day of universal Sessions They believe lesse then Devils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the utmost of their torment He might upon the first instant of the fall of Angels have inflicted on them the highest extremity of his vengeance He might upon the first sins of our youth yea of our nature have swept us away and given us our portion in that fierie lake He staies a time for both though with this difference of mercy to us men that here not onely is a delay but may be an utter prevention of punishment which to the evil spirits is altogether impossible They do suffer they must suffer and though they have now deserved to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they do Yet so doth this evil spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment me not The world is well changed since Satan's first onset upon Christ Then he could say If thou be the Son of God now Jesu the Son of the most high God then All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me now I beseech thee torment me not The same power when he lists can change the note of the Tempter to us How happy are we that have such a Redeemer as can command the Devils to their chains Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that have said Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us However the Almighty suffers you for a judgement to have free scope to evil and ye can now impotently resist the revealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when ye shall see the very masters whom ye have served the powers of darkness unable to avoid the revenges of God How much lesse shall man strive with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches every creature to wish a freedome from pain The foulest spirits cannot but love themselves and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil Yet what a thing is this to hear the Devil at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Devotion is not guilty of this but fear There is no grace in the suit of Devils but nature no respect of Glory to their Creator but their own ease They cannot pray against sin but against torment for sin What news is it now to hear the profanest mouth in extremity imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Devils do so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into pain onely the good heart can say Lead me not into temptation If we can as heartily pray against sin for the avoiding of displeasure as against punishment when we have displeased there is true Grace in the Soul Indeed if we could fervently pray against Sin we should not need to pray against Punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that body but if we have not laboured against our Sins in vain do we pray against Punishment God must be just and the wages of sin is death It pleased our Holy Saviour not only to let fall words of command upon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christ's actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grandmother to hold chat with Satan That God who knows the craft of that old Serpent and our weak simplicity hath charged us not to enquire of an evil spirit Surely if the Disciples returning to Jacob's Well wondred to see Christ talk with a woman well may we wonder to see him talking with an unclean Spirit Let it be no presumption O Saviour to ask upon what grounds thou didst this wherein we may not follow thee We know that sin was excepted in thy conformity of thy self to us we know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibility of taint in thy nature in thine actions neither is it hard to conceive how the same thing may be done by thee without sin which we cannot but sin in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not ask the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learn by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischief which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the Cure might be the more conspicuous the more glorious So on the other God and man might doe that safely which mere man cannot doe without danger Thou mightest touch the Leprosie and not be legally unclean because thou touchedst it to heal it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy Divine nature wert uncapable of any stain by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parlee may not meddle with without sin because not without perill It is for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to have as little to doe with that Evil one as we may and if he shall offer to maintain conference with us by his secret Tentations to turn our speech unto our God with the Archangel The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not onely men but spirits have names This then he asks not out of an ignorance or curiosity nothing could be hid from him who calleth the Stars and all the hoasts of Heaven by their names but out of a just respect to the glory of the Miracle he was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little avail For if without inquiry or confession our Saviour had ejected this evil spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Devil whereas now it appears there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darknesse which were all forced to vaile unto that Almighty command Before the Devil had spoken singularly of himself What have I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not Our Saviour yet knowing that there was a multitude of Devils lurking in that breast who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselves He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The author of discord hath borrowed a name of war from that military order of discipline by which the Jews were subdued doth the Devil fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speak as one they act as one in this possession There is a marvellous accordance even betwixt evil spirits That Kingdome is not divided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men do so conspire in evil that there is such unanimity in the broachers and abettors of errors
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
not Gods that are made with hands Did ever any Ephesian beast bray out such another challenge Is it possible that humane reason should be so brutified as to think a man may make his own God as to seek a Deity in liveless metals as to bow his knees to what hath faln from his fingers O Idolatry the true Sorceress of the world what beasts do thine inchantments make of men Even the fine Athenian not the gross Theban wits were fain to be taught that the Godhead is not like to gold or silver or stone And would to God the modern Superstition were less foppish Hear this ye seduced souls that are taught to worship a pastry-God Ergo adeo stolidi opifices ab se fabrefieri Deos credunt saith our Jesuite Lorinus of these Ephesians These so foolish workmen think they can make their Gods And why not of Gold as well as of Grain why not the Smith as well as the Baker Change but the name the absurdity is but one To hold that a man can make his own fingers or that those fingers can make that wheat whereof the wafer is made were a strange folly but that a man can make the God that made him and eat the God that he hath made is such a monster of Paradoxes as puts down all the fancies of Paganisme and were enough to make a wavering soul say with Averroes Sit anima mea cum Philosophis I remember their learned Montanus upon Luke 22. 19. construes that Hoc est corpus meum thus Verum corpus meum in hoc Sacramento panis continetur sacramentaliter etiam corpus meum mysticum My true body is sacramentally contained in this Sacrament of bread as also my body mystical and withall as willing to say something if he durst speak out addes cujus arcanam mysteriis refertissimam rationem ut explicatiorem habeant homines Christiani dabit aliquando Dominus whose secret and most deeply-mystical meaning God will one day more clearly unfold to his Christian people Now the God of Heaven make good this honest Prophesie and open the eyes of poor mis-led souls that they may see to distinguish betwixt a slight corruptible wafer and an incomprehensible immortal God And if from this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread-worship I should lead you to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cross-worship and from thence to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Image-worship you would finde reason enough why that man of Sin the author of these Superstitions should be called the Beast The Violence and impetuosity of these Ephesians was answerable for here was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trouble verse 23. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concourse verse 40. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confusion and that in the whole City verse 29 and more then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a furious rushing into the Theatre and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boisterous snatching of those that were conceived opposites besides all their shouting and out-cries and savage uproar What should I need to tell you that this furious prosecution is no other then an ordinary symptom of Idolatry and to make it good what should I need to lay before your eyes all those turbulent effects that in our daies have followed malicious Superstition those instigations of publick Invasions those conspiracies against maligned Soveraignty those suffossions of walls those powder-trains those shameless Libels those patrocinations of Treasons and to make up all those late Bulls that bellow out prohibitions of justly-sworn allegeance those bold absolutions from sacred Oaths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said of the Lacedaemonians In all these we too well feel that we have to doe with the beast with S. John's beast no whit short of S. Paul's God knows how little pleasure I take in displaying the enormities of our fellow-Christians Although to say as it is not the Church but the Faction is it that by their practice thus merits the title of savageness Of that Faction let me say with sorrow of heart that their wilful opposition to truth their uncharitable and bloody courses their palpable Idolatry hath powred shame and dishonour and hath brought infinite loss and disadvantage to the blessed Name of Christ And now ye see by this time that in the generality natural and vicious men are no other then beasts that specially all contentious adversaries to the Truth and impetuous Idolaters are beasts of S. Paul's Theatre Wherefore then serves all this but to stir us up to a threefold use of holy Thankfulness of Pity of Indignation The two first are those duo ubera Sponsa the two breasts of Christs Spouse as Bernard calls them Congratulation and Compassion The former of Thankfulness to our good God that hath delivered us as from the wretchedness of our corrupt Nature so from blinde and gross misdevotion yea from the tyranny of Superstition Alas what are we better what other then our neighbours that our Goshen should be shined upon whiles their Aegypt is covered with darkness What are we that we should be renewed in the spirit of our mindes and be created according to the Image of God whiles they continue in the woful deformation of their bestial corruptions that our Understanding should be inlightned with the beams of Divine truth whereas those poor souls are left in the natural dungeon of their ignorance or groveling to base earthly unreasonable traditions O God of mercies had it pleased thee to give them our illumination and attraction and to have left us in their miserable darkness and indocility we had been as they are and they perhaps had been as we should be Non nobis Domine Not unto us Lord not unto us but to thy Name let the praise be given of this thy gracious sequestration and thou that onely hast done it take to thy self the glory and improvement of thine own work Of Pity and yearning of bowels whether to those careless unregenerates that cannot so much as complain of their too-pleasing corruptions but applaud themselves in the free scope of their own brutish sensuality as if they had made a covenant with death an agreement with hell or whether to our poor seduced brethren that are nursed up in an invincible ignorance of Truth and are held down with the imperious sway of Antichristian usurpation Alas it is too true which our learned Spalatensis why should I not call him ours who sealed up that truth of ours which his pen had so stoutly maintained with his last blood hath observed and published Nam plebem rudiorem c. that the ruder multitude under the Papacy are carried commonly with more inward religious affection toward the Blessed Virgin or some other Saint then towards Christ himself Whose heart would not bleed at the thought of this deplorable irreligion and yet these poor souls think they doe so well as that they cry out of our damnation for not accompanying them At tu Domine usque quò How long Lord how long wilt
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
and Binnius fall foul upon it with a facilè inducimur c. we are easily induced to believe it to be a lie Their ground is that it is destitute of all testimony of Antiquity and besides that it doth directly cross the report of Beda who tels us that our English together with the Gospel received that use of Images from their Apostle Augustine and therefore needed not any new Vision for the entertainment thereof Let us enquire then a little into the words of Beda At illi but they Augustine and his fellows non daemoniaca c. came armed not with the power of Devils but of God bearing a silver Cross for their Standard and the Image of our Lord and Saviour painted in a Table and singing Letanies both for the Salvation of themselves and of them whom they came to convert Thus he This shews indeed that Augustine and his fellows brought Images into England unknown here before a point worthy of good observation but how little this proves the allowed Worship of them will easily appear to any Reader if he consider that Gregory the first and Great was he that sent this Augustine into England whose judgement concerning Images is clearly published by himself to all the world in his fore-cited Epistle absolutely condemning their Adoration Augustine should have been an ill Apostle if he had herein gone contrary to the will of him that sent him if withal he shall consider that within the very same Century of years the Clergy of England by Bede's Scholar sent this publick declaration of their earnest disavowing both of the doctrine and practice of Image-worship Sect. 2. Image-worship against Scripture AS for Scripture we need not to goe further then the very Second Commandement the charge whereof is so inevitable that it is very ordinarily doubtless in the guiltiness of an apparent check left out in the devotional Books to the people Others since they cannot raze it out would fain limit it to the Jews pretending that this precept against the worship of Images was onely Temporal and Ceremonial and such as ought not to be in force under the Times of the Gospel Wherein they recal to my thoughts that which Epiphanius the son of Carpocrates answered when his Lust was checked with the command of Non concupisces True said he that is to be understood of the Heathen whose Wives and Sisters we may not indeed lust after Some more modest spirit are ashamed of that shift and fly to the distinction of Idols and Images a distinction without a difference of their making not of Gods of whom we never learned other then that as every Idol is an Image of something so every Image worshipped turns Idol the Language differs not the thing it self To be sure God takes order for both Ye shall make you no Idol nor graven Image neither rear you up any standing image neither shall you sct up any image of stone in your Land to bow down to it Yea as their own Vulgar turns it Non facies tibi c. statuam Thou shalt not set thee up a Statue which God hateth The Book of God is full of his indignation against this practice We may well shut up all with that curse in Mount Geresim Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image an abomination unto the Lord the work of the hands of the craftsman and putteth it in a secret place And all the people shall say Amen Surely their Durandus after he hath cited divers Scriptures against Idols as Exod. 20. Levit. 26. Deut. 4. Numb 25 c. at last concludes Ex his similibus c. By these and the like authorities is condemned the too much use of Images Now because many eyes are bleared with a pretence of worshipping these not as Gods but as resemblances of God's friends let any indifferent man but read the Epistle of Jeremy Baruch 6. canonical to them though not to us and compare the estate and usage of those ancient Idols with the present Images of the Romane Church and if he do not find them fully parallel'd let him condemn our quarrel of injustice But we must needs think them hard driven for Scripture when they run for shelter under that Text which professedly taxeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in illicitis idolorum cultibus saith S. Peter in unlawfull Idolatries speaking of the Gentiles Therefore saith Valentia there is a lawfull worship of Idols As if that were an Epithet of favour which is intended to aggravation So he that should call Satan an unclean Devil should imply that some Devil is not unclean or deceivable lusts some lusts deceitlesse or hatefull wickedness some wickedness not hatefull The man had forgot that the Apostle spake of the heathenish Idolatrie wherein himself cannot plead any colour of lawfulnesse May this therefore befriend them to call Idolatrie abominable the Scripture is theirs neither can they look for any other countenance from those Sacred monuments Sect. 3. Against Reason WHat need we seek any other Reason of God's prohibition then his will and yet God himself hath given abundant reason of his prohibition of Images erected to himself To whom will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him Ye saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake to you in Horcb It is an high injury to the infinite and Spiritual nature of God to be resembled by bodily shapes And for the worship of Images erected to himself or his creature I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to molten images The holy jealousie of the Almighty will not abide any of his honour divided with his creature and whatever worship more then mere humane is imparted to the creature sets it in rivaltie with our Maker The man is better then his picture and if religious worship will not be allowed to the Person of man or Angel how much lesse to his Image Not to man Saint Peter forbids it not to Angel himself forbids it What a madnesse then is it for a living man to stoop unto a dead stock unlesse as that Cynick had wont to speak unto statues to use himself to repulses This curtesie was too shamefull in the Pagans of old how much more intolerable in Christians And as for that last shift of this unlawfull devotion that they worship not the Image but by it the Person represented Haec à Paganis afferri solebat This saith Cassander out of the evidence of Arnobius Lactantius to whom he might have added Saint Augustine was the very evasion of the old Heathen Nec valebat tunc illa ratio Neither would this colour then serve how can it hope now to passe and finde allowance The Doctrine therefore and Practice of Image-worship as late as erroneous is justly rejected by us who
