accounts and cleere them a holy tenth of the yeere to be offered to him the sacred Eve and Vigils to the great feast of our Chrisâ—â—an passover Your humbling your bodies by watching and fasting your souâ—es by weeping and mourning your rending your hearts with sighes the resolving your eyes into teares your continuall prostration before the throne of grace offering up prayers with strong cryes are at this time not only kind fruits of your devotion speciall exercises of your mortification necessary parts of contrition but also testimonies of obedience to the Law and duties of conformity to Christs sufferings and of preparation to our most publique and solemne Communions at Easter To pricke you on forward in this most necessarie dutie of pricking your hearts with godly sorrow for your sinnes I have made choyce of this verse wherein the Evangelist S. Luke relateth the effects of S. Peters Sermon in all his auditours 1. Inward impression they were pricked in heart 2. Outward expression men and brethren what shall we doe What Eupolis sometimes spake of Pericles that after his oration made to the people of Athens d Cic. de clar orat In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit he left certaine needles and stings in their mindes may be more truly affirmed of this Sermon of the Apostle which when the Jewes heard they were pricked at heart and not able to endure the paine cry out men and brethren what shall we doe The ancient painters to set forth the power of eloquence drew e Bodin l. 4. de rep c. 7. Majores Herculem Celticum senem effingebant ex cujus ore catenarum maxima vis ad aures infinitae multitudinis perveniret c. Hercules Celticus with an infinite number of chaines comming out of his mouth and reaching to the eares of great multitudes much after which manner S. Luke describeth S. Peter in my text with his words as it were so many golden chaines fastened first upon the eares and after upon the hearts of three thousand and drawing them up at once in the drag-net of the Gospell Now our blessed Saviour made good his promise to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt catch live men and this accesse of soules to the Church and happie successe in his ministeriall function seemeth to have beene fore-shewed to him by that great draught of fish taken after Christs resurrection the draught was an f John 21.11 hundred fiftie and three great fishes and for all there were so many yet saith the text the net was not broken The truth alwayes exceedeth the type for here were three thousand great and small taken and yet the net was not broken there was no schisme nor rupture thereby for all the converts were of one minde they were all affected with the same malady they feele the same paine at the heart and seeke for ease and help at the hands of the same Physitians Peter and the rest of the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we doe Now when they heard these things they were pricked Why what touched them so neere no doubt those words g Ver. 23 24. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine whom God hath raised up having loosened the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it This could not but touch the quickest veines in their heart that they should be the death of the Lord of life that they should slay their Messiah that they should destroy the Saviour of the world Of all sinnes murder cryeth the loudest in the eares of God and men of all murders the murder of an onely begotten sonne most enrageth a loving father and extimulateth him unto revenge in what wofull case then might they well suppose themselves to be who after S. Peter had opened their eyes saw that their hands 〈◊〉 beene deepe in the bloud of the Sonne of God Now their blasphemous words which they spake against him are sharp swords wounding deeply their soules the thornes wherewith they pricked his head and the nailes wherewith they pierced his hands and feet pricked and pierced their very heart They were pricked in heart That is they were pierced tho row with sorrow they tooke on most grievously Here lest wee mistake phrases of like sound though not of like sense we must distinguish of spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Rom. 11.8 a spirit of compunction reproved in the unbeleeving Jewes and compunction of spirit or of the heart here noted by S. Luke the former phrase signifieth slumber stupiditie or obstinacie in sinne this latter hearty sorrow for it the former is a malady for the most part incurable the latter is the cure of all our spirituall maladies Now godly sorrow is termed compunction of the heart for three reasons as i Lorin in Act. c. 2. Dicitur dolor de peccato admisso quod est compunctio vel quia aperitur cordis apostema vel quia vulneratur cor amore Dei vel quia daemon dolore invidiâ sauciatur Lorinus conceiveth 1. Because thereby the corruption of the heart is discovered as an aposteme is opened by the pricke of a sharp instrument 2. Because thereby like the Spouse in the Canticles wee become sicke of love as the least pricke at the heart causeth a present fit of sicknesse 3. Because thereby the Divell is as it were wounded with indignation and envie When they heard these things they were pricked in heart when they were pricked in heart They said As the stroakes in musicke answer the notes that are prickt in the rules so the words of the mouth answer k Cic. 3. de Ora. Totum corpus hominis omnes ejus vultus omnesque voces ut nervi infidibus ita sonant à motu quoque animi sint pulsae to the motions and affections of the heart The Anatomists teach that the heart tongue hang upon one string And hence it is that as in a clocke or watch when the first wheele is moved the hammer striketh so when the heart is moved with any passion or perturbation the hammer beats upon the bell and the mouth soundeth as we heard from David l Psal 45.1 My heart is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer And from S. Paul m Rom. 10.10 With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation And from our Saviour n Luke 6.45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Many among us complaine that they are tongue-tied that when they are at their private devotions their words sticke
fenceth the bankes of rivers and brookes placing them thicke about the flagges as it were so many pikes in an Army about the ensignes or streamers Plin. hist nat l. 16. c. 36. Calamis orientis populi bella conficiunt calamis spicula addunt irrevocabili hamo noxia his armis Solem ipsum obscurant The great Naturalist setteth forth this plant in the richest colours of Rhetoricke out of a kinde of gratitude as being indebted to it for his pen and pensill which were anciently made of canes as now of quils The people of the East use reeds in their wars of these they make deadly darts these they wing with feathers and they let them flye in such aboundance that they over-shadow the Sunne To these reeds the Prophet * Esay 19.6 Esay pointeth The reeds and flagges shall wither But our Saviour * Matth. 11.7 evidently alludeth to a Morall reed What went you out into the wildernesse to see a Reed shaken with the wind that is a timorous and inconstant man No John was no such reed hee was not light nor unstable nor must we be Apoc. 3.12 if wee expect one day to bee made pillars in the Temple of God Of these foure kindes of reeds which sorteth best with the meaning of this Scripture the Artificiall cannot bee here meant for that 's a perfect straight cane but this a bowed or bruised Maldon In hunc locum adeò quierè attentè ambulabit ut etiamsi super arundinem jam quassatam qua nihil fragilius esse potest pedem poneret eam non confringeret Maldonat glaunceth at the Naturall and thus as he imagineth hitteth the sense He will tread so warily and lightly that if a bruised reed were under his feet he would not breake it or crush it in pieces But St. * Hieron Per calamum quassatum contusum intelligit populum Judâ—icum qui anteà vocalis sonorus laudes Deo concinebat posteà impingens in angularem lapidem meritò appellatur calamus fractus pertundens manum ejus qui illi voluerit inniti Hierome sweetly playeth upon the Mysticall reed By the shaken and bruised reed saith hee the Evangelist understandeth the people of the Jewes which in former time were sound and entire and sweetly sounded out the praises of God but now falling upon the corner stone were cracked and therefore are fitly termed a bruised reed running into their hands who leane upon it And a Gorrh. in Matth. 12. Uâ—ebantur exterius literali Legis observantia sed vacui erant interius spirituali intelligentia Gorrhan addeth that the Jewish people might in this also be compared to reeds that they stucke to the letter of the Law and were inwardly hollow that is empty of the spirituall sense and meaning Yet the same Saint b Hieron Qui peccatori non porrigit manum nec portatonus fratris sui iste calamum quassatum confringit Jerome in his Commentaries upon St. Matthew understandeth Reed in my Text morally taking it for a fraile and weake man whereof what fitter embleme can be devised than a reed 1. A reed hollow within and man by nature empty and void of all inward grace 2. A reed apt to make a pipe to sound or cane to write and man likewise fitted with a tongue to sound out and a hand to write his Makers praises 3. A reed dry or unfruitfull though planted and growing by the river side and man dry and unfruitfull in good workes though continually watered with the dew of Gods blessings 4. A reed ever wagging of it selfe or shaken and man so unstable that Plato defines him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a changeable creature 5. A reed so weake that it yeeldeth to the least puffe of winde and is blowne downe to the ground with a violent blast and man so feeble that hee is moved with the least blast of temptation and if it grow more violent is not only shaken but quite bowed and bruised by it as this in my Text. Bruised A reed as I have shewed is an embleme of fraile man but a bruised reed seemeth to mee a proper embleme of a Christian the Motto or word you have in John the 16. Ver. 33. In mundo pressuram habebitis In the world you shall have word for word bruising that is grievances and bruises or pressures some inward some outward some in the body some in the soule some from the yoke of Tyrants some from the burthen of your sinnes Aust Serm. de temp some from the weight of Gods judgements Whereunto S. Austin sweetly alluding saith The fairest and ripest grapes are pressed that they may yeeld their sweetest juice The hint of which conceit he may seeme to have taken from Saint Cyprian Cypr. ep ad Mart. Vos de vinea domini pingues racemi jam maturi fructibus botri pressure secularis infestatione calcatae torcular vestium carcere tot quente sentitis vini vice sanguinem funditis Yee are goodly branches of the true Vine hang'd with clusters of ripe grapes secular persecution is your treading upon and pressing your wine-presse is the prison and in stead of wine your bloud is drawne from you The hony-combes are pressed and bruised to squeeze out of them the thickest hony the ripe and full eares are smitten and bruised with the flaile to beat the corne out of them the rich Ore is beat and bruised in the stamping mils and afterwards tried by fire before there come of it precious and pure metall the corne is bruised and ground to make flowre Whereunto the blessed Martyr * Hier in catal Christi frumentum sum dentibus belluarum molar ut panis mundus inveniar Ignatius fitly resembling the death whereby he was then to glorifie God when hee heard the hungry Lyons roaring for their prey and gaping wide to devoure him said I am Christs corne and straight-waies shall be ground with the teeth of beasts that I may be served in as fine manchet at his table in heaven When the hottest spices are bruised and brayed in the mortar they yeeld a most fragrant smell and a boxe of oyntment after that it is broken sweetly perfumeth the whole roome Even so those prayers and meditations are most fervent and fragrant in the nostrils of Almighty God which rise from a bruised spirit and a broken and contrite heart through inward and outward affliction It is the proper evill and if I may so speake misery of earthly happinesse that it maketh the heart fat and dulleth and deadeth the spirits of zeale and devotion and contrariwise it is a kinde of happinesse which misery bringeth Hos 5.15 In their affliction they will seeke mee early that it quickens us and maketh us seeke diligently after God In their affliction they will seeke me * Or early Hos 5.15 diligently When by any grievous fit of sicknesse or great losse or sore wound in our reputation wee
of Sion be thou ruler in the middest of thine enemies Whilst our Saviour lived upon earth the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind yeelding a savour of life unto life was kept as it were in a narrow boxe but at our Saviours death the boxe was broken and this precious oyntment poured out and the whole world filled with the smell thereof This doctrine touching the naturalizing if I may so speak of the Gentiles into the spirituall Common-wealth of Israel was implyed in the Metaphor of the Rose of the field Cantic 2.1 I am the Rose of the field Christ is not a garden flower for few to see and fewer to smell unto but a Rose of the field for all to gather that have a hand of faith to touch him but it was unfolded at large to Saint Peter in a vision of a sheet let downe from Heaven knit at foure corners Acts 10.11 12. in which were all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things c. The foure corners of the sheet signified the foure parts of the world all sorts of living creatures all sorts of men of all kindreds nations and languages The sheet in which they were all wrapped is the Church militant In the end of the vision the vessell was received up againe into heaven Acts 10.16 to shew that in the end of the world the whole Church militant shall be transported into heaven and become triumphant St. b Orig. comment in Cant. homil 1. Quemadmodum in Evangelio mulier illa quae sanguine fluebat archi Synagogae filiam curatione praevenit sic Aethiopissa id est Gentium Ecclesia Israel aegrotante sanata est Origen representeth this truth most cleerly unto us through the mirrour of an allegory Though saith he the found of the Gospel came later unto the Gentiles yet the Gentiles prevented the Jewes in giving credit to it and were justified before them as the woman in the Gospel that was sicke of a bloudy issue was healed before the Rulers daughter The daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was a type of the Jewish Synagogue the woman that was in a long consumption by reason of her continuall fluxe of bloud was an embleme of the people of the Gentiles lying more than twelve ages sicke of a bloudy issue weltring in her naturall filth and bloud Now as Christ going to cure the Rulers daughter was touched by the Canaanitish woman sicke of a bloudy issue and she by that touch was cured so though Christ came first to heale the Synagogue yet the Gentile Church touching the hemme of his garment by faith is first healed and saved The phrase of sending forth judgement expresseth our Saviours readinesse in opening the treasures of heavenly wisedome and unfolding the mysteries of eternall salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he shooteth out casteth out or sendeth forth judgement of his owne accord as a tree doth his fruit or the Sunne his beames Matth. 12.35 A good man bringeth forth out of the treasure of his heart good things Matth. 2.11 The Sages opened their treasures and every Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart Psal 40.10 saith David in the person of Christ I have declared thy faithfulnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation Ver. 9. I have preached righteousnesse in the great assembly I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest And according to this fore-going type how ready the truth himselfe was to publish the Gospel of the Kingdome appeareth by his taking all occasions from every ordinary occurrent to instruct his Disciples in points of heavenly wisedome as from a draught of fish to admonish them of fishing for soules from Well-water to treat of the water of life from barly loaves to exhort them to labour for the food that perisheth not from burying the dead to reprove those that are dead in sinne from curing the blind in body to rebuke the spirituall blindnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees from a question concerning the materiall Temple to fore-tell the dissolution of the temple of his body and raising it up againe in three daies To conceale any needfull especially saving truth is to bury the gold of Ophir and thereby deprive not only others but our selves also of the benefit and use thereof Wherefore St. c August l. 12. confess Veritas nec mea nec tu◠nec illius est sed omnium nostrûm quos ad ejus communionem publicè vocas admonens nos ut nolimus eam habere privatam ne privemut ea Augustine sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in that which is the common treasure of Gods Church saying The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing us not to desire to have it private lest we be deprived of it In speciall the truth of judgement ought not to bee kept in but to bee sent forth For to detaine any private mans goods is but a private wrong but unrighteously to detaine justice which is the Kings or the Common-wealths or rather both their good is a kind of peculatus or publike theft We laugh at the Indians for casting in great store of gold yeerly into the river Ganges as if the streame would not runne currently without it yet when the current of justice is stopt in many Courts the wisest Soliciters of sutes can finde no better means than such as the Indians use by dropping in early in the morning gold and silver into Ganges to make it runne Pliny reporteth of Apis the Aegyptian god whom they worshipped in the likenesse of a Cow or Oxe that hee gave answers to private men è manu consulentium cibum capiendo Taking alwayes some food from their hands otherwise the Oracle was dumbe I need not to prosecute the application in this place where by the testimony of all men and the truth it selfe the streame of Justice if any where runneth cleerly most free from all filth and corruption Therefore I passe from Christ his sending forth judgement to his victory Hee shall send forth judgement unto victory There are two principall acts or to speake more properly effects of our Lords Princely function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement and victory judgement upon and victory over all his enemies Wee have them both in the words of my Text Judgement which hee shall send forth and Victory unto which But of what Judgement or Victory the words are to bee construed the learned Interpreters of holy Writ somewhat differ in judgement Some in their ghesses fall short upon the particular judgement and utter
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem â—am incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horuÌ„ fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile credeâ—et mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe Å¿ Eras
possession of the Kingdome of grace and 2. Spe in the certaine expectation of the Kingdome of glory O how is the world out in her accompt She esteemeth them the onely miserable who indeed are the onely happy she deemeth them the off-scouring of all things who shall shine as starres in the Firmament shee accounteth them beggars and forlorne men who are d Apoc. 1.6 And hath made us Kings and Priests unto God Kings to God and so assured of a celestiall Crowne that Christ saith not theirs shall bee but theirs is the kingdome of Heaven as if they now ware it When one of Apelles his scholars had drawne Helena in costly and gorgeous apparell hung all over with orient pearle and resplendent stones O young man saith he because thou couldest not paint Helena faire her naturall feature being above thy art thou hast drawne her rich in like manner may we say truely that because the Heathen Philosophers whose severall opinions amount unto the number of some hundreds as Saint Austin relateth in his bookes of the City of God and striketh a dash of his pen through them all could not describe their summum bonum or chiefe happinesse beautifull because they wanted the eye of faith to descry the beauty of the e 1 Pet. 3.4 hidden man of the heart they like the young man thought to make amends by painting her rich abounding with all outward comforts and contentments houses possessions treasures attendants pleasures honours but our blessed Saviour contrariwise because he could not set her forth rich in estate here for f Mat. 8.20 The son of man hath not where to â—â—y his head hee had not himselfe to lay his head upon hee describeth her most faire and beautifull like * Psal 45.13 Solomons Queen all glorious within Hath not God chosen the g Jam. 2.5 poore of this world rich in faith to bee heires of his Kingdome Yes certainly for Christ not onely affirmeth them to bee blessed saying Blessed are the poore but also confirmes it with a most forcible reason For theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Upon which Scripture all my observations for the present shall levell at three points 1. Blessednesse 2. Poverty in spirit 3. Kingdome of Heaven First I will demonstrate that the Saints of God enjoy a kinde of blessednesse in this life Secondly that this blessednesse consisteth especially in their right to a crowne in heaven Thirdly that this right is in the poore in spirit Blessed are They who observe the changings and turnings of this mortall life and in them consider how wretched man like a Tennis-ball is beat from wall to wall as it were racketted from one trouble to another from one care to another from one exigent to another may easily ghesse at the reason why the ancient Sages termed him h Melancthon chron ludum deorum the gods game or sport For as Tiberus Constantinus in the yeer of our Lord 577. i John Don psed Mart commanding a golden cross set in Marble to be digged up that it might not be trod upon found under it a second and under the second a third and under the third a fourth so the dearest servants of God in this world digging for the hidden treasure of the Gospel find crosse under crosse and losse upon losse sorrowes after sorrowes Looke how the waves in the sea ride one upon the necke of the other and like as Jobs messengers trod one upon the heeles of another so miseries and calamities and vexations in the course of this life follow close one upon the other The vanity of youth presseth upon the folly of childhood and the ambition of ripe yeers immediately succeedeth the folly of youth and infirmities of old age seize on the ambition of perfect age and the terrours of death make haste after all Wee runne in the race of our life as it were in a ring of misery from inward evills to outward and from outward to inward from diseases of body to maladies of minde and from those to these from feares to cares and from cares to feares from temporall losses to spirituall and from spirituall backe againe to temporall which are so many and so grievous that whosoever is sensible of them cannot but acknowledge this present life to bee miserable and if hee bee not sensible of them hee is to be accounted so much the more miserable because hee hath lost common sense as Saint k Aug. de civit Dei l. 19. c. 7. Haec mala tam magna tam horrenda tam saeva quisquis cum dolore considerat miseriam necesse est fateatur quisquis autem considerat vel patitur ca sine animi dolote multo utique miserius ideò se putat beatum quia humanum perdidit sensum Austin nimbly wieldeth this two-edged sword against the Heathen Philosophers that doted upon worldly happinesse Polycrates who would not seale the truth concerning the vanity and uncertainty of worldly happinesse with his ring which hee purposely threw in the sea that hee might lose it but regained it againe out of the mouth of a fish sold in the Market and brought into his Kitchin yet afterwards hee signed it with his bloud when the date of his happy fortunes were out and the crosse fell in the end to bee his lot And Croesus who derided Solon preaching to him this doctrine as hee sate upon his throne at Sardis afterwards taken prisoner by Cyrus and condemned to the fire proclaimed it upon the pile now ready to bee kindled crying out upon Solon l Herod Clio. O Solon Solon I finde thy words to bee Oracles and thy Paradox to bee an Axiome dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet that no man ought to bee entred in the Kalendar of the Blessed before we see what end hee maketh whether the glorious light of his temporall prosperity goe not out in an obscure and stinking snuffe of a miserable and infamous death Reason easily perswadeth but Religion compelleth our assent to this truth For Christianity is a m Tertulâ—n a olog Hoc quod Christiani sumus fidei speires est meer matter of faith and hope Wee walke n 2 Cor. 5.7 here by faith and not by sight our life is hid * Colos 3.3 4. with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall wee also appeare with him in glory By hope wee are saved but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why should he hope for it If this hope were confined to this life then were the best Christians of all men the most o 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life o ely we have hope in Christ then are we of all men most m serable miserable How then doth our Saviour here crown eight sorts of Christians with a title of Blessedness and those who make least shew of it viz. the poore in spirit mourners hungry thirsty persecuted reviled
thing so much as their tiring In summe they spend all their time in a manner in beautifying and adorning their body to please their lovers but in comparison none at all in beautifying and adorning their soules to please their Maker and Husband Christ Jesus Of these Saint m James 5.5 James long ago gave us the character They live in pleasure in the earth and waxe wanton and are fatted for the day of slaughter I spare to rehearse other lavishing out of time lest the rehearsing thereof might seeme worthy to bee numbred among the idle expences thereof And now it is time to set the foot to the account of my meditations on this Scripture The Conclusion and draw neere to that which we all every day draw neerer unto an end The * 1 Pet. 4.7 end of all things is at hand be sober therefore watch unto prayer The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the workes thereof shall be burned up This great Doomes-day cannot bee farre off as wee see by the fearfull fore-runners thereof howsoever the day of our death which may be called little doomes-day will soon overtake us peradventure before the Sunne yet set or this glasse be runne Wherefore I beseech you all that heare mee this day in the feare of God by occasion of the summons in my Text to enter into a more strict examination of your life than ever heretofore bring out all your thoughts words deeds projects councels and designes and lay them to the rule of Gods Law and if they swerve never so little from it reforme and amend them recount how you have bestowed the blessings of this life how you have imployed the gifts of nature how you have increased your talents of grace wherein the Church or Common-wealth hath been the better by you consider how you have carried your selves abroad in the world how at home in your private families but how especially in the closet of your owne heart You know out of the Gospel that a mans n Mat. 12.44 house may be swept and garnished that is his outward conversation civill and faire and yet harbour seven uncleane spirits within If lust and covetousnesse and pride and envie and malice and rancour and deceit and hypocrisie like so many serpents lye under the ground gnawing at the root of the tree be the leaves of your profession never so broad and seem the fruits of your actions never so faire the vine is the vine of Sodome and the grape the grape of Gomorrah There is nothing so easie as to put a fresh colour upon a rotten post and to set a faire glosse upon the fowlest matters to pretend conscience for most unconscionable proceedings and make religion it selfe a maske to hide the deformity of most irreligious practices But when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened and the intents and purposes of all our actions manifested and the most hidden workes of darknesse brought to light As it is to bee hoped that many that are infinitely wronged in the rash censures of men shall be justified in the sight of God and his Angels so it is to be feared that very many whom the world justifieth and canonizeth also for Saints shall be condemned at Christs barre and have their portion with hypocrites in hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wherefore sith we shall all one day come to such a publike such an impartiall such a particular tryall of all that we have done in the body either good or evill let us looke more narrowly to all our wayes and see that they be streight and even 1. Let us search our heart with all diligence let us look into all the corners thereof and see there lurke no wickednesse nor filthinesse nor hypocrisie there let us looke to our thoughts that they be pure to our desires that they be lawfull to our affections that they be regular to our passions that they be moderate to our ends that they be good to our purposes that they be honest to our intentions that they be sincere to our resolutions that they be well grounded and firme 2. Next let us take our tongue to examination and weigh all our words in the ballance of the Sanctuary and try whether they have not been light and idle but grave and profitable not crafty and deceitfull but simple and plaine not false and lying but true and faithfull not outragious but sober not filthy but modest not prophane but holy not censorious but charitable not scurrilous but ponderous not insolent but lowly and courteous not any way offensive and unsavoury but such as might o Ephes 4.29 minister grace to the hearers 3. Lastly let us lay our hands upon our handy workes and examine our outward acts and deeds 1. Whether they have been alwayes justifiable in generall by the Law of God that is either commanded by it or at least warranted in it 2. Whether they have been and are conformable to the orders of the Church and lawes of the Land For wee must obey lawfull authority for conscience sake in all things that are not repugnant to the divine Law as Bernard piously resolveth saying Thou must yeeld obedience to him as to God who is in the place of God in those things that are not against God 3. Whether they have been agreeable to our particular calling For some things are justifiable by the Law of God and man in men of one state and calling which are hainous sinnes in another as we see in the cases of Uzza and Uzziah 4. Whether they have been answerable to our inward purposes intentions and dispositions For though they are otherwise lawfull and agreeable yet if they goe against the haire if they are done with grudging and repining and not heartily they are neither acceptable to God nor man 5. Whether they have been all things considered most expedient For as many things are profitable and expedient that are not lawfull so some things are lawfull that are not p 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawfull unto me but all things are not expedient expedient and because they are not expedient if necessity beare them not out they become by consequent unlawfull For we are not onely bound to eschew all the evill we know but also at all times to doe the best good wee can else wee fulfill not the commandement of loving God with all our heart and all our soule and all our strength To summe up all I have discoursed unto you first of the Stewardship of the things of this life secondly of the account of this Stewardship thirdly of the time of this account The Stewardship most large the account most strict the time most uncertaine After the explication of these points in the application I arraigned foure Stewards before you first the sacred
idlenesse and vanity youth to lust perfect age and strength to violence and audacious attempts old age to covetousnesse and every one to the sinnes of the time but making use of the present opportunity to thrust a man suddenly into the next sinne When he had got Christ upon the pinacle of the Temple he tempteth him to cast himselfe downe from it to make experience of the Angels care and diligence in waiting on him and q Mat. 4.6 bearing him in their hands that hee dash not his foot against a stone As soone as David had spied faire Bathsheba bathing her selfe he cast a fiery dart of lust at him and wounded him at the heart Achans eyes were no sooner dazled with the lustre of the rich Babylonish garment but Satan closeth with him And as by taking advantage of the present occasion hee made Achan a theefe so Gyges an adulterer Ananias and Sapphira lyers to the holy Ghost Judas a murderer of himselfe If ever a Christian is like to be in any great distresse and trouble in minde it is either in the travels of his new birth or when hee laboureth for life at his last gaspe therefore Satan at these times is most busie In the beginning of our conversion nature is strong and grace is weake and the practise of religious duties is uncouth unto us then therefore Satan sets upon us and presents to us all our former pleasures and amplifieth upon the austerity of a Christian course of life At the houre of death hee doubleth his files not onely because hee is streightned in time and knoweth that either then hee is to prevaile or never but because many things helpe his temptation viz. the extremity of pain the naturall terrour of death and apprehension of Christs dreadfull tribunall before which the sicke party is presently to appeare Now therefore hee sets upon a man in his greatest weaknesse of body and consternation of minde he chargeth him with all his sinnes secret and open hee exaggerateth the strictnesse of Gods justice and the unsufferable torments of hell and if the dying man hath not prepared himselfe for this last conflict or hath not on the whole armour of God or cannot weild his buckler of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the Devill it is great ods that hee wi l get the upper hand of him and bring him if not to dye desperately yet most uncomfortably To launch out of these deepes of Satan and steere towards the haven Conclus applicat The knowledge of evill is good of fraud is honest of errors is true of things that are most noxious wholesome and therefore Logicians discourse accurately of fallacies Physitians of poysons morall Philosophers of vices and Divines of heresies not that wee should use the first or take the second or practise the third or professe the fourth but that wee be not deceived by the first annoied by the second infected by the third seduced by the fourth And this was my first aime in laying before you these stratagems policies and devices of our ghostly enemie to forewarne you of them that you bee not taken or hurt by them But my chiefe was to instruct you how to employ his owne engines and turne his owne ordnance upon himselfe to make treacle of his poyson and use of serpentine wisedome against the serpent after this manner 1. First doth Satan play the Physiognomer and observing our naturall temper fit his temptations thereunto let us also make use of Physiognomy and take advantage of our naturall inclinations to further the worke of grace in us If wee finde our selves by nature timorous let us endevour to improve this feare into awfull reverence if audacious to improve this boldnesse into spirituall confidence if gladsom and merry to improve our mirth into joy in the holy Ghost if cholericke to improve our wrath into zeale if melancholy to improve our pensivenesse into godly sorrow 2. Secondly doth Satan play the Poet and fit every Player with a part that hee is best able to act let us also make use of Poetry and observing our naturall abilities of minde and body to fit our spirituall exercises accordingly If wee are endued with pregnancy of wit to employ it in the study of heavenly mysteries if with maturity of judgement employ it in discerning betweene the true and false Religion and resolving intricate cases of consciences if with felicity of memory employ it in treasuring up pretious doctrines if with liberty of speech employ it in prayer prayses and godly exhortations if with strength of body and courage of minde employ them in fighting the Lords battels if with wisdome in prudently governing the affaires in Church and Commonwealth 3. Thirdly doth Satan play the Politician and enquire into every mans estate condition of life and accommodate his temptations thereunto let us also make use of policy and by our outward estate better our inward labouring for those graces which are most proper for our place and condition If wee are in authority let us strive for gravity and integrity if under the command of others for obedience and faithfulnesse if in an eminent condition for magnanimity and magnificence if in a low for modesty and humility if in abundance for charity and thankfulnesse if in want for frugality and contentednesse if in prosperity for temperance if in adversity for patience 4. Fourthly doth Satan play the Logician and tempt us by method let us also make use of Logicke and observe method in the science of salvation let us first acquaint our selves with the Catechisme and afterwith profounder mysteries in Divinity let us first practise easier and after more difficult duties of Christianity first accustome our selves to beare lighter and after heavier crosses with patience above all things to kill the cockatrice in the shell nip sinnes in the bud to resist evill motions in the beginning to make a stop at every step by which Satan leads us not easily to bee brought to venture upon any doubtfull or questionable actions if wee have ventured upon any by no meanes to give consent to commit the least sinne if wee have beene overtaken in the act of any sinne let us take speciall care wee breake it off by speedy repentance and make no custome of it if through carelesnesse or conversation with wicked men wee have gotten an ill custome let Satan never so farre prevaile with us as to stand in defence and justification thereof much lesse to glory in our evill courses but let our heart smite us for them and let us never bee at peace with our selves till wee have driven out an iron nayle with a golden an evill custome with a good 5. Fiftly doth Satan play the false Pilot and by perswading us to decline from a rocke on the right hand carry us so farre the contrary way that we split our ship upon a rocke on the left hand let us also make use of the art of navigation in our course to the
to strike when he is provoked in that he will awake his sword He who is here stiled Lord of hostes is elsewhere named the Father of mercy and by his attributes set downe in Exod. 34. ver 6 7. it appeareth that he is nine to two more inclineable to mercy than to justice But because from this hope of mercy many are apt to promise themselves impunity putting ever from them the evill day I hold it more needfull at this present to shew his haste and readinesse to execute vengeance upon such who presume too farre upon his long suffering and goodnesse There is a generation of men described by David in the 10. Psalme ver 11. that say in their heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it And by Solomon k Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against their evill workes is not executed speedily therefore their heart is fully set in them to doe evill Ut sit magna tamen certè lenta ira deorum est To these St. Peter hath answered long agoe l 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slacke as some men count slacknesse but is long suffering to us-ward that is the Elect whose conversion he graciously expecteth When their number is accomplished and the sinnes of the Reprobate which now looke white shall turne yellow and grow full ripe he will awake his sword to wound the heads of his enemies and his stay in the meane time is but to fetch his arme the further backe that be may give the sorer stroke and to draw his arrow to the head that hee may wound the deeper For this cause the ancient heathen attributed to God leaden feet but iron hands quia tarditatem vindictae gravitate compensat m Tacit. annal l. 1. In Haterium statim invectus est at Scaurum cui implacabiltus irascebatur silentio transmisit Tacitus noteth it of Tiberius Caesar that being displeased with Q. Haterius and Scaurus but not equally he fell foule presently upon Haterius with whom hee was lesse angry but said not a word to Scaurus for the present against whom he conceived irreconcileable haired so God when he is a little offended at some slips of the godly hee awaketh his sword presently but layes it downe againe after hee hath smote gently with it n Bernard in Cant. Ser. 42. Hic punit ut illic pareat supra omnem miserationem est ira ista but to the wicked hee giveth line enough that they may play with the hooke and swallow it deepe downe with the baite Hic punit ut illic seviat supra omnem iram est miseratio ista But praised be the Lord of hostes who to ransome us hath found a man to wreake his wrath and turne his sword upon his shepheard It is noted of o Xiphilin in vit Trajan Trajane that he would cut his richest robes in pieces to make rags for his souldiers wounds I shall now propose unto you a man that to bind up your bleeding wounds hath suffered himselfe to be cut in pieces under the furie of this waking sword Awake O sword Against my shepheard O magne Pastor animarum saith Bonaventure pasce animam meam ut pascatur meliùs fac ut ipse pascam Christ is a mighty shepheard but yet of a little flocke which was first pent within the walls of Eden and thence turned out wandred on the earth till the flood at the deluge tooke ship and landed in Armenia from thence removed to Canaan and from Cannaan to Egypt and from Egypt backe againe towards Canaan and after foure hundred yeeres stragling in a strange land wandred fortie yeares in the wildernesse and at last was folded in Judaea In all which crossings and turnings and wandrings he never ceased to feed and fodder them to give us his substitutes as well an example by his practice as a rule by his precept to feed feed and feed Alimento verbo exemplo quid est amas me Nisi quaeris in Ecclesia non tua sed mea saith St. Austine nisi testimonium perhibeat conscientia quod plus me ames quam tua quam tuos quam te nequicquam suscipias curam hanc But if thy conscience assure thee that thou lovest Christ in such sort then feed thou his flocke as well with integrity of life as puritie of doctrine learne as well facere dicenda as dicere facienda that is as Saint Jerome aptly expresseth it verba vertere in opera Thou must have engraven on thy breast as well Thummim as Urim and there must hang as well Pomegranates about thy garment as golden bells The Popish Writers say that a shepheard should have three things a scrip a hooke and a whistle but for their owne parts they are so greedy on the scrip and busie with the hooke that they forget the whistle give over their studie and preaching ac si tum victuri essent sine curâ cum pervenirent ad curam making account that all their care is past when they are got into a cure But the shepheard we speake of was the good shepheard who fed his flocke day and night and layd downe his life for it he is the universall shepheard ita curat omnes oves ut singulas He is here called Gods shepheard because his dispensation is from him or because he is the beloved of God and that divine shepheard which p Com. in Evan. Ardeus thus excellently describeth Educens è lacu miseriae conducens per viam gratiae perducens ad pascua gloriae and shall the sword of the Lord be against this shepheard The case is different betweene him and David there it was quid meruerunt oves here it is quid meruit Pastor For he was candidus and rubicundus candidus innocentiâ and rubicundus passione sine maculâ criminis sine rugâ erroris Had the sword beene awaked against the wolfe it had beene mercy against the sheepe is had beene justice but to awake against this good shepheard seemeth to bee hard measure The case is resolved by Daniel The Messias shall be slaine but not for himselfe God hath layd upon him the iniquity of us all O ineffabilis mysterii dispositio peccat impius patitur justus meretur malus patitur bonus quod committit homo sustinet Deus Here then you see the first and maine cause of the shepheards slaughter your sinnes It is in vaine to shift it off on Judas or Pilat and most impious to lay it upon the Lord of hostes For solum peccatum homicida est so that I may bring it home to the bosome of every one of you in the words of Nathan Tu es homo Thou art the man that hast slaine this shepheard O consider this yee that forget God doe not so wickedly as to commit a second murder upon this good shepheard crucifie not againe the Lord of life every reviling speech to your neighbour is a whip on his side every traducing
Solomon So Dives at whose gates Lazarus lay is by some no meane ones ghessed to be Herod or some other King and so are Jobs friends termed by the Seventie Yea the rich is not onely a little King among his neighbours but dives quasi divus as a pettie god to his underlings yet Timothie hath authoritie to charge and command such rich That foolish shaveling soared too high a pitch when in his imperious Bull hee commanded the Angels but wee may safely say all powers below the Angels are liable to our spirituall charge and the power of the keyes which Christ hath given us But what now becommeth of them that I may not say in some of our hands they are suffered to rust for want of use in others as the Pontificians the wards are altered so as they can neither open nor shut Sure I am the power of them is lost in the hearts of many they have secret pickelockes of their owne making presumption and securitie whereby they can open heaven gates though double locked by our censures and shut the gates of hell at pleasure which their owne sinnes have opened wide to receive them What use then is there of us but in our chaire and there but to be heard and seene Even in this sense spectaculo facti sumus we are to gaze on and not to implie Yet it was well noted by one that the good father of the Prodigall though he might himselfe have brought forth the prime robe or have led his sonne into the wardrobe to take it yet he commands his servants to bring it forth because hee would have his sonne to be beholden to his servants for his glorie He that can save you without us will not save you but by us Hitherto the power implyed in the charge the sufficiencie followes This Evangelicus must be Parangelicus Like as the forerunner of Christ had a charge for all sorts so hath Timothie in this epistle a charge for wives for husbands for Bishops for Deacons for Widowes for Servants and here for the rich And I am perswaded that no Nation under heaven ever had more sufficient Timothies to instruct all sorts of men in the wayes of salvation than this our Land so that what Jerome spake sometime of Britaine is now most true comparing it with Jerusalem as it had beene De Hierosolymis de Britannia equaliter patet aula coelestis For the Northren parts since his sacred Majesty in his last journey as if the Sun did out of compassion goe beyond his tropicke line to give heat to that climate visited them are better provided of Preachers and maintenance for Preachers and both Pastours and people professe themselves mutually blessed in each other and blesse God and their King for their blessednesse And as for the Southerne when I behold them me thinkes I see the Firmament in a cleere night bespangled with goodly Starres of all magnitudes that yeeld a pleasant diversity of light unto the earth but above all this Citie is rich in this spirituall provision Other Cities may exceed you in the glory of outward structure in the largenesse of extent in the uniforme proportion of streets or ornaments of Temples but your pulpits are past theirs and if preaching can lift up Citizens to heaven yee are not upon earth Heare this O yee Citizens and bee not proud but thankefull unto God I adde also to your Preachers no vice more hatefull to God and man than ingratitude no ingratitude more abominable than to parents no parents ought to be dearer unto you than those who have begot you through the Gospell in Christ Charge them But whom The rich The rich Who are rich According to Moralitie and Christianity they that have enough with content so saith the Apostle Godlinesse is great gaine if a man be content with that which he hath St. Jerome saith victus vestitus divitiae Christianorum According to the vulgar use of the word they are rich who have more than is necessarie Now there is a double necessitie of nature of estate that is necessarie to nature without which wee cannot live that is necessarie to estate which is superfluous to nature and that which were superfluous to nature is not so much as necessary to estate nature goes single and beares little breadth estate goes ever with a traine the necessity of nature admits little difference especially for quantity the necessity of estate requires as many diversities as there are several degrees of humane conditions and severall circumstances in those degrees Thus understanding what is meant by the word come we now to the matter Man that came naked out of the womb of the earth was even then so rich that all things were his heaven was his roofe or canopie the earth his floore the Sea his pond the Sunne and Moone his torches all creatures his vassals and if he lost the fulnesse of this Lordship by being a slave to sinne yet we have still dominium gratificum as Gerson termeth it In this sense every sonne of Abraham is heire of the world but to make up the true reputation of wealth for thus we may be as having all things and possessing nothing another right is required besides spirituall which is a civill and humane right wherein I doubt not but our learned Wickliffe and Armacanus and Gerson have had much wrong whilest they are accused to teach that men in these earthly things have no tenure but grace no title but charitie which questionlesse they intended in foro interiori in the consistorie of God not in the common pleas of men in the court of conscience not in the courts of Law For it is certaine that besides this spirituall right there is a civill right in earthly things and the Scripture speaking secundum jus gentium whereon the division of these earthly possessions is grounded calleth some poore some rich The Apostle saith not charge men that they be not rich but charge the rich that they be not high minded The rich In this one word and as it were with one graspe the Apostle crusheth the heads of two heresies the ancient Apostolici who denied the lawfulnesse of earthly proprieties and our late Popish votaries who place holinesse in want and povertie Did these men never heare that the blessing of God maketh rich that the wise mans wealth is his strong Citie If Lazarus was poore yet Abraham was rich pium pauperem suscepit sinus divitis in divitiis cupiditatem reprehendit non facultatem saith Austine Bona est substantia si non sit peccatum in conscientia substance doth well in the hand if there be no evill in the heart Let the rich take heed how he became so Ecclus. 13.25 that God which can allow you to be rich will not allow you all wayes to your wealth hee hath set up a golden goale to which he allowes you all to runne but you must keepe the beaten rode of honestie justice charitie and truth If
you will leave this path and by crossing over a shorter cut through by-wayes of your owne you may be rich with a vengeance The heathen Poet Menander could observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Solomon may seeme to translate saying Pro. 28.22 Hee that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent It were envious and infinite to arraigne all sorts of fraud usurie and extortion whereby many become oversoone rich let me shut up all together in that fearefull sentence of Solomon The gathering of treasures by a deceitfull tongue is a vanitie Pro. 21.6 tossed to and fro of them that seeke death and the robberie of the wicked shall destroy them Search your chests search your hearts all yee that heare mee this day and if any of you finde any of this adulterine gold among your heapes away with it as you love your selves away with it else know that as Chrysostome saith wittily yee have locked up a theefe in your counting house which will carry away all and if you looke not to it the sooner your soule with it Have a care of this yee that are rich In the world As Saint John distinguisheth betweene being in the Church and of the Church so St. Paul of rich in the world and of the world Those are the rich of the world which are worldlings in heart as well as in estate those are rich in the world whose estate is below though their hearts may be above the rich of the world are in it but the rich in the world are not necessarily of it If Timothie or St. Paul should have charged the rich of the world he had charmed a deafe adder yea perhaps even with this charge like a rusty or ill wrought piece they had recoyled in his face with those Athenians What will this babler say To the other sort therefore whose hearts are not in their bags Timothies charge and my speech is directed Let these heare first their condition secondly their duty their condition they are rich but in this world This clause serves 1 For distinction As St. Austine distinguisheth of pauper in animo and pauper in sacculo so may we of spirituall wealth and secular and worldly This latter is valued by pieces of earth and one mouthfull of earth maketh an end of all that which the worldly man dotes and dreames of is but even Nebuchadnezzars Image a composition of metall and the foot of all is clay Earthly men tread upon their felicitie and yet have not the wit to contemne it and to seeke a better which is the spirituall wealth the cabbinet whereof is the soule and the treasure in it God himselfe O happy resolution of that blessed Father Omnis mihi copia quae Deus meus non est egestas est 2 This serves for limitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is absolutely taken quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth eternity but restrained with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is scarce a time yet this is the utmost extent of worldly wealth the short space of humane life All our crownes and soveraines and pieces and halfe pieces and duckats and double duckats are currant but to the brimme of the grave there they cease and wee justly laugh at the folly of those easterne Pagans who put coyne into a dead mans hand for his provision in another world What should we doe therefore if we will be provident Travellers but make over our money here to receive it by exchange in the world to come It is our Saviours counsell Make you friends of unrighteous mammon c. And as an ancient Father saith sweetly If you will be wise Merchants thriftie and happie Usurers part with that which you cannot keepe that you may gaine that which you cannot lose Which that you may doe hearken to the duties which God layes upon you the first whereof is the remover of evill That you be not high minded It is strange to see how this earthly drosse which is of it selfe heavie and therefore naturally sinkes downeward should raise up the heart of man yet it commonly carries a man up even to a double pitch of pride one above others the other above himselfe above others in contempt above himselfe in over-weening The man with a gold ring in Saint James looketh to sit highest And not to cast backe your eyes doe we not see it thus in our times If a man bee but worth a foote-cloth how big he looketh on the inferiour passengers and if hee hath purchased a little more land and title you shall see it in his garbe whatsover he doth he is not as he was nor as the Pharisee sayes like other men hee lookes upon vulgar men as if they were made to serve him and should thinke themselves happie to be commanded by him and if hee be crossed a little he swels like the Sea in a storme Neither doth this pride raise a man more above others than above himselfe and what wonder if hee will not know his poore neighbours who hath forgot himselfe As Saul was changed into another man presently upon his annoynting so is it with them upon their advancement now it may not be taken as it hath beene Other carriage other fashions are fitter for them their attire fare retinue houses furniture displease them new must be had together with coaches and lackies and all the equipage of greatnesse These things I dislike not simply they are fit for those that are fit for them charity is not strait-laced but yeelds much latitude to the lawfull use of things indifferent but it is the heart that makes all these things evill when it is puffed up with these windie vanities and hath learned to borrow that part of the Divels speech All these things are mine and can say with him that was turned into a beast Is not this great Babel which I have built If there be here any of these empty bladders that are puffed up with the wind of conceit give me leave to pricke them a little And First let me tell them that they may have much and be never the better The chimney overlookes all the rest of the house is it not for all that the very basest piece of the building The heathen man could observe that God gives many a man wealth for the greater mischiefe as the Israelites were rich in Quailes but their sauce was such that famine had beene better Haman was proud that he alone was called to the honour of Queene Hesters feast this advancement raised him fiftie cubits higher to a stately gibbet If your wealth be to any of you an occasion of falling if your gold be turned into fetters it had beene better for you to have lived beggars Secondly let me tell them that they are proud of that which is none of theirs For Philo's observation is most true That God onely by a propriety is stiled the possessour of heaven and earth by Melchizedech in his speech to Abraham we are onely
tenants and that at the will of the Lord. Wee have but jus ad rem not dominion in rem a right onely of favour from the proprietarie and Lord in heaven and that liable to account Doe we not laugh at the Groome that is proud of his masters horse Or some vaine Whifler that is proud of a borrowed chaine So ridiculous are we to be puffed up with that whereof we must needs say with the poore man of the hatchet Alas master it is but borrowed Therefore if God have laden any of you with these earthly riches be you like unto the full eare of corne hang downe your heads in true humilitie towards the earth from which we came Hitherto of the high-mindednesse that followes wealth now where our pride is there will be our confidence which is forbidden in the next place And trust not in uncertain riches To trust in riches is to set our heart on them to place our joy and contentment in them in a word to make them our best friend our patron our idoll our God This the true and jealous God will not abide and yet nothing is more ordinarie The rich mans wealth is his strong Citie saith Solomon and where should a man thinke himselfe safe but in his fort Silver answereth to all saith Solomon that we grant although we would be loath it should answer to truth to justice to judgement but yet mammon vants to conquer all according to the old Greeke verse fight with silverlances and you cannot faile of victorie to pacifie all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a gift in the bosome appeases wrath to procure all secular offices titles and dignities I would I might not say claves altaria Christum And let me tell you indeed what mammon can doe He can unbarre the gates of hell to the unconscionable soule and helpe his followers to damnation this he can doe but for other things howsoever with us men the foolish silver-smithes may shout out Great is mammon of the worldlings yet if wee weigh his power aright we shall conclude of mammon as Paracelsus doth of the Divell that he is a base and beggarly Spirit For what I beseech you can he doe Can he make a man honest or wise or healthy Can he give a man to live more merrily feed more heartily sleepe more quietly Can he buy off the gout cares death much lesse the paines of another world a Pro. 11.4 Riches availe not in the day of wrath if we leane upon this reed it shall breake and runne into our hands He that trusteth in riches shall fall Prov. 11.28 Take heed therefore as you love your soules how you bestow your trust upon riches you may use them and serve your selves of them yea yee may enjoy them in a Christian moderation God will allow it That praise which the Jesuits Colledge in Granado gives of their Sanchez that though he lived where they had a very sweet garden yet he was never seene to touch a flower and that he would rather die than eat salt or pepper or ought that might give rellish to his meat like to that of some other Monkes that they would not see the Sunne nor shift their clothes nor cleanse their teeth carries in it more superstition and slaverie than wit or grace Wherefore hath God made these creatures but for use This niggardlinesse is injurious to the bounty of their Maker We may use them we may not trust in them we may serve our selves of them we may not serve them we may enjoy them we may not over joy in them We must be so affected to our goods as Theodorick the good King of Aquitaine was with his play in bonis jactibus tacet in malis ridet in neutris irascitur in utrisque philosophatur But if we will be making our wealth a rivall unto God the jealousie of God shall burne like fire against us Now as the disdainefull rivall will be sure to cast reproaches upon his base competitor so doth God upon riches hee calleth them uncertaine yea uncertaintie it selfe Trust not in Uncertaine riches Were our wealth tied to our life it were uncertaine enough for what is that but a flower a vapour a tale a shadow a dreame of a shadow a thought a nothing Yet our riches are more uncertaine than life it selfe our life flies hastily away but many times our riches have longer wings and out flie it It was a wittie observation of Basil in Psal 61. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that wealth rowles along by a man like as a headie streame glides by the bankes time will molder away the very banke it washeth but the current stayes not for that but speeds from one elbow of earth to another so doth wealth even whilest we stay it is gone Our life is as the tree our wealth is as the leaves or fruit the tree stands still when the leaves are fallen Yea many one is like the Pine tree which they say if his barke be pulled off lasteth long else it rots If therefore life and wealth strive together whether is more uncertaine wealth will sure carry it away Job was yesterday the richest man in the East to day he is so needy that he is gone into a Proverbe As poore as Job Belisarius the great and famous Commander to whom Rome owed her life twice at least came to date obolum Belisario give one halfe penny to Belisarius O miserable uncertainty of this earthly pelfe that stands upon so many hazzards yea that falls under them who would trust it who can dote upon it what madnesse is it in those men which as Menot sayes like unto hunters that kill an horse of price in the pursuit of an hare worth nothing endanger yea cast away their soules upon this worthlesse and fickle trash Glasses are pleasing vessels yet because of their brittlenesse who esteemes them precious nor flowers though beautifull because they are fading No wise man bestowes much cost in painting mud walls what meane we my beloved to spend our lives and hearts upon these perishing treasures It was a wise meditation of Nazianzen to his Asterius that good is to no purpose if it continue not yea there is no pleasant thing in the world saith he that hath so much joy in the welcome as it hath sorrow in the farewell Looke therefore upon these heapes O yee wise hearted Citizens with carelesse eyes as those things whose parting is certaine whose stay is uncertaine and say with the worthie Father By all my wealth and glory and greatnesse this alone have I gained that I had something to which I might preferre my Saviour with whose words I conclude this point Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth where moth and rust doe corrupt and theeves breake thorow and steale but lay up for your selves treasure in heaven But trust in God Man cannot be without a stay and therefore the same breath that withdrawes one refuge from us substitutes a better
word of God as it is written which here I must change and say Hearken unto the word of God as it writeth For to the Angel of Thyatira the second Person which is the Word of God thus writeth Write It is a great honour to receive a letter from a noble Personage how much more from the Sonne of God St. d Eâ— 40. Quid est aliud Scripture sacra n â—i quaedam epistola Omnipotentis Dei ad creaturam suam Gregorie excellently amplifieth upon this point in his epistle to Theodorus the Physician If your excellencie saith he were from the Court and should receive a letter from the Emperour you would never be quiet till you had opened it you would never suffer your eyes to sleepe nor your eye lids to slumber nor the temples of your head to take any rest till you had read it over againe and againe Behold the Emperour of heaven the Lord of men and Angels hath sent you a letter for the good of your soule and will you neglect to peruse it Peruse it my son studie it I pray thee meditate upon it day and night Where letters passe one from another there is a kinde of correspondencie and societie and such honour have all Gods Saints they have fellowship with the Father and the Sonne O let us not sleighten such a societie whereby we hold intelligence with heaven let us with all reverence receive and with all diligence peruse and with all carefulnesse answer letters and messages sent from the Sonne of God by returning sighes and prayers backe to heaven and making our selves in the Apostles phrase commendatorie letters written not with inke but with the Spirit Thus saith the Son of God Not by spirituall regeneration as all the children of promise are the sonnes of God but by eternall generation not by grace of adoption but by nature Who hath eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brasse Eyes like a flame of fire piercing through the thickest darknesse feete like brasse to support his Chuch and stamp to pouder whatsoever riseth up against it like fine brasse pure and no way defiled by walking through the midst of the golden candlestickes Wheresoever he walkes he maketh it holy ground Quicquid calcaverit hic rosa fiet There are three sorts of members in holy Scripture attributed to our head Christ Jesus 1 Naturall 2 Mysticall 3 Metaphoricall Naturall hee hath as perfect man Mysticall as head of the Church Metaphoricall as God By these members wee may divide all the learned Commentatours expositions They who follow the naturall or literall construction of the words apply this description to the members of Christs glorified body in Heaven which shine like flaming fire or metall glowing in a furnace But Lyra and Carthusian have an eye to Christ his mysticall eyes viz. Bishops and Pastours who are the over-seers of Christ his flocke resembling fire in the heat of their zeale and light of their knowledge whereby they direct the feet of Christ that is in their understanding his inferiour members on earth likened to fine brasse to set forth the purity of their conversation and described burning in a furnace to expresse their fiery tryall by martyrdome Alcasar by the feet of fine brasse understandeth the Preachers of the Word whom Christ sendeth into all parts to carry the Gospel Those feet which e Esay 52.7 Rom. 10.15 How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Esay calleth beautifull Saint John here compareth to the finest brasse which f Beda in Apoc Pedes sunt Christiani in fine seculi qui similes erunt orichalcho quod est aes per ignem plura medicamina perductum ad auri colorem sic illi per acerbissimas persecutiones exercebuntur perducentur ad plenam charitatis fulgorem Beda and Haimo will have to bee copper rendring the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the most resplendent brasse such as was digged out of Mount Libanus but Orichalchum that is copper and thus they worke it to their purpose As brasse the matter of copper by the force of fire and strong waters and powders receiveth the tincture of gold so say they the Christians that shall stand last upon the earth termed in that respect Christs feet shall by many exercises of their patience and fiery tryalls of their faith be purified and refined and changed into precious metall and become golden members of a golden head I doe not utterly reject this interpretation of the mysticall eyes and feet of Christ nor the former of the naturall members of his glorified body because they carry a faire shew and goodly lustre with them yet I more encline to the third opinion which referreth them to the attributes of God For me thinkes I see in the fiery eyes the perfection of Christ his knowledge to which nothing can bee darke or obscure as also his vigilant zeale over his Church and the fiercenesse of his wrath against the enemies thereof Bullenger conceiveth our Saviour to be pourtrayed by the Spirit with eyes like a flame of fire because hee enlighteneth the eyes of the godly but Meyerus because he suddenly consumeth the wicked both the knowne properties of fire for in flaming fire there is both cleare light and intensive heat The light is an embleme of his piercing sight the heat of his burning wrath Where the eye is lightsome and the object exposed to it the eye must needs apprehend it but the Sonne of Gods eyes are most lightsome nay rather light it selfe in which there is no darknesse and g Heb. 4 13. all things lye open and naked before him yea the h Apoc. 2.23 heart and the reines which he searcheth In Courts of humane justice thoughts and intentions and first motions to evill beare no actions because they come not within the walke of mans justice but it will not be so at Christs Tribunall where the secrets of all hearts shall be opened Let no man then hope by power or fraud or bribes to smother the truth or bleare the eyes of the Judge of all flesh For his eyes like flames of fire dispell all darknesse and carry a bright light before them Let not the adulterer watch for the twi-light and when hee hath met with his wanton Dalila carry her into the inmost roomes and locke doore upon doore and then take his fill of love saying The shadow of the night and the privacy of the roome shall conceale mee For though none else be by and all the lights be put out yet he is seen and the Sonne of God is by him with eyes like a flaming fire Let not the Projector pretend the publike good when he intends nothing but to robbe the rich and cheate the poore Let not the cunning Papist under colour of decent ornaments of the Church bring in Images and Idols under colour of commemoration of the deceased bring in invocation of Saints departed under colour
an ornament to beautifie us well may we like the Church of Sardis have a name that we live but we are dead we are in the gall of bitternesse and the burden of sinne hath pressed us downe to the bottomlesse pit which is now ready to shut her mouth upon us O then let us cr◠out of the depth abyssus abyssum invocet let the depth of our misery implore the depth of his bottomlesse mercy and behold the Angel of peace is at hand for now and never before are we fit subjects for this good Samaritan to worke upon Come unto mee all that are heavie laden The Spirit of God is upon mee to preach health to those that are broken in heart liberty to the captives and to them that mourne beauty for ashes and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse whence you see that none are admitted into Christs Hospitall but lame sicke and distressed wretches for whom hee hath received grace above measure that where sinne appeared above measure sinfull grace might appeare without measure pitifull Wilt thou then have thy wounds healed open them Wilt thou that I raise thee up to heaven deject thy selfe downe to hell Ille laudabilior qui humilior justior qui sibi abjectior Use 2 As this may serve to rebuke such Seers as labour not to discover the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of Jerusalem but sow pillowes under mens elbowes and dawbe up with untempered mortar the breach of sinne in our soules Use 3 so may it lesson all hearers as patiently to abide the sharpe wine of the Law as the supple oyle of the Gospel as well the shepheards rod of correction as his staffe of comfort in a word to endure Bezaliel and Aholiab to cut off the rough and ragged knobs as they desire to be smooth timber in that building wherein Christ Jesus is the corner-stone poenitentia istius temporis dolor medicinalis est poenitentia illius temporis dolor poenalis est now our sorrow for our sinnes will prove a repentance not to be repented of then shall our sorrow be remedilesse our repentance fruitlesse our misery endlesse Wherefore I say with Bernard Illius Doctoris vocem libenter audio qui non sibi plausum sed mihi planctum moveat I like him that will set the worme of conscience on gnawing while there is time to choake it rodat putredinem ut codendo consumat ipse pariter consumatur In the meane time let this bee our comfort that God will not suffer the sting of conscience too much to torment us but with the oyle of his grace will mitigate the rage of the paine and heale the festred sore which it hath made with the plaister of his owne bloud And I will ease you Thus farre you have traversed the wildernesse of Sin tired out in that desart and languishing in that dry land and shadow of death now behold gaudium in fine sed sine fine Happy your departure out of Egypt and blessed your travell and obedience you are now to drinke of the comfortable waters that issue out of the spirituall rocke in Horeb Christ Jesus and to refresh your wearied limbes and tired soules therewith I will ease you Doctr. 4 I. Man cannot for man is a sinner and a sinner cannot be a Saviour Angels cannot for man in Angels nature cannot bee punished God cannot for he is impassible Saints neither may nor can for they need a Saviour but I will For I am man and in your nature can dye I am God and by any infinite merits can satisfie and so by my means Gods mercy and justice may stand together righteousnesse and peace may kisse each other Thus that faith may looke out of the earth to embrace you the day-springing from on high hath visited you Thrice blessed then must poore hunger-bit and distressed soules bee who have not a churlish Nabal with power wanting will nor a King of Samaria with will wanting power but Elshaddai a God all-sufficient to relieve and satisfie them and for his will no Assuerus so ready to cheare up a dolefull Hester as he a drouping soule no Joseph so ready to sustaine his father in famine and death as he is ready with pitty to save a soule from death Noli fugere Adam quia nobiscum est Deus Who shall lay any thing to our charge sith it is God that doth justifie Pleasant and sweet were the waters of Meribah to the thirstie Israelites of Aenochore to Sampsons fainting spirits gratefull the newes of life to sicke Hezekiah but our Saviours Epiphonema thy sinnes are forgiven thee goe in peace is mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde The strings of my tongue cannot be so loosened that I may expresse the extasie of joy which every sin-burdened soule feeleth whether in the body or out of the body shee cannot tell in that by assurance of faith shee can say My Justifier is with mee who being Emmanuel God with us is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man with God one with God in will and power and wholly for us in power and will Use 1 Woe worth then all such as forsaking the fountaine of living water dig to themselves broken pits of their owne merits Saints intercession and the Churches treasurie Is there no balme in Gilead to cure us no God in Israel to help us Si verax Deus qui promittit mendax utique homo qui diffidit saith St. Bernard For I demand Doe they distrust his power All power is given him in heaven and in earth Matth. 28.18 Doe they doubt his will Behold he saith Come unto me before we offer our selves and I will ease you not do my best or endeavour it is no presumption to beleeve Christ on his word and rest on it with full assurance Use 2 Againe can none say but Christ I will ease you How hopelesse then is their travell how endlesse their paine who seeke for hearts-ease in any garden but the Paradise of God or hope for contentment in any transitorie object the world affordeth To see Asses feed upon thistles for grapes were enough to move the spleene of an Agelastus they have a faire shew like flowers but pricke in the mouth Alas what anguish and horrour must there needs be Cum domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur when their consciences like Sauls evill spirit haunteth and vexeth them at the heart when they brave it out in the face and what is their foolish laughter among their boone associates but the cracking of thornes under a pot suddenly extinguished and turned into ashes and mourning Well may they like the heathenish Romans of old have their gods of feare and terrour but sure they can have none of ease comfort or quiet O let not our soule enter into their secrets but let our peace be still as it is in God and the repose of our troubled conscience in our Saviours love who was made a curse for us that
in his office as for our sakes to assure us of the remission of our sinnes purchased by the bloud which Christ as a Priest offered upon the Crosse How are we assured hereof what security doth he give us The greatest that ever was taken or given the oath of Almighty God If the bare word of God is able to sustaine this whole frame of nature shall not his oath be able to support a weake Christian in the hottest skirmish with Satan and most dreadfull conflict with despaire What though our consciences be so polluted that we abhorre our selves yet let us not languish in despaire for we have a Priest that can cleanse them there is no staine so fowle which the bloud of Christ will not fetch out If we have but so much faith as a graine of mustard seed we may say with q Mors Christi mors meae mortis quia ille mortuus est ut ego vivâ—m quopacto enim non vivat pro quo moritur vita Bernard in his divine rapture The death of Christ is the death of my death because he dyed that I might live for how should he not live for whom life dyed O then in a spirituall dereliction when our heart is as cold as a stone and we are at the very brinke of despaire apprehending the full wrath of God against us for all our sinnes let us not say to the mountaines Cover us and to the hills Fall upon us but flie to the rocke in Horeb Christ Jesus and hide our selves in the holes thereof Foramina petrae sunt vulnera Christi The holes of this rocke are the wounds of our Saviour let us by faith run into the holes of this rocke and feare nothing Yea but even there wee heare the cry of our sins like the cry of Sodome and therefore how can we be safe Listen wee but a while and wee shall heare another cry farre lowder the cry of Christs bloud which speaketh better things for us than the bloud of Abel Yea but how may wee be assured that his bloud speaketh for us and maketh continuall intercession to his Father to be reconciled unto us By his owne promise and his Fathers oath If he should neglect to solicite for them who truly repenting of their sins by faith relye upon him he should breake his owne word and neglect the office to the discharge whereof his Father hath sworne him saying Thou art a Priest for ever How can we ever thinke that hee will refuse us who gave us himselfe Will he spare breath for us who breathed out his soule for us Yea but we sinne continually and he intercedeth perpetually he is a Priest for ever Yea but we are weake and our enemies strong what can a Priest stead us he may purge our sinnes but can he save our persons he may appease the wrath of God but can he rescue us from the violence of man he may stand in the gap between God and us but can he stand in the field for our defence against our enemies That hee can for hee is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek a Kingly Priest a Priest to instruct us and a King to protect us a Priest to reconcile us to God and a King to subdue our enemies unto us a Priest to cloth us with his righteousnesse and a King to arme us with his power a Priest to consecrate us Priests and a King to crowne us Kings To whom King and Priest and to the Father who ordained him not by imposition of hands but by deposition of oath and to the holy Spirit who made the instrument and sealed it three persons and one everliving and everloving God let us as Kings command the utmost service of our bodies and soules and as Priests offer them both intirely for living sacrifices most agreeable and acceptable to him Amen THE ARKE UNDER THE CURTAINES A Sermon preached in Oxford at the Act July 12. Anno 1613. THE XXXVIII SERMON 2 SAM 7.2 The King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an house of Cedar but the Arke of the Lord dwelleth within curtaines Right Worshipfull c. WEe reade of small or no raine that falls at any time on divers parts of Africa and the cause is supposed to bee the sandy nature of the soyle from whence the Sun can draw no vapours or exhalations which ascending from other parts in great abundance resolve themselves into kinde showres refreshing the earth This beloved is the true reason why God powreth not down his benefits in such plentifull manner as he was wont upon us because our hearts like the dry and barren sands of Africa send up no vapours of divine meditations melting into teares no exhalation or breath of praise or thanksgiving backe to heaven Undoubtedly if wee were thankfull to God for his benefits hee would be alwayes beneficiall to us for our thankfulnesse and account himselfe indebted unto us for such acknowledgement of our debt For there is nothing that obtaineth more of him or deserveth better of men than a thankfull agnition of favours received and a present commemoration of benefits past It is the easie taske and imposition which the supreme Lord of all layeth upon all the goods we possesse blessings of this life which we receive from his bountifull hands and if we be not behind with him in this tribute of our lips he will see that all creatures in heaven and earth shall pay their severall tributes unto us the sun of his heat the moon of her light the starres of their influence the clouds of their moisture the sea and rivers of their fish the land of her fruits the mynes of their treasure and all things living of their homage and service But if wee keep backe this duty from him which the poorest may pay as well as the rich out of the treasuries of their owne heart no marvell if hee sometimes make fast the windowes of heaven and locke up the treasures of his bounty to make us cry to him in our wants and necessities who would not sing to him in our wealth and prosperity Upon this or the like consideration good King David as soone as God had given him rest from all his enemies thought presently of preparing a resting place for the Arke Having therefore a holy purpose to consecrate the spoyles he tooke from his enemies to him that gave him victory over them and to build a stately and magnificent Temple to the honour of the God of his salvation and desirous to receive some encouragement from him to set to so noble a worke hee calleth for Nathan the Prophet and breaketh his minde unto him in the words whereof I have made choice for my Text which containe in them 1. A godly resolution 2. A forcible motive The resolution is implyed viz. to build God an house the reason is expressed the consideration of his own royall palace A reason drawn à dissentaneis I dwell in a house of Cedar but
shall hee bee his wife shall bee as the fruitfull vine by the walls of his house his children shall bee like Olive branches round about his table * 1 Tim. 4.8 and godlinesse hath the promises of this life and the life to come Howbeit a weake Christian may bee troubled in minde when hee seeth houses full of the treasures of wickednesse and hee heareth it as a common Proverbe that fawning and cosenage are the gainfullest trades in the world x Juven sat 1. Criminibus debent hortos praetoria mensas The Courtier is indebted to his flattery for his large revenues the Citizen to usury and misery for the swelling of his bagges the Artisan to his fraud and cozening for his wealth the Impropriator to his sacriledge for his best mannors and palaces the ambitious Diotrephes to simony for his dignities and preferments Notwithstanding these and many the like instances may bee brought against the doctrine delivered yet is not the truth thereof impeached For either the great gainer by sin and bargainer with Satan shall never live to enjoy his wealth which the Prophet David observeth saying y Psal 37.1.2 10 Psal 73.18 19. Fret not at the ungodly neither bee thou envious at the evill doers for they shall bee cut downe as the grasse and wither as the greene herbe O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Or if like fortunate Pyrats they live long and goe cleare away with the prize they have gotten yet they can take no quiet contentment therein because they know they have no right to it and therefore they are still in feare either of losing it or paying too deare for it And howsoever they may escape while they are at the sea yet when they arrive at the haven of death they shall make shipwracke of it and their soules Or God bloweth upon the fruits of their labors and blasteth the increase of their wealth according to the words of St. z Jam. 5.2 James Your riches are corrupt your garments are moth-eaten your gold and silver are cankered and the rust of them shall bee as a witnesse against you and eate your flesh as it were fire And as they got their goods so they shall lose them * Eras Chil. Salis onus unde venerat illuc abit saith the Latine Proverb the burden of salt is returned thither from whence it was first taken The occasion wherof was a ship laden with salt by a wracke torne in pieces let the salt fall into the sea from whence it came so for the most part goods gotten by the spoyle are lost likewise by the spoyle For wee see daily that they which spoile others are spoiled themselves and that which is gotten by extortion is extorted againe out of the hand of the extortioners a Suet. in Vesp Vespasian his covetous officers that by rapine and exaction filled themselves like spunges after they were full were squiezed by the Emperour and as the Prophet b Mic. 1.7 Micah observeth that which was gathered by the hire of a whore returneth to the wages of an harlot Or if their goods and honours sticke by them and they have wrought themselves into so great favour with the Prince that they have no feare at all of being called to an accompt much lesse of being discomposed and turned out of their offices honours wealth and all yet they can take no comfort in their estate no joy in that they enjoy For what doth musicke delight him who hath an aposteme in his eare or gold silver or pretious stones him who hath a pearle in his eye or daintie dishes him whose taste is distempered with sicknesse This is the worldlings case hee hath goods laid up for him many yeeres but they are not goods to him because they doe him no good hee is no whit the better for them but the worse no whit the richer in mind but the more wretched and poorer Magnas inter opes inops Hee may take his fill of pleasures but they are no pleasures to him because hee hath no sense of them all dainties are provided for him but they are not dainties to him because hee cannot taste them and the reason is hee is heart sicke with cares and griefes and affrighted with terrours of conscience Yea but it will bee objected that no such thing appeares for none seeme so merry and frolicke as some of these albae galinae filii the worlds darlings I answer with Saint c 2 Cor. 5.12 Paul That they laugh in the face but not in the heart and with Solomon d Eccl. 7.6 That all their mirth is but like the crackling of thornes under a pot soone turned into ashes and mourning Their merriment is like to that of those who have eaten the herbe Sardonia in Sardinia who are said to e Solin c. 12. Sardonia herba comesta rictu ora diducit ut morientes ridentium facie intereant dye laughing or like that of Hannibal which the Historian calleth amentis risum the laughing of a man distracted which is suddenly accompanied with teares Lastly adde we to all these disadvantages the price wee are to pay for Satans commodities in the prison of hell whereof one f Mat. 5.26 Thou shalt not goe thence till thou hast paid the utmost farthing farthing shall not bee abated and I doubt not but as the Prophet Daniel spake of King Nebuchadnezzars dreame g Dan. 4 19. This dreame bee to the Kings enemies so ye will all say the gain that is gotten by evill meanes and ungodly practices bee unto Gods enemies let them trucke with Satan who have no part in God but let all that desire to thrive both in their outward and inward estate and to be h Mat. 6.19 rich in God follow the advice of our Saviour Lay not up for your selves treasures especially treasures of wickednesse upon earth where the canker of covetousnesse corrupteth and the moth of envie fretteth and restlesse cares and watchfull feares like theeves in the night breake through the walls of your body and enter into the closet of your heart and steale away all your joy and contentment but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither the moth nor canker corrupt and where theeves do not breake through nor steale For where your treasure is there will your heart be Our treasure O Lord is in heaven even in thee let our heart be there continually with thee Cui c. THE GRAPES OF GOMORRAH THE XLII SERMON ROM 6.21 What fruit bad yee in those things c. Right Honourable c. SOlinus a Cap. 35. Praecipua ficus Aegyptia poma non ramis tantum gestitans sed caudice septies anno fert fructum c. writeth of the Egyptian figge-tree that it beareth fruit not only on the branches but also on the main stock trunck so fruitfull is this parcell of Scripture on which my meditations have pitched
the Prophet should have made an end of his exhortation This Sermon the Prophet Ezechiel now maketh unto us all here present f Ezek. 33.11 18.30.31 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turne from his wayes and live turne ye turne ye from your evill wayes for why will yee die Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your destruction Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye perish Shake off the shackles of your sinnes and quit the companie of the prisoners of death and gally-slaves of Satan put in sureties for your good behaviour hereafter turne to the Lord your God with all your heart and live yea live gloriously live happily live eternally which the Father of mercy grant for the merits of his Sonne through the grace of the Spirit To whom three persons and one God be ascribed all honour glorie praise and thankes now and for ever Amen THE DANGER OF RELAPSE THE LVI SERMON EZEK 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sin that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye Right Honourable c. SAint Jerome maketh a profitable use of the a Gen. 28.12 And hee dreamed behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it Angels ascending and descending upon the ladder which Jacob saw in a dreame reaching from the earth to heaven The ladder hee will have to bee the whole frame of a godly life set upwards towards heaven whereupon the children of God who continually aspire to their inheritance that is above arise from the ground of humility and climbe by divine vertues as it were so many rounds one above another till Christ take them by the hand of their faith and receive them into heaven They are stiled Angels in regard of their b Phil. 3.20 heavenly conversation these Jacob saw continually ascending and descending upon that ladder viz. ascending by the motions of the spirit but descending through the weight of the flesh rising by the strength of grace but falling through the infirmity of nature and hereby saith that learned Father c Hieron ep 11. Videbat scalam per quam ascendebant Angeli descendebant ut nec peccator desperet salutem nec justus de suâ virtute securus sit wee are lessoned not to despaire of grace because Jacob saw Angels ascending as they fell so they rose nor yet presume of their owne strength for hee saw Angels descending also as they rose so they fell Presumption and desperation are two dangerous maladies not more opposite one to the other than to the health of the soule presumption overpriseth Gods mercy and undervalueth our sinnes and on the contrarie desperation overpriseth our sinnes and undervalueth Gods mercy both are most injurious to God the one derogateth from his mercy the other from his justice both band against hearty and speedy repentance the one opposing it as needlesse the other as bootlesse presumption saith thou maist repent at leasure gather the buds of sinfull pleasures before they wither repentance is not yet seasonable desperation saith the root of faith is withered it is now too late to repent The learned dispute whether of these two be the more pernicious and dangerous the answer is easie presumption is the more epidemicall desperation the more mortall disease Presumption like the Adder stingeth more but desperation like the Basiliske stings more deadly many meet with Adders which are almost found in all parts of the world but few with Basiliskes Presumption is more dangerous extensivè for it carrieth more to hell but desperation intensivè for those whom it seizeth upon it carrieth more forcibly and altogether irrecoverably thither and finall desperation never bringeth men to presumption but presumption bringeth men often to finall desperation To meete with these most pernicious evils God hath given us both the Law and the Gospel the Law to keepe us under in feare that wee rise not proudly and presumptuously against him and the Gospel to raise us up in hope that the weight of our sinnes sinke us not in despaire the threats of the one serve to draw and asswage the tumour of pride the promises of the other to heale the sores of wounded consciences and the Scripture as Saint Basil rightly calleth it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Apothecaries shop or physicke schoole wherein are remedies for all the diseases of the soule In these verses as in two boxes there are soveraigne recipes against both the maladies above named against the former to wit desperation vers 23. against the later viz. presumption v. 24. And it is not unworthy your observation that as in the beginning of the Spring when Serpents breed and peepe d Adrianus Chamierus in ep dedicat Eccles Gal. Pastor Sicut ineunte vere cùm primùm è terrae cuniculis prodeunt serpentes ad nocendum parati fraxinum adversus venenatos eorum morsus praesens remedium laturam educit out of their holes the Ash puts forth which is a present remedie against their stings and teeth so the holy Ghost in Scripture for the most part delivereth an antidote in or hard by those texts from whence libertines and carnall men sucke the poyson of presumption The texts are these God hath raised up an horne of salvation for us that we beeing delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare f Rom. 5.20 Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound g Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus * Gal. 5.13 We are called to liberty Now see an antidote in the verses following Lest any man should suck poyson from these words in the first text Serve him without feare it is added in the next words in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Lest any man should abuse the second the Apostle within a verse putteth in a caveat What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound e Luk. 1.69 72 74. God forbid how shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein vers 1 2. Lest any should gather too farre upon that generall speech of the Apostle There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus h Luk. 1.75 there followes a restriction in the same verse who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Lest any should stumble at those words of the same Apostle Ye are called to libertie he reacheth them a
heart whether the reproofe were just or no and finding it just confesseth his sinne and seeketh for pardon and forgivenesse The Jewes here when they were charged by S. Peter with the murder of the sonne of God say not Quid hic sed quid nos not what hath this man to meddle with us but who can give us good counsell not what shall we say but what shall wee doe for words are too light a recompence for deeds 1. A word of the duty of faithfull teachers that with the cocke by clapping my wings upon my breast I may awake my selfe as well as others The salvation of the hearers much dependeth upon the gifts of the Preacher and the gifts of the Preacher much depend upon his sincere intention not to gaine profit or u Salvianus de gubernat Dei lib. 1. Utilia magis quam plausibilia sectari nec lenocinia quaerere sed remedia applause to himselfe but soules to God not to tickle their eares but to pricke their hearts Such a Preacher * Bern. in Cant. Illius doctoris vocem libentiùs audio non qui sibi plausum sed qui mihi planctum movet S. Bernard ever wished to heare at whose Sermon the people hemmed not but sighed clapped not their hands as at a play but knocked their breasts as at a funerall According to which patterne x Hieron Nepot Te docente in ecclesiâ non clamor populi sed gemitus suscipiatur lachrymae auditorum tuae laudes sint S. Jerome endevoureth to frame Nepotian his scholar When thou teachest in the Church saith hee let there bee heard no shouts of admiration but sobs of contrition let the fluencie of thy eloquence be seene in the cheekes of thy hearers This is not done by ostentation of art but by evidence of the spirit A painted fire heateth not nor doe the gestures and motions of an artificiall man destitute of soule and life any whit move our affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are the graces of sanctification shining in the countenance gesture life of the Preacher and not the beauty and ornaments of speech which insinuate into the heart and multiply themselves there without which though wee speake with the tongues of men and Angels wee are but like sounding brasse or tinckling cymbals except the Lord touch the heart and the tongue of the Preacher with a coale from his Altar all the lustre of rhetoricall arguments and blaze of words will yeeld no more warmth to the conscience than a glow-worme Yee have heard briefly of the duty of Pastours reserve I pray you one eare to listen to your owne duty as hearers 2. It was the manner of the Jewes to bore thorow the eares of those servants that meant not to leave them till death and if yee desire to be in the lists of Gods servants yee must have your eares bored and the pearles of the Gospel hanging at them All shepherds set a marke upon their sheepe and so doth the good Shepherd that gave his life for his sheepe and this marke is in the eare y Joh. 10.3 27. My sheepe heare my voyce There is no doctrine in the word wee heare of more often than of hearing the word and keeping it We heare that we ought to heare the Father z Esay 1.1 Heare O heaven and hearken O earth for the Lord hath spoken we heare that we ought to heare the Son * Mat. 13.43 Mat. 17.5 He that hath eares to heare let him heare and This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased heare yee him we heare that wee ought to heare the Spirit a Apoc. 2.7 Let him that hath an eare to heare heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches All the venturers in the great ship called Argonavis bound for Colchis to fetch the golden fleece when they were assaulted by the Syrens endevouring to enchant them with their songs found no such help in any thing against them as in Orpheus his pipe wee are all venturers for a golden crowne in heaven and as the Grecians so wee are way-laid by Syrens evill spirits and their incantations from which we cannot be safe but by listening to the Preachers of the Gospel who when they pipe unto us out of the word our hearts dance for joy In that golden chaine of the Apostle the first linke is hung at the eare Faith commeth by b Rom. 10.14 17. hearing and hearing by the word of God How shall they call on him on whom they have not beleeved and how shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a Preacher Doe we think that God will heare us in our prayers if wee heare not him speaking to us in his Word The Prophet c Zach. 7.13 Zacharie assureth us hee will not When I cried they would not heare so they cried and I would not heare them saith the Lord of hosts If yee desire with S. Paul to heare in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the d 2 Cor. 12.4 words that cannot be uttered ye must on earth be attentive hearers to the words uttered by our Peters and Pauls None was cured with more difficulty as it seemeth than the man that had a deafe and dumb spirit such are our obstinate Recusants and Seperatists who have not an eare to heare what God speaketh to them by the Ministers of the Word Religion is not unfitly compared to the Weasell e Adrian Jun. emblem Mustella concipit aure parit ore which as Adrianus Junius writeth conceiveth at the eare and brings forth her young ones at her mouth for the seed of Gods word is cast in at the eare and there having conceived divine thoughts and meditations she bringeth forth the fruit of devotion at her mouth praises and thanksgivings godly admonitions exhortations reprehensions and consolations Marke your Jaylers they often suffer their prisoners to have their hands and feet free neither are they in any feare that they will make an escape so long as the prison doores and gates are sure lockt and fast barred so dealeth Satan with those whom hee holdeth in captivity hee letteth them sometimes have their hands at liberty to reach out an almes to the poore and sometimes their feet to goe to Church to heare prayers but he will be sure to keepe the eares which are the gates and doores of their soule fast which he locks up with these or the like suggestions Christ saith that his house is Domus orationis not orationum an house of prayer not of sermons Few there are but know enough the greatest defect is in the practice of religious duties What can they heare which they have not often heard before which no sooner entreth in at one eare but runneth out at the other Give mee leave a little to lift these Adders from the ground whereby they stop the right eare and plucke their taile from the head whereby they stop
wise saith a Eccles 12.11 Solomon the mirrour of wisedome are like to goades and to nailes fastned by the masters of the assemblies which are given from one shepheard Marke I beseech you what he saith and the Lord give you a right understanding in all things hee saith not verba sapientum sunt calamistri but stimuli not b Salvianus de prov l. 1. cap. 1. lenocinia sed remedia not sweet powders but medicines not crisping pins to curle the lockes or set the haires in equipage but like goades piercing through the thicke skinne and like nailes pricking the live flesh yea the very heart roote and drawing from thence teares sanguinem animae the c Aug. Serm. de temp Lachrymae sanguis animae blood of the wounded soule Such were the words of Saint Peter in this Sermon wherewith he tickleth not the eares of the Jewes with numerous elocution but pricked their hearts with godly compunction Which effects of his divine and soule-ravishing eloquence Saint Luke punctually noteth as Mr d In. Act. c. 2. Concionis fructum refert Lucas ut scramus non modo in linguâ—rum varietate exâ—rtam fuisse spiritus sancti virtutem sed in eorum etiam cordibus qui credebant Calvin judiciously hath observed that we might not thinke that the holy Ghost which came downe upon the Apostles in the likenesse of fierie tongues and enabled them to speake divers languages which they had never learned resided in the tongue but descended lower into the heart and wrought there a wonderfull alteration of stony making them fleshie of obdurate relenting of obstinate yeelding of frozen melting Tully doth but flatter his mistresse eloquence in proclaiming her flexanimam Queene regent of the affections of the mind That style is due to the power of the word and the grace of the spirit which boweth and bendeth frameth and moldeth the heart at pleasure It is the sword e Heb. 4.12 of the spirit which is mightie in operation carnem mortificat Deo in sacrificium offert killeth the flesh in us and sacrificeth it unto God It is the point of this sword which openeth the Aposteme of corrupt nature and letteth out all the impure matter of lust and luxurie by pricking the quickest veines in the heart Wherefore that wanton and crank dame who blushed not to professe that she was more moved at a play than at a Sermon either by that profane speech of hers bewrayed that she played at Sermons never fastened her eares to the Preacher that he might fasten his goads and nailes in her heart or f Mercenar phys dilucid obscus dict Aristot intus apparens prohibuit extraneum the evill spirit had before taken up her heart as he did a like gallants in Rome who as g Li. despectac Tertullian writeth when he was adjured by a Saint of God and demanded how hee durst seize upon any that professed the Christian faith answered In meo reperi I caught her in my owne ground I found her at the Theater she came within my walke and therefore I tooke her as a lawfull prize or lastly shee never came prepared to the hearing of the Word as she ought she never laid her heart asoake in teares to make it tender she never prayed to God to direct the penknife in the hand of the spirituall Chirurgian to pricke the right veine by a seasonable reprehension like to this of Saint Peters in my text which when the Jewes heard They were pricked in heart c. See saith Saint h Chrys in Act. Homil. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysostome what meeknesse is and how it pierceth the heart deeper than rigour and severitie of reproofe It is not the storme of haile and raine that ratleth upon the tiles and maketh such a noise but the still kinde shower that sinketh deepe into the earth the soft drops pierce the hard stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Surgeon who intends to pricke a veine deepe first stroakes the flesh and gently rubbeth it to make the veine swell He that maketh an incision in the body of a patient that hath tough and hard flesh putteth him to little or no paine at all but if hee mollifie the flesh first and then apply his sharpe instrument unto it the party shrinketh at it even so saith the skilfull Surgeon of the mind sores If we would doe good upon our patients wee must first make the heart tender and then pricke it now that which mollifieth the heart and maketh it tender is not rage nor heate of passion nor vehement accusation much lesse bitter taunts and reproaches but the i Gal. 6.1 spirit of meeknesse in which Saint Peter sought to restore his countrimen the Jews For though they had murdered his and our Lord and Master and much injured his fellow servants the Apostles yet he speaketh unto them as a father or a carefull master he telleth them indeed of their fault yet aggravateth it not that he might not drive them to desperate courses but excusing it by their ignorance he offereth them grace and pardon upon very easie termes that grieving for their sinnes of a deeper die they would looke upon him by faith whom they had pierced and with wicked hands nailed to a tree By which sweet insinuation though he brought them not so farre as to justifying faith and repentance unto life yet they came on a good way for they were pricked with remorse for that they had done and they expresse a desire to make amends if it might be and referre themselves to the Apostles farther direction and instruction saying Men and brethren What shall we doe I may say of this question as Tully of Brutus his k Cic. famil epist laconicall epistle quà m multa quà m paucis how much in how little but two words in the l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originall yet issuing from three affections feare sorrow and hope 1 Feare saith What shall we doe to flie from the wrath to come 2 Sorrow saith What shall we doe to undoe that we have done 3 Hope saith What shall we doe to purchase a pardon for our bloudy mindes if not hands and to obtaine the promise that you tell us is made to us and to our children First of these words as they are a question of feare The tree of forbidden sinne beareth three fruits and all bitter 1 Guilt 2 Losse 3 Turpitude And these fruits breed in the stomacke of the soule three maladies 1 Shame 2 Sorrow 3 Feare 1 The turpitude in it or deformity breedeth shame 2 The losse by it breedeth hearts-griefe and sorrow 3 The guilt of it breedeth terrours and feares Peradventure some man may be found so armed with proofe of impudencie that he cannot be wounded with shame and wee see many so intoxicated with the present delight of sinne and so insensible of the losse by it that they take no griefe or thought
some of the reformed Churches with eyes sparkling like fire and stamping with his brazen feet to see these abominations of Jezebel winked at as they are in so many places I meddle not here with any deliberation of State fitter for the Councell Table than the Pulpit but discover to every private Christian what his duty is to refrain from the society of Idolaters I beseech them for the love of him who hath espoused their soules to himselfe and hath decked them with the richest jewels of his grace and made them a joynter of his Kingdome to beware that they be not enticed to spirituall fornication to forbeare the company of all those who solicite them in this kind nay farther to detect such persons to authority that they may learne not to blaspheme the truth of our Religion nor seduce his Majesties subjects from their allegiance to the Prince and conformity to his Lawes Pliny writeth of certaine m Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 15. Indiginis innoxii peregrinos interimunt Efts in Tyrinth and Snakes in Syria that doe no hurt to the natives but sting strangers to death it may bee some have the like conceit of our English Seminary Priests and Jesuites who have done so great mischiefe beyond the Sea that they have no power or will to hurt any here at home and therefore dare more boldly converse with them because their outward carriage is faire But I beseech them to consider that the Panther hideth her ougly visage which shee knoweth will terrifie the beasts from comming neere her alluring them with the sweet smell of her body but as soone as they come within her reach shee maketh a prey of them Therefore as you tender the salvation of your body and soule your estate in this life and the life to come take heed how you play at the hole of the Cockatrice and familiarly converse with the great Whore or any of her Minions lest they draw you to naughtinesse and spirituall lewdnesse Have no part with them that have no part in God or have part with abominable Idols If the good Bishop Saint Ambrose being commanded by Valentinian the Emperour to deliver up a Church in his Diocesse to the Arrians gave this answer That hee would first yeeld up his life Prius est ut vitam mihi Imperator quà m fidem adimat shall wee give up our soules which are the Temples of the living God to Idolatrous worship If Saint John the Evangelist would not stay in the bath with Cerinthus the Hereticke shall we dare freely to partake with worser Heretickes in the pledges of salvation and wash our soules with them in the royall bath of Christs bloud o Ambros ep 37. Pollui se putabat si Aram vidisset ferendâ—mve est ut Gentilis sacrificet Christianus intersit Constantius the Emperour thought himselfe polluted if he had but seen an Heathenish Altar and Saint Ambrose proposeth it as a thing most absurd and intolerable that a Christian should be present at the sacrifices of the Heathen Our Saviour in this place and Saint p 1 Cor. 10. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians would not have Christians to eate any of those things that were sacrificed unto Idols Nay the Prophet q Psal 16.4 David professeth that he will not so much as name an Idol Their offerings of bloud will I not offer nor make mention of their names in my lips I end and seale up my meditations upon these words spoken to an Angel with the words spoken by an r Apoc. 14.9 Angel If any worship the Beast and his Image and receive his marke in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angels the Lamb and the smoake of their torments shall ascend for ever ever And they shall have no rest neither day nor night which worship the Beast and his Image whosoever receiveth the print of his name Gracious Lord who gracest the Ministers of the Gospel with the title of Angels make them in their knowledge and life angelicall keep them not only from sinnes of omission and commission but also from sinnes of permission that all may see their works and their love and their service and their faith and their patience their love of thee and their service to thee and their faith in thee and their patience for thee and their growth in all these graces and that thou maist have nothing against them And sith thou hast displayed the Romish Jezebel unto us by her three markes of imposture impurity and idolatry breed in us all a greater loathing and detestation of her abominations preserve us by the sincere preaching of the Word and powerfull operation of thy Spirit that wee bee neither deceived by her imposture to beleeve her false prophesies neither defiled in our body by her impurity to commit fornication nor in soule by her idolatry to eate things sacrificed unto Idols SERMONS PREACHED AT OXFORD FOURE ROWES OF PRECIOUS STONES A Rehearsall Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church at Oxford Anno 1610. THE XXXV SERMON EXOD. 28.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. 15. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgement with cunning worke 16. Foure square shall it be being doubled 17. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones even foure rowes of stones the order shall be this a Rubie a Topaze and an Emrald in the first rowe 18. And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond 19. And in the third row a Turkeise and an Agate and an Amethist 20. And in the fourth row a Beril and an Onyx and a Jasper and they shall be set in gold in their inclosings or imbosments Hebrew fillings 21. And the stones shall bee with the names of the children of Israel twelve according to their names like the engravings of a signet every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve Tribes Right Worshipfull c. QUintilian a Institut orat lib. 1. cap. 1. instructing parents how to lay the ground-colours of vertues in the soft mindes of tender infants and acquaint them with the rudiments of learning adviseth Eburneas literarum formas iis in lusum offerre To give them the letters of the Alphabet fairely drawne painted or carved in ivory gold or the like solid and delectable matter to play withall that by their sports as it were unawares those simple formes might be imprinted in their memories whereby we expresse all the notions of our mind in writing even so it pleased our heavenly Father in the infancy and nonage of his Church to winne her love with many glorious shewes of rites and ceremonies as it were costly babies representing the body of her husband Christ Jesus and to the end she might with greater delight quasi per lusum get by heart the principles of saving knowledge
and easilier spell the letters of the Gospel he vouchsafed to worke them in embroidered silkes and engrave them in gold silver and such precious treasure as fill the rowes in my text Thus much concerning the legall Hieroglyphicks we learne by St. Paul who in his Epistles to the Galathians Corinthians and Hebrewes expounding divers types and stories of the old law spiritually satis ostendit caetera quoque ejusdem esse intelligentiae b Hieron ep ad Fabiol teacheth us plainly that the rest are of the same nature and admit of the like interpretation And hereto S. c In Cant. hom 1. Origen fitteth the words spoken to the Spouse in the Canticles Faciemus tibi similitudines auri cum puncturis argenti we will make thee golden resemblances of true things cum * With certain points rayes notes or sparkles of spirituall meaning puncturis argenti id est scintillis quibusdam spiritualis intelligentiae According to which allusive interpretation of that allegorizing Writer the gold it selfe of the Altar was but a similitude of the true gold d Apoc. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist be rich profered by our Saviour to the Angell of Laodicea and the precious stones named in my text are but similitudes of that precious stone to which St. e 1 Pet. 2.6 Peter pointeth Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect precious whereupon St. f Jer. in Ezek. de gemmis coro Reg. Tyr. 28.13 Jerome sweetly inferres that all the Jewels mentioned in my text are to bee sold by the wise Christian Merchant to buy that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pearle of great price mentioned in the g Mat. 13.46 Gospel Omnes istae gemmae Prophetarum Apostolorum sunt quae comparatione Christi venduntur in Evangelio ut ematur preciocissima Margarita h Mart. ep l. 5. Sardonychas Smaragd ' Adamantas Jaspidas uno Portat in articulo stella Severe tuus O Severus thou settest out thy mistresse most richly with every joint in her fingers laden with Jewels Rubies Emralds Jaspers and Diamonds but pardon me if I beleeve there are more gemmes of art in thy verses than of nature on her fingers Multas in digitis plures in carmine gemmas Invenies inde est haec puto culta manus Behold here in Aarons breast-plate all those and many more precious stones in all twelve bearing the name of the twelve Patriarkes set in ouches of gold and tied to the golden rings of the Ephod a sacred vestment which Aaron and his successours were to put on before they gave judgement when the people asked counsell of God So much of the pectorall is cleerely set downe in this booke but that Aarons breast-plate of judgement was a perfect astrolab is but Abenezra his fantasie without judgement refuted by Tostatus Likewise that together with the names of the Patriarkes there was engraven in every stone the name of some Starre or Angel ut confirmaretur memoria tribus apud Deum is but a muddie talmuddie tradition implying ridiculously and impiously that God needeth or useth the helps of artificiall memorie i Antiq. Judaic l. 3. c. 9. Per duodecimas gemmas quas in pectoâ—â—â—â—ontifex insuâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in bello â—â—â—toriam Deus pronunciare solebat Nam priusquam exercitus se moveret tantus fulgor ex iis emicabat ut toti populo facilè innotesceret adesle Deum opemque iis esse allaturum Josephus telleth us a faire tale and Baronius graceth his annals with it of an unusuall and marvellous lightning of some of these gemmes which clearly foreshewed victory to the people when they asked counsell of God by the Ephod before they went into warre a strange kinde of propheticall illumination not by the irradiation of the Spirit into their mindes but by the scintillation and lustre of stones to the eye But the Scriptures silence in a matter of such note and Josephus his owne confession that for the space of two hundred yeares before his time there was no such new kind of soothsaying not by the aspect of the heavens but of the Priests breast not by twinckling starres but by sparkling stones giveth us just cause to suspect the truth of this narration and much more of an appendix thereunto which we find in Suidas and Epiphanius that the Diamond in the second row of stones as it cleerely foreshewed victorie by the extraordinary glare of it so it portended bloody slaughter by suddenly turning into a red colour and finall desolation by changing into blacke For in the booke of Judges we have the manner of Gods revealing future events to the Priests when they had on the linnen Ephod set downe not by mute signes but by created voyce and therefore St. l Qu. 117. in Exod. Austine accounteth the former relation to be a meere fable Fabulantur quidam lapidem fuisse cujus color sive ad prospera sive ad adversa mutaretur Howbeit sith the m Ca. 18. v. 24. Author of the booke of wisedome affirmeth that the glorie or as others translate the memorable acts of the patriarches were engraven in the foure rowes of stones whether in the choyce of these jewels respect were not had to such as fittest resembled by their beautie or vertue something memorable concerning the Patriarch or his posteritie whose name it bare I determine not absolutely on either side First because neither the Jewish nor the Christian Interpreters agree in the reckoning of the stones or the order of the Patriarches names engraven in them The Thargum of Jerusalem and the Chaldee Paraphrase expresse them after this manner Upon the 1 Sardine was graven 1 Reuben Sonnes of Leah 2 Topaze 2 Simeon 3 Smaragd 3 Levi 4 Chalcedonie 4 Judah 5 Saphir 5 Issachar 6 Sardonyx 6 Zabulon 7 Hyacinth 7 Dan Of Bilhah Rachels maid 8 Chrysoprase 8 Napthali 9 Amethyst 9 Gad Of Zilpha Leahs maid 10 Chrysolite 10 Asher 11 Beryll 11 Joseph Of Rachel 12 Jasper 12 Benjamin Others differ in translation of the stones and conceive the names of the Patriarches to have beene graven in them according to the order of nature according to which after Judah they place Dan and then Napthali after Gad then Asher after Issachar then Zabulon then Joseph and Benjamin The Author of the vulgar translation which the Councell of Trent defineth to be authenticall thus ranketh the stones in the foure rowes In the first 1 Sardius 2 Topazius 3 Smaragdus In the second 4 Carbunculus 5 Saphirus 6 Jaspis In the third 7 Ligyrius 8 Achates 9 Amethystus In the fourth 10 Chrysolitus 11 Onychinus 12 Beryllus The Kings Translatours thus In the first 1 Sardius 2 Topaze 3 Carbuncle In the second 4 Emrald 5 Saphire 6 Diamond In the third 7 Alygure 8 Agate 9 Amethyst In the fourth 10 Beryll 11 Onyx 12 Jasper Secondly because Aben Ezra a great Rabbin ingenuously confesseth that there is no certainty to