and faculties run to the soule to saue that which is principall The bloud and spirits striue to saue the life of the bodie faith hope to saue the life of the soule So that at the suddaine assault of some daunger a man shall best iudge of his owne heart It may bee at other times a dissembler for mans heart is false who can know it yet at such time it will manifest it selfe and cannot deceiue If God hath beene our familiar friend and accustomed helper danger doth not sooner salute vs then we salute him by our prayers The first thought of our hearts is Iesus Christ the first voyce of our lips is Peters on the sea in such an extremitie Lord saue mee our faith is reposed on his wonted mercy and protection Wee know whom we haue beleeued Daniell cals on GOD ere hee fals to the Lions this stoppes their mouthes The wicked in such miserie are either heauie and heartlesse as Nabal whose heart dyed within him and he became as a stone Or desperate as Iulian throwing his bloud vp into the ayre with a blasphemous confession Or sottish as these here running to the mountaines vnprofitable vnpossible helpes When the blow of vengeance strikes the couetous he runs to his counting house if his bagges can giue him no succour he is distracted If any broken reed bee their confidence in these ouerwhelming woes they catch drowning hold of that so they and their hopes perish together There are some whose tongues are so poysoned with blasphemie that in an vnexpected accident the very first breath of their lips is a curse or an oath As if they would sweare away destruction which euery vngodly speech drawes on neerer If these men hadde beene acquainted with God in faire weather they would not forget him in a storme But they that will haue no familiaritie with God in peace shall haue him to seeke in extremitie When therefore some sudden perill hath threatned thee with terrour note seriously how thou art affected Though the danger came vnlook'd for let it not passe vnthought of but as thou blessest God for deliuery so examine the good or ill disposednesse of thine owne heart If thou find thy selfe couragious and heauenly minded on thy confidence in God take at once assurance of thy faith and Gods mercie Hee that nowe stood by thee will neuer leaue thee If otherwise lament thy sinnes which darken thy soules way to the mercie-seate and beseech Iesus Christ to store thy heart with better comforts If thy treasure be in heauen and thy soule hath beene vsed to trauell often thither when danger comes it knowes the way so well that it cannot misse it 2. Affirmatiuely this presents a soule amazed with feare and follie They call to the Mountaines that can neither heare nor answere When the world was destroyed with water men climbed vp to the tops of the Mountaines when it shall be dissolued with fire they will desire the holes of the rockes and to lie vnder the hils The mountaines are but swellings of the earth and the rockes are surd things that haue no eares can they heare or if they heare can they answere or if they answere can they saue when the graues must vomite vp their dead shall the rockes conceale the liuing Those fiue Kings could not be hid in the caue of Makkedah from Ioshua and shall any caue hide from Iesus Whiles guilt and feare consult of refuge how vaine shifts they imagine Adam would hide his disobedience in the bushes Saul his rebellion in the crowd of the people So the hood-wink'd foole seeing no body thinkes no body sees him Helplesse euasions when Adoniah heard the trumpets sounding at Salomons coronation he quaked and fled to the hornes of the Altar When the vngodly shall heare the Archangels Trumpe proclaiming the coronation of Christ they haue no Sanctuarie they neuer loued it in all their liues but flie to the rockes and mountaines The graue is a darke and priuatiue place yet as a prisoner that comes out of a sordid and stinking dungeon into the open ayre for his triall in a desperate cause had rather keepe the prison still So these reprobates newly raysed from the earth cry to it to receiue them againe glad to remaine though not on the face of it with pleasure in the bowels of it with rottenesse and solitude rather then in the open light to come before the iudgement seat of Christ. The graue is a drowne-bed to hell They suddainly start out of their sleepe and meet with gastly amasednesse at the mouth of their sepulchers beholding on the one side sins accusing on another side hellish fiends vexing an anguish'd conscience burning within heauen earth without aboue them the countenance of an angry Iudge below them a lake of vnquenchable fire round about howling and bitter lamentations no maruell then if at the worlds end they be at their wittes end and cry to the mountaines Fall on vs. Let all this declare to men the vanitie of their worldly hopes God is the Preseruer of men not hils rocks The rich man is brought in vpon a Premunire can his