but lust most of all Neuer man that had drunke flagons of wine had lesse reason then this Nazarite Many a one loses his life but this casts it away not in hatred of himselfe but in loue to a strumpet Wee wonder that a man could possibly be so sottish and yet wee our selues by tentation become no lesse insensate Sinfull pleasures like a common Dalilah lodge in our bosomes we know they aime at nothing but the death of our soule wee will yeeld to them and die Euery willing sinner is a Samson let vs not inueigh against his senslesnesse but our own Nothing is so grosse and vnreasonable to a well-disposed minde which tentation will not represent fit and plausible No soule can out of his owne strength secure himselfe from that sinne which he most detesteth As an hood-winkt man sees some little glimmering of light but not enough to guide him so did Samson who had reason enough left him to make triall of Dalilah by a crafty mis-information but not enough vpon that triall to distrust and hate her he had not wit enough to deceiue her thrice not enough to keepe himselfe from being deceiued by her It is not so great wisedome to proue them whom we distrust as it is folly to trust them whom we haue found trecherous Thrice had he seen the Philistims in her chamber ready to surprize him vpon her bonds and yet will needs be a slaue to his Traytor Warning not taken is a certaine presage of destruction and if once neglected it receiue pardon yet thrice is desperate What man would euer play thus with his owne ruine His harlot bindes him and calls in her executioners to cut his throat he rises to saue his own life and suffers them to carry away theirs in peace Where is the courage of Samson Where his zeale He that killed the Philistims for their clothes He that slew a thousand of them in the field at once in this quarrel now suffers them in his chamber vnreuenged Whence is this His hands were strong but his heart was effeminate his harlot had diuerted his affection Whosoeuer slackens the reines to his sensuall appetite shall soone grow vnfit for the calling of God Samson hath broke the green withies the new ropes the woofe of his haire and yet still suffers himselfe fettered with those inuisible bonds of an harlots loue and can indure her to say How canst thou say I loue thee when thy heart is not with me thou hast mocked me these three times Whereas he should rather haue said to her How canst thou challenge any loue from me that hast thus thice sought my life O canst thou thinke my mockes a sufficient reuenge of this trechery But contraily he melts at this fire and by her importunate insinuations is wrought against himselfe Wearinesse of sollicitation hath won some to those actions which at the first motion they despised like as we see some suters are dispatcht not for the equity of the cause but the trouble of the prosecution because it is more easie to yeeld not more reasonable It is more safe to keepe our selues out of the noyâ—e of suggestions then to stand vpon our power of deniall Who can pitty the losse of that strength which was so abused who can pitty him the losse of his locks which after so many warnings can sleepe in the lappe of Dalilah It is but iust that he should rise vp from thence shauen and feeble not a Nazarite scarce a man If his strength had lyen in his haire it had been out of himselfe it was not therefore in his locks it was in his consecration whereof that haire was a signe If the razor had come sooner vpon his head he had ceased to be a Nazarite and the gift of God had at once ceased with the calling of God not for the want of that excretioÌ„ but for the want of obedience If God withdraw his graces when he is too much prouoked who can complain of his mercy He that sleeps in sinne must looke to wake in losse and weaknesse Could Samson thinke Though I tell her my strength lies in my haire yet she will not cut it or though she doe cut my haire yet shall I not lose my strength that now he rises and shakes himselfe in hope of his former vigor Custome of successe makes men confident in their sinnes and causes them to mistake an arbitrary tenure for a perpetuity His eyes were the first offenders which betrayed him to lust and now they are first pulled out and he is ledde a blinde captiue to Azzah where he was first captiued to his lust The Azzahites which lately saw him not without terror running lightly away with their gates at midnight see him now in his own perpetuall night strugling with his chaines and that he may not want paine together with his bondage he must grind in his prison As he passed the street euery boy among the Philistims could not throw stons at him euery woman could laugh and shout at him and what one Philistim doth not say whiles he lashes him vnto bloud There is for my brothers or my kinsman whom thou slewest Who can looke to run away with a sin when Samson a Nazarite is thus plagued This great heart could not but haue broken with indignation if it had not pacified it selfe with the conscience of the iust desert of all this vengeance It is better for Samson to be blinde in prison then to abuse his eyes in Soreâ— yea I may safely say he was more blind when he saw licentiously then now that he sees not He was a greater slaue when he serued his affections then now in grinding for the Philistims The losse of his eyes shewes him his sinne neither could he see how ill he had done till he saw not Euen yet still the God of mercy lookt vpon the blindnesse of Samson and in these fetters enlargeth his heart from the worse prison of his sinne his haire grew together with his repentance and his strength with his haire Gods mercifull humiliations of his owne are sometimes so seuere that they seeme to differ little from desertions yet at the worst hee loues vs bleeding and when we haue smarted enough we shall feele it What thankfull Idolaters were these Philistims They could not but know that their bribes and their Delilah had deliuered Samson to them and yet they sacrifice to their Dagon and as those that would be liberall in casting fauours vpon a senselesse Idoll of whom they could receiue none they cry out Our god hath deliuered our enemie into our hands Where was their Dagon when a thousand of his clyents were slain with an Asses iaw There was more strength in that bone then in all the makers of this god and yet these vaine Pagans say Our god It is the quality of superstition to misinterpret all euents and so feede it selfe with the conceit of those fauours which are so farre from being done that their authors neuer
the rest had ingaged it selfe in Shebaes sedition yet how â—ealously doth Ioab remoue from himselfe the suspition of an intended vastation How fearfull shall their answer be who vpon the quarrell of their owne ambition haue not spared to waste whole Tribes of the Israel of God It was not the fashion of Dauids Captaines to assault any City ere they summond it here they did There bee some things that in the very â—act carie their owne conuiction So did Abel in the entertaining and abetting a knowne conspirator Ioab challenges them for the offence and requires no other satisfaction then the head of Sheba This Matron had not deserued the name of Wise and faithfull in Israel if she had not both apprehended the iustice of the condition and commended it to her Citizens whom she hath easily perswaded to spare their owne heads in not sparing a Traitors It had been pitie those wals should haue stood if they had beene to hye to throw a Traitors head ouer Spiritually the case is ours Euery mans brest is as a City inclosed Euery sinne is a Traitor that lurkes within those wals God cals to vs for Shebaes head neither hath he any quarrell to our person but for our sinne If wee loue the head of our Traitor aboue the life of our soule wee shall iustly perish in the vengeance we cannot be more willing to part with our sinne then our mercifull God is to withdraw his iudgements Now is Ioab returned with successe and hopes by Shebaes head to pay the price of Amasaes blood Dauid hates the murder entertaines the man defers the reuenge Ioab had made himselfe so great so necessary that Dauid may neither misse nor punish him Policy led the King to conniue at that which his heart abhorred I dare not commend that wisedome which holds the hands of Princes from doing iustice Great men haue euer held it a point of worldly state not alwayes to pay vvhere they haue been conscious to a debt of either fauour or punishment but to make Time their seruant for both Salomon shall once defray the arerages of his father In the meane time Ioab commands and prospers and Dauid is faine to smile on that face whereon he hath in his secret destination written the characters of Death The Gibeonites reuenged THE raigne of Dauid was most troublesome towards the shutting vp wherein both warre and famine conspire to afflict him Almost forty yeares had he sate in the throne of Israel with competency if not abundance of all things now at last are his people visited with a long death we are not at first sensible of common euils Three yeares drought and scarcitie are gone ouer ere Dauid consults with God concerning the occasion of the iudgement now he found it high time to seeke the face of the Lord The continuance of an affliction sends vs to God and cals vpon vs to aske for a reckoning Whereas like men strucken in their sleepe a sudden blow cannot make vs to finde our selues but rather astonisheth then teacheth vs. Dauid was himselfe a Prophet of God yet had not the Lord all this while acquainted him with the grounds of his proceedings against Israel this secret was hid from him till hee consulted with the Vrim Ordinarie meanes shall reueale that to him which no vision had descryed And if God will haue Prophets to haue recourse vnto the Priests for the notice of his will how much more must the people Euen those that are the inwardest with God must haue vse of the Ephod Iustly is it presupposed by Dauid that there was neuer iudgement from God where hath not been a prouocation from men therefore when he sees the plague he inquires for the sinne Neuer man smarted causelessely from the hand of diuine iustice Oh that when we suffer we could aske what wee haue done and could guide our repentance to the root of our euils That God whose counsels are secret euen where his actions are open will not bee close to his Prophet to his Priest without inquirie we shall know nothing vpon inquirie nothing shall be concealed from vs that is fit for vs to know Who can choose but wonder at once both at Dauids slacknesse in consulting with God and Gods speed in answering so slow a demand He that so well knew the way to Gods Oracle suffers Israel to be three yeares pinched with famine ere hee askes why they suffer Euen the best hearts may be ouertaken with dulnesse in holy dâ—ties But oh the maruellous mercy of God that takes not the aduantage of our weaknesses Dauids question is not more slow then his answer is speedy It is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites Israel was full of sinnes besides those of Sauls house Sauls house was full of sinnes besides those of blood Much blood was shed by them besides that of the Gibeonites yet the iustice of God singles out this one sinne of violence offered to the Gibeonites contrary to the league made by Ioshua some foure hundred yeares before for the occasion of this late vengeance Where the causes of offence are infinite it is iust with God to pitch vpon some it is mercifull not to punish for all Welneer forty yeares are past betwixt the commission of the sinne and the reckoning for it It is a vaine hope that is raised from the delay of iudgement No time can be any preiudice to the ancient of dayes When wee haue forgotten our sins when the world hath forgotten vs he sues vs afresh for our arerages The slaughter of the Gibeonites was the sinne not of the present but rather the former generation and now posteritie payes for their forefathers Euen we men hold it not vniust to sue the heires and executors of our debters Eternall paiments God vses onely to require of the person temporarie oft-times of succession As Saul was higher by the head and shoulders then the rest of Israel both in stature and dignitie so were his sinnes more conspicuous then those of the vulgar The eminence of the person makes the offence more remarkable to the eyes both of God and men Neither Saul nor Israel were faultlesse in other kinds yet God fixes the eye of his reuenge vpon the massacre of the Gibeonites Euery sinne hath a tongue but that of blood ouer-cryes and drownes the rest Hee who is mercy it selfe abhorres crueltie in his creature aboue all other inordinatenesse That holy soule which was heauy pressed with the weight of an hainous adulterie yet cryes out Deliuer me from blood O God the God of my saluation and my tongue shall sing ioyfully of thy righteousnesse If God would take account of blood hee might haue entred the action vpon the blood of Vriah spilt by Dauid or if hee would rather insist in Sauls house vpon the blood of Abimelech the Priest and fourescore and fiue persons that did weare a linnen Ephod but it pleased the wisdome and iustice of the Almighty rather to
laid to which if they shall adde but one scruple it shall be to mee sufficient ioy contentment recompence From your Hal-sted Decemb. 4. Your Worships humbly deuouted IOS HALL THE FIRST CENTVRIE OF MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE and MORALL 1 IN Meditation those which begin heauenly thoughts and prosecute them not are like those which kindle a fire vnder greene wood and leaue it so soone as it but begins to flame leesing the hope of a good beginning for want of seconding it with a sutable proceeding when I set my selfe to meditate I will not giue ouer till I come to an issue It hath beene said by some that the beginning is as much as the middest yea more than all but I say the ending is more than the beginning 2 There is nothing but Man that respecteth greatnesse Not God not death not Iudgement Not God he is no accepter of persons Not nature we see the sonnes of Princes borne as naked as the poorest and the poore childe as faire well-fauoured strong witty as the heire of Nobles Not disease death iudgement they sicken alike die alike fare alike after death There is nothing besides naturall men of whom goodnesse is not respected I will honour greatnesse in others but for my selfe I will esteeme a dram of goodnesse worth a whole world of greatnesse 3 As there is a foolish wisdome so there is a wise ignorance in not prying into Gods Arke not enquiring into things not reuealed I would faine know all that I need and all that I may I leaue Gods secrets to himselfe It is happy for me that God makes me of his Court though not of his Counsell 4 As there is no vacuity in nature no more is there spiritually Euery vessell is full if not of liquor yet of aire so is the heart of man though by nature it is empty of grace yet it is full of hypocrisie and iniquitie Now as it is filled with grace so it is empty of his euill qualities as in a vessell so much water as goes in so much ayre goes out but mans heart is a narrow-mouthed vessell and receiues grace but by drops and therefore takes a long time to empty and fill Now as there be differences in degrees and one heart is neerer to fulnesse than another so the best vessell is not quite full while it is in the body because there are still remainders of corruption I will neither be content with that measure of grace I haue nor impatient of Gods delay but euery day I will endeuour to haue one drop added to the rest so my last day shall fill vp my vessell to the brim 5 Satan would seeme to bee mannerly and reasonable making as if hee would bee content with one halfe of the heart whereas God challengeth all or none as indeed hee hath most reason to claime all that made all But this is nothing but a craftie fetch of Satan for he knowes that if hee haue any part God will haue none so the whole falleth to his share alone My heart when it is both whole and at the best is but a strait and vnworthy lodging for God if it were bigger and better I would reserue it all for him Satan may looke in at my doores by a tentation but hee shall not haue so much as one chamber-roome set a part for him to soiourne in 6 I see that in naturall motions the neerer any thing comes to his end the swifter it moueth I haue seene great riuers which at their first rising out of some hills side might bee couered with a bushell which after many miles fill a very broad channell and drawing neere to the Sea doe euen make a little Sea in their owne bankes So the winde at the first rising as a little vapour from the crannies of the earth and passing forward about the earth the further it goes the more blustering and violent it waxeth A Christians motion after hee is regenerate is made naturall to God-ward and therefore the neerer he comes to heauen the more zealous he is A good man must not bee like Ezekias Sunne that went backward nor like Ioshuahs Sunne that stood still but Dauids Sunne that like a Bridegroome comes out of his chamber and as a Champion reioiceth to runne his race onely herein is the difference that when hee comes to his high noone hee declineth not How euer therefore the minde in her naturall faculties followes the temperature of the body yet in these supernaturall things she quite crosses it For with the coldest complexion of age is ioined in those that are truly religious the feruentest zeale and affection to good things which is therefore the more reuerenced and better acknowledged because it cannot bee ascribed to the hot spirits of youth The Deuill himselfe deuised that old slander of early holinesse A young Saint an old Deuill Sometimes young Deuils haue proued old Saints neuer the contrarie but true Saints in youth doe alwaies proue Angels in their age I will striue to bee euer good but if I should not finde my selfe best at last I should feare I was neuer good at all 7 Consent harteneth sinne which a little dislike would haue daunted at first As wee say There would bee no theeues if no receiuers so would there not bee so many open mouthes to detract and slander if there were not so many open eares to entertaine them If I cannot stop another mans mouth from speaking ill I will either open my mouth to reproue it or else I will stop mine cares from hearing it and let him see in my face that he hath no roome in my heart 8 I haue oft wondered how fishes can retaine their fresh taste and yet liue in salt waters since I see that euery other thing participates of the nature of the place wherein it abides So the waters passing thorow the chanels of the earth varie their sauour with the veines of soile thorow which they slide So brute creatures transported from one region to another alter their former qualitie and degenerate by little and little The like danger I haue seene in the manners of men conuersing with euill companions in corrupt places For besides that it blemisheth our reputation and makes vs thought ill though wee bee good it breeds in vs an insensible declination to ill and workes in vs if not an approbation yet a lesse dislike of those sinnes to which our eares and eies are so continually inured I may haue a bad acquaintance I will neuer haue a wicked companion 9 Expectation in a weake minde makes an euill greater and a good lesse but in a resolued minde it digests an euill before it come and makes a future good long before present I will expect the worst because it may come the best because I know it will come 10 Some promise what they cannot doe as Satan to Christ some what they could but meane not to doe as the sons of Iacob to the Sechemites some what they meant for the
thousand to the others ten as the Sunne more vsually causeth the traueller to cast off his cloke than the wind For those on the left hand miscarry men but two waies to distrust and deniall of God more rate sinnes but the other to all the rest wherewith mens liues are so commonly defiled The spirit of Christians is like the English leat whereof we reade that it is fired with water quenched with oyle And these two prosperity and aduersity are like heat and cold the one gathers the powers of the soule together and makes them abler to resist by vniting them the other diffuses them and by such separation makes them easier to conquer I hold it therefore as praise-worthy with God for a man to contemne a proffered honour or pleasure for conscience sake as on the racke not to denie bis profession When these are offered I will not nibble at the bait that I be not taken with the hooke 80 God is Lord of my body also and therefore challengeth as well reuerent gesture as inward deuotion I will euer in my praiers either stand as a seruant before my master or kneele as a subiect to my Prince 81 I haue not beene in others breasts but for my owne part I neuer tasted of ought that might deserue the name of pleasure And if I could yet a thousand pleasures cannot counteruaile one torment because the one may be exquisite the other not without composition And if not one torment much lesse a thousand And it not for a moment much lesse for eternity And if not the torment of a part much lesse of the whole For if the paine but of a tooth be so intolerable what shall the racking of the whole body be And if of the body what 〈◊〉 â—hat be which is primarily of the soule If there be pleasures that I heare not of I will be wary of buying them so ouer-deare 82 As Hypocrisie is a common counterfeit of all vertues so there is no speciall vertue which is not to the very life of it seemingly resembled by some speciall vice So deuotion is counterfeited by superstition good thrift by niggardlinesse charity with vaine-glorious pride For as charity is bounteous to the poore so is vaine-glory to the wealthy as charity sustaines all for truth so pride for a vaine praise both of them make a man courteous and affable So the substance of euery vertue is in the heart which since it hath not a window made into it by the Creator of it but is reserued vnder locke and key for his owne view I will iudge onely by appearance I had rather wrong my selfe by credulity than others by vniust censures and suspicions 83 Euery man hath a kingdome within himselfe Reason as the Princesse dwels in the highest and inwardest roome the senses are the Guard and attendants on the Court without whose aid nothing is admitted into the Presence The supreme faculties as will memory c. are the Peeres The outward parts and inward affections are the Commons Violent Passions are as Rebels to disturbe the common peace I would not be a Stoicke to haue no Passions for that were to ouerthrow this inward gouernment God hath erected in me but a Christian to order those I haue And for that I see that as in commotions one mutinous person drawes on more so in passions that one makes way for the extremity of another as excesse of loue causeth excesse of griefe vpon the losse of what we loued I will doe as wise Princes vse to those they misdoubt for faction so hold them downe and keepe them bare that their very impotency and remisnesse shall affoord me securitie 84 I looke vpon the things of this life as an owner as a stranger As an owner in their right as a stranger in their vse I see that owning is but a conceit besides vsing I can vse as I lawfully may other mens commodities as my owne walke in their woods looke on their faire houses with as much pleasure as my owne yet againe I will vse my owne as if it were anothers knowing that though I hold them by right yet it is only by Tenure at will 85 There is none like to Luthers three masters Prayer Tentation Meditation Tentation stirs vp holy meditation Meditation prepares to Praier and Praier makes profit of Tentation and fetcheth all diuine knowledge from Heauen Of others I may learne the Theorie of Diuinity of these onely the Practise Other masters teach me by rote to speake Parrot-like of heauenly things these alone with feeling and vnderstanding 86 Affectation is the greatest enemy both of doing well and good acceptance of what is done I hold it the part of a wise man to endeuour rather that fame may follow him than goe before him 87 I see a number which with Shimei whiles they seeke their seruant which is riches lose their soules No worldly thing shall draw me without the gates within which God hath confined me 88 It is an hard thing for a man to finde wearinesse in pleasure while it lasteth or contentment in paine while he is vnder it After both indeed it is easie yet both of these must be found in both or else we shall be drunken with pleasures and ouerwhelmed with sorrow As those therefore which should eat some dish ouer-deliciously sweet doe allay it with tart sawce that they may not be cloyed and those that are to receiue bitter pills that they may not be annoyed with their vnpleasing taste rowle them in Sugar So in all pleasures it is best to labour not how to make them most delightfull but how to moderate them from excesse and in all sorrowes so to settle our hearts in true grounds of comfort that we may not care so much for being bemoned of others as how to be most contented in our selues 89 In wayes we see Trauellers chuse not the fairest and greenest if it be either crosse or contrary but the neerest though miry and vneuen so in opinions let me follow not the plausiblest but the truest though more perplexed 90 Christian societie is like a bundle of sticks laid together whereof one kindles another Solitary men haue fewest prouocations to euill but againe fewest incitations to good So much as doing good is better than not doing euill will I account Christian good fellowship better than an Eremitish and melancholike solitarinesse 91 I had rather confesse my ignorance than falsly professe knowledge It is no shame not to know all things but it is a iust shame to ouer-reach in any thing 92 Sudden extremitie is a notable triall of faith or any other disposition of the soule For as in a sudden feare the bloud gathers to the heart for guarding of that part which is principall so the powers of the soule combine themselues in an hard exigent that they may be easily iudged of The faithfull more suddenly than any casualtie can lift vp his heart to his stay in Heauen Whereas the worldling stands amazed
