not sustaine vs while we are Away with these weake diffidences and if wee bee Christians trust God with his owne Psal 37.34 Wait thou on the Lord and keepe his wayes and he shall exalt thee He will make all things new And shall all things be made new and our hearts bee old Shall nothing but our soules be out of the fashion Surely beloued none but new hearts are for the new heauens Except we be borne anew we enter not into life All other things shall in the very instant receiue their renouation onely our hearts must bee made new before hand or else they shall neuer be renewed to their glory S. Peter when he had told vs of looking for new heauens and new earth infers this vse vpon it Wherefore beloued seeing yee looke for such things 2 Pet. 3.14 be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse Behold the new heauens require pure and spotlesse inhabitants As euer therefore we looke to haue our part in this blessed renouation let vs cast off all our euill and corrupt affections put off the old man with his works and now with the new yeere put on the new labour for a new heart begin a new life That which S. Iohn sayes here that God will say and doe in our entrance to glorification Behold I make all things new 2 Cor. 5.17 out of Esa 43. Saint Paul saith he hath done it already in our regeneration Old things are passed away all things are become new What meanes this but that our regeneration must make way for our glorification and that our glory must but perfect our regeneration and God supposes this is done when there are meanes to doe it Why doe we then still in spight of the Gospell retaine our old corruptions and thinke to goe to the wedding feast in our old clothes if some of vs do not rather as the vulgar reads that Iudg. 10 6. Addere nona veteribus adde new sinnes to our old new oathes new fashions of pride new complements of drunkennesse new deuices of filthinesse new tricks of Machiauelisme these are our nouelties which fetch downe from God new iudgements vpon vs to the tingling of the eares of all hearers and for which Topheth was prepared of old If God haue no better newes for vs we shall neuer enioy the new heauen with him For Gods sake therefore and for our soules sake let vs be wiser and renew our couenant with God and seeing this is a day of gifts let my New-yeeres-gift to you be this holy aduice from God which may make you happy for euer Let your New-yeeres-gift to God be your hearts the best part of your selues the center of your selues to which all our actions are circumferences and if they bee such a present as we haue reason to feare God will not accept because they are sinfull yet if they be humbled if penitent we know he will receiue them Psal 51. A contrite and a broken heart O God thou wilt not despise And if we cannot giue him our hearts yet giue him our desires and he will take our vnworthy hearts from vs I will take the stony hearts out of their bodies Ezec. 11.19 and he will graciously returne an happy New-yeeres-gift to vs Ezec. 11.14 I will put a new spirit within their bowels and will giue them an heart of flesh He will create a cleane heart and renew a right spirit within vs so as he will make a new heauen for vs he will make vs new for this heauen hee will make his Tabernacle in vs that hee may make ours with him Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men c. The superstitious Listrians cryed out amazed that Gods were come downe to them in the likenesse of men but we Christians know that it is no rare thing for God to come and dwell with men Yea are the Temples of the liuing God 2 Cor. 6.16 and I will dwell among them and walke there The faithfull heart of man is the Tabernacle of God But because though God bee euer with vs wee are not alwaies so with him yea whiles wee are at home in the bodie we are absent from the Lord as S. Paul complaines therefore will God vouchsafe vs a neerer cohabitation that shall not be capable of any interposition of any absence Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men But besides this Tabernacle of flesh time was when God dwelt in a materiall visible house with men Hee had his Tabernacle first which was a mouing Temple and then his Temple 2 Chron. 7.16 which was a fixed Tabernacle both of them had one measure both one name But as one said vpon that Eze. 42. Mensus est similitudinem domus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that both the Tabernacle and Temple were similitudes of Gods house rather than the house it selfe so say I that they were intended for notable resemblances both of the holy Church of God vpon earth and of the glorious Sanctuarie of heauen This is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God 1 Pet. 2.5 which word signifieth both a Temple Ezra 4.1 and a Palace Dan. 1.4 because he dwels where he is worshipped and he is magnificent in both It is the materiall Tabernacle which is alluded to the immateriall which is promised A Tabernacle that goes a thousand times more beyond the glittering Temple of Salomon than Salomons Temple went beyond the Tabernacle of Moses Neither let it trouble any man that the name of a Tabernacle implies flitting and vncertaintie For as the Temple howsoeuer it were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a house of Ages yet lasted not either the first I meane or second vnto 500. yeeres so this house though God call it a Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 16.9 yet he makes it an euerlasting habitation for he tels vs that both age and death are gone before it come downe to men But why rather doth the Tabernacle of God descend to men than men ascend to it Whether this be in respect of Iohns vision to whom the new Ierusalem seemed to descend from heauen descendit as one saith innotescendo and therefore it is resembled by all the riches of this inferiour world gold precious stones pearle or whether heauen is therefore said to descend to vs because it meets vs in the aire 1 Thess 4.16 when Christ Iesus attended with innumerable Angels shall descend to fetch his elect or whether this phrase be vsed for a greater expression of loue and mercy since it is more for Prince to come to vs than for vs to goe to his Court. Certainly God meanes only in this to set forth that perpetuall and reciprocall conuersation which hee will haue with men They shall dwell with God God shall dwell with them Our glory begins euer in grace God doth dwell with all those in grace with whom hee will dwell in glory Euery Christian carries in his
thee to pardon Let Bernard now to conclude shut vp this Stage Not to sinne saith hee is Gods iustice but the iustice of man is the pardon of God To be imputed therefore and to be inherent differ no lesse than God and man Trent and Heauen Wherefore let our Romanists confesse that which both Scriptures and Fathers and all their modester Doctors haue both thought and reported to bee the common voyce of the former Church in all times and we are agreed Otherwise What fellowship hath God with Belial light with darknesse SECTION VIII Concerning Free-will BOrdering vpon this is the point of Free-will To let passe all lighter quarrels of the nature of our will let vs enquire of the power of it and that not in naturall humane or morall things Heere is all peace and silence saue that the words iangle with themselues and when the matter is agreed vpon who would not contemne words as Augustine saith well but in spirituall and diuine matters we do will indeed Aug. de ordine 2. wee will freely neither can wee otherwise will any thing who denies it Aliud est velle aliud velle bonum Bern. Heere is no Physicall determination no violence but to will that which is good or to will well we cannot Wee doe freely beleeue for faith is an act of the will yea and wee doe co-operate with grace neither are wee heerein like to sencelesse stone as Austen truely speakes But whence is all this Is it of our selues or of God Is it of grace or which the Councell of Arausica condemned by the power of nature This must bee our question Both sides like well that speech of Saint Augustine To will freely is the worke of nature to will well of grace to will ill of corruption but when wee come to the poynt the Doctors of Trent are not more subtile than the Iesuits inconstant It is yet good and safe which Bellarmine cites from his Ruardus A good worke as it is a worke Bell. l. 6. de Grat. c. 15. p. 10. is from Free-will as it is good from grace as both a worke and good both from Free-will and grace But that is exceeding ingenuous and truely Euangelicall which the same Bellarmine affirmes against some Semipelagian Catholickes Lib. 6. de gratia c. 4. in titulo In those things which pertain to piety and saluation that mans will can do nothing without the help of Gods grace It is the voyce of Iacob if the Cardinall would hold him there cursed be he that should oppose him I goe on to hope and read and see what stuffe I meete with Lib. 6. c. 15. resp ad Secund. soon after in the same Booke That our conuersation is in the power of Free-will because it may bee alwayes conuerted when it will and yet further That before all grace we haue Free-will euen in the workes of pietie and supernaturall things Before all grace L. sexto de Grat. c. vlt. sent prima better recognitions Now then God doth not preuent vs Aug. de cor Grat. nolentem praeuenit vt velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit as Austin saith of old that wee might will but wee preuent God because wee will But left this should seeme too grosse this liberty is tyed vp and is altogether in the same state as the facultie of seeing when a sensible species is absent wee can freely see while the obiect is absent wee can freely will in the absence of grace Let Bellarmine now tell me are we any whit more free to euill than hee faines vs to good Did euer Pelagius dote thus much Wee can will euill but yet vnlesse it be determined vnder some false semblance by the verdict of our practiall iudgement wee will it not But if wee should yeeld him thus much What helpe is this that God giues vs To preuent inspire excite and helpe is of God to incline the will is of our selues How are we not now more beholden to our selues than to God What is this but that Pelagian conceit so oft condemned by Augustine so to separate Free-will from grace as if without it we could doe Aug. Epist 46. 47. Petr. Chrysoâ— ser 114 Christus quicquid suâ—rum virtutum est resert ad gloriam patris homo cuâ—us suum nihil est sibi vendicare quod per Christum resurrexit elaborat Leuiores quasque titillationes superare Bellarm. Scot. 2. d. 28. Dur. ibid. qu. 4. Sessio 6. c. 5. Can. 4. Citat Bell. ibid. Xiphilin Tiber. De grat lib. ar c. 16. Hier. ad Ctesiphoni Ephes 2. Coloss 3. Psal 51. or thinke any thing answerable to the will of God That wee are able by the power of our will to auoid sins that we can ouercome the slighter motions of temptation as Bellarm. speaks that wee can keepe Gods Commandements as Scotus and Durandus that wee can reiect or receiue the inspiration of the Spirit as the Tridentine Fathers that wee can dispose our selues to the receiuing of grace as Thomas and Suarez that wee doe naturally co-operate with grace and make our conuersion effectuall as Tapperus what is it else but to steale glory from God that wee may pranke vp this carion nature of ours Yet it was modestly done of Tyberius who of those many buildings which hee repayred and perfected challenged not one to himselfe but gaue them still the names of those men by whom they were begun to be built But these men challenge the whole house when as they haue not laid so much as one Tyle vpon the roofe Farre bee this shamefull sacriledge from vs when that truely iealous God challenges to himselfe to worke in vs both the will and the deed yea that wee can will to beleeue is his worke as Austen rightly speakes See then hee doth not excite but worke in vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee works in vs both that which is first to will and that which is last to worke Hierome sayes worthily To will and to runne is mine but without Gods continuall helpe it will not bee mine Without me you can doe nothing saith Christ no not thinke any thing saith Paul Alas what can wee doe who are not lame but dead in sinnes By the influence of Gods Spirit therefore a new life must be created in vs that was not and not the former life excited which was according to that of the Psalmist Create in me a cleane heart and not stirre vp that cleane one I haue Neither indeed is there as yet any place for this Ezek 11.36 The first heart must bee taken out another must bee put in I will take away their stony heart and giue them a heart of flesh saith God by the mouth of Ezechiel Hee will giue it but thou sayest perhaps into their brests which haue predisposed and prepared themselues for the gift Yea contrarily to those that doe not a little resist him The wisedome of the flesh is
man could not set forth his foot but into the iawes of death when piles of carcasses were caried to their pits as dung to the fields when it was cruelty in the sicke to admit visitation and loue was little better then murderous And by how much more sad and horrible the face of those euill times looked so much greater proclaime you the mercy of God in this happy freedome which you now enioy that you now throng together into Gods House without feare and breathe in one anothers face without danger The second is the wonderfull plenty of all prouisions both spirituall and bodily You are the Sea all the Riuers of the land runne into you Of the land Yea of the whole world Sea and land conspire to inrich you The third is the priuiledge of carefull gouernment Your Charters as they are large and strong wherein the fauour of Princes hath made exceptions from the generall rules of their municipall lawes so your forme of administration is excellent and the execution of Iustice exemplary and such as might become the mother Citie of the whole earth For all these you haue reason to aske Quid retribuam with Dauid What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits and to excite one another vnto thankfulnesse with that sweet Singer of Israel O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse And as beneficence is a binder these fauours of God call for your confidence What should you doe but euer trust that God whom you haue found so gracious Let him bee your God be ye his people for euer and let him make this free and open challenge to you all If there be any power in heauen or in earth that can doe more for you then hee hath done let him haue your hearts and your selues That they doe good and be rich in good workes And thus from that dutie we owe to God in our confidence and his beneficence to vs we descend to that beneficence which we owe to men expressed in the variety of foure Epithets Doing good being rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate all to one sense all is but beneficence The Scriptures of God lest any Atheist should quarrell at this waste haue not one word superfluous Here is a redoubling of the same words without fault of Tautologie a redoubling of the same sense in diuers words without idlenesse There is feruor in these repetitions not loosenesse as it was wont for this cause to be obserued both in Councels and acclamations to Princes how oft the same word was reiterated that by the frequence they might iudge of the vehemence of affection It were easie to instance in many of this kind as especially Exodus 25.35 Psalme 89.30 Iohn 1.20 and so many more as that their mention could not be voide of that superfluity which we disclaime This heape of words therefore shewes the vehement intention of his desire of good workes and the important necessity of their performance and the manner of this expression inforces no lesse Charge the rich that the doe good and be rich in doing good Harken then yee rich men of the world it is not left arbitrary to you that you may doe good if you will but it is laid vpon you as your charge and duty You must doe good works and woe be to you if you doe not This is not a counsell but a precept Although I might say of God as we vse to say of Princes his will is his command The same necessity that there is of Trusting in God the same is in Doing good to men Let me sling this stone into the brazen foreheads of our aduersaries which in their shamelesse challenges of our Religion dare tell the world we are all for faith nothing for works and that we hold workes to saluation as a Parenthesis to a clause that it may be perfit without them