a scandalous Minister had confiscated his own authority of reprehending that in others which he was guilty of himself and that the Doctrin and Discipline of our Church could never have been so contemptible but for their sakes who with their ill lives and manners made all the threatnings of holy Scripture which they preached and all the Censures of the Church which they passed or denounced ridiculous and insignificant yet withal his Lordship ever gave the people warning not to despise the chastening of their Mother for no man can lightly esteem the power of the Keys upon earth and yet be well prepared in heart to receive the judgment of God in the World to come For better amendment of whatsoever was amiss his Lordship would like St. Austin and other antient Bishops frequently sit Judg in his Ecclesiastical Courts and hasten the dispatch of all Affairs and especially if there were any thing that concerned his Clergie would always be present at the hearing of those Causes that neither his Clergie nor any by them might be wronged when he went not in person to the Court he gave ready access at his own House to all who came to complain even the meanest people who were grieved with long and tedious Suits and after hearing what they could say would sometimes send for the Chancellour and Proctors on both sides and what he could not redress at home he would oftentimes go to Court and end there throwing out many Causes that had been long depending for trivial matters and would not suffer any Causes to be entred for defamatory words or trifles without his own knowledg first to the end they might be composed without much vexation to the parties by this means his Lordship created to himself much trouble which he valued not for the great good he did by it and though less profit came to the Officers of the Court yet were they also contented believing God would better bless them for taking onely those Fees which so conscientious a Judge was willing to allow After Ordination he seldom dismissed any whom he ordain'd without rare counsel To remember they were Ordain'd to Cures not to Sine Cures the Cure of Souls the greatest of all others and wish them every day to think of the invaluable dignity and seriousness thereof and therefore in all their Preachings to avoid lightness Quia Nugae in ore Sacerdotum sunt blasphemiae as likewise all ridiculous gestures and loud vociferations empty affectation of words and phrases without weighty and ponderous sense and significancy accounting that elegant words without solid matter were but perfum'd Nonsense and that there was infinite difference between plainness and rudeness They had a duty to discharge both to the wise and unwise and therefore must take care that the learned Auditor might still learn somewhat and the unlearned Auditor might understand not only some but all His charge was that in every thing we should retain this great Principle to offer to God the very Best we have whosoever builds God an House let them build it better than their own the Ornaments thereof should be fairer than our own our Sermons there superiour to our ordinary discourses or labours in any other kind arising not from extemporary sawciness but our studied and best industry and therefore ever warned them as St. Paul did Timothy though he had the gift of Prophecying still to attend to reading as Preaching and remember St. Paul himself would not preach without Books and therefore caused them to be brought after him in all his Travels and sometimes preached the same thing the next Sabbath-day and therefore probably kept Notes He conceived it small commendations to any to pour out faster than they took in and that indiligent and over-frequent Preaching beyond the Preacher's parts or what the people 's needs required was no advantage to learning or piety especially in the obvious way of Preaching altogether by Doctrin Reason and Vse which of all Expositors of Scripture Musculus first took up and was one great means to lay the Pulpit open to the prophanations of the late times such Preaching being oftentimes so poor and easie that every Justice of Peace his Clerk thought he could perform as well as his Minister whereas a good Preacher had need be skill'd in the whole Encyclopedy of Arts and Sciences Logick to divide the Word aright Rhetorick to perswade School Divinity to convince Gainsayers knowledge of many Tongues to understand Originals and learned Authors and above all he would recommend St. Hierom's counsel Discamus in Terris quorum scientia nobis perseverabit in Coelis for otherwise all kind of learning in a Minister without good Example and innocency of life was but a jewel of gold in a Swine's snout This was his constant advice to his Clergie at Ordinations and Visitations which he duly held every third year Visitation of Churches he would maintain was no Filia noctis started up in a night of darkness and Popery but an Apostolical Institution and practised afterwards by all the Primitive Fathers and Bishops Herein his Lordship would oftentimes be the Preacher himself so that in his first Visitation Anno 1665. in his Progress in Shropshire and at Stafford from the last of May to the fifteenth of June he preached eight times in the compass of those few dayes at Bridgnorth Salop Elsmere Wem Whitchurch Drayton Hodnet and Stafford and confirmed above five thousand persons whom he required not to be tumultuarily presented but with the preexamination of their several Ministers and was in all places most joyfully received So that when he put on his Episcopal Robes he put not off his Ministerial Labours no man had reason to say his Majesty by making