way the best seat If I deserue well a low place cannot disparage me so much as I shall grace it if not the height of my place shall adde to my shame whiles euery man shall condemne me of pride matched with vnworthinesse 34 I see there is not so much difference betwixt a man and a beast as betwixt a Christian and a naturall man For whereas man liues but one life of reason aboue the beast a Christian liues foure liues aboue a naturall man The life of inchoate regeneration by grace the perfect life of imputed righteousnesse the life of glory begun in the separation of the soule the life of perfect glory in the society of the body with the soule in full happinesse The worst whereof is better by many degrees than the best life of a naturall man For whereas the dignitie of the life is measured by the cause of it in which regard the life of the plant is basest because it is but from the iuyce arising from the root administred by the earth the life of the bruit creature better than it because it is sensitiue of a man better than it because reasonable and the cause of this life is the Spirit of God so farre as the Spirit of God is aboue reason so farre doth a Christian exceed a meere naturalist I thanke God much that hee hath made me a man but more that hee hath made me a Christian without which I know not whether it had beene better for me to haue beene a beast or not to haue beene 35 Great mens fauours friends promises and dead mens shooes I will esteeme but not trust to 36 It is a fearefull thing to sinne more fearefull to delight in sinne yet worse than worst to boast of it If therefore I cannot auoid sinne because I am a man yet I will auoid the delight defence and boasting of sinne because I am a Christian 37 Those things which are most eagerly desired are most hardly both gotten and kept God commonly crossing our desires in what we are ouer-feruent I will therefore account all things as too good to haue so nothing too deare to lose 38 A true friend is not borne euerie day It is best to be courteous to all entire with few So may we perhaps haue lesse cause of ioy I am sure lesse occasion of sorrow 39 Secrecies as they are a burthen to the minde ere they be vttered so are they no lesse charge to the receiuer when they are vttered I will not long after more inward secrets lest I should procure doubt to my selfe and iealous feare to the discloser But as my mouth shall be shut with fidelitie not to blab them so mine eare shall not bee too open to receiue them 40 As good Physicians by one receit make way for another so is it the safest course in practice I will reueale a great secret to none but whom I haue found faithfull in lesse 41 I will enioy all things in God and God in all things nothing in it selfe So shall my ioyes neither change nor perish For how euer the things themselues may alter or fade yet he in whom they are mine is euer like himselfe constant and euerlasting 42 If I would prouoke my selfe to contentation I will cast downe mine eies to my inferiours and there see better men in worse condition if to humility I will cast them vp to my betters and so much more deiect my selfe to them by how much more I see them thought worthy to be respected of others and deserue better in themselues 43 True vertue rests in the conscience of it selfe either for reward or censure If therefore I know my selfe vpright false rumors shall not daunt me if not answerable to the good report of my fauourers I will my selfe finde the first fault that I may preuent the shame of others 44 I will account vertue the best riches knowledge the next riches the worst and therefore will labour to be vertuous and learned without condition as for riches if they fall in my way I refuse them not but if not I desire them not 45 An honest word I account better than a carelesse oath I will say nothing but what I dare sweare and will performe It is a shame for a Christian to abide his tongue a false seruant or his minde a loose mistresse 46 There is a iust and easie difference to be put betwixt a friend and an enemie betwixt a familiar and a friend and much good vse to be made of all but of all with discretion I will disclose my selfe no whit to my enemie somewhat to my friend wholly to no man lest I should be more others than mine owne Friendship is brittle stuffe How know I whether he that loues me may not hate mee hereafter 47 No man but is an easie Iudge of his owne matters and lookers on oftentimes see the more I will therefore submit my selfe to others in what I am reproued but in what I am praised onely to my selfe 48 I will not be so merry as to forget God nor so sorrowfull to forget my selfe 49 As nothing makes so strong and mortall hostilitie as discord in religions so nothing in the world vnites mens hearts so firmely as the bond of faith For whereas there are three grounds of friendship Vertue Pleasure Profit and by all confessions that is the surest which is vpon Vertue it must needs follow that what is grounded on the best and most heauenly Vertue must be the fastest which as it vnites man to God so inseparably that no tentations no torments not all the gates of Hell can seuer him so it vnites one Christian soule to another so firmely that no outward occurrences no imperfections in the partie loued can dissolue them If I loue not the childe of God for his owne sake for his Fathers sake more than my friend for my commodity or my kinsman for bloud I neuer receiued any sparke of true heauenly loue 50 The good duty that is deferred vpon a conceit of present vnfitnesse at last growes irksome and thereupon altogether neglected I will not suffer my heart to entertaine the least thought of lothnesse towards the taske of deuotion wherewith I haue stinted my selfe but violently breake thorow any motion of vnwillingnesse not without a deepe checke to my selfe for my backwardnesse 51 Hearing is a sense of great apprehension yet farre more subiect to deceit than seeing not in the manner of apprehending but in the vncertainty of the obiect Words are vocall interpreters of the minde actions reall and therefore how euer both should speake according to the truth of what is in the heart yet words doe more belie the heart than actions I care not what words I heare when I see deeds I am sure what a man doth he thinketh not so alwaies what he speaketh Though I will not bee so seuere a censor that for some few euill acts I should condemne a man of false-heartednesse yet in common course of life
perillous and impious presumption continuance can no more make any wickednesse safe than the author of sinne no Deuill If I haue once sinned it is too much if oft woe bee to mee if the iteration of my offence cause boldnesse and not rather more sorrow more detestation woe be to me and my sinne if I be not the better because I haue sinned 99 It is strange to see the varieties and proportion of spirituall and bodily diets there bee some creatures that are fatted and delighted with poysons others liue by nothing but aire and some they say by fire others will taste no water but muddie others feed on their fellowes or perhaps on part of themselues others on the excretions of nobler creatures some search into the earth for sustenance or diue into the waters others content themselues with what the vpper earth yeelds them without violence All these and more are answered in the palate of the soule there bee some yea the most to whom sinne which is of a most venemous nature is both food and dainties others that thinke it the onely life to feed on the popular aire of applause others that are neuer well out of the fire of contentions and that wilfully trouble all waters with their priuate humours and opinions others whose crueltie delights in oppression and bloud yea whose enuie gnawes vpon their owne hearts others that take pleasure to reuiue the wicked and foule heresies of the greater wits of the former times others whose worldly mindes root altogether in earthly cares or who not content with the ordinarie prouision of doctrine affect obscure subtilties vnknowne to wiser men others whose too indifferent mindes feed on what-euer opinion comes next to hand without any carefull disquisition of truth so some feed foule others but few cleane and wholsome As there is no beast vpon Earth which hath not his like in the Sea and which perhaps is not in some sort parallelled in the plants of the earth so there is no bestiall disposition which is not answerably found in some men Mankinde therefore hath within it selfe his Goats Chameleons Salamanders Camels Wolues Dogs Swine Moles and whateuer sorts of beasts there are but a few men amongst men to a wise man the shape is not so much as the qualities If I be not a man within in my choices affections inclinations it had beene better for mee to haue beene a beast without A beast is but like it selfe but an euill man is halfe a beast and halfe a Deuill S. 100 Forced fauours are thanklesse and commonly with noble mindes finde no acceptation for a man to giue his soule to God when he sees he can no longer hold it or to bestow his goods when he is forced to depart with them or to forsake his sinne when hee cannot follow it are but vnkinde and cold obediences God sees our necessitie and scornes our compelled offers what man of any generous spirit will abide himselfe made the last refuge of a craued denied and constrained courtesie While God giues mee leaue to keepe my soule yet then to bequeathe it to him and whiles strength and opportunitie serue mee to sinne then to forsake it is both accepted and crowned God loues neither grudged nor necessarie gifts I will offer betimes that hee may vouchsafe to take I will giue him the best that he may take all O God giue me this grace that I may giue thee my selfe freely and seasonably and then I know thou canst not but accept me because this gift is thine owne FINIS MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE AND MORALL A THIRD CENTVRY By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL SIR EDMVND BACON Knight increase of honour strength of body perfection of VERTVE SIR There is no wise man would giue his thoughts for all the world which as they are the most pleasing and noble businesse of man being the naturall and immediate issue of that reason whereby he is seuered from brute creatures so they are in their vse most beneficiall to our selues and others For by the meanes hereof we enioy both God and our selues and hereby we make others partners of those rich excellencies which God hath hid in the minde And though it be most easie and safe for a man with the Psalmist to commune with his owne heart in silence yet is it more behouefull to the common good for which both as men and Christians we are ordained that those thoughts which our experience hath found comfortable and fruitfull to our selues should with neglect of all censures be communicated to others The concealement whereof me thinkes can proceed from no other ground but either timorousnesse or enuie Which consideration hath induced me to clothe these naked thoughts in plaine and simple words and to aduenture them into the light after their fellowes Consecrating them the rather to your name for that besides all other respects of dutie they are part of those meditations which in my late peregrination with you tooke me vp vnder the solitarie hilles of Ardenna wanting as then the opportunitie of other employment J offer them to you not for that your selfe is not stored with choice of better but as poore men vse to bring presents to the rich Jf they may carrie acceptation from you and bring profit vnto my soule it shall abundantly satisfie mee who should thinke it honour enough if I might be vouchsafed to bring but one pinne towards the decking of the Spouse of Christ whiles others out of their abundance adorne her with costly robes and rich medals J commend their successe to God their patronage to you their vse to the world That God multiplie his rare fauours vpon you and your worthy Ladie and goe you on to fauour Your Worships humbly deuoted IOS HALL MEDITATIONS AND VOWES 1 GOOD men are placed by God as so many starres in the lower firmament of the world As they must imitate those heauenly bodies in their light and influence so also in their motion and therefore as the Planets haue a course proper to themselues against the sway of the Heauen that carries them about so must each good man haue a motion out of his owne iudgement contrary to the customes and opinions of the vulgar finishing his owne course with the least shew of resistance I will neuer affect singularity except it bee among those that are vicious It is better to doe or thinke well alone than to follow a multitude in euill 2 What strange variety of actions doth the eie of God see at once round about the compasse of the earth and within it Some building houses some deluing for metals some marching in troups or encamping one against another some bargaining in the market some trauelling on their way some praying in their closets others quaffing at the Tauerne some rowing in the Gallies others dallying in their chambers and in short as many
a perpetuall make-bate betwixt God and man betwixt a man and himselfe And this enmitie though it doe not continually shew it selfe as the mortallest enemies are not alwaies in pitched fields one against the other for that the conscience is not euer clamorous but some while is silent other-whiles with still murmurings bewraies his mislâ—kes The torment of an euill conscience yet doth euermore worke secret vnquietnesse to the heart The guilty man may haue a seeming truce a true peace he cannot haue Looke vpon the face of the guilty heart and thou shalt see it pale and ghastly the smiles and laughters faint and heartlesse the speeches doubtfull and full of abrupt stops and vnseasonable turnings the purposes and motions vnsteddy and sauouring of much distraction arguing plainly that sinne is not so smooth at her first motions as turbulent afterwards hence are those vaine wearyings of places and companies together with our selues that the galled soule doth after the wont of sicke Patients seeke refreshing in variety and after many tossed and turned sides complaines of remedilesse and vnabated torment Nero after so much innocent bloud may change his bed-chamber but his Fiends euer attend him euer are within him and are as parts of himselfe Alas what auailes it to seeke outward releefes when thou hast thine executioner within thee If thou couldest shift from thy selfe thou mightest haue some hope of ease now thou shalt neuer want furies so long as thou hast thy selfe Yea what if thou wouldest runne from thy selfe Thy soule may flie from thy bodie thy conscience will not flie from thy soule nor thy sinne from thy conscience Some men indeed in the bitternesse of these pangs of sinne like vnto those fondly impatient fishes that leape out of the panne into the flame haue leapt out of this priuate hell that is in themselues into the common pit choosing to aduenture vpon the future paines that they haue feared rather than to endure the present horrors they haue felt wherein what haue they gained but to that hell which was within them a second hell without The conscience leaues not where the Fiends begin but both ioyne together in torture But there are some firme and obdurate fore-heads whose resolution can laugh their sinnes out of countenance There are so large and able gorges as that they can swallow and digest bloudy murders without complaint who with the same hands which they haue since their last meale embrued in bloud can freely carue to themselues large morsels at the next sitting The ioy and peace of the guilty but dissembled Beleeuest thou that such a mans heart laughs with his face will not he dare to bee an Hypocrite that durst bee a villaine These glow-wormes when a night of sorrow compasses them make a lightsome and fiery shew of ioy when if thou presse them thou findest nothing but a cold and crude moisture Knowest thou not that there are those which count it no shame to sinne yet count it a shame to be checked with remorse especially so as others eies may descrie to whom repentance seemes base-mindednesse vnworthy of him that professes wisdome and valout Such a man can grieue when none sees it but himselfe can laugh when others see it himselfe feeles not Assure thy selfe that mans heart bleedeth when his face counterfeits a smile he weares out many waking houres when thou thinkest he resteth yea as his thoughts afford him not sleepe so his very sleepe affords him not rest but while his senses are tyed vp his sinne is loose representing it selfe to him in the vgliest shape and frighting him with horrible and hellish dreames And if perhaps custome hath bred a carelesnesse in him as wee see that vsuall whipping makes the childe not care for the rod yet an vnwonted extremity of the blow shall fetch bloud of the soule and make the backe that is most hardened sensible of smart and the further the blow is fetcht through intermission of remorse the harder it must needs alight Therefore I may confidently tell the carelesse sinner as that bold Tragedian said to his great Pompey The time shall come wherein thou shalt fetch deepe sighes and therefore shalt sorrow desperately because thou sorrowedst not sooner The fire of the conscience may lie for a time smothered with a pyle of greene wood that it cannot bee discerned whose moisture when once it hath mastered it sends vp so much greater flame by how much it had greater resistance Hope not then to stop the mouth of thy conscience from exclaiming whiles thy sinne continues that endeuour is both vaine and hurtfull So I haue seene them that haue stopt the nosthrill for bleeding in hope to stay the issue when the bloud hindered in his former course hath broken out of the mouth or found way downe into the stomacke The conscience is not pacificable while sinne is within to vex it no more than angry swelling can cease throbbing and aching whiles the thorne or the corrupted matter lies rotting vnderneath Time that remedies all other euills of the minde increaseth this which like to bodily diseases proues worse with continuance and growes vpon vs with our age SECT V. THere can be therefore no peace without reconciliation The remedy of an vnquiet Conscience thou canst not be friends with thy selfe till with God for thy conscience which is thy best friend while thou sinnest not like an honest seruant takes his Masters part against thee when thou hast sinned and will not looke straight vpon thee till thou vpon God not daring to be so kinde to thee as to be vnfaithfull to his Maker There can be no reconciliation without remission God can neither forget the iniury of sin nor dissemble hatred It is for men and those of hollow hearts to make pretences contrary to their affections soothings and smiles and imbracements where we meane not loue are from weaknesse Either for that we feare our insufficiency of present reuenge or hope for a fitter opportunitie afterwards or for that we desire to make our further aduantage of him to whom we meane euill These courses are not incident into an Almighty power who hauing the command of all vengeance can smite were he lift without all doubtings or delaies There can be no remission without satisfaction neither dealeth God with vs as we men with some desperate debters whom after long dilations of payments and many daies broken we altogether let goe for disabilitie or at least dismisse them vpon an easie composition All sinnes are debts all Gods debts must be discharged It is a bold word but a true God should not be iust if any of his debts should passe vnsatisfied The conceit of the profane vulgar makes him a God of all mercies and thereupon hopes for pardon without paiment Fond and ignorant presumption to disioyne mercy and iustice in him to whom they are both essentiall to make mercy exceede iustice in him in whom both are infinite Darest thou hope God can be so
oppression comes home and seeing his bagges safe applauds himselfe against all censurers The Glutton when he loseth friends or good name yet ioyeth in his well furnisht table and the laughter of his Wine more pleasing himselfe in one dish than he can bee grieued with all the worlds mis-carriage The needy Scholler whose wealth lies all in his braine cheeres himselfe against iniquitie of times with the conceit of his knowledge These starting holes the minde cannot want when it is hard driuen Now when as like to some chased Sisera it shrowds it selfe vnder the harbour of these Iaels although they giue it house-roome and milke for a time yet at last either they entertaine it with a naile in the Temples or being guiltie to their owne impotency send it out of themselues for safetie and peace For if the Crosse light in that which it made his refuge as if the couetous man be crossed in his riches what earthly thing can stay him from a desperate phrensie Or if the Crosse fall in a degree aboue the height of his stay as if the rich man be sicke or dying wherein all wealth is either contemned or remembred with anguish how doe all his comforts like vermine from an house on fire runne away from him and leaue him ouer to his ruine whiles the Soule that hath placed his refuge aboue is sure that the ground of his comfort cannot be matched with an earthly sorrow cannot be made variable by the change of any euent but is infinitely aboue all casualties and without all vncertainties What state is there wherein this heauenly stay shall not affoord mee not onely Peace but Ioy Am I in prison or in the hell of prisons in some darke low and desolate dungeon Pompon Alger Fox Martyr Lo there Algerius that sweet Martyr findes more light than aboue and pitties the darknesse of our libertie We haue but a Sunne to enlighten our world which euery cloud dimmeth and hideth from our eies but the Father of lights in respect of whom all the bright starres of heauen are but as the snuffe of a dimme candle shines into his pit and the presence of his glorious Angels make that an heauen to him which the world purposed as an hell of discomfort What walls can keepe out that infinite Spirit that fills all things What darknesse can be where the God of this Sunne dwelleth What sorrow where he comforteth Am I wandring in banishment Can I goe whither God is not what Sea can diuide betwixt him and mee then would I feare exile if I could bee driuen away as well from God as my countrie Now he is as much in all earths His title is alike to all places and mine in him His sunne shines to me his sea or earth beares me vp his presence cheereth mee whither-soeuer I goe He cannot be said to flit that neuer changeth his Host He alone is a thousand companions he alone is a world of friends That man neuer knew what it was to be familiar with God that complaines of the want of home of friends of companions while God is with him Am I contemned of the world It is enough for me that I am honoured of God of both I cannot The world would loue me more if I were lesse friends with God It cannot hate mee so much as God hates it What care I to be hated of them whom God hateth He is vnworthy of Gods fauour that cannot thinke it happinesse enough without the worlds How easie is it for such a man whiles the world disgraces him at once to scorne and pittie it that it cannot thinke nothing more contemptible than it selfe I am impouerished with losses That was neuer throughly good that may be lost My riches will not leese mee yea tho I forgoe all to my skin yet haue I not lost any part of my wealth For if hee bee rich that hath something how rich is he that hath the Maker and owner of all things I am weake and diseased in body He cannot miscarry that hath his Maker for his Physician Yet my soule the better part is sound for that cannot bee weake whose strength God is How many are sicke in that and complaine not I can be content to be let bloud in the arme or foot for the curing of the head or heart The health of the principall part is more ioy to me than it is trouble to bee distempered in the inferiour Let me know that God fauours me then I haue libertie in prison home in banishment honour in contempt in losses wealth health in infirmitie life in death and in all these happinesse And surely if our perfect fruition of God bee our complete heauen it must needs be that our inchoate conuersing with him is our heauen imperfectly and the entrance into the other which me thinkes differs from this not in the kinde of it but in the degree For the continuation of which happy societie sith strangenesse loseth acquaintance and breedeth neglect on our part must bee a daily renuing of heauenly familiaritie by seeking him vp euen with the contempt of all inferiour distraction by talking with him in our secret inuocations by hearing his conference with vs and by mutuall entertainment of each other in the sweet discourses of our daily meditations He is a sullen and vnsociable friend that wants words God shall take no pleasure in vs if wee be silent The heart that is full of loue cannot but haue a busie tongue All our talke with God is either Suites or Thankes In them the Christian heart powres out it selfe to his Maker and would not change this priuilege for a world All his annoyances all his wants all his dislikes are powred into the bosome of his inuisible friend who likes vs still so much more as we aske more as we complaine more Oh the easie and happy recourse that the poore soule hath to the high throne of Heauen we stay not for the holding out of a golden scepter to wame our admission before which our presence should be presumption and death No houre is vnseasonable no person too base no words too homely no fact too hard no importunitie too great We speake familiarly we are heard answered comforted Another while God interchangeably speaks vnto vs by the secret voice of his spirit or by the audible sound of his word we heare adore answer him by both which the minde so communicates it selfe to God and hath God so plentifully communicated vnto it that hereby it growes to such an habit of heauenlinesse as that now it wants nothing but dissolution of full glory SECT XXIII The subordinate rules of Tranquillitie 1. For actions OVt of this maine ground once setled in the heart like as so many riuers from one common sea flow those subordinate resolutions which we require as necessary to our peace whether in respect of our actions or our estate For our actions there must be a secret vow passed in the soule both of constant refraining
for it nor our Sauiour haue bidden vs to flee for it nor God promised it to his for a reward yet if in some cases we hate not life we loue not God nor our soules Herein as much as in any thing the peruersenesse of our nature appeares that we wish death or loue life vpon wrong causes wee would liue for pleasure or we would die for paine Iob for his sores Elias for his persecution Ionas for his Gourd would presently die and will needs out-face God that it is better for him to die than to liue wherein we are like to garrison-souldiers that while they liue within safe walls and shew themselues once a day rather for ceremonie and pompe than need or danger like warfare well enough but if once called forth to the field they wish themselues at home 29 Not onely the least but the worst is euer in the bottome what should God doe with the dregges of our age When sinne will admit thee his Client no longer then God shall be beholden to thee for thy seruice Thus is God dealt with in all other offerings The worst and least sheafe must be Gods Tenth The deformedst or simplest of our children must bee Gods Ministers the vncleanliest and most carelesse house must be Gods Temple The idlest and sleepiest houres of the day must be reserued for our praiers The worst part of our age for deuotion We would haue God giue vs still of the best and are ready to murmure at euery little euill he sends vs yet nothing is bad enough for him of whom we receiue all Nature condemnes this inequalitie and tels vs that he which is the Author of good should haue the best and he which giues all should haue his choice 30 When we goe about an euill businesse it is strange how readie the deuill is to set vs forward how carefull that we should want no furtherances So that if a man would be lewdly witty hee shall be sure to be furnished with store of profane iests wherein a loose heart hath double advantage of the conscionable If he would be voluptuous he shall want neither obiects nor opportunities The currant passage of ill enterprises is so farre from giuing cause of encouragement that it should iustly fright a man to looke backe to the Author and to consider that he therefore goes fast because the deuill driues him 31 In the choice of companions for our conuersation it is good dealing with men of good natures for though grace exerciseth her power in bridling nature yet sith wee are still men at the best some swinge she will haue in the most mortified Austeritie sullennesse or strangenesse of disposition and whatsoeuer qualities may make a man vnsociable cleaue faster to our nature than those which are morally euill True Christian loue may be separated from acquaintance and acquaintance from intirenesse These are not qualities to hinder our loue but our familiaritie 32 Ignorance as it makes bold intruding men carelesly into vnknowne dangers so also it makes men oft-times causelesly fearefull Herod feared Christs comming because he mistooke it If that Tyrant had knowne the manner of his spirituall Regiment he had spared both his owne fright and the bloud of other And hence it is that we feare death because we are not acquainted with the vertue of it Nothing but innocencie and knowledge can giue sound confidence to the heart 33 Where are diuers opinions they may be all false there can bee but one true and that one truth oft-times must be fetcht by peece-meale out of diuers branches of contrary opinions For it falls out not seldome that Truth is through ignorance or rash vehemency scattered into sundry parts and like to a little Siluer melted amongst the ruines of a burnt house must be tried out from heaps of much superfluous ashes There is much paines in the search of it much skill in finding it the value of it once found requites the cost of both 34 Affectation of superfluitie is in all things a signe of weaknesse As in words he that vseth circumlocutions to expresse himselfe shewes want of memory and want of proper speech And much talke argues a braine feeble and distempered What good can any earthly thing yeeld vs beside his vse and what is it but vanitie to affect that which doth vs no good and what vse is it in that which is superfluous It is a great skill to know what is enough and great wisdome to care for no more 35 Good things which in absence were desired now offering themselues to our presence are scarce entertained or at least not with our purposed cheerefulnesse Christs comming to vs and our going to him are in our profession well esteemed much wished but when he singleth vs out by a direct message of death or by some fearefull signe giueth likelihood of a present returne we are as much affected with feare as before with desire All changes although to the better are troublesome for the time vntill our setling There is no remedy hereof but inward preuention Our minde must change before our estate be changed 36 Those are greatest enemies to Religion that are not most irreligious Atheists though in themselues they bee the worst yet are seldome found hot Persecuters of others whereas those which in some one fundamentall point bee hereticall are commonly most violent in oppositions One hurts by secret infection the other by open resistance One is carelesse of all truth the other vehement for some vntruth An Atheist is worthy of more hatred an Heretike of more feare both of auoidance 37 Waies if neuer vsed cannot but bee faire if much vsed are made commodiously passable if before oft vsed and now seldome they become deepe and dangerous If the heart be not at all inured to meditation it findeth no fault with it selfe not for that it is innocent but secure if often it findeth comfortable passage for his thoughts if rarely and with intermission tedious and troublesome In things of this nature we onely escape complaint if we vse them either alwaies or neuer 38 Our sensuall hand holds fast whatsoeuer delight it apprehendeth our spirituall hand easily remitteth because appetite is stronger in vs than grace whence it is that we so hardly deliuer our selues of earthly pleasures which wee haue once entertained and with such difficultie draw our selues to a constant course of faith hope and spirituall ioy or to the renued acts of them once intermitted Age is naturally weake and youth vigorous but in vs the old man is strong the new faint and feeble the fault is not in grace but in vs Faith doth not want strength but we want faith 39 It is not good in worldly estates for a man to make himselfe necessary for hereupon he is both more toiled and more suspected but in the sacred Common-wealth of the Church a man cannot be ingaged too deeply by his seruice The ambition of spirituall well doing breeds no danger He that doth best and may