Heauen and earth shall witnesse the iniustice of this calumniation and your consciences shall bee our compurgators this day which shall testifie to you both now and on your death-beds that we haue taught you there is no lesse necessitie of good works then if you should be saued by them and that though you cannot be saued by them as the meritorious causes of your glory yet that you cannot be saued without them as the necessarie effects of that grace which brings glory It is an hard sentence of some Casuists concerning their fellowes that but a few rich mens Confessors shall bee saued I imagine for that they dawbe vp their consciences with vntempered morter and sooth them vp in their sins Let this be the care of them whom it concerneth For vs wee desire to bee faithfull to God and you and tell you roundly what you must trust to Doe good therefore yee rich if euer yee looke to receiue good if euer yee looke to bee rich in heauen bee rich in good works vpon earth It is a shame to heare of a rich man that dyes and makes his will of thousands and bequeaths nothing to pious and charitable vses God and the poore are no part of his heyre We doe not houer ouer your expiring soules on your death-beds as Rauens ouer a carkasse wee doe not begge for a Couent nor fright you with Purgatory nor chaffer with you for that inuisible treasure of the Church whereof there is but one Key-keeper at Rome but wee tell you that the making of friends with this Mammon of vnrighteousnesse is the way to eternall habitations They say of Cyrus that he was wont to say he laid vp treasures for himself whiles he made his friends rich but we say to you that you lay vp treasures for your selues in heauen whiles you make the poore your friends vpon earth We tell you there must be a Date ere there can be a Dabitur that he which giues to the poore lends vpon vse to the Lord which payes large increase for all he borrows and how shal he giue you the Interest of glory where he hath not receiued the Principall of beneficence How can that man euer looke to be Gods heyre in the Kingdome of heauen that giues all away to his earthly heyres and lends nothing to the God of heauen As that witty Grecian said of extreame tall men that they were Cypresse-trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. faire and tall but fruitlesse so may I say of a strait-handed rich man And these Cypresses are not for the Garden of Paradise none shall euer be planted there but the fruitfull And if the first Paradise had any trees in it onely for pleasure I am sure the second which is in the midst of the new Ierusalem shall haue no tree that beares not twelue fruits Reu. 22.2 yea whose very leaues are not beneficiall Doe good therefore O ye rich and shew your wealth to bee not in hauing but in doing good And if God haue put this holy resolution into any of your hearts take this
natures and actions of the creature to view them not idly without his vse as they doe him God made all these for man and man for his owne sake Both these purposes were lost if man should let the creatures passe carelesly by him onely seene not thought vpon He only can make benefit of what he sees which if he doe not it is all one as if he were blinde or brute Whence it is that wise Salomon putteth the sluggard to schoole vnto the Ant and our Sauiour sendeth the distrustfull to the Lillie of the field In this kinde was that Meditation of the diuine Psalmist which vpon the view of the glorious frame of the Heauens was led to wonder at the mercifull respect God hath to so poore a creature as man Thus our Sauiour tooke occasion of the water fetcht vp solemnly to the Altar from the Well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosannah to meditate and discourse of the Water of life Thus holy and sweet Augustine from occasion of the water-course neere to his lodging running among the pebbles sometimes more silently sometimes in a baser murmure and sometimes in a shriller note entred into the thought and discourse of that excellent order which God hath setled in all these inferiour things Thus that learned and heauenly soule of our late Estye when we sate together and heard a sweet consort of Musicke seemed vpon this occasion carried vp for the time before-hand to the place of his rest saying not without some passion What Musicke may wee thinke there is in heauen Thus lastly for who knowes not that examples of this kinde are infinite that faithfull and reuerend Deering when the Sunne shined on his face now lying on his death-bed fell into a sweet Meditation of the glory of God and his approching ioy The thoughts of this nature are not only lawfull but so behoouefull that we cannot omit them without neglect of God his creatures our selues The creatures are halfe lost if we only employ them not learne something of them God is wronged if his creatures be vnregarded our selues most of all if we reade this great volume of the creatures and take out no lesson for our instruction CHAP. IV. Cautions of Extemporall Meditation WHerein yet caution is to be had that our meditations bee not either too farre fetcht or sauouring of superstition Farre fetcht I call those which haue not a faire and easie resemblance vnto the matter from whence they are raised in which case our thoughts proue loose and heartlesse making no memorable impression in the minde Superstitious when we make choise of those grounds of Meditation which are forbidden vs as Teachers of Vanitie or imploy our owne deuices though well grounded to an vse aboue their reach making them vpon our owne pleasures not onely furtherances but parts of Gods worship in both which our Meditations degenerate and grow rather perillous to the soule Whereto adde that the minde be not too much cloyed with too frequent iteration of the same thought which at last breeds a wearinesse in our selues and an vnpleasantnesse of that conceit which at the first entertainment promised much delight Our nature is too ready to abuse familiaritie in any kinde and it is with Meditations as with Medicines which with ouer-ordinarie vse lose their soueraignty and fill in stead of purging God hath not straited vs for matter hauing giuen vs the scope of the whole world so that there is no creature euent action speech which may not afford vs new matter of Meditation And that which we are wont to say of fine wits wee may as truly affirme of the Christian heart that it can make vse of any thing Wherefore as trauellers in a forraine countrey make euery sight a lesson so ought wee in this our pilgrimage Thou seest the heauen rolling aboue thine head in a constant and vnmoueable motion the starres so ouerlooking one another that the greatest shew little the least greatest all glorious the aire full of the bottles of raine or fleeces of snow or diuers formes of fiery Exhalations the Sea vnder one vniforme face full of strange and monstrous shapes beneath the earth so adorned with varietie of plants that thou canst not but tread on many at once with euery foot besides the store of creatures that flie aboue it walke vpon it liue in it Thou idle Truant doest thou learne nothing of so many masters Hast thou so long read these capitall letters of Gods great Booke and canst thou not yet spell one word of them The brute creatures see the same things with as cleere perhaps better eies If thine inward eies see not their vse as well as thy bodily eies their shape I know not whether is more reasonable or lesse brutish CHAP. V. DEliberate Meditation is that wee chiefly inquire for Of Meditation deliberate which both may bee well guided and shall be not a little furthered by precepts part whereof the labours of others shall yeeld vs and part the plainest mistresse Experience Wherein first the qualities of the person Of whom is required First that hee bee pure from his sinnes wherein order requires of vs first the qualities of the person fit for meditation then the circumstances manner and proceedings of the worke The hill of Meditation may not be climbed with a prophane foot but as in the deliuery of the Law so here no beast may touch Gods hill lest he die only the pure of heart haue promise to see God Sinne dimmeth and dazeleth the eie that it cannot behold spirituall things The Guard of heauenly Souldiers was about Elishaes seruant before hee saw them not before through the scales of his infidelity The soule must therefore bee purged ere it can profitably meditate And as of old they were wont to search for and thrust out malefactors from the presence ere they went to sacrifice so must we our sins ere we offer our thoughts to God First saith Dauid I will wash my hands in innocencie then I will compasse thine Altar Whereupon not vnfitly did that worthy Chancellour of Paris make the first staire of his Ladder of Contemplation Humble Repentance The cloth that is white which is wont to be the colour of innocencie is capable of any Dye the blacke of none other Not that wee require an absolute perfection which as it is incident vnto none so if it were would exclude all need and vse of Meditation but rather an honest sinceritie of the heart not willingly sinning willingly repenting when we haue sinned which who so findes in himselfe let him not thinke any weaknesse a lawfull barre to Meditation He that pleads this excuse is like some simple man which being halfe starued with cold refuseth to come neere the fire because hee findeth not heat enough in himselfe CHAP. VI. Secondly that he bee free from worldly thoughts NEither may the soule that hopeth to profit by meditation suffer it selfe for the time intangled with the world which
and all his officious respects turne home to himselfe He can be at once a slaue to command an Intelligencer to informe a Parasite to sooth and flatter a Champion to defend an Executioner to reuenge any thing for an aduantage of fauour He hath proiected a plot to rise and woe be to the friend that stands in his way He still haunteth the Court and his vnquiet spirit haunteth him which hauing fetcht him from the secure peace of his Country-rest sets him new and impossible taskes and after many disappointments incourages him to try the same sea in spight of his shipwracks and promises better successe A small hope giues him heart against great difficulties and drawes on new expense new seruilitie perswading him like foolish boies to shoot away a second shaft that he may finde the first He yeeldeth and now secure of the issue applauds himselfe in that honour which he still affecteth still misseth and for the last of all trials will rather bribe for a troublesome preferment than returne void of a title But now when he findes himselfe desperately crossed and at once spoiled both of aduancement and hope both of fruition and possibilitie all his desire is turned into rage his thirst is now onely of reuenge his tongue sounds of nothing but detraction and slander Now the place he sought for is base his riuall vnworthy his aduersary iniurious officers corrupt Court infectious and how well is he that may bee his owne man his owne master that may liue safely in a meane distance at pleasure free from staruing free from burning But if his designes speed well ere he be warme in that seat his minde is possessed of an higher What hee hath is but a degree to what he would haue now he scorneth what he formerly aspired to his successe doth not giue him so much contentment as prouocation neither can he be at rest so long as he hath one either to ouer-looke or to match or to emulate him When his Country-friend comes to visit him he carries him vp to the aâ—â—full Presence and now in his sight crowding neerer to the Chaire of State desires to be lookt on desires to be spoken to by the greatest and studies how to offer an occasion lest he should seeme vnknowne vnregarded and if any gesture of the least grace fall happily vpon him he lookes backe vpon his friend lest he should carelesly let it passe without a note and what hee wanteth in sense hee supplies in History His disposition is neuer but shamefully vnthankfull for vnlesse he haue all he hath nothing It must be a large draught whereof he will not say that those few drops doe not slake but inflame him so still he thinkes himselfe the worse for small fauours His wit so contriues the likely plots of his promotion as if he would steale it away without Gods knowledge besides his will neither doth he euer looke vp and consult in his fore-casts with the supreme Moderator of all things as one that thinkes honour is ruled by Fortune and that heauen medleth not with the disposing of these earthly lots and therefore it is iust with that wise GOD to defeat his fairest hopes and to bring him to a losse in the hottest of his chace and to cause honour to flie away so much the faster by how much it is more eagerly pursued Finally he is an importunate suter a corrupt client a violent vndertaker a smooth Factor but vntrusty a restlesse master of his owne a Bladder puft vp with the wind of hope and selfe-loue He is in the common body as a Mole in the earth euer vnquietly casting and in one word is nothing but a confused heape of enuy pride couetousnesse Of the Vnthrift HE ranges beyond his pale and liues without compasse His expence is measured not by abilitie but will His pleasures are immoderate and not honest A wanton eye a lickorish tongue a gamesome hand haue impouerisht him The vulgar sort call him bountifull and applaud him while he spends and recompence him with wishes when he giues with pitie when hee wants Neither can it be denied that he raught true liberalitie but ouer-went it No man could haue liued more laudably if when he was at the best he had staied there While he is present none of the wealthier ghests may pay ought to the shot without much vehemency without danger of vnkindnesse Vse hath made it vnpleasant to him not to spend He is in all things more ambitious of the title of good fellowship than of wisdome When he lookes into the wealthy chest of his Father his conceit suggests that it cannot be emptied and while he takes out some deale euery day hee perceiues not any diminution and when the heape is sensibly abated yet still flatters himselfe with enough One hand couzens the other and the belly deceiues both hee doth not so much bestow benefits as scatter them True merit doth not carie them but smoothnesse of adulation His senses are too much his guides and his purueyors and appetite is his steward He is an impotent seruant to his lusts and knowes not to gouerne either his minde or his purse Improuidence is euer the companion of vnthriftinesse This man cannot looke beyond the present and neither thinkes nor cares what shall be much lesse suspects what may be and while he lauishes out his substance in superfluities thinkes he onely knowes what the world is worth and that others ouerprize it He feeles pouertie before he sees it neuer complaines till he be pinched widi wants neuer spares till the bottome when it is too late either to spend or recouer He is euery mans friend saue his owne and then wrongs himselfe most when he courteth himselfe with most kindnesse He vies Time with the slothfull and it is an hard match whether chases away good houres to worse purpose the one by doing nothing or the other by idle pastime Hee hath so dilated himselfe with the beames of prosperitie that he lies open to all dangers and cannot gather vp himselfe on iust warning to auoid a mischiefe Hee were good for an Almner ill for a Steward Finally he is the liuing tombe of his fore-fathers of his posteritie and when he hath swallowed both is more emptie than before he deuoured them Of the Enuious HE feeds on others euils and hath no disease but his neighbours welfare whatsoeuer God doe for him he cannot be happy with company and if he were put to chuse whether he would rather haue equals in a common felicitie or superiours in miserie he would demurre vpon the election His eie casts out too much and neuer returnes home but to make comparisons with anothers good He is an ill prizer of forraine commoditie worse of his owne for that hee rates too high this vnder value You shall haue him euer inquiring into the estates of his equals and betters wherein he is not more desirous to heare all than loth to heate any thing ouer-good and if iust report
