136. Thy mercy endureth for euer But hee casteth his owne kinde into contrary colours thus portraying it out vnto vs that wee might see our selues and bee ashamed Their throate is an open Sepulchre Psa 140.3 Psa 5.9 Psa 10.7 Rom. 3.13 c. they haue vsed their tongues to deceite the poyson of Aspes is vnder their lippes Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitternesse their feete are swift to shed blood Destruction and calamitie are in their wayes and the way of peace they haue not knowne Hee contrarie to all craftes-men of such things painteth out man vnto vs so that Appelles compared with him may put vp his pensill For hee and his Apprentises can take out but the out-warde proprotion of the man the face breast bellie thighes legges feete and such like the heart and inward parts they leaue vnshadowed But the hand of this cunning worke-man vnbowelleth him fifteth him throughly discouereth his hidden minde and the whole man vnto vs. And truely the Poet consulted with this coppy without question when hee gaue this counterfeit and did set him vp in a table to our view with a pale and wanne face without blood with a leane and lanke body without moysture with bleared eyes blacke teeth with a heart made of gall with a tongue tipt with poison neuer merry but when others mourne neuer sleeping because they are alwayes imagining mischiefe The truth heereof hath beene practized vpon the master by the seruant of his owne tabernacle vpon the Soueraigne by the subiect of his owne Court vpon the father by the sonne of his owne loynes vpon the brother by the brother that hath layd in the same bed of his mothers wombe with him vpon the husband by the wife sleeping securely and as hee nothing doubted safelie in her bosome If we thinke better of man than thus we doe beguile our selues and so the Gentile Christian Seneca telleth thee saying Fallens si confidas ijs tibi occurrentibus Seneca facies habent hominum sed mentes feranum Thou dotest if hand ouer head thou beleeuest all thou meetest with For they haue mens faces but beasts affections Thus in regard of their deuouring condition they may well be copulated and coedimated with fishes But herein in this comparison they doe exceed them That fishes eate but for hunger and for a time are satisfied but mens minds are alwayes set vpon the praye and they are neuer satified Caligula surnamed for his bloody minde Durt soaked in blood Examples of mans crueltie Caligula could not glutte his blood-thirstie appetite and staunche his bloody issue without the destruction of the whole Roman nation wherefore hee wished all their neckes were but one that he might vnioynt them at once and one stroke might make hauocke of them altogether It is Medea her wish in the Tradegie Medea that with her dissolution there mightensue an vniuersall confusion This is her speach Vnica foelicitas est videre emnia in ruinam tendere cum ego discedam It is the onely felicitie for me to see at my departure all things come to wracke Such a companion was one of the Poets who commeth in with such a spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say when I am once dead what care I though the worlde bee on a light fire Domitius Nero. Domitius Nero when hee had set fire to the citie of Rome in twelue seuerall places to shadowe out the combustion of Troy to the Romans sung in the meane time when the citie was in burning Verses out of Homer his heart being hooped with all barbaritie and beeing filled vp to the eyes with all Scythian crueltie What shal I say of the Vice-consull Messola that ruled in Asia Seneca who beheading three hundred people on one day after this butcherie thus done he gaue a plaudite vnto it breaking out into these wordes O nobile factum Lucius Sylla O renowned acte Or of Lucius Silla who by one condemnatorie sentence did cast away foure thousand and seauen-hundred soules and caused a Register to bee made of it In perpetuā rei memoriam For the euerlasting remembrance thereof Or of those that killed Christians by thousands as Maximianus who burnt in one Temple twentie thousand met together to solemnize the Natiuitie of Christ Maximianus The Spaniards The Spaniards are without all example no no Domitian Commodus Bassian Dyonisian comming neere them and this their villanie among the West Indians without mercie shewed apparantly prooueth who in one Iland called Hispaniola of two hundred thousand people scarse left one hundred and a halfe aliue Thus they threshed with yron flayles those people as the men of Damascus did Gilead Amos. 1.3.13 and mangled in peeces women with childe as the olde Amonites and mingled blood with their sacrifice of the Masse as Pilate mingled the blood of the slaine Luk. 13.1 together with the sacrifices taking vp this Aphorisme and prouerbe of the Prophet That that dyeth Zach. 11.9 let it dye How farre were these men from the practise of the precept of the Lawe which in seeking of birds neasts Deut. 22.6 inhibiteth the taking the damine with the yong 2. Let the second sympathy between the Soyl-fish and the Sea-fish bee their greedie couetousnesse Wherein the one Bee partaketh with the other As if the sea-fish had fathered them and they were of their spawning no sooner a vild peece