top-saile another to the maine a third to the plummet a fourth to the anchor as hee sees the need of their course and weather requires and doth no lesse by his tongue than all the Marriners with their hands On the Bench he is another from himselfe at home now all priuate respects of bloud alliance amity are forgotten and if his owne Sonne come vnder tryall hee knowes him not Pity which in all others is wont to be the best praise of humanity and the fruit of Christian loue is by him throwne ouer the barre for corruption as for Fauour the false Aduocate of the gracious he allowes him not to appeare in the Court there only causes are heard speake not persons Eloquence is then only not discouraged when she serues for a Client of truth meere narrations are allowed in this Oratory not Proems not excursions not Glosses Truth must strip her selfe and come in naked to his barre without false bodies or colors without disguises A bride in his Closet or a letter on the Bench or the whispering and winks of a great neighbour are answered with an angry and couragious repulse Displeasure Reuenge Recompence stand on both sides the Bench but he scornes to turne his eye towards them looking onely right forward at Equity which stands full before him His sentence is euer deliberate and guided with ripe wisdome yet his hand is slower than his tongue but when he is vrged by occasion either to doome or execution he shewes how much he hateth mercifull iniustice neither can his resolution or act be reuersed with partiall importunitie His forehead is rugged and seuere able to discountenance villany yet his words are more awfull than his brow and his hand than his words I know not whether he be more feared or loued both affections are so sweetly contempered in all hearts The good feare him louingly the middle sort loue him fearefully and only the wicked man feares him slauishly without loue He hates to pay priuate wrongs with the aduantage of his Office and if euer he be partiall it is to his enemy He is not more sage in his gowne than valorous in armes and increaseth in the rigour of discipline as the times in danger His sword hath neither rusted for want of vse nor surfetteth of bloud but after many threats is vnsheathed as the dreadfull instrument of diuine reuenge He is the Guard of good lawes the Refuge of innocency the Comet of the guilty the Pay-master of good deserts the Champion of iustice the Patron of peace the Tutor of the Church the Father of his Countrey and as it were another God vpon earth Of the Penitent HE hath a wounded heart and a sad face yet not so much for feare as for vnkindnesse The wrong of his sinne troubles him more than the danger None but he is the better for his sorrow neither is any passion more hurtfull to others than this is gainfull to him The more he seekes to hide his griefe the lesse it will bee hid Euery man may reade it not onely in his eyes but in his bones Whiles hee is in charity with all others he is so falne out with himselfe that none but God can reconcile him He hath sued himselfe in all Courts accuseth arraigneth sentenceth punisheth himselfe vnpartially and sooner may finde mercy at any hand than at his owne He onely hath pulled off the faire vizor of sinne so as that appeares not but masked vnto others is seene of him barefac'd and bewraies that fearefull vglinesse which none can conceiue but he that hath viewed it Hee hath lookt into the depth of the bottomlesse pit and hath seene his owne offence tormented in others and the same brands shaken at him He hath seene the change of faces in that euill one as a tempter as a tormenter and hath heard the noise of a conscience and is so frighted with all these that he can neuer haue rest till he haue runne out of himselfe to God in whose face at first hee findes rigour but afterwards sweetnesse in his bosome He bleeds first from the hand that heales him The Law of God hath made worke for mercy which he hath no sooner apprehended than he forgets his wounds and looks carelesly vpon all these terrors of guiltinesse When he casts his eye backe vpon himselfe he wonders where he was and how he came there and grants that if there were not some witchcraft in sinne he could not haue beene so sottishly gracelesse And now in the issue Satan findes not without indignation and repentance that hee hath done him a good turne in tempting him For he had neuer beene so good if he had not sinned he had neuer fought with such courage if he had not seene his bloud and beene ashamed of his foile Now hee is seene and felt in the front of the spirituall battell and can teach others how to fight and incourage them in fighting His heart was neuer more taken vp with the pleasure of sinne than now with care of auoiding it The very sight of that cup wherein such a fulsome potion was brought him turnes his stomacke the first offers of sinne make him tremble more now than he did before at the iudgements of his sinne neither dares he so much as looke towards Sodom All the powers and craft of hell cannot fetch him in for a customer to euill his infirmity may yeeld once his resolution neuer There is none of his senses or parts which hee hath not within couenants for their good behauiour which they cannot euer breake with impunity The wrongs of his sinne he repaies to men with recompence as hating it should be said he owes any thing to his offence to God what in him lies with sighs teares vowes and endeuours of amendment No heart is more waxen to the impressions of forgiuenesse neither are his hands more open to receiue than to giue pardon All the iniuries which are offered to him are swallowed vp in his wrongs to his Maker and Redeemer neither can hee call for the arrerages of his farthings when he lookes vpon the millions forgiuen him he feeles not what he suffers from men when he thinks of what hee hath done and should haue suffered He is a thankfull Herauld of the mercies of his God which if all the world heare not from his mouth it is no fault of his Neither did hee so burne with the euill fires of concupiscence as now with the holy flames of zeale to that glory which hee hath blemished and his eies are full of moisture as his heart of heat The gates of heauen are not so knockt at by any suter whether for frequence or importunitie You shall finde his cheekes furrowed his knees hard his lips sealed vp saue when he must accuse himselfe or glorifie God his eies humbly deiected and sometimes you shall take him breaking off a sigh in the midst as one that would steale an humiliation vnknowne and would be offended with any part that should not
censure of that resolute Hierome Ego è contrario loquar c. I say saith he and in spight of all the world dare maintaine that now the Iewish ceremonies are pernitious and deadly and whosoeuer shall obserue them whether hee be Iew or Gentile in barathrum Diaboli deuolutum Shall frie in Hell for it Still Altars still Priest sacrifices still still washings still vnctions sprinkling shauing purifying still all and more than all Let them heare but Augustines censure Quisquis nunc c. Whosoeuer shall now vse them as it were raking them vp out of their dust hee shall not bee Pius deductor corporis sed impius sepulturae violator an impious and sacrilegious wretch that ransacks the quiet tombes of the dead I say not that all Ceremonies are dead but the Law of Ceremonies and of Iewish It is a sound distinction of them that profound Peter Martyr hath in his Epistle to that worthy Martyr Father Bishop Hooper Some are typicall fore-signifying Christ to come some of order and decencie those are abrogated not these the Iewes had a fashion of prophesying in the Churches so the Christians from them as Ambrose the Iewes had an eminent pulpit of wood so wee they gaue names at their Circumcision so wee at Baptisme they sung Psalmes melodiously in Churches so doe we they paid and receiued tithes so doe wee they wrapt their dead in linnen with odors so wee the Iewes had sureties at their admission into the Church so wee these instances might be infinite the Spouse of Christ cannot bee without her laces and chaines and borders Christ came not to dissolue order But thou O Lord how long how long shall thy poore Church finde her ornaments her sorrowes and see the deare sonnes of her wombe bleeding about these apples of strife let mee so name them not for their value euen small things when they are commanded looke for no small respect but for their euent the enemie is at the gates of our Syracuse how long will wee suffer our selues taken vp with angles and circles in the dust yee Men Brethren and Fathers helpe for Gods sake put to your hands to the quenching of this common flame the one side by humilitie and obedience the other by compassion both by prayers and teares who am I that I should reuiue to you the sweet spirit of that diuine Augustine who when hee heard and saw the bitter contentions betwixt two graue and famous Diuines Ierome and Ruffine Heu mihi saith he qui vos alicubi fiâ—al inuenire non possum Alas that I should neuer finde you two together how I would fall at your feet how I would embrace them and weepe vpon them and beseech you either of you for other and each for himselfe both of you for the Church of God but especially for the weake for whom Christ died who not without their owne great danger see you two fighting in this Theatre of the world Yet let me doe what he said he would doe begge for peace as for life by your filiall pietie to the Church of God whose ruines follow vpon our diuisions by your loue of Gods truth by the graces of that one blessed Spirit whereby we are all informed and quickned by the precious bloud of that Sonne of God which this day and this houre was shed for our redemption bee inclined to peace and loue and though our braines be different yet let our hearts be one It was as I heard the dying speech of our late reuerend worthy and gratious Diocesan Modo me moriente viuat ac floreat Ecclesia Oh yet if when I am dead the Church may liue and flourish What a spirit was here what a speech how worthy neuer to die how worthy of a soule so neere to his heauen how worthy of so happy a succession Yee whom God hath made inheritors of this blessed care who doe no lesse long for the prosperitie of Sion liue you to effect what hee did but liue to wish all peace with our selues and warre with none but Rome and Hell And if there bee any wayward Separatist whose soule professeth to hate peace I feare to tell him Pauls message yet I must Si tu pacem sugis ego te ab Ecclesia fugere mando Would to God those were cut off that trouble you How cut off As good Theodosius said to Demophilus a contentious Prelate Si tu pacem fugis c. If thou flie peace I will make thee flie the Church Alas they doe flie it that which should be therir punishment they make their contentment how are they worthy of pittie As Optatus of his Donatists they are Brethren might be companions and will not Oh wilfull men whither doe they runne from one Christ to another Is Christ diuided we haue him thankes be to our good God and we heare him daily and whither shall we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life Thus the Ceremonies are finished now heare the end of his sufferings with like patience and deuotion his death is here included it was so neere that he spake of it as done and when it was done all was done How easie is it to lose our selues in this discourse how hard not to be ouerwhelmed with matter of wonder and to finde either beginning or end his sufferings found an end our thoughts cannot Lo with this word he is happily waded out of those deeps of sorrowes whereof our conceits can finde no bottome yet let vs with Peter gird our coat and cast our selues a little into this sea All his life was but a perpetuall Passion In that he became man he suffered more than wee can doe either while we are men or when we cease to be men he humbled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea he emptied himselfe We when we cease to be here are cloathed vpon 2 Cor. 5. Wee both winne by our being and gaine by our losse he lost by taking our more or lesse to himselfe that is manhood For though euer as God I and my Father are one yet as man My Father is greater than I. That man should be turned into a beast into a worme into dust into nothing is not so great a disparagement as that God should become man and yet it is not finished it is but begun But what man If as the absolute Monarch of the world hee had commanded the vassalage of all Emperors and Princes and had trod on nothing but Crownes and Scepters and the necks of Kings and bidden all the Potentates of the earth to attend his traine this had carried some port with it sutable to the heroicall Maiestie of Gods Sonne No such matter here is neither Forme nor Beautie vnlesse perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the forme of a seruant you haue made me to serue with your sinnes Behold hee is a man to God a seruant to man and be it spoken with holy reuerence a drudge to his seruants Hee is despised and reiected of men yea as
complaine could neuer haue beene sustained by men What shall we then thinke if hee were affrighted with terrors perplexed with sorrowes and distracted with both these And lo he was all these for first here was an amazed feare for millions of men to despaire was not so much as for him to feare and yet it was no slight feare he began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be astonished with terror Which in the dayes of his flesh offered vp prayers and supplications with strong cries and teares to him that was able to helpe him and was heard in that hee feared Neuer was man so afraid of the torments of Hell as Christ standing in our roome of his Fathers wrath Feare is still sutable to apprehension Neuer man could so perfectly apprehend this cause of feare he felt the chastisements of our peace yea the curse of our sins and therefore might well say with DAVID I suffer thy terrors with a troubled minde yea with IOB The arrowes of God are in mee and the terrors of God fight against me With feare there was a dejecting sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soule is on all sides heauy to the death his strong cryes his many teares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are witnesses of this Passion hee had formerly shed teares of pittie and teares of loue but now of anguish hee had before sent forth cries of mercie neuer of complaint till now when the Sonne of God weepes and cries what shall wee say or thinke yet further betwixt both these and his loue what a conflict was there It is not amisse distinguished that he was alwayes in Agone but now in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a struggling passion of mixed griefe Behold this field was not without sweat and bloud yea a sweat of bloud Oh what Man or Angell can conceiue the taking of that heart that without all outward violence meerely out of the extremitie of his owne Passion bled through the flesh and skin not some faint deaw but solid drops of blood No thornes no nailes fetcht blood from him with so much paine as his owne thoughts hee saw the fierce wrath of his Father and therefore feared hee saw the heauie burden of our sinnes to be vndertaken and thereupon besides feare iustly grieued hee saw the necessitie of our eternall damnation if he suffered not if hee did suffer of our redemption and therefore his loue incountred both griefe and feare In it selfe hee would not drinke of that cup. In respect of our good and his decree he would and did and while hee thus striueth hee sweats and bleeds There was neuer such a combat neuer such a bloodshed and yet it is not finished I dare not say with some Schoolemen that the sorrow of his Passion was not so great as the sorrow of his compassion yet that was surely exceeding great To see the vngratious carelesnesse of mankinde the slender fruit of his sufferings the sorrowes of his Mother Disciples friends to fore-see from the watch tower of his Crosse the future temptations of his children desolations of his Church all these must needes strike deepe into a tender heart These hee still sees and pitties but without passion then hee suffered in seeing them Can we yet say any more Lo all these sufferings are aggrauated by his fulnesse of knowledge and want of comfort for he did not shut his eyes as one saith when hee drunke this cup he saw how dreggish and knew how bitter it was Sudden euils afflict if not lesse shorter He fore-saw and fore-said euerie particular he should suffer so long as he fore-saw he suffered the expectation of euill is not lesse then the sense to looke long for good is a punishment but for euill is a torment No passion workes vpon an vnknowne obiect as no loue so no feare is of what we know not Hence men feare not Hell because they fore-see it not if wee could see that pit open before wee come at it it would make vs tremble at our sins and our knees to knocke together as Baltazars and perhaps without faith to runne madde at the horror of iudgement He saw the burden of all particular sinnes to be laid vpon him euery dramme of his Fathers wrath was measured out to him ere he toucht this potion this cup was full and hee knew that it must be wring'd not a drop left it must be finished Oh yet if as he foresaw all his sorrowes so he could haue seene some mixture of refreshing But I found none to comfort me no none to pittie me And yet it is a poore comfort that arises from pittie Euen so O Lord thou treadest this wine-presse alone none to accompanie none to assist thee I remember Ruffinus in his Ecclesiasticall storie reports that one Theodorus a Martyr told him that when he was hanging ten houres vpon the rack for religion vnder Iulians persecution his ioynts distended and distorted his body exquisitely tortured with change of Executioners Vt nulla vnquā aetas sunilem meminerit so as neuer age saith he could remember the like he felt no paine at all but continued indeed all the while in the sight of all men singing smiling for there stood a comely young man by him on his Iibbet an Angell rather in forme of a man which with a cleane towell still wip't off his sweat and powred coole water vpon his racked limbs wherewith he was so refreshed that it grieued him to bee let downe Euen the greatest torments are easie when they haue answerable comforts but a wounded and comfortlesse spirit who can beare If yet but the same messenger of God might haue attended his Crosse that appeared in his agony and might haue giuen ease to their Lord as he did to his seruant And yet what can the Angels helpe where God will smite Against the violence of men against the furie of Satan they haue preuailed in the cause of God for men they dare not they cannot comfort where God will afflict When our Sauiour had beene wrestling with Satan in the end of his Lent then they appeared to him and serued but now while about the same time he is wrestling with the wrath of his Father for vs not an Angell dare be seene to looke out of the windowes of heauen to releeue him For men much lesse could they if they would but what did they Miserable comforters are ye all the Souldiers they stript him scorned him with his purple crowne reed spat on him smote him the passengers they reuiled him and insulting vagging their heads and hands at him Hey thou that destoyest the Temple come downe c. The Elders and Scribes alas they haue bought his bloud suborned witnesses incensed Pilot preferred Barrabbas vndertooke the guilt of his death cried out Crucifia Crucifie He thou that sauedst others His Disciples alas they forsooke him one of them forsweares him another runnes away naked rather then he will stay and confesse him His mother and other friends they looke
conscience ye finde nothing and all this by the legier-de-maine of the heart Thus Achan hath hid his wedge and now he dares stand out to a lot Thus Salomons Harlot hath wip't her mouth and it was not she Thus Saul will lie-out his sacrilege vntill the very beasts out-bleat and out-bellow him Thus the swearer sweares and when hee hath done sweares that he swore not Thus the vncleane fornicator bribes off his sinne and his shame and now makes challenges to the world of his honesty It cannot be spoken how peeuishly witty the heart of man is this way neither doubt I but this wilinesse is some of the poyson that the subtile serpent infected vs with in that fatall morsell They were three cunning shifts which the Scripture recordeth of three women as that sex hath beene euer noted for more sudden pregnancie of wit Rachel Rahab and the good wife of Bahurim The first hiding the Teraphim with a modest seat the second the spies with flaxe-stalkes and the third Dauids scouts with corne spred ouer the Well but these are nothing to the deuices that nature hath wont to vse for the cloaking of sinne God made man vpright saith Salomon but he sought many inuentions Is Adam challenged for sinne Behold all on the sudden it is passed from his hand to Gods The woman that thou gauest me Is Saul challenged for a couetous and disobedient remissenesse the sinne is straight passed from the field to the Altar I saued the fattest for a Sacrifice to the Lord thy God So the one begins his sin in God and the other ends it in him Is Dauid bewitched with lust to abuse the Wife the Husband must be sent home drunke to hide it or if not that to his long home in a pretended fauour of his valour Is a griping Vsurer disposed to put his money together to breed a monster he hath a thousand quirks to cozen both law and conscience Is a Simoniacall Patron disposed to make a good match of his peoples soules it shall be no bargaine but a gift he hath a liuing to giue but an horse to sell And sure I thinke in this wise age of the world Vsurers and Simonists striue who shall finde the wittiest way to hell What should I speake of the secret frauds in contracts booties in matches subornation of instruments hiring of oathes feeing of officers equiuocations of answers and ten thousand other tricks that the heart of man hath deuised for the conueiances of sin in all which it too well approues it selfe incomparably deceitfull The false semblance of the heart is yet worse for the former is most-what for the smothering of euill this is for the iustifying of euill or the disgrace of good In these two doth this act of falshood chiefly consist in making euill good or good euill For the first The naturall man knowes well how filthy all his brood is and therefore will not let them come forth but disguised with the colours and dresses of good so as now euery one of natures birds is a Swan Pride is handsomnesse desperate fury valour lauishnesse is noble munificence drunkennesse ciuility flattery complement murderous reuenge iustice the Curtizan is bona foemina the Sorcerer a wise man the oppressor a good husband Absolom will goe pay his vowes Herod will worship the Babe For the second such is the enuy of nature that where shee sees a better face than her owne shee is ready to scratch it or cast dirt in it and therefore knowing that all vertue hath a natiue beauty in it she labours to deforme it by the foulest imputations Would the Israelites be deuout they are idle Doth Dauid daunce for ioy before the Arke he is a foole in a Morris Doth Saint Paul discourse of his heauenly Vision too much learning hath made him mad Doe the Disciples miraculously speake all the tongues of Babel They are ful of new wine Doe they preach Christs kingdome they are seditious The resurrection they are bablers Is a man conscionable he is an Hypocrite Is he conformable he is vnconscionable Is he plaine dealing hee is rudely vnciuill Is he wisely insinuatiue he is a flatterer In short such is the wicked craft of the heart that it would let vs see nothing in it owne forme but faine would shew vs euill faire that we might be inamored of it and vertue vgly that we might abhorre it and as it doth for the way so doth it for the end hiding from vs the glory of heauen that is laid vp for ouer-commers and shewing vs nothing but the pleasant closure of wickednesse making vs beleeue that hell is a palace and heauen a dungeon that so we might be in loue with death and thus both in cunning conueyance and false semblance The heart of man is deceitfull aboue all things Ye haue seene the fashion of this deceit cast now your eies vpon the subiect And whom doth it then deceiue It doth deceiue others it can deceiue it selfe it would deceiue Satan yea God himselfe Others first How many doe we take for honest and sound Christians who yet are but errant hypocrites These Apes of Satan haue learned to transforme themselues into Angels of light The heart bids the eies looke vpward to heauen when they are full of adultery It bids the hands to raise vp themselues towards their Maker when they are full of bloud It bids the tongue wagge holily when there is nothing in the bosome but Atheous profanenesse It bids the knee to bow like a Camell when the heart is stiffe as an Elephant yea if need be it can bid a teare fall from the eie or an almes or iust action fall from the hand and all to gâ—ll the world with a good opinion In all which false chapmen and horse-coursers doe not more ordinarily deceiue their buyers in shops and faires than we doe one another in our conuersation Yea so crafty is the heart that it can deceiue it selfe By ouer-weening his owne powers as the proud man by vnder-valuing his graces as the modest by mis-taking his estate as the ignorant How many hearts doe thus grossely beguile themselues The first thinkes hee is rich and fine when hee is beggerly and naked so did the Angell of Laodicea The second is poore in his owne spirit when hee is rich of Gods spirit The third thinkes that he is a great fauourite of heauen when he is rather branded for an out-cast that hee is truly noble when he is a slaue to that which is baser than the worst of Gods creatures sinne Let the proud and ignorant worldling therefore know that though others may mocke him with applauses yet that all the world cannot make him so much a foole as his owne heart Yea so cunning is the heart that it thinkes to goe beyond the deuill himselfe I can thinks it swallow his bait and yet auoid his hooke I can sinne and liue I can repent of sinning and defeat my punishment by repenting I can runne vpon
