pities her relieues her Here was no solicitor but his owne compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a seruant the Ruler for a sonne Iairus for a daughter the neighbours for the Paralyticke here hee seekes vp the patient and offers the cure vnrequested Whiles wee haue to doe with the Father of mercies our afflictions are the most powerfull suitors No teares no prayers can moue him so much as his owne commiseration Oh God none of our secret sorrowes can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when wee are past all our hopes all possibilities of helpe then art thou neerest to vs for deliuerance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The heart had compassion the mouth said Weepe not the feet went to the Beere the hand touched the coffin the power of the Deity raised the dead What the heart felt was secret to it selfe the tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weepe not Alas what are words to so strong and iust passions To bid her not to weepe that had lost her onely sonne was to perswade her to be miserable and not feele it to feele and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealement doth not remedy but aggrauate sorrow That with the counsell of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his hand seconds his tongue He arrests the Coffin and frees the Prisoner Yongman I say vnto thee arise The Lord of life and death speakes with command No finite power could haue said so without presumption or with successe That is the voice that shall one day call vp our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolued and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detaine their dead when he charges them to be deliuered Incredulous nature what doest thou shrinke at the possibility of a resurrection when the God of nature vndertakes it It is no more hard for that almighty Word which gaue being vnto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I doe not see our Sauiour stretching himselfe vpon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha vpon the sonnes of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling downe and praying by the Beere as Peter did to Dorcas but I heare him so speaking to the dead as if he were aliue and so speaking to the dead that by the word hee makes him aliue I say vnto thee arise Death hath no power to bid that man lye still whom the Sonne of God bids Arise Immediately he that was dead sate vp So at the sound of the last trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand vp glorious this mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible incorruption This body shall not be buried but sowne and at our day shall therefore spring vp with a plentifull increase of glory How comfortlesse how desperate should be our lying downe if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weake faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty he hath already by what hee hath done giuen vs tasts of what he will doe The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no power can raise one but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Vnder the old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha liuing a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament hee raised here the sonne of the Widow the daughter of Iairus Lazarus and in attendance of his owne resurrection he made a gaole-deliuery of holy prisoners at Ierusalem Hee raises the daughter of Iairus from her bed this widowes sonne from his Coffin Lazarus from his graue the dead Saints of Ierusalem from their rottennesse that it might appeare no degree of death can hinder the efficacie of his ouer-ruling command Hee that keepes the keyes of death cannot onely make way for himselfe through the common Hall and outer-roomes but through the inwardest and most reserued closets of darknesse Me thinkes I see this yong man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleepe wiping and rubbing those eies that had beene shut vp in death and descending from the Beere wrapping his winding sheet about his loines cast himselfe down in a passionate thankfulnesse at the feet of his Almightie restorer adoring that diuine power which had commanded his soule back again to her forsaken lodging though I heare not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise wonder which his returned soule first vttered It was the mother whom our Sauior pitied in this act not the sonne who now forced from his quiet rest must twice passe through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he deliuered that she might acknowledge that soule giuen to her not to the possessor Who cannot feele the amazement and extasie of ioy that was in this reuiued mother when her son now salutes her from out of another world And both receiues and giues gratulations of of his new life How suddenly were all the teares of that