gold acquit him in this Starre-chamber The Epicure thinkes to drowne sorrow in lustie wines the oppressor mistrusts not the power of his owne hand the proud refugeth his troubled heart in his trunkes the lustfull in his punkes what is this but running to rockes and mountaines Thus madly doe men commit two errors Ier. 2. They forsake the creator which would neuer forsake them and adhere to the creatures which can neuer helpe them O Lord the hope of Israell all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and all that depâ—…t from thee shall be written in the earth Nowe at this day perhaps they would seeke to the Lord but they are answered Goâ—… to the gods whom ye haue serued Loe then of these gods they shall be wearie as in the 2. of Esay where these very words of my Text are deliuerd ver 19. They shall goe into the holes of the rockes c. it is immediatly added In that day a man shall cast his Idols of siluer and his Idols of gold which he made for himselfe to worship 〈◊〉 the moules and to the battes Euen the spirituall Idolater the Couetous shall throw his Images golden or siluer shrines for the Diana of his auarice his damned coyne to combustion with a vae Woe vnto it it hath lost my soule As the sicke stomacke lothes the meate whereof it surfetted Well let vs leaue inuocation to these Rockes worldly refuges and remember that there is one to be called on who is onely able to defend vs a spirituall holy and happy Rocke Iesus Christ. Dauid often cals God his Rocke and his refuge A rocke that beares vp the pillars of the world Their Rocke is not as our Rocke euen our enemies themselues being iudges He that builds his house of assurance on this rocke shall stand
and Luxurie let him take heed lest he meet with a wind that shall take off his Charriot-wheeles as Pharaoh was punished drowne horses and chariots Riders not in the Red-Sea but in that infernall Lake vvhence there is no redemption Let all these Riders beware lest hee that rides on the wings of vengeance with a sword drawne in his hand that will eate flesh and drinke bloud that will make such haste in the pursute of his enemies that he will not bait or refresh himselfe by the way lest this God before they haue repented ouertake them Gird thy sword vpon thy thigh O most mighty and in thy maiestie ride prosperously c. and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things Then shall the Lord remember the children of Edom in the day of Ierusalem and reward them as they serued vs. Loe now the end of these Riders There are the workers of iniquitie fallen they are cast downe and shall not be able to rise Zach. 10. The riders on horses shall be confounded 2. For vs though passion possesse our bodies let patience possesse our soules The law of our Profession bindes vs to a warfare patiendo vincimus our troubles shall end our victory is eternall Heare Dauids triumph Psalm 18. I haue wounded them that they were not able to rise they are fallen vnder my feete Thou hast subdued vnder mee those that rose vp against mee Thou hast also giuen me the neck of mine enemies c. They haue wounds for their woundes and the treaders downe of the poore are troden down by the poore The Lord will subdue those to vs that would haue subdued vs to themselues and though for a short time they rode ouer our heads yet now at last wee shall euerlastingly tread vpon their necks Loe then the reward of humble patience and confident hope Speramus et Superamus Our God is not as their God euen our enemies beeing iudges Psal. 20. Some put their trust in Chariots and some in horses But no Chariot hath strength to oppose nor horse swiftnesse to escape when God pursues They are brought downe and fallen we are risen stand vpright Their trust hath deceiued them downe they fall and neuer to rise Our God hath helped vs wee are risen not for a breathing space but to stand vpright for euer Tentations persecutions oppressions crosses infamies bondage death are but the way wherein our blessed Sauiour went before vs and many Saints followed him Behold them with the eyes of faith now mounted aboue the clowds trampling all the vanities of this world vnder their glorified feet standing on the battlements of heauen and wafting vs to them with the hands of encouragement They bid vs fight and wee shall conquer suffer and we shall raigne And as the Lord Iesus that once suffered a reprochfull death at the hands of his enemies now sits at the right hand of the Maiestie in the highest places farre aboue all Principalities and Powers Thrones and Dominations till his enemies bee made his footestoole So one day they that in their haughty pride mercilesse oppressions rode ouer our heads shall then lie vnder our feete Through thee will wee push downe our enemies through thy Name will wee tread them vnder that rise vp against vs. At what time yonder glorious skie Coelum stellatum which is now our seeling ouer our heads shall be but a pauement vnder our feet To which glory he that made vs by his Word and bought vs by the bloud of his Sonne seale vs vp by his blessed Spirit Amen THE VICTORIE OF PATIENCE With the expiration of Malice PSALME 66. 