with his verie pen hath so laid error vpon the backe that all the world cannot raise it what a shame were it to be wanting to him to Truth to our selues But perhaps now I know some of your thoughts you would buy Truth ye thinke you would hold it if ye could be sure to know it There are many slips amongst the true coyne Either of the mothers pleaded the liuing childe to be hers with equall protestations oathes teares True yet a Salomons sword can diuide Truth from falshood and there is a test and fire that can discerne true metals from adulterate In spight of all counterfeiting there are certaine infallible marks to know Truth from Error Take but a few of many whether in the originals in the natures in the ends of both In the first Truth is diuine Error is humane what is grounded vpon the diuine word must needs be irrefragably true that which vpon humane Traditions either must or may be erroneous In the second Truth is one conforme euer to it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one said Omne verum omni vero consonat All Truth accords with euery Truth as Gerson and as it is pure so peaceable Error is full of dissonance of cruelty No particulars of ours dissent from the written verity of God We teach no man to equiuocate Our practise is not bloudy with treasons and massacres In the third Truth as it came from God so is referd to him neither hath any other end than the glory of the God of Truth Error hath euer some selfe-respects either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filthy lucre or vaine-glory profit or pride We doe not pranke vp nature we aime not either to fill the cofers or feed the ambition of men Let your Wisdomes apply and inferre and now if ye can shut your eyes that you should not see the Truth and if ye care not for your soules when ye see it sell it Let no false tongue perswade you there is no danger in this sale How charitably so euer we thinke of poore blinded soules that liue in the forced and inuincible darknesse of error certainly Apostasie is deadly How euer those speed that are robbed of Truth you cannot sell Truth and be saued Haue mercy therefore on your own soules for their sakes for the sake of him that bought them with the deare ransome of his precious bloud And as God hath blessed you with the inualuable treasure of Truth so hoard it vp in your hearts and menage it in your liues Oh let vs be Gens iusta custodiens veritatem Esa 26. A iust nation keeping fast the Truth So whiles ye keepe the Truth the Truth shall keepe you both in Life in Death in Iudgment In life vnto death in death and iudgement vnto the consummation of that endlesse and incomprehensible glory which the God of Truth hath prepared for them that ouercome To the happy possession whereof he that hath ordained in his good time as mercifully bring vs and that for the sake of the Son of his Loue Iesus Christ the Righteous To whom with thee O Father and thy blessed Spirit one infinite God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT THE RECONCILEMENT OF THE HAPPILY-RESTORED and reedified Chapell of the Right Honourable the Earle of EXCETER in his House of S. IOHNS ON SAINT STEPHENS DAY 1623. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for GEORGE WINDER and are to be sold at his shop in Saint DVNSTONS Church-yard 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY SINGVLAR GOOD Lady the Lady ELIzABETH Countesse of Exceter RIght Honourable this poore Sermon both preached and penned at your motion that is to mee your command now presents it selfe to your hand and craueth a place though vnworthy in your Cabinet yea in your heart That holy zeale which desired it will also improue it The God whom your Ladiship hath thus honoured in the care and cost of his House will not faile to honour you in yours For me your Honour may iustly challenge mee on both sides both by the Druryes in the right of the first Patronage and by the Cecils in the right of my succeeding deuotions Jn either and both that little J haue or am is sincerely at your Ladiships seruice as whom you haue merited to be Your Honours in all true obseruance and duty IOS HALL A SERMON PREACHED AT THE REEDIFIED CHAPEL OF THE RIGHT HONOVRAble Earle of Exceter in his House of Saint Iohns HAGGAI 2.9 The glory of the latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I giue peace saith the Lord of Hosts AS we haue houses of our owne so God hath his yea as great men haue more houses than one so hath the great God of Heauen much more more both in succession as here the latter house and the first and in varietie He hath an house of flesh Ye are the Temples of the liuing God An house of stone Salomon shall build me an house An house immateriall in the Heauens 2 Cor. 5.1 Wherfore then hath God an house Wherefore haue we ours but to dwell in But doth not he himselfe tell Dauid and so doth Stephen the Protomartyr vpon whose day we are falne tell the Iewes that He dwels not in Temples made with hands True He dwels not in his House as we in ours by way of comprehension he dwels in it by testification of presence So doe we dwell in our houses that our houses containe vs that we are only within them and they without vs. So doth he dwel in his that yet he is elsewhere yea euery where that his house is within him Shortly God dwels where he witnesses his gracious presence that because he doth both in the Empyreall heauen amongst his Angels and Saints and in his Church vpon earth therefore his dwelling is both in the highest Heauen in perfect glory and on Earth in the hearts and assembly of his children As of the former our Sauiour saith In domo Patris mei In my Fathers house are many Mansions So also may we say of the latter There is much variety and choice in it There was the Church of the Iewes the Church of the Gentiles There is a materiall and a spirituall house In the one Salomons Zorobabels such piles as this In the other so much multiplicity as there are Nations yea Congregations that professe the Name of Christ One of these was a figure of the other the Materiall vnder the Law of the Spirituall vnder the Gospell Yee see now the first house and the latter the subiect of our Text and discourse The latter commended to vs comparatiuely positiuely Comparatiuely with the former Maior gloria Positiuely in it selfe In this place will I giue peace Both set out by the stile of the promiser and a vower saith the Lord of Hosts All which challenge your
defiance which proclaimes warre with God And I would to God that peace which Rome either can performe or dare promise were of any better of any other nature Well then Let it bee our present taske carefully to discusse Saint Pauls condition of Possibility and to teach how vaine it is to hope that a true holy and safe peace can be either had or maintained with our present Romanists whether we regard the auerse and stubborne disposition of the one side or the nature of the matters controuerted or lastly the impossibilitie of those meanes whereby any reconciliation may bee wrought These three shall be the limits wherein this our not vnprofitable nor yet vnseasonable worke shall suffer it selfe to be bounded SECT III. The obstinate and aduerse disposition of the Romanists AND as for the first I suppose we need not labour much Indeed God can easily make the Wolfe to dwell with the Lambe and the Leopard to lodge with the Kid. Esa 11.6 How easie is it for him so to soften the adamantine hearts of men by bathing them in the bloud of that immaculate Lambe that they should melt into pure loue but as the times now are it would be no lesse miraculous to finde a Popish heart truly charitable to vs than to see the Lions fawning vpon Daniel Euen where there is strife about indifferent things there is necessarily required a conspiring of the minds of them which would be reconciled neither is it enough that one side is content together with armes to lay downe hatred and how will our Romanists endure this Surely that hatred of Eteocles to his brother or that of Vatinius is but meere loue to this of Papists Sacr. Cere l. 1. Alas when and where are wee not spet vpon as the most desperately hereticall enemies of the Church Rome admits Iewes into her bosome from whose hands their Popes holinesse disdains not to receiue the booke of the Law of God Socr. l 7. c. 3. but Protestants she may not endure That which Socrates complaines as iniuriously done by Theodosius a Grecian Bishop against the very Macedonian Heretikes is daily done by them against vs No Arrians no Circumcellion heretikes were euer more cruell Bellar. de notis Eccles l. 4. c. 9. Nota Sexta sic accus Luth. Cal. Brent Bellar. ib. Reipsa Calumistis in Anglia mulier quaedam est summus sacerdos Bellar. Anno â—532 Tesle Surio apud Bell. l. 1. de Chro. Ibid. haeres 16. Zuingl Bucer Ibid. Haer. 9. Calu. l. 4. Instit c. 1. sect 7. Aug. Conf. art 7. Ibid. Haeres 8. Luth. art 36. Cal Iust 2. c. 2. Ibid. Heres 10. Haeres 6. cit Cal. Iust 4. c. 19. Quaer reliq Ib. apud Bellar. and these idle Fablers in the meane time slander vs to the world as guiltie of the same outragious proceedings against them What heresie is there in all times which that Romulean Wolfe and her bawling Clients are not wont to cast vpon vs One while wee are the Schollers of Simon Magus because wee doe but once mention Grace and Saluation for what haue wee else to doe with that wicked Sorcerer Another while we are fetcht from the cursed schoole of Eunomius for that we attribute too much to Faith and yet no more than that holy Heretike Saint Paul One while we are Pepuzians that ascribe too much to women then wee are Origenists for holding the Image of God to be defaced in man then contrarily Prâ—clians for holding the sinne of concupiscence not enough defaced One while we are the followers of Sabellius because I thinke we liued in the same age with Seruetus another while of Eutiches because wee liued in the time of Swinckfeldius for what businesse haue wee euer had else with those branded Heretikes Wee are Pelagians one while for holding the wages of sinne to bee death then wee are Donatists for admitting none but the iust into the Church of the elect sometimes wee are Manichees for denying Free-will straight we are Arrians for refusing traditions then Nouatians for taking away penance another while we are Aerians for reiecting oblations for the dead and fastings then Iouinianists for not allowing a slippery and vanishing Faith the followers of Vigilantius for disclaiming the adoration of reliques of Nestorius for disliking the asseueration of the Sacramentall bread now we are Xenaites for demolishing of Images then we are Lampetians for disallowing the seruitude of idle vowes It matters not whether the foule mouth of that hired strumpet accuse Timotheus the Presbyter or Athanasius the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—nos carpere malorum solatiuÌ„ est Hier ad Theop. ad ver Io. Hier. Quotidiana fornax nostra aduersariorum lingua Aug. Confes l. 10 c. 37. And Fricius Modreuâ—us lib. de emendanda rep Examen pacifique de la doctrina des Huguenots so that some body be smitten It matters not what be spoken so it be malicious That is fully resolued of which Nazianzen hath No man shall hold in the reines of a riotous and lawlesse tongue for as Hierom. saith well it is the pastime of the wicked to slander the good That therefore which was the solemne fashion of the Lindians neuer to do seruice to their Hercules without railing the same is too ordinary with these publike Heralds of our patience Our daily fornace as Austen speakes wittily is our aduersaries tongue How easily might I here vnlode whole carâ—s of reproches that haue bin heaped together by the scurrilous parasites of Rome What riuers of bloud what bonfires of worthy Saints might I here shew my Reader All these the world knowes and feeles too much And as for those honest and good-natured men which would needs vndertake to be the sticklers of these stripes as Cassander Fricius the Interimists and that namelesse Apologist of the French how ill haue they sped on both parts With whom it hath no otherwise fared me thinkes than with some fond shepheard that thrusts himselfe betwixt two furious Rammes running together in their full strength and abides the shocke of both Neither may it euer succeeded better to these kind Philistims which will be bringing this Arke of God into the house of Dagon And for vs since we must needs be put to it we shall not here as it often falls out in other quarrells striue to our losse Abraham farâ—d well by the dissensions of Lot all the milke and hony of whole Palestine hereupon befell to him whereof hee should else haue shared but the halfe Doubtlesse these contentions through the goodnesse of God shall enrich vs with a great increase both of Truth and Glory SECTION IV. That the Confession of the same Creed is not with them sufficient for Peace IT is not Cassanders speech onely but euery wise and honest mans Lib. de offic boni vâ—ri that the Creed is the common cognizance of our faith and wee all doe with one voyce willingly professe it Surely Theodoret when be would by a
Cain the death of one Abel The same Deuill that set enmitie betwixt Man and God sets enmity betwixt Man and Man and yet God said I will put enmitie betweene thy seed and her seed Our hatred of the Serpent and his seed is from God Their hatred of the holy Seed is from the Serpent Behold here at once in one person the Seed of the Woman and of the Serpent Cains naturall parts are of the Woman his vitious qualities of the Serpent The Woman gaue him to be a brother the Serpent to be a man-slayer all vncharitablenesse all quarrels are of one Author we cannot entertaine Wrath and not giue place to the Deuill Certainely so deadly an act must needs be deeply grounded What then was the occasion of this capitall malice Abels sacrifice is accepted what was this to Cain Cains is reiected what could Abel remedie this Oh enuie the corrosiue of all ill minds and the roote of all desperate actions the same cause that moued Satan to tempt the first Man to destroy himselfe and his posteritie the same moues the second Man to destroy the third It should haue beene Cains ioy to see his brother accepted It should haue beene his sorrow to see that himselfe had deserued a reiection his Brothers example should haue excited and directed him Could Abel haue stayed Gods fire from descending Or should he if he could reiect Gods acceptation and displease his Maker to content a Brother Was Cain euer the farther from a blessing because his Brother obtained mercy How proud and foolish is malice which growes thus mad for no other cause but because God or Abel is not lesse good It hath beene an old and happy danger to be holy Indifferent actions must be carefull to auoid offence But I care not what Deuill or what Cain be angry that I doe good or receiue good There was neuer any nature without enuie Euery man is borne a Cain hating that goodnesse in another which he neglected in himselfe There was neuer enuy that was not bloody for if it eate not an others heart it will eat our owne but vnlesse it be restrained it will surely feed it selfe with the blood of others oft-times in act alwaies in affection And that God which in good accepts the will for the deed condemnes the will for the deed in euill If there be an euill heart there will bee an euill eye and if both these there will be an euill hand How early did Martyrdome come into the world the first man that dyed dyed for Religion who dare measure Gods loue by outward euents when hee sees wicked Cain standing ouer bleeding Abel whose sacrifice was first accepted and now himselfe is sacrificed Death was denounced to Man as a curse yet behold it first lights vpon a Saint how soone was it altered by the mercy of that iust hand which inflicted it If Death had beene euill and Life good Cain had beene slaine and Abel had suruiued now that it begins with him that God loues O Death where is thy sting Abel sayes nothing his blood cryes Euery drop of innocent blood hath a tongue and is not onely vocall but importunate what a noyse then did the blood of my Sauiour make in Heauen who was himselfe the Shepheard and the Sacrifice the Man that was offered and the God to whom it was offered The Spirit that heard both sayes It spake better things thâ—n the blood of Abel Abels blood called for reuenge his for mercy Abels pleaded his owne innocency his the satisfaction for all the beleeuing world Abels procured Cains punishment his freed all repentant soules from punishment better things indeed then the blood of Abel Better and therefore that which Abels blood said was good It is good that God should be auenged of sinners Execution of iustice vpon offenders is no lesse good then rewards of goodnesse No sooner doth Abels blood speake vnto God then God speakes to Cain There is no wicked man to whom God speakes not if not to his eare yet to his heart what speech was this Not an accusation but an inquirie yet such an inquirie as would inferre an accusation God loues to haue a sinner accuse himselfe and therefore hath he set his Deputie in the brest of man neither doth God loue this more then nature abhorres it Cain answers stubbornly The very name of Abel wounds him no lesse then his hand had wounded Abel Consciences that are without remorse are not without horror wickednesse makes men desperate the Murderer is angry with God as of late for accepting his brothers oblation so now for listning to his blood And now he dares answer God with a question Am I my brothers Keeper where be should haue said Am not I my brothers murderer Behold hee scorneth to keepe whom he feared not to kill Good duties are base and troublesome to wicked minds whiles euen violences of euill are pleasant Yet this miscreant which neither had grace to auoyd his sinne nor to confesse it now that he is conuinced of sinne and cursed for it how he howleth how he exclaimeth He that cares not for the act of his sinne shall care for the smart of his punishment The damned are weary of their torments but in vaine How great a madnesse is it to complaine too late He that would not keepe his brother is cast out from the protection of God he that feared not to kill his brother feares now that whosoeuer meets him will â—ill him The troubled conscience proiecteth fearefull things and sinne makes euen cruell men cowardly God saâ— it was too much fauour for him to die he therefore wills that which Cain wills Cain would liue It is yeelded him but for a curse how often doth God heare sinners in anger He shall liue banished from God carying his hell in his bosome and the brand of Gods vengeance in his forehead God reiects him the Earth repines at him men abhorre him himselfe now wishes that death which he feared and no man dare pleasure him with a murder how bitter is the end of sin yea without end still Cain finds that he killed himselfe more then his brother We should neuer sinne if our fore-sight were but as good as our sense The issue of sinne would appeare a thousand times more horrible then the act is pleasant Of the Deluge THE World was growne so foule with sinne that God saw it was time to wash it with a Floud And so close did wickednes cleaue to the Authors of it that when they were washt to nothing yet it would not off yea so deep did it stick in the very graine of the earth that God saw it meet to let it soke long vnder the waters So vnder the Law the very vessels that had touched vncleane water must either be rinced or broken Mankind began but with one and yet he that saw the first man liued to see the Earth peopled with a world of men yet men grew not so fast as wickednesse One man could
be brought to nothing and Atomes and dust is neerest to nothing that in stead of going before Israel it might passe thorow them so as the next day they might finde their god in their excrements To the iust shame of Israel when they should see their new god cannot defend himselfe from being either nothing or worse Who can but wonder to see a multitude of so many hundred thousands when Moses came running downe the Hill to turne their eyes from their god to him And on a sudden in stead of worshipping their Idoll to batter it in pieces in the very height of the noueltie In stead of building Altars and kindling fires to it to kindle an hotter fire then that wherewith it was melted to consume it In stead of dancing before it to abhorre and deface it in stead of singing to weepe before it There was neuer a more stiffe-necked people Yet I doe not heare any one man of them say He is but one man We are many how easily may we destroy him rather then hee our god If his brother durst not resist our motion in making it Why will we suffer him to dare resist the keeping of it It is our act and wee will maintaine it Here was none of this but an humble obeysance to the basest and bloodiest reuenge that Moses shall impose God hath set such an impression of Maiestie in the face of lawfull authoritie that wickednesse is confounded in it selfe to behold it If from hence visible powers were not more feared then the inuisible God the world would be ouer-runne with out-rage Sinne hath a guiltinesse in it selfe that when it is seasonably checked it puls in his head and seekes rather an hiding place then a fort The Idoll is not capable of a further reuenge It is not enough vnlesse the Idolaters smart The gold was good if the Israelites had not beene euill So great a sinne cannot be expiated without blood Behold that meeke spirit which in his plea with God would rather perish himselfe then Israel should perish armes the Leuites against their brethren and reioyces to see thousands of the Israelites bleed and blesses their executioners It was the mercy of Moses that made him cruell He had been cruell to all if some had not found him cruell They are mercilesse hands which are not sometimes imbrued in blood There is no lesse charitie then iustice in punishing sinners with death God delights no lesse in a killing mercy then in a pitifull iustice Some tender hearts would be ready to censure the rigour of Moses Might not Israel haue repented and liued Or if they must dye must their brethrens hand be vpon them Or if their throats must be cut by their brethren shall it be done in the very heat of their sinne But they must learne a difference betwixt pity and fondnesse mercy and vniustice Moses had an heart as soft as theirs but more hot as pitifull but wiser He was a good Physician and saw that Israel could not liue vnlesse he bled hee therefore le ts out this corrupt blood to saue the whole body There cannot bee a better sacrifice to God then the blood of Malefactors and this first sacrifice so pleased God in the hands of the Leuites that he would haue none but them sacrifice to him for euer The blood of the Idolatrous Israelites cleared that Tribe from the blood of the innocent Sichemites Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE The Vayle of Moses Nadab and Abihu Aaron and Miriam The Searchers of Canaan Corah's Conspiracie BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deaue of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THOMAS LORD VISCOVNT FENTON CAPTAINE OF THE ROYALL GVARD ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES MOST HONOVRABLE PRIVY COVNSELLORS ONE OF THE HAPPY RESCVERS OF THE DEARE LIFE OF OVR GRACIOVS SOVERAIGNE LORD A WORTHY PATTERNE OF ALL TRVE HONOR I. H. DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS AND WISHETH ALL INCREASE OF GRACE AND HAPPINESSE Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE Of the Vaile of MOSES IT is a wonder that neither Moses nor any Israelite gathered vp the shiuers of the former Tables Euery sheard of that stone and euery letter of that writing had beene a Relike worth laying vp but he well saw how headlong the people were to Superstition and how vnsafe it were to feed that disposition in them The same zeale that burnt the Calfe to ashes concealed the ruines of this Monument Holy things besides their vse challenge no further respect The breaking of the Tables did as good as blot out all the Writings defaced left no vertue in the stone no reuerence to it If God had not beene friends with Israel he had not renewed his Law As the Israelites were wilfully blind if they did not see Gods anger in the Tables broken so could they not but hold it a good signe of grace that God gaue them his Testimonies There was nothing wherein Israel out-stripped all the rest of the world more then in this priuiledge the pledge of his Couenant the Law written with Gods owne hand Oh what a fauour then is it where God bestowes his Gospell vpon any Nation That was but a killing letter this is the power of God to saluation Neuer is God throughly displeased with any people where that continues For like as those which purposed loue when they fall off call for their tokens back againe So when God begins once perfectly to mislike the first thing he with-drawes is his Gospell Israel recouers this fauour but with an abatement Hew thee two Tables God made the first Tables The matter the forme was his now Moses must hew the next As God created the first man after his owne Image but that once defaced Adam begat Cain after his owne Or as the first Temple razed a second was built yet so far short that the Israelites wept at the sight of it The first workes of God are still the purest those that he secondarily works by vs decline in their perfection It was reason that though God had forgotten Israel they should still find they had sinned They might see the footsteps of displeasure in the differences of the Agent When God had told Moses before I will not goe before Israel but my Angell shall lead them Moses so noted the difference that he rested not till God himselfe vndertooke their conduct So might the Israelites haue noted some remainders of offence whiles in stead of that which his owne hand did formerly make hee saith now Heâ— thee And yet these second Tables are kept reuerently in the Arke when the other lay mouldred in shiuers vpon Sinai like as the repaired repaired Image of God in our Regeneration is preserued perfited and layd vp at last safe in Heauen whereas the first Image of our created innocence is quite defaced so the second Temple had the glory of Christs exhibition though meaner in frame The mercifull respects of God are not tyed to glorious out-sides or the inward worthinesse of things or persons He hath chosen the weake
the eares of God then a speechlesse repining of the soule Heat is more intended with keeping in but Aarons silence was no lesse inward He knew how little he should get by brawling with God If he breathed our discontentment he saw God could speake fire to him againe And therefore he quietly submits to the will of God and held his peace because the Lord had done it There is no greater proofe of grace then to smart patiently and humbly and contentedly to rest the heart in the iustice and wisedome of Gods proceeding and to bee so farre from chiding that we dispute not Nature is froward and though shee well knowes we meddle not with our match when we striue with our Maker yet she pricks vs forward to this idle quarrell and bids vs with Iobs wife Curse and dye If God either chide or smite as seruants are charged to their Masters wee may not answer againe when Gods hand is on our backe our hand must be our mouth else as mothers doe their children God shall whip vs so much the more for crying It is hard for a stander by in this case to distinguish betwixt hard-heartednesse and piety There Aaron sees his sonnes lye he may neither put his hand to them to bury them nor shead a teare for their death Neuer parent can haue iuster cause of mourning then to see his sonnes dead in their sinne if prepared and penitent yet who can but sorrow for their end but to part with children to the danger of a second death is worthy of more then teares Yet Aaron must learne so farre to deny nature that he must more magnifie the iustice of God then lament the iudgement Those whom God hath called to his immediate seruice must know that hee will not allow them the common passions and cares of others Nothing is more naturall then sorrow for the death of our owne if euer griefe be seasonable it becomes a funerall And if Nadab and Abihu had dyed in their beds this fauour had been allowed them the sorrow of their Father and Brethren for when God forbids solemne mourning to his Priests ouer the dead hee excepts the cases of this neernesse of blood Now all Israel may mourne for these two only the Father and Brethren may not God is iealous lest their sorrow should seeme to countenance the sinne which he had punished euen the fearfullest acts of God must be applauded by the heauiest hearts of the faithfull That which the Father and Brother may not doe the Cousins are commanded dead carkasses are not for the presence of God His iustice was shewne sufficiently in killing them They are now fit for the graue not the Sanctuary Neither are they caried out naked but in their coats It was an vnusuall sight for Israel to see a linnen Ephod vpon the Beere The iudgement was so much more remarkable because they had the badge of their calling vpon their backs Nothing is either more pleasing vnto God or more commodious to men then that when he hath executed iudgement it should bee seene and wondred at for therefore he strikes some that he may warne all Of AARON and MIRIAM THe Israelites are stayed seuen dayes in the station of Hazzeroth for the punishment of Miriam The sinnes of the gouernors are a iust stop to the people all of them smart in one all must stay the leasure of Miriams recouerie Whosoeuer seekes the Land of Promise shall finde many lets Amalek Og Schon and the Kings of Canaan meet with Israel these resisted but hindred not their passage their sinnes onely stay them from remouing Afflictions are not crosses to vs in the way to heauen in comparison to our sinnes What is this I see Is not this Aaron that was brother in nature and by office ioynt Commissioner with Moses Is not this Aaron that made his Brother an Intercessor for him to God in the case of his Idolatry Is not this Aaron that climbed vp the Hill of Sinai with Moses Is not this Aaron whom the mouth and hand of Moses consecrated an high Priest vnto God Is not this Miriam the elder Sister of Moses Is not this Miriam that led the Triumph of the Women and sung gloriously to the Lord It not this Miriam which layd her Brother Moses in the Reeds and fetcht her Mother to be his Nurse Both Prophets of God both the flesh and blood of Moses And doth this Aaron repine at the honor of him which gaue himselfe that honour and saued his life Doth this Miriam repine at the prosperity of him whose life she saued Who would not haue thought this should haue beene their glory to haue seene the glory of their owne Brother What could haue beene a greater comfort to Miriam then to thinke How happily doth he now sit at the Sterne of Israel whom I saued from perishing in a Boat of Bul-rushes It is to mee that Israel owes this Commander But now enuy hath so blinded their eyes that they can neither see this priuiledge of nature nor the honour of Gods choyce Miriam and Aaron are in mutiny against Moses Who is so holy that sinnes not What sinne is so vnnaturall that the best can auoyde without God But what weaknesse soeuer may plead for Miriam who can but grieue to see Aaron at the end of so many sinnes Of late I saw him caruing the molten Image and consecrating an Altar to a false god now I see him seconding an vnkind mutiny against his Brother Both sinnes find him accessary neither principall It was not in the power of the legall Priesthood to performe or promise innocency to her Ministers It was necessary wee should haue another high Priest which could not bee tainted That King of righteousnesse was of another order He being without sinne hath fully satisfied for the sinnes of men Whom can it now offend to see the blemishes of the Euangelicall Priesthood when Gods first high Priest is thus miscaried Who can looke for loue and prosperity at once when holy and meeke Moses finds enmity in his owne flesh and blood Rather then we shall want A mans enemies shall be those of his owne house Authority cannot fayle of opposition if it be neuer so mildly swayed that common make-bate will rather raise it out of our owne bosome To doe well and heare ill is Princely The Midianitish wife of Moses cost him deare Before she hazarded his life now the fauour of his people Vnequall matches are seldome prosperous Although now this scandall was onely taken Enuy was not wise enough to choose a ground of the quarrell Whether some secret and emulatory brawles passed between Zipporah and Miriam as many times these sparkes of priuate brawles grow into a perillous and common flame or whether now that Iethro and his family was ioyned with Israel there were surmises of transporting the Gouernment to strangers or whether this vnfit choice of Moses is now raised vp to disparage Gods gifts in him Euen in fight the exceptions were
