they were like unto that flower which Pliny speaks of which springs in the morning is full blown at noon and fades at night Heb. 11.25 and therefore chose rather to bee afflicted with the children of God than to enjoy the temporall pleasure of Sin counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the Egiptians The world for the frailty and inconstancy thereof is by S. John compared to a sea as he saith in the Apocalips Before the thron there was a sea of glasse Apoc. 4.6 like unto crystall by which sea is meant the world which for it's frailty is glasse for it's unconstancy a sea A sea swelling with pride blew with envie boyling with anger deep with averise frothy with luxury It is a Sea tempestuous with controversies stormy with afflâ—ctions tumultuous with disorders The sea yealds an obedient conformity to the motions of the moon and swels highest in a joyfull imitation when shee is in the spring-tide of her light either towards the heavens as in the change or towards the earth as in the full and as shee doth wax or wain so doth he either flow into a pleurisy or ebbe into a consumption of his waters and even thus is the world the page of fortune whose unconstant and ever-changing motions doe hurry about like spokes in a wheel the condition of all mortalls as the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away An hour-glasse doth change it's posture every hour and that part which was even now above is now below that which was even now full is now empty nor can one side be filled but by emptying the other such is the world every moment turn'd upside down and men are now full now empty Nor can they often fill themselves without the ruin or prejudice of others yea many times as Laban did to Jaacob when men have toyled in it's service many years it rewards them with loathed Leah insteed of loved Rachel Like Jael it carrieth milk in one hand to nourish and a hammer and a nayl in the other to destroy and as Joab did to Amasa while it kisseth us it killeth us And although like the moon it be sometimes at at the full of glory yet is it even then like her also mingled with the spots of adversity and subject to the change of every moment And therefore as they say at the consecration of the Popes the Master of the ceremonies goeing before carrieth in one hand a burning taper in the other a stick with some flax tyed on the top thereof which he setting on fire cryeth with a lowd voyce Pater sancte sic transit gloria mundi Holy Father so passeth away the glory of the world The plenty of histories in this kind exceedeth our Arithmetique every particular mans condition almost being a volume of the worlds frailty and a constant witnesse of it's inconstancy Adonibezec in the first of the book of Judges who had been the triumphant Victor over seventy Kings and in his wanton cruelty cutting off the thumbs of their hands and feet made them pick up crums under his table enforcing the act yet depriving them of the power making them doe that which hee had disabled them to doe was ere long returned with an equall measure which made him cry out Judg. 1.7 As I have done so God hath rewarded me Nabuchadonozor's unparallel'd mâ—tamorphosis who knoweth not Who in the despite of Philosophy prov'd in himself the transmigration of Species and from a man fell into a beast in nature now as was in practise before to shew that when men sinne against the light of nature they may suffer against the law of nature It is reported of Demetrius one of Alexander the great his Captains that in the whole circle of his life being threescore years and four after the measure of his age had stil'd him man never continued three years in one condition Of Julius Caesar also that great awer of the world and tyrant over the Common-wealth it is doubted whether in the whole course of his life Fortune were an indifferent arbitrer unto him of good and evill successe but in the misery of his death no doubt all his lives happinesse was exceedingly overballanc'd who in the Zenith and highest erection of his glory with three and twenty wounds the deepest whereof given by his dearest Brutus and that in the Court of his deadly enemy Pompey yeelded up his life a sacrifice to the peoples liberty The like unhappy change pursued the ever-renowned and once highly advanced Captain Belisarius who after he had triumphed over the Persians and reduced to the Roman obedience all Africa and Italy which had been long possessed by the Gothes and Vandalls and after he had brought one of the Kings of the Vandalls to such a passe that hee begged three things a loaf of bread a spunge to wipe his eyes and a harp to tune his sorrow to his wife who was given him for a help became the only help to his destruction whose insolent behaviour against the Empresse like winds thrown upon the Seas raised such billows of indignation in the Emperour that they put this good mans fortune to an utter shipwrack who did not only lose all his goods but the means wherby he might get more his sight and was forced to beg his bread with Da obolo Belisario Viator and thus though blind did most cleerly see the frailty of this worlds felicity Therefore Dionisius the King of Syracusa