of worme is let downe the water but if they bee in place it is a wonder to see what a sort doe seeke after it There is no regard of degrees among them But Capiat qui capere potest is the lawe of that Court Yea the frye and pettie ones doe so fill the place as the greater cannot come in place And is not this the fashion of the worlde vp and downe Is not euery meane office catched vp if not before yet as soone as it can fall Runne not euery one to euery commoditie as beggers to a doale Are not many of best marke and qualitie altogether vnprouided for the meaner sort hauing beene before them and taken vp their roomes Euery one striueth to bee first at the baite though their baine bee vnder it as it commonly falleth out For Titles Offices wordly riches are nothing else but angle-lynes snares nets to catch vs vnawares Which so entangled Iudas as hee could neuer get out of them before they had trussed him The hooke or snare taketh not the fish vnlesse the baite take him first But whilst he runneth so hastily to the baite swalloweth it home the nette or hooke speedeth him The baite of the deuils hooke is couetousnesse which killeth and not comforteth vs. The fisherman baiteth not his hooke that the fish might only take it but be taken of it The deuill could not make such a fishing as hee doth had wee not such a delight to his baytes little considering what harme there is in them But the poore fish feeleth it too
inspiration of the good spirite Iustification free-grace inheritance among them that are iustified by faith eternall life and all the blessings of heauen accompanying it XI The Port to which we driue this Ship 1. Cor. 15.20.26.51 c. Of death The Port to which wee driue this Ship is death For such as by death passe from this life land at deaths staires where the bodie abideth the time of the restitution of all things that with their coheires they may enter into the land of promise Happie they are that die in the Lord Reuel 14.13 for they rest from their labours and their works follow them they enioy that which their faith hath so long fished for Wherefore wee say with Cyprian Serm 4. De mortalitate Non sunt fratres lugendt accersione dominica de soeuito liberati cum sciamus non eos amitti sed praemitti nec accipiendas hic atras vestes quando illi ibi indumeta alba iam sumpserint which is to say We are not so much to wayle for our brethren whome God by his messenger Death hath sent for seeing that they are not lost but gone before vs. Againe he saith thus verie sweetly Quis non peregre constitutus properet in patriam regredi Quis non ad suos nauigare festinans ventum prosperum cupide optaret vt velociter charos liceret amplecti Who being a trauailer in forraine parts doth not hast to his owne home who would not willingly sayle to his friends and desire a lustie gale of wind to speed him The time of the generall meeting of fishers and Seafaring men where that he might the sooner see the faces of his deerest kinred XII The time of our generall meeeing of vs fellow-fishers and Sea-faring men is the Iudgement day of which day S. Iohn speaketh thus I saw the dead both great and small stand before God Of the last iudgment and life eternall Reuel 20.12 Reuel 21.3.24.10.11.12.13.14 The fishermens meeting place where Casting out of netts angles out of this sh p. Gen. 6.3.18 and 7.1.20 and 1 Pet. 3.20 Luke 17.27 Math. 24.38 Gen. 6.14.15 c. The church is a steadie angling boat out of which there is no safetie Psa 125.1 Our priâ—e care XIII Our meeting place is our heauenly Ierusalem a Citie whose builder and maker is God of which read the whole 21. Chapter of S. Iohns Reuelation which hath much of this matter Thus in this Ship which is the Church of the euerliuing God we haue verie fit standing for the casting out of our nets angles and for our spirituall fishing without which there is no good to be done For as none were saued that were not in Noahs Arke so out of the Church there is no saluation As that was so pitched within and without as no water could sue thorough any seame thereof so the state of the Church is such as no detriment can bee imported vnto it For when tyrants haue shewed the extent of their malice the Church abideth firme as mount Sion not to be remooued Let our prime care therfore be to be in this Ship mindfull of that which Saint Austine truely saith Non habet Deum patrem qui non habet ecclesiam matrem He hath not God to be his Father who hath not the Church to be his mother These haue beene my meditations on this Boat when I haue been in mine angling-Boat THE SECOND CHAPTER Of the waters that are for this fishing THe riuers of waters ouer which we are to cast our nets and to lay our Angles Mar. 16.15 The waters for this fishing are the world Math. 13.47.48 A comparison betweene the world and the Sea are the wide world The Sea into which the drag-net of the Gospell was cast in that parable cleerely signifieth the world The world hath all the conditions of the Sea therefore it may well goe hande in hande with it Augustine matcheth it with the Sea thus Hoc sanctum mare est Aug. Tom. 2. in Psa 39. habet amaritudinem noxam habet fluctus tribulationum tempestates tentationum Habet homines velut pisces de suo malo gaudentes