tarry in the suburbs Grant that these were as ill as an enemy can make them or can pretend them You are deceiued if you thinke the walles of Babylon stand vpon Ceremonies Substantiall errors are both her foundation and frame These rituall obseruations are not so much as Tile and Reede rather like to some Fane vpon the roofe for ornament more then vse Not parts of the building but not necessarie appeadances If you take them otherwise you wrong the Church if thus and yet depart you wrong it and your selfe As if you would haue perswaded righteous Lot not to stay is Zoar because it was so neere Sodome I feare if you had seene the money-changers in the Temple how euer you would haue prayed or taught there Christ did it not forsaking the place but scourging the offenders And this is the valour of Christian teachers To oppose abuses not to runne away from them Where shall you not thus finde Babylon Would you haue runne from Geneua because of her wafers Or from Corinth for her disordered loue-feasts Either runne out of the world or your flight is in vaine If experience of change teach you not that you shall finde your Babylon euery where returne not Compare the place you haue left with that you haue chosen let not feare of seeming to repent ouer-soone make you partiall Loe there a common harbour of all opinions of all heresies if not a mixture Here you drew in the free and cleare aire of the Gospel without that odious composition of Iudaisme Arrianisme Anabaptisme There you liue in the stench of these and more You are vnworthy of pitie if you will approue your misery Say if you can that the Church of England if shee were not yours is not an heauen to Amsterdam How is it then that our gnats are harder to swallow then their camels and that whiles all Christendome magnifies our happinesse and applauds it your handfull alone so detests our enormities that you despise our graces See whether in this you make not God a loser The thanke of all his fauours is lost because you want more and in the meane time who gaines by this sequestration but Rome and Hell How doe they insult in this aduantage that our mothers owne children condemne her for vncleane that we are dayly weakened by our diuisions that the rude multitude hath so palpable a motiue to distrust vs Sure you intended it not but if you had been their hired Agent you could not haue done our enemies greater seruice The God of heauen open your eyes that you may see the vniustice of that zeale which hath transported you and turne your heart to an endeuour of all Christian satisfaction Otherwise your soules shall finde too late that it had beene a thousand times better to swallow a Ceremonie then to rend a Church yea that euen wheredomes and murders shall abide an easier answer then separation I haue done if onely I haue aduised you of that fearfull threatning of the Wise-man The eye that mocketh his father and despiseth the gouernment of his mother the Rauens of the valley shall picke it out and the yong Eagles eate it To Sir ANDREW ASTELEY EP. II. A discourse of our due preparation for death and the meanes to sweeten it to vs. SInce I saw you I saw my father die How boldly and merrily did hee passe thorow the gates of death as if they had no terrour but much pleasure Oh that I could as easily imitate as not forget him We know wee must tread the same way how happy if with the same minde Our life as it giues way to death so must make way for it It will be though we will not it will not bee happy without our will without our preparation It is the best and longest lesson to learne how to die and of surest vse which alone if we take not out it were better not to haue liued Oh vaine studies of men how to walke thorough Rome streets al day in the shade how to square cirles how to salue vp the celestiall motions how to correct mis-written copies to fetch vp old words from forgetfulnesse and a thousand other like points of idle skill whiles the maine care of life and death is neglected There is an Art of this infallible eternall both in truth and vse for though the meanes bee diuers yet the last act is still the same and the disposition of the soule need not be other it is all one whether a feuer bring it or a sword wherein yet after long profession of other sciences I am still why should I shame to confesse a learner and shall be I hope whilest I am yet it shall not repent vs as diligēt schollers repeat their parts vnto each other to be more perfect so mutually to recall some of our rules of well-dying The first whereof is a conscionable life The next a right apprehension of life and death I tread in the beaten path doe you follow me To liue holily is the way to die safely happily If death be terrible yet innocence is bold and will neither feare it selfe nor let vs feare where contrariwise wickednesse is cowardly and cannot abide either any glimpse of light or shew of danger Hope doth not more draw our eyes forward then conscience turnes them backward and forces vs to looke behinde vs affrighting vs euen without past euils Besides the paine of death euery sinne is a new Fury to torment the soule and to make it loth to part How can it chuse when it sees on the one side what euill it hath done on the other vvhat euill it must suffer it vvas a cleare heart what else could doe it that gaue so bold a forehead to that holy Bishop who durst on his death-bed professe I haue so liued as I neither feare to die nor shame to liue What care we when be found if well-doing What care we how suddenly vvhen our preparation is perpetuall What care we how violently vvhen so many inward friends such are our good actions giue vs secret comfort There is no good Steward but is glad of his Audit his straight accounts desire nothing more then a discharge onely the doubtfull and vntrustie feares of his reckoning Neither onely doth the vvant of integritie make vs timorous but of wisedome in that our ignorance cannot equally value either the life which vve leaue or the death vve expect Wee haue long conuersed vvith this life and yet are vnacquainted how should wee then know that death we neuer saw or that life vvhich followes that death These cottages haue been ruinous and wee haue not thought of their fall our way hath beene deepe and we haue not looked for our rest Shew mee euer any man that knew vvhat life vvas and vvas loth to leaue it I vvill shew you a prisoner that would dwell in his Goale a slaue that likes to be chained to his Galley What is there here but darknesse of ignorance discomfort of euents impotency of
confidence in appealing to the Fathers applauding his worthy offers and indeauors of discouering the falsifications and deprauations of antiquity SIR I know no man so like as you to make posterity his debter I doe heartily congratulate vnto you so worthy labours so noble a proiect Our aduersaries knowing of themselues that which Tertullian saith of all heresies that if appeale bee made to the sacred bench of Prophets and Apostles they cannot stand remoue the suit of religion craftily into the Court of the Fathers A reuerend triall as any vnder heauen where it cannot be spoken how confidently they triumph ere the conflict Giue vs the Fathers for our Iudges say Campian and Posseuine the day is ours And whence is this courage Is antiquity our enemy their aduocate Certainly it cannot bee truth that is new We would renounce our Religion if it could be ouer-lookt for time Let goe equity the older take both There bee two things then that giue them heart in this prouocation One the bastardy of false Fathers the other the corruption of the true What a flourish doe they make with vsurped names Whom would it not amaze to see the frequent citations of the Apostles owne Canons Constitutions Liturgies Masses of Clemens Dennys the Areopagite Linus Hippolitus Martiall of Burdeaux Egesippus Donations of Constantine the great and Lewis the godly Of 50 Canons of Nice of Dorotheus Damasus his Pontificall Epistles decretall of Clemens Euaristus Telesphorus and an hundred other Bishops holy and ancient of Euodius Anastasius Simeon Metaphrastes and moe yet then a number moe most whereof haue crept out of the Vatican or Cloisters and all cary in them manifest brands of falshood and supposition that I may say nothing of those infinite writings which either ignorance or wilfulnesse hath fathered vpon euery of the Fathers not without shamelesse importunity and grosse impossibilities all which as shee said of Peter their speech bewrayeth or as Austen said of Cyprians stile their face This fraud is more easily auoided For as in notorious burglaries oft-times there is either an hat or a gloue or a weapon left behind which descrieth the authors so the God of truth hath besotted these impostors to let fall some palpable error though but of false calculation whereby if not their names yet their ages might appeare to their conuiction Most danger is in the secret corruption of the true and acknowledged issue of those gracious parents whom through close and crafty handling they haue induced to belye those that begot them and to betray their Fathers either with silence or false euidence Plainly how are the honoured Volumes of faithfull antiquity blurred interlined altered depraued by subtle trechery and made to speake what they meant not Fie on this not so much iniustice as impiety to race the awefull monuments of the dead and partially to blot and change the originall Will of the deceased insert our owne Legacies This is done by our guilty aduersaries to the iniury not more of these Authors then of the present and succeeding times Hence those Fathers are some-where not ours What wonder while they are not themselues Your industry hath offered and that motion is liuely and heroicall to challenge all their learned and elegant pages from iniury of corruption to restore them to themselues and to vs that which all the learned of our times haue but desired to see done you proffer to effect your assay in Cyprian and Augustine is happy and iustly applauded All our Libraries whom your diligent hand hath ransackt offer their ayd in such abundance of manuscripts as all Europe would enuy to see met in one Iland After all this for that the most spightfull imputation to our Truth is nouelty you offer to deduce her pedegree from those primitiue times through the successions of all ages and to bring into the light of the world many as yet obscure but no lesse certaine and authenticall Patrons in a continued line of defence You haue giuen proofe enough that these are no glorious vaunts but the zealous challenges of an able Champion What wanteth then Let mee say for you Not an heart not an head not an hand but which I almost scorne to name in such a cause a purse If this continue your hinderance it will not be more our losse then shame Heare me a little yee great and wealthy Hath God loaded you with so much substance and will you not lend him a little of his owne Shall your riot bee fed with excesse while Gods cause shall starue for want Shall our aduersaries so insultingly out-bid vs and in the zeale of our profusion laugh at our heartlesse and cold niggardlinesse Shall heauenly truth lie in the dust for want of a little stamped earth to raise her How can you so much any way honor God yea your selues deserue of posterity pleasure the Church and make you so good friends of your Mammon Let not the next Age say that she had so vnkind predecessors Fetch forth of your superfluous store and cast in your rich gifts into this treasurie of the Temple The Lord and his Church haue need For you it angers me to see how that flattering Posseuinus smoothly intices you from vs with golden offers vpon the aduantage of our neglect as if he measuring your mind by his owne thought an Omnia dabo would bring you with himselfe on your knees to worship the deuill the beast the image of both as if we were not as able to incourage to reward desert Hath Vertue no Patrons on this side the Alpes Are those hils onely the thresholds of honour I plead not because I cannot feare you But who sees not how munificently our Church scattereth her bountifull fauours vpon lesse merit If your day be not yet come expect it God and the Church owe you a benefit if their payment be long it is sure Onely goe you on with courage in those your high endeauors and in the meane time thinke it great recompence to haue deserued To Mr E.A. EP. IX A Discourse of fleeing or stay in the time of pestilence whether lawfull for Minister or people HOw many hath a seduced conscience led vntimely to the graue I speake of this sad occasion of Pestilence The Angell of God followes you and you doubt whether you should flye If a Lyon out of the forest should pursue you you would make no question yet could he not doe it vnsent What is the difference Both instruments of diuine reuenge both threaten death one by spilling the blood the other by infecting it Who knowes whether he hath not appointed your Zoar out of the lists of this destruction You say it is Gods visitation What euill is not If warre haue wasted the confines of your Country you saue your throats by flight Why are you more fauourable to Gods immediate sword of pestilence Very leprosie by Gods law requires a separation yet no mortall sicknesse When you see a noted Leper proclaime his vncleannesse in the street
did his Rocke and bring downe riuers of teares to wash away your bloodshed Doe not so much feare your iudgement as abhorre your sinne yea your selfe for it And vvith strong cries lift vp your guilty hands to that God whom you offended and say Deliuer me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord. Let me tel you As vvithout repentance there is no hope so with it there is no condemnation True penitence is strong and can grapple with the greatest sinne yea with all the powers of hell What if your hands be red vvith blood Behold the blood of your Sauiour shall wash away yours If you can bathe your selfe in that your Scarlet soule shall bee as white as Snow This course alone shall make your Crosse the way to the Paradise of God This plaister can heale all the fores of the soule if neuer so desperate Onely take heed that your heart be deepe enough pierced ere you lay it on else vnder a seeming skin of dissimulation your soule shall fester to death Yet ioy vs with your true sorrow vvhom you haue grieued with your offence and at once comfort your friends and saue your soule To Mr. IOHN MOLE of a long time now prisoner vnder the Inquisition at Rome EPIST. IX Exciting him to his wonted constancy and encouraging him to Martyrdome WHat passage can these lines hope to find into that your strait and curious thraldome Yet who would not aduenture the losse of this paines for him which is ready to lose himselfe for Christ what doe we not owe to you which haue thus giuen your selfe for the common faith Blessed bee the name of that God who hath singled you out for his Champion and made you inuincible how famous are your bonds how glorious your constancy Oh that out of your close obscurity you could but see the honour of your suffering the affections of Gods Saints and in some an holy enuie at your distressed happinesse Those wals cannot hide you No man is attended with so many eyes from earth and heauen The Church your Mother beholds you not with more compassion then ioy Neither can it be sayd how shee at once pities your misery and reioyces in your patience The blessed Angels looke vpon you with gratulation and applause The aduersaries with an angry sorrow to see themselues ouercome by their captiue their obstinate cruelty ouer-matched with humble resolution and faithfull perseuerance Your Sauiour sees you from aboue not as a meere spectator but as a patient with you in you for you yea as an agent in your indurance and victory giuing new courage with the one hand and holding out a Crowne with the other Whom would not these sights incourage who now can pity your solitarines The hearts of all good men are with you Neither can that place be but full of Angels which is the continuall obiect of so many prayers yea the God of heauen was neuer so neere you as now you are remoued from men Let me speake a bold but true word It is as possible for him to be absent from his heauen as from the prisons of his Saints The glorified spirits aboue sing to him the persecuted soules below suffer for him and cry to him he is magnified in both present with both the faith of the one is as pleasing to him as the triumph of the other Nothing obligeth vs men so much as smarting for vs words of defence are worthy of thankes but paine is esteemed aboue recompence How do we kisse the wounds which are taken for our sakes professe that we would hate our selues if we did not loue those that dare bleed for vs How much more shall the God of mercies bee sensible of your sorrowes and crowne your patience To whom you may truly sing that ditty of the Prophet Surely