represented the brittle felicity of his kingdome unto his Parasite Damocles which Damocles had made to seem exceeding great through the multiplying glasse of his flattery by seating him in a royall throne at a sumptuous Banquet with all the state and glory of the kingdome about him but withall causing a naked sword to be hung over his head which was only held up by a horses hair which every minute threatned his destruction It was likewise the custome of the Romans in their triumphs for a slave to ride behind in the Chariot with the triumpher who did often whisper unto him to look behind him there was likewise a whip and a bell tyed to the Charyot to admonish him that notwithstanding the present exaltation of his honour he might be brought to such a degree of calamity as to be scourged or put to death of which the bell was the signe it being the custome of the old Romans to ring a bell before a dead Corps lest any by approaching too neer should defile themselves thereby Now if we would allow these and the like images of the worlds frailty a place in our considerations and remember that all the glory beauty and pleasures thereof are as truly short as they are seeming sweet and that though they bee sweet in the enjoying yet they are bitter in the end surely it would so steel our resolutions against the devils temptations it would so stop our ears against the voyce of his charms
feet when thou oppressest or dost not relieve the poor thou givest him gall and vinegar to drink when thou dost or consentest to any thing which endomageth his children his Servants thou cryest out with the Jewes crucify him crucify him Qui in deum delinquit eum relinquit Hee that sins against God forsakes him Whosoever purchaseth any profit enjoyeth any pleasure giveth way unto any Passion satisfieth himself in any action which Gods word hath pronounced unlawfull it is he that contrary to the prudent serpent hazards the losse of his head putteth himself in danger to be separated from Christ to preserve his hands or his feet his hayr or his nayles or any thing that is of lower valew and is like unto the Jewes who cryed out not him but Barabbas Such are all covetous persons whose greedy affections are like Pharaoh's lean kin which when they had eaten up the fat it could not be perceived that they had eaten it but were still as evill-favoured as they were before so these men whatsoever they devour are never satisfied but have their desires as vast and empty as ever and are like Apprentises Christ-masse-boxes to take all in but to restore none till they be broken nor they till they bee dead Such are also the Receivers of bribes who like Gehazi when they receive a bribe believe they receive a Blessing for so he called it but as he found it so shall they that a bitter Curse is couched under it for whatsoever men get by bribery sacrilege oppression ufury cosenage forswearing lying or the like is like to prove as fatall to them as that peece of flesh which the Eagle stole from the altar that had a coal clave to it which set her nest on fire Such also are all those who doe spend their means as unlawfully as these get it who as S. Gregory saith when the poor members of Christ are pinched with hunger and want doe profusely spend their Estates on harlots on drink on dice on balls on plays on vain and soul-killing pleasures or else their time in idleness and impertinent visits like one Vatia on whom was made this Epitaph Here lyes Vatia who grew old in nothing but idleness Or else in vain obscene foolish fruitless discourses interlarding their speeches with lies to make them more plausible powdring them with oaths to make them as they think more gracefull O what a folly is it in those men and in whom almost is not that folly that when they may hold Christ and the consequent thereof their Salvation for denying of themselves unlawfull gains or pleasures such as perish like Jonas gourd as soon as they be sprung up and leave nothing behind them but repentance when they may keep the true faith and love of Christ with the loss of their lives by which loss they shall gain it of their honours of their estates of their friends for which they shall be recompenced even in this life an hundred fold will yet notwithstanding with Jeroboam for the politique respect of keeping of his kingdom with Peter for the declining of some bodily danger with Ananias and Saphira for with-holding back a little money with Saul for preserving the fattest of the Cattle with the man of Israel for the unchast embraces of a harlot with Baltazar for câ—rowsing in the cups of the Sanctuary yea with our first Parents for an apple or a piece of bread as Solomon saith will transgress and suffer themselves to be separated from the fountain of life Christ Iesus rather than say with holy Joseph Gen. 39. How can I doe this evill and sin against my God O let not let not the least shadow of such weakness fall upon our souls as shall make us prefer any thing before our union with Christ but let us as we ought witness the truth of the Apostles saying in our selves Mat. 19.27 We have forsaken all and followed thee Now that which must knit and glue us unto Christ is faith which while we hold