not so affect vs if it were not with the danger of our owne Secure mindes neuer startle till God come home to their very senses Balac and his Moabites had wit enough to feare not wit enough to preuent iudgement They see an enemy in their borders yet take no right course for their safety Who would not haue looked that they should haue come to Israel with conditions of peace Or why did they not thinke Either Israels God is stronger then ours or he is not If he be not Why are we afraid of him If he be Why do we not serue him The same hand which giues them victory can giue vs protection Carnall men that are secure of the vengeance of God ere it doe come are mastered with it when it doth come and not knowing which way to turne them run forth at the wrong doore The Midianites ioyne with the Moabites in consultation in action against Israel One would haue thought they should haue looked for fauour from Moses for Iethroes sake which was both a Prince of their Country and father in law to Moses and either now or not long before was with Israel in the Wildernesse Neither is it like but that Moses hauing found forty yeeres harbour amongst them would haue been what he might inclinable to fauourable treaties with them but now they are so fast linked to Moab that they will either sinke or swim together Intirenesse with wicked consorts is one of the strongest chaines of Hell and bindes vs to a participation both of sin and punishment An easie occasion will knit wicked hearts together in conspiracy against the Church of God Their errand is deuillish Come curse Israel That which Satan could not do by the swords of Og and Sehon he will now try to effect by the tongue of Balaam If either strength or policie would preuaile against Gods Church it could not stand And why should not wee bee as industrious to promote the glory of God and bend both our hands and heads to the causes of the Almighty When all helpes faile Moab the Magician is sought to It is a signe of a desperate cause to make Satan either our Counsellor or our refuge Why did they not send to Balaam to blesse themselues rather then to curse Israel It had beene more easie to be defended from the hurt of their enemies then to haue their enemies laid open to be hurt by them Pride and malice did not care so much for safety as for conquest It would not content them to escape Israel if Israel may escape them It was not thank-worthy to saue their own blood if they did not spill the blood of others As if their owne prosperity had beene nothing if Israel also prospered If there bee one proiect worse then another a wicked heart will find it out Nothing but destruction will content the malicious I know not whether Balaam were more famous or Balac more confident If the King had not beene perswaded of the strength of his charm he had not sent so far payd so deare for it now he trusts more to his inchantment then to the forces of Moab and Midian and as heauen and earth were in the power of the charmers tongue he saith He that thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed Magicke through the permission of God is powerfull for whatsoeuer the Deuill can doe the Magician may doe but it is madnesse to thinke either of them omnipotent If either the curses of men or the indeauors of the powers of darknesse should be effectuall all would be Hell No Balac So short is the power of thy Balaam that neither thou nor thy prophet himselfe can auoid that curse which thou wouldest haue brought vpon Israel Had Balaam been a true Prophet of God this bold assurance had been but iust Both those ancient Seers and the Prophets of the Gospel haue the ratification of God in heauen to their sentences on earth Why haue wee lesse care of the blessings and lesse feare of the curses and censures of Gods Ministers Who would not rather haue Elishaes guard then both the Kings of Israel and Assyria He himselfe as hee had the Angelical chariots and horsmen about him so was he the chariots and horsmen of Israel Why should our faith be lesse strong then superstition Or why should Gods agents haue lesse vertue then Satans I should wonder to heare God speake with a false prophet if I did not know it hath beene no rare thing with him as with men to bestow words euen where he will not bestow fauour Pharaoh Abimelec Nebuchadnezzar receiue visions from God neither can I thinke this strange when I heare God speaking to Satan in a question no lesse familiar then this of Balaam Whence com'st thou Satan Not the sound of the voice of God but the matter which he speakes argues loue He may speake to an enemy he speakes peace to none but his owne It is a vaine bragge God hath spoken to me So may he doe to reprobates or Deuils But what said he Did he say to my soule I am thy saluation Hath he indented with me that he will be my God and I shall bee his I cannot heare this voice and not liue God heard all the consultation and message of these Moabites these messengers could not haue moued their foote or their tongue but in him and yet hee which asked Adam where he was askes Balaam What men are these I haue euer seene that God loues to take occasion of proceeding with vs from our selues rather then from his owne immediate prescience Hence it is that we lay open our wants and confesse our sinnes to him that knowes both better then our own hearts because he wil deale with vs from our owne mouthes The preuention of God forbids both his iourney and his curse And what if he had beene suffered to goe and curse What corne had this wind shaken when God meant to blesse them How many Buls haue bellowed out execrations against this Church of God What are we the worse Yea I doubt if we had bin so much blessed had not those Balaamitish curses beene spent vpon vs. He that knowes what waste winde the causelesse curses of wicked men are yet will not haue Balaam curse Israel because he wil not allow Balac so much incouragement in his opposition as the conceit of this helpe Or perhaps if Balac thought this Sorcerer a true Prophet God would not haue his Name so much as in the opinion of the heathen scandalized in vsurping it to a purpose which he meant not should succeed The hand of God is in the restraint of many euils which wee neuer knew to be towards vs. The Israelites sate still in their Tents they little thought what mischiefe was brewing against them without euer making them of counsell God crosses the designes of their enemies Hee that keepeth Israel is both a sure and a secret friend The reward of the diuination had easily commanded
brethren Craftily yet and vnder pretence of a false title had they acknowledged the victory of Gideon with what forehead could they haue denied him bread Now I know not whether their faithlesnesse or enuy lie in their way Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna in thy hands There were none of these Princes of Succoth and Penuel but thought themselues better men then Gideon That he therefore alone should doe that which all the Princes of Israel durst not attempt they hated and scorned to heare It is neuer safe to measure euents by the power of the instrument nor in the causes of God whose calling makes the difference to measure others by our selues There is nothing more dangerous then in holy businesses to stand vpon comparisons and our owne reputation sith it is reason God should both chuse and blesse where he lists To haue questioned so sudden a victory had been pardonable but to deny it scornfully was vnworthy of Israelites Carnall men thinke that impossible to others which themselues cannot doe From hence are their censures hence their exclamations Gideon hath vowed a fearefull reuenge and now performes it the taunts of his brethren may not stay him from the pursuit of the Midianites Common enmities must first be opposed domesticall at more leysure The Princes of Succoth feared the tyranny of the Midianitish Kings but they more feared Gideons victory What a condition hath their enuy drawne them into that they are sorry to see Gods enemies captiue that Israels freedome must be their death that the Midianites and they must tremble at one and the same Reuenger To see themselues prisoners to Zeba and Zalmunna had not been so fearefull as to see Zeba and Zalmunna prisoners to Gideon Nothing is more terrible to euill mindes then to reade their owne condemnation in the happy successe of others hell it selfe would want one piece of his torment if the wicked did not know those whom they contemned glorious I know not whether more to commend Gideons wisedome and moderation in the proceedings then his resolution and iustice in the execution of this businesse I doe not see him run furiously into the City and kill the next His sword had not been so drunken with bloud that it should know no difference But he writes down the names of the Princes and singles them forth for reuenge When the Leaders of God come to a Iericho or Ai their slaughter was vnpartiall not a woman or child might liue to tell newes but now that Gideon comes to a Succoth a City of Israelites the rulers are called forth to death the people are frighted with the example not hurt with the iudgement To enwrappe the innocent in any vengeance is a murderous iniustice Indeed where all ioyne in the sin all are worthy to meet in the punishment It is like the Citizens of Succoth could haue been glad to succour Gideon if their rulers had not forbidden they must therefore escape whiles their Princes perish I cannot thinke of Gideons reuenge without horror That the Rulers of Succoth should haue their flesh torne from their backs with thornes and briers that they should bee at once beaten and scratcht to death What a spectacle it was to see their bare bones looking some-where thorow the bloudy ragges of their flesh and skinne and euery stroke worse then the last death multiplied by torment Iustice is sometimes so seuere that a tender beholder can scarce discerne it from cruelty I see the Midianites fare lesse ill the edge of the sword makes a speedy and easie passage for their liues whiles these rebellious Israelites dye lingringly vnder thornes and bryers enuying those in their death whom their life abhorred Howsoeuer men liue or dye without the pale of the Church a wicked Israelite shall be sure of plagues How many shall vnwish themselues Christians when Gods reuenges haue found them out The place where Iacob wrestled with God and preuailed now hath wrestled against God and takes a fall they see God auenging which would not beleeue him deliuering It was now time for Zeba and Zalmunna to follow those their troops to the graue whom they had led in the field Those which the day before were attended with an hundred thirty fiue thousand followers haue not so much as a Page now left to weep for their death and haue liued onely to see all their friends and some enemies dye for their sakes Who can regard earthly greatnesse that sees one night change two of the greatest Kings of the World into captiues It had been both pitty and sinne that the Heads of that Midianitish tyranny into which they had drawn so many thousands should haue escaped that death And yet if priuate reuenge had not made Gideon iust I doubt whether they had died The bloud of his brothers cals for theirs and awakes his sword to their execution He both knew and complained of the Midianitish oppression vnder which Israel groned yet the cruelty offered to all the thousands of his Fathers sonnes had not drawne the bloud of Zeba and Zalmunna if his owne mothers sonnes had not bled by their hands He that slew the Rulers of Succoth and Penuel spared the people now hath slain the people of Midian and would haue spared their Rulers but that God which will finde occasions to winde wicked men into iudgement will haue them slaine in a priuate quarrel which had more deserued it for the publike If we may not rather say that Gideon reuenged these as a Magistrate not as a brother For Gouernours to respect their owne ends in publike actions and to weare the sword of iustice in their owne sheath it is a wrongfull abuse of authority The slaughter of Gideons brethren was not the greatest sinne of the Midianitish Kings this alone shall kill them when the rest expected an vniust remission How many lewd men hath God payd with some one sinne for all the rest Some that haue gone away with vnnuturally filthinesse and capitall thefts haue clipped off their owne dayes with their coyne Others whose bloudy murders haue been punished in a mutinous word Others whose suspected felony hath payd the price of their vnknowne rape O God thy iudgements are iust euen when mens are vniust Gideons young soone is bidden to reuenge the death of his Vncles His sword had not yet learned the way to bloud especially of Kings though in yrons Deadly executions require strength both of heart and face How are those aged in euill that can draw their swords vpon the lawfuly Anointed of God These Tyrants plead not now for coutinuance of life but for the haste of their death Fall thou vpon vs. Death is euer accompanied with paine which it is no maruell if we wish short We doe not more affect protraction of an easefull life then speed in our dissolution for here euery pang that tends toward death renewes it To lye an houre vnder death is tedious but to be dying a whole day we thinke aboue the
strength of humane patience Oh what shall we then conceiue of that death which knowes no end As this life is no lesse fraile then the dody which it animates so that death is no lesse eternall then the soule which must endure it For vs to be dying so long as wee now haue leaue to liue is intollerable and yet one onely minute of that other tormenting death is worse then an age of this Oh the desperate infidelity of carlesse men that shrinke at the thought of a momentarry death and feare not eternall This is but a killing of the body that is a destruction of body and soule Who is so worthy to weare Crowne of Israel as hee that wonne the Crowne from Midian Their vsurpers were gone now they are headlesse It is a doubt whether they were better to haue had no Kings or Tyrants They sue to Gideon to accept of the Kingdome and are repulsed There is no greater ensample of modesty then Gideon When the Angell spake to him he abased himselfe below all Israel when the Ephraimites contended with him he prefers their gleanings to his vintage and casts his honour at their feete and now when Israel proffers him that Kingdome which he had merited he refuses it Hee that in ouercomming would allow them to cry The sword of the Lord and of Gideon in gouerning will haue none but The sword of the Lord. That which others plot and sue and sweare and bribe for Dignity and superiority he seriously reiects whether it were for that he knew God had not yet called them to a Monarchy or rather for that he saw the crowne among thornes What doe we ambitiously affect the commahd of these mole-hils of earth when wise men haue refused the proffers of kingdomes Why doe we not rather labour for that Kingdome which is free from all cares from all vncertainty Yet he that refuses their Crowne cals for their earings although not to enrich himselfe but religion So long had God been a stranger to Israel that now superstion goes currant for deuout worship It were pitty that good intentions should make any man wicked here they did so Neuer man meant beter then Gideon in his rich Ephod yet this very act set all Israel on whoring God had chosen a place and a seruice of his own When the wit of man will be ouer-pleasing God with better deuices then his own it turnes to madnesse and ends in mischiefe ABIMELECHS vsurpation GIdeon refused the Kingdome of Israel when it was offered his seuenty sons offered not to obtain that Scepter which their fathers victory had deserued to make hereditary onely Abimelec the concubines sonne sues and ambitiously plots for it What could Abimelec see in himselfe that hee should ouer-looke all his brethren If he lookt to his father they were his equals if to his mother they were his betters Those that are most vnworthy of honour are hottest in the chase of it whiles the conscience of better deserts bids men sit still and stay to bee either importuned or neglected There can bee no greater signe of vnfitnesse then vehement sute It is hard to say whether there bee more pride or ignorance in Ambition I haue noted this difference betwixt spirituall and earthly honour and the Clients of both wee cannot be worthy of the one without earnest prosecution nor with earnest prosecution worthy of the other The violent abtaine heauen onely the meeke are worthy to inherit the earth That which an aspiring heart hath proiected it will find both argument and meanes to effect If either bribes or fauour will carry it the proud man will not sit out The Shechemites are fit brokers for Abimelec That City which once betrayed it selfe to vtter depopulation in yeelding to the sute of Hamor now betraies it selfe and al Israel in yeelding to the request of Abimelec By them hath this Vsurper made himselfe a fair way to the Throne It was an easie question Whether wil ye admit of the sons of Gideon for your Rulers or of strangers If of the sons of Gideon whether of all or one If of one whether of your owne flesh and bloud or of others vnknowne To cast off the sonnes Gideon for strangers were vnthankfull To admit of seuenty Kings in one small Country were vnreasonable To admit of any other rather then their own kinsman were vnnaturall Gideons sonnes therefore must rule amongst all Israel One of his sonnes amongst those seuenty and who should be that one but Abimelec Naturall respects are the most dangerous corrupters of all elections What hope can there be of worthy Superiors in any free people where neerenesse of bloud carries it from fitnesse of disposition Whiles they say Hee is our brother they are enemies to themselues and Israel Faire words haue won his brethren they the Shechemites the Shechemites furnish him with money mony with men His men begin with murder and now Abimelec raignes alone Flattery bribes and bloud are the vsuall staires of the Ambitious The money of Baal is a fit hier for murderers that which Idolatry hath gathered is fitly spent vpon Treason One diuell is ready to helpe another in mischiefe seldome euer is ill gotten riches better imployed It is no wonder if he that hath Baal his Idol now make an Idoll of Honour There was neuer any man that worshipped but one Idol Woe be to them that lie in the way of the Aspiring Though they be brothers they shall bleed yea the neerer they are the more sure is their ruine Who would not now thinke that Abimelec should finde an hell in his breast after so barbarous and vnnaturall a massacre and yet behold he is a senslesse as the stone vpon which the bloud of his seuerity brethren was spilt Where Ambition hath possest it selfe throughly of the soule it turnes the heart into steele and makes it vncapeable of a conscience All sinnes will easily downe with the man that is resolued to rise Onely Iotham fell not at that fatall stone with his brethren It is an hard battell where none escapes He escapes not to raigne not to reuenge but to be a Prophet and a witnesse of the vengeance of God vpon the vsurper vpon the Abettors He liues to tel Abimelec that he was but a bramble a weed rather then a tree A right bramble indeed that grew but out of the base hedge-row of a Concubin that could not lift vp his head from the earth vnlesse he were supported by some bush or pale of Shechem that had laid hold of the fleece of Israel and had drawne bloud of all his brethren and lastly that had no substance in him but the sap vaine-glory and the pricks of cruelty It was better then a Kingdome to him out of his obscure Beere to see the fire out of his bramble to consume those tres The view of Gods reuenge is so much more pleasing to a good heart then his owne glory by how much it is more iust and full There was neuer
blessing Now all Israel had cause to rue that these were the Sonnes of Samuel For now the question was not of their vertues but of their blood not of their worthinesse but their birth euen the best heart may bee blinded with affection Who can maruell at these errors of Parents loue when he that so holily iudged Israel all his life misiudged of his owne sonnes It was Gods ancient purpose to raise vp a King to his people How doth hee take occasion to performe it but by the vnruly desires of Israel euen as we say of humane proceedings that ill manners beget good lawes That Monarchy is the best forme of gouernment there is no question Good things may be ill desired so was this of Israel If an itching desire of alteration had not possessed them why did they not rather sue for a reformation of their Gouernours then for a change of gouernment Were Samuels sonnes so desperately euill that there was no possibility of amendment Or if they were past hope were there not some others to haue succeeded the justice of Samuel no lesse then these did his person What needed Samuel to be thrust out of place What needed the ancient forme of administration to be altred He that raised vp their Iudges would haue found time to raise them vp Kings Their curious and inconstant newfanglenes will not abide to stay it but with an heady importunity labors to our hasten the pace of God Where there is a setled course of good gouernment howsoeuer blemished with some weaknesses it is not safe to be ouer-forward to a change though it should be to the better He by whom Kings reigne sayes They haue cast him away that he should not reigne ouer them because they desire a King to reigne ouer them Iudges were his owne institution to his people as yet Kings were not after that Kings were setled to desire the gouernment of Iudges had bin a much more seditious inconstancy God hath not appointed to euery time place those formes which are simply best in themselues but those which are best to them vnto whom they are appointed which we may neither alter till he begin nor recall when he hath altred This businesse seemed personally to concerne Samuel yet he so deales in it not as a partie not as a Iudge of his owne Case but as a Prophet of God as a Friend of his opposite He prayes to God for aduice he foretels the state and courses of their future King Wilfull men are blind to all dangers are deafe to all good counsels Israel must haue a King though they pay neuer so deare for their longing The vaine affectation of conformitie to other Nations ouercomes all discouragements there is no readier way to error then to make others examples the rule of our desires or actions If euery man haue not grounds of his owne whereon to stand there can be no stability in his resolutions or proceedings Since then they choose to haue a King God himselfe will choose and appoint the King which they shall haue The kingdome shall beginne in Beniamin which was to endure in Iuda It was no probability or reason this first King should proue well because he was abortiue their humour of innouation deserued to be punished with their owne choice Kish the father of Saul was mighty in estate Saul was mighty in person ouer-looking the rest of the people in stature no lesse then he should doe in dignitie The senses of the Israelites could not but be well pleased for the time howsoeuer their hearts were afterwards when men are caried with outward shewes it is a signe that God meanes them a delusion How farre God fetches his purposes about The Asses of Kish Sauls father are strayed away What is that to the newes of a kingdome God layes these small accidents for the ground of greater designes The Asses must be lost none but Saul must goe with his fathers seruant to seeke them Samuel shall meet them in the search Saul shall be premonished of his insuing Royalty Little can we by the beginning of any action guesse at Gods intention in the conclusion Obedience was a fit entrance into Soueraignty The seruice was homely for the sonne of a great man yet he refuseth not to goe as a fellow to his fathers seruant vpon so meane a search The disobedient and scornfull are good for nothing they are neither fit to be subiects nor gouernours Kish was a great man in his country yet hee disdaineth not to send his sonne Saul vpon a thrifty errand neither doth Saul plead his disparagement from a refusall Pride and wantonnesse haue marred our times Great parents count it a disreputation to employ their sonnes in courses of frugality and their pampered children thinke it a shame to doe any thing and so beare themselues as those that hold it the onely glory to be either idle or wicked Neither doth Saul goe fashionably to worke but does this seruice heartily and painfully as a man that desires rather to effect the command then please the Commander He passed from Ephraim to the Land of Shalisha from Shalisha to Salim from Salim to Iemini whence his House came from Iemini to Zuph not so much as staying with any of his kinred so long as to vittaile himselfe He that was afterward an ill King approued himselfe a good Sonne As there are diuersity of relations and offices so there is of dispositions those which are excellent in some attaine not to a mediocrity in other It is no arguing from priuate vertues to publike from dexterity in one station to the rest A seuerall grace belongs to the particular cariage of euery place whereto we are called which if we want the place may well want vs. There was more praise of his obedience in ceasing to seeke then in seeking hee takes care lest his father should take care for him that whilst he should seeme officious in the lesse he might not neglect the greatest A blind obedience in some cases doth well but it doth farre better when it is led with the eyes of discretion otherwise we may more offend in pleasing then in disobeying Great is the benefit of a wise and religious attendant such an one puts vs into those duties and actions which are most expedient and least thought of If Saul had not had a discreet Seruant he had returned but as wise as he came now he is drawne in to consult with the man of God and heares more then hee hoped for Saul was now a sufficient iourney from his fathers house yet his religious seruant in this remotenesse takes knowledge of the place where the Prophet dwels and how honourably doth he mention him to his master Behold in this Citie is a man of God and he is an honorable man all that he saith commeth to passe Gods Prophets are publike persons as their function so their notice concernes euery man There is no reason God should abate any of the respect due