of a Blinde man ib. MED LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts 470 MED LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water ib. MED LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills ib. MED LXI Upon the sight of a Dormouse 471 MED LXII Upon Bees fighting ib. MED LXIII Upon Wasps falling into a Glass ib. MED LXIV Upon a Spring in the wilde Forest 472 MED LXV Upon the sight of an Owle in the twilight ibid. MED LXVI Upon an Arm benummed 473 MED LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward ib. MED LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven ib. MED LXIX Upon a Worm 474 MED LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths ibid. MED LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library ibid. MED LXXII Upon the red Cross on a Door 475 MED LXXIII Upon the change of Weather ib. MED LXXIV Upon the sight of a Marriage ib. MED LXXV Upon the sight of a Snake 476 MED LXXVI Upon the Ruines of an Abby ib. MED LXXVII Upon the discharging of a Peece 477 MED LXXVIII Upon the tolling of a passing-Bell ib. MED LXXIX Upon a Defamation dispersed 478 MED LXXX Upon a ring of Bells ib. MED LXXXI Upon the sight of a full Table at a Feast ib. MED LXXXII Upon the hearing of a Lute well played on 479 MED LXXXIII Upon the sight and noise of a Peacock ib. MED LXXXIV Upon a penitent Malefactor ibid. MED LXXXV Upon the sight of a Lilly 480 MED LXXXVI Upon the sight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers ib. MED LXXXVII Upon the view of the World ib. MED LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp 481 MED LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon ib. MED XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock 482 MED XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts ib. MED XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted ibid. MED XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose 483 MED XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. ib. MED XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea ib. MED XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars 484 MED XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars ib. MED XCVIII Upon a Childe crying 485 MED XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sicknesse ibid. MED C. Upon the challenge of a Promise 486 MED CI. Upon the sight of Flies ib. MED CII Upon the sight of a fantasticall Zelot ib. MED CIII Upon the sight of a Scavenger working in the Canell 487 MED CIV Upon a pair of Spectacles ib. MED CV Upon Moats in the Sun ib. MED CVI. Upon the sight of a Bladder ib. MED CVII Upon a man Sleeping 488 MED CVIII Upon the sight of a Deaths-head ib. MED CIX Upon the sight of a Left-handed man ib. MED CX Upon the sight of an old unthatched Cottage 489. MED CXI Upon the sight of a fair Pearl ib. MED CXII Upon a Screen ib. MED CXIII Upon a Bur-leaf ib. MED CXIV Upon the Singing of a Bird. ib. MED CXV Upon the sight of a man Yawning 490 MED CXVI Upon the sight of a Tree lopped ib. MED CXVII Upon a Scholar that offered violence to himself ib. MED CXVIII Upon the coming in of the Judge 491 MED CXIX Upon the sight of an Heap of stones ibid. MED CXX Upon sight of a Bat and Owle ib. MED CXXI Upon the sight of a well-fleeced Sheep 492 MED CXXII Upon the hearing of Thunder ib. MED CXXIII Upon the sight of an Hedg-hog ib. MED CXXIV Upon the sight of a Goat 493 MED CXXV Upon the sight of the Blinde and the Lame ib. MED CXXVI Upon the sight of a Map of the World ib. MED CXXVII Upon the sight of Hemlock 494 MED CXXVIII Upon a Flower-de-luce ib. MED CXXIX Upon the sight of two Trees one high the other broad ib. MED CXXX Upon the sight of a Drunken man ibid. MED CXXXI Upon the whetting of a Sithe 495 MED CXXXII Upon the sight of a Looking-glass ibid. MED CXXXIII Upon the shining of a piece of Rotten wood ib. MED CXXXIV Upon an Ivie tree 496 MED CXXXV Upon a Quartan ague ib. MED CXXXVI Upon the sight of a loaded Cart. ibid. MED CXXXVII Upon the sight of a Dwarf 497 MED CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger ibid. MED CXXXIX Upon a Medicinal potion ib. MED CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel 498 Occasionall MEDITATIONS I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving I Can see nothing stand still but the Earth all other things are in motion Even the Water which makes up one Globe with the Earth is ever stirring in ebbes and flowings the Clouds over my head the Heavens above the clouds these as they are most conspicuous so are they the greatest patterns of perpetuall action What should we rather imitate then this glorious frame O God when we pray that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven though we mean chiefly the Inhabitants of that place yet we do not exclude the very Place of those Blessed inhabitants from being an example of our Obedience The motion of this thy Heaven is perpetuall so let me ever be acting somewhat of thy will the motion of thy Heaven is regular never swerving from the due points so let me ever walk steddily in the wayes of thy will without all diversions or variations from the line of thy Law In the motion of thine Heaven though some Stars have their own peculiar and contrary courses yet all yield themselves to the sway of the main circumvolution of that First mover so though I have a will of mine own yet let me give my self over to be ruled and ordered by thy Spirit in all my waies Man is a little World my Soul is Heaven my Body is Earth if this Earth be dull and fixed yet O God let my Heaven like unto thine move perpetually regularly and in a constant subjection to thine Holy Ghost II. Upon the sight of a Diall IF the Sun did not shine upon this Diall no body would look at it in a cloudy day it stands like an uselesse post unheeded unregarded but when once those beams break forth every passenger runs to it and gazes on it O God whiles thou hidest thy countenance from me methinks all thy Creatures passe by me with a willing neglect indeed what am I without thee And if thou have drawn in me some lines and notes of able endowments yet if I be not actuated by thy Grace all is in respect of use no bettter then nothing But when thou renewest the light of thy loving countenance upon me I finde a sensible and happy change of condition methinks all things look upon me with such chear and observance as if they meant to make good that Word of thine Those that honour me I will honour now every line and figure which it hath pleased thee to work in me serve for usefull and profitable direction O Lord all the glory is thine give thou me light I shall give others information both of us shall give thee praise III.
that wrencht his hip and changed his name and dismist him with a blessing and now he cannot forget his old mercy to the house of Israel To that only doth he profess himself sent Their first brood were shepherds now they are sheep and those not garded not empastured but strayed and lost O Saviour we see thy charge the house of Israel not of Esau sheep not goats not wolves lost sheep not securely impaled in the confidence of their safe condition Woe were to us if thou wert not sent to us He is not a Jew which is one without Every Israelite is not a true one We are not of thy fold if we be not sheep thou wilt not reduce us to thy fold if we be not lost in our own apprehensions O Lord thou hast put a fleece upon our backs we have lost our selves enough make us so sensible of our own wandrings that we may finde thee sent unto us and may be happily found of thee Hath not this poor woman yet done Can neither the silence of Christ nor his deniall silence her Is it possible she should have any glimpse of hope after so resolute repulses yet still as if she saw no argument of discouragement she comes and worships and cries Lord help me She which could not in the house get a word of Christ she that saw her solicitors though Christ's own Disciples repelled yet she comes Before she followed now she overtakes him before she sued aloof now she comes close to him no contempt can cast her off Faith is an undaunted Grace it hath a strong heart and a bold forehead even very denials cannot dismay it much lesse delaies She came not to face not to expostulate but to prostrate her self at his feet Her tongue worshipt him before now her knee The eye of her Faith saw that Divinity in Christ which bowed her to his Earth There cannot be a fitter gesture of man to God then adoration Her first suit was for mercy now for help There is no use of mercy but in helpfulness To be pitied without aide is but an addition to misery Who can blame us if we care not for an unprofitable compassion The very suit was gracious She saith not Lord if thou canst help me as the father of the Lunatick but professes the power whiles she beggs the act and gives glory where she would have relief Who now can expect other then a faire and yielding answer to so humble so faithfull so patient a suppliant What can speed well if a prayer of Faith from the knees of Humility succeeds not And yet behold the further she goes the worse she fares her discouragement is doubled with her suit It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to dogs First his silence implied a contempt then his answer defended his silence now his speech expresses and defends his contempt Lo he hath turned her from a woman to a dog and as it were spurns her from his feet with an harsh repulse What shall we say is the Lamb of God turned Lion Doth that clear fountain of mercy run blood O Saviour did ever so hard a word fall from those milde lips Thou called'st Herod sox most worthily he was crafty and wicked the Scribes and Pharisees a generation of Vipers they were venemous and cruell Judas a Devil he was both covetous and treacherous But here was a woman in distresse and distresse challenges mercy a good woman a faithfull suppliant a Canaanitish Disciple a Christian Canaanite yet rated and whipt out for a dog by thee who wert all goodnesse and mercy How different are thy wayes from ours Even thy severity argues favour The Triall had not been so sharp if thou hadst not found the Faith so strong if thou hadst not meant the issue so happy Thou hadst not driven her away as a dog if thou hadst not intended to admit her for a Saint and to advance her as much for a pattern of Faith as thou depressedst her for a spectacle of contempt The time was when the Jews were children and the Gentiles dogs now the case is happily altered the Jews are the dogs so their dear and Divine country-man calls the Concision we Gentiles are the children What certainty is there in an external profession that gives us only to seem not to be at least the being that it gives is doubtfull and temporary We may be children to day and dogs to morrow The true assurance of our condition is in the decree and covenant of God on his part in our Faith and Obedience on ours How they of children became dogs it is not hard to say their presumption their unbelief transformed them and to perfect their brutishnesse they set their fangs upon the Lord of life How we of dogs become children I know no reason But O the depth That which at the first singled them out from the nations of the world hath at last singled us out from the world and them It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that hath mercy Lord how should we blesse thy Goodnesse that we of dogs are Children how should we feare thy Justice since they of Children are dogs Oh let not us be high-minded but tremble If they were cut off who crucified thee in thine humbled estate what may we expect who crucifie thee daily in thy glory Now what ordinary patience would not have been over-strained with so contemptuous a repulse How few but would have faln into intemperate passions into passionate expostulations Art thou the Prophet of God that so disdainfully entertainest poor suppliants Is this the comfort that thou dealest to the distressed Is this the fruit of my humble adoration of my faithfull profession Did I snarl or bark at thee when I called thee the Son of David Did I flie upon thee otherwise then with my prayers and tears And if this terme were fit for my vileness yet doth it become thy lips Is it not sorrow enough to me that I am afflicted with my daughters misery but that thou of whom I hoped for relief must adde to mine affliction in an unkinde reproach But here is none of all this Contrarily her Humility grants all her patience overcomes all and she meekly answers Truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crums which fall from their masters Table The reply is not more witty then faithfull O Lord thou art Truth it self thy words can be no other then truth thou hast call'd me a dog and a dog I am give me therefore the favour and priviledge of a dog that I may gather up some crums of mercy from under that table whereat thy children sit This blessing though great to me yet to the infinitenesse of thy power and mercy is but as a crum to a Feast I presume not to presse to the board but to creep under it Deny me not those small offalls which else would be swept away in the dust After this