we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts the temptations of the devill as saith the Apostle The devill and his instruments the wicked while they rob us of our externall felicities doe but as David did unto Saul cut off the lap of our garments but if they force us from the fortress of our faith as he did unto Goliah they cut off our heads Let us therefore keep faith and a good conscience and make no shipwrack of that precious merchandize like Hymeneus and Alexander reproved by S. Paul but in all the rough tempests of this lifes calamities let us anchor our faith and hope upon Christ who is the sure ground of our salvation In all the Syren enchantments of sinfull pleasures with Ulysses let us tie our selves to the main-mast of a strong immoveable godly resolution whereby whatsoever evill wee suffer or seeming good we may enjoy to rent us from the stedfastness of our faith we may ever with such a calm and constant indifferency give them entertainment that neither the one nor the other may remove us but that we may still remain like a man in an open field who to which part of the horizon soever he sends his eye he himself is alwaies in the center And let us not like the dirty-minded Gadarens banish Christ out of our Country for the loss of a few swine nor forsake our profession of him nor swerve one hayrs bredth from the line of his Commandements to inherit whatsoever either profit or pleasure or ought else hath endeared to the eye of the world seeing their purchase is care their possession trouble their essence vanity and their end misery But rather in the midst of this worlds conflicts let us engrave that triumphant motto of S. Paul on the Ensign of our Faith Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or anguish or famine or nakedness or perill or persecution or sword I am certain that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor strength nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. CHAP. VI. A Fourth excercise of Prudence in the Serpent not unworthy our imitation is this The Serpent when hee swimmeth to avoid the danger of drowning keepeth his head alwaies lifted above the waters So wee while wee swim through the Sea of this lives actions must ever bear up the head of our reason that we be not drowned in pleasure and delight The world is a Sea and man a ship adversity is his ballast prosperity his sayls passions his Saylors and reason his Pilot who sits at the helm to steer his course aright adversity like ballast keeps us even and steddy but when our over-busie passions doe hoyse up more sayls of pleasure than our weak barks can bear we run our selves under water and over-whelm our reason
that fear standing at the dore of our hearts would resist the entrance of sin into our souls and teach us to apply such a mean and moderation to all worldly endeavours that as the Apostle saith wee should use this world as though we us'd it not 1 Cor. 7.31 The latter means wherby we must make deaf our ears to the powerfull charms of the devils temptations is the meditation of our own end like the Serpent which stops her other ear with her tayl Which meditation may justly claim the exercise of our most serious thoughts since the devils suggestions are chiefly plotted for the undermining of this consideration Who is therefore likened to a Serpent which biteth the horses heels that he maketh him cast his rider mans body is this horse his soul the rider his heel his end the meditation whereof if the devill doe bereave us we are overthrown both horse and man There is no stronger bit to curb the temptations of our unbridled flesh than to consider what a dear price we shall pay for our pleasures in our death and at our judgement In all thy works remember the last things saith the wise-man and thou shalt never sin Eccles 7.40 The birds direct their passage through the ayr with their tayls so doe the Fishes in the Sea the rudders motion guideth the Ship and the beasts with their tayls beat away the flyes temptations are flyes whence the Devill is called Beelzebub which signifies the God or Father of flyes all which are repelled by the mediation of our end signified by the Serpents tayl and the course of our actions for which we embarque our selves thereby as by a rudder rightly steered to the Port of happiness When the devill tempteth us to pride our flesh to lust the world to vain delights if we did but allow this meditation of our end a full place in our thoughts that we must die one day we may dye this day and that after death commeth judgment wherein we must satisfie to the uttermost farthing the great debt of our sins and that in such a manner and measure as neither eloquence nor silence can express surely I think we should not as many doe run on in evil faster than the devill can drive them and dare him to present them with a temptation which they dare not execute but rather like the Peacock who when he looks upon the blackness of his feet le ts fall his Plumes and forgets the beauty of his train So wee casting our thoughts down upon our end should neglect all the delights that temptations promise in their sinfull satisfaction Every man when he is upon his bed of