made to bee seene he ouerlookes all Israel in height of stature for presage of the eminence of his estate from the shoulders vpward was he higher then any of the people Israel sees their lots are falne vpon a noted man one whose person shewed he was borne to be a King and now all the people shout for ioy they haue their longing and applaud their owne happinesse and their Kings honour How easie is it for vs to mistake our owne estates to reioyce in that which we shall find the iust cause of our humiliation The end of a thing is better then the beginning the safest way is to reserue our ioy till wee haue good proofe of the worthinesse and fitnesse of the obiect What are wee the better for hauing a blessing if we know not how to vse it The office and obseruance of a King was vncowth to Israel Samuel therefore informes the people of their mutuall duties and writes them in a booke and layes it vp before the Lord otherwise nouelty might haue beene a warrant for their ignorance and ignorance for neglect There are reciprocall respects of Princes and people which if they be not obserued gouernment languisheth into confusion these Samuel faithfully teacheth them Though he may not be their iudge yet he will be their Prophet he will instruct if he may not rule yea he will instruct him that shall rule There is no King absolute but he that is the King of all gods Earthly Monarchs must walke by a rule which if they transgresse they shall be accountable to him that is higher then the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of ciuility so much as conscience must euery Samuel labour to keepe eauen termes betwixt Kings and Subiects prescribing iust moderation to the one to the other obedience and loyalty which who euer endeauors to trouble is none of the friends of God or his Church The most and best applaud their new King some wicked ones despised him and said How shall he saue vs It was not the might of his Parents the goodlinesse of his person the priuiledge of his lot the fame of his prophesying the Panegyricke of Samuel that could shield him from contempt or winne him the hearts of all There was neuer yet any man to whom some tooke not exceptions It is not possible either to please or displease all men while some men are in loue with vice as deeply as others with vertue and some as ill dislike vertue if not for it selfe yet for contradiction They well saw Saul chose not himselfe they saw him worthy to haue beene chosen if the Election should haue beene carried by voices and those voyces by their eyes they saw him vnwilling to hold or yeeld when hee was chosen yet they will enuy him What fault could they find in him whom God had chosen His parentage was equall his person aboue them his inward parts more aboue them then the outward Malecontents will rather deuise then want causes of flying out and rather then faile the vniuersall approbation of others is ground enough of their dislike It is a vaine ambition of those that would be loued of all The Spirit of God when he enioynes vs peace with all he addes if it be possible and fauour is more then peace A mans comfort must be in himselfe the conscience of deseruing well The neighbouring Ammonites could not but haue heard of Gods fearfull vengeance vpon the Philistims and yet they will be taking vp the quarrell against Israel Nahash comes vp against Iabesh Gilead Nothing but grace can teach vs to make vse of others iudgements wicked men are not moued with ought that fals beside them they trust nothing but their owne smart What fearfull iudgements doth God execute euery day resolute sinners take no notice of them and are growne so peremptorie as if God had neuer shewed dislike of their wayes The Gileadites were not more base then Nahash the Ammonite was cruell The Gileadites would buy their peace with seruility Nahash would sell them a seruile peace for their right eyes Iephtha the Gileadite did yet sticke in the stomacke of Ammon and now they thinke their reuenge cannot be too bloody It is a wonder that hee which would offer so mercilesse a condition to Israel would yeeld to the motion of any delay Hee meant nothing but shame and death to the Israelites yet hee condescends to a seuen dayes respit Perhaps his confidence made him thus carelesse Howsoeuer it was the restraint of God that gaue this breath to Israel and this opportunity to Sauls courage and victory The enemies of Gods Church cannot bee so malicious as they would cannot approue themselues so malicious as they are God so holds them in sometimes that a stander-by would thinke them fauourable The newes of Gileads distresse had soone filled and afflicted Israel the people thinke of no remedie but their pittie and teares Euils are easily grieued for not easily redressed Onely Saul is more stirred with indignation then sorrow That GOD which put into him a spirit of prophesie now puts into him a spirit of fortitude Hee was before appointed to the Throne not setled in the Throne he followed the beasts in the field when he should haue commanded men Now as one that would be a King no lesse by merit then election he takes vpon him and performes the rescue of Gilead he assembles Israel he leads them he raiseth the siege breakes the troops cuts the throats of the Ammonites When God hath any exploit to performe he raiseth vp the heart of some chosen Instrument with heroicall motions for the atchieuement When all hearts are cold and dead it is a a signe of intended destruction This day hath made Saul a compleat King and now the thankfull Israelites begin to enquire after those discontented Mutiners which had refused allegeance vnto so worthy a Commander Bring those men that we may slay them This sedition had deserued death though Saul had beene foiled at Gilead but now his happy victorie whets the people much more to a desire of this iust execution Saul to whom the iniurie was done hinders the reuenge There shall no man dye this day for to day the Lord hath saued Israel that his fortitude might not goe beyond his mercy How noble were these beginnings of Saul His Prophesie shewed him miraculously wise his Battell and Victory no lesse valiant his pardon of his Rebels as mercifull There was not more power shewed in ouercomming the Ammonites then in ouercomming himselfe and the impotent malice of these mutinous Israelites Now Israel sees they haue a King that can both shed blood and spare it that can shed the Ammonites blood and spare theirs His mercy winnes those hearts whom his valour could not As in God so in his Deputies Mercy and Iustice should be inseparable wheresoeuer these two goe asunder gouernment followes them into distraction and ends in ruine If it had beene a wrong offered to Samuel the
Philistims may be against him The purpose of any fauour is more then the value of it Euen the greatest honours may be giuen with an intent of destruction Many a man is raised vp for a fall So forward is Saul in the match that hee sends spokes men to sollicit Dauid vnto that honour which he hopes will proue the high-way to death The dowry is set An hundred fore-skins of the Philistims not their heads but their fore-skins that this victory might bee more ignominious still thinking why may not one Dauid miscary as well as an hundred Philistims And what doth Sauls enuy all this while but enhance Dauids zeale and valour and glorie That good Captaine little imagining that himselfe was the Philistim whom Saul maligned supererogates of his Master and brings two hundred for one and returnes home safe and renowned neither can Saul now fly for shame There is no remedy but Dauid must be a sonne where he was a riuall and Saul must feed vpon his owne heart since he cannot see Dauids Gods blessing graces equally together with mans malice neither can they deuise which way to make vs more happy then by wishing vs euill MICHALS wyle THis aduantage can Saul yet make of Dauids promotion that as his Aduersarie is raised higher so hee is drawne nearer to the opportunity of death Now hath his enuy cast off all shame and since those craftie plots succeed not hee directly subornes Murtherers of his riuall There is none in all the Court that is not set on to bee an Executioner Ionathan himselfe is sollicited to imbrue his hand in the blood of his friend of his Brother Saul could not but see Ionathans cloathes on Dauids backe he could not but know the league of their loue yet because he knew withall how much the prosperitie of Dauid would preiudice Ionathan he hoped to haue found him his sonne in malice Those that haue the Iaundis see all things yellow those which are ouergrowne with malicious passions thinke all men like themselues I doe not heare of any reply that Ionathan made to his father when he gaue him that bloody charge but he waits for a fit time to disswade him from so cruell an iniustice Wisdome had taught him to giue way to rage and in so hard an aduenture to craue aide of opportunitie If we be not carefull to obserue good moodes when wee deale with the passionate we may exasperate in stead of reforming Thus did Ionathan who knowing how much better it is to be a good friend then an ill sonne had not onely disclosed that ill counsell but when be found his father in the fields in a calmes temper laboured to diuert it And so farre doth the seasonable and pithy Oratory of Ionathan preuaile that Saul is conuinced of his wrong and sweares As God liues Dauid shall not die Indeed how could it be otherwise vpon the plea of Dauids innocence and well-deseruings How could Saul say he should dye whom hee could accuse of nothing but faithfulnesse Why should he designe him to death which had giuen life to all Israel Oft-times wicked mens iudgements are forced to yeeld vnto that truth against which their affections maintaine a rebellion Euen the foulest hearts doe sometimes entertaine good motions like as on the contrary the holiest soules giue way sometimes to the suggestions of euill The flashes of lightning may be discerned in the darkest Prisons But if good thoughts looke into a wicked heart they stay not there as those that like not their lodging they are soone gone Hardly any thing distinguishes betwixt good and euill but continuance The light that shines into an holy heart is constant like that of the Sunne which keepes due times and varies not his course for any of these sublunary occasions The Philistim Warres renue Dauids victories and Dauids victory renues Sauls enuy and Sauls enuy renues the plots of Dauids death Vowes and Oaths are forgotten That euill spirit which vexes Saul hath found so much fauour with him as to winne him to these bloody machinations against an innocent His owne hands shall first bee imployed in this execution The speare which hath twice before threatned death to Dauid shall now once againe goe vpon that message Wise Dauid that knew the danger of an hollow friend and reconciled enemy and that found more cause to mind Sauls earnest then his owne play giues way by his nimblenesse to that deadly weapon and resigning that stroke vnto the wall flies for his life No man knowes how to be sure of an vnconscionable man If either goodnesse or merit or affinitie or reasons or oaths could secure a man Dauid had been safe now if his heeles doe not more befriend him then all these hee is a dead man No sooner is hee gone then messengers are sped after him It hath been seldome seene that wickednesse wanted Executioners Dauids house is beset with Murderers which watch at all his doores for the opportunitie of blood Who can but wonder to see how God hath fetch from the loines of Saul a remedy for the malice of Sauls heart His owne children are the onely meanes to crosse him in the sinne and to preserue his guiltlesse Aduersarie Michal hath more then notice of the plot and with her subtill with countermines her father for the rescue of an Husband Shee taking the benefit of the night lets Dauid downe through a window Hee is gone and disappoints the ambushes of Saul The messengers begin to be impatient of this delay and now thinke it time to inquire after their Prisoner She whiles them off with the excuse of Dauids sicknes so as now her Husband had good leisure for his escape and layes a Statue in his bed Saul likes the newes of any euill befalne to Dauid but fearing he is not sicke enough sends to aide his disease The messengers returne and rushing into the house with their Swords drawne after some harsh words to their imagined charge surprize a sicke Statue lying with a Pillow vnder his head and now blush to see they haue spent all their threats vpon a senselesse stocke and made themselues ridiculous whiles they would be seruiceable But how shall Michal answer this mockage vnto her furious father Hitherto shot hath done like Dauid wife now she begins to be Sauls Daughter He said to me Let me goe or else I will kill thee Shee whose wit had deliuered her Husband from the Sword of her Father now turnes the edge of her Fathers wrath from her selfe to her Husband His absence made her presume of his safety If Michal had not bin of Sauls plot he had neuer expostulated with her in those termes Why hast thou let mine enemy escapeâ— neither had she framed that answer He said Let me goe I doe not find any great store of religion in Michal for both she had an Image in the house afterward mocked Dauid for his deuotion yet Nature hath taught her to prefer an Husband to a Father to chide a
should dwell in those brests which are consecrated vnto God The Arke and the Tabernacle were then separated The Arke was at Kiriathiealim the Tabernacle at Nob God was present with both Whither should Dauid flye for succour but to the House of that God which had anointed him Ahimelech was wont to see Dauid attended with the troupes of Israel or with the Gallants of the Court it seemes strange therefore to him to see so great a Peere and Champion of Israel come alone These are the alterations to which earthly Greatnesse is subiect Not many dayes are past since no man was honoured at Court but Ionathan and Dauid now they are both for the time in disgrace Now dare not the Kings Sonne in law Brother to the Prince both in Loue and Mariage shew his head at the Court nor any of those that bowed to him dare stirre a foot with him Princes are as the Sunne and great Subiects are like to Dials if the Sun shine not on the Diall no man will looke at it Euen hee that ouercame the Beare the Lyon the Gyant is ouercome with feare He that had cut off two hundred fore-skins of the Philistims had not circumcised his owne heart of the weake passions that follow Distrust Now that hee is hard driuen he practises to helpe himselfe with an vnwarrantable shift Who can looke to passe this Pilgrimage without infirmities when Dauid dissembleth to Ahimelech A weake mans rules may be better then the best mans actions God lets vs see some blemishes in his holiest Seruants that wee may neither bee too highly conceited of flesh and blood nor too much deiected when wee haue beene miscaried into sinne Hitherto hath Dauid gone vpright now hee begins to halt with the Priest of God and vnder pretence of Sauls imployment drawes that fauour from Ahimelech which shall afterwards cost him his head What could Ahimelech haue thought too deare for Gods Anointed for Gods Champion It is not like but that if Dauid had sincerely opened himselfe to the Priest as hee hath done to the Prophet Ahimelech would haue seconded Samuel in some secret and safe succour of so vniust a distresse whereas he is now by a false color led to that kindnesse which shall be preiudiciall to his life Extremities of euill are commonly inconsiderate either for that wee haue not leisure to our thoughts or perhaps so as we may be perplexed not thoughts to our leisure What would Dauid haue giuen afterwards to haue redeemed this ouer fight Vnder this pretence he craues a double fauour of Ahimelech The one of bread for his sustenance the other of a Sword for his defence There was no bread vnder the hands of the Priest but that which was consecrated to God and whereof none might taste but the deuoted Seruants of the Altar Euen that which was with solemne dedication set vpon the holy Table before the face of God a Sacramentall Bread presented to God with Incense figuring that true Bread that came downe from Heauen Yet euen this Bread might in case of necessitie become common and be giuen by Ahimelech and receiued by Dauid and his followers Our Sauiour himselfe iustifies the act of both Ceremonies must giue place to substance God will haue Mercy and not Sacrifice Charitie is the summe and the end of the Law That must be aymed at in all our actions wherein it may fall out that the way to keepe the Law may bee to breake it the intention may be kept and the Letter violated and it may bee a dangerous transgression of the Law to obserue the words and neglect the scope of God That which would haue dispensed with Dauid for the substance of the act would haue much more dispensed with him for the circumstance The touch of their lawfull Wiues had contracted a legall impurity not a morall That could haue beene no sufficient reason why in an vrgent necessitie they might not haue partaked of the holy Bread Ahimelech was no perfect Casuist these men might not famish if they were ceremonially impure But this question bewrayed the care of Ahimelech in distributing the holy Bread There might be in these men a double incapacity the one as they were Seculars the other as vncleane he saw the one must be he feared lest the other should be as one that wished as little indisposition as possibly might bee in those which should be fed from Gods Table It is strange that Dauid should come to the Priest of God for a Sword Who in all Israel was so vnlikely to furnish him with weapons as a man of Peace whose armour was onely spirituall Doubtlesse Dauid knew well where Goliahs Sword lay as the noble relique of Gods victorious deliuerance dedicated to the same God which won it at this did that suit ayme None could be so fit for Dauid none could be so fit for it as Dauid Who could haue so much right to that Sword as he against whom it was drawne and by whom it was taken There was more in that Sword then Mettall and forme Dauid could neuer cast his eye vpon it but hee saw an vndoubted monument of the mercifull protection of the Almighty there was therefore more strength in that Sword then sharpenesse neither was Dauids arme so much strengthened by it as his faith nothing can ouercome him whiles he caries with him that assured signe of victorie It is good to take all occasions of renuing the remembrance of Gods mercies to vs and our obligations to him Doeg the Master of Sauls Herdmen for he that went to seeke his Fathers Asses before he was King hath herdes and droues now that he is a King was now in the Court of the Tabernacle vpon some occasion of deuotion Though an Israelite in profession he was an Edomite no lesse in heart then in blood yet hee hath some vow vpon him and not onely comes vp to Gods House but abides before the Lord Hypocrites haue equall accesse to the publike places and meanes of Gods Seruice Euen hee that knowes the heart yet shuts his doores vpon none how much lesse should wee dare to exclude any which can onely iudge of the heart by the face Doeg may set his foot as far within the Tabernacle as Dauid hee sees the passages betwixt him and Ahimelech and layes them vp for an aduantage Whiles he should haue edified himselfe by those holy seruices he carpes at the Priest of God and after a lewd mis-interpretation of his actions of an attendant proues an accuser To incurre fauour with an vniust Master he informes against innocent Ahimelech and makes that his act which was drawne from him by a cunning circumuention When we see our Auditors before vs little doe we know with what hearts they are there nor what vse they will make of their pretended deuotion If many come in simplicity of heart to serue their God some others may perhaps come to obserue their Teachers and to picke quarrels where none are Onely God and the
good to thee This argument seemed to carry such command with it as that Dauid not onely may but must embrew his hands in bloud vnlesse hee will bee found wanting to God and himselfe Those temptations are most powerfull which fetch their force from the pretence of a religious obedience Whereas those which are raised from arbitrary and priuate respects admit of an easie dispensation If there were such a prediction one clause of it was ambiguous and they take it at the worst Thou shalt doe to him as shall seeme good to thee that might not seeme good to him which seemed euill vnto God There is nothing more dangerous than to make construction of Gods purposes out of euentuall appearances If carnall probabilities might be the rule of our iudgement what could God seeme to intend other than Sauls death in offering him naked into the hands of those whom he vniustly persecuted how could Dauids souldiers thinke that God had sent Saul thither on any other errand than to fetch his bane and if Saul could haue seene his owne danger he had giuen himselfe for dead for his heart guilty to his owne bloudy desires could not but haue expected the same measure which it meant But wise and holy Dauid not transported either with mis-conceit of the euent or fury of passion or sollicitation of his followers dares make no other vse of this accident than the triall of his loyalty and the inducement of his peace It had beene as easie for him to cut the throat of Saul as his garment but now his coat onely shall be the worse not his person neither doth he in the maiming of a cloake seeke his owne reuenge but a monument of his innocence Before Saul rent Samuels garment now Dauid cutteth Sauls both were significant The rending of the one signified the Kingdome torne out of those vnworthy hands the cutting of the other that the life of Saul might haue beene as easily cut off Saul needes no other Monitor of his owne danger than what he weares The vpper garment of Saul was laid aside whiles he went to couer his feet so as the cut of the garment did not threaten any touch of the body yet euen the violence offered to a remote garment strikes the heart of Dauid which findes a present remorse for harmefully touching that which did once touch the person of his Master Tender consciences are moued to regret at those actions which strong hearts passe ouer with a careles ease It troubled not Saul to seeke after the bloud of a righteous seruant there is no lesse difference of consciences than stomacks some stomachs will digest the hardest meates and turne ouer substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest food and complaine euen of dainties Euery gracious heart is in some measure scrupulous and findes more safety in feare than in presumption And if it be so strait as to curbe it selfe in from the liberty which it might take in things which are not vnlawfull how much lesse will it dare to take scope vnto euill By how much that state is better where nothing is allowed than where all things by so much is the strict and â—nnorous conscience better than the lawlesse There is good likelihood of that man which is any way scrupulous of his wayes but he which makes no bones of his actions is apparently hopelesse Since Dauids followers pleaded Gods testimony to him as a motiue to bloud Dauid appeales the same God for his preseruation from bloud The Lord keepe me from doing that thing to my Master the Lords Annointed and now the good man hath worke enough to defend both himselfe and his persecuter himselfe from the importunate necessitie of doing violence and his Master from suffering it It was not more easie to rule his owne hands than difficult to rule a multitude Dauids troupe consisted of Male-contents all that were in distresse in debt in bitternesse of soule were gathered to him Many if neuer so well ordered are hard to command a few if disorderly more hard many and disorderly must needs bee so much the hardest of all that Dauid neuer atchieued any victory like vnto this wherein hee first ouercame himselfe then his Souldiers And what was the charme wherewith Dauid allayed those raging spirits of his followers No other but this Hee is the Annointed of the Lord. That holy Oyle was the Antidote for his bloud Saul did not lend Dauid so impearceable an Armour when hee should encounter Goliah as Dauid now lent him in this plea of his vnction Which of all the discontented Out-lawes that lurked in that Caue durst put forth his hand against Saul when they once heard Hee is the Lords Annointed Such an impression of awe hath the diuine Prouidence caused his Image to make in the hearts of men as that it makes Traytors cowards So as in steede of striking they tremble How much more lawlesse than the Out-lawes of Israel are those professed Ring-leaders of Christianitie which teach and practise and incourage and reward and canonize the violation of Maiestie It is not enough for those who are commanders of others to refraine their owne hands from doing euil but they must carefully preuent the iniquitie of their heeles else they shall bee iustly reputed to doe that by others which in their owne persons they auoyded the Lawes both of God and man presuppose vs in some sort answerable for our charge as taking it for granted that wee should not vndertake those raynes which wee cannot mannage There was no reason Dauid should lose the thankes of so noble a demonstration of his loyalty Whereto hee trusts so much that hee dares call backe the man by whom hee was pursued and make him iudge whether that fact had not deserued a life As his act so his word and gesture imported nothing but humble obedience neither was there more meeknesse than force in that seasonable perswasion Wherein hee lets Saul see the error of his credulity the vniust slanders of maliciousnesse the oportunity of his reuenge the proofe of his forbearance the vndeniable euidence of his innocence and after a lowly disparagement of himselfe appeales to God for iudgement for protection So liuely and feeling Oratory did Saul find in the lap of his garment and the lips of Dauid that it is not in the power of his enuie or ill nature to hold out any longer Is this thy voice my sonne Dauid and Saul lift vp his voice and wept and said Thou art more righteous than I. Hee whose harpe had wont to quiet the frenzy of Saul hath now by his words calmed his fury so that now he sheds teares in steed of bloud and confesses his owne wrong and Dauids integrity And as if hee were new againe entred into the bounds of Naioth in Ramath hee prayes and prophesies good to him whom hee maliced for good The Lord render thee good for that thou hast done to mee this day for now behold I know that
