was but a sport in respect of the torments in dying Lo here a Beast yea not Bestia but Fera a Savage beast yea worse then either Did ever man doe thus to beast If a Baptista Porta have devised a way to roast a Foul quick or some Italian executioner of gluttony have beaten a Swine dead with gentle blows to make a Cardinals morsel every ingenuous man is ready to cry out of this barbarous Tyranny yea the very Turks would punish it with no less then death yea if a Syracusan boy shall but pick out a Crows eyes those Pagans could mulct him with banishment Nay what beast did ever thus to man nay did ever one beast doe thus to another If they gore and grasp one another in their fury or feed on each other in the rage of their hunger that is all they do not take pleasure in saucing each others death with varieties or delaies of pain None but man doth thus to man and in none lightly but the quarrel of Religion False Zeal takes pleasure in surfeits of blood and can injoy others torment Hence are bloody Massacres treacherous Assassinations hellish Powder-plots and whatever stratagem of mischief can be devised by that ancient man-slayer from whose malicious and secret machinations good Lord deliver us As the enemies of the Church are Fera a Beast so they are coetus a Compaany yea a multitude Well may they say with the Devil in the possessed man My name is Legion for we are many a Legion of many thousands yea Gad for an hoast cometh an Hoast of many Legions yea a combination of many Hoasts Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistins with them that dwell at Tyre Ashur also is joyned to them Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church of the malignant a Church yea a world mundus in maligne Divide the world with our Learned Breerwood into thirty parts nineteen of them are Pagans and they are enemies Of those eleven that remain six are Mahumetans and they are enemies Of those other five that remain there is an Antichristian Faction that challenges universality and they are enemies Stand now with me upon the hill and take a survay of the enemies see them lye scattered like grashoppers in the valley and tell me whether the Church have not reason to say Lord how many are they that rise up against me Yet when all is done that no man may be discouraged if we have but our eyes opened with Elisha's servant to see the hoast of Heaven glittering about us we shall boldly say There are more with us then against us Yet if these that are against us were many and not united it were nothing A large showr loseth it self whiles the drops are scattered in the sands but many drops met make a torrent yea an Ocean Here is coetus their heads their hearts their hands are laid together And why do not we learn wit and will of those that hate us why are we several whiles they are conjoyned why should partial Factions and private fancies distract us when the main Cause of God is on foot Beleague your selves ye Christian Princes and Potentates combine your selves ye true-hearted Christians and be gathered by the voice of Gods Angel to a blessed and victorious Armageddon But why fera arundinis the beast of the reeds I do not tell you of S. Jerome's descant upon bestia calami the beast of the quill that is writers for falshood though these these are the great Incendiaries of the world and well worthy of the deepest increpation Here doubtless either the beasts of the reeds are the beasts that lye among the reeds as Cassiodorus hath given us an hint Leones domestica canneta reliquerunt The Lions have lest the reedy thickets or else the reed is here the spear or dart We know some regions yield groves of reeds ye would think them so many saplings or samplars at the least arborescere solent calami as Calvin These were of use in warre for darts or spears The vant-gard therefore of David's enemies are Spear-men or Darters for they were wont to dart their spears as you see in Saul 1 Sam. 20. 33. And why this In a sword-fight we come to close hand-blows such as a quick eye and nimble hand may perhaps avoid but the spear and dart strikes afarre off pierces where it strikes smites unseen unevitably For the remoteness violence irresistableness of the blow are the enemies of the Church described by the spear and dart where they cannot come they send dangerous emissaries headed on purpose to wound the best State to death felt ere they can be seen and so soon as they are felt killing What doe these but follow their General whose spiritual weapons are fiery darts Ephes 6. 16. Much and lamentable experience hath this State if ever any had of these mischievous engines of commotion that have been hurled hither from beyond the Alpes and Pyrenees What is the remedy but the same which is against the Devil the shield of prevention Stir up your vigilant care O ye great Leaders of Israel by the strict execution of wholesome laws to avoid the dint of these murderous subornations And when ye have done your best it must be the Lord of hoasts the great protectour of Israel that must break the bow and knap the spear in sunder Psal 46. 