merry Ye delicatest Courtiers tell me if Pleasure it self have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it and more sting then honey And whereas all happiness even here below is in the vision of God how is our spiritual eye hindered as the body is from his Object by darkness by false light by aversion Darkness he that doth sin is in darkness False light whilst we measure eternal things by temporary Aversion while as weak eyes hate the light we turn our eyes from the true and immutable good to the fickle and uncertain We are not on the hill but the valley where we have tabernacles not of our own making but of clay and such as wherein we are witnesses of Christ not transfigured in glory but blemished with dishonour dishonoured with oaths and blasphemies recrucified with our sins witnesses of God's Saints not shining in Tabor but mourning in darkness and in stead of that Heavenly brightness cloathed with sackcloth and ashes Then and there we shall have tabernacles not made with hands eternal in the heavens where we shall see how sweet the Lord is we shall see the triumphs of Christ we shall hear and sing the Hallelujahs of Saints Quae nunc nos angit vesania vitiorum sitire absinthium c. saith that devour Father Oh how hath our corruption bewitched us to thirst for this wormwood to affect the shipwracks of this world to dote upon the misery of this fading life and not rather to fly up to the felicity of Saints to the society of Angels to that blessed contemplation wherein we shall see God in himself God in us our selves in him There shall be no sorrow no pain no complaint no fear no death There is no malice to rise against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst weariness tentation to disquiet us There O there one day is better then a thousand There is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedome from our sins How many clouds of discontentment darken the Sunshine of our joy while we are here below Vae nobis qui vivimus plangere quae pertulimus dolere quae sentimus timere quae exspectamus Complaint of evils past sense of present fear of future have shared our lives amongst them Then shall we be semper laeti semper satiati alwaies joyfull alwaies satisfied with the vision of that God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life and casting himself down from the rock upon an uncertain noise of immortality and shall not we Christians abandon the wicked superfluities of life the pleasures of sin for that life which we know more certainly then this What stick we at my beloved Is there a Heaven or is there none have we a Saviour there or have we none We know there is a Heaven as sure as that there is an earth below us we know we have a Saviour there as sure as there are men that we converse with upon earth we know there is happiness as sure as we know there is misery and mutability upon earth Oh our miserable sottishness and infidelity if we do not contemn the best offers of the world and lifting up our eyes and hearts to Heaven say Bonum est esse hîc Even so Lord Jesus come quickly To him that hath purchased and prepared this Glory for us together with the Father and Blessed Spirit one Incomprehensible God be all praise for ever Amen The Prosecution of the Transfiguration BEfore the Disciples eyes were dazled with Glory now the brightness of that glory is shaded with a Cloud Frail and feeble eyes of mortality cannot look upon an Heavenly lustre That Cloud imports both Majesty and Obscuration Majesty for it was the testimony of God's presence of old the Cloud covered the Mountain the Tabernacle the Oracle He that makes the clouds his Chariot was in a cloud carried up into Heaven Where have we mention of any Divine representation but a Cloud is one part of it What comes nearer to Heaven either in place or resemblance Obscuration for as it shew'd there was a Majesty and that Divine so it shew'd them that the view of that Majesty was not for bodily eyes Like as when some great Prince walks under a Canopy that veile shews there is a Great person under it but withall restrains the eye from a free sight of his person And if the cloud were clear yet it shaded them Why then was this cloud interposed betwixt that glorious Vision and them but for a check of their bold eyes Had they too long gazed upon this resplendent spectacle as their eyes had been blinded so their hearts had perhaps grown to an over-bold familiarity with that Heavenly Object How seasonably doth the cloud intercept it The wise God knows our need of these vicissitudes and allayes If we have a light we must have a cloud if a light to chear us we must have a cloud to humble us It was so in Sinai it was so in Sion it was so in Olivet it shall never be but so The natural day and night do not more duely interchange then this light and cloud Above we shall have the light without the cloud a clear vision and fruition of God without all dim and sad interpositions below we cannot be free from these mists and clouds of sorrow and misapprehension But this was a bright cloud There is difference betwixt the cloud in Tabor and that in Sinai This was clear that darksome There is darkness in the Law there is light in the Grace of the Gospel Moses was there spoken to in darkness here he was spoken with in light In that dark cloud there was terrour in this there was comfort Though it were a Cloud then yet it was bright and though it were bright yet it was a Cloud With much light there was some shade God would not speak to them concerning Christ out of darkness neither yet would he manifest himself to them in an absolute brightness All his appearances have this mixture What need I other instance then in these two Saints Moses spake oft to God mouth to mouth yet not so immediately but that there was ever somewhat drawn as a curtain betwixt God and him either fire in Horeb or smoak in Sinai so as his face was not more veiled from the people then God's from him Elias shall be spoken to by God but in the Rock and under a Mantle In vain shall we hope for any revelation from God but in a cloud Worldly hearts are in utter darkness they see not so much as the least glimpse of these Divine beams not a beam of that inaccessible light The best of his Saints see him here but in a cloud or in a glass Happy are we if God have honoured us with these Divine representations of himself Once in his light we shall see light I can easily think with what amazedness these three
where they finde possession never look after right Our Saviour had pick'd out the Sabbath for this Cure It is hard to finde out any time wherein Charity is unseasonable As Mercy is an excellent Grace so the works of it are fittest for the best day We are all born blinde the Font is our Siloam no day can come amisse but yet God's day is the properest for our washing and recovery This alone is quarrel enough to these scrupulous wranglers that an act of Mercy was done on that day wherein their envie was but seasonable I do not see the man beg any more when he once had his eyes no Burger in Jerusalem was richer then he I hear him stoutly defending that gracious author of his Cure against the cavils of the malicious Pharisees I see him as a resolute Confessour suffering excommunication for the name of Christ and maintaining the innocence and honour of so Blessed a benefactor I hear him read a Divinity Lecture to them that sate in Moses his chair and convincing them of blindness who punish'd him for seeing How can I but envie thee O happy man who of a Patient provest an Advocate for thy Saviour whose gain of bodily sight made way for thy Spiritual eyes who hast lost a Synagogue and hast found Heaven who being abandoned of Sinners art received of the Lord of Glory The stubborn Devil ejected HOW different how contrary are our conditions here upon earth Whiles our Saviour is transfigured on the Mount his Disciples are perplexed in the valley Three of his choice Followers were with him above ravished with the miraculous proofs of his Godhead nine other were troubled with the business of a stubborn Devil below Much people was met to attend Christ and there they will stay till he come down from Tabor Their zeal and devotion brought them thither their patient perseverance held them there We are not worthy the name of his clients if we cannot painfully seek him and submissely wait his leisure He that was now awhile retired into the Mount to confer with his Father and to receive the attendance of Moses and Elias returns into the valley to the multitude He was singled out awhile for prayer and contemplation now he was joyned with the multitude for their miraculous cure and Heavenly instruction We that are his spiritual agents must be either preparing in the mount or exercising in the valley one while in the mount of Meditation in the valley of Action another alone to study in the assembly to preach here is much variety but all is work Moses when he came down from the hill heard Musick in the valley Christ when he came down from the hill heard discord The Scribes it seems were setting hard upon the Disciples they saw Christ absent nine of his train left in the valley those they flie upon As the Devil so his Imps watch close for all advantages No subtile enemy but will be sure to attempt that part where is likelihood of least defence most weakness When the Spouse misses him whom her Soul loveth every watchman hath a buffet for her O Saviour if thou be never so little stept aside we are sure to be assaulted with powerful Temptations They that durst say nothing to the Master so soon as his back is turned fall foul upon his weakest Disciples Even at the first hatching the Serpent was thus crafty to begin at the weaker vessell experience and time hath not abated his wit If he still work upon silly Women laden with divers lusts upon rude and ungrounded Ignorants it is no other then his old wont Our Saviour upon the skirts of the hill knew well what was done in the plain and therefore hasts down to the rescue of his Disciples The clouds and vapors do not sooner scatter upon the Sun's breaking forth then these cavils vanish at the presence of Christ in stead of opposition they are straigth upon their knees here are now no quarrells but humble salutations and if Christ's question did not force theirs the Scribes had found no tongue Doubtlesse there were many eager Patients in this throng none made so much noise as the father of the Demoniack Belike upon his occasion it was that the Scribes held contestation with the Disciples If they wrangled he fues and that from his knees Whom wil not need make both humble and eloquent The case was wofull and accordingly expressed A son is a dear name but this was his only son Were his grief ordinary yet the sorrow were the lesse but he is a fearfull spectacle of judgment for he is Lunatick Were this Lunacy yet merely from a natural distemper it were more tolerable but this is aggravated by the possession of a cruell spirit that handles him in a most grievous manner Yet were he but in the rank of other Demoniacks the discomfort were more easie but lo this spirit is worse then all other his fellows others are usually dispossessed by the Disciples this is beyond their power I be sought thy Disciples to cast him out but they could not therefore Lord have thou mercy on my Son The despair of all other helps sends us importunately to the God of power Here was his refuge the strong man had gotten possession it was only the stronger then he that can eject him O God spiritual wickednesses have naturally seized upon our Souls all humane helps are too weak only thy Mercy shall improve thy Power to our deliverance What bowels could chuse but yearn at the distresse of this poor young man Phrensy had taken his brain that Disease was but health in comparison of the tyrannical possession of that evil spirit wherewith it was seconded Out of Hell there could not be a greater misery his Senses are either berest or else left to torment him he is torn and racked so as he foams and gnashes he pines and languishes he is cast sometimes into the fire sometimes into the water How that malitious Tyrant rejoices in the mischief done to the creature of God Had earth had any thing more pernicious then fire and water thither had he been thrown though rather for torture then dispatch It was too much favour to die at once O God with how deadly enemies hast thou matched us Abate thou their power since their malice will not be abated How many think of this case with pity and horror and in the mean time are insensible of their own fearfuller condition It is but oftentimes that the Devil would cast this young man into a temporary fire he would cast the sinner into an eternal fire whose everlasting burnings have no intermissions No fire comes amisse to him the fire of Affliction the fire of Lust the fire of Hell O God make us apprehensive of the danger of our sin and secure from the fearfull issue of sin All these very same effects follow his spiritual possession How doth he tear and rack them whom he vexes and distracts with inordinate cares and sorrows How
seduced by their suggestion might slip into some thoughts of distrust There could not be a greater crimination then faithlesse and perverse faithlesse in not believing perverse in being obstinately set in their unbelief Doubtlesse these men were not free from other notorious crimes all were drowned in their Infidelity Morall uncleannesses or violences may seem more hainous to men none are so odious to God as these Intellectual wickednesses What an happy change is here in one breath of Christ How long shall I suffer you Bring him hither to me The one is a word of anger the other of favour His just indignation doth not exceed or impeach his Goodnesse What a sweet mixture there is in the perfect simplicity of the Divine Nature In the midst of judgement he remembers mercy yea he acts it His Sun shines in the midst of this storm Whether he frown or whether he smile it is all to one purpose that he may win the incredulous and disobedient Whither should the rigour of all our censures tend but to edification and not to destruction We are Physicians we are not executioners we give purges to cure and not poisons to kill It is for the just Judge to say one day to reprobate Souls Depart from me in the mean time it is for us to invite all that are spiritually possessed to the participation of mercy Bring him hither to me O Saviour distance was no hindrance to thy work why should the Demoniack be brought to thee Was it that this deliverance might be the better evicted and that the beholders might see it was not for nothing that the Disciples were opposed with so refractory a spirit or was it that the Scribes might be witnesses of that strong hostility that was betwixt thee and that foul spirit and be ashamed of their blasphemous slander or was it that the father of the Demoniack might be quickened in that Faith which now through the suggestion of the Scribes begun to droup when he should hear and see Christ so chearfully to undertake and perform that whereof they had bidden him despair The possessed is brought the Devil is rebuked and ejected That stiff spirit which stood out boldly against the commands of the Disciples cannot but stoop to the voice of the Master that power which did at first cast him out of Heaven easily dispossesses him of an house of clay The Lord rebuke thee Satan and then thou canst not but flee The Disciples who were not used to these affronts cannot but be troubled at their mis-successe Master why could not we cast him out Had they been conscious of any defect in themselves they had never ask'd the question Little did they think to hear of their Unbelief Had they not had great Faith they could not have cast out any Devils had they not had some want of Faith they had cast out this It is possible for us to be defective in some Graces and not to feel it Although not so much their weaknesse is guilty of this unprevailing as the strength of that evil spirit This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting Weaker spirits were wont to be ejected by a command this Devil was more sturdy and boisterous As there are degrees of statures in men so there are degrees of strength and rebellion in spirituall wickednesses Here bidding will not serve they must pray and praying will not serve without fasting They must pray to God that they may prevail they must fast to make their prayer more servent more effectuall We cannot now command we can fast and pray How good is our God to us that whiles he hath not thought fit to continue to us those means which are lesse powerfull for the dispossessing of the powers of darknesse yet hath he given us the greater Whiles we can fast and pray God will command for us Satan cannot prevail against us The Widow's mites THE sacred wealth of the Temple was either in stuffe or in coin For the one the Jews had an house for the other a chest At the concourse of all the males to the Temple thrice a year upon occasion of the solemn Feasts the oblations of both kinds were liberall Our Saviour as taking pleasure in the prospect sets himself to view those Offerings whether for holy uses or charitable Those things we delight in we love to behold The eye and the heart will go together And can we think O Saviour that thy Glory hath diminished ought of thy gracious respects to our beneficence or that thine acceptance of our Charity was confined to the earth Even now that thou â—ittest at the right hand of thy Fathers glory thou â—eest every hand that is stretched out to the relief of thy poor Saints here below And if vanity have power to stir up our Liberality out of a conceit to be seen of men how shall Faith incourage our Bounty in knowing that we are seen of thee and accepted by thee Alas what are we the better for the notice of those perishing and impotent eyes which can onely view the outside of our actions or for that wast winde of applause which vanisheth in the lips of the speaker Thine eye O Lord is piercing and retributive As to see thee is perfect Happinesse so to be seen of thee is true contentment and glory And dost thou O God see what we give thee and not see what we take away from thee Are our Offerings more noted then our Sacriledges Surely thy Mercy is not more quick-sighted then thy Justice In both kindes our actions are viewed our account is kept and we are sure to receive Rewards for what we have given and Vengeance for what we have defalked With thine eye of Knowledge thou seest all we doe but what we doe well thou seest with thine eye of Approbation So didst thou now behold these pious and charitable Oblations How well wert thou pleased with this variety Thou sawest many rich men give much and one poor Widow give more then they in lesser room The Jews were now under the Romane pressure they were all tributaries yet many of them rich and those rich men were liberal to the common chest Hadst thou seen those many rich give little we had heard of thy censure thou expectest a proportion betwixt the giver and the gift betwixt the gift and the receit where that fails the blame is just That Nation though otherwise faulty enough was in this commendable How bounteously open were their hands to the house of God Time was when their liberality was fain to be restrained by Proclamation and now it needed no incitement the rich gave much the poorest gave more He saw a poor widow casting in two mites It was misery enough that she was a Widow The married woman is under the carefull provision of an Husband if she spend he earns in that estate four hands work for her in her viduity but two Poverty added to the sorrow of her widowhood The losse of some Husbands is