disdainefull haluing of his haire and Robes in the person of his deputies The name of Embassadours hath beene euer sacred and by the vniuersall Law of Nations hath caried in it sufficient protection from all publike wrongs neither hath it euer beene violated without a reuenge Oh God what shall wee say to those notorious contempts which are dayly cast vpon thy spirituall Messengers Is it possible thou shouldst not feele them thou shouldst not auenge them Wee are made a gasing stocke to the World to Angels and to men we are despised and trodden downe in the dust Who hath beleeued our report and to whom is the Arme of the Lord reuealed How obstinate are wicked men in their peruerse resolutions These foolish Ammonites had rather hire Syrians to maintaine a Warre against Israel in so foule a quarrell besides the hazard of their owne liues than confesse the errour of their iealous misconstruction It is one of the mad principles of wickednesse that it is a weaknesse to relent and rather to Die than yeeld Euen ill causes once vndertaken must be vpheld although with bloud whereas the gracious heart finding his owne mistaking doth not onely remit of an vngrounded displeasure but studies to be reuenged of it selfe and to giue satisfaction to the offended The mercenarie Syrians are drawne to venture their liues for a fee twentie thousand of them are hired into the field against Israel Fond Pagans that know not the value of a man their bloud cost them nothing they care not to sell it good cheape How can we thinke those men haue Soules that esteeme a little white earth aboue themselues That neuer inquire into the Iustice of the quarrell but the rate of the pay that can rifle for drammes of siluer in the bowels of their owne flesh and either kill or die for a dayes wages Ioab the wise Generall of Israel soone finds where the stength of the battle lay and so marshals his troupes that the choice of his men shall encounter the vantgard of the Syrians His brother Abishai leades the rest against the children of Ammon with this couenant of mutuall assistance If the Syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt helpe mee but if the children of AMMON bee too strong for thee then will I come and helpe thee It is an happy thing when the Captaines of Gods people ioyne together as brethren and lend their hand to the aide of each other against the common aduersary Concord in defence or assault is the way to victorie as contrarily the diuision of the Leaders is the ouerthrow of the Armie Set aside some particular actions Ioab was a worthy Captaine both for wisdome and valour Who could either exhort or resolue better than hee Bee of good courage and let vs play the men for our people and for the Cities of our God and the Lord doe that which seemeth him good It is not either priuate glory or profit that whets his fortitude but the respect to the cause of God and his people That Souldier can neuer answere it to God that strikes not more as a Iusticer than as an enemie Neither doth he content himselfe with his owne courage but hee animates others The tongue of a Commander fights more than his hand it is enough for priuate men to exercise what life and limmes they haue a good Leader must out of his owne abundance put life and spirits into all others If a Lyon leade sheepe into the field there is hope of victorie Lastly when he hath done his best hee resolues to depend vpon God for the issue not trusting to his sword or his bow but to the prouidence of the Almightie for successe as a man religiously awfull and awfully confident whiles there should be no want in their owne indeauours he knew well that the race was not to the swift nor the battle to the strong therefore hee lookes vp aboue the hils whence commeth his saluation All valour is cowardise to that which is built vpon Religion I maruell not to see Ioab victorious while hee is thus godly The Syrians flee before him like flockes of sheepe the Ammonites follow them The two sonnes of Zeruiah haue nothing to doe but to pursue and execute The throates of the Amonites are cut for cutting the Beards and Coates of the Israelitish messengers Neither doth this reuenge end in the field Rabba the royall Citie of Ammon is strongly beleagured by Ioab The Citie of waters after wel-neere a yeares siege yeeldeth the rest can no longer hold out Now Ioab as one that desireth more to approue himselfe a loyall and carefull subiect than a happy Generall sends to his Master Dauid that he should come personally and encampe against the Citie and take it Lest saith he I take it and it be called after my name Oh noble and imitable fidelitie of a dutifull Seruant that preferres his Lord to himselfe and is so farre from stealing honour from his Masters deserts that he willingly remits of his owne to adde vnto his The Warre was not his hee was only imployed by his Souereigne The same person that was wronged in the Ambassadours reuengeth by his Souldiers The prayse of the act shall like Fountaine Water returne to the Sea whence it Originally came To seeke a mans owne glory is not glory Alas how many are there who being sent to sue for God wooe for themselues Oh God it is a fearefull thing to rob thee of that which is dearest to thee Glory which as thou wilt not giue to any Creature so much lesse wilt thou endure that any Creature should filtch it from thee and giue it to himselfe Haue thou the honour of all our actions who giuest a being to our actions and vs and in both hath most iustly regarded thine owne prayse DAVID with BATHSHEBA and VRIAH WIth what vnwillingnesse with what feare doe I still looke vpon the miscarriage of the man after Gods owne heart O holy Prophet who can promise himselfe alwayes to stand when he sees thee falne and maymed in the fall Who can assure himselfe of an immunitie from the foulest sinnes when hee see thee offending so haynously so bloudily Let prophane eyes behold thee contentedly as a patterne as an excuse of sinning I shall neuer looke at thee but through teares as a wofull spectacle of humane infirmitie Whiles Ioab and all Israel were busie in the Warre against Ammon in the siege of Rabbah Satan findes time to lay siege to the secure heart of Dauid Who euer found Dauid thus tempted thus foyled in the dayes of his buzie Warres Now only doe I see the King of Israel rising from his bed in the euening The time was when he rose vp in the morning to his early deuotions when he brake his nightly rest with publike cares with the businesse of State all that while he was innocent he was holy but now that he wallowes in the bed of idlenesse hee is fit to inuite a tentation The industrious man hath
she had prepared to her sicke Brother her selfe is made a prey to his outragious Lust The modest Virgine intreates and perswades in vaine shee layes before him the sinne the shame the danger of the fact and since none of these can preuaile faine would winne time by the suggesting of vnpossible hopes Nothing but violence can stay a resolued sinner What hee cannot by intreaty hee will haue by force If the Deuill were not more strong in men than nature they would neuer seeke pleasure in violence Amnon hath no sooner fulfilled his beastly desires than he hates Tamar more than he loued her Inordinate lust neuer ends but in discontentment Losse of spirits and remorse of soule make the remembrance of that Act tedious whose expectation promised delight If we could see the backe of sinfull pleasures ere we behold their face our hearts could not but be fore-stalled with a iust detestation Brutish Amnon it was thy selfe whom thou shouldst haue hated for this villany not thine innocent sister Both of you lay together onely one committed incest What was she but a patient in that impotent fury of lust How vniustly doe carnall men mis-place their affections No man can say whether that loue or this hatred were more vnreasonable Fraud drew Tamar into the house of Amnon force intertained her within and droue her out Faine would she haue hid her shame where it was wrought and may not bee allowed it That roofe vnder which she came with honour and in obedience and loue may not be lent her for the time as a shelter of her ignominie Neuer any sauage could be more barbarous Shechem had rauished Dinah his offence did not make her odious his affection so continued that he is willing rather to draw bloud of himselfe and his people than forgoe her whom hee had abused Amnon in one houre is in the excesse of loue and hate and is sicke of her for whom he was ficke She that lately kept the keyes of his heart is now lockt out of his doores Vnruly passions runne euer into extremities and are then best apaied when they are furthest off from reason and moderation What could Amnon thinke would be the euent of so soule a fact which as hee had not the grace to preuent so hee hath not the care to conceale If hee lookt not so high as Heauen what could he imagine would follow hereupon but the displeasure of a Father the danger of Law the indignation of a Brother the shame and out-cryes of the World All which he might haue hoped to auoid by secresie and plausible courses of satisfaction It is the iust iudgement of God vpon presumptuous offenders that they lose their wit together with their honesty and are either so blinded that they cannot fore-see the issue of their actions or so besotted that they doe not regard it Poore Tamar can but bewaile that which she could not keepe her Virginity not lost but torne from her by a cruell violence She rends her Princely Robe and kâ—ies ashes on her head and laments the shame of anothers sinne and liues more desolate than a widdow in the house of her brother Absalom In the meane time what a corosiue must this newes needs be to the heart of good Dauid whose fatherly command had out of loue cast his Daughter into the iawes of this Lion What an insolent affront must he needs construe this to bee offred by a Sonne to a Father that the Father should bee made the Pandar of his owne Daughter to his Sonne Hee that lay vpon the ground weeping for but the sicknesse of an Infant How vexed doe we thinke hee was with the villanie of his Heire with the rauishment of his Daughter both of them worse than many deaths What reuenge can he thinke of for so haynous a crime lesse than death and what lesse than death is it to him to thinke of a reuenge Rape was by the Law of God capitall how much more when it is seconded with Incest Anger was not punishment enough for so high an offence Yet this is all that I heare of from so indulgent a Father sauing that he makes vp the rest with sorrow punishing his Sonnes out-rage in himselfe The better-natur'd and more gracious a man is the more subiect he is to the danger of an ouer-remissenesse and the excesse of fauour and mercie The milde iniustice is no lesse perillous to the Common-wealth than the cruell If Dauid perhaps out of the conscience of his owne late offence will not punish this fact his sonne Absalom shall not out of any care of Iustice but in a desire of reuenge Two whole yeares hath this slye Courtier smothered his indignation and fayned kindnesse else his inuitation of Amnon in speciall had beene suspected Euen gallant Absalom was a great Sheep-master The brauery and magnificence of a Courtier must bee built vpon the grounds of frugalitie Dauid himselfe is bidden to this bloudie Sheep-shearing It was no otherwise meant but that the Fathers eyes should be the witnesses of the Tragicall execution of one Sonne by another Onely Dauids loue kept him from that horrible spectacle Hee is carefull not to be chargeable to that Sonne who cares not to ouer charge his Fathers stomacke with a Feast of Bloud AMNON hath so quite forgot his sinne that he dares goe to feast in that House where Tamar was mourning and suspects not the kindnesse of him whom he had deserued of a Brother to make an enemy Nothing is more vnsafe to be trusted than the faire lookes of a festred heart Where true Charitie or iust satisfaction haue not wrought a sound reconciliation malice doth but lurke for the opportunitie of an aduantage It was not for nothing that Absalom deferred his reuenge which is now so much the more exquisite as it is longer protracted What could bee more fearefull than when Amnons heart was merrie with Wine to be suddenly stricken with death As if this execution had beene no lesse intended to the Soule than to the bodie How wickedly soeuer this was done by Absalom yet how iust was it with God that he who in two yeares impunity would finde no leisure of repentance should now receiue a punishment without possibilitie of Repentance O God thou art righteous to reckon for those sinnes which humane partialitie or negligence hath omitted and whiles thou punishest sinne with sinne to punish sinne with death If either Dauid had called Amnon to account for this villanie or Amnon had called himselfe the reuenge had not beene so desperate Happie is the man that by an vnfayned Repentance acquits his soule from his knowne euills and improues the dayes of his peace to the preuention of future vengeance which if it bee not done the hand of God shall as surely ouertake vs in iudgement as the hand of Satan hath ouertaken vs in miscarriage vnto sinne ABSALOMS Returne and Conspiracie ONE Act of iniustice drawes on another The iniustice of Dauid in not punishing the rape of
Amnon procures the iniustice of Absalom in punishing Amnon with Murder That which the Father should haue iustly reuenged and did not the Sonne reuenges vniustly The Rape of a Sister was no lesse worthy of death than the Murder of a Brother Yea this latter sinne was therefore the lesse because that Brother was worthy of death though by another hand whereas that Sister was guiltie of nothing but modest beautie yet he that knew this Rape passed ouer whole two yeares with impunitie dares not trust the mercie of a Father in the pardon of his Murder but for three yeares hides his head in the Court of his Grand-father the King of Geshur Doubtlesse that Heathenish Prince gaue him a kind welcome for so meritorious a reuenge of the dishonour done to his owne Loynes No man can tell how Absalom should haue sped from the hands of his otherwise ouer-indulgent Father if he had beene apprehended in the heat of the fact Euen the largest loue may be ouer-strayned and may giue a fall in the breaking These fearefull effects of lenity might perhaps haue whetted the seueritie of Dauid to shut vp these outrages in bloud Now this displeasure was weakned with age Time and thoughts haue digested this hard morsell Dauids heart told him that his hands had a share in this offence that Absalom did but giue that stroke which himselfe had wrongfully forborne that the vnrecouerable losse of one Sonne would be but wofully relieued with the losse of another Hee therefore that in the newes of the deceased Infant could change his clothes and wash himselfe and cheere vp his spirits with the resolution of I shall goe to him hee shall not returne to me comforts himselfe concerning Amnon and begins to long for Absalom THOSE three yeares banishment seemed not so much a punishment to the Son as to the Father Now Dauid beginnes to forgiue himselfe yet out of his wisedome so inclines to fauour that he conceales it and yet so conceales it that it may be descryed by a cunning eye If he had cast out no glances of affection there had beene no hopes for his Absalom if he had made profession of loue after so foule an Act there had beene no safetie for others now he lets fall so much secret grace as may both hold vp Absalom in the life of his hopes and not hearten the presumption of others GOOD Eyes see light thorow the smallest chinke The wit of Ioab hath sooone discerned Dauids reserued affection and knowes how to serue him in that which hee would and would not accomplish and now deuises how to bring into the light that birth of Desire whereof hee knew Dauid was both bigge and ashamed A woman of Tekoah that Sex hath beene euer held more apt for wiles is suborned to personate a mourner and to say that by way of Parable which in plaine termes would haue sounded too harshly and now whiles shee lamentably layes forth the losse and danger of her Sonnes she shewes Dauid his owne and whiles shee mooues compassion to her pretended Issue she winnes Dauid to a pittie of himselfe and a fauourable sentence for Absalom We loue our selues better than others but we see others better than our selues who so would perfectly know his owne case let him view it in anothers person PARABLES sped well with Dauid One drew him to repent of his owne sinne another to remit Absaloms punishment And now as glad to heare this Plea and willing to bee perswaded vnto that which if hee durst hee would haue sought for he gratifies Ioab with the grant of that suite which Ioab more gratified him in suing for Goe bring againe the young man ABSALOM How glad is Ioab that hee hath light vpon one Act for which the Sun both setting and rising should shine vpon him and now he speeds to Geshur to fetch backe Absalom to Ierusalem hee may bring the long-banished Prince to the Citie but to the Court he may not bring him Let him turne to his owne house and let him not see my face THE good King hath so smarted with mercie that now hee is resolued vpon austeritie and will relent but by degrees It is enough for Absalom that hee liues and may now breathe his natiue ayre Dauids face is no obiect for the eyes of a Murtherer What a Deareling this Sonne was to his Father appeares in that after an vnnaturall and barbarous rebellion passionate Dauid wishes to haue changed liues with him yet now whiles his bowels yearned his brow frowned The face may not bee seene where the heart is set THE best of Gods Saints may bee blinded with affection but when they shall once see their errors they are carefull to correct them Wherefore serues the power of Grace but to subdue the insolencies of nature It is the wisedome of Parents as to hide their hearts from their best children so to hide their countenances from the vngracious Fleshly respects may not abate their rigour to the ill deseruing For the Childe to see all his Fathers loue it is enough to make him wanton and of wanton wicked For a wicked Child to see any of his Fathers loue it emboldens him in euill and drawes on others ABSALOMS house is made his Prison Iustly is hee confined to the place which he had stayned with bloud Two yeares doth hee liue in Ierusalem without the happinesse of his Fathers sight It was enough for Dauid and him to see the smoke of each others Chimnies In the meane time how impatient is Absalom of this absence Hee sends for Ioab the Soliciter of his returne So hard an hand doth wise and holy Dauid carry ouer his reduced Sonne that his friendly Intercessor Ioab dares not visit him HE that afterwards kindled that seditious fire ouer all Israel sets fire now on the field of Ioab whom loue cannot draw to him feare and anger shall Continued displeasure hath made Absalom desperate Fiue yeares are passed since hee saw the face of his Father and now is hee no lesse weary of his life than of this delay Wherefore am I come downe from Geshur It had beene better for mee to haue beene there still Now therefore let mee see the Kings face and if there bee any iniquitie in mee let him kill mee Either banishment or death seemed as tolerable to him as the debarring of his Fathers sight WHAT a torment shall it be to the wicked to be shut out for euer from the presence of a God without all possible hopes of recouery This was but a Father of the flesh by whom if Absalom liued at first yet in him he liued not yea not without him onely but against him that Sonne found he could liue God is the Father of Spirits in whom wee so liue that without him can bee no life no being to bee euer excluded from him in whom wee liue and are what can it bee but an eternall dying an eternall perishing If in thy presence O God be the fulnesse of ioy in
draw blood of that backe which is yet blew from the hand of the Almighty If Shimei had not presumed vpon Dauids deiection he durst not haue beene thus bold now he that perhaps durst not haue lookt at one of those Worthies single defies them all at once and doth both cast and speak stones against Dauid and all his army The malice of base spirits sometimes caries them further then the courage of the valiant In all the time of Dauids prosperity we heard no newes of Shimei his silence and colourable obedience made him passe for a good subiect yet all that while was his heart vnsound and trayterous Peace and good successe hides many a false heart like as a Snow-drift couers an heap of dung which once melting away descries the rottennesse that lay within Honour and welfare are but flattering glasses of mens affections aduersity will not deceiue vs but will make a true report as of our owne powers so of the disposition of others He that smiled on Dauid in his throne curseth him in his flight if there be any quarrels any exceptions to be taken against a man let him look to haue them laid in his dish when he fares the hardest This practice haue wicked men learnt of their master to take the vtmost aduantages of our afflictions Hee that suffers had need to bee double armed both against paine and censure Euery word of Shimei was a slaunder He that tooke Sauls speare from his head and repented to haue but cut the lap of his garment is reproched as a man of blood The man after Gods owne heart is branded for a man of Belial Hee that was sent for out of the fields to be anointed is taxed for an vsurper If Dauids hands were stained with blood yet not of Sauls House It was his seruant not his master that bled by him yet is the blood of the Lords anointed cast in Dauids teeth by the spight of a false tongue Did we not see Dauid after all the proofes of his humble loyalty shedding the blood of that Amalakite who did but say he shed Sauls Did wee not heare him lament passionately for the death of so ill a master chiding the mountaines of Gilboa on which he fell and angerly wishing that no dew might fall where that blood was poured out and charged the daughters of Israel to weepe ouer Saul who had clothed them in scarlet Did we not heare and see him inquiring for any remainder of the House of Saul that he might shew him the kindnesse of God Did wee not see him honouring lame Mephibosheth with a princely seat at his owne table Did we not see him reuenging the blood of his riuall Ishbosheth vpon the heads of Rechab and Baanah What could any liuing man haue done more to wipe off these bloody aspersions Yet is not a Shimei ashamed to charge innocent Dauid with all the blood of the House of Saul How is it likely this clamorous wretch had secretly traduced the name of Dauid all the time of his gouernment that dares thus accuse him to his face before all the mighty men of Israel who were witnesses of the contrary The greater the person is the more open doe his actions lie to mis-interpretation and censure Euery tongue speakes partially according to the interest he hath in the cause or the patient It is not possible that eminent persons should be free from imputations Innocence can no more protect them then power If the patience of Dauid can digest this indignity his traine cannot their fingers could not but itch to returne iron for stones If Shimei raile on Dauid Abishai ralies on Shimei Shimei is of Sauls Family Abishai of Dauids each speakes for his owne Abishai most iustly bends his tongue against Shimei as Shimei against Dauid most vniustly Had Shimei beene any other then a dog he had neuer so rudely barked at an harmlesse passenger neither could he deserue lesse then the losse of that head which had vttered such blasphemies against Gods anointed The zeale of Abishai doth but plead for iustice and is checked What haue I to doe with you ye sonnes of Zeruiah Dauid said not so much to his reuiler as to his abettor Hee well saw that a reuenge was iust but not seasonable he found the present a fit time to suffer wrongs not to right them he therefore giues way rather meekly to his owne humiliation then to the punishment of another There are seasons wherein lawfull motions are not fit to bee cherished Anger doth not become a mourner One passion at once is enough for the soule Vnaduised zeale may be more preiudiciall then a cold remisnesse What if the Lord for the correction of his seruant haue said vnto Shimei Curse Dauid yet is Shimeies curse no lesse worthy of Abishaies sword the sinne of Shimeies curse was his owne the smart of the curse was Gods God wils that as Dauids chastisement which hee hates as Shimeies wickednesse That lewd tongue moued from God it moued lewdly from Satan Wicked men are neuer the freer from guilt or punishment for that hand which the holy God hath in their offensiue actions Yet Dauid can say Let him alone and let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him as meaning to giue a reason of his owne patience rather then Shimeies impunity the issue shewed how well Dauid could distinguish betwixt the act of God and of a traytor how hee could both kisse the rod and burne it There can be none so strong motiue of our meek submission to euils as the acknowledgement of their originall Hee that can see the hand of God striking him by the hand or tongue of an enemy shall more awe the first mouer of his harm then maligne the instrument Euen whiles Dauid laments the rebellion of his sonne he gaines by it and makes that the argument of his patience which was the exercise of it Behold my son which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Beniamite doe it The wickednesse of an Absalom may rob his father of comfort but shall helpe to adde to his fathers goodness It is the aduantage of great crosses that they swallow vp the lesse One mans sin cannot be excused by anothers the lesser by the greater If Absalom be a traytor Shimei may not curse and rebell But the passion conceiued from the indignitie of a stranger may be abated by the harder measure of our owne If we can therefore suffer because we haue suffered we haue profited by our affliction A weake heart faints with euery addition of succeeding trouble the strong recollects it selfe and is growne so skilfull that it beares off one mischiefe with another It is not either the vnnaturall insurrection of Absalom nor the vniust curses of Shimei that can put Dauid quite out of heart It may be that the Lord will looke on mine affliction and will requite good for his cursing this day So well was Dauid acquainted with the proceedings of
contriued to haue by fraud and force what was denied to intreaty Nothing needs but the name but the seale of Ahab let her alone with the rest How present are the wits of the weaker sex for the deuising of wickednesse She frames a letter in Ahabs name to the Senatours of Iezreell wherein she requires them to proclaime a fast to suborne two false witnesses against Naboth to charge him with blasphemy against God the King to stone him to death A ready payment for a rich Vineyard Whose indignation riseth not to heare Iezebel name a fast The great contemners of the most important Lawes of God yet can be content to make vse of some diuine both statutes and customes for their owne aduantage She knew the Israelites had so much remainder of grace as to hold blasphemy worthy of death She knew their manner was to expiate those crying sinnes with publike humiliation She knew that two witnesses at least must cast the offender all these she vrges to her own purpose There is no mischiefe so deuillish as that which is cloked with piety Simulation of holinesse doubleth a villany This murder had not been halfe so foule if it had not bin thus masked with a religious obseruation Besides deuotion what a faire pretence of legality is here Blasphemy against God and his anointed may not passe vnreuenged The offender is conuented before the sad and seuere bench of Magistracy the iustice of Israel allowes not to condemne an absent an vnheard malefactor Witnesses come forth and agree in the intentation of the crime the Iudges rend their garments and strike their brests as grieued not more for the sin then the punishment their very countenance must say Naboth should not die if his offence did not force our iustice and now he is no good subiect no true Israelite that hath not a stone for Naboth Iezebel knew well to whom she wrote Had not those letters falne vpon the times of a wofull degeneration of Israel they had receiued no lesse strong denials from the Elders then Ahab had from Naboth God forbid that the Senate of Iezreel should forge a periurie belie truth condemne innocency broke corruption Command iust things wee are ready to die in the zeale of our obedience wee dare not imbrue our hands in the blood of an innocent But she knew whom she had engaged whom she had marred by making conscious It were strange if they who can countenance euill with greatnesse should want factors for the vniustest designes Miserable is that people whose Rulers in stead of punishing plot and incourage wickednesse when a distillation of euill fals from the head vpon the lungs of any State there must needs follow a deadly consumption Yet perhaps there wanted not some colour of pretence for this proceeding They could not but heare that some words had passed betwixt the King and Naboth Haply it was suggested that Naboth had secretly ouer-lashed into saucy and contemptuous termes to his Soueraigne such as neither might be well borne nor yet by reason of their priuacy legally conuinced the bench of Iezreel should but supply a forme to the iust matter and desert of condemnation What was it for them to giue their hand to this obscure midwifery of Iustice It is enough that their King is an accuser and witnesse of that wrong which onely their sentence can formally reuenge All this cannot wash their hands from the guilt of blood If iustice be blinde in respect of partiality she may not be blinde in respect of the grounds of execution Had Naboth beene a blasphemer or a traitor yet these men were no better then murtherers What difference is there betwixt the stroke of Magistracie and of man-slaughter but due conuiction Wickednesse neuer spake out of a Throne and complained of the defect of instruments Naboth was it seemes strictly conscionable his fellow Citizens loose lawlesse they are glad to haue gotten such an opportunity of his dispatch No clause of Ahabs letter is not obserued A fast is warned the city is assembled Naboth is conuented accused confronted sentenced stoned His vineyard is escheated to the Crowne Ahab takes speedy and quiet possession How still doth God sit in heauen and looke vpon the complots of treachery and villanies as if they did not concerne him The successe so answers their desires as if both heauen and earth were their friends It is the plague which seemes the felicity of sinners to speed well in their lewd enterprises No reckoning is brought in the midst of the meale the end payes for all Whiles Ahab is reioycing in his new garden-plot and promising himselfe contentment in this commodious enlargement in comes Elijah sent from God with an errand of vengeance Me thinkes I see how the Kings countenance changed with what agast eyes and pale cheekes he lookt vpon that vnwelcome Prophet Little pleasure tooke he in his prospect whiles it was clogged with such a guest yet his tongue begins first Hast thou found me O mine enemy Great is the power of conscience vpon the last meeting for ought we know Ahab and Elijah parted friends The Prophet had lacquaied his coach and tooke a peaceable leaue at this Townes end now Ahabs heart told him neither needed any other messenger that God and his Prophet were falne out with him His continuing Idolatry now seconded with blood bids him look for nothing but frownes from heauen A guilty heart can neuer be at peace Had not Ahab knowne how ill he had deserued of God hee had neuer saluted his Prophet by the name of an enemy Hee had neuer beene troubled to bee found by Elijah if his owne brest had not found him out for an enemy to God Much good may thy vineyard doe thee O thou King of Israel many faire flowers and sauory herbes may thy new Garden yeeld thee please thy selfe with thy Iezebel in the triumph ouer the carkasse of a scrupulous subiect let mee rather die with Naboth then reioyce with thee His turne is ouer thine is to come The stones that ouerwhelmed innocent Naboth were nothing to those that smite thee Hast thou killed also taken possession thus saith the Lord In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood euen thine What meanest thou O Elijah to charge this murther vpon Ahab Hee kept his Chamber Iezebel wrote the Elders condemned the people stoned yet thou sayest Hast thou killed Well did Ahab know that Iezebel could not giue this vineyard with dry hands yet was he content to winke at what she would doe He but sits still whiles Iezebel workes Onely his Signet is suffered to walke for the sealing of this vnknowne purchase Those that are trusted with authoritie may offend no lesse in conniuency or neglect then other in act in participation Not onely command consent countenance but very permission feoffes publike persons in those sinnes which they might and will not preuent God loues to punish by retaliation Naboth and
to take him There are Spies vpon him whose espials haue moued their anger and admiration Hee is descried to be in Dothan a small towne of Manasses A whole Armie is sent thither to surprise him The opportunitie of the night is chosen for the exploit There shall bee no want either in the number or valour or secrecie of these conspired troupes and now when they haue fully girt in the village with a strong and exquisite siege they make themselues sure of Elisha and please themselues to thinke how they haue incaged the miserable Prophet how they should take him at vnawares in his bed in the midst of a secure dreame how they should carie him fettered to their King what thankes they should haue for so welcome a prisoner The successor of Gehezi riseth early in the morning and sees all the Citie encompassed with a fearfull host of foot horse charets His eye could meet with nothing but woods of pikes and wals of harnesse and lustre of metals and now hee runnes in affrighted to his Master Alas my Master what shall wee doe Hee had day enough to see they were enemies that inuironed them to see himselfe helplesse and desperate and hath onely so much life left in him as to lament himselfe to the partner of his miserie He cannot flee from his new master if he would he runnes to him with a wofull clamour Alas my Master what shall we do Oh the vndanted courage of faith Elisha sees all this and sits in his chamber so secure as if these had onely beene the guard of Israel for his safe protection It is an hard precept that hee giues his seruant Feare not As well might hee haue bid him not to see when he saw as not to feare when he saw so dreadfull a spectacle The operations of the senses are not lesse certaine then those of the affections where the obiects are no lesse proper But the taske is easie if the next word may find beleefe For there are moe with vs then with them Multitude and other outward probabilities do both lead the confidence of naturall hearts and fix it It is for none but a Dauid to say I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that haue set themselues against me round about Flesh and blood riseth and falleth according to the proportion of the strength or weaknesse of apparent meanes Elishaes man lookt about him yet his Master prayes Lord open his eyes that they may see Naturally we see not whiles we doe see Euery thing is so seene as it is Bodily eyes discerne bodily obiects onely spirituall can see the things of God Some men want both eyes and light Elishaes seruant had eyes wanted illumination No sooner were his eyes open then he saw the mountaine full of horses and charets of fire round about Elisha They were there before neither doth Elisha pray that those troups may be gathered but that they may be seene not till now were they descried Inuisible armies guard the seruants of God whiles they seeme most forsaken of earthly ayd most exposed to certaine dangers If the eyes of our faith be as open as those of our sense to see Angels as well as Syrians we cannot be appalled with the most vnequall termes of hostilitie Those blessed Spirits are ready either to rescue our bodies or to carie vp our soules to blessednesse whether euer shall bee enioyned of their Maker there is iust comfort in both in either Both those Charets that came to fetch Elijah and those that came to defend Elisha were fiery God is not lesse louely to his owne in the midst of his iudgements then hee is terrible to his enemies in the demonstrations of his mercies Thus guarded it is no maruell if Elisha dare walke forth into the midst of the Syrians Not one of those heauenly Presidiaries strucke a stroke for the Prophet neither doth hee require their blowes onely hee turnes his prayer to his God and sayes Smite this people I pray thee with blindnesse With no other then deadly intentions did these Aramites come downe to Elisha yet doth not he say Smite them with the Sword but Smite them with blindnesse All the euill he wishes to them is their repentance There was no way to see their errour but by blindnesse He that prayed for the opening of his seruants eyes to see his safe-gard prayes for the blinding of the eyes of his enemies that they might not see to doe hurt As the eyes of Elishaes seruant were so shut that they saw not the Angels when they saw the Syrians so the eyes of the Syrians shall bee likewise shut that when they see the man they shall not see the Prophet To all other obiects their eyes are cleare onely to Elisha they shall bee blind blind not through darknesse but through misknowledge they shall see and mistake both the person and the place Hee that made the senses can either hold or delude them at pleasure how easily can hee offer to the sight other representations then those which arise from the visible matter and make the heart to beleeue them Iustly now might Elisha say This is not the way neither is this the Citie wherein Elisha shall bee descried He was in Dothan but not as Elisha hee shall not be found but in Samaria neither can they haue any guide to him but himselfe No sooner are they come into the streets of Samaria then their eyes haue leaue to know both the place and the Prophet The first sight they haue of themselues is in the trap of Israel in the iawes of death those stately Palaces which they now wonder at vnwillingly carie no resemblance to them but of their graues Euery Israelite seemes an executioner euery house a Iayle euery beame a Gibbet and now they looke vpon Elisha transformed from their guide to their common murderer with horror and palenesse It is most iust with God to intangle the plotters of wickednesse in their owne snare How glad is a mortall enemy to snatch at all aduantages of reuenge Neuer did the King of Israel see a more pleasing sight then so many Syrian throats at his mercy and as loth to lose so faire a day as if his fingers itched to bee dip't in blood hee saies My father shall I smite shall I smite them The repetition argued desire the compellation reuerence Not without allowance of a Prophet would the King of Israel lay his hand vpon an enemy so miraculously trained home His heart was still foule with idolatry yet would he not taint his hand with forbidden blood Hypocrisie will bee still scrupulous in fomething and in some awfull restraints is a perfect counterfeit of conscience The charitable Prophet soone giues an angry prohibition of slaughter Thou shalt not smite them Wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captiue with thy sword and with thy bow As if he said These are Gods captiues not thine and if they were thine owne their blood could not bee shed
vnrepentance disabled him Perhaps he perswaded Iehoram to hold out the siege though through much hardnesse he foresaw the deliuerance In all this how hath Elisha forfeited his head All Israel did not afford an head so guiltlesse as this that was destined to slaughter This is the fashion of the world the lewd blames the innocent and will reuenge their owne sins vpon others vprightnesse In the midst of all this sad estate of Samaria and these stormes of Iehoram the Prophet sits quietly in his owne house amongst his holy Consorts bewailing no doubt both the sinnes and misery of their people and prophetically conferring of the issue when suddenly God reueales to him the bloody intent and message of Iehoram and he at once reueales it to his fellowes See yee how this sonne of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head Oh the vnimitable libertie of a Prophet The same God that shewed him his danger suggested his words He may be bold where wee must be awfull Stil is Naboths blood laid in Iehorams dish The foule fact of Ahab blemisheth his posterity and now when the sonne threats violence to the innocent murder is obiected to him as hereditary He that foresaw his owne perill prouides for his safety Shut the doore and hold him fast at the doore No man is bound to tender his throat to an vniust stroke This bloodie commission was preuented by a propheticall fore-sight The same eye that saw the executioner comming to smite him saw also the King hasting after him to stay the blow The Prophet had beene no other then guilty of his owne blood if hee had not reserued himselfe a while for the rescue of authority Oh the inconstancy of carnall hearts It was not long since Iehoram could say to Elisha My father shall I smite them now he is ready to smite him as an enemy whom he honoured as a father Yet againe his lippes had no sooner giuen sentence of death against the Prophet then his feet stirre to recall it It should seeme that Elisha vpon the challenges expostulations of Iehorams messenger had sent a perswasiue message to the King of Israel yet a while to wait patiently vpon God for his deliuerance The discontented Prince flies off in an impotent anger Behold this euill is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer Oh the desperate resolutions of impatient mindes They haue stinted God both for his time and his measure if hee exceed either they either turne their backs vpon him or fly in his face The position was true the inference deadly All that euill was of the Lord they deserued it hee sent it What then It should haue been therefore argued Hee that sent it can remoue it I will wait vpon his mercy vnder whose iustice I suffer Impatience and distrust shall but aggrauate my iudgment It is the Lord let him doe what hee will But now to despaire because God is iust to defie mercy because it lingers to reiect God for correction it is a presumptuous madnesse an impious pettishnesse Yet in spight of all these prouocations both of King and people Elisha hath good newes for Iehoram Thus saith the Lord To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flowre be sold for a Shekel and two measures of Barly for a Shekell in the gate of Samaria Miserable Israel now sees an end of this hard triall One daies patience shall free them both of siege and famine Gods deliuerances may ouer-stay our expectation not the due period of his owne counsels Oh infinite mercy when man sayes No longer God sayes To morrow As if he would condescend where he might iudge and would please them who deserued nothing but punishment The word seemed not more comfortable then incredible A Lord on whose hand the King leaned answered the man of God and said Behold if the Lord would make windowes in heauen might this thing be Prophesies before they be fulfilled are riddles no spirit can areed them but that by which they are deliuered It is a foolish and iniurious infidelity to question a possibility where wee know the message is Gods How easie is it for that omnipotent hand to effect those things which surpasse all the reach of humane conceit Had God intended a miraculous multiplication was it not as easie for him to increase the corne or meale of Samaria as the widowes oyle was it not as easie for him to giue plenty of victuals without opening the windowes of heauen as to giue plenty of water without wind or raine The Almighty hates to be distrusted This Peere of Israel shall rue his vnbeleefe Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes but shalt not eate thereof The sight shall be yeelded for conuiction the fruition shall bee denied for punishment Well is that man worthy to want the benefit which hee would not beleeue Who can pity to see Infidelity excluded from the blessings of earth from the glory of heauen How strange a choice doth God make of the Intelligencers of so happy a change Foure Lepers sit at the entring of the Gate they see nothing but death before them famine within the wals the enemy without The election is wofull at last they resolue vpon the lesser euill Famine is worse then the Syrian In the famine there is certaintie of perishing amongst the Syrians hazzard Perhaps the enemy may haue some pity hunger hath none and were the death equally certaine it were more easie to die by the sword then by famine vpon this deliberation they come downe into the Syrian campe to finde either speed of mercy or dispatch Their hunger would not giue them respite till morning By twi-light are they falne vpon the vttermost tents Behold there was no man They maruell at the silence and solitude they looke and listen the noise of their owne feet affrighted them their guilty hearts supplied the Syrians and expected fearfully those which were as fearefully fled How easily can the Almighty confound the power of the strong the policie of the wise God puts a Pannick terror into the hearts of the proud Syrians hee makes them heare a noise of charets and a noise of horses euen the noise of a great hoast They say one to another Loe the King of Israel hath hired against vs the Kings of the Hittites and the Kings of the Egyptians to come vpon vs they arise therefore in a confused rout and leauing all their substance behinde them flee for their liues Not long before Elishaes seruant saw charets and horses but heard none Now these Syrians heare charets and horses but see none That sight comforted his heart this sound dismaied theirs The Israelites heard no noise within the walls the Lepers heard no noise without the gates Only the Syrians heard this noise in their campe What a scorne doth God put vpon these presumptuous Aramites He will not vouchsafe to vse any substantiall stratagem against them nothing but an empty sound shall scatter them
Priesthood of the new Law is Leui refined Mal. 3.3 Et purgabit filios Leui which Hierome not vnlikely interprets of the Ministerie of the Gospell They are the sonnes of Leui which signifies Copulation quia homines cum Deo copulant but of Leui purged and purged as gold As much difference betweene them as betwixt gold in the Ore and in the wedge Hence is double honour challenged to the Euangelicall Ministerie yea and giuen Yee receiued me saith S. Paul as an Angell of God yea as Christ Iesus Gal. 4.14 Hence the Angell of himselfe to IOHN I am thy fellow-seruant Woe bee to them therefore which spet in the faces of those whom God hath honoured It is Gods second charge this of his Prophets His first is Touch not mine Anointed his second Hurt not my Prophets And if one disgracefull word spoken but by rude children to a Prophet of the old Testament cost so many throats God be mercifull to those dangerous and deadly affronts that haue beene and are daily offered to the Prophets of the new What can wee say but with the women of Tekoah Serua-ô-rex Wee blesse God that wee may bemoane our selues to the tender and indulgent eares of a gracious Soueraigne sensible of these spirituall wrongs who yet we know may well answer vs with Iacobs question An loco Dei ego sum It grieues mee to thinke and say of our selues that for a great part of this Perditio tua ex te Woe to those corrupted sonnes of Heli which through their insufficiencie and vnconscionablenesse haue powred contempt on their owne faces That proud fugitiue Campian could say Ministris illorum nihil vilius c. As falsly as spightfully Let heauen and earth witnesse whether any Nation in the world can afford so learned so glorious a Clergie But yet among so many pots of the Temple it is no maruell if some bee drie for want of liquor others rustie for want of vse others full of liquor without meat others so full of meat that they want liquor Let the Lords anointed whose example and incouragements haue raised euen this diuine learning to this excellent perfection by his gracious countenance dispell contempt from the professours of it and by his effectuall endeuours remoue the causes of this contempt But as euerie Christian vnder the Gospell is a Priest and Prophet let the people bee these pots or the offerings of the people That shall bee in respect of the frequence or fragrance according to the double acception of that particle of comparison Camisrachim as the bowles for number or qualitie For the frequence A few seething pots serued the sacrifice but bowles they vsed many what for the vse of the Altar of incense what for the receiuing of the bloud of the sacrifice Salomon made too of gold Now then saith God in the dayes of the Gospell there shall be such store of oblations to God that the number of the pots shall equalize the number of the bowles of the Altar not vnlike because of the following words Euerie pot in Ierusalem shall be faine to be imployed to the sacrifices This frequence then is either of the officers or offerings persons or acts For the persons they were few in comparison vnder the Law All Palestine which comprehends all their officers except some few Proselytes was but as Ierome which was a Lieger there reckons it an 160. miles long from Dan to Beersheba and 46. miles broad from Ioppa to Bethleem Now the partition wall is broken downe all Nations vnder heauen yeeld franke offerers to the Altar of God There was no offering then but at Ierusalem now Ierusalem is euerie where So much therefore as the world is wider than Iudea so much as Christendome is larger than the walls of the Temple so many more officers hath the Gospell than the Law And it were well if there were as many as they seeme If but as many as all the world ouer offer their presence to Gods seruice on Gods day leaue those that spend it in the stewâ—â—s and Tauernes to him whom they serue were true offerers how rich would the Altar be and the Temple how glorious But alas if God will be serued with mouthes full of oathes curses bitternesse with heads full of wine with eyes full of lust with hands full of bloud with backs full of pride with panches full of gluttonie with soules and liues full of horrible sinnes he may haue offerers as many as men else as Esay relicta est in vrbe solituda a few pots will hold our sacrifices and what is this but through our wilfull disobedience to crosse him which hath said that in this day the pots of the Temple shall be as the bowles of the Altar The act or commoditie is offerings whether outward or inward The outward fulfilled in those large endowments of the Church by our deuout and bountifull predecessors What liberall reuenues rich maintenances were then put into mort-maine the dead hand of the Church Lawes were faine to restraine the bountie of those contributions the grounds whereof I examine not in stead of MOSES his proclamation Nequis facito deinceps opus ad oblationem Sanctuarij satis enim est adeoque superest Exod. 26.6 Then mons Domini mons pinguis but now the Church may crie with the Prophet My leannesse my leannesse For shame why should sacrilege croud in with religion why should our better knowledge finde vs lesse conscionable O iniurious zeale of those men which thinke the Church cannot bee holy enough vnlesse shee begge It hath beene said of old That Religion bred wealth and the daughter eat vp the mother I know not if the daughter deuoured the mother I am sure these men would deuoure both daughter and mother Men of vast gorâ—es and insatiable Our Sauiour cried out against the Scribes and Pharisies yet the deuoured but widowes houses poore low cottages but these gulfes of men whole Churches and yet the sepulchers of their throats are open for more I can tell them of a mouth that is wider than theirs and that is the Prophets Os inferni Therefore Hell hath inlarged it selfe and hath opened his mouth without measure and their glorie and their pompe and he that reioyceth in it shall descend into it Esa 5.14 In the meane time Oh that our SAMSON would pull this honie of the Church out of the iawes of these Lions or if the cunning conueyances of sacrilege haue made that impossible since it lies not now intire in the combes but is let downe and digested by these raueners let him whose glorie it is not to be Pater patriae onely but Pater Ecclesiae prouide that those few pots we haue may still seethe and that if nothing will be added nothing can be recouered yet nothing may be purloyned from the Altars of God But these outward offerings were but the types of the inward what cares God for the bloud or flesh of bullocks rams goats Non delectaris sacrificio vt
dem holocaustum non vis saith Dauid what then The sacrifice of God is a contrite spirit a broken heart Our humiliation is sacrificium poenitentiae our new obedience is sacrificium iustitiae our thankfull commemorations are sacrificium laudis These are the oblations which as they shall bee frequent vnder the Gospell so most fragrant vnto God and this is that last and perhaps most proper sense wherein the flesh-pots of the sacrifices erunt sicut aromata shall bee as perfumes in the bowles of incense A liuely sacrifice is well matcht with holy and acceptable When Noah sacrificed to God after the Deluge it is said God smelt a sauour of rest alluding to his name but now the sacrifices wee offer are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sauour of sweetnesse so that the same sauour that Christs oblation had Ephes 5.2 the same haue our offerings Philip. 4.18 Gods children out of the conscience of their owne weaknesses are easily discouraged in the valuation of their owne obedience As therefore they can say of their persons with Mephibosheth What is thy seruant so of their seruices as Philip said of the fiue loaues two fishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alas what are these But they and their offerings cannot be so base to themselues as they are pretious to God There is no sense that giues so liuely a refreshing to the spirits as that of smelling no smell can yeeld so true and feeling delight to the sense as the offerings of our penitence obedience praise send vp into the nostrils of the Almightie Hence as the Church can say of Christ He is as a bundle of myrrh lying betweene her breasts so he againe of her in that heauenly Epithalamion Thy plants are as an Orchard of Pomegranates with sweet fruits as cypres spicknard saffron calamus and cinamon with all the trees of incense myrrh and aloes with all the chiefe spices Cant. 4.13 Let this therefore comfort vs against our imperfections If we be pots of the Lords house those faint streames that we send vp shall be as sweet as the best incense of the bowles of the Altar and God saies to vs as to Cornelius Thy praiers and thine almes are come vp Act. 10. And how are they come vp Like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and incense and with all the chiefe spices Cant. 3.6 I say if we bee pots of the Lords house for if we be Aegyptian flesh-pots that reeke of the strong-smelling onions and garlike of our owne corruptions If we be Ezechiels bloudy pots whose scumme or as the vulgar whose rust is in them Ezec. 24. If we boile with lust if with reuenge if with ambition I can say no other of vs than the sonnes of the Prophets said of theirs Mors in olla Death is in the pot a double death of body and soule It is a true speech of Origen Peccatum est putidi odoris No carion is so noisome Alas what sauours are sent vp to God from those that would seeme not onely pots of the Temple but bowles of the Altar How vnsauourie is the pride prophanenesse riotousnesse oppression beastlinesse of our times It were happy if the Court were free and as it receiues more sweet influences of fauour than all other places so that it returned backe more fragrant obedience that as it is said of Maries spicknard wherewith she anointed Christ that the whole house was filled with the sauour of the ointment Ioh. 12.3 so the whole world might be full of the pleasant perfumes of vertuous example that might arise from hence But alas the painted faces and mannishnesse and monstrous disguisednesse of the one sex the factious hollownesse prodigall garishnesse wanton pampering excesse in our respect to our selues defects in our respects to God in the other argue too well that too many of vs sauour more like the golden sockets of the holy lights than the bowles of the Altar God cannot abide these ill sents The fiue Cities of the Plaines sent vp such poisonous vapours to God that he sent them downe brimstone againe with their fire That which hell is described by is sent downe from Heauen because that such hellish exhalations ascend from them to heauen How should the sinnes of Sodome not expect the iudgements of Sodome Well might the Iewes feare because they would not be seruiceable caldrons vnto God that therefore they should be the flesh and their Citie the caldron Ezec. 11.3 Well may we feare it who haue had so sensible proofes as of the fauours so of the iudgements of God and happy shall it be for vs if we can so feare that our feare may preuent euils Let these pots of ours therefore send vp sweet fumes of contrition righteousnesse thanksgiuing into the nostrils of God and the smoke of his displeasure wherewith coales of eternall fire are kindled against his enemies shall not come forth of his nostrils against vs He shall smell a sauour of rest from vs we a sauour of peace and life from him which God for his mercy sake and for his Sonne Christs sake vouchsafe to grant vs. To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost one glorious God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer AMEN FJNJS A FARE WELL SERMON PREACHT TO THE FAMILIE OF PRINCE HENRY VPON THE DAY OF THEIR DISSOLVTION AT S. IAMES By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. A FAREWELL SERMON REVEL 21.3 And I heard a great voyce from heauen saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall bee their God with them And God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine for the first things are passed And he that sate vpon the throne said Behold I make all things new IT is no wonder if this place as it is for the present the Well-head of sorrow to all Christendome haue sent forth abundance of waters of teares And perhaps you may expect that as the trumpets of our late heauy funerall solemnity sounded basest and dolefullest at the last so my speech being the last publike breath of this sad dissoluing Family should bee most passionately sorrowfull And surely I could easily obtaine of my selfe out of the bitternesse of my soule to spend my selfe in lamentations and to breake vp this assembly in the violent expressions of that griefe wherewith our hearts are already broken but I well consider that we shall carry sorrow enough home with vs in my silence and that it is both more hard and more necessarie for vs to be led forth to the waters of comfort And because our occasions of griefe are such as no earthly tongue can releeue vs nor no earthly obiect A voyce from heauen shall doe it and a voyce