for thy sake am I flaine continually and am counted as a sheepe for the slaughter What need I to stir vp your constancy which hath already amazed and wearied your persecutors No suspition shall driue me hereto but rather the thirst of your praise He that exhorts to persist in well-doing while he perswades commendeth Whither should I rather send you then to the fight of your owne Christian fortitude which neither prayers nor threats haue beene able to shake Here stands on the one hand liberty promotion pleasure life and which easily exceeds all these the deare respect of wife and children whom your only resolution shall make widow and orphanes these with smiles and vowes and teares seeme to importune you On the other hand bondage solitude horror death and the most lingring of all miseries tuine of posterity these with frownes and menaces labour to affright you Betwixt both you haue stood vnmoued fixing your eyes either right forward vpon the cause of your suffering or vpwards vpon the crowne of your reward It is an happy thing when our own actions may be either examples or arguments of good These blessed proceedings call you on to your perfection The reward of good beginnings prosecuted is doubled neglected is lost How vaine are those temptations which would make you a loser of all this praise this recompence Goe on therefore happily keepe your eyes where they are and your heart cannot be but where it is and where it ought Looke still for what you suffer and for whom For the truth for Christ what can be so precious as truth Not life it selfe All earthly things are not so vile to life as life to truth Life is momentarie Truth eternall Life is ours the Truth Gods Oh happy purchase to giue our life for the truth What can we suffer too much for Christ He hath giuen our life to vs hee hath giuen his owne life for vs. What great thing is it if he require what he hath giuen vs if ours for his Yea rather if he call for vvhat he hath lent vs yet not to bereaue but to change it giuing vs gold for clay glory for our corruption Behold that Sauiour of yours weeping and bleeding and dying for you alas our soules are too strait for his sorrowes wee can be made but paine for him He vvas made sinne for vs vvee sustaine for him but the impotent anger of men he strugled vvith the infinite vvrath of his Father for vs. Oh vvho can endure enough for him that hath passed thorow death and hell for his soule Thinke this and you shall resolue vvith Dauid I will bee yet more vile for the Lord. The worst of the despight of men is but Death and that if they inflict not a disease vvill or if not that Age. Here is no imposition of that vvhich vvould not be but an hastning of that which vvill be an hastning to your gaine For behold their violence shall turne your necessitie into vertue and profit Nature hath made you mortall none but an enemie can make you a Martyr you must die though they vvill not you cannot die for Christ but by them How could they else deuise to make you happie
And therefore he must haue one henchman on the right hand to carry a Crowne and a Bible with an inscription On the left another that carried a sword naked and a ball of Gold Himselfe in great state carries a globe of Gold with two swords a crosse His pressing yron and sheeres would haue become him better And if I should looke to heathenish Antiquitie I should need to say no more than that the Aegyptian Hieroglyphicks whereof they say Horus Apollo was the inventor were nothing else but Emblems and Impreses among the rest it is memorable that Ruffinus reports that the signe of the Crosse was one of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their antient figures long before CHRIST which saith he signified to them eternall life and Socrates adds that when they found the signe of the Crosse in templo Serapidis the Heathen and Christians contended for it each challenged it for theirs and when the Heathen knowing the signification of it saw it thus fulfilled to the Christians many of them converted to Christianitie Be it farre from vs to put any superstition in this I thinke it done by the same instinct whereby the Sybils prophesied of Christ And as Armes and Embleticall deuices are thus ancient and commendable so more directly Posyes and words whether for instruction or distinction are here warranted So the word of a faithfull King is Dominus mihi adiutor or when hee would thankfully ascribe his peace to God Exurgat Deus dissipentur inimici so of a good Prince either I serue to expresse his officious care Or One of your owne to signifie his respectiue loue So the good Statesman's should be giuen him by Salomon Non est consilium contra Dominū No police against the Lord A good Courtier 's by Samuel Honorantes me honorabo A good Bishop's by Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season out of season A good Subiect's Not for feare but Conscience A good Christians Christus mihi viuere est So the Israelites were charged to make their Embleme the Law of God for their posts for their garments But these things may not be written vpon our walls or shields onely They must be written vpon our hearts else wee are as very painted walls as our walls themselues Else we shall be like some Inne that hath a Crowne for the signe without and within there is none but pesants or a Rose vpon the post without and nothing but sluttishnesse and filth within Or an Angell without and nothing within but lewd drunkards As it is said of God Dixit factum est So also scripsit factum est They shall be written holy that is they shall bee made holy Happy is it for vs tho wee write no new Emblems of our owne if wee can haue this holy Imprese of God written not in foreheads but in our hearts Holinesse to the Lord. Thus much of the Embleme or word Now for the subiect and circumstances In that day aboue this there is the proficiencie of the Church Holinesse shall bee written vpon the Bells prophane things shall bee holy There is the sanctification of the Church The Bells of warlike horses shall bee turned to the quiet vse of Religion There is the religious peace of the Church Thirdly the pots to seeth in shall bee as Bowles to offer vp incense in There is the degrees of the Churches perfection so that heere arise foure heads of our speech The proficiencie Sanctification Peace Perfection of the Church All which craue your gracious and Christian attention or lest I be too long two of them onely When therefore shall this be fulfilled Not vnder the Law It had beene a great profanation For none but the High-Priest might weare this Posie The place oft-times disparages As to put the Arke of God into a Cart or to set it by Dagon It is vnder the Gospell that this posie of Holinesse shall be so common In ille die and this is that day How great is this proficiencie of the Church Looke how much difference there is betweene one and many betweene the holiest of men and an ordinary beast betweene the frontall of the High-Priest and the Bells of horses so much there must be betwixt the Church in that day and in this It is the fashion of the true Church to grow vp still from worse to better as it is said of the head of the Church Crescebat corroborabatur As it is compared to stones for firmnesse so to grifts for growth Yea the Kingdome of heauen is like a graine of mustard-seed that of the least seed proues the greatest plant in his kinde the riuer of God flowes first vp to the ankles then to the knees and at last to the chin The Church was an Embryo till Abrahams time In swathing-bands till Moses In child-hood till Christ A man in Christ A man full-growne in glory As man is an Epitome of the World so is euery Christian an abridgement of the Church Best at last In illa die Hee is like to the feast of Cana where the best wine was brought in last not naturally but by transmutation It was a blasphemous and mee thinkes a Vorstian reason that Tostatus brings why God did not create the voyces out of the Propitiatorie Quia Deus non potest agere per succcessionem Surelie in vs hee doth and as wee can doe nothing in instante no more doth God in vs. As in the Creation hee could haue made all at once but hee would take dayes for it so in our re-creation by grace As naturall so spirituall agents doe agere per moram That rule of Aquinas is sure Successiuorum non simul est esse perfectio to which that accords of Tertullian Perfectio ordine post-humat There must be an illa dies for our full stature till which if we be true Christians we must grow from strength to strength herein grace is contrary to nature strongest at last Wee must change till then but in melius till we come to our best and then we must be like him in whom is no shadow by turning But where wee should be like the Sunne till noone euer rising there bee many like Ezekiaes Sunne that goe backe many degrees in the diall whose beginnings are like Neroes first fiue yeares full of hope and peace Or like the first moneth of a new seruant or like vnto the foure Ages whose first was gold the last iron Or to Nebuchadnezzars image which had a precious head but base feet Looke to your selues this is a fearefull signe a fearefull condition Can hee euer bee rich that growes euery day poorer Can he euer reach the goale that goes euery day a step backe from it Alas then how shall he euer reach the goale of glory that goes euery day a step backward in grace He that is worse euery day can neuer be at his best In illa die In that day Hitherto the proficiencie The sanctification followes The Mosaicall Law was scrupulous There were
cogitation working as it commonly doth remissely causeth not any sudden alteration in our Traueller but as we say of Comets and Eclipses hath his effect when the cause is forgotten Neither is there any one more apparant ground of that lukewarme indifferency which is fallen vpon our times than the ill vse of our wandrings for our Trauellers being the middle ranke of men and therefore either followers of the great or commanders of the meaner sort cannot want conuenience of diffusing this temper of ease vnto both SECT XV. ALl this mischiefe is yet hid with a formall profession so as euery eye cannot finde it in others it dares boldly breake forth to an open reuolt How many in our memory whiles with Dinah they haue gone forth to gaze haue lost their spirituall chastity and therewith both the Church and themselues How many like vnto the brooke Cedron run from Hierusalem thorow the vale of Iehosaphat and end their course in the dead sea Robert Pointz in his preface to the testimonies for the reall presence 2 Chron. 24. A popish writer of our Nation as himselfe thought not vnlearned complaining of the obstinacy of vs hereticks despaires of preuailing because he findes it to be long agoe fore-prophecied of vs in the Booke of the Chronicles At illi Protestantes audire noluerunt It is well that Protestants were yet heard of in the old Testament as well as Iesuites whose name one of their owne by good hap hath found Num. 26.24 Like as Erasmus found Friers in S. Pauls time inter falsos Fratres Socrat. in Iosuam l. 1. c. 2. q. 19. Gretser contra Lerneum c. 1. 2. Vere aiquidam haereticus Iesuitas in sacris literis repertri But it were better if this mans word were as true as it is idle Some of ours haue heard to their cost whose losse ioyned with the griefe of the Church and dishonour of the Gospel we haue sufficiently lamented How many haue wee knowne stroken with these Aspes which haue died sleeping And in truth whosoeuer shall consider this open freedome of the meanes of seducement must needs wonder that we haue lost no more especially if he be acquainted with those two maine helps of our Aduersaries importunity and plausibility Neuer any Pharisee was so eager to make a Proselyte as our late factors of Rome and if they be so hot set vpon this seruice as to compasse sea and land to winne one of vs shall we be so mad as to passe both their sea and land to cast our selues into the mouth of danger No man setteth foot vpon their coast which may not presently sing with the Psalmist They come about mee like Bees It fares with them as with those which are infected with the pestilence who they say are carried with an itching desire of tainting others When they haue all done this they haue gained that if Satan were not more busie and vehement than they they could gaine nothing But in the meane time there is nothing wherein I wish we would emulate them but in this heat of diligence and violent ambition of winning Pyrrhus did not more enuy the valour of those old Romane souldiers which he read in their wounds and dead faces than we doe the busie audacitie of these new The world could not stand before vs if our Truth might be but as hotly followed as their falshood Oh that our God whose cause we maintaine would enkindle our hearts with the fire of holy zeale but so much as Satan hath inflamed theirs with the fire of fury and faction Oh that he would shake vs out of this dull ease and quicken ourslacke spirits vnto his owne worke Arise O North and come O South and blow vpon our garden that the spices thereof may flow forth These suters will take no deniall but are ready as the fashion was to doe with rich matches to carry away mens soules whether they will or no. Wee see the proofe of their importunity at home No bulwarke of lawes no barres of iustice though made of three trees can keepe our rebanished fugitiues from returning from intermedling How haue their actions said in the hearing of the world that since heauen will not heare them they will try what hell can doe And if they dare bee so busie in our owne homes where they would seeme somewhat awed with the danger of iustice what thinke we will they not dare to doe in their owne territories where they haue not free scope onely but assistance but incouragement Neuer generation was so forward as the Iesuiticall for captation of wils amongst their owne or of soules amongst strangers What state is not haunted with these ill spirits yea what house yea what soule Not a Princes Councell-Table not a Ladies chamber can be free from their shamelesse insinuations It was not for nothing that their great Patron Philip the second King of Spaine called them Clerices negotiadores and that Marcus Antonius Columna Generall of the Nauy to Pius Quintuâ— in the battell of Lepanto and Viceroy of Sicile could say to Father Don Alonso a famous Iesuite affecting to be of the counsell of his conscience Voi altri padri di Ihesu hauete la mente al ciclo le mani al mondo l'anima al diauolo SECT XVI YEt were there the lesse perill of their vehemence if it were only rude and boysterous as in some other sects that so as it is in Canon shot it might be more easily shund than resisted but here the skill of doing mischiefe contends with the power their mis-zealous passions hide themselues in a pleasing sweetnesse and they are more beholden to policy than strength What Gentleman of any note can crosse our Seas whose name is not landed in their books before hand in preuention of his person whom now arriued if they finde vntractable through too much preiudice they labour first to temper with the plausible conuersation of some smooth Catholike of his owne Nation the name of his Countrey is warrant enough for his insinuation Not a word yet may be spoken of Religion as if that were no part of the errand So haue we seene an Hawke cast off at an Hernshaw to looke and flie a quite other way after many carelesse and ouerly fetches to towre vp vnto the prey intended There is nothing wherein this faire companion shall not apply himselfe to his welcome Countryman At last when he hath possest himselfe of the heart of his new acquaintance got himselfe the reputation of a sweet ingenuity and delightfull sociablenesse he findes opportunities to bestow some witty scoffes vpon those parts of our religion which lie most open to aduantage And now it is time to inuite him after other rarities to see the Monastery of our English Benedictines or if elsewhere those English Colleges which the deuout beneficence of our well-meaning neighbours with no other intention than some couetous Farmers lay saltcats in their doue-coats haue bountifully erected There it is a wondes