mournfull traine dried vp with a ioyfull astonishment How soone is that funerall banquet turned into a new Birth-day feast What striuing was here to salute the late carkasse of their returned neighbour What awfull and admiring lookes were cast vpon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approued omnipotent How gladly did euery tongue celebrate both the worke and the author A great Prophet is raised vp amongst vs and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the highest name they could finde for him whom they saw like themselues in shape aboue themselues in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This miracle might well haue assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Beere would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the graue of Infidelitie they shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised vp to them was the God that now visited them and at last should doe as much for them as hee had done for the yong man raise them from death to life from dust to glory The
still and command amongst his cups To defile their fingers with the blood of so few seemed no mastery that act would bee inglorious on the part of the Victors More easily might they bring in three heads of dead enemies then one aliue Imperiously enough therefore doth this boaster out of his chaire of state and ease command Whether they be come out for peace take them aliue or whether they be come out for warre take them aliue There needs no more but Take them this field is won with a word Oh the vaine and ignorant presumptions of wretched men that will be reckoning without against their Maker Euery Israelite kils his man the Syrians flee and cannot runne away from death Benhadad and his Kings are more beholden to their horses then to their gods or themselues for life and safety else they had been either taken or slaine by those whom they commanded to be taken How easie is it for him that made the heart to fill it with terror and consternation euen where no feare is Those whom God hath destin'd to slaughter he will smite neither needs he any other enemy or executioner then what he findes in their owne bosome We are not the masters of our owne courage or feares both are put into vs by that ouer-ruling power that created vs Stay now O stay thou great King of Syria and take with thee those forgotten handfuls of the dust of Israel Thy gods will doe so to thee and more also if thy followers returne without their vowed burden Learne now of the despised King of Israel from henceforth not to sound the triumph before the battell not to boast thy selfe in the girding on of thine harnesse as in the putting off I heare not of either the publike thanksgiuing or amendment of Ahab Neither danger nor victory can change him from himselfe Benhadad and he though enemies agree in vnrepentance the one is no more moued with mercy then the other with iudgement Neither is God any changeling in his proceedings towards both his iudgement shall still follow the Syrian his mercy Israel Mercy both in fore-warning and redeliuering Ahab Iudgement in ouerthrowing Benhadad The Prophet of God comes againe and both foretels the intended re-encounter of the Syrian and aduises the care and preparation of Israel Goe strengthen thy selfe and marke and see what thou doest for at the returne of the yeare the King of Syria will come vp against thee God purposeth the deliuerance of Israel yet may not they neglect their fortifications The mercifull intentions of God towards them may not make them carelesse The industry and courage of the Israelites fall within the decree of their victory Security is the bane of good successe It is no contemning of a foyled enemie the shame of a former disgrace and miscariage whets his valor and sharpens it to reuenge No power is so dreadfull as that which is recollected from an ouerthrow The hostility against the Israel of God may sleepe but will hardly die If the Aramites sit still it is but till they be fully ready for an assault Time will shew that their cessation was onely for their aduantage neither is it otherwise with our spirituall aduersaries sometimes their onsets are intermitted they tempt not alwaies they alwaies hate vs their forbearance is not out of fauour but attendance of opportunitie happy are wee if out of a suspicion of their silence we can as busily prepare for their resistance as they doe for our impugnation As it is a shame to bee beaten so yet the shame is lesse by how much the victor is greater to mitigate the griefe and indignation of Benhadads foile his parasites ascribe it to gods not to men an humane power could no more haue vanquish't him then a diuine power could by him be resisted Their gods are gods of the hils Ignorant Syrians that name gods and confine them varying their deities according to situations They saw that Samaria whence they were repelled stood vpon the hill of Shemer They saw the Temple of Ierusalem stood vpon mount Sion they knew it vsuall with the Israelites to sacrifice in their high places and perhaps they had heard of Elijahs altar vpon mount Carmel and now they sottishly measure the effects of the power by the place of the worship as if he that was omnipotent on the hill were impotent in the Valley What doltish conceits doth blinde Paganisme frame to it selfe of a God-head As they haue many gods so finite euery region euery hill euery dale euery streame hath their seuerall gods and each so knowes his owne bounds that he dares not offer to incroach vpon the other or if he doe abuyes it with losse Who would thinke that so grosse blockishnesse should finde harbour in a reasonable soule A man doth not alter with his station He that wrestled strongly vpon the hill loseth not his force in the plaine all places finde him alike actiue alike valorous yet these barbarous Aramites shame not to imagine that of God which they would blush to affirme of their owne champions Superstition infatuates the heart out of measure neither is there any fancy so absurd or monstrous which credulous infidelity is not ready to entertaine with applause In how high scorne doth God take it to bee thus basely vnder-valued by rude heathen This very mis-opinion concerning the God of Israel shall cost the Syrians a shamefull and perfect destruction They may call a Counsell of War and lay their heads together and change their Kings into Captaines and their hills into valleyes but they shall finde more graues in the plaines then in the mountaines This very mes-prison of God shall make Ahab though he were more lewd victorious An hundred thousand Syrians shall fall in one day by those few hands of Israel And a dead wall in Aphek to whose shelter they fled shall reuenge God vpon the rest that remained The stones in the wall shall rather turne executioners then a blasphemous Aramite shall escape vnreuenged So much doth the iealous God hate to be robd of his glory euen by ignorant Pagans whose tongue might seeme no slander That proud head of Benhadad that spoke such big words of the dust of Israel and swore by his gods that hee would kill and conquer is now glad to hide it selfe in a blinde hole of Aphek and now in stead of questioning the power of the God of Israel is glad to heare of the mercy of the Kings of Israel Behold now wee haue heard that the Kings of the house of Israel are mercifull Kings Let vs I pray thee put sack-cloth on our loines and ropes on our heads and goe out to the King of Israel peraduenture he will saue thy life There can bee no more powerfull attractiue of humble submission then the intimation and conceit of mercy Wee doe at once feare and hate the inexorable This is it O Lord that allures vs to thy throne of grace the knowledge of the grace of that throne
how excellent were her Masculine graces of learning valour wisdome by which shee might iustly challenge to bee the Queene of men So learned was shee that shee could giue present answers to Embassadors in their owne tongues or if they listed to borrow of their neighbours shee paid them in that they borrowed So valiant that her name like Ziscaes drum made the proudest Romanists to quake So wise Didymus veridicus that whatsoeuer fell out happily against the common Aduersaries in FRANCE NETHERLANDS IRELAND it was by themselues ascribed to her policie What should I speake of her long and successefull gouernment of her miraculous preseruations of her famous victories wherein the waters O nimâ—uÌ„ dilecta Deo cui militat aether coniurati veniunt ad classica venti Claud. Pro. 13.29 winds fire and earth fought for vs as if they had beene in pay vnder Her of Her excellent lawes of Her carefull executions Many daughters haue done worthily but thou furmountest them all Such was the sweetnesse of her gouernment and such the feare of miserie in her losse that many worthie Christians desired their eyes might bee closed before Hers and how many thousands therefore welcomed their owne death because it preuented Hers Euerie one pointed to her white haires and said with that peaceable Leontius Soz. l. 3. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dolm. p. 1. p. 2 6. p. 2. p. 117. When this snow melts there will be a floud Neuer day except alwaies the fift of Nouember was like to bee so bloudie as this not for any doubt of Title which neuer any loyall heart could question nor any disloyall euer did besides Dolman but for that our Esauites comforted themselues against vs and said The day of mourning for our mother will come shortly then will wee slay our brethren What should I say more Lots were cast vpon our Land and that honest Politician which wanted nothing but a gibbet to haue made him a Saint Father Parsons tooke paines to set downe an order how all English affaires should be marshalled when they should come to bee theirs Consider now the great things that the Lord hath done for vs. Behold this day which should haue beene most dismall to the whole Christian world he turned to the most happie day that euer shone forth to this ILAND That now wee may iustly insult with those Christians of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. 3.15 Where are your prophesies O yee fond Papists Our snow lies here melted where are those flouds of bloud that you threatned Yea as that blessed soule of Hers gained by this change of an immortall crowne for a corruptible so blessed be the name of our God this Land of ours hath not lost by that losse Many thinke that this euening the world had his beginning Surely a new and golden world began this day to vs and which it could not haue done by her loynes promises continuance if our sinnes interrupt it not to our posterities I would the flatterie of a Prince were treason in effect it is so for the flatterer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kinde murtherer I would it were so in punishment If I were to speake before my Soueraigne King and Master I would praise God for him not praise him to himselfe Euseb de vita Const l. 4. c. 4. A Preacher in CONSTANTINES time saith Eusebius ausus est Imperatorem in os beatum dicere presumed to call CONSTANTINE an happy Emperour to his face but he went away with a checke such speed may any Parasite haue which shall speake as if he would make Princes proud and not thankfull A small praise to the face may be adulation though it be within bounds a great praise in absence may be but iustice If we see not the worth of our King how shall we be thankfull to God that gaue him Giue me leaue therefore freely to bring forth the Lords Anointed before you 1 Sam. 10.24 and to say with SAMVEL See you him whom the Lord hath chosen Euagr. l. 5. c. 21. As it was a great presage of happinesse to Mauritius the Emperour that an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a familiar Deuill remouing him from place to place in his swathing bands yet had no power to hurt him So that those early conspiracies wherewith Satan assaulted the very cradle of our deare Soueraigne preuailed not it was a iust bodement of his future greatnesse and beneficiall vse to the world And hee that gaue him life a 〈◊〉 Crowne together and miraculously preserued them both gaue him graces fit for his Deputie on earth to weild that Crowne and improue that life to the behoofe of Christendome Let mee begin with that which the Heathen man required to the happinesse of any State his learning and knowledge wherein I may safely say he exceedeth all his 105 Predecessors Our Conqueror King William as our Chronicler reports by a blunt prouerbe that he was wont to vse against vnlearned Princes Malmesbur made his sonne Henry a Beauclearc to those times But a candle in the darke will make more show than a bonefire by day In these dayes so lightsome for knowledge to excell euen for a professed student is hard and rare Neuer had England more learned Bishops and Doctors which of them euer returned from his Maiesties discourse without admiration What King christned hath written so learned volumes To omit the rest his last of this kind wherein he hath so held vp Cardinall Bellarmine and his Master Pope Paulus is such that Plessis and Mouline the two great lights of France professe to receiue their light in this discourse from his beames and the learned Iesuite Salkeild could not but be conuerted with the necessitie of those demonstrations and I may boldly say Poperic since it was neuer receiued so deepe a wound from any worke as from that of His. What King euer moderated the solemne acts of an Vniuersitie in all professions and had so many hands clapt in the applause of his acute and learned determinations Briefely such is his intire acquaintance with all sciences and with the Queene of all Diuinitie that he might well dispute with the infallible Pope Paulus Quintus for his triple Crowne and I would all Christian quarrels lay vpon this duell His iustice in gouerning matcheth his knowledge how to gouerne for as one that knowes the Common-wealth cannot bee vnhappy wherein according to the wise Heathens rule law is a Queene and will a subiect Plato He hath euer endeuoured to frame the proceedings of his gouernment to the lawes not the lawes to them Witnesse that memorable example whereof your eyes were witnesses I meane the vnpartiall execution of one of the ancientest Barons of those parts for the murder of a meane subiect Wherein not the fauour of the blocke might be yeelded that the dishonour of the death might bee no lesse than the paine of the death Yet who will not grant his