9. Their second title is Bulls for their ferocity for their strength The Lion is a more Lordly beast but the Bull is stronger and when he is enraged more impetuous Such are the Enemies of the Church How furiously do they bellow out threats and scrape up the earth and advance their crest and brandish their horns and send out sparkles from their eyes and snuffe out flames from their nostrils and think to bear down all before them What should I tell you of the fierce assalts of the braving enemies of the Church whose Pride hath scorned all opposition and thinks to push down all contrary powers not of men only but of God himself Let us break their bonds and cast their cords from us Who is the Lord that I should let Israel goe Where is the God of Hamath and of Arpad where are the Gods of Sepharvaim Hena and Ivah have they delivered Samaria out of my hand who are they among the Gods of the Countries that have delivered their country out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand saith proud Rabshakeh 2 Kings 18. 34. Heark how this Assyrian Bull roars out Blasphemie against the Lord of Hoasts and all the rest of that wild herd have no less grass on their hornes stay but a while and ye shall see him with'd and halter'd and stak'd and baited to death Here only is the comfort of the poor menaced Church that the mighty God of Israel who sayes to the raging Sea Here shalt thou stay thy proud waves can tame at pleasure these violent beasts or break their necks with their own fury So
give wilful provocations of this publick revenge by gross open intolerable injuries as Hanun did to David such are incroachments upon their neighbour-territories violating the just covenants of league and commerce by main violences if fourthly they refuse to give just satisfaction where they have unjustly provoked as the Benjamites in case of the Sodomitical villany of their Gibeah Where all where any of these are found well may we brand that people with delight in warre And since they will needs delight in warre God shall fit them accordingly With the froward thou shalt shew thy self froward Ps 18. 26. He shall delight in warring against them He shall rouze up himself as a Giant refreshed with new wine Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hoasts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and revenge me of mine enemies Es 1. 24. These are the Enemies The Defeat follows Rebuke and scatter The two first though bad enough must be rebuked the last must be scattered All Gods enemies may not be to us alike neither aequè nor aqualiter Some are Calves simple though violent some others are Bulls fierce and furious some other Lions from among the reeds ravenous and devouring all these though cruel yet perhaps are not malicious an increpa is enough for them Saul was one of these wild Buls breathing out threatnings against the Church and tossing upon his horn many worthy Christians had it not been pity he had been destroyed in that height of his rage an increpation brought him home God had never such a Champion Now certamen bonum certavi I have fought a good fight saith he justly of himself 2 Tim. 4. 7. This increpa then is Discountenance them dishearten them discomfit them disband them Put them down O Lord and let them know they are but men humble them to the very dust but not to the dust of death to correction as Habacuc speaketh not to a full destruction onely till they humbly bring pieces of silver till they come in with the tributes of peacefull submission of just satisfaction The end of all just was is Peace As we are first bidden to inquire of Abel ere we inferre it offeres ei pacem Deut. 20. 10. so when we hear of Abel we must stint it Warre to the State is Physick to the body This is no other then a civil evacuation whether by potion or phlebotomy What is the end of Physick but health when that is once recovered we have done with the Apothecary He wantons away his life foolishly that when he is well will take Physick to make him sick It is far from us to wish the confusion of the ignorant and seduced enemies of God's Church those that follow Absalom with an upright heart No we pity them we pray for them Oh that they would come in with their pieces of silver and tender their humble obediences to the apparent Truth of God and yield to the laws of both Divine and humane Justice Oh that God would perswade Japâ—â—t to dwell in the tents of Sem Father forgive them for they know not what they doe O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still Jer. 47. 