distinguish in the Sea but he cannot now either consider or feare it is his time to perish God makes him faire way and lets him run smoothly on till he be come to the midst of the Sea not one waue may rise vp against him to wet so much as the house of his horse Extraordinary fauours to wicked men are the forerunners of their ruine Now when God sees the Aegyptians too far to returne he finds time to strike them with their last terror they know not why but they would returne too late Those Chariots in which they trusted now faile them as hauing done seruice enough to carie them into perdition God pursues them and they cannot flye from him Wicked men make equall haste both to sin and from iudgement but they shall one day finde that it is not more easie to run into sin then impossible to run away from iudgement the sea will shew them that it regards the Rod of Moses not the Scepter of Pharaoh and now as glad to haue got the enemies of God at such an aduantage shuts her mouth vpon them and swallowes them vp in her waues and after shee hath made sport with them a while casts them vpon her sands for a spectacle of triumph to their aduersaries What a sight was this to the Israelites when they were now safe on the shore to see their enemies come floating after them vpon the billowes and to find among the carkasses vpon the sands their knowne oppressors which now they can tread vpon with insultation They did not cry more loud before then now they sing Not their faith but their sense teaches them now to magnifie that God after their deliuerance whom they hardly trusted for their deliuerance Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES OF THE Holy Storie The second Volume IN FOVRE BOOKES By I.H. D.D. LONDON Printed for THO PAVIER MILES FLESHER and Iohn Haviland 1625. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES PRINCE OF GREAT BRITAINE Most excellent PRINCE ACcording to the true dutie of a seruant J entended all my Contemplations to your now-glorious Brother of sweet and sorrowfull memorie The first part whereof as it was the last Booke that euer was dedicated to that deare and immortall name of his so it was the last that was turned ouer by his gracious hand Now since it pleased the GOD of spirits to call him from these poore Contemplations of ours to the blessed Contemplation of himselfe to see him as Hee is to see as hee is seene to whom is this sequell of my labours due but to your Highnesse the heire of his Honor and Vertues Euery yeare of my short pilgrimage is like to adde something to this Worke which in regard of the subiect is scarce finite The whole doth not onely craue your Highnesses Patronage but promises to requite your Princely acceptation with many sacred examples and rules both for pietie and wisdome towards the decking vp of this flourishing spring of your Age in the hopes whereof not onely we liue but be that is dead liues still in you And if any piece of these endeuours come short of my desires J shall supply the rest with my prayers which shall neuer be wanting to the God of Princes that your happy proceedings may make glad the Church of God and your selfe in either World glorious Your Highnesses in all humble deuotion and faithfull obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations THE FIFTH BOOKE The Waters of Marah The Quailes and Manna The Rocke of Rephidim The Foyle of Amalek Or The hand of Moses lift vp The Law The Golden Calfe BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HENRY EARLE OF HVNTINGDON LORD HASTINGS BOTERAVX MOLINES MOILES HIS MAIESTIES LIEVTENANT IN THE COVNTY OF LEICESTER A BOVNTIFVLL FAVOVRER OF ALL GOOD LEARNING A NOBLE PRECEDENT OF VERTVE THE FIRST PATRONE OF MY POORE STVDIES J. H. DEDICATES THIS PIECE OF HIS LABORS AND WISHETH ALL HONOVR AND HAPPINESSE Contemplations THE FIFTH BOOKE The waters of Marah ISRAEL was not more loth to come to the Red Sea then to part from it How soone can God turne the horrour of any euill into pleasure One shore resounded with shriekes of feare the other with Timbrels and Dances and Songs of Deliuerance Euery maine affliction is our Red Sea which while it threats to swallow preserues vs At last our Songs shall be lowder then our cryes The Israelitish Dames whē they saw their danger thought they might haue left their Timbrels behinde them how vnprofitable a burden seemed those instruments of Musick yet now they liue to renue that forgotten Minstralsie and Dancing which their bondage had so long discontinued and well might those feet dance vpon the shore which had walked thorow the Sea The Land of Goshen was not so bountifull to them as these Waters That afforded them a seruile life This gaue them at once freedome victorie riches bestowing vpon them the remainder of that wealth which the Aegyptians had but lent It was a pleasure to see the floating carkases of their Aduersaries and euery day offers them new booties It is no maruell then if their hearts were tyed to these bankes If we finde but a little pleasure in our life wee are ready to dote vpon it Euery small contentment glues our affections to that we like And if here our imperfect delights hold vs so fast that we would not be loosed how forcible shall those infinite ioyes be aboue when our soules are once possessed of them Yet if the place had pleas'd them more it is no maruell they were willing to follow Moses that they durst follow him in the Wildernesse whom they followed through the Sea It is a great confirmation to any people when they haue seene the hand of God with their guide O Sauiour which hast vndertaken to cary me from the spirituall Aegypt to the Land of Promise How faithfull how powerfull haue I found thee How fearelesly should I trust thee how cheerefully should I follow thee through contempt pouerty death it selfe Master if it be thou bid vs come vnto thee Immediately before they had complained of too much water now they go three dayes without Thus God meant to punish their infidelitie with the defect of that whose abundance made them to distrust Before they saw all Water no Land now all dry and dustie Land and no Water Extremities are the best tryals of men As in bodies those that can beare sudden changes of heats and cold without complaint are the strongest So much as an euill touches vpon the meane so much help it yeelds towards patience Euery degree of sorrow is a preparation to the next but when we passe to extreames without the meane we want the benefit of recollection and must trust to our present strength To come from all things to nothing is not a descent but a downfall and it is a rare strength and constancy not to be maymed
but lust most of all Neuer man that had drunke flagons of wine had lesse reason then this Nazarite Many a one loses his life but this casts it away not in hatred of himselfe but in loue to a strumpet Wee wonder that a man could possibly be so sottish and yet wee our selues by tentation become no lesse insensate Sinfull pleasures like a common Dalilah lodge in our bosomes we know they aime at nothing but the death of our soule wee will yeeld to them and die Euery willing sinner is a Samson let vs not inueigh against his senslesnesse but our own Nothing is so grosse and vnreasonable to a well-disposed minde which tentation will not represent fit and plausible No soule can out of his owne strength secure himselfe from that sinne which he most detesteth As an hood-winkt man sees some little glimmering of light but not enough to guide him so did Samson who had reason enough left him to make triall of Dalilah by a crafty mis-information but not enough vpon that triall to distrust and hate her he had not wit enough to deceiue her thrice not enough to keepe himselfe from being deceiued by her It is not so great wisedome to proue them whom we distrust as it is folly to trust them whom we haue found trecherous Thrice had he seen the Philistims in her chamber ready to surprize him vpon her bonds and yet will needs be a slaue to his Traytor Warning not taken is a certaine presage of destruction and if once neglected it receiue pardon yet thrice is desperate What man would euer play thus with his owne ruine His harlot bindes him and calls in her executioners to cut his throat he rises to saue his own life and suffers them to carry away theirs in peace Where is the courage of Samson Where his zeale He that killed the Philistims for their clothes He that slew a thousand of them in the field at once in this quarrel now suffers them in his chamber vnreuenged Whence is this His hands were strong but his heart was effeminate his harlot had diuerted his affection Whosoeuer slackens the reines to his sensuall appetite shall soone grow vnfit for the calling of God Samson hath broke the green withies the new ropes the woofe of his haire and yet still suffers himselfe fettered with those inuisible bonds of an harlots loue and can indure her to say How canst thou say I loue thee when thy heart is not with me thou hast mocked me these three times Whereas he should rather haue said to her How canst thou challenge any loue from me that hast thus thice sought my life O canst thou thinke my mockes a sufficient reuenge of this trechery But contraily he melts at this fire and by her importunate insinuations is wrought against himselfe Wearinesse of sollicitation hath won some to those actions which at the first motion they despised like as we see some suters are dispatcht not for the equity of the cause but the trouble of the prosecution because it is more easie to yeeld not more reasonable It is more safe to keepe our selues out of the noyâ—e of suggestions then to stand vpon our power of deniall Who can pitty the losse of that strength which was so abused who can pitty him the losse of his locks which after so many warnings can sleepe in the lappe of Dalilah It is but iust that he should rise vp from thence shauen and feeble not a Nazarite scarce a man If his strength had lyen in his haire it had been out of himselfe it was not therefore in his locks it was in his consecration whereof that haire was a signe If the razor had come sooner vpon his head he had ceased to be a Nazarite and the gift of God had at once ceased with the calling of God not for the want of that excretioÌ„ but for the want of obedience If God withdraw his graces when he is too much prouoked who can complain of his mercy He that sleeps in sinne must looke to wake in losse and weaknesse Could Samson thinke Though I tell her my strength lies in my haire yet she will not cut it or though she doe cut my haire yet shall I not lose my strength that now he rises and shakes himselfe in hope of his former vigor Custome of successe makes men confident in their sinnes and causes them to mistake an arbitrary tenure for a perpetuity His eyes were the first offenders which betrayed him to lust and now they are first pulled out and he is ledde a blinde captiue to Azzah where he was first captiued to his lust The Azzahites which lately saw him not without terror running lightly away with their gates at midnight see him now in his own perpetuall night strugling with his chaines and that he may not want paine together with his bondage he must grind in his prison As he passed the street euery boy among the Philistims could not throw stons at him euery woman could laugh and shout at him and what one Philistim doth not say whiles he lashes him vnto bloud There is for my brothers or my kinsman whom thou slewest Who can looke to run away with a sin when Samson a Nazarite is thus plagued This great heart could not but haue broken with indignation if it had not pacified it selfe with the conscience of the iust desert of all this vengeance It is better for Samson to be blinde in prison then to abuse his eyes in Soreâ— yea I may safely say he was more blind when he saw licentiously then now that he sees not He was a greater slaue when he serued his affections then now in grinding for the Philistims The losse of his eyes shewes him his sinne neither could he see how ill he had done till he saw not Euen yet still the God of mercy lookt vpon the blindnesse of Samson and in these fetters enlargeth his heart from the worse prison of his sinne his haire grew together with his repentance and his strength with his haire Gods mercifull humiliations of his owne are sometimes so seuere that they seeme to differ little from desertions yet at the worst hee loues vs bleeding and when we haue smarted enough we shall feele it What thankfull Idolaters were these Philistims They could not but know that their bribes and their Delilah had deliuered Samson to them and yet they sacrifice to their Dagon and as those that would be liberall in casting fauours vpon a senselesse Idoll of whom they could receiue none they cry out Our god hath deliuered our enemie into our hands Where was their Dagon when a thousand of his clyents were slain with an Asses iaw There was more strength in that bone then in all the makers of this god and yet these vaine Pagans say Our god It is the quality of superstition to misinterpret all euents and so feede it selfe with the conceit of those fauours which are so farre from being done that their authors neuer
made to bee seene he ouerlookes all Israel in height of stature for presage of the eminence of his estate from the shoulders vpward was he higher then any of the people Israel sees their lots are falne vpon a noted man one whose person shewed he was borne to be a King and now all the people shout for ioy they haue their longing and applaud their owne happinesse and their Kings honour How easie is it for vs to mistake our owne estates to reioyce in that which we shall find the iust cause of our humiliation The end of a thing is better then the beginning the safest way is to reserue our ioy till wee haue good proofe of the worthinesse and fitnesse of the obiect What are wee the better for hauing a blessing if we know not how to vse it The office and obseruance of a King was vncowth to Israel Samuel therefore informes the people of their mutuall duties and writes them in a booke and layes it vp before the Lord otherwise nouelty might haue beene a warrant for their ignorance and ignorance for neglect There are reciprocall respects of Princes and people which if they be not obserued gouernment languisheth into confusion these Samuel faithfully teacheth them Though he may not be their iudge yet he will be their Prophet he will instruct if he may not rule yea he will instruct him that shall rule There is no King absolute but he that is the King of all gods Earthly Monarchs must walke by a rule which if they transgresse they shall be accountable to him that is higher then the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of ciuility so much as conscience must euery Samuel labour to keepe eauen termes betwixt Kings and Subiects prescribing iust moderation to the one to the other obedience and loyalty which who euer endeauors to trouble is none of the friends of God or his Church The most and best applaud their new King some wicked ones despised him and said How shall he saue vs It was not the might of his Parents the goodlinesse of his person the priuiledge of his lot the fame of his prophesying the Panegyricke of Samuel that could shield him from contempt or winne him the hearts of all There was neuer yet any man to whom some tooke not exceptions It is not possible either to please or displease all men while some men are in loue with vice as deeply as others with vertue and some as ill dislike vertue if not for it selfe yet for contradiction They well saw Saul chose not himselfe they saw him worthy to haue beene chosen if the Election should haue beene carried by voices and those voyces by their eyes they saw him vnwilling to hold or yeeld when hee was chosen yet they will enuy him What fault could they find in him whom God had chosen His parentage was equall his person aboue them his inward parts more aboue them then the outward Malecontents will rather deuise then want causes of flying out and rather then faile the vniuersall approbation of others is ground enough of their dislike It is a vaine ambition of those that would be loued of all The Spirit of God when he enioynes vs peace with all he addes if it be possible and fauour is more then peace A mans comfort must be in himselfe the conscience of deseruing well The neighbouring Ammonites could not but haue heard of Gods fearfull vengeance vpon the Philistims and yet they will be taking vp the quarrell against Israel Nahash comes vp against Iabesh Gilead Nothing but grace can teach vs to make vse of others iudgements wicked men are not moued with ought that fals beside them they trust nothing but their owne smart What fearfull iudgements doth God execute euery day resolute sinners take no notice of them and are growne so peremptorie as if God had neuer shewed dislike of their wayes The Gileadites were not more base then Nahash the Ammonite was cruell The Gileadites would buy their peace