I am baptized O Saviour even thou who wert one with thy Father hast a Cup of thine own never Potion was so bitter as that which was mixed for thee Yea even thy draught is stinted it is not enough for thee to sip of this Cup thou must drink it up to the very dregs When the vinegar and gall were tendred to thee by men thou didst but kiss the cup but when thy Father gave into thine hands a potion infinitely more distastful thou for our health didst drink deep of it even to the bottome and saidst It is finished And can we repine at those unpleasing draughts of Affliction that are tempered for us sinful men when we see thee the Son of thy Fathers love thus dieted We pledge thee O Blessed Saviour we pledge thee according to our weakness who hast begun to us in thy powerful suffereings Onely do thou enable us after some four faces made in our reluctation yet at last willingly to pledge thee in our constant Sufferings for thee As thou must be drenched within so must thou be baptized without Thy Baptisme is not of water but of blood both these came from thee in thy Passion we cannot be thine if we partake not of both If thou hast not grudged thy precious blood to us well maiest thou challenge some worthless drops from us When they talk of thy Kingdome thou speakest of thy bitter Cup of thy bloody Baptisme Suffering is the way to reigning Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdome of Heaven There was never wedge of gold that did not first pass the fire there was never pure grain that did not undergoe the flail In vain shall we dream of our immediate passage from the pleasures and jollity of earth to the glory of Heaven Let who will hope to walk upon Roses and Violets to the throne of Heaven O Saviour let me trace thee by the track of thy Blood and by thy red steps follow thee to thine eternal rest and Happiness I know this is no easie task else thou hadst never said Are ye able Who should be able if not they that had been so long blessed with thy presence informed by thy doctrine and as it were beforehand possessed of their Heaven in thee Thou hadst never made them judges of their power if thou couldst not have convinced them of their weakness Alas how full of feebleness is our body and our minde of impatience If but a Bee sting our flesh it swels and if but a tooth ake the head and heart complain How small trifles make us weary of our selves What can we doe without thee without thee what can we suffer If thou be not O Lord strong in my weakness I cannot be so much as weak I cannot so much as be Oh do thou prepare me for my day and enable me to my trials I can doe all things through thee that strengthenest me The motion of the two Disciples was not more full of infirmity then their answer We are able Out of an eager desire of the Honour they are apt to undertake the condition The best men may be mistaken in their own powers Alas poor men when it came to the issue they ran away and I know not whether one without his coat It is one thing to suffer in speculation another in practice There cannot be a worse signe then for a man in a carnal presumption to vaunt of his own abilities How justly doth God suffer that man to be foiled purposely that he may be ashamed of his own vain self-confidence O God let me ever be humbly dejected in the sense of mine own insufficiency let me give all the Glory to thee and take nothing to my self but my infirmities Oh the wonderful mildness of the Son of God! He doth not rate the two Disciples either for their ambition in suing or presumption in undertaking but leaving the worst he takes the best of their answer and omitting their errors incourages their good intentions Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with my baptisme but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father I know not whether there be more mercy in the concession or satisfaction in the denial Were it not an high Honour to drink of thy Cup O Saviour thou hadst not fore-promised it as a favour I am deceived if what thou grantest were much less then that which thou deniest To pledge thee in thine own Cup is not much less dignity and familiarity then to sit by thee If we suffer with thee we shall also reign together with thee What greater promotion can flesh and blood be capable of then a conformity to the Lord of Glory Enable thou me to drink of thy Cup and then set me where thou wilt But O Saviour whiles thou dignifiest them in thy grant dost thou disparage thy self in thy denial Not mine to give Whose is it if not thine If it be thy Fathers it is thine Thou who art Truth hast said I and my Father are one Yea because thou art one with the Father it is not thine to give to any save those for whom it is prepared of the Father The Father's preparation was thine his gift is thine the Decree of both is one That eternal counsel is not alterable upon our vain desires The Father gives these Heavenly honours to none but by thee thou givest them to none but according to the Decree of thy Father Many degrees there are of celestial Happiness Those supernal Mansions are not all of an height That Providence which hath varied our stations upon earth hath pre-ordered our seats above O God admit me within the wals of thy new Jerusalem and place me wheresoever thou pleasest The Tribute money pai'd ALL these other Histories report the Power of Christ this shews both his Power and Obedience his Power over the creature his Obedience to civil Powers Capernaum was one of his own Cities there he made his chief abode in Peter's house to that Host of his therefore do the Toll-gatherers repair for the Tribute When that great Disciple said We have left all he did not say We have abandoned all or sold or given away all but we have left in respect of managing not of possession not in respect of right but of use and present fruition so left that upon just occasion we may resume so left that it is our due though not our business Doubtless he was too wise to give away his own that he might borrow of a stranger His own roof gave him shelter for the time and his Master with him Of him as the Housholder is the Tribute required and by and for him is it also paid I inquire not either into the occasion or the summe What need we make this exaction sacrilegious as if that half-shekel which was appointed by God to be paid by every Israelite to the use of the Tabernacle and
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus powrest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so woful a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are One Are ye now severed Let this thought be as farre from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternal his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of Offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin aganst thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
to thee both in Heaven and in Earth and under the earth Thou hadst an everlasting right to that Heaven that should be an undoubted possession of it ever since it was yea even whiles thou didst cry and spraul in the Cratch whiles thou didst hang upon the Cross whiles thou wert sealed up in thy Grave but thine Humane nature had not taken actual possession of it till now Like as it was in thy true Type David he had right to the Kingdome of Israel immediately upon his anointing but yet many an hard brunt did he pass ere he had the full possession of it in his ascent to Hebron I see now O Blessed Jesu I see where thou art even farre above all Heavens at the right hand of thy Father's Glory This is the farre countrey into which the Nobleman went to receive for himself a Kingdom farre off to us to thee near yea intrinsecal Oh do thou raise up my Heart thither to thee place thou my Affections upon thee above and teach me therefore to love Heaven because thou art there How then O Blessed Saviour how didst thou ascend Whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight So wast thou taken up as that the act was thine own the power of the act none but thine Thou that descendedst wast the same that ascendedst as in thy descent there was no use of any power or will but thine own no more was there in thine ascent Still and ever wert thou the Master of thine own acts Thou laidst down thy own life no man took it from thee Thou raisedst up thy self from death no hand did or could help thee Thou carriedst up thine own glorified flesh and placedst it in Heaven The Angels did attend thee they did not aid thee whence had they their strength but from thee Elias ascended to Heaven but he was fetcht up in a Chariot of fire that it might appear hence that man had need of other helps who else could not of himself so much as lift up himself to the Aiery Heaven much less to the Empyreal But thou our Redeemer neededst no Chariot no carriage of Angels thou art the Author of life and motion they move in and from thee As thou therefore didst move thy self upward so by the same Divine power thou wilt raise us up to the participation of thy Glory These vile bodies shall be made like to thy glorious body according to the working whereby thou art able to subdue all things unto thy self Elias had but one witness of his rapture into Heaven S. Paul had none no not himself for whether in the body or out of the body he knew not Thou O Blessed Jesu wouldst neither have all eyes witnesses of thine Ascension nor yet too few As after thy Resurrection thou didst not set thy self upon the pinnacle of the Temple nor yet publickly shew thy self within it as making thy presence too cheap but madest choice of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verifie that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy Majestical Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewel of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyful assurance of spiritual consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly Benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Masters Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the Spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let goe so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left only a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afarre off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so farre as their beams would reach when they could goe no further the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have lookt through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreal Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spiritual Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all Names that at the name of JESUS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so caroll at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and in firmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of man's Redemption And if when his Type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and
timbrels how shall we think those Angelical Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy Ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an extasie of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the Fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience Oh teach me to follow thee in the roughest waies of Obedience in the bloody paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparel They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not finde they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow many conflicts it was the vale of tears into which thou wert come down So soon as thou wert risen the women saw an Angel in the form of a young man cloathed in white and now so soon as thou art ascended Two men cloathed in white stand by thy Disciples thy task was now done thy victory atchieved and nothing remained but a Crown which was now set upon thy head Justly therefore were those blessed Angels suited with the robes of light and joy And why should our garments be of any other colour why should oile be wanting to our heads when the eyes of our Faith see thee thus ascended It is for us O Saviour that thou art gone to prepare a place in those celestial Mansions it is for us that thou sittest at the right hand of Majesty It is a piece of thy Divine Prayer to thy Father that those whom he hath given thee may be with thee To every bleeding Soul thou saiest still as thou didst to Peter Whither I goe thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter In assured hope of this Glory why do I not rejoyce and beforehand walk in white with thine Angels that at the last I may walk with thee in white Little would the presence of these Angels have availed if they had not been heard as well as seen They stand not silent therefore but directing their speech to the amazed beholders say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven What a question was this Could any of those two hundred and forty eyes have power to turn themselves off to any other Object then that Cloud and that point of Heaven where they left their ascended Saviour Surely every one of them were so fixed that had not the speech of these Angels called them off there they had set up their rest till the darkness of night had interposed Pardon me O ye Blessed Angels had I been there with them I should also have been unwilling to have had mine eyes pull'd off from that dear prospect and diverted unto you Never could they have gazed so happily as now If but some Great man be advanced to Honour over our heads how apt we are to stand at a gaze and to eye him as some strange meteor Let the Sun but shine a little upon these Dials how are they look'd at by all passengers Yet alas what can earthly advancement make us other then we are dust and ashes which the higher it is blown the more it is scattered Oh how worthy is the King of Glory to command our eyes now in the highest pitch of his Heavenly exaltation Lord I can never look enough at the place where thou art but what eye could be satisfied with seeing the way that thou wentest It was not the purpose of these Angels to check the long looks of these faithfull Disciples after their ascended Master it was onely a change of eyes that they intended of Carnal for Spiritual of the eye of Sense for the eye of Faith This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into Heaven Look not after him O ye weak Disciples as so departed that ye shall see him no more if he be gone yet he is not lost those Heavens that received him shall restore him neither can those Blessed Mansions decrease his Glory Ye have seen him ascend upon the Chariot of a bright Cloud and in the clouds of Heaven ye shall see him descend again to his last Judgement He is gone can it trouble you to know you have an Advocate in Heaven Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in looking after him as the eyes of your Souls in looking for him Ye cannot O ye Blessed Spirits wish other then well to mankind How happy a diversion of eyes and thoughts is this that you advise If it be our sorrow to part with our Saviour yet to part with him into Heaven it is our comfort