12. VVe went through fire and through water but thou broughtest vs out into a wealthy place I DID not in the former Sermon draw out the oppressing cruelty of these Persecutours to the vtmost scope and period of their malice nor extend their impium imperium to the furthest limit and determination therof There is yet one glimpse of their stinking candle before the snuffe goes out one groane ere their malice expire We went through fire and water The Papists when they heare these words went through fire and water startle and cry out Purgatory direct proofes for Purgatory With as good reason as Sedulius on that dreame of Pharaohs Officer Gen. 40. 10. A vine was before me and in the vine were three branches sayes that the Vine signifies St. Francis and the three branches the three Orders deriued from him And as a Pope on that of Samuel Behold to obey is better thâ—…n sacrifice and stubbornnesse is as Idolatry inferres that not to obey the Apostolike See of Rome was Idolatry by the witnesse of Samuel Or as one writes of St. Fraâ—…cis that because it is said Vnlesse you become as little children you cannot enter into the kingdom of heauen he commanded one Massaeus to tumble round like a little childe that he might enter Or as when the contention was betwixt the Seruices of Amâ—…se and Gregorie which should take place by the common consent both the Masse-bookes were layd on the Altar of S. Peter expecting some decision of that doubt by reuelation The Church dores being opened in the morning Gregories Missal-booke was rent and torne into many pieces but Ambroses lay whole and open vpon the Altar Which euent in a sober exposition would haue signified the Masse of Gregory cancelled and abolished and that of Ambrose authenticall and allowed But the wise Pope Adrian expounds it thus that the renting and scattering of Gregories Missall intended that it should be dispersed ouer all the Christian world and onely receiued as Canonical Or as that simple Fryer that finding Maria in the Scripture vsed plurally for Seas cryed out in the ostentation of his lucky witte that he had found in the olde Testament the name of Maria for the Virgin Mary But I purpose not to waste time in this place and among such hearers in the confutation of this ridiculous folly Resting my selfe on the iudgement of a vvorthie learned man in our Church that Purgatory is nothing else but a Mythologie a morall vse of strange fables As when Pius the second had fent abroad his Indulgencies to all that would take Armes against the Turke the Turke wrote to him to call in his Epigrams againe Or as Bellarmine excused Prudentiuâ—… when hee appoints certaine holy-dayes in hell that hee did but poetize So all their fabulous discourse of Purgatory is but Epigrams poetry a more serious kinde of iest Wherein they laugh among themselues how they couzen the world and fill the Popes coffers Who for his aduantage Ens non esse facit non ens fore So that if Roffensis gather out of this place that in Purgatory there is great store of water Wee went through fire and water We may oppose against him Sir Thomas More who proues from Zachary 9. that there is no water at all I haue sent forth
spoken Be of good cheere This same But is like a happy oare that turnes our vessell from the rocks of despaire and lands it at the hauen of comfort But c. Thou Thou onely without helpe or succour of either man or Angell that art able to saue with a few as well as with many that art A man of vvarre Exod. 15. and commest armed against thine enemies with a speare of wrath and a sword of vengeance Thou of whose greatnesse there is no end no limits no determination Thou O Lord without any partner either to share thy glory or our thanks Thou broughtest vs out Thou of thy owne goodnesse so well as by thy ovvne greatnesse hast deliuered vs. No merite of ours procured or deserued this mercy at thy hands but our freedome comes onely by thy Maiestie of thy mercy Here were no armes of flesh nor Armies of Angels in this worke of our Redemption but Thou hast brought vs out that vvee might praise thy Name Therefore wee say Blesse the Lord O our soules O Lord thou art very great thou art clothed vvith honour and maiesty Eduxisti Broughtest out Great workes become a great God Opera testantur de me saith our Sauiour My workes beare witnesse of mee I heale the sicke cleanse the Leprous giue sight to the blinde raise the dead cast out deuils Will you not belieue O ye carnall eyes vnlesse you see will you trust your fiue senses aboue the foure Gospels vers 5. Come then and see the workes of God See workes not a fancie speculation or deceiuing shadow but reall visible acted accomplished workes Eduxists Sensus