6. But for those other that delight in war Dissipa Domine Scatter them O Lord. Confusion is but too good for them bring them to worse then nothing The perfection and suddenness of this dissipation is expressed emphatically in the beginning of this Psalm by a double Metaphor as smoak before the wind as wax before the fire so scatter them Of all light bodies nothing is more volatile then smoak of all solid none more flitting then wax As wind is to the smoak and fire to the wax so are the Judgements of God to his enemies the wax melteth the smoak vanisheth before them The conceit is too curious of those that make the Gentiles to be smoak who mount up in the opinion of their wisdome and power the Jews wax dropp'd from the honey-comb of their many Divine priviledges No all are both smoak and wax Even so do thou scatter them O Lord and be not merciful to them that offend on malicious wickedness Two thoughts onely remain now for us The first that it must be God onely who must rebuke and scatter The second that it is our Prayer onely that must obtain from God this rebuke this dissipation Both which when I have touched a little I shall put an end to this exercise of your patient Devotion It is God onely that must doe it for vain is the help of man And how easie is it for the Almighty to still the enemy and avenger They are as a potters vessel to his iron Scepter as the thorns or wax to his fire as chaff or smoak to his wind To our weakness the opposite powers seem strong and unconquerable the Canaanitish was reach up to Heaven and who can stand before the sons of Anak When we see their Bulwarks we would think they roll Pelion upon Ossa with the old Giants when we see their Towers we would think they would scale Heaven with the builders of Babel when we see their Mines we would think they would blow up the earth Let the wind of Gods Power but breath upon them they vanish as smoak let the fire of his wrath but look upon them they melt as wax Tyrannous Aegypt had long made slaves of God's people and now will make slaughter of them following them armed at the heels into the chanel of the Sea Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord for the Aegyptians which you have seen to day ye shall see no more for ever Exod. 14. 13. The great Hoast of proud Benhadad will carry away all Samaria in their pockets for pin-dust Ere long ye shall see their haughtie King come in haltred and prostrate Vaunting Sennacherib comes crowing over poor Jerusalem and he will lend them two thousand horses if they can set riders on them and scorns their King and defies their God Stay but till morning all his hundred fourscore and five thousand shall be dead corpses Vain fools What is a finite power in the hands of an infinite Where there is an equality of force there may be hard tugging but where brass meets with clay how can that brittle stuff escape unshattered Let this cool your courages and pull down your plumes O ye insolent enemies of God When ye look to your own sword there is no rule with you Mihi perfacile est c. It is easie for me saith Uldes in the story to destroy all the earth that the Sun looks upon but when God takes you to task what toyes what nothings ye are Behold we come against you in the Name of the Lord of Hoasts It is he that shall rebuke and scatter you He will doe it but he will doe it upon our Prayers Not that our poor Petitions can put mercy into God
Baboon who that shall read of the Elephant learning letters and numbers and plotting his cunning revenges would not say that these and a thousand the like must needs argue a baser kinde of sensitive discourse such as wherein Imagination doth notably counterfeit Reason and in some weak subjects so transcend it as that Lactantius dares say I dare not Ista non facerent nisi inesset illis intelligentia cogitatio It is true our reasonable Soul is furnished with higher powers but it is not more honour to have had them then shame to have impair'd them If God doth not breath upon our dim glasses and wipe them clear they shew us nothing To speak plainly Indeed it is our Illumination that perfects Reason and that Illumination is from the Father of lights without whose Divine light natural Reason is but as a Dial without the Sun eyes without light For the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And in that person it is that Agar the Son of Jakeh speaks I am more brutish then man I have not the understanding of a man Prov. 30. 2. Why this I have not the knowledge of the holy vers 3. The word is remarkable no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jumentum a Beast the same that Ezekiel uses when he sayes I will give thee over into the hands of brutish men Ezec. 21. 31. and the Psalmist when he saies Oh ye foolish or brutish among the people when will ye understand So as notwithstanding this muddy and imperfect Reason God sees a kinde of brutality in the natural man Whereto it may please you to adde that in a man debauch'd Reason is so much worse then brutishness by how much wickedness is worse hainous then simplicity and if want of Reason make a Beast abuse of Reason makes a Devil It is a miserable advantage that make us onely apt to evil and capable of an Hell small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts that they make us worse then beasts In short therefore notwithstanding Shape Speech Reason a natural and thereby a vicious man may well pass for a beast And now that we see it apparent that he is so let us a little inquire how he became so Certainly God made man upright as in shape so in disposition What wrought this miserable Metamorphosis What could do it but Sorcery and what Witch could this be but the old Circe of the world Sensuality Man is led and informed by Reason Beasts by Sense now when man abandons Reason and gives himself up to Sense he casts off the man and puts on the beast Neither is this sensuality in the Affection only but it goes through the whole Soul there is a sensual Understanding as well as a sensual Appetite the one makes a beast in Opinion the other in Practice Gross Errour doth the one Vice the other Whosoever therefore is transported with either is turn'd Beast Give me a man that is given up to his filthy Lusts give me a man whose Reason is drawn through his maw or his spleen let him be otherwise what he will I dare say he is no other then a beast And now what variety think you is there of several kinds no wilderness affords so many Nero is a Lion 2 Tim. 4. 