him Bishop had spoiled a good Preacher as it was said of Frier Giles that the Pope had marr'd a painful Clerk by making him a powerful Cardinal nor was he like Julius the third of whom the Historian complains that he had been formerly a diligent man but when he came to the Popedom never minded his Study or the Affairs of the Church more Our Bishop on the other side professed he found as many cares in his Bishops Rochet as he believed Antigonus did in his Royal Purple and if it were not for the glory of God and good of his Church had rather throw it away than hang it about his shoulders St. Paul very well understood his Office when he called it a good work not to be discharged without painful study often preaching daily hearing and determining Cases of Conscience judging in Causes Ecclesiastical repairing or building of Churches These and so many other things beside he found to do at home that all absence seemed tedious and intolerable to him abroad so that he never slept out of his Bishoprick in many years nor was willingly absent from his Flock but upon extraordinary occasions as in Parliament c. and then would often request my Lord Chamberlain
cogitando when he finds little good in himself worth his cogitations it will put a discomfortable sadness into his mind to offend the soul But I could retort in this Argument as Tully did in such another case says he to some Idolaters who defended the Deity of Neptune you say many sea-men came safe to Land that called upon Neptune but let me see how many were drown'd for all their calling upon Neptune So some have made a Catalogue of those good despisers of the world that served God excellently in the solitary Wilderness But let me see all their names that took the Hermites Staff and Weeds upon them and fell into a remediless melancholy and lost their wits and their comfort with the delusions of the Devil It may do well with some for a while it is not to be continued if they fancy strange Apparitions to themselves and have hard strugling with the Tempter Aristotle could say a man that is evil is not fit company for himself Some strong working fancies though they could retire where the Devil could not find them out yet they carry their own Tempter about them they carry fire within them therefore it is not solitude that will help such but a commerce with wise and discreet men and such stirring negotiations as will scarce give their fancy leave to be vacant to it self and to be idle Bonaventure hath one distinction full of good matter Mala est solitudo per inopiam dilectionis misera per defectum consolationis honesta per quietem contemplationis To eschew Society for want of brotherly love and charity is very wicked To eschew Society for want of comfort in Christ is very miserable but to take up a solitary retirement sometimes for quiet contemplation is holy and delectable But he that knows himself obnoxious to tentations and affects solitude and privateness is Daemon solitarius as Aquinas calls a Monk that goes abroad without his Mate and his infirmity is much too weak to encounter that great Adversary who sought out Christ in the Wilderness And now I turn to another inquiry why Christ abode in the Wilderness and at this time so immediately before he did first preach the Gospel in Judaea The time was now expired of his subjection to his Parents and it could be no way convenient he should return unto them again when he was now to begin the work of him that sent him to preach the kingdom of heaven throughout all Judaea But had he entred into any City or Village his enemies would have said his message was devised by men some subtil conspiracy had set him on therefore the furthest from all suspicion was to sequester his Person into the Wilderness Moses was forty days in the Mount alone before he brought the Tables from God John the Baptist had abandoned the company of men and lived many years in uncouth places almost like a Savage before he preacht the doctrine of repentance A new form of Religion came forth with more admiration from those unknown solitudes and would be more steadily believed that it came from God and not from man And it is not a thing to be attributed to the blind chance of fortune but to the wisest providence of God that Christ was in solitudine disparted from all other company and left to himself alone when he fought our battels against the Adversary of our Salvation I have trodden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me Isa lxiii 3. In his Transfiguration Moses and Elias did appear in glory with him but shortly they vanisht and he was left alone In his Agony in the Garden he went up to pray apart by himself Peter James and John that were with him were so heavie that they could not choose but sleep And well might they sleep for any thing they had to do in that business the whole work of the Mediatorship lay only upon his shoulders neither Angel nor Saint could sustain the lest part to be his Coadjutor This was a conflict in a place which none frequented that it might be said of some of his noble works all shall believe yet none did see Singulariter inspectorem adjutoremque Deum volunt habere haec certamina says St. Cyprian None but God must behold him none but God did assist him in this Duel There are some works of Christ say the Schoolmen which are not necessary to be seen of all yet it was expedient that some witnesses should be present at them because they were done to make the World believe in him and himself said The works which I do openly they testifie of me Those Miracles which did demonstrate his power had ever some Spectators some saw how he gave up the Ghost upon