subduction thus Save thy self from a froward generation The last and utmost of all dangers is Confusion That charge of God by Moses is but just Numb 16. 26. Depart I pray you from the tents of these men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye perish in all their sins Lo the very station the very touch is mortal Indeed what reason is there to hope or to plead for an immunity if we share in the work why should we not take part of the wages The wages of sin is death If the Stork be taken damage faisant with the Cranes she is enwrapped in the same net and cannot complain to be surprized Qui cum lupis est cum lupis ululet as he said He that is with wolves let him howl with wolves If we be fratres in malo brethren in evil we must look to be involved in the same curse Be not deceived Honourable and beloved here is no exemption of Greatness nay contrarily Eminence of place aggravates both the sin and the judgement When Ezra heard that the hand of the Princes and Rulers had been chief in that great offence then he rent his cloaths and tore his hair Ezra 9. 3. Certainly this case is dangerous and fearful wheresoever it lights Hardly are those sins redressed that are taken up by the Great Easily are those sins diffused that are warranted by great Examples The great Lights of Heaven the most conspicuous Planets if they be eclipsed all the Almanacks of all Nations write of it whereas the small Stars of the Galaxy are not heeded All the Country runs to a Beacon on fire no body regards to see a Shrub flaming in a valley Know then that your sins are so much greater as your selves are and all the comfort that I can give you without your true repentance is That mighty men shall be mightily tormented Of all other men therefore be ye most careful to keep your selves untainted with the common sins and to renew your covenant with God No man cares for a spot upon a plain russet riding-suit but we are curious of a rich robe every mote there is an eye-sore Oh be ye careful to preserve your Honour from all the foul blemishes of corruption as those that know Vertue hath a greater share in Nobility then Blood Imitate in this the great frame of the Creation which still the more it is removed from the dregs of this earth the purer it is Oh save ye your selves from this untoward Generation so shall ye help to save your Nation from the imminent Judgements of our just God so shall ye save your Souls in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be all Honour and Glory ascribed now and for ever Amen THE HYPOCRITE Set forth in A SERMON at the Court February 28. 1629. Being the third Sunday in LENT By Jos. Exon. To my ever most worthily Honour'd Lord the Earl of NORWICH My most Honoured Lord I Might not but tell the world that this Sermon which was mine in the Pulpit is Yours in the Press Your Lordship's will which shall never be other then a command to me fetches it forth into the Light before the fellows Let me be branded with the Title of it if I can think it worthy of the publick view in comparison of many accurate pieces of others which I see content themselves daily to die in the ear Howsoever if it may doe good I shall bless your Lordship for helping to advance my gain Your Noble and sincere true-heartedness to your God your King your Countrey your Friend is so well known that it can be no disparagement to your Lordship to patronize this Hypocrite whose very inscription might cast a blur upon some guilty reputation Goe on still most noble Lord to be a great Example of Vertue and Fidelity to an hollow and untrusty Age. You shall not want either the Acclamations or Prayers of Your Lordships ever devoted in all true Duty and Observance Jos. Exon. THE HYPOCRITE 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof IT is an unperfect Clause you see but a perfect Description of an Hypocrite and that an Hypocrite of our own times the last which are so much the worse by how much they partake more of the craft and diseases of age The Prophets were the Seers of the Old Testament the Apostles were the Seers of the New those saw Christ's day and rejoyced these foresaw the reign of Antichrist and complained These very times were as present to S. Paul as to us our Sense doth not see them so clearly as his Revelation I am with you in the Spirit saith he to his absent Colossians rejoycing and beholding your order he doth as good as say to them I am with you in the Spirit lamenting and beholding your misdemeanours By these Divine Opticks he sees our formal Piety real Wickedness both which make up the complete Hypocrisie in my Text Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof I doubt not but some will be ready to set this sacred Prognostication to another Meridian And indeed we know a Generation that loves themselves too well much more then Peace and Truth so covetous that they would catch all the world in S. Peter's net proud boasters of their own merits perfections supererogations it would be long though easie to follow all We know where too many Treasons are hatched we know who in the height of minde exalts himself above all that is called God we know where pleasure hath the most delicate and debauch'd Clients we know where Devotion is professedly formal and lives impure and surely were we clearly innocent of these crimes I should be the first that would cast this stone at Rome But now that we share with them in these sins there is no reason we should be sejoyned in the Censure Take it among ye therefore ye Hypocrites of all professions for it is your own Ye have a form of Godliness denying the power thereof What is an Hypocrite but a Player the Zani of Religion as ye heard lately A Player acts that he is not so do ye act good and are wicked Here is a semblance of good a form of Godliness here is a real evil a denial of the power of Godliness There is nothing so good as Godliness yea there is nothing good but it nothing makes Godliness to be good or to be Godliness but the power of it for it is not if it work not and it works not if not powerfully Now the denial of good must needs be evil and so much more evil as the good which is denied is more good and therefore the denial of the power of Godliness must needs be as ill as the form or shew of Godliness would seem good and as the power of Godliness is good This is therefore the perfect Hypocrisie of fashionable Christians they have the form they deny the
make us to appear in the sight of God The Toad or the Serpent are lovely objects to us in comparison of these disguises to the pure eyes of the Almighty yea so perfectly doth God hate them that he professes those hate him that like them Whosoever will be a friend to the world is an enemy to God Jam. 4. 4. Oh then if we love our Souls let us hate those fashions that may draw us into the detestation of the Almighty for our God is a consuming fire Besides misbeseeming it is a just plea against any Fashion that it is painfull For though there be some Pain allowed in all Pride yet too much we indure not and behold these Fashions shall pinch and torture us to death to an everlasting death of body and Soul The ill guest in the Parable was thus clad Mat. 22. 12. the King abhorres his suit and after expostulation gives the sentence Binde him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh fear and tremble at the exspectation of this dreadfull doom all ye that will needs be in the fashion of the world If ye be so foolish as to flatter your selves here in the conceit of your Liberty there shall be binding in the conceit of a lightsome and resplendent Magnificence there shall be darknesse in the conceit of Pleasure and Contentment there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Lastly commonnesse and age are the usuall disparagements of Fashions The best may not goe like every body where a Fashion is taken up of the basest it is disdained of the eminent Behold these are the fashions if not of all I am sure of the worst the very scum of the world is thus habited Let us that are Christians in an holy pride scorn to be suited like them As common so old fashions are in disgrace That man would be shouted at that should come forth in his great-grandfires suit though not rent not discoloured Behold these are the overworn and misshapen rags of the old man Away with them to the frippery of darknesse yea to the brokery of Hell Let us be for a change Old things are passed all things are become new As we look to have these bodies once changed from vile to glorious so let us now change the fashions of our bodies and Souls from corrupt and worldly to spirituall and heavenly and loathing all these misbelieving painfull common old fashions of the world let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ that being clad with the robes of his Righteousnesse here we may be cloathed upon with the robes of his Glory in the highest Heavens Amen THE ESTATE OF A CHRISTIAN Laid forth In a SERMON preached at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By Jos. HALL Rom. 12. 2. But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds c. THE true method of Christian practice is first destructive then astructive according to the Prophet Cease to doe evil learn to doe good This our Apostle observes who first unteacheth us ill fashions and then teacheth good We have done with the negative duty of a Christian what he must not doe hear now the affirmative what he must doe wherein our speech treading in the steps of the blessed Apostle shall passe through these four heads First that here must be a change secondly that this change must be by transformation thirdly that this transformation must be by renewing fourthly that this renewing must be of the minde But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds All of them points of high and singular importance and such as do therefore call for your best and carefullest attention Nothing is more changing then the fashion of the world Mundus transit The world passeth away saith S. John Yet here that we may not fashion our selves to the world we must be changed we must be changed from these changeable fashions of the world to a constant estate of Regeneration As there must be once a perfect change of this mortall to immortality so must there be onwards of this sinfull to gracious and as holy Job resolves to wait all the daies of his appointed time for that changing so this change contrarily waits for us and may not be put off one day What creature is there wherein God will not have a change They needed not as he made them nothing could fall from him but good we marr'd them and therefore they both are changed and must be Even of the very Heavens themselves it is said As a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed how much more these sublunary bodies that are never themselves We know the Elements are in a perpetual transmutation so are those bodies that are compounded of them as he said of the River we cannot step down twice into the same stream And every seven years as Philosophy hath observed our bodies are quite changed from what they were And as there is a natural change in our favours colour complexion temper so there is no lesse voluntary change in our diets in our dispositions in our delights With what scorn do we now look upon the Top which our Childhood was fond on how do we either smile or blush in our mature age to think of the humours and actions of our youth How much more must the depravedness of our spiritual condition call for a change It is a rule in Policy Not to alter a well-setled evil I am sure it holds not in the Oeconomy of the Soul wherein length of prescription pleads rather for a speedy removal no time can prejudice the King of Heaven In some cases indeed change is a sign of a weak unsetledness It is not for a wise man like Shel-fish to rise or fall with the Moon rather like unto the Heaven he must learn to move and be constant It was a good word of Basil to the Governour Utinam sempiterna sit hoec mea desipientia Let me dote thus alw aies It was not for nothing that Socrates had the reputation of Wisdome that famous Shrew of his Xantippe could say she never but saw him return with the countenance that he went out with Give me a man that in the changes of all conditions can frame himself to be like an Auditors counter and can stand either for a thousand or an hundred or if need be for one this man comes nearest to him in whom there is no shadow of turning But in case of present ill there can be no safety but in change I cannot blame the Angels and Saints in Heaven that they would not change I blesse them that they cannot because they are not capable of better and every motion is out of a kind of need I cannot wonder at the damned spirits that they would be any thing but what they are We that are naturally in the way to that damnation have reason to desire a change worse we cannot be upon
a Saint Oh let this day if we have so long deferr'd it be the day of the renovation of the purification of our Souls And let us begin with a sound humiliation and true sorrow for our former and present wickednesses It hath been an old I say not how true note that hath been went to be set on this day that if it be clear and sun-shinie it portends an bard weather to come if cloudy and louring a milde and gentle season insuing Let me apply this to a spiritual use and assure every hearer that if we overcast this day with the clouds of our sorrow and the rain of our penitent tears we shall find a sweet and hopeful season all our life after Oh let us renew our Covenants with God that we will now be renewed in our Minds The comfort and gain of this change shall be our own whiles the honour of it is Gods and the Gospels for this gracious change shall be followed with a glorious Onwards this onely shall give us true peace of Conscience onely upon this shall the Prince of this world find nothing in us How should he when we are changed from our selves And when we shall come to the last change of all things even when the Heavens and Elements shall be on a flame and shall melt about our ears the Conscience of this change shall lift up our heads with joy and shall give our renewed Souls an happy entry into that new Heaven Or when we shall come to our own last change in the dissolution of these earthly Tabernacles it shall bless our Souls with the assurance of unchangeable happiness and shall bid our renewed bodies lie down in peace and in a sweet exspectation of being changed to the likeness of the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ and of an eternal participation of his infinite glory Whereto he who ordained us graciously bring us even for the merits of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ the Just To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FALL of PRIDE Out of PROVERBS 29. vers 23. By Jos. HALL PROV 29. vers 23. A mans Pride shall bring him low but Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit THat which was the ordinary Apophthegm of a greater then Solomon He that exalteth himself shall be brought low but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted which our Saviour used thrice in terminis oft in sense is here the Aphorism of wise Solomon Neither is it ill guessed by learned Mercerus that our Saviour in that speech of his alludes hither I need not tell you how great how wise Solomon was The Great are wont to be most haunted with pride the Wise can best see the danger of that Pride which haunts the great Great and wise Solomon therefore makes it one of his chief common-places the crying down of Pride a Vice not more general then dangerous as that which his witty Imitator can tell us is initium omnis peccati the beginning of all sin Now Pride can never be so much spighted as by honouring her contemned rival Humility Nothing could so much vex that insolent Agagite as to be made a Lacky to a despised Jew Besides her own portion therefore which is Ruine Solomon torments her with the advancement of her abased Opposite My Text then is like unto Shushan in the streets whereof Honour is proclaimed to an humble Mordecai in the Palace whereof is erected an engine of death to a proud Haman A mans Pride shall bring him low but Honour shall uphold the humble The Propositions are Antithetical wherein Pride is opposed to Humility Honour to Ruine Hear I beseech you how wise Solomon hath learn'd of his Father David to sing of Mercy and Judgement Judgement to the Proud Mercy to the Humble both together with one breath The Judgement to the Proud is their humbling the Mercy to the Humble is their raising to Honour It is the noted course of God to work still by contraries as indeed this is the just praise of Omnipotence to fetch light out of darkness life out of death order out of confusion Heaven out of Hell honour out of humility humiliation out of pride according to that of the sacred Way-maker of Christ Every hill shall be cast down every valley raised But in this particular above all other he delights to cross and abase the Proud to advance the Humble as blessed Mary in her Magnificat to pull down the mighty from their seat and to exalt the humble and meek For God hath a special quarrel to the Proud as those that do more nearly contest with his Majesty and scramble with him for his Glory He knows the Proud afarre off and hath a special favour in store for the Humble as those that are vessels most capable of his Mercy because they are empty This in common we descend to the several parts The Judgement begins first as that which is fit to make way for Mercy Therein there are two strains one is the Sin the other is the Punishment The Sin is a mans Pride A mans not for the distinction of one Sex from another but First for the comprehension of both Sexes under one The Woman was first proud and it sticks by her ever since She is none of the daughters of Eve that inherits not her childs-part in this sin Neither is this Feminine Pride less odious less dangerous Rather the weakness of the Sex gives power and advantage to the vice as the fagot-stick will sooner take fire then the log Secondly for the intimation of the reflex action of Pride A mans Pride therefore is the Pride of himself Indeed the whole endeavour study care of the proud man is the hoising of himself yea this Himself is the adequate subject of all sinful desires What doth the Covetous labour but to inrich himself the Voluptuous but to delight himself the Proud but to exalt himself whether in contempt of others or in competition with God himself For Pride hath a double cast of her eye downwards to other men in scorn upwards to God in a rivalty To men first as the proud Pharisee I am not as others nor as this Publican He thinks he is made of better clay then the common lump it is others happiness to serve him He magnifies every act that fals from him as that proud Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built yea his own very excretions are sweet and fragrant whiles the perfumes of others are ranck and ill-sented To God secondly For whereas Piety makes God our Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the beginning to which we ascribe all the end whereto we referre all the Proud man makes himself his own Alpha thanks himself for all makes himself his own Omega seeks himself in all begins at himself ends at himself Which must needs be so much more odious to God as it conforms us