17. Herod a Fox Luke 13. 32. the Jewish false-teachers Dogs Phil. 3. 2. David's persecutors Bulls of Basan and Unicorns Ps 22. 12 21. the Aegyptian enemies Dragons Ps 74. 13. the Scribes and Pharisees Serpents Vipers Mat. 23. 33. the Babylonian Monarch an Eagle-winged Lion the Persian a Bear the Macedonian a Leopard Dan. 7. 4 5 6. the enemies of the Church wild Boares Ps 80. 13. Greedy Judges evening Wolves Zeph. 3. 3. Schismaticks Foxes cubs Cant. 2. 15. The time and my breath would fail me if I should reckon up all the several kinds of beasts in the skins of men Surely as there is thought to be no beast upon earth which hath not his fellow in the sea and which hath not his semblance in Plants so I may truly say there is no beast in the vast desart of the world which is not parallel'd in man Yea as Effects and Qualities are in an higher degree found in Causes and Subjects equivocal then in their own as Heat is more excellently in the Sun then in the Fire so certainly is brutishness more eminent and notorious in man then in beast Look into all heards and droves and see if you can find so very a beast as the Drunkard It was S. Austin's reason of old Those beasts will drink no more then they think enough and if the Panther which they say is the drunkennest beast or the Swine be overtaken with unaccustomed liquor it is upon ignorance of the power of it so a Noah himself may be at first mistaken But mans Reason foretells him that those intoxicating draughts will bereave him of Reason yet he swills them down wilfully as if it were a pleasure to forgoe that whereby he is a man The beast when he hath his load may frisk a little and move inordinately and then lye down in an ordinary posture of harmless rest but for the Drunkard his tongue reel◠straight either into railing or ribaldry his hands into swaggering and bloomed all his motions are made of disorder and mischief and his rest is no less odious then his moving See how he lies wallowing in his own filthy excretions in so loathsome a fashion as were enough to make the beholder hate to be a man And now when we have all done after all the shame and scorn here is Sus ad volutabrum All the world cannot reclaim an habituated Drunkard that which the beasts know not how to doe his wit projects when he is sober how he may be drunk and which St. Chrysostome well observes as more transcending all humors of beasts how he may force others to his own shameful excess Far far be this abominable vice from any of you Courtiers That which the Lacedaemonians scorned in their very Slaves that which our former times had wont to disdain in Beggers let not that stain the honour of a Christian Court Or if any such should hear me this day Awake ye drunkards and weep and howle ye drinkers of wine Joel 1. 5. return back your superfluous liquor into teares or if ye will not weep ye shall howl if ye will not weep with penitents ye shall howl with hell-hounds and ye that now pour down vessels more to make then quench thirst shall one day in vain wish to give all the world for but one drop of water to cool that flaming tongue which a whole Ocean cannot so much as moisten Look if in all the mountains or falls there be any such Goat or Stallion as the Voluptuous man Those silly beasts are carried with
known or considered that of old a souldier was a sacred thing and it is worth your notice what in former times was the manner of our Ancestors in consecrating a Souldier or a Knight to the wars Some six hundred years agoe and upward as I find in the history of Ingulphus the manner was this Anglorum erat consuetudo quod qui militiae legitimae consecrandus esset c. He that should be devoted to the trade of war the evening before his consecration came to the Bishop or Priest of the place and in much contrition and compunction of heart made a confession of all his sins and after his absolution spent that night in the Church in watching in prayers in afflictive devotions on the morrow being to hear Divine Service he was to offer up his Sword upon the Altar and after the Gospel the Priest was with a solemn benediction to put it about his neck and then after his communicating of those sacred mysteries he was to remain miles legitimus Thus he who tels us how that valiant and successful Knight Heward came thus to his uncle one Brandus the devout Abbot of Peterborough for his consecration and that this Custome continued here in England till the irreligious Normans by their scorns put it out of countenance accounting such a one non legitimum militem sed equitem socordem Quiritem degenerem This was their ancient and