with seruility Nahash would sell them a seruile peace for their right eyes Iephtha the Gileadite did yet sticke in the stomacke of Ammon and now they thinke their reuenge cannot be too bloody It is a wonder that hee which would offer so mercilesse a condition to Israel would yeeld to the motion of any delay Hee meant nothing but shame and death to the Israelites yet hee condescends to a seuen dayes respit Perhaps his confidence made him thus carelesse Howsoeuer it was the restraint of God that gaue this breath to Israel and this opportunity to Sauls courage and victory The enemies of Gods Church cannot bee so malicious as they would cannot approue themselues so malicious as they are God so holds them in sometimes that a stander-by would thinke them fauourable The newes of Gileads distresse had soone filled and afflicted Israel the people thinke of no remedie but their pittie and teares Euils are easily grieued for not easily redressed Onely Saul is more stirred with indignation then sorrow That GOD which put into him a spirit of prophesie now puts into him a spirit of fortitude Hee was before appointed to the Throne not setled in the Throne he followed the beasts in the field when he should haue commanded men Now as one that would be a King no lesse by merit then election he takes vpon him and performes the rescue of Gilead he assembles Israel he leads them he raiseth the siege breakes the troops cuts the throats of the Ammonites When God hath any exploit to performe he raiseth vp the heart of some chosen Instrument with heroicall motions for the atchieuement When all hearts are cold and dead it is a a signe of intended destruction This day hath made Saul a compleat King and now the thankfull Israelites begin to enquire after those discontented Mutiners which had refused allegeance vnto so worthy a Commander Bring those men that we may slay them This sedition had deserued death though Saul had beene foiled at Gilead but now his happy victorie whets the people much more to a desire of this iust execution Saul to whom the iniurie was done hinders the reuenge There shall no man dye this day for to day the Lord hath saued Israel that his fortitude might not goe beyond his mercy How noble were these beginnings of Saul His Prophesie shewed him miraculously wise his Battell and Victory no lesse valiant his pardon of his Rebels as mercifull There was not more power shewed in ouercomming the Ammonites then in ouercomming himselfe and the impotent malice of these mutinous Israelites Now Israel sees they haue a King that can both shed blood and spare it that can shed the Ammonites blood and spare theirs His mercy winnes those hearts whom his valour could not As in God so in his Deputies Mercy and Iustice should be inseparable wheresoeuer these two goe asunder gouernment followes them into distraction and ends in ruine If it had beene a wrong offered to Samuel the
it selfe in this spirituall verdict that vnlesse it be taken in the manner it will hardly yeeld to a truth either shee will denie the fact or the fault or the measure And now in this case they might seeme to haue some faire pretences For though Samuel was righteous yet his sons were corrupt To cut off all excuses therefore Samuel appeales to God the highest Iudge for his sentence of their sinne and dares trust to a miraculous conuiction It was now their Wheat Haruest the hot and dry ayre of that climate did not wont to afford in that season so much moist vapour as might raise a cloud either for raine or thunder He that knew God could and would doe both these without the helpe of second causes puts the triall vpon this issue Had not Samuel before consulted with his Maker and receiued warrant for his act it had beene presumption and tempting of God which was now a noble improuement of faith Rather then Israel shall go cleare away with a sinne God will accuse and araigne them from heauen No sooner hath Samuels voice ceased then Gods voice begins Euery cracke of thunder spake iudgement against the rebellious Israelites and euerie drop of raine a witnesse of their sin and now they found they had displeased him which ruleth in the Heauen by reiecting the man that ruled for him on Earth The thundering voice of God that had lately in their sight confounded the Philistims they now vnderstood to speake fearfull things against them No maruell if now they fell vpon their knees not to Saul whom they had chosen but to Samuel who being thus cast off by them is thus countenanced in Heauen SAVLS Sacrifice GOD neuer meant the Kingdome should either stay long in the Tribe of Beniamin or remoue suddenly from the person of Saul Many yeares did Saul reigne ouer Israel yet God computes him but two yeares a King That is not accounted of God to be done which is not lawfully done when God which choose Saul reiected him he was no more a King but a Tyrant Israel obeyed him still but God makes no reckoning of him as his Deputie but as an Vsurper Saul was of good yeares when he was aduanced to the Kingdome His Sonne Ionathan the first yeare of his Fathers Reigne could lead a thousand Israelites into the field and giue a foile to the Philistims And now Israel could not thinke themselues lesse happie in their Prince then in their King Ionathan is the Heyre of his Fathers victorie as well as of his valour and his estate The Philistims were quiet after those first thunder claps all the time of Samuels gouernment now they beginne to stirre vnder Saul How vtterly is Israel disappointed in their hopes That securitie and protection which they promised themselues in the name of a King they found in a Prophet failed of in a Warriour They were more safe vnder the mantle then vnder armes both enmitie and safegard are from heauen goodnesse hath beene euer a stronger guard then valour It is the surest policy alwayes to haue peace with God We find by the spoiles that the Philistims had some battels with Israel which are not recorded After the thunder had scared them into a peace and restitution of all the bordering Cities from Ekron to Gath they had taken new heart and so be slaued Israel that they had neither weapon nor Smith left amongst them yet euen in this miserable nakednesse of Israel haue they both fought and ouercome Now might you haue seene the vnarmed Israelites marching with their Slings and Plough-staues and Hookes and Forkes and other instruments of their husbandrie against a mighty and well furnished enemy and returning laded both with Armes and Victorie No Armour is of proofe against the Almighty neither is he vnweaponed that caries the reuenge of God There is the same disaduantage in our spirituall conflicts we are turned naked to principalities and powers whilst we go vnder the conduct of the Prince of our peace we cannot but be bold and victorious Vaine men thinke to ouer-power God with munition and multitude The Philistims are not any way more strong then in conceit Thirty thousand Chariots sixe thousand Horsemen Footmen like the sand for number makes them scorne Israel no lesse then Israel feares them When I see the miraculous successe which had blessed the Israelites in all their late conflicts with these very Philistims with the Ammonites I cannot but wonder how they could feare They which in the time of their sinne found God to raise such Trophees ouer their enemies runne now into Caues and Rockes and Pits to hide them from the faces of men when they found God reconciled and themselues penitent No Israelite but hath some cowardly blood in him If we had no feare faith would haue no mastery yet these fearfull Israelites shall cut the throats of those confident Philistims Doubt and resolution are not meet measures of our successe A presumptuous confidence goes commonly bleeding home when an humble feare returnes in triumph Feare driues those Israelites which dare shew their heads out of the Caues vnto Saul and makes them cling vnto their new King How troublesome were the beginnings of Sauls honor Surely if that man had not exceeded Israel no lesse in courage then in stature he had now hid himselfe in a Caue which before hid himselfe among the stuffe But now though the Israelites ran away from him yet he ranne not away from them It was not any doubt of Sauls valour that put his people to their heeles it was the absence of Samuel If the Prophet had come vp Israel would neuer haue runne away from their King Whiles they had a Samuel alone they were neuer well till they had a Saul now they haue a Saul they are as farre from contentment because they want a Samuel vnlesse both ioyne together they think there can be no safetie Where the Temporal and Spirituall State combine not together there can follow nothing but distraction in the people The Prophets receiue and deliuer the will of God Kings execute it The Prophets are directed by God the people are directed by their Kings Where men doe not see God before them in his Ordinances their hearts cannot but faile them both in their respects to their Superiors and their courage in themselues Piety is the Mother of perfect subiection As all authoritie is deriued from heauen so is it thence established Those Gouernours that would command the hearts of men must shew them God in their faces No Israelite can thinke himselfe safe without a Prophet Saul had giuen them good proofe of his fortitude in his late victorie ouer the Ammorites but then Proclamation was made before the fight through all the Country that euery man should come vp after Saul and Samuel If Samuel had not beene with Saul they would rather haue ventured the losse of their oxen then the hâ—â—â—id of themselues How much lesse should we presume of any safety in
first encounter the Philistim receiues the first foile and shall first let in death into his eare ere it enter into his forehead Thou com'st to me with a sword and a speare and a sheild but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts the God of the host of Israel whom thou hast railed vpon This day shall the Lord close thee in my hand and I shall smite thee and take thine head from thee Here is another stile not of a boaster but of a Prophet Now shall Goliah know whence to expect his bane euen from the hands of a reuenging God that shall smite him by Dauid and now shall learne too late what it is to meddle with an enemy that goes vnder the inuisible protection of the Almighty No sooner hath Dauid spoken then his foot and hand second his tongue Hee runnes to fight with the Philistim It is a cold courage that stands onely vpon defence As a man that saw no cause of feare and was full of the ambition of victory hee flyes vpon that monster and with a stone out of his bag smites him in the forehead There was no part of Goliah that was capable of that danger but the face and that piece of the face the rest was defenced with a brazen wall which a weake sling would haue tryed to batter in vaine What could Goliah feare to see an aduersary come to him without edge or point And behold that one part hath God found out for the entrance of death He that could haue caused the stone to passe through the shield and brest-plate of Goliah rather directs the stone to that part whose nakednesse gaue aduantage Where there is power or possibility of nature God vses not to worke miracles but chuses the way that lies most open to his purposes The vaste fore-head was a faire marke but how easily might the sling haue missed it if there had not beene another hand in this cast besides Dauids Hee that guided Dauid into this field and raised his courage to this combat guides the stone to his end and lodges it in that seat of impudence There now lyes the great Defier of Israel groueling and grinning in death and is not suffered to deale one blow for his life and bites the vnwelcome earth for indignation that he dies by the hand of a Shepheard Earth and Hell share him betwixt them such is the end of insolence and presumption O God what is flesh and blood to thee which canst make a little peeble-stone stronger then a Gyant and when thou wilt by the weakest meanes canst strew thine enemies in the dust Where now are the two shields of Goliah that they did not beare off this stroke of death or wherefore serues that Weauers beame but to strike the earth in falling or that sword but to behead his Master What needed Dauid load himselfe with an vnnecessary weapon one sword can serue both Goliah and him If Goliah had a man to beare his shield Dauid had Goliah to beare his sword wherewith that proud blasphemous head is seuered from his shoulders Nothing more honours God then the turning of wicked mens forces against themselues There is none of his enemies but caries with them their owne destruction Thus didst thou O Sonne of Dauid foyle Satan with his owne weapon that whereby he meant destruction to thee and vs vanquished him through thy mighty power and raised thee to that glorious triumph and super-exaltation wherein thou art wherein we shall bee with thee IONATHANS Loue and SAVLS Enuy. BEsides the discomsiture of the Philistims Dauids victory had a double issue Ionathans Loue and Sauls Enuy which God so mixed that the one was a remedy of the other A good sonne makes amends for a way-ward father How precious was that stone that killed such an enemy as Goliah and purchased such a friend as Ionathan All Sauls Courtiers lookt vpon Dauid none so affected him none did match him but Ionathan That true correspondence that was both in their faith and valour hath knit their hearts If Dauid did set vpon a Beare a Lyon a Gyant Ionathan had set vpon a whole Host and preuailed The same Spirit animated both the same Faith incited both the same Hand prospered both All Israel was not worth this paire of friends so zealously confident so happily victorious Similitude of dispositions and estates tyes the fastest knots of affection A wise soule hath piercing eyes and hath quickly discerned the likenesse of it selfe in another as we doe no sooner looke into the Glasse or Water but face answers to face and where it sees a perfect resemblance of it selfe cannot choose but loue it with the same affection that it reflects vpon it selfe No man saw Dauid that day which had so much cause to dis-affect him none in all Israel should be a loser by Dauids successe but Ionathan Saul was sure enough setled for his time onely his Successor should forgoe all that which Dauid should gaine so as none but Dauid stands in Ionathans light and yet all this cannot abate one ior or dram of his loue Where God vniteth hearts carnall respects are too weake to disseuer them since that which breakes off affection must needs be stronger then that which conioyneth it Ionathan doth not desire to smother his loue by concealment but professes it in his cariage actions He puts off the Robe that was vpon him and all his garments euen to his Sword and Bow and Girdle giues them vnto his new friend It was perhaps not without a mystery that Sauls cloths fitted not Dauid but Ionathans fitted him and these he is as glad to weare as he was to be disburthened of the other that there might be a perfect resemblance their bodies are suted as well as their hearts Now the beholders can say there goes Ionathans other selfe If there bee another body vnder those clothes there is the same soule Now Dauid hath cast off his russet coate and his scrip and is a Shepheard no more he is suddenly become both a Courtier and a Captaine and a Companion to the Prince yet himselfe is not changed with his habit with his condition yea rather as if his wisedome had reserued it selfe for his exaltation he so manageth a sudden Greatnesse as that he winneth all hearts Honour shewes the man and if there be any blemishes of imperfection they will bee seene in the man that is inexpectedly lifted aboue his fellowes He is out of the danger of folly whom a speedy aduancement leaueth wise Ionathan loued Dauid the Souldiers honoured him the Court fauoured him the people applauded him onely Saul stomackt him and therefore hated him because he was so happy in all besides himselfe It had beene a shame for all Israel if they had not magnified their Champion Sauls owne heart could not but tell him that they did owe the glory of that day and the safety of himselfe and Israel vnto the sling of Dauid who in