Mercy to bee eminent amongst his vertues when Parsons himselfe yeelds it And if a vertue so continuing could bee capable of excesse this might seeme so in him For that which was said of Anastasius the Emperor Euagr. l. 3. c. 34. that hee would attempt no exploit though neuer so famous if it might cost the price of Christian blood and that which was said of Mauritius Euagr. l. 6. c. 1. that by his good will hee would not haue so much as a Traitor dye and that of Vespasian Sueton. Vesp Socr. l. 7. c. 22. that hee wept euen for iust executions and lastly that of Theodosius that hee wisht hee could recall those to life againe that had wronged him may in some sense bee iustly verified of our mercifull Soueraigne I pray God the measure of this vertue may neuer hurt himselfe I am sure the want of it shall neuer giue cause of complaint to his aduersaries But among all his Heroicall Graces which commend him as a Man as a Christian as a King Pietie and firmenesse in Religion calls me to it and will not suffer me to deferre the mention of it any longer A priuate man vnsetled in opinion is like a loose tooth in the head troublesome and vse-lesse but a publique person vnstayed is dangerous Resolution for the truth is so much better than knowledge by how much the possessing of a treasure is better than knowing where it is With what zeale did his Maiestie flie vpon the blasphemous nouelties of Vorstius How many solicitations threats promises profers hath hee trampled vnder his feet in former times for but a promise of an indifferent conniuence at the Romish religion Was it not an answer worthy of a King worthy of marble and brasse Watson B. Barl. answer to Parsons pag. 115. è Com. Northamp lib. that hee made vnto their agent for this purpose in the times of the greatest perill of resistance That all the Crownes and Kingdomes in this world should not induce him to change any iot of his profession Hath hee not so ingaged himselfe in this holy quarrell that the world confesses Rome had neuer such a◠Aduersarie and all Christian Princes reioyce to follow him as their worthy leader in all the battels of God and all Christian Churches in their prayers acclamations stile him in a double right Defender of the Faith more by desert than inheritance But because as the Sunne beames so praises are more kindly when they are cast oblique vpon their obiects than when they fall directly let me shew you him rather in the blessings we receiue from him than in the graces which are in him And not to insist vpon his extinguishing of those hellish feudes in Scotland and the reducing of those barbarous borderers to ciuilitie and order two acts worthy of eternitie and which no hand but his could doe Consider how great things the Lord hath done for vs by him in our Peace in our freedome of the Gospell in our Deliuerance Continuance detracts from the value of any fauour Little do we know the price of peace If wee had beene in the coat of our forefathers or our neighbours wee should haue knowne how to esteeme this deare blessing of God Oh my deare brethren wee neuer knew what it was to heare the murdering peeces about our eares to see our Churches and houses flaming ouer our heads to heare the fearefull cracks of their fals mixed with the confused out-cries of men Tum vero gemitus morientū sanguine in alto Armaque corporaque permisti caede virorum Semianimos voluuntur equi Virg. Aen. 11. killing incouraging to kill or resist dying and the shriekings of women and children we neuer saw tender babes snatcht from the breasts of their mothers now bleeding vpon the stones or sprawling vpon the pikes and the distracted mother rauished ere shee may haue leaue to die Wee neuer saw men and horses lie wallowing in their mingled bloud and the ghastly visages of death deformed with wounds The impotent wife hanging with teares on her armed husband as desirous to die with him with whom she may not liue The amazed runnings to and fro of those that would faine escape if they knew how and the furious pace of a bloudy victor The rifling of houses for spoile and euery souldier running with his load and ready to fight with other for our booty The miserable captiue driuen manicled before the insulting enemy Neuer did wee know how cruell an Aduersarie is and how burdensome an helper is in warre Looke round about you All your neighbours haue seene and tasted these calamities All the rest of the world haue beene whirled about in these wofull tumults onely this ILAND hath like the center stood vnmoueable Nam cum tristis hyems alias produxerit vndas Tum Nilum retinent ripae Claud. Epigr. Onely this ISLE hath beene like Nilus which when all other waters ouer-flow keeps within the banks That we are free from these and a thousand other miseries of warre Whither should we ascribe it but next vnder God to his Anointed as a King as a King of Peace For both Anarchie is the mother of diuision as we see in the State of ITALIE wherein when they wanted their King all ranne into ciuill broiles Otho Fris lib. 7. cap. 29. The Venetians with them of Rauenna Verona