Justice is Peace Fore-prophesied to be the Prince of Peace Esay 9. 6. the government is upon his shoulder saith that Evangelical Seer yea which of the Prophets is silent of this Style Constituted Behold I have set my King upon Sion Psal 2. 6. Acknowledged by the Sages Where is be that is born King of the Jews We have seen his star Mat. 2. 2. Usher'd in by the Angel Gabriel The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David Luke 1. 32. Anointed he is Christus Domini and Christus Dominus anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows Proclaimed Behold thy King cometh to thee saith Zachary Hosanna Blessed be the Kingdome that comes in the name of the Lord said the Children in the streets Enthronized Thy throne O God is for ever and the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter Honoured with due homage The Kings of the earth shall bring presents to thee saith the Psalmist And yet this King thus Presigured Fore-prophesied Constituted Acknowledged Usher'd in Anointed Proclaimed Enthronized Adored is cast off with a Nolumus hunc No King but Caesar And were they not well served think we Did or could ever any eye pity them Because they say Christ is not our King but Caesar therefore Christ shall plague them by Caesar that very Roman Government which they honoured in a corrivality and opposition to Christ shall revenge the quarrel of Christ in the utter subversion of these unthankful Rebels Oh foolish people and unjust do ye thus requite the Lord Did he empty himself of his Celestial Glory and put on weak Manhood and all the symptoms of wretched Mortality and do ye despise him for this Mercy Is he so vile to you because he was so vile for you Did his Love make him humble that his Humility should make him contemptible Did he chuse you out of all the kingdomes of the earth and do ye wilfully reject him Hear therefore ye despisers and tremble hear the just doom of him who will be your Judge if he shall not be your Saviour Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room Do we think that Christ hath no Rebels but Jews Would to God we sinners of the Gentiles had not said Disrumpamus vincula Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us What are his bonds but his Laws his cords but Religious institutions These flie about mens ears like rotten tow binding none but the impotent The bounds of his Kingdome are the ends of the earth It is an hard word yet I must say it Oh that there were not more Traitors in the world then Subjects Tell not me what mens Tongues say their Lives say loud enough Nolumus hunc Christ is no King for us Obedience is the true touch-stone of Loyalty not Protestations not outward Cringes not disbursement of Tribute We have all solemnly sworn allegeance to the God of Heaven we are ready to bow at the dear name of Jesus we stick not perhaps to give obedientiam bursalem as Gerson cals it to God but when it comes once to the deniall of our selves to the mortifying of our corruptions to the strangling of the children of our own accursed wombs to the offering up our bodies and Souls as a reasonable and lively sacrifice hîc Rhodus hîc saltus Kings rule by their Laws Be not deceived if slips of weakness marre not our Fealty certainly continuance in wilful sins cannot stand with our Subjection Quomodo legis How readest thou then as our Saviour asks What saies thy Law-giver in Sinai Thou shalt have no other Gods but me If now thou rear up in thy bosome altars to the Astaroth of Honour to the Tammuz of Lust to the Mammon of Wealth thou hast defied Christ for thy King God saies Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain If now thine unhallowed tongue will not be beaten out of the hellish track of Oaths Blasphemies prophane Scoffs thou hast defied Christ God sayes Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day If now thou shalt spend it altogether upon thy self or else thinkest with that wise Heathen thou dost septimam oetatis partem perdere thou defiest Christ God saies Thou shalt not commit adultery If now like an enraged stallion thou neighest after every object of impure Lust thou hast defied Christ God saies Non in comessationibus ebrietate Not in surfeiting and drunkenness If now we shall pour our health and our reason down our throats and shall sacrifice our Souls to our bellies what do we say but Nolumus hunc But O foolish Rebels that we are do we think thus to shake off the yoak of Christ In spight of men and devils he will be their King who do most grin and gnash at his Soveraignty Feel O ye wilful sinners if ye will not learn that as he hath a golden Scepter Virgam directionis Psal 45. 6. so he hath also an iron Scepter Psal 2. 9. Virgam furoris Esay 10. 5. Beauty and Bands Zach. 11. 10 14. If ye will not bow under the first yea must break under the second He shall break you in pieces like a Potters vessel to mammocks to dust Ye shall find that the Prince of darkness can no more avoid his own torment then he can cease from yours and every knee not onely in Heaven and in earth but under the earth too shall mal-grè bow to the name of that Jesus whom they have scornfully rejected with Nolumus hunc Christ is no King to us But I perswade my self better things of you all that hear me this day There is none of you I hope but would be glad to strew his garments his olive-boughs yea his myrtles and lawrels yea crown and scepter under the feet of Christ and cry Hosanna altissimo Oh then if you be in earnest take the Psalmists counsel Osculamini filium Give him the kiss of Homage of Obedience Let me have leave to say that this charge is there given to the great Princes and Rulers of the earth they who honour others with a kiss of their hand must honour themselves with the humble kiss of his No Power can exempt from this sweet Subjection Ecce servus tuns Behold I am thy servant faith David yea and vilior ero I will be yet more vile for the Lord. Tremble before his footstool O ye Great ones that bindeth Kings with chains and Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149. 8. Your very Height inforces your Obedience the detrectation where of hath no other but Potentes potenter punientur Mighty ones shall be mightily tormented As an Angel of God so is my Lord the king as that wise Tekoan said Do ye not see how awful how submiss the Angels of Heaven are Before his throne they hide their faces with their wings and from his throne at his command
thou suffer the world to be deluded with these foul and pernicious impostures how long shall thy Church groan under the heavie yoke of their sinful impositions O thou that art the great Shepherd look down and visit thy wandring flock and at last let loose those silly sheep of thine that are fast intangled in the briars of Antichristian exaction And we why do not we as heartily labour to reclaim them as they to withdraw us why should they burn with zeal whiles we freeze with indifferency Oh let us spend our selves in prayers in tears in perswasions in unweariable endevours for the happy conversion of those ignorant mis-guided souls who having not our knowledge yet shame our affections Of Indignation lastly as on the one side at those practical revolters that having begun in the spirit will needs end in the flesh that having made a shew of godliness deny the power of it in their lives returning with that impure beast to their own vomit so on the other at those speculative relapsers that have out of policy or guiltiness abandoned a known and received truth Pity is for those silly creatures that could never be blessed with Divine Reason and upright formes but for a Gryllus that was once a man to quit his humanity and to be in love with four feet what stomack can but rise at so affected a transformation The Cameleon is for a time beautiful with all pleasing varieties of colours in the end no skin is more nasty Wo is me the swept house is repossessed with seven Devils This recidivation is desperate although indeed there would not be a revolt without an inward unsoundness Do ye see an apple fall untimely from the tree view it ye shall finde it worm-eaten else it had held Avolent quantum volent paleoe istae levis fidei as that Father said Let this light chaffe flie whither it will it shews it to be but chaffe God's heap shall be so much the purer and in the mean time what do they make themselves fit for but the fire What shall we say to these absurd changes Our fore-fathers thought themselves in Heaven when first the bright beams of the Gospel brake forth in their eyes and shall we like those fond subterraneous people that Rubruquis speaks of curse those glorious beams of the Sun now risen up to us and lay our eares close to the ground that we may not hear the harmony of that motion Our Fathers blessed themselves in this Angelical Manna and shall our mouths hang towards the onions and garlick of Aegypt Revertimini filii aversantes Return ye backsliding children return to the fountains of living waters which ye have exchanged for your broken cisternes Recordamini priorum as Esay speaks 46. 9. But if their will do lie still in their way it were happy for them if authority would deal with them as confident riders do with a startling horse spur them up and bring them back to the block they leap'd from But if still their obstinacy will needs in spight of contrary endeavours feoffe them in the style of filii desertores it is a fearfull word that God speaks to them Vae eis quoniam vagantur à me Wo to them for they have wandered from me Ose 7. 13. Now the God of Heaven reclaim them confirm us save both them and us in the day of the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen St. PAUL'S COMBAT THE SECOND PART 1 Cor. 15. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Have carried you into S. Paul's Theatre at Ephesus I have shew'd you his Beasts you must now see his Fight It was his charge to Timothy that he should be an example know then that what he bids he practises It is an exemplary combat which S. Paul fought and that wherein we must follow him as Teachers as Christians Here he saies I have fought afterwards in imitation of him that saw his own works and approved them he saies I have fought a good fight doubtless as with principalities and powers elsewhere so even with these beasts at Ephesus Let it please you to see first the person of the combatant then secondly the manner of the fight In the former ye may not look at S. Paul as a common souldier but as a selected Champion of God not merely as Paul but as an Apostle as a publick person as the spiritual Leader of God's people so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fought with beasts There is no trained man in the whole troup of God but must have his bout with the beasts of the Time Vita hominis militia super terram we are here in a militant Church As we have all received our press-money in Baptisme so we must every one according to our ingagement maintain this fight against the world But if a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul singled out to a publick calling now he must think himself made for combats because for victories for Bellum durius contra victores as Gregory speaketh It was the charge of the Apostle that a Bishop should be no striker and Clericus percussor is an old brand of irregularity But if in this kind he strike not I must say of him as S. Paul to Ananias God shall smite thee thou whited wall All his whole life must be spent in these blows he must be as Jeremy speaks of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of strife and contention there is no beast comes in his way but he must have a fling at him When Gregory Nazianzen speaks of Basil designed to the Bishoprick of Caesarea If any man saith he pretend his weakness non athletem sed doctorem creabitis But in this spiritual sense if he be a Doctor in the Chair he must be a Champion in the Theatre No S. Martin may plead here I am Christs Souldier I may not fight yea therefore must he fight because he is Christs Souldier Whosoever then would be a fit combatant for God to enter into these lists against the beasts of the world must be a S. Paul in proportion so must he be a follower of him as he is of Christ Will it please you to see him first qualified then armed Qualified first with Holiness Skill Courage Holiness For he must be a man of God and as the Apostle charges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irreprehensible otherwise he is a beast himself and had need of some body to bait him Wo be to those Champions of God that take upon them to wield the sword of the Spirit with unclean hands That divine weapon is not so fit to wound any as their own Souls Ex ore tuo serve nequam Let me say truly It were an happy and hopeful thing that even our external and secular Wars should be managed with pure and innocent hands I shall tell you that which perhaps few of you have either
it be possible it may rise up no more Why do not we spend the whole quiver of Gods threatned vengeance upon wilful sinners And thus must we bait the beast Is it a Drunken beast we are committed with Wo to them that rise up early to follow strong drink Esa 5. 11. Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink to make him drunk Abac. 2. 15. The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to that man vomitus ignominiosus ad gloriam verse 16. Oh it is a bitter cup this of the Lords right hand whereof he shall wring out the dregs unto that soul so as in stead of quaffing the excessive healths of others he shall drink up his own death and eternal confusion Is it a Gluttonous beast Wo to him his God is his belly his glory shall be in his shame and his end damnation Phil. 3. 19. Whiles the flesh is yet between his teeth ere it be chewed the wrath of the Lord is kindled against him Numb 11. 33. Yea but it goes down sweetly Oh fool the meat in thy belly shall be turned into the gall of Asps within thee Job 20. 14. Vae saturis Wo be to the full for they shall hunger they shall famish to death and dye famishing and live dying and have enough of nothing but fire and brimstone Is it a Ravenous beast a Covetous oppressour His tooth like a mad dogs envenomes and emphrensies so saith Solomon that knew the nature of all beasts Oppression makes a wise man mad Eccles. 7. 7. Tabifici sunt Ps 79. 7. Wo be to you that joyn house to house Es 5. 8. Wo be to the mighty sins of them whose treadings are upon the poor that afflict the just that take bribes and turn away the poor in the gates Amos 5. 11 12. Therefore the Lord the God of Hoasts saith thus Wailing shall be in all their streets and they shall say in all high-waies Alas alas verse 16. They have robbed their poor Tenants and oppressed the afflicted in the gate therefore the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them Is it an Unclean beast Whoso committeth adultery with a woman destroyeth his own soul Prov. 6. 32. A fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he have kindled a fire Ecclus. 23. 16. His fire of lust flames up into a fire of disease and burns down into the fire of Hell Is it a Foul-mouth'd beast that bellows out Blasphemies and bloody Oaths There is a word that is cloathed about with death God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob Ecclus. 23. 12. A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house verse 11. Thus must we lay about us spiritu or is yea gladio spiritûs and let drive at the Beast of what kind soever But if we shall still find that which blind Homer saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the worse hath the better and that this spiritual edge shall either turn again or through our weak wieldance not enter the stubborn and thick hide of obdured hearts give me leave most Gracious Soveraign and ye honorable Peers to whom is committed the sword of either supreme or subordinate Justice to say that both God and the world expects that this Beast of sin should be baited by you in another fashion It is not for nothing that God hath set you so conspicuously in this great Amphitheatre where the eyes of Angels and men are bent upon you and that he hath given into your hands the powerful instruments of death If this pernicious beast dare contest with our weakness and oft-times leave us gasping and bleeding on this pavement yet we know that it cannot but fall under the power of your mercy yea your vengeance Oh let it please you to rouze up your brave and Princely spirits and to give the fatal blow to presumptuous wickedness If that monster of impious Sacriledge of atheous Profaneness of outragious Inordinateness dares lift up his hated head in the sight of this Sun let him be straight crushed with the weight of that Royal Scepter let him be hewn in pieces with the sharp sword of your Sacred Authority As we abound with wholesome Laws for the repressing of vice so let it please you in an holy zeal to revive their hearty and effectual execution that the precious Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we profess may not be either shamed or braved by insolent wickedness that Justice and Peace may flourish in our Land and that your Crown may long and happily flourish upon that Royal head until it shall receive a late and blessed exchange for a Crown of Glory and Immortality in the highest Heavens Amen THE OLD RELIGION A TREATISE Wherein Is laid down the true State of the difference betwixt the REFORMED and ROMANE CHURCH and the blame of this Schism is cast upon the true Authors Serving for the Vindication of our Innocence for the setling of wavering mindes for a Preservative against Popish Insinuations With an ADVERTISEMENT for such Readers as formerly stumbled at some passages in the Book By JOS. HALL B. of Exon. LONDON Printed by James Flesher in the year M DC LXI TO My new and dearly-affected CHARGE the Diocese of EXCESTER All Grace and Benediction THE truth of my heart gives me boldness to profess before him who onely knows it that the same God who hath called me to the over-sight of your Souls hath wrought in me a zealous desire of your Salvation This desire cannot but incite me to a careful prevention of those dangers which might threaten the disappointment of so happy an end Those Dangers are either Sins of Practice or Errours of Doctrine Against both these I have faithfully vowed my utmost endeavours I shall labour against the first by Preaching Example Censures wherein it shall be your choice to expect either the Rod or the Spirit of meekness Against the latter my Pen hath risen up in this early assault It hath been assured me that in this time of late Vacancie false Teachers catching the fore-lock of Occasion have been busie in scattering the tares of Errours amongst you I easily believe it since I know it is not in the power of the greatest vigilancie to hinder their attempts of evil Even a full See is no sufficient barre to crafty Seducers their Suggestions we cannot prevent their Success we may This I have here assay'd to doe bending my style against Popish Doctrine with such Christian moderation as may argue zeal without malice desire to win Souls no will to gall them And since the commonest of all the grounds of Romish deceit is the pretence of their Age and our Novelty and nothing doth more dazle the eyes of the simple then the name of our Fore-fathers and the challenge of a particular recital of our Professours before Luther's revolt I have I hope fully cleared this coast so