see God iust we may goe on safely and prosper But here his foot staies and his hand fals from his Instrument and his tongue is ready to taxe his owne vnworthinesse How shall the Arke of the Lord came vnto me That heart is carnall and proud that thinkes any man worse than himselfe Dauids feare staies his progresse Perhaps he might haue proceeded with good successe but he dares not venture where hee sees such a deadly checke It is better to be too fearefull than too forward in those affaires which doe immediately concerne God As it is not good to refraine from holy businesses so it is worse to doe them ill Awfulnesse is a safe Interpreter of Gods secret actions and a wise guide of ours THIS euent hath holpen Obed-Edom to a guest hee lookt not for God shall now soiourne in the house of him in whose heart hee dwelt before by a strong faith else the man durst not haue vndertaken to receiue that dreadfull Arke which Dauid himselfe feared to harbour Oh the courage of an honest and faithfull heart Obed-Edom knew well enough what slaughter the Arke had made among the Philistims and after that amongst the Bethshemites and now hee saw Vzzah lye dead before him yet doth hee not make any scruple of entertaining it neither doth hee say My Neighbour Abinadab was a carefull and religious host to the Arke and is now payed with the bloud of his sonne how shall I hope to speed better but he opens his doores with a bold cheerefulnesse and notwithstanding all those terrors bids God welcome Nothing can make God not amiable to his owne Euen his very Iustice is louely Holy men know how to reioyce in the Lord with trembling and can feare without discouragement THE God of Heauen will not receiue any thing from men on free cost hee will pay liberally for his lodging a plentifull blessing vpon Obed-Edom and all his household It was an honour to that zealous Gittite that the Arke could come vnder his roofe yet God rewards that honour with benediction Neuer man was a loser by true godlinesse The house of Obad-Edom cannot this while want obseruation the eyes of Dauid and all Israel were neuer off from it to see how it fared with this entertainment And now when they finde nothing but a gracious acceptation and sensible blessing the good King of Israel takes new heart and hastens to fetch the Arke into his royall Citie The view of Gods fauours vpon the godly is no small encouragement to confidence and obedience Doubtlesse Obed-Edom was not free from some weaknesses If the Lord should haue taken the aduantage of iudgement against him what Israelites had not beene disheartened from attending the Arke Now Dauid and Israel was not more affrighted with the vengeance vpon Vzzah than encouraged by the blessing of Obed-Edom The wise God doth so order his iust and mercifull proceedings that the awfulnesse of men may bee tempered with loue Now the sweet singer of Israel reuines his holy Musicke and addes both more spirit and more pompe to so deuout a businesse I did not before heare of Trumpets nor dancing nor shouting nor sacrifice nor the linnen Ephod The sense of Gods passed displeasure doubles our care to please him and our ioy in his recouered approbation wee neuer make so much of our health as after sicknesse nor neuer are so officious to our friend as after an vnkindnesse In the first setting out of the Arke Dauids feare was at least an equall match to his ioy therefore after the first six paces hee offered a sacrifice both to pacifie God and thanke him but now when they saw no signe of dislike they did more freely let themselues loose to a fearelesse ioy and the body stroue to expresse the holy affection of the soule there was no liâ—â—the no part that did not professe their mirth by motâ—on no noyse of voyce or instrument wanted to assist their spirituall iollity Dauid led the way dancing with all his might in his linnen Ephod Vzzah was still in his eye he durst not vsurpe vpon a garment of Priests but will borrow their colour to grace the solemnitie though hee dare not the fashion White was euer the colour of ioy and linnen was light for vse therefore he couers his Princely Robes with white linnen and meanes to honour himselfe by his conformity to Gods Ministers Those that thinke there is disgrace in the Ephod are farre from the spirit of the man after Gods owne heart Neither can there be a greater argument of a soule soule than a dislike of the glorious calling of God Barren Nical hath too many sonnes that scorne the holy habit and exercises she lookes through her window and seeing the attyre and gestures of her deuout husband despiseth him in her heart neither can shee conceale her contempt but like Sauls Daughter cast it proudly in his face Oh how glorious was the King of Israel this day which was vncouered to day in the eyes of the Maidens of his Seruants as a Foole vncouereth himselfe Worldly hearts can see nothing in actions of zeale but folly and madnesse Pietie hath no relish to their palate but distastfull DAVIDS heart did neuer swell so much at any reproch as this of his Wife his loue was for the time lost in his anger and as a man impatient of no affront so much as in the way of his deuotion he returnes a bitter checke to his MICAL It was before the Lord which those me rather than thy Father and all his house c. Had not Mical twitted her Husband with the shame of his zeale shee had not heard of the shamefull reiection of her father now since shee will bee forgetting whose Wife she was shee shall be put in mind whose Daughter she was Contumelies that are cast vpon vs in the causes of God may safely be repared If we be meale-mouthed in the scornes of Religion we are not patient but zealelesse Here we may not forbeare her that lyes in our bosome If Dauid had not loued Mical dearely he had neuer stood vpon those points with Abner He knew that if Abner came to him the Kingdome of Israel would accompany him and yet hee sends him the charge of not seeing his face except hee brought Mical Sauls daughter with him as if he would not regard the Crowne of Israel whiles he wanted that Wife of his Yet here he takes her vp roundly as if shee had beene an enemy not a partner of his bed All relations are aloofe off in comparison of that betwixt God and the soule He that loues Father or Mother or Wife or Childe better than me saith our Sauiour is not worthy of me Euen the highest delights of our hearts must be trampled vpon when they will stand out in riuality with God Oh happy resolution of the royall Prophet and Propheticall King of Israel I will be yet more vile than thus and will be low in mine owne sight he knew this very
no leisure to sinne The idle hath neither leisure nor power to auoide sinne Exercise is not more wholsome for the bodie than for the Soule the remission whereof breeds matter of disease in bothe The water that hath beene heated soonest freezeth the most actilie spirit soonest tyreth with slackning The Earth stande still and is all dregges the Heauens euer moue and are pure We haue no reason to complaine of the assiduitie of worke the toyle of action is answered by the benefit If wee did lesse we should suffer more Satan like an idle companion if hee finde vs busie flyes backe and sees it no time to entertayne vaine purposes with vs We cannot please him better than by casting away our worke to hold that with him wee cannot yeeld so farre and be guiltlesse Euen Dauids eyes haue no sooner the sleepe rubbed â—ut of them than they roue to wanton prospects Hee walkes vpon his roofe and sees Bathsheba washing her selfe inquires after her sends for her sollicits her to vncleanenesse The same spirit that shut vp his eyes in on vnseasonable sleepe opens them vpon an intising obiect whiles sinne hath such a Solliciter it cannot want either meanes or opportunitie I cannot thinke Bathsheba could bee so immodest as to wash her selfe openly especially from her naturall vncleannesse Lust is quick-sighted Dauid hath espied her where shee could espye no beholder His eyes recoyle vpon his heart and haue smitten him with sinfull desire There can be no safetie to that Soule where the senses are let loose Hee can neuer keepe his couenant with God that makes not a couenant with his eyes It is an idle presumption to thinke the outward man may bee free whiles the inward is safe He is more than a man whose heart is not led by his eyes hee is no regenerate man whose eyes are not restrained by his heart Oh Bathsheba how wert thou washed from thine vncleannesse when thou yeeldedst to goe into an adulterous bed neuer wert thou so foule as now when thou wert new washed The worst of Nature is cleanlinesse to the best of sinne thou hadst beene cleane if thou hadst not washed yet for thee I know how to plead infirmitie of sexe and the importunitie of a King But what shall I say for thee O thou royall Prophet and Propheticall King of Israel where shall I finde ought to extenuate that crime for which God himselfe hath noted thee Did not thine holy Profession teach thee to abhorre such a sinne more than death Was not thy Iustice woont to punish this sinne with no lesse than death Did not thy very calling call thee to a protection and preseruation of Iustice of Chastitie in thy subiects Didst thou want store of Wiues of thine owne wert thou restrayned from taking more Was there no beautie in Israel but in a Subiects Marriage-bed Wert thou ouercome by the vehement sollicitations of an Adulteresse Wert thou not the Tempter the Prosecutor of this vncleanenesse I should accuse thee deeply if thou hadst not accused thy selfe Nothing wanted to greaten thy sinne or our wonder and feare O God whither doe wee goe if thou stay vs not Who euer amongst the millions of thy Seruants could finde himselfe furnished with stronger preseruatiues against sinne Against whom could such a sinne finde lesse pretence of preuayling Oh keepe thou vs that presumptuous sinnes preuayle not ouer vs So only shall wee bee free from great offences The Suites of Kings are Imperatiue Ambition did now proue a Bawd to Lust Bathsheba yeeldeth to offend God to dishonour her Husband to clog and wound her owne Soule to abuse her bodie Dishonestie growes bold when it is countenanced with greatnesse Eminent persons had need be carefull of their demaunds they sinne by authoritie that are solicited by the mightie Had Bathsheba beene mindfull of her Matrimoniall fidelitie perhaps Dauid had beene soone checked in his inordinate desire her facilitie furthers the sinne The first motioner of euill is most faultie but as in quarrels so in offences the second blow which is the consent makes the fray Good Ioseph was moued to folly by his great and beautifull Mistris this fire fell vpon wet Tinder and therefore soone went out Sinne is not acted alone if but one partie be wise both escape It is no excuse to say I was tempted though by the great though by the holy and learned Almost all sinners are misse-led by that transformed Angell of light The action is that wee must regard not the person Let the mouer bee neuer so glorious if he stirre vs to euill he must be entertained with defiance The God that knowes how to rayse good out of euill blesses an adulterous copulation with that increase which he denyes to the chast imbracements of honest Wedlocke Bathsheba hath conceiued by Dauid and now at once conceiues a sorrow and care how to smother the shame of her Conception He that did the fact must hide it Oh Dauid where is thy Repentance Where is thy tendernesse and compunction of heart Where are those holy Meditations which had woont to take vp thy Soule Alas in steed of clearing thy sinne thou labourest to cloke it and spendest those thoughts in the concealing of thy wickednesse which thou shouldest rather haue bestowed in preuenting it The best of Gods Children may not onely bee drenched in the waues of sinne but lye in them for the time and perhaps sinke twice to the bottome what Hypocrite could haue done worse than studie how to couer the face of his sinne from the eyes of men whiles hee regarded not the sting of sinne in his Soule As there are some Acts wherein the Hypocrite is a Saint so there are some wherein the greatest Saint vpon Earth may bee an Hypocrite Saul did thus goe about to colour his sinne and is cursed The Vessels of Mercie and Wrath are not euer distinguishable by their actions Hee makes the difference that will haue mercie on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth It is rare and hard to commit a single sinne Dauid hath abused the Wife of Vriah now hee would abuse his person in causing him to father a false seede That worthy Hittite is sent for from the Wars and now after some cunning and farre fetcht Questions is dismissed to his house not without a present of fauour Dauid could not but imagine that the beautie of his Bathsheba must needs bee attractiue enough to an Husband whom long absence in Warres had with-held all that while from so pleasing a Bed neyther could hee thinke that since that face and those brests had power to allure himselfe to an vnlawfull lust it could be possible that Vriah should not bee inuited by them to an allowed and warrantable fruition That Dauids heart might now the rather strike him in comparing the chaste resolutions of his Seruant with his owne light incontinence good Vriah sleepes at the doore of the Kings Palace making choice of a stonie Pillow vnder the Canopie of Heauen rather
his creature for wishing the best to it selfe and because Salomon hath asked what he should hee shall now receiue both what he asked and what hee asked not Riches and honour shall bee giuen him in to the match So doth God loue a good choyce and hee recompences it with ouer-giuing Could we but first seeke the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse all these earthly things should be super-added to vs Had Salomon made wealth his boone he had failed both of riches and wisdome now he askes the best and speeds of all They are in a faire way of happinesse that can pray well It was no dis-comfort to Salomon that he awaked and found it a dreame for hee knew this dreame was diuine and oracular and he already found in his first waking the reall performance of what was promised him sleeping Such illumination did he sensibly find in all the roomes of his heart as if God had now giuen him a new soule No maruell if Salomon now returning from the Tabernacle to the Arke testified his ioy thankfulnesse by burnt-offerings and peace offerings and publique feastings The heart that hath found in it selfe the liuely testimonies of Gods presence and fauour cannot containe it selfe from outward expressions God likes not to haue his gifts lie dead where hee hath confer'd them Israel shall soone witnesse that they haue a King inlightened from heauen in whom wisdome did not stay for heires did not admit of any parallel in his predecessors The all-wise God will find occasions to draw forth those graces to vse and light which he hath bestowed on man Two Harlots come before yong Salomon with a difficult plea It is not like the Princes eare was the first that heard this complaint there was a subordinate course of iustice for the determination of these meaner incidences the hardnesse of this decision brought the matter through all the benches of inferior iudicature to the Tribunall of Salomon The very Israelitish Harlots were not so vnnatural as some now adaies that counterfait honesty These striue for the fruit of their wombe ours to put thē off One son is yet aliue two mothers contēd for him The children were alike for features for age the mothers were alike for reputation here can be no euidence from others eyes Whethers now is the liuing Child and whethers is the dead Had Salomon gone about to wring forth the truth by tortures hee had perhaps plagued the innocent and added paine to the misery of her losse the weaker had been guilty and the more able to beare had caried away both the child and the victory The countenance of either of the mothers bewrayed an equality of passion Sorrow possessed the one for the sonne she had lost and the other for the sonne shee was in danger to leese Both were equally peremptory and importunate in their claime It is in vaine to thinke that the true part can bee discerned by the vehemence of their challenge Falshood is oft-times more clamorous then truth No witnesses can be produced They two dwelt apart vnder one roofe and if some neighbours haue seene the children at their birth and circumcision yet how little difference how much change is there in the fauour of infants how doth death alter more confirmed lines The impossibility of proofe makes the guilty more confident more impudent the true mother pleads that her child was taken away at midnight by the other but in her sleepe she saw it not she felt it not and if all her senses could haue witnessed it yet here was but the affirmation of the one against the deniall of the other which in persons alike credible