and Vincentia with the Paduans and Taruisians The Pisans and Florentines with them of Luca and Sienna And besides euery King is not a Peace-maker Ours is made of Peace Socr. lib. 7. c. 22. There haue beene Princes which as the Antiochians said of IVLIAN taking occasion by the Bull which hee stampt in his coyne haue goared the world to death The breasts of some Princes haue beene like a Thunder-cloud whose vapours would neuer leaue working till they haue vented themselues with terror to the world Ours hath nothing in it but a gracious raine to water the inheritance of God Behold He euen He alone like to NOAHS Doue brought an Oliue of peace to the tossed Arke of Christendome Hee like another AVGVSTVS before the second comming of CHRIST hath becalmed the world and shut the iron gates of warre and is the bond of that peace hee hath made And if the Peace-maker both doth blesse and is blessed how should we blesse him and blesse God for him and hold our selues blessed in him Now what were peace without religion but like a Nabals sheepe-shearing like the fatting of an Epicurean hogge the very festiuall reuels of the Deuill But for vs we haue Gloria in excelsis Deo sung before our Pax in terris in a word we haue Peace with the Gospell Discors l. 1. c. 20. Due continuoue successioni di principi virtuosi fanno grandi effetti Plato 8. de Rep. Machiauel himselfe could say in his Discourses that two continued successions of vertuous Princes fanno grandi effetti cannot but doe great matters Wee proue it so
against this Philistim to fight with him for thou art a boy and hee is a man of warre from his youth Euen Saul seconds Eliab in the conceit of this disparitie and if Eliab speake out of enuy Saul speakes out of iudgement both iudge as they were iudged of by the stature All this cannot weaken that heart which receiues his strength from faith Dauids greatest conflict is with his friends The ouercomming of their disswasions that he might fight was more worke then to ouercome his enemy in fighting Hee must first iustifie his strength to Saul ere he may proue it vpon Goliah Valour is neuer made good but by tryall He pleads the tryall of his puissance vpon the Beare and the Lyon that hee may haue leaue to proue it vpon a worse beast then they Thy seruant slew both the Lyon and the Beare therefore this vncircumcised Philistim shall be as one of them Experience of good successe is no small comfort to the heart this giues possibilitie and hope but no certainty Two things there were on which Dauid built his confidence on Goliahs sinne and Gods deliuerance Seeing he hath railed on the host of the liuing God The Lord that deliuered me out of the pawes of the Lion and the Beare he wil deliuer me out of the hand of this Philistim Well did Dauid know that if this Philistims skin had beene as hard as the brasse of his shield his sinne would make it penetrable by euery stroke After all brags of manhood hee is impotent that hath prouoked God Whiles other labour for outward fortification happy and safe were wee if we could labour for innocence Hee that hath found God present in one extremitie may trust him in the next Euery sensible fauour of the Almightie inuites both his gifts and our trust Resolution thus grounded makes euen Saul himselfe confident Dauid shall haue both his leaue and his blessing If Dauid came to Saul as a Shepheard hee shall goe toward Goliah as a Warriour The attire of the King is not too rich for him that shall fight for his King and Country Little did Saul thinke that his helmet was now on that head which should once weare his crowne Now that Dauid was arrayed in the warlike habit of a King and girded with his sword hee lookt vpon himselfe and thought this outside glorious but when he offred to walke and found that the attire was not so strong as vnweeldy and that it might be more for show then vse hee layes downe these accoustrements of honor and as caring rather to bee an homely victor then a glorious spoile he craues pardon to goe in no clothes but his owne he takes his staffe in stead of the speare his shepherds scrip in stead of his brigandine and in stead of his sword hee takes his sling and in stead of darts and iauelins hee takes fiue smooth stones out of the brooke Let Sauls coate bee neuer rich and his armour neuer so strong what is Dauid the better if they fit him not It is not to bee enquired how excellent any thing is but how proper Those things which are helpes to some may be encombrances to others An vnmeet good may be as inconuenient as an accustomed euill If we could wish another mans honor when wee feele the weight of his cares we should be glad to be in our owne cote Those that depend vpon the strength of Faith though they neglect not meanes yet they are not curious in the proportion of outward meanes to the effect desired Where the heart is armed with an assured confidence a sling and a