tanquam se inuicem deuorantes This world is a sea which hath a hurtfull bitternes which hath waues of tribulation tempests of tentations It hath men like fishes floating in it reioycing in that which is hurtful vnto them in their baite which is their bane and deuouring vp one another The world is a Sea swelling with pride blewish with enuie vaine glorie is the winde which maketh it to rock reele vpon the waters foaming with anger very deepe and profound in couetousnes no plummet beeinge able to sound the bottome of it castinge out all that commeth in the waye thorough excessiue miscarriage hauing a mercilesse maw to swallowe vp all that it can get with vnsatiable oppression verie dangerous to saile in by reason of the pernicious rockes thereof of desperation presumption couered with those waters loftie thorough the reciprocall waues of their passioÌ„s ebbing flowing in the inconstancy of it terrible salt thorough sin finally Mare amarum very brinish are the waters of it and not to bee brooked Iob. 40.20 The great Leuiathan and all sort of fishes in the Sea So in the world men of all natures and affections c. As in the Sea are all sorts of fishes and there is the great Leuiathan that hath his pastime in the waters so there be in this world men of all natures and affections we can name no creature of inclination neuer so cruell filthie abhominable but we will finde a Copes-mate for him of like qualitie amonge the crowd and companie of men Therefore heere commeth in an old prouerbe in place The diligence that ought to be in preachers of the word c. There is no fishing to the Sea For as the Fisher-man delighteth there to fish most where most store of fish are so should the spirituall Fisher-man of men desire to bee there more where his auditors are more The Apostles when the dispensation of preaching the Gospell was committed vnto them tooke a large circuit and wide perambulation through the world and their commission serued them thereunto Math. 28.19 being after this fourme Goe into all the world and preach the Gospell vnto all creatures No Angler or Fisher-man will be alwaies plodding in one place Fishers but will follow the fish whither soeuer they goe Hee often findeth in a blinde vaine and spot very gainfull and delightfull doings and therefore he searcheth and ransacketh euerie place It is meete the Minister should doe the like and so he must if he will be a workeman of such thinges such a workeman as the Apostle describeth 2 Tim. 2.15 and the Lord expecteth a workeman that needeth not bee ashamed Christ not onely fished for the Crocodile in the water but for the Menowe in like manner and therefore as he went thorough euerie Math. 9.35
shaue off sin as it were with a razor by not washing them gently vsing thē but very fiercely handling them they hurt them help them not Therefore we must haue two strings to our bowe that if one will not serue another may and fish for euery one with the baite that is fittest for thē whether it be of law or Gospell of iudgemēt or mercy Exod. 3.2 7. 13.21 19.16 24.16 17. 33.9 Ezech. 10.14 So did God in fishing for the Iewes sometimes speaking to them by a burning bush of fire sometimes againe by a cloude of water and againe by a pillar of fire that is to say he was a light to the godly to comfort them The Cherubims that were depicted in the temple ouer the place where the people did pray were portraied with a double face one of a mā another of a lyon to signifie the carriage of a minister in his place either in humanitie or in a lyon like seueritie according to his auditors qualities Aworthy minister described Matth. 5.14 The eies that are the lanterne of the body are only seated in the head to shew that the minister who is the head of his people is called by Christ the light of the world ought to haue his eies about him to see what euery one needeth He is in sagacitie foresight to imitate Ioseph who in plentifull times did prouidently prouide against yeeres of future scarsitie Gen. 41.46 47 48.49 Leuit. 22.22 It was prouided by God by speciall decree that no blind creature as an oblation should bee presented vnto him the Minister that giueth not to euery one his due is blinde and vnworthy of his place Cherubims that were pictured were full of eyes and such were the supporters of Salomons temple 1. Kin. 6.23 the ministers that are the bases and proppes of the spirituall building must haue eyes of knowledge to guide all their actions Those that are made watchmen in the borders and skirts of the land are such as dwel there For to them are best known the neighbour countries round about and they haue in greatest hate the adioyning enemie from whom they haue so often receiued the great scathe Eze. 33.2.6 7 8 9.10 c. The Minister is called the watch-man of the Lorde of hostes and such a one should fully be acquainted with the state and condition of the people that are round about them and he should be an enemie to Gods enemies and should set foorth the truth with modestie and veritie A Minister therefore must sometimes bee graue that hee may not be contemned and sometimes affable that hee may not seeme proude He must as Salomons wise man know his time and place and minister mercie and iustice accordingly Matth. 