assensus Let demonstration conuince you the Snare is broken and we are deliuered The Lord workes potenter and patenter There is not onely manifold mercy but manifest mercy in his doings He brought vs out When the vngodly see vs so low brought that persecutors ride ouer our heads they are ready to say Where is now their Gâ—…d Behold hîc est Deus our God is heere where there was need of him opus Deo a work fit for the Deity to performe Misery had wrapped and entangled vs the wicked hands had ty'd vs as the Philistines did Samson with the bands of death Here then was Dignus vindice nodus a knot worthy the finger of God to vntie He looked downe from the height of his Sanctuary from heauen did the Lord behold the earth For what purpose To heare the groning of the prisoner to loose those that are appointed to death Behold the waters went ouer our soule yet we were not drowned Malice had doomed vs to the Fire but our comfort is Nihil potestatis in nos habuâ—…sse ignem that the fire had not power ouer vs. They trode vs vnder their cruell insultations but the Lord hath lifted vs vp The Lord of Hosts was with vs the God of Iacob was our refuge Vs. To this act of God if we tye the Subiect wherein hee workes and knit to Eduxisti Nos which I called verbum solitudinis a word of former wretchednesse and calamitie we shall finde our misery a fit obiect for GODS mercy Especially if you set the others malice against our meeknesse their wickednesse against our weakenesse the persons whom God deliuers the persons from whom will greatly commend the mercy of our deliuerance It is a pleasure to God to haue his strength perfected in our infirmitie When the danger is most violent in it own nature and our sense then is his helping arme most welcome Esa. 17. In the day of griefe and of desperate sorrow the haruest shall be great a plentifull croppe of ioy Qui Deus est noster Deus est salutis He that is our God is the God of saluation and vnto God the Lord belong the issues from death He delights to haue vs say in this deepe extremity Eduxisti Thou hast brought vs out When Ionas was taken vp by the Mariners put from the succour of the Shippe no helpe in any Rockes nor mercy in the waters neither means nor desire to escape by swimming for he yeelds himselfe into the iaws of death with as mortified affection as if a lumpe of lead had beene throwne into the sea a man would haue thought that saluation it selfe could not haue saued Ionas Yet Ionas shall not die Here is now a deliuery fit for God a cure for the almightie hand to vndertake Mans extremity is Gods opportunity Distressed desire is importunate It is time that thou haue mercy vpon vs yea the time is come But if God doe not presently answere we are ready to pant out a groane of despaire The time is past If our importunity preuaile not wee thinke all opportunity is gone But God sayes Tempus nondum venit the time is not yet God waites the maturity of the danger the more to increase his honour As Alexander cheared himselfe when hee should fight with men and beasts haughty enemies and huge Elephants Tandem par animo meo periculum video I see at last a danger somewhat equall to my minde Will you heare when this time is come Iohn 11. Martha tells Christ Master if thou hadst beene heere my brother had not died Christ knevv this before vers 15. Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there that you might belieue Obserue the different thoughts of God and man Martha is sorry Christ is glad She thought that the time of helpe was past Christ thought that the time was not opportune till now Iairus his seruant comes and tels him Thy daughter is dead trouble the master no further This was the word Christ expected to heare And now he sayes Be not afraid onely beleeue Heare the Israelites desperate complaint The waters of the Sea roare before their faces the wheeles of the Chariots rattle behinde their backs hereon they cry to Moses Were there no graues in Egypt that thou hast brought vs hither to die Now saith Moses Feare not stand still and see the saluation of God From that hath beene spoken and that which follows we may obserue two workes of Gods mercy Which consist Remouendo Promouendo the one remouing avvay much euill the other preferring to much good Eduxisti shewes his kindenesse in freeing vs from calamity In locum opulentum his goodnesse in exalting vs to dignity The former is an act of deliuerance the latter of aduancement So there is Terminus à quo from whence vvee are freed and Terminus ad quem to which vvee are exalted For the former wee haue God heere Educentem bringing out of trouble Sometime wee finde GOD Ducentem leading guiding directing Wilt not thou O Lord goe forth vvith our hoastes And Hee ledde them through the wildernesse by the hand of Moses and Aaron Sometimes Inducentem vers 11. Thou broughtest vs into the net thou hast laid affliction vpon our loynes Sometimes Adducentem Thou O Lord hast brought vs home to thy selfe