stone are weapons enow to the vnbeleeuing no helps are sufficient Goliah though he were presumptuous enough yet had one shield caried before him another hee caried on his shoulder neither will his sword alone content him but he takes his speare too Dauids armour is his plaine shepheards russet and the brooke yeelds him his artillery and he knowes there is more safety in his cloth then in the others brasse and more danger in his peebles then the others speare Faith giues both heart and armes The inward munition is so much more noble because it is of proofe for both soule and body If we be furnished with this how boldly shall wee meet with the powers of darknesse and goe away more then conquerors Neither did the quality of Dauids weapons bewray more confidence then the number If he will put his life and victory vpon the stones of the brooke why doth he not fill his scrip full of them why will he content himselfe with fiue Had he been furnished with store the aduantage of his nimblenesse might haue giuen him hope If one faile that yet another might speed But now this paucity puts the dispatch to a sudden hazard and he hath but fiue stones cast either to death or victory still the fewer helps the stronger faith Dauid had an instinct from God that he should ouercome he had not a particular direction how he should ouercome For had he beene at first resolued vpon the sling and stone he had saued the labor of girding his sword It seemes whiles they were addressing him to the combat he made account of hand-blowes now he is purposed rather to send then bring death to his aduersarie In either or both he durst trust God with the successe and before-hand through the conflict saw the victorie It is sufficient that wee know the issue of our fight If our weapons and wards vary according to the occasion giuen by God that is nothing to the euent sure we are that if we resist we shall ouercome and if wee ouercome wee shall be crowned When Dauid appeared in the lists to so vnequall an aduersarie as many eyes were vpon him so in those eyes diuers affections The Israelites lookt vpon him with pitty and feare and each man thought Alas why is this comely stripling suffred to cast away himselfe vpon such a monster why will they let him goe vnarmed to such an affray Why will Saul hazard the honour of Israel on so vnlikely an head The Philistims especially their great Champion lookt vpon him with scorne disdayning so base a combitant Am I a dog that thou com'st to me with staues What could be said more fitly Hadst thou beene any other then a dog O Goliah thou hadst neuer opened thy foule mouth to barke against the host of God and the God of hosts If Dauid had thought thee any other then a very dogge hee had neuer come to thee with a staffe and a stone The last words that euer the Philistim shall speak are curses brags Come to me and I will giue thy flesh vnto the Fowles of the heauen and the beasts of the field Seldome euer was there a good end of ostentation Presumption is at once the presage and cause of ruine He is a weake aduersary that can bee killed with words That man which could not feare the Gyants hand cannot feare his tongue If words shall
first encounter the Philistim receiues the first foile and shall first let in death into his eare ere it enter into his forehead Thou com'st to me with a sword and a speare and a sheild but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts the God of the host of Israel whom thou hast railed vpon This day shall the Lord close thee in my hand and I shall smite thee and take thine head from thee Here is another stile not of a boaster but of a Prophet Now shall Goliah know whence to expect his bane euen from the hands of a reuenging God that shall smite him by Dauid and now shall learne too late what it is to meddle with an enemy that goes vnder the inuisible protection of the Almighty No sooner hath Dauid spoken then his foot and hand second his tongue Hee runnes to fight with the Philistim It is a cold courage that stands onely vpon defence As a man that saw no cause of feare and was full of the ambition of victory hee flyes vpon that monster and with a stone out of his bag smites him in the forehead There was no part of Goliah that was capable of that danger but the face and that piece of the face the rest was defenced with a brazen wall which a weake sling would haue tryed to batter in vaine What could Goliah feare to see an aduersary come to him without edge or point And behold that one part hath God found out for the entrance of death He that could haue caused the stone to passe through the shield and brest-plate of Goliah rather directs the stone to that part whose nakednesse gaue aduantage Where there is power or possibility of nature God vses not to worke miracles but chuses the way that lies most open to his purposes The vaste fore-head was a faire marke but how easily