laudable manner some shadow whereof we retain whiles we hold some Orders of Knighthood Religious And can we wonder to hear of noble victories atchieved by them of Giants and Monsters slain by those hands that had so pious an initiation These men professed to come to their combats as David did to Goliah in the name of the Lord no marvel if they prospered Alas now Nulla fides pietásque c. ye know the rest the name of a souldier is misconstrued by our Gallants as a sufficient warrant of debauchedness as if a Buff-Jerkin were a lawful cover for a profane heart Wo is me for this sinful degeneration How can we hope that bloody hands of lawless Ruffians should be blessed with palms of triumph that adulterous eyes should be shaded with garlands of victory that profane and atheous instruments if any such be imployed in our wars should return home loaded with success and honour How should they prosper whose sins fight against them more then all the swords of enemies whose main adversary is in their own bosome and in Heaven If the God of Heaven be the Lord of hosts do we think him so lavish that he will grace impiety Can we think him so in love with our persons that he will overlook or digest our crimes Be innocent O ye warriours if ye would be speedful be devout if ye would be victorious Even upon the Bridles of the horses in Zachary must be written Holiness to the Lord how much more upon the fore-heads of his Priests the Leaders of his spiritual war With what face with what heart can he fight against beasts that is a beast himself It is not Holiness yet that can secure us from blows Job's Behemoth as he is construed durst set upon the holy Son of God himself To our Holiness therefore must be added Skill skill to guard and skill to hit skill in choice of weapons places times ways of assault or defence else we cannot but be wounded and tossed at pleasure Hence the Psalmist Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight The title that is given to David's Champions was not dispositi ad clypeum as Montanus hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but disponentes such as could handle the shield and the buckler 1 Chron. 12. 8. Alas what is to be look'd for of raw untaught untrained men if such should be called forth of their shops on the sudden that know not so much as their files or motions or postures but either slight or filling of ditches He that will be a Petus in Jovius his history or a Servilius in Plutarch to come off an untouch'd victor from frequent challenges had need to pass many a guard and Veny in the fence-school So skilful must the man of God be that he must know as S. Paul even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very plots and devices of that great challenger of hell We live in a knowing age and yet how many teachers are very novices in the practick part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore are either born down or tossed up with the vices of the Time whose miscarriages would God it were as easie to remedy as to lament Lastly what is Skill in our weapon without an heart and hand to use it Rabshakeh could say Counsel and strength are for the warre 2 Kings 18. 20. Strength without Counsel is like a blind Giant and Counsel without Strength is like a quick-sighted Criple If heart and eyes and lims meet not there can be no fight but tu pulsas ego vapulo What are men in this case but lepores galeati or as Sword-fishes that have a weapon but no heart Hear the spirit of a right Champion of Heaven I am ready not to be bound onely but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Here was a man fit to grapple with beasts It is the word of the sluggish Coward There is a Lion or a Bear in the way What if there be If thou wilt be a Sampson a David incounter them There is no great glory to be look'd for but with hazard and difficulty When the Souldier said The enemy is strong it was bravely answered of the Captain The victory shall be so much more glorious I have shew'd you the man Qualified I should stay to shew you him Armed armed with Authority without with Resolution within but I long to shew you the Fight A Fight it must be which I beseech you observe in the first place Neither doth he say I plai'd with beasts except you would have it in Joab's phrase as neither did the beasts play with him except as Erasmus speaks Ludus exiit in rabiem He saies not I humor'd their bestiality I struck up a league or a truce with the vices of men No S. Paul was far from this he was at a perpetual defiance with the wickedness of the times and as that valiant Commander said would die fighting The world wanted not of old plausible spirits that if an Ahab had a mind to go up against Ramoth would say Go up and prosper and would have horns of iron to push him forward S. Paul was none of them neither may we He hath indeed bidden us if it be possible to have peace with all men not with beasts If wickedness shall go about to glaver with us Is it peace Jehu we must return a short answer and speak blows Far far be it from us to fawn upon vicious Greatness to favour even Court-sins If here we meet with bloody Oaths with scornful Profaneness with Pride with