doe but counterpoise What is there now to lead the Iudge since there is nothing either in the act or circumstances or persons or plea or euidence that might sway the sentence Salomon well saw that when all outward proofes failed there was an inward affection which if it could be fetcht out would certainely bewray the true mother he knew sorrow might more easily bee dissembled then naturall loue both sorrowed for their owne both could not loue one as theirs To draw forth then this true proofe of motherhood Salomon calls for a sword Doubtlesse some of the wiser hearers smiled vpon each other and thought in themselues What will the yong King cut these knottie causes in peeces Will he diuide iustice with edge tooles will hee smite at hazard before conuiction The actions of wise Princes are riddles to vulgar constructions neither is it for the shallow capacities of the multitude to fadome the deepe proiects of Soueraigne authority That sword which had serued for execution shall now serue for triall Diuide ye the liuing child in twaine and giue the one halfe to the one and the other halfe to the other Oh diuine oracle of iustice commanding that which it would not haue done that it might find out that which could not be discouered Neither God nor his Deputies may bee so taken at their words as if they alwaies intended their commands for action and not sometimes for probation This sword hath already pierced the brest of the true mother and diuided her heart with feare and griefe at so killing a sentence There needs no other racke to discouer nature and now she thinks woe is me that came for iustice and am answered with cruelty Diuide ye the liuing child Alas what hath that poore infant offended that it suruiues and is sued for How much lesse miserable had I beene that my childe had beene smothered in my sleep then mangled before mine eies If a dead carkasse could haue satisfied me I needed not to haue complanied What a wofull condition am I falne into who am accused to haue beene the death of my supposed childe already and now shall be the death of my owne If there were no losse of my childe yet how can I endure this torment of mine owne bowels How can I liue to see this part of my selfe sprawling vnder that bloody sword And whiles she thinks thus shee sues to that suspected mercy of her iust Iudge Oh my Lord giue her the liuing child and slay him not as thinking if he liue he shall but change a mother if he die his mother loseth a sonne Whiles he liues it shall be my comfort that I haue a son though I may not call him so dying he perisheth to both it is better he should liue to a wrong mother then to neither Contrarily her enuious competitor as holding her selfe well satisfied that her neighbor should be as childlesse as her selfe can say Let it be neither mine nor thine but diuide it Well might Salomon and euery hearer conclude that either shee was no mother or a monster that could be content with the murder of her childe and that if she could haue been the true mother and yet haue desired the blood of her infant shee had been as worthy to bee stript of her childe for so foule vnnaturallnesse as the other had
good to thee This argument seemed to carry such command with it as that Dauid not onely may but must embrew his hands in bloud vnlesse hee will bee found wanting to God and himselfe Those temptations are most powerfull which fetch their force from the pretence of a religious obedience Whereas those which are raised from arbitrary and priuate respects admit of an easie dispensation If there were such a prediction one clause of it was ambiguous and they take it at the worst Thou shalt doe to him as shall seeme good to thee that might not seeme good to him which seemed euill vnto God There is nothing more dangerous than to make construction of Gods purposes out of euentuall appearances If carnall probabilities might be the rule of our iudgement what could God seeme to intend other than Sauls death in offering him naked into the hands of those whom he vniustly persecuted how could Dauids souldiers thinke that God had sent Saul thither on any other errand than to fetch his bane and if Saul could haue seene his owne danger he had giuen himselfe for dead for his heart guilty to his owne bloudy desires could not but haue expected the same measure which it meant But wise and holy Dauid not transported either with mis-conceit of the euent or fury of passion or sollicitation of his followers dares make no other vse of this accident than the triall of his loyalty and the inducement of his peace It had beene as easie for him to cut the throat of Saul as his garment but now his coat onely shall be the worse not his person neither doth he in the maiming of a cloake seeke his owne reuenge but a monument of his innocence Before Saul rent Samuels garment now Dauid cutteth Sauls both were significant The rending of the one signified the Kingdome torne out of those vnworthy hands the cutting of the other that the life of Saul might haue beene as easily cut off Saul needes no other Monitor of his owne danger than what he weares The vpper garment of Saul was laid aside whiles he went to couer his feet so as the cut of the garment did not threaten any touch of the body yet euen the violence offered to a remote garment strikes the heart of Dauid which findes a present remorse for harmefully touching that which did once touch the person of his Master Tender consciences are moued to regret at those actions which strong hearts passe ouer with a careles ease It troubled not Saul to seeke after the bloud of a righteous seruant there is no lesse difference of consciences than stomacks some stomachs will digest the hardest meates and turne ouer substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest food and complaine euen of dainties Euery gracious heart is in some measure scrupulous and findes more safety in feare than in presumption And if it be so strait as to curbe it selfe in from the liberty which it might take in things which are not vnlawfull how much lesse will it dare to take scope vnto euill By how much that state is better where nothing is allowed than where all things by so much is the strict and â—nnorous conscience better than the lawlesse There is good likelihood of that man which is any way scrupulous of his wayes but he which makes no bones of his actions is apparently hopelesse Since Dauids followers pleaded Gods testimony to him as a motiue to bloud Dauid appeales the same God for his preseruation from bloud The Lord keepe me from doing that thing to my Master the Lords Annointed and now the good man hath worke enough to defend both himselfe and his persecuter himselfe from the importunate necessitie of doing violence and his Master from suffering it It was not more easie to rule his owne hands than difficult to rule a multitude Dauids troupe consisted of Male-contents all that were in distresse in debt in bitternesse of soule were gathered to him Many if neuer so well ordered are hard to command a few if disorderly more hard many and disorderly must needs bee so much the hardest of all that Dauid neuer atchieued any victory like vnto this wherein hee first ouercame himselfe then his Souldiers And what was the charme wherewith Dauid allayed those raging spirits of his followers No other but this Hee is the Annointed of the Lord. That holy Oyle was the Antidote for his bloud Saul did not lend Dauid so impearceable an Armour when hee should encounter Goliah as Dauid now lent him in this plea of his vnction Which of all the discontented Out-lawes that lurked in that Caue durst put forth his hand against Saul when they once heard Hee is the Lords Annointed Such an impression of awe hath the diuine Prouidence caused his Image to make in the hearts of men as that it makes Traytors cowards So as in steede of striking they tremble How much more lawlesse than the Out-lawes of Israel are those professed Ring-leaders of Christianitie which teach and practise and incourage and reward and canonize the violation of Maiestie It is not enough for those who are commanders of others to refraine their owne hands from doing euil but they must carefully preuent the iniquitie of their heeles else they shall bee iustly reputed to doe that by others which in their owne persons they auoyded the Lawes both of God and man presuppose vs in some sort answerable for our charge as taking it for granted that wee should not vndertake those raynes which wee cannot mannage There was no reason Dauid should lose the thankes of so noble a demonstration of his loyalty Whereto hee trusts so much that hee dares call backe the man by whom hee was pursued and make him iudge whether that fact had not deserued a life As his act so his word and gesture imported nothing but humble obedience neither was there more meeknesse than force in that seasonable perswasion Wherein hee lets Saul see the error of his credulity the vniust slanders of maliciousnesse the oportunity of his reuenge the proofe of his forbearance the vndeniable euidence of his innocence and after a lowly disparagement of himselfe appeales to God for iudgement for protection So liuely and feeling Oratory did Saul find in the lap of his garment and the lips of Dauid that it is not in the power of his enuie or ill nature to hold out any longer Is this thy voice my sonne Dauid and Saul lift vp his voice and wept and said Thou art more righteous than I. Hee whose harpe had wont to quiet the frenzy of Saul hath now by his words calmed his fury so that now he sheds teares in steed of bloud and confesses his owne wrong and Dauids integrity And as if hee were new againe entred into the bounds of Naioth in Ramath hee prayes and prophesies good to him whom hee maliced for good The Lord render thee good for that thou hast done to mee this day for now behold I know that
thou shalt bee King There is no heart made of flesh that sometime or other relents not euen â—lint and marble will in some weather stand on droppes I cannot thinke these teares and protestations fained Doubtlesse Saul meant as hee said and passed through sensible fittes of good and euill Let no man thinke himselfe the better for good motions the praise and benefite of those Guests is not in the receit but the retention Who that had seene this meeting could but haue thought all had beene sure on Dauids side What can secure vs if not Teares and Praiers and Oathes Doublesse Dauids men which knew themselues obnoxious to Lawes and Creditors beganne to thinke of some new refuge as making account this new peeced league would bee euerlasting they looked when Saul would take Dauid home to the Court and dissolue his Armie and recompence that vniust persecution with iust honour when behold in the loose Saul goes home but Dauid and his men goe vp vnto the hold Wise Dauid knowes Saul not to be more kinde than vntrusty and therefore had rather seeke safety in his hold than in the hold of an hollow and vnsteedie friendship Heere are good words but no securitie which therefore an experienced man giues the hearing but stands the while vpon his owne gard No Charitie bindes vs to a trust of those whom wee haue found faithlesse Crudelitie vpon weake grounds after palpable disappointments is the Daughter of Folly A man that is Weather-wise though hee finde an abatement of the storme yet will not stirre from vnder his shelter whiles hee sees it thicke in the winde Distrust is the iust gaine of vnfaithfulnesse NABAL and ABIGAIL IF innocencie could haue secured from Sauls malice Dauid had not bin persecuted and yet vnder that wicked King aged Samuel dyes in his bed That there might be no place for Enuie the good Prophet had retyred himselfe to the Schooles Yet he that hated Dauid for what hee should be did no lesse hate Samuel for what hee had bin Euen in the midst of Sauls malignitie there remained in his heart impressions of awfulnesse vnto Samuel he feared where he loued not The restraint of God curbeth the rage of his most violent enemies so as they cannot doe their worst As good Husbands doe not put all their Corne to the Ouen but saue some for seede so doth God euer in the worst of persecutions Samuel is dead Dauid banished Saul tyrannizeth Israel hath good cause to mourne it is no maruell if this lamentation be vniuersall There is no Israelite that feeleth not the losse of a Samuel A good Prophet is the common Treasure wherein euery gracious soule hath a share That man hath a dry heart which can part with Gods Prophet without teares Nabal was according to his name foolish yet rich and mighty Earthly possessions are not alwayes accompanied with wit and grace Euen the Line of faithfull Caleb will afford an ill-conditioned Nabal Vertue is not like vnto Lands inheritable All that is traduced with the seede is either euill or not good Let no man bragge with the Iewes that he hath Abram to his father God hath raised vp of this stone a sonne to Caleb Abigail which signifieth her fathers ioy had sorrow enough to be matched with so vnworthy an Husband If her father had meant shee should haue had ioy in herselfe or in her life he had not disposed her to an Husband though rich yet fond and wicked It is like he married her to the wealth not to the man Many a childe is cast away vpon riches Wealth in our matches should be as some graines or scruples in ballance super-added to the gold of vertuous qualities to weigh downe the scales when it is made the substanceÌ„ of the weight and good qualities the appendance there is but one earth poysed with another which wheresoeuer it is done it is a wonder if either the children proue not the Parents sorrow or the Parents theirs Nabals Sheep-shearing was famous Three thousand â—eeces must needes require many hands neither is any thing more plentifull commonly than a Churles Feast What a world was this that the noble Champion and Rescuer of Israel Gods Annointed is driuen to send to a base Carle for victuals It is no measuring of men by the depth of the purse by outward prosperitie Seruants are oft-times set on horse backe whiles Princes goe on foot Our estimation must be led by their inward worth which is not alterable by time nor diminishable with externall conditions One rag of a Dauid is more worth than the Ward-robes of a thousand Nabals Euen the best deseruings may want No man may bee contemned for his necessitie perhaps he may be so much richer in grace as he is poorer in estate neither hath violence or casualtie more impouerished a Dauid than his pouertie hath enriched him He whose folly hath made himselfe miserable is iustly rewarded with neglect but he that suffers for good deserues so much more honour from others as his distresse is more Our compassion or respect must be ruled according to the cause of anothers misery One good turne requires another in some cases not hurting is meritorious Hee that should examine the qualities of Dauids followers must needes grant it worthy of a see that Nabals flockes lay vntouched in Carmel but more that Dauids Souldiers were Nabals Sheepheards yea the keepers of his Sheepheards gaue them a iust interest in that sheep shearing Feast iustly should they haue beene set at the vpper end of the Table That Nabals sheepe were safe hee might thanke his Sheepheards that his Sheepheards were safe he might thanke Dauids Souldiers It is no small benefit that wee receiue in a safe protection well may wee thinke our substance due where wee owe our selues Yet this churlish Nabal doth not onely giue nothing to Dauids Messengers but which is worse than nothing ill words Who is Dauid or Who is the sonne of Ishai There be many seruants now adaies that breake-away from their Masters Dauid asked him bread hee giueth him stones All Israel knew and honoured their Deliuerer yet this Clowne to saue his victuals will needes make him a man either of no merits or ill either an obscure man or a Fugitiue Nothing is more cheape than good words these Nabal might haue giuen and beene neuer the poorer If he had beene resolued to shut his hands in a feare of Sauls reuenge he might haue so tempered his denyall that the repulse might haue beene free from offence But now his foule-mouth doth not onely deny but reuile It should haue bin Nabals glory That his Tribe yeelded such a Successor to the Throne of Israel now in all likelihood his enuie stirs him vp to disgrace that man who surpassed him in honour and vertue more than he was surpassed by him in wealth and ease Many an one speakes faire that meanes ill but when the mouth speakes foule it argues a corrupt heart If with Saint Iames his verball