might the sling haue missed it if there had not beene another hand in this cast besides Dauids Hee that guided Dauid into this field and raised his courage to this combat guides the stone to his end and lodges it in that seat of impudence There now lyes the great Defier of Israel groueling and grinning in death and is not suffered to deale one blow for his life and bites the vnwelcome earth for indignation that he dies by the hand of a Shepheard Earth and Hell share him betwixt them such is the end of insolence and presumption O God what is flesh and blood to thee which canst make a little peeble-stone stronger then a Gyant and when thou wilt by the weakest meanes canst strew thine enemies in the dust Where now are the two shields of Goliah that they did not beare off this stroke of death or wherefore serues that Weauers beame but to strike the earth in falling or that sword but to behead his Master What needed Dauid load himselfe with an vnnecessary weapon one sword can serue both Goliah and him If Goliah had a man to beare his shield Dauid had Goliah to beare his sword wherewith that proud blasphemous head is seuered from his shoulders Nothing more honours God then the turning of wicked mens forces against themselues There is none of his enemies but caries with them their owne destruction Thus didst thou O Sonne of Dauid foyle Satan with his owne weapon that whereby he meant destruction to thee and vs vanquished him through thy mighty power and raised thee to that glorious triumph and super-exaltation wherein thou art wherein we shall bee with thee IONATHANS Loue and SAVLS Enuy. BEsides the discomsiture of the Philistims Dauids victory had a double issue Ionathans Loue and Sauls Enuy which God so mixed that the one was a remedy of the other A good sonne makes amends for a way-ward father How precious was that stone that killed such an enemy as Goliah and purchased such a friend as Ionathan All Sauls Courtiers lookt vpon Dauid none so affected him none did match him but Ionathan That true correspondence that was both in their faith and valour hath knit their hearts If Dauid did set vpon a Beare a Lyon a Gyant Ionathan had set vpon a whole Host and preuailed The same Spirit animated both the same Faith incited both the same Hand prospered both All Israel was not worth this paire of friends so zealously confident so happily victorious Similitude of dispositions and estates tyes the fastest knots of affection A wise soule hath piercing eyes and hath quickly discerned the likenesse of it selfe in another as we doe no sooner looke into the Glasse or Water but face answers to face and where it sees a perfect resemblance of it selfe cannot choose but loue it with the same affection that it reflects vpon it selfe No man saw Dauid that day which had so much cause to dis-affect him none in all Israel should be a loser by Dauids successe but Ionathan Saul was sure enough setled for his time onely his Successor should forgoe all that which Dauid should gaine so as none but Dauid stands in Ionathans light and yet all this cannot abate one ior or dram of his loue Where God vniteth hearts carnall respects are too weake to disseuer them since that which breakes off affection must needs be stronger then that which conioyneth it Ionathan doth not desire to smother his loue by concealment but professes it in his cariage actions He puts off the Robe that was vpon him and all his garments euen to his Sword and Bow and Girdle giues them vnto his new friend It was perhaps not without a mystery that Sauls cloths fitted not Dauid but Ionathans fitted him and these he is as glad to weare as he was to be disburthened of the other that there might be a perfect resemblance their bodies are suted as well as their hearts Now the beholders can say there goes Ionathans other selfe If there bee another body vnder those clothes there is the same soule Now Dauid hath cast off his russet coate and his scrip and is a Shepheard no more he is suddenly become both a Courtier and a Captaine and a Companion to the Prince yet himselfe is not changed with his habit with his condition yea rather as if his wisedome had reserued it selfe for his exaltation he so manageth a sudden Greatnesse as that he winneth all hearts Honour shewes the man and if there be any blemishes of imperfection they will bee seene in the man that is inexpectedly lifted aboue his fellowes He is out of the danger of folly whom a speedy aduancement leaueth wise Ionathan loued Dauid the Souldiers honoured him the Court fauoured him the people applauded him onely Saul stomackt him and therefore hated him because he was so happy in all besides himselfe It had beene a shame for all Israel if they had not magnified their Champion Sauls owne heart could not but tell him that they did owe the glory of that day and the safety of himselfe and Israel vnto the sling of Dauid who in