the two other Books and seconds that so I might return my payment cum foenore In that your Lordships Tractate I could not but observe the lively Image of your self that is according to the generall interpretation of all sound Professours of the Gospel of christ of a most Orthodox Divine And now remembring the Accordance your Lordship hath with others touching the Argument of your Book I must needs reflect upon my self who have long since defended the same Point in the defence of many others I do therefore much blame the Petulcity of whatsoever Author that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him whom besides his excellent Writings and Sermons God's visible eminent and resplendent Graces of Illumination Zeal Piety and Eloquence have made truely Honourable and glorious in the Church of Christ Let me say no more I suffer in your suffering not more in consonancy of Judgement then in the sympathy of my Affection Goe on dear Brother with your deserved Honour in God's Church with holy courage knowing that the dirty feet of an adversary the more they tread and rub the more lustre they give the figure graven in Gold Our Lord Jesus preserve us to the glory of his saving Grace Your Lordships unanimous friend and Brother THO. Covent and Litchfield TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOHN LORD Bishop of SALISBURY MY Lord I send you this little Pamphlet for your censure It is not credible how strangely I have been traduced every where for that which I conceive to be the common Opinion of Reformed Divines yea of reasonable men that is for affirming the true Being and Visibility of the Roman Church You see how clearly I have endeavoured to explicate this harmless Position yet I perceive some tough misunderstandings will not be satisfied Your Lordship hath with great reputation spent many years in the Divinity-Chair of the famous University of Cambridge Let me therefore beseech you whose Learning and Sincerity is so throughly approved in God's Church that you would freely how shortly soever express your self in this Point and if you finde that I have deviated but one hairs breadth from the Truth correct me if not free me by your just Sentence What need I to intreat you to pity those whose desires of faithful offices to the Church of God are unthankfully repaied with Suspicion and Slander whose may not this case be I had thought I had sufficiently in all my Writings and in this very last Book of mine whence this quarrell is picked shewed my fervent zeal for God's Truth against that Antichristian Faction of Rome and yet I doubt not but your own ears can witness what I have suffered Yea as if this calumny were not enough there want not those whose secret whisperings cast upon me the foul aspersions of another Sect whose name is as much hated as little understood My Lord you know I had a place with you though unworthy in that famous Synod of Dort where howsoever sickness bereaved me of the houres of a conclusive Subscription yet your Lordship heard me with equall vehemency to the rest crying down the unreasonableness of that way God so love me as I do the tranquillity and happiness of his Church yet can I not so overaffect it that I would sacrifice one dram of Truth to it To that good God do I appeal as the witness of my sincere heart to his whole Truth and no-less-then-ever-zealous detestation of all Popery and Pelagianisme Your Lordship will be pleased to pardon this importunity and to vouchsafe your speedy Answer to Your much devoted and faithfull Brother JOS. EXON TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOSEPH Lord Bishop of EXON these My LORD YOU desire my Opinion concerning an Assertion of yours whereat some have taken offence The Proposition was this That the Roman Church remains yet a True Visible Church The occasion which makes this an ill-sounding Proposition in the ears of Protestants especially such as are not throughly acquainted with School Distinctions is the usuall acception of the word True in our English Tongue For though men skilled in Metaphysicks hold it for a Maxime Ens Verum Bonum convertuntur yet with us he which shall affirm such a one is a true Christian a true Gentleman a true Scholar or the like he is conceived not onely to adscribe Trueness of Being unto all these but those due Qualities or requisite Actions whereby they are made commendable or praise-worthy in their severall kinds In this sense the Roman Church is no more a True Church in respect of Christ or those due Qualities and proper Actions which Christ requires then an arrant Whore is a true and loyall Wife unto her Husband I durst upon mine oath be one of your Compurgators that you never intended to adorn that Strumpet with the title of a true Church in this meaning But your own Writings have so fully cleared you herein that suspicion it self cannot reasonably suspect you in this Point I therefore can say no more concerning your mistaken Proposition then this If in that Treatise wherein it was delivered the Antecedents or Consequents were such as served fitly to lead the Reader into that Sense which under the word True comprehendeth onely Truth of Being or Existencie and not the due Qualities of the thing or Subject you have been causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your Discourse you cannot marvell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In brief your Proposition admits a true sense and in that sense is by the best Learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For the Being of a Church does principally stand upon the gracious action of God calling men out of Darkness and Death unto the Participation of Light and Life in Christ Jesus So long as God continues this Calling unto any people though they as much as in them lies darken this Light and corrupt the means which should bring them to Life and Salvation in Christ yet where God calls men unto the Participation of Life in Christ by the Word and by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men be never so false in their Expositions of God's Word or never so untrustie in mingling their own Traditions with God's Ordinances Thus the Church of the Jews lost not her Being of a Church when she became an Idolatrous Church And thus under the government of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their own Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Saviour himself was born who were members of that Church and yet participated not in the Corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Romane was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in Doctrine a False and in Practice an Idolatrous Church is a true Assertion and of greater
City an Harlot And God about the same time cryed unto them by Micah Thou that art named the house of Jacob thou that wast of late my people and to the Ten Tribes by Hosea Ye are not my people and I will not be your God After the same manner Christ said to the Jews which gloried and made their boast that God was their Father If God were your Father ye would love me Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will doe If we speak of the Romish Church according to this Distinction defining the Church by the keeping of the Covenant in pureness of Doctrine and Holiness of life God himself hath stript her of that glorious name calling her spiritually Sodome Egypt and Babylon Sodome in the pollution of her most filthy life Egypt in the abominable multitude of her filthy Idols Babylon in the cruell and bloodie oppression and persecution of the Saints And because she was to call her self as falsly as arrogantly the Mother-Church the Angel calleth her The Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth Because also she was to bring and magnifie her self in the multitude of her Saints he saith that she is drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus And taking from her the name of the Church which she challengeth privatively to all other Christian Congregations he nameth her as I have already said The habitation of Devils the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful Bird. In the first sense Moses said to God Why doth thy wrath wax hot against Thy people because although they had broken the Covenant on their part by the works of their hands God had not as yet broken it on his part Jeremiah in the greatest heat of their monstrous Idolatries praied after the same manner Do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the Throne of thy glory Remember break not thy Covenant with us and Esaiah Thou art our Father we are ALL thy people For so long as God calls a people to him by his Word and Sacraments and honours them with his Name so long as they consent to be called by his Name professing it outwardly they remain his people although they answer not his Calling neither in soundness of Faith nor in Holiness of life Even as rebellious Subjects are still true Subjects on the Kings behalf who loseth not his right by their Rebellion nay on their own also in some manner because they still keep and profess his name and give not themselves to any forein Prince Did David lose his right by the Rebellion of the people under his son Absalom And therefore when the King subdueth these Traitors he carrieth himself towards them both in forgiving and in punishing as their lawfull and natural Prince and not as a Conquerour of new Subjects So as a Strumpet is a true Wife so long as her Husband consents to dwell with her and she is named by his name and as Agar when she fled from her Mistress Sarai was still Sarai's maid as she confessed saying I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai In like manner a rebellious fugitive and whoring Church is still a true Church so long as God keeping the right of a King of a Master of a Husband over her giveth her not the bill of divorcement but consents that his Name be called upon her and she still calleth her self his Kingdome his Maid his Wife Thus God calleth the Jews His people even then when he said they were not his people because he had not broken the band of Marriage with them and put them away by divorcement Therefore he said unto them Where are the letters of your Mothers divorcement whom I have put away Meaning he had not given unto them a writing of divorcement but did still acknowledge them to be his Spouse notwithstanding their manifold and most filthy whoredomes with false gods which he charged them with saying unto them by Jeremiah Thou hast polluted the Land with thy whoredomes and with thy wickedness Thou hast a whores forehead and refusest to be ashamed Wilt thou not for this time cry unto me My Father thou art the Guide of my youth Turn O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you or according to the French Translation I have the right of an husband over you So after he had called the Ten Tribes Lo-ruhama and Lo-hammi saying he would no more have mercy upon them and that they were not his people he calleth them his people My people saith he asketh counsel at their stocks and their stuffe answereth them But after that God had scattered them among the Medes and other Nations of Assyria and broken his Covenant with them they became not onely in the second but also in the first sense Jesrehel and no more Israel Loruhama and no more Ruhama Lohammi and no more Hammi Then was fulfilled the Prophesie Plead with your Mother plead for she is not my wife neither am I her husband So the Jewes which were Gods people in the midst of their Idolatrie since they have denied Christ to be the Messias the Mediator between God and them and have crucified the Lord of Glory are no more Gods people although they beg still that name They are saith Christ the Synagogue of Satan They say they are Jewes and are not but do ly For seeing God hath broken them off and grafted the Gentiles in their room they qualifie themselves Gods people as falsely and injuriously as a Whore lawfully divorced by her Husband calleth her self his Wife To apply this to the Roman Church which hath adulterated and corrupted the whole service of God and is more adulterous then was at any time Juda or Ephraim and therefore is not a true visible Church in the second sense I say she is one in some sort in the first In her God doth still keep his true word in the Old and New Testament as the contract of his Marriage with her In her is the true Creed the true Decalogue the true Lords Prayer which Luther calleth the kernal of Christianity In her Christ is preached though corruptly In her the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ are believed In her the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are prayed unto though in an unknown tongue to the most part In her the little Children are Baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And no Divine will deny that their Baptisme is a true Sacrament whereby their Children are born to God seeing we do not rebaptise them where leaving her they adjoin themselves to us Who then can deny that she is a true Church For out of the Church there is no Baptisme and the Church alone beareth children to God In her sitteth the man of sin the