immoueable to wind or weather he needs not the shelter of mountaines for he shall stand like Mount Sion that a hideth fast for euer They that despise him shall find him a Rocke also if they fall on it they shall be broken if it fall on them it will grind them to powder He is a Stone the Stone the head-stone of the corner cut out of the Quarrey of heauen without hands Of whome we are made liuing stones He is strong without all things all things weake without him trust in him and you shall haue no need to flie to rockes and mountaines For What The benefit that they would haue the Rockes and the Mountaines doe them is to Fall on them hide them Whence we deriue three obseruations 1. Despaire is euer wishing for death often impatiently snatching at it in this world but when the last day comes so greedily longing for it that to be sure of it they desire the mountaines to dispatch them Death by the wicked is now most feared death at the last shall be the thing most wished They shall desire death and shall not find it They that sit in the warme nest of riches hatching vp their brood of lusts quake at the hearing of death There are some feare to die others not so much to die as to be dead The former are cowardly the other vnbeleeuing soules Some feare both to whom nothing in life then life is more desireable But when thâ—s last extremitie comes mâ—…ricupiunt they desire to die And that death like a merciles executioner might not haue too many strokes at their liues they begge helpe of the Mountaines that they might be throughly dispatched at once without need of a second blow Cain at his arraignement for his brother would needs liue God grants it as if it were too much fauour for him to die But hee yeelds it for a curse as if he heard his prayers in anger He liues but banished from God carrying his hell in his bosome and the brand of vengeance in his forehead God reiects him the earth repines at him and men abhorre him Loe now Cain would die himselfe now wisheth the death he feared and no man dares pleasure him with a murther As Nero in the like case Nec amicâ—…m nec mimicum hâ—…beo I haue neyther friend nor enemie or as Sauâ—… found in his Armour-bearer not a will to kill him though he had a will to be killed by him Death these reprobates feared and onely death is now desired They cry to the mountaines Fall on vs. 2 Obserue that rockes and mountaines are farre lighter then sinne Zachary compares it to a Talent of lead Esay cals it a Burden Such a waight bore our Sauiour that he groned vnder it I am pressed vnder you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaues The wicked that like Babel-builders thinke to aspiâ—…e to heauen by multiplying of earth would bee glad if â—…umulitumuli their bodies might be buried vnder their heapes of wealth where their soules had beene buryed long before But what is a load of earth a mountaine huger then Aetna vnder which Iupiter was sayd subter fulminare Gigantes what is the whole massie bodie of the earth to the waight of sinne Thinke of it ye Theomachor that striue in your rebellions imponere Pelioâ—… Ossae ye rapacious couetous that load your selues with thicke clay you lay heauie burdens on the poore heauier on your owne consciences Sin may seeme light for a season as a packe made vp but not assayed with one of your fingers when Sathan shall lay it on you it will breake your backes You beare it now like corke and feathers at that day you shall iudge it heauier then rockes and mountaines Now in contempt of law and Gospell honestie and conscience earth and heauen they call to pride ambition blasphemie ebrietie luxurie oppression Fall on vs and couer vs wearing pride as a chaine and couering themselues with crueltie as with a garment Siâ—… lyes at the dore and they haue no sense to take it vp The deuill puts his shoulders vnder the waight and thus supported they feele it not But when Gods iustice shall reproue them and set their sinnes in order before their 〈◊〉 yea impose them on their weake and yeelding consciences howe different will their cry be 〈◊〉 fâ—…ll 〈◊〉 â—…ockes couer vs. The swearer saying to these heauie creatures you are lighter then my oathes the â—…uetous you are not so ponderous as my oppressions the adulterer the whole earth is a gentle pressure â—…o the burden of my lustes Custome in sinne obstupefies a â—…sense and still like that Romaine Milo his strength eâ—…creasing with his burden he that first carried sinne a wanton Calfe can at last beare it a goaring Oxe Menlocke vp their iniquities as the vsurer his money in a Chest where the light of reproofe may not finde them out They packe all their iniquities vpon Hâ—… that will beare them for none but His. Or reserue them to an houres repentance setting them a day of cancelling but they breake it as if their last breath could dispell and scatter them all into ayre But alas