sickness when hee is counting his last sand when death is so neer him that hee cannot turn his eyes from it every one seeing it in his eyes then how many vows and promises doth he offer up of â—esisting all tempâ—ation unto sin unto which he hath formerly too easily consented if he may but by the return of his health renew again the almost expired league betwixt his body and his soul Yea even the devill himself as the old dâ—â—â—ich hath it when he waâ— sick would be a Monk and a holy man Aegrotat Daemon Monachus tunc esse volâ—bat Convaluit Daemon Daemon ut ante fuit The Devill was sick the Devill a Monk would be The Devill was well the Devill a Monk was he But if we did in our healths entertain this consideration of death and the day of judgement and make it as familiar and present to our minds as the approaches thereof are neer unto the sick no doubt but it would work in us the same never fayling effects If wee did make remembrance our Philips boy to ring the knell of mortality each morning in our ears and if with S. Jerome there were no action of our life in whose performance we did not think wee heard the sound of the Archangels trumpet proclaming this convocation in our ears Arise ye dead and come to judgement if we did remember these tormenting flames which God hath prepared for the devill and wicked men Isay 30.33 whose fuell is fire and much woâ—d the breath of our Lord like a torrent of brimstone enflaming it which though it torment them yet it shall not consume them as though they should have a period of their pains but like the Salamander they shall live still in the flame and be denyed with Dives a drop of water more than their tears which will be so far from asswaging their heat that the saltness thereof shall encrease their ames and yet in the high boyling of this their heat such conflicts of punishment shall meet in them that through extream cold they shall gnash their teeth for as our Saviour saith there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth If I say these meditations were in us and did abound surely they would strengthen us to strangle temptations in their conception and to resist the untimely birth of sin If the rich man mentioned in the Gospell had thought that his soul should have been hurried that night to hell he would never have dream'd of building his barns bigger Few men will steel at the gallows or speak treason on the rack but it is our putting the evill day far from us that makes every day evill to us We forget the evill of punishment which make us commit the evil of sin Wher wee may prevent our sins by remembring of the punishment then we think not on it and when we think on it which is not til we feel it then it is to late to prevent it O how humbly think you would the fallen Angels behave themselves if they were enthroniz'd in their antient glory O how abstemiously would our first Parents have walked by the forbidden fruit if they might have been repossessed of their earthly Paradice And how temperatly would Dives have used the pleasures of this life if hee might have been redeemed from hels tormenting flames Let us then be as carefull not to fall into their evils as they would bee if they were risen out of them which care the meditation thereof will mainly strengthen as the oyl of Scorpions doth heal their sting that while death and hell are in us by remembrance we may never be in them by sufferance For as 't is said if the Basilisk see a man first it kils him but if a man see that first he kils it So if death see and apprehend us first being unprepared it destroys us but if we see it first by meditation and preparation we kill it and become the death of death and may justly take up that joyfull acclamation of S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy victory O death where is thy sting Yet all must dye For deaths meditation though it take away the sting of death yet it takes not away the body of death But here 's the difference that death which is the wicked mans shipwrack is the good
the long tract of mens lives can wear out Thus did the private hatred betwixt Caesar and Pompey pull down ruine on the Roman Empire Thus Arius disdaining at his repulse in aspyring to a Bishoprick broacht such an heresie as overspread the whole Christian world yea death it self on the one party in some cannot destroy the hatred of the survivor witnesse the Story of Pope Stephen the sixt who caused the body of his Predecessor Formosus to be taken up and beheaded in the market place and afterwards cast into Tyber Yea death in both parties which hath killed the men yet hath not kild their malice if the story of Eteocles and Polynices be true which saith that when they had by mutuall wounds made windows for each others soul to fly out at their bodies being burnt together their very flames divided themselves as hating to be united in their dead bodies who were so divided in their living affections Thus homo homini Lupus one man is a Wolf unto another in whose hearts and hands and mouths are the instruments of mischief as the Prophet David saith Psal 13.3 Their throat is an open Sepulcher they delt deceitfully with their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood Sorrow and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace they have not known the fear of God is not before their eyes I have read that a string made of Wolfs guts laid amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of Sheep corrupts and spoyls them all it is a strange secret in nature and serves to insinuate the malice of these Lycant hropi these Wolf-turn'd men against the Sheep of Christs flock for which cause our Saviour gave us this commandement saying Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore prudent as Serpents and simple as Doves Simple as Doves 1 Pet. 3.9 not returning evill for evill nor curse for curse but on the contrary bless because you are called to this to be heirs of blessing as saith S. Peter S. Paul also saith Rom. 12.17.18.19 Render evill for evill to no man If it be possible as much as in you is have peace with all men Avenge not your selves but give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith our Lord. And as it is reported of the wals of Bizantium that they were so smoothly and closely wrought that they seemed to be but one stone and of the building of Salomons temple that there was not so much as the noyse of a hammer to bee heard therein So should wee have all our thoughts our words our deeds so even so smooth so polisht that they should not send forth the least noyse of injury to our neighbour or sound of disaffection CHAP. IIII. YEt this is not enough to doe no evill but we must also doe good Christ cursed the fig-tree not for any hurt it did but because it did no good it brought forth no fruit And this exercise of good must not be centred in those only which either prevent or return us with an equall measure like the Scribes and Pharisees the Publicans and sinners but it must expatiate and diffuse it self like the impartiall Sun to all even to our enemies And so we shall be simple as Doves who besides that they doe no hurt to any living creature doe also indifferently nourish both their own and others young ones Now this practice of good must receive its form from the former prohibitions of evill to wit in thought word and deed First then in thought wee must have our hearts suppled and entendred with charity meekness gentleness humility and patience It was the greatest commendation of Moyses that he was stiled Num. 12.3 the meekest man upon earth for which cause God conversed with him more familiarly than ever he did with any as the Scripture saith Exod. 33.11 God talked with him face to face as a man talketh to his friend and our Saviour saith Math. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls The valleys are more fruitfull than the mountains and the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest towards the ground such are the riches of humility disposing men like figures in arithmetique where the last in place is greatest in accompt Our charity likewise expecteth of us that we should breath forth nothing but desires of bliss unto our brethren not suspecting evill without great ground not beleeving evill without strong proof 1 Cor. 13.5 for charity thinketh no evill as saith the Apostle And God hath propounded himself for an example unto us to prevent our too easy taking up upon trust a prejudiciall report against our brethren in the eighteenth of Genesis where he saith speaking of Sodom and Gomorrha those wicked Cities Gen. 18.21 I will goe down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up unto me and if not so that I may know not as if God were ignorant of the truth of any thing but for our instruction it is thus written to teach us as Solomon saith that wee should not apply our hearts to all words that are spoken Eccles 7.22 nor by too hasty beleef doe that which must be undone again Our patience likewise in which our Saviour commandeth us to possess our souls Luke 21.19 claimeth of us an unresisting sufferance of evill though there be whole vollies of injuries discharged against us yet must our hearts be in ury-proof and our patience preserve us un-hurt unprovoked to anger hatred desire of revenge and their dangerous effects for as Salomon saith Eccles 7.10 anger resteth in the bosome of a fool And although the Apostle bids us be angry and sin not Ephes 4.26 yet it is but a permission not a command and I suppose it is easier not to be angry at all than to be angry and not sin at all For anger in mans brest is like fire in an Oven which if it be quite damd up is extinguished but having but a little vent is apt to rage too fiercely Wherefore the Apostle saith Ephes 4.32 Be ye courteous one to another and mercifull forgiviâ—g one another even as God for Christs sake forgave you Yea so far must our patience in injuries and our charitable return to those that have injured us proceed that we must not only cancell the debt of all their injuries so that not so much as in a thought may we wish them any evill as it is evill but also if any adverse accident doe befall them wee must be inwardly moved with a compassionate sorrow for the same As Job declaring his own innocence testifieth of himself Job 31.29 If I have rejoyced in the ruin of him that hated me or have exulted that evill found