9.18 25. Luke 7.11 12.14 Ioh. 11.37.44 45. Rom. 14.1 15. Matth. 18.15 c. Tit. 1.9 2.2 c. 1. Tim. 1.20 5.1.2 1. Cor. 5.5 Iude. 22.23 2. Cor. 6.14.15 As the Rulers daughter was raised vp to life in her fathers house the widdowes sonne of the citie Naim out of his mothers doores Lazarus before a generall assembly of all sorts so some are to be dealt withall priuately othersome openly othersome are to be handled as weaklings and others as wilfull ones we are to beare with some men and other some are to bee giuen vp to Sathan some are to bee plucked out of the fire and other some are to be cast into the fire some are to bee kept in feare and some are to be helde vp by loue some are to be vsed as our owne bowels and some as rotten members are to bee diuided and sundred from the body But because there is no communion betweene light and darknesse truth and falshood the table of the Lord First repentance then mercie doth follow Hebr. 6.1 and the table of deuils lay first the ground of repentance from dead workes and heaue vp sinners by their shoulders and set them vpon their feete and then thou shalt haue time and place according to his apprehension of the former to make profit of all Gods mercies A vine-yard before it can bee planted must haue all stones stubs obstacles first to be remooued No man can can build a newe house in the roome of the olde vnlesse he first doth take downe the old wherefore when Ieremie was authorized by God a preacher to the natiōs Ierem. 1.10 the parts of his commission were to pluck vp and roote out and to destroy and throwe downe Matth. 3.2 3 6 7 8 10 c. 2. Tim. 4.2 5. to build and to plant The Euangelist from God hath receiued such a rowle it being inioyned him to prepare the way of the Lord. Which is performed in these two points First Reprehension Secondly Instruction The Baptist the midle-man between the law and the Gospel Luke 7.26 27. a Prophet and more than a Prophet had this double face of Ianus For hee prepared the houses of their heartes for the entertaynment of Christ their King by casting downe mountaines Isaiah 40.4 and receiuing vp valleyes euen the high and humble thoughts of men and the first part of his Sermon wholy consisted in the reprehension of sinne Matth. 3.7 8 9. O generation of vipers and the detection of their dissimulation Say not that yee haue Abraham to your father There is no man sayeth Chrst that peeceth an old garment with new cloth Matth. 10. Luk. 5 36 37. for the rottennesse of the threades vnable to beare the entrie of the needle it wideneth the former rent Neither did newe wines agree with the olde Leather caskes of those times the newe tydings of the grace of the newe Testament appertained to newe men that had put of their olde conuersation The singster of Israel hath taught vs our Lesson and giuen vs the Notes wee must alwayes treble vppon our song must alwayes bee of mercie and iudgement that wee sing vnto the Lorde Psal 101.1 such as woulde drawe men from vice to vertue and vse not the ordinarie meanes thereunto Plutarch Plutarch compareth them to such who snuffe a candle but minister not oyle to preserue the candle To preach mercie and not iudgement grace and not repentance It is as if so bee a Physition should promise health to his patient when he goeth not about to purge his hurtfull humors The fire of the spirit not onely giueth light but also burneth that is to say it comforteth consumeth the fire of our religion burneth not but onely giueth light if wee preach but the Gospel and it burneth onely and giueth not light if we preach but the law Wherfore in due time and place preach both preach the law to keep downe presumption and preach the Gospell to preuent desperation This was the Baptists course He first shewed them an axe that should cut them downe for sinne Luc. 3.9 Iohn 1.36 Act. 3.14 15 17 19 20. Now is the axe layd to
mortification of the olde Adam and the vinification of the newe man Nowe such as haue neither sinne nor scale neither floate high or abide in deepes but keepe wholely in Foordes and in shallowe waters wrigling and wallowing alwayes in the mudde as the Eele Lamprey Turbot Such are the worldly minded men that sinke downe into the mire and pudle of sinne and are so ouerwhelmed and burdened with it as neither they can forsake their filthy affections or raise themselues higher by better cogitations Such were the Phylosophers of the Gentiles Rom. 1.22 Ephes 4.17 18. Acts. 17.18 who insisting in the grosse rudiments of nature would be led onely by the lyne of her suggestions giuing the cause of euery action to naturall operation vnable to consider of the author of nature who ruleth and gouerneth it to the accomplishment of his pleasure But wee be to nature not accomplished with grace for it is a perrilous pitte of puddle to keepe vs downe for euer When nature was solitarie in Peter as it was when he mooued his Master not to goe to Hierusalem Peter was Sathan Matth 16.16 17 21.22.23 But when grace guided him as it did when hee made that fundamentall confession That Iesus was the Sonne of the liuing God hee was not Sathan but Cephas and Simon and a blessed man Also those Lampreyes are those liuers that straine the Lawe like skinne of parchment