sinnes then are found heauiest of all and here like malefactors pressing to death they cry out for more waight the accession of rockes and mountaines to dispatch them Loath they are to come before the Iudge therefore would be pressed to death by these ponderous and massy creatures The mountaines haue not beene more barren then they of goodnes the rockes not so hard as their hearts The crosse of Christ hath beene held too heauy repentance too troublesome a guest for their houses faith and obedience haue beene cast off as poore friends all godlynes too waightie now rockes and hils are light Christs yoke was not for their shoulders Satans must His law might not be borne it was so heauy his wrath must be borne and that is heauyer Oh then thrice blessed they whose sinnes God bindeth vp in a bundle and sinkes them in the whirlepoole of forgetfulnes that they may neuer be imposed for they are too heauy to be borne 3. Obserue that before these wicked were Lords of nations and Countreys for they are said to be Princes Captaines Conquerors rich men now they would be glad of one to hide them Of all their dominions they begge but the barrenest parcell a rocke or mountaine and that to doe them a poore office to conceale them How much doth mans auarice and ambition couet here how little contents him hereafter In death the wickedest Potentate must be content with a graue after death he would be content with a graue still yea glad if in the bottome of a mountaine he might be hidden Heare this ye couetous that ioyne house to house and land to land by disioyning the societies of men as if you would leaue the whole earth to your babes Excutit natura redeuntem sicut intrantem Nature shall
was lost THE first word is Causall and puts vs in mind of some reference In briefe the dependance is this Litle Zacheus became great in Gods fauour he was ver 2. a Publican a chiefe Publican a rich Publican Yet he hath a desire to see Iesus and Iesus hath a purpose to see him A figtree shall helpe him to the sight of Christ Christ to the sight of him Our Sauiour calls him downe it is fit they should come downe in humilitie that entertaine Christ and bids himselfe to his house to dinner He is made Zacheus his gest for temporall food and Zacheus is made his guest for euerlasting cheare This day is saluation come to this house ver 9. This mercy is not without the Pharises grudging ver 7. When they saw it they all murmured saying That hee was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner Murmuring is betweene secret backbiting and open railing a smotherd malice which can nether beevtterly concealed nor dare bee openly vented The cause of their murmuring was that hee was become a guest to a sinner as if the Sunne of righteousnesse could bee corrupted in shining on a Dunghill of sinne No whiles hee did associate the bad hee made them good feeding them spiritually that fed him corporally Hee did not consent to their sinne but correct it not infecting himselfe but affecting their soules and effecting their blisse A man may accompany those whom hee desires to make better or them to make him better And that the mouth of all wickednesse might be stopped our Sauiour sayes that his comming into the world was not onely to call home Zacheus but euen many such Publicans For the Sonne of man is come to seeke and to saue c. Wee are thus gotten ouer the threshold For let vs now looke into the house and suruay euery chamber and roome in it The foundation of this comfortable scripture is Iesus Christ and the building may bee distinguished into fiue seuerall Parlours all richly hung and adorned with the graces and mercies of God and the midst thereof paued with loue for the daughters of Ierusalem CHRIST is the Buttresse or corner stone and in him consider here His Humilitie The Sonne of man Veritie Is come Pittie To seeke Pietie To saue Power That which was lost 1. The Sonne of man Ecce Humilitatem Hee that is the Sonne of eternall God cals himselfe the Sonne of mortall man 2. Is come Ecce veritatem What God had promised his Seruants prophecied his Types prefigured he hath now performed They all foretold in their kinds that he should come he makes all good he Is come 3. To seeke Ecce compassionem He knew that we were vtterly gone that we had Nec valentis oculum nec volentis animum neither an eye able nor a mind willing to seeke him in Pittie he seekes vs. 4. To saue Ecce Pietatem He seekes vs not in ruinam to our destruction as we deserued but in salutem to our saluation as he desired Amissos quaerit quaesitos invenit inventos seruat He seekes them that were lost hee finds them he seekes he saues them he finds To saue 5. The lost Ecce Potestatem He is not onely able to strengthen vs weake nor to recouer vs sicke nor to fetch vs home offring our selues to bee brought but when we had neither will nor power to procure this yea when wee had a reluctancie against this for wee