the Cross how he was risen from the dead how he ascended into heaven therefore St. Luke says he received his Gospel from them that were eye-witnesses of the Word But there are things which especially tend to Moral Doctrine and Instruction as that he prayed all night alone that he was tempted alone in the Wilderness and fasted forty days it concerned not such things to be seen of any but to be barely related by the Evangelists that we might believe them and use them to the information of our life upon fit occasion But I reduce all to this Head The solitude of the Wilderness did best befit him in this work because he began continued and ended the work of the Mediatorship by himself and by no other assistance Where some of the Fathers have given Christs Humility large praise to banish himself as it were for a time into the Wilderness I will follow them likewise in their observation The immediate Miracle which went before was the descending of the Holy Ghost upon him in the shape of a Dove and the voice from heaven This is my beloved Son If Christ would have prosecuted the honour which the people would have given him upon these wonderful Signs he might have rode to Jerusalem in triumph and been received with an universal admiration but he chose rather to decline the Exclamations and Hosanna's of the City and retired into the Wilderness Adam in horto superbus Christus in deserto humilis Much better it is to be humble with Christ in a barren Desart than to be proud with Adam in a delicious Paradise This miserable solitude was not capable of the provocations of those sins that Eden was this was a Land of penury where Satan was overcome that was a garden of abundance where he got the victory And by how much that Paradise was too glorious a dwelling for the Sons of men therefore they were driven out So this desolate Wilderness was too mean a receptacle for the Son of God for St. Mark debaseth it with this description That the wild beasts frequented it And perchance the tamer and more tractable company than the Scribes and Pharisees and the Rulers of the People those beasts proved more innocent
Wise men of Greece you are always Children what God was what Beatitude was what the Soul was what the state of men in the next world was nay what Vertue was so many Philosophers so many minds As fast as one built an opinion another pulled it down with his objections doubt was both the pleasure and the torment of their wits It is the Christian faith alone rooted in us by the operation of the holy Spirit never to be shaken or removed which delivers us from all diffidence and inconstancy of doubts The more miserable is the condition of our times wherein wanton wits make Problems and Disputations of divers Points of Divinity which were embraced before by all the Worthies of the Church from the begining of Reformation Had we no Scriptures before Or no helps of learning to expound them Or no illumination of the Spirit to know the sense of them Or is this the Age of new Revelations To doubt of that which hath been in a good frame so long must needs put Unity into Multiplicity Charity into Discord Peace into War and Faith into Infidelity But upon the first Introduction of Christian Religion at the first Mission of the Holy Ghost humane infirmity had some leave to doubt that it might learn so these dubitants said one to another What meaneth this Many of those that flock'd about the Apostles and were amazed at the Tongues wherewith they spake are called devout men ver 5. of this Chapter so it seems because they desire to come out of their doubting by framing such a question whereby they might learn what the power of God did intend Ita cum stupore admirari Dei opera convenit ut simul accedat intelligendi studium says Calvin so wonder at the works of God that withal you express a desire to understand them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Proverb propound doubts with this modest submission that wise men may expound them unto you The error was that they asked one another the blind enquired of the blind which was the way out of the wood the ignorant conferred with the ignorant such as God had not revealed himself unto argue the Point among themselves and they omit the Apostles who were in place and could best resolve them When the people will be their own Teachers and never consult with them who are Gods Interpreters and Embassadors by their calling will not St. Pauls Prediction be fulfilled upon them Desiring to be Teachers they understand not what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. i. 7. Though their Counsellors were not the wisest a riff raff multitude of all sorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius a mixture of hot and weak heads yet their question tended to an occasion of knowledge What meaneth this Just so their Fore-fathers when they saw the Manna which fell from heaven asked one of another Manhu as we have it in the Margin of our Bibles What is this Exod. xvi 15. I will answer for both parts as Moses did both for that which rained from heaven then for the sustenance of their bodies and for this which was poured out for the blessing of our souls this is the bread which the Lord hath given you from heaven But Beza reads this question potentially Quid hoc rei esse possit What will this come to hereafter These unlearned men are furnished with abilities to talk with all the world It is not a seed or two which they have got but they received a strange gift from God above in the whole sheaf What will the Lord bring to pass from these beginnings That was well considered For God doth not work secundum ultimum potentiae all that he can do at once He began with an handful of men and the Church increased to as many as the Stars in heaven for multitude He gave them a Cup of new wine at this Feast he did not leave till they had a copious Vintage and the Presses overflowed with liquor of eternal life In one day he made this truth exalt it self above the opposition of the Jews in a few Ages he made it too strong for all the contradiction of the Heathen When Luther and a few that harkened to him began to burnish true and Orthodox Doctrine from the Rubbish of Popery the adjacent Kingdoms that heard of it looked for small propagation But they that yearned in their bowels to see the expulsion of superstition expected a large progress from that small beginning Their hope was upon this question Quid hoc rei esse possit What will this come to It is Gods manner to work himself mighty honour out of small appearance And although the advancement of Religion is hindred abroad and I would it were not stopt at home the Jews are obstinate Mahumetans are prepotent Adversaries the Heathen are wilfully addicted to worship strange Gods yet the leaven of the Spirit hath not lost its vertue it will in those seasons which God hath appointed breath through the whole lump And still my heart attends to the efficacy of the Gospel which may be kept back it cannot be suppressed what will this come to before the end of the world Thus far we have conversed with them that were much affected with the miracle that God bestowed as on this day an Ocean of the Holy Ghost upon a small Assembly of Saints Now you shall hear that there was an ignoble off-scum of the people that made but a mockery of it Others mocking said these men are full of new wine St. Basil says they were the Pharisees that made this derision of Gods power In a bad action where none are named the Pharisees above all others deserve to be suspected Their whole life was hypocrisie and what is that but a mockery of God and a Stage-play to personate holiness Oecumenius says they were the Plebeians as the most ignorant are the greatest Taunters flouting agrees best with foolery and base breeding For certain they were Jews for Peter turns his speech unto them ver 14. Ye men of Judaea and he confutes them with the testimony of the Prophet Joel ver 16. and that Prophesie was only in the hands of the Jews a scoffing Nation and now it is returned upon their own head For it is even to be pitied that they are hooted at and derided publickly as they walk in the streets in all Kingdoms where they have purchased to themselves an habitation How often did they gibe at our Saviour and his Miracles As when he said that Jairus daughter was not dead but slept they laught him to scorn When he preach'd that plain and evident Doctrine that men cannot serve God and Mammon the Pharisees who were covetous derided him Luk. xvi 14. And that you may know the Servants were used no worse than the Master they called our Saviour a Wine-bibber Luk. vii 34. And you may be sure at such a great occasion as this the devil would keep his wont and do all despight to
relate but that he finished this life I cannot say it His years are numbred before my Text like other mens three hundred sixty five just as many years as there be days in an usual year after the motion of the Sun not that this reckoning is the term of his life but the term of that time that he conversed with men As Tertullian glosseth upon St. Pauls words I am crucified with Christ How crucified and yet live Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia by the reformation of his life not by the loss of his life So Enoch had a period when he left to be with men Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia By an exaltation to a better life not by the corruption of his body As the men of Israel would not let Jonathan suffer death though Saul had given Sentence against him What say they shall Jonathan die that hath wrought such great salvation in Israel So when the Spirit of the Lord had testified what a Prophet Enoch was a perfect obedient that abhorred Will-worship a stiff maintainer of Gods part against the Devil and all his Instruments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a friend a familiar acquaintance a walker with God Upon this testimony Mercy opposeth Justice and though the Lord had said to Adam and to all that were in his loyns Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return What says Mercy shall Enoch die an example of repentance to all Generations So the stroke of death was diverted that he saw not the Grave and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him The partition which I framed upon the whole Verse was on this wise first how uncorrupt Enoch was in his ways he walked with God and secondly that he did not see corruption And this second Point which is reserved for this hours labour is to be handled in two several heads the former I will call Enoch's passage out of this world He was not The latter his reposure in another world For God took him His place was left empty among the Patriarchs below and he filled a room among the Thrones and Angels above Upon these two I shall handle many particular Doctrines before you And he was not a concise phrase you see and brevity will breed obscurity especially put this unto it that it is a form of speech which is not used again in this sense to my remembrance in all the Scripture But the sense is made plain by St. Paul Heb. xi 5. By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death He had a passage out of this world without any dissolution of the soul from the body In the same body that he pleased God says Irenaeus he was translated being never uncloathed of the flesh that he might put on immortality That this truth may be carried the clearer I will debate it a little with them that oppose it and with them that qualifie it Some of the Hebrew Rabbines as I find them quoted because they consult not with the authority of the New Testament think they are not convicted by the Old Testament but that they may conclude how Enoch died and was taken away in an early Age as those times went much sooner than his Forefathers As if this Verse did rather bemoan him for his untimely departure than renown him for some glorious favour which did befal him The phrase indeed if we look no farther will bear it both in sacred and in heathen Writings to say of one departed fuit he was but is not this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair way of language to avoid an unpleasing word Yet the phrase doth not always stand in that sense but hath a double acception and both in one verse that you may the better carry it away Gen. xlii 36. Jacob there bemoans himself for the waat of two Children Joseph is not and Simeon is not the one he took to be dead indeed the other to be in fast hold and taken from his eyes removed where he could not come at him as Enoch was but no more So the Chaldee Paraphrase explains the meaning of Jacob Joseph non superest Simeon non est hic Joseph is quite lost and Simeon is not here The phrase then accords very well with that place of the Hebrews by faith Enoch was translanted that he saw not death And my Text must incline to that exposition for two reasons First that the Lord took him stands for a consequent that he was pleased in him it is the reward as you would say that he walked with God not that there is a necessary and perpetual coherency in it that whosoever walks with God should be exalted into Paradise and not see corruption but Enochs righteousness by a priviledge of favour was so requited a favour then being understood in those words it cannot be the sentence of death upon him it is impossible Secondly in this Chapter the last word that the Holy Ghost gives of Adam is Et mortuus est and he died so of Seth so of Enos so of Cainan so of all the Antecessors of Enoch wherefore unless Enoch had some other issue out of this world diverse from the rest which was by translation without death why should it be said of him so differently from all others he was not for the Lord took him So I have corrected the great error of those Hebrew Doctors who would lay Enochs honour in the dust But I suppose the general Exposition of the Jews was right and according to St. Pauls doctrine For Paul wrote to the Hebrews that he saw not death knowing the tradition was commonly so received among them and the Chaldee Paraphrast who lived straight after Christ was of the same judgment beside one of great note among them says he was disarrayed of the foundation corporal and cloathed with the foundation spiritual which words I conceive do jump with those who oppose not the Scripture that he saw not death far be it from them but they have a qualification for the meaning of it that death is taken two ways most properly for the separation of one essential part of man from the other the body from the soul a loath to depart it is a most unwelcom dissolution a punishment upon the sin of our first Father which was remitted to Enoch improperly it is no more but the separation or extinction of corruptible qualities from the soul and body one whom I named even now called it the disarraying of a man from the foundation corporal and so Enoch was purified altered made quite another man in the very moment that he was wrapt up to heaven This evacuation of corruptible qualities from the flesh is called death by some very good Authors in our own Church and so Procopius much more ancient than they Mirabili modo mortis defunctus est ad vitam coelestem translatus it was a rare and admirable kind of death he suffered
justly say as Abraham did to the rich Glutton there is a great gulf between you and I. I mean those that turn away their face from pitty and reconciliation never to look upon it I say lay down your enmities upon the first motion of peace they say no not upon the last summons of death I conclude from my Text that all displeasure must quickly be scattered they consult with the black book of their own Satanical malice and say it shall never be mitigated How many wedges must be driven in before this knotty heart will cleave Cleave and yield without delay or the use of that logg shall be to be cast into eternal fire You are all in haste will some object and stubborn hearts are as slow to lay down their enmities would not a moderation do well What 's that Why this is called discretion and moderation not to embrace too soon after a falling out to press our adversary down and drive him to affliction that he may be the more beholding to reconciliation Is this the wisdom of the world I am sure it is enmity with God and this is such a Paradox to foster malice for a while I know not for what pretensed ends to wind up all with chariry at the last as if a wound would be the better for rankling All that time which the Devil gains of you to stand out and exclude charity is to harden your heart that you may never relent and he that is not mollified to disgorge all mallice at the preaching of one Sermon if I mistake not the manifold threatnings in Holy Scripture as I am sure I do not he will be worse and worse after the preaching of an hundred Esau indeed had spent all his spight at last and fell upon Jacobs neck and kissed him but did not that curse remain both upon him and upon his House Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated In Ecclesiastical Stories that which befel Saprisius is a Sermon alone to put you on speedily to be at perfect peace with all men unless you have resolv'd not to break your Covenant with Hell Sapricius was a Church-man of great note and name but an errand Boanerges a Son of thunder he had a quarrel against one Nicephorus a Lay person Nicephorus desired his friendship Sapricius would not It fortuned that Sapricius preaching the Doctrine of Christ with much diligence was attacht by Pagan Officers to suffer Martyrdom As he was led to Execution Nicephorus then took his time to pacify him This venemous Priest even at that hour refused him and turned away his face God above was angry took away his good spirit from him and even at the point of death Sapricius revolted denied his Saviour for hope of life and Nicephorus that stood by weeping and had besought reconciliation with tears took his Girlond from him and suffered Martyrdom in his place I know Sapricius could have said as much for himself as any witty rankerous person whatsoever he loathed not Nicephorus upon revenge but he had justice on his side to detest him for divers injuries he had received Avoid Satan and all such Apologies Justice is the Garland of all Virtues Revenge is the most stinking weed of all Vices What a wide mistake is here He that should call black white must needs have a great fault in his eyes and he that will call revenge justice must needs have a foul blot in his conscience I will not rob the other points of the Text of that time that is due unto them otherwise much more might be said and very profitably for look for this doom and sentence from God no charity no Christianity no mercy no salvation So much malice so much devil Therefore depart from me ye malicious into everlasting fire c. The Lord smelled a sweet savour mark then in the next place what welcom entertainment this is for all the fruits of a godly life when we do any thing well there is joy in Heaven the delight of the Lord is in his Saints and in them that fear him Because the old world was full of wickedness and in every part but like a corrupt Dunghil therefore it was every whit drowned and made a loathsome Kennel of waters All these wicked Generations had left a stink behind them fulsom as mortified carrion therefore the perfume of Noahs piety was very expedient to air the new world that the Lord might be delighted with a better savour But in this phrase there are many figures to be unfolded many shells to be broken before I come to the kernel 1. Here is one Figure to translate bodily senses to the Divine Essence which is incorporeal 2. Though it were spoken of a man yet there must needs be another Figure to say He smelt sweetness from that wherein you mean he took delight and complacency wherein he rejoyced 3. Here is another Figure to speak of Gods immutable Essence as of things created to which somewhat happens in time that was not in them before Angels and Men may be partakers of some good news to day which were not in being before from whence they feel a new branch of comfort and exhilaration but do you ween that any savour was sweet unto God at this time and kindled a new act or a new affection in him which he had not before O no he knows our infirmity that we are Children and cannot speak of him as we ought therefore He lets us talk of him as a man that we may learn to honour him as God But the true notion how God is pleased with the sweet odour of that which Noah did then or that we do now is in this Maxim of the School Ab aeterno laetatus est Deus simul semel unico actu de toto ordine punitionis praemiorum There is one immutable joy and delight in God which never changed never did fall or rise by addition or diminution of parts and degrees with this one eternal act he delights himself in his own justice and in his own mercy and in the shadow of his glory which is his Church and this must last and persevere in the same constancy for ever But because the speculation of this truth is far more abstruse than the forms of ordinary speech with which we are familiar the Lord leaves it unto us to make use of that joy which he takes in our faith and zeal as if at that instant when Noah offered a good Sacrifice He smelt a sweet savour So Luke xv 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce with me for I have found the piece of silver which I lost and in the same chapter when the lost Child came home again the Father tells his elder Son It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again Now I bring my motive to you and lay it down at the door of your conscience Contend and strive for that
it of the Gaulish Priests among the Romans that at first they were made Eunuchs only to punish their stubbornness against their Parents that they being a generation of disobedient Children might never beget Children that should obey them And therefore it is pitty that the same justice was not executed upon Pope Gregory the VII to cast him out for ever being called a Father of the Church who made the Emperor Henry the Fourth take arms against his own Father and depose him And that proud title of Rabbi should never have been given to the Pharisees rather to the vilest Begger in the Street because it was their Tradition to swear by the Gift upon the Altar never to relieve the wants of their distressed Parents Surely as a Parricide that killed his Father was to have no burial upon the Earth but sewed in an Ox Hide and cast headlong into the Sea so he that despiseth his Father deserves not to hold any place of dignity above others but to be a