vpon the tortures of their wilde wittes for the enlargement of their lucre They are slippery Eles indeede of whome there is no holde to be had varying the sence and iudgement of Law as often as they list and being so slimily and sordidly giuen as they may not be handled Of this ranke and retinue likewise are many of our Clergie-Masters who greedily swallow vp euery idle ceremonie vrging the outward letter thereof neglecting the spirituall meaning thereof the soule and life of it Let Orators and Poets make vp the messe the quintessence of whose wittes are nothing else but waues of wast words a streame of sillabical slight inuention a flood of friuolous fantastical fictions and merely a mud mire of absurdities the reformation of euill manners and such cogitations as are of heauenly nature agreeing not with their nature Now though the sea which is the worlds looking-glasse and presenteth the image of mens manners vnto vs affordeth no fish worthy of Gods taste howsoeuer it pleaseth him to accept of such as will come to the hooke or to the drawe-nette of his worde and wee approue the Apohorisme of Plato in Phoedone Plato who saith that the sea can engender nothing that is meete for Iupiter yet the premised manners of men shadowed by the second sort of fishes that are vncleane are that abominable prophanation which the Aegyptians vnderstood by a fish against which ancient holinesse did so oppose it selfe For such haue no sc ales which should bee vnto them as it were a habergeon to beare off the fierie dartes of the deuil vnlesse they be the scales of ignorance as the scales of ignorance fell from Pauls eyes Acts. 9.18 when Ananias did conuert him neyther haue they finnes to raise themselues beyonde their worldly thoughts THE EIGHT CHAPTER The Sympathie of natures of the fishes of both natures I May say of the Earthfish and Water-fish of men-fish and sea-fish of the nature of them both That poene illa est poene illa non est It is almost like and almost not alike that it is difficult to distinguish them Wherein they agree and ioyne together in one it shall bee shewed in this Chapter some differences that wee doe obserue to bee in them we put to the next First they are natur'd a like for their crueltie Of crueltie Beares beare good will to their owne kinde and liue loue together Lyons rise not vp in fight against Lyons nor serpents against Serpents but fishes feede one vpon another and liue by the spoyle of their owne nature Wherefore some of them are called Lupifluuiales Plinius and such are the Pike Riuerwolues as The Pike and Perch The Ecle and Pearch especially and the Ele may goe with them that liue in the fresh waters for I meddle not with sea-fish as meaning onely to deliuer such vse as I haue made of my angling recreation The great Ocean doubtlesse hath infinit of that kind thus cruel to their kinde In which respect cheefely the Aegyptian Priests could not abide thē but as vncleane and prophane inhibited the seruice of fish to their table because they did pray one vpon another These water-wooules are the liuely Idea of the woolues of this worlde whose doings the Prophet decyphereth in this wise And they eate also the flesh of my people Mich. 3.3 and fley of their skinnes and they breake their bones and choppe them in peeces as for the potte as flesh within the chaldron In initio non fuit sic In the beginning it was not so For man was made for a helpe to man and as a god to man as Moses was to Aaron Exod. 4.16 Homo homini Deus was then the sentence in euery mans mouth But sin subduing nature or rather grace the case is altred and this contrary prouerbe commeth in place Homo homini Lupus Man is a deuouring wolfe vnto man clothing himselfe with crueltie as it were a garment and wearing it as a chaine about his necke The first reasonable creature that was giuen vnto Adam was the woman which was ordeined for a helper but the first of her brood which was Cain Gen. 4.8 a mercilesse murderer and with such seed hath the soyle of the worlde beene furrowed euer since The brother hath beene the brothers bain the child hath risen vp against the father the father against the child kin against kin kinde against kinde And this is now as kind vnto them as the skin wherwith they are couered their habit thereof turning vnto another nature Wee are not content to wish our enemie dead but it is a death to vs that hee liueth We say not onely within our selues When will he die and his name perish But wee will bee if we may haue our choice the very speculators or spectators our selues I maruaile not therefore one whit that Dauid made exception against his owne kinde and did put vp this petition Let vs fall now into the hand of the Lorde and let me not fall into the hand of man For he felt what he spake and spake as he had felt For hee knew them both aswell as he knewe one hand from another the mercy of the one and the mischiefe of the other For comparing them together hee doth thus distinguish them by the kindenesse and crueltie of both natures Wherefore in the fore-named place this as reason is giuen of his petition For his mercies are great If you aske him how great he answereth that it is illimited in these words the staffe and burden of his Ode Psa