were his enemies and hated him he did recall vs gone reviue vs dead seeke and saue vs that were lost You see the Chambers how they lie in order let mee keepe your thoughts in this house of Mercie a while wherein may all our soules dwell for euer In survaying the Roomes it is fit wee should begin with the lowermost and thither the Text aptly first leads vs. The Sonne of Man Christ is called a Sonne in three respects 1. In regard of his Deitie the Sonne of God begotten of him from all eternitie coequall and coessentiall to him 2. In respect of his flesh the Son of Mary naturally borne of her 3. He cals himselfe the Sonne of Man in regard that he tooke on him mans nature and vndertooke the performance of mans redemption Man like vs in all things sinne onely excepted So that in this circumstance two things are considerable in Christ the one necessarily involved in the other His Humanitie Humilitie His Humanitie When the fulnesse of time was come God sent his Sonne made of a Woman Ex muliere non in muliere as Gorran notes against Valentinus whose heresie was that Christ passed through the Virgin as water through a Conduit-pipe But this Preposition Ex signifies a pre-existent matter as a house is made of tymber stones bread of wheat wine of grapes Christ had therefore the materials of his bodie from the virgin Mary though not his Formale principium for the holy Ghost was agent in this wonderfull conception Neither is this a thing impossible to God though wonderfull to Man that this Christ should be the Son of Mary without man As it was possible to God in the first creation to make a Woman out of a Man without the helpe of a Woman so in this new creation to make a Man out of a Woman without the helpe of a man There is the same reason of possibilitie It is as easie to bring fire from a steele without a flint as from a flint without a steele But he that could dare essentiam nihilo can raise a nature ex aliquo God had foure diuerse manners of creating humane creatures 1. The first man Adam was made of no man but immediately created of God 2. The second that was Eue was made not of a woman but of a man alone 3. The third sort all men and women else are begotten of man and woman 4. Christ the last sort was of a different maner from all these 1. not of no precedent flesh as Adam 2. Not of a man without a woman as Eue. 3. Not of man and woman as all we 4. But after a new way of a woman without a man We are all in this sort opposed to Adam Christ to Eue Adam was made of neither man nor woman wee of both man and woman Eue of a man without a woman Christ of a woman without a man Now as this was a great worke of God so it is a great wonder to man Three miracles here Deum nasci virginem parere fidem haec credere That the Sonne of God should become the Sonne of woman a great myracle That a virgin should beare a child and yet before at after the birth remaine still a virgin a great myracle That the faith of man should beleeue all this Maximum miraculum this is the greatest wonder of all Thus you haue Diuinitie assuming Humanitie a great mystery God manifested in the flesh In mundum venit qui mundum condidit he comes downe to earth but hee leaues not
it and this is thâ—… time for it the next is of Iustice. The middle meale betweene both thâ—…se is our Dinner and that consists patiendo malum and faciendo bonum in doing good and suffering euill And on these two Courses my Text spâ—…nds it selfe First they that suffer according to the witt of God ther 's the Passion Secondly they may trust God with their soules in well doing ther 's the Action More particularly in the words wee may consider fiue Graduall Circumstances 1. The Sufferance of the Saints They that suffer 2. The Integritie of this Sufferance According to the will of God 3. The Comfort of this Integritie May commit their soules to God 4. The Boldnesse of this Comfort As vnto a faithfull Creator 5. The Caution of this Boldnesse In well doing 1. The Sufferance of the Saints They that suffer All men suffer Man is borne vnto trouble as the sparkes she vpward This life is well compared to a throng in a narrow passage hee that is first out finds ease he that is in the midst is in the worst place and case for he is hemm'd in with troubles the hind-most driues out both the former and if he haue not the greatest part in suffering euill lightly hee hath the greatest share in doing it Outward things happen alike to good and bad There is one euent to the cleane and to the vncleane to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not to him that sweareth and to him that feareth an oath They are both trauellers in the through-fare of this world both lodge in one Inne both haue the same prouision perhaps the wicked haue the better cheare but in the morning their wayes part There are common euils as there are common goods Pouertie sicknesse death spares not the greatest health wealth prosperitie is not denied to the meanest All haue three Mansâ—…ns 1. This earth there as in Noâ—…s Arke are the cleane and vncleane righteous and wicked promiscuously confused 2. The Graue this is a common house a very Pest-house where all lie together vnder the Surgerie of death It is a cheape and vniuersall house wee pay no rent for it 3. But after all are come to this place there is then a way of parting Est locus bis partes vbi se via findit in ambas Some goe to hell others to heauen They shall come forth they that haue done good vnto the resurrection of life and they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of damnation Some to immortall honour others to immortall horrour God giues not all outward prosperitie to the wicked least they should ascribe it to their owne wittes or worths least they should sacrifice to their net and burne incense to their dragge Nor all affliction to the good least they should fall to some sinister and vnwarrantable courses The rod of the wicked shall not rest vppon the lot of the righteous least the righteous put forth their hands to iniquitie There is a mixture of good and euill prosperitie and aduersitie haue their vicissitudes Praesentis vita nec prosperitas innocentiam testatur nec acerbitas miseram animam indicat Neither doe the crosses of this world witnesse a mans guiltinesse nor the blessings of the world his innocence But the good haue a larger share in sufferings then the reprobates Impius non percutitur nisi a Domino not ab Iâ—…s None strikes the wicked but God but all the wicked strike and vexe vs. This world like the earth is a meere stepdame to good herbes an owne mother to weeds no maruell if shee starues vs all is too little for her owne children Omnes patiuntur plurimâ—… quidam patiuntur omnia All suffer many kinds of miseries many suffer all kinds of miseries Christiâ—… est 〈◊〉 it is the part of a Christian to suffeâ—… wheresoeuer he is let him expect it Adam was see vpon in Paradise Iob in the dunghill Iob fortior in stâ—…oore quà m Adam in Paradise Iob was more strong to resist temptations in the miserable dust then was Adâ—… in that glorious Garden The Iewes were commanded to eate fowre herbes with their sweete Passeouer bitternes euer treads on the heeles of pleasure Iacob hath a Sonne and looseth his Wife Beniamin is borne Rachel dies Our Lady comming from that great Feast lost her sonne Iesus three dayes Seauen dayes shee had eaten sweet bread here followed three dayes sowre bread for it Good things are to be taken with much thankfulnes euill with much patience Let this teach vs two duties First to prepare for euils before they come next to make them welcome when they are come So they shall neither meet vs with feare nor leaue vs with sorrow 1. Preparation to suffer is specially necessary Sudden crosses find weake soules secure leaue them miserable make them desperate Expectatum malum lâ—…uiùs mordet A looked for euill smarts more gently Repentina bona sunt suauiora sed repentina mala sunt grauiora Vnexpected ioyes are more gracious but vnexpected euils are more grieuous Mischiefes come most commonly without warning They doe not allow as Ionas did to Niniueh forty dayes respite not so much as an Hac noste this night which was allowed to the worldling This night shall they fetch away thy soule from thee Happy man that giues himselfe warning hee that conceites what may be armes himselfe against what must be Thou art in health eatest digestest sleepest Quid si morboso iaceant tua membra cubili What if sicknesse shall cast thee down on thy weary couch Though riches allow thee meate for thy stomach what if sicknes allow thee not stomach to thy meate How if the very smell if the very thought of thy best dishes should offend thee How if after many tossed sides and â—…fted places nullo poteris requâ—…escere lecto thou couldst find no corner to giue thee ease How couldst thou take this distemper Thou art rich thy throat tasts it thy belly feeles it thy backe weares it how if from no feare of want thou shouldst come to no want of feare to care for to morrowes prouision with extreame sweat of browes not to earne bread enough to keepe life and soule together nakednesse exposing thy body to the violences of heauen scorching heate of the Sunne cold stormes of the ayre How couldest thou brooke the difference Inter tantam refectionem talem defectionem betweene that abundant opulencie and this distitute penurie Thou art at home in peace singing in thy owne vineyards thou sittest in a shocke secure whilest thy reapers fell downe the humble corne at thy foote and fil thy barnes What if for religion thou shouldst be sent to exile where thou mayest weepe with Israel to thy deriding enemies demanding a Song of Sion How shall I sing the song of ioy in a strange land How canst thou digest the iniuries and brooke the contempt of strangers These be good thoughts to prearme our soules nothing