Slave to all men For what are we but Coin that hath our Fathers Image stampt upon it and we receive our current value from them to be called Sons of Men. And yet the more commendable was the obedience of the Rechabites that their Father Jonadab being dead his Law was in as good force as if he had been living It was a great mourning which Joseph and his Brethren did celebrate for their Father Jacob Gen. the last But that was the least honour done unto him When his Sons did carry his Body as he commanded them to be buried in Canaan in the Field of Mamre which Abraham bought for a Possession that was the best Solemnity in the Funerals of Jacob. It is an effeminate tenderness of heart says Tacitus prosequi defunctum ignavo fletu to weep and lament over the dead obsequi verò in iis quae jusserit to execute the will of the Dead that is the truest honour we can do them and a faithful expression that we reverence their memory Licurgus knew right well what great benefit Lacedaemon received by his Laws yet doubting the peoples inconstancy and foreseeing that when he was dead good Laws might be cancelled and bad Manners survive He took a long Journey and swore the Citizens to the observation of his Laws until he returned in safety but that was never And some short time they remembred their own Oath who on a sudden would have forgot his Laws and his Memory Very often is it seen in this dissolute Age of ours that which old Mitio said Dum id rescitum iri credunt tantisper cavent young Heirs forget their godly Education as soon as their Parents have breathed their last then they run riot and morgage their Temperance to Taverns their Chastity to Dens of uncleanness and their Lands to the Usurer What a rare example now is this of the Rechabites custode remoto being now in their own power and government to remember the Life and Doctrin of their Father Jonadab and to profess his austerity Non bibemus c. Concerning this Virtue of Obedience let us extend our discourse a little further and yet tread upon our own ground Obedience is used in a large sense for a Condition or Modus as the School calls it annexed unto all Vertues As the Magistrate may execute justice dutifully under his Prince the Souldier may perform a valiant exploit dutifully under his Captain but strictly and according to the pattern of the Rechabites Obedientia est sola virtus per se cum res jubentur adiaphorae ad praestandum says Aquinas It is one peculiar and entire virtue whereby we oblige our selves for Authorities sake to do things indifferent to be done or omitted for sometimes that which is evil may be hurtful prohibito to the party forbidden as the Laws forbid a man to murder himself sometimes a thing is evil prohibenâ—i so Treasons Adulteries and Thefts are interdicted but sometimes the thing is no way in it self pernicious to any but only propounded to make trial of our duty and allegeance as when Adam was forbid to eat the Apple and this is true obedience not to obey for the necessity of the thing commanded but out of conscience and subjection to just Authority Such obedience and nothing else is that which hath made the little Common-wealth of Bees so famous for are they not at appointment who should dispose the work at home and who should gather honey in the fields they flinch not from their Task and no Creature under the Sun hath so brave an instinct of sagacity Wherefore Epiphanius was wont to compare the godly Monks that undertook their Office by the appointment of their Superior some to labour with their hands some to pray and meditate I say he likened them to Bees that hum about and make honey together So some of these toil for the use of men some sing Psalms unto God thymum hymnum proferunt You shall hear an hundred boast of their great stomach and of a spirit that could not be kept under Brethren as St. Paul said your boasting is not good But almost I never heard of any that professed themselves of a spirit which was subject to all obedience One indeed I have read of Nicolaus of Crete how well it did become him who was subject to Theodorus his Prelate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had no will of his own full of reason and understanding but utterly void of will and wilfulness What a pleasure was this both to him and his Disciple what a sight was this worth the seeing as the Angels says Aristotle are never weary of moving the Heavens and the Heavens are never weary of turning round Such is the harmony between the Prelate and the demure Obedient where Wisdom is the Sun and Duty is the Dial upon which it shines How near came this mans Soul to Adams in the state of Innocency whose original purity the Shoolmen call by an elegant Title aureum froenum a golden Bridle For the Appetite had a Bridle to be checkt under Reason Reason had a Bridle to make it follow the supreme Will of the Creator the very Beasts had a Bridle cast into their jaws to make them Homagers unto Man which now would raven upon our Carkasses Now there is nothing abroad or at home but bellum servile Zimri riseth up against his Master Nothing hath more carried the World aside than those glorious words of Liberty Power and Prerogative Among the Romans oppression and cruelty did not make a Tyrant but the very name of Soveraignty Nec clementes Dominos ferre poterant says Tacitus Masters though they were meek did offend as long as they were called Masters Angustum annulum ne gesta says Pythagoras as if all subjection unto Discipline were like a strait Ring that pincht the finger Plutarch coins a Fable that the Tail of the Serpent grudged at the Head because it went always foremost The Head indeed had the