of muck but beaten down and burned with the fire of Gods Word the walls of Wood Hay Stubble which the Babylonian builders had raised upon the old Foundation which is Christ Jesus and edified upon it a fair Palace of Silver Gold precious Stones This same is the Opinion also of my Collegues of the French Church of this City of London If any self-conceited Christian thinketh this an advantage rather then a disparagement and disgrace to that punk the Roman Church and taketh thereby occasion to persevere to be her Bawd or Stallion and to run a whoring with her I say with the Psalmist The wicked hath left off to be wise and to doe good and with the Angel He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still For neither must an honest heart speak a lie for the good that may come of it nor conceal in time and place a necessary Truth for any evil that may insue of it If it harden more and more the flinty hearts of some unto death it will soften and melt the iron hearts of others unto life that seeing among us the mud and dirt of humane Traditions wherewith the Pope and his Clergy had furred and soiled the bright-shining glasse of the Gospel wiped away from this heavenly mirror of God's favour they may come unto us and beholding with open face as in a glasse the glory of the Lord may be changed with us into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which last effect I pray with my heart your Reconciler may have with those that are children of Peace And so recommending your Lordship with all your learned eloquent sound and usefull Labours to Gods most powerfull blessing and my self to the continuance of your godly Prayers and old Friendship I remain for ever Your Lordships most humble and affectionate Servant GILBERT PRIMROSE From London the 26. of February 1629. To my Worthy and much respected Friend Mr. H. CHOLMLEY MAster Cholmley I have perused your Learned and full Reply to Master Burton's Answer wherein you have in a judicious eye abundantly righted your self and cleared a just Cause so as the Reader would wonder where an Adversary might finde ground to raise an opposition But let me tell you were iâ— a Book written by the Pen of an Angel from Heaven in this Subject I should doubt whether to wish it publick How true how just soever the plea be I finde such is the self-love and partiality of our corrupt nature the quarrell is inlarged by multiplying of words When I see a Fire quenched with Oyle I will expect to see a Controversie of this nature stinted by publick altercation New matter still rises in the agitation gives hint to a fore-resolved Opposite of a fresh disquisition So as we may sooner see an end of the common Peace then of an unkindly jarre in the Church especially such a one as is fomented with a mistaken Zeal on the one side and with a confidence of Knowledge on the other Silence hath sometimes quieted such like mis-raised brabbles never interchange of words This very Question was on foot some forty years agoe in the hote chace of great Authors but whether through the ingenuity of the parties or some over-ruling act of Divine Providence it soon died without noise so I wish it may now doe Rather let the weaker Title goe away with the last word then the Church shall be distracted For that Position of mine which occasioned your Vindication you see it sufficiently abetted and determined by so Reverend Authority as admits no exception I dare say no Learned Divine of our own Church or the forain can but subscribe in this our sense to the Judgement of these Worthies To draw forth therefore this cord of contention to any further length were no lesse needlesse then prejudiciall to the publick peace He is not worthy to be satisfied that will yet wrangle As for those Personall aspersions that are cast upon you by Malice be perswaded to despise them These Western parts where your reputation is deservedly pretious know your zeal for Gods Truth no lesse fervent though better governed then the most fiery of your Censurers No man more hateth Popish Superstition onely your fault is that you do not more hate Errour then Injustice and cannot abide wrong measure offered to the worst enemy Neither be you troubled with that idle exprobration of a Prebendary retribution who would care for a contumely so void of truth God knows that worthlesse gift was conferred upon you ere this task came into either of our thoughts and whoso knows the entire respects betwixt us from our very Cradles till this day may well think that a Prebend of three pounds by the year need not goe for a Fee where there is so much and so ancient cause of dearness I am sorry to see such rancour under the coat of Zeal Surely nothing but mere Malice can be guilty of this charge no lesse then of that other envious challenge of your decay of Graces of falling from your first Love from industry to ease from a weekly to a monethly preaching when those that know the state of your Tiverton the four-parted division of that charge and your forced confinement to your own day by publick authority both Spirituall and Temporall must needs acquit you and cry down the wrong of an accuser As for the vigour of Gods good Graces in you both common and sanctifying all the Country are your ample witnesses I that have interknown you from our childhood cannot but professe to finde the entrance of your age no lesse above the best of your youth in abilities then in time and still no lesse fruitfull in promises of increase then in eminent performances What need I urge this your Adversaries do enough feel your worth So as to speak seriously I cannot sufficiently wonder at the liberty of those men who professing a strict conscience of their wayes dare let their Pens or Tongues loose to so injurious and uncharitable a detraction whereof they know the just avenger is in Heaven It should not be thus betwixt Brethren no not with Enemies For the main business there wants not confidence on either side I am appealed to by both an unmeet Judge considering my so deep ingagements But if my umpierage may stand I award an eternall silence to both parts Sit down in peace then you and your worthy Second whose young ripeness and modest and learned discourse is worthy of better entertainment then contempt and let your zealous Opponents say that you have overcome your selves in a resolved cessation of Pens and them in a love of Peace Farewell from Your loving Friend and ancient Collegue JOS. EXON OCCASIONALL MEDITATIONS BY JOS. EXON Set forth by R. H. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE My very good Lord JAMES Lord Viscount Doncaster Right Honourable FInding these Papers amongst others lying aside
deliver thou my Soul from their crafty ambushes their poison is greater their webs both more strong and more insensibly woven Either teach me to avoid Tentation or make me to break through it by Repentance Oh let me not be a prey to those Fiends that lie in wait for my destruction XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine SUch is my best condition in this life If the Sun of Gods Countenance shine upon me I may well be content to be wet with some Rain of Affliction How oft have I seen the Heaven overcast with Clouds and Tempest no Sun appearing to comfort me yet even those gloomy and stormy seasons have I rid out patiently only with the help of the common light of the day at last those beams have broken forth happily and cheared my Soul It is well for my ordinary state if through the mists of mine own dulness and Satans Tentations I can descry some glimpse of Heavenly comfort let me never hope while I am in this Veile to see the clear face of that Sun without a showre such Happiness is reserved for above that upper Region of Glory is free from these doubtfull and miserable vicissitudes There O God we shall see as we are seen Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart XVII Upon the Length of the way HOW far off is yonder great mountain My very eye is weary with the foresight of so great a distance yet time and patience shall overcome it this night we shall hope to lodge beyond it Some things are more tedious in their exspectation then in their performance The comfort is that every step I take sets me nearer to my end When I once come there I shall both forget how long it now seems and please my self to look back upon the way that I have measured It is thus in our passage to Heaven My weak nature is ready to faint under the very conceit of the length and difficulty of this Journey my eye doth not more guide then discourage me Many steps of Grace and true Obedience shall bring me insensibly thither Only let me move and hope and God's good leisure shall perfect my Salvation O Lord give me to possesse my Soul with patience and not so much to regard speed as certainty When I come to the top of thine Holy hill all these weary paces and deep sloughs shall either be forgotten or contribute to my Happinesse in their remembrance XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters WHat a sensible interchange there is in Nature betwixt union and division Many Vapours rising from the Sea meet together in one Cloud that cloud falls down divided into several Drops those drops run together and in many rills of water meet in the same Chanels those chanels run into the Brook those brooks into the Rivers those rivers into the Sea one receptacle is for all though a large one and all make back to their first and main originall So it either is or should be with Spiritual Gifts O God thou distillest thy Graces upon us not for our reservation but conveyance those manifold Faculties thou lettest fall upon several men thou wouldst not have drenched up where they light but wouldst have derived through the chanels of their special vocations into the common streams of publick Use for Church or Common-wealth Take back O Lord those few drops thou hast rained upon my Soul and return them into that great Ocean of the Glory of thine own Bounty from whence they had their beginning XIX Upon the same Subject MAny Drops fill the Chanels and many chanels swell up the Brooks and many brooks raise the Rivers over the banks the Brooks are not out till the Chanels be empty the Rivers rise not whiles the small Brooks are full but when the little Rivulets have once voided themselves into the main streams then all is overflown Great matters arise from small beginnings many littles make up a large bulk Yea what is the World but a composition of atomes We have seen it thus in Civil Estates the empairing of the Commons hath oft been the raising of the Great their streams have run low till they have been heightned by the confluence of many private inlets Many a mean chanell hath been emptied to make up their inundation Neither is it otherwise in my whether outward or Spiritual condition O God thou hast multiplied my drops into streams As out of many Minutes thou hast made up my Age so out of many Lessons thou hast made up my competency of Knowledge thou hast drained many beneficient friends to make me competently Rich by many holy motions thou hast wrought me to some measure of Grace Oh teach me wisely and moderately to injoy thy Bounty and to reduce thy streams into thy drops and thy drops into thy clouds humbly and thankfully acknowledging whence and how I have all that I have all that I am XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in WHat a change there is in the room since the Light came in yea in our selves All things seem to have a new form a new life yea we are not the same we were How goodly a creature is Light how pleasing how agreeable to the spirits of man No visible thing comes so near to the resembling of the nature of the Soul yea of the God that made it As contrarily what an uncomfortable thing is Darknesse insomuch as we punish the greatest malefactors with obscurity of Dungeons as thinking they could not be miserable enough if they might have the priviledge of beholding the Light Yea Hell it self can be no more horribly described then by outward Darkness What is Darkness but absence of Light The pleasure or the horror of light or darkness is according to the quality and degree of the cause whence it ariseth And if the light of a poor Candle be so comfortable which is nothing but a little inflamed aire gathered about a moistened snuffe what is the light of the glorious Sun the great lamp of Heaven But much more what is the light of that infinitely-resplendent Sun of Righteousnesse who gave that light to the Sun that Sun to the world And if this partial and imperfect Darkness be so dolefull which is the privation of a natural or artificial Light how unconceivable dolorous and miserable shall that be which is caused through the utter absence of the all-glorious God who is the Father of lights O Lord how justly do we pity those wretched Souls that sit in darkness and the shadow of death shut up from the light of the saving knowledge of thee the only true God But how am I swallowed up with horror to think of the fearfull condition of those damned Souls that are for ever shut out from the presence of God and adjudged to exquisite everlasting darkness The Egyptians were weary of themselves in their three daies darkness yet we do not finde any pain that accompanied their continuing night What
cometh Usurpation of others Rights violation of Oaths and Contracts and lastly erroneous Zeal are guilty of all these publick Murders Private mens injuries are washt off with tears but wrongs done to Princes and publick States are hardly wip'd off but with blood Doubtlesse that fearfull Comet did not more certainly portend these Wars then these Wars presage the approach of the end of the World The earth was never without some broils since it was peopled but with three men but so universal a combustion was never in the Christian world since it was O Saviour what can I think of this but that as thou wouldst have a generall Peace upon thy first coming into the World so upon thy second coming thou meanest there shall be a no lesse generall War upon earth That Peace made way for thy meek appearance this War for thy dreadfull and terrible XCVIII Upon a Childe crying IT was upon great reason that the Apostle charges us not to be children in Understanding What fools we all once are Even at first we crie and smile we know not wherefore we have not wit enough to make signs what hurts us or where we complain we can wry the mouth but not seek the breast and if we want help we can only lament and sprawl and die After when some months have taught us to distinguish a little betwixt things and persons we crie for every toy even that which may most hurt us and when there is no other cause we crie only to hear our own noise and are straight stilled with a greater and if it be but upon the breeding of a tooth we are so wayward that nothing will please us and if some formerly-liked knack be given to quiet us we cast away that which we have if we have not what we would seem to like We fear neither fire nor water nothing scares us but either a rod or a feigned bug-bear we mis-know our Parents not acknowledging any friend but the Taylor that brings us a fine Coat or the Nurse that dresses us gay The more that our riper years resemble these dispositions the more childish we are and more worthy both of our own and others censure But again it was upon no lesse reason that the Apostle charges us to be children in Maliciousness Those little Innocents bear no grudge they are sooner pleased then angry and if any man have wronged them let them but have given a stroke unto the Nurse to beat the offender it is enough at the same instant they put forth their hand for reconcilement and offer themselves unto those arms that trespassed And when they are most froward they are stilled with a pleasant Song The old word is that An old man is twice a childe but I say happy is he that is thus a childe alwaies It is a great imperfection to want Knowledge but of the two it is better to be a childe in Understanding then a man in Maliciousness XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sickness IT was my own fault if I look'd not for this All things must undergoe their changes I have enjoyed many fair daies there was no reason I should not at last make account of clouds and storms Could I have done well without any mixtures of sin I might have hoped for entire Health But since I have interspersed my Obedience with many sinfull failings and enormities why do I think much to interchange Health with Sickness What I now feel I know I am not worthy to know what I must feel As my times so my measures are in the hands of a wise and good God My comfort is he that sends these evils proportions them If they be sharp I am sure they are just the most that I am capable to endure is the least part of what I have deserved to suffer Nature would fain be at ease but Lord whatever become of this carkasse thou hast reason to have respect to thine own Glory I have sinned and must smart It is the glory of thy Mercy to beat my Body for the safety of my Soul The worst of Sickness is Pain and the worst of pain is but Death As for Pain if it be extreme it cannot be long and if it be long such is the difference of earthly and Hellish torments it cannot be extreme As for Death it is both unavoidable and beneficial there ends my Misery and begins my Glory a few groans are well bestowed for a preface to an immortal joy Howsoever O God thy messenger is worthy to be welcome It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will C. Upon the challenge of a Promise IT is true an Honest mans word must be his master when I have promised I am indebted and debts may be claimed must be payed but yet there is a great deal of difference in our ingagements some things we promise because they are due some things are onely due because they are promised These latter which are but the mere ingagements of Curtesie cannot so absolutely binde us that notwithstanding any intervention of unworthiness or misbehaviour in the person exspectant we are tied to make our word good though to the cutting of our own throats All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver where that palpably faileth common Equity sets us free I promised to send a fair Sword to my friend he is since that time turn'd frantick must I send it or be charged with unfaithfulness if I send it not O God thy Title is the God of Truth thou canst no more cease to be faithfull then to be How oft hast thou promised that no good thing shall be wanting to thine and yet we know thy dearest children have complained of want Is thy word therefore challengeable Far far be this wicked presumption from our thoughts No These thy promises of outward Favours are never but with a subintelligence of a condition of our capableness of our expedience Thou seest that Plenty or Ease would be our bane thy Love forbears to satisfie us with an harmfull Blessing We are worthy to be plagued with prejudicial kindnesses if we do not acknowledge thy Wisdome and care in our want It is enough for us that thy best Mercies are our dues because thy Promises we cannot too much claim that which thou hast absolutely ingaged thy self to give and in giving shalt make us eternally happy CI. Upon the sight of Flies WHen I look upon these Flies and gnats and worms I have reason to think What am I to my infinite Creator more then these And if these had my Reason why might they not expostulate with their Maker why they are but such why they live to so little purpose and die without either notice or use And if I had no more Reason then they I should be as they content with any condition That Reason which I have is not of my owne giving he that hath given me Reason might as well have given it to them or have made me as reason-lesse as
Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse